This month Rye Chamber of Commerce spoke to Jacqui Maxted, owner, and Lindsay Todd, social media manager, of Rye & Beyond Holiday Cottages.
Describe your business to us
Rye & Beyond is a bespoke holiday cottage company. Before starting the business, I’d worked for many years in a large holiday let company and I felt that the personal element of the service was missing. At Rye & Beyond we really look after our owners, but we also give a more personalised service to guests – almost like a concierge service. So, for example, if you’re celebrating a special occasion, or need suggestions for things to do when you’re visiting the area – we’re able to help. We’re there for everyone with a personalised touch.
When did you start the business?
Rye & Beyond had only just started life when the pandemic hit – our timing was impeccable!
When I set out to start the business my goal had been to create a portfolio of ten properties – that felt like the right size, but things have really taken off for us – we currently have a portfolio of 29 properties and are about to sign up our 30th. We’ve grown organically, we’ve never done any advertising.
What is your background – how did it lead you to this business?
Jaqui: “I was originally in education, but subsequently had a housekeeping business for a long time before Rye & Beyond, so I had a lot of experience in the industry.
“When I realised I needed an extra pair of hands with the marketing and social media side of the business Lindsay was the perfect fit.”
Lindsay: “Originally, I’d had a garden design business and from that I had diversified into property management for people who were living abroad. I’ve worked for large property management companies, but now I manage a few very large properties myself, alongside my work with Jacqui for Rye & Beyond.”
Tell us about the sort of people who book with you
Our guests are mostly people from the south east– no more than a couple of hours drive. But we do also have a high percentage of Dutch and German guests. In fact, we’re currently talking to a Dutch company about offering packages in Holland – they’ve sought us out, not the other way around which is interesting.
Of those who don’t book direct with us we see bookings from silver surfers from Bookings.com and bookings via Airbnb are usually from younger couples and young families. Our overseas visitors usually use Expedia.
What makes your business unique?
I think it’s the personal touch. The fact that when you book or call, you’ll speak to the same person – guests feel reassured and looked after. You haven’t booked on an anonymous website and been forwarded standardised information.
What are your business values?
Again, it comes back to excellent customer service and good relationships – with our owners, our customers and with the housekeeping companies we work with.
But overall, I’d say honesty and integrity. Those values are probably most evident when things beyond our control go wrong. For example, last summer when we had the water shortage in Rye, we spent hours driving bottled water to our guests and making sure they were ok. Guests can see the problem isn’t our fault but appreciate the efforts we made.
What are your plans for your business in 2023 – what are you focusing on?
We want to take more direct bookings, it’s cheaper for guests to book with us direct rather than using an online travel agent like Airbnb or Bookings.com – but some guests – particularly the older demographic still place a lot of trust in a ‘big name company’.
What are the challenges your business faces this year?
Bookings for the first quarter of this year have been a lot slower to come in – I think most of the accommodation businesses are finding the same thing. I think the big challenge at the moment is that the industry has shifted significantly towards last minute bookings.
Not having bookings in the calendar well ahead of time can make owners jittery. We of course have data to refer to and patterns of bookings over time tend to help reassure. The overall volume of bookings is holding steady – they just have much shorter lead times.
I think another challenge is having our business sit alongside those who operate one or two of their own Airbnb’s because they think it will be easy income and they can just ‘have a go’. It’s not an easy business to do well, and to the levels of customer satisfaction that we pride ourselves on.
What are you most proud of in your business?
I think we’re enormously proud of having survived the pandemic, that’s no small achievement it itself.
I think we’re also proud of running a business in Rye. It’s such an amazing town and there are so many other women in business it’s great to be part of that community. We love getting to know people locally.
When Lindsay first came on board, I was initially worried that, having run her own businesses for such a long time, that she wouldn’t be comfortable working for me, but I needn’t have worried – we’re a great fit.
If there was one piece of advice you wish you’d had been given when you opened your business what would it be?
That you can’t do it all.
We both come from similar backgrounds – we’re used to being self-reliant and pushing on, so we’re good for each other – making sure we don’t spread ourselves too thinly.
The biggest change you’ve seen to your business or your business sector since you started?
Stays are also shorter – we used to see more week / fortnight bookings but now two – four nights is much more the industry standard.
Expectations from guests have changed – particularly since Covid – and so managing those realistically and sensitively is always a challenge, but that’s the nature of the game!
Image Credits: Rye Chamber of Commerce .