Unveiling The Industry Secrets: The STR Collab with @StayFi_Software @hostgpo and Mount

STR Collab time in the Boostly podcast. So whether you are listening or watching or wherever you are doing so make sure you check out this episode. But most importantly go to the Facebook group, the STR Collab group request to join because good things are happening in there. In this episode we bring in our latest founding member of the STR Collab host GPO and the fantastic founder Jeff, AKA don't vote for me at the Shorties, AKA my name is Jeff. He's a good guy. Brit has a fantastic lambo if you go to events and it's a pleasure to have him part of this estate. I call up joining Arthur from Statefi, Maddie from Mount and myself. And in this episode it's a little bit different in the other ones. We've sort of had a presentation which has been fantastic and all that stuff. But this time I wanted to get into the nitty gritty. We wanted to get into the topics, the trends, the news. And in this one you have to tune in and you have to stick around to the end because we bring in a guest speaker and you have to watch or listen to this to know who that is. This is a host who is doing the things that we were talking about and has a lovely little case study and you'll have to find out who that is by tuning in. So without further ado, let me flip the screens and the next person you're going to hear from is the fantastic, the amazing Maddie Rifkin from MOUNT.

Welcome. This is the. Yeah, STR host collab. Little background on all of us here talking today because we are the founding members trying to build this community and we'll, we'll tell you a little bit more about it shortly. But I'm Maddie Rifkin, I'm the CEO and founder of mount. We handle all things experiences in the short term rental industry. So basically when your guest guest gets to the property, what are they going to do? That's us. I did found my company when I was 12 years old, so it's been a journey already. We did start as a lock company and then a scooter company. Now we're in the short term rental space and we have raised over $4 million. So here trying to change the way we travel. Mr. Mark Simpson.

I, I amended distance last time because I thought it was a little bit too vanilla. So I put in it the guy that Airbnb doesn't want you to know about, Winky face, promoter of Bug Direct. And I amended that to $62 million tracked in direct bookings for our boosted customers in 2023. Love being part of this. This is number four off the top of my head now and excited to showcase our new new and latest founding member this, this evening, this afternoon, this morning, whenever you're watching it. So thank you very much for having us back everyone.

This is Arthur. I'm the founder of StayFi. We are a wi fi and guest marketing company that just like Mark, help short term rental operators of all size become less dependent on OTAs and build their own direct booking brand where guests come back and book you directly again and again. I just checked and to date we've had three and a half million guests log into the wi fi across thousands and thousands of short term rentals. So that's millions of people that we are helping educate around book direct and why they should book directly with short term rental operators and hosts and not go through third party channels.

Awesome. Welcome Arthur. And last but not least, we have Jeff.

Hey everybody. Jeff Alulian. I'm the new guy here. Founder and CEO of Host gpo. We are a buying group for the short term rental industry. So what that means is if you need furniture, linens, mattresses, amenities, rugs, decor, art supplies, probably could keep going, anything for your vacation rental property, we have a one stop shop platform where you can buy all that stuff at a discount. And before starting host gpo, I should mention we are only in the US and Canada. But before starting host GPO I was actually a vacation rental operator. I managed over 150 properties from luxury homes to apartment buildings with studios in them to cabins. So I here and excited to be a part of this group.

Awesome. Thanks Jeff. And we have a star amongst us because you did win the rising star award last year. I think it was correct.

Yeah, yeah, just a couple months back, you know, following in the footsteps of the greats which I think, I think you, you won it the year before that from what I remember. So it was a, you know, a pretty cool honor and nice. It's something that we share.

Absolutely perfect. So just as a recap for those that are newcomers, we are building the STR collab as the cornerstone for rental entrepreneurs. So we really want to bring together the optimal tech and operational strategies to level up all of your businesses. And by doing that, what we do is we have expert LED webinars. So after this one we actually are going to kick off in our Facebook group a poll on what you guys want to learn, who you want to hear from. We'll use our resources to bring them to the table and let you guys ask all the burning questions that you have. We also are launching in person meetups. So we're a big believer when it comes to community that it doesn't just stop with our webinars and online engagement. Like, we want to meet each other in person. We want to network. That's where the real magic happens. So we will be standing some of those up shortly and we'll announce the locations that we're going to target first in the Facebook group as well. And then we also do events, so everyone is aware there's a lot of conferences out there. That's great. It's a bit overwhelming if you show up alone and have never known anyone in person. So we like to throw pre meetup events to these conferences so that we get to know each other, can build our community further and just keep learning from each other. So that's really what the STR collab is all about. My fellow founders, I don't know if I missed anything.

And you nailed it.

Yeah, I think we're good. I think we're always looking for, like, people that want to get involved, especially with the meetup. So please reach out and come and join the Facebook group. And yeah, if you're up for it, if you want to do some. Wherever you are, then let us know.

Absolutely.

Just, you know, just want to shout out that, like, the community part of this is so cool. Really, the slide is right on time. But, you know, as somebody who's been in this industry for a long time, coming up on 10 years now, relatively long time, just these communities didn't used to exist at all. I felt like my. My vacation rental journey was very lonely. Early, early on 10 years ago, there wasn't. There were a lot of people doing this in silos and there weren't a ton of communities. And just the opportunity to be a part of a community is. Is so important and so unique and cool and just really excited to be able to be a part of that, so.

Well, thank you, Jeff. Yes, I would absolutely agree with that. So if you guys are not in the Facebook group already, you can scan this QR code and get access to the Facebook group. I believe Mark will drop the link to the Facebook group in the chat as well, just in case you happen to be on your phone right now and you can't scan the QR code. But this is where we post all of the recordings of all of the past webinars. So if you join, you can see the last three that we did. And then we also post information about our meetups, our events and everything you need to know about the STR collab. So that would be the place to do that. And then this is kind of where we dive into a little of the news. We have these monthly so the news kind of piles up. Newest news is the shorties was announced the shortlist which is just our industry awards. But Boostly, Host, GPO and MOUNT are among the shortlist. Arthur, I believe Stayfi might be as well but I put this together very fast.

I don't think we made it this year or I don't know if we applied to be part of it. So you know, know that's okay. We're not losing sleep over it.

Short list shortlisted in our hearts are. They're shortlisted in our hearts.

Exactly. Other really cool thing, Google says London is the top search destination for the summer. So Mark, you will probably be seeing a lot of tourists.

That's all right because I live in York, not London.

So close. Close.

And then that is really interesting to me why that? Because I would have assumed that Paris would be the default top summer European destination because obviously you've got the Olympics coming to to the town. But that's interesting to say.

Yeah. So I don't know if London is popping off on Tick Tock or what is happening, but social media must be driving people there.

Tick Tock. Tick Tock decides a lot of people's travel destinations.

They do. We'll talk about that in a little as well. And then just, I mean we're all aware the eclipse happened yesterday. Hopefully everyone got to get out and see it, at least a little part of it. But in those cities that were in the path of totality or near the eclipse path, 88 occupancy rates. So pretty high. Pretty awesome. And you know what was crazy with that though?

I was heard Jamie Lane talk about this on the Good Morning Hospitality podcast is that although occupancy was very high, ADR wasn't risen at all. Wasn't. Wasn't high at all because post didn't take full advantage of it. They didn't spot this trend. And obviously when people who follow these kind of things, they book well in advance. It's like, you know, it's like metal detectors or things like that. People like who love that sort of thing, they geek out on it and they're like right on it. And host didn't react in time and maybe the dynamic pricing didn't react in time. So the ADR wasn't. Wasn't high. It's not like A Taylor Swift coming into town or a Super bowl or something like that. So although occupancy was high, the people didn't get that extra bag, so to speak.

I think I thought that, I thought that map, that map that airdna put out was amazing with, you know, the time lapse of, of all the, the bookings. And then you could just see that one belt running across. That was the, the full totality and it was, it was pretty cool to see.

That's why, that's why Jamie got on national tv.

Unbelievable, this guy.

Yeah, amazing.

Always killing it. Fantastic. So that's our wrap up on the news. And then the last one is just some upcoming events. If these aren't on your calendar, I would say check them out. At least one of us on this call will be at these events. I know we're kind of all going to different ones, but this is kind of what's on the radar for April. Obviously it's a very busy month for conferences, but should be some fun ones. So if you haven't heard of these, I would definitely check them out and.

There'S a one for everybody around wherever you are in the, in the world. I think we've got people from the uk, us, Canada on this call. So. Nice.

So yeah, there we go.

Very inclusive. Awesome. So today's going to run a little differently. If you've been on these calls in the past, typically we have one person come and speak and give a whole presentation on what their product is like. And while that is great, I think since we have four amazing experts on this call, all doing different things in the short term rental industry, we're going to do some style of a panel discussion. So we've put together some questions kind of outlining here what we're going to talk about. But we love audience participation. So if you guys have questions you want to ask things that pop up as we're talking. Absolutely. Please put it in the chat and we will get to it. And this is kind of going to be an open forum, so we will jump right in and I'm going to play moderator slash founder of MOUNT on this one. So this is an open question to every panel member on this call, but would love to begin with the big picture of your perspective on the current state of the short term rental industry and then key trends in your opinion that are going to shape its future.

Who's going first?

Mark, you are going first since you just chatted.

So this is something I've been thinking about for, for a while and my, my prediction is that Airbnb is going to, I think what, what, what is going to happen with Airbnb and there's going to be some updates coming up that again, this is just my opinion, but I, I really think that Airbnb are going to double down on the hospitable hosts, as in the hosts that just want to have Airbnb. They're not really bothered about tapping into maybe a PMS who aren't really interested in sort of growing a portfolio, not being professional management companies. And I think they're going to really double down on that. There's obviously the rumor of the upcoming marketplace, which means they're going to tap into all these automations etc, you know, with locks being the start and everything that could come on the back of that. And I feel like that is where they're really going to focus. I really do feel that they, deep down, and this is just my opinion, they despise these professional property managers who utilize their platform because obviously, because when you are a professional, you are on the ball with things like pricing and you know, this, this meme culture that goes around with the short term rental industry at the moment. And they obviously always default to calling it an Airbnb. There's those jokes of whether, you know, they're charging all this money for a stay and there's all these cleaning fees on top of it and you get X, Y and Z and, and I feel like what Airbnb want to do is they want to focus on the smaller hosts, as in like your ones and twosies, who aren't really bothered about having a discussion of what a PMS is or bringing that into their world. But then at the same time they need to get rid of all a lot of the crap. And there are a lot of crap hosts, a lot of dangerous hosts on, on that platform, people who come into it for all the wrong reasons just to, just to make money and not look after the guest. So I, I feel like that is where a lot of attention is going to be. I feel like what, what we're also going to notice is that we, I know, talking about this again on Good Morning Hospitality podcast, which is a really good Monday podcast to put into your world if you're not already. But we're talking about dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing we use at the moment for stays, but they're talking about how the progression will be dynamic pricing for cleaning fees, for extra fees that are, that are, that are out there at the moment, that, that's not really being tapped into. So I think That I feel like that's where there's going to be a lot of focus on. So from the professional side of world, tapping into that dynamic pricing, Airbnb focusing on the smaller hosts, and it's just interesting to see from like the outside perspective of. Of what they're doing and how they're Word and stuff and how they're. They're planning for the. Planning for the. Planning for the future. That's my take.

Awesome. I like that take, Arthur. Jeff, you guys have a different one?

Yeah.

Are we allowed to have takes on Mark's take?

Yeah, yeah, I have a take on his take. And then I have other. You go.

You go first, Arthur. I. I'll jump in after.

Yeah.

I mean, I generally agree with Mark's take that I don't think Airbnb is going to change their positioning in terms of how they approach owner operators versus professionalized operators or property management companies. I think it'll be interesting to see if any of the other OTAs become more property manager friendly to potentially fill that void or how that might play out. I think overall, you know, right now, 2024, from like a macroeconomic perspective, I think is going to look very similar to 2023. Like occupancy demand rates. I think we've seen a pretty decrease in the rate of supply growth with higher interest rates in the US So barring any global situation that's out of our hands, I'm not seeing too much turbulence or changing in this coming year. Year. But I don't know if you guys agree or disagree with that.

I mean, I think it's going to be. I don't disagree that, that this, this coming year is going to be particularly volatile. I think it'll be pretty similar to the past year. I don't think there's going to be a major swing one way or the other in terms of revenues and, you know, ADRs and occupancy. But I do think that my take on, on just the Airbnb part is that I don't know whether or not they're going to focus more on, you know, smaller operators, larger operators. Again, they've historically focused and maybe will continue to focus on the smaller operators. But I do think that what is fascinating about what Airbnb is positioning themselves to do is this expansion into the travel experience. Right. I think that that's the direction they're going to start going in. I think rather than just be a booking platform, I think they're going to try to expand as far as they can into, you know, helping you plan your, helping guests plan their trips, helping them find places to stay and being more involved in the search than ever before. So I think that that's probably the main trend to expect from Airbnb for this, for this coming year and for the industry at large. I think the one that I've been focusing on recently has been the increase in this new type of vacation rental property which is a, a built specifically for vacation rental use home. I think that's something that's relatively new and starting to increase. And I think that's a fascinating part of the industry where you're not just having folks that are coming into homes or apartment buildings and setting up vacation rentals from the ground up or you know, re rehabbing or refurbishing a current property into a vacation rental property. But you're really starting to see this new emergence of vacation rental properties that are being built specifically for vacation rental use, which you know, might have very, very different things associated with them. Whether that's you know, four washers and dryers or a giant living room and small bedrooms or there's a million little quirks that you can, that you can have. But I do think it's a really fascinating change in the industry to start seeing more property being ground up. Vacation rental.

Yeah, I mean I've definitely seen more institutional like investment going into operators that like build from the ground up or renovate, kind of a blend of both and acquire properties. But I definitely have also seen some other alternative business models. Master lease we saw front desk go under here, went under with like the fractional ownership. So I still think we're seeing the long of the boom of master leasing is kind of dying a slow death now as a lot of these companies go under and I'm not sure if any of them will emerge in the end around or we're going to be stuck with still the primary property management and owner operator business models with some other unique flavors around, but those not being very widespread, not seeing too much innovation there happening like we saw in the past.

What do you recommend?

I mean this is also interesting because we're talking about the short term rental industry and the future of it. But really you also have to be talking about how the travel industry is changing and like the travelers preferences and now you have the new generations coming and they, they look at travel very differently than someone who's been doing this for decades. And so I think when you look at that arm of it and how travelers are wanting more than just a place to stay, like they truly are traveling for the experience. That's what's getting them out and going. It's not just to say I went to Nashville, but it's more like I went to Nashville with my friends and we got to experience X, Y and Z. That's what's going to drive the trends. And I think that's why the professionalized like master lease, let's turn an apartment into a short term rental don't work as well anymore is because people are like, well, that's like a hotel. I could just stay there, you know. And they're staying at a short term rental because of the amazing furnishings and what else it gets you to the market and all that extra stuff that other property types can't offer as much.

Jeff, I have a question for you.

Basically, yeah, I have a hot take, but yeah, go for it.

Oh, I was, you know, obviously like booking and Expedia do some type of attractions and same with TripAdvisor with Viator. Do you think Airbnb has a unique position that will make them more successful than other OTAs in like the experiential space? Because they've entered it and kind of exited and toyed around it with before. So do you think they have anything unique or different or they have an excuse with the consumer that the other ones do not?

I mean, I think it's a good question. I think the primary driver is that they have access to a very unique supply. Right. They know what vacation rental properties are. You know, imagine being able to. I'll give you an example. The Airbnb experiences are one part of this, right? And I think that was them dipping their toe and they pulled back and I think they're gonna probably double down and go in that direction. Brian Chesky's made very clear that that is a very important part to him of Airbnb in general, is this experiential part of, of travel. But I do think that you will be able to go to Airbnb in a year or two and say, have your location on and say, we want to type in as your search. Like, we want to take a trip. There's five of us, we're a family, we have a car. Where do we go? And that it will spit out, hey, you're in this city. Here's like, rather than searching destinations, here is where you should be looking. These are the types of stays that exist that are nearby that you could get to in a course of a weekend when you get there. This is an experience that you could potentially be interested in. Or you know, tapping into, into the rest of the, you know, the rest of what that, what that experience could, could be, whether that's from your hosts themselves, you know, coming to also offer, you know, a cooking class or offer, you know, a tour. It could be a number of things. But I do think that, that primarily they will be focused on making sure that that initial search can get you a bunch of different experiences. And their unique position is that they will supply of those experiences.

I mean, they started doing that already because if you go into your profile section now, you can give them a lot more information about your likes and dislikes. I was saying like they're coming the tinder of the OTAs because, you know, they're literally trying to, going to be matchmaking all of, all of like the host to the, to the, to the traveler. And this is just the stats. So they're probably collecting the data now and then obviously with the acquirements of this, what game plan of this AI thing. Then like I say eventually in a year or two time you can go in there and type in your search. I mean there's a, there's a GPT from Nomad list. I don't know if you've ever been to nomadlist.com really good website. They've created a GPT around it and I was using that to plan our summer vacation around you Europe. So you can easily take someone like that, put it onto a listing site like yeah, Airbnb, and create an itinerary and a place to stay and experiences and whatever else they want to attach on to this ecosystem that they're building or built.

Yeah, I mean, look, they're you, they have, they have all the data. They have more data than anybody. They know if you're hovering on one listing or looking at pictures here, but you end up booking that one that, you know, next time somebody's looking for something similar, you know, it's, you know, the Netflix. If you like this, you 97%, you're going to like that. I think that, that their future is going to be piping that information into travelers.

I think what's important for like the people that are tuning into this now and think they're thinking, okay, well how can I bring this into my business? My small business is data is key. Start to collect data on your guests. And you know, there's a fantastic tool. There's one of our, our panelists today has that you can help to collect that data and store it somewhere and start, start now because, you know, maybe you haven't got the ability to you properly utilize it yet, but with everything that's happening around AI and technology. But there may be something that will come sooner rather than later that you can do. So start collecting. Even if in your small little ecosystem that you build up, even if it's just 10, 100 people, the more data you've got, the more personalized you can craft and create your marketing and your business so that you can really put out some customized marketing to your guests to get them to rebook in the future.

Absolutely. That was a great tip, Mark, and I think diving into that a little more, one of the points we have up on our agenda here and a question I have is about identifying new revenue opportunities. And I think we've all experienced and understand that ADR is pretty maxed out. We can't really squeeze there anymore. Cleaning fees, same deal, service fees, all of that works. So when it comes to looking at different ways to make more money or thinking differently other than Airbnb and the OTAs, what are your guys opinions on looking at new revenue streams? Arthur, why don't we start with you?

Yeah, I mean that's, that's an area that we've been focused on a lot lately at Statefi and we've interviewed a ton of operators of all sizes of, you know, how are they doing upsells, what upsells are they doing? And it's definitely something that again and again people aspire to do, but they don't really know how to what tools to use and don't have sometimes the best sense of like what guests or would be willing to pay or not pay for. Areas where we've seen a lot of success lately for relatively high ticket items. I think that's the other thing is, you know, there were some tools people were using, you know, to sell toothpaste or like small items in the property where the juice just like really isn't worth the squeeze in terms of like inventory management, tracking, all that stuff. I think stay alterations is a big opportunity that we see. You know, of all the different types of upsells we interviewed our customers about, that's definitely the one where people are netting the most revenue back to them because they are all services that they are providing and that could be as simple as early check in, late checkout. Mid stay cleans is another one pool heating. So I think stay alterations also because the revenue we found for property managers when we talk to them and is they typically were taking all of that revenue and not sharing it with the owners. Unlike the book Nights, right where the owner is getting the majority of that money. So definitely stay alterations is number one where you've seen people have the most success. And there's a variety of tools, some within a pms, some outside the pms, like the Host CO and Rubaroo, that are how people are executing against those. Um, and then we see people kind of the next category was like third party services or things they're recommending, whether that's through like an affiliate program like Viator Mount, other services through the Host co. But those are just generally we found lower revenue producing just because they're typically getting like 6, 8, 10% of a tour or activity that may be between like 80 and $200. So it's a little bit nice on the side, but definitely stay alterations was number one in terms of what actually makes a significant difference to the overall revenue picture.

That was really good data. I think that makes a ton of sense and that's kind of what we're seeing at Mount as well. Jeff, what's your take from this?

Yeah, I mean, look, I think, I think that's spot on in terms of saying focus on the big. On the big ticket items with high percentages, like all, you know, stay alterations. My take on, on increasing revenue is always, you know, from the host GPO's perspective, you know, there's two things. One, you want your listing to, you know, stand out, right? ADR can be maxed for the listing the way that it is, but you can always, you know, up your listing, make it more design focused, make it more luxury, and unlock a ton of adr. Right? We see members all the time who have vacation rental properties that they're operating. All of a sudden they've put in, you know, 10, $15,000 to redo a bunch of stuff and they're increasing their ADR by $200 a night and paying that back, you know, within a handful of months. So I think that there is that kind of aspect of it. But the other part is when you say increasing revenue, I think a lot of people are looking at it as, or thinking, okay, well that means how much money I'm collecting. But we always talk about is how are you increasing profit, right? And profit is revenue and expenses. And so I think a huge part of that is how am I reducing my expenses, right? How am I lowering my expenses overall? By either saving money on, you know, buying things or, you know, saving money on your operating business. Do you need all the bells and whistles? I think that that's a, that's Something that people have been a little bit, you know, quick to, to pull the trigger on. Oh, well, how am I going to, how am I going to, you know, upsell and, and do, you know, all these little specific things and get every nook and cranny and every dollar out of a guest when at the end of the day they're not doing their core business super well. And so I do think that that's, you know, one, focusing on the expense side of things is really important, but focusing on just doing your core business well, or upping the game of your core business. Maybe you're maxed out at ADR with where you are, but that doesn't mean that your property is maxed out and what it could be in its potential.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's such a good point. And it's funny you mentioned that because I was on a webinar with Kit who was talking about this and there was a host on the call that was telling us that she bought all her sheets from Amazon and it was a pretty nice brand. But Amazon does two day shipping and she's like, yeah, that made sense to me, but they were expensive and she was replacing them a lot. And then we found out you guys carry that brand on host GPO at a mad discount. And so talk about switching over and saving some money just based on where she was buying the materials from. Pretty game changing there.

Maddie, can. Can I ask a request? So we've got somebody in the audience who is a host who is actually doing this right now.

Oh, there you go.

User of Stay Fight and is amazing at multiple revenue streams. I need Laura Muse just to sort of put a hand up. I think it's under one of his many, Katrina Grace. But I need Laura to put your hand up and say I'm here. And then I'll change your name to Laura Muse in the zoom and if you can put it to a panelist, that would be amazing. Could be great to get a host who's doing this in real time. Because I think creating multiple streams of revenue, and I said this in December for like my prediction for this year is creating multiple streams of revenue is going to be so important for your business in 2024. Obviously with experiences and like Arthur was saying around the stay and obviously with what host GPO and all these fantastic solutions are. But Laura, you need to change your name from Katrina Greg, We've Only Got 10 of yous In the chat to Laura, so we know who you are so we can put you as a panelist. And you can come on and you can. And you can tell everybody what he's doing. But. But yeah, while Laura's doing that. So Laura has got Muse Escapes UK based business.

I'm just gonna. Sorry, I'm just gonna allow all the Katrina Grays to talk and then Laura, the right Katrina Gray, you could unmute yourself.

Okay, that's cool.

Oopsie. Oh, I. Nope, I. Okay, you bear with me.

You didn't just kick them all out, but. But basically I'll just give you like a little introduction while she's doing this. So Laura's based in the UK, GoT Musescapes is a stay Fire customer. I know because I've stayed at one of her amazing properties and I was like, my kids wanted to use the wi fi and there was this thing that kept Pop saying, we need your email. And I was like, ah, I know what this is. So yeah, amazing business. And again when we went, we went for my wife's 40th birthday weekend. And one of the amazing things that what Laura did as part of the business was multiple revenue streams. So Laura, after that little intro, we've got yours up on here. If you want to just unmute your microphone and tell everybody what you do and, and how you tap into multiple revenue streams and why you've done it and the, and the, and the wins you've got on the back of it.

Yeah.

Can you hear me?

Oh, cool. Yeah. Thank you for that intro. Didn't even pay for that. Yes. So we're quite new to the industry. We've been going about two years. Massive, massive fan of stay. I recommend it to anybody that I speak to and we've got it in all of our apartments. So we have a guidebook but we do things. So we're a five star award within holiday let business in the Peak District. But we try and do multiple streams of income for our business. Obviously we are very seasonal. So we do things like we partner up with local businesses, which we do if they recommend us to their customers, we give them a kickback and vice versa. So it works two ways. We also provide things like grazing boards, stay in movie packages. We average between 1500 and 2000 pounds a month on extra income just by the upsells. We also have like a dedicated guest services manager who rings everybody before they check in. And another obviously touch point to upsell. So we have about 15 to 20 touch points before someone checks in normally. And that's from email from us actually physically speaking to them on the phone and then throughout their stay as well, they can also do upgrades, like we have barbecue packs and all sorts of wonderful things. But the thing for us is, and I think that this is what sets us apart from most places in the Peak District is we are, we're giving people hospitality. We're more than a head on a bed. Nothing is a problem. Everything is an experience and we are all about the experience. When you stay at Muse Escapes and we get a really high return rate from guests once they've stayed with us, we've got, you know, we've only been open just about 18 months at Foxloak Range and some people are on the 5th, 6th, 7th day.

Fantastic.

You've caught me on the hop. I was literally just about to have my dinner and I'm starving.

I literally. This is why I know I could throw you in because you're amazing at this. So you go have your dinner and can we all please show Laura some love in the chat? Cause that's a fantastic real life version. Host doing it, doing good things. So amazing. And yeah, you've got Frank from Hostfully in the chat saying, we love Laura. So you got lots of love in the chat. Go, go and have your dinner. And ladies and gentlemen who are tuning in from America, that is what a proper Yorkshire accent sounds like. Mine is the, the, the scummy version of a Yorkshire accent. Laura is proper Yorkshire. So thanks for doing that. All right, off you pop. Right, sorry to disrupt that. I've just thought that was a nice little segue. So, Maddie, back, back to yourself.

Oh, that was incredible. I mean, it's always great to hear real life stories, not just from us, but people that are actually doing it so very much here for that. So thank you, Mark. Would love to kind of turn it over to Jeff now because I know a lot of people are probably curious where to spend and where to save and what that looks like when furnishing your property and all that stuff. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about host GPO and what you guys do.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, host gpo, as I mentioned, we're just in the US and Canada, but essentially what we've done is gone and curated the group of brands that make the most sense for vacation rental properties. So whether that's, you know, furniture from West Almond, Pottery Barn and, you know, William Sonoma or Crate and Barrel or Article or, you know, linens or amenities, we will partner with the brand, we'll negotiate an exclusive discount for the group and you can log on to our member portal and place orders with that brand directly at discounted price. And so it's a pretty wild ride that host GPO has been on. Over the last five years, we've had over 300,000 properties sign up to be a part of our group. And with that kind of collective power, we've been able to negotiate these, these great discounts on, on all the brands that we, that we work with. But what I think a lot of people are always curious about and always ask about is, well, what do I spend on and how do I make, you know, the dollar stretch or the pound stretch as far as as it can when, you know, setting up or restocking a property. And so, you know, a couple of things that we throw out always just as, as points to be thinking about are, you know, one, you want to make sure if you're setting up a new unit from the ground up or even if you're redoing a unit that you're really focusing on spending those dollars on the things that are going to be visibly showcased in your property. So whether that's a giant piece of art that's going to be shown in the main photo or, you know, what room is going to be the one that's the main featured room in your property, you're going to want to make that stand out because that's what's going to get folks when they're scrolling to actually stop on your listing and click into it and look through it. So there's kind of aesthetic things like that that you can focus on where it's like, okay, sure, maybe this third bedroom doesn't need as much decor as your main photo might. But at the same time, if you're not setting up a new property, there are other ways that you can kind of save and stretch, you know, your savings as well. One of those, like you mentioned, Matty, is really focusing on your linen program and starting to standardize your linens early and often. Because what ended up happening a lot of the times is that you will have, you know, a handful of properties, there'll be damage to one of the sheets or damage to, you know, one of the towels. And you don't have any backstock or any inventory in the house. You're out. And so you end up running to the closest local store and buying whatever's there. And that kind of panic buying last minute is the most expensive kind of buying that you can do. And so when I'm telling people about where to save and when we're talking about, you know, what the best way to Kind of lower your expenses on a property can be a lot of that is focusing on, you know, making sure that you're buying enough of the right thing early on that you can buy over and over again. You're going to be able to find so that you don't end up with a mix matched, you know, mismatched off white pillowcase, bright white, you know, duvet, etc. And so I think that thinking through the fact that you're not just kind of dipping your toe in this industry and really thinking about the fact that you're going to be doing this for a long time and committing to that means not buying 600 towels but you know, buying a box of 24 towels and keeping a couple, you know, in, in the closet in case you need to replace them. I think thinking through how you're saving can make you know how you're spending and what you're spending on early and starting to standardize can also save you a bunch in the long run. So those are the two, two of the kind of bigger tips that we usually throw out. We'll make sure you're spending on something that's going to be featured in your main photos or something that you're talking about. Right? If it's a name brand you're going to want to mention that. And then secondly we often talk about the fact that you're going to want to standardize what you're buying early so that you're able to buy, you're able to buy it at a discounted price and also rebuy it when you need it.

Very cool. So if you haven't checked out host GPO yet I would recommend you do just because I think the discounts they offer are insane and can very much help your business. And that's what we're here in the STR collab to do is help build the optimal tech stack and I would argue post GPO is absolutely a part of that. I think we couple the next two together because they kind of go together Key to a successful book direct strategy and then also how do you incorporate social media? Mark, I might start with you on this one because you are kind of an expert at both so why don't we pick your brain here.

So I think what's really important for a bug direct strategy and obviously bringing social media into it and it talks about what Laura was mentioning earlier. She said the return I and just put in the chat the return of hospitality is a trend for 2024, which is 100% I think we're basically as hosts, as business owners. In this world of hospitality, we're selling two things. Number one is a good night's sleep and number two is hospitality. Because at the end of the day, if you give your guests a great night's sleep, it's half the battle, right? And if you are hospitable on the back end of it, and even better so for a successful book, direct strategy is make your guests feel welcome, give them as much information as possible before their stay, have a great stay while they're with you, and then give them a real enjoyable send off. Okay. And if you can do that, right. And I basically I'm creating a talk around this where you turn a guest into an influencer, into a super fan. And the way you do that is that again, guest makes a booking, never stayed with you before, absolute stranger. They, you know, and it's all cliche saying, arrive as guests, leave as friends. But if you can get them to arrive as a guest, but leave as somebody that is going on their social media, taking pictures, sharing them, tagging you in, so your business, your Instagram page for example, then they are going to be an influencer in their small little world, in their community and telling all their friends about them. It's a home run. If that person also has a fantastic online community, is an influencer is what they say has got, is a content creator, has got thousands of followers because that's even better because they're talking about them to their, to their engaged following. And then what you do on the back of it is that you build your own social media brand and talk about what you're doing, not selling, but document in your journey about, you know, talking about what's happening in your area or areas, showcasing your staff, showcasing everything that's amazing about you and your business, really showcasing your personality. And that's how you get people to follow in on the journey by tapping into that. And eventually those guests will be superfans. And there's a really good blog that I encourage everybody here to read, even if your vendors or hosts or whatever you're doing in, in this chat is that Kevin Kelly is called A Thousand True Fans. I read that back in 2016 as Bruce Lee had two customers. And ever since reading that blog, I've set out to create A Thousand True fans. Because when you've got a thousand true fans, you've got a phenomenal product or a phenomenal stay. They will be your marketing arm. You will not have to spend anything on meta ads or LinkedIn ads or X ads or Google Ads or Bing ads because they will be your marketing for you and they will tell everybody about you. They'll tell everybody about your new properties, your old properties and everything else in between and they will send people your way as well as and Laura is a prime example of this. Be repeat visitors. We did this at our small farm stay business from way back when I was born to when we exited in 2021. We had guests come back year after year after year. We had one set of guests who came to my wedding just because they kept coming back time and time and time again. And that is I feel is key to a successful book. Direct strategy buying corporate and social media.

That's incredible. I love that strategy Mark and hope to do more of it at Mount we take a not a different approach but I and if you follow me on LinkedIn you do know this but I've been building a content army of travelers. So these are people that want to be content creators that love traveling. They're already doing it, so it's not like I need to pay them to travel but they want to find cool places to stay, they want to talk about the places they're staying at and they also want to talk about what they're doing at the property and beyond. And so we send our content army into the world. There's 170,000 of them and they go stay at properties and post about it. And so the hope there is that we can just keep building that that army of sorts and connect really the content creator travelers to the short term rental hosts and showcase what a really great experience is all about. So I definitely think social media is a massive tool that should be used by every Host and Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, meet your guests where they are and share your story. Arthur Jeff, anything to add on that one?

Oh, I would just say, you know then the percentage of posts that use social media well is probably pretty small. I see a lot of folks start and give up. So I think it can be hard to keep up that inspiration to keep doing it especially if you are unsure about, you know, what to post or what type of content to create. So like everything I think you know, looking at or finding different accounts that you admire or you see having a lot of success are who I would try to emulate and give you ideas. A similar thing to do with email marketing. You know we subscribe to, you know, a hundred different short term rental management companies, email marketing to continue to kind of see like what's trending, what's Working what is inspiring, what are new ideas we should be sharing. So I definitely always say, you know, if you're starved for ideas, just look out there and see what's working for different folks and what you would be comfortable or feels natural for you to engage with.

Absolutely. Couldn't have been said better. So we have about 10 minutes left, give or take. If there are any audience questions, now is the time. If you want to ask it live like Laura kind of did, just raise your hand and I'll, I'll get you up on stage. If you are camera shy and voice shy, that's fine too. Put it in the Q and A or the chat and, and we'll get to it. But nothing's off limits. So whatever you guys are curious about or if you want to add your opinion to what we've been talking about, that works as well. But yeah, let's get, let's get the community involved.

There's been a couple of really cool links and stuff put in the, in the chat. What we'll do is we'll take them and we'll move them over to the Facebook group where we're building our own SDR collab community. So please make sure if you're not in there, do go and, do go and join. I'll put the link in the chat and we'll, we'll do it again. And obviously there's a QR code and all that good stuff, but yeah, while you are coming up with questions, if there are any, then, yeah, do hop over to that Facebook group.

You know, one thing I was going to add, Maddie, just, just based on if, if the. We have a second is, you know, you're talking a lot about. And Arthur as well, right? Talking about the fact that it's your guests that stay that are going to share the content and are going to, you know, get more drive the most, the most people to come, right? Matty, you're talking about, you know, your content army and it's, it's the evangelists that are always the best, you know, the best users, members, guests, uh, whatever that, whatever, whatever you're. You're looking for. Those are the folks that are the ones that you want to harness the most and reach the most, because that's the highest return always. And, and we saw that with host GPO like ourselves, just in this business where it was, you know, 30, 40% of folks that were signing up over the first couple of years were just member to member referrals of people who were using it and liked it. And wanted other people to use it and weren't getting anything out of it. They just wanted to share that. And, you know, that is a huge part of the reason why we saw success. But I think it applies to everything that, you know, you cannot pay for organic content and organic shares, and that is what drives the most conversion, the most clicks, the most signups. And so that I truly believe that that is the biggest unlock of any, of any vacation Apple company.

I think it comes back to what we're talking at the start, where, and this is really true of everything, is the cream always rises to the top, right? There are over 7 million listings right now on, on Airbnb. And Airbnb are going to go out of their way to get rid of a lot of the crap. They want to focus on the good. And you may be right now at home watching this or listening to this, and whether it's live with us now or in the future, and you may be looking at your local competition, and yet you're, you're sort of thinking, wow, it's really crowded. It's a really crowded space. What you need to do is you just need to focus on what you can control, right? If you've got one property, and you know, somebody mentioned earlier, just because you've got one property doesn't mean that you're not professional host. We're not saying that at all. What we're saying is if, if you've only got one property, and let's just say, say that your average nightly stay is seven nights, right, technically, you've just got to find 50 bookings in the whole calendar year. And bearing in mind there are millions of people every single day looking for accommodation on Airbnb, and there's probably hundreds, if not thousands of people looking in in your local area. You just got to get 50 of those to see you and go, yeah, that's the place for me. And I feel like what you've got to do is you've got to make your place stand out. Taking aboard what Jeff was saying on how to stand out on these listing sites, and also as well, you've got to be able to provide that amazing customer service, hospitality, right? There's a reason why people book with a, a vacation rental, an apartment, a house instead of going to a stay at a hotel is because they get that different level of vibes or hospitality than if they go and stay at a hotel. And that's why they come and stay with us, because they want to live like a local. They want to tap into you Know that, that that local experience. So think about what you can do to control that and focus on yourself and just make sure at the heart of it, there's two things that we're selling. Like I said, a real comfortable night's sleep and make sure you tap into host GPO and the fantastic things they can get on there to, to get that. But also as well as that hospitality aspect and doesn't matter whether it's guest number one or if it's guest number 100 or if it's guest number 1000, you've got to make sure that every single person that comes into your, into your property has that same experience. And if you can tick those boxes off and if you can do that and like Laura said, don't make them feel just like a head on a bed, then you will succeed time and time and time and time again and the cream will rise to the top. And that very oversaturated area where you are now, regulations or whatever happens and comes through your town, they'll just go away and they'll go back to long term rentals and they'll, they'll come out of this industry because they go, you know what? I came into this because I saw it was like this cool thing that everyone was talking about, but they realized that it is hard, right? It is hard this industry, if anybody's ever had to communicate with guests, you know how hard it can be, right? And, and you know, but if you stand the test of time and you do what is right for you and you will absolutely smash it. But you just got to keep at it and be part of groups and communities like this and we'll help and support you because like Maddie said, this was all created to help you. This is not being done to help 100, 200 properties. We're looking to help 1 to 21 to 25 property people are at this part of the journey. So are you in the right place.

Mark? I, you know, I think the, the, the cream rises to the top is, and, and sticking it out is such a, a important and untalked about part of, of of the space. Because when, even when you look back three, four years and you, you know, people always talk about, oh, this huge vacation rental boom that took place in 2021 and all of a sudden there's all this increase in supply, you know, and everybody was making so much and all the adars were popping and yeah, nobody talks about the fact that between March and September of 2020, a third of the vacation rental properties got swapped off. The market altogether. You know, look at Covid was, was what it was. But I can tell you from, from my experience when, when things started again and supply started to increase, those bottom, you know, 10, 20% of listings really got wiped out because of their performance and left a lot of space for people who stuck through and had better quality properties. So, you know, focusing on that and focusing on the long term now is a really, really important part of this whole process.

I think that's a good place to end this.

Right, that's what I was going to say. Mark. Yes. I think we can, we can call it a wrap until next time. If you haven't joined our community, I would definitely recommend doing so. And you are going to see our faces around at least once a month over zoom and then hopefully a bit more in person as well as we grow this community. So thank you so much for joining us for this last hour. We hope we can continue to bring you amazing content, things you guys want to hear and learn and we'll just keep, keep growing this str collab. So thank you. If anyone else has anything you want to say.

Good. Thank you very much.

That's it. Thanks everybody.

See you all in London.