The Holiday Homefront: October 2021
Autumnal Greetings!
As autumn’s fingers lose their grip on the countryside, we welcome you to pop another log on the woodburner or another marshmallow in your hot chocolate and invest a little time in this month’s top tips and advice to help holiday cottage owners everywhere stay at the very top of their game.
As ever, we provide a summary of an article. If you’d like to learn more, click on the title.
Welcome Packs: The Impact of Natasha’s Law.
From October 1st, the UK Food Information Act Amendment (aka Natasha’s law) came into force. This has significant implications for all holiday property owners who provide a welcome pack for their guests. You are strongly advised to acquaint yourself with it before your local environmental health office comes knocking.
The law is covered in the Pink Book. We also recommend the intelligently written ‘user guide’ on the PASC Website; click on the title above to download it. The guide also considers the legality of including alcohol in a welcome pack – you cannot simply get away by saying it is a free gift!
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New Revised Self-Catering Covid Cleaning Protocols V5.
We still need to keep our properties COVID clean – and we are getting better at working out the best and most reliable way to do this. The latest version has been published and applies to England, Scotland and Wales. The guide includes The Cleaning Protocols, The Risk Assessment, A Cleaning Checklist and some FAQs. The document is free; copies can be downloaded from the PASC website. Click on the title to get your copy :
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Stable Cottage: A hot tub and a fabulous beach for all seasons.
Why Cutting Ad Spend is Dangerous
A word from the wise: You may think your next year's bookings are ahead of the curve, or you can rely upon repeat bookings to fill a season or two. However, experience shows that reducing your advertising spend is a high and potentially expensive risk. Learn why now is not the time to cut back on marketing your holiday cottages – and what you should do instead.
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So many ways for couples to relax at Anne’s Hut in the Monmouthshire countryside
How Can Vacation Rentals Take Advantage of the Wellness Travel Trend
Wellness travel is on the up as people take more care of themselves and look for a way to decompress after two stressful and largely isolated years. This article explains wellness travel, why it has become so popular and how holiday cottage managers can take advantage of this trend.
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Best Vacation Rental Headlines: Examples to Attract Guests
We like this easy-read, straightforward guide from Guest Hook. It highlights do’s and don’ts to use as a guide when writing headlines to display your property on advertising sites. Headlines are essential in describing your holiday property in an online advert. Whatever you call them, “property titles,” “titles”, “property name”, etc., these are the title words that appear at the head of your advert. Learn how to write them to generate a better response to your advertisement.
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How to create an Instagram Reel for your vacation rental business in under 5 minutes
A common misconception among holiday cottage owners about Instagram marketing is that it is time-consuming. This video busts the perception by tackling Instagram’s popular new video format: Reels, and tells you how to create a Reel in under 5 minutes.