BOOKINGS used to come in by phone for Gerarda and Tony Mader's historic short-stay cottages in Keppel Street, but that work was taken over by a website some time ago.
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If they were still relying on phone calls for their cottages business, Mrs Mader says, "we would have gone broke a long time ago".
The shift to digital bookings is just one of the seismic changes they have seen in the accommodation industry in the more than 10 years they have been welcoming guests - and they know there will be others.
IN OTHER NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
"When we first came on board with the accommodation, people were running accommodation from a book on their desk and picking up the phone," Mrs Mader said.
"You'd ring and say 'I want some accommodation' and they'd say 'I'll have a look' and they'd pencil you in - that was literally what they were doing.
"We built a website and we were one of the first in the area to have a booking button on our site.
"And then, of course, Tripadvisor and Expedia, Booking.com - all of those have come in.
"So now, to do accommodation you need what they call a channel manager - something in the back end that can drive all those things, which is basically like that online book, so when you pencil something in, it blocks it out from everywhere else.
"The industry's changed a lot. I guess there's still that guest care and people still want some kind of people engagement, but a lot more people now are happy to do a self-check-in process as well."
We've got so much depth of history and so many levels here.
Mrs Mader, who has provided input as a member of Bathurst Regional Council's Tourism Reference Group, says history is one of the city's biggest selling points.
"Bathurst Regional Council did a Destination Management Plan a couple of years ago and one of the things that was identified in that was the depth and breadth of history that is here in the area, as well as Bathurst being a progressive town," she said.
"We have so much diversity through history - it was one of the first food bowls to feed Sydney, it was the first inland settlement.
"A lot of these old buildings have actually been retained and are being looked after."
Mr Mader said Bathurst's history had, in the past, been overshadowed by Mount Panorama.
"It [the Mount] is a great ad for Bathurst and puts Bathurst on the map, but there is a hell of a lot more than just the race," he said.
"Tourists are starting to discover that there are some really nice historical places in town and around town.
"It's not just Mount Panorama, as important as it is."
One of Bathurst's biggest tourism challenges is simply deciding where to focus, according to Mrs Mader.
"We have so much to offer here. It's like a kid in a lolly shop - where do you start?
"If you've only got one thing to showcase, then that's what you market and what you advertise, but we've got so much depth of history and so many levels here.
"If you do want to isolate motor racing, it was one of the first significant races in Australia."
Ready for a change, the Maders have their three Keppel Street properties - the three-bedroom Jordan Creek Cottage, four-bedroom Middle Cottage and three-bedroom Rose Cottage, which all date back to the 19th century - on the market.
"We're looking to move on," Mrs Mader said.
"We've been doing short-term accommodation for 10 years now. And it's a great little business, it's a great little investment, but we're just ready to do something different."
In selling, they won't just be passing on the cottages, but a place of the occasional serendipitous surprise.
"We had some guests contact us a while ago and say 'oh my gosh, we've just found out that my great-great-great-grandfather used to live in the cottage'," Mrs Mader said.
