Secrets of a Successful BnB Host: Proven Marketing Strategies

So it was a bit of an eye opener realizing that the booking.com, the Airbnbs really are there to be used to suit yourself rather than the other way around. They're not doing me a favor. And I spent probably especially after lockdown, I spent. It was like my life's work to move to Book Direct. So we're looking at about 80 book direct at the moment and I want to get it to 100. I only ever turn them on when I need to. That sounds rude, doesn't it? I don't mean to be rude. No, I only utilize them when I need to.

So having a blast, gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely if you want my respect you'll better put direct. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.

Okay, everyone, welcome back to the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, most importantly the confidence so you can go out there and get yourselves direct bookings. We do a mini series on the Boostly podcast where I get to introduce and interview hosts from all over the. So you can learn their tips and tricks and all the things they do in their business, which you can put into your business as well. And this is always great fun. I always learn something. And today we've got an old friend of Boostly, somebody who has been in the Boostie community for, for many years. She's fantastic. I've seen her on television appearances as well. So I'm going to mention that we've got Georgina Bearman of See the Seacroft Bed Breakfast and Bar. She is the owner there and I'm really excited to dive into this because she's been learning all sorts of marketing tactics and even showing me a thing or two, which is. Is amazing. So welcome along, Georgina. Thank you for joining me.

Thanks Liam. It's probably about time we did this. So.

Definitely, definitely. As we've said beforehand, there's a few people within the community that, that we want to try and come and do this. If you can introduce yourself, Georgina, and your business, if you give us like the elevator pitch.

Sure. I'm Georgina Bearman. I've got the Seacroft Bed Breakfast and Bar in Lythen St Anne's. It's a eight bedroom bed and breakfast and we asked. We trade all year round. Obviously we have a peak season off season. We're trying to boost that at the Moment. What else can I tell you? Gosh, we were on the Hotel Inspector. We do the first crazy step in marketing we ever did, so you people may remember. Um, I've aged a lot since then. I think the stress has got to me.

I, I do you know what, I didn't know you were on that until you told me. So I then went out and dug out the episode and I love the Hotel Inspector. Like, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. So actually watching that and for any of our us kind of listeners to this, there's something where an expert goes into bed and breakfast and hotels up and down the country, they go in and they basically say what could be improved and all this sort of stuff. And when you went on that, Georgina, what was your. Just talk us through briefly the thought of going on that and how did it help?

Yeah, I question myself quite often about why we did this. We, I knew we took, when we took over the sea craft, it was doing nothing at all. So we were, we were starting really from scratch. And then we got to the point after a couple of years where we knew we got a good product, we got a good service, we got it going, but we'd literally got. Nobody knew who we were, we were invisible. And so I've got a business studies degree, but I did it a long time ago and, and obviously sort of digital marketing, marketing's come on board and things have changed quite a bit since then. So my way around that, without knowing about digital marketing at the time, was what, how, how can I get some national coverage? I thought, well, I'm not going to do four in a bed, I'm going to do the hotel inspector. But at no point did I ever think they would come. Even, even right to the very last. I thought the application went in in the September of 2017 and even up to January 2018, I didn't think they were coming. And then they said we're coming next week. I was like, oh, wow. Yeah, that was that.

So whereabouts is the property? And just tell us about the general area. Just what is it like in that area? And bear in mind we've got UK and US listeners.

Okay, so for anybody who's outside of the uk, I'm in the north west of England, on the northwestern coast, about one hour west of Manchester. We're a little bit south of Blackpool, a little town called St Anne's. It's part of a dual town called Lytham St Anne's. People who are keen golfers might know Royal Litham. We're About a nine minute walk from there actually, and two minute walk from the beach. So it's quite handy. So, yeah. So our sort of cousin is Blackpool. So anybody locally will know for Blackpool Tower and all the facilities we have there, we're kind of a little bit more sleepy than that. It's very flat. There's lots of things to do for young children. There's lots of bars, restaurants and cafes. It's sort of more chilled vibe really.

So who is it that tends to come and stay with you and what do they tend to, to like to do in the area?

So actually I could probably answer this more fully this week than I probably would be able to normally having done a bit of an assignment on it. But we have, we've gone beyond the customer avatar to a customer Persona. So generally speaking we capture the nostalgia. People who are sort of chasing nostalgia from their childhood. So. So our client base, usually around age 50 to 65, they've had experience of coming to Blackpool historically with their families. Often they'll bring grandchildren with them. For us with it, with our eight bedrooms, it's quite steep accommodation. We tend to sort of accommodate adults rather than children, that kind of thing. It's. It's just, it suits our, our offering better, if you know what I mean. We're just not, we're not kit kitted up. We don't have the space, to be honest, to offer anything else. That's. That's where we're at. Yeah.

One. One of the things I wanted to jump in there and, and just talk about is I know that, I mean, we're all about direct bookings at Boost Le and you shared a stat with me just before we went live. I want you to share it again.

Right. So I tell you, being on CB is one of the most amazing things ever. And as a result of that, one of the Oods from Boostly actually recommended Boostly to me in another community group and that's when I joined. So it was a bit of an eye opener realizing that the booking.com, the Airbnbs really are there to be used to suit yourself rather than the other way around. They're not doing me a favor. And I spent, probably, especially after lockdown, I spent. It was like my life's work to move to Book Direct. So we're looking at about 80% book direct at the moment and I want to get it to 100. I only ever turn them on when I need to. That sounds rude, doesn't it? I don't mean to be rude. No. I only Utilize them when I need to.

So yeah, I mean that is amazing and you know, just to be at 80 direct bookings, there's so many people listening to this which is just like yeah, I'd love to be.

It wasn't like that, it wasn't like that at the start literally it was 100 and I remember paying out something like, I mean bear in mind I only got 8 bedrooms 1August when I should have been full with my own guests. I paid out some £860 to them in commission. So yeah, and I, I, when I joined Boostly I think Mark probably will tell you that I thought he was a dodgy guy and that he was after my money and I wasn't going to give him any money until he gave me something and the thing that he gave me was the Google Ads training and that was the best thing. I saved myself so much money doing that and I joined Bruce Lee immediately.

So, so take me back. Why did you get into hospitality? Like I know this is one of.

Those madness, yeah, hospitality. No, I woke up one day, no, I actually have a family background in hotels so I grew up in one I think I started working hospitality eight years old when I first took my first breakfast and my first guest so both, well my parents had two boarding houses and a pub and then they decided they were going to do something completely different and then after I did it, believe it or not, I didn't like school so much. It just was far too boring for me. I wanted to do exciting stuff like business so I decided that I wasn't going to go to university, I wasn't even going to do very well at A levels. I was going to go and go and do HND and hotel and catering at my local college so I passed that. I decided that it was then time to do a degree and then in between time something happened where I was all I was working for Whitbread at the time as an in house trainer for Beefeater and I wanted to sort of, sort of nurture that and there wasn't the training available so I ended up doing a post a PGCE after my degree and then ended up teaching for 16 years so I had a massive like time out and then all my entire family have always, always had their own business and there was always that sort of nagging at the back of my brain. I wanted to do my own business just to see A if I could do it and B to see if I can make it rock. So I started looking and then I found, I found one that was run by really successfully in the local area by an ex head teacher and his wife. And they were. They spoke my language at the time completely. And then by accident, it's almost like the planets aligned. I found this one and the people had it were ready for retiring. He hadn't been very well and they'd literally run all their trade down. It was doing minimal. In fact, it wasn't. We couldn't even finance a mortgage on it at all. So we had to. Yeah, look outside. That's a whole nother story. We did it eventually, but they weren't keen. And yeah, when we, when we finally got going, I think post. Post Covid, we were, as. I put in a bit, my notes here, tickling the vat, not the V. Yeah, the VAT threshold. So, yeah, it's worked out. It's really well, so. Madness. Complete madness.

This has been really fun, Jordan and I knew it would be fun times flown on here and yeah, I've definitely picked up, first of all, the, you know, the hospitality feeling, you know, like, I can see you're an awesome host. And also the fact that if there's any marketing that you haven't tried, if you're listening to this, just go, no, I don't do Google Ads or I don't find out Facebook or I don't do any marketing. Well, everybody can do it. And this is something which I know that you want to share. So the last thing for yourself, Georgina, is, is there A, anyone you want to give a shout out to and then B, do you have a mantra for us to, to see us, see us off?

Oh, gosh, yeah. I want to shout out to Jamie, he's my husband, who puts up with me. He's a quiet one of the team, you know, so he's like, oh, God, what she done now? And the great team of. Of lecturers and my fel at Manchester Metropolitan University who are doing the MSc in digital marketing Communications. What an eye opener that's been. What a blast. So, yeah, that's good. So mantra, definitely. Never give up. Just never give up.

Nice. I've definitely got that from. From this podcast. And thank you so much for sharing your journey. I've certainly learned things and I hope you listening to this have done as well. If there's people you know who get value from the Boostly podcast, please share this with them and come and carry on the conversation on the Facebook hospitality community. Quick, search on there or find us and you can come and join other hosts in the community and ask questions and yeah, thank you so much, Georgina. This has been really fun. We'll see everybody on the next podcast.

Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee because it's so hard. And the tea is loose leaf. Making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.