Posh Cottage Under New Management
My family has been in the hospitality business for as long as I can remember. My father, grandfather and two of my uncles (my dad’s brothers) were all Country Club Managers. Early on, I made the conscious choice NOT to take that career path and instead opted for the Visual Arts, working as a professional artist, Arts Administrator and finally as an Arts Educator in Higher Education. Then I had this brilliant idea to start my own company, Palisade Posh which led me back to the world of hospitality.
While agritourism is a far cry from the Country Club culture, Posh Cottage is all about providing a luxurious environment for out guests to enjoy all that our Palisade agriculture has to offer. Our vacation rental has now been open a little over a year and oh what a year it’s been! Originally, Andy and my thought was to hire a management company to oversee the operation so we could focus on building out the farm and I could continue making art. This idea proved to be flawed… our first management company did not understand our market or the area. The first red flag was when we discovered the photographer they hired, proceeded to photoshop out all the amazing views Posh Cottage offered. They also priced the Cottage so low that we had guests that did not value all the luxury amenities we offered and instead treated the cottage like a ‘Motel 6’ and proceeded to trash the place, smoking Marijana the duration of their 10-day stay! The Cottage is a no smoking environment and signage stating that is clearly visible in the building. I quickly learned the value and cost of hazardous materials deep clean and fired the management company.
Our next management company was better, they priced the Cottage more appropriately which I appreciated, and they managed it during the difficult time of Andy’s stroke – for that I am forever grateful. That said mistakes were still made, first setting it as a one night minimum, even after I clearly stated I wanted a two-night minimum. As this company also did the cleaning of the Cottage, I suspect the one-night turn around might not have been purely an accident as it meant they got paid the cleaning fee more often. Fortunately, I caught the mistake, but it required me to cancel a reservation which gave me a big fat ‘ding’ mark on the Airbnb platform. Hosts should never cancel reservations without just cause. This in turn impacted my ability to gain Super Host status on Airbnb.
Once Andy returned from the hospital, I was able to focus a little more on Posh Cottage and took a more active role in its oversight. This is when I noticed the cleaning was starting to decline and I discovered there was a change in personnel and the individual doing the cleaning was NOT the person I had hired originally, instead it was her husband. I also realized that the management company was making more money than I was on our vacation rental! This is when I took over the cleaning of the Cottage. Now each time we have a turnover, I do what is considered in the house cleaning industry as a ‘deep clean’. I on average spend approximately three hours cleaning and preparing the Cottage for our next guest. It is my vacation rental, so I am invested, I want our guests to have the best stay imaginable and cleanliness is key! Even though I spend more time cleaning, I’ve kept the cleaning fee the same, so it is more amicable to our guests booking the Cottage.
As the summer progressed, I began to request financials at the end of each month. Unfortunately, the financial reports were not lining up with what was appearing in my bank account. This was another big red flag and when I decided I need to take on the management of our vacation rental myself. Then the unthinkable happened and our last guest of 2024 ran their car into the Cottage, and we were closed for three months. While repairs took place, I parted ways with my second management company and took over.
To say this transition period was a learning experience would be an understatement! Luckily, I was the primary host for the Airbnb platform, so I was able to keep that site. I updated the pictures with professional photographs, wrote and revised our guest correspondence, and updated the pricing so it was more in line with both off and on season pricing in the area. Unfortunately, I had to recreate our VRBO site from the ground up and Booking.com was so unresponsive to the change in management that I dropped their site completely.
As a newbie to managing an Airbnb, I was constantly second guessing myself on the pricing, worrying would I get any bookings? Would I continue to get good reviews? But as with most situations that cause worry, it was unwarranted. Just like last year, when March rolled around, bookings started to come in. I did have a few during the months of January – February which was awesome. With those reservations I learned new management insight that were not conveyed to me during the transition. This included the fact that while Airbnb is set up to give the guests their key codes automatically, VRBO is not! I learned this the hard way, when our first VRBO guest couldn’t get into the Cottage using their code! Lesson learned… I also discovered my correspondence letters were not set up correctly, however I also learned that VRBO’s support team was and is amazing! I learned how to sync the two calendars thus ensuring I don’t double book the place, but that as a precautionary measure I should always double check and make sure that new reservations are appearing on both platforms. Never, ever assume anything an always remember, there is going to be something new to learn… I remind myself this daily!
Learning curve aside, I’d say the biggest and perhaps the best thing about managing your own short term rental is the fact that I now have contact with our guests. I think this is what is important as that connectivity is what makes them feel valued as a guest. It comes down to genuine customer service, and I think that is very important, especially in the world of hospitality! I live on property so I can respond to concerns more quickly. It is my vacation rental, so I value the feedback guests give me. While using the different management companies this didn’t always happen which in turn made it hard for me to make any improvements that might have been suggested. Obviously, some comments are more useful that others but I’m learning to distinguish the difference and I’m also learning to toughen up a bit and not take comments that aren’t helpful personally.
As an artist you need to develop a tough skin quickly if you are going to survive the art world; Turns out the same is true in hospitality! That said, with each new booking I’m learning to fine tune and improve on the Cottage. I’m also realizing the true niche of our vacation rental. Although it offers a full kitchen, cozy living area, full bath and outdoor hang out space, it is a single bedroom, Cottage. I designed it for short term stays, and everything is scaled to the size of the space. It was never intended to be a long-term rental. I’d been contemplating renting it out in the off months as a long-term rental to traveling nurses, doctors and or business folks. However, that is not what the Cottage is about.
Now that Posh Cottage is under new management (aka me), I will continue to improve on all that it has to offer, and fine tune my costumer service. This positive disposition in managing our vacation rental has indeed paid off in that I have now achieved the status of Super Host on our Airbnb platform! Now my goal is to reach a similar status on VRBO.
As we move into our second year of hosting, I’m sure I will have many more learning opportunities and will probably fall on my face a few more times, but I will also get to meet many more guests who are coming to Palisade to enjoy and support our agritourism. As manager, I will strive to ensure their stay is relaxing, enjoyable and inspires them to visit us again at Posh Cottage!
