This week, I’m chatting with the fabulous Charlotte Taylor, who runs some absolutely gorgeous self-catering properties – and let me tell you, her story is going to resonate with so many of you!

We’re getting into the real nitty-gritty of what it’s like when you’re staring at an empty calendar, feeling that horrible pit in your stomach, and thinking “Right, back to Airbnb it is then!” Sound familiar?

Charlotte’s been there, done that, and bought the (very expensive commission-paying) t-shirt! She’ll tell you exactly how she went from being booked solid to facing a booking drought that had her questioning everything. The panic, the sleepless nights, the temptation to just hand everything back over to the big booking platforms – we’ve all been there, haven’t we?

But here’s where it gets really juicy – Charlotte discovered that running back to Airbnb wasn’t the magic fix she thought it would be. Instead, she rolled up her sleeves and got serious about her direct booking strategy, and the results will make you want to grab a notepad!

She’s sharing all her secrets about improving her website’s SEO without getting bogged down in techy nonsense, how she transformed her email marketing from “meh” to “must-book-now” with offers that actually work, and why her social media game has been an absolute revelation. Wait until you hear about her TikTok success – turns out being real and a bit rough around the edges beats those perfectly polished posts every single time!

Charlotte’s journey proves that while booking platforms might seem like the easy option, having your own solid marketing plan puts YOU back in the driver’s seat. More control, more profit in YOUR pocket, and no more anxiety about algorithm changes or commission hikes!

If you’re tired of handing over chunks of your hard-earned cash to the big boys and want some proper, practical advice from someone who’s walked the walk, this episode is absolute gold!

Takeaways

  • Ditching Airbnb can seem scary, but it opens up new marketing opportunities you never knew existed.
  • Using a pop-up to collect emails can help you build a database to market to directly.
  • Social media isn’t just about collecting likes and pretty hearts on your posts. It’s about turning those scrollers into subscribers and future guests.
  • The biggest lesson? Stop posting just to feel good about your engagement stats and start thinking about how every single post can help you capture those precious email addresses.

Connect with Sarah:

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Transcript
Speaker A:

You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

Speaker A:

Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?

Speaker A:

I'll be sharing with you exactly what it takes to grow your direct bookings and the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket.

Speaker A:

Hello.

Speaker A:

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Get Fully Booked podcast.

Speaker A:

I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.

Speaker A:

I'm delighted to welcome.

Speaker A:

Welcome.

Speaker A:

Another amazing guest to the podcast today, Charlotte Taylor from Secret Bolthole.

Speaker A:

Charlotte has two boutique and quite different self catering holiday properties, one in the Malvern Hills and one in Cornwall.

Speaker A:

I've invited Charlotte onto the podcast today to share an experience that many of us encounter.

Speaker A:

A rather sparse looking booking calendar and having to turn back to Airbnb or the likes to help fill it up.

Speaker A:

But Charlotte decided a year ago to change all of that.

Speaker A:

Welcome to the podcast, Charlotte.

Speaker B:

Hi.

Speaker B:

Great to meet you all and be here.

Speaker A:

Yeah, it's really good to have you here today.

Speaker A:

So I thought we'd start off with.

Speaker A:

We'll start with an easy question.

Speaker A:

I'm just going to ask you to tell us a little bit about Secret Bolt Hole and how that came about.

Speaker B:

Yeah, sure.

Speaker B:

So Sarah knew me in our previous life as glamping site owners.

Speaker B:

So we've been running a glamping site for something like five or six years and we'd sold a business and decided that we'd really like to carry on in the accommodation market.

Speaker B:

So invested in a couple of holiday cottages.

Speaker B:

One down in Cornwall on the seafront in Port 11 and the second one up in the Malvern Hills tucked away in a secluded spot.

Speaker B:

So interiors are a real passion of mine and we redeveloped both of them and decorated them from head to toe and with a lot of building work as well with new roofs and extensions etc.

Speaker B:

And went about building a new brand for that collection so that we separated off the glamping and the holiday lets.

Speaker B:

Yeah, so.

Speaker B:

So they both went live just after lockdown.

Speaker B:

Probably a similar time to you guys.

Speaker B:

Really?

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:So:Speaker A:bably thinner in sort of late:Speaker A:

So the market sort of stiffened, stiffened a little bit and it's been a bit harder for everyone.

Speaker A:

So you obviously, you found yourself in a, in a sort of different situation with those Properties and made a decision to go back onto to Airbnb to fill your calendars.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I mean, this time last year, it was really.

Speaker B:

We really noticed a difference.

Speaker B:

I mean, we're very lucky because the Cornwall cottage tends to book up really fast ahead of time.

Speaker B:

So it's different.

Speaker B:

You sort of like, get a lag a little bit in terms of seeing that drop off and that sort of like, New Year's rush never really happened.

Speaker B:

And then you got to sort of like March time in it.

Speaker B:

I was just looking at my bookings at Elsie's cottage, which is the one in the northern hills, and thinking, crikey, that's just.

Speaker B:

We've got no bookings here.

Speaker B:

What's going on?

Speaker B:

So I thought, well, you know, got mortgages to pay, so we had to.

Speaker B:

So I thought, right, okay, well, I'll jump back on Airbnb.

Speaker B:

I hum off it.

Speaker B:

I'd never actually.

Speaker B:

I think we went on it initially when we first launched the Cottages, and then I thought, well, no, I don't really need to be on it because we were doing all right.

Speaker B:

So I came back off it and so I went back on.

Speaker B:

And at that point we'd moved to a new booking system system which allowed us channel management.

Speaker B:

So I felt, well, that's good.

Speaker B:

At least I can.

Speaker B:

One of the things that I disliked about Airbnb in my initial experience was the.

Speaker B:

The many different places that you had to go and look at bookings, and it wasn't all in one place.

Speaker B:

And I mean, the messaging and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker B:

So our new booking system allowed us to manage all of that.

Speaker B:

So I thought, well, it'll be an easier process this time, so we'll do that.

Speaker B:

We will define when we want to go on it and which dates we want to release on it.

Speaker B:

We can even define a different price on it.

Speaker B:

So it.

Speaker B:

We.

Speaker B:

I sort of felt as though I was a little bit insulated from some of the issues I'd found with it the first time around.

Speaker A:

So you felt like you were a bit more in control and you could actually make it work for you.

Speaker B:

Yeah, a little bit more.

Speaker B:

And the fact that we.

Speaker B:

We could pick and choose the dates that we wanted to be on Airbnb and the ones that we wanted to be able to ring fence for our own booking and direct booking.

Speaker B:

So we.

Speaker B:

What we didn't realize at the time was when you actually turn on your channel manager, all of the.

Speaker B:

Usually the costs, the.

Speaker B:

The additional commission is split between the.

Speaker B:

And I know you can set that separately now.

Speaker B:

But I think when I initially set it, it wasn't quite as flexible.

Speaker B:

So all of the costs came to us, all of the commission costs came to us, which meant we had to readjust our, our booking prices on Airbnb.

Speaker B:

But, you know, it worked.

Speaker B:

We got something like 15 bookings in very quickly in the first sort of like, few weeks.

Speaker B:

So I sort of felt, oh, well, it solved a problem and it's filled a hole, which it did do.

Speaker B:

It was just further down the line that we started recognizing that maybe wasn't quite the wonderful solution that we thought it might be initially.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

So you made a conscious decision to, about a year ago to decide to come off of Airbnb.

Speaker A:

So that's obviously a big thing.

Speaker A:

I think it's a big thing for many people making the decision to move away from an, you know, booking agent, whether it's Airbnb or someone else.

Speaker A:

And then you had to decide, like, what were you going to do first in terms of marketing your two properties direct to your end customers?

Speaker A:

What.

Speaker A:

What did do first?

Speaker A:

What was your approach?

Speaker B:

Well, I, I'll just go into a few of the reasons why we came off Airbnb, because I think it might be useful for people to think about.

Speaker B:

I mean, I'm sure that you've covered these a lot in some of your boot camps and, but, but for us, we kept being told that that tech wise, we could set dates in advance, how far in advance we could set them, but that just wasn't working.

Speaker B:

It was opening up dates further and further ahead.

Speaker B:

So whilst we wanted to just reduce the number of dates available to the three months ahead of time, that wasn't what happened.

Speaker B:

It just kept opening updates forward and forward.

Speaker B:

We raised issues with tech team.

Speaker B:

They said it was our software, so.

Speaker B:a base rate that we put in in:Speaker B:

And, and it caused so many issues with refunds and cancellations that we're thinking, crikey, you know, we can't carry on like this.

Speaker B:

This is just.

Speaker B:

And we just felt that the tech.

Speaker B:

We couldn't rely on it and we couldn't trust it.

Speaker B:

We also saw a massive difference and impact on our cash flow because obviously you don't get your money until someone stayed.

Speaker B:

So that really impacted our cash flow and it was very sort of bitty and, and then difficult to, to, to forecast.

Speaker B:

And obviously you don't get the data from people, which is the big number one, you want to be able to people to book again.

Speaker B:

And sometimes people can be very sticky on Airbnb.

Speaker B:

Even though you tell them over and over again how they can book directly with you, they'll go back to the platform because they know it and customer messaging as well in terms of being able to sell extras and add ons because people book it and then they'll say, oh, I see in your description that you can do barbecue packs and hampers and how do I pay for these?

Speaker B:

And everything had to be done in a really circuitous route, which was difficult and tricky and not very seamless for the customer.

Speaker B:

And you know, you kept picking, getting told off by Airbnb that you're charging people or asking for money.

Speaker B:

So you can't do that.

Speaker B:

So there were these barriers really that, that just kept getting in the way of what I felt what that I wanted to offer our customers.

Speaker B:

So yeah, so we decided that we'd switch it off and move on.

Speaker B:

It wasn't as easy as you thought, switching it off.

Speaker B:

My goodness.

Speaker A:

Never going to make it easy for you to walk away, are they?

Speaker B:

No, no, no.

Speaker B:

And obviously we had future bookings and I think our, our last future booking was probably only about a couple of months ago now.

Speaker B:

So.

Speaker B:

Yeah, so it's dragged on.

Speaker B:

But I haven't had to manage any new bookings, which is good.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, I mean, what I looked at was our marketing stack.

Speaker B:

We had a fairly good website.

Speaker B:

We've done some work with you to work on the keywords.

Speaker B:

Still not there.

Speaker B:

Still need to do more on that.

Speaker B:

So I did a little bit of analysis this week looking at that, but it was certainly a lot better.

Speaker B:good database, probably about:Speaker B:

We use HubSpot, so we were on HubSpot, which is a CRM system.

Speaker B:

We're on the cheap version, but it does automated emails and the emails look nice and, and we can do pop up forms and sign up forms.

Speaker B:

So use those that we push to our website.

Speaker B:

So I decided to do a pop up form with a sign up with a £50 off voucher on our website which collected data in sort of fed our database and I was doing sort of buy, I was doing monthly emails.

Speaker B:

I went to bi weekly and I'm probably now at weekly emails off that database.

Speaker A:

Wow.

Speaker A:

Weekly.

Speaker A:

Weekly emails.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I do, because I, I feel as though it's great grown so much and people, when they sign up my CRM, automatically I've got an automated email which goes out to them which says introduction.

Speaker B:

This is us.

Speaker B:

This is a link to a couple of our blogs.

Speaker B:

These are the links to the booking pages on our, on our, on our cottages.

Speaker B:

But I sort of think that, you know, if I can keep that interest alive and, and keep reminding them that we're here I come.

Speaker B:

I'm like you.

Speaker B:

I come from a B2B background, so I'm used to emailing.

Speaker B:

Emailing isn't such a hard job for me.

Speaker B:

But the biggest gap I felt was in our social media.

Speaker B:

It was an area that I didn't do very well.

Speaker B:

When I get into a creative spin, I can go down a bit of a rabbit hole.

Speaker A:

Can't we all?

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So using.

Speaker B:

So you can make lovely reels and you have these ideas what they're going to look like and you edit and you go down this rabbit hole.

Speaker B:

Instead of, like, three hours later you come back out and like, oh, crikey, where was I going with that one?

Speaker A:

I think we can overthink it and we can be very, like, perfectionist about, like, I think.

Speaker A:

And those that do seem to do better are just putting the content out there consistently and just getting it out there.

Speaker A:

And I think you can overthink it and think, oh, is this good enough?

Speaker A:

I'm not going to put it out there in the world.

Speaker A:

But actually, it's just.

Speaker A:

It's not doing you any good, is it?

Speaker B:

No, I mean, through the, through the glamping site, I definitely, you know, we've got to.

Speaker B:

Five years, I.

Speaker B:

I tried, you know, posting more regularly or stories and things like that.

Speaker B:

I'd done a course how to use Instagram better, but it just wasn't consistent.

Speaker B:

I, you know, consistency is not my major thing, I've got to be honest.

Speaker B:

And whilst in certain other areas of marketing, you can sort of dip in and out and things like emails, I can do them all at the beginning of the month and it's fine.

Speaker B:

I found that sort of consistency with social media difficult.

Speaker B:

And we were running two brands along the same time, so it was two different types of content, two different types of audience sectors, all of those things sort of.

Speaker B:

I felt, this isn't this.

Speaker B:

I'm not.

Speaker B:

I'm not moving forward here.

Speaker B:

So I came.

Speaker B:

Coming off Airbnb obviously meant that whilst I wasn't paying commission to Airbnb, our clients were having.

Speaker B:

Those customers were obviously having a lot higher price to pay for their.

Speaker B:

Their stay with us.

Speaker B:

And, you know, I was listing with probably a two or three different people at the time.

Speaker B:

So I sort of Expanded our listings with a few more niche people.

Speaker B:

People like Dog Stay destinations, I think it's called.

Speaker B:

Is that what it's called?

Speaker B:

Yeah, we were on Cool Places, Cool Stays, Weekend Candy.

Speaker B:

So I had a few places that I sort of like added a few more listings to, to try and sort of expand our reach a little bit and then decided to take the plunge and invest in a social media manager.

Speaker B:

So I decided to pass my socials onto someone else because I felt as though it wasn't something that I was going to achieve and I thought, well, if I invest in it, we'll see what happens in sort of three to six months and then we can assess whether it's working or not making that difference.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, so we, we employed someone who does Paige.

Speaker B:

She was actually my son, she's my son's girlfriend and she came from a social media degree and she loved making content so she took it over and it's just gone from strength to strength.

Speaker B:

So that's made a massive difference to our reach.

Speaker B:

Our, our traffic to Google through Google and also to bookings critically, obviously.

Speaker B:

So, you know, we've gone from 2,000 ish followers to 24,000.

Speaker B:

I think we are at now we're.

Speaker B:

Our link tree just in the last three months has got 14,000 so people can click the bio, click the page on our website through that.

Speaker B:

So their traffic's gone from nothing to that in, in, in.

Speaker B:

In the same period last year as this year, all the other social media pages have grown as well and we've got link trees on Tik Tok and Facebook.

Speaker B:

But I think that it's that, you know, I was looking at some stats today and you know, whilst our direct traffic has gone up by 3,000 in the same period from last year, our Google has gone up four and a half thousand since last year.

Speaker B:

Email is up in terms of traffic.

Speaker B:

At the same time, our call stays listing traffic is down 78%.

Speaker A:

Interesting.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So I guess that if I'd relied on that then it could have been a bit messy.

Speaker A:

It might not be looking quite so rosy for you.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

No.

Speaker B:

So cool places is down 38.

Speaker B:

So it's interesting that some of those big listing sites are not delivering.

Speaker B:

I haven't changed my package, I haven't upped my package.

Speaker B:

I'm not on a gold or, you know, top package.

Speaker B:

I'm probably on a medium package and I'd certainly, you know, sort of balancing out the cost of having that social media manager.

Speaker B:

Sorry would be for me to cancel some of those because it would pay for it on a monthly basis.

Speaker A:

Yeah, it's interesting because I think a lot of the listing sites are seeing a decrease in people.

Speaker A:

People looking.

Speaker A:

So how much is your social.

Speaker A:

If you tracked your social traffic in your analytics as well.

Speaker A:

Well, what sort of percentage are you hitting with that now?

Speaker B:

Yeah, so I mean, in terms of the socials traffic, it.

Speaker B:

I.

Speaker B:

I tend to look at my link tree because those are the people that are actually clicking the link and going through to the website.

Speaker B:

So traffic wise, in terms of.

Speaker B:

I think our biggest post got over a million views which just happened to reference the holiday, even though it.

Speaker B:

It was related to our Cornwall cottage.

Speaker B:

Well, actually nothing to do with the holiday, people just jumped.

Speaker A:

Yeah, you'll be, you'll be thrilled to know that that's actually now, I looked at your socials the other day, that's now at 2 million.

Speaker B:

Oh, is it?

Speaker A:

Oh, wow.

Speaker A:

So that's properly gone viral in terms of the numbers.

Speaker B:

It did pick up and go pretty mad.

Speaker B:

We get really good engagement with our socials and we get a lot of messages.

Speaker B:

I've just picked up on a couple of other automations so that people can send links automatically through linktree.

Speaker B:

That saves us having to, you know, send those manually.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, all of them are.

Speaker B:

I.

Speaker B:

We don't tend to do a huge amount on Facebook.

Speaker B:

We tend to concentrate on Instagram and Tick Tock.

Speaker B:

We noticed that people probably don't following in.

Speaker B:

Tick Tock isn't such a big thing.

Speaker B:

It's more about engagement in the post and actually the views and eyeballs on the post.

Speaker B:

But I think what people do is they go over to Instagram to actually engage and actually link across.

Speaker B:

But I think that's our link tree across the year was over a hundred thousand in terms of people coming across and we've grown our database as well, so we've probably got to about 5,000 now in our database.

Speaker B:

And I think that that's the bit for me, it's the ongoing.

Speaker B:

It's the capturing of those people and getting them in the system and, and you're getting those sort of multiple touches of people seeing you, they're clicking on links, they're getting an email, they'll see you on another social platform, so they'll get a blog.

Speaker B:

You know, all of those things just sort of snowball to people feeling as though they can trust you.

Speaker B:

And, you know, ultimately our bookings are up by over 40 since last year, so that means that, you know, I'm.

Speaker B:

I'm fully booked for, for Elsie's Cottage, which is probably the one that I think of as harder to fill.

Speaker B:

People usually look about three months ahead of time, but we are, I mean, I had a couple of cancellations recently.

Speaker B:

There's been a spout of cancellations recently.

Speaker B:

I don't know if you felt that, but luckily I filled them again this last week.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, it's looking really rosy.

Speaker B:

I mean, Anchor Cottage, in some ways I'm sort of, it's tricky because whilst we're getting a vast amount of traffic through, it's sort of like up 340% or something stupid.

Speaker B:

I recognize that the availability of dates is a bit limited, so I'm sort of getting to the point now where I sort of feel I, I, I actually need more space to sell to people because they're just going to be disappointed.

Speaker A:

So a bit of an expansion plan.

Speaker A:

But I mean, that's where your email list comes in because I, I know I found places when I've been looking online and they've been fully booked for the dates that I'm interested in.

Speaker A:

But if you've got an engaging website and you've got the techniques that you've truly mastered in terms of, you know, using the link tree content to engage with people, your sequences and then getting them onto your list means you've got, got them to market to in the future.

Speaker A:

So if they miss out this year they will be planning a future stay.

Speaker A:

So you know, the fact that you can get them onto your list because there's nothing worse than having a visitor to the website who goes, oh, they're full when we want to go away and that you just lose them and then you've got no means of.

Speaker A:

It doesn't matter whether they're following you on social media, it's going to be harder to get them to come back to the website again.

Speaker A:

So I think you've, you've really got that sequence, you know, in terms of from getting their attention right through to being able to, you know, engage with them and talk to them in the future.

Speaker A:

It sounds brilliant in terms of how you've lined that up and you've got a really.

Speaker B:

Well, yeah, I mean, I think that one of the things that I am probably didn't, I was less aware of, but I was talking to my, to Paige today, social media manager, and I was saying to her, oh, you know, I don't know how much people follow you and keep up to date and things like that.

Speaker B:,:Speaker B:

So if you are very targeted with your stories and that's where you concentrate your offers, you can put a link in your story.

Speaker B:

So it's a lot easier to be able to get people to engage at that level.

Speaker B:

If you want to be able to actively more sell to them on social media then I think those people that really, you know, are engaged with you and following you because they want some information about to stay, then that helps.

Speaker B:

And obviously getting more people driven to your website, the sign up form has definitely helped and you know it's, it's, it's £50 off but it, it helps to, for people to get people over the line to share their, their data with you.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I mean their, their email address is valuable so you know, giving them a small incentive to hand it over.

Speaker A:

And I think Paige is, is your social media manager is spot on.

Speaker A:

It's like starting stories are brilliant for keeping your fans, the people that have followed you engaged and obviously the reels are a great technique for getting to new people.

Speaker A:

I wanted to ask you a little bit more Charlotte, about TikTok because I'm knowing both your properties.

Speaker A:

I'd say that sort of TikTok probably in my gut feel would be that maybe it wouldn't be quite the right people.

Speaker A:

So how have you found TikTok performing versus Instagram and where you get, are you getting more from Instagram than you are from TikTok?

Speaker B:

I think that we've concentrated on Instagram for sure but our, initially our growth came from TikTok.

Speaker B:

So TikTok was, is really pushing newer accounts.

Speaker B:

So and it also was pushing carousels which is really unusual.

Speaker B:

So yeah, it's pushing sort of pictures rather than reels.

Speaker B:

So one of our biggest engaged, most engaged posts was actually a carousel on Els's.

Speaker B:

So I think that, yeah, I mean we, we get, I don't know, up to 70, 100,000 views on, on our, on our posts on, on our Tik Toks.

Speaker B:

I think that the thing that you've got to remember with TikTok and it's something that maybe it's very easy to sort of make generalizations in terms of who's using it and where they're using it.

Speaker B:

But again I was talking to Paige today and she was saying, oh yeah, no, my father in law who's in his 60s was saying that he'll always look up a restaurant or a place to stay on Tick Tock first.

Speaker B:

And the reason they do that is because on Tick Tock you see the food people post the Food people post the vibe.

Speaker B:

You know, do I want to sit in that restaurant?

Speaker B:

Is it a bit, is it got the vibe I want?

Speaker B:

You'll get that on Tick Tock whereas you won't get that on a website or you might get it on Instagram.

Speaker B:

But I think that because TikTok allows people to be quite, they're a bit like stories, aren't they?

Speaker B:

They can be really relaxed, they're not as polished and I think people feel less intimidated by posting stuff on TikTok.

Speaker B:

So I think that people use it and certainly Paige's generation, she's in her 20s, use it like Google, they will always check something out on there first and I think that's a growing trend and that's happening more through different aged ranges of people now.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So I think it's that sort of like first hand experience of what it's really like staying there.

Speaker B:

So I think that, and I think that the other thing is that, that she mentioned was that jumping across people might see you on Tick Tock and they'll go, oh, I'll look you up on Instagram because they expect to see a slightly different, maybe slightly longer, maybe slightly different types of post there.

Speaker B:

So I think that it, the two are valuable together.

Speaker B:

And for sure, as I say the, the first growth was on TikTok and it was a lot easier to get that.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I've, I've heard that quite often actually that it's easier obviously to grow because that's where the sort of growth is at the moment.

Speaker A:

And I think you're right, a lot of the stats are sort of pointing to the fact that TikTok is becoming like a search, it's a search engine, you know, and people are using.

Speaker A:

Just as YouTube was a video based search engine, they're now using TikTok as a social search engine to sort of get the real inside feel on something.

Speaker A:

And like you say the, the style is more relaxed whereas Instagram tends to be that perfect sort of curated sort of shop front of your business.

Speaker A:

And I think TikTok's more the sort of like what's really going down and that like say the vibe of the place.

Speaker A:

So that's really interesting how you can use the tip.

Speaker B:

I think, I think that the content is also really important.

Speaker B:

I think that the pages style of creating content is very much about user generated feel in the sense that we've just got out of bed or we've just had a cup of coffee.

Speaker B:

It's not, it's not content.

Speaker B:

I know that I, I Certainly fell into the trap of you go into a perfectly made ready for the guest bedroom and video it because you want it to look perfect, but actually making it look a little, you know, lived in, in a nice way in the sense that, well, someone's just staying here and they're enjoying it.

Speaker B:

And that feel of content is certainly getting a lot more engagement than this sort of, this is a perfect house and it's just ready for you to come and turn up to.

Speaker B:

And funnily enough, she actually says that the, the beautiful photography that I did.

Speaker B:

Oh, it's.

Speaker B:

Don't get me wrong, it was well worth it and I would always recommend having it done.

Speaker B:

Doesn't get the engagement that the reels or the posts or the photographs even that are done where it's a little, you know, the beds are slightly unmade and there's a cup of coffee on the side that's just been left.

Speaker B:

And so I think that sort of user generated content, but, but I mean I get approached all the time for people to come and stay and can we come and do use generated content?

Speaker B:

And we do this and we do that and you have to be much like, you know, your listing site or anything else that you would advertise yourself in.

Speaker B:

Does it fit?

Speaker B:

Is it right for you?

Speaker B:

And largely I don't feel, I don't feel the need for it at the moment, but I think that you've, I, I feel as though there's a lot of people out there who aren't analyzing that.

Speaker B:

So you have to analyze it for yourself.

Speaker B:

You know, are those people the right fit for me?

Speaker B:

Are they selling or is their lifestyle or are they the audience that I want to attract and that I can't get to?

Speaker B:

So I think that you do have to think about that when you're being approached by people in social media.

Speaker A:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A:

And I think it's also, you've raised a really good point.

Speaker A:

It's.

Speaker A:

I find myself with the hideout.

Speaker A:

It's quite difficult to create content during a changeover.

Speaker A:

You know, when you've got back to back bookings, that's really hard.

Speaker A:

And also, you know, you're presenting it to look like you just said, you know, perfect changeover ready for the guests.

Speaker A:

And most of us find it hard to be in our spaces sort of acting like a guest.

Speaker A:

And I think that's where the user generated content, you know, paying a content creator, I won't use the word influencer.

Speaker A:

I think, you know, a content creator that can come along and they, and people say, well I Don't want to give away a stay.

Speaker A:

And it's like.

Speaker A:

But they have to be in the space and they have to be living in the space because they capture things that at sunrise with a, let's say, a cup of coffee on the seafront and looking at the ocean or, you know, they're looking at a sunset or they're just having a relaxed breakfast in front of the fire in winter and you.

Speaker A:

It's very difficult as the owner to create that and create enough content.

Speaker A:

So I think, you know, investing in good content creators to come in.

Speaker A:

We normally do it at least twice a year.

Speaker A:

And I'm at a point now where I feel I need some more.

Speaker A:

I need some more content, and particularly that, like you say, that very relaxed style where people are in the space and, And I, And I'll admit, I, I find it really hard to create that sort of content because I haven't.

Speaker A:

It is really hard to do it.

Speaker B:

And the time, I mean, you want someone in the shot, so you can't be in two places.

Speaker B:

Exactly.

Speaker A:

And I don't want to be in the shot.

Speaker B:

No, you don't want to be in the shot.

Speaker B:

So.

Speaker B:

I know, I know it is really hard, and I think that it is a bit of an art and I think that it can look really easy, but it is a bit of an art.

Speaker B:

And I think that having.

Speaker B:

I, I must admit that I probably, in terms of the time that Paige and Hayden have spent in the properties, it's not a huge amount.

Speaker B:

So that they, they sometimes, for example, I don't sell Sunday nights.

Speaker B:

Well, I sell Sunday nights, but I overprice my Fridays and Saturday stay so that people can leave on a Sunday.

Speaker B:

So my Sunday night is often empty because people don't want to take a day off.

Speaker B:

So, you know, she can go in there on a Sunday afternoon or early evening and.

Speaker B:

And take some shots there.

Speaker B:

And it hasn't cost me anything.

Speaker B:

So there.

Speaker B:

And, you know, we all have maintenance.

Speaker B:

We've got a maintenance period next week.

Speaker B:

You know, we've got to cut back that garden and we've got some painting and we've got to, you know, clean the oven and all those kind of things that you don't get done in normal changeover.

Speaker B:

So, you know, that, that, that scheduled anyway.

Speaker B:

So I.

Speaker B:

She would go in and make some content then.

Speaker B:

And she has a very clear plan of, you know, she's planning it, she's scheduling it, she's doing it.

Speaker B:

One of the massive reliefs for me is I don't have to look at it.

Speaker B:

I don't have to plan it, I don't have to go on social media and check and, you know, I do look at my accounts, but I'm not fretting about it in a way of.

Speaker B:

It's funny, I went to a couple of events recently.

Speaker B:

There was a local tourism summit and another event and an awards event and.

Speaker B:

And you say your name now, oh, I've got FOMO of you.

Speaker B:

And I'm like, oh, God, how awful.

Speaker B:

You know, you're sitting there trying to run your business and you're having FOMO of my account and frankly, I'm not doing it.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I said before, you know, we overthink it and we get too close to it and then we almost feel petrified to put stuff out in case it doesn't do well.

Speaker A:

And then you look at someone else's and it's just doing well and you're like, why is my content not working?

Speaker A:

And I think it's, you know, there's definitely some benefits to outsourcing it and have someone managing that for you.

Speaker A:

And you can't be expert at everything that.

Speaker B:

Probably the biggest, My biggest cost actually, in terms of the leads that I'm generating were my.

Speaker B:

If you added up all of my listing pages, they were probably coming to the biggest cost of my, My marketing.

Speaker B:

And whilst Paige, to a lot of people, feels like a big cost in terms of the leads that it's generating, the leads that she's generating through that, my cost per lead is probably something like 8%.

Speaker B:

And if I let go of some of the more expensive listing sites, it would probably go down to 4 or 5%.

Speaker B:

And I think that the thing is that these days that people do think that marketing is.

Speaker B:

Well, I can, you know, you're teaching people how to get directly booked, but I'm sure you're the first one that says, well, you.

Speaker B:

There are softwares that you need to buy, there are systems that you need to invest in.

Speaker B:

Your time is going to cost something.

Speaker B:

And I personally felt that I'm prepared to pay that amount of money for someone else to take that part that are going to do a far better job at it than I would.

Speaker B:

And it would still be nowhere near the cost of me paying commission and all the other disadvantages that I've gone through of listing on a big platform.

Speaker A:

That's a really, really good point.

Speaker A:

So I think it sounds like, I mean, obviously you've, you've created a massive shift in terms of where you were and where you are now.

Speaker A:

So if you've got, we've got someone listening today who's thinking, I want to follow the same journey.

Speaker A:

I want to finally ditch Airbnb or another agent and I want to be marketing direct.

Speaker A:

What would you say would be your top tip to them?

Speaker B:

I think when I actually have the.

Speaker B:

It seems like really obvious, to be honest, that when I have the realization that, that when I first started using social media, I felt as though it's a bit of a vanity project, isn't it?

Speaker B:

Everyone's chasing these followers and what's the point?

Speaker B:

Because are they ever going to buy anything?

Speaker B:

So I must admit that I was.

Speaker B:

I went through peaks and troughs of do I believe in this or don't I believe in it?

Speaker B:

But actually what when the penny dropped, when I realized that, that you capture those people.

Speaker B:

So for me, the.

Speaker B:

If it's one tip, it's don't just do one thing, it's that you, you know, if you do the social media, put a link into, to link to your website, have a pop up form, collect the data somewhere.

Speaker B:

You've got to collect their data because then you own it and then you can keep marketing to them.

Speaker B:

So if Instagram went tomorrow, at least you can still get hold of them.

Speaker B:

And I think that that's the bit that people miss.

Speaker B:

They don't think about the chain.

Speaker B:

And most marketing processes have a chain, don't they?

Speaker A:

Yeah, they do.

Speaker A:

And I think that is a such a valuable tip.

Speaker A:

It's like just doing social for the sake of social and not thinking about how do you transition the customer so that you own the relationship and you have the ability to talk to them.

Speaker A:

I think is a fantastic tip.

Speaker A:

I have another last, very fun last question for you.

Speaker A:

I've been asking all of my hosts this in this series and the last series, if you could have a famous person to stay at one of your cottages, who would it be?

Speaker B:

Oh, gosh, that's tricky.

Speaker B:

I'm not, I'm not a big famous person person.

Speaker B:

But being very practical, as you know I am, Sarah Elsie's cottage has got a wild garden as you can test them to.

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Having stayed there, it's amazing.

Speaker B:

And you need crampons to be able to garden it.

Speaker A:

It's on quite a steep hillside and it's.

Speaker A:

Yeah, it's not the easiest.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So.

Speaker B:

So I'd ask someone like Monty Don, hoping that maybe he'd bring a few.

Speaker A:

Tools with him or you might just sort of leave the tools lying around and hope that he feels the urge to have like a busman's holiday and do your garden while he's staying at Elsie's.

Speaker A:

I like that.

Speaker B:

Do feel free do feel free to to dig in.

Speaker A:

Maybe we should all try that depending on who's staying with us, that they might, they might do some DIY or some, some gardening.

Speaker A:

I think that's a great one.

Speaker A:

So hopefully if Monty ever hears this, he might, he might decide to come.

Speaker B:

I must admit that in our, in our sort of, in our crafting, I do a sort of little crafting box in, in else's and I have left some secretary just in case people feel they need to go and cut something.

Speaker A:

Feel feel the urge to go and do some some trimming of the, the wild foliage while that, while they're staying.

Speaker A:

Oh, thank you, Charlotte.

Speaker A:

It's been wonderful having you on the podcast today and you've been very open and shared your your learnings which I know the listeners will really benefit from.

Speaker B:

Okay, well, thank you for having me on.

Speaker B:

I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker A:

No, thanks for being with us.

Speaker A:

So this is the last episode of this series of the podcast which is series three.

Speaker A:

So thank you all for the reviews and for tuning in each week.

Speaker A:

I will be back in a few weeks time with more amazing hosts sharing their experiences, brilliant guest experts and some solo episodes where I will be sharing my proven marketing strategies to get you more direct bookings.

Speaker A:

But if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

Speaker A:

You know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.

Speaker A:

See you next time.

Speaker A:

Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

Speaker A:

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free direct booking Roadmap quiz.

Speaker A:

Head to my website, get fully booked.com quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.