I love my post-retirement side hustle that we started in 2015, six months before I officially retired from formal employment.
We needed to supplement our reduced post-retirement income in order to maintain a large property, and our staff.
Our garden cottage that Mom Lily and Dad Malan used to live in, was turned into an Airbnb, but soon grew into a fully-fledged BnB when it became registered with relevant organizations, and yielded way better returns than we ever imagined.
Guests come and go, young regular guests who come for training stints at a local facility. Some call me 'Gogo', 'Mama', 'Tannie,' or 'Aunty,' and always arrive with a smile, happy and excited about being back and getting closer to completing their training. Some take the work in their stride, a little too laidback, but most are diligent and confident, the ones I have a soft spot for, are the worrying types.
They all however become like 'adopted' children, and I've had to take over hubby's role of encouraging them, something he excelled at. They could relate to him better, and some miss him terribly, as he was such a big presence whenever they stayed in our BnB.
Then there are the guests who return after a year or so, and I have to think very hard to put a face to the name, but as they arrive, it's like a switch is turned on.
We are some 18 km from the beach, so it's not always leisure guests; many come for business, sport, to visit family for special occasions, illness, often sadly followed by death.
Some guests are high maintenance, like a recent family. It was unreal, over the weekend when we do not offer a cleaning service, they kept it neat, but come Monday, it was like a hurricane hit the cottage! Somehow nearly all of Durban's beach sand was dropped on the cottage floor. The TV remote and pieces from our board games were hiding underneath the couches. I can go on and on, but find it disrespectful when parents allow their young children to just go wild; I'm sure they don't do that in their own homes!
We had new guests arriving - same-day bookings are tough, and made even tougher when departing guests had not respected the space!
We once had a family with five children, and I was dreading it, but what a pleasant surprise to see the cottage spotless every day.
I love children, but I honestly believe that children's fees should be the same as adults, or perhaps more, if only one knew what to expect!
One can add a cleaning fee, but I know that some guests will feel entitled to be even more messy!
A refundable cleaning or breakage fee could perhaps work, but these kind of guests are rare, so I will keep the status quo, for now at least!
It's very different from the kid's menus at restaurants, but when unruly little ones take on the role of a guest, it's a whole new ballgame.
It was all hands on deck today, I did light duties, while Cynthia and Bonginkosi worked together like a well-oiled machine.
Teamwork won the day, and the 90 square metres cottage was ready for occupation within three hours, a record for sure, thanks to my amazing staff!
That was one of the few bad days in life at a BnB!
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