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Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another great week. My name is Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:00:04] I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–
Both Annette & Sarah: [00:00:06] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:08] Let’s kick off this episode like we do every week, and that is sharing one of you, our loyal, amazing listeners who are just rocking it out in their hosting game. If you use the hashtag #STRShareSunday, we’ll find you. We’ll share you here on the podcast, on our Instagram account on Sunday, to our entire email list. Annette, who are we sharing this week?
Annette Grant: [00:00:27] This week we are sharing @domehausholidays, D-O-M-E-H-A-U-S, holidays. They’ve been hosting for a while. Sarah’s playing their reels in the background.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:40] I was like, an amazing–
Annette Grant: [00:00:42] They have a glamping dome on their property. This is something I’ve never seen, and I want to say kudos to the hosts here. You know the love locks that you can find on bridges? They actually have a love lock add-on package, and you can purchase a padlock from them. And then they have one of those Dremel tools where you can carve your initials into the lock and then leave it on their fence. And I was like–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:13] So cute.
Annette Grant: [00:01:14] That is an amazing way to make your property absolutely, memorable, experiential, and just individual. I was like, oh, this is so cool. Sarah, we’re going to have to go there and do a–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:32] A business love lock.
Annette Grant: [00:01:33] A business love lock. What’s your thing? What’s your special thing about your property that the guests will always remember? They have this really beautiful Turkish chandelier in the middle of the dome. And I love the way that they’ve really– go check them out. The dome is beautiful.
The love locks got me sidetracked, but the way that they built out the dome, you should see. The bathroom is amazing. They have a hot tub. It is to the nines. So go give them some love. And thanks for using the hashtag. Sarah, speaking of holidays, we were doing a little holiday party at your house last night.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:23] We were. Can we just celebrate that for one moment?
Annette Grant: [00:02:27] Sarah’s been wanting to move into our house for years now. I
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:31] Listeners, some of you really vibe with me on this one. I have been renting out my basement. I’ve been on Airbnb or all places, and I’ve been living in my multi-family. Every year, my husband and I move up in terms of just one step closer to having our assets, that whole Robert Kiyosaki being paid for our life. We bought this one property that we thought was going to be a short-term rental, and then I finally was like, I’ve had enough of living like my guest–
Annette Grant: [00:03:02] House hopping. Yeah.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:03] Yes. But short-term rental house hacking, it’s extra because you go home for the day from work, and you’re still surrounded by work. So anyway, I had. My friends over, I had Annette over, and some other hosting friends, and I had enough counter space for three bowls of chips. It was really nice because I’ve always lived in apartments.
Annette Grant: [00:03:26]: But y’all, this holiday party ended up going into a hosting three-hour conversation. We talk about it here in the episode a little bit. This is why this episode is so important. One thing that they gave us a hot tip on, everybody, and this is why you need to diversify, is that they have noticed a shift in their Vrbo bookings, and they said they have a feeling that the guest alignment has declined, if you will, is a way to say it. They think that some guests that are being banned on Airbnb are now starting accounts on other platforms to rent homes out because there was some illegal activity that was happening at their home.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:04:22] It was once, but the past three verbal bookings have been not great. They’re like, we expected these of Airbnb guests every once– because these friends of ours, their whole thing, their niche is large downtown homes. So they have to be extra vigilant because, hello, it’s great–
Annette Grant: [00:04:40] Parties.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:04:40] Parties. They’ve been very vigilant, but they’ve always loved when they get their Vrbo bookings, like, okay, this will be great.
Annette Grant: [00:04:46] Yeah. Historic Vrbo guests have been staying, and so they’ve noticed a difference. And so this episode is important because we’re going to talk about diversifying and direct booking, but also just hosting public service announcement, be on the lookout. It is smart of the guests if they get banned from one platform to start an account on another one. So we just want to warn you to be on the lookout for that.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:12] And obviously, we’re here to give you some things to think about to take action. So if you’re like, okay, great, but then what do I do? And this is something that I used to do for a really large home that I managed, that I wanted to make sure guests sign our own agreement because there was a hot tub that was in-ground, and I just wanted to make sure, just for my own protection as the property manager. So anyway, to get every guest, no matter what channel they book from, you also have them sign an agreement with you and go through your own guest verification process.
And so I know we’ve mentioned Boostly here and there, and we actually talk about it in today’s episode, but we use Superhog. Their product is called Know Your Guest, and this takes the guest through a verification process. So even if they book via channel, like Airbnb or Vrbo, you can tell people like, hey, there’s been an uptick in illegal activity on these platforms, so to protect our home and our community, you have to also go through this with us. It is a little bit of friction for the guest who is booking with you, but if you really want to double down on this, I actually think the episode we just did with Marilyn–
Annette Grant: [00:06:19] She talks about it too.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:06:20] She talked about this is what she does as well. So there is a little solution for you in case that concerns you too. And our friends, they’re like, what are you using? I’m like, Superhog. Okay. Because they’re going to have to start getting a little bit extra, have another layer of verification protection.
But with that, today we talk with Mark Simpson from Boostly. So Boostly is a website builder that will help you start your direct booking business and carry you through the different stages of becoming a host who accepts direct bookings. And Mark, this is all he does. He’s obsessed with it.
Annette Grant: [00:06:54] I would say he’s the poster child, the voice of the Book Direct Movement.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:06:59] Yeah. And so on today’s episode, we talk about a lot of different things about direct booking. And one thing, listeners, we talk about is who is direct book for and who isn’t for, and I really loved what Mark said. And so without giving it away, here’s our interview with Mark. Mark from Boostly, welcome to the show.
Mark Simpson: [00:07:19] Thank you very much for having me. I think this may be the hat-trick ball. Three-time show.
Annette Grant: [00:07:24] Oh, really?
Mark Simpson: [00:07:26] So in England, when you when you score a hat-trick, you get a football to take home with you. So I’m looking forward for my soccer ball to appear in the–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:07:33] Actually, that might be coming your way anyway.
Annette Grant: [00:07:37] Now you’re forcing us into gifting podcast guests.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:07:41] Yes. But we are excited to have you back because you are– maybe you have a different title, but I know you’re the guy that Airbnb doesn’t want you to know about, but you’re also the king of direct bookings. You’ve really brought this mind shift to a lot of hosts who have gotten into short-term rentals since the pandemic.
If you weren’t a part of the old school vacation rental, direct booking really blew your mind. Because of the story of you working with your parents back in the day and you wanting to really optimize their business and opening up that business to direct bookings, you practice what you preach. You know what works, what doesn’t. And this has really been your mission for how long now? How long has Boostly been around for now?
Mark Simpson: [00:08:27] So we’re now seven years in.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:08:28] Wow.
Mark Simpson: [00:08:29] Which is crazy because when I first met you, we were just celebrating five years. So yeah, seven years in, going strong. But I’ve been in this industry full-time 2011. And I was born into it, really. I try and escape, and it just keeps drawing me back. Just grabs me and just pulls me back in.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:08:51] It’s your mission right now in life to help hosts. So Mark, talk to us– obviously, I think the conversation, thankfully to you, around direct bookings, and the content you put out, and all the different podcasts that you are on, you’re really getting that message out. And tell me if I’m wrong. Do you think that direct booking conversation has increased in the past two to three years, or do you think we still have a lot of work to do?
Mark Simpson: [00:09:16] Oh, we definitely have work to do, but there’s definitely more conversation around it. I can speak personally. Obviously, we have never been busier. We have never had the amount of DMs coming into our inbox and calls being booked to find out more about working with Boostly, which is fantastic. And there’s definitely reasons to why.
Obviously, hosts are starting to feel– like you said, if you’ve come into this industry, 2021, you’ve known nothing more than just being super busy. You can put whatever rate you want. People will book it. But now, it’s coming to back to the norm. You look at AirDNA data, and you look at Key Data, and people have got the solid data, and it’s coming back to 2018 levels, which a lot of people don’t know.
And because of that, there’s a ton of new inventory on Airbnb. I think the last thing was seven million listings. So for a lot of people, they’re like, I’m just drowning in the amount of listings in my local area, state wide, national wide. And so I think for the first time ever, they’ve gone, well, what else is out there?
And for the first time ever, people who call themselves Airbnb hosts, they’re looking at Vrbo, or Booking.com, or other OTAs that are a little bit niche down. And as soon as you start looking elsewhere, that is when you’ve got to get a bit smart and become a bit more professional. And you go, right, well, I need a property management software tool that connects everything.
And as soon as you start dabbling into that world, as soon as you start looking there, you can’t help but just be more aware of direct bookings. How can I take my own booking? And I can just see the cogs going in people’s mindset and the thought process, and I can just see the questions that are being asked from when they’ve gone from just being on one platform to multiple platforms.
And then, obviously, that’s when direct bookings come in. And so we’ve got a way of ways to go because the prediction is by the end of next year, so the end of 2024, start of 2025, Airbnb will have 65% of the market. And the prediction is by 2030, 80% of all bookings will come from an OTA, which we can’t get to. But we’re chipping away slowly but surely, podcast by podcast.
Annette Grant: [00:11:32] Wait. Say that stat again. You said 65% by what date?
Mark Simpson: [00:11:37] 2025. So basically, the prediction is that– and this is big because in 2017, Airbnb had 15, 1-5% of the whole market.
Annette Grant: [00:11:49] Okay, 15%. All right.
Mark Simpson: [00:11:50] So the prediction by 2025 is that they will have 65% of the market. So they will have made up a large chunk. And they will have not only caught up with the Expedia Group, which is Vrbo and the Booking Holidays group, which is Booking.com, but they will have overtaken them. And they will dominate the market. They will have 65% of the market share of all the OTA bookings that are coming in.
Annette Grant: [00:12:15] Okay. And then you said 80%, 8-0.
Mark Simpson: [00:12:18] Yeah. And then the prediction by 2030, so by the end of this decade, is that the OTA, so 80% of all bookings that come in all around the world, will make up 80% of those all bookings. So that means 20% will just be direct, which is not good. Because if that happens, then you know they will dominate the industry. And so we have to do–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:12:39] And they tell us who, when, where, and how if that happens.
Mark Simpson: [00:12:42] Yeah. Basically, this is why we do it. My goal is to educate the host and, in turn, get the host to educate the guest, because this is how we’re going to do it. If I just stand on my little plinth or my little soapbox and say, book direct, book direct, no one will listen. But if I can say educate a million hosts who can then educate their guests about the power of book direct, then that’s how we start to get the attention. That’s how we start to spread the word.
And the ultimate goal for what I’m trying to do, my big audacious goal that I’ve decided, my mission now is to get a seat at the OTAs. So a seat at Airbnb, a seat at the Expedia Group, a seat at the Booking.com, and we’ll have a host representation at that seat at the table. Because if we can do that, then there will always be a little nagging in their ear saying, hey, don’t forget about us hosts. Don’t forget about us hosts. Don’t forget about us hosts.
Because the trouble is that we can sometimes make it feel like a number, just a number. Especially with everything that goes on, all of the things that come in, every single time there’s an update, yada yada yada. I think hosts can easily feel like they’re left behind. So if we can get the attention first and foremost, which I think we’re starting to get the attention of, and then if we can go from there to actually start to be part of the conversation, great.
And then finally, if we can just be part of the decision-making process. And so when they’re thinking about doing something new, they can contact a representation from Boostly or the Book Direct Movement and go, this is what we’re thinking of doing. What do you think? And if we can do that, I feel like we can keep it at least there.
Annette Grant: [00:14:12] I want to go back to something you said about educating guests about direct booking because I do feel like the education is getting out there for hosts. Mark, our listeners today, they’re revving up for the new year. We just did a survey. And the number one thing on that survey is get more bookings, get more bookings. How can our hosts educate guests on direct booking? They’re already wanting to make sure that their check-in went smooth, that they love the place, that they love the community.
We’re so focused on them having a good time, and then we’re throwing this direct booking in the pot. How do we educate guests about it without trying to throw too much messaging at them and then confuse them, like, well, you booked on Airbnb. Now you’re trying to book direct. What is a classy, non-invasive way to get that message to guests that they can book direct?
Mark Simpson: [00:15:13] To answer this question, you got to have a look at what the hotels do. And the hotels do this really well. I’m talking about your Hilton’s, your Marriott’s. Go and look at how they do this. Because when you’re checking out or even when you’re on the home page of their website, they clearly state that the best rates and the best incentives are when you book direct.
So they are educating their guests to go, you know what? Don’t book on Hotels.com. Don’t book on Expedia. Don’t book on Booking.com. Book us directly on our website, and you get these perks, and you get these rates. Because at the end of the day, we can talk to a blue in the face, but the guest, the individual booker, your future potential guest, is selfish for one thing and one thing only, and that’s themselves.
What are they going to get out of this? What benefit are they going to get out of this action? So if you can talk to your guests through your marketing, through your copy, through whatever you choose to do, and however you choose to do it and say, listen, at the end of the day, when you book, because you’re going to book with us regardless, book with us directly, and you will get X. Whether that is a discount, early check in, late checkout, welcome basket, bottle of champagne on arrival, massage, whatever it may be.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:16:27] Whatever it takes.
Mark Simpson: [00:16:28] Whatever it takes. You got to speak to the guest. And a lot of the times, for that first booking– and you’ve got to set the scenario because there’s loads of context. If you’re in an area– say, I’m coming to Columbus, Ohio. I’ve never been to Columbus, Ohio. Don’t know anybody in Columbus, Ohio. What are is that person going to do? They are going to go to what they know, like, and trust, which is going to probably be an OTA, or they’ll go to Google.
Annette Grant: [00:16:52] Mm-hmm.
Mark Simpson: [00:16:53] And so let’s just say they’ve booked on Airbnb in the past. We’ll go to Airbnb. And for that first booking, that first time, you will have to just suck it up because they don’t know you. They haven’t got any connections to you. They don’t know anybody in the area. So they’re just going to go to what they know best.
The major way, and I say this a lot, that most hosts alter, and the way they are at fault for this, is that if a guest books on an OTA, they should then do everything in their power to at least get email address, phone number, first name, last name.
And that’s called building a database. And then when the guest is in the property, there needs to be, whether it’s on a touch day digital guidebook, or on a nice little stand that you can get on Etsy that you can put on the dining room table, or just some thing that you can put in your property, just say, hey, this is our branding, and this is our website. Here’s a QR code. Next time you want to come back to Columbus, Ohio, this is one of many properties we’ve got in the area. Or this is our main property. Feel free to contact us directly for the best rate.
And that’s just little subtle educational bits that you’re just implementing into the consumer. Because I still believe that the majority of people who book on Airbnb, millions of bookings every day, when they book on Airbnb, because of the whole perception around it, they think that they’re just staying with hobbyist hosts. They just think they’re staying with somebody’s spare place, or second home, or whatever. They don’t realize that there are professional outfits out there.
Whether you’re one property owner, management company, arbitrage, whatever you’re doing, they don’t realize that people are doing this for a living. They don’t realize there are people who are watching podcasts, going to events, being part of masterminds, looking to be the looking to be as best as they possibly can be.
And so if we can get across instantly that, listen, we’re not a hobbyist host here. We are doing this professionally. This is our livelihood. We’re going to build a career out of this, and we’re going to look after you. And by the way, this is one of four, or five, or 10 different properties that we have in Columbus, Ohio. Anytime you’re coming back to the area, let us know because we will look after you and your family, your friends, your coworkers, whoever’s coming back.
And it’s just the billboard effect. Just keep placing it as many, many times as places as you can because, eventually, it will sink in. And then Joe, who comes to stay with you is like, oh yeah, I stayed in Columbus, Ohio, and this is the brand that I stayed with. They’re phenomenal. And I’ve got other properties. And then they’ll go and tell their friends family, and that’s how it works.
Annette Grant: [00:19:18] Well, you said it. You’ve got the email. And let’s just say we have their email address because we are talking to hosts on a daily basis who are doing this. They’ve taken that next step. They’re acquiring the email address of their guests. We had a host in our mastermind last week. She was like, oh my gosh. She didn’t even realize it. She’s over a 1,000 emails now. And she’s like, I haven’t reached back out to any of them.
So we do see some analysis paralysis on getting in the habit of emailing these guests. What are the offers, Mark? What do you see is the strongest offer we could make via email? Or what do you see working to bring the guests back? Is it that discount? What is that messaging?
We’ll take us for instance. Columbus, Ohio. We’ve got our email list. Maybe they’re coming back here. Maybe they’re not coming back here. But what offers should we be making in those campaigns to have them return or book direct?
Mark Simpson: [00:20:22] Now, first and foremost, the person on your mastermind, I assume she’s using the StayFi tool if she just suddenly goes, ah.
Annette Grant: [00:20:28] Crushing it. Yeah.
Mark Simpson: [00:20:29] Yeah, yeah. Because anybody that I speak to who’s using StayFi, they turn around and go, oh, I’ve realized I’ve got a 1,000 emails.
Annette Grant: [00:20:37] Right, right.
Mark Simpson: [00:20:38] And they’re doing nothing with it. So my actual advice with a solid email marketing campaign isn’t to just throw Black Friday offers, discounts, etc. It is to write to them like you’re writing to a pen pal. You keep them up to date. Because at the end of the day, when you open your email, it’s like opening up your social media. If you look in your inbox and there’s that company that is just selling you shit, you’re just going to unsubscribe.
My favorite time of the year for my email cleanse is Black Friday because, from the 1st of November until the end of November, I just get bombarded with emails, and I’m just like, unsubscribe, bum bum bum bum bum. I don’t care. Because it’s the only time of the year I’ve heard from you.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:21:22] Mm-hmm.
Mark Simpson: [00:21:23] The people that I love to read and the companies that I love to read in my inbox are the ones that are adopting the old Gary Vee, jab, jab, jab, right hook theory, where you are providing value, having a discussion, a conversation, a nice headline to open. And then in the actual body of the email, you can be providing with tips. This is what’s been happening in Columbus, Ohio, or this is what’s going on in the business, and just keep them up to date.
I’m not saying do it on a daily basis. Sometimes you don’t even have to do it weekly, but monthly. If you do that once a month over 12 months, that’s 12 emails. You’ll be doing, I believe, 99.9% more than anyone else that’s in the hospitality industry because everybody feels that they need to do a Canva template, a glossy email with pictures and images over here, and da da da da da. And if you’re going to put an image in an email, you’re more likely to get put in the promotion and junk spam.
So the emails that I love to send are plain text. And it’s like I’m writing to a lost pen pal. And you may be listening to this or watching this now at home, or in the car, or whatever, going, well, I can’t do that. I’m not a copywriter. Well, there’s a phenomenal tool out there that’s called ChatGPT or AI. And you can tap into them and give them the base of the email that you want to do and just say, hey, I need you to become an expert email copywriter, write me an email about this. And they will get you 80% of the way there. You just need to 20% personalize it, and you’ve got an email done within seconds.
That is the type of email that I would be sending. And again, if we do the Gary Vee method of jab, jab, jab, right hook, which is basically provide tons and tons and tons of content, help, and advice, then every now and again, bring your offer. Let’s just say if you do this 12 months of the year, 12 emails, 10 emails is that, and then those last two is when you’re going to put out the, hey, just so you know, this year, in Columbus, we’ve got these three events that are going to be back to back, absolute sold out. We know this. You know this is happening. That’s happening.
And we’re just going to put this out here right now. We’re only going to have a limited amount of dates. There’s only going to be a limited amount of places. So if you want to book, please email me as soon as possible. We’ll get you booked in. Here’s our website. You can phone me. You can email me. Here you go. And that is when you get the offers flying in. And it may be that it’s not that person that is going to come back to Columbus, but if it’s a sports event, or, say, Taylor Swift’s coming to town or–
Annette Grant: [00:24:02] Or, Mark, our Columbus Crew are playing in the MLS Cup this weekend. I thought you’d appreciate that. That would be a cause for an offer of like, hey–
Mark Simpson: [00:24:13] Soccer, yeah.
Annette Grant: [00:24:14] Yeah. Because soccer in December in Columbus, Ohio, ooh. But it is the championship, so–
Mark Simpson: [00:24:19] Exactly.
Annette Grant: [00:24:20] So that is something that you might do an offer for.
Mark Simpson: [00:24:22] Exactly. Hey, we’ve literally got two spots left. If you’re coming in, if you’re planning to come in– and again, this is where data is going to be key. And I’m saying this a lot now for 2024, 2025. Go and look at what Airbnb have done this last year with their platform. Go log into your profile. They are asking loads of random questions. Your favorite movie. Your favorite 90s reference. What do you love to do?
And they’re doing that because they’re getting as much data as possible about the guest and the host. And I’m tongue in cheek when I say this, but it’s like they’re trying to become the Tinder OTA. They’re trying to match the perfect host with the perfect guest. But they understand that the core of this data is going to be everything.
And as we move into a world where AI is going to dominate the majority of the marketing world and the business world, if you’ve got on your, let’s say, StayFi, which is a cool little CRM, or whatever you’re using, HubSpot, etc., somebody that’s been to stay with you and you’re able to collect, say, hey, they came here for the Columbus Crew Soccer weekend, or they came here when Taylor Swift were in town, or they were here on these dates, you can then go into your property management software tool, or your CRM, and just say– just type in the name, and it will give you everything that you need to know about that person.
And you can put that into an email and send it to somebody. And that’s personalized marketing 101. And for a lot of people listening to this, 99.9% of people are like, that’s too much. My head just exploded right now. In a year’s time, it will become the norm. It’ll be just like sending a message on Facebook. So you’ve got to start collecting that data now. StayFi, phenomenal.
Like you say, most hosts who use it don’t realize how many emails they’ve got at their disposal, but the actual step that you can take today would be, just send an email out. Honestly, just send an email out about what you’ve got planned in Columbus, what the Christmas market situation is like, or what’s coming up in January or February, just to keep people interested.
And you may be like, well, I’m more of a corporate market. I get business people coming. Just let them know what events are coming to the town. Just start by doing it. Just literally start emailing, and don’t worry about unsubscribes. Love an unsubscribe. I love it when someone unsubscribes to my messages because they never want to hear from me anyway.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:26:35] Yeah.
Mark Simpson: [00:26:35] You’ve got to focus on those that stick around because, eventually, what will happen is they’ll become your superfans, and they’ll book with you simply because they got an email from you, and you’re not trying to sell them stuff. Because every time someone opens up a social media app, or if someone opens up their phone now, they’re bombarded with people trying to sell them stuff. So when everybody zigs, you zag, and you win.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:26:57] We get excited within our property management company when we had to write an email because the whole team gets excited about what we’re going to share with those who are going to open up the email. It’s like an extension of hosting, having that email really serve them and bring them cookies or that bottle of wine, that welcome amenity in the form of email. If you think of it like that, you think of it as hospitality and, like Mark said, not just selling, that’s another way to get excited about emailing them.
It’s like you get to extend that thing you love most, which, Mark, our listeners, our audience, they’re obsessed with hospitality first and foremost. And so you think of it that way, and it really can change your mindset around sitting down and either telling ChatGPT of what you want your email to say or you doing it yourself. It’ll flow through your fingers very easily.
Mark, I know that you’re doing a documentary that’s coming out on YouTube December 26th, and I think this is really interesting because I understand that you’re following a US-based host and a UK-based host. Why? What are you following? Why are you following them, and what is this documentary going to showcase hosts around the world?
Mark Simpson: [00:28:07] So basically, at the start of the year, I wanted to create something new on the Boostly YouTube channel. We’ve done about 700 podcast episodes now, and the channel is Talking Heads. And although it’s great and we get a ton of engagement and all that cool stuff, I wanted to do something that would disrupt the channel. And I’ve had an idea in my mind for a documentary for a while now, but I’ve never been able to put it into practice.
So I found a company in the UK that was a production company. I gave them my idea in the brief, and they said, right, let’s go for it. And I wanted to find somebody in the UK, and I wanted to find somebody in the US. The main reason being is that the US and the UK is where 90% of our listenership, subscribership are based.
And I didn’t want somebody in the US to watch the documentary and go, oh, it’s all right. Because they’re UK, I can’t do this. And I didn’t want to do it vice versa, where if we have someone in the US, someone in the UK watching would go, ah, I can’t do that because that’s US-based. So my main criteria was, number one, they couldn’t be a team Boostly member. They couldn’t be a customer or client.
And to be honest, I would love it if I didn’t even know who Boostly was. And the goal was to go into the business and Boostly [Inaudible]. We would put into practice and place the tips from The Book Direct Playbook, which was my first published book in February 2022. And then we also were going to put into practice the tips, and the tricks, and the tactics from the blueprint, which was December 2022, which was more the foundations in place.
And we began filming, let’s say, early February, and we wrapped up filming late October. Now we’ve been editing it. I’ve just got the proof back from the company, and it’s ready to go on the 26th of December. And I’m very excited. I gave the Boostly members a little five-minute preview the other day, and they loved it. And so yeah, we’re really excited to be showcasing and premiere on the Boostly YouTube channel on the 26th of December.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:30:05] Can you give us a little trailer? This is a big blockbuster movie coming out. What’s that hook that you learned this year following these two hosts that either blew your mind or you learned so much about?
Annette Grant: [00:30:20] Yeah, why should we watch?
Sarah Karakaian: [00:30:21] Yeah. Why do we need to watch?
Annette Grant: [00:30:22] December 26th is right after the holidays. I’m going to have popcorn probably. I might have some cocktails. Why should I sit down and watch this?
Mark Simpson: [00:30:30] So basically, what we got from it, which was really interesting, is that I thought that we would take the host from the UK and the host from the US, plug in Boostly, and they’d get the same results. They’d go down the same roadmap.
But what I realized, it’s like when you get in a car and you go onto Google Maps, and you go, I want to get from A to B. And your destination, it says, we’ve got alternative routes. And it’s like we literally took alternative routes to this destination.
And obviously, the destination was to help them grow the business. The host in the UK had a management-style company. She had three properties. She was very much wanting to grow, but the problem was that she was stuck in the weeds of the business. She had shiny object syndrome, and she admitted this with property management software and software tools. She was jumping from one to the other, and there’s not real much focus.
And she was really good at direct bookings. She was amazing. If somebody contacted via an OTA, she was amazing at getting them to book direct on the end of it. I learned a few things from her on this, but her problem was concentration, growth, and getting herself out of the weeds.
For the chap in the US, he was fresh. He was new. He was literally two months in. He’d bought the property. He’d done it up. He had listed it on Airbnb. That’s it. And for him, he wanted to go from property one to property two. He didn’t know how to get there. He really didn’t know how to be a host, how to be a hospitable host. He really didn’t have a clue in any of that. He was he was young. He was determined. He was an action-taker. He was phenomenal.
And the work that we did with the person in the UK was so different to the US. The US was just making sure that he had a property management software tool. We got him hooked up on PriceLabs to make sure that he had the right amount of money coming in per booking, so he wasn’t struggling there. And we made sure that his marketing message was spot on. We discovered who his avatar was. And we basically did it through a couple of things, but it really, really helped him.
Now he passed 50-review mark on Airbnb, which is fantastic. So that’s awesome. He’s got the five stars, which is great. He’s built a nice little database which is key, which we were talking about earlier. And he’s getting referrals and direct bookings on the back of that, which is phenomenal.
In the UK, she has managed to stop having shiny object syndrome. It took a lot of me WhatsApp messages saying, no, stop that. She’d send me a message saying, hey, I’m looking at this. My, literally, reply would be a picture message of me going, no. Just concentrate on what we got. And for her, what we were able to do was to recruit her first ever virtual team member, which was phenomenal because she was doing everything herself.
There was too much, too much, in the admin side of the business that she was doing. So we tapped in a little bit automation, but we got somebody to take a lot of the burden off her. Obviously, she has a cleaner and a maintenance guy, but it was like all of the admin things, she doing herself, which was crazy. So by hiring, it was able to elevate her out of doing the day-to-day.
And now, she’s able to add on five more properties in the area, which is fantastic. And obviously, her bookings have never been a problem. It’s more like getting her out of the business. So they’re both well on their way, and I’m looking forward to checking in six months and 12 months’ time. But yeah, the results are on there. And what we’ve realized is that there’s five key areas that we focused on, and that’s what’s going to come out in the documentary. So yeah, please do join me on the 26th.
Annette Grant: [00:34:15] So it sounds like people should not only watch, but they should bring a pen and paper because they’re probably going to have some homework to make improvements and catapult their business.
Mark Simpson: [00:34:24] It’s going to be homework. It wouldn’t be a Boostly documentary, a Boostly video without there being some things to do.
Annette Grant: [00:34:31] That’s exciting. The two people that you followed, has this been more than they could have ever imagined, this journey with you over the past year?
Mark Simpson: [00:34:40] I don’t really know what they thought they were getting themselves in for, but when I first approached them–
Annette Grant: [00:34:45] Can we have them on the show? Maybe we’ll need a follow-up with them and have them on the show.
Mark Simpson: [00:34:48] Maybe, maybe. I’m really looking forward to introducing everybody to Justina and Cuny because– yeah. I don’t think they realize what they were getting themselves in for, and I don’t think they knew how much I was going to be in the business, helping them and stuff. So it’s been awesome. I’ve absolutely loved getting to know them and working more alongside them because I don’t do one on one coaching anymore. I don’t do close-knit coaching anymore.
And to be able to jump back in and do that, yeah, it was really exciting. And I’m looking forward to seeing the results on the backend, especially how the documentary comes out, and seeing how that comes down. But yeah, it’ll be cool. I’ll send over a five-minute preview for you, and you can maybe clip it onto this podcast at some point. You can maybe take a one-minute chunk out.
Annette Grant: [00:35:35] Mark, direct bookings can be painfully slow to get going, get momentum behind it. How do you keep host motivated when it seems like they’re not getting those direct bookings? How do you continue to motivate when they’re not seeing that? Because I feel like the OTAs are that quick win because their audience is so giant at the top of funnel.
How can we continue to encourage hosts about direct booking when everyone is in this “we need to get more bookings” slump? And so to even focus over there seems painful because they feel like they’re not getting bookings, period. So how do you keep hosting courage when they haven’t even gotten that first direct booking? Or maybe they have one or two, but it’s friends and family. What is your advice there to stay motivated?
Mark Simpson: [00:36:25] So I feel like the best analogy to give is, at the start of the year, January, you go, right, this is the year I’m going to get fit. I’m going to get that six pack. I’m going to do it. And then you go to the gym on the 2nd of January, and you walk out the gym after a one hour session, and you look down, and there’s no six pack, and you go, oh, this is crap. This is too overwhelming. And it’s the same with direct bookings.
You are not going to go from 100% reliant on Airbnb to becoming 100% direct bookings after one day, one week, one month, one year. I even argue it’s as dangerous being 100% direct bookings as it is being 100% OTA. You need to have a lovely little mix. But the only way that you’re going to get there is becoming 1% better every single day. And yes, it’s a slog. Yes, there’ll be ups and downs.
Yes, there’s days where out of 10 bookings that come in, seven of them will be direct, and you’ll be like, oh shit, I’m so good at this. And then days you won’t get any. But congratulations. That’s being a business owner. That’s being an entrepreneur. There’s days you love it. There’s days you hate it, and there’s everything in between.
We are very fortunate in this industry that we can put our business on one or two websites and be pretty much guaranteed revenue, depending on time of the year, seasonality, where you’re located. There’s no other industry like it. When I started Boostly, there wasn’t a website I could go list Boostly on and guarantee to get revenue in. I had to build a brand. I had to drag customers to sign up for Boostly.
But I consistently, consistently stuck at it. Every single day, I showed up, and I just got 1% better. Educated myself, put the word out there, made sure that I was doing all of the things. And now the compound effect seven years on is that we get so many people book calls with us. We get tons of direct bookings every day because people are literally come to us because of the compound effect seven years on.
For a lot of people starting out, it’s not what you want to hear. You just got to pull up your big boy pants, get big girl pants on, and become proper business owners. And if you truly want your business, whatever your end goal is– again, I stress this– if this is just a hobby for you, you do you. But if you want this to be a business that will be here in five, 10 years’ time, or maybe you want to exit and get the big books in and sell it on to somebody else, you need to.
It’s not a you want to. You need to have a strong element of your revenue coming in direct, being diverse, not just based on one platform. Because any sensible investor, any sensible buyer, would look at your revenue and look at where it’s coming from, and they would instantly pull the plug if they saw 100% of your bookings came from one channel. Because they know good practices, and they don’t want it to be all going from one place, especially if you are not collecting data.
There’s a company I know who have just sold for a lot of money this year, and they’ve exited. And the people who bought, one of the main reasons why they bought them was for their database and their social media game. Hands down. They didn’t buy them because of their Airbnb bookings. So it really does depend on what your end goal is.
And everyone should have an end goal in mind. Even if they’re just starting, they need to have an end goal in mind. But yes, it’s going to be a slog. Yes, it’s going to be a hard work. But the juice is worth the squeeze, 110%.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:39:57] And I think this episode is coming at a perfect time because, Mark, you know that Airbnb Winter Release just came out, and Annette and I did an episode, what, a couple of weeks ago now. And I honestly got a little bit nervous for the industry because Airbnb is making it so good to just stay in the app and live there and have no reason to spend more money on various automation systems or feel like you have to do extra marketing work.
But you and I, Mark, and Annette, we know what’s at stake. We actually just spoke to some friends yesterday, Mark, who have beautiful properties here in Columbus, gorgeous, big. They are incredible hosts. They’re very attentive. They’re the hosts that put Moms out at the beginning of fall and then take them down and put up holiday decorations.
Annette Grant: [00:40:47] And they’ve been hosting for almost a decade.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:40:49] Hosting for almost a decade, listeners. Mark, maybe you know when this started, but if you get a low rating, three stars or below, Airbnb will send you a warning that, hey, you’re in danger of getting suspended. We will remove your listing. You will be unlisted for five days if you don’t get your act together. And if a guest leaves your review, if it’s retaliatory, then you’re still spending time fighting with Airbnb, like, hey, this is retaliatory, they will still– because that’s what happened to my friends.
Annette Grant: [00:42:21] Yeah, they were four- and five-star reviews, the individual sections. But the overall review was a two.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:26] And it was a retaliatory mark, and so they got unlisted for five days. Their stays didn’t get canceled. Nothing like that happened. But my gosh, it’s like if hosts who I know are rock stars are getting treated like this, it just has you thinking, like– because sometimes, Mark, what’s at stake if I don’t have my direct bookings?
Yes, the juice is worth the squeeze. But if you don’t really understand why, if you don’t work on that six pack, or if you don’t work on your health, we all know that down the line, something can happen that’s pretty catastrophic. And when it comes to business, when you’re not exposed to the marketplace on one of the biggest platforms out there, that can be pretty catastrophic.
So what was your thought on the Airbnb Winter Release with all these awesome in-app additions, with the smart locks, and the price comparisons, and all that stuff? And maybe a host who’s thinking twice about going direct book or working on the direct bookings, what’s your response to that release?
Mark Simpson: [00:42:27] So I believe that there are two departments within Airbnb that don’t get enough credit. And that’s the marketing, the branding team, and the legal team as well. But the marketing, the branding team, they’re phenomenal. I love Airbnb.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:42:39] Next-level.
Mark Simpson: [00:42:39] I love the story. I love how it’s grown, what it’s turned into, all of that. I don’t blame Airbnb. I don’t blame them for any of this. If anything, I blame the host who become overreliant on them. But that’s my mission to educate the host. But with this new release, you’ve got to remember, at the end of the day, every single time they do this, summer or winter release, it’s marketing, and it’s branding, and it’s to always make the app and the program look better.
They don’t sit there and talk about all the bad things that have gone on. They just talk about all these amazing things. And every single time they’re trying to make you think, I don’t need to go off-platform to do my dynamic pricing. I don’t need to go off-platform to get my insurance, get protection– AirCover.
But always remember this. Every single thing that Airbnb do within their platform benefits one and one person only, and that’s Airbnb. I feel that the majority of people listen to this podcast will know to never, ever, ever just trust the smart pricing on Airbnb. I’m glad that everybody I speak to, 99.9% of them go, yeah, of course I’ll do PriceLabs, or I’ll do Beyond, or I’ll do Wheelhouse, because they know not to trust it. And that’s good.
But there’s a lot of things that they are just so good at. They literally just spellbound you, like AirCover. AirCover is just marketing. It really is. But you don’t know what you don’t know. This is why I do what I do. I come on and just try and educate as much as people to say, hey, AirCover is just marketing. Look at Superhog. Look at whoever. Pricing, look at PriceLabs.
What you need to do is you cannot build your whole house on someone else’s land. And when you do this, you literally build it on Airbnb’s land. If you’re 100% all in, everything’s in there. And because they make it look so easy, if you try and set up a listing on Booking.com, you look at it and go, this is the worst. The user experience is awful, and you leave. It is the worst.
And they are trying so hard to get bigger in the States, but I truly don’t believe. And I’ve listened to the head of product. I’ve listened to Verma. I listened to all of the conferences that they do, and they truly believe that they can crack America. But I’m like, dude, go look at a Facebook group. Your product is the worst because of your user experience. And it’s the same with Vrbo and the Expedia Group.
Airbnb have got that user experience down to a T. It is almost perfect. And because of that, it just makes it look so easy. Like I say, everything is good. It’s like an old relationship that you’ve had. Everything is great until it’s not. And then it just takes a couple of things for you to go, yeah, it isn’t the best.
Whether it is your listing gets suspended or you get a crappy email, or guest, or whatever– it’s just whenever a booking comes in and it’s from an OTA, you’ve got big brother looking over your shoulder. Always feels like someone else is dictating your business. The beauty of when it’s direct and say there’s an issue. You’ll deal with it. And if the guest is an absolute moron, you’ll just say, just cancel the book. I’m going to cancel your book, and do not come and stay with me.
But as soon as a guest books on an Airbnb, and especially if you’re a super host, I truly believe now, because of Twitter and social media, the guest knows that they can complain as much as they like because the host is paranoid of losing their super host status. They’ll always try and bend over for the guest. And this is the problem. You’re always on edge.
And like I say, for the most people who are listening, who have never had an issue, you’re in that honeymoon phase of your relationship. Oh, this is great. Airbnb, just give me money and all these things. But there’s loads of people who have been burned. And it’s those hosts that are being burned who have woken up and gone, how do I stop this from happening again? And that’s where marketing diversification comes in.
And that’s what my big message is for 2024. The trend I want to get across to everybody is just diverse your marketing. Don’t just have eggs in one basket, even if it’s just Vrbo and Airbnb for now. And then, eventually, you’ll just go, oh, direct bookings. That’s the big thing that everybody needs to start doing for hosts who really want to put the plan down for 2024.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:46:47] Ooh, mic drop.
Annette Grant: [00:46:47] I know.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:46:49] Mark, anything else you want our listeners to know about either what’s on the horizon for Boostly or direct bookings in general? What can you share with us?
Mark Simpson: [00:46:58] Well, Boostly, we just continue to grow. We’ve just hit $50 million of tracked direct bookings on our websites in 2023, which is massive, which we’re very proud of. 2,500 customers, and we’ve got 10,000 listings now coming through our platform. Next year is all about coaching, education, and getting our customer service, our customer support, to be the best in the game.
We’ve grown a lot this year. We’ve got over 50 team members behind the scenes. With that, it took a lot of growing up for me. My ego got battered a little bit. Realized that I was the bottleneck in the business, so I’ve had to make hires and all of that stuff, which has been great. So we’ve done our slowdown now, where we’re ready to ramp up and go and be ever more present, just everywhere. Now I’ve got a managing director in charge of Boostly. I can be just the glitter. Someone said, I’ve got to go be the glitter and just be everywhere. So glitter–
Annette Grant: [00:47:53] Hey, you’re not allowed to bring glitter into our places, just so you know, because it really does get everywhere. That’s part of the house rules. Mark, people, because they were slammed busy with something else, a family event, so they can’t watch your live event on December 26th. Will they be able to watch that immediately? Is it going to be live on YouTube if they miss the live watch party? Will they be able to consume it quickly thereafter on your channel?
Mark Simpson: [00:48:20] 100%. If you go to YouTube, type in Boostly, B-O-O-S-T-L-Y– it’s literally on my chest here. Go there. Subscribe. Hit the notification bell.
Annette Grant: [00:48:29] He’s wearing a t-shirt for those people that are– it’s not a tattoo on his chest. So he has a shirt on.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:48:35] He not topless for today’s interview.
Mark Simpson: [00:48:36] Wow. Just wait until I take this t-shirt off. I’ll show you the new tattoo.
Annette Grant: [00:48:41] Okay, so if they subscribe to your channel today, though, they’ll be alerted to when it’s live, and then they can watch it if they can’t watch it–
Mark Simpson: [00:48:45] And if you miss it, you can watch it back. And we’re going to do some cool things with it, where we’re going to chop it all up, do all the good stuff. So yeah, don’t worry. As long as you’re following Boostly on the socials– obviously, I’d love for you to be about the watch party. It’ll be 3:00 PM Central on the 26th. Time zones are going to kill me on this one. But yeah, if you’re around, I’d love to see you on there. It will literally be there for an hour. I’ll be in the chat chatting to everybody on the watch party. But it’ll be there if you do miss it.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:49:08] So fun. Listeners, we’ll link to Boostly’s YouTube channel, to Boostly in general. If you want to take your direct bookings more seriously in 2024, that is exactly what Boostly will help you do.
Annette Grant: [00:49:19] To Mark’s books, if you want to add them to your holiday wish list.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:49:23] Yes, and all the other really cool things that Mark has mentioned in this episode, we will make sure that all the links are there for you. Mark, thanks for everything you do, for the Direct Book Movement, and we cannot wait to see you thrive in 2024, and we can’t wait to be at your watch party, so we’ll be there. And with that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:49:40] I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–
Both Annette & Sarah: [00:49:42] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:49:43] We’ll talk to you next time.
