How She Turned EMPTY Nights Into Free Travel (STR Hack)

All right, welcome back everybody. I've got another amazing guest with me on, on this Daybook Direct day. Um, where do I begin? So I became aware of Tasha through LinkedIn. Uh, some couple of LinkedIn posts popped up. I was like, what, what is going on? Who is this person? The, the posts are documenting startup life and I really, really loved it. And, uh, Tasha, I think this was probably what, September, October time last year. And obviously we got to meet in Manchester at Scale UK, which was, which was great. And from there I've just become a massive fan of what you are doing, what you're building, but more importantly, how you are documenting this process, the bells and whistles and all of the shit that goes with it as well. So what I would love for you to do is, number one, explain who you are, talk about the property that you have, and then talk a little bit about how you have decided to build a, a product that everybody here can go and get on?

Okay, great. Thanks for having me, Mark. Um, so I own a holiday property in, uh, Cornwall on the coast. Uh, it wasn't intentional, it was our home that we had to move, so it became a holiday let. And like everyone, we sort of have the peak season and then the off-peak season, and I also have two young children and a partner. And I was sat, I think it was probably in November several years ago, thinking, how do I get more bookings? Holidays are booked up, you know, Christmases, etc. The summer, no problem. And then you've got these kind of off-peak periods, lulls, that just don't get booked. You reduce the prices, etc. Um, but still nothing. Anyway, I really love going on holiday, as I'm sure most of us do. We work super hard so that we can afford to go on nice trips. Um, and I kind of thought, well, if I'm not getting cash in from bookings, is there any other way that I can leverage my holiday home? So that's kind of where the idea started, and I started reaching out to other owners to see if they wanted to swap, essentially. And to my delight, every single person said yes. And that's kind of where the story started.

So most people, when they don't get bookings, they go, right, well, you know, what can I do? Maybe a bit of social media, bit of paid ads, SEO. You decided to go and build a whole other product. So talk about like the, the sort of the idea to making it a reality. Like, how have you gone about doing this? Because most people wouldn't go and build a whole other product when they need some bookings. So how has it become a reality from like an idea in your head?

Um, well, first of all, I don't like doing things the easy way, so I make for a rod for my own back. But, um, I mean, I tried all the other stuff. It's not that we don't have the social media presence or the direct booking site, so I tried all those things. Um, I think the reality is is, is unless you are Insta-famous, generally speaking, you're not going to have 100% occupancy. Um, so I, I actually looked to see if there were other platforms out there, which there were, dealing with sort of home exchange. So I tend— I— what I ended up doing was actually using the existing platforms sort of addictively for 3, 4 years, and I just realized that there was a huge gap in terms of what actually worked professionally for holiday owners, holiday let owners, where it could just slip in as a layer that didn't make it any sort of more difficult to run with your existing setup. So I decided to leave my well-paid job and go all in. I sometimes think if you research too much or look too in-depth, you end up talking yourself out of things. So I just went all in and decided to start building the platform using all of my experience from the last few years. And as a holiday let owner, thinking, okay, what really works with my lifestyle? You know, as I said, I've got 2 kids, partner who works full-time, running the holiday let, also run other, um, long— longer-term rentals. So it just needed to fit in so it wasn't more effort. Um, so that's what I've created.

So we've teased it. So what's the name of the domain? So, uh, convertyourstay.com. So sort of walk us around, like, the, the idea for the name. Walk us around, like, is it UK-based? Is it worldwide? Like, talk us through the, the types of owners that you're looking to, to get onto the property— onto the website, sorry.

Yeah, so yeah, Convert Your Stay, um, essentially it's a case of Converting What You Already Own. So we essentially, you know, want to help holiday homeowners get more life from what they already, um, already own. Um, so that's where the name, name came from. Um, and also sort of looking at things that looked cool, um, with, with logos, etc. So that worked. Um, and essentially our focus is on holiday let owners second homeowners. The, the primary, primary goal is to have properties on Board which aren't your primary residence. So anything that isn't your main home works on the platform. So even if you've got an annex in the garden, that works. It's, it's about utilizing what's already there.

And, um, so we're now a couple of months into the journey. You have very clearly documented the highs and lows of creating a software solution. What would you say has been, let's say, a couple of months in now, what's been your biggest takeaway from doing all of this? Like, say, being a busy parent, having another business partner who works all the time. And obviously you're doing this with your brother that is being the tech behind the scenes. Obviously we've seen him set up the microphone just before we went live here. So, um, what would you say your biggest takeaway has been, sort of doing all of this? What's the biggest lessons that, that you are collectively— you've learned by building this, this software solution?

I think when you go into something that you really love, you're so super passionate about it, and you kind of, in the first instance, or I did at least anyway, is you see things through rose-tinted glasses and you assume that everyone thinks the same way that you do. You know, for me, this is the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, it's totally changed our life. You know, how we travel as a family, the savings we've made, all from what we've— what we already own. And I think what I've learned very quickly is it's so ingrained in the human mindset to see value through one channel, which is cash, essentially. So you either earn cash or it's unbooked. And it's trying to, I guess, get people to understand that there's still value sat on the table which is just waiting to be used. And I think from setting up a business, I think people on social media make it look easy. And I think even from the social media side of posting and documenting, all of that takes so much time and effort, and it's almost a business in itself. So I think, yeah, I think I've learned to be a bit more patient with the process. And I think also you can learn anything. I think if you're willing because I think a lot of people stop themselves from doing things because they think, oh, I haven't got the experience, I've never done that before, you know, this isn't my niche. But I think if you're willing to learn and read and work with other people in the industry, then I think you can do anything really.

And a lot of the guests that I've got coming on tonight, uh, for the, for the live stream, or this afternoon or tomorrow, wherever you're watching this from in the world, a lot of the people that I wanted to bring on is about building in public. And I really wanted to get you on because you are somebody that is building in public, and we've got people that are coming on that have maybe built their properties in public, as in they've showcased it before they— it goes live. But you are obviously building this, this business live as well. Can you speak to any cool conversations that have come up or any opportunities that have come up because you are sort of peek behind the curtain, so to speak? It's not all rose-tinted glasses. You are being real. Have you had— have you had any interesting conversations or any cool things happen to you because of doing that?

Yeah, I think— I, I definitely think LinkedIn has helped hugely, um, especially in, in my domain of building a platform which isn't particularly sexy. You know, when people are building their properties, you kind of see the, the real transformation of before and after, and that's engaging and exciting to watch on, on Instagram. Um, but I think when you're building something tech-based, I think LinkedIn is great with the professional networks. I've certainly had opportunities of meeting people that I would never have got past sort of the gatekeepers in the first instance. So, and that's not about posting every single day. I mean, as you know, Mark, I'm not—

As much as I try and tell you to post more.

I am not great and I intend to do better this year. But I think even posting occasionally, you know, once a week, once every couple of weeks, I think just opens doors. And it's not necessarily about selling, it's just reminding people that you exist and what you're doing. And again, it doesn't need to be perfect. I mean, I am by nature a perfectionist, so I do struggle with putting out raw bits and pieces or assuming that it's boring from my perspective. But actually, I get quite good engagement. And, and also it's the lurkers. It's sort of the people that come up to events who have never commented on your posts, have never liked them, never shown any engagement. And then they come up to you at an event and they said, oh, I love your— I love like watching your journey and what you're doing and you come across really well. And you're like, oh, oh, that's, that's, that's quite nice.

So talk about events. And so you started to go to these events, which again has been a busy parent. You know, it's not the easiest to take time out of your routines and life to go to these events. But can you speak to like the conversations that you've had, or maybe the opportunities that you've had, or the network that you've done by being part of these industry events that you've been to so far?

Yeah, well, actually, you've helped me a lot ready for this year because you created like this master plan with all the events laid out. So that saved me a massive headache. But I think there there is nothing that replaces the human connection. It's, it's great on social media, you know, and you can connect with people, but you really get to know people when you're at these events, you know. Um, and I think I've only been to a few, and again, uh, some of the ones I went to, to begin with, I went on my own and just for the first half of the event sort of sat quietly in a corner and just took everything in and then by the end thought, sod it, I'm just going to go up and grab people and start talking to them because otherwise no one's going to know I even exist. So I think there's huge value of just putting yourself out there. Also just learning about the industry as well. And I think this is a really nice collection of individuals who really care about what they do in the SDR world and everyone's really supportive. I think that's the biggest thing from my personal experience is how supportive the industry is. People want other people to do well. They don't gatekeep with information. You know, it's a tough world out there. And I personally feel that everyone has been just, just really nice. And I think you only get that from being in person.

Yes, 100%. Conversations happen in person. All right. So can we all please show Natasha some love in the comments? This is not easy, as you can tell. Natasha doesn't do this a lot. So I'm trying to get her out of her shell to do more of these because it's a fantastic concept. And like I say, go and follow Natasha. How are we spelling your last name on LinkedIn so people can go and find you?

H-I-R-S-C-H-M-A-N-N. Hirschmann.

Go and find Natasha Hirschmann on LinkedIn. But let's go and have a little look at the website, right? So I haven't said I've done this. I don't get any of our guests tonight to prepare questions. Because I want to pop them on the spot. So we've got ConvertYourStay up on the screen now, convertyourstay.com. I'm hiding the domain here. It's up here, you can see on top here. All right, so I'm going to give a scenario, right? Because we're going to have people watching this from all over the world, right? We've got a lot of people tuning in from the UK, we're getting people over in America, which is great. We've got people waking up over in Australia. So we've got people all over the world now, even Dubai, which is awesome. But let's just say we've got somebody listening who's watching, who even if it's on the live or on the replay, they've got maybe 40% occupancy. right? Um, like you said, weekends, summer, they take care of themselves. But there's a night coming up in— a couple of nights coming up in February and March in the midweek that is open, right? So what is the pitch that you would give them to go from, oh, ConvertYourStay sounds like a nice idea, to I'm gonna go and sign up tonight? Like, what's your pitch to them? How would you say to that person, right, this is what ConvertYourStay can do for you, let's go and give it a go.

I think at its core, ConvertYourStay is just about getting more life out of what you already own. So this isn't about replacing paid bookings, this is to complement your existing setup and is meant to seamlessly fit in with your calendar as it is. We, you know, I advocate 100% for paid bookings, we all want those. So it's making use of the nights that would never sell. So it's to, you know, take that extra trip with your girlfriends or your family or your kids, or maybe even just have a change of scenery, you know, with working from home. I think when you remove the nightly rate, it just opens up a world of opportunity. And also what it does is it lets people experience your place in a super happy mindset because they've got it essentially at a bargain. And in my case, certainly people have then rebooked in peak times. So just don't let value sit on the table. I think if you like traveling, you like connecting with people, this is just a little lifestyle hack and perk that you can add into your existing setup.

Amazing. So you've gone down a model as well that was very common back, you know, in 2010, 2011, when I first got into this world of hospitality, which is the— you, you pay to be on the site. There's no commissions that are being taken. So talk to us about that and why you decided to go down that route.

So again, comes from personal experience using existing platforms also listing my property on sites like Airbnb, OTAs, you know, there's a lot of money being spent and life is tough and it's expensive. It's even more expensive when you have a family. Um, and at the core of it, I just wanted this to be affordable for people. I, you know, this isn't— this is meant to be a genuine perk, something that people don't even need to second-guess about. Um, almost like having a credit card. You're just earning from what you already do and paying a nominal fee to get that benefit. So that's essentially why I only had put an annual membership on it.

I do believe that this year is going to be the rise of these niched or micro listing sites. There's a lot of them because people are getting very fed up with the big, the big ones, you know, obviously Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia. And they're not going to all leave, but there's a, there's a large chunk of people that will, that will decide to look elsewhere. And through ConvertYourStay and from the other providers that are out there, I definitely think it's worthwhile. And at the end of the day, for everybody that's tuning in, the more places that you are listed, the more people that can view you will buy from you. So if you are struggling to get bookings and you're thinking, right, what can I, what can I do, where else can I get listed, Convert Your Stay, very, very, very cost effective. But then there's a high risk that there's more people that can potentially see you and book with you, which is, which is epic. And you get to be part of a very awesome startup. So please everybody, head over to convertyourstay.com, uh, go and check out Natasha on LinkedIn. Where else? What other socials are you, are you out and about on? Where else can people go and find out more and interact with you, just in case they're not LinkedIners?

Well, I am on Instagram and I am on TikTok.

Oh, really?

Let's stick with the LinkedIn for now and it will start ramping up. Okay. So follow along, you can see the journey. But there's a lot of platforms and it's just me and my brother at the moment. I love it.

All right, so LinkedIn is the one for now, but obviously a bit of Instagram. And even if you can delve into the world of TikTok, then good. All right, perfect. Really enjoyed this. I'm going to go and grab my next guest, but Natasha, thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us today on Book Direct Day. Love to see it, and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming, upcoming events that are happening in the UK.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much, Mark.