How to take advantage of the new workcation trend that's taking hospitality by storm

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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 loosely making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect you'll better put direct.

Mmm.

Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.

Gonna talk about is we're gonna talk about work cation. Now those that have been in my world a lot this year, you'll know that I've been talking about staycation. Well, there's a brand new trend that is really taken off and so much so the Airbnb are practically changing their their filters and their searches because of it. And it is work cation. Now why is this something to pay attention to? Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you why it's attentive, why it is important to pay attention to it. And number two, I'm going to show you how you can pivot your property or properties to be more applicable to this really fast growing trend. So please make sure you stick till the end. Please make sure that you hit that thumbs up button. Please make sure that you comment, get the algorithm going and make sure you share it into other groups as well. The title is workcation. So first and foremost, why should workcations and why should you be paying attention to it? Well, work cation is simply people that are going away for work, remote work. Typically the people that are doing this are those that are maybe based in a big city, small apartment, they are working from home. Whether that is forced by their company doing so, or whether it's by choice. And they're literally looking at the same four walls every day. And what we're noticing with the trends that are coming out is that because they are working from home, they're starting to realize that they don't have to work from their home. And as long as they've got WI fi, as long as they've got an Internet connection, they're able to do so, and they are doing so. This trend started very much so in America, but it's. It's continuing. So much so that Brian Chesky, obviously one of the founders of Airbnb, he reported in a recent podcast that even with everything that's gone on in 2020, the amount of people that are booking a stay for business is higher through August 2020 than what it was in August 2019, which is crazy when you think about everything that's gone on. So it's definitely something to pay attention to. So much so that the word remote work or work remotely, that phrase, that keyword, has tripled in reviews in 2020. So this is something that is definitely happening. And I don't personally see this trend stopping anytime soon. So how can you. How can we take advantage of this? Well, number one, if you haven't done so already for your properties, and this really doesn't matter on what restrictions you have, this can work, number one, for any country in the world, any state, doesn't matter what government restrictions are in place. Number one, you can log on to your OTAs right now the quickest way, the simplest way, the. The one that you can make a difference right now. Go on to all of your listings, go on to all of your accounts, whether that's Airbnb booking, Expedia, VRBO, HomeAway, anywhere, and go and look at the amenities section. I know for a fact that Airbnb are looking to change the filters in on their search. That is going to reflect WI FI speed very, very soon. They are trying to put it into practice on a global scale, but they're going to be doing it, testing it in different locations. So, number one, what does this tell me is that they are looking at adding new amenities in. So if you haven't done so in the past week or the past month, log in and make sure that your listing is relevant to somebody that would be searching for a potential business trip. That is the most simplistic way. A lot of you have already got properties that are ideal for work occasions, but you've just not ticked the box. Okay, so that is the super simplest way. That is the super easiest way. Make sure that you're listing on the OTAs. Again, this is, you know, obviously Boostly is all about boosting your direct bookings. But, but I've always said this, you've got to make the OTAs work for you when you need them and times like these, when you may need them the most, this is where you've got to make sure that you are at least visible on there. So that's number one. Number two, going down more of a book direct route is Facebook groups. A lot of you and I know Liam is on on the Live right now, has had a lot of success this year even with all the lockdown craziness that has happened with Facebook groups and he's just one of hundreds of people is literally the first name that came to saw us on the Life. So again, Facebook groups are phenomenal for this. You can do local and niche. So again, look at business networking groups maybe in your localized area on Facebook, look at localized groups and just search for the conversation to see who is asking questions. In every Facebook group you've got a search bar and you can just type in a couple of keywords. It could be accommodation for business or work away or whatever you want to put in there. Have a search and see what people are talking about. And again, what you can do is if you can see the conversation starting, you can jump in on the thread or you can put your own post up. And again, if you're going to post in these groups, number one, make sure you can do so, check the rules, check the admin. But number two, it's a great opportunity. But make sure when you do write it or when you do a video about it, you talk about the best benefits of your property for a business traveler. Again, you've got to really flip your unique selling point, your USP as we call it. So again we'll talk about what they could be as we go down. Facebook groups. Fantastic opportunity, but also as well, Chris Ballard. I know Chris won't be tuning in. He has just made the trip back to Sweden from Wales. Chris, buddy, if you're watching, I'm going to give you a shout out. He posted up in the Boostly academy that he was able to secure a really big booking via Gumtree. And again, Gumtree seems like the wrong decade to be using it. But again, think of the websites, think outside the box. Think of where you'd be surprised where you could list these services. Now it was ebay a couple of years ago, ebay was A fantastic revenue to do this. Ebay have cut down on all of this now, so don't even think about jumping on the ebay bandwagon. But look at places like Gumtree, you'd be amazed at what you could get there. Number two again, business stays. Look at the long stay discounts. Now, again, you've got to have a pretty empty calendar to be able to utilize this. But again, if you log on to one of your platforms, OTAs wise, Airbnb and whatnot, you'll notice that Airbnb are pushing month long stays. Long stays. Again, this will only work if you've got a pretty much a blank calendar for the rest of the year. But again, look how you can utilize it with a, with a long stay so you can at least get some form of revenue in. And again, the majority of people who'll be doing long stay, they will be business people. And again, don't just limit yourself to putting this onto an ota.

You can also totally change your social.

Media, totally change the homepage of your website that will reflect this. Again, we'll talk about website in a second. So next one was offer long stay discounts. Next one, and I'm reading my list here because I've written it all down, is create and show off your workspace. So for a lot of people in here and I can see Helen's, Helen's on the live, you. To show off a workspace. To create a workspace into your property isn't going to take a lot. For example, it could just be next time you're in the property, moving things around, moving the furniture out. But you can quite easily create what you would class as a workspace. And when you do create this, show off about it. So take pictures of it, document it on, you know, Instagram or Facebook, talk about it, put it on your website, put it on your homepage, put it on your blog, put on YouTube channel and talk about, and show off that you've got designated workspaces. Those of you in the UK you will have, you will have heard about the pubs that are really pivoting at the moment and offering workspaces in pubs. And it's, and it's going down, it's going down quite well. I know again, with restrictions that they may not be able to do that potentially. But again, it's just showing the signs that this thing is popular. People don't want to be stuck in their place, they want to be elsewhere. And again, if, if, if you think about it, if you're near a big city and you're a little bit more rural, but you've got everything that is potentially there for a workation. And if you think about it could be a family, young children, you know, not yet of school age, you know, it could be, you know, two, three, four or whatever and they've got a real small space and they're having to work with all of the things. Then the, the appeal of getting out of the city, being in a place that is loads of space, that they've got a designated work office, that they can close the door and do work stuff and then once they finish they can open it and then become parent, then that could be very appealing. All it takes is one or two people to see this and this could really make a massive difference to your final quarter of 2020. Regarding income, next thing is if you have super fast broadband, shout about it. I mentioned earlier in the video that Airbnb are going to have a filter in soon based on what your wi fi speed is. And again, this is where those that have got really quick download and upload speed take a picture of it. So all you need to do to find it, go to speed test or just Google speed test. I think BT have one or just there's loads of different ones that you can have and run it on your, on your laptop, run it on your phone, take a screen grab of it. If you've got super fast like 200, 300 megabyte speed. We're sort of talking in here and again have that as one of your six main pictures on the OTAs. Nobody, nobody will be doing that. But again it will really stand out. And again you may be thinking, well that doesn't look aesthetically pleasing. We're not in a time of aesthetically pleasing anymore, especially seeing that our unique selling points is number one how we clean our properties. So you've got to be doing somewhat different to be in front of the trend and that trend is the workation one. Now if you don't have super fast WI fi, don't lie and say we've got super fast WI fi because when somebody gets there and it's shocking and that is just going to really dampen their guest experience. Don't overset the experience, be truthful to it. But what I'm saying is if you've got really quick WI fi, definitely shout about it. Another thing that you could be doing here, you could be getting office supplies in. So again, thinking outside the box, pivot in slightly. People are coming on workation, what would they need? So if it means investing in a printer, having a printer in one of your properties, ink, paper, but so be it. You know, again, what can you do with your property to pivot it to make it that it's really appealable to work cation? Could it be simply just having extra pens and paper? Could it be having envelopes? Then again, look at that. And then think about how you can capitalize on this new market, which is workcation as a sidebar as well. So not only is the workation trend really taking off at the moment, but on the other side you've got, the pet friendly market is really, really taken off as well. And again Airbnb have alluded to this, a lot of people have alluded to this, that a lot of people are looking for searches with pets. So again, everything that I've said above regarding workation, amend that for pets. And again, if you do take pets and if you're not talking about it, then please do so on your social media, on your website, on your OTAs. But again, make it more pet friendly. So what can you do? Can you be providing a pet bed for example? Are you finding those, those Facebook groups? Are you looking on Gumtree? You know, all of these little things you can be, can be doing to make sure that you're stand out. So everything that I have said above about workation, the pet friendly market is massively booming as, as well. But whatever you do do over the course of the next couple of weeks, couple of months is get new photos. So there's a couple of clients that are in the boostly academy and they have got properties that are in very seasonal areas. You know, you think about the Austrian Alps and the French Alps and the ski Alps. So obviously in the winter, the pictures that they are putting on their website and on the OTAs are very different to what the pictures they'll be putting up in the summer. So again, this is, this is what I mean with yourselves right now is that in a time when the leisure industry and the leisure market seems to have just dropped for obvious reasons, the work and business one is taken off. So what it means is that you are going to have to be pivoting slightly. Be a little bit clever with the pictures that you're putting out there. So again with the, with the pictures that you're going to have on your OTA sites, the picture you're going to have on your website picture on your social media, if you are going to be targeting workation people, make it so it's very, very clear there's no Confusion that you are geared up and you can take contractors, contractors, work people, self employed people who are employed, whatever that may be, but take new pictures and upload them. At the end of the day if you're uploading new pictures to the OTAs you get the algorithm bump on there. If you're uploading new pictures to your website, you get a nice little algorithm buff on Google. And if you're going to upload new pictures on social media, it just means that more people will go up. I I remember this place and again share this in the social media. So again what I would recommend everybody do is whatever changes that you make in your business, whatever you're going to start to go towards then what I recommend that you do is that you talk about it. Don't just make the changes in the back end and don't show it off on the front end. So what I mean by front end website, really easy to do on that on that homepage website definitely social media 100 and also as well the OTAs as well. This is where we need to utilize those OTAs. So again if your property is set up and geared for workation then please do talk about it because this is definitely a trend that is definitely on the rise. Now I'm going to be back with more types of these videos, videos that with tips and advice that I can share over the coming shoulder season, the slow season as they call it. If you have found this at all useful please as always share it with a friend, share it in a Facebook group, hit the like button and leave your feedback in the comments and also as well let me know what you are doing. So if you have an hour getting bookings and you've got bookings now for the rest of the year, what have you been doing to get them? If you have got a property that is made for the work cation industry then what are you doing and what are you going to do to pivot towards that? As always I'd love to see your comments. I will go through every single one of them after this and doesn't matter what platform you are listening on, doesn't matter whether it's live or on the replay, please do leave a comment and share this into Facebook groups. Share it on your wall, tell everybody about it and just for those that really need it because there are people out there that really do need the help and the advice and the guidance that is going to steer them through these next three to six to even 12 months. Thank you so much for watching. My name is Mark Simpson I give host the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly, the confidence to go and increase their direct bookings. Thank you to everybody that has tuned in live. It's much appreciated to see lots of folks, friendly faces in there. And I will be back very soon helping more hosts increase their direct bookings.

Now, let me try and get this hashtag down. Here's a little cause that I respect. You've gotta make sure you book direct. Go to the hotel, go to the place. Don't do it through Google, a disgrace or booking.com or hotel.com. no, call them on the phone or the phone. I add an E to make it fit and say, hi, can you discount a little bit? And usually they, they'll be happy to agree. And that's why you should book directly.