The Check-In
The real scoop on the deals, the data and the drama in short-term rentals.
The Check-In
The Secret to 100% Direct Bookings? Build a Brand Worth Talking About
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What does it actually take to run a vacation rental business at 100% direct bookings — no Airbnb, no OTAs, no exceptions?
Francesca and Annie from Unique Homestays join Leo at Scale UK to answer exactly that. Unique Homestays is one of the UK's most quietly exceptional luxury vacation rental brands — a portfolio of around 190 handpicked properties, a sole founder still at the helm after a quarter century, and a waiting list of guests who come back year after year without ever needing a platform to find them.
In this conversation they get into what luxury really means (hint: it's often a whitewashed beach shack, not a chandelier), why curation beats scale every time, how the luxury guest is booking further in advance while the rest of the market is dealing with shortening book windows, and why AI is something a brand like theirs should welcome rather than fear.
If you've ever wondered whether building a truly independent, brand-led STR business is still possible — this episode is your answer.
Hello everyone. I'm here today with Annie and Francesca from Unique Homestays. How are you both?
SPEAKER_01I'm very well. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. I have to remember talking to the microphone very well, thank you.
SPEAKER_03The budget couldn't stretch to three mics, you know. Maybe next year. Maybe next year. How's it been? How's your day? Uh or two days. Did you come to Scale AI yesterday?
SPEAKER_01We didn't come yesterday. Our head of tech came. I will, thank you. Our head of tech came yesterday for the AI conference. But it's been a bit of a drive-up from Cornwall for us. So we drove up yesterday, had a lovely long romantic drive-up, and then we've been here all day today. So it's been really interesting and insightful. And I just um hosted a panel then talking about storytelling and some great speakers. So yeah, good fun.
SPEAKER_03So for our American cousins, tell us a little bit about Cornwall, your market, why is it special?
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh. I mean Francesca is Cornish, I believe. I have lived in Cornwall for 18 months and I would never leave now. It's it's an extraordinary place from the water looking like it could be in the Caribbean, or I should say the Caribbean stole it from us, probably. And the landscape, the people. You know, people say that northern northerners are the most friendly. There is something about people that live in Cornwall. And I think as a new person, I meet a lot of people who have also moved there. So you automatically have something in common with everybody because we're all there for the for a similar reason, which might be a slower pace of life or reconnecting with nature. And then that really does then reflect itself into Unique Homestays, which is um a Cornish founded brand. And our founder is Cornish. Is she Cornish? And um that's where we started. Um we're now all over the UK, but I think some of my favourite properties are our Cornwall Cornwall properties. Uh Whitsam Bay, for example, there's an amazing property we called Suki. And you've just got panoramic sea views, and it genuinely took my breath away when I first walked in. I welled up in my eyes, not that I'm dramatic or anything, but it was an amazing, amazing my first time there walking through, and all you can see is the ocean meets the sky. It's very special, and that's just one of our properties that I love.
SPEAKER_03Fantastic. So that really I think sets us up perfectly to talk about what's what a holiday in Cornwall can bring you. Because I think it it's probably the most exotic special part of the UK. So tell us a bit more as a as a Cornish person. Tell us what a holiday in in Cornwall can do for you.
SPEAKER_01Gosh, so many things. I think you're absolutely right, Annie. It's I mean, Cornwall's always had such a draw, and I think even since you know the Newland art set discovered Penzance and and Mausel and the quality of light in St. Ives and there's something really magical and restorative, I think, about being so close to the ocean. They've done so much research on the benefits of salt water, and it just instantly makes you feel relaxed. And there's still huge areas of I mean, you get the honey pots of North Cormore and places that people, the tourists, really, really thrive in, uh, especially in the summer months, but there's still areas that are really undiscovered, like Bob Min Moore. And I don't know whether you've ever seen Polar Dark or any of the the American market world heard of. I mean I didn't think he brought the sex appeal to the Moor. Um but there's still some really undiscovered areas. My parents live, I was brought up on um in a farmhouse on the clifftop with our own water supply, and yeah, we're still there, we've been there 50 years. And oh, I haven't been there 50 years, hopefully. You can see that my grandmother bought it.
SPEAKER_03Francesca's gonna ask me to cut that bit out there.
SPEAKER_01But um it is there's so still so much magic there, and there's the makers of ceramicists and the artists, and there's some great, you know, this is the good thing about hospitality as well in Cornwall, is you know, because it's it is still quite a deprived area in some areas. So there's you know, Bob in Red Ruth, but the the tourism brings money and it brings jobs, and it means we get great coffee now and great cocktail bars and things that we wouldn't have necessarily, which is great for the locals as well. I'm really enjoying that.
SPEAKER_03We always say like it enhance if you can get locals into your into the natural beauty of your area, it then creates an amazing culture alongside it too, right? It enhances what you already have, right?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, and I think there's such a love for the land. You know, I left Cheltenham to come to Cornwall. I love to Cheltenham and I felt really passionate about the Cotswold. But I think when you see the difference of what humanity can do for good and bad, you really see it in Cornwall, you know, the sewage dumps that you might see. We then fight harder because the beauty is so extraordinary. And I think it is kind of we're often talked as like the forgotten county because where you know there is kind of a lot of deprived areas still. And I think we feel so passionate about living there that we we fight that bit harder than maybe in the Cotswolds, for example. Um, not to poop through the Cotswolds, I love you. Um but I think that is a there's a real pride, a Cornish pride. I'm not Cornish, no one come for me. I know I'm I was aborted.
SPEAKER_03How many years do you have to live in Cornwall before you can?
SPEAKER_02Unless you're born there, unless you're born there, you can't no, no, they'll you'll they'll come for you.
SPEAKER_03Very strict on that, Francesca. I like it.
SPEAKER_02Quite rightly so.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I guess because it is so beautiful. We want a piece of it. Talk talk to us about unique homestays as as a national brand, then, and tell us a bit more about what it is you do. Because we met downstairs. We are, I should have said, what a terrible podcast host. I am. We're at Scale UK today. That's why we're doing this c uh why why we're doing this talk. Big up Scale UK. And we we were introduced downstairs. And tell me a bit more, because I was really fascinated when you started talking about the business.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we've been running 25 years, and so long before Airbnb was even born, and our founder Sarah is still the sole founder, uh, director, owner today, which is quite rare. All the properties are completely exclusive with us, they can't list anywhere else, um, and we don't use any other booking agent as well. So it's it's quite a unique offering. And I think what makes us successful is because we are we curate the portfolio to such a high standard. So um I've been with the company 12 and a half years, and when I joined, there was about 160 properties, there's only about 190 now. So every year we'll take on about 30, but equally we might not renew the contracts of some or owners might move in. So for us, the growth is more about the offering, so always trying to get better and better and you know bring on the most unique and extraordinary properties. And we've really kind of we've always sort of hit the luxury market, but over the last few years, markets become more and more saturated. We've really gone after the ultra-high net worth market. Um, and that doesn't mean that everybody that stays with us is super cash rich. I mean, we do host um celebrities, A-listers, you know, we've got a great, I'm like, don't tell me who's staying because I, you know, I work in marketing and I just can't keep my mouth closed. You know, we wouldn't tell anyone away. But we also have, you know, more of the aspirational market. So it might be, you know, a younger couple that are on the honeymoon or something really special. We do get um men or women that want to propose and they want somewhere really special when it they've really saved up for it. So there's a whole like different arena of type of guests and things. And likewise with the properties, and we have properties, one of my favourite properties, sadly, the owners sold it during the COVID boom, but it would be with us for 20 years, and it was a beach shack. The this um the owner was a movie director, American, and he came over to film um Half Light with Demi Moore and found this shack right on the private beach, and he was like, I need to beg Borin Steele to own this. And I think he bought it for like 30,000 pounds and he sold it for you know millions. Um it came with 50 private acres and a private beach. It was amazing. Um, it's been on the cover of Vogue and stuff. It's really cool. But what I loved about that, it was so simple. I mean, we'd always be talking to her about, you know, let's enhance the interiors. And she she was a locations manager as well. It was just a beach shack, it just whitewashed wooden interiors, a bed looking over the ocean, a simple shower room. And we had some of the biggest celebrities in the world want to stay there. And it just reminds you of actually what real luxury is about. And it doesn't matter, it's not always about the big we have castles, don't we? We've got big manor houses with indoor pools and chandeliers and stuff. And so that's the other end of the scale. But it what I love about working there is it shows you actually what's really important to people, and often is the really simple things and it's the isolation.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's nature, isn't it? Nature is luxurious in the right context.
SPEAKER_02U what I love about unique homestays is that you know the property that Francesca was referring to, that's part of our portfolio. And I think it's not it's not one or the other, it's not big or small. The thing that I look for, so I go out and you know, find the properties. It is the story, it's the feeling. I think the feeling is the main thing. When I walk into a property, how does it make me feel? And and more often than not, our owners are part of that as well. So it's finding owners that really believe in what we're doing and want to come on that journey with us. You know, it's of course we're a commercial company and we want to be successful, but the feeling is so important. Like I talked about in Whitsam Bay, but also we've got an amazing property in the Cotswolds called Nightjar. It is one of our larger properties with all the facilities and bells and whistles. And but just because it's more grand, it doesn't take away, it doesn't feel soulless. There is a story behind it, you know, how the family built it, the parties that they've had there. And that I think is what's really special is it could be a sleeps too, it could be a sleeps twenty. There they all have soul, they all have heart, and they all have a story. And that's what makes me really excited about working for Unique Home Stays.
SPEAKER_03I love that. And that's how you build a brand, right? So the conversation started, didn't it? It started here because the way I was introduced to you put by someone downstairs was that you were doing 100% direct. Now, it is impossible in this market to do 100% direct without a brand. You know, you so you have to be so determined to ensure that your customer really understands what your experience is so they come back. Is that right? Or tell me more.
SPEAKER_01Completely. I mean, I'm obsessed with brands and not just in our industry. I was talking earlier about, you know, the other brands that are just those heritage brands, you know, whether it's Rolex we were talking about earlier, or Burberry, or you know, brand it takes it really takes strength in, you know, brands come and go, but to really have a brand that has longevity, it's really about understanding your niche and not being distracted by things and really listening to the customer and what their needs and wants are and making sure that you're answering that, but ultimately you've got to offer something different. And you know, everybody can have a tagline these days, and it's so easy to set up a business. You know, you can set up a business like that now, they are, you know, create me a beautiful brand and logo, but it's about what that actually stands for and really, really meaning something and meaning something to the customer, that they're gonna go wanna go and talk to their friends and family about it. And then buying into that brand is something that they feel is uh speaks to them, you know, and sign ultimately is gonna enhance them as a person as well.
SPEAKER_03Makes a lot of sense. And this idea that your word of mouth is important, repeat guests, I'm sure, are very are very common in your in your business. But also that maybe we're moving into a phase where the LLM, the you know, GEO instead of SEO, is gonna favour that brand with real authenticity because it you can't just fake it through a marketing campaign. It is what's your customer saying, what's your homeowner saying, you know. And I like I think that's uh an interesting place we're in.
SPEAKER_01It is, and I I'm not scared of that. You know, a lot of people I think when AI f I'm I'm such a a human and you know, and an idea of what I would love to be on an island fishing for as much as I love glamour and luxury, you know, I love the simple things. We'll be my yeah, I'll be the guy off castaway, Tom Hanks with a beard. Hopefully you won't grow a beard. But I'd like to try. But actually, you know, people are so scared of AI. But I think actually it it would be a positive thing because you can't hide from your customers. And you can build a shiny website that says you're great, but actually, what are the press saying about you? What are the articles of the Times and the Telegraph and Vogue and GQ magazine? Those are the ones that the LLMs are favoring because they trust them. And, you know, what are people saying on Reddit? What are people saying on YouTube? You can't hide from those things, and I don't think that's anything to be afraid of if you've got a great brand.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I agree. Let's um let's change gears. And uh, as I said to the um the guests here before we started, I said, look, we can edit out anything you don't want to say. So I'm gonna now ask you uh some awkward questions. And no, hopefully, hopefully not an awkward question, hopefully a fun question. Can you tell us about uh any moments where things have gone wrong in bookings and you've had to scramble and you know, let's let's call them any any horror stories that that that spring to mind, be it with guests or experiences.
SPEAKER_02Thankfully, horror stories don't exist. I'm of course they I mean I would just use the word horror. Relative. Yes, you know, you've got the simple ones, which is spilt red wine as the best example, really easy to fix, human error, those things are fine, people are understanding, and I think transparency is key. You know, I made a mistake. Can we fix it? Yes, we can. Let's move on. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00My son successful Bob the Builder. So I'm just thinking of the Bob the Builder theme tune there, wasn't it? Can we fix it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh my gosh, I had it. Can we fix it? Yes, we can.
SPEAKER_03I found myself singing. I was singing Miss Rachel to myself the other day, and I was just like, I've gone through the rabbit hole. Yeah, I've gone through that. It's good songs, actually.
SPEAKER_02I'll I'll check them out. So you know, we never want to talk too much about things that go wrong, but recently we have had a property that had a few teething issues. Um and rather than going, oh no, we have a huge problem, the conversation was how are we gonna fix it? How are we gonna sort this out? Yeah. Um, and so we are quite a large team for such a small portfolio. So there's about 40 of us for around 180. It's amazing, isn't it? 180 properties. That is amazing. So the level of service we can just offer is extraordinary. So I got in the car, I go to the property.
SPEAKER_01It was well on bright.
SPEAKER_02It was in Sussex, I drove from St Ives to Sussex.
SPEAKER_03Next time, call me.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Send me a branded polo shirt and I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, do we think we did branded polish?
SPEAKER_03I've screwed, I'll wait. No, we get I'm out. I'm not getting invited, am I?
SPEAKER_02So I went to the property and managed the situation, which is can be many things. In this situation, it was housekeeping, and this was before the guest arrived, of course. And that's that's how ahead of the game we are. You know, we we saw a potential problem before a very important guest. All of our guests are important, but this is a guest that stayed with us for years on years on years on years, and they are extremely high profile, and it's really important that we get it right. The issue was dealt with, the guest would have never known. I greeted the guest, and they have provisionally booked the same property for next year. I love it. So, you know, I don't want to talk about what the problems were because it is kind of irrelevant because you are always gonna have issues thrown your way in any business with any brand, and it really is about how you deal with it. And I think as a team, it was dealt with calmly, professionally, and we did solve the problem.
SPEAKER_03There's a few things I like about that. One, the fact that you did it, two, the fact that you introduce yourself as someone who who onboards the homes, but you were also very willing to go and deal with it in stay. And I think that shows There you go. So that shows you, right? That shows a team that's all working for each other. Because I think one thing in our industry I've noticed in my many years of working, I I spent my whole career in short-term rentals, right? Is that we're trying to deliver hospitality remotely. So in your case, when I think about your brand and what you're trying to do, I'm thinking you're getting customers that would usually stay in a five-star hotel. Or a very nice boutique hotel if not a five-star hotel. So you have to delight them in the same way that they're accustomed to being delighted. And I love the fact that, yeah, okay, you it meant a long drive, but you're willing to do it to ensure that that level of service was maintained, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh, I mean, th thank you. I think I feel very proud to work for Unique Homestay. And I think that example, y it didn't feel like a burden. It felt like a challenge that I was really willing to do for the the the company who I adore working for, I feel very looked after, I feel, you know, and we are a team, so it's not my actu you know, if you look on a piece of paper, my job description, but that just doesn't interest me. I want to do what's right for us as a team, and we're all in our roles, but we've all got other things that we bring that might not be in our job description, and I think that's why we're such a strong group of people, because we're very multifaceted and we work for a luxurious, quite glamorous brand. But actually we're all very humble people and we're not afraid to roll our sleeves up and get the leaves out.
SPEAKER_03But you have to, because that's the game, right? It is you have to be willing to provide hospitality experience. Um, note your it's it's a UK, it's a UK holiday, isn't it? There's no there's no overseas. So so you're experts then on that on that UK holiday?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a good question because we uh used to be overseas. So uh when I joined, we had properties in the UK and overseas we had an amazing property in India and in France, Italy, and they did really well actually. But the f the the problem that we found was managing the housekeeping. I mean, we don't look after housekeeping for the UK properties, but um if the like to Annie's point on that last question, you know, there's an issue here, it's much easier for us to jump in. You know, if they an owner loses their housekeeper, we can say, okay, we know another great one in the next town, we can get them across, and we've got great connections. Whereas it was much harder when there's a language barrier and you know an owner might be in London, their properties initially, and they have you know a housekeeping failure. And that's one thing that we've always done is try not to be a bit of something to everybody, but really trying to be everything to a very small group of people. And so we make quite bold decisions, and quite often we say no, we cut things. Initially, like Airbnb, my boss always said says it's like we were Airbnb before the world was ready for it. We started off by doing hosted stays. You'd stay in a in a property or the Lord and Lady or really cool house, the people that made old money that they needed to rent some rooms to make some money, and it was great. People come stay with these amazing uh lords and ladies and wealthy people, and they'd get drunk, they'd host them, and you know it sounds phenomenal. Yeah, it was great. Some of the stories, yeah. And we one of our owners, um David, and he was this amazing, charming. Uh Sally's too old, and he we took him off the payroll because it got to the point where he was just taking our owners out for lunch. But you know, he's such an amazing ambassador, but he was one of our oldest owners.
SPEAKER_03David.
SPEAKER_01He's still good.
SPEAKER_03He's at lunch, he's not.
SPEAKER_01He's not a lot of fun. He probably is at lunch, he'll definitely be taking wine at lunch now. Yeah, so we we cut the hostess' stays, and then the next thing that we did was cut the overseas stays. But interestingly, we um I've just done a big brand survey to all of our previous guests, and 74% of them last year said that they wanted overseas stays from unique home stays. So watch this space.
SPEAKER_03Wow, I love it. It was like we prepared that question. As a plug, we didn't, honestly. We honestly we really didn't. I flooped it. Um tell us, so we we are here at Scale UK, so let's finish with a question around that. What is it in particular that brings you to short-term rental conferences and particularly this the scale UK today?
SPEAKER_02I think um it's connections such as this. You know, we met downstairs. I think this is a really great example of when networking feels really organic. I think the word networking can feel a bit like, ugh, eggy, but this fit just feels really organic, really genuine. There's so much to learn. We're experts in our field. However, there are still other people with other skills, niches, and I want to come here and learn from other people. And it's just conversation. You know, even if the seminar might not be particularly relevant, I might see something or hear something that is just a nugget that I want to then dive into to go. Do you know what I'm really interested about that? For example, Corin from Jackson Heim, he is very different to what we do in a city Manchester, but he is dealing with more corporate stays and booking lots of accommodation for film, for fill, you know, actors and film crews and things like that. And I just thought, gosh, that's really interesting. And the some of the properties we have are so beautiful that talent would definitely want to stay there. And we do host talent, but it's not our bread and butter like him. So it's that sort of thing that I go, oh, can we piggyback off that? Could I learn something from him and take that back to unique homestays?
SPEAKER_03Love that. I mean, is that it? Is that the reason? Or have you got is there something else for you there that brings you to a group?
SPEAKER_01I think and he's right. And I think for for me, it's there's two things. Being away from the office, I think, is always beneficial, having that outside look in, and even you know, the journey up here, your your brain's thinking about things and you know, you you think more outside in. Uh, I think it's I mean unique home stays you sit sit in a bit of a niche, and often what we see isn't what you know what we're seeing across the board in the the short-term rental market. Um, you know, it's not being the best picture today. I think you know, overall the market is is a challenging time for the market. It looks like the masses are seeing a lot of last-minute bookings. It's interesting because we're we're not actually at the beginning of the year, we were 14% up on um advanced bookings than we were last year, which is great for us because we didn't really have a real long-term strategy on that, but it's but it's worked really well, and we find that the luxury market are booking, especially larger properties, much more further in advance, which is not what the rest of the market's seeing. But it's I think you still need that picture of what's happening in the market, even if you're not seeing the same thing, because you then you can ask yourself, why is that? What can we do more of? Um and then I was recently at the Walpole Luxury Summit in at the Londoner, and that was really interesting because it's all about the luxury market, not so much about hospitality at all. It's more about food and fashion, and you know, the CEO of Aston Martin was there and Selfridges and those sorts of events I find you you learn so much from because you can take things from other sectors as well. So it's great having that mix, I think, of industry events, but also other events of brands that you really aspire to and see what they're doing, take learnings from across the board, really.
SPEAKER_03Love it.
SPEAKER_01Great.
SPEAKER_03Well, look, I've I've kept you too long from the networking and the talks and the glasses of wine that are going to come. So No, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01We love chatting about Unique Homestays, so we we really appreciate it. It's great to meet you.
SPEAKER_03Amazing, great. And if people want to find you guys, give us the website, tell us a bit more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's uniquehomestays.com, but also follow us on Instagram because we've got a lovely Instagram. You love properties and interiors and stories, and yeah, look us up with Unique Homestays on Instagram.
SPEAKER_03Amazing, thank you very much. Thank you.