[Festival] Hosts in the family

[Laurelle3]

Heather (daughter) Mum (Laurelle)

My topic for the Festival of Hospitality  is “Hosts in the Family”. This is a comparison between Mum (me) living in Australia and my daughter who lives across the ditch in New Zealand.

How Airbnb came into our lives

It began when I read an article in the travel section of the Sunday papers and I thought my husband and I would try it on our next holiday 2014 in the Uk. I chose places to stay with hosts and we could share the kitchen and in those days they supplied a light breakfast. 

I came back from our travels with positive reviews of our experience to our family and friends.Our daughter had made a working life change and moved to New Zealand and an opportunity came up for her to adventure into Airbnb in December 2017. Our daughter was able to give us inside knowledge of what to do and what not to do as a host before we started our Airbnb adventure in November 2020.

Our two listings 

• Names

🔵 Australia: “Hidden Gem Cottage on Duncan St" Huskisson. New South Wales. 

🟢 New Zealand: “King Edward Studio”. Motueka. South Island.

• Location       

🔵 Huskisson is a small village and lies within Jervis Bay National Marine Park. It is claimed to have the whitest sand in Australia. The cottage is behind the main residence with a shared yard and private back garden. It is a 600 metres walking distance to the beach and 1km 

to local shops and restaurants.

🟢 Motueka township is close to the mouth of Motueka river and is the gateway town to the Abel Tasman National Park. It is also known for its artistic community. The studio is behind the main residence with a large shared yard/garden with an outdoor setting and the property backs onto a rural kiwi fruit orchard. It is 1.5 km walking distance to tidal wetlands, 2km to the ocean and 1.5km to local shops and restaurants.

• Accommodation

Both offer parking onsite, and accommodate children though not pets. 

🔵 2 bedroom cottage, with 3 beds which sleep x4. It has an open lounge, a dining room, kitchen, and patio.

🟢 Bedsitter Studio with 1 queen bed which sleeps x2 and can accommodate extra person if required. It is an open space with a bed, single lounge chairs, and a combined kitchen-dining area.

”Hidden Gems” Cottage private garden Huskisson

Heathers garden “King Edward Studio” Motueka

• Minimum Stays

Both listings have a maximum stay of 1 week, with Instant Booking on.

🔵 2 nights - Public Holidays and School Holidays 3 - 4 nights. 

🟢 1 night - Public Holidays and School Holidays 2 - 3 nights. 

• Type of Guest

🔵 Australia: Most of the guests staying are from Australia, during Covid mostly from NSW.

🟢 New Zealand: Mostly overseas guests staying, and during Covid mostly New Zealanders. 

• Things to do in the local area

Both Huskisson and Motueka are made for outdoor tourists:

🔵 -  Markets: Huskisson markets at Lady Denman Museum Saturdays. Oval markets. Sundays both are once a month with fresh food, vegetables, handcrafted arts and crafts and    bric a brac. 

     - Activities: Walking tracks along the foreshore and fire trails. Huskisson foreshore is geographical, flat and has a shared cycleway from Bay to the Basin. Whale and Dolphin watching water tours. Water activities, fishing, diving, kayaking, indoor heated swimming pool. Ferry across the inlet to other parts of Jervis Bay. Visit the Maritime Museum. Native Botanical Gardens tours and Aboriginal food tours within the gardens. Carnival rides and shows during summer/Christmas holidays. Picture theatres and Indoor climbing. 

🟢 - Markets: Motueka has Sunday markets each week with a variety of handcrafted arts and 

 crafts,food and bric a brac.

    -  Activities: Walking paths around wetlands and along the ocean foreshore with a wonderful collection of driftwood. Also see the wreck of Jane Seddon lying in the mud and read the history of it. Visit the local museum and Rose garden. Motueka is geographically flat - great to ride bikes along many shared pathways. Fishing, kayaking, all watersports Abel Tasman walking tracks access by water taxis. Bus tours around outline areas. Wine tasting and tours. Skydiving, flight training. Picture theatres.

When you look at the two Airbnb’s in the family between mum (me) and daughter, we both live in similar local areas by the beach and national parks in two different countries.The activities are similar but Motueka has more intrepide tramping walks staying in huts overnight. We both offer similar but different accommodation and have adapted what we offer to our individual personalities. We both enjoy and present the garden as a feature of our Airbnb’s. 

Does the hospitality business run in your family as well? How does it compare for you? 

Myself, my daughter Heather, and our husbands

This topic is part of our Festival of Hospitality 2022. You can find the full line-up here.

[Clara116]

@Laurelle3 I so enjoyed learning about you and your daughter's hosting style and journeys.  Your place looks like a real hidden gem. Seems to me you have the best of both worlds, we say.  Beauty and the outdoor world to explore on so many levels. How lovely.

I loved "across the ditch".....for New Zealand. You are funny. I wonder if your daughter has your sense of humor as well??

Thanks for your very informative post. No one in my family does hosting....a sister does have long term houses they rent but it not the same at all. I've always been the odd ball and doing what no other in the family is doing. Suits me just fine.

Happy trails to you....see you again on a zoom meet up.

Blessings to you your daughter and your husbands.

Clara

[Huma0]

@Laurelle3 

Nice to learn more about you and your hosting journey, and that of your daughter as well.

Nope. For me, hosting definitely does not run in the family! It took me a very long time to get my mum's head around the basic idea of Airbnb. It was such an alien concept for her. She still doesn't get it really, but at least now she understands that I rent out space in my home to strangers and maybe why I do it! 

I have taken my mum now to stay at a couple of Airbnbs and she enjoyed it. She's obviously not going to see things from a host's perspective (things that I feel that we should clean up, she maybe thinks, "Oh, just leave it for the host to deal with.") but I think she is starting to appreciate that it's a pretty cool alternative to hotels!

[Gillian166]

@Laurelle3  my daughter and I host together, we have 3 listings on our farm. I am currently living away so i pop down every 6 weeks to check in on her progress, berate her for not doing a "mum clean"! upgrade the listings, and take new photos. I haven't been down in over 2 months because I'm a big sook when it comes to winter (I'm in Qld, she's in SA, it's mangoes and apples in comparison) but heading down next week for a quick visit, and then we are permanently moving back in December, can't wait! We are building 2 new listings in the stone outbuildings so we'll have 5 listings to manage together next year. 
 

[Laurelle3]

@Clara116 thank you for your  thoughtful words.  Yes has a similar sense of humour but she laughs a lot more. Yes we are both lucky to in small village and a small town being so close to the ocean and national parks. Listening to the birds of a morning and evening. 

I had mentioned to Heather I was writing an article piece and she proof read it for approval and we changed or corrected a couple of things.

My time was special as we time together while she was working from home.

Both our husbands are our mainstay in this adventure. My husband Alex introduces himself to our guests as my man servant/helper. Heathers husband Michael is her helper too and both do the lawns keeping it tidy for our guests.

@Huma0 I am pleased that your mum has an understanding as to why you share your home. It does help to make ends meet and it is your way of life. I have found that it sometimes it can take over if you let it. But I do it because I enjoy meeting people and it gives me something to do for my "Dolls House" this is what I call it and say I am going to play, putting things back in their place.

I just said to my husband yesterday that with all the bookings untill the end of the year I think we should planning our holiday for next year. 

We found that in the UK there are a lot more shared homes than in Australia. We like to share as we have been Scout Leaders and have used Scout camps, Youth Hostels and Backpackers because we find that accommodation can be expensive and if we can get it cheaper it means we can stay an extra night. This is taken to account because the cost of travel to the other side of the world costs so much. Let alone travel, transport and eating. Most Australians wouldn't think of staying in a shared home as they like their independence and they really don't know what the experience they are missing out of.

@Gillian166 It must be great that you share a common working together, interest with your daughter like I do with my mine.

I love the comparrison of mangos with apples, I think I like the fruit mangoes when in season but I don't reallg like the humid weather that comes with mangoes.

Yes as people, we see things differently like cleaning and I say to my husband who helps me with the beds when you come into the cottage you have to look for faults, marks on wall and chipped paint near the doors. As, I  think I  have seen too many "Hotel Inspectors" where things jump out and say "look at me ,what are you going to do about it". I always remind him it is the first impression the guests remeber and take home with them for the review.

The rebuilding and refurbishing the stone dwellings on the farm should enhance what you already have. Maybe you will go into wedding receptions as this seems to be the way with collective accommodation on properties. This is becoming the new industry that is happening on the east coast. More shared work with your daughter. I will have to wait and see your end results.

[Gillian166]

@Laurelle3  ah you are also a little bit clairvoyent! yes, we are also looking into becoming a wedding venue. that might be a 2024 plan, but maybe we can try one small one next year as a test. 

[Huma0]

@Laurelle3 

It wasn't so much the idea of sharing my home that my mum couldn't get her head around. I was renting out spare rooms to long term lodgers for years before I started hosting and my mum has had a lodger for 20 years. For her, it was the idea of having strangers in and out of my home. Of course, it's natural for a mother to worry about that sort of thing. But, she also didn't like the idea of me cleaning up after other people (my mum has never been into domestic stuff).

It's interesting to hear your perspective on Australians and homestays. It's true that I've not hosted anywhere near as many Australians and New Zealanders as I have many other nationalities. In fact, out of hundreds of guests, I think there have only been a handful of them, which is a shame as they're always such great guests! I didn't realise that they weren't that keen on homestays.

[Clara116]

@Laurelle3 Too funny, your man servant - I do love that. Yes, we have to be grateful for all the men in our lives bring and help in the hosting journey. My husband, also organic gardener keeps things neat/trimmed and looking good - I so love focusing on the interior and having everything sparkling and interesting....but due to the extreme heat this year I've changed up the outside to more cactus varieties that can survive. Several years back I had 7 kinds of tomatoes if the guests wanted they could just pick along the yard way. Till next Zoom!

[Jenny]

Amazing topic, @Laurelle3!