The next time you’re planning a weekend getaway to Langkawi, you may want to consider staying at Jesseca Liu and Jeremy Chan’s home. Yes, you read that right. Since January, the newlyweds have been running a homestay in Jesseca’s hometown of Langkawi. Aptly named J’s Home ( J” stands for the couple’s initials), the Pinterest-worthy apartment comes with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a toilet, a living room and a kitchen, with the capacity to accommodate eight to 10 people.

Nestled in the heart of Kuah town, J’s Home is just a skip and a hop away from the island’s main attractions, night markets and largest duty-free shops. It’s also just a five-minute walk from the three Bellis Spa outlets and 3pm dessert café (which, in case you didn’t know, are owned by the Ch 8 actress too). No, Jesseca (probably) won’t greet you at the door or hand you the keys. But if you stay at J’s Home, you get to Instagram up a storm at the space prettily done up by Jesseca herself, eat at the same dining table as Jesseca and Jeremy, and, um, sleep in the same bed that they slept in. Already, Jesseca tells us that business has been “quite good” and that their Airbnb is “almost fully booked every weekend”. We speak to the 39-year-old to find out more about her recent money-making endeavour.

8 DAYS: Why did you and Jeremy decide to set up a homestay in Langkawi?

JESSECA LIU: Langkawi is my hometown so when we got married [in July 2017], we wanted a home there that belonged to us. But we don’t go back to Langkawi that often. So we had this idea of creating a home where we could stay at when we go back, and rent out when we are not around. How much did you spend on setting up J’s Home?Actually, I’m also not sure leh. We treat it as our home, so we don’t really keep a record of how much we spent. If we see a lamp that we love, we just buy it [to put in J’s Home]. We purchase things based on what we like. I think our purchases cost more than the renovation works.

8 DAYS: Your homestay is very minimalistic chic, decorated with straw hats, potted plants and cute plushies. Where did your inspiration come from?

LIU: I love browsing through Pinterest, so some of my inspiration came from there. The homestays and hotels that I’ve stayed at previously also inspired me. I studied interior design. So I was in charge of the layout and design for the homestay. But Jeremy and I discussed about stuff like the colour and concept of the rooms — we both prefer something more colourful — and I incorporated both our ideas into the design. We also flew to Thailand to buy some unique decorative items and furniture. We specially picked every single item in our homestay.

8 DAYS: What was the greatest challenge in setting up this homestay?

LIU: One of the biggest challenges was shipping over the materials that we had sourced from different countries, like the ceramic tiles, furniture, decorative items and paintings. Once, something we ordered arrived with missing items. Another time, we bought a few batches of materials and only one batch arrived, and the rest was stuck in our warehouse. All these little things don’t seem like a big deal but they add up to a very big hassle. (Laughs)

8 DAYS: Share with us an interesting anecdote from running an Airbnb for the past eight months.

LIU: When we just launched our business, there was this family that came from Zhongdong [which is a village in Guizhou Province of China] who checked in to our homestay at 3am. And not long after, they messaged us saying that they wanted to check out. We were shocked and thought something had happened. Then, the husband said that it was ’cos his wife saw a lizard at the window. Later on, I found out from my sister that Zhongdong people see lizards as a taboo. It’s got something to do with their religion. They think that lizards are unlucky creatures. I also heard from a friend who used to work in a hotel that he encountered a lot of similar incidents of Zhongdong tourists checking out after seeing a lizard in their room. 

8 DAYS: Any horror encounters with customers?

LIU: There was a group of guests who really loved our decor because our homestay is quite Instagrammable. (Laughs) So they moved all our decorative items to a spot to take photos and didn’t bother putting everything back when they checked out. So when my cleaners went to tidy up the house, they saw that everything was messed up. Each room has a different concept. So they had to move the decorative items back to their respective rooms. One of our rooms has four or five hats [on the wall as decor]. And one hat went missing after a guest stayed in the room. Once, after a group of young guests stayed in our house, we found vomit on our carpet and bed sheet, and had to send them for cleaning and disinfecting. This is also something that I can learn from — how to negotiate with our guests and ask them if they can foot the cleaning bill.

8 DAYS: So you’re the one personally negotiating with guests?

LIU: Actually, it’s not me lah. We have a team who takes care of such matters. We have a group chat and they will regularly update me. So when there’s a problem, we’ll discuss and come up with a solution. Previously, I’d go on the Internet to see what others would do and then advise my staff who will then negotiate with the guests. If the guests dirty or spoil our things, my staff will take photos and use these as evidence to negotiate with them.

8 DAYS: What are the chances of running into you at your Airbnb?

LIU: I try to go back every month. When I go back, I’ll block book my homestay. So far, I haven’t encountered any of my fans coming to stay. A lot of them are foreigners. We have an employee who’s in charge of handing over the keys to guests. Sometimes, it’s my mother or sister who does it. But there was once this family from Johor Bahru who checked in just when Jeremy and I were checking out. So we decided to personally hand over the keys to them. We also wanted to see their reactions and get their feedback about the homestay. That was the only time I brought guests to tour around our place and hand over the keys to them.