Shownotes
This week, I'm chatting with Sean Ronan from One Acre Wood in Herefordshire, and honestly, his story is brilliant. He and his wife, Annie, went from running a cosy cottage in Norfolk to creating something truly special: two stunning treehouses nestled in 18 acres of woodland that attract both families and romantic couples.
Now, launching during a pandemic wasn't exactly ideal timing (we did it as well, so I know that's the understatement of the century!), but Sean and Annie absolutely smashed it. They've built a thriving business through clever marketing partnerships with local businesses, even landing a spot on George Clark's Amazing Spaces. Not too shabby!
What I love about their approach is how thoughtful everything is. We're talking copper baths instead of the standard hot tubs, locally sourced materials, and a design that genuinely works for both excited kids and adults wanting a peaceful escape. They've created something that feels authentically connected to the local area, not just another glamping site plonked in a field.
Sean's really honest about the challenges of marketing to two completely different audiences—families versus couples—and how they've navigated that tricky balance. He's also refreshingly down-to-earth about hosting, making guests feel welcome without being intrusive. It's that sweet spot we all aim for.
The big takeaway? They've deliberately kept it small with just two treehouses. This isn't about cramming in as many units as possible—it's about creating a serene, private experience where guests can actually enjoy nature without feeling like they're in a holiday park.
So, if you're thinking about launching something unique in the holiday let world, or you're struggling to differentiate yourself from the competition, this episode is packed with brilliant insights and practical advice that'll get you thinking differently about your business.
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Key Takeaways
- Strategic marketing and clever partnerships are essential for building direct bookings
- Working with the right channel partners helps you reach different audiences
- Using local materials and craftsmanship creates an authentic experience that sets you apart from cookie-cutter glamping sites
- Designing spaces that genuinely work for both children and adults opens up your potential guest market significantly
- Personal touches and thoughtful hosting transform first-time guests into loyal repeat visitors
- Listening to guest feedback and maintaining sky-high standards generates the kind of reviews that fill your calendar
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Further Information
Follow One Acre Wood on Instagram
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Transcripts
You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.
Speaker A:Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?
Speaker A: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.
Speaker A:Hello again.
Speaker A:I'm back for another episode of the Get Fully Booked podcast.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.
Speaker A:Today I'm delighted to welcome a fellow host of the podcast who is equally mad about tree houses, just like me, Sean Ronan from One Acre Wood in Herefordshire in England.
Speaker A:We're going to be chatting about different ideal guests and what marketing has worked best for him.
Speaker A:Welcome to the podcast, Shaun.
Speaker B:Thank you very much, Sarah.
Speaker B:It's great to be here.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's really good to have you here.
Speaker A:I mean, obviously we've known each other for a little while and I've watched as you've, you know, your business is launched.
Speaker A:So I think for the listeners, if you could share with us a little bit about what you offer at One Acre Wood and how you got started with that.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So my wife Annie and I, we previously had a holiday cottage in Norfolk.
Speaker B:We lived in Essex and we had that for eight years and we really enjoyed the hospitality side, but didn't really fancy the drive, the commute to and from.
Speaker B:Luckily in those days holiday cottages, we booked them for a week at a time, so we only did weekends.
Speaker B:Basically we went up, it was a two hour drive really.
Speaker B:Int.
Speaker B:Enjoyed meeting the guests, rarely got to see, see them go and say goodbye to them.
Speaker B:So we only had feedback from the reviews that they left.
Speaker B:We had great reviews so we wanted to find somewhere where we could enjoy another hospitality project, but we were closer to it, so maybe locally or on site or in the village.
Speaker B:So we searched around and found this site in Herefordshire that was 18 acres and it had a bit of woodland that was about an acre.
Speaker B:And we had no fixed ideas about what we wanted to achieve.
Speaker B:We'd looked at sites where we could put shepherd's huts.
Speaker B:We had toyed with the idea of tree houses, but when we bought the property, investigated the woodland more, we found that it had two natural clearings.
Speaker B:So we thought, let's apply for planning permission for two tree houses and in the field below a facilities barn.
Speaker B:And at that stage it was pre Covid and we, we got it quite easily planning permission.
Speaker B:It took up about a year and a half to achieve that and then Covid hit.
Speaker B:So we had a few delays and then we Started building and over two years we built two.
Speaker B:Two tree houses.
Speaker B:We launched one Fuggle, they're named after local hops.
Speaker B:We launched one 21 months ago and then the second one we launched about 14 months ago.
Speaker B:So overall we've been going for 21 months and loving it.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:So still quite a new business.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So you're finding your feet, but I'm sure you've got lots of sort of tips and learnings from along the way in terms of what you've learned so far.
Speaker B:It's been a bit of a roller coaster, to be honest.
Speaker B:I mean, you're aware of the success we've had with being on the television on George Clark's Amazing Spaces.
Speaker B:We had a good tie up, a good marketing collaboration with Weird Fish, the clothing provider.
Speaker B:And those.
Speaker B:When I hear about other host stories, those things are quite unusual to come by and for us to have actually enjoyed that in our first year of operation is brilliant.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker A:And you've really sort of grabbed those opportunities with both hands and made full use of them from a marketing point of view.
Speaker A:But we'll probably come on and talk about those in a bit more detail a bit later on.
Speaker A:So I thought it'd be good to start with first about sort of your ideal guests because like, obviously our tree house, we aim it very much at the couples markets.
Speaker A:We, you know, we don't take families and we don't take pets, but you attract both couples and families and obviously they, that can be quite, they're quite different in terms of maybe what they're looking for.
Speaker A:So how do you balance marketing to two very different audiences and getting your message across?
Speaker B:So I suppose it started with our original vision and when we decided, right, we're going to go for tree houses, we had this phrase in our heads.
Speaker B:It's going to be a magical tree house for children and adults alike.
Speaker B:So with that in mind, that was, that influenced the design and then the design led into our brand and we wanted authenticity, we wanted it to be local, we wanted some eco aspects of it.
Speaker B:And the.
Speaker B:What we've built is a treehouse that is quite, quite large.
Speaker B:It's got three bedrooms, but when all the bedrooms are in use and one's a bunk room, toy area, when all the rooms are in use, it's very family centric.
Speaker B:But if a couple come to stay, they shut the door to the bunk room, they shut the door to the second bedroom and to them it's a really spacious tree house with great bathroom, outdoor copper bath, kitchen area and a nice spaced living area.
Speaker B:So I suppose we've built it so that it could be cope with both audiences.
Speaker B:And the way we market it is we just focus on.
Speaker B:It's a magical tree house.
Speaker B:It suits children and adults and we have, I suppose we rely on our channel partners.
Speaker B:So these are, we've got one ota, we've got a mix of directories and listing sites and they each have their own demographics, don't they?
Speaker B:So for example, one of our listing sites is called Parent Friendly Stays.
Speaker B:So obviously we're only going to get families from them.
Speaker B:And what we've worked out is that over the 21 months that we've been open, we've had 80% of our stays have been family orientated from direct bookings.
Speaker B:But when we look at say the OTA that's got a younger demographic, 50% of their stays are families and 50% couples.
Speaker B:So I suppose we're staying true to our message, magical treehouses.
Speaker B:And we're using the partners to actually filter that and adapt it slightly for.
Speaker A:Their own audiences and bringing the right people to you.
Speaker A:And I definitely think your tree houses have a very playful feel about them and I think that's really good to understand.
Speaker A:Like your vision at the beginning, you've carried that through in terms of the style of them and things like your website and obviously the messaging.
Speaker A:And I think that's the important thing, isn't it?
Speaker A:It's conveying that message clearly that appeals to both.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And, and what we see is when people arrive and they walk up to the treehouse and, and both of them, we lead them up underneath.
Speaker B:So the first, when they enter the wood, the first thing they see is the height and the size of it and their first reaction is, oh my word.
Speaker B:And then they get to the front door and it's, people are saying, I, I want to come back.
Speaker B:And they haven't even entered the front door yet.
Speaker B:So it's a real testament to, I.
Speaker A:Suppose, what we've built and that first impressions like you're trying to create, you know, the wow factor and obviously that magical sense of something that's very different to what they're used to.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And it appeals equally.
Speaker A:I mean, I think there's a little bit of maybe child in all of us that we want to go back to that, you know, sleeping up in a tree, definitely.
Speaker B:And the rest of the site when we, when we try to think of what to put where.
Speaker B:So for example, the slides that we've installed that are underneath each tree house that Go from the lower deck down into the field in front.
Speaker B:They're a meter wide.
Speaker B:So you can either have parent with small toddler or you can have a parent going down quite happily.
Speaker B:And also say the swing that we've installed or the swings, they've got wide enough seats so that they're very comfortable for adults.
Speaker B:Or we see pictures that have been posted to as part of Google reviews where you've got two kids sitting side by side.
Speaker B:So at every stage we try to make it so that it fits both audience without being explicit about kids go here, adults go here.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, it sounds like you've really thought that through in terms of making sure that the appeal is there to both your sort of ideal guest profiles.
Speaker A:Do you have hot tubs for them as well?
Speaker B:We don't have hot tubs, we have copper baths.
Speaker B:And that was a deliberate decision because we were concerned about how do we get rid of 900 liters of water every two days, every three days.
Speaker B:And so we felt that we could handle 150 liter or 200 liter bath much easier.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think the hot tubs do have quite a big environmental footprint and obviously I know that the sort of eco credentials is sort of important to you and obviously being in a natural woodland as well, it's obviously it's a big consideration, isn't it, in terms of having, having hot tubs?
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:And I suppose the, the original expense, they are expensive items and it's.
Speaker B:Where do we we spend our, our budget to get the most from it?
Speaker A:And I, and I also think, you know, the outdoor baths are much easier to manage.
Speaker A:We went for an outdoor bath for that very reason.
Speaker A:The environmental reasons, but also the fact that from point of view the bath involves very little changeover maintenance apart from a clean.
Speaker A:Unlike what you have to do with hot tubs.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:I think we're seeing an emergence of more and more places that are embracing sort of Japanese soaked tubs and quirky outdoor baths rather than the traditional hot tub.
Speaker B:I will draw the line at one of those ice cold dip baths or what are they called, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, ice plunge.
Speaker B:I don't think I could cope with that.
Speaker B:Ice plunge?
Speaker B:Yeah, I don't think I could cope with that at all.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think a lot of people are introducing those now, especially if they've got saunas and actually our bath, because we've got a sauna, we actually view the bath and we encourage guests if they want to do a nice plunge, just fill the bath with cold water and then they can use it for that as well.
Speaker A:So it serves multiple purposes.
Speaker A:So it was a good investment.
Speaker A:So tree houses are becoming, I mean, they're so popular in the uk and I think when we were looking to start out eight or nine years ago now, I think I remember looking on canopy and stars and there was something like 36 or 37 tree houses.
Speaker A:And I now know that there's well over a hundred in the uk.
Speaker A:A lot of people have been building tree houses over the last five years.
Speaker A:So what have you found most challenging about making One Acre Wood stand out in what is now a busier sort of treehouse marketplace?
Speaker B:I suppose when we look at how to market it, there's two sorts of broad trends, or not trends, but there's two broad approaches.
Speaker B:One is do we do the traditional approach?
Speaker B:And I think this was touched on one of your previous podcasts, actually, where it's.
Speaker B:It's a dressed room, it's a dress, you know, you've got a table with some food on it, but you've got a bed that's neatly made.
Speaker B:Or the trend at the moment is do you show a bed that's just been got out of, or do you show a table that's just had a meal consumed?
Speaker B:And it's more an experiential sort of set of photography and marketing materials?
Speaker B:So that's a challenge that we haven't moved from the dressed side of things yet.
Speaker B:The other thing is we get a lot of feedback from guests that like the dressed approach.
Speaker B:So they'll arrive and we'll be with them and one of them will say, right, everyone, don't go in yet, I want to take a picture.
Speaker B:And so we feel that actually if that's working for guests as they arrive, then surely that's the way our marketing should, should work at the moment.
Speaker B:But it's a challenge.
Speaker B:The other aspect of it that we're trying to overcome is not overcome, but the other aspect is we want to show us our authenticity.
Speaker B:So we've used local products, we've used local craftsmen, local wood from the Forest of Dean down near you, and we've got partnerships with local delis, we've got a guest at the moment that's enjoying a massage, we've got local masseuse that's, that's come in to perform, we've got tie ins with local vineyards, local cideries, because Herefordshire is a fantastic place for alcohol production.
Speaker B:And so we've tried to leverage those to make ourselves unique and stand out in, as you say, over 100 treehouses in the UK.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think the local aspect is really important.
Speaker A:I think I remember Canopy and Stars did some research and they were saying that one of the major motivations of people booking was that they wanted to live like a local.
Speaker A:So I think, you know, a.
Speaker A:You've used a lot of local materials.
Speaker A:You know, it's a bit like we've used hazel from our woodland on our, you know, deck sort of post, which is quite handy because when they break we can just go and get some more hazel from our woodland because we've got lots of that.
Speaker A:But I think people do like the authenticity of being able to come somewhere and it doesn't feel like it's just all been bought in.
Speaker A:It's all been like bought in, ready made, you know, and there's a lot of that where, like turnkey, sort of, particularly in glamping, where you can just literally buy the whole thing.
Speaker A:There's nothing bespoke about it, there's nothing.
Speaker A:And I know that you very much, with your woodland and the style of tree houses that you've built, it's like trying to bring different textures and materials and that local aspect and that it's sustainable.
Speaker A:So like, you know, obviously woodland or wood that has been sourced in a responsible way and that you're then working with local partners and supporting other local businesses.
Speaker A:And I think people more and more do buy into that and feel that it's an important aspect of, I suppose, being a good, you know, guest.
Speaker B:And the other thing is how do we make ourselves unique in this crowded market?
Speaker B:And it's, I think it's myself and Annie.
Speaker B:If you look at the reviews, we've had over a hundred reviews of five star reviews.
Speaker B:And you know how us hosts love five star reviews.
Speaker B:They all mention Sean and Annie.
Speaker B:And so we take the effort to greet the guests and to say goodbye to them and we try to do it.
Speaker B:It's nice that with some of our reviews say.
Speaker B:And then they left us in peace.
Speaker B:So they acknowledged the fact that we were warm and welcoming, but that we gave them the space during their stay to just enjoy themselves and they didn't see us unless they had a question to ask.
Speaker B:So I think that personal touch helps differentiate us from another tree house perhaps that doesn't have that approach.
Speaker B:And the other thing is attention to detail.
Speaker B:A lot of our reviews mention how they feel that we've thought of every pre thought of everything that they could actually need, like the items in the kitchen or items in the living space or the bedroom, etc.
Speaker A:I think that's a really important aspect and I think I've stayed at places where you literally self check in and actually we do self check in but then they, they don't make any contact with you at all during your stay and that, I mean we're pretty self sufficient when we go away and stuff.
Speaker A:But you do feel like it's maybe like they're not as interested in you as a guest.
Speaker A:Whereas what we do, similar to you, we don't do the sort of meet and greet, but I always send them a text message the following morning and just say, we hope you've settled in nicely.
Speaker A:Is everything okay for you both?
Speaker A:So it's just opening that door if there's something that they're not 100% happy with.
Speaker A:So obviously you can head off if there's any potential issues.
Speaker A:But that they do.
Speaker A:And a few people have come back and said, oh, thanks so much for checking in with us.
Speaker A:So we didn't want them to feel like, because it's couples, I think they quite like the privacy and that they can turn up and do it in their own pace and they can go and, you know, we've got a really good digital guest guide so they can sort of walk their way through like how everything works.
Speaker A:But we are on site, we are on hand a bit like you, you know, we're there but we're not intrusive.
Speaker A:And I think people do notice, if you like you say with the detail.
Speaker A:And that also comes to being a good host and saying hello and making them feel like they're not completely just like, you know, you're not just literally saying get on with it, that you're there if they need you and that you're warm and welcoming.
Speaker B:That's funny you say about being on site because a lot of guests actually say, so where do you live then?
Speaker B:And they don't realize that our house is basically on site, but it's behind a big hedge and a row of trees so they can't actually see us.
Speaker B:So it's good for us.
Speaker B:We've got that proximity and we can address things.
Speaker B:But they do feel that they've got the place to themselves.
Speaker B:And I suppose the other thing we've done is we've said we're stopping at two units.
Speaker B:We're not building any more tree houses because we think that there's good separation in the woods.
Speaker B:They're 18 meters apart.
Speaker B:They rarely what we found over the almost two years we've been open, guests rarely from each treehouse, rarely bump into Each other.
Speaker B:So there's enough space in the 18 acres for them to actually live their own holiday at their break.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:Their adventure without actually bumping into the other tree house and then.
Speaker B:And without bumping into us as well.
Speaker A:That's lovely.
Speaker A:And I think people often overlook.
Speaker A:We can get a little bit greedy, maybe, about putting, like, cramming lots of other units in.
Speaker A:We've had lots of people say to us, well, you're going to build another one because it's so successful.
Speaker A:And it's a bit like, well, One of our USPs is the fact that there's very few tree houses in the UK where you go.
Speaker A:And it's just the one tree house, because most people build multiple ones.
Speaker A:And sometimes I've been to sites where there's four or five and you literally can see each other and it's not that private.
Speaker A:You're like.
Speaker A:You see the other guests walking past.
Speaker A:So it's great to hear that your guests feel like they have.
Speaker A:I mean, obviously, 18 acres is a big patch to explore that they actually.
Speaker A:It's that sense of adventure as well, that they're not just on a holiday park with lodges, they're actually somewhere unique.
Speaker A:Again, it taps into what you said earlier and that they have their own little adventure where they're not being interrupted by other people.
Speaker B:One of the things that inspired it, Annie and I grew up at a time where you could be sent out in the afternoon and told come back for tea time by your parents, sort of thing.
Speaker B: s trying to recreate that for: Speaker B:And we get very good feedback from guests who have let their youngsters just roam.
Speaker B:Because we're fenced in.
Speaker B:The 18 acres are fully fenced in.
Speaker B:We've got gates.
Speaker B:But within the space, kids can feel that they're having their own adventure.
Speaker B:So it's great for parents.
Speaker A:That's so liberating in this day and age, isn't it, for people to be able to sort of let the kids loose and not worry about them.
Speaker A:And I'm also of a gener where we literally just used.
Speaker A:When I lived in Scotland, we just literally used to go out in the morning and mum and dad would sort of say, be home for tea time.
Speaker A:And we would literally be out for the whole day, come back muddy and wet and, you know, it's very different now.
Speaker A:And I think to get kids away from the tech and to go off and have adventures and adults as well, because we're all very switched onto devices these days.
Speaker A:So it's one of the simple joys that you're offering them in your guest experience.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Another question I wanted to ask you today is about sort of.
Speaker A:You probably went in with some expectations, particularly around the sort of marketing area.
Speaker A:So when you first launch, you know, launched the business, were there particular marketing tactics that you had in your head that you thought would be a real winner and would be like a surefire way of getting bookings, but maybe didn't turn out quite as successful as you thought?
Speaker B:I think we were naive at the start and we relied on what we thought was a true and trusted way.
Speaker B:So we opened up with an OTA and a couple of listing sites and they worked, they got us the initial attention.
Speaker B:But then we thought, do you know what, we started getting approached by people saying, hey, I've got a last minute full page ad in this publication and for this special price you can have an advert.
Speaker B:And we thought, oh, there, let's do that.
Speaker B:And so we took out ads in, and now I think they're vanity little exercises.
Speaker B:We took out an ad in a broadsheet, we took out an ad in NatGeo Traveler, and neither of those produced any bookings.
Speaker B:I gave, I put a little QR code on each of them.
Speaker B:I tagged them with a code so I knew which one would actually produce, which one was actually delivering any results.
Speaker B:Neither of them work.
Speaker B:So I thought that was the.
Speaker B:I did think that the artwork, the look of the tree houses and in a publication like those that we would actually get some business from it, but we didn't.
Speaker B:So that was a real shame.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you know, mainstream advertising can be, you know, is quite expensive.
Speaker A:And I think the problem is these days is that most people spot advertising, don't they?
Speaker A:And we tend to sort of skip over it.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So it's not as effective as it used to be.
Speaker A:I remember it back in the day when I, when I was in my corporate jobs, you know, advertising like British Airways, like High Life magazine, it was like £10,000 for an advert in the magazine.
Speaker A:I mean, some of the advertising costs were huge.
Speaker A:But I suppose that's the beauty now of what we can do with online and particularly with social media and, you know, digital age and things like email marketing is that actually as small businesses we can actually do quite a lot of marketing that previously would have been prohibitive, like even like meta ads, you know, you can, you can do those for like £100amonth rather than thousands.
Speaker A:So it's a lot more accessible for.
Speaker B:All of Us and we did come out with something.
Speaker B:We did come out with something that was worthwhile from the Nat Geo.
Speaker B:I think we produced a very, very good looking bit of artwork that we now use as a printed piece.
Speaker B:So when we go to places we can leave a little, A five version of it.
Speaker B:We've got a different QR code so we know where we're leaving it and we've used that.
Speaker B:We've.
Speaker B:We've done the three counties show.
Speaker B:We were lucky enough to be on a stand in the tent for Herefordshire and so we had a great piece of artwork that we could put on a stand.
Speaker B:So good things come out of it.
Speaker B:But no bookings from those publications, sadly.
Speaker A:But yeah, you've leveraged that investment in terms of creating that artwork.
Speaker A:I was gonna say, have you used it with partners and things like that as well.
Speaker A:So if you need like leave behind materials or even digital format stuff, it means you've got something that you can actually, you know, leverage and use in your marketing.
Speaker A:So what has worked well for you?
Speaker A:You did touch on it a little.
Speaker B:Bit earlier on, so partnerships worked.
Speaker B:Has worked very well.
Speaker B:So this hybrid approach of having an ota and we're 33% OTA bookings at the moment and 66 direct OTA and directory listing sites, that's worked well for us.
Speaker B:Reviews, word of mouth.
Speaker B:So when people leave, that's becoming a better source of marketing.
Speaker B:We had someone leave yesterday and then a booking today and they put down on.
Speaker B:I know we both use Glamp manager.
Speaker B:So they put down, I've got a.
Speaker B:How did you hear about us?
Speaker B:And they said, a friend recommendation.
Speaker B:So in my welcome WhatsApp message, I said, can you share who recommended you?
Speaker B:And it was the people who left yesterday.
Speaker B:So that's a fantastic example of that.
Speaker B:Working with our local.
Speaker B:We've got Visit Herefordshire, the tourism body for our county.
Speaker B:They worked with a PR company and that PR company mentioned us in a Conde Nast Traveller publication and we got a booking from it.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So that was free for us, basically free advertising.
Speaker B:And then the partnerships with Weird Fish, that was obtained via one of our directory listing sites.
Speaker B:And then the George Clark, they found us again via those listing sites.
Speaker B:So as a.
Speaker B:As an exercise, you know, a day's worth of filming and the.
Speaker B:Well, we filmed it last, last summer we had a week's notice to say it's going to be on tv.
Speaker B:So we had very little time to turn anything around in terms of marketing to capitalize on it.
Speaker A:And you were on holiday.
Speaker A:I Remember you telling me you were on holiday?
Speaker A:It was like, talk about bad timing.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So we're holidaying in Asia where the time zone wasn't.
Speaker B:Wasn't brilliant.
Speaker B:3:30 in the morning, we're VPNing back to the UK to watch watch It Live and then we see bookings coming in.
Speaker B:And so we had a flurry of bookings over the next two, three days and I put on Glamp manager.
Speaker B:How did you hear about us?
Speaker B:George Clark's Amazing spaces.
Speaker B:And they all checked those boxes, so that was fantastic.
Speaker B:So I think that that hybrid approach works well.
Speaker B:Reviews, we, we do ask guests, would you mind leaving us a review?
Speaker B:And out of the 326 bookings that we've had so far, no, sorry, 200 odd that have taken place, we've had a hundred bookings.
Speaker B:So basically one out of every two will each of us leave us a review?
Speaker B:And all those reviews have been five star.
Speaker A:That's brilliant.
Speaker A:And how do you get the reviews?
Speaker A:Do you.
Speaker A:Do you email them or WhatsApp them to get the reviews?
Speaker A:Do you sor.
Speaker A:Remind them?
Speaker B:I WhatsApp them a Google review, Google business review link.
Speaker B:And I do that either the evening they get home or maybe the next day.
Speaker B:And what one was really interesting, a guest that we had last week, we had a smoke alarm that went off at 4am and they tried to live with it.
Speaker B:Then they messaged us on WhatsApp.
Speaker B:Luckily Annie heard.
Speaker B:They then called, Annie heard it, we got out of bed, we went up to the tree houses because again, we're on site, we addressed it.
Speaker B:So on their last morning, they had very little sleep, they still raved about their stay and they left a five star review as well.
Speaker B:So I think it just shows that that personal touch, the attention to detail and going above and beyond really does create that experience for guests, that it's a memory for them.
Speaker B:Yeah, hopefully a positive memory that we can improve on.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:But things can go wrong.
Speaker A:You know, like we've had times when we've had not been able to fix something and it's not been something like stay critical, but it's been something annoying.
Speaker A:Like we had a light switch that started to develop a fault, it was a bit stiff.
Speaker A:So rather than like just ignore it and think, well, we'll fix that the next time we can't get it fixed this time, we would tell the guests that we're aware that the stuff switch is sort of a bit sticky and apologize and then, you know, things go wrong.
Speaker A:And when you've got back to back bookings.
Speaker A:It's like they wouldn't want you to cancel their stay.
Speaker A:And sometimes, like you say, things go wrong operationally when the guests are actually during the stay and how you rectify it, you can actually pull that back and, you know, turn a possible negative, where they could give you a negative review into a positive.
Speaker A:And you've obviously, you've done that excellently.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it's, it's about being that caring host that realizes that that's vitally important to keeping that good reputation.
Speaker A:And obviously people do look at those Google reviews and it affects your rankings as well with search results.
Speaker A:So really, really important.
Speaker B:And we, and the funny thing was at 4am we supply gowns for the dressing gowns for the guests, for the use in the outdoor bath thing.
Speaker B:And the family were dressed up in their dressing gowns and I felt it wasn't the right opportunity to say, oh, so you're using the gowns?
Speaker A:Then we won't have like a family photograph with everyone in the game.
Speaker A:It's probably not the right time for that.
Speaker A:But yeah, it was nice that they had them given the.
Speaker A:You know, you always dread that.
Speaker A:Don't you feel like you're staying in a hotel and the alarm goes off and you have to like vacate in your PJs to the front of the building?
Speaker A:You know, at least they had their beautiful, beautiful gowns to their robes to wear.
Speaker A:How do you encourage repeat stays from, you know, given that families and couples often will look for variety and want to try out different places for their holidays or their short breaks.
Speaker A:So how do you encourage them to come back again?
Speaker B:So I think it's all about the personal touch, the warm welcome that we give, the help that we take to even help with their luggage up to the treehouse.
Speaker B:It's a bit of a trek from the car park.
Speaker B:And I mentioned at the start that someone arrived and said, I want to stay, I want to come back before they'd even gone through the front door.
Speaker B:If we feel that they've had a great time and that they're almost candidates for coming back, we mention that if they like to return the packages that we normally sell to guests, say the pizza package or the fire pit cooking package, we'll offer to include in the next day.
Speaker B:So we try not to discount, but we like to add in the extras.
Speaker B:We also mention the plans that we have for enhancing the site and also other extras that we're, we're working on.
Speaker B:So, for example, previously, before we had the masseuse that was able to visit.
Speaker B:We talked about bringing that in.
Speaker B:We've got a local chef in the village that we're talking to about being a local private chef for people.
Speaker B:The partnerships with vineyards and cideries, we were able to promote that.
Speaker B:And then we find a lot of word of mouth in terms of loyalty so that if that guest doesn't come back, they recommend someone who does.
Speaker B:The other aspect of our guests is because we are three bedrooms and we have this magical property that works for families and for couples.
Speaker B:We often get couples that will stay and say I want to come back with the kids.
Speaker B:Or we get families that stay and.
Speaker B:And then the parents will say, do you know what?
Speaker B:We'd really like to come back just ourselves.
Speaker B:So they feed into each other.
Speaker B:It's almost circular.
Speaker A:And are the two tree houses styled slightly differently as well?
Speaker B:Exactly, they are slightly different.
Speaker B:So in the main inside they're actually mirror images.
Speaker B:So where you go in and the kitchen's on the left, now the kitchen's on the right and vice versa.
Speaker B:In one of them we have, and that's our more accessible one, Fuggle.
Speaker B:We've got you walk up a slope in the woods and then you turn around and come back on a ramp so that you've just walked up basically a 20 degree slope and then a 10 degree ramp, but you're at the front of it, you're 4 meters in the air.
Speaker B:The front door is 4 meters above the ground.
Speaker B:So we get the achievement of height without having to do a lot of any steps.
Speaker B:So that one's step free.
Speaker B:That one's also got a nook under the staircase where it's a little place where kids can play.
Speaker B:And it's got a little window out the staircase onto the living area so they can play shops or they can play and they can still be seen by the parents while they're sitting down in front of the, the wood burner.
Speaker B:So that's Fuggle.
Speaker B:So we target that at families with toddlers or we get quite, quite a few multi generational stays.
Speaker B:So we get the grandparents, the parents and the kids because we've got the three bedrooms.
Speaker B:And so we target that at the more mobility challenged aspect of our audience.
Speaker B:And then bramling the other treehouse, it's basically steps all the way, 32 steps from the edge of the woods up to the front door.
Speaker B:It's mirror image but the decks are different.
Speaker B:So we thought that that would be more families with teenagers where we had separate decks that were connected but the kids could go and be on their own, away from the parents, or they could all come together.
Speaker B:So there are.
Speaker B:And one of the things about when people check out is they say, oh, what's the other one like?
Speaker B:And we say, well, would you like a little look?
Speaker B:And so they trek over there.
Speaker B:And that's a, you know, that's a bit of advertising that we can do before they leave.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I do think.
Speaker A:And also that you've touched on accessibility and that's another niche that actually is very poorly served in the treehouse market.
Speaker A:Just because of the nature of tree houses generally.
Speaker A:They're not very accessible.
Speaker A:And we did consider that with ours, about whether we could incorporate accessibility.
Speaker A:And it was just too challenging with the.
Speaker A:With the location.
Speaker A:But it's definitely a niche worth exploring.
Speaker A:I. I feel like we could probably, like, because we're treehouse nuts ourselves, we could probably chat.
Speaker A:Chat all day about.
Speaker A:About our tree house projects.
Speaker A:And I think it's anyone who's probably developed any sort of glamping business, often it's a.
Speaker A:It's a labor of love.
Speaker A:They take many years and there's lots of obstacles to get over in terms of planning and everything else and sometimes even just site logistics to.
Speaker A:To actually build what you're building.
Speaker A:So, yeah, they do tend to be a little bit.
Speaker A:We've become a bit obsessive about them because they're quite challenging.
Speaker A:Challenging to create.
Speaker A:I think I was going to ask you a little bit about sort of what advice you'd give to other glamping hosts starting out, but I think we've probably covered that quite a lot in terms of.
Speaker A:There were some things that you tried that didn't work.
Speaker A:I think for me, listening to what you've said, I mean, you've done this brilliant hybrid model which you've really, you know, you're growing your direct bookings.
Speaker A:I know you're a member of my marketing club and, you know, you're focused on getting more direct bookings, but you've gone with the blend of, you know, leveraging.
Speaker A:Leveraging those that ota and obviously not the other agents, but the directory listing sites and using those to your advantage to, you know, to grow your brand and obviously to then get those as direct bookings, which is.
Speaker A:Which is fantastic.
Speaker A:It's like music to your ears, I should think, in terms of your percentages, they're very positive.
Speaker B:Yeah, if we were 100% OTA, I would be griping more about the commission that I'd be paying on each booking, but because it is 33% of our bookings and then it's a small percentage that they actually take.
Speaker B:It's overall, it feels like it's worth it.
Speaker B:And I'm still learning more about how to leverage the email marketing list that I got from the Weird Fish exercise after attending one of your workshops.
Speaker B:I did send out an email.
Speaker B:I did get a booking back.
Speaker B:So what a tremendous return on investment.
Speaker A:That was to get a free opportunity through the listing site and to have that partnership.
Speaker A:It's a great opportunity.
Speaker A:Well, Sean, I have one last question for you today, and this is a fun one.
Speaker A:I've been asking everyone who comes onto the podcast, who's a host, if you could have one famous or a famous person come to stay with you, who would it be?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I have to say, George Clark.
Speaker B:What a lovely bloke.
Speaker B:When we were on the program, he had such, we've got so many sound bites.
Speaker B:You know, he just gushed, he enthused about it.
Speaker B:I mean, he does all about all of his projects, but we really felt a warmth from there and then getting the award from him down at Will's workshop.
Speaker B:But he did, he never got to stay.
Speaker B:So I think we'd like to say, George, you're very welcome to, to come and stay in, in the treehouse in Fugle Treehouse.
Speaker A:Oh, that's.
Speaker A:I think that's a good one.
Speaker A:And also being sort of, you know, architecture and everything is like his thing.
Speaker A:It's like I think he would really appreciate, I think people who sort of understand the build and what goes into make good guests.
Speaker A:But he'd be a good celebrity to have as well.
Speaker A:Definitely wouldn't do you any harm from a marketing point of view.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker A:Thank you so much, Sean, for coming onto the podcast today.
Speaker A:I've really enjoyed talking to you and thank you for being so generous and sharing your learnings with the listeners.
Speaker B:Thank you, Sarah.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's great to have you here.
Speaker A:And thank you to everyone else listening in.
Speaker A:If you've enjoyed this episode, you know what to do.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:If you could leave me a review.
Speaker A:Review.
Speaker A:Because you know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.
Speaker A:Next week, I'm back with a solo episode.
Speaker A:I'm flying solo and I'm looking at whether you should give that influencer a free stay.
Speaker A:I get asked this all the time in my marketing club because are they simply just blagging a freebie?
Speaker A:So I'm going to be sharing some tips with you next week on that because we've all been there.
Speaker A:So bye for now and I'll see you next time.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.
Speaker A: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.
Speaker A:Head to my website get fully booked.com quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.
Speaker B:It.
