What to do when you can't take guests with Callum Morgan

Foreign.

Is good.

I don't know if you agree with that, but there's one thing that is hundred percent that we can agree on. Everything's going to change from here on in. And today's podcast episode is all about what is going to happen next in the hospitality world. I invited on Callum Morgan has got hospitality business that he runs with his parents. He's got Morgan Branding which is one part of his business business as well as many other little ideas and companies that he has under his, under his belt. I wanted to get him on because he's been unlike other guests, he has properly been affected. He has got a cottage in the middle of Wales, can't take any bookings, can't really take any key workers because there's no key workers that would benefit from being at the property. Obviously lost a lot of bookings, a lot of revenue. But it's what he has done, communicating with the guests and how to be proactive that I really wanted to share his story. Uh, today's podcast is obviously brought to you by Hostfully. They are the sponsors, they, they make sure that all of this can, can happen. So please go and check out hostfully.com say thank you by getting one of their free digital guidebooks. A free digital guidebook. If you haven't got a digital guidebook yet then you are being left behind. Everybody's doing it now and you need to get it done as well. And your first one is free. All you need to do if you want to upgrade in the future, go for the premium type in Boostly 2M. You get two months free. And this is also being brought to you by the Book Direct Membership. If you want to find out more about Boostly Book Direct membership, boostly.co.uk BDM and please most importantly listen to this podcast or watch it. If you're watching on YouTube, make notes and then implement it into your business.

Callum Morgan based in Warrington, England. So just between Manchester and Liverpool for those of you that know the area, obviously like most people I guess now sat at home not satisfied in my lovely self catering holiday let over in North Wales because we're not allowed to go there. But I own a company called Morgan Branding which is this hoodie here. You know I only wear my own company branding clothing. I think it's somebody would say it's to reduce clothing costs as I can show it through the company but I think it's more so because I like wearing the gear. Most of all is I look after my parents self catering holiday let which is over In Bedgella in North Wales. 10 bedroom, sleeps 22 self let. We've had that for 12 years now. We bought in 2008, so we bought possibly the worst time ever, just at the start of another crisis and obviously we're in the middle of one now, so it's very interesting times. My company, Morgan Branding, is a marketing agency. I know, we've had so many chats.

Think people will applaud you for doing it because like I said, you're attacking this from so many angles and you've got the experience. Stick to 100%, stick to what you know. So thank you for that. And like we do with every podcast interview, we like to finish on the quick fire questions. This is the quarantine quick fire questions because we are obviously in the lockdown. So I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 quick fire questions. Are you ready?

Yes. I don't do quick.

I'm just testing out my sound effects now. So, number one, if you could be isolated with one celebrity on lockdown, with one celebrity, famous figure, who would it be?

That's a good shout. I wasn't going there, but when you mentioned United, I think as long as I could keep him safe and well and didn't make him ill, I probably would choose Ferguson. I wouldn't want to make him ill, but I'd love to sit. Imagine picking his brains for two weeks. A month of isolation. Jesus Christ, you're doing some stuff. So, yeah, I wasn't going to go there until you mentioned United. But yeah, I think that would be a very good shout.

And obviously as well, if you're watching this live or you're watching this on the replay, please put your answers in the comments below. Doesn't matter what platform you're watching on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, just put it all in in the comments below. Next one. If you've had a movie or you've had a TV series that's been on your to watch list for some time, what has that been? What would you recommend? What should everybody be checking out on the Netflix?

So we've just. Me and my girlfriend have just binge watched Money Heist. Now I'm a stereotype. I don't watch much TV or films or anything like that, but when I watch something, I watch it and I get stuck in and it's like, I will just do a series in a week or whatever it takes. Quite tough to get into. It's a Spanish documentary.

Documentary subtitles.

Yeah, well, it's subtitled, but also it's Dubbed in English. Yeah. So for anyone that's non first language speaking English, this is the way that most of them have watched English movies their whole life. You know, whether the words are dubbed over. But as an English first language speaker, it's quite hard to watch a movie where the words or the actors voices don't match up with, with the words that are being spoken because it's dubbed over. So I tend to have subtitles on Netflix when I'm watching anyway and the subtitles and the words that were being spoken were different to the moving of the voices. And it was really hard. And I would advise anyone just stick with it for a bit, get into it. The third and fourth series or parts I think they're called on it are fantastic.

All right, here we go, the next one. What is the one thing that you have missed the most since being on lockdown? And right now mine is having a really good cup of coffee. Like a proper latte from Nostro in Javert. I miss that so much. I was thinking about today as I was getting in and they're granulated. So what's yours?

A sad one would be the office. I'm gonna dodge around that because I do love going the office. I'm not a home worker at all and you know, I do miss getting out the house and go the office. But aside from the office, I'd say the golf course. It is absolutely stunning outside at the minute in the uk the weather has been unbelievable. My golf course is a walk away from my house and we've gone and walked the golf course. It looks immaculate, it looks beautiful and you can't use it.

First weekend is going to be post lockdown. When you're able to do these things like golf. Just imagine how crazy that is going to be.

All right, it won't be. I'll be working, I can promise you. My clients will be on the phone going, how do we do this social distancing?

Okay, so next one then. What has been your favorite purchase in the last six to 12 months that has been under 100 pound?

I'm not 100% sure how much this was, but I think it probably was in that region. And it comes off the back of what you've said and this timing was perfect, is for my birthday which was the 14th of March, just pre lockdown. I got a coffee machine. So it's not the. It's not an amazing one. It's just one of those. I think it's Casimo or whatever where you put the pods in. But Jesus, that's been a lifesaver in this lockdown because I'm like, you know, I often go and get a coffee on the way to work or have one or two in work and having them pods and dead easy to do at home and have has been a bit of a lifesaver. And I'm not sure how much it was because it was a birthday present, but I think it was probably about 80 quid. So that, that was really, really helped in lockdown.

Amazing and final one. And this is the final one and we need a super quick answer on this because we've got two minutes left of this podcast episode. But what if there's one tip that you would give to any host that is watching right now to help them increase their direct bookings? What would it be?

I'd say use this time to get all your ducks in order and understand where you get your bookings from and wherever that place is that you've got your bookings from. Whatever the thing was that you've been doing to get that pre lockdown, get everything organized. So post lockdown, you can double up on that route. If it was Facebook, stop messing around with Instagram and TikTok and whatever. Just do Facebook really well. If it was a certain website, we use a website called Group Accommodation. Make sure your listings up to date, make sure your pictures are up to date, make sure your descriptions are up to date. Do all that and come out of lockdown stronger. That's what I would do.

Amazing. All right. Really, really appreciate it. Callum, last 30 seconds of your time with us. Just let us know where everybody can go and find out more about what you've spoken about today. Where's the best place? Where's the best place to get in contact?

So I'm in a lot of your groups hospitality Community Boostly Academy. You can add my personal Facebook page on there. Callum Morgan. I'll get in the comments afterwards on Facebook. You can me on there. Instagram. Callum Morgan 7 is my personal or Morgan underscore branding on Instagram is fine. Or I've got a bit more active on Twitter recently and it's Cal Morgan.

7 on there all of the channels. I buddy, really, really appreciate it and thank you to everybody for watching as always. We'll be back thanks tomorrow with another episode but for now thank you very much and we will catch you all very soon. Could you just sort of bring us back to where your. Your cottage bookings were at at the time? So up until about March 12th, let's just say. And how Much. Was it effective affected? Sorry?

After March 12th, I'm just looking at the data. The first booking that was effective was the 20th of March weekend, I think it was. The lockdown came on the Monday after that. So that would have been the Friday. So it would have been the 23rd of March. Did we get locked down and booking? We've. We've actually moved. So they. We weren't locked down or we weren't shut at that point, but the guests were uncomfortable about traveling and we'd had a discussion and we have. We. We did move them guests, but at that point it wasn't as clear as it. As it was now. If you remember that weekend, that was the weekend that actually Wales got a heck of a lot of press because Snowden was manic and everyone had kind of flooded to North Wales to almost have a last week before we got. We got locked down. So I know at that point the local chaps were starting to get a bit concerned because they didn't want tourists flooding into North Wales. And there is a big kickoff at the minute with second homeowners using the houses and stuff like that. But as you say, we. We've had some discussions on key workers and some options. You know, the government have asked for people to put forward buildings, but at the minute, we have offered it to locals if they needed some space to get out of their house, where they've got a key worker working there, or they need family to visit the local. Where our house is, they have like a community Facebook group for locals. So we put it up in there. But luckily Touchwood, the village, has been doing okay at the minute.

I want to just delve it back a little bit closer to home right now. And, you know, I would also love to hear what everybody has been doing, whether you're live or on the replay. Leave it in the comments below. I'd love to know your thoughts, Callum, on this. Well, what proactive things have you been doing? So what proactive, whether it's saving a potential cancellation, you know, because I know you're big on this, you're big on your, you know, direct bookings, which is fantastic. What have you been doing proactively on that front, but also as well, what else have you been doing proactively to encourage guests or potential guests to come back once this is all all over?

We were pretty booked up. You know, we tend to book up all school holidays, so our house sleeps up to 22 people. So big focus on family groups. So school holidays are obviously a big priority. And also weekend with big groups, you know, if it's your 50th birthday in February, you want to come in February. So we are seasonal like most businesses, but we do book up all year round. We're open. We were pretty booked up till about November for every weekend of most school holidays. Now I look at my calendar and we are pretty much emptying up to. Up to August. We tried to get proactive, get in touch with guests early and set the tone and say. And try and get cancellation off the table. Being a. Being a large let we take around about £80,000 a year circa. But with summer being a big, big chunk of that so far, we're looking at. And you know, I'm a numbers man, so I keep on talking numbers quite regularly. So we. We've moved just in the region around about £40,000 worth of bookings. See, everyone's struggling with money at the minute. So what. What we're also doing is giving some flexibility on that payment. You know, can they pay in two or three chunks? We do also take cards, so that does give people the option of buying on credit cards and stuff like that. Now, I don't want to encourage people to get into debt to pay for their holidays. You know, they shouldn't be having a look at a long card, look and go. And if they can't now afford the holiday that they had booked nine months ago, they should be cancelling. So we are having some difficult conversations around that at the minute. But the key is being proactive. So I'm now talking to July and August guests. I'm telling them what we're doing for the guests that we're doing at the moment. So what we are doing is going to guests. You can move your dates free of charge to any time in the future.

So just to give a little bit of a context for the cottage, can you just describe how many people it sleeps? What's the average sort of booking that you get in terms. Terms of people and where it is? Because there's a lot of people tuning in from all over the. I'm really glad that we've got you on. And this is where I really did want to get you on for this because a lot of the people that we've had as guests on the show, they've had serviced accommodation, they've had property which is, you know, maximum three or four people staying. And there's been a lot of people here who haven't been able to take any guests, which technically you can, but technically you can.

It's a 10 bedroom sleep's 22, but the 10th bedroom is an annex and it's really a nine bedroom, sleeps about 18. So most of our groups are 14 to 18. We can go up to 22, but as I say, 14 to 18 is bog standard. Most of our groups are family groups. We do take stag dos, Hendoos, etc, but we're in Bedgella which is in Snowdonia. It's not next to any big nightclubs or anything like that. So the, the staging hendus that we attract are people that want to go walking, cycling. Obviously at the minute the Welsh government have said categorically we are shut. So I know different people in different parts of the world are in different situations, but we are, as instructed by the government, shook as an owner. We're not allowed to travel to the house. Now there is some discussions around that because we're not allowed to travel there to stay there ourselves. But actually legally we cannot live in our house anyway, pre planning permission and all that.

Jaz, what advice have you been given, you know, to your clients, to your, to your community about posting and being visible online and what advice can you give to others that are watching just to continue doing this? Don't give up, don't go dark.

That I suppose don't go dark is, is the key message. We, on the Morgan branding side, we have, we've dealt with in the region about 110, 120 clients in our, in our three years, we have about 60 clients that are on ongoing retainers, you know, an ongoing agreement and we have a huge range of businesses and I'm seeing a huge range of responses to how people are dealing with this. But overwhelmingly the ones that are being proactive and are not bearing the head in the sand and thinking that the world's against them are the ones that are already doing better than, you know, average. So we have some clients that are struggling and rightly so. You know, different industries have been hit harder than other industries and some industries are doing well. We're dealing with some farm shops at the minute that they're booming, but they're also struggling with capacity and demand. So don't bury your head in the sand. Even if you're in a business that isn't taking any revenue, there's no better time than now to get proactive.

One thing that I noticed that you did recently was you helped a local business go online. Can you explain the process, the conversations that led to it and the detail that you had to do to get this actually in action? This plan in action.

We've had a couple recently, a few different things, virtual tours which can have a good crossover into the hospitality world. Now I'm not saying the self catering lets or hotels or whatever should now be diving in and spending all their money on virtual tours. I don't think that's a sensible things necessarily to do at the minute. But we had home builders that we work with that can't physically show people around the show homes at the minute getting virtual tours. Now some of these guys have been speaking to us for 18 to 12 months and they have never pulled the trigger. And it took this for them to pull the trigger, get organized and you know, get these virtual tours done. So for us that was a great success. We were already speaking to these guys, we're already having conversations and it took something like this to push them over the line. For the farm shops we've been helping. The first one that we, we helped was a customer already. We were actually just in the process of building them a new website that wasn't e commerce, wasn't online at all. They used to have an online business that did home delivery of food that they'd shut down last year. We saw what we were doing. He was doing, you know, they're trying to get click and collect organized. We went and had a sit in the, in the, in the shop and it was chaos. There was pieces of paper everywhere. People were ringing every two minutes. The shop was manic. People were on the phone, they were trying to take cards over the phone. It was chaos. Obviously people are asking for stuff in that shop that they couldn't find anywhere else. So they were asking, you know, this is three weeks ago now, but for flour, where you couldn't get flour from anywhere, or egg. They were having a nightmare because people were just ringing for them items that they couldn't buy anywhere else. So it was chaos. And they weren't getting their normal job done or being able to keep the shelf stock or you know, getting in touch with suppliers. So it was really holding them back. You know what, you might have to pivot your whole business. You might have to, you might be doing something now. You know, you mentioned on some of the other podcasts, you know, people that are doing accommodation and have pivoted to doing breakfast and food and just going, you know what, whatever it takes to survive.

You've used your time very proactively over the last six weeks or so. You've been busy creating, creating something. And you told me about it, you sent me a little doc about it this Morning before we went live this evening. So I'd love for you just to tell everybody in the next couple of minutes a little bit about what you've been creating and why you think it's something that will benefit everybody, all the hosts that are watching this moving forward. So tell us a little bit more about Nest.

As I've said over the years with Morgan Branding, we've been working with owners to help the book direct message. So whether that be creating a website, Joe, we are more focused in on the large houses. You know, that's the market that I know, helping them create a brand that might be a logo, that might be merchandise within the house, that might be the way they interact on social media, build a website, help them with booking platforms. That's what we've done as more than branding. But what started to happen last year was I started to get more people come to me in the groups that we frequent and the people that we liaison with. I'm not sure they 100% fit into this, but there is a lot of people out there that don't want to deal with any of this hassle of taking direct bookings. And I was realizing that I couldn't really help them or know how to help them because I also couldn't really recommend a great website, aside from Kate and Tom's. And I always like to give them a plug because they're an agent that we work with, based in Cheltenham way. I've been to their offices. Fantastic team. They. They are great, but they only work with, like prestige big houses. They're quite specific in who they work with. So it's not going to be an option for everyone. But I think we've all had our own issues with site. Airbnb, booking.com, host seasons group, you know, cottages.com we were on with four years. And when you speak to owners almost across the board, you don't hear an owner that likes an ota, an online travel agency, a booking agent. They're not. They all have problems. You know, I saw a big Facebook group and it's not a bashing site show, that's for sure now. But I saw a huge Facebook group group which was, you know, people complaining about sites, owners and customers. And I just thought, how, how is this the world that we're in, in our world that our option is you do it yourself or you go with one of these big bad booking agents that are going to take a load of money off you and don't care about you or the guest. And we all Dislike them. What I've been trying to come up with and this, this period has made me focus more in on this is can I create the utopia of the, the website that can work with the Book Direct crowd and help them fill them 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 gaps in the year that they might need extra bookings? And can I work with the crowd that don't want to do anything, just want somebody else to manage the house? What I realize is that portal websites, in my eyes, the way that we are operating, it is a lot easier to go to one website and get the answer. The Port Direct Map will not have all the houses on where the owners don't want to take direct booking. So you're going to have such a huge part of the market which is missing now. If, if on the Book Direct map we have 30% of the properties in the UK on that still might not be enough. So I want to create the portal, the hub, the place where it gives a good offering for Book Direct owners and it gives a good offering for the people who want the complete hands off approach. And I'm not saying that I've got the perfect model yet, it's far from perfect. But what I'm trying to start out with is to go. I want to create a place that really treats its owners correctly. Because I think if I treat the owners correctly and create a place where the owners all love the booking agent, what we won't have is a situation where we're trying to drag bookings away from us. You know, it's a commercial reason because we all know that when somebody books through an agent or when somebody finds us through an agent, I want them to try and book direct. I want to try and get a place where you don't even feel like you need to do that because you, you like the way that we work and a place where if we look after the owners, you know, that we'll look after the guests. In reality, we only do 10% of the work with a guest. You as the owner do the rest of the work with the guest as a, as an, as an ota. So it's finding a fair balance in that. And I think the first thing comes down to pricing.