Say no to Online travel agents and Grow your hospitality business with Lin Mount of Lorien House S4E6

Welcome to season four of the Boost hospitality podcast. I'm back again to show all hospitality owners how you can turn lookers into bookers, get more heads on beds and increase your direct booking. This season, I've got something very special lined up. The Boosterly website was recently voted one of the top 10 UK hotel blogs out there. And after asking you guys, I realized that so many of you haven't actually read the blogs. You said that you prefer audio as a way of learning about new tactics and tips to get in more direct bookings. So what I'm doing this season is I'm going to be providing the audio version of all of my blogs that are on the Boostly website. So it doesn't matter whether you're on the computer in the car, getting ready for breakfast or changing those beds. I can show you how you can increase your diary books. Let's get on with the show. In today's episode, I'm going to read to you the blog post of an interview that I had with Lynn Mount of Lorian House. Now, Lynn is a hospitality owner, just like you, who has said no to the online travel agents. She has built her business by just going 100% down the book direct route. I wanted to interview Lynn because I think this is an amazing way to go if you can make it work for you. So I wanted to pick her brains and find out exactly what she did, why she did it, and just to see if there's any advice that you can take just in case you are contemplating from not being listed on the online travel agents. So it's an interview style, so I'll be talking from my perspective and then obviously the answers I'll be giving from Lin. So let's begin. Are you brave enough to market your business without the help of the online travel agents? I had the pleasure of interviewing Lyn, the owner of Lorian House in Fort Augustus in Scotland. I had some questions for her about her experience thus far as an hospitality owner. She was kind enough to share her story, marketing tips and a unique hospitality journey with us for the blog. So enjoy me. How many years have you owned the Property, Lyn? Nearly two years. We moved to Fort Augustus from Lancashire in England on April 21, 2016. It's my first experience working in the world of hospitality. I've had many jobs where I've worked and dealt with people, but Tom, my partner, had worked in a hotel as a night porter and had done some bar work. We had always talked about buying a B and B but never thought it'd be possible. Then we saw an opportunity and went for it. We took that leap of faith and we just left our secure jobs and here we are. Me what do you love about being a hospitality owner? Lyn Meeting people from all over the world and learning about their cultures. I love listening to their reasons for traveling to the uk, where they have been, where they are going. I find that guests enjoy talking about their lives, their families and experiences that I'm generally interested in. Or maybe that's just me being nosy. I feel a real sense of achievement when I can see guests feeling relaxed and comfortable in our B and B, especially when they tell us it's like being from their home away from their home. I enjoy providing the pleasant surroundings and I'm always looking for ways to improve their experience by adding little extras in the room such as trace of their dirty boots, a pack of playing cards, a torch or a wee book about Nessie. It's hard work, but the reward of seeing guests happy and enjoying themselves is 100% worth it. Me what is your favourite thing to do in your local area? Lynn we are so lucky to live and work in the beautiful Scottish Highlands in the pretty village of Fort Augustus. It is situated at end of Loch Ness, very famous. The area is full of nature, there's loads of walks, waterfalls and the lochs in the area. The favourite is going to the north side of Loch Ness. The road climbs quickly and very soon you are looking down on a picturesque village. Up there you're never far away from sheep, pheasants and a herd of deer or the adorable Highland coos. My favourite thing to do is sit at the side of the Caledonian Canal and watch boats navigate through the five locks that through the centre of the village. There's nothing more fulfilling than having a lunch on the canal side on a lovely summer's day. The village is packed with about 100 boats coming through daily at the height of the season and there's a real buzz about the place. We're only a hop, skip and jump away from the castle, steep in history and popular places such as the Isle of Skye, Fort William and Ben Nevis. Me you're one of the brave hospitality owners who doesn't list your property on any OTAs or why did you make this decision? Lyn before Moving into our BNB, we always thought we would be listing with booking.com or any other OTA. We had started looking into it. We had only got five advance bookings passed over from the previous owner for the whole season in 2016, 17 when we opened our business, within a week of us moving in, the doorbell started ringing and didn't really stop until October. I don't consider us brave, it just happened. And we chose to see how the year panned out before listing with any of them. We had taken over early in the low season. We may have just signed up with an ota. I think that we are very fortunate to be located in a very popular area. Important part, everyone wants to come and see Nessie. Fort Augustus is a place where people visit on the way to Skye or North coast. We're on the 73 mile Great Glen Way which is extremely popular with cyclists and walkers. The main tour companies bring their coaches to the village en route to other places, often stopping overnight. So I just want to quickly interject there. Obviously Lynn has got a B and B located in a very popular area. Like she said. She didn't say that they were brave, they just gave it a go and it just worked. I think an important thing to stress is that when you're making this decision, look at where you are. Is it a touristy spot or is it just an on the way spot? Is it a place where people will keep coming back time and time again every year or is it just a passing through? Now Lynn is very fortunate that it's both. So it's a touristy location where people will come time and time again, but it's also a passing through route. So when they made that decision, it. It wasn't so much luck. It was just hard work coming across an opportunity and they took it. Okay, back to the interview me. How do you encourage guests to book directly with you? Lyn One of the first things we did was offer an online booking system on our website via Free to Book. We updated our website and make it look more appealing and we started a Facebook page. We joined the local group which was all about advertising our B and B in Loch Ness. This was the only site we paid for. We got a listing and an appearance on the village map. This is given out to visitors who go into the tourist office and if anybody who's searching on the Internet, we have a poster advertising our B and B which is displayed at a notice board again by the car park. We listed on every free listing we could find. Visit Scotland Bed and Breakfast. Search here and sleepingout.com I think the big ones for us was being listed in the Lonely Planet guide and a mention in some international guidebooks. Last year travel journalists stayed from the French guide and gave us a mention in their guidebook. We Also appear in a German guidebook which we were shown last year. These outlets have been given great exposure and possibly why 90% of our guests are from overseas. That's crazy. I contacted all the big UK adventure tour companies to tell them about us and that we have a special offer for them. We now work with at least seven of them regularly that give us bookings from April to November for mainly walkers or cyclists. More recently I started putting up photos of our B and B on Pinterest and plan to expand that to catch viewers eyes if they search for Fort Augustus and they will go to our website. We consciously decided not to be a designer B and B with high tech rooms. Instead we created a homely, comfortable, relaxing place where guests walk in with boots and wet clothes and know they are welcome and catered for. We always ask guests to leave reviews as we really appreciate their feedback. When we started in 2016 we were ranked 28th on TripAdvisor. Now we're in the top five. I just want to expand on this very quickly. What Lynn did so well here is that they didn't just wait for people to find their website. They actively went out and networked and built up relationships with not only guidebooks but also as well UK adventure tour company. So she knew who her market was, she knew who her ideal customer was and she went out to the places where they already are. This is key and anybody can do this. Doesn't matter where you are for example in your local area. Now think about the local restaurants, the bars, the cafes, the day trips and reach out to them because you never know who may be passing through and looking for a place to stay. Tell them about your property, give a special offer, even give the the place that you're reaching to an incentive as well. Whether that's a box of chocolates, Amazon gift vouchers or even offer it up a place for one night free stay if they've got family visiting from out of town. By making these local relationships it can really do you a lot of good in the long run. Okay, what are you doing to make sure that you are full enough that you don't have to go on the OTAs? Lynn all of the above and we accept walk ins to fill any gaps. A lot of visitors pass through the village, see if it has to offer and want to stop for a night or two. There are a few B and Bs on the same street and we are the second one visitors should come to. So again location for us is the key. Me if you could give one bit of advice to someone who's thinking of coming off the OTAs. What that would be Lyn. Dip your toes in underwater, see what happens. Like us, it just happened because of the situation and it worked. Amazing interview. Lyn has built up something really special with her partner up there in Scotland. I recommend everybody going to check out the blog by going to boostly.co.uk and just type in say no to online travel agents in the search. Go and read the interview and then once you do, go and say hi to Linh in the Hospitality Community Facebook group. There's a link on the blog and then go and visit Lin's website, Go say to her hi to her on her Facebook page, mention that you listen to her blog on the Boostly podcast and if you've got any questions like Lynn said, she's more than happy to answer them. Okay? Okay. Well done for getting through another episode of the Boost Hospitality Podcast. My name has been Mark Simmerson and you can reach out and contact me on Twitter, Facebook or email. If you have enjoyed this episode and all of the episodes of the Boost Hospitality Podcast, please go to itunes or wherever you are listening to this and leave one of those lovely five star reviews virtual hugs for everyone that does. Thank you very much and I'll see you soon.