Design the Ultimate Getaway

good morning everyone thank you for joining us for design the ultimate getaway uh welcome to the tourism nova scotia webinar series today is thursday july 8th and my name is nick fry i'm the manager of business development with tourism nova scotia for those of you joining us for the first time tourism nova scotia is the provincial marketing organization for the province of nova scotia we market nova scotia as a vacation destination and help lead initiatives to grow the tourism industry covenant 19 and the related travel restrictions have had significant impacts on businesses and this webinar series is here to offer relevant tips and help guide you through the pandemic as we are welcoming visitors again so thank you so much for joining us and um just let you know that we're going to encourage you to put your q a in the bottom so don't put it in the chat if you have any questions put in the q a we'll make sure they get answered we will be providing a link to the webinar so if you have to run out or if we go over an hour and you have to run out to another meeting that's fine it will be available to you um online afterwards if you have any questions after the fact if something hits you just send it our way we'll give you our information you can send us an email and it's really uh encourage you guys to ask any questions uh throughout the best um webinars we've had or ones where everyone's really engaged and it's really excited to be able to to offer this webinar today so uh noelle mcgee is the co-owner of monk and non-interiors with her husband mika uh they offer a unique um fusion of design renovation and short-term rental management so we're gonna get lots of great uh insights and tips today they help property owners transform their accommodations into the greatest potential and provide management assistance where needed the goal would be to help accommodations providers to increase their bookings and offer excellent guest experiences and most of their properties are located within the annapolis valley so uh without further ado i'd like to encourage noel to join to also let you know we also we do offer um uh like live transcript on the bottom and if you don't want that you can simply scroll over your little toolbar at the top or bottom of your screen you can turn that off uh but we do have that on just to help with accessibility of course so thank you so much noelle and welcome and can't wait to hear what you have to tell us there we go thank you so much for the warm welcome and for inviting me here i'm just gonna open my slides here um i'm just so thrilled to be able to present this information to you because i know as well as you guys do that it has been it has been a roller coaster it has been an up and down time during this pandemic for those of you um who own accommodations or maybe have been considering starting something it's an uncertain time but i just want to be here to encourage you because we've still been successful through that rollercoaster there have been dips but there's been many highs as well and i'm here to help you make your place stand out because the accommodation the tourism accommodation can be in a noisy world people who are coming don't necessarily know like where to stay what the best part of town is and so they're really looking online and so that's what i'm here to help you kind of um i'm here to help you stand out in a way so um thank you so so much uh i'm gonna start with a little bit of introduction but please um drop in the chat drop it in the chat like where are you guys from what interested you about being here today um what are you most uh curious about um and i'm just yeah i'm just thrilled to be here i did look at the registration uh kind of seeing where everybody was coming from we're all kind of in this accommodation game differently um so i'll explain um where i'm coming from a little bit but what i want to make clear is i feel like a lot of this information that i'm going to present today is definitely um applicable across the accommodation board when it comes to tourism in nova scotia so um you may have to like um adjust your mindset around around your accommodation for what i'm presenting because we manage short term rentals so if you have an inn or a motel or something like that you may just have to put my information into that context but i still feel it's applicable so a little bit about us micah and i i was born in brookfield nova scotia um just outside of truro and i was raised there for the first eight years of my life uh then my mom remarried and we moved to montreal but we always kept coming home to nova scotia because as you know nova scotia it's hard to keep nova scotians away from nova scotia so we would come back for like long weekends and everything we're always just coming back so nova scotia is a huge part for me and then um you know i grew up went to university met my husband and my husband and i lived in many different provinces and five years ago we decided to move back here and raise our family we have three kids under the age of 10 and raise our family in nova scotia we couldn't think of a better place to do that the last place we lived was in alberta and we ran a kids summer camp there and when it wasn't summer it was a retreat center and over those five years we found a love we got so much joy out of hosting people at the retreat center because we realized how much rest and renewal they were getting and it was so rewarding because if we hosted them well um it was kind of life-changing it enabled them to have the rest and renewal that they needed and so when we moved to nova scotia we wanted to start a renovations and design business but we didn't want to let go of the retreat center vibe the the hosting people the welcoming people and really providing them with that rest and renewal so we said well let's throw it in there and see what happens well five years later we're managing uh 20 this summer 20 short term rentals and we focus mainly on airbnb some of them are on vrbo as well but we focus mainly on airbnb because it's a really user friendly platform for homeowners and so we don't own those 20 we help we help people um run their short-term rentals and so with our design and renovations combination we carried that into the short-term rental world and what we've realized is that design um and that that's what welcomes people really well because you're not always greeting them you're not always showing them around the place you know if it's no matter the accommodation um sometimes it's your staff that's at the welcome desk sometimes but they are opening the door themselves and how can you how can you welcome them best how can you enhance that experience uh and away and i believe that through the power of design you can enhance that experience so we're gonna go through some of that today um but that's how we arrived at doing this and we are just loving it loving life we now have a team of seven people helping us here in nova scotia because we can't do it all on our own um and so why is this important to us it's important as i just said to provide people with the rest and renewal why is it important to the guests because if they feel well cared for if they aren't worried about this that and the other if they don't have to run out and get something that's missing from your accommodation then they will they will have that rest of renewal and then they will refer your place and then um they'll come back time and time again and that is because they felt cared for more than anything and why is this important to you because if you are providing an excellent guest experience um then you are going to get the best return on your investment and we'll talk about that a little bit um we will have an opportunity for q a at the end so get your pens and papers out um or you can just type them into the q a box there at the bottom of the screen um and we'll address those at the end so that as i'll just go through all of the information that i have for you today and then um you can ask anything about anything at the end okay so let's dive in there are a number of things to consider when designing a space for your guest to stay in of course comfort you want them to be comfortable you want them to have the practical things that they need do they have what they need if it's a short-term rental like we manage do they have the types of cooking utensils do that they need do they have the bedding that they need um you want to give them good customer service you want to provide them with a little bit of wow factor so that you stand out from your competitors and you want you want them to leave you a good review of course because that is something that others will be checking out online but really what i want to do with you guys today is dive a little deeper so my goal is to help you with designing your place on a shoestring because when people hear the word design they see dollar signs and that is not what i'm here to do today i love using what people have and just rearranging it decluttering it minimalizing it and um and just adding a few little pieces and we'll go through that today to uh help you design a place that will stand out online and to your guests but you're doing it on a shoestring so i'm here for you in that way um the customer wants to have the best customer experience not just the best customer service so back here i talked about you want to provide them with good customer service but really what the customer is looking for or your guest in this case is their experience their vacation experience were they able to really let go of all of the worry and put the stress down put their work life down and and have a great experience in their time away from home um and then ultimately and i know you guys are thinking this you want the best roi return on your investment um with your short-term rental um accommodation and so i'm here to help you with that that is my goal for you um as well as my goal for the customer um is just to give everybody the best scenario the best return on their investment so how will we do this i want to get rid of all the objections running through your head right now okay so i know i hear these objections all the time so i'm just going to encounter them face on right now and you guys you guys may relate to some of them you may not relate to some of them but these things i don't want this mindset stuff to get in the way of the rest of the presentation so i'm going to um face them head on so um are you thinking how will we make the guests over the top happy without breaking our bank i don't have a budget for this house or this project how do i do this on a shoestring i don't have the slightest idea about design i'm not creative that's a big one i want you to throw that out the window right now i don't know what guests are looking for and that may be but i'm here to help you with that how can i make my place stand out from others how can this possibly be easy well i'd like to suggest that if we put a little bit of effort into the design and thoughtfulness at the beginning like right now starting today then the rest will be smooth sailing i've seen it happen time and time again so i know it's possible for you all right so guys it's time to start sailing let's let's get ready get your pens and paper ready start taking notes i know that the replay will be available for this as well so if you ever want to go back and re-watch it you can on the website um but today we're going to talk about some small items that you can begin to change right now and that will make you stand out in a noisy market so less is more you may have heard this old adage before but it's entirely true we only want to have in your accommodation what people need so decluttering is a huge part of it and probably the the biggest part of this project for you so i'm going to give you an example about my granddad's cottage i've shared this with cindy wade who works at tourism nova scotia before when we first met and i don't know about you guys but we had a cottage we have a cottage in nova scotia in bass river and near port a pick and it was kind of like when anybody in our entire family the extended family was done with something it went to granddad's cottage so my great-grandfather built it so it had all of the mismatched furniture tons of different sizes of things dressers that a tv was on um and i'm making it it wasn't actually cluttered it just had everything everybody's discards basically and so um you know nothing matched the the the cupboards in the kitchen were just chock full to the top and they were super high and i don't even know what was on the top shelves you know and so when we're renting out a place we don't want that type of granddad's cottage feel people don't want to be walking into your belongings and so even if it is a family cottage that you've rented out i'll ask you guys to de-personalize it a little bit and really consider just what do people need while they're there um versus like this is a great place to store things so i want to just um in atlantic canada i think this is a great example it's not in nova scotia and it's a recent project that was just completed but these are the fish sheds i don't know if you've heard of them they're in newfoundland and so uh this couple kind of like micah and myself i haven't met them yet but they just bought these five um old fisherman's sheds and i don't know what they first looked like i wonder if there's a blog on that or something but they completely just paired it down they minimalized it they painted everything white and they only put back in what they felt their guests would absolutely need so this is the result i don't have a before picture for that so let's talk about less is more in the bedrooms and the bathrooms so what i want you to think of with these two areas in particular is to think of a hotel when it comes to the bedrooms and the bathrooms when you walk into a hotel everything's really quite crisp you feel like it's been really clean and it's real it really only has what people need um i suggest personally and people have different opinions on this but i kind of stick to my guns on this one because it's going to help you i suggest white linens because they're easy to clean they're easy to bleach if needed because you have a lot of turnover going on at least we want you to have a lot of turnover going on and they're super easy to replace so if you had um when i say easy to replace if you had like a floral bed set and um one of the pillows got stained well then you couldn't just go out and replace that one pillowcase you'd have to replace the whole set um or you would have a mismatch set and we want to avoid both of those things and so really if everything just matches it makes it easier for your cleaners um not just to clean but to just grab the right size you know and they're not digging around they're not wasting time looking for what goes with what um but it's just kind of easy if everything's uniform so and it's much easier to clean um easy to um to put stain remover on and things like that uh same goes for like face claws and things like that um so adding in some extra throws this is important because people may get cold so you'll you'll notice that like in a hotel room usually up on the on the top shelf of the closet that they'll be like a warmer blanket this is what i'm talking about when it comes to throws just so each bedroom has an extra an extra blanket in case because we're all different internal temperatures so in case somebody um is a little chilly so um conversely to that fans because you know it can get it can get warm in nova scotia at times and so this is something i've learned the hard way and had to go out you know as a guest is staying there to provide them with a fan sometimes you know the heat pump isn't cutting it or the ceiling fan isn't cutting it um and they really just they want a fan so i try to provide at least one depending on the size of the accommodation um one to four fans just like the stella ones um that can sit on a dresser or whatever and i just tuck those away in a closet um that way if anything does happen or the condenser of the heat pump that's happened to us before is broken i can just point them to where the fans are and that tides them over um and keeps them somewhat cool until um until we can fix the heat pump so i also suggest that there's four pillows per bed minimum um this is because everybody has a different comfort comfort level when they sleep and so if there's just two pillows some people don't feel like a couple wouldn't feel like that was enough so that is what i suggest and that does not include the cushions um like the decorative pillows that go on this is really sleeping pillows um you do not need to supply products you don't many people feel like they need to have like body wash or like shampoo from costco and things like that you don't necessarily need to do that in fact i feel like some guests feel like that's helpful it's about a 50 50 split some guests feel like that's helpful and other guests feel like that's kind of gross because other people have been using it and so um you don't need to supply those kind of things people usually travel with them you do need to supply hand soap of course things like um okay so we're just talking about the bathrooms i was gonna say dish soap but hand soap for the bathrooms toilet paper paper towel and a couple of cleaning products like under the sink like an all a multi-purpose cleaner something like that um we're gonna talk about added value later on but toiletries would be an added value and they need to be done really well so again we're not talking about kind of like this sloppy bottle that tons of people have used we're talking more about like um the mini ones that you can buy at walmart or at the dollar store and if this is something you want to do then you need to budget that in as your added value and we are going to be talking about what the added value looks like later but right now we're gonna stay concentrated on decluttering i just wanted to let you guys know that you don't need to have those items um depending on your accommodation if you are here visiting uh like listening to this and you own a motel um then maybe in your industry that is standard if that's standard for you then by all means but i'm talking about for us in short term accommodations or even in bed and breakfast i don't feel like those are necessary all right moving on to the kitchen so um if you have a kitchen space and i know this isn't necessary for everybody but it's it could even be a kitchenette in your short-term accommodation we suggest that you provide minimal spices so this is things like salt pepper sugar isn't a spice but you know if you wanted to add like some oregano and basil then that would be okay too but i wouldn't even suggest like a full spice rack because what's going to happen is you're going to have like the paprika that's super hardened or these things that people aren't going to use and it just ends up looking messy and dusty and kind of unappealing and so really just things that you can easily replace easily refill and things that are used quite frequently for the masses like basil and oregano and salt and pepper cooking utensils often these kind like the standard cooking utensils larger cooking utensils will often come in a pack of what people use the most so i suggest that people buy those um a set of cutlery is really ideal versus a mismatch um a bunch of cutlery uh people have commented on that before believe it or not i know a fork is a fork is a fork but people want to feel like they're getting what they paid for and so if you would like to increase um if you would like to increase your nightly rate and it's only about buying like a set of cutlery for twenty dollars then i would say um it's worth it's worth that it's worth purchasing that um so that you could up your nightly rate so your house looks very organized and and streamlined uh cutting boards are important for you because we don't want people cutting on your countertops or your table tops um and more than one cutting board i would say like two to three glasses wine glasses are important as well mugs dinnerware um how much that's a question that i often get how how many dishes should we be providing and so if your accommodation sleeps for people then i would say have maybe six of everything four of everything seems a little sparse right but if you have like six to eight of everything then they don't have to wash their cup every time they use it um in case it's in the dishwasher or whatnot so but i would not just fill it with dishes either so you want to really streamline it really bring it down so so not more than double the amount of guests that can stay there i wrote a set of pots and pans this is one thing that um you know they are more expensive it's true um but it really does show care for the client for the guests if you um if you have a set of pots and pans and you can get them at like canadian tire and stuff and canadian tire always has really good deals of set sets of pots and pans so we often send um our short-term rental owners there or i go for them uh to canadian tire because they're always like i don't know 25 50 off you can just watch in the flyer and kind of grab them when they're when they're on sale but they're really good quality they'll last a long time oftentimes it's the stoneware kind of ones um a coffee pot is incredibly important some people use the keurigs i'm not that keen on it because then you always have to replace the keurigs whereas with a coffee pot like a drip uh coffee pot then um then they just kind of have to bring their own coffee you can provide filters for them if it's necessary but you can also get the coffee pots that have the reusable washable filters and that's probably best because then you don't have to be thinking about do i need to replace the filters all the time um a kettle is also important i would leave the fridge bare this is a question i often get so even if you have um you know a motel or an in and it has a mini fridge in there i would definitely leave it there and very clean if you want to provide some waters in there that's always nice and refreshing when people first come in but aside from that i wouldn't leave things like ketchup and butter and margarine and everything like that um it just it feels a little bit it feels um i don't know like somebody else was there and you really want them to feel like this is their experience and it's not um that feeling is not then being taken away from by them feeling like oh there's some crummy butter or whatever in the fridge okay um so it is nice to have a few added value pieces in the kitchen like coffee it can be instant coffee um instant coffee stays fresh a lot longer than regular coffee other clients of ours have like the the tins of coffee like the kirkland brand or whatnot and that stays fresh for a pretty long time um teas just like red rose or can cold you can also have some boxes of herbal teas they stay stay fresh for a long time sugar packs as i mentioned before i will highlight the packs you don't just want to have a sugar jar because then i'll get clumpy and hard and again especially during covid like it's just better to not share those kind of items so uh sugar packs and they don't go bad um just like in a jar or a dish or something like that and then creamer i wouldn't provide them with milk but you could have a coffee made or something just in case they forgot their milk and they they decided to go grocery shopping after the first day that they arrived um but they wanted a cup of coffee before they went and did that that's really nice thing for them to have but again i would keep it really minimal if you want to provide some kind of treats and stuff like that you could have like some popcorn and you know packs packs of popcorn or oatmeal or something like that that's individual packs um but really frame your mind around having those individual packs and not just something that people are sharing from one guest to the other um a table that fits in the space so and the amount of chairs of your maximum capacity so if if you sleep too then you don't want to have like a massive table taking up tons of room it really does attribute to the minimalist feel if you just have the amount of chairs that people are sitting at if if it sleeps too and you want to have like a small table with four chairs that's absolutely fine um i'm talking more about the size of the table like you don't want a massive table taking up all of this room um if there's you know only two or four people able to stay there um so if this if this kitchen scenario does not apply to you directly um here are some other ideas of how you could help them with the kind of uh area of food and and nourishing themselves so where can they eat locally um if you have a kitchen like uh or you have a bed and breakfast like what is your menu um what is the menu of nearby restaurants could you provide them with that like the take out menus where could they get healthy options i always try to include something that would accommodate any dietary restrictions as well so i'm in kentville nova scotia and in canning there's a gluten-free restaurant where everything is gluten-free so i often put that down because more and more people are gluten-free and it's in this area so and it's it's quite a nice restaurant so um i always add that one but um just kind of thinking like how how would that make the the guest feel cared for because if they're away from home they may not know where to eat they know they may need suggestions and if you provide provide that for them um then they will definitely feel cared for let's talk about the living room for a second so you want the seating to be comfortable you want it to be able to accommodate um different sizes of people so keep that in mind as you're choosing furniture or replacing any furniture you also don't want it to be too much and you'd like it to be well organized i'm going to show you some examples of that in a minute so can consider the amount of people staying so how many people same as the kitchen table how many people would need to um how many chairs or sofas would you need for people to be comfortable in the space in the living area and do not clutter it like granddad's cottage just because you have a chair doesn't mean it should necessarily necessarily go into your short-term rental does it fit there does it mat does it go with the decor would it be a comfortable chair for people to sit in is it is it the right size um for the room and for um you know a number of a range of sizes of people too um an optional item would be a pull out sofa and this can increase your nightly rate so if you have two bedrooms um if you have two bedrooms like two queen beds in there but you have a pull out sofa that could then accommodate a family of five and and otherwise they may not have chosen your place because there's only room for four people to stay um or that you know it could be yeah i'll just leave it at that it can increase your nightly rate because then you could say we can accommodate five or six people um because you have the pull out sofa oops so throw blankets as well in the living room also important tvs are not necessary um some people do like tvs but we have a number of accommodations that don't have a television in them um especially the waterside ones some people some homeowners just think that people should come and relax so i leave that up to the homeowners so it's up to you um but we haven't you know we do mark it down if there is a tv or if there isn't a tv on the listing so people know once they're coming in but we haven't had any complaints about uh there being no tvs where there aren't any um cushions cushions um can do wonders and so um you don't want too many i would say like two per sofa one per chair less is more again so in the pandemic i have to let you guys know this is incredibly important to note that high-speed wi-fi and a desk area has become way more important for our guest experience and so um if you have a lot of people like we are we've been renting out month-long stays in our short-term rentals because people are just exploring a different area of nova scotia but they do need to work during the day so that has become a common question for us so if you haven't yet considered that this is a this is a new world and people are traveling but they're working at the same time um and so you may want to want to accommodate something small for them to be able to set up their laptop and whatnot and then again um wi-fi has become incredibly important for our guests as well for the same reasons so um i'll talk about this more in the added value area but you can have some books on the table about the area that would be a great added value place a a great added value item in the living room or any kind of you know we have one one place that has like a little wall in their living room uh just a little cubby kind of thing and it has um information about things that you can do in the area they got brochures and things like that and the wi-fi information's there and things so they just kind of set up this little board um for people to refer to if they were looking to do anything in the area okay so now that you've decluttered now that you've decluttered it's time to freshen it up so um and you can do this on a shoestring i will give you some examples of this um paint goes a long way a 30 can of paint can go an incredible um way and so an example for me is like when i started working on zoom more because of the pandemic um this was not white but i needed a fresh background so i just went out and got some white paint and painted my office white um actually this wasn't deep in my office before the pandemic hit so i had to have a home office so i i made this and i wanted it to be bright and light and airy and really um be accommodating to who i am as a person and also to my brand and i did that all with thirty dollars and a can of white paint so white paint goes a long way i know people are like oh white is so boring i hear that all the time so if that just went through your head i caught you but um there there's ways to bring in pops of color color you know tea towels you can get a red kettle and a red coffee maker or you can put beautiful artwork on the wall that will stand out way more against a white backdrop and this way if anything gets scuffed it's just super easy to paint over you're not color matching and all of this stuff so um artwork is a great way i'm going to show you guys examples i think it's on the next slide artwork is a great way to freshen a space and to make it feel um more robust and like you really put effort into the space and so there are so many amazing local artists and to give you a bit of a tip some local artists will want their artwork on display and so if you're open to it you can even reach out to someone you know that you like their art or like a local artist that you've heard of and you can ask them if you could hang it in your short term accommodation with their card beside and maybe a price point on that painting and they could even sell the artwork through you and your accommodation and that is a great way not only to um contribute to the local economy and support our local artists but also um also to shine up your place right so it's kind of this win-win uh mutually beneficial relationship um updating the hardware if you're dealing with an uh you know old dresser or an old kitchen or an old door even front door updating your hardware is a really cost effective way to make it feel more modern for instance right now black hardware matte black hardware is very in you can get black matte hardware at ikea you're gonna start hearing me talk about ikea a lot for like two dollars or something for a package um they may not be the highest quality right but i've had no trouble with them you know the next level up would be like the richarli brand at home depot you know five dollars for a poll or something like that but these are these are ways that you can really modernize your accommodation and make it feel like you've make it feel to the guest like you've you're with the trends you've put some effort into it um and you know it would take a couple hours to like unscrew the old hardware put on the new hardware and then uh it really would update your kitchen so uh black matte hardware brass hardware is also very popular right now but even if it's just you know a dated shape or something you could still go with you know the chrome poles or whatnot oops um furniture take an assessment like walk through as a guest or get a friend to come with you or get you know a cousin or a neighbor or somebody to walk through and say like what would you guys be thinking if you were staying here if you paid to stay here how much would you pay to stay here as it as the current space um and then ask them does anything need replacing um and you probably know does the mattress need replacing if the mattress doesn't need replacing i recommend that you try to sleep there for a night i always recommend to our homeowners that they try to sleep in their own accommodation for a night because that's when you're going to realize what's missing what's uncomfortable and what really needs replacing or maybe you just need to replace the bedding right so duvets and duvet covers um are they're easier to wash than quilts um because then you just keep the duvet on you strip the duvet color cover rather you wash it with the sheets um you know you can get duvet covers at ikea from i don't know twenty to a hundred dollars each um and so the twenty dollar ones are probably on the cheaper end but you do wanna get something um that's easy to wash and easy to dry again i would stick with white um and then you can just you know put a colorful throw if you don't want your room to be all white you can put a colorful throw along the bottom of the bed um and i'll show you that in an example of a house that we staged this week cushion covers oh i meant to grab one cushion covers so you can get five dollar cushions at ikea the inserts and then you get the cushion covers and i love the ones that are five dollars they come in all colors of the rainbow you can change out the colors when you get bored you can change out the colors for the season um but they have really amazing options for next to nothing at ikea i highly recommend that you use cushion covers so that when your cushions wear all you're doing is replacing the covers um and you're not having to go out and spend another forty dollars on cushions again okay here's an example of the house that we staged this week so we have a staging portion of our business and i just grabbed these i also want to let you guys know that um there are no filters on here i'm gonna be talking a lot about photos after or i'm going to mention about photos after these are just taken with our stagers um cell phone and i just this is the same room so this is the before picture here um and i just want to kind of show you the artwork take note right like we replaced the um bedside tables because they were a little large for the space and they made this closet door feel really cramped so we replaced them with smaller beds bedside tables nightstands we enlarged the artwork we just put a country type throw this is a log cabin obviously we put a country type throw over a white duvet we put five pillows on the bed and an area rug underneath totally minimalist we didn't even um we didn't even replace many things we re-use these lamps you'll see in the next photo so we didn't just discard the things um that were in there we reused them in other areas of the home so just kind of think about how you can maybe theme or bring together your items uh for each space and maybe that looks like shuffling things around a little bit so again these are just like cell phone pictures no filter we would typically present better photos but for this scenario i just really wanted to show you guys um i wanted you to pay attention to the changes like the before and after and and i feel like we would lose that if i had a filter on the photo um because then it would be very much very obvious that it was brighter and um and better so these are just the raw pictures so here's another example this was done yesterday or the day before um see the doggy on the bed but they had one bedside table this was just like a spare room in the basement um but again we lightened up the linens um added some throws had some matching um lamp shades to match the pillows and then added some artwork above the bed added added some um like a little fur and a carpet here uh the bed didn't change we just changed out the bedding and then we brought down one of the bedside tables from upstairs so that it it balanced it out a little more so again like this this probably was updated i want to say for under 200 so this was a spare bedroom that was being used um just as kind of a storage area there was a chair with some books and some cds um and so we updated it into a bedroom again the pictures are a little dark but we put this tray a candle a book about nova scotia a little towel and then um these are the lamps from the other bedroom and we just used the um a couple other matching uh nightstands that were already in in the home but we kind of had a blue nautical theme for this room this is the before of the living area there was a great bay try to take it of the same same angle here but there was a great big sofa here um and then the door was kind of here on the right hand side so we felt like as soon as you came in you saw a sofa um so this is the updated version we turned the downstairs bedroom into a tv room so that we took the tv out we really wanted to display these beautiful windows in this log home so you can really see the difference again they just had this they had a couch cover on there um because because of the dog so this is actually the same sofa we didn't even bring in a new sofa and if you remember this chair was in the spare bedroom so we just merely rearranged it through some cushions on there added some a floor lamp and a rug and a different shape of coffee table um so again a very uh quick update there but it made a big difference okay so now that we've taken things out and added it back in what we would like to make it nice and a nice clean aesthetic now it's time for the wow factor which is the added value um so another way to think of this is like a little treat for your guests so some examples that we do are welcome booklets we actually print them on like this linen paper um it's just a little bit extra right than printing it on the computer but i send them to a print shop to make them feel nice um and that that welcome booklet has items like what you should what you could do in the area any kind of like quirks about the house the wi-fi password all of all of the things that they will need to know so that they have a comfortable stay that also streamlines it so we get less phone calls about where's this where's that what can i do and all of that i tried anything i can think of i try to put into the welcome booklet or the welcome note so when they book our place i send them a welcome note that describes things they can start looking up to plan their itinerary for their trip and things like that and then when they arrive there's a welcome booklet um information about the local attractions and some of our accommodations we have just gone to the wolfville information center and gathered a bunch of brochures and kind of have them in a nice little stand so that people can go through those and um see you know if they wanted to go to the oakland farm zoo or um they wanted to go to different wineries or anything like that we try to really accommodate for families as well as couples that may be coming on a wine tour in the valley and stuff like that so really just um bringing them into what your area has to offer if there's local farmers markets that's always a hit anything historical that's always a hit anything waterfront is great um but adding bringing in that information and you can go to the tourism nova scotia info centers and they will help you they have helped us and we'll fill anyway put together um those packages so um they're there to help uh discount vouchers from local businesses otherwise known as a coupon right so discount vouchers can go a long way because then you are promoting local businesses so they will gladly give them to you um and then you're pouring into the local economy again um and then it gives your guests something to look forward to something to do um and they will feel honored that you left that from them so some of the wineries around here will give us like a voucher for 15 off and things like that um of their store or of their tour or whatever so you can start thinking about that and that that's of no cost to you but it is it is a good partnership and community builder uh candy dishes of course it's kind of self-explanatory um some of our locations not all of them but they have a lot of um vineyards around them a lot of wineries and so they've partnered with local um wineries to actually provide a bottle of wine that's probably the highest end gift that we have is a bottle of wine and um a bag of covered bridge chips and so that you know those would be for our higher end accommodations but you know the option is there look around you like who can you partner with who do you know that owns another business do you have a soap making company near you um you know who is kind of around you that would love to get in on this and provide your guests with a sample of what they do that's a great way to add value both to their lives and to your guests experience local goods are always appreciated the guests love local goods and then oftentimes they'll invest in going to that place and finding out more about it and then and buying more products as well so listing your place i told you guys we'd talk about photos a little bit listing and advertising your short term accommodation is just as important as listing a house and some people don't understand the importance of photos in listing a house either but staging your place so that people feel at ease people feel like they can rest there people feel like they want to stay there is so so so important professional photography i believe is so important too i used to try to take pictures with my iphone because iphones have a good camera but i've i quickly learned i quickly turned around that i wanted a professional photographer to come in and edit the photos because they'll stand up on chairs they have a different brain they stand up on chairs they squat down they get these cool little shots and these little angles and they zoom in on things and their lenses are amazing and so um it's really worth it and why is that why is it worth it because people are going to be um people are going to be opting into your location they're going to be booking your location because of the photos that's what they're looking at and i would i would um i would bet that it is just important if those photos are just important for your booking if not more important than your location your location might be more important if they have family in your area but if they're just coming as tourists i would say your photos are what is selling your place and so um this is one thing that i'm quite passionate about if you can't tell is make the investment on the photos after it's all done that is what it yeah the photos is what will sell your accommodation i believe so if you're going to invest in advertising and marketing that is a great place to do it um the investment in this area is anywhere depending on the photographer i use and i use different photographers for different things um the investment is anywhere between 75 dollars per listing um to 200 per listing um and so that's what you can kind of look at i know that's a bit of a range but you can you can go on to local photographers and look at the types of pictures they do i would highly recommend that you choose someone that has experience in taking pictures of houses or real estate um because they know what they're doing they know which angles that they need to take from and they have the proper lens if you're in the valley i can recommend a couple okay guys so this is just um skimming the surface if you would like some coaching um to or to talk to me or to learn more about this there are a few different ways that we as a business can help you out um the tourism and demand is back up i don't know if you guys saw that pick up last week but i certainly did in the short term rental now that phase three is here we um we're cooking with gas and and tourism is happening again and we want to see you guys succeed by standing out from other listings so a couple ways that we can help you is i do have an airbnb 101 kickstart and run course um this is the only part that's really pertinent for airbnb i do that's in the module one i do take people through the foundations of setting up their airbnb account from start to finish i'm training someone live on there and i recorded it um so you can see i'm setting up an actual listing on there so you can just go and do yours at the same time and pause and um and and do yours and then press play again if that's how you learn best but the rest of them are really pertinent to all kinds of short-term accommodations so if you would like uh more information or to really have like this type of training or coaching um it is a do at your own pace course there's about six approximately six hours on there of training and that's available on our website it goes through things like the foundations of lifts in your property design photography so one of our photographers actually goes on and does a guest speaker feature and she goes through everything that she does to take photos um same with pricing and added value there's different platforms that you can actually use to see if you to do some kind of market research so we really dive deep in this course we have a whole section on added value and what you can do different ideas theming and branding your spaces um how to promote your spaces where to do that and then we have a little bit on what to do during covid and some resources that you can use so that is that course we also do consulting and have different services so we do staging consultations if that interests you we also do design consultations i do phone consultations if you're not in the valley and you just kind of want to like process this with someone i'm happy to spend some time with you um and do that and then we also of course have a full service design and staging where we come in and do it for you so what i want to leave you with is that you guys have got this i know i just kind of fire hosed you with a ton of information um but to break it all down really simply is you want to attract the guests by the photos declutter and stage it and then shoot meaning with a camera then lend some wow factor to the guests upon arrival so that they're like wow they thought of me wow this is so nice you know provide comfort and great guest experience so a lot of that is communication having yourself set up well beforehand and i believe if you do these three things you'll be able to increase your nightly rate have great reviews have some referrals so they'll send their friends and you'll have repeat customers so now it's time for q a if you guys have any questions for me well that was uh really really a lot of great information um just one thing i wanted to say if uh if anybody here uses these tips and we just sent it over the chat but if anybody uses these tips to take you know a better photo than what they currently have just make sure you remember to send it into uh our group north nova scotia uh so we can have it on nova scotia.com of course whenever we mark it we always drive everyone to our website so you want to make sure you have your best foot forward there when you're presenting your your property so we'll share that information after the fact um does anybody else have any um q and a questions uh they wouldn't have the answers if it was a question so any cues and i think what's important is that um a lot of this information noel will be um available on the recorded webinar and i can just uh imagine a lot of my colleagues at toro's nova scotia sharing this with you know the different properties and i'm so glad that it's available to them a lot of really great tips those photos look so much um so much better with your with your minor tweaks uh okay we have one question coming in any requirements for smart tech for example keypad entry automated exterior lights sorry i didn't catch that could you repeat it any requirements for smart technology like keypad entry automated exterior lights things like that yeah so i yeah i would really leave this up to you if you're if you're into that and that would make your life easier then hands down i mean keyless entry is definitely the way to go if you're ready to make that investment for your place because then there's no chance of losing the key um so we definitely love our places with the keyless entry we haven't had any trouble with that um we also use lock boxes people don't tend to lose the key i always also hide a key in case uh just in case right and we always have a copy on ourselves too um as far as like the remote um adjustments go i i don't usually i don't have anybody that does lighting but i do have somebody that adjusts the temperature um so they're in ontario and they adjust the temperature from there uh when a guest is coming so that's definitely helpful um and it saves me a trip and what they just decided was like it's it's actually more cost effective for them to do that from home and have the system than it is for me to run up and down to halls harbor to adjust the heat before someone comes in now what about things like like bluetooth speakers and things like that would you call those kind of add to added value um yes yeah oh not a question just a comment thanks noelle amazing session that's great well that and that was from one of our one of my colleagues that works directly with businesses so i know that this just adds to our tools and resources that we can share with industry somebody else agreed very helpful but that's wonderful i think what we'll do is we will stop there unless we get any more questions i should also just add nick that i didn't i didn't add if anybody is interested in talking more or all of that information i shared kind of about what we do and the course and everything is on our website which is monkennone.com it's monk and none dot com yeah okay and we'll share that out as well cool so i will take back over my screen here perfect so thank you again for everyone joining us today that was a wonderful presentation and just so excited to see what noel was able to to show us and a lot of really relevant great information so we'd love for you to join us for our next webinar uh videography bringing your life bringing a new life to your social media presence that's going to be thursday thursday august 5th at 10 o'clock of course be delivered by rove productions so it's going to be a great webinar and any webinar that all the webinars that we've already offered are available online at tourismns.ca webinar dash series so i should encourage you to join the um check those out so stay in connect with us our consumer website is nova scotia.com that's where we all of our marketing encourages people to come check out what's available contact contact us at business development if you have any ideas or if you have any questions on the webinar today ens business at novogration.ca sign up for our in touch newsletter so that's where we talk about any of our announcements new funding programs new marketing programs new anything we may have the webinars will all be there i encourage you to follow us at tourism ns linkedin or tourism mns corporate website is tourism ns.ca and we have a really

robust uh resource section on coven 19 and that's tourism ns.ca coronavirus thank you all for joining joining us and we hope you can join us on august 5th for our next webinar have a wonderful day

2021-11-15 01:49

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