Local Bird - a virtual concierge service

Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us on the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics and the training so you can get more direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan, and today we are shining the Boostly spotlight on one of the services that will help you and your guests live like a local. So let me introduce to you Ben Levy. He is the CEO and founder of localbird. Welcome along, Ben.

Thanks for having me, Liam.

No worries. So I'm not going to steal any thunder away from you, Ben. I know sometimes I like to give an introduction into your service, but I'm going to let you introduce yourself and localbird. So let's get started by saying, you know, introduce a little bit about yourself, whereabouts in the world that you're broadcasting this from and. Yeah, anything else you'd like to say about yourself before we then dive into localbird?

Yeah, so right now I'm broadcasting this from Miami. I grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, smaller, outside of Philadelphia. And when I was 19, I moved to Israel, served in the military. After that, went to school, started kind of little startup that was a marketplace, so really trying to understand how to get into entrepreneurship through that. And Local Bird is a virtual concierge for vacation rentals. And we help vacation rental managers provide more value to their guests while being able to monetize off of the experiences and services that their guests are booking during their stay. And it kind of started when we, you know, at the peak of COVID when, you know, everything was shut down. Our original startup was kind of, you know, didn't really work out because of kind of what's happening around tourism, I would say, at a vacation rental in Hawaii. And, you know, we were looking for things to do, specifically wanted to run a surfboard, and we asked the host, you know, if he can help us with recommendations. And he basically gave us, you know, this guidebook or like this, you know, binder with a bunch of, like, printed, you know, information that was, that was, you know, at that moment we understood that there's a lot of, you know, opportunity in digitizing the guest experience, especially when it has to do with finding local experiences and services. And, like, the more we thought about it, the more we realized that, you know, the hosts are actually in a unique position to, you know, provide these experiences and services to the guests. It's just a manual, manual kind of process where the host, you know, if he has his own providers, has to call and, and, you know, facilitate that transaction, where a lot of times, you know, it's going to be happening in cash or, or whatever. And we actually started kind of our pilot in Costa Rica, where my brother was living. And yeah, I mean, we started, we had like a couple of hosts and hostels and vacation rentals that were, you know, offering us to give us a shot. We had like, you know, five or six of them on board in a small town called Santa Teresa. And you know, within the first couple weeks we started getting, you know, a bunch of trend, bunch of bookings from, from guests. And you know, we saw that the model was working and fast forward till today we're live in Costa Rica, Panama and now the US as well.

Nice. Nice. So that sounds. So it's grown from a real problem that you've actually encountered yourself. And how did you feel when you first realized that it was a good, you know, a good idea, that there's actually, you know, something in this that you could actually develop? And what problem do you think it solves overall? What is the in. In one or two lines? What. What sort of problem does it solve?

Yeah, so, you know, at first we weren't sure that, you know, transactions were actually going to occur. You know, we figured we're going to give this as a service to hosts and you know, we aim to get transactions and do whatever we can work to make it happen. But, you know, it wasn't a given. But once it started working, it was a little bit of a surprise to us that, you know, people were actually going and booking things, you know, through the service. And so most vacation rentals, you know, don't have a concierge at all because it's too expensive to, you know, hire that person that's going to provide that extra value and extra service and, you know, be there 247 for the guests and be able to, you know, connect them with the private chef or the massage or the tour or the jet ski rental or whatever it is. So. So they just don't have like, they don't have the service at all. So we solve that by providing, you know, a network of curated vendors as well as the technology infrastructure and support in order to provide those experiences to guests without having to hire that extra person in house.

That sounds cool. I mean, anything that can save hosts time is going to be popular and anything that can help a guest live like a local is. Is just so important. Where did the name local bird come from?

Honestly, I think at first it was something with a bird, I think it was like something else. But it kind of evolved, I guess. You know, as soon as we launched, um, and we, you know, had to really figure out a name because we had the logo with the bird. We were just, you know, looking for something. A bird is a symbol of freedom in a lot of different cultures. And, and yeah, just if it fit together, like has to do with, you know, travel and, and yeah, that's cool.

How does a host get started? So if there's going to be hosts listening into this thinking, well, you know, how do I get started and how do they interact with the platform?

Yeah, so basically you can go into the website and sign up as a host and then from there I know we'll get on a zoom call and chat, but you can basically from there you can share your link in the post confirmation emails as well as send the link pre arrival and through a QR code. And you know, we're really trying to get creative with how we share our, our experiences with guests through, you know, various blog posts and discounts that we're offering. So yeah, it's really kind of a partnership kind of scenario where we're constantly trying to provide more content and, and more experiences to then offer the guests.

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One thing that I really liked about it because I've tried out the platform is, is how easy it is to get started on there, isn't it? You can literally register, you can then start providing those local services. You get in touch with those local, those local service providers so they can have, you know, you're basically sharing their details on there. But why would those local service providers want to get involved?

Yeah, so actually like whenever there's a place where there's a lot of tourism, a lot of times, you know, the most of the travelers that are booking things with tourism providers are actually coming from hotels and vacation rentals. So the hosts are actually in a unique position to sell those experiences and to partner with the local vendors. And you know, we've had local vendors that we've reached out to. And they told us, yeah, we're actually looking for vacation rentals and property managers to partner up with. So it kind of, you know, fits perfectly, you know, when we kind of are trying to digitize and streamline that transaction as opposed to having it happen with a bunch of phone calls and tracking how much commissions are being owed to who and manually facilitating the transaction.

And that really brings us on to the next question, which is how do you get paid? As for your service, is there a signup fee or is it a case of are you making money on the transactions and how does the host get paid as well?

Yeah, so it's free for host. Our business model is based off the marketplace transactions. So whenever a guest books an experience through localbird, we'll have a take rate that we charge the vendor and we'll give a portion of that to the host. So the hosts are earning 10% off of each, off of each experience that's built through our platform.

Nice. Nice. So, I mean, that's always something which we're looking for as hosts to sign up to, you know, services which can make us extra income. And of course, if it's free, effectively you're getting paid if the host is getting paid, which is a great way. If it works, you know, everyone's getting paid, which is cool. First of all, we, we often talk at Boost about how important it is to stand out from your competition and how by I, I got to speak to, to an awesome host this week who was saying about the extra services that she's putting in. Instead of lowering her price, she's offering extra services or availability of, of extra services like this. And by doing that, she's more likely to stand out and more likely to, to get the attention of, of guests. But most importantly, she's able to either hold or even increase her price at times of the year when other hosts are considering dropping prices. How important are these services to hosts? And are there any particular services you see which are the most popular, which in the areas that you cater for?

Yes. So in every market it's different. Right? So in, in Costa Rica there we had, we have a huge demand for ATV rentals. And you know, it's, it's just, it's insane. Whereas in place in other places like Miami, you know, we're looking at more like massages and private chef. Although in every, in every market, you know, there's going to be demand for something over the other. And you know, what was important for us is to, you know, make sure that our business model is aligned with the, with, with our goals in terms of supporting the hosts and being able to, you know, not actually. We don't make anything if the host isn't making anything. So, so really it's, it's a win, win model that, you know, we're kind of going after.

So that's cool.

So yeah, that, that's kind of how we stand out is, is that, you know, it's purely based off of marketplace transactions and, and if you're a host, our incentives are directly aligned.

And there's there been any challenges, I mean, you guys launched during COVID which is a brave move in itself, but has there been any challenges along the way for your business?

Yes. So when we were, yeah, first starting out, you know, during COVID it's like you would talk to someone about this idea in travel and like, they only want to hear travel. It's like, it's like, it's kind of entertaining. It was like a joke, you know, when we're, when we said that we're starting a travel business. But you know, we knew and a lot of people, we were able, you know, to kind of share that idea that travel is going to recover, you know, fast and vacation rentals are going to move forward. And you know, it's obviously, obviously there's a huge, huge recovery of travel and vacation rentals in Covid. And for us, you know, that was, that was that, you know, it's obviously good, a good thing. And, and I think that entering a market and in a time where everyone's kind of, you know, running away from it actually puts you in a position that, you know, if assuming you, you persist long enough, you'll actually have head start over everyone that joins when it's high.

Definitely. And boy did it recover, you know, I mean, straight after Covid, that, that really did recover, didn't it? Which is cool. And I get similar sort of question, but the opposite. Has there been any kind of wow moments along the way where you thought, you know what, we are onto something here. This is something which really could fly.

Yeah. So I mean there, there's been a few, you know, it's like there's wows and then there's also like the opposite of like what are we doing? But, but you know, last week, for example, someone booked, you know, 10 or 10 or 11 experiences through our platform. Basically booked like his whole trip through local bird. Like I'm talking about like book day, tv, the private chef, a massage, another private chef dinner, like booked his whole entire, you know, five day stay and, you know, that's like a. That's like a huge. A huge deal for us because that's really what we're. What we're looking to do, be able. And, you know, the host obviously benefited off of that. And, you know, the host didn't even know that the guest was booking this until, you know, he got the notification of the referrals that he was earning from all of these. All these bookings. And, yeah, that was really amazing for us. And kind of those kind of moments where, you know, there's this. There's this massive demand is kind of what's pushing us forward.

What I like about that is the fact that I know myself. I went down to London last. Last week or a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things that I realized I was doing a lot of was spending a lot of time on my phone trying to figure out what to do, where to go, you know, in the. In the. On the trains and places like that. Because I'm one of these people who. I like to plan some bits, but other bits, I like to get there and really get a feel for what is it we want to do. And we go there. But it's one of those things where having a concierge service, I think this is something which we're going to see become more and more important because of the need to have those experiences to make that special and to be able to create memories ultimately on the trip, is just so important. And it. If you can do that easily, instead of searching, you know, chefs who can come in and just having to guess which one is good, which one's going to be available to actually have that listed. A trusted local has said, hey, this person's great. This is who we'd recommend come in. And of course, that person's probably been briefed beforehand about the kind of clientele or the kind of accommodation it is, which is really cool. It just solves so many problems. And it's one of those things where you're actually creating a difference to people's, you know, people's holidays, people's vacations, which is really cool. Is there any aspects. One of the things we do on Boostly is talk about direct bookings. And is there any aspects where you can think this helps promote direct bookings? And if so, how.

Yeah, I think, you know, what we're doing is directly aligned with the direct book, like the book Direct strategy, because, you know, if you're. If you're not relying, you know, on a. On an Airbnb or booking or ota, then you're kind of on your own in terms of providing the seamless user experience and you're, you're competing with, you know, with people who. Their whole job is to create that seamless user experience. And one of those, like, one part of that experience is actually, you know, giving the local experience of the place that you're, that your destination is. Because people aren't coming and saying, hey, I'm so excited to stay in this vacation rental. They're coming and saying, I'm so excited to stay in this destination. And that's like, once you kind of incorporate that in the user experience of while they're booking and after they're booking, actually providing those experience and obviously being able to monetize off of that is really what we're going for. And that's, I think it's also a good way to, you know, give, you know, an alternative booking experience. That's not as. I mean, that is equally.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only on niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team.

What does it look like from the guest side? So when, if a guest was to login, can you talk us through how it would work for them?

Yeah. So if once, I guess, you know, books his, his stay, then he'll be able to get a, basically in the verbiage of the confirmation email, a a link that he can go into the partner's landing page. So it's a branded experience for the guest and from there can see information, you know, about the property as well as the local experiences to be able to from there directly book whatever is on the platform in that destination.

That's cool.

So the booking process is like a similar one that you would see like on an OTA or. Yeah, basically an OTA or also, you know, if they have any questions, our team's available for chat. You know, we really take pride in our response time. You know, we try to keep it under 30 seconds. And I think that's also another big deal for in hospitality. It's really important to give that immediate response and really wow the guest with your responsiveness.

Yeah, I like that. And that's so important. The one thing I really like is the fact it's branded when you go through and you can actually they recognize the brand that they've just booked with, which is really cool. So what does the future look like for localbird?

Yeah, so right now we're super focused on expanding in the US and, you know, we're looking to be a global brand and, you know, really consolidate our position as the market leader of virtual concierge services, which is, you know, a pretty loosely defined term nowadays. But we're really looking to, you know, to set the standard for what it's supposed to look like.

That's really cool. That's really cool. So thank you for introducing us to localbird, because I think there'll be a lot of people who'll now be searching for you. And it's one of those things where we will give the link towards the end and also be in the show notes. If you're watching on the live, then also add it in the comments as well or on the podcast. You can again check the show notes. But before we do that, I'd love to ask you just a quick. Some quick fire questions which are just there for some good fun, really. So if you had a genie lamp and you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

Wow. I would wish for probably more time, you know, always remembering and being grateful for. For, you know, you know, what I have and just always surround myself with good people and, you know, be able to share experiences with amazing people. Because at the end of the day, I think what, you know, makes a good experience, whether it's traveling, whether it's, you know, starting a business or whatever it is, it's really all about the people that you do it with a lot more than, you know, your circumstances or things that happen. It's really about the people. And especially in traveling, you know, you can have a great, you know, go to a great destination, you know, with people that you're not so, so fond of, and the experience is going to, you know, not be good. And the opposite is true as well. You can go to a mediocre place with amazing people and have a great time.

So that's very true. I like that. Well, well thought out. And I know that question puts you on the spot. What was your job before, before getting into localbird? What did you do as a career?

Yes. So I actually started my entrepreneurial year, entrepreneurial journey when I was like 17 and you know, I was doing like online merchandising for jewelry stores, basically like offering them to put their inventory online, which I guess it's kind of, you know, what vacation rental managers are doing with vacation rentals. After that, you know, I was in the military and is in the Israeli in the idf. And then after that I was in school and during my school I studied entrepreneurship, business, entrepreneurship and business and also started a company that, you know, I alluded to that was basically Nightlife Discovery Marketplace. So it was, you know, for people that were looking to, you know, discover bars and nightclubs and restaurants in Tel Aviv, that was basically. We were basically the app for that. And then Covid kind of changed plans and then we got into localbird. During COVID I was also working at a venture capital fund and yeah, eventually I went into local bird full time.

Nice, nice. Thank you. If you had to have a coffee or tea with a historical figure, who would you choose and why?

Who would I choose and why? I think a biblical figure would be cool, right? Just to like get that OG inspiration. Maybe like Abraham or Moses or one of them. Kind of have them inspire me to, you know, to lead and you know, and.

Yeah, that's cool. Cool. I like this. That's a great question. Just to see because it is when you're on the spot where your mind goes. It's cool, isn't it? So what is your favorite service amenity? And I had to ask this because it's what local bird does. When you're traveling, is there any amenity that you really would like to see? Obviously, I guess it depends on the destination. But what sort of amenities and services do you like to see and use?

Honestly, it's easy. ATV rentals, you know, you can, if you have an atv, you can basically, you know, have fun all day just riding around. It's a big one in Costa Rica where, you know, our, our original market is. And yeah, I mean people just ride around there with ATVs and it's fun.

So ATVs, I mean, I'm thinking they're quad bikes because we're going to have some English listeners is atv.

Yeah. So it's an all terrain vehicle. It's basically a quad. Like that thing with four wheels. Yeah.

That's cool. They sound like fun. I've never been on one myself and I probably do myself an injury, but they, they look like fun and yeah, great thing to do.

You won't you won't find them everywhere, you know, in the world, but hopefully one day they will be everywhere.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And a nice, nice little additional extra. And like you say something you do when you're, when you're traveling. So and we always like to, as we get towards the end of these, we always like to ask, is there a motto or mantra that you like to live by or one that means a lot to you?

Be present.

Nice punchy. It is all about being present. Like you say on holiday or anywhere you are is about being present. There's too many people on the phones these days, so how can we get in touch with localbird? If the people listening to this want to go and find it, how can they do so.

Yes, so well, you can reach me directly. First of all, my email is BenocalbirdIO. I'm also pretty active on LinkedIn, so I answer DMs. Yeah, feel free to reach out.

That's cool. And of course, if you do want to go to localbird, you can go to localbird IO, is that correct?

Yeah.

Yeah. And you've got the choice to be a guest or a partner and, or sorry, a host. And then you go from there. Really easy to sign up and recommend. Everybody goes and checks it out. So yeah, as we reach the end of these. Have I missed any questions or any final thoughts just before we bring things to a close?

Ben, now, this was fun.

It was really fun. Thank you so much for your time and thank you. If you're listening to this or watching on the live, I know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and I really thank you for putting it with Boostly. Hopefully you've got some good insights as to localbird on this and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. Thanks very much and bye bye for now.

Awesome. Thank you so much.