Navigating the Shift from a 900 Room Hotel to a Charming B&B

Welcome to the Boostly podcast. This is a podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training and most importantly, the confidence so you can go out there and get yourselves direct bookings. We have a mini series on this podcast where we dive behind the host, where we talk to successful, interesting hosts from around the world. And today we've got an amazing host, somebody I've known many years. I consider him a friend who's part of the team Boostly community and there's a great big character in there. He runs a bed and breakfast and we're going to get his kind of journey and all of the teachings and all of the things from his long hospitality career that we can share with you as our listener today. So let me introduce our special guest and this is Harrow. He's from a business called the Hive at 52. And yeah, this is fantastic to dive in. I'm really excited about this today. So welcome along Harrow. Thanks for joining me. So first question or first? Yeah, first question for yourself is can you give yourself an elevator pitch and describe the business as to where it is in the world and what it's like?

Yeah, the Hub 52, as you say, it's a B and B. It's only small, we've got three bedrooms. We based in a village called Weaverham which is in Cheshire in the northwest of England. We've been open 10 years this year, so at the end of the year, I think we opened in November. So 10 years. So 10 years of my life really. Before that I was, I was in hospitality for 20 odd years in hotels. So it's not anything new for me.

So. So yeah, that's cool. I mean, first of all, congratulations. Ten years in your own business is amazing. They say many own businesses don't get to five years. You know, something like 2% only get to five years. So to do 10 years in your own business is amazing and I've got to see it grow over what I've kind of known you in the Boostly Academy for. I've been around there in about four years. So, you know, I've seen it grow and I've seen some of the amazing work you do and which we're going to dive into on this, on this episode. I just, I detect it's not a local accent. So whereabouts are you from? What is your history before this?

I'm originally from Holland, or as now called the Netherlands apparently. Came over in 1994. So there we go, another celebration. I've been in the country for 30 years. It is August. Nice Came across first photos for a year to work in London and then decided to stay on a bit, got a new job, other job and I ended up in Cheshire and I'm married to an English lady as well, so that sort of made me stay as well. And yeah, so 30 years this year. So nice.

Two big celebrations. So all the talking about decades in two different celebrations, which is amazing. You gotta do something special this year. Is there anything special planned this year? It's quite a big year for you.

Well, I haven't really thought of it really. It just sort of just comes about, you know, time flies really. It's quite scary in a lot of ways. So I don't really know. I probably will do something, but I haven't really thought of it.

No, that's cool. You got plenty of time. You got the entire year to come up, up with it, so.

Exactly, exactly.

So you mentioned there was a lot of time in hospitality before you've opened the business. So talk us through that and some of the kind of lessons and things that you've learned that you took into your own business and then if you can talk us up to why you started your own bed and breakfast.

Yeah, so when I'm in the Netherlands, I studied hotel and catering management and I did that for years to do a bit of national service as well. But luckily I was actually chef in the army, so that helped me a little bit. And then when I came to the uk I was a chef for about nine months in a hotel in central London. But I sort of knew that I couldn't make a career out of it because I didn't have the City and guilds or MFQs, whatever they call now, and so decided to go across to front of house. So started off in a 900 bedroom hotel off Oxford street as a receptionist and then slowly sort of climbed up there, moved around in London and then I got a position as revenue manager in a 900 bedroom hotel on Piccadilly Circus, which was obviously my first senior position. And then in the absolutely beast of a hotel as well. And so I learned, learned a lot there. Quite quickly moved around and then got myself up to operations manager in hotel. So I did everything so rooms and food and beverage. Then the children came along and I didn't really want to do the long days anymore work, the weekends work, Christmas work, all the days people normally evolved. And then I went back into revenue management and that's where I ended up really. Revenue and sales for the last couple of years of my, my, my career and Then at one state I finished a maternity cover in the hotel and it was a period where it was quite uncertainty. I don't know if it was a recession or something like that, but it was very difficult to find a position. So then I worked, just did a temporary role as an F and B manager somewhere and then we sort of started to talk about maybe we should do something for ourselves. It was sort of in the back of my mind. My wife is in hotels as well, she's an accountant in hotels. So that's sort of where I came from. And then at the time, that time when, when I couldn't find a position we did decided to go for it and took us quite a while to go through the process because we wanted to make sure that we put the planning in properly and had a good think on how we were going to do it. And then in 2014 we sort of start the building work and then late in the year we opened. So.

Yeah, nice. So this, the bed and breakfast, that was your family home before and switched into the bed and breakfast, is that right?

Yeah, correct. So it's a detached home from 1876. So it's, it's got plenty of space and we just conferred to sort of the front of the house into the B and B and the back of the house is our family area. So and it's quite nice because it's separated because we've got an extension at the back with our own stair so it's, we can completely close it off as well. So maybe in the future we'll follow the STR trend and maybe convert it into a short term holiday month.

The opportunity, the opportunity is there. What I love about this is, I mean I'm learning I didn't know this about your Harrow and as I say, we've known each other a little while and those skills that you've taken in, I mean sales and revenue management and accounting is kind of like if, if you can go into your own business with those skills from your previous transferable, you know, sort of careers, which is amazing. So that gives you a really good, a good stead. And when, when people look at the, the Hive at 52, one thing that always stands out for me is the branding on your business is very good. They're very strong colors. How did you come up with the name? Why is it called the hive at 52?

Again we looked at it and the house was initially called Roxburgh. We didn't have any sort of link. Obviously Roxbury is quite a Scottish name and Then we start, we are just writing down names we could think of and then you come up with Rose Cottage and things like that. So Blue Bell Cottage. And then actually my youngest daughter, who I think she was about 9 at the time, said, well, why don't you call it the Hive? A bit like a beehive. People coming in and out, bees coming in and out and we like.

Yeah.

So then we actually, we had the branding done by somebody I used to work with in one of the hotels I was in and so we got him to do three designs and I think the design she came up with, obviously, was the Hive. And we called it the hive at 52 because of the domain name was quite generic. So that's why it came 52 with number 52 as well. The other one he had was Snoring Club and Honeycomb. So Honeycomb could be. But it was a very catchy snoring club.

Yeah, people don't like snoring.

More like, you know, a singer's club or something like that. So we decided and we thought the hive was. Was ideal, really, isn't it? It is a bit like, like the beehive, people coming in and a lot of people now when you look at Gogo, people are actually looking for the Beehive as well.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so it worked out really well. And. And yeah, we, we love, we still love our branding, you know, 10, 12 years after it was actually designed.

So, yeah, 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 your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2, 000 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 booking an appointment with one of our sales team.

It's one of the things for people listening to this who are wondering where to get started with branding. And the truth is that you kind of have just got to pick a direction and go with it. But like you say, make sure it is something that you really like, because I look at my branding for my SDR business and I still love that. And it's got to be something that you're going to probably have a long time and yes, you can change it, but ultimately if you do find something you like and, and that works as well in terms of, you know, you've, you've got the whole concept around it, which is the logo, the colors and all that stuff, just makes things so much easier to be able to brand. And we'll, we'll pay dividends for years.

So that's, that's, I think, I think as well, what we like about it, because at the time adults were 9 and 10 and we sort of wanted them involved, but we didn't want to name them on the website, just for obvious reasons. Yes, the guy designed it. If you look at our logo, it's got a bee and a daisy flower. My youngest daughter's called Beatrice.

Oh, nice.

Eldest daughter's called Daisy. So that's sort of where the link is as well. But also I think for people as well, sometimes, you know, people sort of don't spend the money on certain things. And we just wanted to make sure that at the time we spent decent money on a good website, which 10 years ago was fine. And also the branding for us was very important. So we invested quite a decent amount on that. And I think that's important as well. That sometimes idea is hard to invest your money, but I think sometimes it's well worth, because as you say, you're going to have your branding for 10, 15 years.

Yeah. And how easy you are to find is so important, isn't it? Making it easy for your guests to identify. Yeah. Before we dive more into kind of the marketing and that side of things of your business, who comes to stay with you? What is your guest avatar?

My guest avatar is David and Mary, who are about 55 plus 60, retired or semi retired. They love their gardens, they love stately homes. And also what they like to do is combine visits to gardens with visits to relatives who live around here. Either sisters, brothers, grandchildren, daughters, sons. So it's a bit of a combination. A big chunk of our clientele, our guest avatar, are people visiting relatives and quite a lot of times is all elderly relatives or actually their grandchildren. But yeah, the age range overall is between 55 and 70.

Really nice. What I love about this as well, for people listening, you've named your avatar, you know what they like, you know why they're coming to stay. And although obviously like all of us, you do get people who fall outside of those avatars that ultimately, once you know who your primary person is, that is most likely to come and book again. That means your blogs and the marketing and what you offer can be centered around that one person, can't it? And that's really cool to, to see. So at the moment when you've, you set up your business and obviously you start hosting what software do you use in your business or have you used over the years to help you run your business?

I started off with. Well I'm still with Free to book. For me as a bnb it's what I need. I don't need all singing or dancing and it works for me and I think it works for a lot of people. I think there's a lot of people in the group as well who still with Free to book. I'm sure there's better ones outside but what I do like about freetabook is it's relatively small and they are quite quick to react to help desk queries and things like that. Maybe sometimes they're not as quick with reacting to new things in the out in the world but it's a very good product for me. It's a reasonable price I think and it does what I needed to do.

It's all you, all you need, isn't it at the end of the day and that is. Yeah, you don't have to spend. I mean we speak to some hosts who've got stacks and stacks of software but ultimately each pound that you spend on software needs to pay you back in some way and, and once you found something that works and is at the right price then then sticking with it is a great idea. Is there anything else that you use in your business at all? Any kind of email send outs and things like that or anything you use for that side of the business?

Yeah so I, I used the usual things, you know, mailchimp to send out my, my newsletter, the variety of social media. I don't know if you can, you, you can call it that but. And that's really it really. I'm not really. I like tech but I'm not a techy guy. I'm not great at it. I just like the systems to be very simple, simple to use, simple to, to understand but really with a. Working really well for me. So, so yeah, so I'm, I haven't really got a huge amount of tech. I've got a mobile phone and I do a lot on that. I've got my laptop and that's all I need really.

That makes sense. And at the end of that means you can focus on the hospitality side of the business and getting guests. So yeah, let's talk about that. How do you get your guests at the moment? Where do the majority of them sort of come from? And is there any kind of marketing techniques that you use to attract your perfect guest?

Well, you're probably happy to hear that 80% of my bookings are direct. Wow. About 20% is through booking.com. nice. I am on Airbnb, but I can't really compete with 25 quid rooms. I don't really want to compete with them and I can't really compete with, you know, people who rent out their house. So I am on it, but I'm not actively promoting it or anything like that. Especially the last year I got, I'm, I think a lot more consistent with my social media post. Four times a week on a Monday, Wednesday, a Friday and a Sunday. I'll do a story, I'll do some reels sometimes if I think about it. But yeah, my, my, my social media posts are very regular and I try to also, again with the help of AI Actually, I mean, a lot of my posts are done with the help of AI it just saves me so much time. But then I still try to keep them as personal, like personal to me as well, you know, with the odd spelling mistake in it being Dutch. So, yeah, so that's really the main chunk. But the main even up before any social media or email newsletters is I look after my guests. And when I look after my guest that put great reviews on the, on the variety website, the go go TripAdvisor and that sort of attract people because there's so many people who have said, I've read your reviews, so I booked you instead of the hotel down the road. And I think that just proves that, you know, I must be doing something right that, that tracks. And I get, because of my reviews, I could also be referring within the village within the area saying, oh yeah, my, my brother is coming. Can you accommodate him? So I think that's the, the main reason, the first of my reason I attract guests and then the rest is the author. Your other things, your social media, newsletters, things like that.

No, that's amazing. And at the end of the day, a couple of things I want to pick up on for, for the people listening to this is first of all, the consistency is one thing. Like you say, you don't have to, you know, be posting seven days a week, but just being consistent in general or more consistent. And you know, we're all hosts, we all get busy. So sometimes, you know, we fall off the, the consistency side of things. But as long as we're picking that back up. You're more likely to get guests who come and find you and then actually you're using your previous guests as a way of marketing. By delivering great experiences to them and then them reviewing and then other people seeing those reviews, you're picking more and more people. More people trust your business and everything about your business is for people who want to go and have a look at the Hive at 52. Is it.co.uk.co.uk yeah, yeah. So it just screams professional, you know, it is. It shows. Very professional. And for the people who are coming to visit, is it Cheshire? Am I right?

Yeah, correct.

Yeah. Yeah. So for the people come to visit there, there's somewhere where they can trust and they know that what kind of experience they're going to get. One other thing which comes to light is that you're very consistent with your blogs as well for your website. And how does that help you to get your website seen? Does it help with SEO and things like that?

To be honest, I'm not really sure about things like that. You know, that's probably one of the big areas where I do need some help and I do need to look at it because, one, it doesn't really interest me and two, it is quite. I think it's quite a niche kind of thing, SEO. So I have looked at it, but it's something I need to look at. Yes, I do do my blog. It's hard work. I know it's really difficult to do, but I do try to do my blogs and I do think it helps with SEO as well. And especially because in the last few years, we really start to look at our sustainability as well and try to push that. And this is another great story, you know. Yeah, I can look after my guests, I can make a good breakfast, I can clean the bnb. It looks lovely. But the sustainability, obviously, especially now in the last few years, it's a big attraction to a lot of people. And that's what I try to do both on my social media and my blogs. As I said, SEO is not my.

Forte, but it does. It looks very good on your website to see the regular blogs. And one of the things which I can see you've adopted is that you're telling the story instead of trying to sell on your blogs. You know, you're just saying, hey, back in November, I was invited to a podcast. And this is amazing, by the way. We've just put up our solar panels on the. On the top of the roof. This is helping us to be sustainable, save money and attract more guests who, you know, sort of who care about the environment and, you know, the vibe attracts the tribe. So it just is really fantastic example for anyone listening, you know, to go and check out. Really, really impressive to see.

Well, I don't like the hard sell. You know, when I get something, get an email and it's sell, sell, sell, I turn off, you know. So from my point of view as well, I'm thinking, well, how do I want to sell my business? It's the way I want to be sold to as well. I don't like the hard sell. You know, I switch off.

People buy from people sometimes wrongly.

But 99 of the time I'm sort of right when I sort of turn off.

So, yeah, no, no, at the end of the day that it comes across on the blog as just a genuine person who, who is very hospitable. Do you know what I mean? To, to, to host people. So what are some of the biggest tips that you've picked up over. You had 20 years in the hotel industry and then Obviously you've had 10 years hosting direct. What are some of the tips you'd like to share with people listening? Is there anything which has helped you along the way that you'd say could help others too?

Yeah, well, especially, you know, when I work for a boss, when somebody is not very nice to you, you sort of just, you know, let it go over your shoulders, over your head. When you run your own business, it is hard because it's your own business and rightly or wrongly, if somebody gives you feedback and it's, it's right, then it's fine, I can cope with it. But when it's harsh and it's, it's not right, you know, at first, especially at the start, I took personal and I got really, really grumpy and to say bluntly, really pissed off with it. But it's actually not, you know, your, your, your, your mood doesn't affect your guest who just bumped into with that review or, you know, give you that feedback. That's your family and your relatives who sort of suffer from your bad mood. So that's the one thing. And even now sometimes I have it, but I sort of thinking, oh, well, can't please everybody. So that, that's sort of really what, what I tried to say. You can't please everybody. A B and B is not for everybody. A short rental is not for everybody. A hotel is not for everybody. So there is a place for somebody, you know, so that's Sort of what I've really had to learn from when I became an employee to become my own boss to sort of sometimes just sort of say, let it just, you know, come off your shoulders. Don't let it, you know, wind you up and stuff like that. It's hard but because it's your own little baby. But it has helped me a lot sort of step over that quick break.

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It's great advice. I think one thing that I noticed time and time again is we can get, you know, 20 great reviews, but that one review is where we focus our time, where somebody focus on the positive. Yeah, exactly. Focus on the, the other 20 which are giving you the, the great review. And, and there's always going to be disgruntled people. You can't please all of the people all of the time ultimately. And yeah, it's just, it's, it's very tough though. You do have to train yourself to kind of guard yourself ready for there will be a bad review, you know, at some stage in the future again. And it is a case of sort of guarding yourself against that and just knowing that you can't win them all. But focus on the positive which is.

And also you get the guest to put your review that they see the, they see through it. If you've got nine good reviews and one bad one, they see it, they see through it. If that person who booking thinking, oh there's a really bad one, maybe you don't want that particular guest because he's focusing on that bad one as well.

So you know, there's, I mean we've had all sorts where there's been things like somebody tried to defraud us and gave us a one star review and then got people to go on Google and give us one star review, you know, things like that. And you look at it and you just go, well you can reply to the review and you can put factually what has happened because you know Others are going to read it, but ultimately just focus on all the people that you're doing good for. And then when others read through the, you know, like out of 150 reviews, if there's one or two bad ones and you know, people weigh stuff up, don't they? You know, like people have got a good, a good gauge on that sort of stuff.

I think the big thing for me as well throughout the years as well is just like, I think what you need to do is get the basics when you start a business, get the basics right first. You know, yes, it'd be lovely to do everything well and all that, but you will make mistakes at the start, get the basics right and then take small steps thereafter. And then, you know, because when you take small steps you don't go overwhelmed. You know, I can read a lot of times on, on, you know, on the Facebook groups as well. It's like, oh this, all this information is like, well you can't do it all at once. You know, just take small steps. But take, make sure that your basic is there, your basis is that can look after your guest and then the rest will sort of follow.

That's great advice. Great advice. And what, what does the future look like? Obviously you've had 10 years in, in the business at the moment. Is there any kind of things that you're, you're planning on the horizon or is it just business as, as usual?

Yeah, it's business as usual. I mean 10 years, you know, we will need to, I mean we, we sort of replaced off on a rolling basis anyway. But there probably is likely to be some bigger things we need to replace. But otherwise it's, you know, it's, it's, it's about business usual. Do what I would do best and look after my guest. Continue with my social media. Maybe I might be doing a podcast myself, you know. You know, it's something I've got in the back of my mind, you know, so it's, it's a part of my business as well, but also on the side of it, continue with my social media. I'm working with that. I'm actually doing an eight week digital marketing course. I start next week, I think it is, which is really intense. So I don't really know how I'm going to fit that in but that, that I'm looking forward to that. So hopefully I learned something from that as well which I can then put back into the business. And as I said, you know, I am getting older. You know, I don't want to do 20 years more doing breakfast at 7 o' clock in the morning. So you never know, I might put a kitchen out in my breakfast room and just you know, let them out as a short term rent holiday let and stuff like that to make it be easy for me. So yeah but for the next five to ten years I think it just be business as usual, do what I want but keep on changing with the times as well, you know. You know things are changing so quickly you have to go with the times so you know the investment will need to be made on things like that. And the one big thing for us is to continue on the sustainability journey. We're lucky we've got solar panels installed and we've got air source heat pumps so we are really only relying on gas for our stove and we probably keep that for a bit especially with the uncertainty about electricity. But there is a lot of things, especially the small things where we need to improve on the sustainability. So I think that's a big one for us that we want to continue doing what we looking after I guess but keeping a very close eye on, on, on how we do that and, and making sure that we don't becoming well hopefully 100% you know, sustainable so no plastic use and things like that. So, so yeah, nice.

And I got to say it's a very likable business Haro. I mean like you've, you know, you, you, you're very much up to date with the AI stuff you do and the social media, you know, like, and I think it's a great example where people listening to this can, can go and look at your website and go and look at your socials and, and start to take note of what is successful within hospitality and I've really enjoyed speaking about this. So just before we, we let you go, just a fun question is where do you like to go on holiday? Obviously you host people yourself. Is there anywhere which is either on the wish list where you just like to tick that off or is there any place where you always go back to where you enjoy going on holiday? Let us know.

Well, I, I've been lucky enough that I've traveled a fair bit of the world before I started my career so don't really need to go far away anymore. And also the older I get, the lesser I like flying. Maybe not particularly the flying itself but the airports, they really don't, I don't agree with it and obviously also again with the sustainability sort of journey as well and I would say the best places to go on holiday, but in the uk, you know, Covid has sort of pushed us a little bit to it. But we've had some great holidays in the uk. We've been to North Wales, we've been to Anglesey, we've been North Yorkshire, we've been to Northumberland, we've been to York County, Norfolk this year, just gone. We've been to Suffolk, you know, we did Cornwall. Done. Cornwall don't need to go anymore because there's so many other nice counties. Like, we love Norfolk, we love Suffolk, you know, it's just beautiful. So to be honest, I think the best holidays for me being based in the UK is holidays in the uk. We are going. We hoping to go to Italy next year because we have not been. My. My daughters are a bit older now. They. One is a university, one is going to university. So we wanted to do one last biggest holiday. So that's what we're going to do. But again, we actually might be going by train, you know, thinking about that again, about how we, how we travel. But UK is great. Yeah, you know, the weather and all that stuff. But there's plenty to do, you know, we used to weather and I'm not. I liked a bit of sunshine, but you can get a bit of sunshine. So for me, why go abroad? Go, you know, stay in the uk, Help, help us, you know, help us help you, you know, help out in the business, stay in the uk.

I like it. And myself and my family, we had three holidays in the UK over the last 12 months and that was great. We didn't miss going abroad at all. Like I said, saves having to pack a huge suitcase and worry about it. And the great thing is, you know, you can get everything you need locally at the shops anyway, you know, so, you know, it reduces the amount of stuff you have to worry about, basically. So, no, it's great answer. Harry, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and all of the cool things you're doing in your business. Certainly one of the things that I'm going to take, take away from this is the sustainability and also really the focus on, on consistency. You know, this, this, the two things that I'm going to take away and hopefully listeners take away that as well. Thank you for listening to this on the Boostly podcast. If there's anybody you know who would like to listen to this, please do share it with them. You can come and carry on the conversation in the Facebook group, which is called the Hospitality community and it's a free group. To join, where we talk about all things hospital, hospitality, direct bookings, anything at all, basically, where you can come and join if this is your first time listening to a Boostly podcast. So, Haro, that leaves us with the last question is, is there like a motto or a mantra or something which resonates with you that you'd like to share with us to take us to the end of the show?

Yeah, I don't really have a motto or a mantra, but when I started my career, there was one boss, he was English, born in South Africa and, you know, when he was stressed and all that, he was stressed, we were stressed. And as he always used to say, in with love, out with stress. And it always stuck with me, every sort of job. And then when I became a manager of a team and all that stuff, that always stuck to me, you know, and it didn't say that every day, but once in a blue moon, it just used to come out. And recently again, you know, I was talking to people on that again, it's like, in with love, out with stress. And I thought that was brilliant because it's. As soon as you say so you. Your bad thought sort of goes, yeah, and. And, you know, I thought that's brilliant. And we talking, you know, 28 years ago. 20. Yeah, 27 years ago when, when, when I worked for her, you know, and it's still, you know, every now and again it comes back and, you know, I know it's not a motto or a mantra, but it's a saying which stayed. Stayed with me throughout my career. Really Nice, nice.

How can we come and find out more about your business, Harrow? Or. Or come and, you know, sort of follow where the socials to come and check.

Yeah, you can find me on all the socials. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. It's either the hybrid 52B and B. So B and the letter N B or just the Hybrid52. You can look at my website, the Hybrid52.co.uk or, you know, if you want to talk to me, you can WhatsApp me. The number is on the website as well. So, yeah, if you've got any questions, just ping me a message or direct message me on Facebook or Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. What else, you know. Yeah, or just everywhere.

I love it. And we will put the notes that you've mentioned or the socials that you sent us on the show notes as well, so people can check those out. However you're listening to this piece of media, you can check out in the show notes as well, so thank you very much, Harry. That's it from us.

And the invite.

No worries. Look forward to seeing you at the next Boostly Social event.

Yes, exactly. Take care. All right. Bye bye.

Bye bye.