12144 Holiday auction for the earthquake fund

I think this is a wonderful idea and we would be delighted to offer up a long weekend of 3 or 4 nights at our humble abode.

[url=http://www.lagrandequercia-abruzzo.com]La Grande Quercia Bed & Breakfast[/url]

[url=http://www.justgiving.com/italy-abruzzo-earthquake]Justgiving - ITALY Magazine Abruzzo Earthquake Appeal[/url]

:yes:Just off to speak to OH ....

[url=http://www.tuscanyfortwo.com]Tuscanyfortwo.com[/url]

Happy to do so Angie - you know where I live!
So that's a week for free at any time of the year

Fantastic response so far, Aretina ,Russ and Anne, and I am meeting up with friends tonight who have holiday lets so lets hope by the morning we have more offers, I am just overwelmed, by the generous people on this forum and how much you are all doing.
lets keep the ideas going.
A

Great idea, I was thinking of a way to do this and this is perfect.

[url=http://www.gardaholidays.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_hotproperty&task=view&id=8&Itemid=71]Lake Garda Holidays - Il Palazzo "la terrazza"[/url]

I will also ask all the others on the site if they want to participate.

PS: it's a week in May or September...

Hi Angie

Have conferred with lovely 'him indoors' and it's a week in il Bacio

[url=http://www.tuscanyfortwo.com]Tuscanyfortwo.com[/url]

These offers are all so generous especially in light of the current economic climate and the struggle that the owners of tourist dependant businesses have on their hands this year. Absolutely marvellous all of you!:yes: A real thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If I flung some curtains up in (and him)'s stallestrokeworkshop and chucked in a z bed think anybody would want to holiday at my house?:nah:

[quote=Moxie;116327]These offers are all so generous especially in light of the current economic climate and the struggle that the owners of tourist dependant businesses have on their hands this year. Absolutely marvellous all of you!:yes: A real thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If I flung some curtains up in (and him)'s stallestrokeworkshop and chucked in a z bed think anybody would want to holiday at my house?:nah:[/quote]

I was thinking along those lines too Moxie... If anyone (2 adults) would like a week here in the Alps at my place, then I could manage that - but they'd have to look after themselves. Can't cope with that too! They could wake up to this view from the balcony..

Wonder if our thoughts are a 'goer?'

We would be pleased to add a week in our apartment to the list.
Ten minutes from the coast and five minutes from Ripatransone with great views.
Wish we could do more.

Whilst I think about it, Ronald also mentioned, people who ran activities, or activity holidays in Italy, so even if you dont have a property, perhaps these could be incorporated into the holiday package?, just ideas, and I can only speak for the area I know, but a scenic drive around the mountains, or even a guided walk in the mountains could be figured into the equation to make it more appealing.Or a visit to the opera, or a vineyard, when you put your mind to it ideas do come.
A

If anyone is interested in any naked "free-running" then I'm happy to offer to group lead for a weekend :bigergrin:

How will this work? Via magazine and/or Forum? An auction by a certain date?

I think this is a great idea but the logistics are fraught with difficulties especially as, I should imagine, Italy is probably not top of anyone’s holiday destination list at the moment.

So why not just donate one weeks rental from a booking you already have? That way the disaster fund will definitely benefit.

It would be such a shame for this initiative to flounder for lack of bidders.

I had assumed that the magazine would set up a competition with an entry fee and discretionary donation - prizes might be later this year or next. I would have thought amongst the readers of the magazine (who by self-selection [I]are[I][/I][/I]interested in holidaying in Italy) a tidy sum could be raised.
Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

There are various options we can explore about exactly how to manage this - will post more tomorrow once I've had a chance to chat it through at the office.

Nielo - I see your point but, unfortunately, it will be much harder to get people to put hand in pocket that it will be to tell them to give a week for free.

I am not just thinking of forum members (who given the performance over this weekend may well be up for doing exactly what you suggest) but rather also the more "run of the mill" advertisers - who will see this as an opportunity to both be seen to be doing good but also promote their wares (harsh I know but also true). There are plenty of hotels, agriturismo, etc who will happily give us a room or two for a week in exchange for some exposure and at the right price I am sure we will be able to convince people to come to Italy for that!

Now, as I said give me time to collect suggestions - write things up - and I will be back with more.

Ah I wish I could be that generous Neilo, but can afford the space but not the money, which is why we are doing things like food runs here and next hopefully collecting blankets and towels, we seem to have the dash but no cash if you like, shall we wait and see what Ronald comes up with and keep a positive attitude on this one, especially as we already have generous offers in the pipeline.
A

I quite understand that people do not have the cash and a weeks rental is part of people’s income. It is just that, one way or the other, what is on offer is a week of use with no money going to the owner but to the fund instead.

If people put a reserve on their offer. Lets say for simplicity €100 and the biding doesn’t reach that reserve then the fund will not benefit.

If there is no reserve then it is possible for someone to get a cheap holiday, say the bidding only reaches €50, the fund will benefit but the people renting out the holiday property will still get no income.

At the end of the day people are agreeing to go without the income from their property for the week they are offering for auction - same as if they sacrificed the income for a week that has already been booked, the only difference would be that the fund would benefit more securely.

Ah I hope I have explained this so that you can understand that I am not trying to be negative or to obfuscate the issue just suggesting a way of ensuring that the poor people in L’Aquila will get the most benefit from such a good intentioned idea.

We could open this up as an 'auction of promises' as so many people have different talents and expertise that they could offer up?

My suggestions would be to state your offer with your qualifications - amateur /professional etc and area where you can offer this service ie at your village within 50 kilometres so on - and a time for the service to be supplied.

Sorry Myabruzzo home, referring to the post before yours by Nielo

I think that you may have missed the post from Ronald:
"Nielo - I see your point but, unfortunately, it will be much harder to get people to put hand in pocket that it will be to tell them to give a week for free."

If bookings are going to be hard to come by this year, then it makes perfect sense for the donors of the holidays to offer an Abruzzo Relief holiday to a new booking from the fund raising activity. That way the donor has lost little money yet will have donated a healthy sum. It's a win win win situation.:bigergrin::bigergrin::bigergrin:

Or that's how I see it.

[quote=DavidUno;116402]Sorry Myabruzzo home, referring to the post before yours by Nielo

I think that you may have missed the post from Ronald:
"Nielo - I see your point but, unfortunately, it will be much harder to get people to put hand in pocket that it will be to tell them to give a week for free."

If bookings are going to be hard to come by this year, then it makes perfect sense for the donors of the holidays to offer an Abruzzo Relief holiday to a new booking from the fund raising activity. That way the donor has lost little money yet will have donated a healthy sum. It's a win win win situation.:bigergrin::bigergrin::bigergrin:

Or that's how I see it.[/quote]
Yes I see what you mean but if it is hard to get people to put their hands in their pockets AND bookings are down I would think it will be hard to auction a holiday for a reasonable amount unless the bidders are very altruistic.

So many holiday rentals in Abruzzo will be suffering either because the property has been damaged, people don’t have the money because of the credit crunch, the exchange rate is lousy or they are just plain frightened by the earthquake.

It would be a shame if people went to the effort and expense of letting their property rental for auction only for it to go for a song.