This host Fixed THIS And Tripled Their Bookings

So if there's one thing that can completely transform your life as a short term rental owner, it's knowing how to effectively secure more direct bookings. The problem is no one really teaches you how, and that's because it's not in the interest of the major booking platforms like Airbnb to talk about it. Still, you see, when you secure a direct booking for your short term rental, these booking giants don't pocket a single penny. In fact, if you solely rely on these booking platforms to advertise your short term rental, your bookings are constantly subjected to unpredictable outgrowth, rising commission fees and sudden policy changes. We've even seen Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently advising short term rental owners to lower their prices. So it's evident where the platform owners interests lie. And that's why I'm the guy they don't want you to know about. I'm the guy that Airbnb doesn't want you to know about. Keep my Airbnb out your so I'm Mark Simpson, founder of Boostly, and I'm here to help short term rental owners like you get more direct bookings. Forget what the platforms want you to think, there are plenty of practical strategies that can boost your income. I've created this video as a clear roadmap to help any short term rental owner increase their diary bookings. But I believe in showing, not just telling. Too many so called experts offer advice without proving if it actually works. That's why in 2023 I teamed up with two short term rental owners, Justina and Kierani from the UK and USA. These owners, Just like you, were facing challenges such as inconsistent marketing, heavy reliance on booking platforms and a growing sense of frustration in their roles as short term rental owners. It felt like they weren't in control of their businesses and they were running out of ideas. The goal was simple Document the entire journey. Share the results, good or bad in this video. I split the video into eight sections, making it easy for you to jump to the part that interests you most and apply these strategies to your own business. In each section, I'll show you exactly how we resolved each issue, offering straightforward, easy to follow advice. Whether or not you use Boostly, my mission is to assist short term rental owners in reducing their dependence on booking platforms and discovering the benefits of having their own direct booking business. And as you'll see in the video, the transformations experienced by Justina and Kearney are truly inspiring. I'm sharing all of his information previously reserved for my paying customers and clients absolutely free and if you'd like a personalized report on how your STI is performing, you can also get a completely free Insights report by clicking the link under the video. Finally, I've put all of this information and more into my book, the book Direct Playbook, which gets a lot of love on Amazon. You can find the link on where to buy it below this video. Let's dive into this free video masterclass on how to generate direct bookings for your accommodation business so you too can achieve remarkable results. Most of the short term rental owners that I help tend to make the same common mistakes. Number one, inconsistent marketing, number two, they're not building a database and number three, they have not got a very strong direct booking website. These mistakes often happen because business owners are short on time, rely too much on booking platforms and face overwhelming decisions and this can lead to them feeling stuck doing nothing or worse, following shocking advice from businesses more interested in taking their money than delivering results. So let me tell you a quick story about a host who came to me via our hospitality community Facebook group. They had just invested a large sum of money into a website. This website was created by a friend of a friend and the person in question, they did didn't understand our industry, they didn't understand hospitality. They wanted to create a Mona Lisa of a website in our world. All you need from a diary booking website, you need to land on the page, find a property, go to the booking and this website, which cost a large sum of money, didn't have that. It wanted to be all singing, all dancing, but didn't get straight to the point of where you actually make the booking. And because of that, any guest who was landing on that website, they were getting confused and when you get confused, you leave. And that host had zero bookings but the website designer had created the website, passed it over to him and left. So this host was left with a very expensive website and they didn't know how to turn a look into a booker. And with that they were back at square one with literally severely less money in the bank. As a result, owners can feel frustrated and burned out, causing some to give up while others continue to operate with less than ideal portfolios. If you're a short term rental accommodation owner, I'm guessing that all sounds pretty pretty familiar. Sadly, this is a common path for many short term rental owners and Justina and Kieran, my short term rental owner volunteers were no exception. Meet Justina hi, my name is Justina.

And I have a business where we specialize on long term accommodation and here's.

Kierni, our short term rental owner based in America.

My name is Kieran Perez. I work for United. When I first started to work as an airplane mechanic, we had gotten free flights. I was traveling to different cities and towns and then that's when like we started to, you know, try different like Airbnbs and things like that. And then I started to enjoy the hospitality side of it and then bought this property with my mother.

Like many people, they were eager to get into the world of short term rentals. Why? Well, they hoped to generate some passive income and down the road create a portfolio of properties that would eventually become their primary source of revenue.

I worked in a very busy corporate role. The hardest part of the corporate life was the fact that I not always were able to be there for the kids, started looking elsewhere because I always knew that there's something better out there, better pay or better opportunities, I suppose.

Let's take a closer look at how their properties were performing before I stepped into home. Today we're in Leeds. We're going to be meeting Justina for the first time. We're going to be looking at one of the properties in these, one of the three properties that she has currently and we're going to be going over the types of guests, biggest pain points and obviously we're going to set some goals of where we're going to be working towards during our time together this year. Based in the north of England, Justina's properties were all rent to rent.

It was originally bought as a below market value deal and then refurbished and then refinanced and then it was rented on guaranteed rent to me.

The property had three bedrooms, predominantly filled by contractors and family on relocation. Justina added some stylistic decorations that would help the property stand out on the listing sites and social media.

When I took the keys, when I got the keys, it was the white walls and it was boring and bland and then I went nuts with some paint and wallpaper.

Talk to me about the living room. What made you go for the peacock wallpaper? What made you go for the greens? Talk to me about the colour inspiration.

I've just seen a Pinterest board and I thought, you know what this is, this is very cool.

This is very cool. There were things she was doing well, like properties in a good location. She had decorated them really well and she was getting bookings. However, Justina herself admitted to suffering from shiny object syndrome and struggling to maintain focus.

For some reason, every time I come up with some ideas of something, it's just, it's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible. And it's is that it's like really, really challenging.

While she was getting bookings, they were quite inconsistent and when they were coming in, they were coming in via Airbnb or booking.com. there was no structure to it. It was being very reactive and not being proactive. One of the major oversights in Justina's strategy was a lack of a dedicated website. As a result, she was entirely dependent on booking platforms for her initial reservations, with the majority of her bookings originating from Airbnb charging Justina between 14 to 20% commission per booking. If those bookings had come direct, for example, not only would she have been making a big saving in commission costs, she would also have been having the booking done under her policies and her rules, which is another negative in the sense of having to rely on Airbnb for your bookings. When a guest comes in from Airbnb, you are not only relying on their policies, but their rules. And the guests know this. Let's move on to my second case study. Kearney. He was a rookie host based in Orlando, Florida. He only had one property in his portfolio, which was a townhouse based 20 minutes from Disneyland in Orlando. The property's theme was very much for families. The games room was a standout because it is decorated in Avengers, you know, Black Panther, Marvel with arcade games and all those fun things. Kearney heavily depended on Airbnb to fill his booking calendar, despite his initial efforts in marketing and signing up to guesty for host pms. PMS is property management software tool. He confessed to feeling lost and clueless about making his vacation rental business successful. It was no surprise that he had only managed to secure three bookings before I stepped in to help him. Just like Justina, Kearney's most significant oversight was not having a direct booking website. This is a common mistake amongst short term rental owners with just one property who mistakenly believe it's not worth the effort. Later in the video, I'll show you why that's not the case at all. So after closely inspecting Justina and Kearney's properties, it was clear that they were making some common mistakes that many short term rental owners make. These include not having good property photos, being too busy, lacking focus, not having a clear marketing plan and being inconsistent in their approach. And it was costing them big time, leaving money on the table, working many hours and getting frustrated at the lack of growth. Just as I explained to my owner volunteers, I fully understand why people get caught in this dilemma. The News is filled with stories of short term rental owners who have had to sell and abandon their dream. It's incredibly frustrating because I've worked with thousands of owners who have the exact opposite experience. Their portfolios are expanding, they're earning more than ever and they're not feeling burnt out in the process. I'm about to demonstrate how we improve Justina's and K situations, focusing on long term success. If any of those challenges sound familiar to you, here are some quick and easy solutions you can start working on right away. Number one, it doesn't cost a lot of money to get a professional photography session done and it can make the world of difference. Number two, make your property look more professional with simple branding tips like using pillowcases with your logo and having a logo fridge magnet. These changes are cost effective and always have a significant impact because when you have your listing on Airbnb and somebody's looking through the pictures, if they see your business branding and your business logo and your business name, they can take that and they will run a Google search or a Bing search. People will try and find your information online direct, but they don't know who you are so you've got to give them the prompt and the more places that you can put it. It's called the billboard effect. It'll be better because when somebody is looking around, whether it's on your social media, whether it's looking on Airbnb, VRBO or any of these booking sites, the more times they can see your name and your branding the better because you're going to turn that into a Google search. Number three Always be building your database. There is a super quick solution called StayFi. The StayFi put a little box on top of your router and when a guest guest wants to get access to your wi fi, they have to give up the email address, phone number and first name. If you can start doing this consistently, think about the amount of guests that have been through your properties over the last 12 months. Think about how many email addresses you could have built up if you can start today in one of your properties. By the end of the year you could quite easily have a couple of hundred emails that you can then use. Give these suggestions a try and share your results in the comments below. I'll promise you'll be pleasantly subscribed surprised by the outcomes. Remember, I offer a free custom Insights report tailored to your short term rental business which you can find a link to below this video. Additionally, my book is packed with more real world quick wins like these. You'll find the link to purchase it below this video. Now that we've identified the problems, it's time to create a long term plan to address and improve the situation. Hi there, what can I get for you? When ordering from your favorite fast food restaurant, can I have a cheeseburger and a milkshake please? You'll typically wait in the drive through lane for an average of 240 seconds. Thank you. This efficiency is in part thanks to the McDonald's brothers who introduced something called the Speedy Service System back in the 1940s. So they used assembly line processes resulting in faster service and consistent quality. Now, businesses across various industries have adopted system and process approaches. In my own business, we use customer relationship management software to track deals and manage customer details, and we use automation tools to streamline our processes, making them quicker and less time consuming. However, this approach is rarely seen in the short term rental market. Most short term rental owners I work with manage bookings on Excel sheets, calendars and try to keep everything in their heads. It's a big part of why they feel so overwhelmed. The good news is there are simple processes and systems that any short term rental owner can quickly implement, giving you an advantage over 99% of the competition. Using our STR case studies, I'll show you precisely how. There are four key areas that I like to prioritize when working with a short term rental 1. Property management software systems, which is PMS 2. Customer relationship management Systems, Automation and pricing. If we can optimize these four areas, they're well on their way to running a successful and profitable portfolio. Let me demonstrate how I improved each one of those with Justina and cuny's portfolios. If discussing systems and processes isn't your idea of exciting content, just remember we're talking about potential savings in the first thousands of pounds, so it's definitely worthwhile sticking around. First up, Justina and her property management system. Justina did have the right idea. She was already using some systems, but by our own admission it was far from optimized.

I have had a PMS system. I had CRM system. I've used Zapier in the process as well to get all the systems talking together. However, I haven't used it to its full capacity.

Now, a pms, if you didn't know, stands for Property Management System. So in layman's terms, a property management software tool will become your day to day place to go to run your business. It stores all of your bookings, it stores all of your contacts, but also as well, it Pushes the data of your availability and your pricing to Airbnb, to VRBO, to booking.com. one of the main things that we talk about is making sure but you're listed everywhere. But when you're listed in more than one place, the increased chance of getting a double booking heightens. And there's nothing worse than a double booking. So by making sure that you're listed everywhere but it all connects to one central hub is a core essential for every short term rental owner looking to grow. But a PMS is more than just a place to avoid double bookings. It's also a place where you can take payments, so you link it to Stripe. It's a place that you can have your own direct booking website, but it's also a place that you can manually enter a booking. So if I was to come to you via email and ask for a place to stay, you could then take that booking direct and it's all done and powered through a pms. What we did with Justina was we improved and optimized her pms, which was uplifting. So we realized that she was not taking advantage of 80% of up listings power. We were able to connect her to Google Vacation Rental Manager, we're able to connect her to vrbo. But we were making sure that everything that was on uplisting and everything that we were able to do we implemented into her business. We noticed because she wasn't taking full advantage of everything that uplisting offered. Justina wasn't getting the right results. She wasn't able to get more bookings and more visibility because she was only pushing information to Airbnb. She complained about booking.com, but on further investigation, the right information was not being fed to booking.com so what was being resulted with and what was being viewed from, from a future potential guest who went on booking.com and found her property. It wasn't the right results, it wasn't showing the right pictures, it wasn't showing the right prices, and it wasn't showing the right information, which meant in no bookings. So by taking a step back, by rewriting the whole information and making sure the right information was on uplisting, that was then in turn pushed to booking.com, it meant that she had the right pictures, was talking to the right guests and the prices were correct as well. And that's what happens when you take the time out to properly implement everything that your property management software offers you. Next we looked at her CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management System. Justina was using Folio, which is a very good CRM, but isn't specifically designed for the short term rental world. What we did is we put her onto the Boost Leap CRM, which is specifically designed for the accommodation industry. We were able to implement our templates that are designed to turn a looker into a booker that has been created by an expert copywriter. And we were able to plug everything into her business. It was designed around cosy spaces, it was using her language, her terminology, and we were able to plug it into our workflows, automations, systems. Everything was in our CRM already. She just had to personalize it, copy and paste a few things and ready to go. The most important thing what we did with the CRM is we were properly tagging the right guests. Some guests were coming in for business, some guests were coming in for leisure, some guests were family relocations, some guests were staying for one, two, three months. We made sure that every single person in that database in the CRM was properly tagged. So when we sent an email out in the future, we were able to make sure the right person saw that email. For example, we didn't have a business guest getting an email about a leisure event that was coming up in Leeds and vice versa. So when you properly tag the right people with your email CRM, it means you can send the right messages to the right people. And that is exactly what we did with Justina's business. Since Kearney has just one property, our primary focus was on automation and pricing. One of the first things we tackled was setting up an automated messaging sequence for guests, covering everything from the moment they booked to their arrival and even post checkout. We did this because when a guest makes a booking with you, they are wanting to find out more information about your business, wanting to find out more information about the property that they're going to be staying in. And they all also want to find out more about the location that they're going to be visiting. So what we did is we spent a moment to work out this automation messaging sequence so that when a guest books instantly, they're getting more information about the property. We also added in a Google form which we're able to gather more of the guest details, find out why they're coming, what they're celebrating, but the guest as well. From their benefit, they were able to find out check in times, how to gain access. They were also able to figure out where they were in relation to Disneyland to Universal Studios and our top recommendation on places to eat in the area. The software that we used was simple. We used and tapped into what the property management software tool was providing. CUNY uses guesty for hosts and they have an automated messenger sequence built in. So we didn't even have to use a third party tool, which was a massive win. What we also did is as well is we tapped into Google forms to create a free survey. So we were able to find out exactly what the guests were looking for in terms of a booking, what they were doing when they were staying, and what they were celebrating. The final thing that we did with Kearney and his messaging sequence was have a post checkout message. The post checkout message was designed to do two things. Number one was to ask for a review. We find that the host hosts that ask for a review are more likely to get one instead of just relying on the automated messaging that maybe Airbnb or vrbo or booking.com send. So we asked for a review. And not only do we ask for a review, we asked for their feedback, their honest feedback. How could we be better? Could we do something different than what they were expecting? How did we present ourselves online and what was the outcome of it? The second thing that we asked for was a referral. So if they truly had a good stay, all that we asked them was to tell their friends and families. They can tell them on social media, they can tell them offline in the school playground, or any of the above. We also dangled the carrot. We said, if you leave a review and if you refer us and if somebody books on the back of your referral, then we will give you X in the future. And X could be Amazon vouchers, free stay, or any of the above. That X is for you to decide what you want to do. The result was fantastic. Cuny had his first ever direct booking on the back of a referral. A family member of somebody that was staying with us was looking to come to Orlando during spring break and they booked on back of that referral. The reviews went through the roof. They have got over 20 reviews that are five stars now. And as we all know, on Airbnb, as soon as you hit 20 reviews of 5 stars, you get seen by more people because they're pushing your listing over everybody else. Next, we examined his pricing strategy. When we first met Kearney, he. He wasn't tapping into any dynamic pricing. He was looking at what others were doing on the Airbnb platform and he was mirroring this. Now the problem with this is that he's being far too reactive and he was reliant on the Fact that his competition in the area were pricing experts, which they weren't. With cuny, we used a dynamic pricing software tool called Price Labs because if you're not using dynamic pricing and CUNY wasn't, you're leaving money on the table. These pricing software tools like Price Labs use data, they use AI, they look at all of the pricing variables that will make sure that the price that you're getting is the best price for your property. The benefits is that Kearney saw instant results. He was able to identify key dates in the calendar that he could put his prices up. And also as well, it was able to identify slow dates so that he can maybe lower the rates, which meant that he would get the booking over other people in the area. So the big results for him, higher occupancy, more revenue per booking, which meant that he could then reinvest that extra profit back into his business. And we'll talk about that later. For Justina, we looked at several different pricing options. Andrew Kitchell, founder of Wheelhouse, was very grateful in giving up his time to have a zoom call with Justina and talk to her about the importance of dynamic pricing. We'll give Justina our platform for free. I'll personally coach her through it. Teach, like if you wanted to learn about revenue management or dynamic pricing, like we would teach you all the things. In the end, she went with Price Labs because it's what worked best with her uplifting pms. Justina's problem with pricing was very similar to Kearney. She was looking at what others were doing and was pricing according to that. When you do that, you are setting yourself up to fail. Please, please do not look at what others are doing. Instead, tap into the software and this technology and leave it to the experts. She was able to to raise her prices and was able to ask for more per booking than anybody else in her area. And the best thing about Price Labs and the best thing about dynamic pricing is that you can literally put it in automation. You can set your rule set, you can set your highest and lowest variable and the price you want it to be, and then you can let price Labs do the rest. And that is what happened with Justina. She was able to let go of pricing, she was able to trust, used this software to do the work and it delivered the results for her was more money per booking, which meant that she had more revenue, but means that she could add more properties to her portfolio. But also as well, she was able to expand on her business model. Again, we'll talk about that. Later, Kearney also benefited from a fantastic addition, a digital guidebook using touchday. This handy tool allowed guests to access essential information without constantly messaging Kearney. This not only improved the guest experience, but also gave our host more free time. Lots of guests asked the same questions. You can go go right now into your inbox, whether it's on Airbnb or in your emails, and you'll be able to find all of the questions that your guests are asking. And I guarantee you there's 20% of questions that are being asked 80% of the time. To help you alleviate more time in your day, you can put the questions and answers to those questions in a digital guidebook. And when you see a guest asking a question, you can reply back saying, hey, I will 100% answer this, but did you know that we've got a full FAQ on our digital guidebook and send them the link? The more times you do this, you're training your guests to just go to your digital guidebook. And another benefit of a digital guidebook is that you can put in your recommended places to eat, to visit and to go and check out. The best thing about this is that when your guest is looking to book a stay with you, you're able to create for them their experience, their stay with you and they'll love you for it even more. And you're giving yourself more reasons to get that five star review because to the guest, it looks like you really care about them and their stay. And you get all of that from a digital guidebook. Quick word on guidebooks in your properties. If you've got one of these, which is a more traditional printed one, please get rid of them. The reason being is that number one, they can easily go out of date. Number two, they can get coffee stains on there or rips and people not taking care of them. And number three, if you're going to have to come and change it, you're going to have to physically come into the property or get a member of staff to come into the property. You're going to have to print out new sheets to put in and it's a waste of time and resources and it's not good on the environment. Instead, having a digital guidebook means that you can update it from wherever you are in the world. You can update it in a matter of seconds and it means as well it's good for the environment. Digital guidebooks are the future. In 2024, if you've got a print out guidebook in your property, you are being left behind. Switch to the digital guidebook and touch date is my 100% recommendation of the company to go with. Finally, for both properties we looked at the data provided by airdna. I had the privilege of speaking with the VP of Research of airdna on my Boostie podcast, spend my day looking at data and helping our clients understand how to best use that data to help inform their business. There, he gave us an in depth look at the product's back end and the dashboard. If you'd like to explore this topic further, which I highly recommend as this episode received great feedback, you can find the link to the episode below the video. But in a nutshell, airdna is going to become your next best friend in your investment journey. Before you go and buy that next property or bought before you go and invest in a new location, you are able to see other properties in the area, the average daily rate adr. You'll be able to see the demand for that property, but you'll also be able to narrow it down based on the amount of bedrooms. You'll be able to narrow it down on location and the amenities that they offer. There is no need in 2024 to invest blindly. With software and solutions like Air DNA, you get a head start and it just means now when you're looking to invest in a new location or in a new property, you can find out all the information that you could possibly need that will give you all of the confidence that you're whatever you're putting your money into is going to get you the highest return of investment. The way we used Air DNA in this case study was to combine it with the data we were getting from Price Labs. So we didn't just rely on one place to get our data, we combined it with with Air DNA and that's how we were able to come up with our pricing strategy that resulted in more revenue per booking, a higher average daily rate, and end of the day higher P Ls. So we can take that extra money that was coming into the business and reinvest it into the property in Orlando and Justina's business in the uk. I understand that systems and processes may not seem very exciting. However, there's a good reason why the biggest and most successful businesses prioritize them above almost everything else. Because when you commit to making small improvements every day, you'll gradually enhance your business and start attracting more bookings, just like Justina and Kearney did. If you need assistance in implementing systems and processes in your own business, remember that you can request a personalized Insights report using the link below the video. Alternatively, feel free to leave a comment and we'll have someone reach out to help you get started. Hiring a virtual assistant is life changing. My personal assistant saves me hours of time every month. However, I understand that people are not always enthusiastic about the idea of hiring help. Short term rental owners can be the same. When I first met Justina and Kierani, they were attempting to manage everything themselves.

I was very hands on. I am still hands on and I find it quite hard to not be so hands on.

I was definitely spending like a lot more time than what I should have been spending. Like I work out, you know, pull out my phone, check it like check.

On the guests, taking booking requests, managing guests pre and during stay, blocking out dates in the booking engine, manual, pricing, organizing cleaners and handyman, and much more. Justina was juggling her role as a mum and a business owner, while Kearney had a demanding job with shift work. By their own admission, they were both feeling a bit stuck and heading towards burnout. However, I completely understand the hesitation. Many owners bear the scars of past failed attempts at hiring, whether it's because they've hired the wrong person and had to deal with the awkwardness of letting someone go, or they didn't have the right processes in place which frustrated the new hire and led them to quit. In both cases, the owner ends up back at square one, handling everything alone. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. I've helped hundreds of business owners in hiringhelp and there's a straightforward blueprint that you can follow. It's the same blueprint I've used with Justina and Kieran, and I'll share the key steps so you can see exactly what we did and the positive impact it had on their businesses and lives. My first recommendation for both Justina and Kierni was to read Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz and who not how by Dan Sullivan. If you haven't read these books yet, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy. Both books discuss essential principles for improving your business. Business Clockwork focuses on creating a business that runs like clockwork, allowing you to work less while achieving more. Who not how explains the importance of finding the right people to help you achieve your goals rather than trying to do everything yourself and with their minds now primed for change. After reading these books, it was time to introduce them to someone special, a bit of a hidden gem in the industry. I introduced them because there was a clear bottleneck in Justina's business where everything depended on her to take action. This is a common issue among business owners. Letting go and outsourcing can be challenging. However, it's important to note that it's often more of a perception than a reality. As you'll see from the results, it's not nearly as difficult as it may seem, especially when you work with experts. Time to introduce you to Taeger, founder of Gravitas Media.

In my experience, it's far better to believe that you will find people that are trustworthy and create the environment that if somebody trusts worth comes in, that fear of trust just evaporates. It doesn't even matter anymore.

Taiga's company specializes in helping small business owners find the right people. What sets his approach apart, and it's quite unique in my experience of recruitment, is that he helps employers prepare for the onboarding process. This means that everything is in order before the new hire even joins. Here's the man himself explaining why his process works so well.

Part of the stuff that we're going to be talking about today, I've learned that from everywhere. I've had to try it, see what works, see what didn't work, see what I like, see what I didn't like. And then from the things I did like, build a system around that as a way of doing things that can produce almost guaranteed repeatable results. So I have this little tool that I built in Google Sheet called the Delegation Clarity Codex. It's a different kind of task tracker because it allows you to get an accurate representation of exactly what it is that you are doing. Doing day to day forces you to sit down and judge those things based on how important they are, one to your business and two to you. And once you've judged how important it is, it also lets you think about what system or process you need to have in place.

After just a couple of zoom sessions with Tayga, Justina felt really confident about putting her first job advert out. You might be thinking, come on Mark, it's not that hard to hire a va. And you'd be right. Anyone can hire any old va. But if you want a rockstar, one that will actually make your life easier and allow you to focus on the things that matter, you need to get your job advert right. Here's the actual job ad Justina used. It was crystal clear describing who she was, the type of person she was looking for and who should apply. Guest communication, cold outreach to businesses to attract more corporate bookings, cleaner and handyman communications. And this resulted in Justina's first hire. Justina for the first time was able to work on her business and not in her business. But before hiring, we tracked Justina's hours and what she did on a day to day basis. After hiring her first virtual assistant, we were able to save her hours in her day.

Getting somebody on the team have freed a lot of my time to focus on the things that mattered a little bit more or actually getting the things done that I kept putting off and I didn't just I didn't like it and I procrastinate around them but they work quite important in a grand scheme of things.

This made a significant difference in her life. She now had help with various tasks which should allow her to focus on more critical aspects of her business and enjoy more free time. Justina no longer has to worry about doing the task she didn't like to do. Things like cold outreach, guest communications. Now she can focus on starting up a new revenue stream for her business. You might be wondering why we prioritized hiring and systems ahead of say marketing or building a new website. That's because in my experience, if you're struggling to manage your short term rental portfolio and we focus on growth, you're just piling more and more pressure on yourself. Instead, it's crucial to get your foundations in order first. This way, when the inevitable growth comes from the sales and marketing strategies which I will share shortly, you'll be fully prepared. You're a short term rental host who hasn't yet got your foundation in order. I recommend you grab a copy of my Blueprint. It's a book I wrote specifically to help people prepare their business for growth. As always, you can find the link under this video in the notes. As for Kearney, with only one property in his portfolio, there wasn't the need to hire at this time. He needed to tap into automation and setting his business up for success whilst he juggled his job. Before he takes that leap to go all in on his business journey, I guarantee there's at least one short term rental host watching this who is in the same position as Justina. And that's precisely what why this video is so important to me. I'm not on commission or receiving anything from Taeger. I just know that his services can actually benefit your business and Justina is a real world example of that. If this video motivates you to do one thing, go and have a chat with Tayga and get some much needed support and you can find links to his website under the video. Before we move on, it's important to reiterate that we're not just talking about hiring cleaners or handyman. Justina already had both of those hired in place. We're talking about help with systems and behind the scenes tasks that take you to that next level. Read the books I recommended earlier, check out my own blueprint and go and speak to Tega. I promise you it will be a game changer for you and your business. Have you ever gone to the supermarket for one thing but come away with loads of stuff you didn't plan on getting? This happens because it's very common to be tempted by items displayed near the checkout counters. It's a great example of how cross selling can be effective. Amazon provides a prime example of successful cross selling. When you shop on their website you often see recommendations like Customers who bought this, also bought or frequently bought. Together these suggestions encourage customers to add more items to their cart, ultimately increasing the average transaction value. Now let me ask you this, are you implementing cross sells and upsells for your short term rental property? If not, you're missing out on a significant source of revenue. I can say this with confidence because implementing cross selling as well upselling was one of the best things we did for Kearney when he volunteered his business for optimization as part of this video. I'll provide more details on that shortly, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The purpose of this part of the video is to explain the basics, what I like to call the STR blueprint, the fundamental strategies that every short term owner should be using but often aren't. The top recommendation I give to any short term rental host is to ensure you have your own direction booking website More direct bookings equate to more direct control and I bang on about this for two main reasons. Number one, you're not building your business on someone else's land. For every booking that comes in via an ota, you're being dictated by them on their policies and always worried about the type of guest that stays with you. Worried that if they don't like your property they'll leave a poor review which will have a negative impact on your review score. Even A score of 4.7 on Airbnb is is deemed unacceptable in 2023. When you have a direct booking you are in control. It's your booking, it's your house, it's your rules. And number two, it allows you to incorporate upsell and cross sell options which is where the real profit lies. This means less emphasis on acquiring new customers and more emphasis on maximizing revenue from the customers you have already established relationships with and it's incredibly simple to implement. Let me walk you through it step by step using CUNY as an example. When we initially connected he was exclusively accepting bookings through Airbnb.

All that I was doing was just waiting like on a booking from Airbnb.

Vrbo and that's a pretty common position for short term rental owners to be in. Around 85% of short term rental owners I help rely solely on hosting platforms like Airbnb to advertise their properties. When I say everyone should have a direct booking website, I don't mean just any old website will do. In fact, a badly designed website can actually hurt your bookings. I've seen my fair share of hosts with terrible websites and if you're interested in how we can help you, head over to our website where you'll find more information and examples of quality sites that get results. A great example is Kieran's. We made several improvements including transforming it from his free PMS website to a WordPress built solution. This looked more professional and engaging for a future potential guest. We documented his reviews in real time on the homepage which built social proof with a future potential guest. The copy spoke to his ideal guest so it attracted more people he wanted to walk through the door. We created a seamless booking process which was crystal clear on how to make a reservation with Kearney. With his site optimized and generating bookings, it was time for the upsells. To achieve this, we implemented a Google form for the Orlando property.

I love that form. I think it gives like a lot of information about the guests and can help me really market how I need to market.

Although we presented it as a new guest check in form, its actual purpose was to number one, collect the guest's complete information including their phone number and email address. Number two, understand why the guest chose his business as the place to stay and number three, determine the reason for their visit to the area and as a bonus one we identified if they were celebrating any special occasions. This form was integrated into our automated system and has been completed by over 50 people. As a result, Kearney has successfully upsold welcome packages with a 300% upmark on him. Also, he has gained insights into his niche and the reasons people choose to book with him. For example, we worked out that it was a photo of his games room. That was one of the main reasons why people booked with him. The majority of people were staying with Kearney, were celebrating a birthday or an anniversary and 30% of his visitors lived in the same state. These insights are really useful for tailoring marketing efforts, selecting the most effective photos and refining the copy using his property listings. And all of that is reflected in his new optimized direct booking website which is absolutely flying. The best part is that anyone can achieve this level of success. If you'd like our assistance in building your own effective website, and we truly are the experts in this field, please leave a comment or visit the Boostly website to request a free Insights report for your short term rental portfolio. Kearney has also observed another significant improvement related to the introduction of the form his Guest Experience Score. His guests are now having a better time at the property than ever before. This is because he customizes recommendations before their arrival. The fantastic news is that this has resulted in a flood of five star reviews, which in turn builds trust, enhances his reputation and increases the visibility of his property. Happy guests often choose to return and they are more inclined to book directly. It's a big win and so easy to implement. Combine this with the increasing amount of emails he was collecting in his new Boostly CRM and it's creating a business that is based on a solid foundation for growth. Remember to always have your own direct booking website and to use a guest form to collect information that in turn can be used to enhance your guest experience and allow you to upsell and cross sell products, boosting your profits. If you need help implementing any of my suggestions in your own business, remember you can request a personalized Insights report using the link below the video. Alternatively, feel free to leave a comment and we'll have someone reach out to you to help you get started. How about a Stay in a Mushroom dome? This rustic 100 square foot cabin is nestled in the California woods and boasts over half a billion guests, making it one of the most popular Airbnb rentals on the platform. But if you're dreaming of stargazing in its 10 acres of natural terrain and farmland, you'll need to plan ahead. Because it's currently booked up for the next six months, that isn't a luxury most short term rental owners can boast. However, that's not the typical experience for short term rental owners using the platforms to host their properties. Simply listing a short term rental property on Airbnb doesn't guarantee booking and profits. Occupancy rates, which measure the proportion of days in a month a property is booked, can be as low as 10% or even lower. Why do so many owners neglect property marketing and just wait for bookings? You're leaving easy money on the table. And if the bookings dry up, you're in big trouble. With Justina and Kieran, I introduced daily marketing activities that take just 30 minutes and they've substantially increased bookings, allowing Cuny to invest the extra profits back into his property. And Justyna has been able to work on starting up a new management model to her business. Here are the most impactful and easy to implement tactics so you can do the same. Number one, outreach to previous guests. We had an email list that we were gathering, we had a list of people that had stayed with Justyna and Kearney. And what we did is we reached out to them, we told them about new properties that we had coming on board, we tell them about new dates that we had coming on board. But essentially we reached out to the people that had already given us money, already stayed with us, already established, that know, like and trust to a re established communication. Number two, surveys. We wanted to figure out exactly why people were choosing to stay at Justina's properties. She had a selection in leads and we wanted to do a survey to figure out who was the ideal guest, who was kept coming back for more, and why they were staying with Justina in the first place. So by reaching out to the guests and by surveying our guests, we were able to figure out her niche and her audience were contractors and families looking to be relocated. So again, this really helped us in terms of marketing and creating her direct booking website. Guest avatars. Every single person watching this will have a different avatar. Doesn't matter where you are in the world, doesn't matter whether you look after solo people or huge groups, you've got a different avatar. Which is also basically fancy marketing talk for ideal guests. What we established with both Kearney and Justina is who were their ideal guests, who are the ideal people that were going to walk through the door. But more importantly, before we even went down that route of figuring that out, it was who was coming to the area. Because the type of guest that goes to Orlando, Florida is different to the type of guest that's coming to to Leeds, United Kingdom. So we figured out who is coming to the area, what the property or properties are best suited for, and then we go, okay, so this is who we want to appeal and to be walking through our door. By figuring that out, it made everything so much easier because the copy that we used, the pictures that we used, everything that we could put together on the new website that we're going to talk about in a second, everything was so much easier. Number four, new website. One thing that was crystal clear with both Justina and Kieran is that their lack of a quality website, one that turns lookers into bookers. So for justina we created cozy spaces.co.uk and for Kearney we built escapebookings.com both of them were designed to do one thing and one thing only is to turn a looker into a booker. Beautiful pictures, really easy to understand copy speaking to their ideal guests. Guests telling the story about them as a host and an owner, but also as well, what their property or properties bring and how they can best suit the guest. Number five Cold calling. What we noticed, especially in Leeds, for Justina's properties, is that there were several businesses that were responsible for sending contractors and subcontractors to the area. What we did is we got the contact information of the best person to speak to at those positions, businesses and we, we dropped a call and we picked up the phone and give them a call. On this phone call, we weren't trying to do the hard sell. All we're doing was introducing ourselves and our portfolio and how we could help. By doing so, we're able to establish relationships and contacts so that in turn, when those businesses need to send their contractors or subcontractors to leads the next time, they're not going to go and search on booking.com, they're not going to go search on Airbnb. They've got a direct contact in Justina and number six. And the best one, I'll save this for last, is this one tactic that so many people don't do, but if they start to do it, you'll generate much more business bookings in your area. One night I asked Justina to do me a favor and was to drive around Leeds city centre. Justina was pinpointed to go to four chain hotels and all that she needed to do was to go into the car park between 7pm and 9pm and was to make a note of which company vans were in those car parks, took a picture, got a name, got a number and that was all she was meant to do. She drove around four car parks, came around with five phone numbers. The next day we picked up the phone and we gave them a call. Now, the reason why you go between 7 and 9pm Is because that is when the workers have had their day at work, they've parked up the back vans and they're having the evening in the hotel. When we called the next day, the whole goal of that was again to introduce our business. We worked out that if they've got three or four rooms in said chain hotel, they're going to be spending an extra 30 to 40% than if they'd have stayed with Justina. The reason why this happens is that the person who's booking accommodation is normally a PA or receptionist if they don't have a designated accommodation specialist within their company. And so what they do is they just Simply go to booking.com or Expedia and they'll just book. The first thing that they see the all of this is to introduce the business. And the way that we approached the conversation wasn't to sell, it was to educate and was to explain if they were to book at a short term rental property, a property like Justina's that is designed and set up to work best for contractors, then we get on their radar. This tactic worked really well and resulted in bookings coming from it. All I suggest to everybody who's watching this is you do it consistently. If you're lucky enough to have members of your staff that can do move is for you, great. But to start off with, you'll have to be the one driving around the car parks, getting down the details and dropping the phone calls in. This was the one tactic that doesn't cost any money. Easy to do and you just got to give up a couple of hours your time maybe once or twice a month. A solid short term rental marketing strategy can turn lookers into bookers. Your short term rental marketing approach will differ based on the size, location and type of property you're renting out. There's no one size fits all strategy and anyone claiming otherwise is likely to be a questionable guru trying to sell you an inferior product. But the ones I've shared have proven successful for Justina and Kearney as well as other short term rental owners I've worked with. So if you're heavily reliant on other platforms for your bookings, I want you to give some of my suggestions a try and share your results with me. The vacation rental industry is enjoying a period of unprecedented growth growth. Yet many short term rental owners aren't making the most of these boom times because they don't give enough thought to growth. Sure, some will have aspirations of adding another property or two to their portfolio, but that isn't the only way you can grow your rental business. Too many hosts stay stagnant because they don't embrace new strategies that can attract more direct bookings and repeat guests. When I met Cuny, he owned a nice short term rental in Orlando, but it had a lot of untapped potential on I recommended Two simple improvements that I knew would boost his revenue. First, we added a pool heater which was a game changer because it allowed guests to enjoy the pool year round. What we noticed from the messages that his guests were sending, especially when people were looking to stay in the winter months, is that they wanted to be in the swimming pool but it was too cold. We got this from looking at the reviews and looking at the data. So with the extra money we were making from Price Labs, we invested that into a pool heater which resulted in year round pool use which again impacted his five star reviews. Second, we added a projector to the games room and a dedicated workspace. The projector added to what was a very popular room in the house for guests and the dedicated workspace was to tap into the rising trend of workcation stays. We were able to identify via Price Labs and Air DNA the places that had a dedicated workspace were generating more bookings and and could demand a higher price. My assumption is that if it is classed as a work stay, then it counts as a tax write off. So the booker is happy to pay a little bit extra as it's coming out of their business account and not a personal one. Take a moment to consider what small changes you could make to your short term rental property to experience similar growth. It could be as simple as adding a few amenities or improving certain features to enhance the overall guest experience and attract more books tokens. It could be a dedicated workspace, an old school arcade game system, adding in subscription services such as Disney plus, Netflix or sport packages. Another often overlooked aspect of short term rental growth is pricing. Many studies have shown that various managers and business owners tend to set their prices too low and short term rental hosts are no exception. However, pricing for short term rentals is not as straightforward as simply doubling your rates. It's a more complex process and that's where a software package like Price Labs comes into play. Let me give you an example. If you own a short term rental in a town or city and a major event like a concert or a conference is happening nearby, the demand for accommodations in your area will likely skyrocket. The problem is that most short term rental owners don't have the time to constantly monitor and adjust their prices to match these supply and demand fluctuations. As a result, they miss out on a lot of potential revenue. That's where Price Labs come in. It's a tool that helps short term rental hosts optimize their pricing based on various factors including events, seasonality and demand. With Price Labs you can ensure that you're charging the right amount for your rental, maximizing your revenue without the stress of constantly adjusting your rates manually. That's why I got Kearney to implement Price Labs. He is now generating more money than ever. With Justina, we've done the same, so we implemented Price Labs. This has meant that with the extra profit, she's been able to add more properties and start up a new management arm to her business. Whether you've already got a portfolio of properties or if you're looking to build a company in the sector, this is your opportunity to increase your profitability. Give some of the strategies that work for CUNY and Justina a try and watch how your business scales in this rapidly growing industry. If you need help implementing any of my suggestions in your own business, remember that you can request a personalized Insights report using the link below the video. In January 2023 I started an experiment with Justyna and Kearney who were frankly fed up. As short term rental hosts, they were both suffering from very different but very common problems. Justina's primary challenge was maintaining focus. She found herself frequently switching between various software solutions. Despite understanding the importance of implementing systems and hiring assistants, she, like many of us, was struggling to balance the demands of life. She ended up dedicating excessive hours to non essential tasks and fallen prey to the shiny object syndrome, a situation where owners often expect the next big thing to solve their problems. To compound things, she lacked a dedicated website and a weak Airbnb listing was yielding poor results. On the other hand, Kearney, like many new hosts, had ventured into the world of short term rental rentals, enticed by the hype but lacked guidance. With no direct booking website, he was struggling to navigate the realities of being a property owner in the short term rental market. Fast forward 12 months and what a difference. Firstly, Justina, she has a plan. A new hire, has time back, has focus ish has a website, profit is up more consistency in terms of marketing. We worked on the systems she had instead of looking at at swapping all the time, we created SOPs and the new recruit was able to help Justina get out of the weeds of her business. This meant she was able to open a new management model. There is a clear communication path with existing clients. She focused down on the niche of business guests and relocation families. She's now starting to grow her network in leads and is becoming the go to person for accommodation. If I was to put it down to one thing, it would be the growth of her business. She's now added in more properties and she's opened up this new management arm to the business, which is primarily down to the fact that she has been able to let go of the day to day operations and has the trust now in a member of staff that has been hired the right way to help her to be able to grow this portfolio and grow her business. I'm genuinely proud of her for putting all my suggestions into action and I'm eagerly anticipating where she and her business will be in another 12 months. Kearney is doing amazing too. He's a new direct booking website. He's cross selling and upselling products. He markets his business the right way. His bookings are a nice mix of direct and Veer and ota. He is now listed on more than just Airbnb. He's added booking.com and VRBO so his business is seen by more people. He gets the maximum price for the demand. He stepped up his knowledge as well, so now he no longer has gap days in between stays. If he sees an opportunity to upsell dates to a guest that's staying with him, he will call up and he will do so. And he's more confident at speaking on the phone now than ever before. All of this has meant that he's making more money. He has brought an automation messaging system so that he can navigate his job as well as his business. This has now led to more 5 star reviews. He is in the top 5% in his market on Airbnb and it's a massive testament to to the work that he has done and he has implemented behind the scenes. More people are now coming to him direct through the world of Referrals, the program that we set up within his automated messaging. He has developed new revenue streams through surveying his guests. He knows who his ideal avatar is and the marketing has made so much simple because of this. All in all, he has higher occupancy than any of his competition in the area. He is charging more than any of his competition in the area and I can see his growth being substantial over the next 12 months. He has a plan. He knows how to grow his portfolio and most importantly has the confidence and the control in his business to do so. I'm sure it won't be long until he acquires his second property and I'll make sure to schedule a visit to see him. Since working with both Justina and Kieran, I'd say the most significant change is the newfound sense of confidence and control. This transformation is the result of of a blueprint and a plan and I can assist you in creating one too. Of course, both posts continue to generate bookings from Airbnb and other platforms, but they are no longer solely reliant on them. How fantastic is that? Running short term rentals is hard work and it's not the passive income some gurus may suggest. However, as you've witnessed with Justina and Kieran, if you're willing to put in the effort and improve by just 1% each day, you can build a successful and profitable short term rental business while maintaining a happy and balanced, balanced life. And who wouldn't want that? If you've enjoyed meeting and learning about Justina and Kieran's journey, there's plenty more content on my channel designed to assist short term rental hosts. Please like and share this video because I want to spread the word to as many hosts as possible. A big thank you to my guinea pigs Justina and Kierni. You're both legends and I've loved getting to know you and your businesses more throughout this year. Thanks for watching and don't forget to visit the Boostly website if you need any support with your own short term rental business or if you want that free Insights report I mentioned.