Hi Cape Town Self Catering Host,
Today I want to talk about boring sugar, tea and oil. And your 5 star Cape Town home. Then I conclude with trends and Covid Cape Town news.
As I have said previously “online platforms commoditised your home”. They made it as boring as sugar, tea or oil.
It’s our job to make it unique, different, wow. We don’t want to sell a roof. We must sell experiences. Not only for tourists but to add value to your investment.
Uniqueness buys us more value. But I think owners are we leaving money on the table…..
All trends show that the world changed. Covid kicked us. Badly. But also to wake up.
Zoom, social-distancing-media par excellence. Work from home. Travel to rural areas to work. Staying for longer. Digital nomads. See the trend changes I reference below.
Today, to #UNCOMMODITIZE and adapt your Cape Town self-catering home; it has to be business-ready.
My concern is how do I convince owners of self-catering homes to invest in making their homes even more WOW.
I don’t know. It’s a choice.
Yesterday we had a couple wanting to stay for 60 days, paying more than R60000 to stay. But they had requirements. And they are not alone.
- They wanted free uncapped reasonable fast Internet. Uncapped 10 Mbps is the minimum. (Many foreigners find this even too low for work requirements.)
- A pool, pond, or tub, even just loungers in the sun with a misty spray (R110 investment).
- And protection against load shedding. The Internet, TV, and a few lights can work on an R8000 battery inverter system.
Obviously, there are other critical business-ready tools. But for now, these are my concerns.
Having a pool or not is not the issue. But it will help (a lot) even if you are on the beach. Out of the box: Even loungers with plastic pipe spray. See below.
Back to the digital nomad guests:
They got everything above but no protection against load shedding. They wanted that. And as you know load-shedding will be with us post-Covid.
My question:
Why leave R60 000 and lots more on the table for a little investment of R8000?
This reminds me of the rational Elmarie and Nandi use to justify an expensive dress.
They say,
If you buy an R1500 dress and you wear it 30 times it costs you R50 per day worn. But if you bought an R300 dress and wore it once, the cheapy is 6 times more expensive.
Moral of the story? No inverter and you are just ordinary. Losing out.
The R8000 investment becomes insignificant as you accumulate more 5 star reviews and more bookings.
Do you agree with my argument? Let me know.
Are you willing to make the investment? If not, please share why this is a bad idea?
Below are trends and the water spray tip on getting more value for your buck.
Self Catering Trends, Tips & Tricks
Guests love the sun. Love being able to enjoy your home. Now, just imagine you start getting positive reviews about your R110 investment. Set these up next to 2 loungers in the sun and you win. Now, all I need is one, two or ten owners to agree to this experiment. Let’s invest R110. Let’s see how many guests mention it in their reviews. What do you think? Shall we do it?
Cape Town named world’s 12th most friendliest destination in new poll — www.thenational.scot
The survey was conducted by travel firm Rough Guides. 12. Cape Town 11. Budapest, Hungary 10. Melbourne, Australia 9. Manchester, England 8. Dubai, UAE 7. Copenhagen, Denmark 6. Vancouver, Canada 5. Tokyo, Japan 4. Liverpool, England 3. Montréal, Canada 2. Dublin, Ireland 1. Glasgow, Scotland
Why is this ranking important? Cape Town wins many awards. This translates into popularity. In other words, Cape Town is resilient. There is (more) political will. And when you read the trends below watch-out for what’s called the (Digital) Nomad Traveller. They want to stay. But not in a NOT sugar-, oil-, or tea-commodity. stay
Cape Town ranked one of the world’s best cities for remote working | Fin24 — www.news24.com
Targeting digital nomads as part of its overall destination marketing strategy will become part of the City of Cape Town’s new international campaign.
Hope of peak season recovery for W Cape tourism lost, what can still be done? — www.news24.com
Any hope of a recovery for the Western Cape’s important tourism industry over the festive season has been lost, according to David Maynier, Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities.
10-point plan to save tourism in Cape Town — still the world’s most beautiful city — www.capetalk.co.za
Covid-19 has kneecapped Cape Town — Africa’s most popular city for tourists. Every year, its extreme beauty and uniquely interesting people draw in the crowds and their hard currencies.
5 Short-Term and Vacation Rental Trends to Expect in 2021 — www.fool.com
Interesting summary: 1. Lack of seasonality, 2. Close-to-home locations, 3. More spacious (family) bookings, 4. More meaningful travel, 5. Longer stays.
Short-term rentals had an up-and-down year in 2020. Bookings plummeted in the early days of the pandemic thanks to lockdowns and travel restrictions. Though they picked up later on in the year, it was quickly evident these weren’t your average, days-of-past bookings.
How Airbnb and Travelers are Redefining Travel in 2021 — news.airbnb.com
Great article. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on travel in 2020. As we look to 2021, we believe these impacts will continue to be felt in a number of ways.
SA tourism sector has good reason to be upbeat about recovery — www.businesslive.co.za
This is a critical development for our industry and addresses one of the major barriers to entry into our country. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has reported the expected increase in passenger numbers driven by the improved facilitation of visas at between 5% and 25%.
Airbnb’s Pros and Cons Versus Hotels: A Wake-Up Call — theunconventionalroute.com
My first time was amazing. It felt illicit, exciting, and just a little bit dirty (in a good way).
Tips and tricks on how to easily upgrade your Airbnb — bestinau.com.au
There are so many ways to upgrade a property without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for simple things you can do to improve your Airbnb performance, we’ve listed them down in this article so you can go ahead and make these enhancements as soon as you’d like to.
Creative Hosts Share Tips for Creating the Ultimate Hosted Stay in 2021 — news.airbnb.com
2021 is all about making our personal spaces a destination in their own right. With more time spent inside, whether it’s in our home or a hosted stay through Airbnb, we want these spaces to provide warmth, comfort and inspiration.
Let me conclude with the latest Cape Town Covid News.
Covid Cape Town Travel News — Issue — CapeHolidays — agency.capeholidays.info
Covid Cape Town Travel News — From Covid vaccines, vaccinations, herd immunity to travel and tourist news.