👋 Welcome to all of the new subscribers who have joined this week. I hope you find our newsletter both informative and thought provoking as you continue your FHL journey.

This weeks bumper edition has tons of useful content. Including :

• How to use FREE tools to assess market performance for your region

• View a league table of the top FHLs for your town to see where your property stands

• Ideas for differentiating your brand with enhanced customer experience

Plus the usual updates on the latest news and information.

See you next Saturday at 5pm?

Phil

Founder, My Holiday Guide

IN THE NEWS

Abolition of FHL Tax Allowances

Following last weeks budget that confirmed the governments plans, it appears that the FHL tax changes will be implemented as planned without any further concessions.

Given this and the other budget announcements, your attention may be moving towards preparing for the changes, focussing on becoming more efficient and increasing revenue.

Through this newsletter we will also continue to provide resources and information to help you achieve just that!

If you haven’t downloaded it already, Zeal have created a FREE ebook that provides details about the tax changes and recommends a number of actions you can take now to minimise any impact.

Other News

• Couple to appeal Welsh council decision to not grant retrospective planning permission for 4 cabins built next to Welsh coastal path, or be forced to demolish them

• French lawmakers have backed a bill aimed at increasing the regulation of tourist accommodation such as Airbnb to combat the shortage of affordable housing. In a number of ways this bill is similar to the UK changes being implemented next April

AI Powered Search Might Help Direct Bookers

Whilst Google currently commands over 90% of search traffic, with the release of ChatGPT Search in America (soon to be rolled out to the UK), and with Google focussing on delivering AI enhanced search results, like it or not, AI powered search is coming for all of us!

But so what you may ask!

Currently, when potential guests search for ‘beach front holiday cottage in Abersoch’ Google provides a list of potential results based upon its algorithm. The potential guest has to then click on each link to try and find an actual property that meets their needs.

In the near future, a potential guest could type in a search query such as ‘Find me a pet-friendly beach house in Cornwall for 6 people with a hot tub’, and be provided with a list of potential properties; directly within their search. No more clicking in and out of OTA website listing searches!

Whilst any AI powered search like this will still gain search results from the OTAs such as Airbnb; it’s also feasible that this change might help direct bookers as; rather than potential guests searching directly on the OTA websites, they can use AI powered search to find the most suitable properties; which can include results from direct booking websites alongside the OTA results.

So what does this mean for now?

As always, irrespective of if you just list on the OTAs and/or on your own website; maximising your listing details for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is key. Some actions you can take now are :

• Review your amenities list to ensure it is up to date and maximised

• Amend your property description to more specifically focus on the type of property you offer, and that includes copy that is aimed towards your target guests. You can use ChatGPT to help you with this task!

• If you take direct bookings, check that your website settings such as meta description best describes your property and amenities

• Keep subscribed to our newsletter for more tips ;-)

If AI powered search does start providing a boost for direct booking, it might drive more owners to offer a direct booking website and enable an increase in profit by avoiding OTA fees. What do you think?

LISTING PERFORMANCE & GROWTH
Tips and strategies to enhance the visibility and attractiveness of your holiday let.

How To Differentiate Your Brand In A Crowded Market

During a recent webinar hosted by Rental Scale-Up, Brooke Fauci from Vantage Resort Realty in Maryland talked through how he grew their property management company from 0 to 500 properties in 5 years before selling it.

One of the key factors he puts his success down to was the role of truly differentiating yourself from the competition by providing an enhanced customer experience.

Here are some examples of how he achieved this and how you could apply it to your holiday let business :

1. Emulating Hotel-Like Services: Fauci highlights how he drew inspiration from Hilton hotels to elevate his offerings beyond basic key handover

2. Addressing Unmet Needs: Fauci emphasises understanding guest demand and identifying gaps in the market via surveying guests and online research. Fauci identified an unmet need for larger properties

3. Sunny Days Guaranteed: Fauci mentions implementing a refund policy for extended periods of rain

4. Leads for Life Program: Fauci explains a mutually beneficial scheme with estate agents. Fauci would include a flyer within the FHL properties that says something along the lines of ‘If you love this area why not buy a property here?’ with a QR code (referral link) to the estate agent. In return the estate agent would recommend any new property owners to Fauci for renting out their home

I hope the above has provided some food for thought and that you can tailor these suggestions to meet your market and target audience.

What ideas does this make you think of for your holiday let? Hit reply and let me know.

FEATURED RESOURCE
Highlighting useful tools and resources for your holiday let.

FREE Market Data from VisitBritain & Lighthouse

Tools such as Key Data and PriceLabs are great for providing market intelligence and pricing and occupancy data to allow you to maximise your profits, however these do come at a cost.

If you are after some FREE performance data for your town or region, did you know that VisitBritain has a page buried deep within their website that provides some great metrics such as occupancy rates, average revenue per property, etc. that you can view by region? You can also filter the data by property type (E.g. private room or whole property) and by property capacity (number of guests). You can also view the data for any previous month to gain a view of how the measures change over time.

Click on the link below to be taken to VisitBritains resources page and then click on the ‘Short term rental’ button.

Lighthouse also provide a few FREE tools that you can view. One of them allows you to view a league table of the ‘best’ holiday let properties for any town in the world.

The ranking is based upon Lighthouse’s ranking score (0-100), so you can view what Lighthouse perceives to be the ‘best’ short term rental properties in your town.

Lighthouse doesn’t provide any details on how they calculate their score however as they provide data such as RevPAR, occupancy rates, etc. you can imagine that the score is based upon a number of these.

I would see this as more of a research tool to assess your town and to compare your listing(s) with the top performing properties in your area.

INTERIOR DESIGN
Interior design inspiration and decor tips.

PROPERTIES OF THE NEWSLETTER
We all love looking at and getting inspiration from other properties so here’s our top pick for this edition.

NO FOMO
Missed last weeks newsletter? Here’s one thing you might like.

Insights from Q3 Performance Data

In last weeks newsletter we delved into Key Data’s performance data for Q3.

You can read the full details within our newsletter here :

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