Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Good News on EPCs – But What’s Coming Next For Holiday Lets?

Transcript

Good News on EPCs – But What’s Coming Next For Holiday Lets? · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

0:00
This would have cost you £15,000 and it wouldn't necessarily made
0:03
any difference. So this is a massive 1 and you
0:06
know, a big shout out to everybody who supported it,
0:09
especially the 6 1/2 thousand people who wrote to their MPs.
0:13
You know, all these things collectively make make a
0:16
difference. Why has the UK government halted
0:19
plans to enforce minimum energy ratings on holiday?
0:23
Let's what's the latest in relation to the visitor levy,
0:26
business rates and statutory registration?
0:30
And what can owners and operators across the country do
0:33
in order to drive the industry forward?
0:36
Alistair Handicide from PASCA UK will be answering all these
0:39
questions and more on today's Host Planet podcast.
0:48
Alistair, thank you for joining us on the Host Planet podcast.
0:51
Finally, we have some good news to share with Holiday Let owners
0:55
in the UK in relation to EPC's, which are Energy Performance
1:00
certificates of course. Please give us the lowdown.
1:05
We have managed to get result from the Department of Energy
1:09
Security and Net 0, commonly known as Desnes.
1:13
They agreed with the evidence that we provided them that the
1:17
two principles for making us have energy performance
1:21
certificates at level C, which would have been, I can't begin
1:25
to tell you how costly for the for the sector, the two basic
1:30
principles, whether it would be to do that to stop people
1:32
flipping from long term Nets to short term Nets.
1:35
And because of fuel poverty. We were able to convince them
1:38
through evidence that there was no evidence that people were
1:41
flipping from long term Nets to short term Nets.
1:43
And strangely enough, any of you listening to this will realize
1:47
that if you have fuel poverty in your holiday that you're doing
1:50
it so badly you'll never have any guests.
1:53
So that one was slightly easier to provide evidence for than the
1:56
former. And they were absolutely
1:58
brilliant when they gave us the pre announcement saying this was
2:01
down to evidence. If you, if you look at the
2:03
number of responses they got that were saying nail the self
2:07
catering sector, they, they went with the evidence, not the
2:11
emotion and, and we have thanked them for that on, on your
2:14
behalf. This is, this is a massive
2:17
thing. I mean if you had an older
2:20
property, you know, a lovely small cottage in Whitstable or
2:26
Cornwall or West Wales that's stone built, this would have
2:29
cost you £15,000 and it wouldn't necessarily made any difference.
2:33
So this is a massive 1 and you know, a big shout out to
2:37
everybody who supported it, especially the 6 1/2 thousand
2:40
people who wrote to their MPs. You know, all these things
2:44
collectively make make a difference.
2:46
And we will be writing 55 letters of thanks to MPs who
2:50
also wrote to the minister to say what you're doing.
2:55
So thank you all. You know you helped make this
2:58
happen. Well, thank you.
3:00
Yeah, huge thanks to everybody who got behind that.
3:02
And it, it really does show the power of this community and the
3:07
sector and all the work that you're doing at at Pask and the
3:10
other bodies, of course. Because as we spoke about, I
3:12
think the last time you were on the podcast and you mentioned it
3:16
there, there was the threat that holiday let owners would have to
3:19
spend £15,000, even if it doesn't get you to a level C,
3:23
they wanted to spend you £15,000 on making some energy efficiency
3:27
changes. So I think real kudos your work
3:30
and again it, like I said, it shows the power of people
3:33
sending those letters and doing their bit.
3:36
Yeah, and we'll probably come on to how people can help as we go
3:40
forward as a as a collective industry.
3:43
So there we go. So some good news.
3:44
And I can't tell you the mood in the policy team.
3:47
It was, you know, we all thought we dreamt it for about two or
3:52
three hours. I mean, Ben Spear, who was on
3:54
this recently and did a great podcast.
3:59
He, he and I were the two that were on the call, the private
4:01
call to pre announce it. And he said we were like, you
4:04
know, the, the episode from Del Boy.
4:07
You know, when they, they, the auction went to 61 million on
4:10
the pocket watch, keeping a straight face underneath the
4:12
table, our feet. We're doing dances and
4:14
everything else. But on the on the because on the
4:15
call, we're the consummate professionals.
4:18
But we were dancing, dancing. There you go.
4:22
Fantastic. Some good news at last.
4:25
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Less stress, more bookings sorted with postfully from good
5:44
news to more challenging issues. The potential tourism tax, the
5:50
visitor levy that was trailed in the lead up to the budget last
5:54
year. There is now a full blown
5:57
consultation on this. What do you make of it?
6:00
Right. Well, the consultation listeners
6:03
runs until the 18th of February. We will be as usual, providing
6:08
free guidance to anybody on the website to give you bits of
6:12
data, suggestions, how you might answer some of the questions.
6:15
You, you can change them all. It's a Word document.
6:17
It's just to help you. We are instinctively opposed to
6:22
tourism taxes primarily because we have the highest costs of of
6:27
tax already as as visitor economy businesses, but also we
6:32
don't really trust how the money would be spent.
6:36
I'm not saying that building affordable houses is not
6:38
absolutely laudable, but the first 5,000,000 lbs of the
6:42
Edinburgh tourism tax is going to be spent building affordable
6:45
houses. That's not what it was, you
6:48
know, said it was going to do. Accommodation providers will
6:51
bear the burden of this because governments are so inept they
6:55
can't figure out how to tax anybody but the bed stop.
6:58
So the day visitor which causes all the disruption and all the
7:01
over tourism gets away with it and the overnight visitor who
7:05
does all the contribution to the local economy and spends money
7:09
and goes out and buys meals and does all the rest of it as a
7:13
surcharge to pay. So we've got some, we've got
7:15
some real worries about the way it might be implemented.
7:18
I think I've got to say though, it's going to come.
7:22
Mayors want this. They they want this more than
7:24
they want wives and children I think.
7:27
I mean, it's absolutely astonishing how much they want
7:29
this, which means they've already got the money spent in
7:31
their mind. This is before they set up any
7:34
panels on how the money would be spent and how they work
7:37
together. They, they, they're putting it
7:38
in the budget already. Government is saying not going
7:41
to happen. We had a meeting with Treasury
7:42
last week, not before 2029. You heard it here first.
7:47
You can imagine what the mayors get told when they're not going
7:49
to be able to have any of this money till 202930.
7:52
They're going to go absolutely bonkers.
7:55
They're going to be back on the door of Treasury saying we want
7:57
it and we want it now. So it's the job of every trade
8:00
association to push back on that.
8:03
But we will provide you guidance so that all of you listening,
8:06
you can play your part in pushing back on it or at least
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mitigating it so that it works in a way that is not damaging to
8:14
our sector. I think that's the best that we
8:17
can hope for. I wish I could give you better
8:19
news, but I, I wanted to get over just how keen, you know,
8:23
you, you tell a mayor that he might have £250 million to spend
8:27
and you know he's going to break a, he's going to break, break a,
8:30
break a lot of basic rules to get that, absolutely.
8:34
What do you think the impact of the tourism levy will be on
8:39
tourism and short term rental operators specifically?
8:43
Well, I think the danger is that within the tourism consultation,
8:46
it says if, if, if mayors felt that short term rentals were a
8:50
bit of a pain in his area, they could charge a higher rate of
8:54
tax on short term rentals to to try and penalize us in some way.
8:58
And actually says that in the consultation.
9:00
So we urge you to take part and push back.
9:02
We go, why should you? Why should we have to charge a
9:05
higher rate of tax on short term rentals in a hotel or a bed and
9:08
breakfast or in a part hotel or service departments?
9:13
OK, answer me why? So there's a lot to there's a
9:16
lot to push back on to get an equitable treatment where the
9:19
money is spent in such a way that at the end of the day,
9:22
people on this call go in three, 4-5 years time and say, well, it
9:26
wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
9:29
That's what we're working together for.
9:30
It's not the best ambition I've ever been involved with, but if
9:33
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9:36
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for further details. What do you think a good outcome
10:58
looks like? That the money is wisely spent
11:04
and they don't spend hundreds of millions of pounds on
11:06
administration. I mean, the Welsh tourism levy
11:09
is not going to raise any money because the cost of
11:10
administration is so high. So if they find an efficient way
11:13
to do it, so the money raised can be spent wisely and we can
11:16
see it. I mean, imagine a situation
11:18
where in your area, when you went into your local town or
11:22
your local city centre or your local coastal resort and, and,
11:26
and the loos were all open and the gardens were lovely and the
11:29
parking charges reasonable. And it's said the reason that
11:32
these are all working and lively is because we have a tourism
11:35
levy and we're grateful for the tourists.
11:37
What would that do to stop the anti tourism?
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So there are, if we invented it, we could do it really, really,
11:44
really well. I doubt we'll get quite as close
11:47
to the recipe as that, but that's our ambition.
11:51
I remember years ago when I was a kid actually in going to
11:53
Ireland and everywhere he looks, every Rd. you went down, every
11:57
bridge you saw, it says funded by the European Union.
12:00
And I thought, well, what a great bit of PR for the European
12:03
Union because you see, see all this infrastructure everywhere.
12:05
So, so yeah, if we, if we can see, you know, this is what the
12:08
tourism. I mean in Leeds, for example,
12:10
we've been waiting for a tram for about 400 years, it feels
12:14
like. So if it contributes to us
12:15
getting a tram system, then you know, probably, we'd probably
12:19
say all right. OK, what's next?
12:23
So next on the list, business rates.
12:26
And there's been some concern about business rates.
12:31
They've been making plenty of headlines.
12:33
During the budget, it sounded like good news on business
12:36
rates. Then it became bad news in the
12:38
media. Then the government seemed to
12:40
U-turn a bit. We've seen a few U turns,
12:42
haven't we? What's the latest?
12:45
Right, OK, there's two parts to this.
12:47
The first part is what happened, budget and post budget, which
12:51
was the government tried to announce that hospitality
12:56
business rates wouldn't go up by very much at all.
12:58
In fact they'd be at the lowest level since 1991.
13:01
But they miscalculated the fact at the same time as they were
13:04
trying to adjust how business rates are collected.
13:08
The valuation office did their 2026 revaluation and everybody's
13:13
business rates went up by more than the amount that the
13:15
government was planning to reduce it.
13:17
You couldn't make it up, but that's what they've admitted to
13:20
doing. So you've got the loss of the
13:23
40% hospitality discount, which was the tail end of COVID
13:27
support at the same time as a 23% increase in your overall
13:32
business rates. So that means that the 23
13:34
percent is bigger than the 40. I'm not a mathematician, but
13:37
trust me, that's true in this case.
13:39
Then they've got a multiplier reduction, which was supposed to
13:42
help compensate for that. It's not enough.
13:45
It did reduce it a bit, but they we expected a multiplier OF20P
13:49
and they haven't brought it down far enough.
13:51
So the net effect is that most hospitality businesses are
13:55
looking at substantial rises over the next three years on
13:59
business rates. Self catering, it's 57% in
14:02
England, 87% in three years in in in Wales.
14:06
I mean, where does anybody get a number like 87% for how many of
14:10
you have increased your turnover by 87%?
14:12
Unless you're a start up in the last year, how many of you can
14:15
afford to pay your staff 87% more?
14:17
Where does a number like that come from?
14:19
It's a fantasy number. They've got to do something
14:22
about it. They've said they'll do
14:23
something about pubs. We're saying, great, you're
14:27
doing it for pubs, you don't want to knock pubs.
14:29
We all need pubs to for our businesses to be vibrant, but
14:33
they should do it for all of hospitality.
14:34
So that's the push back. Everybody's pushing back on
14:37
that. Every trade association and the,
14:41
and the chancellor's in a huddle not knowing what to do.
14:44
I don't have any sympathy. But of course, if she comes out
14:46
and says, well, I won't do it for hospitality, the the press
14:49
will climb all over saying that's your 14th Utah.
14:51
And, and she's scared of that narrative almost more than she
14:56
may be damage to the economy, you know, because that's the way
15:00
it works. So that's the first problem on
15:02
business rates, 95% of you listening don't pay business
15:06
rates. But for those 5% in self
15:08
catering that do, looking at a 60% increase in three years is,
15:12
is awful. So we're flatter on that then
15:16
something you all need to be mindful for.
15:19
The 95% of you on this call will realize that if you can trade
15:23
for 70 days in England and you can trade for 182 days in Wales,
15:27
you can apply to go on business rates and take advantage of
15:30
small business rates relief, which in most cases means you
15:33
don't pay business rates or council tax.
15:36
They are reviewing that threshold.
15:38
In England. The 70 day threshold is being
15:40
reviewed and the business rates call for evidence and how
15:43
business small business rates relief, which is the discount
15:47
that you get, that is being reviewed as well.
15:50
So we will be providing guidance on that as well as on the
15:53
tourism tax on how you might respond to that.
15:56
The deadline of that consultation is the 18th of
15:59
February as well. We have free guidance to you all
16:02
and we will put that up on the website so that you can all
16:05
respond to that. You don't want to lose that
16:07
small business rates relief. We could possibly see that 70
16:11
days ago. It's a very, it is a low number,
16:13
it has a very bad optic to somebody who doesn't understand
16:16
the sector. But you know, anything above
16:18
anything above 105, the sector starts to squeak awfully.
16:23
So again, there'll be guidance on how to phrase that.
16:26
So it's not inviting an increase but making sure that if they do
16:30
apply one, it's as low as possible.
16:33
We don't want to go anywhere near where they are in Wales.
16:35
182 This only applies to England.
16:38
Tourism tax we're talking about only applies to England.
16:41
This business rates call for evidence only applies to
16:43
England. Interesting.
16:46
And the 70 days thing is, yeah, it's going to be worrying for a
16:50
lot of people out there. And I'm, I'm just going to move
16:53
straight on to talking about Wales for a moment because you
16:56
you touched on their 182 and obviously it's related.
17:00
Just tell us about the impact of 182 in Wales and how that's
17:05
affected operators. And also let's talk about the
17:08
Welsh elections and how that might change the landscape
17:12
there. Right.
17:13
Well, the tectonic plates of politics are shifting.
17:15
Nowhere are they shifting more than in Wales.
17:17
I mean, a lot of the polls show that there might not be anything
17:21
called Welsh Labour in, in, in the Welsh Senate come the
17:25
summer, having controlled Welsh politics for 100 years.
17:28
So these are, these are massive changes.
17:30
And of course what you don't know is what comes afterwards.
17:33
You know, don't ever assume just because it's changing, it's
17:35
changed for the better in politics.
17:37
So, you know, we are, we, we don't know what to think really.
17:40
I mean, you know, we, we, we want Mark Drakeford to go
17:43
because as he's, as his, as his first minister admitted on the
17:47
BBC last week that he's not really interested in economics,
17:50
which is the cabinet sector for Cabinet Secretary of Finance is
17:53
a slightly scaring thing for your boss to say about you,
17:55
isn't it really? Read it.
17:57
BBC, Google, BBC Drakeford economy, read it.
18:00
I didn't make it up. You couldn't make it up.
18:02
So we've got a guy who doesn't want to shift once he goes.
18:05
We've always said there's a chance that 182 could change.
18:08
We've said this for three years. He's the for somehow he's a
18:11
powerhouse in that party and he's blocking it.
18:15
So our job is to get every party to put on their manifesto, but
18:19
they will either review or reduce 182 and I think with the
18:23
exception of the Labour Party, that is a very, very strong
18:26
possibility. So I have something here,
18:29
something I prepared earlier, which is a Wales manifesto sheet
18:33
is one of our famous infographics which we will be
18:36
asking each of the parties to tick off.
18:39
What do they think about the 182 threshold, the tourism levy,
18:42
Article 4 licensing bill, statutory registration and
18:46
hospitality business rates in a nice, nice, easy to understand
18:50
way so that when MMS is turned up at the door and they say, can
18:54
I have your vote, our members and you owners can go.
18:58
Which ones of these are you supporting?
19:00
Because that's what I'm worried about.
19:01
You might have your grandiose schemes that you want to do, but
19:04
this is what affects me and that's what we'll put on social
19:07
media. That's what we'll put on the
19:08
stuff and that's what we'll lead all our lobbying on.
19:10
We want on the top one is 182. We want that number down big
19:15
time. It the number is too high.
19:18
They've tinkered with the deck chairs this week.
19:19
I'm not even going to bother to go into it.
19:21
It's just deck chairs. It doesn't make a significant
19:24
difference. The number needs to come down.
19:26
182 is the disease and we've got the best chance of that with an
19:31
election coming up and people seeking votes from all corners
19:35
of their constituencies. And just tell us the the impacts
19:39
that there has been due to 182 on operators in Wales?
19:43
Number one is mental health. The number one issue we deal
19:46
with on Nikki Robin, myself, Livi deal with on the phone and
19:51
on e-mail is mental health. If you think you're going to
19:53
lose your business because you can't get to 182 and then you're
19:56
going to pay triple council tax and you've got 4 cottages on a
19:59
small complex and you're going to get a bill of 22 grand and
20:04
you turn over 40 grand, where do you go?
20:08
It's the most disgusting tax I've ever seen.
20:13
It's A1 size fits all. Now you're an abersoch and
20:15
you've got, you know, a, a £1,000,000 deseres apartment
20:19
overlooking the coast and the beach, walking distance to a
20:22
pub. Maybe you can do 182 days in
20:24
whatever the weather is. But if you've got, you know, a
20:27
traditional cottage up in the Welsh hills, Welsh mountains,
20:31
how can, how can you do 182 days?
20:34
This is not possible. So we've got to get rid of it #1
20:39
objective in Wales. Absolutely.
20:42
Let's see what those elections bring, hopefully a significant
20:46
reduction statutory registration scheme, then let's move on to
20:50
that. This has been long talked about.
20:53
We've been waiting with bated breath for it to come in.
20:56
What's the latest? Well, I think we've run out of
20:58
bated breath and we gosh, this has got a longer gas station
21:02
period than a baby elephant. It's going to come out in the
21:07
spring, soft launch in the spring.
21:09
You will have to provide your, all your address details and
21:12
your property details. So a description of your
21:15
property. So I would say I've got 4
21:16
cottages. I've got one that seats 21 that
21:19
seats 20 and two that seats 6. My address is the owners are
21:22
that, that sort of thing so that they can classify you that side
21:27
of it. We welcome because that will
21:28
give us the data we've always wanted.
21:30
You know, all of us need to know in the work that we do how many
21:33
sleep sixes there are in Norfolk and Devon and and how many
21:36
clamping units there are. It would really help us
21:38
understand the market properly and more importantly, it would
21:41
myth bust at government level who think there are about
21:44
24,000,000 of you. So it would really, really help
21:47
that on the compliance side, it's weaker than we would have
21:50
liked, but you will still be making a declaration that you
21:53
are safe and legal. And if you're not, they take
21:56
your first born, you know, it's, it's, it's not uploading of
22:00
documents, but you will be making a legal declaration that
22:03
you're safe and legal. And that's a good, good bar.
22:06
We would like more, but to push for more could have pushed this
22:09
into the licensing area where it was permissive.
22:13
What will happen now is if you go in, give your details, tick
22:17
the box, pay your fee, you'll get a license number and you can
22:21
trade, you'll get a registration number and you can trade on.
22:24
And that was a fundamentally right at the core of what we
22:27
said it had to be because otherwise that you'd all be
22:30
queuing up asking your council if you could trade on.
22:33
So it's a compromise, but I, I think it's, it's positive
22:37
progress. Launches in the spring will
22:40
become law in the autumn, giving you 6 months to apply early if
22:44
you want to, and pay early to avoid overloading the system.
22:49
I'm not making that up. That's what they're going to ask
22:51
us to ask you to do. We will try and do it with a
22:54
straight face of course, because you know, we want it to succeed.
22:59
But they're worried that you'll overload it.
23:02
Let's, let's hope that doesn't happen.
23:04
That's that Reg. Sounds like we've got to a
23:08
situation which everybody's kind of happy.
23:11
And I think with the with, with the data there, that's the
23:14
important thing, isn't it? If, if we have the data and also
23:18
we should say, I mean, how much is the charge going to be for
23:21
this? What can people expect to need
23:23
to pay? I don't know, but but part of
23:25
the panic when they were looking at uploading of documents was
23:29
cost and all of this kind of stuff.
23:30
And they were desperate to keep the cost down.
23:32
Because when people start to look at these things, when
23:35
governments run these kind of programs, somehow they managed
23:38
to cost millions. Whereas nearly every holiday
23:40
cottage agency that's a past member seems to be able to do
23:43
exactly the same thing without actually bankrupting themselves.
23:46
But there you go. Government systems are
23:49
notorious, aren't they? Think post office.
23:52
So I would hope that it's going to be very low.
23:57
You know, I would be, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not a betting man,
24:01
never have been, but I don't think we're talking in the
24:03
region of 25 to 30 lbs per unit. So if you're higher Wiscom with
24:08
four units, that would be £100. If you've got one property and
24:12
25 to the that's, that's probably the realms of of where
24:16
we might think it'll end up. Fair enough.
24:21
We've spoken about a lot then and and there will be people out
24:23
there, probably particularly in Wales and and other parts of the
24:26
country feeling maybe a bit overwhelmed by regulation and
24:30
policy changes and everything that's going on.
24:32
What are the practical things that they can do today to
24:35
protect both themselves and the wider sector?
24:38
Well, there's there's two things before before I sort of make a
24:42
suggestion that they should they should join pass.
24:46
Do you have a whole raft of information on the host planet
24:50
website about ways that you can improve your business businesses
24:54
that you can engage with technical companies?
24:56
We have a, so you've got the kind of marketing side of stuff
24:59
we've got on our website free all of the compliance stuff.
25:04
So there's free stuff to make sure you're, you're, you're,
25:06
you're, you're doing the marketing side, right.
25:08
Listen to James James's podcast. You've got all the compliance
25:12
stuff and all the compliance webinars.
25:13
They're all free. All of that stuff is always free
25:17
on on the past website. So you know, you can make sure
25:20
that you're grasping opportunities, but you can also
25:22
make sure that you're up to date.
25:24
And I think if you're operating with a clear conscience and you
25:26
know, you're doing everything that you can from a marketing
25:29
and compliance. So that's a really good place to
25:31
start. I, I would strongly suggest that
25:33
you join an organization like Pass, because then you get into
25:38
the member support, which then means you've got all the phone
25:40
support. But when you get into some of
25:43
the complexities of running a business, which has become
25:46
unnecessarily complicated over the last four years, we can help
25:50
you. And we, I mean yesterday and the
25:51
day before, I mean I can't tell you, we had 4 phones ringing and
25:55
only three of us able to answer them because we have a past
25:57
phone and Lord Olivia and I have one and it ringing off the
26:00
clock. How do you think we stopped
26:03
DPCS? By taking the subscription money
26:07
that people paid and putting that to good effect with a
26:09
Policy Committee, lobbying, going up to London, having round
26:13
tables, meeting MPs, doing all this stuff.
26:15
Who paid for that? 2500 members paid for that.
26:20
How many people are going to benefit from that?
26:22
200,000 of you, 200,000 of you don't have to worry about Ebcs
26:26
because some work, some other people did, so you know, it's
26:29
time to think about joining up. But there's loads and loads of
26:33
stuff available to you to help you do this.
26:35
And you know, we want you to think it's a great business.
26:38
We don't want you to think it's a burdensome business.
26:41
You entered it because you're into hospitality.
26:43
You want guests to have a great time and you know you're there
26:46
to make people make memories and if you can make some money from
26:48
that, then that's great. Let's get back to that as
26:51
quickly as we can. Absolutely, yeah.
26:54
And I think, yeah, thank you on behalf of the entire industry
26:58
for all the work that you guys are doing it.
27:00
It doesn't go unnoticed. And I've seen recently so many
27:03
posts on social media thanking you in relation to EPC's.
27:07
And it's very, very well, very well deserved.
27:11
If if people are out there and they want to help, they want to
27:16
get active and and support the sector, they can join PASK
27:19
obviously. And I think maybe we should
27:21
mention just the importance of of writing to to MPs and
27:25
councillors. Yeah, we run.
27:27
We run when when the pressure is really on.
27:30
We have a system by which we can make it really easy for anybody,
27:33
whether you're a member or not, send an e-mail directly to your
27:36
MP or Ms. to make your own case. It's, it's always in a form that
27:41
you can modify, but it gives you a basic letter to send.
27:45
And on EPC 6500 went in, you know, and they all went to rural
27:52
and coastal MPs. So it really did make a
27:55
difference. And we will be writing to 55 of
27:58
those MPs that supported us tomorrow morning thanking them
28:02
because it makes a difference. Every letter you write, every,
28:05
every meeting you had with an MP makes a difference.
28:09
What else could you do? We, we've created another
28:12
website so that it's sort of neutral and not trying to
28:17
promote pass. It's called the Great British
28:19
holiday.org, greatbritishholiday.org.
28:21
If you, if you Google that, you'll come up with the option
28:23
to be able to get a poster. OK, have you seen that poster
28:28
and what it says? You put it in your cottages or
28:30
your welcome pack or on your touch day guide or or whatever
28:34
and it says thank you. It's not, it's not, it's not a
28:37
call to action. This is what this is.
28:39
This is that soft narrative. We'd like to thank you for
28:42
choosing our business for your holiday.
28:44
We really appreciate it and we will do all that we can ensure
28:47
do to ensure we have a great stay.
28:49
We'd also like to thank you on behalf of all the other local
28:51
businesses that will enjoy you'll be enjoying whilst you're
28:53
here, the local pubs, restaurants, shops, visitor
28:56
attractions and more. Your spend is critical to the
28:59
long term survival of these businesses.
29:01
Local spend on its own is not sufficient to support them and
29:04
they are reliant on guests like you to sustain and grow our
29:07
vibrant local visitor economies. So a huge thank you from us all
29:11
that's telling them that you're not staying in a hollowed out
29:15
community, stealing someones home and that you're running a
29:18
business and that their stay is so important to that fragile
29:23
visitor economy where the pubs rely on you, you rely on the
29:26
pubs, pubs rely on attractions rely on the pubs, attractions
29:30
rely on you. And that virtual circle goes
29:32
right. We've got over 10,000 of those
29:35
now displayed in holiday cottages in England and Wales.
29:39
And Fiona Campbell in Scotland is about to launch the great
29:43
Scottish holiday and do exactly the same as free.
29:46
You can choose from a range of photographs to put in.
29:49
You're going to add your own photograph and there will be
29:51
more options coming. Things like that.
29:53
They they do make a difference. I know they're sound really
29:56
small, but they do make a difference.
29:58
They show you're engaged. They explain to the guest how
30:01
important they are, how flattering is that?
30:04
I'd love someone to say thank you to me when I go and stay,
30:07
wouldn't you? So it's a really nice touch.
30:09
So those are the kind of things download the the the guidance on
30:13
responding on tax, tourism tax, download the business rates one
30:17
respond on that. I mean, you can do it almost you
30:21
can just use the one we're suggesting.
30:23
But what's much more powerful is that you tweak them and put your
30:26
own opinion in that has far more weight than just replicating
30:30
what someone else says. So loads of free tools, loads of
30:34
free stuff. This manifesto guide that will
30:37
be as soon as we've got plied to respond, client Comrie to
30:42
respond, we will start publishing and we'll keep it up
30:45
to date, we'll put it on social media, you'll be able to
30:47
download it as an asset and use it to lobby your Ms. in Wales.
30:53
Superb. And we'll put a bunch of links
30:55
in the show notes so people can get through to this information,
30:59
get through to the posters, of course.
31:01
And like you say, you know this, this soft PR every little helps.
31:04
We have to talk up our sector. We have to get on the front foot
31:08
and talk about the positive aspects of short term rentals
31:11
because if we don't trust me, nobody else will.
31:13
They'll talk about the negative side of things, which is what
31:16
we've been used to over the years.
31:17
So we've got to start getting on the front foot on that note then
31:21
Alice. So we're just coming towards the
31:23
and now I know there are some people that you want to give
31:26
shout outs to that are helping this industry and driving it
31:29
forward. So the floor is yours my.
31:32
Friend, I'm going to go external first, if I may.
31:34
I'm going to say Sally Henry from Key Data, who is almost the
31:38
personal sponsor, life coach and team builder for the whole short
31:43
term rental sector. My world personally, my world
31:48
professionally got better the day I met Sally.
31:50
She helps everybody in so many ways.
31:53
If you see her on one of these podcasts with James, don't miss
31:56
it. She's got 20 plus years of
31:58
knowledge. She knows this sector inside out
32:01
and she's gorgeous. OK, that's a bigger plug.
32:05
OK, Secondly, I'd like to say that that, you know, the last
32:08
year, the past policy team, there are ten of us on the team
32:12
that worked absolutely tirelessly, that the the shift
32:15
they put in to get EPC's done, it looked bleak.
32:18
You know, we're trying to get a desn ES department under Ed
32:21
Miliband not to apply EPC's to ghastly second home owners who
32:26
were hollowing out communities. I mean, that's the starting
32:28
juncture. What they achieved was
32:31
outstanding. I just want to thank them.
32:35
Absolutely yes, Kudos to the gorgeous Sally Henry, a fellow
32:40
Yorkshire person like me. So always happy for for Sally
32:43
together to get a shouter and and the past policy team as
32:46
well. Alistair, it's been a real
32:48
pleasure. As always, thank you for giving
32:50
us all those important updates about the sector and
32:53
congratulations again on the EPC win.
32:56
Thanks, James, and thanks for all the work that you do.
32:58
Really appreciate it. Great to chat to Alistair
33:00
Handyside there from PASC UK head to the show notes for those
33:04
all important links and make sure you print out that thank
33:08
you poster for your holiday. Let's that's just about it for
33:11
today's episode. Remember, this podcast is
33:13
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That's it for today's episode. Until next time, happy hosting.