James Burrows of Rentals United explains why property owners should list on niche websites alongside major platforms. Niche sites move faster than big OTAs and can capture emerging trends early, like Bud and Breakfast for cannabis-friendly rentals. He also shares a simple tactic: use a CRM or Excel to re-engage past guests for direct bookings.
We're going to talk obviously today about those little websites, those niche websites that we sort of touched upon. But the talk that you gave at Barcelona was really good about this. So I'd just like for you to just walk us through these niche websites about the ships and why it's important that people sort of pay attention to these niches.
I mean, the ships analogy was a little bit of fun. And so the idea is that we tried to describe the difference between an ota, a copycat, which is really what my website used to be, of someone like booking.com and the smaller niche website. So your OTA was a big tanker, so not very flexible. It takes a long time to be able to change direction. But it's stable, it will always provide bookings for you. But you're basically one of hundreds, if not millions of properties in particular locations. So the chances are that you might be generating income from those. But where is the value of placing your property just on those websites? The niche websites were your speedboat. So really versatile, very nippy, could go where in places where the bigger ships couldn't go. And equally they were generally first at market. We had brought up a particular example about cannabis smoking thematic websites, right? There's one called Bud and Breakfast that only deals with smoking friendly accommodation. You know, it kind of got a good laugh. But it's a very good example of what a niche website can do because, you know, if you really think about the time it would take someone like booking.com to really start looking at this, the legal challenges of working in that particular area, where suddenly a niche website comes along and offers this incredible idea about really catering to a growing trend. Tourists that want to really take advantage of this type of accommodation. And that's really what we're trying to do.
Let's start off with the first one. Then, James, your favorite business book. So the business book that you. That always springs to mind when someone asks this sort of question, what should I go to?
You know, obviously I don't have one. You know, I generally I'm reading business related books when I have a particular need or maybe the business is in a particular stage. You know, currently I'm reading a book called Blix Gaming by Reid Hoffman, who's one of the founders of LinkedIn.
What's your favorite podcast? Is it Reid's podcast or is it something else?
Quite a listener of Sasta podcast and Sasta is about anything SaaS related. We're a SaaS business, so that's quite good. They had some really good interviews and equally, I don't know whether you've listened to Vanessa's own secret source of large property managers. You can get that on our website. That's pretty insightful.
What is your favorite purchase under a hundred pound or €100 in the past year?
Probably a flight somewhere. You know I don't blind buy stuff that much to be honest.
Okay, so you don't really make a purchase if you got like your favorite, like a favorite splurge, whether even if someone's like tiny, like even if it's like a go to coffee or a go to thing that you, you know, like food wise that you have to buy. What would that be?
God, you know, I've just gone vegan so I'm a bit boring when it comes to my, to my food. You know, wine I'm quite partial to. So I like to splash out on bottles of wine.
Are you a fan of YouTube? Do you watch many YouTube videos? If so, do you have a YouTube channel that you always like to subscribe and recommend?
Yeah, I love YouTube but I don't have a particular channel. Maybe I'm just too old.
Are you literally just watching funny videos of cats, just.
Yeah, exactly. Cats or dogs or you know, people falling over, that kind of thing.
Next question. What is the biggest pain point in your business right now? It could be what you're having to do on a day to day or just overall for rentals. What would you say would be biggest pain point for what you're trying to achieve?
We're growing at the mom so we're trying to bring in number of people in different areas. So for us being in Barcelona it can be a challenge bringing in the right people, that's the biggest pain I think.
So moving on. And this is one I love to ask because it's what the boosted podcast is all about. It's what boost is all about. Direct bookings. What would be your one big tip when it comes to getting more direct booking?
When we talk to our smaller customers or I mean even bigger ones to be honest, they tend to be, they tend to neglect their previous customers they've had before. Create some kind of CRM, even if it's just out of an Excel spreadsheet and keep in contact with these guys and email them and contact them periodically and remember when their birthday is and remember their kids will also grow up to be adults. And so I think that this is really important to be able to constantly be in their, in their mind when they start looking at vacation.
Everybody's always chasing the new Money or the new guest or the new booking. You know, sometimes some of the best decisions you can make to increase your bookings, to increase your revenue, is to reach out to past guests. And obviously it's got to be GDPR friendly. You want to get in trouble, but there's ways and means that you can do so. All right, final question. What would you say would be rentals United's super power?
Look, you know, I mean, being English, I tend not to shout about things too much. We're pretty modest, I suppose that last year we onboarded more properties onto booking.com than any other company within our sector. And I think that for us it's a really big achievement. We really focus on delivering big return of investment on bookings, but also making sure that properties go into the channel super fast so you can make revenue and bookings as quickly as possible.
You are being modest because I think that what you guys are fantastic at and your superpower would be visibility. You give. You give small accommodation owners or small property managers the chance to get visible a lot quicker, a lot faster and a lot. That saves a lot of time as well. So I think, you know, I mean, what you guys are doing is fantastic. I'm a big fan. You know, I've seen the podcast, watched the YouTube videos and I love the brand and I love everything about what you guys are doing and I wish you all the best moving forward 2020, 2021 with all this crazy growth and yeah, I look forward to seeing you at more of these short stay show events that are coming up. Obviously you're going to be in London, is that right?
I'm going to be in London, yeah. Yeah.
So I'll probably see you then March 12th. And yeah, and all the other events that seem to be on at the moment, which is amazing. So thank you very much for tuning in. If anybody has been watching this and going, yeah, I want to find out more. What's the domain, what's the URL, what's the best place to go to find out more?
James, rentalsunited.com you can email me directly if you like. So it's jamestallsunited.com and I'll be happy to put you in touch with the right people. So send us an email and we'll be happy to help.
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