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David has big plans to make chicken hotel boarding available to the masses.
In 2007 David Roberts opened The Chicken Hotel in Cornwall, on the south coast of England. It’s been a huge success, attracting plenty of custom from Cornwall’s poultry owners, and much interest from the world’s press!
By early 2022, after 15 years in business, The Chicken Hotel had a proven track record, so David decided to expand and bring on board new ‘chicken hotel’ owners to offer accommodation for chickens across the U.K. He’s re-branded the business to ‘Betsy’ and launched a new website to show off the chicken hotels in different parts of the country, attract new ‘hoteliers’, and explain how it works.
“It’s a very exciting time for us and for all thechickenhotels that we have in our listings,” he says. “Now covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, and the weather’s warmed up, people are finally able to go abroad with fewer restrictions on travel. I thinkwe launched at a great time!
“After all, the core of our business is to be able to provide people with the same level of care for their beloved feathered pets as they can find for their furry ones, and having excellent pet boarding accommodationis key to people’s peace of mind when they’re on holiday.”
David offers support to the owners of the new chicken hotels with a centralized booking service, comprehensive guidance, and insurance against things going wrong. All bookings are taken by David, so all the ‘hoteliers’ have to do is provide the coop and look after the chickens when they arrive for their stay. It’s like a franchise arrangement, except it’s less structured and there’s no fee to sign up – David simply makes a commission on bookings.
Any chicken keepers who have the capacity to do chicken boarding can use David’s service, and they get guidance on how to run their chicken hotel, as they learn the ropes. David encourages people who want to offer chicken boarding to be as helpful and personable as possible, taking short bookings initially, because that builds customer confidence and leads to longer stays.
“Our mission is to bring clucking chickens to the masses, helping more families experience the joy of pet chicken keeping,” he says.
“One of the things that I’m personally concerned about is theeducationof the huge number of people who are new tochickenownership,” he explains. “I’m sure we’ve all heard of the boom in ‘lock-down puppies,’ but there was a similar boom in ‘lock-down chicks’ too! The British Hen Welfare Trust saw a huge rise in their waiting list for rehomingchickens during the pandemic.
“I think it’s wonderful that more people get to experience the joy ofchickenkeeping, after all our motto is that a happychickenmakes a happy home! But it’s really important that new owners first do some research intochickenkeeping. The right feed, housing, bedding and security are all important to the health and wellbeing of what will almost definitely become one of the joys of your life.
“Choosing the right way to care for your birds when you go on holiday is also vital. This was why I opened my firstchickenhotelin Cornwall, and now it’s more important than ever.
“I have heard horror stories of people leaving theirchickens with just a pile of grain and a full waterer, only to find disaster on their return as the waterer had become blocked with kicked up mud. Or another family who asked their neighbour to look after their hens, but they went to put them in a little too late and Mr Fox had already attended.
“Ourhotelmanagers onwww.heybetsy.comare all experiencedchickenkeepers with secure accommodation. They understand the level of care and attention that petchickens need. I would be confident letting any of them look after my ownchickens, they even send me photographs while I’m on holiday! You can never have enough pics of their fluffy little bums!”
The business, which originally operated in Cornwall only, now extends to four other counties – Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire – where keen chicken owners have set up their own chicken hotels, each of which can be booked through David’s website. There are inevitable challenges and questions for any new host.
“One of the main questions I get asked by potentialhotelmanagers is, ‘What would happen if achickendied while in my care?’ It is a very reasonable concern, as any experiencedchickenowner would be able to understand. To address that issue we developed and published our Betsy guarantee and Betsy protection.
“This covers things like cancellations and also provides cover for the death, sickness, injury or loss of a bird while at achickenhotel. It protects thechickenhotelowner and also provides cover for the customers. It’s just another element of our business designed to give confidence to the customer andhotelmanager.
“Our team has been working very hard to make sure that the customer experience is a great one. Part of that is the beautiful website that we’ve built to handle the bookings, and we’ve also been working to make sure our hosts are ready to offer the high level of service that our customers should expect.We have some beautiful listings on our site and I am personally confident in their ability to offer excellent accommodation and care to their customers.
“In the future, we want to be able to offer our service to people all across the UK, to give more people the chance to make extra cash from their hobby and also to let people have the chance to go on holiday and get their ladies well cared for.
“This is why we are hoping to go nationwide next year.Who knows, with a nationwide network of easy to findchickenhotels we might just spark another boom inchickenownership and morechickens might be able to find their forever homes!”
Find out more: www.heybetsy.com
Originally published in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.
