Turning Stays Into Stories - A Host's Journey To Creating Memories

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives host the tools, the tactics, the training, most importantly, the confidence so you can go out there and get yourself more direct bookings. We do a mini series on this podcast where we interview interesting and successful hosts from all over the world. And we've got a wonderful host with us today who's got a really successful business and one which I've spoken to at one of the recent shows and this inspired me to share this podcast, invite him to the podcast and share his story because he embodies everything which I think all hosts should be doing, which is to really take action and to, to go out there and, and to, to make it happen. So let me introduce to you today we've got Andy Cheetham. He is the owner and managing director of the Terrace Windermere. Welcome along, Andy. Thank you for joining me.

My pleasure. And you know, great to see you again. I did enjoy yours and Mark's company at the show recently. It's great to see you both. So thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.

Tell me about your business. Give us the elevator pitch. For those listening and haven't heard of yourself and your business, what can they expect from the Terrace Windermere?

Okay, so we're a group of large houses. We have six large houses, one small house, one which just happened to come as with a large house. Buy one, get one free. The terrace itself consists of five pretty large Victorian properties, listed buildings. They were built for the owners of the Windermere railway in the 1850s. And they've always been a private row and they've always been holiday houses as such, or started as holiday houses, I think various things in over the years. And yeah, so we, we slowly bought all of them. So we've actually got an entire, entire row which is private. So it's a private street in effect. And that makes us pretty unique. Each house sleeps between 12 and 16 people. And so every weekend we fill every weekend. And every weekend it's just full of people who have come to have a great time. We don't really ever need to worry about disturbing people because all the guests are there to, to enjoy themselves. And Friday evenings especially, that kind of arrival, arrival madness that goes on when people come into the houses is very.

Special for the hosts and for the people listening. What is it that you'd love for them to take away from our chat today? What would you most like them to remember about you and about the Terrace Windermere?

Well, I think I'd like them to understand the business and, and for them to understand what we do and how we do it. But, but I think today is, is a bit of a thank you for the Boostly crew and, and what it's helped me with. I've been in this business since 2006, so quite a long time. 18 years. I slowly came into it, I had another job and over that time I, I've grown the business. But over the last year I took this step after really after listening to your podcasts and in the books of, of going more direct than I've ever been before. And so a bit of this is actually about you guys and me thanking you.

You're going to catch me maybe a.

Little bit unusual, but I just felt when I spoke to you, I thought, look, you know, it'd be nice to get on and just say, yeah, you've, you've given me something and I really appreciate that.

Talk us through where you were, I guess before. Were you 100% kind of reliant on the OTAs? How did you get your bookings originally? And talk me through the journey of the change.

Yeah, so, so we. I was a founder and owner of quite a large advertising agency. I founded it in 1993. So a long, long time ago. Probably when you in school or might not have even been born.

No, no.

I'm an older guy and look, I was creative director and I had a pretty good reputation. The company was in, in the north of England was probably one of the biggest and the best still going. We were bought out by wpp, who's a. Which is a massive, massive company, a global company. And I stayed on for a long time, but I also knew that I needed an insurance policy. I, I'd made some money from building the business, but I sold it when I was 34 and rather than restart in advertising, which is. It's a big thing. It's a big thing. And I had lots of things in my contract which would stop me from trading in certain ways and with certain clients. So rather than start again in advertising, I thought, well, look, I need something else. So I started the hard let business actually by mistake a little bit. I'd like to say it was good planning, but in 2006, the property boom was like full flow. I mean, it was crazy. And I, I thought I'd sold my business. I had a little bit of a kind of rush of blood to the head. I had a big boat in the Mediterranean, I had moorings, I had, I had a quite a hedonistic lifestyle. Which I really enjoyed and I don't regret, regret at all.

Sounds fun for me.

Yeah, we could see, we could see the world changing actually. Advertising is a good barometer. It's a good barometer of what's coming. You feel it before anybody else. You feel the clients cutting back. You start to think something's happening. So I thought my earnout is pretty much finished. It doesn't feel like I'm going to get much more out of my shares. In fact, if anything at all, I'm burning through the money like a lottery winner, you know, or a bad lottery winner. There are good ones out there as well, but. Yeah, and I better do something sensible. So. Well, I'll get into property. I'll buy somewhere in the Lake District, somewhere I can get together with friends and anyway, I'm in the process of buying it. My mother in law hands me an article from the Sunday Times which I've still got somewhere. I should have bought it up for this, for this call. And it said, it said buying a holiday let at this moment in time is like winning the property lottery. It was just a brilliant article. It said this is what you got to do. And back in those days there were a lot more breaks than there are now and certainly a lot more than there are going to be in the future. No matter who gets into government, it's going to get tougher.

You mentioned that you bought a few places. Did you buy this terrace one after the other or was this all one big purchase?

No, the terrace took about nine years put together. So yeah, the, the first one was the middle one, the middle house on the terrace and that I bought that next door was a guest house and next door to that was a private house. And so it was a mix. It was a mix. And the one of the private houses came up for sale and actually a friend of mine said, oh, I think I'll buy that. And he said, do you mind? And I said, well actually I had.

Yes I do.

So and that will make us competitors. And I'm not really sure about that. So we agreed. He, he went off and bought a holiday let elsewhere and I bought that. And then the guy in the middle eventually who owned the guest house said, look, my wife's not well, I'm not sure about your clientele. We're very, very quiet guest house. And you, you're bringing all these groups of people in and you know, would you like, let's not argue. Would you like to buy me out? So he got a good price anyway. He, so he did Very well out of it. And then the other two came up again. I got on very well with them, did a deal off market, bought the properties, and then I had had the whole place. So that gave me. That gave me the ability then to sort of control how parking worked, bins worked, and all of those awkward things that, that you. You get with holiday lets you know. Prior to that, people would rack up on a Friday with too many cars, park them in next door's car parking place. They'd come out, they'd argue the bit. The bins were difficult because our guests were generating a lot more waste than. Than other guests. And, you know, it just, you know, carried. Carried on like that. So it was far better to own the whole thing.

So, Andy, to see us out, the question I'd love to ask is what mantra has really resonated over your journey and still resonates with you today?

I think it's more. More of a life mantra. And that's one that again, the do lectures, actually, which a massive fan of. They have on their wall a saying that givers get lucky. And I think if you can give more than you take, if you can help, if you can help people, if you can give just, you know, some thanks, like today, that's all I can give you. I can't. I can certainly give you my subscription money, but I think if you can give more, then you're gonna actually eventually receive more. And that's, that's how I run my life.

It definitely resonates. So thank you so much, Andy.

Oh, you've given me a lot. So there you go, you've got lucky.

Well, thank you.

So we'll get lucky. Yeah.

Well, for sharing this journey with us and for. For coming on the Boostly podcast and yeah, in inspiring the people who are listening to this. So thank you too for listening to this on the Boostly podcast. If you'd continue the conversation, you can come and join the hospitality community, free community on Facebook. And there is a book which Andy mentioned, which is the book Direct Playbook. It's available from Amazon or any main bookstore, I should think. And it's by Mark Simpson and it can help you with tips on how to get more direct bookings. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you very much, Andy. We'll see you again in the future, I'm sure.

Thank you. Brucely Transitional Company.

Thank you so much.

See you soon.

See you soon. Thanks. Bye for now.

Having a blast.

Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast.

Bruce Lee.

Like Bruce Lee.

Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.