“All Grey = LESS Bookings” Here’s why. .. (5 ‘Excuses’ for using grey, and my responses!)
In my opinion, grey is the new Magnolia - a colour so commonly used that it has completely lost its appeal because it’s not being used in the right way. It has taken over the interiors of far too many SA / holiday rental properties, sweeping over them like a growing mist, smothering their potential and stifling their chances of really raising the bar in terms of maximum nightly rates, maximum occupancies, and maximum profits.
It is sad. But true.
Yet I still hear ‘excuses’ attempting to justify its use. So today, I’m going to give you my responses to these excuses, in the hope that you’ll see the (non-grey) light, and move over to the colourful side of interior design.
So here’s the 5 excuses (or reasons, as some of you may call them) for using ‘grey, grey and more grey’ in your rental properties, which I will respond to below:
Grey appeals to everyone
Grey is the only choice available
Grey goes with everything
Grey will never go out of fashion
Grey is better than Magnolia
[As a quick note here: I want to say that I am not against using grey alongside other colours; it is a great option in many amazing colour schemes. What I am trying to fight against is the use of it EVERYWHERE, as STANDARD.]
Excuse No. 1: “Grey appeals to everyone.”
There is something inherently wrong with this excuse, and it actually has nothing to do with grey! By trying to appeal to ‘everyone’ you are, in effect, actually appealing to NO ONE. Let me explain.
First of all, you have a massive audience - a massive market for your ‘product’ (your holiday rental or SA). You are spreading your net VERY wide if you want to attract all of them, which is a huge task. Secondly, you are also amongst a massive number of rental providers, who also want to attract the very same audience. This means you are a little fish in a very big pond. Where you want to be is the biggest, most attractive fish, in a tiny pond, so that YOU are the one the fisherman/woman wants! (I’m not sure where this analogy has comes from, but I’m going with it…)
Putting these two points together then, you want to be the biggest most impressive fish, in order to stand out from the crowd, while simultaneously holding your OWN fishing rod and aiming it at the specific audience that YOU want to attract, in order to easily reel them in.
Both of these roles can be achieved by NOT appealing to everyone. You need to be specific in your target market, and you need to be different enough from everyone else in order to attract that target market to YOU and not your competition.
Using grey throughout your property will most certainly NOT make you stand out. Therefore by thinking that you’re appealing to everyone, you are actually simply putting your property in a mass of other grey fish, to be picked out, if you’re lucky, by someone who’s other choices weren’t available.
Make your move ‘out of the grey world’ NOW, and you’ll have a chance of standing out!
Excuse No. 2: “Grey is the only choice available”
OK, I can see why this is said, and I understand it as a reason, HOWEVER, suppliers only provide what people want, so we need to STOP BUYING GREY in order to stop the domination of grey in what we’re being offered.
It’s a chicken and egg thing. You can only buy what’s offered, but they’ll only offer what you buy! So how do we get out of this cycle? The answer lies with you.
There ARE other choices available, but you have to adapt your plan slightly, and see any extra cost as ‘spending to accumulate’. By NOT choosing grey, you will ultimately make MORE money in your business through more bookings, and being able to charge a higher nightly rate. You have to do it for the long game.
Some alternative choices may not be the most unusual: For things like kitchens, for example, dark blue is becoming more and more popular, and green is often an option too, but don’t let the lack of choice put you off. The more people choose the alternatives, the more alternatives will start to be offered. The same is true for carpets. But for other items, like tiles, paint, interior fixtures and accessories there are a multitude of options available - don’t automatically choose grey!
excuse no. 3: “Grey goes with everything”
While I concede that this may be true, it doesn’t justify overly using grey throughout a property. If you believe that it will go with the green accessories you’re buying, I suggest you take the thought process one step further, and think about what will also look good with the green. This could be a soft dusty pink, or a turquoise (depending on the kind of green)… and before you know it, you’re developing a colour scheme! Be brave enough to move away from the grey, and more towards the other colours (while keeping the grey as a core element if you still want to) and they will all undoubtedly ‘go together’.
There are also many many versions of ‘white’ which will also ‘go with everything’, if that is what you want. Again, adding colour through your other interior design choices, while using white as a base, will help increase that ‘stand out from the crowd’-ness which will sky-rocket your profits. If you are cautious about colour on your walls and think that it is easier to change accessories than repaint a wall, then go for a white on the walls, filling the rest of the place with colour.
Grey only goes with everything because it is a colour-less colour! Do we really want to make our properties lacking in colour? Will that really ‘attract’ our ideal client? I don’t believe so. There is so much that could be said here regarding colour psychology - how colour affects our mood, including the mood of your guests - so consider that too. A completely grey space provides no colour and therefore no positivity in the response of your guests. Give them something to be wowed by by moving out of that grey-zone and into an uplifting colourful world.
excuse no. 4: “Grey will never go out of fashion”
Good interior design for SA/holiday rentals is not about what is in ‘fashion’ as it needs to consider longevity. While ‘trends’ need to be taken into account, the main focus for me should always be about providing an inviting, welcoming, home-from-home space for your guests, wowing them with unusual choices, with a mere nod towards future trends!
In other words, while grey DID have its time amongst the fashion boards of the trend-predicting world, it is now long gone (or featured amongst other colours within a scheme). High street stores take time to ‘catch up’, and in my opinion, grey WILL go ‘out of fashion’ as the staple colour to turn to.
By going with grey throughout your property, with the thought that you’ll ensure your property will attract people for the longest period of time, you are actually ensuring that your property remains amongst the masses - in that middle ground of ‘OK properties’ - for the longest period of time, slowly moving down that list into the ‘out of fashion’ properties appealing to fewer people.
It sounds like a depressing forecast, and it is! So change your tactic now, and embrace what your future guests will want (which won’t be grey!).
But a small word of warning regarding trends and ‘fashionable’ colours. You should see them as inspiration, not as the golden rule. Take elements from them to use in your property, but don’t base your whole scheme around them. Trends and fashion change all the time, so take them with a pinch of salt and scatter them with care among your ‘easily changeable’ accessories.
excuse no. 5: “Grey is better than Magnolia”
I’ll let you into a secret: I grew up in a Magnolia house! It was Magnolia through and through, everywhere. I was desperate to rebel against it (which I did, aged 13, when I painted my bedroom lilac, hahaa), but in recent years, as the move away from grey has grown momentum, and the palette of warm, earthy tones has advanced, I am starting to see this ‘off white’ shade, known to the masses as ‘Magnolia’, as an option!
With so many shades of white among the charts of all the paint companies, ‘magnolia’ under a different name has to be there! So in response to the excuse that ‘grey is better than Magnolia’, I beg to differ!
Magnolia has a certain warmth, which provides a feeling of home/love/solace that a cold grey is unable to do. With the world as it is at the moment, people are craving these feelings - most certainly in their holiday homes/SA - and a grey just doesn’t cut the mustard!
My parents won’t believe this, but I actually think Magnolia everywhere would be better than grey everywhere! In the 80s I most certainly would have spat my readybrek out at the thought of me saying that, but things change, don’t they?! Now it’s time for you to change too. Move away from the grey, and thank yourselves for it for years to come!
So why the equation: “ALL GREY = LESS BOOKINGS”?
When considering all the above, it stands to reason that using grey throughout your property is possibly the EASIEST option (may be even the cheapest too), but when looking at other factors, using grey is a huge DETRIMENT to your business. The main points to take from the above are the following:
If you STOP USING GREY throughout, then the following WILL happen:
Your property will stand out from the crowd…
You’ll be noticed and booked more frequently…
You’ll get many more 5* reviews.
This leads to an increase in demand, enabling you to easily INCREASE your nightly rate, charging above average prices for your area.
Better occupancy + higher nightly rate = more revenue and PROFIT for your business.
So explain to me again:
