Get Fully Booked

Here's a question most accommodation owners never think to ask: is your booking system actually working with your marketing, or quietly working against it? Alison Carsley is a host, a property management system specialist, and someone who has spent years helping accommodation businesses untangle their tech setup so it stops costing them bookings and starts earning them. In this episode, Sarah and...

You've probably got reviews sitting on Google. Maybe some on Tripadvisor. Possibly a stack buried inside Airbnb or Booking.com. And if you're anything like most accommodation owners, you look at them occasionally, feel very pleased that guests love your place and then do absolutely nothing else with them. This episode is the nudge to change that. Sarah makes the case that your reviews aren't a van...

If you've ever posted a photograph of your accommodation online and thought "I hope the right people see this" - this episode is a timely reminder that visibility can attract the wrong kind of attention too. On 26th August, Sarah discovered that someone had taken photographs of The Hudnalls Hideout, her luxury couples-only treehouse in the Wye Valley and used them to build a completely fake holida...

To close out Season 6, Sarah is joined by one of her Fully Booked Business Club members whose results over the last two years have been, in her own words, impressive and whose approach to marketing holds a lesson every short-term rental accommodation owner needs to hear. Joe Marshall is a heating engineer turned glamping and campsite owner. He and his wife Kimberly bought Prospect House Farm in Sc...

You asked AI to write an Instagram caption for your accommodation. It came back with something about a “tranquil haven nestled amidst breathtaking natural beauty where luxury meets comfort.” You deleted it immediately. Sound familiar? In this solo episode, Sarah gets practical about one of the most common frustrations she hears from hosts: AI that produces bland, generic content that sounds nothin...

If you’ve ever felt isolated in your business, wondered whether you’re the only one juggling quite this much, or noticed that the people on the big industry stages rarely look like you, this episode is for you. Lisa Roads has spent over 25 years in short-term rentals, starting with buy-to-lets at 19, building a holiday portfolio in Cyprus from the UK, and eventually running a fully managed propert...

Bookings are slower than you’d like, so you look at your website and think: “it’s not converting. I need new photos. I need a new booking system. I need a new website.” But what if that’s the wrong diagnosis entirely? What if the real problem isn’t conversion at all, it’s that almost nobody is actually visiting your website in the first place? In this solo episode, Sarah tackles one of the most co...

“SEO is dead.” “Google is finished.” “AI is taking over search.” If you’ve spent any time online recently, you’ve probably seen at least one of those headlines. In this solo episode, Sarah cuts through the noise and gives you a clear, practical answer to what’s actually changing and, more importantly, what it means for your holiday cottage, glamping site, Airbnb or boutique accommodation business....

What actually happens when you want to move on from a business you’ve spent years building? And what does it really look like to take that dream of running a retreat abroad and live it out — with all the complicated, unglamorous bits included? Kerry Roy is someone Sarah describes as glamping royalty and it’s not hard to see why. She was one of the earliest glamping pioneers in the UK, building Cam...

Your About page. It’s probably the one you set up early on, haven’t touched since and don’t spend much time thinking about. But what if it’s quietly one of the most important conversion tools on your entire website? In this solo episode, Sarah makes the case for why your About page deserves a serious rethink — and it starts with a fascinating piece of consumer psychology. Research by neuroscientis...

What does it actually feel like to give up a 35-year London career, say yes to a seven-acre farm you’ve never run before, inherit fifteen animals you’ve never looked after, and move to a county you’ve never lived in, all in under four months? Nicky Cooper is about to tell you. Nicky is one of Sarah’s 2026 Bootcampers and the new owner of Tredarrup Farm Holiday Cottages: a stunning North Cornwall f...

If the words “marketing metrics” make you want to switch off immediately, I get it. Numbers and spreadsheets weren’t what drew most of us into hospitality. But this episode might just change how you feel about them — because the hosts who track the right things are the ones who stop making decisions based on panic and start making them based on evidence. In this solo episode, I’m walking you throu...

When the market feels uncertain, it’s very easy to assume your business is failing. The quieter inbox. The later bookings. The random gaps in the diary that suddenly appear where they never used to. And meanwhile, social media is full of hosts apparently having their “best year ever” while you’re wondering whether everyone else is somehow in a totally different economy! So today, I’m talking about...

If you've ever wondered whether growing a portfolio of properties makes marketing harder, Clare from Suffolk Coastal Escapes is about to give you a very reassuring answer. This week I'm chatting with Clare, a long-standing member of my membership, The FULLY BOOOKED BUSINESS CLUB, who manages 11 holiday cottages on the Suffolk coast - an area she describes as a hidden gem that most people have neve...

Here's a question for you. When did you last actually stay in your own short-term rental? If the answer is "never" or it's been a very long time, this episode is going to make you uncomfortable. In the best possible way. I'm talking today about why staying in your own property is one of the most important things you can do as a host, and why relying on your best friends or family to test it first...

I have to be honest, this episode genuinely made me smile from start to finish. This week I'm joined by Wendy from Acorn Glade Glamping, one of my longest-standing Fully Booked Business Club members and a fellow host who has quietly built something really rather special just outside York in the UK. And when I say special, I mean four completely unique glamping units, a mirrored dome with a bespoke...

I've seen it so many times, and it genuinely breaks my heart. Someone pours £80,000, £100,000, or even more into a beautiful cottage renovation, cabin, shepherd's hut, or glamping site. Blood, sweat, tears—the lot. Then they open their doors to nothing. Tumbleweed. Silence. And that desperate, sinking feeling that something has gone very wrong. It's not because their property isn't gorgeous. It's...

Five years. Can you believe it? Get Fully Booked is officially five years old, and I'm not letting this one slip by quietly. Because if I've learned anything from working with hundreds of hosts, it's that we are absolutely terrible at celebrating our own wins. We hit a milestone, give ourselves a quick nod, and then crack on as if nothing happened. And I'm calling us out today! This episode is a l...

This week, I'm chatting with Ben Makin, who runs a lighthouse keeper's cottage near Wick in Scotland – possibly the most remote location of any of my marketing club members. Ben's got a really interesting guest mix, with around 38% of her bookings coming from overseas visitors. She's worked out exactly who her ideal guests are and has even given them names. There's Christine, her UK off-season gue...

In this episode, I tackle something I hear constantly – "I don't want to spam people." I'm tackling this mindset head-on because it's holding so many short-term rental and glamping site owners back from using one of the most powerful marketing tools available to them. Yes, even more powerful than social media! I'll walk you through what actually counts as spam, how GDPR actually works for your bus...

Let's talk about something that trips up so many hosts – marketing promotions. You know the sort: giveaways, discounts, special offers. They can be brilliant for filling gaps and growing your audience, but get them wrong, and you'll land yourself in what I call "marketing jail." No, there won't be sirens or handcuffs, but you might end up with angry guests, awkward refund requests, or even your so...

This week I'm chatting with Katie Colella, a meta ads specialist who knows her stuff when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads. And yes, they can work for short-term rentals and glamping sites – when done properly! We're cutting through the myths around paid ads. Katie explains why so many hosts think ads don't work (spoiler: they've probably just hit the boost button and hoped for the best), an...

Welcome to Season 5 of the podcast. Today, I'm diving into why building your own website might be silently holding your business back! With over 30 years of marketing experience and 80+ website audits under my belt, I have seen three recurring pitfalls of DIY websites that can drain your time, energy and profits. The importance of your biggest marketing asset to your short-term rental business can...

Think TikTok's just for teenagers doing dance challenges? Think again. In this episode, I'm chatting with Paige McNeil, a social media whizz who specialises in helping accommodation businesses crack TikTok marketing. We're talking about why you can't afford to write off this platform – especially when guests in their 30s and 40s are actively using it to find their next getaway. Paige shares the tr...

Got another DM asking for a free stay? Me too, my inbox is groaning with them right now! Someone with 500,000 followers wants to stay at your property - sounds flattering, but will it actually get you any bookings? Probably not. And that's because most hosts don't understand the massive difference between an influencer and a content creator. They're not the same thing, and getting this wrong can b...