Pro tips to choosing where to set-up your hospitality business - Full Interview with Abi Hookway

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?

I was always taught to play it safe because growing up we didn't have a lot and I was with a single mum and 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 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.

Welcome to the Boost Hospitality podcast. We are 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. So, abhi, welcome. If you could just 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.

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. I just needed a change and I'd always loved property so I managed to meet Anna Cohen, 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, run webinars and maintaining courses.

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 they just.

Go to talk touchstoneducation.co.uk they'll see it on there and they can give us a call about it.

Today we're going to be talking about location picking and that's like the core topic I'd be really interested to get your thoughts and ideas on. When it is to come in to choose a area to have your properties for yourself and it comes to finding locations to put your properties, what are the main signs that you personally look for?

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.

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 letters 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.

Nice. How does it feel to grow your portfolio and grow into different industries? Is it something that you thrive on or is it something that you've been a bit wary to do?

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, 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 still have 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.

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 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 realised 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.

A lot of people don't realise with Whitby, it's one of these places that the season just keeps on going and keeps on extending. 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. 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 this area and then you've done your due diligence?

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 one day and got a rent to rent. I was determined I was going to do that.

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 may 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 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 and chatting to him and then I was. Then I logged on Gumtree and on Gumtree there was 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 round 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.

You get to a point where you're 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?

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.

How do you establish who your customer demographic is for each location? Do you have a different tactic when it comes to getting people in both?

All of my essays are set up to be child friendly. They're bigger, they can put cots up, I've got, you know, 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's. 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.

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. 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.

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 and 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 of that and because I've got more 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 November, which is crazy. And I didn't expect that at all. I did expect more of the, you know, the peak season.

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 up. And when you say fully booked till November, I'm not surprised at all. 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 to SA or they get into service to 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 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.

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. 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?

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.

So if you are listening or watching this back in October you can head over to Touchstone or Abby's social media accounts and I'm sure that you'll be able to find out more. But Abby'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?

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 its Scottish properties contract, 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.

If you go to boostly.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. Abiy if anybody wants to get in touch with you personally after this, which is the best social medias to 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. Oh, no.

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. Right, 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's 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.