Serviced Accommodation Milestones, Highs & Lows

In our Serviced Accommodation (SA) Business we recently hit a big milestone and thought we would share some of our "SA highs & lows":

Last week we hit a big milestone in our SA business: our 1,000th booking.

Having operated for over 3 years and now managing over 20 properties (a mix of owned, R2R and managed across Essex and surrounding areas) we have had our ups and downs but are extremely happy with our success. So to celebrate our 1,000th booking, I thought I would share some stats, milestones & lessons learnt:

• ✅Average booking length = 9 nights
• ✅Average number of guests = 3
• ✅Average nightly rate = £112
• ✅Average booking value = £984
• ➕Milestone hit = over £250K turnover in a 6 month period
• ➕Milestone hit = over £50K turnover in a month (several times)
• ➕Milestone hit = our VAs finding and taking direct enquiries through to confirmed bookings
• ➕Milestone hit = business can run without any of my input

It didn't start like this, it started with 1 as a test & Catherine dealing with everything from uploading properties on to the OTAs, to checking in guests, to replying to enquiries & managing cleaners & contractors, whilst I was still in my day job. 

• ✔️We've been through 3 cleaning companies. 
• ✔️We've given a number of properties back where the SA model just wasn't profitable. 
• ✔️We've had our fair share of 'dodgy' guests 
• ✔️We've dealt with fraud

But every time something new happens, we add it to our process list & ops manual & it's no longer the big issue it would have been when we started. 

Now, with our team of VAs managing all customer service, listings, bookkeeping and admin, and an excellent Property Manager managing things on the ground (including expansion) we have truly built a business where we are the Owners and not the day to day managers.

​So for all of you just starting out, keep going, it is achievable, you just need to keep systemising, outsourcing and scaling and you can create a SA business that you can enjoy.