Lauren Charge Design

Lauren Charge Design Hi, I’m Lauren Charge - designer of Salt at Shoal Bay and co-designer of The Ambers at Port Stephens.

With nearly 20 years in design, building, and property curation, I help you cut through the overwhelm and find joy in your project.

26/08/2026

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt from managing holiday properties… the little things your booking software does every day can save you HOURS of admin!

After our last reel, we had so many questions about the management software we use at .ambers.portstephens so we thought we’d share a few of the Lodgify features our team uses every day.

From taking direct bookings and syncing our third-party channels like Airbnb and Booking.com, to having all our guest messages in one inbox, automating guest communication and quickly spotting gaps in our calendar. It’s the little things that make managing a busy holiday property sooo much easier.

And after trying a few different systems over the years, we’ve definitely learnt there are some things worth looking out for before choosing your software!

We dive deeper into our software setup, recommendations and tips inside Hostable, but for a quick cheat sheet, comment “SOFTWARE CHECKLIST” below 👇 and I’ll send you our free Holiday Property Software Setup Checklist, including the things we recommend looking for and a few lessons we’ve learnt the hard way! 🤯🤯

And if you’d like to try you can use code LAUREN60 for 60% off Professional and Ultimate Yearly and Bi-Yearly plans until 31 August.

We truly hope you love it as much as we do and that it gives you a little more time to spend doing the things you love 🤍

(Just a little note that although this is a paid partnership with however we chose and paid for the software ourselves when we opened The Ambers and are now migrating our other properties across too. It’s the system our team uses every day and one we genuinely recommend based on our own experience) 🤍

Styling isn’t about filling a room with more things.It’s about creating a feeling.The best styling does two things. It t...
05/08/2026

Styling isn’t about filling a room with more things.

It’s about creating a feeling.

The best styling does two things. It tells a story through your photography, helping people imagine themselves in the space before they’ve even booked. Then, when they arrive, it evokes that very same feeling in real life.

When your styling and photography work together, guests begin to picture the experience long before they walk through the front door.

Every detail in Salt Three at Salt at Shoal Bay has been thoughtfully chosen to create a calm, welcoming retreat by the sea.

Because guests don’t just remember how a space looked. They remember how it made them feel 🤍

I hope this gives you a few ideas to think about the next time you’re styling a space ☺️

28/07/2026

One of the biggest mistakes I see holiday property hosts make has nothing to do with design or styling...

It’s the systems they’re using behind the scenes.

You can create the most beautiful holiday property in the world, but if your booking process is clunky, or your guest communication is manual, or you’re not making the most of the major booking platforms, you’re actually making your life sooo much harder than it needs to be.

After creating and managing holiday properties for more than a decade, we’ve tried a number of different booking systems along the way. Today, our whole team at .ambers.portstephens uses and it’s genuinely the platform I recommend to all my mentoring clients and Hostable students.

There are far too many tips and features we love and use every day to fit into one reel, so we’ve put together a free guide sharing our favourite Lodgify features, along with some of the pricing strategies we’ve used to save time and encourage more direct bookings.

👇 Comment “LIST” below and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.

If you’re ready to give Lodgify a try, you can also use my code LAUREN60 for 60% off the Professional and Ultimate plans until 31 July.

We hope you love it as much as we do 🤍

I’d also like to be completely transparent that this is a paid partnership with however I only partner with brands I genuinely personally know and love. We’ve been using it since opening .ambers.portstephens and after comparing it with a number of other property management systems and channel managers over the years, we’ve recently made the decision to move all of our holiday properties across to Lodgify. It’s also my number one recommendation to all my mentoring clients and Hostable students. So every opinion shared here is based on our own experience using it day in, day out.

We truly hope you love it as much as we do, and that it gives you more time to spend on the parts of hosting you love most 🤍

Hi 👋 If you’re new here, I’ve been pretty quiet in this online space this year, not because things have slowed down, but...
09/01/2026

Hi 👋 If you’re new here, I’ve been pretty quiet in this online space this year, not because things have slowed down, but because they’ve done the opposite.

Behind the scenes, it’s been a year of beautiful word of mouth work, steady online enquiries, consults and mentoring sessions, and launching then carefully updating and refining our online course, Hostable.

I’m so incredibly grateful for all of it.

I’m a big believer in not over-complicating things, so this year I’ve been mindful of not putting too much energy into socials or creating more work than I can genuinely hold. Instead, I’ve been leaning into what’s already flowing rather than pushing for more.

The end of the year felt particularly exhausting for me (swipe across to October in the post above, you’ll see why) I had a nasty concussion with a lingering brain fog that took longer than I expected to recover from.

Feeling deeply thankful for all the clients and students I’ve worked with this past year, and so grateful for the slower pace over the break and the time to rest and reset.

2026 is set to be big, but in a different kind of way. We’re simplifying our systems, alongside a great team and refining where we place our energy and time.

Feeling excited for the year ahead 🤍

One of the most common topics that comes up in my Holiday Property Mentoring Sessions is marketing. People are always te...
08/07/2025

One of the most common topics that comes up in my Holiday Property Mentoring Sessions is marketing. People are always telling me they don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing their holiday property or airbnb.

It can feel like there’s so much to do. Social media, photography, websites, PR… but the truth is, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You just need to begin with something.

I’ve put together 5 simple tips to help you get started, practical, doable things that will actually make a difference.

Start small. Stay consistent. And don’t forget, your property has a story to tell.

Swipe through, save it for later, and if you’re feeling stuck, our course Hostable walks you through the whole process step by step.

You don’t have to figure it out alone x

Did you know you can purchase our floor plans, elevations and joinery designs for all our projects directly from the web...
07/07/2025

Did you know you can purchase our floor plans, elevations and joinery designs for all our projects directly from the website?

Someone reached out last week to say how helpful they’d been, and it made me realise, I’ve never really shared them properly with you all. Maybe because the whole “selling something” thing can feel a bit salesy and awkward sometimes.

But then last week I got this message:

“Hi Lauren, I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your elevations, floor plans and joinery designs. We were halfway through planning our renovation and just felt stuck. I purchased them last week and have found them so helpful. They’ve helped us visualise things so much more clearly. Even simple details like how the kitchen connected to the laundry gave us ideas we hadn’t thought of. It made such a difference.”

It’s feedback like this that honestly makes my day.

These are the exact plans we’ve used on our own projects. Practical, beautiful, and thoughtfully designed. Whether you’re building, renovating, or just need a little guidance to get started, they’re a really helpful reference.

You’ll get a clear sense of layout, flow and function… with plenty of inspiration woven through.

They’re not just plans, they’re a way to bring your ideas to life with more clarity and confidence.

You can explore them all at laurencharge.com and I’ve marked them down on sale until the end of this week. Happy planning xx

We’re driving to the snow today for the school holidays, and it’s been a while since I shared some photos of Oak House, ...
07/07/2025

We’re driving to the snow today for the school holidays, and it’s been a while since I shared some photos of Oak House, our family home, and the heart of our everyday life (which, I should say, rarely looks this clean or calm in real life)

Almost five years ago, we began renovating this 100-year-old federation home, gently peeling back layers and bringing it back to life one detail at a time. With its big, (and very old) oak tree in the backyard, this place holds so much of our story.

She’s far from perfect, and there’s still plenty we’d love to finish (always more to do!) but today I thought I’d share a few of my favourite little things.

1. Our ensuite shower with a window we built just to catch the sunset. It’s a small thing but a feature I love so much.

2. The big farmhouse sink. We had a double in our last house but this time we went for a single. My parents always had one and now I get it. Once you’ve washed trays and big pots in one deep basin, there’s no going back!

3. The laundry, a sweet side pop-out that frames the mandarin tree and catches the sunlight all day long.

4. The fireplace. A real wood fire, open at the front when we want it to be. The kids even know how to build and light a fire better than I do now. It’s been our winter ritual for years.

5. The hallway arches. We added them during the reno and I still love them so much. I love the way they draw you through the house and the end of the hallway open up into the big raked ceilings. That sense of space is something I’ll never stop loving.

Forever a work in progress. Always full of heart (and a touch of chaos) 🤍
I’ve tagged some of our favourite suppliers xx
These beautiful photos were captured by our friend Teresa

How much does it really cost to set up your holiday property?
(Hint: it’s probably more than you think…)When we were cre...
03/07/2025

How much does it really cost to set up your holiday property?

(Hint: it’s probably more than you think…)

When we were creating we had budgeted well for the renovation, but totally underestimated the cost of furnishing, stocking, and getting the place guest-ready.

To help you avoid the same stress, we’ve put together a free Budget Calculator so you can start planning with a bit more clarity and confidence than what we had.

It’s a great place to begin, it might not cover every single line item, but it’ll definitely get you thinking about the bits most people forget.

DM or comment the word “BUDGET” and the download link will magically land in your inbox 😉

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Port Stephens, NSW

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