Standing Out in STR: How Yhangry is Revolutionizing Guest Experiences with Private Chefs

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Okay, welcome back to the Boostly podcast is the podcast gives you the hosts, the tools, the tactics, the training and most of all the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. We talk about increasing your bookings no matter how you operate, no matter the size of your business. And one thing that we were talking about earlier on on the panel this week was that you need to stand out from the crowd. You need to offer things that your competition may not offer. And that is what we're going to be talking about today. A way that you can stand out from the rest of your competition and ultimately offer your guests something a bit different and something which they may take advantage of. So we've got a special guest with us today. We've got Siddhi from it's Whyhangri and it's a great service which you are going to enjoy hearing about and we're going to dive in. So welcome along. Thank you for joining me.

Thank you, Liam. So excited to be here.

So the first question I love to ask on these is what would you like the listener to take away from this episode?

So the one key thing that I learned recently at all the conferences was that SDR industry, this is the very first time ever since 08 where there is oversupply and the focus is back on demand. So if you are in the STR space and looking to compete against hotels, you really have to focus on the guest experience. And a very core part of a hotel is little breakfast, little food. It's easy. So if you are a property manager, offer that to your guests and I'm here to help you with that.

Awesome. This feels like a great segue into tell us about why hangry. How did it come about and what is the service and why is it important to you? There's quite a few questions there.

I know, I'll simplify it. So we started around four years ago, very much because everyone in this world says this thing in a dream pisses me off. They say private chefs are so expensive, it's unaffordable. And it bothers me because what they don't know is restaurant chefs barely earn any money. They make minimum wage, they have mental health issues and they're trapped behind the kitchen. They earn like 20 to 24k a year. It's actually like a very terrible life. So guys, come on. Everyone can afford a private chef and it actually costs less than a restaurant. You save on the markup of drinks, you have a higher quality time with your friends and family and the chef's happier. So it's like a win, win, win. That's why we started, why Henry. It just is a no brainer. Chefs will actually earn three times more they would than a restaurant and they Work like twice a week rather than like every single day. So it's kind of crazy. It's changing the life for chefs. Kind of like how when Airbnb started it created the STR industry and then host started earning money. So it's kind of the same thing we're doing now. Why is this relevant? We did start off as a consumer company, so we kind of went viral. People would post about it on Insta and all this stuff. But we realized more than half of our bookings now are coming in the STR space. But kind of wild. And I kind of thought about it and it made sense. People go on a vacation, they get a really nice home. Why are they going to leave that and go to a restaurant nearby? It just makes no sense. You want to make use of this beautiful house and that's where we come in. So with Y Hindi and we're doing a lot of product iterations, but guests, let's say when they. And I'm sorry, I use Airbnb very loosely and I know in this industry that probably isn't the right thing to do. But let's say in a house or country house, imagine if someone booked this. You should be able to book food for your family and kids. You should be able to order breakfast delivery. You should be able to have a celebratory dinner with a master chef that costs just 70 pounds per person. So all of these things Viking we can take care of. It's no fast, no cost to you, no tech integration. We do all the heavy lifting. You just need to spend five minutes adding us to your website. That's what we do.

That's cool. So how does White Hangry help both the host and more importantly their guest? What is it? What is the pain point that you're solving for hosts? Why do so many use the service?

See, you know, this is fun. I was looking to book one day of a staycation with my husband and I started saying, oh my gosh, let me just book a short term catering property because I'm now in this industry. Then unfortunately I gave up. I realized I don't know how we're going to get food, what we're going to do. There are no experiences. And I think we went back towards the hotel, we went back towards Soho Farmhouse that has a couple of restaurants. Just something to do. And the choice customers are making. It is not just about booking the place, it's about having the optionality to have an experience. So as a host, you are delivering, helping people create memories. And when a person comes to your direct website, let's say, which I know boostly facilitates. People are looking, people are like, what are the things on offer? Imagine clay pigeon shooting. That's amazing. They might never book it, but they want to know that they can. Like they have the option and people are lazy. But people need to know there's availability of stuff to do. And I think that's kind of the point because now people care a lot about experiences. And also I say the second thing I think stay somewhere and leave and that's cool. But how do you really deliver a six star experience? And I think when you offer amazing service in your sort of goes, oh my God, I had such a good time. You have really kind of yourselves in their brains which increases retention, word of mouth, virality. So it's just good for business.

Oh, 100%. And this is the one thing that I've picked up on there is especially is that standing out. People are so looking for experiences now. And this is what we're seeing more and more that it's not just. We had Brian on from overlooked to overbooked and he was talking about how you've got to create moments. He's more or less marketing, photography, business.

This is Ryan Chesky and Airbnb.

Exactly. You've got this as Brian on there, but it was all about how do you create these moments. And if you can show, like you said, clay pigeon shooting or if you can show, hey there, there is food on offer, there's things to do, then you're instantly removing from the guest point of view some of the decision making stuff that they need to, you know, need to do. And from the host point of view, this is something which I see time and time again. And we were talking about it, as I say on this panel recently, where it's very difficult to align the experiences to the guests and display it in the best way. So anything that makes that easier is we're all for it as hosts. And I'm sure that's why so many.

People I'd love to share a little fact story which I think will come across for surprising people. So people always ask me, okay, great. So should I just add this in the booking confirmation for guests? And I say that's crazy. Why would you do that so late? So when people come to us, they haven't even decided on the property yet. They're actually still evaluating. And I know that because people say I'm going to book a holiday home, I'm looking for a chef, but they don't give me the postcode they give me the city say, okay, I'm looking in Somerset and they haven't decided. Are they going with the Airbnb? Are they looking, Is it travel chapter? Is it an independent local? Because they know they're booking a chef. So imagine if on your website you already had a chef. You would have stood out because you would have been like, oh my God, these guys do everything. And I feel like it also increases conversion for your own bookings. And I'll share another story. I was going to Tulum with like a group of six people and we were like, what do we book? What do we book? Kind of want an Airbnb maybe, maybe not a hotel. And then on Airbnb it said, private chef available, hometown, the hotel. And then they were like, yep, the chef can come make you breakfast, lunch, dinner. Oh my God, that is amazing. And it's all included and like, you know, we'll pay for a raid. And it just made me want to book that listing right then and there because it offered me more than just sleep. I can sleep anywhere. So I think it's interesting because people are evaluating conversion might increase just by having a full package offer.

Yeah, definitely. I like you say just all those experiences in one will encourage, encourage more people to book. But one thing as a host which plays my mind, should I just be offering this kind of thing in the high end places or should we be spreading it across all, all home types? I mean, we in the industry, we have like midterm stays, we have experience. Yeah. Should we do it across the whole, whole portfolio?

So let me give you one anecdotal example. Someone who had a night stay of £400 between 10 people. So let's say they're paying £40 night split between 10 people, they booked a chef for £1,000 and the chef can be way higher. Why? You've already paid for the trip, now you're kind of tagging on more experiences and people get loser with what they can spend. And obviously I'm not saying this is going to be the case with everyone. However, now if you imagine two people, they go on a date night, you might just think, oh, they're not going to book a chef. Well, what are they going to do? Imagine if they could do a cooking class in their home and then have like a very nice interactive dinner and that just keep out the whole dinner. And that's their anniversary celebration. That's incredible. Also imagine if you are two parents and you go with your kids running around your holiday, yet you have to now hunt for food cooked. What if you could just have some delivery? And it costs like £150 to have food delivered for the full day for you, your husband, for your kids. So I think we have something at a lot of price ranges and we're making our product better by the day. But this is not an exclusive product. Like I said, people think private chefs are so expensive. It really is the same cost as restaurant delivery sometimes and a restaurant. So I would encourage you to offer no matter the stage or the bedroom size, because our chefs can do a lot of things and it's not just celebration dinners.

That's cool. So I get the reason why guests would want it because the more, more amenities, more services, I get the reason why hosts would want to offer it because. Because it's a point of difference from their competition. And if there's a service which makes things easier, why wouldn't they do it? I guess the next question is, how easy is it to do? Is this something which the host needs to sign up or is this something which the guest just needs to go on? How does that work?

I love it. Great question. No one needs to do anything. Why? He does all the heavy lifting. So as a host, you literally can just add in one sentence here, check out a private check for the best rates. Here you get a unique affiliate link. Once someone clicks on that link, people, guests come onto our website. That's where they add a request that make the booking. We can track all these things and we can attribute it back to the host and the host can get a kickback. So the guest does land on our website, but we're able to track all the metrics and actually we say like high touch, middle touch, low touch, but we have all the data and we pass it back towards our host and we set up the link for them, also make the payment. So you literally all you have to do is add a line thing here, book a private check and hyperlink it. That's kind of it.

Awesome. That's what we like. And as you just mentioned there, so this, the, the host gets commissioned from doing this as well, so their life gets easier and they get money. Is that right?

And they're not doing anything. There is something called free lunch.

I like it. I like the thing. Very, very good. Very good with the fun.

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I guess one of the things which I guess this is mindset more than anything else, but I always think of when we're offering services as host is sometimes quite hard. The portfolios might be quite large, they might be in quite rural areas where there might not be as many options. Especially I'm in a place, you know, I'm in Norfolk, so it's quite a rural community in general. But is it something which is offered? Is this England wide, UK wide, worldwide? Where do you cover and where is it? Is it sometimes difficult to find those services in those places? What do you do in those instances?

Great question. So we're all across UK, we currently have 4,000 plus chefs, way more than we actually need. So we have a 10x larger network of chefs just waiting to start getting jobs. We have so many chefs, so we spoil for choice. So yes, when we started it was harder, but we really figured out how to get checks to these areas. I would say the only place where it gets really hard, admittedly is I think there's something called the Isle of Something where when you go there, you have to get up on a boat and once I was telling a property, don't worry, a chef can get there. And they were like, even if they get a boat, where are they going to stay? And I was, okay, this is really hard. So I feel like even that's possible. You know, it's a lunch booking, but away from really weird places to get to. Chefs can drive, no issues. Chefs can get there. We have a very robust network. And I think one other thing, farming holes. Try to do it themselves. And they're like, I'll just recommend a local chef. And they really focus on locality and they want to feel very like, cool. And they're like, no, we're not going to use a platform. I think they're kind of missing a big point here. A chef busy a lot of the key days and the chef is going to be unresponsive. What human being. What then ends up happening is if a customer contacts the chef, they're unresponsive. The customer is going to be like, sake, like, I'm done. Like, people don't have time. We know that because for every single request, we actually map the request to 30 plus chefs. And that's what ensures that within the first hour, a customer can get up to three responses. And if they don't get a response, the chance of booking a chef drops ridiculously. So I think all I'll say is if as a property host you're thinking, oh no, I'll just curate my local supply. It's actually probably a terrible. It's very different saying here is a restaurant you can go to, the restaurant will most likely always give you a reservation. But if you're offering a local service provider, that is a frustrating experience. So please don't do that or try not to do it. You know, if not really a win win for anyone.

Do you know you've, you've hit the nail on the head of exactly why I think most people struggle. And there was a stat which came out. I can't remember where we saw this. This is one, one of the industry surveys which goes out to a lot of hosts. I think 4,000 hosts were interviewed and the number one add on sale that people do is late checkout or early check in. Easy enough to do, right? You know, when the property's ready. But one of the things that one of the lowest ones was offering private chefs and things like that because. And I looked at that and I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Because most hosts do exactly that. They're busy trying to get more properties, they're busy looking after guests. They're busy doing all this and then on the side they try and go, well, I'll offer that private chef and I'll just. Yeah. And because it's just one person on one date and things like that, that doesn't work. Which is where a service like why Hungry comes in. Like, you know, it means that there's more depth because you've got, like you say you've got many chefs who are willing to travel and actually, you know, your focus is on getting more chefs and more people to the right places where the host to do what they need to do, which is really cool. So what's been the biggest wow moment so far? How long has this been going and what's been the biggest wow moment?

So I think some key things that I forgot to mention before. So we've been on Dragon's Den, which was very fun. We also have been funded by Y Combinator, where Airbnb came out of guesty was funded. It's a part of Y Combinator, so a couple of big unicorns are just fun. What's really exciting is our customers are everywhere. It's B2C company. It's really fun being a part of something that touches customers and chef's lives. However, I would say the most exciting thing has happened in the past month, basically, as I stumbled right into the SDR industry, been blown away by just how many stories there are. So we threw this super exclusive dinner for executives in the industry and Mark was there from Boostly. It was also like Alistair from pasc, Fiona from afsc, Andy from Staa. We had like David from One Fine Stay. We had Kate and Tom Cleave Strauss. So we just had like a very cool crew, to be honest. There's like Sally from Key Data. Like all the cool kids were there and we had obviously limited seats, so not everyone could be invited. And you know the question I asked, I asked everyone, this is a safe space. Can everyone just stand up and 30 seconds. Tell me one war story that came out from your hosting. Oh, my God, Liam. I can't take names. It blew my mind. The stories included murder, prostitution, a customer eating a duck, accidentally thinking it was a welcome gift. So they picked up a duck from the garden. A customer requesting a chicken to be brought to their property because the chicken is their friend and they wanted to spend the weekend with the chicken. These, like, someone tailing and like finding a guest trying to get them to prison. It was wild. Like, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in this industry and it actually is so cool to be able to witness that firsthand and to realize that, you know, everyone really is putting up with some crazy stuff that there's no playbook for. So I would say in the most recent memory, that was incredible. I can't wait for another one of those dinners. But it was actually incredible getting to know the story.

That's amazing. There's some. Some heavy hitters at that table as well. It's amazing. Amazing guest list. But in general, and I'm sure as. As people are listening to this, that they can go, yeah, I've got some horror stories, maybe not murder. I mean, that one's pretty, pretty dark.

Oh, my God. I know.

It's a scary one. But ultimately, yeah, anything can happen in hospitality at any time. So I'm going to switch that question around now. Instead of the biggest wow moment, what has been the biggest challenge and how have you overcome it? Or how do you plan to overcome it, depending on where you are with the challenge.

Took me back with a question. Biggest challenge. You know, I am pausing for so long because I don't think there is one big challenge, Liam. I just think in running a business, there's just so many challenges every day, all the time, and it really is focused. So I think actually that answers a question. The biggest challenge is there's so many exciting things to be done. There are partnerships, there are less. Like fundraising. They're like, all these things we can be doing, how can we do the one thing that will make this business grow the fastest possible, make the most money, but touch, like, kind of like have the best experience for everyone involved? And that's really hard. And I think I'm saying every business owner probably gets that. It's like, how do you focus on what is the most important? Not just because things are fun. And it seems like in the SDR space at this time, it is all about getting demand. So it just sounds like I get it because for me now it's the opposite. It's all about focusing on the SDR space. So we actually have a very big consumer side of our business, which has grown rapidly, like 8x over the past year. We've broken even. Like, things are going really well. We are actually pseudo soft key not to focus on it. And I think that's like a big challenge because we want to do everything. Like, so many amazing things are coming that way, but I think it's focused. So now that we've decided the space is important for us, it's like saying no to a lot of opportunities on the customer side just to focus on the str space.

Actually, I like that answer. Yeah, There's a mentor of mine said say no to grow sometimes. And you reminded me of a book called Clockwork by Michalowitz. His name is. And it's a great book because it talks about. Identify your question. Queen bee role. You know, like in a hive. There's one most important thing. Not everything is equal. And what is that? You know, which way are you going to grow? Is it. Is it to grow the customers, you know, like and to really identify it? And I, I know it's something which resonates with hosts in general because obviously for, for small hosts, often they're the marketer, the accountant, the, the person on sales. You know, they're all, all these things. So it definitely will resonate and I think it transcends all, all businesses. So what are you excited about? The future? Where is this going to go? Where is whyhangri going to go?

So like I have kind of no doubt that we will be the go to company and partner for sort of the str industry worldwide in a very short amount of time simply because no one's doing this. In order to do this really well, you need great chef quality supply. Your product needs to be awesome. You really need to understand the space. So yeah, I want to be the biggest, largest partner here and helping them compete with hotels globally. And also I also see this as like a very big consumer brand because everyone who finds out about why hengry. We've also by the way seen that someone finds out about Yingry. Let's search through your direct website. Then they decide. Actually my brighting trip is now canceled, but not coming at my place. Oh my God, let me book Bahingary. So actually funnily enough, the host still gets the kickback commission for that and then the customer goes and books it at their home. Our B2C moment, you know. So this will be a very big consumer brand across the world because this is something people love. It's very irl. It creates memories. And honestly, on your deathbed are you going to worry about like AI tools that were being built or are you just going to think about. I'm so glad I got to spend time with my family. So I feel like in the world where AI is so big, there is such a big space for IRL and memories and like having all the hard which is where we come in.

I think that sentiment really rings true. I mean everybody goes on holiday not to, you know, they're not going, hey, this logically makes sense to go there. Obviously I'll form part of it. But they're thinking, emotionally think, how will I feel when I stay there? How even if it's a business trip, I say this to people, that ultimately people are still going. How will I feel? Will it feel safe? Will it, will it feel, you know, like how I want to feel? Will, will there be parking? Will it be convenient? You know, and all these things come through which sound logical but ultimately bookings are done with emotion and that's where having these extra services and where you can offer these private chefs and people go, ah, this is cool. You know that, that, that has a big influence on, on if people book things. Which is, which is, you know, I really like that answer. So really important. There's, there's two more questions which I want to ask. The first one is the most important because I want to know where we can come and find out more information. If I'm a host, where do I go and sign up? And then the last one will be more one which will leave us with some inspiration. So how do we find out more about your service?

Amazing. Www.yhengui.com and there is a little thing called partners at the bottom or to be Honest, just email partnershengui.com. just get in touch with us, email us wherever, we'll send you the information. And I think the one thing I want to add here is we're currently paying millions of dollars to Facebook and Google to acquire a customer that's coming to your property. I would love to pay that millions and then soon billions back into the actual SDR industry. And one other stat for a property manager, venue owner, whoever can pay you close to 50 to 100 pounds per booking in pure profit. That is insane. And that can be like extra 40 to 50k a year just doing nothing. And that can mean like 20 uptick on your profit. So actually it's just like so much of a no brainer. But yeah, find out about us, email partners.com and we can set you up with everything.

I'm excited because ultimately it makes sense, right? You know like there's no work for, for the, for the owner, there's commission coming in and ultimately these people are going to be paying someone, somewhere some, some money for these type things. And the number one thing we're seeing is that you know, unfortunately people don't go out and drink and eat as much they used to because they're doing it in their own homes. And this is where they've booked a nice Space with us as hosts in the short term rental space and they will, like you say, want to make use of that. So if they've got the ability to have chef come in, then there's going to be lots more take up. You can, you can already see this is going to be a big thing that people are going to do more of that as time goes on. And I find this very cool. So the last question that, that I'd like to ask is obviously this, this business is amazing. You've, you've got something great here, entrepreneurial. What advice would you give to anybody who's just started their short term rental business? In general. So general business advice. What one piece of advice would you like to say to anybody listening on that?

If it's fine. I follow this one. Recently, it's a little bit wacko, but always try to find a back door. And what I mean by this is there is a lot of competition at the front door. If you think of a club like there's line is in Spain, you're not going to get in unless you know the coolest kid, the bouncer, whatever. You're not getting into the coolest club in town. However, if you just figured out a way to climb a back door, you can get in, you can get in as a waiter, you can get in as like a trash cleaner. There's a way and the back door for like your creativity and how crazy. You can think of all the different possibilities out there. And I think this applies to getting into university. This applies to like cold emailing someone. I am amazing at cold emails and it wasn't because I was born with it. I just realized it's all about stories. You need to draft a message that if someone sent to you, you will reply, period. And I feel like people don't understand. It's not about, oh, how do I do this? It's like just get out there, you know, send those hundred messages. With every message, get better, someone's going to come back to you, do that crazy thing which you think can't do. Just think. But yeah, I would just say just use the back door, find the back doors because there's one front door but there's so many back doors and there is no competition at the back door.

I like that. So, you know, think differently about how to get into the industry. And a bit like this where you say most people, the traditional route here is one chef, one private chef that you're trying to go after will actually create this. You've created the system which allows everybody to access that kind of service, which is amazing. So thank you so much for your time on this podcast. And if you're listening to this and there's somebody, another host who needs to know about why Hangry, then you can check out the show notes. It's in the show notes. Or you can go to the website Citi Citi. Can you just give that website one more time so we know exactly where we've got to go?

Absolutely. Www.the letter y hangry h a n g r y dot com. So just type in yhangri or just type in UK's number one pilot chef dragons Den. And the first link will be.

Ah, awesome. I love it. Thank you so much for your time and we look forward to seeing where Yhangry is. And hopefully we can have you back on in years to come as it grows.