Dear Holiday Cottage Owners

It's not often that the general public tell you, the host, exactly what they want. But there was a post that recently came up in the hospitality community Facebook group and it was titled Dear Holiday Cottage Owners. And what's really important is that this was posted at the beginning of May 2021. This is just as the world is reopening, just as accommodation is able to take bookings again for many people in the world, you know, especially in the us you may not have been closed for many, you know, around the world, you may have been able to take bookings for row, but there are a lot of people who have taken a lot of time out and your guests have taken a lot of time out and now the guests are coming back. And what's really important is that you don't forget the bare essentials, because if you do, then your guests will get disgruntled and they know the power of the Internet and, and there are forums after forums after forums where they will go and rant. Now there is a flip side and you can turn this into a positive and you can have amazing people sharing about you in the stays, et cetera, but there will be a time when something like this happens. Now, I'm going to share my screen. If you're listening to the audio version, I do encourage you to come find the video version on YouTube or any of the social channels. Now, this is on the very popular website mumsnet. Now, I'm not going to share with you the username of the person who posted this, obviously, because I don't want to do that, but I just want to share this post. And it's really important that you read this because this obviously they didn't call out the owner where they stayed, but this is really important. This is what your guests are thinking right now. And what's really important is that you explain to your guests every single step of the way. Now I, I call it making your business idiot proof. And I've done an episode on this. Just scroll on back on the YouTube channel typ type in on YouTube search boostly how to idiot proof your business. But this, so many of this could be taken care of by number one communication, whether it's with your cleaning staff, communication with your guests. So again, you can just read for it. For the love of God, just buy a whole set of matching cutlery plates and glasses. They're not expensive. It's massive.9 to see a cupboard full of random glasses and a bits of crockery you don't want in your own house. I've always said this, less is more. Don't just fill up your property with stuff that is it just a discard from your own house. We've had the benefit and the luxury being able to travel all over the world. We're staying in some amazing places. And one thing that always makes me laugh, especially with Spanish properties, is that, and this is with rentals. So we've done long rent and we've done short rent here. But with long rent, especially when it's furnished, they have every single shot glass, wine glass, port glass, every glass that you can imagine and all of the cutlery. Less is more. Now, what I mean by that is, again, just get rid of it. Don't hoard it, get rid of it. Send it to a charity shop, go do a shop, whether it's Ikea or wherever you get your stuff from and go get one. So get two for every person. So if you've got five, get 10. If you do four, get eight. If you've got maximum six, get 12. And stock up properly and just make it all one set. It looks good, it makes a guest feel good and it just makes them feel like you haven't just assembled stuff and just chucked it in there, that's just discarded. And again, if you are family friendly and you attract and you want young children, young families in your property, get plastic. You'll be amazed. I've got a two year old, a five year old and eight year old. You'll be amazed at how many places that we go to do not have plastic cutlery. And having to give a two year old some a breakable literally gets my OCD levels going. So again, please be aware of your avatar. Please don't, um, don't shrimp in quality and shrimp in crust, or cut the cost in some of these in key areas because again, something like cutlery, they're using it every single day. Sharpen your knives, buy a set of free nonstick pans. Again, make sure that you take care of the essentials. They are telling you what they want. So again, it may have done tongue in cheek and it may have been a bit comedic, but again, they're telling you exactly what they want. And again, think about your guest. That's the most important takeaway from this. So again, I'm going to stop sharing. This big takeaway from this is when you're coming out of lockdown, when you're starting to accept guests. My advice would be if you can, if you haven't, if you. It depends on when you're watching this, but the best thing to do is just to spend a night in your property and just go for it and live it like a guest. If not, what I'd be doing every single stay, I'd be calling up every single guest and just making sure that everything was okay. Ask them directly, say if is anything you would change? Is anything that we're missing? Just be totally honest and say, listen, we've been close for a long time, we're just getting restarted. You're one of our first guests, we really appreciate it. Is there anything missing? What could we done to make your stay better? Because they will give you honest feedback. And again, if you call them up, it's so much easier. And as well, it's a nice little touch. Can you think of anybody that they would have bought from in the past couple of months that's called them directly and personally thanked them for staying with them? That will be worth so much to them in the long run. And again, the recommendations, maybe even getting them to book again would be massive. So please do bear that in mind. And thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Boostly podcast. A little bit different from normal, but this is very, very important when it comes to direct bookings and coming for you improving your business. If you want to find out more about boostly b o-o s t-l y.co.uk thank you so much for the sponsor and I will just want to say make sure you check out tomorrow. It's going to be a good one. If you haven't done so already, subscribe, turn on notifications and come and join the boostly daily exclusive WhatsApp channel b o o s t l y co UK daily boost I'll be back tomorrow. As always, stay proactive, don't be reactive, be awesome and let's go get some bookings, eh?