Wonderful house, terrible access

[Claire1557]

My partner and I have just bought a beautiful house in Cornwall (got the keys 2 weeks ago) its a 2 bedroom bungalow set into a hillside with a garden that stretches up the hill and all overlooking and surrounded by an ancient woodland. We are hoping to Airbnb it however are very worried about its one, but very important, flaw. The access to the property is terrible. It's just off a busy road (which you don't really notice from the property as you're up a hill in the trees) and it has no sidewalk so the only way you can safely get anywhere from it is by car or bike. And, there's more, the only car parking space it does has is just pulled in off this busy road with just space for a small-medium car and only space to drive in and reverse out meaning you have to reverse on to this busy road (people passing by approx 40 mph).

We are planning to rectify this ASAP however to change this will require us cutting into the hillside and so will require planning permission as well as a council licence for temporary traffic lights so it's not going to be a quick process. Obviously with the sunshine here already, we don't want to miss out on Airbnb trade however are not sure if we can realistically rent it out if this access is going to cause us issues. 

We've been cleaning up the space over the last 2 weeks and the reversing out is never ideal but it is possible. I thought if we made sure it was clearly described on the listing, we could leave it up to guests to decide whether or not to book. 

Would love to hear any advice on this! 

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  I don't think that other hosts suggesting she title her property like that was necessarily the idea of leading with a negative. It's that something quirky like that listing title stands out from the pack. 

It makes people curious, so they click on it and read about it, and then think, well the parking  isn't that big a deal, it looks like a cool place. Professional marketers use tactics like this all the time. 

It's like classified ads, men looking for women. There's a million where guys say they like romantic walks on the beach. ( I read a really funny essay once where the author said you'd think they'd have worn away the continental shelf by now with all these romantic trudgings up and down the beach). But an ad that says "Fat old obnoxious ugly frog seeking gorgeous young woman" will get a lot of women checking it out just because it's different.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 I think I am finding myself disagreeing with you, which is a strange territory for me. Yes, I agree, people will click but will they book? When I worked in retail as a handbag buyer, we would always buy the oddest bright unusual bag from a famous brand to put in a window to attract attention. That bag itself never sold though and we knew it wouldn't. I would click on the "frog" guy description too but at the end would go for a date with one of the "romantic" guys. Words have lots of power over us. Putting that the access is terrible this host is validating it as such. How about "you have to work hard to get to to the house but once you do, it is well worth it". "It is like getting past the castle of the sleeping beauty- once you beat the overgrown forest, she awaits you". I think there is more power in persuasion as there is in the other gimmick. Most of us humans are simple folk, we believe what we read

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  You may be right. But the thing is, when you actually go to read the ad that your curiosity has been peaked by, you often find out that, in this example, the guy isn't really a fat old ugly obnoxious frog, it was just a jest to peak curiousity. And even if he isn't some handsome young stud, most of those handsome young studs are so full of themselves that they would make terrible boyfriends. 

In the case of the host OP here, it sounds like she has a great place, so the parking sitch might be no big deal to a lot of guests. Maybe she should market to bikers- they could turn their Harleys around no problem 🙂

I actually rented my house in Canada to a biker I knew and 3 of his biker buddies for 6 months. Not only did they take good care of my house, when I returned , the neighbors all told me how great those guys were. When it snowed, they shoveled the sidewalk down my entire 5 house street and made sure to keep the walkway to the front door of the 80 something year old spinster sisters who had lived 3 doors down all their lives free of snow and ice.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 someone might be willing to dig further to find a gem of a husband. When we go on vacation, we do not want to worry about terrible access. I think lots of people will click past the property seeing the add. There is no mystery there. I may want to know more about frog; having trouble with access during vacation is not something I want to think about. I could be totally wrong and would love for OP to do a little test. After the initial boost, perhaps run the listing with one title and then the other

[Dale711]

Hi @Inna22,

You’re right!

You bring up excellent points. Well said.

[Jillian115]

@Claire1557  I do several things to prevent guests from getting lost and make sure they do not disrupt my neighbors:

1. My listing states there are no street lights in the area.

2. I send an email letting them know that they need to pay close attention to the directions. If they pass by my driveway, turning around is very difficult, and I try to reiterate this as much as possible to prevent guests from getting lost.

3. I send a PDF with step-by-step directions that include pictures of every step, including how and where to park.

4. I send a message to let them know; I just sent an email with the door code and a pdf of directions. I suggest they print out the directions and pay close attention.

5. I message them, say I just sent directions, and reiterate that they should pay close attention. I also ask a couple of questions—arrival time or if they would like strawberries from my garden. Most respond, but I send a text to make sure they read and looked at the directions if they don't respond.

It's a lot of work, but in the beginning, I had a lot of guests who were relying on GPS to get them to my listing, pass my driveway. Then they would rate my location poorly because they weren't paying attention and got lost.