Here’s Little Story 10 of 13. Each considers (some of) why, I think, Old Post Office Riverside Holiday Cottages have spiking occupancy and 95% perfect 10/10 reviews.
10. Knowing what not to charge for.
Here is a list of things that guests have broken in the last 4 years, at Old Post Office Riverside Cottages in Northumberland.
1. Cafetières.
2. Coffee grinding machines.
3. Pizza oven temperature gun. They melted it.
4. Pizza oven pizza peel (large paddle thing). They melted that, too.
5. Drinking glasses.
Here’s what we charged the offending guests for, from that list (they tell us about the damage 8 times in 10):
Nothing.
Here’s what happens when we charge the offending guests nothing:
1. They leave cash anyway.
2. They buy us another one anyway. It arrives in the post a few days after they leave.
3. Nothing.
I think that nice guests, and we almost always get nice guests, are grateful. And they say nice things about us. And they come back.
On the subject of knowing what not to charge for, we don’t charge for anything at all that’s consumable in the cottage. Nothing. You can read about that on the homepage of our website.
And we also have ‘antenna’ and instinct for what else to give clients for free.
1. Extra coffee beans.
2. Warm bread and cinnamon buns that we occasionally buy from The Grateful Bread Bakery after the school run.
3. More olive oil.
4. Gravy granules.
5. More wine (‘might limit this to one extra bottle over and above the one we leave in all cottages anyway).
6. Bottle of Prosecco. Normally reserved for nice couples. Hand delivered by Izobel on the last night.
7. Little EV car charges. We do charge for on-site EV charging, at below market rate. However if the charge cost is, say, under a tenner – we don’t charge anything.
We don’t just randomly wander around handing out gravy granules, by the way. We once overheard guests, in the gardens, pondering how they’d get some nice gravy for the pies they’d just bought from Grant’s Bakery
ENDNOTE.
I think that a really great objective, when twiddling with costings, is doing your very best to work out how not to charge guests anything at all when they’re here. Most places, I think, do the opposite.
Not here.
Get your costings right in the first instance, and you won’t have to.
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Sign up: www.50odd.co.uk
I’ll post 10 times throughout November 2026, about Old Post Office Riverside Holiday Cottages.
Because occupancy is spiking, the first 30-odd reviews in 2026 were a perfect 10/10 and 95% of ALL reviews (500+) are a perfect 10/10.
If you have holiday cottages, or want to have holiday cottages, this might help.
Please repost and tag if anyone you know might want to read the series throughout November 2026.
Thank you. And Merry Christmas.
Mychael.
Website: www.oldpostoffice.co.uk