Hidden Gems - Unveiling Australia's STR Secrets

Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Boostly podcast. The podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training and most importantly the confidence so you can go out there and get more direct bookends. We do a mini series where we dive behind the host and this is where we interview hosts from all over the world and we dive into their business. These are people who we find interesting. These are members of Boostly, these are successful hosts and just somebody that you as a host can learn from in the way that they operate their business. And so we're going to interview one of the members of Boostly today. One of the people who I have seen some great interaction from is helped us with some, some videos as well and I'm really excited to get to know his business. We've got Mark Berry. Mark Berry is the co founder of the business is called the Bauer at the Brow Lee. And he's got these amazing kind of sort of places to come and stay right in the heart of woodland and we're not going to take too much away from him. Let's introduce him, let's find out about his business and see what we can learn. So welcome along Mark. Thank you for joining me.

Thank you for the opportunity.

So Mark, first question is what is a bower?

I'm glad you asked Liam, because when we built the building, the units, the accommodation units, we struggled to find an accurate description because a cabin conjures up a log cabin, which these are architect designed, very modern even though they're, and they're contemporary in their finishes and designs. So we challenged various journalists and lodge isn't quite right. And in the end we thought, well, we decided on the name of the business, the bower, because we have bower birds, satin bowerbirds. So we thought, well, if we call them a bower then that'll engender some curiosity. So we often get that question what is about which allows us to explain that it is specifically designed for couples, absolute privacy in the woodland, in the forest and it's designed for the people who want to get out of the rat race and just enjoy their own company as a couple and enjoy nature and relax and rejuvenate.

Have you seen people want to do that more? Escape to nature and get away from it all?

Absolutely. We've found it was important before that especially for city people, but not exclusively city people, but the pandemic has just meant and the fact that people are concerned about traveling in mass transit vehicles and we find that it has definitely increased the desire for people to just get away from it all, they can self quarantine if they like. And each bower is 100 meters apart with a screen of vegetation, so you can't see it. Quite often we'll have people who'll say, oh, we thought we're the only ones here, and we'll say, no, actually we were full, but we didn't see any other guests and that's the way we like it.

So give me an idea of the business. How many bowers are there and across what sort of land is it? Just the one. Is it a couple? Take us through that kind of.

We have 100 acres in total of woodland and we have five bows. And while they're not spread right across the 100 acres, they're as I said, they're all well spaced for privacy. And that actually makes us. It gives us a unique selling point because even though over the years we've advised other people to do the same, most people, for one reason or another, cost or council requirements, have decided to put them closer together, which gives us an advantage because people really want the privacy.

What's the area actually like? So if they come to the area, what can a guest expect in terms of experiences? Yeah, experiences in the general area. What is. What draws them to. To the area?

Well, we're on the coast, as you can see from the picture in the background, the LN's in the foreground and, and we're very. From our front gate, it's exactly one kilometer to the beach and the beaches are very popular. But our shire area is 80% forested and it is something that the community, local community, treasure that very much and guard that as we do. And the guests like the fact that they are surrounded in bushland, as we call it, or forest. So. And something that's really popular, which is a bit of a surprise to me being a farm boy originally, is that they really like walking or rambling through that forest. And that is probably the most popular activity we have, even though we have mountain bikes and you can do skydiving and seaplane tours and all sorts of things. But bushwalking and just being present in nature is something that's really popular for most of our guests.

What got you into hospitality? What is kind of your history?

Well, to go back to the beginning, my parents had a thousand acres of beef and sheep country further inland when I was a teenager. And after a bushfire there and then five years of drought midway through that, my father came up with the idea of diversifying and offering farm holidays for city kids. So that gave me a Taste of A, it was quite lucrative and B, it gave me a taste of entertaining and hosting people from the city and, and watching their interaction with nature and with, with farm life. And so I packed that all away after I went to uni and got involved in the computer industry and my wife got involved in real estate and property conveyancing for about 20 years or so. And then when we got fed up with the corporate world, it was seemed like a natural thing to go back to some sort of, of accommodation hosting and hosting of tourists.

A lot of people listening to this and, and we see it all the time where people are doing like traditional, they're not necessarily adapting to some of the new marketing ways. But I know, I know yourself that you use things like CRMs and you're doing a lot of marketing. How do you draw in guests to your, to your properties?

Well, because of my computer background, I've always been keen to use electronic marketing from pretty much from day one. Even in the days when people would say, oh, I can't ever take a guest unless I speak to them on the phone, I couldn't possibly do a booking online or via email. So we have been very capitalized from email marketing in particular from the early days by segmenting the market to our guest avatar and really targeting that. We've tried, you know, we've done all sorts of, from Google advertising or Google segmentation, SEO, all those sorts of things. We, we're constantly trying to fine tune and, and trim that and we're now looking at, since it seems to me it's getting more and more difficult to get penetration through email, we're looking at using SMS as a channel that people are much more likely to engage with and respond to just, just to do.

Any kind of email marketing like say SEO and all the things that can get your business noticed. What, what impact has that had during your time with the business on, on the success of it?

Well, by being a little ahead of the curve, I think we've up until the last six months we've probably averaged a little over 80% occupancy year round. So partly we're only small and we have that uniqueness, but it's enabled us to have very high occupancy and at premium rates. Our rates are similar to the rates that people charge for properties on the coast, right on the beach or right in the towns with the coastal aspect. So from a financial point of view, it's been very helpful.

Is there a motto or mantra, something which means a lot to you, that you'd like to share with the people listening.

Well, I guess after the experience that we've had, I go back to my family's motto on my maternal side, and I can't remember the Latin now, but translated it means be right and persist.

That's good. That is.

That's something we follow.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Persistence is so key in entrepreneurship and especially in hospitality, isn't it? So, Mark, this has been really fun. Thank you so much for, for joining us on the behind the Host on the Boostly podcast. Really, thank you for your time. And I thank you too, for listening to this on the Boostly podcast. I've certainly what I'm taking away from this is what you can create and do good with with the world. You know, do good with your guests. Create something that you absolutely love. It's clear that you absolutely love. Ultimately create a business which has seen lots of changes. You've adapted, you're doing the marketing stuff that is all across the timeline. You can definitely see the clues of success. And that is, is so important. So that's what I'm going to take away from this. So thank you very much, Mark, and yeah, we'll speak to you again.

Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee. Because it's so hard on the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.