Ex-SA champ’s historic nunnery a hit
AIR BnB is fast becoming the best way to find affordable accommodation around the world at the click of a mouse.
In Port Alfred, former Springbok kneeboard surfer Dalton Phillips and his wife Tracey are pulling in tourists to stay in a historic nunnery built in 1836.
“We have tried many ways over the past 12 years and Air BnB is definitely the best,” he explained yesterday.
“You can do background checks on visitors before they even come and decide if you want them to stay.”
He said warnings were placed online if other people had bad experiences anywhere in the world with the same prospective visitors.
According to Phillips, the couple had tried several other online sites to punt their business but never knew what type of visitor they were getting.
“We had some people over December that we got on Gumtree and they slashed our awnings.
“It is always a big chance taking in strangers online.”
The 43-year-old former kneeboard champion decided to try his hand at accommodation in the resort town after he broke his back in 2003 in a car crash.
The couple, who turned the historic abbey into accommodation just before December, said they had no problems using Air BnB.
In a short time they had six bookings using the global online network.
Phillips said they did not have to pay exorbitant commissions to the UK-based booking group that took a paltry 3.5 %.
Since they had started using Air BnB in December, the couple had had six booking from all over the world.
“We heard about it from friends who are doing it and have no complaints.”
The immaculately restored abbey was built in 1836 and started out as a Freemason Lodge. The building was later transferred to the St Paul’s Anglican Church and used for Sunday services.
From 1899 to 1902 it was used to house refugees from the Anglo Boer War before being sold to the Catholic Church as a holiday home for nuns. In 1979 it was sold again and converted to a public residence and lovingly restored before Phillips bought it late last year to use an an accommodation establishment.
Since it was started, Air BnB has become a world-wide phenomenon that has even seen people converting outside rooms or spare bedrooms into accommodation.
Seal Point surfer Graham Tugwell, who has been on Air BnB for two years, said unlike other booking sites which took up to 20% commission, he paid less than 4% to them.
Tugwell has converted the upstairs of his house into a separate unit and has a steady flow of visitors.
“You meet good people who are like-minded,” he said. — davidm@dispatch.co.za