Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / What's Behind Beach Retreats' 97% Direct Booking Rate?

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What's Behind Beach Retreats' 97% Direct Booking Rate? · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

0:00
Welcome to the House Planet Playbook, your go to guide for
0:02
mastering short term rentals. In this special series, we're
0:06
sitting down with 30 of the world's top property managers to
0:09
uncover what really drives success in the vacation rental
0:13
industry. You'll hear their stories, learn
0:15
the key lessons they've picked up along the way, and discover
0:18
the game changing tech they used to deliver. 5 star guest
0:22
experiences. If you're serious about growing
0:25
your STR business, you're in the right place.
0:28
We've also developed an e-book feature the stories of every
0:31
manager in this series and you can download it for free.
0:34
Head to Houseplanet dot Club to find out more.
0:37
In today's episode we're chatting to Andy Easton from
0:40
Beach Retreats in Cornwall. Stand by for a chat about how to
0:43
achieve 97% direct bookings and why it's vital to reject
0:48
properties which don't suit your brand and target guests.
0:57
This special series is brought to you by Houseplanet and
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trusted by hosts worldwide. With Hospitable, you can
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automate guest messaging, sync calendars across platforms and
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term rental on autopilot, try Hospitable today.
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Visit hospitable.com/houseplanet to see how the platform can save
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you time, reduce stress, and maximize your earnings.
1:29
Andy, thank you for being part of the House Planet Playbook.
1:32
Let's start with you. What's the name of your company,
1:35
where are you located, and how many rentals do you manage?
1:39
Hi Jim, So I'm with beach treats.
1:42
We're based in Cornwall in England and we look after 240
1:48
holiday let's. So tell us, how did you get
1:51
involved in the world of short term rentals?
1:54
Yeah, Not by design, absolutely not by design.
1:58
I was working in digital marketing, online marketing as
2:02
we called it back in the late 1990s, building websites, doing
2:07
search engine optimization. And it was in the world of
2:11
publishing as it happened. And it was purely by chance that
2:14
I was connected by a recruitment consultant to a letting agency
2:18
in Devon. And the skills that I had in
2:21
terms of websites and the space was very much kind of new,
2:25
wasn't it, for holiday vets at that time.
2:27
So it was a marketing opportunity which turned into a
2:31
more general role. But yeah, a long time ago we
2:36
were, we built the first website from hand handcrafted with
2:40
Dreamweaver and all these great tools that we had back in the
2:43
day to, to build websites. And we, we, we had online
2:47
booking for, you know, we weren't the first to have online
2:49
booking in probably the early 2000s, which was quite a, you
2:53
know, revolution at the time. And we stopped all of the
2:56
advertising in the radio at times which, and put it all into
3:00
Google Pay per click. And that really helped the
3:02
business to grow all the time. So who were you working for
3:06
then? And then how did you eventually
3:08
get through to starting beach retreats?
3:11
Tell us the story. Yeah.
3:12
So it was blue chip holidays or blue chip vacation that was at
3:16
the time. And we, we got, you know, it was
3:19
a really exciting time in that there was a lot in, in South
3:22
Devon. There was a lot of B and BS
3:25
which were being converted into apartments and being sold off.
3:28
And we were really well placed to help the estate agent to sell
3:32
the property and show a healthy return for the owner.
3:36
So we were kind of growing that business quite quickly.
3:39
And we, we went all the way across Devon and into Cornwall
3:43
before the, I left the business, what about 15 years ago now and
3:48
went before they got sold to Awares with, with about 1000
3:52
properties I think we had at the time.
3:54
And it was just what do we do next?
3:56
And got connected to Beach Retreat.
3:58
So we're looking for a general manager and hopefully he wants
4:02
to replicate everything that we did with Blue Chip.
4:05
So yeah, we're just kind of connected and it was a great
4:08
opportunity, great brand, a great location, great portfolio.
4:12
So putting it all together with the right tech and the right
4:17
strategy, really kind of like created that niche which we've
4:20
enjoyed for 13 years now. Excellent.
4:24
So tell us the story of beach retreats then.
4:27
How was the business developed and how does beach retreats
4:30
stand out among the competition? Yeah.
4:33
So I mean, I mean beach retreats performed about 16 years ago
4:37
before I started part of Watergate Bay Hotel, if you know
4:40
the area. And it was purely that there was
4:43
some menu build apartments near the hotel, which some of the
4:47
hotel guests had bought as a kind of base in Cornwall and
4:52
they asked the hotel owners to look after them.
4:54
And of course the hotel with its reservations, marketing and
4:59
property servicing function could do that.
5:02
So we had that very kind of clear strict guidance from day
5:07
one and that was you must be within walking distance of a
5:10
beach to join the portfolio. You've got to have a nice
5:14
quality modern interior, so kitchens, bathrooms, high
5:18
standards of furniture. And then you would be in the
5:22
right in the right location. So you'd be able to walk to a
5:26
beach cafe or good restaurants and higher sports equipment all
5:32
within that locality. And that, that, that we, you
5:36
know, we turned down a lot of properties over the years
5:38
because of that. But actually sticking to that
5:40
rule has meant that the that's growing sensibly.
5:46
It's growing successfully with good occupancy and good earnings
5:50
foreigners while maintaining that strong brand and loyal
5:56
guest returning guest database that we have.
5:59
Yeah, I was going to say, how important is it to reject those
6:04
properties which don't meet your pretty strict criteria?
6:08
It's massive. It has proved to be massively
6:11
important, not only to preserve the brand, but what we found was
6:15
that our guests won't book them anywhere.
6:17
So you can say, well, look, let's just go for it and sign up
6:20
every property we can. But you spend all the money
6:24
configuring, setting up the property, photography videos,
6:28
etcetera to launch it and then you get no bookings.
6:32
So you, you're all the upfront costs are just wasted.
6:35
So it's better to have that honest conversation with an
6:38
owner and say, well, our guests, I'm going to book this property
6:43
for whatever reason and say goodbye at that point.
6:46
And many owners have come back and said, well, we'll do the
6:49
renovation work to get it into the into the portfolio, which is
6:53
really nice, but that we learned that quite early on.
6:59
Now one thing Beech Retreats is known for and it's something
7:01
that we discussed at an event we were at in April in London, is
7:05
your very high percentage of direct bookings.
7:08
I think that you're about 97%, which is obviously outstanding
7:13
in the industry. How have you achieved that and
7:17
how much does your background in SEO and pay per click and
7:21
website building, how has that helped you get to 90, 7% direct
7:25
bookings? Well, we've all had that mindset
7:28
that we do. We have a potential part of
7:31
Watergate, but we have a very lifestyle focused mindset when
7:36
it comes to marketing. So it's very much about the
7:39
experience. It's very much about what it
7:41
feels like to stand on a beach surrounded by the cliffs and the
7:45
waves and the sounds and the sensations that you get from
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feeling like that, especially when you've you've come with a
7:51
few days and you, it's like giving you exactly what you
7:53
want. Then the rest and relaxation,
7:56
inspiration, quality time with loved ones.
7:59
So we, you know, we're very much that's, that's what we want to
8:03
talk about. These are the stories that we
8:05
want to tell to, to our to our guest.
8:09
We're not, we're, we're laid back, but we're kind of
8:12
professional at the same time. So no stone has ever turned.
8:15
You have a problem. We'll be there very quickly to
8:19
to address it. So from that guest experience
8:20
point of view that's built up over the years.
8:24
From a marketing perspective, I mean I think I'm sure I said
8:26
this before, but I think that letting agents are marketing
8:32
companies and that's what they do.
8:33
They are that's the market, these properties that we have in
8:37
the portfolio and sometimes that gets lost is that it's quite
8:41
easy to set up an OTA listing and not have that that
8:47
marketing, which is which is not cheap, but actually long term
8:50
payers for itself to have that kind of marketing mindset that
8:55
guests are on a journey. Are they looking to book?
8:59
Are they just looking to learn more about Carmel, you know, at
9:03
what stage of the booking cycle are they in?
9:06
And then to tell the messages to reflect that and get that
9:10
conversion, you know, at the right time when the guests
9:13
looking. So having that, I always think
9:15
that it's a, it's a big decision to book a holiday, let in
9:18
Cornwell. It's your, it's your time, it's
9:20
your time off, it's your family time together, which is very
9:23
important. So the decision making process
9:25
is very involved. I, you know, I'm thinking about
9:29
will, will the children sleep in these beds?
9:31
Can I park the car in the drive? Can I walk to a convenience
9:36
shop? And all these micro decisions
9:39
which are made before you enter your credit card details onto a
9:42
website, very different for every guest.
9:45
So you know, having that, we're not a hard sell.
9:48
I don't think we are a hard sell.
9:49
We're very much helping the guests to making a farm decision
9:53
which meets their needs. There will be a lot of house and
9:55
property managers out there thinking I want 97% direct
9:59
bookings. What are the top tactics that
10:03
you can share for achieving that rate?
10:06
Well, and I think there's not one quick win, not one quick
10:10
easy answer to that, I'm afraid. We, I mean, I, I very much come
10:15
into my organic search engine traffic and pay per click, which
10:18
has changed immensely over the years.
10:20
And so it's kind of getting that initial awareness of the brand
10:23
and the product like I've been building websites for far too
10:27
long. So I have views on what, what do
10:32
I do when I land on that page? What, what do I do?
10:35
I want to capture that person's detail.
10:37
Do I want to give them an offer to get them to, to hook them in
10:41
and, and working hard to get that direct booking on the
10:44
website. But also it we're brand, you
10:46
know, we're known for a particular type of holiday.
10:49
It's contemporary, it's on a beach.
10:52
And that, that, but that comes with, you know, reaching out to
10:55
people who are maybe more active and looking for an active
10:58
holiday. Who are, you know, eating out
11:01
maybe more than average and then kind of tailoring the messaging
11:06
to give the guests the answer that they're looking for.
11:10
So I've been talking about a website quite a lot and making
11:12
it very easy to get inspiration, either in the form of a property
11:18
which meets their needs or a story about while swimming.
11:23
How do you build a website that converts?
11:29
I think simplicity is key. We talk about fast, fast loading
11:35
pages and having a really good search return, which just shows
11:40
where the properties are, the practice of how much they are
11:45
making it easy to book, but answering all the all those very
11:48
different questions that people are asking.
11:50
So we have, we have many debates about what a property, what does
11:54
a perfect property page look like on a website?
11:57
What's most important to the guest?
11:58
Is it the the price and the calendar?
12:01
Is it the photographs? Is it the location?
12:03
Is it that little box with the key, key information about the
12:08
property? Is it the 3D tour?
12:11
And that is it great and answered question when it comes
12:15
to that website, it's well, they all are, but none of them are to
12:18
me because I'm different to the next person who's going to look
12:20
at that property page. So I think it's almost kind of
12:23
like looking at your own portfolio and thinking, well,
12:26
you know, we've got the best interiors or we've got the best
12:30
locations. And if I'm in a real crime
12:32
location in the city, bringing out all those kind of local
12:36
attractions I can walk to feels like really important.
12:39
But for us, it's the, the, the idea of I can park the car and
12:44
then I can leave the cars at this busy beach in summer, I can
12:47
just walk onto it without worrying about parking.
12:49
So it's also kind of little nuances which work for each
12:53
portfolio manager in each location.
12:55
I think it's understanding what the what those are and really
12:58
telling bringing them to the forefront on the on the website.
13:02
Talk to us about Cornwall then. What are the main challenges and
13:06
opportunities in your location? Well, great opportunity.
13:11
It's the UK's most popular county I believe for for
13:15
holidays outside London and people will always come to
13:18
Cornwall. It's got fantastic beaches, it's
13:21
got the food and the drink offering and it's a bit easier
13:25
to get to now we have better Rd. connections.
13:28
But you're here and you are very far away from the rest of the,
13:34
the rest of the country. You are, you're going to have
13:39
something that's for everybody. So you've got attractions,
13:42
you've got the, the villages, you've got all the crafts and
13:45
the, and the beaches. So it's a great product and it,
13:52
it will always be, people always come to Cornwall.
13:55
It's not that we're complacent about it, but they'll always
13:59
come to Cornwall. The challenges of course, come
14:01
with that come a degree of oversupply.
14:04
But I, I guess that's kind of in many parts of the country now,
14:07
rising costs around change overs were a big issue for owners.
14:12
It's, it's not cheap to get the property cleaned properly
14:15
checked and then safely checked for an arrival to do it
14:18
properly. And of course we spend a lot of
14:21
time doing that to make sure that there's no complaints when
14:24
people arrive that that first impression is so important.
14:28
So it's kind of getting that that balance of managing those
14:32
costs and retaining the occupancy, you know, in a market
14:36
which is, you know, still a bit over saturated I believe.
14:41
Often when the media in the UK talks about holiday let's and
14:44
the impact they're having on local communities, often there's
14:46
a focus on Cornwall. Obviously we've had different
14:50
pieces of legislation and regulation potentially on the
14:54
horizon. How is Cornwall dealing with
14:57
that and that kind of that attention that it gets from from
15:00
the media? Well, I think I think it's a
15:02
problem countrywide and you have the same conversation in North
15:06
Yorkshire and Pembrokeshire and Brighton in the, you know, even
15:11
inland areas. I've seen some quite challenging
15:14
stories about finding somewhere to rent sensibly in
15:17
Commonwealth. I think we need more education,
15:20
especially between holiday home, which is used privately, and
15:25
holiday let, which is a small business which is bringing
15:29
people to a local area and it's supporting local restaurants,
15:34
shops, because people are, you know, spending a lot of money
15:37
when they come on holiday, more than you would normally do at
15:39
home. So education around what a
15:42
holiday let is and what it does for the county is something that
15:48
I think is very much happening at the moment.
15:50
With the work of Pask and some of my fellow agencies in
15:54
Cornwall, they're making those connections now to MPs and
15:57
councillors and just educating them about where it fits in.
16:05
What are your top tips for delivering an outstanding guest
16:08
experience? Oh, I think it's first
16:10
impression. So I get my first impression is
16:14
is really important. So I've had a long journey.
16:17
I've booked a holiday with a company I've never heard of
16:19
before. I arrive, I find it easily.
16:22
I find the key, I open the front door and you've got that their
16:26
verification of you've made a brilliant choice for your
16:28
holiday. All your friends and family love
16:30
you because you just nailed it. And the kitchen is spotless, the
16:33
bathroom is spotless, the view is as described and you can just
16:38
put your feet up and that's when your holiday begins and relaxes.
16:41
So getting that first impression right is, you know, it's really
16:46
hard to do, but actually really kind of really important.
16:53
And what are your top tips for keeping owners happy?
16:57
I think listening, listening to them, I think owners are, I
17:00
mean, especially our owner is that they're not all hard nosed
17:04
investors. There's a degree of personal
17:06
involvement. So it's understanding who the
17:08
owners are and what they want. And we're flexible in, in the
17:14
funds who wants to do some people will accommodate that.
17:16
We'll, we'll work with them because it's their property and
17:19
they always think, well, it's, it's a bit strange to say, well,
17:23
you can't come down this this week because it's when you kind
17:26
of week long stares, you can't come down for three nights.
17:29
Or you can try and put restrictions on their use of
17:32
their property. So we work with them
17:35
collaboratively and, and that that delivers you get that long
17:38
term relationships and we're very hot on when they're in the
17:46
when the team worked very hard to make sure that every owner
17:49
who contacts us get a same day reply and gets gets a call.
17:53
And at that customer service level has to be, you know,
17:56
really up there. What's been your biggest lesson
18:00
learned during your journey with beecher trees?
18:04
So it's staying humble, isn't it?
18:06
It's, it's just kind of, I know that out there, there was
18:08
somebody who can take a better photograph of a property than
18:10
me. I know there's somebody who's
18:12
better on a spreadsheet than I am.
18:15
I know there's somebody who is better at talking to a guest
18:19
than I am. So it's kind of learning all the
18:22
time. So you, you kind of asking,
18:25
it's, it's a great sector to work in.
18:27
People who are on holiday, you're making memories of
18:29
people. So being around that is, is, can
18:32
be very inspiring. So letting the team do what they
18:36
do and letting them run with it, giving them the support that
18:40
they need when they want it, but letting them you know, you know,
18:44
Excel has been, has been really important.
18:48
What do you love most about hosting?
18:52
On the beach. I work on the beach.
18:54
Yeah. Come on there.
18:56
Who else does that? I'm very lucky in that we have a
19:00
meeting. I'll meet in the owner in the
19:03
beach traffic and we'll have a coffee overlooking the beach and
19:08
it's, you know, I see you're helping people make memories and
19:11
you're helping people successfully holiday filling a
19:14
calendar, which is, you know, seeing, you know, when they come
19:17
down and you know, people, people are they're getting
19:22
falling to each other. It's baby's first holiday.
19:24
All these kind of little stories that come out of each guest and
19:28
why they're coming to us to kind of hear those stories.
19:31
It's it's amazing. Business on the beach.
19:34
I love it. All right then, Andy.
19:36
So we've got a few more quick fire questions now.
19:39
So which PMS do you use? Well, we've been on super
19:42
control for about 3-4 years now. Super.
19:46
Control Which dynamic pricing tool do you use?
19:50
And we've connected super control to beyond pricing.
19:53
We did that about a year ago. So we're now a whole year's
19:56
worth of data. It's starting to tell some
19:59
really good stories about your on your improvements.
20:02
Great shout out for Beyond There.
20:04
Which piece of tech couldn't you live without?
20:08
Is this holiday related or is it life for it?
20:11
Whatever you like. I I thought about this and what,
20:16
what's, what's really good for our sector, I think is Google
20:19
Maps as an app in that it will navigate me to where the
20:25
property is. It will give me a bird's eye
20:28
view of the property and what's around it.
20:31
It will help me to find local restaurants and takeaways and
20:34
shops and petrol stations and everything that I need to know.
20:38
So it's not a holiday vet tool. But you know, if I'm travelling
20:42
myself, I mean, I used it extensively when we just came
20:45
back from Spain and it's because it's a new area.
20:48
So to actually have that, get that most out of where you're
20:51
going, most out of Cornwall, it's just kind of something that
20:54
we've used for a long time just to really get the body out your
20:58
holiday. I think that is a really great
21:00
point. It actually takes me back to
21:02
when I started working in newspapers about 20 years ago
21:05
and there was no Google Maps and I had to use, you know, a
21:09
physical map, you know, when you're trying to drive is is
21:12
quite difficult, especially if your sense of direction, like
21:14
mine is pretty awful. So yeah, Google Maps, it really
21:18
is very, very helpful. OK then.
21:21
So in an ideal world, pets yes or no?
21:24
Yeah, you've got to go with pets.
21:26
Part of the family leaving me behind is not great start to a
21:30
holiday. Hot tubs yes or no?
21:33
I'm going to sit on the fence next to the hot tub here.
21:36
So yeah, I mean, OK, hot tubs, yes, we found that some of the
21:41
kind of running costs can be challenging.
21:43
The health and safety elements need to be absolutely, 100% on
21:47
the ball with that. But if you've got the right
21:50
property in the right location with the right outdoor space,
21:54
yes, absolutely go for it. It's it's a luxury, it's an
21:57
indulgent if you haven't got one at home, it feels special that
22:00
you've got, you know, you're elevating your place of to stay
22:04
for a week. Self check in or personal
22:08
welcome. The choice, I think so we have a
22:12
lot of, we have a lot of self check insurance because of the
22:15
nature of where the properties are.
22:17
And it'd be very cost prohibitive to welcome all of
22:20
our guests. So, and some guests will arrive
22:25
bang on the dot at 4:00, some will be there at midnight or
22:28
2:00 in the morning. So having that flexibility and
22:32
freedom to arrive whenever you want, I think it's really
22:35
important to it fits in with their personal life and it's
22:38
probably the long way. Typically having a meet and
22:41
greet I think is fantastic. If, if, if we can deliver it.
22:44
I mean, I've had it myself on my own travels and it just kind of
22:48
puts a face to, to A, to A, to a name.
22:53
And you know, if you can, you can book yourself catering
22:57
holiday with online booking. You can then get all your
23:00
automated emails, arrive, have a great time, go home and not talk
23:05
to anybody. So it's kind of like it's really
23:07
what the guest wants. I feel it's what the guest
23:10
wants. Telephone call or AI response?
23:15
We've got a great reservations team, so I know what the
23:17
answer's going to be to this. And some of the conversations
23:20
that I hate over here when they're talking to guests about
23:23
what they want to book. It's not like a sales process.
23:27
It's just kind of a, it's a really nice chat and it's the
23:32
questions are unique. So we're, we're still on
23:36
telephone calls down here in Cornwall and I'm a big fan of
23:39
AI. I'm sure that AI will play a
23:41
very big part of what we do in the future, just not quite to
23:46
do. What's your most memorable
23:49
hosting moment? So, OK, so we, we, we took on
23:53
some new properties geographically, which were in a
23:56
new area for us. We spent the whole day there on
23:59
a photo shoot making a film and, you know, on, on the beaches.
24:04
Imagine looking at over the sea. We've finished about, I think it
24:07
was September. We finished about 7:00 and it
24:11
was lovely and warm. You know, we're staying in the
24:13
property. So we just cracked up in a glass
24:16
of wine and watch the sun go down for a really good
24:19
productive day, as were creating some content and telling some
24:23
stories. And actually after that, it was
24:26
just stop, do this, get your Instagram post done.
24:30
And you know, it's one of those moments where you could be
24:32
anywhere in the world. Fantastic.
24:37
OK then shout out time an individual in the STR industry
24:41
who's helped you and you'd like to give a shout out to.
24:43
Yeah, we'll give a shout out to Richard.
24:45
Richard Barton. He he just close by me.
24:48
We just talk about going kayaking, but we've never quite
24:50
done it yet. But he's just been a great
24:53
person to connect to. And ultimate goal for your
24:57
business and we should state here that beach retreats has
25:01
been acquired by travel chapter. So perhaps the ultimate goal has
25:06
been achieved, but so tell us about that and and the process
25:10
and and what's going to happen. Yeah, So we were we were joined
25:14
last week. So it's very much breaking news.
25:16
It's very new for us, but but we're very excited.
25:20
I think we, we, we, we found a partner in travel chapter who
25:24
share our values and our B core outlook and our people are
25:29
working with our, our team and it's very exciting and that
25:34
we're going to get access to lots of best practice in the
25:39
sector. And hopefully we will show them
25:41
one or two things as well. But it's really good for the
25:45
brand and the business, quite time to do it.
25:47
So I'll be staying on for a bit to see how it goes and get the
25:51
integration right and then realise the full value we've
25:55
been. It's the next chapter.
25:56
I think it's the way I would classify class it.
26:00
Superb. And then well, ultimate goal for
26:02
you now that now that this kind of acquisition has been
26:05
achieved. Have a holiday.
26:07
Come on. Come on, have a holiday.
26:10
No, this is really good, really exciting times.
26:15
What comes next? I have no idea.
26:16
I have no idea. But Emily looking forward to it,
26:20
whatever it is. Fantastic.
26:22
What a journey down there on the beach in Cornwall.
26:25
Andy, thanks so much for joining us today and thanks for being
26:27
part of the Host Planet Playbook.
26:29
You're welcome. All right, that's it for today's
26:31
episode. My thanks to Andy for sharing
26:33
his journey and for being part of the Host Planet Playbook.
26:37
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