Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Design Tips for Stunning Short-Term Rentals

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Design Tips for Stunning Short-Term Rentals · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Host Planet Bite Size, the podcast brought
• 0:03
  to you by Host Planet and Housefully.
• 0:06
  My name's James Farley, the founder of Host Planet, and our
• 0:09
  goal is to share everything you need to know about buying and
• 0:11
  managing short term rentals. Today's guest is Peter Marcos
• 0:15
  and he's got 5 tips to share about designing the perfect
• 0:19
  short term rental. OK, real talk now for all you
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  Peter, thank you for joining us on House Planet Bite Size.
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  You've got 5 design tips for short term rentals so take it
• 1:52
  away with tip #1. Yeah.
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  Thanks for having me, James. So what I've done is I've, I've
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  just got 5 tips, but I'm going to try and integrate these into
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  both projects which have been completed, but whether
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  somebody's thinking about starting from scratch as well.
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  So my first tip would be to start by integrating nature into
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  the design. Now there's a few benefits to
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  this. I mean, the more technical term
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  to this is bio mimicry. The idea with bio mimicry is it
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  emulates your side to allow the design to emulate parts of
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  nature. And that's not just said, but
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  it's been substantiated to have lots of health benefits in terms
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  of productivity, well-being, happiness.
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  So essentially the idea is, is you're bringing nature into the
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  design. If you were starting from
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  scratch, that would be the idea of starting to use natural
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  materials and materials like timber and materials which take
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  a more natural form and more organic form.
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  And that in turn improves people's well beings and
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  happiness. Quite a stark example to this is
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  something known as Maggie centres, which are built across
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  the UK. Maggie centres are places where
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  people who have terminal cancer, they sort of spend their time in
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  these Maggie centres and it actually improves their
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  well-being, their happiness and what is obviously a very, very
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  difficult time. These are typically designed by
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  what are known as star architects or * architects.
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  And like I said, that's actually been substantiated to have real
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  world evidence, particularly by Harvard University, which have
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  prepared various white papers along it beside it.
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  So I think that can certainly be bought into people's short term
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  letting businesses. So like I said, if you've
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  already got an existing business, a lot of that might be
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  how do you bring natural plants into the space, potentially look
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  at ways of opening up the space or even things like bifold
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  doors. How do you start to use natural
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  materials? There's a lady I know she's
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  designed a really unique canal boat, but one of the things
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  which really just differentiates it is this idea that he's got
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  something like 300 plants in it. So she, she, she made an
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  agreement with a plant supplier and they offered to give her 300
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  plants. And it's really one of the real
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  differentiating factors. And I think as we all know, it's
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  the more differentiating factors you have to holiday let, the
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  more occupancy it gets and the more rental income it makes.
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  So it's a, it's a real game changer.
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  I think the second point I'd say is this 1 is probably more
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  useful for people who are looking to start out or looking
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  to sort of grow their business and grow the amount of units
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  they have or the amount of holiday let's they've got.
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  And that is that bigger is not necessarily better.
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  And I, I actually made this mistake myself.
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  So I, just for context, I'm an architect, but I've also got
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  service accommodation business, particularly around a very
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  unique cabin that we sort of designed.
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  But the issue is the issue I made and the mistake I made.
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  And the thing that I've quite learned the hard way is we sort
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  of assumed at the start that making it bigger would mean
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  people prefer more space. And as a result, it would result
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  in a higher rental income and a higher yield.
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  But that's not really translated.
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  And actually what has ended up happening is we're paying a lot
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  more for upfront construction costs and a lot more for ongoing
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  maintenance, heating costs, etcetera, etcetera.
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  Now, I also think that this is an issue which is quite
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  prevalent in the construction industry because I see a lot of
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  homes and this is something I work with with my clients in the
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  architecture business is I see a lot of homes which are designed,
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  they're far bigger than they need to be and they end up
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  obviously going over budget and costing the client a lot of
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  money unnecessarily. So I think working with an
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  architect or a designer to really maximise the space and be
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  space efficient because ultimately you're you're you're
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  paying per square meter. So yeah, so that's, that's the
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  second one. And then I think the third thing
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  I'd say as well is just the importance of having a design
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  which responds to the location. Now I think that's obviously a
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  little bit subjective and it's it's up to everyone to decide
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  how they go about to do that, potentially work with an
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  architect to work with a designer to do that.
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  But every site has its own uniqueness, whether it's
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  particular views or a particular constraint necessary in the
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  shape the site. We always say when we're
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  designing projects that like the constraints are typically the
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  opportunities as well. So something that you know,
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  somebody might see as a limiting factor could actually become a
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  real possibility and a real opportunity.
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  So you'd really want to work to make the design more location
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  responsive. And I think one of the reasons
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  is, is if we if you go on Airbnb or any booking site or Google,
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  there's so many shepherds, huts and products which are just
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  quite difficult to differentiate.
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  And usually the differentiating fact is the location.
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  Now that's great. But I think also just thinking,
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  OK, the location's a differentiating factor, how do
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  we bring the design to also be a differentiating factor so that
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  that's something which maximizes views or yeah, frame certain
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  spaces. So yeah, that's definitely third
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  recommendation, which again, I think that one's a little bit
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  more difficult to respond to when you've already built
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  something. I think in that sense it's it
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  could be certain ornaments you bring into the space potentially
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  if you're doing an internal fit out, you might think to use
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  natural materials or materials which are sourced from a
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  particular a site or a particular place.
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  And then I think the 4th one I would really suggest is building
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  a brand around the structure. So this is something again,
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  because I've obviously got that service accommodation.
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  So that's something we've done with our own cabin project is to
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  start to build the brand around the design of the actual
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  product. So for context, just to give you
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  an example, my product is called the Monocot cabin, but it takes
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  construction lessons from automotive and aerospace.
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  So to typically with a building, it's got internal columns and
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  walls. But the way this works is it's
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  got a really organic shape. I'll just show you a prototype
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  because we've 3D printed an example, but it's got this
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  organic shape is actually what acts as the structure and that
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  acts as the structural shell. And then this is syncs actually
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  just being published on lots of design magazines like Design
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  Design Boom, Parametric Architecture and has actually
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  got a lot of international exposure of that.
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  But I think it was quite what's quite important is what's been
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  quite a good differentiating factor is we're actually using
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  the structure to to build the brand.
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  I think something which naturally can do this quite well
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  as country homes because they're just differentiated by the
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  uniqueness of of the existing structure.
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  But I think maybe for people on maybe a bit more of a tighter
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  budget or working with more, let's say conventional
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  materials, then it's just thinking about how to be a bit
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  smarter around building the brand around the structure.
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  And then my final tip and I think this is actually ignored a
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  lot in the in the construction industry.
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  So in the service accommodation industry, particularly around
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  the cabins, less so in Europe, I feel a lot of European
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  businesses have got a grasp on this is that you've really got a
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  design for the longer long term. I see a lot of products on
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  Airbnb which have a lifespan of about three to five years, maybe
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  a bit longer as well in certain instances.
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  But if you design, even if even as a cabin, if you design a
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  really nice cabin, it's using not necessarily the most
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  expensive materials, but it's using good quality materials.
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  It can last for a good hundred years.
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  Sure, within that time the, the cladding might need changing and
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  there will be room for repair, but that adds a lot of value to
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  the business and it reduces the, the sort of maintenance cost and
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  the, the, the, the needs. You've got to replace the
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  structure and if you ever want to come and sell the business,
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  it's going to have a, a really good sale value.
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  I'd actually probably say out of the five tips, that'll probably
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  be my favorite because I think it's such a prevalent issue.
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  You know, take it's a bit like a Barber jacket or a Brompton
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  bicycle or something. These are things which, yes,
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  there's a little bit more of an upfront cost, but they last you
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  a lifetime if you look after them.
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  So yeah, they're definitely my 5 tips.
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  Fantastic, Peter. Yeah, 5 brilliant tips there.
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  A few things really stood out the, well, the 300 plants.
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  I'd certainly need an antihistamine if I was, if I was
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  visiting that that rental. What I really liked was #2
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  actually bigger is not necessarily better.
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  I think we see this quite a lot in short term rentals where
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  people have maybe a, a three bedroom property and the third
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  bedroom is really small, but they try and cram maybe like a
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  bunk bed in there. So they've got the extra beds,
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  but it doesn't necessarily deliver a great guest
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  experience. So I think utilizing your space
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  effectively is great, but don't go overboard at the expense of
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  that great guest experience and of course the the aesthetic.
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  Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that's a really good
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  yeah, especially when if you think about it differently,
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  instead of saying, oh, let's have a maximum amount of
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  bedrooms in the unit, saying oh, let's have like a a workspace or
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  something or an alternative space or some kind of like
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  family room. Then that actually gives
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  perspectives who are looking for a place to stay, an opportunity
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  to be like, oh, that could be a place I can sort of go and get
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  away from the office and, you know, work away.
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  So yeah, absolutely. So brilliant then, so integrate
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  nature was #1 bigger, not necessarily better #2 location,
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  responsive design, building the brand around the structure.
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  And then of course, the 5th and final tip, designing for the
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  long term. If you were starting from
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  scratch, where would you want to develop something and what would
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  your ideal rental be like if you could kind of describe that to
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  us? So my ideal rental is the
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  product to some, yeah, it's the product we've developed
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  basically. So, so there's kind of two sides
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  to my business or effectively 3 is I help clients with their
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  projects as an architect, particularly around the luxury
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  holiday home sector. So that's our speciality.
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  But alongside that, I have my own product which we've
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  developed, which is this monocoque cabin and it can, it
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  supports 2 people. And we're looking to sort of
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  grow that as a business. Look at maybe a four person
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  model as well. What I've really liked with that
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  model and that business is usually the guests we get are
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  really fantastic. The sort of people who want to
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  go away for a little retreat. The yield is pretty good.
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  My parents have a rental business themselves, the service
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  accommodation business themselves.
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  My product is about 1/3 of the cost of theirs and per night it
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  rents for about 3 times as much as their products do.
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  So it's a very, very good ROI. But I think those combination
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  combinations of it's, I really like the types of guests we
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  have. We typically, you know, 9090% of
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  99% of the feedback we get is extremely positive people who
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  are looking to get away for their anniversary and things.
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  And that's just been extremely positive because obviously
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  there's a side of making money, but there's actually that idea
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  that you're, you're offering to people like a part of their
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  lifestyle as well. I'm not actually sure if I
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  really answered your question there, but I just kind of went
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  off on a tangent there. Did that sort of answer the
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  question? I think so, yeah, just about,
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  just about. So tell us more about Marcos
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  Design Workshop then and where people can find out more
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  information. Yeah.
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  So if people want to, they can obviously go on our websites as
• 16:13
  Marcos, which is MARKOS design workshop.
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  But like I said, our business is, is situated around
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  maximizing rental income and yield for clients around good
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  design. So the idea is the more unique
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  the design is, the more contextual, the more situated
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  and suited to a particular scale of the client and the design
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  market, the more people are going to make.
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  But on top of that, like I said, we do really focus on quality
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  and that's not necessarily tied to cost, but we we really think
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  there is a lack of focus on quality, particularly I'd have
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  to say in the UK market. I think the European a lot, lots
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  of the Europeans have got much more of a grasp on this and they
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  realise that it adds much more value if you ever want to sell
• 17:16
  the business and particularly thinking not just five years but
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  ten, 20-30 years. Yeah, invest from the start.
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  It'll pay off in the long term. Peter, it's been a real
• 17:28
  pleasure. Thank you for joining us on host
• 17:30
  Planet Bite Size. No, thank you, James.
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  And I'm like I said to you in the past, I'm a real fan of this
• 17:35
  show. I love listening to it.
• 17:37
  It's it's it's giving me great tips for my own business as
• 17:39
  well. So thanks so much for having me.
• 17:42
  Great to chat to Peter Marcos there and hear his design tips.
• 17:45
  Remember, bigger is not necessarily better.
• 17:48
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
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