The Easiest Way to Connect with Corporate Clients

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, and indeed the training and of course, the confidence so you can go out there to get more direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan. I'm Mark Simpson's co host. And today we are going behind the host, we've got Vivian Yip on, and she is a interesting host who is trying out a really cool new feature for the websites, but also who's got a great backstory to share as well. So welcome along. Vivian. Thank you for being here.

Thanks, Liam. I'm very excited to be here with Boostly Podcast.

Well, for those who are listening on the podcast and can't see the YouTube background, obviously the name of your business in the background, but if you wanted to give yourself an introduction where your business is in the world and what sort of business model that you run, Sure.

I live in Austin, Texas, and I have been focused in the midterm rental space now since 2020. And we are starting something very new and exciting here along with Boostly as our tech support. And we're starting a corporate rentals website where we can offer, you know, connect people that offer midterm stays like super hosts on Airbnb and connect them with insurance contracts, relocation specialists, and just offering this really cool membership program to come on board and do the midterm stays.

Cool. We're going to dive more into that. How did you get into hospitality in the first place? How did all this come about?

Well, this goes back to when I was 17 years old and I'm 43 now, but I got a job at a hotel when I was living in Hong Kong, and that was my first taste of hospitality. And ever Since I was 17, I've just loved hospitality. But over time, you know, the idea of trying to buy a hotel just baffled me. Like, how do you even come up with the money for that? So, you know, along comes Airbnb, and I think the model is great for someone that is interested in both real estate and hospitality. So I bought my first property in the northern suburbs of Austin back in 2019. It was a distressed property. Put my magic on it and flipped it into this gorgeous Airbnb and we did really great with it. Loved hospitality still. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and put my business to a halt. And that's when I changed into the midterm model and learned that it's actually a thing I kept. I got bookings and it was. It was a great model for me.

So that moment where you went into a mid stay, sort of where you pivoted into mid stay. How did you do that? Was there certain steps that you had to take? I mean, obviously it was was felt, you know, that you had to change during that Covid period. But what were the steps involved in doing so?

Well, first of all, I was threatened by, even though I had a strict cancellation policy, I was very threatened by the fact that Airbnb was canceling people's reservations, regardless of whatever your policy was. And you know, at the end of the day I still have a mortgage to pay. So I snoozed my listing and was adamant that I wasn't going to let anyone else dictate my revenue but me. So I snoozed my listing and my husband's a realtor, so he helped me put my listing on the mls, the multiple listing service as a furnished corporate rental and also put it on furnish finders. And luckily for me, because I was not, I was one of the only properties I think at the time operating around Rock. I got a three month booking for a family that was building a home in that area and then I got a seven month booking for a construction team that was coming in from Dallas to, you know, do a longer term stay and they're working on a project. So I snooze my listing and I listed it on two other places and I managed to get two direct bookings that way.

Amazing. We love direct bookings here. Was there anything or any aspects of your properties that had to change to suit the more. I guess what I'm asking is did the amenities, were the amenities different, the needs for the midstay instead of the short term stay?

Luckily for me, because I was, I already considered myself a professional short term rental host. I put a lot of thoughtfulness in the property already and I didn't have a lot of gimmicks like pool tables or anything like that. So I didn't really have to change much. But if I had to redo it again, I think I would definitely have put better beds in it. I probably would not have spent money on a disco ball. I had a disco ball hanging from the ceiling just, you know, as a fun, cute amenity. And I think I would have allowed pets.

Nice, nice. Why, why the pets have interest just to dive into that?

Well, you know, a lot of the people that come into midterm stays are usually impacted by insurance or they have, they're relocating as a family. And you know, when you come to a place like Austin, almost everybody has an animal, right? Either a cat or a dog. And I think it's a super dog friendly place. So I would say, you know, a lot of my bookings or a lot of the families that come do come with their, their fur friends, their fur family, 100%.

And that is something which is worth thinking about, as you say, before you even set up the, the property. Because I'm a host myself and, and one of the things that I've noticed, exactly what you say there is that when people are staying for insurance reasons, you know, you get a big lead and they're like, oh yeah, it was two adults, they want to stay for, for four months while their house is being renovated or whatever it is. But there's one thing, they've got a cat. And you're just like, oh no, we don't take pets. You know, for whatever reason, especially the people who are doing, listening in, doing arbitrage and stuff like that, it's really important that you try and find places which are accepting of, of pets. If you're targeting those mid stays.

We had an opportunity to match one of our clients with a nine month insurance day, but because they had three small dogs, they turn down the opportunity. And that could have been extremely lucrative.

Yeah, that is. And at the end of the day, these long stays, you don't need to get as many. Obviously short term stays, you're having to continually fight to get them. But these big blocks which are blocking out months at a time, you know, you don't really need like four, six a year, do you know, I mean, that sort of thing. And you can always fill them with short term stays if there's gaps in between. So one of the things I'd love to ask is what has been the biggest success so far in the business? The biggest wow moment.

Ooh, the biggest. There's probably a few. The first wow moment was selling my Round Rock short term rental. I quit my job because I lost all my hair from stress. So I needed to sell that property so that I had something to fall back on. And what surprised me was that I reinvested that money. Funny enough, I sold it, but then I ended up reinvesting it because I had a chance to. I reinvested all that money into a duplex. And it was in the city of Austin, which is, you know, obviously the values are higher, but it was again, a distressed property that I was able to renovate and make it nice and pretty again. And what really surprised me about that was I love small multifamily because Even if one side's not rented, the other side is still paying for it. And in a midterm model, that can be very lucrative. So that was definitely a good surprise.

For me, especially with the duplex. Am I right in thinking we don't really have duplexes here in the uk, but I'm right in thinking you can let both sides of it if needed or if not the, or just individual units, is that right?

Yes. So I, we consider them, it's basically like two single family homes adjoined by a wall. And so this particular duplex that I bought, I've turned, I've renovated both sides and I've turned both sides into a midterm rental and it's done very well.

Let's flip that question around now as well. So that's the, the biggest success was sort of like you say, selling that on and moving into, you know, getting this duplex. What was the biggest challenge along the way so far?

Oh, let me think. The biggest challenge really just try to navigate around the market saturation here in Austin. There's a lot of Airbnb listings here, so you've really have to find a way to differentiate yourself in this business, which now we have six midterm rentals and I've developed a brand to help differentiate our properties from the rest of them out there. You know, with the midterm stay, our amenities are a bit different than short term rentals. Some people in the short term rental space might not really care about the kind of beds they offer and they might buy a $300 one of those roll up beds that ship from Amazon. Whereas we really focus on nice beds. You know, we have 20 $400 mattresses in our, in our units. Right. So that, that sleep and luxury sleep experience is important to our guests. So I want to differentiate that with a brand. So that's, you know, the, you can see behind me, Hestia is the Greek goddess of hospitality. So you'll see those on our listings that you know, when you see that, you can recognize that that is a midterm brand.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct, two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books Right now the foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint and then for 101 marketing tactics, that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a Copy on Amazon. Now just type in Book Direct playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

That's cool. And having a good brand, a strong brand like yours, Vivian, is, is one of those things which can encourage people to come off the OTAs, which we, I'm sure we're going to dive into.

Yes.

So let's go for it then. Let's dive into general sort of tips and hospitality. Let's take a step back. How do you find the locations that work for, for short term rentals or for midterm rentals?

So I think that midterm rentals work really well in urban markets, just like in real estate. If you're a real estate investor. For me the, the, the golden rule of location, location, location still stands. I know it's extremely cliche, but when you're close to those major highways, you're close to major employers, you're close to good schools and you're close to, you know, hospitals, those four key factors can really help you in becoming a successful midterm rental. Because that's why people stay in midterm rentals. They, they work at hospitals or they work at big companies and they're relocating. You know, just that, that rules just really worked out for us.

That's cool. And it definitely shows, you know, like you say, just picking those right locations, you know, be the success of the business and.

Right.

One of the things that we've mentioned obviously is, is branding. And what tips would you have for somebody listening who might be a new host? How has having that good brand and niching down helped your business and what advice would you want to give them?

I think just, you know, if you have more than one property, try to deliver a consistent stay. A consistent stay that resonates with what your values are and that will help you in developing what your brand is about. So for me, I really like modern sort of mid century modern looks. I love live plants, really big beautiful couches, luxury beds, things like that. So that's what, that's what my brand is about. So if you have a brand that's really into maybe the big maximalism kind of properties with lots of art and lots of throw blankets, you know, then develop a brand around that. And that way when they see your name and your brand and that listing, they know that's exactly what they're going to get. So definitely pick something that's, you know, close to you, that you're passionate about.

I love that. That definitely resonates with me because I do. I mean, you know, like I say I manage for other people and some of the things you see when you're managing for, for other people is that the styles might be a little bit different, but it is finding those brand values, like you say, those things which come through every time, is it consistent, the guest journey, do they get the same information? Are we suggesting local family run businesses to go and check out while they're staying with us? Stuff like that. So yeah, I really like that.

When I, when I was thinking about branding, I was thinking about like when I go on a, on a website like Expedia or Booking or whatever, like if I see a JW Marriott or Ritz Carlton hotel, I automatically think of that elevated luxury experience, right. Or if I see a Hyatt or Hilton, I know it's the better but not the best. Or if I see a Super 8 that I know that's low budget or La Quinta, whatever, it just, it sets you apart and it delivers an expectation. So I think that was really important. As I was thinking about marketing and, and branding.

That's great advice, great advice especially to remain memorable, you know, and especially if people come and stay in not just one, but another one of your properties. If having that same experience, if it feels the same, then they've got that confidence, haven't they? To rebook. Consistency is something which Marriott Hotels is, is known for, isn't it? That's right, yeah. Their brand. So great point. Let's talk tech. In your business, what would you say is the sort of key pieces of tech you use, whether you Name1 or 2, and then we'll deep dive into, into the website as well, which I'm.

Eager to do well with six of my own properties and managing several others. The saving grace for me is having a PMS system. And you know, I looked at four major PMS players when I was trying to move off, you know, the Airbnb platform and I was frustrated that I was managing communications from Airbnb and VRBO and having to log into different accounts and whatnot. A PMS system was definitely something that really, you know, kept my sanity. So I ended up choosing ownerrez. And ownerrez has been great for me because in the midterm rental space you want to make sure that you are covered from a legal standpoint. And one of the great things about owner res is that when they, when the guest books either on VRBO or on Airbnb or even direct, they are led down a valley of legal agreements, right? There's One legal agreement that they have to sign, and that's a legal agreement between the guest and my property and me. In addition, they upload their ID as part of the access as part of the, the agreement. That way, you know, even though the booking came from Airbnb, they're still having to do those things. And I own a rental agreement and I can now verify the ID myself to make sure that that matches the rental agreement. So that's been a really important part. When you go into midterm stays, you want to make sure you're very careful with who you're booking to. You want to, you know, ensure that the person that's staying in your property is actually representing the ID representative of the ID that you get because you don't want to get into squatting issues or tenant tenant eviction problems. The other thing that I use is Price Labs. Price Labs has been really important for me for controlling my calendar. Some of my properties are in the outskirts of Austin. That way I, I'm not in the permitted area and I can, you know, switch between using a midterm model and a short term model. And that that's been really helpful to maximize revenue.

Yeah, I really like that because it is just so important having that flexibility and knowing that during the off season you can just put somebody in for midterm stays and then perhaps during the high season, if it's the right kind of property, you can get the maximum revenue for some of the stays, which is.

Yeah. And even, even more important is if, you know, midterm stays, they might end on the 20th of the month and your next month, your next one might only start on the 5th. So now you have like this 15 day window of no occupancy. So then you can use Price Labs and you can set those minimum days to, to two days or three days each and then you can fill your calendar.

That's cool. And just backing up to owner as well is, is One of the PMSs that we're partnered with here at Boostly. And it is a fantastic pms. The fact that you can do what you need to do to vet people, you know, verify your guests before they come and stay is so important. And still not every PMS has got that, you know, that is, is something which is so important, especially if you're looking to, if you're thinking of this as a business, which short term rentals and midterm rentals should be considered a business, not just a side hustle. But I'm talking more for the, the host who are listening who's just got like one on the side is you don't need to have all these amazing systems, you just need to have one good. Like you say pms, which will cover a lot of. A lot of the boxes will be ticked then.

Correct. I actually outgrew Hospital. I was on hospital before. But you know, when I was looking at the Boostly tech and how the API works, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't trying to update, you know, Boostly and trying to update my listings. I wanted to have something that was fully integrated and hands free. Which is why when I looked at the. I think it was like you have a website that's kind of maps out the API capabilities. And Owner had one of the highest capabilities with Boostly, which is the reason why I went with Boostly. And even though Hostfully and Guesty offer a great product as well, their price point was a little bit hard for me to digest. I thought that Ownerz was a really good, good price point for me.

You know what this. I discovered something today, actually, I mean from Hostfully, is that they do charge a 1% on top of my direct booking fees. I didn't realize they were charging that on top of the stripe fees, which not all PMSs do. And we're partnered with Postfully at Boostly. But it's one of those things where the differences between different PMSS is so important to find PMSS which fit for your needs and what you want to do as a business. Because midterm stage there's going to be a lot of direct bookings. You know, I mean, it's just so important, isn't it, to not have that sort of cost. So when it comes down, this, this is a great chance to talk about the website you've mentioned. You know, that was the reason that you looked into Boostly was the API connection and with the checklist. By the way, anybody who's listening, if you do want to send us a message here at Boostly, just send a message to coachly.co.uk and I'll send you that checklist that Vivian's mentioned there. When it comes down to the website, how is it going for you, first of all, with the website and is there any features that you particularly like and that is working well for you?

I think that I was really pleasantly surprised with how my Boostly experience has gone when I first signed up with Boostly. I was expecting just to have a direct booking website, but over the course of time it seems like Mark has done some research and development on his end to incorporate a new sort of tech to add, to enhance the Boostly experience. And I signed on as their global tester to, you know, see how we can make this a thing for Boostly. I'm really excited about this because I've done, you know, I, I actually come from Apple. I spent seven years at Apple and I did quite a bit of continuous innovation projects there and you know, several of them had to do with a lot of user experience testing and acceptance testing. So this was right in my alley and now I have this and I'm the only one that I know of that has this Boostly website where I can bring other people's websites on board and I can charge them a subscription for it. And the value proposition is that I bring in the, the insurance contracts, I network with the, you know, realtors in the city, you know, I, I use my network and relationship building to drive traffic to the website. That website organically has grown onto the first page of Google search results because of the name and that's Corporate Rentals Austin, which I'm really excited about and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen. We've only been live on for about two and a half months, so there's still a lot of things to come and I'm, you know, very hopeful and positive on what, what we'll see in the future.

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, 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.

Nice, nice. I mean that new technology that you've mentioned that allows you to kind of scrape in people's listings onto your website and charge that subscription. That's a whole new revenue stream for you. Do you know what I mean? That's a cool new revenue stream for you. And the nice thing is about this is there's a book by a guy called Daniel Priestley, well worth checking out, which is called KPI, Key Person of Influence and all of A sudden you've positioned yourself as the key person of influence for all these other hosts. They see people who are able to have their, their listings, their website, onto your website and that makes you the go to person, which then opens up even more opportunities, which is, which is so cool. So I'm really pleased and I'm excited to see how you know where this all leads to. And I'm just made up for you that you're now on the first page of Google because that's such important real estate place to be, isn't it?

Yeah, I mean, digital real estate is super important. And you know, like going back to the KPI thing, the key person of influence. I actually haven't heard of this yet, but you know, I've, I've spent the last five years in real estate here in Austin. And you know, a lot of people know me because I'm bald, right? I'm this bald person that walks around with confidence, I guess, and I'm easily recognizable, number one. Number two, I've developed a lot of relationships with realtors, with investors. I also lead a women's real estate group. We're over a thousand women on meetup. So, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of networking that I do to drive the business to the website. And I, you know, we're just at the very beginning right now and I, and I think it could be something really big in a year's time.

Do you know it makes it, it's part of your personal brand as well, do you know what I mean? As in it's part of your personal brand. You're very memorable, your energy levels are high, which is cool. And you know exactly what you want the business to be doing, which is so important that confidence exumerates from you. You know, that is, is really cool. So a couple more questions before we move on to some quick fire fun questions as we bring this to a close, which is who's in your team? Who is your, who's on your team and how do they help you?

Sure, I have a few key people, but I first want to shout out to Mark for recommending the who not how book. I didn't read it.

I still haven't read that.

I need to, I listened to it because, you know, after I did my master's degree, I'm like, I'm not picking up another book. So. But I have picked up a few books every now and then. But I try to listen to books and I, I finished listening to that book right after the new year. Started. And I think the universe was listening because someone had posted that their VA was dropped by another super host that, you know, closed down a bunch of listings, and now their VA was shut down and didn't have any income. So I snatched up the opportunity to interview this VA and, you know, I give them 20 hours a week to help me with the backend stuff that I need to do to set my new clients up on the website. I have another person named Jessica. She's amazing. She's my house manager, so she takes care of a lot of things that I can't take care of because I'm out there networking and building relationships. I have my husband who is super handy. Of course, he's my business partner as well when it comes to flipping houses. So he's definitely a key person in the business. And finally, I just hired on someone here locally who has local market expertise, and she starts on Monday. So, you know, the subscription money isn't just to pay me. Actually, it's not really paying me anything right now. I'm. I'm investing in this business out of my own pocket. The subscriptions are basically paying for someone to help me with the backend stuff while I go out and do the more strategic things.

That's cool, but you can see us all growing. And this is the cool thing that from. Yeah, small acorns grow big oaks, don't they? And this. This is the amazing things. And congratulations on the new hire. That's. That's amazing. The team is definitely growing. What is the future looking like for your hospitality business?

Well, I think it's important to grow the Hestia brand. I think that midterm stays are a thing and people don't know it yet. And Hestia is not just my properties. You can qualify as a Hestia home if it meets, you know, certain amenities and the quality of the property. If it meets that standard, then you can buy that branding package and become a Hestia home. Of course, you'll have to change your listing to show a few things, you know, to make it look so we have that consistent message across the board on all the listings. But, you know, anybody can be a Hestia home if they, you know, get their standards up to a certain quality. The other thing is, you know, corporate rentals Austin is just the tip of the iceberg. We are, you know, really a proof of concept market. You know, we're a startup here, but there's opportunities to do corporate rentals. Dallas corporate rentals, Phoenix Corporate rentals, Virginia. And I already own all those domains. So if anyone's interested in learning how to develop their own corporate rentals business, they can reach out to me as well.

That's cool. I'm sure we're going to have a few people reach out to you there because at the end of the day, it's a strong brand. And yeah, we'll share how you can get in touch with Vivian in just a moment. But before we do, we're going to do some quick fire, just some fun questions as we bring things to a close. So where would be your top travel destination anywhere in the world?

Well, my dream is already coming true in, in May. So I have, you know, I have a couple kids. I have a 10 year old and a 12 year old. And you know, of course, when you have younger kids, getting away overseas is quite a bit of a difficulty. So I'm extremely lucky that my best friend lives in Vietnam and I am able to pack my bags and leave my family behind so mommy can get a little bit of R and R. So I'll be going to Vietnam for 12 days and I'm really looking forward to all the food that I'm going to eat over there because at the end of the day, you know, I would say food is my number one passion, hospitality is number two.

I love it. Congratulations. That is, that's great. And to be able to get away and to relax, you've got your team obviously looking after things and. Yeah, that sounds really good. So congratulations.

Thank you.

What would you say is one either book, movie or podcast that everybody should check out? Who's listening?

Books, movie or podcast? Well, who, not how? Definitely. That's really changed my perspective. I'm already feeling the effects of that because when I finished that book, I hired the VA and that, you know, dollars per hour that I'm giving them frees up my time. And now I'm able to go to the gym. Something that I've been wanting to, you know, work on is my personal health. I've already lost eight pounds since the beginning of the year and I couldn't have done that without doing the who.

Not how I like it. If you had to pick a coach, mentor, or even a celebrity who you could have an hour of their time to get advice from. Who would you pick and why?

Wow. I know so many good people. But I had a very important call today with. I would loosely call her a mentor, but she's. Her name is Naya and she's amazing and she's really helped me think through a lot of A lot of business ideas from, you know, an attorney's perspective and from, you know, just from her experience, I really want to give a shout out to her because she's been so great to me. Yeah.

Well, thank you for that. Yeah. As we bring these to a close, the last question that we always love to ask our guests is, is there a motto or mantra or saying that, that you really believe in or one that resonates with you?

I will take this from flipping houses, because we flipped a lot of properties, essentially is if it can be solved with money, it's not a problem. So, you know, and I say this by, you know, if you've purchased your property at the right price and you have an issue with the roof or an issue with H vac, if you, if you can solve that with money, that's not a problem. What can be a problem is health issues or time or whatever it is. Right. So, you know, sometimes we get upset about things. Right. But at the end of the day, if you just think about it as if you can be solved with money, it's really not a problem. You can, you can find ways to fix it. Right. So, yeah, that's just mantra that my mom taught me. And I think it's really great.

100% true as well, isn't it? You're absolutely right. Because as soon as any of the other stuff comes into it, the money stuff just goes away, doesn't it, in terms of. It's not as much of a problem as we think it is at the time. So that's really cool and thank you for sharing that. So I know there's going to be a few people on here listening and also there's going to be people who want to reach out to you, Vivian, how can they do? So what's the best way to get in touch with you, to also to follow you personally, but also where can they go and check out your properties?

Sure, there's a few ways. The first I would recommend is my website, www.corporaterentalsaustin.com. you can also find me on LinkedIn under Vivian Yip. And we're also on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. So I like to do house tours. So please follow my social media so you can kind of check out the properties and the, the beautiful, the beautiful super host properties that we have on our website.

And the great thing is that these are going to be in the show notes as well. So if anybody hasn't caught those, then go and look in the show notes and we'll be able to, you'll be able to follow Vivian there, which is going to be cool.

So and if you're in the Austin market. Sorry, if you're in the Austin market and you would like to be part of our membership program, we're still offering a discounted price, but that price will go up by June.

Amazing. Amazing. So got some time as we record this. We're now in late January. This is going out. I think it's probably sort of spring sort of time. So there's still some time, guys, to get in there and go and be part of the brand, which is going to be cool. So thank you so much, Vivian, for joining us today. And thank you too. If you're listening in on the Boostly podcast or watching on the YouTube channel, I know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and I really apprec appreciate you spending that attention with Boostly. I hope you've picked up some great tips today. I certainly have the thoughts around flexi stays and midterm stays is so important. Finding a right PMS which will allow you to take contract from a guest, you know when you need it done. And also this new tool, this new scraper tool on the Boostly websites, which is amazing. I'm excited to see where this goes. The fact that you can then charge subscriptions all adds the splits, these revenue streams as a host and hospitality business owner where you can get extra revenue coming in and become the key person of influence in your market, which is cool. So Vivian, that's, that's it for me. Is there any closing comments, anything I missed or any last year's?

Not really. But you know, just bring me support and follow us on on Instagram and hopefully if you come and visit Austin, you can come and be my guest.

Awesome. I'm going to give you a follow as soon as we finish this episode and yeah, I'll look forward to seeing some of the properties on there. Thanks again for today, Vivian and bye.