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

Okay, so welcome to another episode of the behind the Host podcast. 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, 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 common 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 we're just blown away by it, by the city and the people and I just got such a buzz showcasing my city. Um, 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 of. 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, with guests the sort of psychology side of, of I put myself in their shoes and, and think about their experience and. But yeah, two very different customers going from mental health to, to guests and 22.

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 manage about 60 in total. Recently over the summer there we were managing some student accommodation that was obviously empty during the summer and we worked with the building 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 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, 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 or 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 aimed at guests and trying to promote Belfast so that was always my passion from the very start. You know, whilst I don't meet 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.

How important and you know, what difference has it made focusing in one particular area for your business?

Well, I, I focused in Belfast purely because it is the biggest city in Northern Ireland and it's, 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 that can be done. But. And I will be doing it. But certainly, you know, 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 to. 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.

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, you know, not, not have to shut up shop altogether. But you know, you reduced the business down, but then you've increased it since then. Is there any lessons you can share from it 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. 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. I felt completely powerless. 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, you know, the, the, the best walks to do, things that people could do. Whenever travel was, was open again. We like a lot of businesses got bounce back loan and I decided to, instead of holding on to 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 gonna 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 you know, 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 know, 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. 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.

That's amazing. Thank you so much, Dave. And this has been really, really good. So 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.

Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee? Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes? Don't write it, just do it loosely.