Are you ready to elevate your guests' experience without breaking the bank? In this episode, we explore the art of creating unforgettable stays through thoughtful personal touches and exceptional customer service.

Join me as I chat with Rachel Butler, owner of the Angel Caves bed and breakfast in Gran Canaria. Rachel shares her journey from bustling London to the serene mountains, where she's mastered the art of hospitality.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• The power of first impressions and how to nail them, even if you're not on-site
• Simple, cost-effective ways to make guests feel like VIPs
• Strategies for setting clear expectations and exceeding them
• How to handle unexpected issues while maintaining excellent customer service

Plus, get Rachel's expert tips on:

• Crafting a welcoming atmosphere that doesn't require a hefty investment
• Communicating effectively to build guest loyalty
• Balancing personal touches with essential amenities

“You’ve got to be so empathetic to what they’re going through that you understand you.” - Rachael Butler

About Rachael Butler

Rachael Butler is the visionary owner and host of Angel Caves Farmstay & Retreats. Nestled in the breathtaking mountains of Gran Canaria, Rachael is a busy mum of two who, alongside her husband, is lovingly renovating a unique cave house. Angel Caves isn't just a bed and breakfast—it's a sanctuary where Rachael combines her deep roots as a former London-based therapist with her passion for creating transformative women’s retreats.

With years of experience in therapy, Rachael brings a special touch to hospitality, crafting unforgettable guest experiences that go beyond comfort. Her keen understanding of human connection ensures every visitor leaves with cherished memories and a sense of renewal.

Connect with Rachael:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourangelcaves

Website: www.angelcaves.online

Whether you're a seasoned host or just starting out, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you create lasting loyalty and rave reviews.

Ready to take your hosting to the next level? Don't miss Rachel's special offer for podcast listeners – a 50% discount on her business audit service, designed to boost your bookings and enhance your guest experience.

Join us to learn how small, thoughtful gestures can make a big impact on your short-term rental success!

The key moments on this episode are:

00:00:00 Elevating Guest Experiences: First Impressions and Budget-Friendly Touches

00:00:53 From London to Gran Canaria: Rachel Butler's Journey to Hospitality

00:04:20 Building a Successful B&B: The Angel Caves Story

00:06:04 The Power of First Impressions in Hospitality

00:09:04 Building Trust and Meeting Guest Expectations

00:12:14 Adding Value with Personal Touches on a Budget

00:15:07 Balancing Basic Service with Extra Touches

00:18:25 Handling Guest Issues and Providing Excellent Customer Service

00:22:26 Offering Business Audits for Short-Term Rental Hosts

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Show notes are available at: https://directbookingsuccess.com/podcast/

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FREE GUIDE: 10 Ways to Drive Guests to your Website instead of Airbnb: https://directbookingsuccess.com/10-ways-to-drive-guests-to-your-website-instead-of-airbnb/

Follow Jenn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directbookingsuccess

Join Jenn’s free Facebook group – the Marketing Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strmarketinghub

Want to turn an ordinary stay into an unforgettable experience. In this episode, we're diving into first impressions, trust building and budget friendly personal touches that will create lasting loyalty and rave reviews. This is perfect for anyone ready to elevate their guest experience without breaking the bank.

You are listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast bringing you all the information you need for your short term rental to stand out from the crowd. I'm your host, Jenn Boyles. As an owner and manager myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate the hospitality industry. I'm here to help so you too can have direct booking success.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Direct Booking Success Podcast. I'm Jenn Boyles, your host and today I have Rachael Butler with me now. Rachael is originally from the UK, now lives in the mountains of Gran Canaria with her family. She runs the Angel Caves Bed and Breakfast and has come to know a lot about customer service and the guest experience as a result. She was also a speaker at the 2024 Direct Booking Success Summit, so I had to have her on here. So welcome Rachael.

Thank you. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me on, Jen.

Oh, it's wonderful to have you here. So I'd like to start by asking, how have you found yourself leaving London and now living in the mountains of Gran Canaria?

So me and my husband had both been in London for about 12, 15 years, something like that, a really long time. And London's one of them places where you have to work every single hour that there is in the day and every day that there is in the week to enjoy life there and get the most from it. And we did, we really did. But when I was pregnant and I was expecting our first son, we just knew that we couldn't keep up that kind of lifestyle anymore. And it was going to change dramatically. And we were looking for a bigger flat. We couldn't really afford to rent anything bigger than we already had. And we'd spent a really long time traveling. All our relationship up to this point had been just traveling, going on lots and lots of holidays, and we wanted to live abroad. We just came to the conclusion that people abroad were having a much nicer life than we were. They were just enjoying their life and doing a lot less work. And we said, in London that's not the case. So we decided to move to Gran Canaria. We have friends here. We'd holidayed here quite a lot and we didn't want to live in Las Palmas, which is the capital where the long beaches and we'd been always there for our holiday, but we just said, no, that that wouldn't suit us. And we came driving around the mountains and just found this incredible spot and we could just both imagine completely turning our lives around. We had this sort of dream of becoming self-sufficient and growing our own vegetables and stuff. And so we just came. It was all quite quick.

It's like the Good Life, but you're, you know, in the mountains on a tropical island.

Absolutely. So my husband is from Chile. He's no idea what a good life is. And when we were moving here, I said, we have to watch it. We found the old episodes on YouTube and I was like, this is you and me. Like, this is what everyone thinks we're going to do. And it actually has been quite like that, to be honest.

Yeah. And if you're listening to this and you're going, what are you talking about? The good life. I only know about it because I lived in the UK for almost 20 years, but it's an old TV show in England where they basically move to the country and become self-sufficient, don't they? It's a great old show.

I don't think they're even in the countryside. I think they just become sort of like suburban farmers, because I think they're supposed to be just like an average sort of suburb where they've just got a garden and they become self-sufficient because their neighbors definitely aren't living that sort of life. So that's what makes it kind of comical.

Yeah, Good fun. Good fun. So you were part of our Direct Booking Success Summit 2024 edition, and I thank you very much for being an amazing presenter and your presentation was all about customer service. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. Before we get into that, I'd like to hear a little bit more about what you've created there and your B and B that you've created.

Absolutely. So we didn't have any great plans to start our bed and breakfast when we moved here. We didn't really know what we would do, but we had a spare room and we thought we'd get it ready for our families to come for visits and for friends. And then in 2020, there was a pandemic and our family couldn't get to visit us from the uk and we had this beautiful room that we made up, a little cabin above our own home on the next sort of tier up the mountain. And we just said, well, what about if we put it on, like Airbnb or something like that and see if anyone wants to come and stay here in the interim. Because there were lots of tourists really desperately looking to get away and stay somewhere very remote so that they didn't have to meet other people during these times. And to be honest, it just took off straight away. So we started with the one cabin and then about, I don't know, maybe a year later, after that had done really well, and we started to be fully booked all the time. We bought a glamping tent, and we went back to the UK to bring it over because it was too expensive to ship out here. We went over and collected it in person and set that up. And so we just have a really small two accommodations at the moment with plans for next year to set up two more. Another cabin and another glamping.

Oh, wonderful, wonderful. So if you're listening to this and you want to see what it looks like, where Rachael is, I'll add her website to the show notes so you can go check it out and see what it looks like. So let's talk about guests and let's talk about your presentation that you did this year. So you emphasized the power of first impressions. So can you maybe share a bit of an example from your own life there, where a positive first impression has made a clear impact on your life? On your guest or their loyalty with you?

Yeah, sure. I think it's twofold with us because I think that first impression comes from that first communication that you make with the guests. So it's before they've even arrived. It's when they've messaged you, they're either inquiring or they've booked and you want to let them know that you're a nice person, you're a good host, you're going to be accommodating to their needs when they come and stay with you. So that's the first part of that first impression. So that when they arrive, they feel like they sort of know you a little bit. And to be honest, nowadays, all of that can be automated. You don't have to be there typing something to every single guest. It can be a lovely message that you've automated. Everyone gets the same, but their reply is always so personal, they think you've just sat down and typed that out to them. And I always reply personally if there's questions that I need to answer for them. And the second part is when they actually arrive at your property. And I do appreciate that not every host is there to meet them. It could be like a kind of a key safe, but we are usually here on the property to welcome them. And at the moment, the entrance to our property is not amazing. It's the thing we need to work on the most when we have the money. So our first impressions come from that interaction with us and helping them down from the car park to go and get their bags, bring them in and show them around, because we know that the stairs are a little bit uneven, and in a perfect world, we'd get that fixed tomorrow. But the reality is we're waiting till we can afford to really improve the entrance and the parking, but that's probably the last thing we'll ever be able to do. So we have to kind of get around that. And we don't want everyone to sort of turn away at the first hurdle and be like, oh, this parking space is awful. So we go down and we greet them and we bring their bags in and we show them the best route up to the house. We usually offer our guests, like, do you need a cold drink or a glass of water? When they arrive, it's usually hot up here in the mountains and they've traveled quite a long way. And all of those things start to build that relationship with your guest. And sometimes that's almost the last interaction we'd have with them. But you just want them to get to know you that little bit so that when they do have their stay, that they do feel some loyalty with the person who owns the property who's got them and put them up there. And I think, in all honesty, if you didn't have that interaction in person, you could still make sure that you were sending messages that gave that same impression of you and that you're there in the background, accessible via phone or email or whatever platform you're using, and that I'll be here to answer any questions or sort out any issues if they should arise. And I think all of these sorts of contact makes such a huge difference for that first impression.

Yeah. And I was just going to ask you, what can you do if you're not on the premises? I love that you meet all your guests in person. I think that that is proper hospitality. But it's not always practical for people who don't live there. So I'm glad you've mentioned that it's through your communication, it's through the emails. The messages that you send and you mentioned about first impressions help build trust. So what do you think hosts overlook in those aspects of building that trust?

I can answer this, I guess, as a traveler and someone who stayed in another bed and Breakfast and accommodations that we went to in the summer. For instance, we were staying on the island, but we were taking our kids to the south. We were staying overnight in this lovely little apartment. And we'd have quite good communication with the host all the way through and all morning. In fact, on the way I'd let them know when we were leaving. I said, we'll be there about this time. Even when we were parking, I said, oh, we found a space, we're going to be parking here, we'll be there really shortly. And they kept answering to say that they would meet us and yep, oh great, we'll see. There will be. But when we got to the actual apartment there was no one there. We couldn't get in the gate. We actually at that point then couldn't get hold of them on the phone, which was odd because we'd been in quite close communication. And then they finally answered a phone call and said, ah, that's great, we're nearly there, we'll be there for about 15 minutes. And it was so different to what we've been told up until this point. And it just broke my crust completely. I just thought, I'm here with my kids, it's absolutely baking hot. And if you'd have let us know in advance that once we arrived we'd call you and then you'd take 15 minutes to come from your house to let us in. I'd have just sat in a cafe and waited in an air conditioned kind of cafe or something instead of standing in the street with all my bags, which was now quite a problem. And I think that happens quite a lot. You're not always sure how you're going to check into a property. My husband's had the same in other locations where he hasn't actually known until he's arrived what the check in procedure is. And I think that's something you can really make a difference on. If you've got a property that you don't welcome them in person, make sure nothing is left to chance. Send pictures of your car park, send pictures of the road and let them know exactly how they can check in. And then nothing is left to chance and that person's going to feel really safe and that they can trust you because you've got them in there in one piece and it wasn't too tricky. I think that makes a huge difference to a customer's experience.

Yeah. And I guess it is setting expectations like you were talking about at your place. The entrance can be a bit tricky. So you make sure you're down there and you can talk them through it. And that host that let you down, they set that expectation that they would be right there waiting for you because you had been in communication. And for them to just sort of ghost you and then finally answer and say, oh, we'll be there in 15. It's like, oh, I guess I'm not that special. I guess I don't really matter to them. And that's the last thing you want to feel as a guest, isn't it?

Yeah, definitely. You're right. What me and my husband always say is that we want our guests to feel like VIPs. Now we're on a remote kind of farmland in the mountains. There's nothing five stars about this place whatsoever. But actually all our ratings give us five stars because of the experience. They're treated like VIPs. If you need something within reason, we'll help you. And we can. And I guess that's another part of all this, is that you do have to have your boundaries and know where that experience ends. And you can say, oh, no, that's, that's more than we offer. And perhaps there's some way we can guide you to get that need met. But that's not going to be here or through us. But I guess that's a different part of this. But, yeah, we always try to make sure we can accommodate guests and what they need so that they do feel really special when they're with us.

Yeah, I think that's really important because we're coming for an experience. We're not staying in a faceless, blank hotel room. We want that as a guest. We want to live like a local, if I can borrow that old phrase. And I loved your ideas about personal touches to add value to that guest experience without being costly. If you're looking after one or two or three properties, I don't think anybody wants to spend an exorbitant amount of money over the top. But what kind of things. Can you give us an idea of what those personal touches are that we could incorporate?

One of the ones that we've done, and it's a really small thing and it just adds a little bit of luxury. And once you've paid it out for the first time, you don't have to do it each time. We've bought robes and slippers for accommodations so that when guests are just around, just relaxing, they can pop something on. It's almost like you were having a spa experience. And when we first did it in the first accommodation, we thought Perhaps people will think this is quite funny, but in our glamping tent, you do have to leave the tent to get to the toilet. And we thought, well, this is probably going to be quite handy for those guests. And then we discovered that they were wearing robes and slippers around the site and they were really enjoying the feeling of that little bit of luxury like they're in a spa. So we said, well, we're going to incorporate that into the other accommodation as well, because it does make people feel like, oh, this is a bit different. Perhaps you wouldn't wear robes and slippers at home, you know, to relax. It does feel like quite a sort of spa experience. So that's one of the things that we like to do. Like I said before, we always offer them a welcome drink when they come just through refreshment. Have a seat. We can do the check in in a moment. Do you need a glass of water? Do you want a cup of tea? I think because I'm British, they love the offer of a cup of tea and that one always goes down well. There's lots of little things. I sometimes see places say, oh, you can buy fresh flowers and put them in the room, but that's quite expensive. And if you've got quite a fast turnaround of guests, you can't be putting in fresh flowers unless you're really covering that in the room rate. And that's not something that I think you have to go to that extreme. Another thing that's really small is we have a list in our rooms of the 10 places we'd recommend or the 10 trips that we'd recommend that they do while they're staying. So it might be just to go up to the top of the mountain to see a sunset or a sunrise. It might be a restaurant that we recommend. There's 10 things and guests absolutely love it and they say, oh, we're going to try and do all 10 over the weekend that we're here. And that makes a huge difference. And you don't have to be on site to offer something like that.

Now, what do you think the difference is between these personal touches and providing good service? Because good service is fundamentally what hospitality is about. And I'm just wanting to know your thoughts about how the host could sort of determine what they should be providing as good service and where they should go above and beyond.

That's a good question because it is a bit different. The personal touches are nice, it's a nice addition, but I think some of the basics, I don't Know if this is what you mean, if I'm answering this, if I'm getting this wrong, but one of the things that I think is the most important, the reason that your guests are even coming in the first place, is for somewhere to sleep. And the most crucial thing is that you're meeting the real basic needs of the guests so that the beds are comfortable, that the rooms are warm or cool enough if it's somewhere hot. And like I said before, I think making sure the guest knows exactly how to get to your place and check in, they're real basics for me. They're not additional extras that are sort of fancy, they're the things you really need to cover for your guests to have a good stay. And anything above that is an additional thing that's quite nice, a list in the room of, of things that they can do in the areas as a nice extra. But really they want to have a really comfortable night's sleep and feel comfortable. And obviously we own. Not obviously, but we only offer a room. It doesn't have cooking facilities, but if you're staying in an apartment for a week and you've booked somewhere that has got a kitchen that needs to be well equipped to cover someone actually cooking in it, the amount of places I've stayed with a kitchen that's got almost nothing in the drawers or the cupboards and you think, well, it would have been nice to be self catering here. That was why I booked it. But you've got two plates and one butter knife and I can't make many meals with this. So I think those kinds of basics are super important to cover.

Yeah, no, I agree with you. It's almost like you need to go and stay there yourself as your own guest and try it out and just see what's lacking, what doesn't work, what could be better, and then look at adding those personal touches and those little treats above and beyond afterwards. We need to get the base right, don't we?

Yeah, definitely. Even simple things like if you provide shower gel or those dispensers in your shower, then they need to be full. Otherwise you should probably be telling the guests in advance that that's not something you provide because it's again, it's about meeting the expectations. And if they're expecting just to be able to turn up and use the place, if it doesn't have shower gel or a shampoo, then that bathroom's all of a sudden become not quite as usable as it should be, even though it's probably functioning perfectly. But it hasn't got the basics that someone would need to use it. So I think if you don't want to provide those things as a host, you do need to let the guests know that's something you need to bring along with you. Otherwise, if you've got the dispensers in the bathroom, make sure they're full for every guest and that they don't need to. To ask you or go out to a shop and buy something if you're not around.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. It's going back to setting those expectations so the guest knows what to expect and they're not surprised or disappointed. You want them to be pleasantly surprised when there's some added thing, but they don't want them to be upset when something doesn't meet their expectations. But what do we do when something goes wrong? We've tried to meet. We've tried to set those expectations, We've tried to meet those expectations. But what happens when something goes wrong? How does that customer service side of things kick in when we've got a guest who's maybe not so happy?

I think that's when it's so important that the communication between you and your guest is working. That's when customer service really matters. When something goes wrong. And it doesn't matter how perfect you try to make things, let's say, for instance, the elements. We can't control the weather up here in the mountains. And we've had days where, you know, something's just happened, a storm's happened, let's say. And the gazebo that we have over the patio for one of our accommodations, it got completely destroyed in the storm, and it was just flapping and blowing away. And then the gazebo itself almost took off. And this is supposed to protect where the guests can sit and eat and we serve them breakfast. It's not something we can replace really overnight from one day to the next. So again, if a guest is staying and this has happened, it's going to spoil the experience in the morning when you're coming to serve breakfast, and then all of a sudden the gazebo is blown away, and there's nothing left there for them to do. So I think for us, you know, we have had a few times where things have gone wrong, horribly wrong in some cases. And the first thing is the way that you deal with the customer. You've got to be so empathetic to what they're going through that you understand you. You apologize. Ultimately, you're not in control of the Weather. But you're going to apologize as though you are. You're going to say you're. You're so sorry that this has happened. Perhaps you're going to say it's never happened before. I said this is the first time this ever happened and we're going to try and deal with this the best way that we can and, and we always do and we always try to make it right. So the first thing is to make them feel that you appreciate that this has gone wrong, but you've. You don't want to spoil their holiday. You're going to do absolutely everything you can to fix it and then the next thing is that you need to try and fix it as quickly as you can, whatever the thing is, make it right. And then I'd usually say once it's fixed, because there's usually always a solution that you can implement as quickly as you can deciding how serious it is. And if you need to do more than just fix it and put in some kind of apology, a gift, you know, perhaps it's a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates or a local delicacy from the area, there's a nice bakery, perhaps you're going to take along some pastries or something, perhaps you're going to discount that night or part of the stay. There's a number of things you can do and I think if something's gone really horribly wrong, that's where good customer service comes into play, that you can offer something just to make that guest feel that you fully understood that that was an inconvenience to them, but that you're sorry and that you've tried to make it better for them. And in our experience of going that little extra mile before they've asked for, well, we want a refund or anything like that. We've offered something and that goes a long way to covering the experience that they've had. And it's very rare. In fact, I don't think it's ever happened that something's gone wrong with a guest and it's actually affected our review from that guest. I think we've always managed to sort of win them back round at the end of things and we've never had to like, refund someone's stay completely, but we've offered something as a token sort of apology to them and that's always done the job.

I think you hit the nail on the head about setting expectations and trying to meet them with guests so that nobody has a nasty surprise, that everyone is, have their expectations met. And then anything above that is gravy, as you say. Great. Well, thank you so much, Rachael. I think you've made some really great points there. And I guess if you're building that trust with guests and you've got great customer service and guest great communication from the beginning and you're setting the right expectations, when something goes wrong, you can probably come out of it a lot easier than if you weren't doing any of those things. And I know that our industry has been changing and people are coming in for a quick buck and not realizing that hospitality is the cornerstone, that short term rentals and bed and breakfast, that's what we're built on. So I want to thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your experiences and your expertise on mirroring the personal touches, the customer service and the, and the guest experience together. And you've got a special offer for everyone listening, don't you?

Yes, definitely. So we found that we were having lots of people that we knew that were running bed and breakfast. If they were struggling to get bookings, they were coming to us and saying, what are you doing? Would you give us any advice? Have a look at my listing. And for friends, we were kind of having a quick look and then me and my husband said, you know what? We're really doing well at this. And that connection and that contact we're having with guests is something that we can share with other hosts and also look into their listing. Sometimes they're not that clear. And you might think because you've written the listing that it makes perfect sense. But actually for someone from outside having a look, it might not make that much sense. And that's quite often something that comes up that it's not that bookable because people don't really understand what you're offering. So we offer business audits now for other short term rental hosts that are looking for some outside eye to come in and look at their listing, their social media presence, have a chat about, then sort of the first impressions, the personalized touches and all those things, and sort of work out how we can get more bookings coming in for them. Sometimes it's a matter of what we found with us and other hosts as well is that you might be marketing your place for the summer and then for the winter, you're like, I don't get any bookings, so you need to put more pictures, warm blankets on the beds, like cozy pictures of a cup of tea or a hot chocolate. And then all of a sudden you start to get winter bookings. And when we realized that, we were like, okay, we can help other people with this too. So we're offering 50% off our business audit at the moment, so anyone listening to the podcast can get in touch for that. I think you're going to put the link on, which is great. We look forward to hearing from some people that we can help them out a little bit.

Yeah, we're going to put that link in the show notes and thank you so much. It sounds like a great idea, especially to get some help from someone who has been there, who's walking the talk and doing so well. So thank you. Rachael, thank you again for presenting at the 2024 Direct Booking Success Summit as well as coming on the podcast. If marketing's feeling overwhelming or you feel like you're just spinning your wheels, I'd like to invite you to join me for a free masterclass on December 12. This is where I'll be showing you how to make it simpler and more effective for 2025. I'll walk you through a couple of easy strategies that work and show you how I use Book Direct Pro to take the stress out of attracting and converting guests. Let's figure out how to make your marketing feel manageable and actually work for you. I'd love for you to join me. Head to the link bookdirectpro.com next masterclass next on the Direct Booking Success Podcast, do you feel your vacation rental is ready for the future of travel? Join me and my special guest as we uncover the trends reshaping the industry and telling you how to get ahead. Until then, go out and take action for your own direct booking success.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast. For more information about this episode and others, head to the website directbookingsuccess.com podcast see you next time.

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