Protect Your Property From Risky Bookings - Validate Guests In advance
26 May 2023 · 37 min
V from HNFC Stays scaled from one spare room to four rental units in 11 months. He's dealt with theft, unauthorized re-entry, and police incidents, and uses Uplisting for channels, Beyond Pricing for rates, and Hostfully for digital guides to protect his properties and streamline operations.
Questions this episode answers
May 26, 2023
Mark Simpson
Four units (with two more expected imminently)
£50,000 (9–10 months of operation)
Aim to reach £200,000–£250,000 revenue and manage ~20 properties by year-end
Chapters
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the new episode of the Boostly Podcast. Today we are going behind a host and hearing a host who's based in Newcastle in England and hearing his story and seeing what tips and cheers that he's going to have for us. If you haven't sort of already heard, then there is the Boostly podcast that you're listening to, of course, and this is the podcast that gives you the tools, the tips, the trainings, but most importantly, the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. And part of the reason why we do these behind the host is because it really. Hospitality can be lonely. So really hearing it from other people's perspectives and some of the challenges and some of the successes that they're going through can really help you as a host in your business. So let's dive in. I've got vvensky from hnfc Stay. So welcome along. Did I pronounce your name correctly? Because I always worry about that. Yes. Awesome.
That's the great name.
Thank you very much. So welcome along. V, how are you today?
I'm good, thanks, Odliam.
Thank you. Thank you. So let's dive in. Tell us a little bit of introduction to who V is, where you're based in the world. I can detect that's not a Newcastle accent as well. So tell us about how you come to be in Newcastle and yeah, just a little bit about yourself. Sure, sure, of course, yeah.
Is it probably picked up. Yeah. From Rohan. Yeah. So to cut the long story short, so I left home when I was 14 and I'm from Belarus, so I'm a Belarusian and all my time is obviously from Belarus as well. So I left home when I was 14 to study in New Zealand all by myself. So that's actually where I picked up most of my language skills because all I knew is the one word I don't understand. Well, I don't understand. That's all I knew when I got there. So for three, four months, that's literally all I was saying. And then obviously, as the time passed, I got more. And after I graduated through my Cambridge examinations there, I basically got accepted into foundation in the uk, into Huddersfield University and then decided to take a completely different path from intended, go with finance and investment management, because I've been quite interested in my college back in the days and that's kind of how it all started.
That's cool. I mean, to leave home at 14 and to take that big risk, that's already. How did you feel taking that, that step?
I'd Say it was one of the most interesting, probably chapters of my life. So one thing that actually my uncle taught me well, again, when I was 14, because it literally has no family. You don't speak the language. It's in New Zealand. It's completely different culture. You don't know what's happening there. But it was only for the one main reason, to learn more about how the business has been made on the west, and obviously get into the really good education with the Cambridge, because I won some grants. Obviously the education was quite expensive with that. So it probably was the drive to become an entrepreneur that actually said, okay, I'm without my family, without my friends, I don't know anything. But that's what I want to do. So that's why I will do that.
Amazing. Very inspirational. So talk us through. HNFC stays. How did the business come about and tell us whereabouts? Obviously, we know it's Newcastle, but how many units and who you tend to serve? What kind of avatar?
Yeah, yeah, of course. So HNFC kind of has a long history now. In April, we'll be five years old. So the company has changed its operations in the last few years. At the beginning, we started as an investment firm, so we've been managing money for clients, wealthy individuals, just on a. On the stock market. Then we got into the property investing and just a little less than a year ago, we started doing vacation rentals. And the way it's actually all started is because I'm also here on my entrepreneurial visa and I had some troubles with our software and so, like, oh, what can we do? Let's try Airbnb. So basically I got into South Shields. That's why I'm at today. And I thought, how about I test if I just rent out my spare bedroom and if it works, I'll consider doing like an entire slide because obviously it's the risk.
You.
You don't have anyone to ask. You need the capital and you kind of lost that. So I've done this. It actually did pretty well. It was literally was a year ago, and now we manage four units and we'll get probably another two, like, literally this month. So we just bought a house on this Monday, so we're doing all the refurbishments, so it would be great. This place where I met today, it will be an entire flat for the next few months. And then also we'll probably get another good flat in Newcastle for this area. In regards to the guests that we're serving, we're still working this out because it kind of Varies because we have two very central flats in the city center. One beds which is a perfect, uh, most of the time they all booked. However it's very noisy. It's a listed property so there's no double glazing and there's very limited thing we can do with this property. So it's suitable mainly to young teenagers who actually travel needed experience the Migrant Light of Newcastle because you probably know it's very interesting experience for people to have. But in the same time we do host families, especially students with, with the graduation when it comes to that. Some, some small events obviously like no parties. But mainly it's like family and friends. We need a more quiet area still within the working proximity to the city. So that's kind of our strategy of.
What we're trying to do. That's cool. And I mean there'll be people listening to this. We've got people all over the uk, Europe and well all over the world now. America and Australia as well. If they didn't know Newcastle, what would you say is. What is the vibe of Newcastle? Why do people come and visit?
So the first one is definitely a nightlife. So it's very vibrant. There's a lot of pops. It's a lot like high energy the way you probably describe it's a high energy. There are many things you can experience to go to. Personally I really enjoy Millennium Bridge. Obviously it's a very nice lights, you can walk, you can have a nice meal there and it just kind of gives you this Peace While literally 10 more minutes walk from the Millennium Bridge and suddenly you're all there on a night out, you're having fun with your friends. So it's very different in the same time. The angel of the north, it's very famous. So obviously a lot of people actually from around the world traveling to Newcastle so they can actually hike to angel of the North.
That's cool. That's cool. There's lots of. I always think of Newcastle as. I think there's a lot of the reality TV shows and things like that. You see a lot of people. It's very like you say, very full on and definitely a place to go and experience. I've been there myself. So take me back to. Obviously you're now at four units. Congratulations on the purchase as well. And obviously the business has changed quite a lot since, you know, letting out the spare bedroom. How did you find your units? What kind of structure do you use? Are these kind of bought, managed or rent to service accommodation units? And how did you feel getting Those first units as well. Right.
So it probably was obviously the hardest bit because everyone says, oh, just find more properties. And it's pretty much you sorted, obviously you starting like everyone else is going through Zoopla, rightmove, Open Rent, et cetera, et cetera, all these different websites and for me it didn't work out. So I started asking my friends who actually happened to be in the industry, they manage four or five flats and they have literally two flats in the same building as we have today. So they said, actually I'll talk to my agent, maybe she has something reach out to her. So after two months of searching, finally she actually got back to me because it was complete nonsense and said, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll do the viewing. Like can you do it now? And I'm in south. She's like, well it will take me probably like an hour to get this and like I can do it now. So actually literally getting an Uber driving there because I know I need a flat, like I need it. So we're going there, we're seeing the flat. I was like, okay, it's not bad. And then we literally signed the agreement. The best part was there was no negotiations need to be done with this company because they know exactly what, what, what I need to do. And the whole building, it's kind of focused on short term rentals because if you leave permanently, probably because of all the noises, like literally you can hear the bus laughs outside because it's so central and the sound isolation is very minimal, it's probably not going to work. So an entire building like probably for 40 or 50 flats and probably 80% of them are for the short term accommodation. So literally in my contract it says you're allowed to sublet sync or whatever you need. However, there, there's a little catch to that. You need to pay a one month rent as the service fee for allowing you to an Airbnb. So that was the only con really.
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That's cool though. I mean, this is good because one of the challenges that a lot of people especially who are doing rent to service accommodation or rental arbitrage as it's known in the US to find buildings which are, you're allowed to do it and also ones which you're not going to have neighbors who, who are going to be, you know, sort of watching every move and things like that. So it sounds like this was kind of the perfect first, first property. How did you know that the, that there'd be demand for it as well? How was there any kind of work you'd done where you know the location and that side of things where you knew that would work?
So as I said, I was quite lucky in the sense of that my coursemate that I started with, she's been doing Airbnb throughout the COVID and she survived. And it's like there are horror stories that have been happening there and her two properties are literally in the same building. And she said, yeah, it does fairly well. Obviously I've done the research on the local area, how they get booked, what the standard trade is, but it's kind of obviously been a very immature approach because you have to figure everything out by yourself. But I knew if her flat is there and she makes money through it because obviously she says, oh, I make so much money, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. At least it will give me some confidence in that rather than pointing randomly. And it kind of makes, from a logic perspective, okay, it's very central, it's very convenient. Who I'm going to approach. Okay, travelers, business travelers who actually literally arrive on the train stations, like five minute walk or if you go to the Monument station, it's again, five minute walk. You want to get to the old golf bars, the gate, which is like an entertainment center, another five minutes. So literally you can't get any closer to the city than this place and obviously it gets booked more frequently.
That's cool. And one thing which, I mean, we've spoken before, haven't we V about websites and that side of things. And I, I know your, I, I can picture the internal of your, your properties and you've actually done the decor, you know, which is right for your kind of target guest avatar, which tends to be, am I right saying, slightly younger, you know, sort of under 30 most of the time. Is that, is that right?
Yeah, mainly I would say it is 18 to 33 that everyone who is actually above 33 we tend to get negative reviews because it's not suitable to them. So as soon as we find out we just say well. And that's why actually we do have a family home. I mean I call it the family home but it's more relaxing and actually interesting story. The way I found the second property it was five weeks after because I said okay, need more money. And while I was doing it I was working as a kitchen potter in the South Shields and there was a really like a big turning moment for me because when I was in university there was like a three, four part time jobs. Then there was a big job in a Santander and I said okay, I need to focus on a business. So we started the business and then it failed measurably so lost £70,000. I said okay, I need to start from scratch. Yeah, unfortunately. And I said I'm starting from scratch and I need some money so I'll go literally wash dishes, wash the floors and say okay, what can I do? And that's obviously the first flat, but one flat obviously not going to give you me enough money to actually pay your bills so you need the second as soon as. But then when you have two properties and right at the beginning I was feeling them myself like four months probably. So obviously I had to travel to Newcastle on the metro, clean everything there, check everything is right to the standard, come back to 6pm, do my shift 6 to 10, wake up in the morning, prepare another flat and I was like I didn't tend so long.
I bet you slept well at that time.
Oh yeah, yeah, literally I could sleep anywhere at that time. I mean even now.
Yeah, they say, they say a lot of the time property can be passive but certainly my experience is the same as yours. V When you first get started you've got to be willing put in all the hours available to, to, to get the business started. You know, it's when it needs the most attention, isn't it? So that makes sense. But it sounds like you've overcome that challenge. It sounds like that was one of the challenges that you've kind of overcome. What would you say is the biggest, the biggest success or, or the thing that you're most proud of so far?
Well, I'm particularly proud of that literally in less than 12 months, probably 11 months we've got for properties starting from scratch and for 2022 starting from mid of April, our yearly revenue was £50,000. So literally in 9 to 10 months you get into the 50k in revenue for this year. Obviously it's a very ambitious goal, but my personal goal is to hit a quarter of a million for this year. Obviously if we can even get to the £200,000 mark, I would be happy with it. That's an ideal. And we need to get to 20 properties under the management by end of the year. And obviously for that purpose we're hiring more deal sorcerers, we're trying to find the actually salespeople who can help us. And obviously I'm working way more on building the relationship with latent agents, which is the hardest part on the price.
That's cool. And do you have a good relationship with your existing sort of landlords then all four of those, have they got more stock that you might be able to approach to try and get some.
More more properties over the central flat? It's a letting company so they actually one of the biggest letting companies in in Newcastle. And obviously it is like as soon as I got the viewing, I can't actually know that actually director of the company and then my business partner knew another director of the company and the main shareholder. So that's kind of how you actually know people who can actually help you out in a bit. But to be honest, since since we've got this first flat and well, we didn't have anything with them with the second landlords, it's kind of tricky. Very tricky I'll be saying, but we'll see. I'm not sure how we can actually work this out, but we've pretty much raised all the issues because they kind of been a bit cheeky in a sense of they say, okay, here's the house with the parking. Lovely area, a 10, 15 minute walk to the city center. Beautiful house, like two stories, you have a private backyard. I was like, okay, it's lovely. And then when I actually signed the agreement, said, oh, actually the parking is not available. I actually rent it out to your neighbor. I was like, okay. And the problem was I said okay, fine, maybe I can walk without the parking. And then all my guests have been arriving because literally it's a car park outside of the front door. And I said in all my instructions, please do not park. There's no dedicated parking. However, it took me like probably three, four months to get the visitor sparking permit, but still they've been parking on this spot and had a lot of calls from him, like literally shouting, like crying his lungs out and said, why are they parking there? I was like, probably not. And they know they're not allowed to.
It's just one of those things where it sounds like, because it was not as simple as perhaps it should have been, that the landlord's made his own problem there by renting out the space almost. But it's one of those things that. And the lesson that we can take from this for the people listening is just make sure you're really clear on what you're getting with obviously the contract, but also how important is parking like you say, your guests are then assuming that if there's a space nearby, then they'll park in it, won't they? So, yeah, that sounds like quite a challenge. And are things going a bit smoother now? Is it starting to get a little bit easier now you've got the parking permit? It's so.
It's so much easier because I said, okay, I don't want to cause you any problems. I want you to enjoy, have the piece. No problems. You're getting your guaranteed rent every single month with no delays. No. Any complaints from your neighbors? How about I'll buy out this parking lot from your neighbor? Will that work for you? And he actually thought, okay, it makes sense because I'll be paying way more money. And also because there will be no issue. I own the parking, I own the house, everything is fine. But then it got again, tricky. He said, okay, yeah, but you need to pay me full amount in advance for six months right now. And I'm not going to confirm you give me any money, just all in cash. I was like, okay, so, you know, things like that happen. But again, it's either that or, well, he would make my life help and obviously it will have a direct impact on the business. So it was a tough decision. I wasn't really sure because literally I have no confirmation. I've paid for the bargain. And it just literally on shaking heads and say, okay, I trust you. Which to be honest, I don't know.
I was going to say it sounds a bit, a bit suspect, you know, like. But fingers crossed that will all go okay. So it sounds like, I mean, the thing that we can take from this is that there are challenges you will have to deal with, with conflict from time to time. Whether this, how we manage the relationships with both our landlords and our guests is really our, our jobs in hospitality, isn't it? If you're doing rent to rent model. So it's not without its challenges. But it does sound like you say from the cash flow is, is now you've got successful business after only, you know, sort of 12 months. Getting those four apartments, which is amazing. Tell me more about who is on your team. So you mentioned you were going out cleaning. Are you still doing the cleaning or do you now have any team members?
No. So we have a small team of four or five people. And the way it works, me and my business partner, his name is Dan. Well, mainly he's more involved with an accounting side of the business. And I tend to do all the operations, advertising, management, obviously, regeneration. So all the operations is on me. And since April, I've actually hired a cleaner because I thought like, as soon as I got the second house, I realized I simply cannot build two places at once. Simple instead. And they can quite far away. So, okay, I'll get the cleaner. And again, it's a very first thing when you do know how this all works, will they do a good job? Will they do it on time? Because guest arise and all those things. But I was extremely happy that it's actually happened. So right now we have a cleaning team who does everything the inspection. We still have to do more inventory checks because theft is so common, like crazy common. And like literally you say, don't steal. These are cameras. We have a lot of nasty situations when people simply breaking into the flat because one of the past guests knows their code and they simply decided to actually it's their place now and they just stay in there. Like we had a lot of situation, we've reported it to the police and obviously nothing has happened. No one even like replied to us.
Do you have any systems in place where you change the code from time to time just to prevent that?
Yes, we do it every two weeks and probably we'll do every week or so. It just again, like go there and change in every single location every week. It's a bit hard, but since then we've actually made it like more common. So every two weeks we change the code because we had literally two situations like that. And the worst part is, is like on your calendar you say, okay, it's empty flat, it's been cleaned, you've got the reported pictures, everything is fine, the guest comes in next morning, opens it and it's trash completely. You're unaware of that because, I mean, no one was there, no one's supposed to be there. And then you're trying to resolve the issue with the guests, find them accommodation, urgently clean everything out and actually find out what's happening. And then you check in CCTV and you see some interesting people, like literally wearing the caps within the code and letting themselves in when there should be no. 1 there was really scary at first.
It's definitely one of the darker sides of hospitality, unfortunately. You will get people who are going to take advantage from some of the units. You will get sort of prostitution, you will get drugs, you will get things stolen. How we manage that and how we put these things in place, like you say, changing the code regularly, having cameras and things like that. And also, it's also part of the mindset, isn't it, of going, oh, God, this has happened. Let's see how I can sort this problem as quick as possible and get things cash flowing again, which is the important thing, and get that guest experience back up again. Because like you say, if they've walked in, that's been their first impression. It's quite a hard one to come back from. But just managing that situation and being good with communication is so important, isn't it? So, yeah, tell me more about the tech that you use in your business. Do you use any tech at all?
Yeah, yeah. So the most important bit was for me is put the structure right at the beginning. So obviously we paying a lot in overheads, for example, like as I said, on some months it's like 6 to 8k in revenue. But like my personal take is so little because I have to pay admin assistants, we have two admin assistants at the moment and they also co host that does all the checking, they deal with all the queries because before 3am, 1am, I'm always replying, I'm always sorting all issues because it's kind of how I want to treat our guests. So we're always there 24, 7, obviously the cleanest. Actually someone will do pay on 13, 1400 pounds, which basically can actually hire your own dedicated cleaner, have more control, save money and maybe make some money along the way to clean other flats. But yeah, so we use up listing as a channel manager, that's a key thing. I highly recommend this. Obviously there are a lot of different alternatives and it actually help us to have everything in one place because as soon as you get more than one property, let's say more than even two, it becomes a problem. Different calendars, clashes, double bookings, which is way more common than you think. But as soon as you actually set everything up, it's so easy to automate your business. Like what perception, what messages goes there, discounts, everything. Then second, obviously it's a beyond pricing. So this is basically a dynamic pricing software. There are some integrated with Airbnb, but I would strongly say do not use it because Airbnb Algorithm is way poorer than others. Plus the main, the main idea is heads in the bets so it's not in their direct interest to put the right price for you rather than the lowest, which is something you perhaps want to consider. And we also use hostfully since June, so we design all our E guides customly tailored to the guests. So as you know you probably can have like a nice leaflet or like a folder on arrival for the guests. But we thought okay, we'll do it electronically which actually automatically has all the events, pubs, cafes, scenes that actually it pulls off of the intranet on your local area and address. So it's always up to date and it's based on the proximity and obviously all the additional information that we have plus additional services. So now our goal is to increase the average ticket by selling add ons, early check in, late checkout, freak stocking. We do transfers as well from the airport and to the airport and we thinking of launching your own chef that actually comes and do the cooking for you. But it's probably more to the premium side of the market, so probably not just yet.
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I mean that's amazing. And one thing which I want to draw everyone's attention to who's listening in is that I mean you said you've been going, you know, a relatively short period of time, but the tech stack there is amazing and that really helps you with the business. And just drawing everyone's attention to listing is really the heart of your business, which is allowing your calendars to be synced, all the messages going out to guests automatically, guest screening and things like that is cool on up listing as well. And I'm glad to hear you recommend it. There's loads of people who are sort of shouting how good up Listing is. So it's definitely one to go and check out. You mentioned beyond pricing and that dynamic pricing, when it comes down to the dynamic pricing, your point about not using smart pricing on Airbnb is so important, like you say, because the difference is when you're paying for dynamic pricing with people, like, beyond pricing, that's in their interest to get you as the host, you know, the. The very best rate available, more income, basically. Whereas, like you say, if you're using smart pricing by the ota, by Airbnb. Well, exactly. All they really want to do, they don't really care about if you're making money, they care about getting your place filled, so they're making their percentage. So ultimately they're going to just drop the price. And, yeah, that's such an important point. So thank you for making that. V. And yet, hopefully guidebooks as well. Something which just makes you different from, you know, sort of the majority of competitors may just have that old printed sort of guidebook or just an email which goes out to people. Whereas having that guidebook recommending, you know, the Millennium Bridge, the Angel of the north, all the stuff we've talked about earlier on is cool. So one thing I'd love to ask is, what would you go back and tell yourself if you could, at the very start of when you first opened, you know, for hospitality, what. What advice would you want to hear? Because I'm sure there's people listening to this who won't have already started their hospitality journey and that can help them.
Probably I'd say get ready for very bumpy rides and say get ready because at the beginning, could not concede the fact that situation like this may happen. For example. It's another risk you want to consider if you're doing a vacation rentals or service accommodation is you can get some really nasty incidents. For example, in one of our flats, one of the guests got a fight and they got stabbed. So I'm literally. It was very serious. I was shaking for like half a day at the release. And the worst part, it was happening during the day. At literally 2:00pm 2:00pm on Wednesday, I'm receiving a call from a police officer saying, someone assaulted at your house. And there are two police cars. And they do it for the investigation. Say, who's actually the guest who's staying in your place? And he was like, okay, yeah, yeah, obviously you walking with them, give them all the information. But at the same time, you're thinking, right, right, okay, what actually has happened? Because they're not giving you any information, like, literally none. And you don't know how serious this is. But the worst part then, because obviously they got in touch with the landlord and then you have to actually deal with them. Yeah, you know, situations like that that put you under enormous amount of stress. So if you're not stress resilient or if that's not something you would feel comfortable doing, consider because I think things like that do happen very rarely, but once in a while it happens and you need to have a grid to actually go with it.
I imagine your, your skill set and ability to deal with, with situations is shot up massively in the last, oh yeah, 18 months or whatever. That's cool. So yeah, when we start to reach towards the end of these, we love to just ask a couple of fun questions. So obviously V, you know, you host city breaks, where was either the last city break that you got to go away to or where would you like to go away to?
So the last city break it actually was in Poland and it was in Gdansk, which is literally the right flight from Newcastle to Dansk, which is like 1 hour 20 or something. And because I'm a Belarusian I need to get a visa and everything. And also because I'm a Belarusian, I can't get any European visa for the situation with the war and operation. So it was very tricky and very nice place, especially in a city center. So the old architecture, it's kind of fun how Poland. Well, again it's my own description because obviously if you know a bit of a history, Poland got separated from Soviet union and since 90s, it's been kind of on its own path. So the way I describe it, Poland is not yet an European country, but definitely not the Russian anymore.
Yeah, so.
So it's kind of in the middle. So it's interesting you can see all this Starbucks like Capital stores. But in the same time when it comes to opening the company, you're actually going to like a local council and you have to fill enormous amount of paperwork. It was like okay. I mean that's exactly what it's like back home. It was like okay, let's say. And so it's very funny how the modern technology goes with all those things. In the same time, when you need to buy a ticket, you just literally like buying a paper ticket with the conductor, which is like a person who sells you on the trail.
So it's a bit of a mix of the old and the new there, which is. So let's get dance. That's, that's cool. So what would you recommend? So when during your journey of your entrepreneurial journey, has there been any either books, podcasts or movies which you have taken inspiration from?
Yes, there was one great book that actually helped me massively it was from the optimized Airbnb, I believe it's called.
By one of the Daniel Rustein.
That's the one, yeah.
Daniel Rustin.
Exceptional. Like it was so spot on and there's so many things you can take out from it and literally they always doing it is like an action plan. You read five pages, you made the nodes, you implement the notes, and that's exactly how I built all our business on it. So as I said, the sooner you put the structure in place with the good practices, then with next three, six months, you'll see a completely different business. Because now you can actually scale. Because if you don't put the structure right at the beginning, you cannot scale more than 2, 3 properties. At some point you'll see some faults. Even now we do have two admin assistants, which if one of them say, sorry, I don't feel like they're going to do any work and the guests still need to have whatever items in the middle of the night, I say, okay, you go. So the. The business continue working no matter what.
That's cool. And that's such a good little tip that Daniel Rustein, optimize your bnb. We were lucky enough to have Daniel on the podcast recently, and I have actually. I was speaking to him on a call about two weeks ago, so he is. He's very inspirational. I'd recommend everyone go and check him out. He's got a TikTok as well where you can follow. He's constantly traveling. He lives what he talks about, so he's constantly traveling. So he's worth following on there because just he gets into see some funny situations and different, different cultures and yeah, it's just a cool account to look at. So as we come to the end, one of the questions we love to ask is, is there a saying or a motto or a mantra that you love to. That you really resonates with you or one that you live by?
Yeah, my one is I'm always learning. And I really like the saying by Law Holtz, who actually said, I never learned anything by talking. I only learn things when I ask questions. Some people think that ask questions is something you should be ashamed of in university, in school, it's your job with me. I perfectly understand. I don't know nothing. And I will ask as many questions as I need so I can actually learn more about the topic. So my advice would be keep asking questions.
Love that. Yeah, I really like that because at the end of the day, sometimes people feel ashamed of not knowing and, you know, not asking that question. But by asking that question, it's going to put you so much further ahead. So thank you very much for that. V. So yeah, how would we get in touch with you if we want to? So how would we follow the company or yourself personally? What's the best way to do so?
So obviously HNFC Stays is our direct booking website with a lot of blogs and content and right now we're actually creating more content so we can help the ranking obviously bring useful insights into the place and probably very soon we'll launch a lot of valuable content. How actually people can get into the industry and what sort of little tips and things they should avoid when they actually go there. Because I'm really passionate about the industry and especially the whole little challenges that I faced over the last 12 months, it would be nice to actually share it with people for them to see what it's actually like and hopefully will provide them some value.
That's cool. And I think you have a lot of people reach out to you because one thing I've got from, from today's podcast is, you know, it isn't, it isn't all sunshine and roses. You know, there is, there's challenges, there is hard work involved, but the result is that you end up with a cash flow business and an opportunity to grow that that business. And you can talk with now validity over some of the situations that you've dealt with. So other people will be interested in first of all what those situations were, but also how you'd prevent them in the future. So that's going to be cool. So thank you so much. So was there anything I missed before we bring things to a close?
Vy everything was covered. The only thing I probably would add to our software list is also to put Notion in there. I'm not sure how much you know about the software, but basically Notion helps you to organize everything. Documents, processes, onboarding, especially learning materials for your staff. I would say it's really important because at the beginning every time you need to interview someone, then you have to onboard them. But rather than create a document, videos, share the link on Notion, you don't need to be involved.
That's cool. And that's one which every business needs, isn't it?
Is organized even in your personal life. I also use Notion with all my yearly goals and each single goal has kind of own mini action plan that you need to follow. So it's really helping.
Well, thank you so much for that tip as well. So thank you. V. That's fantastic to find out about your business. Thank you. Also, if you're listening into this episode of the Boostly podcast, we know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and we thank you for putting it with Bruce Lee. Hopefully you've got some amazing tips from obviously that one at the end there, which is notion, but also some of the software that you could go out and and use, like up listing beyond pricing, and also some of the real life situations that you deal with in hospitality and some of the challenges that come along with it. So thank you so much for listening.
Thank you again.
V. And yeah, we'll.
Pleasure.
We'll see you on the next podcast. All right, Bye for now.
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