18 minute read
CEO INTERVIEW
StanleySarah
Sarah Stanley, founder and director of luxury self-catering holiday company Unique Homestays, does not believe in spending money you don’t have. But despite having only ever borrowed £500 from her mum, she has managed to build a thriving and very much debt-free, £20 million business.
Reading your bio, I see you started life as a chef.
My background is in fact in farming. My parents had a farm where I have the office now, in the tiny hamlet of Trebudannon near the north coast. I went to Bicton, an agricultural college in Devon, and then came home, but farming at that time wasn’t going so great. So, after some thought, I ended up going to London where I worked as a chef. I was a farmer’s daughter, we can all cook! I put myself through college and got my City & Guilds before staying in London for a few years.
I worked for a guy privately as his private chef and housekeeper. People like Zandra
Rhodes the fashion designer would come for dinner, it was an insight into that sort of high-end lifestyle and level of hospitality, especially the entertaining aspect. After that I went travelling, starting in Europe before heading to Africa for five months, then India, Asia and onto Australia where I ended up staying for 12 years.
When I came back to Cornwall,
I started cheffing again but wanted a career that would allow me more time with my children. It was then I saw an ad in the paper about hosting students. I thought it was an interesting opportunity, probably little money in that, but having travelled all over the world staying in private rooms and houses on a shoestring, you often think, next time I’ll do it in style. I knew there were some amazing homes in the UK and began to wonder if there was a market there, whether I could set up a business around that. I put an ad in the paper: “earn extra money hosting overseas guests”. I had about 30 calls from the ad, which I think was a bit of a surprise to my mother, who didn’t think I would get much, but I did. I then had to drill down some details and decide what sort of business I was starting. The name, the sort of houses, owners and what market niche I was going to go for. That’s how it all started.
How many properties did you start with?
Well, my mum had a couple of selfcatering properties on the farm, so I put those on to begin with. I took a photo of the cottage that I was living in, you do what you have to do to get started. From the initial phone call responses, three or four then also joined.
And have they always been super luxury properties from the very start?
No, but they did have character. One of the houses I marketed had the most perfect hosts, the owners were just lovely, they really got it. I remember they said, “we knew as soon as we heard the name, ‘Unique Homestays’, it said what it was on the tin”. We had a great relationship and they were very helpful to me in the early days. When I started out, I intended the breaks
Back then there to be hosted, where you really had the were very few cultural element of the stay. The owners opportunities to I attracted were looking forward to rent such incredible meeting interesting homes, manors, people from overseas and hosting them in and country houses their private homes, they loved food and cooking. The offering evolved as guests wanted more privacy, increasingly asking to hire the homes exclusively. Back then there were very few opportunities to rent such incredible homes, manors, and country houses.
Was it just you when you started?
Yes, just me. With my background, I was not an office person. I couldn’t type, I’d never even turned a computer on. I can’t particularly spell well, can’t add up very well either! Luckily there was a lady just down the lane from me who could write. I used to run down with scribbles, she’d type them up, then I’d get them uploaded. I even took the photos myself when I first started, I did everything. Yes, there’s some pretty amazing properties on the portfolio. When I first started, I can remember searching through different directories, confirming that the idea I had was a good one. Back then you could search through all these websites and directories and it would take all day to find something really special. So, for me it was all about being unique, out of the ordinary, but also about choosing a specific market. It was a niche, high-end luxury market of experience-seeking travellers that I was looking for.
How many properties do you have now?
We have almost 200 now, ten of which we own. The goal is not to have a huge portfolio, but one where every home is extraordinary.
And do properties on your books come and go?
And now as people approach you with their properties, do you have to turn many down because they are not quite of the level you’re wanting?
It depends on the owner and it also depends on us, because if we feel we’re not the right marketing agent for that property, then we would have that conversation with the owner. We often ask quite a lot of the owners to invest back into their properties, making sure that everything is as it should be to give guests an experience they simply couldn’t get elsewhere. It’s down to this that we have built a strong reputation and a loyal customer base, who return to us time after time, often for somewhere completely different to where they stayed previously. They love exploring the collection, which is why we also need to evolve it.
Because all the properties on your books now are special, aren’t they?
In the past, about 95% of enquires were politely turned away. But that’s about marketing, too, isn’t it? Getting the message across of what we’re actually looking for. As we have matured people better understand what we are about, but we do still turn away a lot. Again, it’s just being honest with the owner.
How many staff do you have now?
We have 37, of which 33 are full time. When I started taking on staff, I was very fortunate in taking on some amazing, talented people. Rather than me doing everything, I was more than happy them handling things because I knew they were more skilled than me! The team are super creative, talented, and passionate.
How’s business been in the past 18 months or so? Must have been a bit of a rollercoaster?
Immediately prior to the lockdown, we were inundated with people desperate to get away. Nobody knew exactly if we were going to be locked down, so we took a huge number of bookings. Then as travel restrictions tightened, it was full-on handling all the cancellations or postponements, making sure that we were doing it correctly, making sure the owners were on board. Our recommendation was if the guest wants to cancel, the guests can cancel, but we also had a lot of guests postpone, which was fantastic.
During lockdown, we carried on in the background, getting things set up such as our marketing campaigns, like the Britain in Wonderland creative we’ve just released. Doing all the legwork made sure we were ready to go when restrictions were lifted.
In August we were 96% occupied across the whole portfolio, 100% in some properties. Even going up to December, we have higher booking levels than ever.
Did you have to furlough many staff?
We furloughed a couple who couldn’t work due to personal circumstances and childcare priorities, but most of the team were working because we had to handle the influx of calls. Everybody was piling in. I know some companies did their switch phonelines off, but we didn’t. We’ve always been about customer service. People were worried about what was going to happen and so everybody was pitching in answering the phone. There was a real sense of camaraderie.
Going forward, are you always looking for new properties to add?
Yes, of course it would be great to double, but it’s not all about the numbers, it’s more about making sure we’ve got the right places in the right locations, and different styles of properties. For example, if we had five properties in a village and they were all totally different, that would be fine. But if they were all the same type of property, built by the same builder, then that wouldn’t work for us.
Do you always go and visit every single property before you take it on?
we talk to the owner in depth, see videos, images and the location on Google Maps, to understand exactly where it is location wise. We chat with the owners to find out exactly what they envisage for the future, if they’re willing to make changes and so on. We have a small property team and Jess Clark heads up the visits. Jess has been with me for 14 years and has been involved in most areas of the business apart from accounts. She’s very knowledgeable, selftaught when it comes to interior design, but super creative and quite inspirational.
What is most important, location or the property itself?
It’s a bit of both. You’d be surprised how many people analyse the photos, they look at the furniture, the style, the spaces, design, materials, landscaping, facilities, architecture; all of those things are important.
Would you ever consider going abroad? Or is it just purely UK?
Many moons ago, we did go abroad, in fact I did a road trip around France and Italy and it was fantastic. I have learnt that to build overseas you would have to have somebody that has been around the business a long time running that department. To keep things at a high level, it requires constant tweaking and making sure that everything’s in-line with the main business, including getting over to do the visits, making sure that the photography is right, the communication with the owner is good. The plan was that it was always going to be worldwide, but I’ve learnt there’s a lot more to it than that.
Are there parts of this country where you don’t have a presence or would like more of a presence?
We’d like to have more in Scotland. We’re finding that a lot of people are wanting a remoteness, seclusion, privacy, simplicity, not plush or brash luxury: secret shacks on private beaches for example. We love Wales too, its more popular than ever with our guests, especially the country’s wild coastline and remote National Parks. Architecturally interesting homes really appeal to us, those one-off designs that really stand out, but work with the natural landscape.
Has this love for more simple things grown since the pandemic?
Yes, this is true, along with privacy. From grand country homes to small coastal cottages and woodland cabins some of our homes have been with us for 14 years or so. They are pretty pricey to stay in, but it’s the locations that are so unique, as well as the houses themselves. Similar to Cornwall, it’s the same if you ever go to Scotland, it’s about the location, the personality of the house, the food, landscape and just stripping things back a bit. People seemed to have re-evaluated during the pandemic, understanding what’s most important.
The vast majority of your customers come from Britain
I take it, but do you have much overseas trade?
It is mostly staycations,
UK residents escaping the city. Overseas guests come from Germany and America, a few Italians, some from Russia. Germany is the biggest second market for us; they love Cornwall thanks to some of the film locations. We’ve had a flurry from Australia since the pandemic, those booking a private home to host or visit family in the UK.
What drives you as a business owner? What gets you up in the morning?
I don’t know, but I am very much a morning person. I go to bed looking forward to waking up in the morning. These days I’m not so involved in the day to day of the business.
What gets me up in the morning? I’ve always wanted Unique Homestays to be the best. I think to be the best, you have to continually be analysing, looking, adjusting and improving constantly. When I first started the business, I was lent £500 from mum. From that point on, I never got a loan, I never got anything. It was always investing back into the business from the money that we were making. Although I didn’t really make any money initially, not for about three years, probably.
I was actually told back then, “Sarah, the business will never work, you’re wasting money, you’ll never make it.” That was from an advice bureau down in Cornwall. but I did forge on. The business was first set up as a listing company. So, people would basically just pay to list their property It only cost £165, which was nothing really. Then I decided I would put the fees up because we were getting bigger houses and bigger groups. I’d still be handling enquiries, but back then they would go on to the owner. I thought, okay, owners don’t particularly want to pay £750 membership fee, so let’s think about doing it on a commission basis. This felt like a huge risk for me, as no money would come in if we did not procure bookings for the owners. That was a turning point however, it was then we started making some money. The other turning point I would say is when we added the online booking facility. That was one of the best decisions we ever made.
I assume the website for a business like yours must be so important, enabling people to see the stunning properties?
We weren’t going to go down the normal advertising road, doing brochures, leaflets, that sort of stuff. It’s always going to be the website first and I will keep investing into that, knowing that the photos are everything. Having a team that can do the copywriting, who were talented at editing - that’s amazing. My web developer Dave Marks has been with me for 18 years and everything about our website is bespoke. He has built it all. We have probably spent more than a million pounds just doing the website.
And when you have such fantastic properties and spectacular locations, and you photograph it well, that’s all you need, in many ways. Photos tell a powerful story.
Yes, it’s been pretty good. When I first started, I didn’t have much money, but there was always that marketing. Somebody told me about a chap called Nigel Massey in London, he ran a PR agency and was very well-known apparently. He was very kind and agreed to meet me, so I travelled up to London to see him. I was very honest with regards my background and situation; I think I’ve always been very honest. When I started, I didn’t have any knowledge of business. I asked him, “do I need to get a PR agency involved?” he said “Sarah, from what you just told me, you’ve got a great story, amazing houses, you don’t need an exterior PR. Plus you don’t have the money…” This was great advice.
And that’s when we started pitching ourselves, contacting journalists, contacting magazines and doing it all in house.
So, you have never used a PR agency then? And how much will a typical house bring in revenue wise?
Last year for the first time we used a Londonbased company for some new forms of digital marketing which involved making a film. This year we didn’t, the team created the Britain in Wonderland campaign, which was done in house and has had a great response We get a great deal of press and PR and because we’ve set up the business to accommodate the journalists well and have built great relationships with them over the years. I believe we have a great product, that’s the most important thing. For me, the crux of the whole business has been keeping it simple. With the money, I know some people can juggle their money, but one thing I never ever did was get a loan or take a risk. I only ever spent money I had and probably because of my farming background, my mum always hated waste.
That depends on the house. Firefly near Mawgan Porth, sleeps two, would bring in about £70k. If it’s another coastal property like a Gwendolyn overlooking Perranporth beach it could be £120k-£160k. You know, it depends where it is. If it’s a big house that does It’s about making weddings, it could be over £300k revenue a year. sure we’ve got the right places in the Has there ever been any pressure to go for more right locations volume or slightly less
up market?
Had you taken a few more risks, do you think you would have grown more quickly? The properties you buy, that must involve some element of risk?
Why? All the properties are bought for cash. I’ve never had a mortgage. I buy old houses that are historically important and there are a limited number of them. They are an investment. I am only a custodian, they’ll be here long after me.
Wow! That must be quite unusual for a company your size?
I know, but I started the business because I wanted security and to be independent. Getting loans and having to stay on top of all that is not my forte, that would have worried me. No, but it’s been often talked about because when a house no longer fits our portfolio and is removed, that can be a lot of money we turn away. The owners are usually keen to stay too but we have to evolve to stay relevant. Yes, we could set up a sister company but you know what, my heart wouldn’t be in it. It’s a contradiction to what Unique Homestays is all about. To tell you the truth, focusing on what we’re doing is what we should be doing.
I noticed on your website you offer a property finding service for people looking to buy these kind of properties.
That idea came up more than ten years ago. We’re always looking for ways to generate new leads and generally help owners with their own property endeavours whether that be interior design, renovation or searching for more properties. We are constantly phoned by new owners saying they’re looking at buying a property. They show us and we often say “Oh God no, don’t buy that!”. We’re always looking at properties across the UK, so it was just a natural progression to enhance our service.
What is your annual turnover?
About £20 million.
Has everything gone pretty smoothly would you say? Is the business where you imagined it would be when you started 20 years ago?
If I’d thought about all the things that you have to go through, I don’t know if I’d ever have started the business! I don’t think it was something I naturally would have gone into.
What do you love most about your job?
I have made lifelong friends while building the business. I love seeing the new properties, and I love the owner get-togethers we do. The owners are interesting and so passionate about their homes. They’ve had interesting lives themselves. I enjoy working with the team here, it’s an inspiring environment to work in.
These days I’m more overseeing rather than getting involved with the day to day. You get to a point where you don’t work in the business, you work on the business, I am very lucky to have a team who are loyal and passionate, who run things well.
And plans going forward, where do you see the business in, I don’t know, five years’ time?
You can never sit on your laurels. It’s not necessarily easy to copy, but it’s easy to emulate. Something I’ve learnt over the years is that you have constantly got to keep reinventing, progressing and being creative. But in five years, I think it’s consolidating constantly and having some growth definitely, pushing it that little bit further and I’d love to go overseas. But I think that’s on the backburner at the moment.
Do you have a favourite property?
There’s a property in Wales that I love. It’s called Charity and it’s got the most amazing views. Again, it’s simple, but with that rustic, farmhouse feel. There’s another fabulous one called Firefly, which is like a woodcutters cabin. It’s really simple and authentic. I love that sort of rusticity and warmth.
