Thoughtful Generousity - the key to hospitality

Hey everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives host the tools, the tactics, the trainings and most importantly, the confidence on how you as a host can go out there and pick up yourself some more direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan, I'm Mark Simpson's co host and today we're going behind a successful and interesting host. We're going to be asking questions about their hospitality business, trying to extract some, some juicy answers, some things that you can do and implement within your business. And I'm really excited. Today I'm joined by Laura Wegner and she's got a brilliant short term rental business called the Suite Life in Whistler or Suite Life Whistler, I should say. Without further ado, let's introduce Laura. Welcome along.

Thank you so much, Liam. I'm very excited to be here and able to talk about my business and what I love most about hosting.

Well, I'm excited to have you here, so why don't you give the audience a introduction into you and, and your business?

Sure. So my business name is the Sweet Life Whistler in British Columbia, Canada and we offer currently a one bedroom boutique vacation rental on the slopes of Blackcomb Mountain. I have to say, Whistler is my all time happy place. I've been to over 20 different countries around the world and Whistler still has my heart and it's where I love to adventure. So, so, so grateful that I'm able to have a business there. And I just launched an Airbnb management company. We want to support and educate investors who are looking to build out their Whistler portfolio and maximize their ski in, ski out revenue potential.

That sounds amazing and certainly something which, I mean Whistler in general. I'm actually going snowboarding next week. So anything which is ski in, ski out, you know, sort of anything like that I absolutely love. So you mentioned the model that you use. And when it comes down to one thing, I'd love to know, which not many other people know, if we can get something interesting or may surprise people about yourself.

Oh, I think, I think this is quite surprising. I am a certified teacher and I have my master's in applied linguistics. I did some linguistic work in Papua New guinea and I'm actually credited in the Ethnologue, which is a language book of all the languages in the world of discovering a language called Yiribam. So me and one other linguist out in the bush with a backpack discovering some languages. Of course I say discovering because that's from a western viewpoint because that language group knew their language, but most people don't know that. So there you go.

That is amazing. What would you say is the most important thing for your guests aspect? And why, why do people come and stay in the Suite Life Whistler.

What I've learned from our guest and from the reviews is that people are really responsive to hospitality. And I know that seems ridiculous to say in the hospitality industry, but I think there are some hosts out there. Not a hospitable host, mind you, but there are some who've kind of forgotten that hospitality is the golden rule in the business. They think it's all about the bottom line. So what I've stumbled upon is kind of re examining hospitality and how crucial it is to the guest day. I know I've been in 20 different countries and whenever I have stayed at a place where hospitality is the very first thing that's on the list, then they extend to me a higher quality of service. There's a higher return on my experience and I feel valued instead of just sort of processed and pushed through the system. And people are really yearning for that, the connection of that, the seamlessness of that, the thoughtfulness of that. And I personally believe if you're going to engage the golden rule, right, we want to treat others the way we want to be treated, then it's really hard to do that by just considering the company's bottom line.

People agree with you.

Yeah, people, they sense that when you're stingy on some level, people just go, oh, especially generous people. So hospitality first and everything else will fall in line.

What kind of guest avatar do you host? Who is it who comes and stays with you?

Our guest avatar are jet setting couples. They're world travelers. They're seasoned, they have high demands on accommodations. They absolutely need that. Ski and ski out. Don't even talk to them. There's no hot tub, there's no ski and ski out. Forget it. They're not going to look at you and you know they've been around. So they know good hospitality and world class hospitality when they see it. So couples, that's our target avatar. We do any advertising or any copywriting. We speak directly to them. We want to attract them in and they want to adventure together while they connect together. And that's, that's our main target avatar.

What would you say is the reason that you got into hospitality? Take me back. Like you say you've discovered languages. Take me back. How did, how did this all come about and why?

I guess it's a story that we hear Quite often in the hospitality industry. You know, some people get into it because that's their first choice. I had a gourmet coffee service business that was thriving for over a decade and then Covid came in and obliterated that business because we were in offices and when all the offices shut down, our service was basically no longer needed for a two year period. So my gourmet coffee service business died quickly and it was, it was deeply painful. I mean, I had plans that I was going to build that up, I was going to sell, you know, that business and all of that got stripped away. So it's March and I'm realizing my business is dead. Nobody's going to be needing my coffee service. And I don't really have many options except for one. We had purchased a Whistler condo a few months prior and we were updating it and that was really my only financial game in town. And so I just dug in and I said, okay, I know long term rentals. I've been doing long term rentals for about 20 years. So I thought, well, I'm going to get into the short term rental. But there's a problem. I have no knowledge of the short term rental industry. I've stayed at places, but I didn't know. So I had no knowledge of short term rentals. I, I had no reputation. That's huge in the short term rental industry. I had no traction with online travel agents. And of course we know occupancy rates were like, they tanked, right. They were at nothing in March. So I, it's kind of a Hail Mary. I threw up and like in a football game and here it is. I didn't know that it was going to be so successful. Successful and that people are going to respond so well to it. And I'm grateful. So all of you who came to stay with me, thank you.

When you had bought that condo, I guess that was before you knew how to track where properties work. But is there any, was there anything that gave you a good feeling that that was going to work? What was it that made you think, hey, do you know what this probably will do well as a, as a short term rental?

Well, look, even though we weren't going to necessarily rent that out as a short term rental, we're still investment people and we're not going to buy something that doesn't cash flow. So cash on cash, all of those things, we did look into that. So that was the good news. We did the cash on cash value with the long term rental in case we had to rent it out long term. But the main thing that I can say is we've known this area, our personal knowledge about 20 years. So we know the that particular niche market now. Besides that though, I'm all about networking with professionals. So we went to this real estate agent, Dani o'. Neill. She's amazing. She is an expert in her field. She knows that ski in, ski out market like nobody else. And we partnered with her and she helped us with her resources and sources, help us to know, is this a good investment. And then after I had that information, I went out to some short term rental management companies and I said, hey, what do you project my income could be for this scenario? And that was kind of just what I did. Not understanding that I was going to be in the short term rental industry. So I used the knowledge that I had at the time and the connections, the networking that I had. So I would highly recommend to people that find an expert. Everybody says this, find your experts that you love to partner with and use them as a resource. They're happy to do that. And Dani was invaluable. She's amazing. Any property we purchase will go through her.

Thank you, Laura, for coming on and sharing your story. And there's something I say this quite often, but your vibe attracts your tribe. So there'll be people who listen to this and reach out because they resonate with you and your story and, and your hospitality business. And from this podcast I've got the, you know, the. It was returned us back to the, the warmth of what hospitality should be, that thoughtful generosity. So thank you for, for sharing that and thank you too. If you're listening to this on the Boostly podcast, we know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and your attention is one of your most valuable resources. So we really thank you for putting it with us here at Boostly and we hope we have inspired, fired you and that you've picked up some tips today. So thank you so much and thank you again, Laura.

Yes, thank you.

Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loose.