How to prevent cancellations during the Coronavirus crisis with Jessica Lorimer

Foreign. We're in season eight. We are doing episode four, Fighting Back against Coronavirus. And this week in the world of hospitality, bearing in mind that I'm recording this on Friday 20th March, this week has been one word, it's the C word, cancellations. Cancellations galore. And so many people are freaking out. They are losing thousands and thousands in revenue. And I thought, right, something needed to be done. So I reached out. One of the best people that I know when it comes to sales and retentions, Jessica Lorimer guided me through so much over the last couple of years. How to grow a business, how to scale a business, how to do new business, phone calls in an area that I've never had to do before. And she has helped the hospitality community and the Boost Lee Academy members from day one. And she reached out to me and said, listen, anything I can do to help, then just let me know. So we arranged today, 5th of March in the UK, just an hour before we went live, there was a press briefing by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and they gave a bit of good news to small businesses and just everybody in the UK and we're going to delve into that. So we delve in that. She gives us some really fantastic advice on how to deal with a cancellation. We're going to focus on the word change instead of cancel as well as much, much, much, much more, including what Jessica was drinking. Friday 20th of March, we decided that we're going to have a drink as we're doing our live video because today concludes four days of live videos on the bounce. And you can tell by my eyes and my tired eyes. But please sit back and listen. Whenever you are listening to this or if you're watching this on the YouTube or whatever you're consuming this video in, please do me one massive favor. Just subscribe and tell one person about what we're doing here. This is Fighting back against coronavirus. Season 8 Episode 4 Massive thank you. A huge thank you to the Boostly podcast sponsors which is hostfully they are keeping this podcast going so please go and check them out hostfully.com they they do digital guidebooks. One free digital guidebook for everybody that listens to this podcast. If you want to go get more and subscribe, you want to go to a premium with them, then put in boostly 2m and you even get 2 months free. Can't say forever. Now everybody enjoy this podcast. Please go and rate, review and subscribe. Let me know what you think about it. As always in the comments and I'll speak to you all very soon.

It's been a really difficult couple of weeks for a lot of people. And in all honesty, those of you who are in the hospitality industry, I think, you know, when I started looking at how coronavirus was going to impact our economy, you guys were the only group that I genuinely had sympathy for. So please know that, you know, this is a tough time. You will make it through. It might not feel like that right now. Out of everybody who is currently moaning and whining on the newsfeed, you guys are the ones who legitimately have a reason at the end of this week to be like, jesus, that was a bit of a rough one. Okay? And I am not somebody who doles often, so it's. That's kind of a key thing. Okay. I got into sales a long time ago. I. For those of you who listen to the podcast today, I don't want to rehash anything. So I got given my first sales job because I got fired from making coffee. I'm the only person in the world who can make a cold cup of coffee with a professional grade coffee machine. And I think that's an achievement. Turns out I'm terrible at coffee, but I'm great at coffee chat. And I fell into sales at about years old and have been there ever since. I had a successful B2B sales career and after 2014, set up my own business. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and it didn't work out with all the travel and all of the hours that I was having to put in. So I created my own business. And for the last six years, I've been teaching entrepreneurs how to sell their services, sell their product either to individuals or B2B, which has become even more important as of today. So this week I've spent a lot of time looking at the newsfeed, looking at the amount of fear and panic and concern there is around. And I think probably the most important thing to say is that coronavirus as a health pandemic is incredibly serious. You know, at this moment in time, it is absolutely imperative if you are a business owner or just anybody else, that you stay well, you look after yourself, you self isolate, you follow government guidelines, and you do your best to support others at this time as well, and that you ask for support when you need it. Which is why it's so awesome that Mark is putting on this series for you guys as well. I'm excited to talk about cancellations because cancellations are not the end of the world. Retention is something that is possible and actually, you know, if we talk through a few of the skills that you're going to need over the coming week, there are definitely ways that you can do this. And I think, you know, we have to remember at this time that humanity is a huge part of what we're currently seeing. Okay? And I think there has never been a better time in history outside of the war, because I think that that's quite important to have been part of a community. This is a time in history where we're going to experience more community feel than ever before. And we're seeing that reflected in the actions even of the government, which I usually have relatively little time for, if I'm honest. But we're seeing them make an effort and that's a great thing. You know, there have been some things that actually they've done incredibly well over the last week and that will really, really benefit you guys in the hospitality industry and anyone else as a result.

What I'm going to say to everybody, because this is a live recording of the Boostly podcast, we won't be able to answer your questions on this, but please put them in the comments whether you're watching this live or in the replay and we will do our very, very best to see if we can answer them. Afterwards we'll go through, have a little look and see if we can help. But I put the question out to the Boost Lee Academy members. When it comes to cancellations, what is the most pressing concern at the present moment in time? And I think one of the big. Sorry, I've had to really disguise a beer burp there and I think badly disguised, I would like to point out, terrible as well. But we've passed it, it's gone through the system. But we've got, I think the main thing and we've got a lot of people who are in the Boostly Academy world who are in the hospitality community. A lot of people have rental properties, so self catering and obviously when you've got a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you've got, you know, 48, 72 hour window, which, which is kind of normal. But with, with rental accommodation it's different. You can have very strict, which is, you know, a month or even there's no cancellation, you have to pay the full amount. And I think the, the balancing act this week has been looking after your business but not coming off as being a dick because there is a global pandemic going on right now. What advice, if any, do you have for somebody who is stuck in that predicament? What Advice could you be saying? What could you be doing to keep the guest happy? But also as well, looking after you and your business and your cash flow.

One is don't be a dick. Should always be an integral business rule, because there is nothing that will screw your business quicker. Even in a climate like we're in at the moment, which is relatively unsteady and uncertain in terms of travel and things like that, then behaving badly. Because what happens is that when business owners generate goodwill from customers, customers will be loyal, they'll be patient, they will try and come to negotiated resolution. When we behave like a bit of a pillock, what happens is customers walk away and the average unhappy customer will tell 10 other people about a bad experience. But the average person who's happy with an experience will probably tell between one and three. So you've actually got a huge increase if you let yourself get super, super stressed out by the situation. And whilst it's normal to be stressed in the current environment, cancellations, they don't have to be the be all and end all. Okay? So if you've already got T's and C's, the key thing that we need people to understand when we're dealing with them as customers is that we don't want to be a dip in this situation, but we also want them to understand our point of view. And sales is a lot about what I call mutually beneficial relationships. If you've ever worked in sales, you will have heard that phrase so many times it will drive you crazy. But as human beings, we are programmed to try and generate mutually beneficial relationships based on reciprocity. So what we want to be saying to customers is, look, I completely understand the predicament that you're in and I completely understand why you would need to change this booking and the language here is really important. Change as opposed to cancel, because we are prepping them for what is to come. Okay? So the immediate thing we do is we empathise. I completely understand why you would need to change this. I want to be transparent with you, because again, this breeds trust. Want to be transparent with you. The terms and conditions that you signed state that and be clear, what do they state? Is it no cancellation at all? Is it no refund? Is it pro rataed, whatever that looks like. However, and this is the key bit where for the customer, it turns around and they feel like they're going on the hero journey. However, because we are in the situation that we're in, I'm more than happy to offer you either. And this protects Us from, you know, this, this means that we're in more control of the situation. If we give them an opportunity and we tell them what we're willing to offer them, it shows goodwill, it demonstrates that we're willing to negotiate and it also sets it out really, really clearly. You know, we have these terms and conditions, we're willing to negotiate on them for you, and this is what we're willing to put out there. And so you might say, however, you know, because of the situation that we're currently in, I'm more than happy to either offer you a change of dates, including, you know, some of our premium, premium times or whatever, or alternatively a credit for X when you do come and use your stay, or you could offer them a pro rata refund, however you want to do that, and then say to them, I'm willing to work on this solution with you. It would be best in order for us to do that to meet either on Zoom or on the phone if one of these solutions does not meet your needs, if it does, just hit reply, tell us which option you would prefer and we'll arrange that for you. And that just makes it really, really clear, what are you willing to do? How are you willing to build the relationship with them and save that relationship that you've already built with them? And if the offers that you make aren't preferable, then you're willing to talk, you're willing to have an actual conversation about what can be done when you get on that conversation on the phone, if it comes to that. The important thing to know is that they are also human. They're going to be really stressed out, they're going to be really hacked off, that they might not get money back, people might not be insured, they might have other worries. A lot of people at the moment are seeing a lot in the media. They're very afraid. We know this because everyone's stockpiling toilet roll that you can't even eat. Like, if I was going to stockpile anything, it'd be green and blacks and more wine. But apparently people do not have same priorities as they, because otherwise we'd all be like raging alcoholics with chocolate issues. But you know, when you get on the phone, the important thing to know is that they are coming from that place of fear and that they are just like you, they have the same fears. They are worried about money, they're worried about their families, they're worried about what's going to happen. And it's quite likely that they'll have had bad Customer experiences with other things. So other people will have treated them badly, and you will now be expected to potentially bear the brunt of that. Come to the conversation knowing that it will make you much more empathetic. Okay? And that's what they want. They want to be heard. Ultimately, when we're scared, when we're afraid, when we're frustrated, we need the opportunity to vent. So when you come to that conversation, the important thing to say is right at the beginning of the call, look, my job here is to find an amicable solution for us both or a mutually beneficial resolution. So please, why don't you tell me what's going on with you and what your ideal outcome would be. Give them five to 10 minutes event, you know, chuck, my phone. On the surface, it's fine. Like, they can just go off and they can talk about everything else that's going on for them, and that's okay. They're not. They're not making it personal. It's not you. They know that. They just need the opportunity to vent at somebody. And right now, that is you. Once they've done that and you've heard what their ideal outcome is, you can decide, you know, is that ideal outcome something I'm willing to give? And if it isn't, you know, if they're saying, I want a full refund and blah, blah, and it's not fair, then again, you just have to reiterate. Well, unfortunately, you know, terms and conditions that you signed state that this. Now, I'm willing to work with you on this, but this solution that you've suggested isn't going to be possible at this time. Would you be open to exploring other opportunities that are going to help you? And that's it. And it sounds like a bit of a formal conversation, and it is. It is a formal conversation because we have to take emotion out of this. We want them to understand that we're coming from this from a place of professionalism, that we're coming at it from a place of goodwill, that we're trying to build relationships, but equally that we're not going to break down the call and start crying because our businesses are under pressure and because we're frustrated, because that won't. It won't make them any more sympathetic towards you. So be clear, be professional. Outline whether you're prepared to do what they want or whether you're not and that you want to move forward to make that happen. Does that make sense?

What I really like about that, and I'm watching the live feed because obviously what we're doing is live on Facebook. If you're watching this back on the replay, one of the people that have been watching give her a shout out. Julie Mills Ralsome said, sounds great. Their impression is that they have a choice, but we still remain in control, which I love about. I love about that. So, yeah, thanks for sharing that. And there's loads of people that are just saying yay to wine and they're just having their own little chats in the live feed, which is great. And again, apologies if you heard my iPad or iPhone ringing in the background. My seven year old, I'll give you a little story. My seven year old has discovered FaceTime and we've got him. Well, I'll tell you, he's FaceTiming everybody in my phone book.

Oh, good.

People that I haven't spoken to for years. Today I've had a FaceTime off a 7 year old because he's been looking for his thesis. His thesis is in Spain. Obviously we can't get back to Spain. His little friend, who is Dutch, we met in Bali, lives five minutes away from us now in Spain. They've been FaceTiming all day and they've been comparing TikTok followers. But the problem with that is that his iPad that we've got for him is linked on my Apple account. So it is literally Russian roulette on who EE is calling. And people are now calling back and I'm trying to figure out how I turn off all of this. So these are.

I'd be using this as an opportunity for sales. I'd be like, do you know what I do now, by the way? I help hospitality owners.

Exactly. And here is the seven year old who's going, are you on TikTok?

Yeah. No, TikTok is not something I'm getting down with. Yeah, I like the idea of dancing, but publicly dancing in front of people, not my jam.

Well, my seven year old is all about it. He did a little dance on the top of the Acropolis in Greece and he was massively proud of himself, which is funny. Which is again, a seven year old. These seven year olds are taking over the world with a tickety tock. But that is by the by. They have not got a clue what's going on. They're just making funny little videos and loving life. So for the world of hospitality, though, I think that what you've just said, there is a fantastic way of, of bridging it and you can have that conversation on email or if you're brave enough, you can just Pick up the phone straight away and deal with it head on. I find that when people do it, I think when you pick up the phone, then it's a lot easier to do this then. Email is a great place to start, but yeah, we'll just go from there. Okay, so let's go back to what has happened today. Obviously, Speaking on Friday 20th March is obviously the press briefing has just been. Can you just break down how you saw it and what you think is going to be the plus side, especially from the world of hospitality on the back of what's being said?

I mean, I think the plus side is that it seems that Rishi Sunak's plan is to give us all the money, which we always like. You know, the key thing is, and I'm not a financial advisor and I can in no way be responsible for any financial decisions that you should go on to make. However, the thing that I've been saying for the last week and a half is that, and it's been relatively controversial, I've had quite a few messages from people telling me how awkwardly optimistic I am and how stupidly positive I am. And then I've had the really nice messages, the one that also comment on, you know, how I look when I'm delivering this, this kind of prediction, which, you know, thank you, I really appreciate it. I look like an 85 year old granny. I massively, massively appreciate that. I will keep wearing cardigans. They are my jam. So. So here's the thing. Over the last couple of weeks, it's been a rocky ride. There's been some unexpected things happening and people keep talking about the fact that this is an unprecedented situation. And what I've continued to reiterate to people is that unfortunately this isn't unprecedented in terms of the way that we view crisis in the UK and globally as a whole. Certainly for the economy, this is not sadly new. The interesting thing about this is that the government in the UK at the moment are very, very determined to keep the economy going. And that's possibly one of the most important things that has ever happened. And it's actually, why, dare I say, I'm actually slightly impressed by their moves this week. It has been an impressive feat and I think that they do deserve some kudos for that. Regardless of what I think about anything else. Boris Hair mainly. So the thing that's come out this week is that predictions are true. They are trying everything possible to make sure that the economy survives and that we don't have a recession or that we don't have the severity of recession that we've had in previous years, like 2008. And the reason for that is that ultimately if we go into recession at this point and if we go into a severe recession at this point, not to be alarmist, but it would not be good. And again, I am relentlessly positive. So when I say something would not be good, what we mean is it would be absolutely, absolutely dire. Okay? The reason for that is that hospitals need to stay open, nurses need to stay paid, supermarket workers need to be paid, etc, etc. So what's happened today is the bare bones, the bare basics is that Rishi has announced, I call him that like he's my pal. We're basically bezzies. Today he has announced that they are going to pump money into the uk, specifically into companies. He has said that there is no limit on the amount of money that they are going to pay and that they are going to be covering people's corporate wages up to 2,500 pounds per month. So they're going to be covering 80% of wages for companies who feel like they are unable to pay their staff at this time, they're not setting limits on it, they're not setting limits on sectors, etc. Now this is great for the hospitality industry in two ways. One, it's really, really good because this is an unprecedented time where the UK government have said you will have a VAT extension. So that won't be happening until June. You'll get an extension on that if you're self employed, you'll have other extensions from the tax service. And that means that actually from an individual perspective, for people who are running B and B, there are going to be people who want to start booking and can afford to start booking because they are still getting paid for next year. That's the first thing to notice. People are still, who are working in the corporate world are still going to get paid. There are going to be unfortunate exceptions. So you know, the whole zero hour contract thing and stuff we don't know about yet. I'm not talking about them and I think that's important to note because I'm not a financial expert. Okay. But the reality is that people who are in full time employment, currently working for organizations are going to be paid. And this is a great time to start acknowledging that fact and to start marketing. Okay. 2020 may not be the year you want to go on holiday. 2021, however, will be great. Okay. You know, we're in the roaring twenties so far. We're in the fire part of that. But next year we're going to be okay. You know, next year things are going to start looking up and it's really important to notice that the government's looking at this as a long term problem. You know, if we look at this from a health perspective, it's quite likely that a vaccine is going to take quite a while to turn up and to be mass produced and all of that good stuff. Now that's not a bad thing. Okay? People are scared about that right now and we're operating from lots of panic right now because we haven't been in this situation before in terms of the health side of things. Okay, We've seen the economy fluctuate wildly over the last 10 years, but we haven't been in this health side of things and we haven't had to isolate and quarantine to such a degree. However, what this does mean is that when the next set of fluctuations come up, when we next have to self isolate or quarantine or anything happens, we prepare. You know, this isn't going to be the death of your business. It doesn't have to be. So start marketing 2021 to individuals now because you they are still going to get paid and actually they're going to get paid to be at home, which is pretty cool. I'm going to be at home having to work some people, I don't want to point fingers at my friends, but some people are going to be at home watching Netflix and getting paid for that. And I'm very jealous of all of those people. The second thing that we notice is that, you know, obviously the changes from the Chancellor today mean that ultimately companies are going to be having a lot of relief right now when it comes to their finances. Now I am in exactly the same boat as all of you and I'm thinking, well, hang on a minute, I'm self employed or own my own business, that, that sucks because I'm not, I'm not necessarily seeing small business rates relief or anything like that, any loans or anything because I work in a domestic property. For those of you who don't work in domestic properties, there may be opportunities there for yourself, for small business loans and things like that from the government. Again, they're not putting any limits on those. And it also means that corporate businesses who are gaining from that, who are, you know, not necessarily having to pay tons of salaries, who are making use of the extension on VAT returns and things like that, that actually you could be looking at them for, let's later in the year as well, and inviting them to make certain decisions about their conferences, about accommodation for those conferences, about things that they may be attending. Because the reality is that coronavirus is going to happen. We know we're going to have to self isolate for a prolonged period. It's probably initially about three months that we're going to be in this particular situation. But the reality is that Q3 and Q4 life is going to change and it's going to look hopefully slightly more normal. And that means that people who've got events planned for Q3 and Q4 are probably not looking to cancel them yet. And that means for you as hospitality owners, that actually you should be looking at LETS during that time. Short term accommodation lets it might be even long term, depending on how many conferences are going on in your area. And you can actually be looking at marketing that to businesses now because they will be experiencing some kind of financial relief to some degree, depending on what they take up. And obviously, you know, later in the year they just had this financial year end as well, which gives them some extra budget to play with especially. This is great news for you guys, this is good news. It means that you may not have people in your properties right now, but there is no reason you cannot be marketing for later in the year to see success then and to be taking deposits now so that your cash flow is kept up and that you're booking those spots for later in 2020.

I just want to. I've been writing a couple of notes as you have been saying about this and things that just come to my mind from what I've seen today on the Internet. So EasyJet today announced that they've opened up all of their date for the winter period, which they don't normally do. And I know this may seem like a very UK centric episode and I know we've got people tuning in from America. Hi Kyle. And we've got people tuning in from Australia. Hi, Catherine. And we've got people tuning in from all over the world, Spain, France, Germany. But take heed and take a note of what these big guys and these big companies are doing, you know what I mean? So this is something that you can sort of look to and use for your sales and marketing. Now I know so many of you don't do this, but open up your calendar 2021 if you haven't yet, please do. So I want to just give a massive shout out on this live video to Ray. Ray has commented saying that whilst listening to this live video, she's used Jessica's tactics of change, rather than cancel during this, sent off a quick mess. So I would love, Ray, if you get a response during this live, please let us know what the, what the outcome was. So that is definitely something that you should be looking at doing. Start talking about 2021, which may seem mental because we are in March 20, but like Jess has said, and as we've been reiterating this week, this week, this year is not a normal year. Just look at every business, look at every big company, look at, just look at the, you know, football, it's insane. Like sports. Everybody's having to do things that they never thought that they never would have to do. Boris would never thought that he would have to come on TV every single night and talk to these reporters every single night. But that is what he's having. Do you know, we're getting to know his right and left man or woman better than Boris. It's insane. These are coming like people that you're seeing on a nightly basis. So every single business is having to diversify. What I would say is that if you are listening to what Jessica's saying, if you've listened to what Scott has said this week, if you've listened to what Simon said this week, then you may be thinking, shit. The short term does not look good, but doesn't mean that you just have to sit there and wallow in self pity. You can start to do things that you would like to do as a side project but never had the time. For example, if you still want to try and pick up a bit of income, go to a website called usertesting.com. you can sign up and people can hire you to look at their website and you can leave feedback, which again is super simple. You can do it from home and you can get paid to do it. If you go to upwork.com you can upload your CV. Now we've got a lot of very talented people watching this. Before you got in the world of hospitality, you had some pretty amazing careers. And I know this because I know all of you, what you've done, because I asked you in the hospitality community what you were doing before the B and B for the rental property. So try and tap into the skills that you've got and try and bring in that little bit of short term income. But one thing that you cannot stop doing is your sales, is your math. You've got an email list, utilize it. You've got a social media platform, utilize it. There's somebody that I spoke to this week his whole year has been cancelled because he is based in France, majority of his guests come from America. And his whole shtick, his whole USP is that he gives tours to old America vets around the World War I and World War II sites around Frank Cay. So what he's now going to do, his homework for the next month is to go on to Netflix. He's going to watch the World War II documentary that's being colorized. And I know this is on there because I geek out on this stuff and I love it. And what he's going to do is he's going to watch each episode and he's going to leave a review of it on his social media and he's going to keep talking about it because. And he's going to email his past guests about it because that is what they want to hear, that is what they want to see. And it's coming from his words also.

Just on that sorry, salesperson in the room is like, why don't you, why don't you do a virtual tour and sell it like, and do like an American time of day or something. Because let's face it, everyone is stuck in self isolation. Everyone's bored off their brains right now. So if you could do a tour and you were charging, I don't know, 30, 40 quid for it and they could, you know, you took them, took them around one site or something that's particularly local to you, you could sell that as a bundle, you know, for people to actually, you know, watch with their kids. And you know, lots of people are worried about entertaining their kids during this period. They're worried about homeschooling their children during this period. Actually that's something that's really educational and informative. You could just make something like that and just do as a one off throughout the coronavirus. If you can't make it here, don't worry. And it's also something that you could be doing for people who are having to cancel on you and just say, look, you know, completely understand if I don't know what your cancellation policy looks like. So apologies, but you say, look, I completely understand that you want to amend your cancellation or you want to change your booking at this time. Out of interest, would you like me to refund you, I don't know, half the fee. And then I'm going to do this virtual tour and I'm happy, you know, it's going to be kid friendly and you can use it to homeschool your children about World War I and 2. It's, you know, it's an out there idea, but there are things that you could be doing that tap in directly to your business, like your hospitality business. Because of course, once they've seen it, virtually they're even more inspired to be like, oh, I really want to go and I want to soak up the atmosphere. And, you know, we all watch travel videos because we want to be inspired. So you can do things like that too.

No, I like that, definitely. And Ray has been back on the lady that I mentioned who messaged somebody during the live, she, she had to duck out of the, of the live video because the guest called back and she's offered for them to put the future dates to June, no additional rate as a matter of goodwill, which is amazing. So this is what we're talking about, this is what people watching and taking it and taking advice and then implementing it, which is, which is fantastic. And again, I just want to give a shout out to Georgina. I know that you're watching. Georgina has got a bed and breakfast in Blackpool, or life of St. Anne. Sorry, my geography of the Northwest isn't the best, but it's all in and around there somewhere. So anyway, she's got a bed and breakfast now, obviously her BNB has suffered massively this week due to cancellations, but she does a pretty good break. Pancakes, you name it. And what she's done to diversify this week is that she has printed off a menu of what she does for breakfast and she started to offer it out locally in a three mile radius. So as we all know, takeaway still allowed, even though tonight pubs, bars, clubs, cafes, whatever they're showing takeaways is still allowed. So she is taking full advantage of this and she is offering out breakfast to get delivered. Pancakes, you name it. Amazing. And she's had orders come in. She's actually taken the step, I give her a little bit of coaching this week. I said, listen, this is newsworthy, go chat to the BBC Northwest, whatever it's called, chat to your local paper, chat to local radio station and she's been featured on there as well. So it's been a real good pr. Facebook groups, local Facebook groups are amazing for things like this. And she's actually gone out and she's done the work. She messages Last night she was in Manchester, she was having a night off, she was getting drunk and she's very, very happy. So this is. People are doing things that they never thought that they would need to do, but if anything can come on the back of this, you're going to be taking yourself out of the zone. You're going to start being proactive. We're going to stop this reactive business owner lack and you're going to start being proactive. And those that do, those that are proactive, those are the ones that are going to win. Those that just come online spout shit to do negative comments to anything positive that could be there. The ones that comment back saying that will never work, those are the ones that won't be here in 612 months time. Those that are proactive, those that are positive and those are the ones that are actually doing something on a daily basis. And I learned this from, from you, Jess. You know, you're the one who taught me this. And doing something daily that you don't want to do, but it'll take your business forwards, then you will be here when the upturn happens. And guess what, when that upturn happens, you will have more bookings and more inquiries come. You will know what to do. Because you're right, we do have to go in this quarantine lockdown period. And you can see, and you can see it in Spain. They are bored as fuck right now and they are doing anything to keep themselves entertained. I saw a video today of an apartment in Spain and they were playing tennis from window to window just to pass the ball.

I really like that. I think that's good.

It was amazing. I can't say who won, but it was amazing. You have to find that video and if I find it, I'll share it, but yeah, things like that. And you know, Italy last week had a 70% increase on their time on the Internet. What are they doing on their line? They're on social media, so just go to where people are, start documenting, start talking about your business. I can see so many members of the hospitality community of the Boothley Academy who are doing this. They are talking about their lockdown, they're documenting it and they're going to be the ones that are top of mind, they're going to be the ones at the top of the newsfeed. So when the, when the quarantine and the lockdown relaxes and people are allowed to book and travel, guess where they're going to go. And they're not going to book on an ota, they're not going to book on a third party, they're going to book directly through your Facebook, they're going to book directly on your website. So again, you're going to be doing all right. Yes. Have you got anything else you just want to say to the world of hospitality, before we wrap this up, I want to thank you so much for doing this on a, on a Friday evening. I know that the wine is there, ready to be drank, so I just want to say thank you so much for doing this for everybody. I know it's been very uplifting, which is a nice way to end this week, but if you've got anything else you just wanted to, if people have.

Questions like do put them in the comments. And I promise that at a time when I'm not subsidized by alcohol, I will go through them, I will, I will help out. But I think the key thing here is a lot of people have been talking about this from a place of this is really scary and this is going to be awful and we're going to lose businesses and blah, blah, blah, blah. And let's be transparent and very, very clear, a lot of business owners who are not good business owners who are just posting on Facebook and who are just kind of spamming feed and stuff, they are going to be really, really heavily impacted by this. And it's quite likely that we will not see certain people in 12 months time. However, it doesn't need to be you. Hospitality is an industry that will always thrive, even in the most difficult of times. Because right now when everybody's on lockdown and everybody's on quarantine and things like that, we're looking on the Internet for what will we do when we get out? What will we do when things change? What will we visit? Who will we see? How important is this? And even if you're watching this internationally and you're thinking, well, you know, how can I get people to come to me? Well, people have family, people have friends. Like, I know that there are some of my friends who are going through really, really hard times at the moment. It's crappy, you know, and it's been a crappy week. And would I love to treat them to a B and B stay in three months time? Yeah, of course I would. So you can email your list not just with why don't you come and stay? But also with how can we, how can we reward you for being royal class? Can we ask people to buy gift cards for the future? Because, you know, let's face it, we're in a period where goodwill is really high in humanity at the moment. So emailing your list and saying, hey, look, I want to be one of the businesses that is here that is welcoming you to our doors in 2021, when this passes over or whenever that's going to be. And in order for me to do that, I would love to invite you to buy a gift card or to buy a stay for someone in your family or for somebody who's found it really difficult so they can come and stay next year or in Q4, in Q3 and have a really good time. You know, we have to remember that not all of this needs to be negative. And if you are somebody who every day is on the Facebook feed and you're reading the news and you're listening to Bojo and his unbrushed hair, which I can't really talk about, I've been to hairdresser data looks marginally better than normal, but generally it's not. It's right. If you're doing that, you are putting your business in a position of desperation and you are losing your own control over the situation. We still have as business owners an awful lot of control about what we can do right now. We can do our marketing differently. We can spend more time looking at what we want to improve. We can sell differently. We can improve retention rates. We can reach out to every single customer we have for the rest of this year and just say, look, coronavirus, I hear you. I'm here. I'm being transparent. I'm going to communicate about it. I know that your booking is coming up and I don't want you to think that we've forgotten you. So here's what we're doing in the interim and here's what we're prepared to do so that, you know, early you can be doing all of these things. You can be getting and generating goodwill and you will be here in years to come. But you have to remember, this is about the long term game, okay? There is no reason for you to go bust. There is no reason for your business to go under. Just be very, very clear about what action you take. It's really important that every day you do a sales activity and a marketing activity. But it's also important that you don't buy into what Bob on the Newsfeed is saying about coronavirus, because it's quite likely that Bob on the Newsfeed is sat at home with not a lot else better to do than share scary stuff on the Internet that generates engagement and traction and boosts its algorithm. Instead, focus on your business and where you want it to be this time next year. So you can look back on coronavirus and be like, oh, that was weird, but we made it through. Everyone has the ability to make it through. Do not Forget that. It is about the choices that you make now will determine where you are in March 2021.

I think everybody with Fuck off Bob this week there's been plenty of them out in their hundreds. Apologies if you're called Bob and you're a real nice by the way. But I just want to say one thing today. This week has been a long week. As you know, at the start of the week we had to make a pretty quick decision of not going back to Spain for many reasons that I won't get into. But we have ended up in Scarborough, back in the family home. And I made a very, very quick decision of doing this live every night. And I'm not gonna lie, I haven't slept a lot. There's been a lot of things going on behind the scenes. But today I got a card from Letitia Webb. I know that you are watching and it has meant a lot at a time when I could have quite easily not done this tonight. It just gave me that second win just to go again. I am gonna take a break this weekend. This phone is going to. This computer is not going to get opened. We I am not going to be online at all. But I will be back on Monday with another video. I've lined up five more days of guests including fingers crossed and they don't cancel on my last minute booking.com, which would be an interesting one. There's going to be a lot of questions, a lot of questions. So. But we've got so much else that is going to give you help and advice next week. So, Jessica, thank you so much for tonight. There are so many people that are in the comments who are just saying thank you for doing this and have an amazing weekend. And one thing that I really wanted to say is that anybody's listening to the podcast today. You know, we talked about corporate bookings and corporate. The world of corporate and hospitality does not get talked about and mixed enough. Jessica has got a Facebook group that everybody can go and join. She's got a podcast series about corporates and how to sell to corporates. You are going to have, whether you like it or not, a couple of weeks of time when you can learn and evolve and improve your marketing. And I would recommend the first thing that you do, go and find Jessica's podcast. I'll put all the links in the comments, in the post, in the show notes. Go find the group. Go and learn and take this time to utilize the channels where these Corporates are, ie, LinkedIn, you know, email. You may have had a past Guest that stayed with you but actually works business, corporate and can put you in contact with the people that you need to be speaking to for when you do reopen. So please, please, please don't go and find. Go and find them. And thank you so much, Jess. Really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And I say if anyone does have questions, questions, please pop them in the chat. And I will. I will come back and I will go through them when I'm not fueled by Rioja, but I will go through them. And, you know, if you are struggling, like I think I've been saying this message to everybody. But the key thing here is don't panic, keep selling, and also keep investing in your business. You know, if you. If you need a marketing plan, which some of you may do, you obviously, you know, Mark, go and invest in that now because it will set you up for success later. All right? So the key thing we can all do as a global community is make sure that we are fueling the economy both as buyers and as sellers right now.

Okay, we're gonna leave it there. Have an amazing weekend. Everybody, please go and check all of this week's episodes if you have. I know somebody's asking for, like, a roundup. I'm not gonna do a roundup. Just go and watch it Monday. So there's nothing on Monday because I was trying to figure out how we're gonna. Where we're going to live for this week, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and tonight, we've covered everything that you need to know. So please go and check it out. It's all on my Facebook wall. So it's not behind a group. It's not behind a paywall or anything like that. It's 100% free for everybody. Please find it. And do me a favor. Share it. Share it in Facebook groups. Grab the link, put it in LinkedIn, share it in an email. Just tell somebody that you know that you know has had a really hard time of it this week about all of this. Because if you just follow Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's advice, today's advice, then you will be ahead of 85% of everybody else in the hospitality world. I guarantee next week we're going to. So thank you so much. If you do me one thing, one favor, go on to itunes. Download today's episode with Jess. It is season seven, episode 21. It's all about corporate. Go and leave a review on itunes. Spotify, it's everywhere. So just go and find it. Please download it. Please listen to it, Please leave a review. It just helps it get even more higher in the chats. Because when season eight comes along, which is what I'm doing right now, season eight, when it's all about the coronavirus, more and more people will be able to see it in the chats and be able to get help when they need it most. So thank you so much for watching. Have a great weekend, and I'll be back on Monday.