In this episode, host Sarah is joined by guest host Wendy Bates to share her inspiring story as a holiday cottage owner in the Peak District in the UK. Initially an accidental host, Wendy recounts how her journey began with a desire to have a getaway in the scenic area, leading to the realisation that they could actually earn income by renting out their dream cottage.

They discuss Wendy's challenges in managing direct bookings and her eventual pivot from relying heavily on platforms like Airbnb to embracing a more hands-on approach to marketing. This shift not only increased her profitability but also allowed her to connect more deeply with her ideal guests, who often prefer searching for accommodations via Google rather than social media.

They explore the strategies Wendy implemented after attending Sarah's marketing bootcamp programme and becoming crystal clear on her ideal guest profile. By focusing on SEO and blogging, Wendy managed to craft content that resonated with that ideal guest, which in turn elevated her visibility on search engines.

This conversation emphasises the value of building personal connections with guests and the effectiveness of repeat bookings, offering listeners actionable insights to enhance their own direct booking marketing strategies.

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Key Takeaways:

• Wendy's journey as an accidental host highlights the importance of adapting to market demands.
• Identifying and targeting your ideal guest is crucial for successful marketing strategies.
• Ditching social media in favor of SEO and Google searches can lead to more direct bookings.
• Personalizing guest interactions fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business for hosts.
• Engaging in blogging significantly enhances your website's SEO and visibility on Google.
• Using tools like ChatGPT can help generate blog ideas and improve writing efficiency.

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Find our more about Hall Cottage Baslow:

Hall Cottage Baslow Website

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Connect with Sarah:

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

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You're listening to get fully booked with Sarah Orchard. Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?

I'll be sharing with you exactly what it takes to grow your direct bookings and the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket. Hello. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Get Fully booked podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Orchardization.

I'm delighted to welcome a guest to the podcast today, Wendy Bates from Hall Cottage, Baslow. Wendy describes herself as an accidental host and now owns a beautiful holiday cottage in the popular Peak District area of the UK.

Wendy and I are going to chat about what marketing is working for her right now to get direct bookings and how blogging is something she is using to target her ideal guests who are not typically on social media, something that some of us face. Welcome to the podcast, Wendy.

Thank you very much, Sarah, and thank you for inviting me. It's lovely to be here.

No, it's great to have you here today.

So I think the first thing I wanted to ask you was tell us how you have become a host, because you describe yourself as an accidental host and how have you ended up owning a holiday cottage?

I think an accidental host is a great way to describe it, actually, because how it all came about was my husband and I have always loved the Peak district. It's been our favorite place for hiking and exploring for years.

And in the end, we decided that it would be lovely to have a holiday cottage up there somewhere where we could stay when we go hiking. And we found one in Baslow. Perfect location, perfect cottage.

And then we realised that while we weren't there, when we weren't there, we'd have to let it out as holiday accommodation. And that's how the journey began. So it really was accidental.

So has it been a steep learning curve?

It's been an extremely steep learning curve, yeah. Nothing as steep as that learning curve, really. Yeah.

And what have you found most difficult? Was it dealing with the guests or taking bookings and I suppose the tech side, accounting. I mean, there's so much we have to do as hosts.

Yeah. And I think those things did come slowly, but I think it was the success.

It was popular, but it was popular with a range of people that didn't always sit comfortably with me finding out how booking sites, Airbnb worked, how to take money, how to communicate, every aspect of it was a learning curve. I knew nothing. I was completely ignorant about marketing, holiday accommodation, being a host.

There's just so much to learn, isn't there? So did you start out by using an agent to help you?

Well, I mean, I spent many years as a teacher, so knew nothing about becoming a host at all. Like I said, I knew about Airbnb, knew about Vrbo. That's about it, really. I had a conversation with both of them and decided to listen with Airbnb.

That's what I thought you did, and I did it. But I ended up having to pay quite a lot in commission, as you know, to Airbnb.

So, no, at this stage, I had no direct bookings, just paid a sizable commission to Airbnb because that's what I thought you did.

Yeah, exactly. Well, and, you know, there's a. There's a place for them.

I'm, you know, I obviously, I'm all about encouraging people to get direct bookings because I think everyone can, can do it.

But you do have to weigh up, don't you, how much time it takes to do your marketing, and if you've got both the time and the willingness to learn how to do it, and sometimes it's just easier to get them to do the heavy lifting for you. And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what the business owner and the host wants.

And I think it's like a shop window, it's somewhere to start. Here I am. This is me. Airbnb have a huge marketing budget. They put you out there. You don't have to do anything.

So initially, it's a good place to start if you know nothing. But as soon as you hear those magic words, direct bookings, the journey begins.

It's like music to your ears. So you and I met because you came and did my bootcamp program, which is my live group marketing strategy program that I do once a year.

And I know that you found that a bit of a, sort of a revelation on a couple of fronts. So how did that help you? What did it help you? Sort of the shift in your marketing? Because obviously now you're taking a lot of direct booking.

So what happened for you having gone through that program?

I think, yeah, that program to me was like you said, it was light bulb after light bulb after light bulb. It was fantastic. And I think for me, the first thing I did was really hone in on my ideal guest. Who were they?

Who were these people that were coming to my cottage? Who did I want to come? And I really kind of. I got to know them very, very well. I gave them a name. I've written a piece of a four about them.

I have it stuck to my office wall so that it's constantly there as a prompt. And I know that very well now. They're quite older than average, I would say. And interestingly to me, they don't really hang out on social media.

So then they don't engage with social media. And this was a fairly recent revelation to me, is that why am I spending all of my time, and it was a lot of time doing social media.

You know, there's a lot of pressure to conform, isn't there? There's a lot of pressure to engage with Facebook, engage with Instagram. This is where you're going to get guest.

This is how you're going to get bookings. But actually, I realised that these ideal guests of mine, they're not on social media. They don't hang out.

They find their holiday cottages by searching on Google. So why was I putting so much of my time and effort into social media?

So I took the decision to ditch social media, which was fantastic for me personally, because I loathed it. But I was so worried that my bookings would go down the pan. So I held my breath and they didn't change, they flowed.

So it was really vindication for me that, yeah, they're not there. Don't spend too much time on that. Focus my efforts on where they hang out, where they are.

Yeah, I think that's such good advice for everyone because I think that's the most common thing that I see when people are struggling with their marketing is because they haven't done that piece upfront of the ideal guest.

And I think I felt your frustration when we were chatting through the group program about the fact that a, you hated social media, but also, also the fact that you came to the realization that your guests weren't there. So spending all that time was just not actually connecting with them and getting you in front of the right people.

So that's obviously been a major shift. Obviously that's given you some clarity as to the activities that you are going to be doing in your marketing.

So you're not focusing on social media at all. So tell me what activity you are doing to attract those ideal guests.

I tend to focus at the moment on three key areas, the first one being SEO. And initially, for me, that was, I've got to get this right, because my ideal guests are looking on Google. They're searching holiday cottages.

They're searching for holiday cottages in Baslow or Bakewell or Peak district. And I needed to get that SEO right. So you know, things like youre training in the club on SEO. That was fantastic.

Having a bit of one to one time with you to just fine tune my SEO, making sure that was correct.

I've started some blogging which I think we're going to go on to talk about, which, you know, again, great for SEO, but tweaking the copy, something that's easy to do, tweaking the copy if I'm on the listing site, tweaking the copy there, just making sure that there's changes in my website all the time, that Google sees new content all of the time. So I guess that that's the first thing I'm focusing on.

The second thing is, and I love this bit, the repeat guests, getting as many of my guests to come back as possible. It doesn't take much effort. It's pretty much free in terms of my marketing budget and I have a high percentage now of repeat guests.

I think it's probably a third of my guests this year are repeat guests. And I do that by trying to personalize everything.

So even from right from the word go, when a guest sends an inquiry about the cottage or makes a booking, I try to personalize some of the automated emails that go out. I know it's time consuming, but, you know, if they've said something in the email, I try and personalise it, build up a rapport, build that trust.

And I think my guess as well, being older, they really like that. They feel confident in booking with you and making that direct booking if they feel they know you a little bit.

So I give of myself and I try to engage and that seems to have really worked as well as giving them 10% discount if they come back. So that's been really successful and I keep in touch with them all the time by email marketing. And that's my third thing really.

I spend time probably trying to make it once a month, sending marketing emails out there about the cottage, last minute offers, cancellations, things that are changing or happening, events in the area. And that's been really successful as well. So I think they're my three main areas.

Yeah.

And I always encourage people to have maybe three to five, like core activities that you sort of, you know, hunker down on and make sure that you sort of focus on. And you're a great example of doing that.

And I'm glad you mentioned email marketing because obviously that's quite an important, I should think your audience, your ideal guests are actually very still engaged with email marketing.

It's still, obviously it's been proven still very effective versus social media, but your audience, particularly the email marketing, and I loved your tip about, you know, the personalized, because I think that older generation in a world where everything is a little bit homogenous and it's just out there for everyone and not very personalized. Great. That you've sort of tapped into that to actually personalize the messaging and the content that you give those guests.

And obviously it hits the spot.

It's a very satisfying side of the business as well, because you get to know those people who are coming into your cottage. I'm a remote owner, so I don't live there, so I don't see people come. I can't welcome them.

So having that rapport through email to me is very important for me. And it's lovely getting to know them.

And, you know, we have some great, share some great stories and have a laugh through emails and, you know, people send me checks because they don't know how to pay online. And, you know, it's just all sorts of things. It's great, really.

Somebody didn't know anything about how to book online, so we had to do it over the phone. But, you know, it's great, really. You really do get to know people, and that way they come back and they come back and they come back.

So you're building up a very loyal sort of visiting guest base. And also they'll tell their friends as well.

So they're again of that generation where word of mouth, not so much on social media, but that word of mouth of sort of telling their friends, who are probably a similar age profile, that you've got something that they should check out, is a most effective form of marketing.

Exactly. And it's free.

So what percentage of direct bookings have you now grown to in your business?

I'm about now around about 76%, just over. So, yeah. Really pleased with that.

Yeah. And a lot more profit that's in your pocket there.

And it's fantastic. I couldn't believe it, but I think it's for me, if somebody said, how did you do it? I'd say, I listened to everything you said.

In all the training I've done and in all the help desks, I took copious notes and I put it into practice and it worked. And I think, you know, that's fantastic. It's fantastic for me to see that turnaround. It's incredible.

And, of course, when you've got booking software, you can look at your leads, where are your guests coming from? And I think that's really important. As business grew, I had to see where they were coming from so I could direct my marketing at them.

But, yeah, it's been really successful.

Well, that's music to my ears and I'm sure to a lot of the listeners as well in terms of that shift from being 100% Airbnb and not knowing how to target and direct those bookings directly to your website, and you've done that now. So congratulations. That's an amazing results. And you've been a very diligent student in terms of having followed everything through.

Yeah. And I think that's a steep learning curve.

I mean, for me, I had an opportunity, I think, when I first met you, perhaps I was working part time, I can't remember, but then I stopped working and focused my time on the cottage, so I had the time to be diligent. And it is hard work. There's no getting around it. It's a lot of hard work. But for me, it was a great challenge.

It was something that I'd never, ever done before. I hadn't really heard the word marketing. I didn't know nothing about it at all. So going on that journey was a great adventure for me. Yeah.

And still is. I mean, I'm still learning so much.

Well, there's, you know, there's no such thing as a free lunch, you know.

You know, we're all, we're all running businesses and I think sometimes we lose sight of that is that, you know, we, like any business, you know, whether it's a large business or a small business, we all have to put effort in.

And there's so many, like I said at the beginning, didn't we, about so many functions we have to do, from the operational stuff right through to the accounting and all of this sort of legal compliance and marketing is just, you know, marketing and sales is just one other aspect of running our businesses.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

So we wanted to talk a little bit about blogging today because that is something I think was sort of new to you.

And obviously, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about search engine optimization, SEO, and the fact that your audience is on, you know, is predominantly searching on Google. And obviously, the beauty of people who are searching on Google is I always say that they are ready to buy a.

They are at the point where they're searching actively to buy, whereas sometimes when people are on social media, they're just, you know, they're just chilling out and having some entertainment. You know, they're just scrolling through. So yes, you can get discovered that way and that's brilliant. But they're maybe not ready to buy yet.

And I think, you know, you've touched on the fact that you know your audience, that's exactly where they go. So you started blogging. Tell us a little bit about how that went and what you did first and how did you get started into the blogging?

I think the message was loud and clear from you, Sarah, and other training I've done in the club was that blogging, blogging. Blogging makes a massive difference to your SEO. So I knew it was something I had to try. But, you know, I'm also not a writer.

Writing doesn't come particularly easily and I have found it really difficult.

I'm at the very beginning of my journey with blogging, so I still am finding it really difficult, very time consuming, but I know how valuable it is, so I'm persevering with it. And I have to say, chat GPT is my, my partner in this, partner in crime. Very helpful when I'm lost for words.

But I have to say I do check everything out that they give. Chat GPT gives me because it does get it wrong.

But what I love about it when I finished it is being able to add new content, get my page indexed and just know that that has an impact on where I am in terms of Google pages and being noticed. And you can actually find out through analytics how often those pages are ready.

But in a way, it's not really how many guests or potential guests read my blogs. It's about that content and adding more pages to my website.

But having said that, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and my blog's got to be perfect before it goes anywhere near my website, which isn't a good thing because it takes me far too long. But that's a work in progress. But yeah, I enjoy doing them and I try to find topics that I think my ideal guests will enjoy reading about.

And, you know, the SEO on the blog, the metadata, which you so kindly help me with, is also key. And understanding that, you know, I now understand that thanks to your help. So that makes a real difference when I finish the blog and upload it.

To the website, getting things in the right place, because I think for the listeners that maybe don't know much about blogging because I think blogging slightly fallen out of fashion because everyone's so obsessed with social media, but just for the listeners that don't know why blogging is so important. Just, I'll give a, yeah, quick sort of recap on that. But it's, you know, a blog is just another section of your website with pages. Obviously.

The key thing is to make sure that the blog is on your website, not on a third party site, because then you get the traffic. I think you touched on that, Wendy, about getting people to your site.

Obviously, you know, Google finds the content, so every single blog that you create is a fresh web page. And you touched on this as well, Wendy, about Google loves fresh content.

So by every blog you create, you're making your website more authoritative because it's got more pages, more relevant content, and you're updating it frequently. So that's why Google loves blogs.

And I think if you've got a WordPress website, you know, blogs, you know that naturally blogs very easily for you, doesn't it? So it makes life a bit easier.

Yeah, absolutely.

And adding links into your blogs to other sites outside of your website and also other blogs that you've previously written and other pages on your website. So all of that, that sort of thing, it does really work.

I think people, the big thing that I find that people struggle with blogging is topics. And you did touch on that. So how did you think about what to blog about in terms of the actual topics, what to write about?

Because you said that doesn't come necessarily easily. So how did you go about brainstorming that and working out?

I think first of all, I did have some ideas, so, you know, it was fairly easy to get my first five ideas, but after that I was like, oh gosh, what do I write about now?

So chat GPT again, I asked for the top to give me ten ideas of what to blog about and some of them were ridiculous and some of them were quite helpful. And I think also I'm learning that not to put, be quite specific in my blog.

So don't make it too broad, because then I've covered too many topics in one blog. If I did it about Chatsworth and the whole of Chatsworth, that would cancel out lots of possibilities for future blogging.

So I did it on some, I think some unusual facts about Chatsworth, which means I could do another blog on with gardens and I could do another blog on Chatsworth walks. So, you know, being very specific in what you write about, that's something I've learned.

So, yeah, it's just brainstorming, asking other people who know the Peak district for ideas. Chat GPT that's kind of how I've gone about it. I've got my little list on my desktop and I'm working through slowly.

So this podcast is definitely not sponsored by chat GPT, but I have to say I am a huge fan of it as well. I think once you get to grips with how to prompt it, that makes a huge difference in terms of, you know, the quality of what you get out of it.

And I mean, one tip to listeners, never take what chat generates and just use it wholesale without editing it. But I think you've touched on it.

It's a great starter, you know, great starter for, you know, titles and actually what your blog is going to be called, you know, because we all struggle sometimes with that and making it sort of snappy, but also, you know, it gives you that bare bones and then you can go through, you know, maybe you can even split it into multiple blogs, as you said, you know, so it gives you that starter, which we, I think we all need when we're sitting there with a with a blank screen in front of us and we're not quite sure where to go next. I think you raised a very good point as well about don't go too broad.

I love that, obviously, Chatsworth House, just for listeners, based on where Wendy's, you know, actually her cottage is, Chatsworth is just down the road. And because you got to know your ideal guests, you knew that.

That's one of the major things, I suppose, you know, reading what they put in the guestbook, listening to their stories about where they go and what they do, gives you ideas for your blog. So keeping it quite narrow and focused on specific aspects that they go and things they do and things they enjoy doing when they're staying with you.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, plenty of ideas from them as well. And I think going back to chat GPT for a minute, you're absolutely right in that.

Making sure that you've almost prompted or told chat GPT a bit of background about your holiday cottage, your ideal guests, the type of tone of voice you want it to use, and using that every time and then double checking every bit of content it gives you, because so many times I've come across things that are utter rubbish.

But sometimes I found it really helpful if I've written part of the blog myself, I've just asked it to put it in a more conversational, informal tone. So rather than, you know, I'm used to writing in a very formal way just because of my work that I did previously.

And that's not necessarily how I want my blogs to come across.

So asking chat GPT just to edit it, edit my own words into something that sounds much less formal, more conversational, like some as though I was talking to somebody over coffee rather than writing a formal essay. And it's quite useful using it like that.

Yeah. It does tend to make things up, though, I find sometimes. So we have to be quite careful, don't we?

Double check everything. Yeah.

Get ourselves into hot water. Yeah. And I think that that tip about giving that consistent, maybe like write down the description of your business and the context that you give it.

I mean, obviously it does remember some of that now, which it didn't at the beginning, but I think that's really important.

And also putting in maybe if there's a blog that you've written that you really love or a piece of copy that you've written, that you think this is the right tone of voice, this is the right style, giving it that and saying, you know, take this blog and divide it into three blogs on these topics, you know, and it can be really good at just doing that heavy lifting and helping you get again then from one blog, like three topics and. Or taking it from your blog and putting it into social media.

So it can take a blog post and take some sniff snippets to create posts for your social media as well. So it definitely can do a lot of that heavy lifting and make our marketing jobs that bit easier, which I love.

It's definitely a tool, but it's got to be used with caution. I think that's the best way to describe it.

And are you starting to see results in terms of, do you feel, I mean, obviously, you said you looked at your analytics to see which blogs were being sort of visited and how much traffic they're getting. Have you noticed an uptick in the number of bookings that you're getting with Google as the source after you've started blogging?

Yeah, I think definitely, you know, the uptick in terms of finding my cottage from Google searching has definitely increased in line with where my blogging was as well. So, you know. Yeah, I would say that's definitely had an impact.

Everything I do SEO wise and tweaking the website blogging and anything else, tweaking the copy, you know, everything has had a massive impact on direct bookings from Google.

So is Google your biggest source now of direct bookings?

Google and repeat guests.

The repeat guests. Brilliant.

My two biggest sources.

Yeah.

So I think for anyone listening, it's, you know, we all tend to just dive straight into social media, but definitely look at your SEO and look at blogging as an option to actually increase your visibility so that you can get those direct bookings. So in terms of one last thought for listeners today, what top tip would you give other hosts to increase their direct bookings?

Oh, I think, you know, I can only say this from my own perspective and my own, you know, what I've done, but I would say, first and foremost, hone in on your ideal guest. You can't go anywhere without it and if you do, everything will be too broad and you'll be flaying, really.

So I think know your ideal guest and direct all your marketing strategies, all your tactics at them, what they want, what their pain points are, it works.

And, you know, like I've done, if you need to write it all down, have it pinned to your desk, know who they are, they're your best friends in marketing. And then for me it was repeat guests. So I'd make sure you put a lot of effort into attracting those repeat guests.

It doesn't cost much in terms of your marketing budget. It's great because they're almost free. My guests certainly appreciate that personal connection, so I'd engage with them right from the get go.

And then I think my third top tip would be SEO. And I've said it before, but I say it again, just make sure it's spot on.

And if that means having a one to one with you, Sarah, or doing the training in the club or whatever it is, if you get it right, it makes a huge difference. And when you help me with my SEO in the beginning, that instantly had an impact on my direct bookings through Google.

So getting it right is really, really important and makes a massive, massive impact. I think they're my top fits, ideal guess, repeat guests and SEO, they're great.

You're greedy and you had a few tips there, but I don't mind that at all because I think they're spot on. And of course, SEO is. The beauty is it's marketing that happens while you're sleeping, because once you've obviously.

Done it, it happens in the background. Once you've done it, you've done it and the hard work is going on all of the time without you having to do anything. So yes, you're adding to it, but.

So once it's done, it's done and I think it makes a huge impact.

Yeah, same with those blog posts, isn't it?

They sit there and they're working for you the whole time, so you create them once and then they are, they are, you know, they are creating searches and getting people onto your website and you could be sleeping at the time, which is, you know, like I said, my best form of marketing.

Yeah, absolutely. And of course you can come back and tweet those blogs at any time like I've done recently.

If you learn something new and you think, oh, I didn't do that in a blog, I must go back to my old blogs and change them. But then it's new content again, isn't it? So, yeah, works again for you. So yeah, really important.

Makes Mister Google come back and take another look, which is exactly what we want.

Keep them busy.

Yep. Like to keep them busy. Oh wendy, it's been great having you on the podcast today and thank you for sharing so many tips with everyone.

It's been wonderful.

It's a pleasure. It's been really lovely to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Thanks for listening and I'll be back next week with more actionable marketing tips and real life host experiences. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. You know how much us hosts love those five star reviews. See you next week.

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

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free Direct Booking Roadmap Quiz, Head to my website, get-fully-booked.com/quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket!