Pro Tips to Choosing Where to Setup Your Hospitality Business with Abi Hookway S6E14

Welcome to the Boost Hospitality podcast. We're in season six, episode 14 and today I am joined by somebody that I've been following for a while now on Instagram and on Facebook. And I've just really soaked up everything that she has to say when it comes to service accommodation, when it comes to property, and when it just comes to being a real good presence online and getting across a real clear message. And this is why I wanted to get Abby onto the podcast today, because we're going to talk about locations. Abby, for those who don't know, is part of Touchstone Education. She's got properties in, in locations that you wouldn't think are really popular when it comes to rental accommodations or service accommodations. And there's one property in particular that is real close to home, real close to where I live in from in the uk. So I'm really looking forward to digging into that and the reasons behind it. So without further ado, let's get Abi onto the call. So, Abi, welcome. If you could just say, spare a couple of minutes of your time, just telling a little bit about you, your background, what you were doing before property and where you are in the world right now, please.

So, hi, everyone, I'm Abby. I'm a property investor, property trainer and mum of two. Before I really got into property, I was doing the good girl thing. So I went to school, worked hard, went to university, got a corporate job, was working my way up the corporate career ladder in British Telecom and I just needed a change and I'd always loved property. So I managed to meet Anniko and Paul Smith and went to work within their estate agency and then worked my way up from there, got into property and never really looked back. I am currently in Italy at the minute, so I'm in a fabulous training room and it's beautiful here near the lakes. And I'm here because we're training some people how to position themselves so how to write books from webinars and maintaining courses.

This is being recorded in September 2019 and we're just chatting before we came on air. And, and I was saying, is this something that you do regularly at Touchdown, as in go to locations and do these sort of events? And you were saying that this is something you do twice a year. So if at the end of this podcast, if somebody wants to find out more about these events and how they can maybe go and attend the next one, is there a link or is there anywhere they can go to find out more? Is there like a website?

Yeah, if they just go to touchstoneducation.co.uk they'll see it on there and they can give us a call about it.

So today we're going to be talking about location picking and that's like the core topic and I'd be really interested to get your thoughts and ideas on when it is to come in to choose area to have your properties. A lot of people will go for where they currently live because that makes sense regarding logistics. But for yourself and it comes to finding locations to put your properties, what are the main signs that you personally look for?

It depends what strategy I'm doing. So when I'm doing service accommodation, I'm one of these I like to use, so I like to get more of a win win. It's not just money for me. I genuinely like property and I like holidays, service accommodation. I'm always looking at holiday destinations, so I've got some in the Peak District at the minute, near Whitby at the seaside. I'm currently looking at the Lake District and I'd like to start getting some abroad. But it's somewhere that I can use as well as make money from with my buy to let portfolio. It is normally around where I live just because it's easier and I know the area and I'm more confident with the property prices and types of tenants. Nice.

So as far as the different property portfolios, how many do you currently do? So obviously rent, well, rent to SA being one and you've got buy to let. Is there others that you do or is it mainly focused on those? On those two?

It's mainly focused on those two and I'm just getting into commercial property at the minute. After Paul telling me for three years it's a good thing to do, I'm finally twigging on to that fact.

How does it feel to grow your portfolio and grow into different industries? Is it something that you thrive on? Is it something that you've been a bit wary to do or is it something that you just want to just get straight in with?

I was always afraid and I was always taught to play it safe because growing up we didn't have a lot and I was with a single mum on a council estate, so I've not been born, you know, with money. So money is one of my drivers and security. So I've always been taught to play it safe. But Paul Nanoco being incredible mentors have really helped me to unlock my fears and it's just so nice now to have money coming in the bank and not have to rely on A job. Because if I lost my job tomorrow like some people do and get made redundant, I've still got the money and at the minute I've got lots of streams of income because I still have a full time job. I've got all my property income coming in and it's just such a nice place to be in and then helping others as well. So people get to have a nice time. In my holiday homes, my tenants have a really nice home to live in and it's just, it just really gives me the buzz.

That's amazing. Now you mentioned Whitby and at the start of this I said there's one area that you've invested in that's close to my home and that is, that is Whitby and it's very, very, very popular coastal town. And why did you choose Whitby? Now the sort of. The premise behind the question is, from what I've seen from the service accommodation world, is that not many people focus on places like Whitby. So you mentioned that you choose these locations for holidays, holiday destinations. But why do you feel like Whitby was right for you and why do you feel like others maybe don't look to these locations?

I think a lot of trainers in the service accommodation world train to have them in city centres. You get long term contractors, corporates and that didn't really. And that's fine and it's good cash flow. I know some of the city centres seem to be hot, there's a lot of legislation around there. But I sort of look like personally where I'd want to stay and I've got young children. I know you have. And trying to find places to stay with them is a bit of a nightmare. So I just started looking at these towns and I realised that they've got, because I do rent to rent, that they've got low rental prices but extremely high nightly rates compared to Manchester, London. And so I realized it would be a really good untapped network to go into these places. It would make me money, but also I could use them in the times that I wanted to.

That's amazing. Yeah. And definitely I think what a lot of people don't realize about someone like Whitby is that the season and this is where a lot of coastal towns, they have a season, they get labeled with having seasons. You start in April and it normally dies out around about October. But with Whitby is one of these places that the season just keeps on going and keeps on extending. And as well there is a massive potash Mine project that has been begun over the last couple of years and we, and I'm recording this right now in our family family guest house. We were approached by Scarborough Borough Council, Whitby Borough Council, just as the project was getting going, saying, listen, there's loads of contractors coming to town and again, the whole SA model is built on. You get your weekend bookings for your tourists and your travelers, but the bread and butter of it is these contractors, these business bookings. And I think that's like you say, most people then gravitate towards cities because that is where people assume. But there are, and I hear this term gold mine phrase passed around a lot in service accommodation. This is where places like Whitby and Bakewell, where you've got property as well, there's some absolutely amazing locations that are untapped when it comes to service accommodation and there's loads of places that you can find around the uk. Now, how did you personally discover Whitby? Have you been there in the past, like for holidays with family? Or is this somebody that's recommended you to check out these areas and then you've done your due diligence?

It's all been from what I like going to as a child. So Whitsby, I've grown up being the seaside, so I wanted to go there. My best friend owned a property there for a long time and she loved going every weekend. And then some of the people in Touchstone community were like, you can't. No one can do it in Whitby. You can't get a rent to rent in Whitby. And that was it. Then the challenge was off. I went one day and got a rent to rent. I was determined I was going to do that.

Nice. And when you say you just went and got one. I've been very fortunate this series of having some of that. Well, I class as experts in this field. On the podcast, we've had Gaudy, we've had Paul from Touchstone, we've had people who do all different types of expertise in different areas with hospitality and rental and service accommodation. When somebody says, I just went and got one. For people that are watching this or tuning in and going, I don't really understand what that means. What did you do that made be different from the rest? Like, how do you approach going to an estate agent or approaching a landlord or whatever you do to then go and get these properties on your portfolio?

So a lot of people, when you say rent a property, think of a normal tenancy, going to a letting agent and having to apply and then personally having to live in it. The first thing that I know is that because a lot of people think rent to rent is illegal, including estate agents. The first thing I know that. So I prefer to get my properties direct to vendor. So the first thing I did when I hit Whitby, because I went with my friend for the day, we said we were going to go and have a nice day out in Whitby without any children, just us. And I thought, while I'm there, I'm going to see if I can get some property. So I went into a little local cafe, started talking to the locals, found a guy that owned one of the pubs, so I'm chatting to him and then I was. Then I logged on Gumtree and on Gumtree there was this, this advert from a lady and it was just a handwritten note, there was no photo saying that she had a three bed house to rent and for people to get in touch. So I immediately just picked up the phone, rang her and said, hey, I'm in Whitby for the day, can I please come and look at it? I'm really, really interested, but I'd want to take it for a long term, like five years, would that be a problem? She said, no, she doesn't want to live there. She had nightmare tenants so she'd be more than happy. So I went to view the property, told her what I did, told her everything. She was a little bit unsure at first, so I left that day and I had to follow her up. But she came around to the idea and it was all because she'd had issues with tenants and I promised her that she wouldn't have that with me.

That's amazing. So a large part of it and like firstly the premise is everybody in Whitby knows everybody. So when you, I love it how you went to a cafe, they went to a pub to went to a country. Because that is literally how most conversations start in Whitby. But you get to a point where you chatting to a landlord who again has had problem with tenants, like a lot of people do. What did you have to do then from the point of having the initial conversation to win her over? Is there anything that you did? Obviously you've got proof of portfolio and things that you've done in the past, but what do you do to sort of put somebody at ease in those situations?

Yeah, so I always go in the angle because it's very true that I'm looking for a holiday home for myself and my family that, you know Places that I can. I've got two little children that I can bring on weekends and while I'm not in it, I want it to make money. So I put it on booking.com, tripAdvisor, Airbnb. So what I really reassured her was, is, I want it, I can afford it, the rent's no problem at all. I'll come in. And I was going to redecorate it and furnish it. She would be able to see it all the time, but I would be in there for five years. So she's not having to change tenant every nine months, which is the average for Whitby. And anything that damages to a certain point, I'll replace and I'll look after. And that she would get a rent on time and I could prove with them. I gave my credit report so she could see even though this went through a business, but I gave my credit report so she could see there was no problem and it was just talking to her and reassuring it. And I think I asked her questions first because a lot of people don't listen and that's where they fail sometimes. So my first questions were, why are you renting it out? She went, oh, it's been. It's been passed down. It was an uncle that died because she'd had it passed down to her and then she didn't really want it. She's a school teacher, she loves teaching. She's got her big house which is just outside of Whitby. This was just becoming a pain for her, a bit of a burden. The previous tenants had done put damp everywhere, smashed one of the windows and left, and it had been empty for a while and it was just. And she didn't know what she was doing, like putting a handwritten note on Gumtree. You would have put a picture of the house, wouldn't you? But she wasn't. She didn't know. So listening to her, I was able to immediately say, she's got an issue, I can solve the issue, give her the rent she wants and be win win, because I always work on the place, so it's got to be win for them, win for me. And I never do anything that's going to undercut anybod. So I just. Because I'm a naturally quite confident, warm person, I just naturally got her on side just by listening and saying and promise her she wouldn't have it with me. But she didn't have to go away and think about it. But, yeah, she's been great, ask better questions.

It's something that I say all the time and that is a perfect example example of it. So you mentioned then. So you've got the property, you're in amazing coastal locations now. You've got Whitby, you've got lake districts coming up, you've got the peak districts in Bakewell. And what I preach about a lot is knowing your customer avatar, your customer demographic. You've got to know who you're appealing to when you're looking to get people into these properties. When you list your rental on Airbnb, booking.com, you create your website wherever you go and list it. So how do you establish who your customer demographic is for each location? Obviously for yourself, you know you're looking for a place for the family which is a key part. Now do you actively go and attract families, you have actively go and put your properties out for families or do you have a different tactic when it comes to getting people in?

Again, it's all from my point of view in my experience because I've been away so often with my children and you go into these like hotels that have family rooms are just squished, no kitchen and you know what you need with children. So both all of my essays are set up to be child friendly. They're bigger, they can put cots up, I've got all the plastic plates, cups, etc. And I think because of that and then the way that I word the description, it naturally attracts families. My one in Whitby because I did my research before I realized that there's one and two bedroom apartments in Whitby. I wouldn't be able to take my children in a one or two bedroom apartment. Which is why I went for a three bed house that's so large it can sleep eight. Because I knew it was a bit of a gap in the market.

Nice. And is it in the town centre or is it a little bit way out? So how do you sort of put that across in the listing? So the question sort of behind it is how when making your decision did you go and do the research about the other places you mentioned that yeah, 100% in Whitby there's loads of one or two bed apartments. You went for the three bed house. Now is this three bed house in the town centre? Is it a little bit of a way out and how did you sort of come up with your ideal customer for the place in Whitby? Did you go and do the necessary research online or is it just you with your gut instinct knowing this area, knowing what you look for and then just went for it.

It's literally just what I would want for. So it's in the town centre of Whitby. It's about five minutes from the train station. There is on street parking right outside and I drove past a few times to make sure you could actually park, because I'm in a car parking space is massive. What I didn't want to do is be in a place where you have to drive in and out of Whitby all the time. I wanted where you can, you know, push the buggy down to the seaside or mum and dad can go and have a drink and then, you know, walk the kids back up and things. So it's all done around me and what I ideally want, because it's my holiday home at the end of the day. And then because of that and because I've got more of the personal touches, I think my reviews and I do so well with bookings. Like my Whitby one, it's fully booked until, like mid novemb, which is crazy. And I didn't expect that at all. I did expect more of the, you know, the peak season.

Yeah, I am not surprised at all, to be honest, because the thing about Whitby is it's got so many events on. Obviously the golf weekend being a major one that's coming up in October, but it's got every weekend pretty much as an event coming on and they duplicate it open. When you say fully booked till November, I'm not surprised at all because my friend has the Ditto restaurant, which is on Skinner Street. He's pretty much fully booked up throughout all of the season. I can't even get a table there, just simply because he's the only place in Whitby that doesn't do fish and chips. So he's instantly got his target market down and, you know, he's number one rated on TripAdvisor. He's a really good chef. And so, yeah, and when you say fully booked up November, you know, it's one of these really good areas that has just got season after a season, so amazing. So now, like you say, you've taken what you've learned, you've obviously built up your portfolio, built up your career and now you are helping other people, which is why you are now in Italy, which is now you. Why you and Gordy help other people at Touchstone. So you've obviously had a lot of people, a lot of delegates come through your training over the time that you've been doing this. I Asked this question to everybody. What is the common, one common mistake that you see a lot of first timers make when they get into rent SA or they get into serviced accommodation? What's the one big thing that you notice that people make?

I think probably the biggest thing is getting the contracts wrong. So I'm from a corporate background, so I'm trained to get things right and we train people to go on the right contracts for rent to rent and we train people to check landlords, mortgages and do the compliance side. And the biggest mistake I see, and we see it through our course, people will be successful. They've got two rent to rent. So I'll come on our course and we'll be talking to them saying, do not sign a tenancy agreement. It is illegal, incorrect and your landlord could basically get you out there within a week. Don't do it yet. So many people do and we're having to correct that with them and show them the right way to do it.

Yeah, and I guess it stems down to they haven't asked the right questions because then they panic and then the estate agent will take control of the sale, put the rental agreement in front of them, they panic and then, yeah, 100%. I'm glad you said that because I think that, and I spoke about this with Paul Smith on the episode that we were talking about with regulation, it's that, yes, you don't need to have these things in place, but it is so crucial that you do all the things that you guys teach at Touchstone to get them into place because otherwise if you don't, you're just going to set yourself up for, you know, trouble down in the long run. So what are the plans then for you personally? For you we've touched on over the course of the next three to four to five months. What are you working on at the moment? What are you looking to achieve?

So I'm currently buying some more single let properties to tenant, buying a commercial unit and we're just about. I'm just writing here in Italy on this retreat, writing my next book, which is all about rent to own, how landlords can really bulletproof their portfolio and make more money just using a simple system of houses and tenants, but giving the tenants the opportunity to rent to own. And then I think we're going to have that out as a course in October because we've got quite good demand for that. And that's my ideal strategy. I get so excited because it is a win win for landlord and tenant, like the biggest win win There is amazing.

So that's going to be available in October. So if you are listening or watching this back in October, you can head over to Touchstone or Abby' accounts and I'm sure that you'll be able to find out more. But I've actually asked for you to prepare some form of download for anybody that wants to find out more about you and we've actually got that. So thank you very much. So Abi's put together a book, if you can explain a little bit more about the download, about this first book that you've already written and where can they go to get access to this book and what's it about, please?

So my first book I released in March was called Profit from Property. You do not how thousands of people or normal everyday people are making money from properties they don't own. So it is about rent to rent sa. So me and Gordie collaborated on it. So you've got my view of the holiday homes and Gordie's view of Scottish property, contractors, etc. So usually people buy it for £8.99, but we're doing it free so anyone can download it and have a good read.

Nice. And so if you go to boostleigh.co.uk Abby A B I B O O S T L Y you can go and get access to that right now. If you do download it, please let me know your takeaways and let Abi know your takeaways. Abi, if anybody wants to get in touch with you personally after this, which is the best social medias to find you on right now?

Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Probably the best. What I would say is so many people have told me about all the spelling mistakes, so if you're gonna get in touch, please don't tell me there's a spelling mistake on page 42 or something.

I always say it's better to strive for a B than an A. Just getting some out there is better than procrastinating and dilly dallying, which is what you are doing. You've got one book out, you've got one book on the way you're doing all this amazing stuff. So well done and thank you so much for coming. I will make sure that the links to all of Abu's social media accounts and to the book is in the show notes and in the blog. So please do go check this out. I'm going to let you get back to some amazing Italian wine. Enjoy your time there. Thank you so much for taking part in this and this is the penultimate episode in this season of the Boost Hospitality podcast. We've done 14 episodes now, all about serviced accommodation. We have spoken to people that are experts in so many of their fields, whether it's outsourcing, growing your team, scaling up on your business, we're talking about location picking. You name it, we've covered it in this series. It's been amazing for me to do this to find out more about service accommodation and I hope that you watching and tuning in, who are more from a hospitality background, guest houses and rental properties have found out more about sa. And I hope that people from the world of SA that have tuned into this have found out a lot more about hospitality and as well guest house owners and rental owners. So I'm going to be back with one more episode in this season and this is going to be my takeaways. I'm going to do a recap of every episode. I'm going to go from what I've learned and I'm going to end with some marketing tips for everybody that does service accommodation who is struggling to get bookings, struggling to get direct bookings, who wants to increase their profit by 15%. Then episode 15 is one to tune in because I'm going to leave you with this season with some takeaways for it. But if you want to find out more about this season, go to booster.co.uk podcast and before you leave, please do go and rate and review. It means a lot and the more times you rate and review, the higher it goes up in the search results. I checked the stats for August and there were well over a thousand downloads of this podcast, which means it's breaking my own personal records of what I could have dreamed for. So thank you so much, everybody that is tuning in and I will be back for the next episode next week. Thank you very much.