Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a periodic update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

Does your product look tired, shabby, or out-of-date?

That was a challenge my wife, Sally, and I faced at The Overlook. The cabin came fully furnished when we bought it in 2016, but it would be a stretch to say that all of the furnishings were high quality. 

We initially replaced the dishes and glasses, so everything would be uniform. Stained linens and rugs were tossed in favor of new ones. New patio furniture suddenly made the deck far more inviting.

Our big splurge was transforming an old garage into a ping pong room.

There were also some mismatched, second-hand furniture pieces that were adequate, but not fantastic. We decided to hold off on replacing those until we learned more about our guests' habits and our own preferences.

We’ve recently replaced some furniture and lamps, and we’re glad we did.

Investing in your product is often necessary to improve or even maintain a positive customer experience. Here's what we did, and why you should consider an investment as well.

A new look at The Overlook

The first big change was converting the master bedroom into a game room.

Sally and I decided to reduce the maximum capacity at The Overlook from eight guests down to six. You can read more about our rationale here, but essentially we thought fewer guests would translate to less damage and more profit.

The master bedroom was on the bottom floor of the three level cabin, and we decided to turn that room into a game room based on guest feedback:

• Parents prefer to sleep in one of the bedrooms on the main floor to be closer to kids and the center of the house.

• Couples tell us it feels more equitable for everyone to have a similar room, versus one couple getting a much larger room than everyone else.

• Access to the spa is off the former master bedroom, so there was a small issue of privacy.

The new game room has shuffleboard, a six-seat table that's perfect for playing games or working a puzzle, and a bluetooth speaker so people can play music. We'll soon be adding a television and better lighting.

The hope is this creates a new selling point for guests.

The other significant change we made was in the great room. There was a large dining table, a too-large area rug, and a large media center that all conspired to make the room feel smaller.

We replaced the dining table, area rug, media console, and updated the lamps (the old ones were wobbly) to create a more unified look and make the space feel more open. The coffee table had previously been replaced, and now the media console and coffee table matched.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to take a very good after photo on this visit.

That antler chandelier above the dining table? It’s a little wobbly, difficult for the cleaning crew to dust, and is not our style. The replacement has already been ordered and it just needs to be installed.

We traveled to the cabin in early January, when we had a small window of time to make the changes in between guest bookings. Another challenge arose as we worked—one of the beds on the main floor was broken.

I won't speculate on how it got that way, but it needed to be replaced. We had a new bed frame delivered two days later, thanks to the magic of Amazon. The bed is made by Zinus, and is a low-cost but well-made item with excellent assembly instructions. 

Why investing in your product is necessary

Investing in your product isn't always easy. Cashflow is tight in many businesses, especially small ones. Last year's meager profit immediately gets swallowed by this year's big project.

We had a great December. Probably our best month ever. But we poured all that money, and then some, right back into the cabin.

Customers have high expectations and won’t tolerate a lousy product. Those expectations come from a number of places:

• Your competitors. Does your product look tired by comparison?

• Past experience. Have your products become worn, less functional, or outdated over time?

• Promises. Does your advertising communicate a false promise?

Sadly, customers don't always understand the constraints of running a business. They don't care whether cash is tight or margins are slim. They simply expect a good product.

We used our vision, Welcome to your mountain retreat, and guest feedback to guide our updates. Tough decisions needed to be made about where to spend money, so we targeted the areas we felt would yield the biggest bang for the buck.

An unexpected epilogue

Sally and I got The Overlook updated and ready on a Wednesday, just in time for our weekend guests who were expected to arrive on Friday.

A funny thing happened when the guests did arrive.

There were eight people total: six adults and two kids. Our maximum capacity is now six guests. The Overlook has just three beds with no pullout sofa sleepers or air mattresses, so there was really no place for two of them to sleep.

Did they get confused by the transition and book a stay thinking The Overlook still slept eight people? It turns out the guests knew the max was six, but they thought they could save a few dollars and squeeze in two extra people anyway.

Guests like that are more likely to cause damage, steal snow shovels (it’s happened twice), generate noise complaints from our neighbors, and put dirty dishes back in the cupboard. (Yes, people really do that.) Those are exactly the people we’re trying to avoid with the new version of The Overlook.

Fortunately, our property manager was able to re-accommodate them at a larger cabin. We lost out on the revenue, but protecting the cabin from damage is a higher priority. We want it to look fantastic for our next guests.

Visit The Overlook website to learn more about the cabin or to book it for a quiet mountain getaway.