Scale Rentals Week: What did you miss?

Welcome back to the Boostly podcast and I have just got back from spending a full week in Barcelona, Spain for the scale rentals show, otherwise known as the short stay week, otherwise known as the Book Direct show. This was an event and a half first and foremost. It was a five day event, different conferences on every single day. And as you can tell from five day of conferences, from the Book Direct show to Scales rental, to Exit to Touch day to web free to SEO and everything else in between. So got some boosty tires eyes here. But this podcast what I want to do was to just give you my sort of top takeaways and also as well to give some massive shout outs in this episode. So let's get started. If you are new here, if you are coming in from watching the scales rental or if your first time you've checked out the video or the podcast, please, please, please do me a massive favorite, hit that subscribe button. Make sure you give this video a likes and if you're listening to the audio then share it with somebody around the world. This podcast at the moment is just tipping 100,000 downloads every single month. Which when I first started seven years ago and it was just five people, one of them was my mom. I never thought I got to this level. The YouTube has just topped or getting very close to topping 5,000 subscribers, which gives me confidence to keep on going, talking about the Book Direct method, the Book Direct movement and all the tips and tricks and tactics and all those cool things in between. So let's get started. Monday of the short stay week, Scales rentals week. I flew into Barcelona late on Sunday. I flew in, I landed in the airport hotel because I was too late to get into the Central Barcelona. And what I did is I popped on the TV just as Barcelona Football Club were about to win the championship, the La Liga championship. And as you can imagine, there was a lot of fun and games going on at the hotel. It was a great atmosphere, got my head down, woke up the next morning and then got into the center of Barcelona. So the event was held at the World Trade center, right in Slap Bang center, right down by the Port of Barcelona. Great venue, loads of things happening and the first day was a nice little warm up. So in the morning there was the SEO summit of skills rentals. We had people like Craig Webb Maver from Flying Cat Marketing, we had Jan from Logia, we had Zach from Spontaneous talking about SEO tactics. And you know, it was a small room, small crowd, but the advice in there was, was really, really good. There's A lot of questions as you can imagine about AI chat GPT and how that is going to disrupt SEO. But the message was consistent throughout. Know your audience, know who you're writing to create good consistent content and Google and Bing will pick you up. I think that's something that has, you know, stand stood the test of time. As Alan Egan, as you know who is of Hai Chi, very rightly said, the cream will always rise to the top and nothing more can be truer. When we're talking about SEO in the afternoon there was two conferences going on. There was a web free with Luca from from the Fantastic Trips community. I got to meet Cynthia from D Travel who we obviously co authored the book Direct Blueprint together. But also as well it was fantastic to find out about some new companies like Trend which is basically taking reviews into the blockchain, getting rid of scummy reviews, fake reviews and having it with a in in the blockchain world which was in very interesting. Interesting to me to see but down in the main room we had a touch day. So Touch day took over the whole afternoon and out of the whole week. And I've said this to them and I'll say it again on podcast and on a video. It was my favorite part of the whole week. The three hours that Tyenn and Kate and Alice and and Emma and the whole team put together was, was really, really insightful. So much so that I am trying to get Tyon to come on to the Boosie podcast and to document her communications flow to her guest when they check into the property because it is next level. And you know, I've been talking about it to a lot of people ever since. So hopefully they do it again. Hopefully they put on their own event and that they can walk you through it because it wasn't just the communication flow, but it was the one I also liked as well that stood out for me was the influencer marketing chat from. From Alice. One of the first times that Alice has got up on a stage in front of a hospitality crowd and done this talk and you know, it was, it was enlightening, it was funny, it was educational and you know, I had a massive amount of fun during that. During that day we did a game of how closely are you connected to Brian Chesky? Which was a lot of fun. You had to be there to know it. And yeah, really, really fun. Really got a lot out of it. And then on the night time we went for a lovely meal right down by the Ramblas and back basically because Barcelona had won the league the night before. The next day they were doing a parade around the city to celebrate with the fans and I went for a meal with the fantastic team at Touch Day plus a few other people and they managed to book a restaurant that was right next to the wherever the whole team and the fans were celebrating in the middle of the Ramblas. And it was entertaining to say the least. There was fans everywhere, fireworks going off, fireworks setting off just outside the cafe. It was amazing meal, lots of tapas. It was, it was really beautiful. But it made for an entertaining evening, had a lot of fun. And again, that was one of my takeaways of the whole week was to was to see that quick break from.

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We'Ll see you on the other side. Day two, which was Tuesday, was the Book Direct Day. And again, this is one of the main reasons that I flew into the event. One of the main reasons I took part in the event was to speak at this, you know, we had some amazing speakers and presentations. Nearly, nearly. Khan, as always producing something that gets people thinking not just on a business level but on an emotional level. And we had Daniela who was talking about business with WhatsApp. And we had Heather Bayer who closed out the day talking about really focusing on your niche. And then before Heather, I got up and talked about the one hire that every business doesn't have that is needed. I Need to Work. The title, it was my first ever time doing it. I'll be totally honest, I really felt let down in myself with my performance of the Talk because again, it was my first time doing it. It was like it didn't feel. It didn't feel as good as the other ones that I have done over the past sort of year or 14 months. I enjoyed it as always as I love doing every talk. I try and make it fun. We did, we did Rock Paper Scissors. I threw Sweets out. We did the STR shot, which is the Tequila shot. If you don't know what that is, please go and Check out my video from Nashville. And also as well, before we even started the talk, I got everybody to write down on a piece of paper the worst, the funniest, the most gruelest thing that a guest has left behind after their stay. And I read the best answers out at the end and the person won a very special prize that we'll talk about in a second, which was a lot of fun. We recorded it. The video is out on the socials now. You can go check that out if you want to giggle. And it'll be in a separate video. But yeah, overall, I'd give my talk 5 out of 10. To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed it. It was only 30 minutes, but I feel like I could have done a lot better. And I will tweak that and I will bring that back at some point in the future because it is something that we really need to talk about. Now. All boils down to sales, customer service. Those two things are going to be key moving forward as we move into more of an AI world in hospitality. Tuesday night was something that I, I really wanted to, to pull off and really want to make special. When we go to events, you know, you are given so much advice, you have so many conversations, you do so many things, but you know you have to do something special if you want to be remembered. And I always say this, nobody remembers what you tell them, but they always remember how to make you feel. And so on the Tuesday night, the organizers, Damien, John, Paulo, etc, very, very kindly to give me that slot to put on an after party. And I wanted to do something that, you know, it wasn't just drinks in a bar. I wanted to do something that, that was going to be remembered. And the fantastic maver of flying cat marketing and myself, we sort of brainstormed a few ideas and she came back to me with a few options. And the best one was a boat party. So what we did is we spoke to a captain of a boat who had this pirate boat that could seat up to 60 people, 65 people at most. They would provide a DJ, they would provide an open bar, and they would just take us around for a couple of hours around the Mediterranean, around Barcelona, so we could get a lovely sunset shot and have a great time with 60 people who are at the event. Fantastic. We then put together a budget, we put together a plan, and then I had, I went out into my world of my little black book and I went to find some sponsors who wanted to help put this event on because it was quite expensive. And, you know, Bruce Lee is bootstrapped. I don't have that amount of money lying around. And so I went to some people that I know, vendors in the industry and I said, hey, we want to do this. It's going to be part of the short stay week. Would you like to be part of it with me? And you know, we sent out a message to a lot of people but I want to give a special shout out to Guesty, to Air DNA, to Touch Day and to Safely who all came back and they kindly agreed to split the cost with, with Boostly and again, this event wouldn't have happened without them. And I know that everybody on that boat had a fantastic time. I know that there was networking going on, friendships were formed and it was fantastic to see for the rest of the week people who are arriving by themselves met on the boat, chat on the boat, got together in a little group and then throughout the week I saw them around the events and going for drinks and stuff afterwards, which is fantastic. And so for me to see that it was a lot to organize, especially getting 60 people on a boat with a secret meeting location. Point was, was, was very hard, but it was. The payoff was huge. And we've got a lovely sunset shot, a sunset shot at the end which made it all well and it's currently up there on the LinkedIn and on the Facebooks. Go and check it out, go find Mark Simpson on Facebook or on LinkedIn and you will see that. But again, I want to say guesty, thank you so much. It's a fantastic partnering with you. You're a fantastic partner for the website design business that we do at Boostly. Thank you so much. Air DNA. We've just started working together and I'm looking forward to doing more and more events in the future. Touchday We've worked with Touch Day for years, part of the book, co co authors of the book Die Blueprint and you know, it's fantastic for them to be part of it and safely, you know, again, just started working with them. Thank you to Will Slickers for making a connection happen and looking forward to working with you more in the future. Do go check all of their businesses out if you haven't done so already, for your property management software, for pricing, for your digital guidebook and for, you know, protection, guest safety insurance, etc. So fantastic. Really love it and we had a good night, we went out for some drinks afterwards and then Wednesday and Thursday was all about scale. So Scale Rentals is exclusively for people that have got more than 25 properties so the conversation in the room gets to that next level. And I know that the people who go to this event, they say this their favorite event of the year because you are surrounding yourself with other people who are a similar part of their business journey. Going to other events is great, you know, and you know, I love the book Direct show. I love SDI wealth. I'm looking forward to going to my first ever Vermo and my Bigger pockets events later this year. But the scale rentals is, attracts a different crowd and it's, you know, I get inferior complex being a vise. I literally come away from thinking like why am I doing this? Why do people even listen to me? Because the conversations in that room, the people that were up on stage, just the people in general that attend, just absolute demons in their game. They have bossed it, they've leveled up and they are running the show. And I learned so much from just being in there. Whether it was Louis, Louis Andrews who has got part of the OVO network talking about how they became the second most recommended business on, on Airbnb, what they do with guest communication flows and, and all of that, how they, how they get staff and just all of that was just fantastic to me. But the one thing that really stood out apart from that was he said something that they only take on properties for their business that they know that will generate five star reviews like extra extraordinary experience. And that stuck with me because when you're starting off in your business, doesn't matter whether you do website design like Boosted does or whether you're a host or whatever, you just say yes to everything. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But as you grow, one of the hardest things that everybody teaches you and things you have to learn the hard way is you have to say no. And there's always a shiny object. There's always an opportunity. But sometimes saying no opens up a yes to a fantastic opportunity. And that stuck with me definitely from that day. Evan from AI Adaptive who is leading the way in machine learning and AI, he did an unreal talk about, you know, how the OTAs and the next progression of their journey, what they are doing with machine learning. He documented exactly what Booking.com have been doing for years. It's why the experience that you get when you go on their site is different to what you know, I would get or what the next person to you would get. And also as well, he basically pinpointed everything that you need to be doing on your own direct booking website so that it looks like it's given the personalized experience that what is we're going to be moving into personalized marketing is definitely going to be a thing that a lot of people are going to be talking about as we go into 2024, 2025. So make sure that you're ahead of that. Other talks Amber, she flew in from Orlando, she was sorry in Florida 48 hours earlier, talking at a Vermila event. Flew in and opened up the, the Thursday session with employment Branding. And again, she's, she's so good at talking. The, the talk always sticks with you because she crafts a story around it. She's as, she's as good as nearly in this retrospective and she talked about this one little screw that cost less than 25p less than 25cent. That was a, was a little mistake from a staff member who just didn't do that check that resulted in 50, 000 pounds or $50,000 worth of, of damages. And then she brought it all the way back into hospitality. And again, really good talk. If you, if you get an opportunity to see Amber speak, whether it's in America or Europe, any point over the course of next year, I massively recommend that you do so.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk call and book in an appointment with.

One of our sales team. And then the other thing that I took away from from the event at scale was in one of the smaller rooms. So as there was the main stage at the bottom in the main auditorium and then there was the pod room and then there was the knowledge room and on day two on Thursday, a lady from Brussels came down and she was being talking about that and basically talking about how in 2024 or 2025 there is going to be a VAT thing brought in throughout Europe in the UK that's going to impact every single one of us that is in the UK and in Europe. The bill is currently being processed now and what it will basically mean is that the massive OTAs airbnb booking.com VRBO etc they're going to be forced to put 20% VAT on top of every single booking that comes on their site. So for you as a host, not only will you be paying me 14, 15, 16 commission, but you'll also then have to be paying another 20% on top of this, which could really cut into your P L. I really recommend that you go and look at this because it's not been talked about enough. I was dragged into that room by Tim Andrews Louis dad from the Oboe Network saying you need to watch and listen to this and I'm so glad that I did. I want to find out more about it but you can start by doing a simple Google search. Just put in that 20 str bookings 2025, 2024. Go and look at what's being said. Look they talk about. And I'm gonna do my very best to try and find out as much as I can over the next year to 14 to 16 months. It's not 100 happening, but a lot of the countries are championing this and it's the hotels that are also championing this as well. Really going to impact the short term rental industry. So go check that out. Friday was the the fan finale. A lot of tired eyes, a lot of tired voices, a lot of tired faces in that room. I went along to go and check out the str, the scales, luxury and the scale exit. Those two events finished it off really nicely for anybody that is looking to exit their business, exit their hospitality brand. They went through the documentation, the people that you need in place and obviously as well, even if you don't want to exit your business, even if you aren't looking to sell, you should be getting these systems and instruction as documents in place because at the end of the day, if you can build a business that someone would want to buy, that's not a bad business to have. And obviously bringing this back to direct bookings is that nobody is going to buy your business if you are solely reliant on one income revenue generating stream. So if you're solely reliant on Airbnb, no one's going to be looking at you. They want to see a nice varied revenue stream of direct Airbnb booking.com Verbo and other OTAs that you may may be part of. So do bear that in mind. Overall, fantastic week. In my honest opinion, one day too many. I think four would have been perfect. I think you can easily cram that into four days and I've given my suggestions on what they could do with the other pod rooms instead of it being just the free rooms and how they can do that. But I've had such a good week. It was fantastic to speak to so many different people from different parts of the industry. The main events that I've been at this year have been obviously the one in Nashville and one at London and both of them were, were just like, like a whirlwind. But this week was great because I got, actually got a chance to stop, have a chat with people without being pulled in several directions, but also as well to be able to watch some talks, a couple of the talks and really take, take away some massive bonuses and things that I want to personally talk about maybe moving forward. So Damien Sheridan, John Paulo of Scale Rentals should give yourselves a massive pat on the back. I know how stressful it was, I know how much work there was and you had a fantastic team around you to help and they are going to be back next year. So if you want to make sure of one event to put in Your diary for 2024, the 14th to the 17th of May back in Barcelona back at the World Trade is one that you do not want to miss, especially if you are over 2025 properties. Wherever you are tuning in from around the world, it was amazing to see so many Americans fly in, some Australians flying for this event because it was over a week. You know, you could have a good week in Barcelona and you know, make a full, a full week out of it. So again, thank you to Touch Day. Thank you to guesty, thank you to Adna, thank you to safely for helping put the boat party together. Thank you to Ma from Flying Cat Market and go check her out for helping me get it all together. And the boat party was, was a massive success. The whole week was a big success. Until next time, we'll be back Monday, Wednesday, Friday with a new podcast, a new video. Thank you so much for sticking by. If this is the first time that you're tuning in, go and share it. Please, please, please. We we've topped 100,000 downloads. This is unreal. And so the booked out message is getting spread around so many times every single month. Let's see if we can get that to 200,000. Thank you very much for tuning in and I'll be back very soon.