A hospitality success story: How this host, coach and author became successful

Okay, so welcome to another episode of the behind the Host podcast. I'm Leon Carolan and in the next 20 or 30 minutes we're going to be deep diving into behind the scenes business of an epic host business where you can get inspiration from. You'll start to learn some of the tactics, some of the tech and the tools that you can implement to into your business. I love meeting hosts from all over the world and today's host is from Belfast so we're going to learn what makes their business tick. And without further ado, let's introduce today's host. He looks after 60 units on the management model and his name is David. Dave Cordner. Dave, welcome along.

Thank you very much for having me.

So for the listeners, Dave is from Belfast, as we said, and he's got Central Serviced Apartments is the name of his business. He's an amazing host, he's a coach and also an author of his very own book. So I'm really excited to dive into your business today, Dave and thank you for being here. So to get started, can you just give the listeners a bit of background on how you got started in short term rental?

Yeah, so I've been in service accommodation business for about 15 years and it started off as a bit of an apprenticeship really. So my parents actually had a few properties way, way, way back and I wasn't really in it at the time but I was helping out when they would go on holidays, I would help out with the cleaning, I would meet the guests and I really sort of. It was like an apprenticeship in the family business and I really got the buzz. The biggest buzz I got was from meeting guests. And if anyone's been to Belfast, it's an amazing city but people still are a wee bit nervous about coming and they aren't sure what to expect. So I loved seeing people way back when coming for the first time and not really sure about what to do, but were just blown away by it, by the city and the people. And I just got such a buzz showcasing my, my city. In 2013 I purchased my first property and started to do things a bit differently. And in 2014 I got my second and very quickly realized that that is what I wanted to do full time. And yeah, started managing properties in 2016 and it's grown from there. Really? Yeah, I love it.

That's cool. And just so the listeners know, what did you do before this? What was your life before service accommodation?

So I was working in mental health. So I have a psychology degree and a master's in applied Psychology and I was sort of chasing that dream of being a clinical psychologist for the guts of 10 years and it took a lot, it was a big decision to sort of jack that in and to go sort of full on into service accommodation. But it just, it aligned more with me, it was, it was more fun. I'd always wanted to have my own business and to sort of work on my terms and time. Freedom is a big thing for me and it just, I saw it as an opportunity to do something just a bit more fun. So yeah, I think it's probably helped as well with guests the sort of psychology side of I put myself in their shoes and think about their experience. But yeah, two very different customers going from mental health to guests.

You beat me to it. I was going to mention it must give you an advantage just understanding the psyche of some of the guests and you know, putting yourself, being able to put yourself in your guest shoes ultimately. And yeah, they say once you've got the hospitality bug then you know, it never leaves you. So it's awesome. So obviously that was back in 2013. If we now fast forward all the way, all the way to 2022. What is your business like now? So just remind the listeners how many units you look after and what your sort of day to day role in the business is.

So yeah, we, we manage about 60 in total. Recently over the summer there we were managing some student accommodation that was obviously empty during the summer. We worked with the building to, to let it out to service accommodation to tourists during the summer. So that was an amazing opportunity. It's a bit of a test and I think next year it's going to be even bigger. So I'm really excited about that. We almost doubled in size every year from when I started the business up until Covid obviously and you know, anyone else on the management model will know that the host and the property owner win and lose together. And that's the benefit of the management model. You're spreading the risk. During COVID everyone was losing because there was no travel. So we shrank probably by about 50%. A couple of our big clients realized there was no travel coming and they decided to go to long term lets. But since restrictions have been opened are eased again, we've grown more rapidly than ever before. So we pre Covid or just when Covid was starting we were at 40 properties, we went down to about 20 and now we're up to 60. My role in the business is I get to do all the fun stuff. So I have a team of superstars that actually run the day to day, dealing with guests, dealing with bookings, everything like that, answering the phones. And I get to do fun stuff like this, work on strategy. I do a lot of social media. I have two social media accounts, so I have one where I talk about how to run the business, how to set up and do service accommodation, and then I have another that's the sort of front end. So we aimed at guests and trying to promote Belfast. So that was always my passion from the very start. You know, whilst I don't make the guests anymore and sort of showcase the things and give them recommendations, personally, I know I do it on social media to a much wider audience. So like yesterday actually I was out shooting video content and I'm doing a series called Best Guinness in Belfast. So my time is spent drinking Guinness around Belfast and showcasing the city.

I love that, absolutely love that. And there's so much to unpack from from. There's some gems in there in general and there's so much to unpack from your answer just there. So lots of different angles I want to go to. Obviously you mentioned you've got the channel where you can help people get started and that side of things. Also you know how you reduce the number of units, so there's a bit of a challenge there and then you've increased since there. So I definitely want to dive into both of that before we go on to that. You mentioned that you've got your channel which is dedicated towards promoting the area for your guests and to invite more people to the area. So are all your properties based in Belfast, which we assume as listeners, Central Belfast apartments, that they're going to be based in Belfast and how do you go about promoting an area? If people listening into this just go, well, I'd love to help promote my local area to get more guests. How do you go about doing that?

Yeah, so currently we're all just in Belfast. We are going to be moving out into different areas of northern in Ireland at the end of this year and the start of next sort of have hopefully have everything in place to ramp it up for. For Easter onwards next year. And that's exciting but scary at the same time in terms of promoting the area. So we do it very subtly. So obviously we do tours of our apartments, video tours and we showcase those, but it's. That's not the bulk of what we do. What we do is showcase what there is to do in the area. I know people who would look at it with a very analytical hat on might say, well, you're just promoting other people's businesses or you're not technically promoting your business and that's fine because there's that association. So if I can show someone the best coffee shops in Belfast or the best things to do for families in Belfast, if that trickles into GB or down into Republic of Ireland and people see that, well, they're going to align that with our brand and I hope they come and stay with us, but if they don't, I know that they're going to have a great time in the city and go home and tell 10 of their friends, you know, I went to Belfast and it was actually amazing. You should go and maybe one of those people come and stay with us. So I have a real passion for the city. I think it doesn't get the recognition it deserves. It's getting there. Obviously we have the troubles and people are a bit nervous about that, but it's a world class destination and we've got some amazing things to do here. So we're just getting started in our tourism journey and I'm just getting started in our, in our business of being the number one service accommodation provider in the city.

It's so important and you definitely speak in the Bootlee language. It's really about what can you do differently to help promote not just your business but your local area and get more people across. That increases guest experience, they get a better experience, better reviews. And not only that, you become a key person of influence in your area. If you're the person who's inviting people to your area, how important do you think it's been for the success of your business to focus on one particular area? Because I speak to hosts all the time who are looking to have, you know, properties in a number of different locations. How important and, you know, what difference has it made focusing in one particular area for your business?

Well, I focused in Belfast purely because it is the biggest city in Northern Ireland and it gets the biggest draw of guests of all different kinds. So there's obviously the leisure and tourism, but also corporate and contractors. So everything is here to go out to start in other towns and areas in Northern Ireland. You're going to lose some of those bets and I can be done and I will be doing it. But certainly it's a no brainer to focus in Belfast for me. In terms of other hosts, I think really the fundamentals are the same. Whether you want to manage it in Liverpool and Manchester or London and Glasgow, it's all the same. It's about having the right location Treating the guests the right way, knowing how to get the bookings and setting the systems up for it to run effectively. And you don't really need to even be there, it can be set up to run remotely and then protecting that and making sure that only the right guests come in. Yeah.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk forward/call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team.

Awesome. Awesome. And so one of the questions, and I think we touched on it, that the challenges that you've had, and one of my questions was going to be what is the biggest challenge or the biggest learning curve that you've had? Is there any lessons that you could share with the listeners which would really say the things you've done during that tough time of COVID of what helped you not have to shut up shop altogether, but you reduced the business down but then you've increased it since then. Is there any lessons you can share from us for the listeners from that?

Yeah. So you know what? The biggest thing that I felt during those early weeks of COVID and I'm sure anyone who's in service accommodations during that period will fail us would have felt as well is complete powerlessness. You know, bookings just being canceled at an alarming rate, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of non refundable bookings being canceled and needing to be refunded. And it was horrible. I felt completely paranoid. Everything was happening to me and to us as hosts and there was nothing we could do. We didn't know when it was going to be over. We couldn't hold on to any bookings. You know, clients were taking their properties back and it was, it was awful. So one thing I decided to do was try and take back some control and focus on what I could control. So we did quite a lot of work back then. While everyone else was just turning their market and budget off like tourism Ireland and visit Belfast and tourism Northern Ireland, I decided and realized that this was a Great opportunity to actually be heard. Normally it's a very loud marketplace with these big industry bodies, but they were all very quiet and I thought, well, okay, this is a good opportunity for me. So I started shouting as loud as I could, talking about the best things to do outside, the best walks to do, things that people could do. Whenever travel was open again, we, like a lot of businesses got bounce back loan and I decided to, instead of holding onto that for a rainy day and panic to invest it. So we rebranded, we got a really slick looking website. I started producing this video content. I'd never done a video before, before COVID but I decided I'm going to push myself out of my comfort zone and start doing these uncomfortable things because I know it's the right thing to do. And if I couldn't do it during COVID everyone uses that excuse of I'm too busy, I'll get to it later, but if you couldn't do it during COVID you're not doing it. I got a coach as well, sort of mindset, business coach, and that really helped as well. And I was determined that, I mean, we all knew Covid was going to end and I was determined that we were going to come out the other side in a much stronger position than when we went in. And that was the case. So I was a much stronger person. I was more resilient. Our business was much more resilient because we obviously had to look at all the processes and all the costs during that downtime when there wasn't much income. So we came out much leaner, much slicker, much faster and I think much better. So I'm not saying it was the best thing that ever happened, it was horrible. And I don't know if it's a trade off that I would say, yeah, I'm glad it happened, but certainly I'm very happy with how we came out of it.

There's so many key lessons from that you say of just market when other people aren't, you know, continue to market. Like you say, so many people go quiet. And we've now got a time where people are talking about high inflation, you know, winter's coming, higher bills and stuff like that. And again, one of the messages that we always give to the members of Boostly Academy and to the hospitality community is just continue to market during that time because it's not a time to go quiet at all. And that's exactly what you've done there. And I'm quite fortunate enough, Dave, I've seen some of your Videos before. We've got on this, on this podcast, you know, sort of with book in last year. So I was. I've seen those videos. So it's definitely, you know, made an impact at the end of the day. So that's.

It's funny whenever, you know, thank you for watching that. And you just don't know. So I walk around Belfast and I. Every time, every so often I'll get people giving me weird looks like because they've seen the videos and. Or people come up to me and say, oh, I watch your stuff on TikTok and. Or on YouTube. And because I'm promoting two things, I'm sort of trying to provide value to hosts of how to get started and set up the business to run smoothly. But also these things about Belfast, the more, more sort of general things you have to guess. I never know which one they're sort of talking about. So, yeah, it's strange. Anyone who makes videos will. Will experience that. You think you sort of forget people are watching them. So it's weird whenever people sort of recognize you.

Well, people get value, don't they, from these things. And even if it's just one or two little, little bits of information that they can then use, which is amazing, which, you know, the other two points within your previous answer, there of, you know, two key things. One is taking action, being brave and actually taking action. You know, not remaining quiet and taking action. But also you mentioned you got a coach during that time, which, you know, brings us nicely onto. You do coaching yourself, I believe.

Yeah, yeah. And there's a couple of reasons why I do this. People always ask me, like, if the business is doing well and you've sort of systemized it so you don't really need to be involved in the day to day. Like, I haven't spoken to a guest in years. Why are you doing coaching now? Why are you sort of piling this back on? And I always say there's, there's. There's a few reasons for it. One, when I was starting out, there was no coach or, you know, even information really of how to do it, of the best ways to do it. I was sort of fumbling along in the dark and feeling forward and making all the mistakes and, you know, I'd like to help people coming through to learn how to set it up properly. The second reason is, you know, service accommodation does get a bit of a bad reputation. It can't. There aren't, you know, we all know there's bad guests, but there are plenty of bad hosts. As well, who don't do things the right way. And if I can coach some people on how to do it the right way, set it up to run well, to deliver an excellent service for guests and to increase the standard in their area, then I'm all for that. And third, obviously, it's an added income stream for me. I've made a lot of mistakes and, you know, by coaching someone, I can turn sort of decades in the days and, yeah, I just really like doing it.

Yeah. And at the end of the day, if people can leverage experience and leverage, you know, like you say, the experience that you've gone through, that you've just shared with us during COVID of, of dropping down and then increasing and the, you know, the forefront to push forward with the marketing during that time, then there's definitely things that people can learn, which is really awesome. So, looking more at your business, earlier on we talked about you could set up service accommodation in different cities with the right systems and the right tech. What are some of the tech that you and your business uses which you really rely on? And what would you say to people listening if there was one piece of tech they must get, what would that be?

I'd say that, well, I couldn't cut it down to one, but there's certainly a few. So a channel manager for sure. You know, when I started out, I didn't use a channel manager. I was just on Airbnb and booking.com and that was way, way back when they didn't even have the ical imports that you could, you know, stop double bookings from closing off availability. So literally, when a booking came through immediately, I had to open my phone, no matter what time of day or night it was, open my phone, go on to booking.com, close off the availability there. So Channel Manager is an amazing piece of kit. We use Avivo. There are lots out there. We think it works well for us because we have quite a large portfolio. You can see them all in one large diary, which is great. It opens you up to being on far more different booking sites as well, which just increases your reach. And I think anyone who has service accommodations should be getting on as many different sites as possible. The Internet's a big place. There are people who prefer to use certain sites than others, depending on age, where they live, all sorts of things. So you need to get maximum exposure. And a lot of these channel managers offer the chance to get your own website for direct bookings as well, which I know Bruce, they love as well. So that would be the Number one thing, and I would say, you know, if you've got one property, you should be thinking about a channel manager just for those reasons. But certainly if you've got more than one, you have to have one. But the second piece of tech that we only started really using this year and has been absolutely game changing is a rate pricing software. So an algorithm that updates your rates so up and down. And that's been completely game changing for us because I think probably a lot of posts like we were are very good at seeing gaps of availability and reducing your prices down to try and sell those. But what we're not so good at, or what I wasn't so good at, was seeing when the prices should be increased. So, you know, if you have a small portfolio or if you've only got one or two properties, if a booking comes in at a standard price and then you realize Ed Sheeran concert's just been announced and you've just lost, you've left so much money on the table. Whereas with the rate pricing software, it knows and it bumps it up to the maximum rate possible, once you've got a bigger portfolio, you can see those a bit easier because if you've got like 10 properties and all of a sudden three bookings come in for next year for a specific date, you can sort of think, right, okay, something's happening here. But by that stage you've missed out on three bookings where you could have had it much higher. So the price in software has been game changing for us. And you know, I look at some of the rates that it puts our properties to and obviously it scrapes the data from booking.com and Airbnb and your own portfolio availability. But some of the rates that it puts it to, I would never ever have had the confidence to put it to myself, but it goes to those prices and bookings come in. So like whatever the cost of these things are, it pays for itself so many times over.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct Blueprint, are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint. And then for 101 marketing tactics, that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now, just type in Book Direct Playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

Yeah. So so many hosts try and reduce some of the overhead costs at their own, at their own peril because these things like the dynamic pricing and having a good channel manager PMS is just so important, isn't it? It just helps your business grow and succeed. So there's two questions that I'd love to ask. Usually when we do these, we, we ask, you know, what your business does to encourage good reviews from guests or something that your business does to deliver a great experience. So if we go with that first and then as a second part, and while you're thinking of an answer for that first one, I'd love to know, because you've got 60 managed places there, there'll be hosts who are listing in thinking, well, I'd love to start up either a management side to my business. Perhaps they've got a rent to rent business or their own short term rental and they're looking to increase income by starting a management company. What would be as the second part, your tip to people looking to start a management company? So just to be clear, question number one, what do you do to increase good guest experience for your business? And question two is, if somebody was looking to start a management company, what tips would you have for them?

So in terms of good reviews, the number one thing I always say to people is it's the property itself. The property has to be perfect, you know, in a great location, set up properly, finished nicely, obviously clean. Because that is the product that people are buying, the guests are buying. It is property itself. And you know, the location is, is a very important thing in my opinion. It's the number one factor in determining the success of a property. Because if you're in a really nice area with nice coffee shops and cafes and parks right next door, people are going to mention that in a review. Now that's a really strange thing. You know, in no other business would that happen that you're getting a positive review because there's a nice coffee shop next door. So if you can find an area like that that's going to be pleasant, you have to think about the guest experience, you know, arriving at the property. If it's a family and you know dad's out in front of the suitcase with Google Maps and says you are here. So they look up and look around and think, wow, this place is amazing. That's the great first impression that you can give. And it works the other way as well. If it's in a really sort of rundown, noisy, dangerous, unwelcoming area. Then it doesn't matter how nice the property is on the inside, guests aren't going to have a good experience. Because I always say to new hosts and the people starting up on Airbnb, you know, these are real people who are coming to stay here and they're coming on their holiday. You know, they've spent a lot of money, they've thought about this, they've booked your place. So, you know, it's not just about getting bookings in or money in the bank, it's about delivering a great experience for the guests. It's good to make things as convenient as possible. So if you're doing meet and greets, I think that is the best way to ensure good reviews because you build that rapport with guests. They see your fierce, you smile, it's a warm welcome. If they've got a bit lost on the way to your property, you can come outside and show them how to get in, where to park. But I understand that's not possible for everyone and we don't do that anymore either. It's all remote check ins with key shapes and things. So it's about trying to make it as convenient as possible, giving them as much information as you can to make sure that they will check in easily once they get in. Having lots of information in the property about how to work the dishwasher, how to get Netflix on the tv, definitely how to do the heating and WI fi, and then checking in with them during their stay and genuinely asking, look, how's your stay? Is there anything we can do to make it better? And you know, there may be things in the property that are niggling at guests that think, you know, this is missing or this isn't working properly and they might not say at the time and would just maybe leave a bad review afterwards. But if you check in and ask them, how is everything? Is there anything you need? And they might say, well, the batteries aren't working in the TV remote. You can say, brilliant, I'll be right down and I'll replace those. All of a sudden you've turned something that's a negative experience into something really positive for those guests that they think, God, you know, I just mentioned that and they fixed it instantly. And those are the things that often get mentioned in reviews.

100%. You can't, you can't stop problems from happening. How you respond to them problems is just so important. So, yeah, really good point. And so for the people who are thinking, you know, yeah, I want to get into, into management, what tips would you have for them. Where should they, where should they start if they're considering doing management as a business model?

So I do speak to a lot of people in the sort of coaching side of it who are wanting to start a management company because it's a very easy route in. You basically don't need any capital, you're not buying a property, you're not doing a rent service accommodation where you have to pay upfront and maybe do the place up a bit. Management model is an amazing way to control property. You know, the renovation costs and all the running costs are effectively charged back to the client, the property owner. So it's a very easy way. And however, because you win and lose together and the risk is spread, the property owner needs to have complete confidence in you that you are going to deliver for them. So my thing is always about educate yourself about how to actually do it, because property owners aren't stupid. They're going to ask tough questions and if you don't know the answer and being able to deliver those answers confidently, they're going to think or realize that you don't really know what you're doing and they're not going to trust you with their investment that cost them a lot of money. Another thing I would always say is don't get desperate. Like when you're starting out, it's hard to get a property to get one over the first one over the line. And I see a lot of people who, who are getting desperate at times and are just willing to take anything just to get started. But you have to be strong and stick to the metrics that you know are going to work. Don't take a property in a wrong location. Don't take a property that is too small or isn't finished and you know it isn't going to work for guests because all you're going to do after a few months is have a disappointed client property owner who's going to be coming saying, where's my money? Why are we not making any money? You should have told me that this wasn't right. So always go for the best property you can get and tell clients, because if you do a good job, property owners will come to you and say, got this property? How much money can you make? Me and us as a management company, I turn away probably about 95, 99% of properties that people bring us because I just don't think it's going to work for them. And I owe it to them and us to tell them that at the start. And if you take on A property that isn't right, it's going to take more work, more time, more stress. Whereas if you get a really good property, you're going to get higher rates, it's going to be less work, it's going to be less, more easy to sell online to guests and you're going to get much better reviews. So it's just a much better level to be at, of the sort of higher level.

Thank you so much for that. That is, you know, it's so true, isn't it? Too many times do we see people take properties which aren't right and the whole thing could unravel. So, yeah, 100%. So we're already towards the end of our time and as we start to reach the end of these, we love to do a couple of quick fire questions just for fun. The answers can be as short or as long as you like. And yeah, just, just for a fun. So what would you say your superpower is, Dave?

Leveraging. So getting everything off my plate. Anyone who starts in service accommodation will know you do everything yourself. At the start. I used to clean the properties myself, change all the beds I used to count and store all the dirty linen in my house here. And, you know, it took up all of my time. The phone was never, never stopped ringing. So I made the decision, I'm going to leverage everything. And now, as I say, the business phones like clockwork. Without me. I haven't spoken to guests in a few years and I'm an expert. I don't know if I'm just incredibly lazy or just incredibly, you know, focused on my own time and being able to do whatever I want. So any task that comes up that I have to do, I'm like, how can I get someone else to do this for me? And that's really what's enabled us to grow to so many properties.

There's a great book which I've recently read, which is who not how, and it's just a great book which is exactly that. Who can you get to help you with something as opposed to how are you going to do it yourself?

And another one called Life Less Beverage by Rob Muir, which I actually read on my honeymoon.

Yes, absolutely.

Started it all for me.

I've read that and yeah, absolutely. I've interviewed Rob once before as well. So this, it's awesome. What is your favorite animal?

Probably a dog. Got a dog. I've got a doorman.

So yeah, classic dog person. Awesome. And then lastly, is there a mantra or a motto that you tend to either live by? Or one that you. That you just really like.

It's not so much a model, but I sort of. Well, I suppose it is. It's about the best things in life come on the other side of fear. So if you're. If you're thinking about something, thinking about doing something or trying something, but you're scared, you think it's not going to work, maybe you've tried something in the past and it hasn't worked and it's holding you back. I would always recommend you push through. The things that you're most scared of are the things that you know are going to make the biggest change in a positive way to your life. So get comfortable being uncomfortable. If it's in your head, you're asleep, you're lying awake at night thinking about it, but you're scared to do it, it's because you have to do it. So push yourself to do those things.

Awesome. Awesome. What a great way to bring it to a close. And I've got so many more questions that I could have asked Dave, but I feel there's been some really good knowledge. Bombs dropped and I'm sure there'll be a lot of people listening. Who's got good value from this? If they want to get in touch and sort of come and follow you, what's the best way to do so.

So to get in touch with me directly, you can get me on LinkedIn, Dave Cordner, you can hit me up on TikTok. So our brand, TikTok, which is promoting Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Central Belfast Apartments, it's on Instagram too. And me as a coach, it's called airbnb coach on TikTok and Instagram as well. And also our YouTube channel, Central Belfast Apartments, where I blend all of our videos into one channel. So there's loads of content on there.

That's cool. And if people wanted to come and get some training with you, is that services that you offer?

Yeah. So again, you can do a strategy call, you can go click through all the links on the social media sites. I've written a book. So Service Accommodation, five star fundamentals. Talking about the five things that I believe are, if they're in place, that any service accommodation will be successful. And you can get that@dave cordner.com.

That'S amazing. Thank you so much, Dave. And this has been really, really good. So for everybody who's listening on the Live, thank you for tuning into the Live and, you know, sort of just give this a little thumbs up or share it just so people can see it. If you're listening on the podcast, you know, thank you very much for listening in with behind the Host this week. If you do want to come and join in with Hospitality in general, come and join the Hospitality Facebook community on Facebook, which is Mark Simpson's free group. And yeah, we look to we're always looking for hosts to come and join us on this podcast. So feel free to reach out in that group. Thanks very much, Dave, and bye for now.

Thank you.