Converting homes into homestays
Published on: Monday, December 10, 2018
Selangor: With Malaysia having the potential to grow in the tourism sector, LivingSpaces founder Ikhram Merican said owners could capitalise on this opportunity by converting their homes into homestays."Malaysia is the thirteenth most visited country in the world, we are only scratching the tip of the iceberg regarding our potential to bring in more tourists, and I believe the tourism industry is going to continue to grow long-term."Between now and 2016, we've had 26.8 million, in 2020, it's going to hit 26 million, it shows the potential for the industry," he told Star Property.
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He underlined a few points that can help owners better promote their homestays."Lesson number one – reviews as they are significant when you start doing homestays, your first ten reviews are, and you have to make sure that they are fantastic, five star reviews, nothing less, it's not that difficult to achieve but you need a hospitality mindset to get it, you need to be very service oriented."The second lesson is you have to present the property well, and the photos are a significant part of that presentation. So don't shortchange on acquiring an excellent photographer to show your property in the best manner. Put that money in, and you would see it pays off in the long term.The third point is the price versus occupancy where Ikhram suggests to focus on price and profit and not occupancy, "too many hosts get obsessed over occupancy, and then they lose on profitability," he said.
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"At the end of the day, no point having a 100pc occupancy but you are losing money, you want to make sure that you are doing so, and you should find an equilibrium between price and occupancy, meaning what is the highest you can charge and still get the optimum levels of occupancy and as you push your prices up, definitely you see the occupancy drop but you would find an optimum level, where you find the most amount of profit, that's where you should stay at," Ikhram said.The fourth lesson is how to pick the best property for online platforms, which he said have five criteria – accessibility to tourist attractions, within walking distance or around 500m radius to a public transportation mode.
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"Being situated nearby successful shopping malls such as Mid Valley or One Utama, owners need to be as close as possible to entertainment (bars, clubs, etc) something like Changkat, and finally the facilities and amenities of the house itself, if you have a house with excellent facilities, you would do well, especially if the facility is unique like rooftop infinity pools, sky garden, etc.Also present was Malaysian Wellness Society President Dr Rajbans Singh who spoke on wellness and how the people can improve on their overall wellbeing.Dr Rajbans also said that the effort to maintain the wellness is not the effort of individuals also but companies should take a proactive role as well"If you look at the statistics, we have one of the highest rates of diabetes in Asia and the number of people who get the metabolic disease are increasing and the costs are going up."A lot of Malaysians are hardworking but they tend to neglect their health and to maintain wellness, they just need to have slight changes inhabit such as diet, doing simple activities," he said.Dr Rajbans also said that the effort to maintain the wellness is not the effort of individuals also but companies should take a proactive role as well as he cited international companies such as Google who ensure the work-life balance of their employees."When we look at things such as corporate wellness they should educate their staff to eat more healthily, they should have time to take a break and walk, stop the work for a while and walk"These are some simple ideas but it can make a big difference in the long run as it would also encourage employees to further pick up more healthy habits in the future," he said.Dr Rajbans suggests that wellness starts with education such as the importance of nutrition and exercise.Talking about how Malaysia can start to develop better eating habits and inculcate a healthier society in general, Dr Rajbans suggests that it starts with education such as the importance of nutrition and exercise.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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