In Australia a bungalow is a cottage/granny flat in the back garden.
To us most of the places Australians live in are bungalows because they’re single storey!
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Poppy has said elsewhere that she only gets guests from Australia so I guess that using terms that only Australians will understand is okay if she’s aiming for the domestic market only.
But when the time comes that she wants to extend her business to include people from other countries (and Australia is becoming much more of a tourist destination than it used to be) then she’ll need to up the game a bit. With the Australian population being 24 million, UK 65m and USA 325 m, then it will be as well to encompass international words. I’m assuming that these days Australians understand USA and UK terminology.
I also think, being an international forum, the overuse of word the word “villas,” “my villas,” can read as quite pretentious due to the fact that most others would not realize it is in reference to studios and not lush, provincial estates. The thread says “apartments” but then the rest of the time, any mention about the properties has been very persistent in its usage of “villa” which is vernacularly strange (off putting for some) once other members have expressed that its meaning is only applicable to Australians.
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I’m the same. My phone is programmed only to receive key family calls 11 p.m. - 6 a.m. No-one should feel they need to be at beck and call of potential bookings 24/7.
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I don’t understand the housing wordings of many of the US and UK houses and I have visited both countries a number of times. In the UK I often stay in my friends “summer house” which to us Aussies is a bungalow/granny flat in the garden without running water.
I have withdrawn from the the totally saturated Airbnb market in Australian’s main tourist areas and have no intention of going back to it. They are awash with cheap rentals. I will stay in my little neck of the woods where I am quite happy and my owner’s are very happy with the returns they are getting.
My apologies, I wrote this before the conversation was started over what constitutes a “villa”. It is not considered pretentious in Australia and now that I am aware of it’s many different meaning around the world I would have been better to use the word “unit” or “studio apartment”. Although apartment in Australia normally means it’s in a high rise building.
You did the most important thing for your business: understanding who your clients are.
And I love the “smashed avocado” terminology about young professionals.
I understood who my clients are 2 years ago when I did the regular Airbnb vacation and I hated it. All my bad reviews came from these vacationers . Trashed house, high utility bills and high demanding crowed. Then I found my perfect guests: corporate workers who stay longer terms like a month or more by luck. I occasionally still host vacationers if I have gap between workers. But my whole system on how I run my business is around them
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Excellent! well done!
Thank you, Poppy, for providing the details to your successful property management. That’s what folks wanted to know, I think. As a fairly new property manager ( I rent my home in another city in the U.S.) I have a Host, but it’s up to me to do the marketing and pricing. I am always open to ideas, so I thank you for sharing. You “work the listing”, as I say. Great ideas, thanks!
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Fascinating differences around what we call our various living spaces - and this is just the words we usein English!
@AFineHouse … yes, and not only pretentious but perhaps a bit Nouveau Riche - I’m sure Hyacinth Bucket (sorry, Bouquet) lived in a “villa”. In Spain, it seems to be mainly used by expats to refer to a largeish 2-storey detached house with a garden and probably pool. This is what ours is, but we’ve never referred to it as such … it’s just a house! And to confuse things further, the Spanish term normally used is “chalet”!
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Yes, I speak Spanish and I love Malaga! And when I wrote my listings in Spanish a friend of mine from Murcia and I had a discussion on what to call the places and he said to use the word “chalet”.
Which where I live (México and Peru) “chalet” means nothing to anyone I know. Just shows how regional and language-dependant the choice is. I won’t contribute to “la tormenta en la taza de té” by adding my 2 pesos worth to the villa debate though!
Muchas gracias! Fui a México and Peru en 2016, me gusta tu frase "la tormenta en la taza de té”. It’s always interesting to find that some phrases mean the same in other languages.
I was just having the discussion with a Colombian friend on the weekend about our use of “it’s not rocket science”, as in Spain they say: “it’s not Latin” and in Colombia they say: “it’s not Chinese”.
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Hay otras maneras de decirlo también, pero no los voy a repetir porque es un foro familiar 
wouldn’t want to shock the children (like that could ever happen!)
Ja Ja, ahora estoy intrigado
When I hear bungalow I think of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald typing away on the backlot of MGM while drinking martinis for breakfast and fighting like cats and dogs. And when I hear villa I think of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald en vacances in the South of France drinking martinis for breakfast and fighting like cats and dogs.
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