Protecting Your Business With Guest Screening

Okay, welcome everybody to the next episode of the Boostly podcast and we've got a real treat for you today. So my name is Liam Carolan, I'm the co host and if you're tuning in on the podcast, thank you very much for being here. If you're on the live, as we've gone live on Facebook again, let us know you're here by just dropping a comment beneath the recording. So today we're going to be shining the Boostly spotlight on the book Direct Blueprint and one of its co authors. So if you haven't heard already, I don't know where you've been, but we've got the book Direct Blueprint, which is coming out in December 2022 and it takes some of the best industry experts from across hospitality, put them all into one place and gives you the blueprint as a host on what you should be considering with your your hospitality business. Today we've got Humphrey Bowles from Super Hog. Super Hog is featured in the book and we're really excited, really to dive into Humphrey's sort of chapter and also find a bit more about Super Hog and himself today. Super Hog, if you haven't heard from it, it's a digital trust platform with embedded insurance providing a highly effective risk management toolkit servicing commercial customers in the short term rental market. And we're going to really unpack what that means. So welcome along, Humphrey and thank you for joining us today.

Liam, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

I'm so excited to, to dive in. So let's really start at the the question which I get asked all the time and the number one question I get from hosts wanting a direct book and website, as you know, Boostly is all about direct bookings, is what happens if a guest causes damage through Airbnb. They feel as though they're covered. They've got a host guarantee. What happens when it's direct and how would you answer that?

I think it's fascinating that you're saying it's the number one question when it comes to direct bookings. I've always found the number one question is how much money can I make? That's why people want more direct bookings. So I guess that's the question they've answered. They've understood to make more money, they need more direct bookings. And then yes, the second question is what happens if something goes wrong? And the straight whiskey is up to you guys. It's up to you, the property managers, to take steps to make sure you're in control, so that if something goes wrong, you've got a backup plan. But do you know what's cool, Liam? The best form of defense is offense. So actually putting in place a preemptive risk management toolkit is actually going to make sure that stuff doesn't go wrong in the first place. And if you do that well, you're then going to be able to have a lot more confidence in actually knowing who is staying in your properties. So the best way is to get ahead of the problem. The best way is to take control. And that then answers both the question of how do I make more money, direct bookings, and what happens if something's going to go wrong. It isn't. You know who the guest is, you know you can trust them, you know they're going to look after your property.

One of the sort of, I guess, side questions off that is often they're under the impression that the online travel agents will verify their guests for them. And what would your answer be to that? Does that, does that work? Well, the OTA verification, I mean, look.

I'm a guy that likes to be in control, okay? I like to be able to make my own decisions. I think that when an OTA says that they verify a guest, what do they do? They send them a text message and they get a reply from the text message where they type in the code and then they go, yep, that's a verified mobile. They'll send an email and say to the guest, hey, confirm your email. They'll click on the link on the email and the OTA goes, great, that's a verified email. But that isn't verification. That isn't knowing who the guest is. The again, the straight whiskey is that you can go to a shop, you can buy a pair as you go, SIM cards, you can plug it into your phone and you can become fully verified on an ota. What we are able to do is actually go into the detail behind that and look at how long the phone has been in operation for, look at how many other numbers are registered to that address, even if it has a registered address. And it's by putting together a much deeper dive of data into that individual that you really can get to know who they are. So I guess the verification isn't really verification. It just means the person who's plugged in the phone number is holding the phone at that point in time. It doesn't tell you anything else apart from that.

I love that because that is something which is a common misconception with hosts so let's go into Super Hog because there'll be people who are tuning in, listening to this podcast, watching on the live, who may have not heard of Super Hog. So what would you say to them? What does Super Hog do and why should a host consider using it?

So I'm going to answer the second question first. So do you want to take more direct bookings? Do you want to grow inventory? Do you want to increase your revenue? If your answer to those is yes, you should be using Super Hog. So Super Hog is a preemptive risk management toolkit for property managers. We're all purpose built, it's all white, labeled to you, and it is completely guest centric. Okay. We don't believe the guests are the bad guys. We believe that the wrong guests are trying to work within the system in order to exploit us. And what we want to be able to do is to enable property managers to choose the right risk management strategy for their business, whether they're managing one or two or three listings, up to tens of hundreds. And what we are with that SaaS solution, we're able to streamline that risk management to remove gut feeling from the equation. So the number of property managers I've spoken to who are like, you know, I go by my gut, I do a little bit of social media research, I speak to the guests before I book. If you're using your gut as your forecasting method of choice, it is only going to end in one way, and that is disaster. Now, I come at that from personal experience. I thought I knew, I thought I knew what I was doing. I had insurance and I was like, no, my, my, my stuff is great. I know what I'm doing. But then through an ota, I had a fully verified, with a couple of reviews, guests that came and stayed, and it ended in disaster. It was probably the most shocking moment of my life. And it was at that point that I woke up and smelled the coffee that actually, you know, what the OTAs were doing was entirely insufficient. And if I was relying on them to vet my guests and to do the verification process, what would then happen? When I was doing the direct bookings myself, I was going to be a sitting duck. And that's when we started to really look at how we could enable property managers to take control and take out the uncertainty, take out the doubt from having the bookings and, and not at the expense of the guest experience. And for me, that is still really one of the most important things. You've got to be really careful with your guest experience when it comes to this. So that, that is what we do. And, you know, if you want to take more direct bookings, grow your inventory, increase your revenue, that is why you want to be using superb.

I love that point because it is about negating risk as much as possible. And we're all in business, we understand there are business risks. But ultimately is to what degree do you want to take a risk? You know, if you put a property just on, say, booking.com one night only stays Saturday nights, you know, there's absolutely no protection at all, is there? Whereas, you know, most people feel more confident in Airbnb because you get to see a few reviews beforehand, but ultimately, by actually getting the guest verified, finding out a little bit more about them, you know, is their telephone number registered to that person? Is this a genuine booking is just so important. What would you say when it comes down to the guests, sorry, the hosts who are worried about that guest experience? What would you say to people who are worried that the guest experience is going to be impacted by asking too many questions?

It doesn't need to be. It doesn't need to be. So we've put together a really seamless verification journey where we only need to gather from the guest their name, email, phone number, address and date of birth, and we can then tell you, the host, everything that you need to know about that guest to be totally confident about having them to come and stay. We don't need to ask them for identities cards or selfies, which do pull off the guest experience somewhat. It is necessary sometimes, but for the vast majority of guests, you do not need to have a negative impact on their experience. And in fact, you know, one of the points you just made, I think it's really interesting. So, in the industry at the moment, everyone seems to be making up words and I did not want to disappoint Boost Lee without coming along with my very own new word for what we're doing and it's called riskonomics. Riskonomics. And this is about how you are able to improve the guest experience whilst also generating new revenue. Because my personal bugbear at the moment is deposits, and just how bad deposits are for the guest and for the host. There are only losers when it comes to deposits. The guest has to pay a deposit and then they have to wait nervously to see if they get it paid back afterwards. The host is terrified of claiming on the deposit and causing a bad relationship with the guest. So we suggest putting in place a damage waiver or which you can do through Know youw Guest. And it really resolves wear and tear and small incidents and little bits of damage. It really improves the post checkout experience for the guest. Guests love it. It means they can be more transparent. And what we are trying to do is to actually enable the property manager, the host, to look at risk differently, understand it better and then be able to monetize it. And that for me is the exciting thing that so far we are really proven is that some people, most people using Know youw Guess, using Super Hog, they're actually making tens of thousands of pounds extra a month by implementing these risk mitigation schemes on top of what they were beforehand. So this is genuinely new revenue.

The thing that comes to mind with that is that there's so many hosts out there who rely on the profit obviously from their short term rental and that just one or two poor guests or causes damage, you know, that can write off so much profit if you haven't got a way to claim back some of the, some of the damage or even claim it from the guest. So it's so important, like you say, to have security deposits, but at the same time I see so many guests, you know, sort of who say, am I going to get my deposit back? When is it going to be? You know, there's a lot of mistrust around it and any mistrust will cause those guests to go back to people like the perceived trust through Airbnb or to the OTAs. So it is just so important that it's handled correctly.

But don't take deposits. Deposits are awful. Deposits are hassle. They cost you money, they cost you time, they cost you aggro afterwards. If you want to claim on the deposit, you kill the relationship with the guest. A deposit deals with everything after a booking. Everyone knows that the worst thing to do is deal with stuff after it's happened. If you are able to deal with it before it happens. So take a damage waiver, use that, you will create a new revenue stream. This probably isn't the place to go into it, but you can become a little bit like an insurer and take that cash off the table that would otherwise go into their pockets.

There's so many questions we could have around that, but what I'd love to do is to dive into a bit about yourself. Humphrey, if we go back before Super Hog existed, what were you doing and what was your career before all of this?

So I got into short term rentals. In 2010, I started working at an OTA. I was there for just under five years. During that time I. I spoke to literally thousands of hosts, onboarding them into the business. And as I said, the first question they asked was, how much money can I make? The second is, what happens if something goes wrong? And there wasn't an answer to that. And then I thought the answer was insurance. So not one of, maybe the best decisions ever. But I decided that I was going to go and start an insurance company company, which we did. It's called Guardhog, and we insure thousands of UK posts.

And.

That was a really interesting journey into the. Into risk, which is a really fascinating topic. It's something I'm really interested in, if you haven't picked up on that. And during this time, I renovated a few properties and started using OTAs. And it was during this time when I had my property insured, that I had this really awful experience. I had this really terrible guest who was a convicted criminal who was on probation, come and stay in one of my properties and didn't just cause damage, but caused some pretty horrendous injuries to the other guests in his party. And I then looked on Airbnb, and if I'm allowed to say that I probably shouldn't, we should cut that. And was like, wow, you know, you're fully verified. Like, you look like you're the perfect guest. Why? Why, why has this happened? And it was then that it struck me that actually what the OTAs were doing was insufficient. And then secondly, what we were doing was insufficient. Like, it just accepting that people were coming and staying in properties and then blindly insuring them was a really lazy solution to the question of what happens if something goes wrong. So we then started experimenting with technology to see how we could use technology to go on the attack, to go on the offense, how we were able to actually know who the guest was before they turned up at the front door in order to not just mitigate the risk, but in order to completely control the risk and to make sure that the wrong people don't get keys to the property. And that is where Super Hog came from. And Super Hog is that answer to the questions of who is the guest? Can you trust them? What happens if something goes wrong? And that, for me, is the biggest step forward that we've taken in being able to address those points. So, you know, my story is personal. It comes on the wrong end of the stick. But I don't think without that experience, I'd be here today. So, you know, in some ways, I have to be entirely grateful for having to go through that, although I would definitely not wish that on anyone else.

It definitely sounds like this been born of, like you say, experience and wanting to solve this problem firsthand and across the industry, which is so important. One of the things you mentioned then was about, I guess, the psychology around risk. How do you find that most hosts feel about risk and why do they assume that like your situation, it would never happen to them?

I think as human beings we're inbuilt with the psychology which assumes it's not going to happen to us. And I also think most hosts are pretty optimistic, wonderful people who are always looking on the bright side. I think though that again, the straight whiskey is this does happen, we all know it happens. You don't have to Google for very long to discover it's happened fairly close by. And I think that it is a weakness of our human beings, of us human beings, that it is something that we are just disposed to ignore because we feel we're going to be okay. And I don't necessarily disagree with that, but what I do disagree with is doing nothing. And I think that in order to take direct bookings, you have to do something and you're going to be able to take some very simple steps which will add a huge amount of value to your business. Not just around preventing stuff from going wrong, but also from understanding who's staying in your properties, understanding who is getting access to them, where they, where they come from, what their situation is. So there's a load of kind of benefits which are not linked to, directly linked to what we do, which you can gather from that.

And how widespread do you think this, this problem is of, of the lack of trust, really? I guess from, from hosts to guests. Do you think this is a growing problem as more people are looking at a direct booking strategy?

I mean, I think the issue is just that trust doesn't exist between strangers. Like it doesn't, you know, you just don't know. And as soon as you've met people, as soon as you got to know them, yes, it's fine, you know, you can feel confidence. But I'm pretty certain that everyone listening to this will have had an experience where someone's turned up at the door that they feel a little bit uncomfortable by and a certain amount more of people will, will have had a similar ish experience to what I've had. So for me, trust is not a growing issue, it's not a shrinking issue. It is just an issue that all of us have a duty to be on top of. And then I do think that in the incoming years, we are going to see a duty of hosts to know who their guest is. Just as you have know your customer checks, you will have know your guest checks. So I think that as part of our duty to our neighbors, to our communities, knowing your guest is going to become part and parcel of hosting. And I think getting ahead of that curve is actually a really important industry issue which is going to enable advocacy and regulatory groups to again get on the offensive and not put into awkward positions where they are seen just to be collecting cash rather than taking local communities into account.

100% agree with you. That is just so important. And the way I always think about the guests who come and stay with. I've got hospitality business outside of Bruce Lee, and, and the way I always think about my guests is what I want my guest coming to stay next to me. You know, like, often, like you say, there's neighbors, some of them are elderly, some of them have got kids. You know that it's about getting people who are going to respect the property is the first thing. But also you want to have a good relationship with the neighbors, with the wider community, and, and that you seem to to be doing these checks so completely.

But my properties are at my house. Like, you know, this happened on my doorstep and then these guys know where I live and I did not know them. And that was the problem. I simply trusted that it would be okay because they come through an OTA and I was wrong.

Well, let's dive into the. The book. So the. The book direct blueprint that we've got here, how did it come about and why did you get involved with the book direct blueprint?

I mean, Mark and his enthusiasm and his charisma at bringing together some of the finest and in my case, not quite as fine as mines in the industry. I think it's a really helpful tool to be able to dip into and get, you know, 10 or so different opinions on what you need to do in order to take more direct bookings and get the most out of those direct bookings. So I feel incredibly honored to be a part of such an amazing group of business leaders. I hope that my contribution is going to give people something to think about. For me, the message is all about control your property. It's your risk. You need to be in control. And don't be someone who just relies on third parties. But no, it's super exciting. It's a wonderful endeavor. I think everything that is sitting both behind it and in front of it, raising money for food banks is just such a critical thing right Now. So it's a really brilliant endeavor and please do support it. Please do come. Please do buy a copy. You're going to learn so much. You're going to learn so much from these wonderful people who've written a chapter. And I hope, you know, by the time you finish each chapter, you'll kind of feel like, you know, it's a little bit better. Hope you feel like you'll, you know, you'll be able to kind of understand who we are that little bit more. So, yeah, it's just something which I'm entirely grateful to be a part of.

Well, we're entirely excited and grateful to you, Humphrey, for being part of it. I mean, I'm lucky enough to have read a sneak peek of your chapter. And one of the things which really struck me is, is it's actually told like stories, really easy to understand stories and anecdotes with, with a real meaning behind them. And I mean, even the very first, the very first part, the story of the elephant, to me, that changed the way I think about risk and certainly got got me thinking. So I'm sure the listeners are going to want to dive into chapter, and I'm sure that's going to change. I mean, the way it really helps is first of all by obviously explaining how you guys help, but also how we should think about risk in general. So, yeah, and I know you did mention it there, but is there anything else that you want your readers to take away from the chapter?

Well, I wouldn't say take away from the chapter. I'd say kind of take away from the book. And that is that you can do it like everyone can do this. This is. There is not a secret sauce. This is, you know, this is the playbook. This is the, you know, the blueprint which enables you to take better direct bookings. And from my point of view, I'd love you to use super, but I would love you more to do something that puts you in control. So whatever you want to do, do that. You definitely don't have to use super, but just do something to take control. Because if you don't, you will have an experience like I had, and that is something which you can avoid. And knowing that you can avoid that by doing something, I hope gives you a really good amount of motivation to go out and get that solution in place, which will save you, your family, depending on your situation, your business, a whole amount of grief.

What a great, great answer. And yeah, certainly how, how they're going to feel. You know, it's great to Hear that? So what does the future for Super Hog look like?

Brilliant question. I mean, you know, right now we are really fully focused on making sure the hosts, property managers don't have to go through shared experiences. You know, there is a little bit of a kick when people come to us and go, eek, I've had a bad experience. And we're trying to get ahead of that, but as I've sort of already discussed, it's quite hard to get ahead of that for me. You know, the real value in what we're doing is also around helping bring in a much more consistent approach to how, how property managers, you know, know who their guests are. So, so that's what we're focused on. That's the, that's, you know, that's the goal of the business. And then my last point is very much that guest experience point. You know, this does not have to come at the detriment of guest experience if everything we do, I think, makes the guest experience even better. As a guest, I love Super Hog. I love the freedom, the peace of mind I get when I go and stay, knowing that if something goes wrong, I've already sourced it out knowing that other people coming to stay in this property have also been checked. There's a real, you know, there's a real value of that. So that's what we're focusing on. And, you know, so far I believe we're doing a really great job and I'm looking forward to doing an even better one in the weeks, months and years to come.

You make a really great point there about when you get, as a guest, verified. I've then got more confidence in the host and I know that the quality of stay is probably going to be better because they're looking out for the place, they're looking after it, which really great point. So as we reach towards the end of these, we'd love to just do a couple of quick fire, fun questions, just find out a little bit more about you, Humphrey. So what skill or talent do you excel at? What would be your, your superpower as such?

What would my superpower be? I don't suppose you're allowed to say, I don't think I have any superpowers.

You can say what you like.

My superpower is definitely my lack of patience. I think that lack of patience gives me real drive to actually get stuff done. It enabled me to not accept insurance as the solution to the question of what happens if something goes wrong. And I always like to think that actually when everyone says, oh, patience is A virtue. I think absolute bullcrap. Patience is a virtue. If we, if we all had loads of patients, we'd still be riding around on horses and washing our dirty linens in the streams. It's thanks to impatience that we've come up with ingenious things to make life better. So, you know, if you are screening your guests on and looking through Facebook or social media or Googling them or that kind of thing, you can be putting that time to way better use. That's why you should be using Superb.

Love it. Love it. What books do you recommend that everybody listening should go and check out? Book or books?

Obviously the book. Direct blueprints. Um, I, I look, I think there are lots of people who list a load of really fancy kind of books and all that kind of thing. I'm going to put my hands up and say, I have not read a book for years. I've got three kids, I don't have time to read books at the moment. But I do love podcasts and I think that, you know, listening to podcasts and listening to industry leaders talk on different topics is the best thing you can do. Like, I find it fascinating. I love hearing people's, you know, particular comments and clearly I'm a big boosty fan. So I'm gonna tell everyone you're on the right channels, you're listening to the right, to the, to the right tunes. And then I give a little shout out to Will Slickers and and his projects out in the States. That's a great place as well to pick up on some great content.

It's fantastic, isn't it? I've been lucky enough to speak to Will and Hospitality fm. I think he's created, Isn't he where he's brought the best podcast in the world altogether, which is, is absolutely amazing and worth checking out. We love to end on this question, which is is there a motto or a mantra that you like to live by?

I mean, I'm probably not going to say it properly, but, you know, I like the idea that you didn't come this far to only come this far. You know, you've made it to where you are today, but you're not going to settle for where you are today. So, you know, keep, keep going, keep grinding. Little steps turn into a big journey along the way. So wake up, kiss ass, be kind, get on with it.

And what a great way to, to draw things to a close. So Humphrey, how can people get in touch with. With yourself or Super Hog if they want to do so?

Best thing is to have a look at our website superhog.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Awesome, awesome. And of course one of the things which I've got to mention is the book Direct blueprint is available December 2022. So depending on when you're listening to this podcast, you know it may already be out if you're listening to after then. But you can go and check out all the information about it or even pre register if it's before that time@boostly.co.uk forward/blueprint and you can put your name down there. So Humphrey, is there anything that I've missed or any questions or final thoughts?

No. Go, go, go and have a look at the blueprint, guys. It's gonna be a game changer.

Well, thank you so much, Humphrey for for joining us today and again, thank you. If you're listening to this podcast or watching on the live, I know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and I really appreciate you, you're putting your attention with Boostly. So that's bye from me and that's bye from Humphrey. We will see you on the next one. Bye for now everyone.

Thank you so much for checking out today's podcast episode. Now before you head and go anywhere else, before you click to the next episode, before you do that, do me one big favor and go check out boostly.co.uk trust IPRAC are the sponsors of all of the Boostly content and the reason why I work with them and the reason why we speak spread the message of IPRAC is that when a host or a company is looking to get more into direct bookings, the main question they have is around trust, as in will a guest trust that I am a true and real business? Well, IPRAC take care of all of that and they've got a special offer that is only available to Boostly people. But to do that you need to go to Boostly which is b o o s tly.co.uk forward/trust. You can find out all the information there. You can book in a demo, book in a call and then you will get your super special offer that is only available to Boostly peoples. Thank you again for tuning in. Do go check out iprac. We'll be back again very shortly with another podcast episode. But until then, we'll see you all very soon. Take care.