Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Responsible Holiday Letting: Boost Accessibility & Enhance the Guest Experience

Transcript

Responsible Holiday Letting: Boost Accessibility & Enhance the Guest Experience · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Welcome to Holiday Let's Insider, the podcast that takes
• 0:03
  you behind the scenes of the holiday letting industry.
• 0:06
  Brought to you by House Planner and Sykes Holiday Cottages, the
• 0:09
  show is packed with expert insights, real world strategies,
• 0:13
  and actionable advice to help you succeed as a holiday let
• 0:17
  host. I'm James Farley, the founder of
• 0:19
  House Planner, and in each episode we'll dive into key
• 0:22
  topics like property management, guest experience and revenue
• 0:26
  growth, and we'll be joined by industry experts who know what
• 0:29
  it takes to thrive in this sector.
• 0:32
  In today's episode, Claire Binns will discuss responsible holiday
• 0:36
  letting. Are you looking to take the
• 0:37
  hassle out of holiday letting while setting yourself up for
• 0:41
  success? With Sykes Holiday Cottages, you
• 0:43
  benefit from working with a team of real people with fast
• 0:46
  experience and knowledge, or providing a unique service to
• 0:50
  support you every step of the way.
• 0:52
  Eleven time consecutive winners of the Best Large Company for UK
• 0:56
  holiday home rentals at the British Travel Awards.
• 1:00
  Sykes use as industry leading pricing systems, dedicated
• 1:03
  account management and a network of more than 700 booking
• 1:06
  partners to help get the most out of your investment.
• 1:10
  Sykes aims to combine trusted experience with local expertise
• 1:14
  to help make your holiday leads a success.
• 1:16
  Get in touch today to find out more.
• 1:18
  Head to sykescottages.co.uk/letyour
• 1:22
  Cottage for further details. Hello and welcome to the 6th
• 1:31
  episode of Holiday Let's Insider.
• 1:33
  Today's special guest is Claire Binns, the senior impact manager
• 1:37
  at Sykes Holiday Cottages. How's it going, Claire?
• 1:39
  Oh, it's. Going really well, It's a
• 1:41
  beautiful day here in Chester. Fantastic.
• 1:43
  That's what we like to hear. So today we're going to discuss
• 1:47
  how to holiday let responsibly. So, Claire, tell us what
• 1:51
  responsible holiday letting means to you.
• 1:54
  So it's all about letting your property in a way that benefits
• 1:58
  guests, the environment and the community that your property is
• 2:02
  in. So for Sykes, for us, it's all
• 2:04
  about creating lasting holiday memories whilst having a
• 2:08
  positive impact on people and the planet.
• 2:11
  As an owner, that means minimising waste and energy use,
• 2:16
  being inclusive and accessible, and really making sure that
• 2:19
  you're a positive presence in the community.
• 2:22
  Yeah, a net positive. It's something we talk about a
• 2:25
  lot, being a really good neighbor because it really does
• 2:28
  count for a lot in this industry.
• 2:30
  I mean just, I mean, how important is it to be a good
• 2:34
  neighbor to be on terms if you're running a holiday like?
• 2:36
  It's an incredibly important thing to be a good neighbor and
• 2:41
  it's really important that you give your guests some really
• 2:43
  clear information on your house rules.
• 2:46
  I know that sounds a bit formal, but, you know, just letting them
• 2:49
  know things about West Park. What's the situation with the
• 2:55
  bins? You know, parking and bins are
• 2:57
  one of the things that in everyday life are quite
• 3:01
  important to us, as, you know, with our own neighbors and just
• 3:05
  giving them the right information so that they can
• 3:07
  kind of live in harmony. They're on their holiday as
• 3:10
  well. And I think it's a really good
• 3:12
  idea to try and build up some trust with your neighbors, you
• 3:15
  know, go around and introduce yourselves.
• 3:18
  You might not actually live where your property is, but when
• 3:21
  you're there, just, you know, pop in, let them know you're
• 3:24
  there and you can even give them contact details for your agent,
• 3:29
  you know, so that if there are ever any issues, it might be
• 3:31
  when the property is empty. So if they've got that emergency
• 3:34
  contact number, then that could be really helpful.
• 3:38
  Yeah, definitely putting face to it is so important and just
• 3:42
  sharing your number, just saying, look, if you need
• 3:44
  anything, give me a call, send me a text.
• 3:47
  And then they're much more likely to contact you rather
• 3:50
  than contacting the council for example, if there is if there is
• 3:53
  an issue. And more often than not, you'll
• 3:55
  be able to sort that issue out as well.
• 3:58
  And so going beyond that, beyond your immediate neighbors, it's
• 4:01
  also about encouraging your guests to sort of discover the
• 4:05
  local community, you know, the local shops, restaurants, pubs,
• 4:10
  events that might be going on so that they can really put back
• 4:13
  while they're spending time there.
• 4:14
  Definitely, yeah and it all starts with I think excellent
• 4:17
  communication. Are you a Holiday Let's owner,
• 4:20
  host or property manager looking to grow your short term rental
• 4:23
  business? If so, join Host Planet and
• 4:26
  Sykes Holiday Cottages for Holiday Let's Success, a free
• 4:30
  one day event on the 11th of November at One City Place in
• 4:33
  Chester, right inside Sykes HQ. You'll hear from industry
• 4:37
  experts, Connect with top suppliers, and walk away with
• 4:41
  practical strategies to increase bookings, boost revenue, and
• 4:45
  streamline your operations. Tickets are completely free, but
• 4:49
  places are limited. Registered now at houseplanner
• 4:52
  dot club forward slash events. Let's look at the kind of
• 4:56
  sustainable angle a bit then. So what three things could
• 5:01
  owners do to cut both costs and their carbon footprint?
• 5:05
  Sure. Really difficult to just think
• 5:07
  of three. So I probably will mention more
• 5:09
  because there's lots of quite easy ways that you can do this
• 5:13
  as well that people might not have necessarily linked up with.
• 5:17
  So yeah, it's about quite often reducing your environmental
• 5:21
  impact does come with the benefit of cost savings.
• 5:25
  And there's also the growing trend for travellers they want
• 5:29
  to make sustainable travel choices.
• 5:31
  I think 93% of travellers in the most recent booking.com
• 5:36
  Environmental Sustainable Travel report and said that they wanted
• 5:41
  to be able to do that. So some easy changes that you
• 5:43
  can make are things like switching to LED lighting that
• 5:48
  saves you a lot of money on the running costs, introducing a
• 5:51
  smart meter so that you can control the temperature levels,
• 5:56
  particularly when people aren't in your property to minimize
• 5:59
  those bills there. Water saving devices are also
• 6:03
  another really great way that you can reduce your
• 6:06
  environmental impact on your emissions.
• 6:08
  So things like dual flush toilets, but also you can add a
• 6:12
  flow restrictor to your shower head.
• 6:16
  They cost a few pounds, they're pretty easy to install as well
• 6:20
  and they can save up to 30 litres of water per shower.
• 6:24
  So most of us are in water meters these days.
• 6:27
  So that can have a huge positive impact.
• 6:30
  And then I think it's things like thinking of things like
• 6:32
  reducing single use items. So if you're providing
• 6:35
  toiletries in your property, use refillables, bulk by cleaning
• 6:41
  products, preferably environmentally friendly
• 6:44
  cleaning products that don't have harsh chemicals in them and
• 6:48
  investing in durable kitchenware.
• 6:50
  So maybe a slightly higher initial cost but longer lasting,
• 6:54
  less waste. There's a multitude of other
• 6:58
  things that you can do as well. Things like just call your
• 7:02
  energy supplier and find out if you can get on a renewable
• 7:06
  tariff. They're quite often lower cost
• 7:09
  as well. And then if you're looking at
• 7:13
  investing in new appliances, look at more energy efficient
• 7:16
  appliances. I think if you're providing a
• 7:18
  tumble dryer and don't just do that, think about an outdoor
• 7:21
  washing line as well. We do.
• 7:23
  We've had some great weather this summer.
• 7:25
  You know, there's no been no need to use a tumble dryer.
• 7:28
  So if you just provide those options that make it easy for
• 7:31
  your guests to use less energy without telling them to, because
• 7:36
  we don't like to be told to do things, do we?
• 7:37
  But make things easy for people, then that has a really great
• 7:41
  impact as well. Some brilliant sustainability
• 7:44
  tips there. Moving on to accessibility then,
• 7:48
  what are the basics that almost any home can add quickly and how
• 7:54
  should these be described in listings so that people who need
• 7:58
  accessibility features can quickly realize that your
• 8:01
  property is suitable for them to visit?
• 8:04
  Sure. So what if four people in the UK
• 8:07
  have a disability? So it it's a really large group
• 8:10
  of people that all want to go on holiday.
• 8:13
  Visit England have actually produced some great research
• 8:17
  recently on accessibility features and a guide to those
• 8:21
  key features that people are looking for in self catering
• 8:24
  accommodation. Again, they're not as onerous as
• 8:27
  you might think. So looking at the top ones
• 8:30
  there. So the first one is to have a
• 8:33
  really dependable or Wi-Fi so you know, and, and anyone going
• 8:38
  on holiday these days wants that.
• 8:41
  And then we've got things like having a step three set free
• 8:44
  shower or wet room. That's really important.
• 8:48
  A ground floor bedroom, ideally with an en suite bathroom, but
• 8:52
  at least a ground floor bathroom as well.
• 8:55
  And then it's things like having a secure garden, so people that
• 8:59
  have got assistance, animals for example, knowing that they're
• 9:03
  going to be safe there. And then we need some step free
• 9:06
  access to the property as well, preferably the main entrance.
• 9:10
  So that could be Step 3 or installing a simple ramp.
• 9:14
  And then another one that really surprised me was to have a floor
• 9:17
  plan of the property so that people can see that and then and
• 9:21
  judge for themselves if it's going to accommodate them and
• 9:24
  all of their needs. So really some quite simple
• 9:27
  things. Yes, there's lots of other
• 9:29
  things that you can do for people that do have more
• 9:31
  specific requirements, but but these are really easy things
• 9:35
  that you can do, particularly if you've already got that ground
• 9:39
  floor accommodation within your property.
• 9:42
  And then again, it's thinking about the layout as well.
• 9:45
  So making sure that sort of main walkways are obstacle free, how
• 9:49
  you're laying out your furniture in rooms to make sure that
• 9:53
  people that do have mobility requirements can sort of
• 9:56
  navigate the your home in the same way that everyone else can.
• 10:01
  When it comes to describing these features, we can help with
• 10:06
  that if you're one of our sites owners, but I would say it's
• 10:10
  about being specific. So rather than just saying
• 10:14
  accessible, you might want to say that there are grab rails in
• 10:19
  in the bathroom, in the shower cubicle, or that there might be
• 10:23
  one small step leading from one room to another.
• 10:27
  And as long as you're clear and include all of this information
• 10:31
  and completely transparent about it, then your potential guests
• 10:34
  can see that information and make that judgement themselves.
• 10:38
  And alongside the description, it's really important to have
• 10:42
  good photographs, particularly of bedroom and bathroom areas,
• 10:46
  again so the guests can judge for themselves if that's going
• 10:50
  to fulfill their needs. I love those tips because many
• 10:54
  properties will have those features already but they might
• 10:58
  not have communicated them. So there's a lot of guests who
• 11:01
  will want to book their property but might not necessarily know
• 11:04
  that their property is suitable for neuro diverse guests then.
• 11:09
  And what a small design or comms weeks that could reduce the
• 11:14
  sensory overload. And we're thinking here things
• 11:16
  like lighting, scents, visual guides, that kind of thing.
• 11:21
  Yeah, sure. I mean one of the things that
• 11:24
  for neuro diverse guests which is not something that you can do
• 11:27
  something about what is location.
• 11:29
  You know, they quite often want to be in more remote places that
• 11:33
  with without that kind of noise that can go around.
• 11:36
  However, there are lots of other really easy things that you can
• 11:39
  do to make sure that your property see sort of caters for
• 11:44
  this group of people as well. So with lighting, it's about
• 11:46
  having dimmable warm lights. So whether that's changing the
• 11:50
  type of light bulbs that you have or including lamps for
• 11:54
  people so that you don't just have that harsh overhead
• 11:57
  lighting when you're thinking about decor, it's keeping some
• 12:02
  really nice soft neutral colours, not too many crazy
• 12:05
  patterns and when with fabrics, making sure they're sort of soft
• 12:12
  and comforting. No scratchy fabrics in terms of
• 12:16
  cleaning and the sort of scents that you might have in your
• 12:19
  property, avoid any strong sort of air freshener type smells.
• 12:23
  Stick to nice, clean neutral for for your property there.
• 12:29
  And then you need to look at things like the the guides that
• 12:31
  you might have as well in your property.
• 12:33
  So in your welcome pack, really simple, clear visual guides are
• 12:38
  great. So to show maybe for that step
• 12:40
  by step guide to your recycling, having really clear guides on
• 12:45
  how to use the different appliances that there might be,
• 12:48
  including information about local services and facilities.
• 12:52
  And it's actually a really good idea to provide this information
• 12:56
  before people get to your property.
• 12:58
  If you could provide it as a digital guide, then people can
• 13:01
  prepare. They've come armed with the
• 13:03
  knowledge there. Fantastic.
• 13:05
  Yeah, digital guidebooks are can be really, really useful in this
• 13:09
  regard. In terms of proving impacts
• 13:12
  then, especially when it comes to saving energy, how can owners
• 13:17
  measure and prove the impact without necessarily a load of
• 13:21
  extra admin? Sure.
• 13:23
  Well, there's going to be a little bit of extra admin
• 13:25
  because you know, there is a bit of data gathering and analysis
• 13:28
  that you need to do to be able to get these proof points, but
• 13:31
  they can be, it's really easy to do.
• 13:34
  It's not that onerous if you've got smart meters particularly
• 13:38
  really easy to get that information so that you can
• 13:41
  calculate the energy used per night of stay in your property.
• 13:45
  But if you don't have that, then just your energy and water bills
• 13:49
  are a really good place to start looking at those quarterly
• 13:52
  bills. And again, working out, you
• 13:54
  know, what is the usage per night for your guests.
• 13:59
  You can drill down into doing it by guest if you know the number
• 14:02
  of people staying in your property, if you really want to
• 14:04
  go that far. So getting that baseline data.
• 14:07
  And then when you've made these changes, you'll be able to look
• 14:10
  back and see the impact that it's made, the energy that it's
• 14:13
  saving, the water that it's saving.
• 14:16
  Another thing that you can do is to look at your guest reviews,
• 14:19
  maybe search them for key phrases like sustainability or
• 14:23
  eco friendly, so that you can see whether the efforts that
• 14:26
  you're making are being recognized and valued by your
• 14:29
  guests. And then once you've got this
• 14:31
  information, I think a really great way to kind of get that
• 14:35
  message out there is in your welcome guide to have a really
• 14:38
  nice, clear, simple infographic that shows the impact that's
• 14:41
  been made by guests. Fantastic.
• 14:44
  Yeah, brilliant tips there. How should owners talk about the
• 14:49
  impact that they're making without it being greenwashing?
• 14:54
  And maybe at this point we should explain what greenwashing
• 14:57
  is. Yeah, sure.
• 14:59
  So greenwashing really is when people tend to use quite general
• 15:03
  terms around their environmental and sustainable credentials
• 15:09
  without actually qualifying what it means.
• 15:11
  So using phrases like eco friendly or environmentally
• 15:17
  friendly, there's actually nothing wrong with these
• 15:20
  phrases, but you just need to let people know what they mean.
• 15:23
  So if you've got a eco friendly heating system, great, that's
• 15:30
  really good news. What does that mean?
• 15:32
  Does that mean that your supply is 100% renewable energy?
• 15:36
  Or does it mean that you've got solar panels installed or So
• 15:39
  what you need to do is when you use phrases like that is
• 15:43
  actually quantify what they mean so that you're not just trying
• 15:47
  to say, yes, I'm really environmentally friendly.
• 15:50
  It's because it's a bit like, well, how are you so telling
• 15:53
  people that you've got LED light bulbs installed, that you're
• 15:56
  using water saving devices, All of these, these things will tell
• 16:00
  people, you know, the impact that you're making, the measures
• 16:03
  that you have taken. Yeah, actually prove it.
• 16:06
  Don't just say I'm eco friendly without saying what you're doing
• 16:09
  to be your girlfriend. Definitely.
• 16:11
  And I think the whole green washing, we're very conscious of
• 16:14
  it as a business. There's there's also another
• 16:16
  phenomenon called green hushing where people are just a bit
• 16:19
  cautious about people thinking that they are greenwashing when
• 16:24
  actually they're doing really great things.
• 16:27
  So if you're doing this really good stuff, tell people about
• 16:30
  it. As long as you're authentic and
• 16:31
  you're doing what you're saying you're doing, then that's all
• 16:34
  good. 100% yeah. You've got to promote what
• 16:37
  you're doing. If you're doing some good stuff,
• 16:38
  tell other people about it because it might encourage
• 16:40
  others to to follow in your footsteps.
• 16:44
  So tell us then, how does psychs help hosts to be more
• 16:46
  responsible? Sure.
• 16:48
  I mean we help hosts to be more responsible in the same way that
• 16:51
  we help them with anything else with their holiday let.
• 16:53
  So if you go to our holiday let advice centre on our website,
• 16:57
  there's two really great articles on there.
• 17:00
  One is about having a more eco friendly holiday let with tons
• 17:05
  of information on there about how you can reduce energy use,
• 17:09
  reduce water use, have better waste and recycling systems, all
• 17:14
  of those really great things that reduce impact on the
• 17:16
  environment. And then the other one there is
• 17:19
  our is on accessible holiday letting.
• 17:21
  So how can you be a more inclusive and accessible holiday
• 17:25
  let? What easy changes can you make?
• 17:29
  What things might you already be doing that actually you need to
• 17:32
  let your holiday letting agent sites know or in your property
• 17:36
  so that we can make sure that it's included on the listing.
• 17:39
  And so some really great advice there.
• 17:41
  If you're a sites owner as well, you have a account manager,
• 17:45
  someone that you can go to with any questions that you might
• 17:48
  have. And so your account manager will
• 17:50
  be able to signpost you to find the right information or put you
• 17:54
  in contact with experts. So we work with a huge range of
• 17:59
  external partners and managed services suppliers.
• 18:01
  So whether you're looking at installing a EV, the charging
• 18:06
  point because number of people driving electric vehicles is
• 18:10
  increasing. I think it's 20% of car sales
• 18:12
  this year are going to be electric is what I've read.
• 18:16
  Or you might want to do an energy review of your home and
• 18:19
  you know, go completely down the route of maybe even getting a
• 18:22
  wind turbine installed. We know those right people that
• 18:25
  can help you do that. Fantastic, superb and those
• 18:29
  articles that you mentioned there will put a link to those
• 18:32
  in the show notes. Just tell us before we go there
• 18:34
  and if people are interested in working with Sykes work and they
• 18:37
  go to find out more information. Sure.
• 18:39
  If you go to our website, so the let your property pages and
• 18:43
  you'll be able to access that holiday Let advice Centre and
• 18:46
  all of the great resources that we've got on there.
• 18:49
  If you're ready to make the next step, our phone number's on
• 18:52
  there so you can just give one of our advisors a call, or if
• 18:56
  you prefer, you can fill in a contact form and we'll get in
• 18:59
  touch with you at a time that is convenient.
• 19:01
  Superb. And we'll put all those links in
• 19:03
  the show notes. Claire, it's been a real
• 19:05
  pleasure. Thank you for joining us on this
• 19:07
  episode of Holiday Let Insider. Thank you.
• 19:09
  Great to chat to Claire Binns there from Sykes Holiday
• 19:12
  Cottages. Take note of those eco friendly
• 19:14
  and accessible tips in order to appeal to more travellers.
• 19:18
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
• 19:20
  For more free education tips and trends from the short term
• 19:23
  rentals industry, visit House Planet dot Club, where you can
• 19:26
  sign up for our newsletter, listen to our podcasts, and
• 19:29
  download a suite of ebooks for hosts and property managers.
• 19:33
  That's it for today's edition of Holiday Let Insider.
• 19:36
  Until next time, happy hosting.