The Future of Hospitality Check-ins After the Coronavirus Crisis with Marc Figueras of Keynest

Foreign. Welcome to the Boostly podcast. We are in season eight, episode six and in today's podcast, in today's interview, we're talking about something that I think will be future of hospitality in the current event where we are this whole season. As everybody should know by now, we're talking about fighting back from the Corona crisis and just when not just hospitality, but the whole world is changing in front of our eyes. There's going to be a lot of businesses that are going to diversify, there's going to be a lot of businesses that are going to have to pivot and there's going to be a lot of people out there who are going to make some really big decisions about how their businesses not only run but how it is presented. And I've been meaning to have this interview with this guest for a while now. And just fate would have it that it has fallen on today's recording, which is the 24th of March. And I think it's perfect time to do this, in all honesty, because what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about the smart key exchange system and I'm interviewing Mark from Keena and I'm going to let him introduce himself in a second. But the way it works. And I first discovered Keynes and I'll tell you a little story. Last year, last summer, me and my wife went down to Birmingham for a few days. We managed to get babysitters for our three kids and we wanted to have a few days and we went to go stay in Birmingham. We wanted to be close city center because my wife is a massive Primark fan and she has obviously heard about the world's largest prime. So we went down and we spent a few days down there and when we got the text from our host about how to get entrance into to the unit that we were staying, he mentioned that we gotta go to another location to pick it up, which we thought was pretty cool. And the way it works, we went to the gas station, which was literally stones throw away from the apartment, went to the gas station, we had to show id, show a little code. And then the person behind the gas station, he gave us the key and I was like, this is amazing, what service is this? And shout out to the host, Adam, I know you're listening. And he explained it's called Keynest and fate would have it again. In last November I was speaking in Barcelona at the Short Stay show over in Barcelona and I met Mark there very briefly mentioned I was a fan of it and I said, gotta get you on the podcast, Gotta get you on the podcast. And for whatever reason, dates just kept getting moved and here we are today. I'm really excited for introducing everybody to it. I'm excited to find out more about the business, more about Mark's journey and as well how it's going to help moving forward. Before we do begin, a very quick shout out to Hostfully. They are the Boostly podcast sponsors. As you all know, they help hosts get digital guidebooks so that they can wow their guests, which I think is really cool at the moment because they are helping so many people in so many different ways. For example, right now, with so many businesses not being able to open and they're having themselves, these businesses are having to do takeaway services. What you can do with Hostfully is you can put on there the recommended takeaways. You can also recommend grocery deliveries, people that can deliver to your property in a time like now, when so many people are still getting bookings purely for those who need it most. And for example, I know somebody that has opened their doors to NHS staff, open their doors to key workers. And imagine those key workers, when they're coming to stay, they're shattered and they need to know of 24, 7 Delivery, they need to know about groceries and whatnot. And you can have a digital guidebook that you can pre send to them so they can then go ahead and rearrange a delivery and order whatever it may be so it's there for when they arrive. I think this is where things like Hostfully are fantastic so they don't have to wait to get that paper version which so many people still have in 2020. So anyway, those are the parts of podcast sponsors. You go get one free digital guidebook right now by going to hostfleet.com if you sign up for their premium service, you get two months free just by being a Boostly podcast listener. Just put Boostly to it.

Thank you, Mark. What a pleasure to be here. I got to tell you, you may be the king of social media, but I am certainly not. So I'm very pleased to be here. Keynest is a business I started with Florian, my co founder, four years ago in London. What we do is basically solve that problem of how do you get the keys to the guest when you're not available. We also solve the problem of how to get the keys to the cleaner or to the greeter if you've got a very high end property. We work in 13 countries, we have over 2,500 stores, 95% of which are 24 7. Yeah. If you haven't heard of Kinnas before, it's a very good way of welcoming your guests in a way that is fully tracked so that every time that your guests pick up or drop off a key, you get pinged with an email from us and that is fully secure so that only your guests have access only when you want to. We also integrate with a number of PMSs in the industry.

I'd love to know a little bit more about you before Keynes. What's sort of your background before. What were you doing before you and your co founder met and decided to come up with this business?

So actually I was working in private equity, nothing to do with keys or Airbnb, but found myself living in a flat that was actually bigger than we needed. And so we ended up renting a room in Airbnb. This was four and a half years ago, where that was actually really profitable. Renting out a room paid for the entire rent. Airbnb wasn't really so big at the time. It was a bit more similar to cart surfing, I guess, but it was taking off super quickly. So, yeah, I, me and Florian thought, this is it, this is the idea. And then we went out looking for shops to hold keys for us, which was totally strange for them the first instance. So we thought, this isn't going to get a very good reception. Let's see what we can find in terms of stores. And actually we found that stores were super happy to do it because they made money from the guests. Now we've got a network of quite a lot of stores, some of which, the most popular ones that will welcome hundreds of guests every day have turned into some kind of reception desk. They started selling, you know, travel adapters, guidebooks, tours, all sorts of things that help tourists get around the city and enjoy their experience.

Where would you say is the. Is the. Is the most popular area city country for Keynes?

Still, still, it's London. We find the London market is actually just so deep and is quite professionally managed for the most part. There's some very large players here that use this as well. People like Veev, Guest Ready Air, Resortage used to be host maker as well, as well as a number of kind of smaller guys that, you know, the service department community that have got, you know, anywhere between two and 20 flats. Those are also pretty popular.

So what we're, what we're basically going to be talking about today, we're going to talk about a number of things. Obviously we're going to talk about the coronavirus crisis that is currently hitting the hospitality industry. But we're also going to sort of talking about the other side of this because this is going to end, there will definitely be an upturn, guests will start to come again and people will start to be using more properties. So we just want to sort of educate people of what they could do to be proactive for when this happens. But let's just for a quick second, obviously we're recording this on the 24th of March. I think that looking back, it was maybe from the 12th or the 13th of March afterwards. So in the last sort of 10 days that this has all really hit a key part of the year and obviously of the bookings. Now we're going to talk averages. We can't obviously give exact, but just on average, could you just sort of paint a picture just from your stats that you've seen from the guests, that from the customers that have been using you and from your clients, what's a normal average, would you say on a monthly basis sort of transaction rate that you're normally looking at pre March? What sort of numbers are we getting at?

Yep, so I actually had the chance to crunch the numbers just before this. You're looking for a month like March, which is more towards an off peak type of month, around 100,000 key movements per month. So we're big enough now to track the whole market. So that actually held up up until 14th of March. We were still having sort of what we see as expected, normal numbers. And then you see this massive drop after that weekend coming down to sort of two thirds of the normal volume. And then since Friday we had, over the last weekend we had just one third of the normal volume and it's still going down. So, you know, once it gets to a tenth or so, I think it'll stabilize because it's still people that are checking in for longer term leases and stuff.

So we're still looking at 30, we're still looking at 30,000 transactions that are happening. And obviously like I say, London is a big part of what you do. It's like the majority of you say you're booking, so when there's no denying that there's a start drop there. But I think what we need to say to people is that there are still transactions, there are still bookings that are still customers and clients out there, like you say at the present moment in time. We were recording this on Tuesday 24th March. Last night there was a lockdown. All non essential travel was pretty much banned. You know, hotels, guest houses and the likes have been told that they have to close. But service, accommodation, self catering, those are still open. And like I say, those of you that are listening to this, those of you that have accommodation, those of you that are opening up your doors to key workers, NHS workers, care home workers, I had a, a direct message today from a, from a host who has got a booking from a BBC reporter needing to be in, in London. So again, there are people that are able to be proactive in this. So there are still bookings out there. So don't just think that this is all doom and gloom, don't just think you have to close and shut up shop. There is still potential out there, specifically, like you say, in the, in the larger cities. But what sort of words of advice, what sort of words of encouragement have you had personally, from Obviously, what I love about keynest, and I see these in the trustpilot reviews, I see this when I chat to people, is that your customer service and your community is very strong. What sort of words of encouragement, what sort of advice can you pass on to people that may be tuning into this right now and thinking it's all a bit doom and gloom?

So, first of all, if you're outside London, things look much better. It's not even half of the effect that we see in London, outside London, and that's because I think a lot of people who are in London are feeling quite stuck in their tiny apartments, looking for a bigger place. So there's definitely a difference kind of market, more the staycation, you know, nationals traveling inside the UK maybe who don't have a second home, but could afford to go somewhere else now that the lockdown is being enforced. So look out for those. And then if you're looking more at the long term, just consider the fact that everyone is in the same boat and below you are the hotels that have got fixed leases that, you know, they can't do anything about, number of staff, etc. Those are in much dire conditions and those are likely to actually close some of them permanently. Which means that when demand picks back up, there's going to be a shortage of supply. The same way that demand has sort of evaporated very quickly. It will come back very quickly because people stuck at home. It's not good for relationships to be stuck 24 hours a day. There's going to be a lot of divorces at the end of this, I'm sure. But jokes aside, the industry of travel is one that people, as much as it's considered to be a leisure and an Enjoyment, it's also something that people need. People need a break, you know, in one of those destinations that are easily accessible for people, then you're likely to benefit. If you can just pause your business for the next three months or so and then reemerge with, you know, everything to go out with a little bit of budget for marketing, you're likely to benefit a lot from those bookings at that.

What about Keynest right now? Have you got an office based situation? Are you all remote? How is your business model at the present moment in time?

So we are all working remotely, but our stores are still live. There are a few stores like, you know, four or five that are, have reduced opening times. But the majority of our stores are either food shops that are opening as usual because now they're much busier than they would normally be, or outdoor lockers that are 24, 7 and that are unmanned anyway. So they're obviously still there. So yeah, we're working as here. It's a little bit busier than usual with customer service because people that are a little bit confused, the flights that are delayed, you know, things are a little bit more messy than usual. But on the, on the plus side, I think it's important for our customers to know that we're always here, you know, rain or shine, coronavirus or not to welcome their guests.

All right, well, let's just talk a little bit more about smart key exchange systems. So you obviously would say that majority of your clients would be city based. But for those that aren't in a city that are listening to this, we've got people listening to this from all, all over the world. Tell me some of the creative ways and the creative clients that you've had with Keynest and some of the ones that you've, some of your more creative clients that aren't based in the city. Have you got any that you can share with us, please?

So one thing to know is that if you look at the Keynes map, you will see that we have a very big network of stores. We have 2,500 stores, more than a thousand just in the UK. Now when you zoom in, you realize that a lot of those are in city centers, but you'll see there are quite a few that are not in places that you'd expect. They're just sort of out there in rural areas. And you'd wonder why. And it's because all of our stores are open on demand. We would never open a store if there isn't someone who's requesting it, who's got an apartment or a property or a cottage nearby and wants to use Kyna. So that's, that's how we open the network. We will open them for free. Our commitment to you is to, to do that so that you can benefit from it wherever you are. The idea is really simple, is that you no longer have to worry about guests being late or early. You know, all you've got to do is just integrate us with your bms or just copy paste the collection code. If you want to do it manually, send it to your guests and then let your guests collect the keys and drop them off.

And I have just checked on the map and you have one in Scarborough, my hometown, where I am right now. Which is, which is good to know. So you obviously, gas stations would you say would be the major majority of where your key pickups are obviously 247 boxes. What's the most strangest request would you say that you've had for a place to put a, to put one of these Keynes pickup boxes?

Oh, gosh, yeah. Some people, when they, when they start working with us the first time, they real. They don't really realize the concept, don't really understand. And so they will request some really random locations or also one thing that's important for us, we have to, we are the face of your business. We're going to be welcoming your guests. You don't want to have your guests collect keys from some dodgy place. So we are going to vet the location as well. Even if you request something, we will take that into consideration. But we also have to do our own vetting. So we tend to work more with chains with The Cobb, with McCall's, with Lundy's, NYSA than we do with shops that may not be so reliable. So your average vape shop might not cut it sometimes, but you know, otherwise. We've worked with some pretty. We've even worked with the hairdressers once. It's no problem for us so long as they're, you know, well respected within their community. But crucially that they have long opening times. And that's why most of our stores are 24 7. Because there's just nothing better than the peace of mind if, you know, your guests can come in one.

I like that. And I just randomly clicked on Amsterdam and I was thinking of the type of places that you get your keys from in Amsterdam. And there's the Amsterdam Cafe coming soon. That is a perfect upsell if ever I heard of one for somebody picking up from a little cafe in Amsterdam. You can walk Out a little bit Dazed and Confused and then go find yourself. I like that. Good stuff.

Absolutely. I mean, to be honest, a lot of our new stores are actually hotels and you'd think why would they do that? It's competition for them. But actually they make money on the guests because they sell them breakfast and they make a lot of money in their reception desk by selling all these bus stores and guided activities and getting a commission on it. So they find that quite profitable even if the guest isn't staying at their hotel.

That's really clever. And we do get a lot of hotels tune into this podcast because it's a hospitality podcast, obviously. So if I was say a GM general manager, marketing manager of a hotel, what would be the best step to getting in contact with Keynest about a potential partnership there?

Absolutely. So you can just go to keynest.com find our phone number on the top right and give us a call, tell us where you are. What we'll do is we'll just cross check to see if there's anyone in your area that is interested in using a kinest store there and if they are, then we'll get set up so you can start receiving keys.

So yeah, I like this. So it can work on both ways. You can be a potential customer as in a client where your keys are stored, but also as well be the place where people go and go get the keys. I like that how people can collaborate and work together. So when it comes to this system and again it was totally new to me but I instantly bought into this. Now what would be a normal rejection when you're at these events and your team are at the events or you're in an event and you get somebody walk over and you know you're giving them the pitch. And what would be a normal rejection to why not use your service? And the follow on question to this is what is your response? What's the most common and what's your most common response when somebody say you know what, this isn't for me, very funny question.

So very typical one, particularly from newcomers to the industry who are not don't have that much experience here. Oh wow, that's cool. But what do you do full time? To which my response is actually a lot of people need this. And then they'll say but oh, but in the future, you know, what about smart locks? And you know, aren't people just going to open keys with their fingerprint or their iris or something like that? And obviously that technology already exists. You can go on the market, you can buy a smart log that will open with a fingerprint but then you've got to get the fingerprint of the guest, you've got to set it up. It's going to cost you a small fortune and you're not going to be able to make that money back if you decide to stop managing that property. Those reasons Keynest is much more convenient. There is no cost to get started. It's a monthly subscription of £19amonth that gets you unlimited key collections for your guests, for your cleaner and forever, whoever else you need. And it's available right there. There is no hardware to install, there's no, you know, setup process. It's just get a six digited code and off you go. And we include the customer service as part of the, as part of the fee which is something that a lot of people who are, you know, that sort of uncomfortable managing two to apartments. You don't really have someone full time to help you with customer service or you're doing it all yourself but obviously you need to sleep as well. And so when you get call and you're driving and you can't pick up that call, it's quite annoying. We do all the customer service for you so far as it's about guests collecting or dropping off keys. I think for a lot of our customers that's a big relief and peace of mind that they'll be sorted with a check in and it allows them to actually only address questions that are really important. So if there's a flood in the apartment then obviously you know, they'll have to pick up the phone.

But anything else, I definitely agree that you know, there is all this crazy, you know, AI technology but you're right, the cost and the startup cost and the maintenance cost is super high. And if you're got one or two properties or you're new in this or you know, you're trying to keep your costs as low as possible, particularly in a time when the coronavirus is meaning that everybody's going to have to cut back on unnecessary costs. £19 to have this feature where you know, specifically if you don't live in the town or city where you are running your accommodation business from, I mean I know hosts that have driven for every check in one hour there and one hour back, which is crazy because you're taking two hours out of your day and if you're doing that twice a week, you know, that's a lot of hours. If you add that up over a full year, you're literally losing days and just traveling to meet your guests, and particularly if they're late or if they cancel last minute, then you know, that's a lot of lost time. You can lose all the money in the world, but you can make it back. You cannot lose your time. So I think something like Keena, which is really cost effective, it's got such good reviews. I've used it, I loved it, and I think it's something that everybody should be checking out. So if someone is listening to this and they're thinking, right, I want to find out more, do they just go to keynest.com Is there a place they can go to get more resources? Where's the best place to go to check out more about your company? Mark?

Absolutely. So if you go to keynest.com, you tap in your postcode, you'll see the nearest store. If you want to chat to us about it, you've got any questions, you're welcome to give us a call. Otherwise, there's a really complete explanation. The service is really simple, so it won't take you long to understand how it works. Most customers that are on our website, they'll sign up after two minutes and then they'll get their code so they can drop off their keys. So it's pretty straightforward. One common thinking, back to your question now. One common thought that people have is, oh, but what about the in person welcome? I thought that it's the Airbnb experience. Everybody wants to be welcomed in person. And I think it's a question we get less and less now. Maybe it was a more popular question 2 years ago when Airbnb was all the rage about living like a local. We actually did a survey of guest preferences and we've got some clients who give the guests a choice between having a greeter dressed up in a suit who will shake your hand and give you the keys, versus you collecting your keys yourself from the keynest. And 80% chose keynest. It doesn't have any effect on reviews either. It's a bit of an urban myth that people want to be welcome. I think a lot of travelers nowadays, especially with Corona, they're just like, I can let myself in, I need my privacy. That's kind of what they're paying for when they're booking to your place. Obviously, you also get the chatty American who wants to know everything about the area you're in, which is fine. But for most cases, not only is it cheaper for you to welcome them in a sort of automated way with Keynest, but it's also better Experience for the guests.

I think you mentioned something there which is, which is really clear. This world is going to go back to normal, but it's going to be a new normal. And how long is it going to take for where people are confident to shake hands again, you know, and where are people confident of being in strangers company, particularly right now of how the world is and how the UK is and how the wider world is? So something like this, you're right, where maybe a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, it was all about live like a local, you know, you got to, you got to go and greet your guests and whatnot. And now it's different. You know, bed and breakfasts may have to start thinking about this. You know, the whole bed and breakfast model might have to change and how you interact with guests that are staying at your property might have to change. And it's crazy to think, and it's crazy to think now because all of this is so new. But what comes out from the back of all of this, who knows? But I think something like this, having this service on hand is a, is a real nice selling point. And if you're not looking into it, please do, please look at Keynest. Like we say, there's loads of options, but I've used you guys. I like you guys. Your trustpilot reviews are amazing. People I know like and trust. Love you guys. So please do check it out. Mark, I just want to say thank you so much for doing this. Been a pleasure. I wish you all the best, wish you all the luck and if there's any social media platforms where people can reach out to you, where's the best one? Which one's your favorite? Where do you like to spend your time? Or, you know, if anybody wants to reach out and say hi, you're welcome.

To reach out to me, us on LinkedIn and Facebook. Me personally, I'm more on LinkedIn than a Facebook guy, but you'll find us on every platform.

There you go. All right, buddy, thank you very much for doing this and thank you everybody that has tuned in. Can I just ask a massive favor? All I want for you to do is just go onto your social media of choice and just tell everybody about this episode. You can go and find the full blog write up, go to boostly.co.uk podcast Season 8, Episode 6 right at the very top, you'll be able to see it, go grab it, go grab the link, go share it, go tell somebody about it. And whilst you're listening to this, go and rate review and subscribe over on the Apple podcast. All right, I'll be back again for another episode of this Corona series and how we can fight back as a hospitality industry. Until then, look after yourselves. Stay safe, and I'll speak to you very soon.