Building A Unique Stay For Your Guests

One thing we always want to try and do as short term rental hosts is build a unique experience which is very sought after from guests. And that's what today's subject is going to be about, is building a unique stay. Some of the challenges that can come along with that. And to help us with that, we've got an excellent special guest who has got a vast experience who's over here in the UK and has got something very special. So in a moment we're going to be welcoming along that guest. But if this is your first time listening to this podcast, this is the Boostly podcast and it helps hosts with the tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence so you can go out there and get more direct bookings. And this is the mini series where we actually go behind a host's journey. We get their experience, they get to share some of the tools, the tactics that they use within their business. And to help us with that, today we've got Sarah Orchard who is from the Huddles Hideout. Now this is really special. This is a, the only, a frame tree house that I know of in the UK and perhaps Sarah will just let us know if there's any others in a moment. But let's welcome her along and let's dive into her business and how building this unique stay has I guess changed her life. So welcome along, Sarah.

Hi, thanks for having me.

So Sarah, before we get started, I know I've given you a bit of, bit of an introduction there, but can you let us know more about your business, more about your journey and give yourself an introduction?

I will indeed. My name is, as you said, Sarah Orchard. I'm the co owner of the Hubbles Hideout. I actually run the business with my husband Aid and I'm also, as you said, a best selling author in the book Hospitable Hosts and I'm the creator ofget fully book.com which helps fellow hosts with their marketing and basically moving from being invisible to visible and fully booked with more direct bookings. We opened the hideout in February 2020, which was an interesting time because obviously we got shut down five weeks later. So it's been a bit of a journey to be sitting here today, sort of three years later from when we opened the actual business. But it took us over five years to sort of fulfill our dream and create the Hideout. So it's been quite a long journey.

That's amazing. Now, I mean there's, there's a lot to talk about because you've got the hospitable hosts, you've Got the training, obviously the treehouse itself. So let's dive in with the tree house. Where did the idea come from? How did this happen? Take it away.

Why build a tree house? Yes. Not the easiest of things to build. I think a lot of our friends thought we'd slightly lost the plot. We actually went traveling in 2004. We left our corporate jobs. We both had sort of traditional corporate jobs. I've worked in marketing since, well, 30 years now, so. So we'd been doing the very traditional sort of careers. We decided to go traveling. We went around the world. It took six and a half months and we stayed in some amazing backpacking places, particularly in New Zealand, Australia. And our first tree house we stayed in in Salt Spring island, which is just off the coast of Vancouver. And we decided when we came back from traveling that we were probably going to immigrate to New Zealand and set up a backpack because we really loved the sort of quirky accommodation. People using sort of, you know, raw materials, recycling, repurposing things. We didn't really know about an industry that was now called glamping. Obviously, we were just backpacking, but it inspired us. We thought about immigrating and then we sort of had a bit of a reality check. New Zealand is a long way away and we had family in the UK and we thought, well, we probably wouldn't see very many people very often. So we started looking for somewhere to create something different in the uk. So we did a lot of research. We went to things like the glamping show, Farm Innovation. We went and visited other people running tree houses, because at that point we really did want to create a tree house. So we went and talked to some other owners, sort of learned from their pitfalls, things that they'd made mistakes, things that they wish they'd known at the beginning. And then we started looking for somewhere to move to because we were living in Guildford, which is quite a large town not far from London, didn't really have much of a back garden, definitely not big enough to build a tree house in. So we were going to have to move and relocate. So it took us five years to. Well, it took us about two and a half years searching for the actual house. And in the end, we had to have a little bit of help from a TV show called on the BBC called Escape to the Country. And we bought house number three that they showed us. And as they say, the rest is history.

Nice. So for people listening to the podcast, obviously, we're also recording this for YouTube. And in the background is Actually a picture of the amazing treehouse. It really does look spectacular that way. And of course if people want to, they can go and check out that, that show as well. So what was the name of the show?

It's the BBC. It's called BBC one, is called Escape to the country and we were in series 18, episode one.

Nice, nice. So they can actually see, you know, some of the journey which is. Is so cool.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the book Direct Playbook and the book Direct Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint and then for 101 marketing tactics, that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now. Just type in Book Direct Playbook or the book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

So I imagine first of all, did you have any experience with construction, building tree houses, anything like that or is this literally, you've come to this absolutely fresh?

No, we're definitely not, we're not Even very good DIYers actually and doer uppers. So it was a bit of an ambitious. We did work with a professional company to help us, both an architect and, and also with other industry experts and the treehouse builder. The treehouse weighs 55 tons and we had about 100 tons worth of materials to get down to the site. So it's definitely not something that probably most amateur builders would be able to have a go at. And also it has to comply with all of the modern UK building regulations for a new built house. So it's quite a complex structure to put together and it's got full utilities in terms of, you know, underfloor heating, you know, lighting. It's a very cozy sort of on, on grid rather than off grid space. So it's definitely not an easy build.

So how many people does it sleep and who do you tend to host in the, in the property?

It sleeps too. It's a very romantic space that is designed for couples. We don't accept children or dogs. Dogs mainly from a safety point of view and also with children. It's got, you know, it's got a mezzanine bedroom, it's 4 meters off the ground, so it's not ideal for sort of families, but it's very much a sort of romantic space. And when we Designed it. We designed it to try and get people as close as possible to sort of nature. So hence one of the reasons for an A frame. We wanted a big glass front to the structure and we deliberately put the bedroom right up on the mezzanine, close to the glass so that people are literally surrounded by the tree canopy. They have a bird feeder where they can sit and watch the birds feeding outside the bedroom. We haven't put things like curtains up so that they actually wake to the sort of sunrise and can see nature sort of all around them. So we've got an outdoor bath, we've got a sauna, they've got a private lookout bar to take in the views from our location because we're on the top of the hilltop. So it's very much designed with a sort of special occasion and romantic stay in mind.

Hey, I'm sold already. I'm sure many people listening to this would be. So let's talk about some of the challenges which I'm sure there's. There's been plenty. And I know we're going to be talking about hospitable hosts too. I know some are mentioned in the book there. But what would you say has been the, the biggest challenge and something that you'd like other people to know if they were looking to undertake this sort of venture?

Oh, where do I start? There's so many things. I think there's. Do your research. You need to understand sort of who your ideal guests are. Obviously I'm a marketer, so I came at it very much from a marketing point of view in terms of thinking about who we wanted to attract and building the experience around it. I think often hosts fall in love with a property or maybe like they're renovating something and you become very. We all do it. We become very obsessed with the actual build process and the renovation process and actually getting it sort of ready for our first guests. And often don't think about who we want to attract and engineering the experience to them. There's things in the hideout that are definitely. You wouldn't put into a normal house. Like you would have curtains if you were living in that permanently. You wouldn't want to wake up to the sunrise every morning at sort of 4:30 in the UK in the summer. But obviously people are on holiday and they are giving them that immersive experience. So we very much have, have done things differently to how you would do it if you were sort of, you know, designing your own home. But people often just feel that they've built it and they will come. And the market definitely there's a lot more supply in there, there's a lot more saturation. So it is harder for hosts and the short term rentals to, you know, to get those direct bookings without having to rely on, on the agents and the OTAs. So I definitely think if you start with the end experience in mind and design your, the total experience and your property, your short term rental around it, it'll be successful. The other thing I see is that people don't start marketing soon enough again because they, they get very obsessed with the ends. And you know, we found it, the build process was all consuming. It took eight months. The weather was awful. It was the wettest winter we had in this area for probably 10 years. We were knee deep in mud. There's no road access. So getting over, you know, 100 tons of materials through a field to a site where there's no road is tricky. So you become very obsessed with the build and you forget that you, you need to be building up that anticipation for when you launch. So we actually, and I started doing marketing literally from the moment we broke ground and sort of built up our email list. So we had a, a wait list of hungry potential guests who had signed up, not knowing quite what they were signing up for in terms of where they were going to be staying, except that it was this amazing new tree house that was coming and they didn't even know what my launch offer was going to be. But they put their names down. I think we had 500 by the time we launched and we literally got 50 bookings in 19 days from the moment I pressed go live on the website. So by sort of doing that pre work it meant that we, you know, we were able to fill and we have been sort of fully booked since we, since we launched. So I think that would be a top tip for hosts in terms of, you know, start your marketing as early as possible. I get many clients who come to me in sort of one month before opening and say, I haven't done any marketing. I'm opening in a month's time. And that's quite a big task to get your business out there and get, you know, get fully booked and get busy.

100. Documenting the entire journey is, is so important. And like you say, you build that anticipation. People come on that journey with you and you've already got people. One of the most common questions we get is what, what should we put out on social media? You go, well, if you're just documenting what you're doing every day you're not having to think too much about what you're, what you're doing. So and, and that'll build up that audience like we say. So that's amazing though. 50 bookings, you know, so, so quickly is, is, is amazing and this is really what we want to bring people's attention to on here is that if you build something unique and truly special then especially if you start and you mentioned you're starting with your guest avatar in mind, you know, you actually thought about that not from the stage of the house is ready now. Who do I, who do I serve? That was who do I serve? Let's make the house ready for that person. Which is, is so important and something for people to take away from this. Now having a unique stay, what has that allowed you to, to do in terms of I guess cash flow and the popularity of it. Looking back now, what are some of the things which has really helped you and I guess I'd love to know what, what does a place like that command as a nightly rate and where are you in the percentile of your market?

Really good questions actually. Yeah. So we're, we, we're charging now between £450 and £525 a night.

Wow.

We've, we've actually moved it to a three night minimum stay. We, we had three nights at weekends from the get go. But we've now moved mainly for a work life balance point of view as well. We were doing two changeovers on a month, you know, a Monday and a Wednesday for two nights. We moved here for, to hopefully have a slightly different lifestyle. So we felt like we were running around a bit like headless chickens because first we were so fully occupied it was literally 100%. So it was 96%. We've been as our occupancy since we opened obviously bar Covid when we had to shut down. But it meant that we didn't really have any downtime at all which in itself brings some difficulties with things like maintenance and just being able to get in there and keep the hideout looking as good as it needs to for that sort of nightly rate. So we moved to on a Monday night now they can stay three or four nights. So obviously that makes the marketing job a bit harder because it's quite a large sort of investment for people to come and stay with us. But we know that guests actually always say when they come for two nights it's not long enough. So I'm using that as a sort of marketing spin basically to sort of say you know, two nights is never enough, so hence why we do three and four night stays on a Monday. So, yes, I mean, the occupancy level has really helped us, obviously, from a cash flow point of view and being able to reinvest in the business. So since we launched, we've built a new outdoor dining dining area. We did that in lockdown three. I think it was lost track of the lockdowns. We've also added the lookout bar and in January of this year we added a woodland sauna. So they now have a private little barrel sauna that they can use as well. So we've been using the revenue to obviously continually enhance the hideout and improve the guest experience and give people a reason to come back again. Because obviously if they loved it when there's new features, they want to come back and try those. And we've got two guests coming back this year who are on their third visit and another set of guests who've just booked. We're calling their hat trick to come and stay again next year. So that's a great sign that people want to come back and stay multiple times, not just for one special occasion, but to keep coming back to us.

I mean, it sounds amazing and to have such a high level of occupancy. And this goes to show that truly, if you build something unique and you market it in the right way, then you can achieve great nightly rates. I'm guessing you're going to be one of the highest percentile places not just in your area, but in the UK, I imagine. And of course, this is what OTAs like Airbnb are promoting more and more of the wow kind of stays. And to have people come back three times is, is. Is fantastic. It shows that you're doing a really good job. And the last point I just want to pick up on from, from your answer there is that to many people see this as business where you've taken money out of the business, but actually you're reinvesting it in, which is keeping it interesting. You're able to market these new features which brings more people and the whole cycle continues, which increases your nightly rate as you get more. More features or length of stay. So that's really cool. What would you say has been the biggest wow moment in your business so far or in your journey?

Two things, actually. One of the things I forgot to mention actually was just that we've. We're 100% direct as well. So I did a little calculation. This is a sort of financial, sort of business wear moment. Worked out. We've saved over £65,000 in commission.

Wow.

Since we've opened. So if we had gone with an ota, that's what we would have had to given out of the business in terms of our profit. So from a business point of view, that was a. That was a sort of a wow factor and we always had the intention and I always wanted to go direct and not have to rely on any agents. I think from a personal point of view, two things. We've won some awards. We were nominated in the Muddy Stilettos award, which is sort of for boutique stays, and we won our region, which was Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. But we actually were the national winners, which I felt very proud about because we were up against some amazing competition. I never thought we would win the national award. And also I think from a guest perspective, we've had quite a few proposal stays and we've had our first couple get married, which was a. Is a really lovely. Just a heartwarming thing about. It's one of the things we, both my husband and I love so much about running the business is that people tend to come and stay with us for special occasions and to feel like you've been part of someone's life and the fact that their special moment was at something that you've created and you've helped them to experience is. It does feel really, really special. So that's been a real pestle, sort of emotional where moment.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team.

That definitely feels very heartwarming. And to know that you're making these. These big effects on people's lives is big. And congratulations, it's well deserved for the national award for money Stilettos. So let's talk about the book. So if anyone on YouTube will be able to see. I've got the book. Hospitable Host to Sarah actually is one of the featured authors in this book and this is an amazing collaborative book. The idea came from Jody Sterling, who's one of the boostly members. Mark Simpson, our founder, is in it as well. As well as there's some amazing people from all over the world in it. And Sarah, as one of the contributing authors. First of all, a couple of questions. How did you feel writing your chapter? Was it easy to do and how does it feel being a best selling author now that it's been released?

It was hard work. I didn't know how anyone writes a whole book. I've got that on my wish, my bucket list for life. So I think I'm going to have to work quite hard at that. The first 1500 words I was warned by Jodie, she said the first 1500 words are quite easy and I had to write 3000 for my chapter and it doesn't sound like very many, but actually it was quite hard work and it was also hard because there's so many learnings and so many things I could share. It was also then once you get into your flow, it's sort of condensing it down and giving it some structure. Luckily there were good editors to help us with that as well. And yeah, it feels, it feels amazing to be involved in the project. And it's like I said, it's been a goal to become a best selling author. So it feels a real big personal achievement to be able to share the story and also maybe just to help some hosts overcome some of the problems that we encountered. You know, people were very generous with us when we were doing our research. I mentioned that we went and met with some other hosts, you know, treehouse owners and spoke to lots of people who were running businesses. Obviously I had the benefit of some of my clients and all of their pearls of wisdom, but they were very generous and I think being part of the project has enabled me and the other 43 hosts just to share our experiences to help other hosts, you know, get it right and to be successful.

It's a terrific read. I'm lucky enough to have read your chapter and the challenges you specifically that you went through of which as you say there was many are shared in there, but as well as really useful tips for the reader. So I encourage anybody listening to this to go onto Amazon, type in hospitable hosts 2 and you'll be able to find the the book there. Or Alternatively go to hospitable hosts.com and you'll be able to to make the purchase via the link there as well. So you mentioned as well that you've also got the. You do some training, some. Some mentoring and that talk us through that side of. Of your business.

Yes, thanks. But I've been running getfully booked since 2020 and one of the reasons why I created it was because obviously I've been working one to one with clients in hospitality and the leisure sector for a long time now. I said 30 years in marketing and 15 years running my consultancy, but I was conscious that I wanted to try and create a sense of community. So I have a monthly marketing club. It's a membership and in that I do monthly trainings giving people sort of the marketing know how and confidence so that they don't get overwhelmed with their marketing. They also have access to me so they can sort of pick my brains. We have a marketing help desk every week, so that's really popular, that people can just come in when they have a bit of a roadblock and they're stuck and they can literally just have access to me for our help desk session to ask questions. I also run a bootcamp, which is a seven week group program. So it's just really giving hosts some support. And it's based on all of the things that I've seen my clients sort of make mistakes with really in terms of, you know, often they dive straight into, you know, building a website and they haven't thought about their, as you mentioned, their guest avatar. They haven't got a marketing strategy. So they're literally going off in lots of different directions. Probably getting a little bit frustrated, not working, you know, not able to work out why it's not working. So my bootcamp helps them with their marketing strategy and plan and then the club gives them the, you know, the ongoing support. So the two work really well together. And I've got a really great group of hosts involved and they're really supportive of each other. They sort of cheer each other on. It can be hard being a host and sometimes, you know, difficult guests get you down or you hit a bit of a roadblock. And it's just great to have that sense of community and, you know, other hosts sort of giving you a pat on the back and saying, you know.

Keep going 100% and what a good thing to do. And obviously with your experience of producing such an awesome property and marketing it so well, then anybody listening to this can assumingly come to your website and get involved. We'll be sharing the links to that website just at the end of the podcast. So for anybody who's listening, please hang on for that. But before we do, what does the future of your business look like? Sarah, you mentioned obviously this started off as a kind of dream. While traveling, what does the future hold for you?

That's a really good question. I think my husband would say no more building projects for a while. We've obviously been adding lots of, as I mentioned, adding lots of new things onto the hideout. I think we just want to consolidate. Obviously we had a very traumatic start with the being shut three times in the first 12 months of being open. That had a massive effect on our cash flow and psychologically as well. I mean, for any host it was a really difficult time. So I think we very much want to consolidate it and run the business and continue to, you know, obviously hit our occupancy and our sort of revenue targets. No future plans to create any new structures. I've been told by my hubby, please no more new projects. So I think we're just gonna, you know, we moved here to have a different lifestyle. We're Both in our 50s so you know, we want to just enjoy where we live and enjoy the hosting experience without sort of overstretching ourselves too much and having hopefully some downtime as well. So. But we do need to think about our exit strategy and I've been asking a few of my members about that recently. It's like, do we have exit strategies? Most of us when we start our hosting journeys don't, maybe don't think about the end and you know, where the business is going finally. So yeah, we are, we are thinking about that. We haven't come to any conclusions yet though.

No worries, I'm sure. First of all, you enjoy, enjoy this time. You know, now it's all running as it should be and yeah, I'm excited for the future. No matter what you decide to do, as we reach the end of these, we love to just do a couple of quick five fun questions. So a little bit more light hearted answers can be short as long as you like. So first of all, you've created a unique stay. Where would you like to go anywhere in the world to have a unique stay?

Oh, Costa Rica. A treehouse in Costa Rica.

Oh, nice. Is it, is it why Costa Rica? And is there a particular one you've picked out already or is it, is it just the planning stage?

Yeah, I haven't, I've all some friends have traveled to Costa Rica and it looks an absolutely amazing country. So it's very much on the bucket list and they do have some amazing sort of eco resorts and tree houses that you can stay in. So we tend to do quite a lot of busman's holidays when we go. Go away.

Nice. Well, that sounds amazing. I know there's a few people. I think we had Daniel Rusty in on here. I think he's. His place is Costa Rica, so I know there's a few hosts out there who will be listening to this, going, ah, yeah, Costa Rica is. Is lovely. If you could invite anybody to a dinner party, if you could have two people to invite to a dinner party, who would you choose and why? These can be anybody famous, can be posthumous, it can be, you know, current. Who would you invite and why?

Oh, so many good people. I don't know who I'd invite, actually. I probably actually might invite Sandy Togsburg. She actually came and featured our hideout on Extraordinary Escapes, but we didn't get much chance to talk to her because a. Because of COVID filming, we had to sort of stay away. And obviously anyone who's been involved in this TV filming, it's really full on and busy and you don't really want to get in the way. So I really feel like I'd like to get to know her better because she seemed really good, fun. I love her personality and definitely would like to have her as a dinner party. Who would be a good dinner companion? I always want to like David Attenborough, actually, because he is such a. Obviously we're surrounded by nature here. I would love to spend some time. I mean, obviously some of the places he's been and things he's seen around the world, he'd be a great person to sort of pick his brains and share a glass of wine with.100%.

I've got a lot of respect for David Attenborough. Hey, he could be a good person to reach out to on Twitter to try and get him to come and stay. That would. That would be amazing. So, and the final question we love to ask is, is there a saying or a mantra which resonates with you and has helped your journey?

I think the one that I actually put in the book, which was something that was written and I hadn't heard it before, but it was written on a chalkboard in the pub that we were staying in when we were filming Escape to the Country. And it was, in fact, I won't get it, probably word perfect, but one small step in the right direction can be the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take the step. And I think we. For years, in a way, we wish we'd done this 10 years earlier. You talk yourself out of it. You always have doubts. Leaving a safe corporate job, moving 130 miles to somewhere where you don't know a single person was a massive step. But we made the step and we haven't looked back. So sometimes just that tiny step in the right direction is the biggest step that you'll ever take in your life and it's definitely worth doing. So if you're thinking about it, take the step.

So very true and some excellent advice. So I'm going to throw the mic open. Where can we find out more information about yourself or your business?

So for the hideout, it's hudnallshideout.co.uk and to find out more about me and get fully booked, it's get-fully booked.com Amazing.

Amazing. And just for especially that, we got a lot of listeners in the uk. What is the local location of where the A frame treehouse is? Just so they know how far they're going to have to drive when they come.

Check it out. We're not, we're not. We feel like we're in the middle of nowhere, but we're actually just 23 miles north of Bristol. We're in the Wye Valley in Gloucestershire, so quite easy to get to just off the M4.

Nice, nice. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people listening to this podcast and giving you a quick Google. If you are listening to this on audio, please do go and check it out because the picture of it is, is amazing and I will definitely be showing my other half this, this property as well. So, Sarah, great job. Amazing to speak to you and to hear about your journey. I wish you all the best of luck for, for the future. But also, you know, the, the amazing work you're doing with hospitable hosts too. They get fully booked training and of course, just, just having a big impact on this industry. So before we go, was there any. Just before we wrap things up, I.

Just like to say thank you for having me on the podcast and I'd love to welcome you at the Hideout. So do come and stay with us.

An absolute pleasure and I'm sure many people will, so thank you. If you're listening to this on the Boostly podcast, I know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and I really thank you for spending it with Boostly. If you think you know anybody else who would get some use out of the information shared, some of the cool tips that Sarah's sort of shared and brought to the table, then please feel free to, like, share and subscribe to the podcast. Thanks very much and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.