\n
Ashley :
This is Real Estate Rookie episode 243.<\/p>\n
Mark :
So the first thing that I feel like everybody should be doing on the Airbnb profile, that first line, and this is general copy talk. Everybody talks about the hook in copyright. And the hook is just basically getting someone\u2019s attention so they take action, right? The first line is you should be saying, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Mark, founder of X.\u201d You can\u2019t put a direct web link in there. Airbnb will spot that. The bots will spot that, but you can get creative. So I always used to put, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Mark, founder of X. Check out our online reviews. They\u2019re rather good,\u201d or, \u201cThey\u2019re really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashley :
My name is Ashley Care and I\u2019m here with my co-host Tony Robinson.<\/p>\n
Tony :
And welcome to the Real Estate Rookie podcast where every week, twice a week, we bring you the inspiration, motivation, and stories you need to hear to kickstart your investing journey. And this week I want to shout out someone from the rookie audience that goes by the username irissaid, and Iris\u2019s review says, \u201cBy far my favorite real estate investing podcast. Ashley always knows how to ask the best questions that a rookie would want to hear, and Tony brings so much advice and knowledge from his own experience. Both have a great chemistry and I love their personality.\u201d So Iris, we appreciate the honest rating and review, and if you haven\u2019t yet, if you\u2019re a listener, you\u2019re part of the rookie audience, please leave us an honest rating or review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform it is you\u2019re listening to. The more reviews we get, the more folks we can help, and that\u2019s always the goal here.
So Ashley, I\u2019m super excited for today\u2019s episode. Our guest is actually someone that I\u2019d known online for a little while, then he and I actually met at a conference last summer and when I heard him speak, I recognized or I realized there was a big gaping hole in my business. And today\u2019s episode is all about how all investors can fill that big gaping hole that exists in their own businesses as well.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
I\u2019ve got to say, Tony, you\u2019re starting out talking about meeting online, meeting him in person, and then a gaping hole. Where is this going?<\/p>\n
Tony :
This is for the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
But isn\u2019t it funny how many people you meet in your network that are from online? Growing up, and especially when there was AIM and AOL, you don\u2019t meet people online. Your parents drilled that into you. You don\u2019t go and meet them in person. And honestly, that\u2019s been some of the best friendships that I\u2019ve connected with and have people in my network is meeting them online, and it\u2019s just so funny how things have changed. And obviously meeting them in a safe, public place or at a conference or something like that.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Yeah.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
When Tony slides into your DMs and invites you over to his home, it\u2019s probably a spammer. Do not go.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Yeah, totally. And yeah, can we just touch on, if anyone\u2019s getting messages from either me or Ashley or Sarah or anyone asking you to\u2026 If we just hit you with a, \u201cHey, how are you?\u201d and then the conversation quickly flows into crypto, just know it\u2019s not us. It\u2019s a scam. But today\u2019s episode is not about getting scammed. Today\u2019s episode is, again, a good buddy of mine, his name is Mark Simpson, and he\u2019s here all to talk about direct booking. And when we talk about direct booking, it\u2019s for all of those folks that are in the short-term and medium-term rental space that rely solely on Airbnb and VRBO to get all of their bookings. And Mark in today\u2019s episode highlights the dangers of doing that as a short-term rental investor and also gives you a really clear framework on how to build your own platform outside of sites like Airbnb and VRBO, and how he\u2019s had millions of dollars worth of bookings come through his websites to help other hosts do the same thing.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
And I really don\u2019t know a ton about this, so this was super informational for me. Tony was like a kid at a candy store, word vomiting over everything he was saying and asking really great questions and follow up too, and giving some personal stories about his experience with just bookings through Airbnb. And then the difference between using direct booking and how he\u2019s setting it up. So this is a great episode for short-term rentals. Medium-term rentals, this can even be used for. Or even if you are somebody looking to book a property sometime in the future as to where other places you can go besides Airbnb. And I think with Airbnb making all of these changes recently, maybe it is going to be an advantage to somebody to actually go ahead and start setting up this direct booking site. Mark, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Real Estate Rookie podcast. Why don\u2019t you go ahead and give us a brief overview of who you are and what you do?<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah, thank you very much for having me. So my name is Mark Simpson. I founded a company called Boostly back in 2016. As you can tell from this accent, I\u2019m over the pond in the United Kingdom. Born and raised here, born in hospitality, raised in hospitality, which is really weird in this industry. So many people fall into it from other investment strategies or from other careers, but I was born in it. And so ever since I can remember, I\u2019m just so used to having strangers in my house in our family business, which was a bed and breakfast. It was a 14-bedroom bed and breakfast right in the middle of nowhere in the United Kingdom, right in the woods. And that was the appeal. So we had lots of guests coming to stay with us because we were in the middle of nowhere with farm animals. We had highland cows. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever seen or heard of a highland cow before. Those big cows with horns and shaggy hair.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Oh yeah.<\/p>\n
Mark :
That was us. That was us. That was our appeal. And bizarrely, there was a niche of people, there was an army of people who would travel around just to go and visit highland cows. They would come and stay over us just because of them, which was bizarre. But I grew up in this little bed and breakfast. I grew up and I wanted to, in my teenage years, do one thing and one thing only, and that was escape. I wanted to be a soccer player, but there was one problem. I\u2019m crap at playing soccer. So I resorted to coaching soccer and then had an amazing opportunity to come out to America, so that was pretty much 2000 to 2010 coming to America, five months, got my visa, came out, traveled all over the States, coaching it, doing youth development, and then eventually ended up back in England, back in London, fell into sales and marketing for Yelp. It was Quip at the time before they got bought out. And that\u2019s where I learned all about social media, marketing, emails, SEO, you name it.
And then eventually in 2012, my parents, who had had the business about 25, 30 years at this point, they needed one of me or my siblings to come into the business. I was the oldest out of the four, and it was ideal. And I just took all that stuff I learned in London and put it into the business. And for four or five years we just focused on marketing it, taking that offline word of mouth, putting it online. And it worked really well. When TripAdvisor was popular, we got to the top of TripAdvisor in the north of England for most recommended places to stay. Our social media was popping and it just all resulted in 80% year on year of our bookings that came in was from direct. So 20% was Airbnb, 20% was booking.com, 20% was Expedia, 80% of it was direct bookings, and it went really well.
And then in 2016 I started a Facebook group called The Hospitality Community, which is still active and live right now and people come and join it from all over the world. And they were coming in because they were frustrated with Airbnb, booking.com, and they wanted to learn around diary bookings. And that\u2019s literally what I\u2019ve been doing every day since 2016, helping people figure out this whole world of hospitality, guest experience, diary bookings, and which is why we\u2019re here today, so thank you for having me.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Yeah, Mark. Super excited to have you, brother. And you just recently posted something, I think in one of the Facebook groups, about a statistic about all of the direct booking websites that you\u2019ve helped create. Do you know what I\u2019m talking about? Would you mind sharing that figure with our listeners?<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah, so this is really exciting. So for the last four years we\u2019ve been building direct booking websites using WordPress. And for the last four years, I know that these websites work, but it\u2019s just me saying, \u201cHey, these work, trust me.\u201d And so about two years ago we created a really cool piece of technology where we were able to track every booking that came from one of our websites. And in 2022, so we\u2019re about 11 months in now to 2022, we\u2019ve generated and tracked \u00a32.5 million, which is around about $3 million worth of direct bookings that our websites have generated, which is an amazingly high number. I would love it to be double. My goal is to get that double next year. But it just shows that you can do this yourself. There are ways to making your own bookings and it\u2019s just a case of having the foundations and the blueprint in place to make sure that you\u2019re enabled to do so, which is hopefully what we\u2019ll dig into today.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Mark, that\u2019s a tremendous achievement. And I think more and more people need to be aware that\u2026 Let me put it this way. In any other business, people spend money on marketing, but in the world of Airbnbs, everyone relies on the platforms to drive all of their revenue. But can you think of any other industry where 90% of the folks in that industry don\u2019t spend anything on marketing? And it just doesn\u2019t exist. And I think the message that you\u2019re driving around really taking ownership of your business and not relying on these platforms is a step that\u2019s often overlooked by a lot of new and seasoned investors in this space.<\/p>\n
Mark :
You\u2019re a hundred percent right. I honestly can\u2019t. And I\u2019ve tried and tried and tried, and if anybody knows in the comments, please let me know because I can\u2019t think of any other industry where you can go take a couple of pictures, upload your business to a said listing site and be pretty much guaranteed to generate revenue. And it is a blessing and a curse. And let\u2019s not get it wrong. We\u2019re not here to slate Airbnb. They\u2019ve built a fantastic business model, as did VRBO, which is the Expedia group, as did booking.com, TripAdvisor before them. And they\u2019ve enabled anybody, any rookie, any real estate rookie to get started on the platform, literally throw up a couple of images. And there are specific dates in your calendar, doesn\u2019t matter where your market is, that you know could just sell out five times over because we\u2019re in the industry of making experiences. We\u2019re in the hospitality industry and we create memories.
I say this a lot and I hope that people start to realize this is every booking, there\u2019s a story behind it. So every reservation that you get, whether it\u2019s a staycation or workcation or whatever, there\u2019s a story around it and it\u2019s all about making memories. And so because of that, you can get a lot of bookings very easily from one platform. But the curse is that because it is so easy, and all these spinning plates that you\u2019ve got, it\u2019s very easy to go, well, that\u2019s the market ing sorted. I\u2019ll just leave that to them and you\u2019ll just go, sorted. And then because of that, you are then reliant on one platform, let\u2019s just say Airbnb. And when you are over-reliant, you are then culpable to anything potentially bad happening. And there are so many examples of those bad things happening in literally this year, but over the first three years of this decade at least.<\/p>\n
Tony :
So Mark, I\u2019m so glad you mentioned that, that you become reliant, and not just reliant but almost at the mercy of, is probably a better way to say it. And we took a new listing live over the summer. It was an older property we purchased, we rehabbed it, one of my favorite rehabs we\u2019ve ever done. And the property, we listed it, it was doing well. And our fifth review came back as a one star. Not anything I think that we necessarily did, just disgruntled guests, we couldn\u2019t get the review removed, so our rating went from a 5.0 to a 4.3. And when that happened, the bookings just immediately slowed down. And we\u2019ve been fighting and struggling to breathe life back into that listening. And as that was going on, I kept thinking, man, had we just had our own direct booking website, it would\u2019ve been another way to get the revenue coming in.
And when I look at other listings that are doing really, really well, especially in Joshua Tree, because Joshua Tree is a very trendy, Instagramable, social media heavy market, some of the best listings in that market are booked out months and months in advance. And it\u2019s because they\u2019ve built this massive following off of Airbnb and off of VRBO. So they\u2019ve got the big Instagram following, they\u2019ve got their own direct booking website, they\u2019ve got a YouTube channel. They\u2019re doing these other things to drive traffic to their listings outside of just waiting for Airbnb and VRBO to pass those bookings onto them.<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah, a hundred percent. Again, you\u2019re right. And my goal is to help one million hosts to never have to worry about getting a bad review on Airbnb, never have to worry about the algorithms again. Because when you are so worried about that, you then become reliant on the guest as well. And when a guest books with you via an OTA, you can\u2019t really control who that person is. As much as there is inquiry-only mode, instant book is everything now, and Airbnb force you to go down that route. And because of it, anybody can book. And when that happens, we talk about it a lot when we say customer avatar, and customer avatar is just fancy marketing spiel for your ideal guest. And ideally with the properties that you\u2019ve got, whether it\u2019s in Joshua Tree or Upper State New York or in the Smokies or wherever, you\u2019re going to have your ideal guest. Now, the ideal guest for the area, but also the ideal guest for your property.
And then once you figure out\u2026 I talk about it in the book there at Playbook, it\u2019s all about you\u2019ve got to identify, you\u2019ve got to locate and you\u2019ve got to attract. And when you get all of them down, then everything becomes so much easier to the point, like you\u2019re saying, you can build a social media following, your website copy is a hundred percent speaking to your ideal guest. So everybody who walks through the door, it\u2019s an instant five star. You never have to worry about a one or two star coming in. And then you don\u2019t have to worry about it on Airbnb because you are dictated, because that one bad review knocks your ranking down to say 4.3 average, which then means super host is going to be harder to achieve. And every three months, you\u2019re fighting an uphill battle, and this is review five. That\u2019s guest five. That could be potentially five weeks in and you\u2019re thinking, ugh, should I just switch this to a long-term? Should I just forget about this?
And that\u2019s crazy, but that\u2019s the short-ism that you get when you are so reliant on one platform. So yeah, it\u2019s all about putting in that sort of blueprint, those foundations. And this is why I\u2019m really excited to come onto this podcast, because this is where I guess a lot of people are getting started in it and it can feel so overwhelming. So I just wanted to break it down and go, hey, let\u2019s do this, this, this, this, let\u2019s get an actioned and then everything else just becomes so much easier.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Let\u2019s talk about that then. So your software, what is the most important piece to this and how can everything be linked? Okay, so you need to do some marketing, advertising, you need to draw people to it. How are people booking it? How is it tracking? When are days booked, when aren\u2019t they booked? How are people paying for it? How are you taking those common things that make Airbnb and VRBO work so well and then putting it into your own website here in the software?<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah, a hundred percent. So I talk about never build your house on someone else\u2019s land, but before you build that house you need to have a solid foundation in place. Now, the problem is, and this is the problem, and so many people listening to this or watching this will be able to go, yeah, that\u2019s me. So what happens, property number one, you go and list it on Airbnb, just Airbnb. And then what happens, you\u2019ll maybe get something like Hospitable as a smart messaging tool. Hospitable used to be called SmartBnB. Now it\u2019s changed to Hospitable. But you got SmartBnB or Hospitable because you wanted that smart messaging automated feature that just makes it more automated. And then what you do, you go, well, I\u2019ve got my Airbnb listing. Let me just go and create one of these VRBOs. Let me go create one on there, but I\u2019ve got to link my calendar. So what am I going to do? I\u2019m just going to go grab my Airbnb iCal link and I\u2019m going to paste it into VRBO so I don\u2019t get a double booking.
So then what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re doing exactly what Airbnb wants you to do and you are building your foundation on the Airbnb land. Instead, what you\u2019ve got to do is you\u2019ve got to hit a hard reset. And what you\u2019ve got to do, first thing, even at property number one, and there\u2019s a lot of people who will push back on this, but I swear by it. You\u2019ve got to go and get, from property number one, a property management software tool. It\u2019s otherwise known as PMS, PMP, and there\u2019s good and bad news. So there\u2019s some fantastic technology available. When I first came back into my family business in 2011, they were using pen and paper and Tippex. It was a mess. We had 14 bedrooms, we had three holiday cottages. The phone would ring, a guest would book in, my dad would forget to take the booking. And then literally I walked home, came in from being a weekend away, my mom was frantically running upstairs, she was stripping and changing her bed and her bedroom because a guest had arrived. My dad forgot to put the booking in. So it was a crazy time.
So by getting his technology, it means that life is so much easier for a newbie in the business. So a property management software tool, fantastic. The problem is, there is 1,140 different solutions around the world. That\u2019s crazy. There\u2019s too much. There\u2019s too choice and it\u2019s just a case of getting overwhelmed. What we have been doing over the last four years is we\u2019ve been creating a blog post on the Boostly website, B-O-O-S-T-L-Y. And on there, what we did is we interviewed 100 hosts and we said, \u201cRight, who are you using for your PMS? What\u2019s the pros? What\u2019s the cons?\u201d And we built out a really cool blog post. It\u2019s probably our most viewed blog post. Just head to boostly.co.uk. You\u2019ll go and find it. So there\u2019s about 14 of the top ones. So go to there, go and pick one. There\u2019s tons of different contenders. You\u2019ve got Hostly, you\u2019ve got Host Away, you\u2019ve got Guestly for Hosts. Hospitable now is classed as a channel manager PMS because they do all that linkage. You\u2019ve got Uplisting. There\u2019s tons of them.
So go and pick one. And once you\u2019ve got the property management software, everything becomes easier because then what you do is you link your Airbnb to the PMS, number one. You can go and link VRBO to the PMS. That\u2019s fantastic. Then you can go get booking.com and anything else they can link to. And the cool thing about that is that instead of you linking it to Airbnb, you\u2019re linking it to your foundation that you\u2019re starting to put in place. So that\u2019s step number one. Everything works off the property management software tool.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Mark, I have a question for Tony real quick actually on that. Tony, which one are you using and what do you recommend?<\/p>\n
Tony :
Yeah, the same exact one that Mark recommended. It\u2019s Hospitable. Yeah, we honestly only dabbled with the few options when we first started. It was either Hospitable is a big one, Your Porter was another popular one that some of my friends were using. And then OwnerRez the third one. And OwnerRez I think by far probably is the most powerful tool, but it was also the most complicated to get set up, and as a newbie in the space that just didn\u2019t have the brain power to make that work. And Hospitable at the time offered a good mix of automated messaging along with all the other tools that you want from a channel manager, so that\u2019s the one that we use in our business.<\/p>\n
Mark :
The funny story about Hospitable is that they were powered by their community to turn themselves into a PMS and their channel manager for. And I know Pierre and I know Matt really well behind the scenes because with Boostly, what we do now is we partner with all these providers so we can do that trackable booking that we told you about. And for years they were saying to me, \u201cListen, we\u2019re not a PMS. We\u2019re not a channel manager. It\u2019s our community.\u201d Because they\u2019re going out and saying to everybody, \u201cOh yeah, I\u2019m with SmartBnB, Hospitable. We\u2019re the channel manager.\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cWe\u2019re not a channel manager,\u201d but they\u2019ve changed because of that. And this is what I love about that platform. I love it because they are so young and fresh and so they\u2019re able to pivot really quickly. So right now, they\u2019re adding in payments, so Stripe payments.
So again, the reason why you have a PMS, a property management software tool, and if somebody\u2026 So say Tony wants to come and stay at my place and he\u2019s like, \u201cHey, I\u2019ve seen you on Instagram, fantastic. I want a book with you. I want to book direct. How do I book direct?\u201d And you\u2019re like, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t got any of the systems in place.\u201d But if you\u2019ve got Stripe set up, with Stripe, you can create an invoice, you can create whatever and I can send it to Tony. And you can pay me direct via there, and then you just go on manually, in your own property management software tool, mark it off on the calendar and it\u2019s down as a direct booking, which is lovely. So the second thing to put into place is having a payment gateway.
Now, Stripe is the easiest. There are so many other options and a good buddy of ours, Rafa, I know Rafa is looking at getting into crypto and all those cool things, but Stripe is the easiest. And the one thing I love about Stripe, a couple of Irish boys set it up. They\u2019ve got a history in hospitality. They grew up in a hotel. So I think it\u2019s just a fantastic little easy fit, super low-cost, takes two minutes to get set up and it links into every single good PMS. Yeah, that\u2019s what I will say.<\/p>\n
Tony :
I love Stripe. Have you used Stripe at all before, Ashley, for anything?<\/p>\n
Ashley :
No, the only thing that I really collect payments from is for the liquor store, but we use a POS system called Corona. Yeah.<\/p>\n
Tony :
So we\u2019ve used Stripe in different parts of our business and I love Stripe as well. Super easy to set up. It integrates with a lot of different platforms. The only thing I don\u2019t love about Stripe is that if you have a longer lead time between when you process the payment and when that service or product is actually delivered, Stripe has a tendency to hold a certain percentage of your funds in reserve. So for us, for our events under the Real Estate Robinson and Short-Term Rental Summit, our average ticket is sold between 70 days to 60 days before our event. And when Stripe sees that there\u2019s a long delay between purchase and sale, they hold 10% of all your money in a reserve account in case there are any chargebacks or things like that. So that\u2019s the only thing I don\u2019t like about Stripe. Other than that, it\u2019s a fantastic tool and it does definitely work and integrate with a lot of different platforms.<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah. That\u2019s the payments down, which is step number two. Should we go onto another biggie, which is another part, which is when I get the biggest pushback on in all of this? Do you want to move on to that one?<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Yeah, what is that?<\/p>\n
Tony :
And if I can tee it up, because I think this is the question I had for you, Mark, when we first started working together. And was, everyone knows Airbnb. Everyone knows VRBO. No one knows Tony J Robinson\u2019s rentals in Joshua Tree, California. Why would someone go onto my website and book direct where they don\u2019t know me, they don\u2019t know who I am, they don\u2019t know my business, versus going on to a reputable platform like Airbnb or VRBO?<\/p>\n
Mark :
And this is a two-parter. And this is mostly, I feel like 90% of the hosts that I speak to, and it\u2019s the problem that we\u2019ve created, but it\u2019s also a thing that Airbnb have created as well. They are fantastic at building brand loyalty. I know not one person who walks around going, \u201cHey, I just booked a VRBO. I\u2019m a VRBO host.\u201d Well, people walk around saying, \u201cHey, I booked an Airbnb.\u201d They are Uber in this industry. And as much as I try to stand on my little soapbox here and say, \u201cDon\u2019t do that. Don\u2019t brand Airbnb,\u201d people are doing it, right? And because of that, and this has been done by design. All you have to do is load up YouTube, type in TED Talk and type in Joe Gebbia. He was one of the co-founders of Airbnb. He\u2019s since recently left, but on his TED Talk he spoke about how Airbnb built for trust and it\u2019s been done by design, and this is a hundred percent done from the offset what they wanted to create. Because this is literally, they\u2019ve got millions of people walking around branding their business on a daily basis.
So that\u2019s issue number one. But as a fix, we simply brand our business. So you say if anybody comes up to you at a party or an event or whatever, \u201cHey, what do you do?\u201d Say, \u201cOh, I\u2019m a short-term rental host. My business is X,\u201d whatever you want to call X. And by doing that and by keep spreading the word, then you start to build that brand loyalty. You get a domain name that fits, you brand it, whatever that may be. And to answer the question directly, how do you build that trust when a stranger is on your site? There\u2019s two things that you can do. Number one, there\u2019s a software, an accreditation service called I-PRAC. I-PRAC. And my British accent is so dodgy that I\u2019m going to have to spell it for you. So it\u2019s P-R-A-C. So i-prac.com.
They are the world\u2019s leading accreditation software platform tool. And what that means is that when a guest books with you directly, the guest is instantly covered with the I-PRAC guarantee, that if they come to your property and your property is for whatever reason not there, then they will ensure that that guest has got a place to stay. It\u2019s part of the guarantee that you have by joining them. Now, not everybody can join. You have to fill in a form and prove that you say you are. But once you\u2019ve got that verification, they\u2019ve got some fancy technology in the blockchain that means that you get a badge on your website, a badge that you can use on your social channels, even, if you want to, your Airbnb and VRBO listings, but it shows that you\u2019re a proper and true business.
And the second thing is Superhog. So this is guest verification. Now there\u2019s Superhog, there\u2019s Proper, there\u2019s all these different types of insurance that is available. But by having that, when a guest books and a guest verifies who they say they are, your property is uncovered for $5 million. Okay? Now, one of the things that I always get a pushback on this is, well, Airbnb make it easy with AirCover. Now, you\u2019ve always got to remember this. When Airbnb create anything, the main people that they are benefiting is Airbnb. So you\u2019ve got Airbnb dynamic pricing. That covers Airbnb. That benefits them. And it\u2019s the same with AirCover. AirCover is just fancy marketing spiel. And it is there and it is a lot better than what it used to be, and that is being amended to make sure hosts are a little bit more protected.
But there\u2019s some really worrying news that\u2019s coming out with Airbnb and AirCover in when a host puts a claim in, if a host puts, let\u2019s say, five claims in out of 30 bookings, Airbnb are turning around and saying, \u201cHey, you are using this far too much, naughty Mr. Airbnb host. We\u2019re going to actually pause your listing, cancel your listing and suspend your listing,\u201d which is crazy. But also as well, there\u2019s just other really worrying stories coming out. \u2018Cause at the end of the day, what you\u2019ve got to remember is that an insurance company is going to try and get out of X, Y, and Z payments and they\u2019re going to delay the process as much as possible. So what you need to do is you\u2019ve got to make sure you\u2019ve got a third-party coverage that\u2019s going to cover your back as well. Because you don\u2019t want to\u2026
For example, somebody comes to my property, they smash it all up. I then report it to Airbnb. Or even if it\u2019s just a minor breakage. Let\u2019s say they smash the TV. And I am not going to place that claiming at Airbnb until the guest has left the review. Because I\u2019m afraid that if I turn around and go in the review, \u201cOne-star review, guest broke the TV, didn\u2019t tell her, da da da da,\u201d then the guest is then going to use that as leverage to then write me a crappy review that means that my algorithm tanks. You are so worried about the review that the guest is going to leave that you\u2019re just going to end up going, \u201cAh, you know what? It\u2019s only a cracked TV. I can go and get another one of them,\u201d and it shouldn\u2019t be like that. You know what I mean? So by having that third-party coverage, i.e. Superhog, superhog.com, then you\u2019re no longer worried about putting in a claim for things like that.
And so that is the other two things. So you have the I-PRAC for the verification of you as a business, so it gives that extra level of trust. And then you get the Superhog, which is again for the guest verification, so you know the guest who\u2019s coming in, and that means you are covered in your property.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Ashley, let me ask you a question. Have you ever booked direct?<\/p>\n
Ashley :
No, I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Neither have I.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
I\u2019ve never even booked on VRBO either. I\u2019ve only booked on Airbnb.<\/p>\n
Mark :
You\u2019re going to make a British man cry right here.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Mark, a question I have about that stuff is how are those things being paid for? Is this paid on the host side? Is this fee covered on the guest side? How are you getting this much coverage?<\/p>\n
Mark :
So with I-PRAC, for example, the host or the business, you pay an agency rate and it\u2019s based over a year. It\u2019s an annual subscription. Let\u2019s just say for example if you were going to sign up for a Netflix subscription for you, it\u2019s the same sort of thing, so you pay that. When it comes to Superhog, it\u2019s actually built into the guest side. And the cool thing is as well, if you use Superhog correctly, it can actually be a revenue generator for you as a business. Because when a guest verifies who they say they are, you can actually end up generating revenue from the insurance company that works alongside Superhog and the guest verification. With Stripe, obviously there is a percentage to pay per booking, but that is a very low percentage in comparison with the commission costs.
And commission costs is something that I think is really important to note, and this is very time-sensitive, because very recently, in the last 48 hours, Airbnb announced that on the platform now they\u2019re going to get rid of cleaner fees, they\u2019re going to get rid of all those things, and they\u2019re just going to have state taxes, whatever those taxes may be. This is to fall in line with booking.com and the Expedia group. Now, there\u2019s definitely something behind this and I would love to think that this is all swings and roundabouts and roses and lovely things that\u2019s all for the good. But booking on Airbnb used to be 3% commission to you, the host. And then they charged the rest of the percentage to a service charge to the guest. Very recently, when they bought Hotel Tonight, it\u2019s their pivot to taking on booking.com and VRBO. 2017, Airbnb had 15% of the whole market. The prediction is, by 2025, they\u2019re going to have 60% of the market. They are not going to just catch up with booking.com and VRBO. They\u2019re going to overtake them massively.
And to do that, what they need to do, they need to get rid of that niggling thing that is in the way and that\u2019s the service charge. So they\u2019ve already started, as soon as you try and connect your Airbnb account to a property management tool, they say, \u201cHey, you are a professional host. Let\u2019s get rid of that,\u201d and you\u2019re whacked up to 14% commission, right? My worry and my fear, we talk about they\u2019re trying to become the VRBO of the taxi industry. My fear is that they\u2019re trying to become the Amazon of the world where if I sell a product on Amazon, I have to spend up to 60% commission for everything that I sell. It\u2019s crazy. And they dictate everything. I don\u2019t get any data. I don\u2019t even get a name of who buys anything, a book or whatever on Amazon, but I have to go down that route. I don\u2019t have a printing company behind me. I can\u2019t print all these books off, so I have to go through Amazon to do it.
Now, the way that it\u2019s going is that if Airbnb continue to dominate this industry, and we\u2019ve got so many people who are branding themselves as Airbnb businesses, Airbnb could easily turn around in 2025 and go, you know what, Mr. And Mrs. host? This relationship that we\u2019ve got here isn\u2019t fair. We\u2019re generating 80% of your revenue. I feel this 14% commission is not right. Let\u2019s bump that up to 20. Let\u2019s bump it up to 25, 30, 40, 45. We think this is a 50\/50 relationship. And you know all this data that you get? The phone number? The name? You\u2019re not going to get that. You\u2019re just going to get this little NFT notification, whatever they\u2019re going to do in the future. You know what I mean? Which is worrying, because then you literally have no way of communicating with your guests. You\u2019ve got no way of potentially generating a repeat booking, a repeat guest, a direct booking.
So we have to start doing these things now. We have to start sucking up a little subscription fee here and there, because if we don\u2019t and we continue to let them dominate the way that they are dominating, then this game\u2019s going to get so much harder. So this is why it\u2019s really important everybody watching this puts us into practice at property number one. Don\u2019t wait until property number 10 or 20.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Something that I did think of, back to that question you asked me, Tony, if I have done a booking off of a direct website, I haven\u2019t, but I\u2019ve done almost word of mouth. So it\u2019s actually very common around here for lake houses that the same families re-rent them every single year, so these people don\u2019t even have any kind of online presence and it\u2019s just word of mouth. But imagine how much further those people could take it if they have these same families that are coming in, they\u2019re putting up a website, those families share it with other families that are going through and they still have no need to be on Airbnb or any other platform too?<\/p>\n
Tony :
Ashley, that\u2019s a great point and an example came to mind as you were talking about that, and it\u2019s AutoCamp. Have you heard of AutoCamp?<\/p>\n
Ashley :
No, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Mark, have you heard of AutoCamp?<\/p>\n
Mark :
No.<\/p>\n
Tony :
So AutoCamp, it\u2019s a resort, but instead of it being like a traditional hotel, say, all they offer is Airstreams. And they\u2019re in places like Yosemite. They opened up in Joshua Tree. I think they\u2019re in Utah somewhere. But that idea of doing the whole Airstream thing was really popularized on Airbnb. That\u2019s where a lot of these unique stay started to originate. And AutoCamp took that idea and they said, hey, we\u2019re going to do this at scale, but you actually can\u2019t book an AutoCamp Airstream on Airbnb. You can only book direct through their website. So it\u2019s an interesting model, right? They\u2019re taking something that was popularized by Airbnb, yet they\u2019re saying, if you want to book this, you actually can\u2019t get it from there. You have to come direct to us. And I haven\u2019t seen AutoCamp on Expedia\u2019s website, on booking.com. I only see them direct book. So it\u2019s an interesting thing, right? You can build it out, it just takes a little bit longer.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
I opened Airbnb the other day and it went right to\u2026 I was viewing it as a guest and I wasn\u2019t in my host account, and this beautiful property popped up and I looked at it and it was somewhat close to me. And I went through their listing and it was like, check us out at this website, follow us on Instagram. And it was their brand and they had four or five other properties and I went and looked them up, I started following them. But do you think there are people out there that are putting their listing up on Airbnb but directing people to their website? I don\u2019t know what Airbnb monitors, but are there people out there saying, \u201cHey, if you want a 20% discount, go to the website to book directly?\u201d Or\u2026<\/p>\n
Mark :
Now you\u2019re making me happy. And this is literally what this book is about. The book I wrote, Playbook, I\u2019ve got 101 tips in there. And one of the things I talk about, and it\u2019s what I talked about on the Bigger Pockets podcast, it was 680. I spoke about how to optimize your listing to drive a guest from Airbnb to your direct booking website. And it is a simple walkthrough, because there are so many cool little checkpoints on your Airbnb listing that you can do so. And it\u2019s not going against any T&Cs. It doesn\u2019t hurt your algorithm in any way, shape or form. And that makes me happy. You made me cry earlier when you\u2019re talking about you\u2019ve never direct booked, but that little story there that\u2019s made me happy.
And the cool thing is about the story about the lake houses, that is a direct booking. It doesn\u2019t have to be on a fancy website. A direct booking is when somebody reaches out to you on the phone, on the email, your website or social medias, just say, \u201cHey, how do I make a booking?\u201d And the problem is that, as hosts who are so reliant on Airbnb, you get overwhelmed \u2019cause there\u2019s 101 different things that you could be doing. And so that\u2019s why I put that book together. So when you open it up, just like a playbook, like a coach\u2019s playbook, you open it up and go, right, I need help on social media. Follow it, implement it, you\u2019re sorted. And there are so many case studies, there are so many stories, which makes my world happier because, again, proof is in the pudding. Nearly $3 million worth of direct bookings generated this year. And that\u2019s just tracked. That\u2019s not including phone calls, emails, WhatsApps, social media messages, emails, letters, you name it. That\u2019s things we can\u2019t track, but it is happening.
And the good news is that direct bookings year on year is increasing. So obviously OTAs take up tons of the overall amount of bookings, but direct bookings are increasing as well. COVID has sped that up because there was a point in time, especially in the UK, if you wanted to book in the UK, you couldn\u2019t on Airbnb or booking.com because they shut out the calendar. But there were still people that needed accommodation. I know you\u2019ve just had the amazing and Sarah [inaudible 00:37:37] on talking about medium-term rentals and about how they help place insurance people, displaced people, healthcare workers, et cetera. Those were all needing accommodation in the UK during 2020. They could only book direct. And this is the cool thing is that all it takes is some simple proactive marketing.
The problem in this industry, too many people are reactive. They\u2019re literally sat there waiting for the ping notification on the phone going, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve got an Airbnb booking.\u201d But instead, you should be being proactive and doing 30 minutes of new business every day. It amazes me how many people, when I say just do 30 minutes of new business, the first thing every business owner should do, not just hospitality, everyone. Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a PT, hairdresser, first thing you should do, 30 minutes of new business. And people look at me like I\u2019ve asked them to go and run a marathon. They\u2019re just like, I\u2019m not doing that. It\u2019s 30 minutes. It\u2019s like an episode on Netflix. You could do it while watching Netflix, so it\u2019s so easy to do.<\/p>\n
Tony :
Mark, I want to talk about the direct bookings increasing, but I want to tie it back to what, Ashley, you had mentioned about the Instagram handles being in the profiles or on the listings. And I think, Mark, tie back to where we initially started this first little conversation was about the trust piece. I feel like if someone can go to your listing on Airbnb and you have your Instagram profile that gives the story of who you are as a host, who you are as a business, and maybe there\u2019s a link in there to your direct booking website, it still builds the trust. And then maybe if they saw you on Airbnb, but now you\u2019ve got this cool Instagram profile and there\u2019s a link in there to go book direct, maybe that does build the trust for them to actually book with you directly.
And the other thing you mentioned, Mark, about the direct bookings increasing, what do you think? I don\u2019t know. Is it getting easier or harder do you think to build that presence of your own direct booking platform? As Airbnb and VRBO gains more popularity, do you think that\u2019s going to make it easier or harder for hosts moving forward to build out their own direct booking platforms?<\/p>\n
Mark :
If I have my way, it\u2019s going to be easier. And the whole thing is that we have to start doing something now. It is so easy. The thing is that we make it seem so hard, and when we think it\u2019s hard, we get overwhelmed. We just go, \u201cI\u2019ll just deal with it another day.\u201d And the really cool thing is that your Airbnb profile, so not the listing, but your profile is an untapped real estate of Airbnb that nobody uses. I\u2019ve been onto so many listings, \u2019cause I do a tons of marketing reviews. So every month in the hospitality community group, I pick one person at random, I do a marketing review. And when I do this review, I look at everything from social media to their listing sites. And I always look at Airbnb and I look at the profile, and so many people in their profile just put, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Bob.\u201d
It\u2019s like, Bob, calm down. You\u2019ve got 400 characters of description that you can use here to present yourself as a professional business. Now, I love, Tony, yours and Sarah\u2019s. Your Airbnb profile gets straight into that. You explain exactly who you are, why you do it, and then from there, people can go and find out more about you. So the first thing that I feel like everybody should be doing on the Airbnb profile, that first line, and this is general copy talk. Everybody talks about the hook in copyright. And the hook is just basically getting someone\u2019s attention so they take action. The first line is you should be saying, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Mark, founder of X.\u201d Now, you can\u2019t put a direct web link in there. Airbnb will spot that. The bots will spot that. But you can get creative. So I always used to put, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Mark, founder of X. Check out our online reviews. They\u2019re rather good,\u201d or, \u201cThey\u2019re really good.\u201d
So what\u2019s the first thing that you do? They\u2019re going, \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to go find these online reviews.\u201d So I\u2019ve given them my name, I\u2019ve given them the business, I\u2019ve told them where I\u2019m located. So if they went and Googled business name and location, the way that Google works, it\u2019s going to show you your business website because it\u2019s there. The keywords are very low. Now, the cool thing that we\u2019re doing at the moment is I\u2019m showing people to put check out our IG, which is Instagram. And then you put the little at symbol and then you put the handle straight afterwards. So everybody now knows what IG means and they know the apps and they\u2019re there. And again, you\u2019ve been driving them from Airbnb, they\u2019re going to have literally\u2026 They\u2019ll have the Airbnb app up on the phone and they can instantly then open up the Instagram right next to it and they can come and find you.
And then if you\u2019ve got your Instagram listing optimized, as in a pinned post saying, \u201cHey, this is how you book.\u201d So it\u2019s being differential and being direct and showing this is how you book, having a pinned post showing it, whether it\u2019s a video or whether it\u2019s a post. And then you\u2019ve got a Linktree in your bio. So many ways we can do this. You\u2019ve just got to start.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Mark. I want to take us to the pricing part of this. So if you\u2019re using Airbnb, they have their pricing tool, it\u2019s like their dynamic pricing, or Price Labs I think is another one where you can integrate it to figure out how much you should charge per night. And I\u2019ll be completely honest, there\u2019s three or four other short-term rentals in the area that I have my Airbnb, so there\u2019s literally no data that comes up when looking at any of these things. Also AirDNA, there\u2019s no data from those, so the easiest way for me is just going on Airbnb and looking what other people are charging. But for somebody who\u2019s in this huge market, how are you able to incorporate this with doing direct bookings? And where is the data being pulled from, I guess, too?<\/p>\n
Mark :
Yeah. Well, there\u2019s Price Labs, there\u2019s Wheelhouse, there\u2019s Beyond Pricing. There are so many cool tools available now that wasn\u2019t around when I first got started. This is that my biggest regret as a hospitality owner is that every year when it came to pricing, we would just put the price of a dollar. We had a set price for the whole year, which is mental, but we didn\u2019t want to upset our loyal customers or whatever. Very typical Yorkshire mindset. And if I say Yorkshire mindset to you, you\u2019re going to think what\u2019s he talking about? Anybody who\u2019s been to England, you\u2019ll know what the Yorkshire mindset means. We would just basically just go, right, that\u2019s the price this year. And it\u2019d be a set fee of \u00a380 a night, which is madness. But now with pricing tools, we have got access to the technology that was only available to the Las Vegas casinos, the Marriotts and whatnot, and it\u2019s available to everybody. Doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s property one or property whatever.
And where they get their data from is where everybody gets their data from. From the booking sites, from the listing sights, AirDNA and all that cool stuff. They\u2019ve got access to so much data. And the main thing that I want everybody to take away from this is never, ever, ever, literally slap yourself on the wrist if you ever go onto Airbnb and go, \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to check out their pricing suggestion. I\u2019m going to see what they suggest I charge,\u201d because they\u2019re only going to benefit one person and one person only, and that\u2019s Airbnb. You need to use this third-party tool, and it\u2019s so cost-effective, it\u2019s so cheap. Whether it\u2019s Price Labs. Wheelhouse is free. You can\u2019t get more cost effective than that. And then you\u2019ve got Beyond as well. There\u2019s loads of cool ones.
And you\u2019ve got to take it with a pinch of salt, so do your research on that. I always say to everybody in the Boostly community, go and get active on Price Labs. Go get a listing on Wheelhouse, go get a listing on Beyond, and use it as a guide. Don\u2019t use it as the be all and end all. Yes, you can set your price rule sets, et cetera. But Ashley, for your scenario, it\u2019s literally a case of going on, look at what everybody else is charging, and then look at what you offer as well and go, right, well I\u2019m going to charge this because I know that I can charge this because I offer an extra whatever that may be. The amenity may be a hot tub, it may be whatever. Whatever it may be.
And then you use it as a guideline. You\u2019re not going to have a set price throughout the year because there\u2019s going to be set dates in your calendar that you know could sell free or four or five times over, because that will go up or down. Now, the more you go down this rabbit hole, yes, you can then pay Price Labs, Wheelhouse, Beyond for their pro services that does this all automatically and you literally don\u2019t have to worry about it, or you can do a combination of the two. But the main thing is, never, ever, ever use Airbnb\u2019s suggestion because it\u2019s only going to benefit one person and one person only.<\/p>\n
Tony :
So Mark, Airbnb\u2019s goal is to make their pricing as competitive as possible. And the way that they want to really scale their business isn\u2019t necessarily by getting hosts to charge more. It\u2019s by increasing the supply of hosts on the platform. If they have a larger inventory of available listings, that\u2019s how Airbnb continues to scale. Or to your point earlier, Mark, maybe it\u2019s now they\u2019re charging the host a little bit more for being on the platform, but their goal is to always be super competitive when it comes to pricing. So if you listen to what they\u2019re suggesting, you will always, always, always price yourself lower than what people are actually willing to pay.<\/p>\n
Mark :
Do you want to hear what my Airbnb prediction is for next year or maybe the year after?<\/p>\n
Tony :
Yeah.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
We would love to.<\/p>\n
Mark :
I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve watched this, but have you checked out the Spotify Netflix series?<\/p>\n
Tony :
No.<\/p>\n
Mark :
If not, go and check it out. It was created in Sweden, but it was dubbed in English and it was really interesting \u2019cause it told a six-part story from every single angle, from the founder to the CTO to the coder to the artist. And one thing, I think it\u2019s episode five, that was really controversial, is when Spotify wanted to charge an extra commission to the artist to get their song appearing higher on the list. All right? Now, let\u2019s bring this back to hospitality. Booking.com have done this for years, so you pay a flat 15% fee, but if you want to get an extra boost in your listing visibility, you then up that commission from 15% to 18% to 20%. With everything that\u2019s been happening very recently, they are moving towards that model. I can pretty much foresee it in my mystical meg ball, and I hope to pin this and come back to this when they do it and go, \u201cTold you so.\u201d
Airbnb will turn around and go, \u201cHey, Mr. host. At the moment our algorithm is based off price, review and availability.\u201d They don\u2019t care about Super Host by the way. Everybody, every quarter who puts up that little super host badge saying, \u201cHey, I\u2019m a super host,\u201d guess what that\u2019s doing? That\u2019s branding Airbnb on your social media channels. It\u2019s genius branding, and it does one thing or one thing only. And I\u2019ve got this set post I put out every three months and saying, \u201cSuper Host means nothing,\u201d right? And they all come back to me saying, \u201cWell, it means I get more visibility on their platform.\u201d No it doesn\u2019t. They care about price, they care about reviews and availability.
And there\u2019s going to be a case and point in time where everybody\u2019s got the same price, the same reviews, the same availability. So then they\u2019re going to go, \u201cWell, Mr. host, Mrs. host, how can you get more visibility on our site? You are struggling with bookings. Here\u2019s what you can do. It\u2019s called Airbnb visibility boost. Let\u2019s knock that 14% up to 20% and we\u2019ll whack you up here.\u201d And that\u2019s what\u2019s coming. And it just makes so much financial sense for them because they know the hosts that are desperate, the hosts that just rely on one platform will pay for extra commission to get that booking. Now, that is a bad thing. So this is why you\u2019ve got to start doing all of this now. Go and get the playbook, put it all into practice, and you\u2019ll never have to worry about an Airbnb algorithm change again. You\u2019ll literally go, \u201cOh, that\u2019s cute. Let me now go back to running my business and I\u2019ll just [inaudible 00:48:45] because that\u2019s just a nice little change, so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashley :
It\u2019s like social media. If you have a huge Instagram following, and then all of a sudden social media goes down, you have no way of reaching your platform, all your followers, the people that you engage with, and it\u2019s just gone. Instagram controls all that. The same with Facebook or Snapchat or any of those. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to create\u2026 The most common thing I see is create an email list so that if one of those programs go down, that software, then it\u2019s creating that email list that you have it, so capturing emails from people, giving away free stuff or whatever that is. And having your own website too, and being able to reach people in a more way you can control.<\/p>\n
Mark :
Can I give you a Boostly top tip for 2023?<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Yes, please.<\/p>\n
Mark :
Which you\u2019ll all love. So there\u2019s a company called Stayfi, and again, my British accent is awful, so I\u2019ll spell it. It\u2019s S-T-A-Y-F-I. Now, this is not my company. I\u2019m not affiliated by them. I just love them. And what they do, and the best way of describing what they do is when was the last time you were in a Starbucks or an airport or a Marriott? If you wanted to use their Wi-Fi, what did you have to do? You had to give up your email address to use the wifi. And I\u2019ve been talking about building an email list since 2016. I bang on about it and there\u2019s so many pluses to it, but Stayfi is fantastic because there\u2019s been nothing for the short-term rental industry. I dabbled with something in 2014. It wasn\u2019t ready. Stayfi now makes it ready.
So when you get a guest come and stay at one of your properties, and if you\u2019ve got a larger property that sleeps, let\u2019s say, 12 to 14 people, if you\u2019re doing it right, you\u2019ll get the guest\u2019s, booker\u2019s information: name, email, phone number. And there\u2019s so many other ways of doing it, right? But this is the cool thing is that you don\u2019t just get the booker\u2019s information, you get everybody in the party\u2019s information. \u2018Cause to use the Wi-Fi, they have to give up their email, and they readily do it because everybody wants Wi-Fi. Everybody wants their Wi-Fi. So you\u2019ve got 14 people. Now just imagine that the guest booker, he\u2019s booked it for a friends and families meetup. That guest is never going to go back to Tennessee again. He\u2019s never going to go back to Gatlinburg or wherever it may be. But that doesn\u2019t mean that somebody else in the party.
And by getting all those 14 guests\u2019 data, if you do this regularly, do it over a year, you can easily get a thousand emails. Now the cool thing about what Stayfi are doing next year is that they are building an email CRM, but they\u2019re also building in text messaging and they\u2019re building templates and automation that just makes it so easy to collect but also then distribute and use. So as a prime example-<\/p>\n
Tony :
Even if there aren\u2019t going back to Tennessee, if you have properties in other places, if you have properties in multiple markets, now you\u2019re able to market those other options in them. And if they enjoyed their stay with you in City A, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019ll enjoy that stay with you in City B.<\/p>\n
Mark :
And that\u2019s called Building a brand. Yeah, building a business. That is it.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Yeah. I actually just pulled it up real quick, and it\u2019s so easy. They send you a device, you plug it into the router and then when the people try to sign into the Wi-Fi, they just put in their information. It\u2019s very easy. Why not do it?<\/p>\n
Tony :
So Mark, you\u2019ve been fantastic by the way, and every time we chat I always learn a little something new, man. So I\u2019m glad we got to share your vast knowledge with the rookie audience here. So I want to start to wrap things up, I want to move into our rookie exam. These are the three most important questions that we ask every single guest that comes on to the show, so we\u2019ll jump right in. Question number one, Mark. What is one actionable thing a rookie should do after listening to your episode?<\/p>\n
Mark :
First thing everybody should do is go and check out property management software tools. And I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re at property one or property three. Just go and implement it in your business right now. PMS. Go get that.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
So the next question is, and we might already know the answer to this, what is one tool, software, app or system in your business that you use?<\/p>\n
Mark :
I\u2019m going to say obviously PMS, but also as well what I have built with the family business, which was The Granary, and also Boostly, is a really good email marketing software tool. I use MailChimp and it\u2019s fantastic. M-A-I-L-C-H-I-M-P. And it\u2019s free. It\u2019s free to use for the first 2000 subscribers, and it\u2019s that place where you start to build that list. So important to do, so please do it soon.<\/p>\n
Tony :
All right, Mark. Last question. Where do you plan on being, or where do you plan on Boostly being five years from now?<\/p>\n
Mark :
Everywhere. Yeah, I want to continue just making sure that Boostly is visible to all. Doesn\u2019t matter how you take in content, whether it\u2019s blogs, whether it\u2019s books, whether it\u2019s Audible, audio, whether it\u2019s video. I just want to make sure that Boostly is everywhere, because if I can help, my big goal is to help one million hosts cut down on their reliance on Airbnb. And that means that I need to make sure that it is visible everywhere. It doesn\u2019t matter how people take in content on all the platforms. So yeah, it\u2019s just continually striving to make sure we are everywhere.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
So Mark, for our next segment, we usually highlight a rookie rockstar, but we wanted to switch it up this week. And we want to ask you, what is your advice for somebody who they\u2019re just starting out in their journey and they want to become a rockstar in 2023? You as an entrepreneur obviously have become successful. You\u2019ve got your hands in many things to put together these websites. What kind of advice would you give to somebody who has identified what they want to do, how they can actually take action and become that rookie rockstar?<\/p>\n
Mark :
So I\u2019m going to give the same advice that somebody gave to me in 2016, and that\u2019s imperfect action applied at speed is the key to success. So many businesses are destroyed on procrastination. So imperfect action applied at speed is the key to success.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
That\u2019s great. I like that. Well Mark, thank you so much for joining us this week. Can you let everyone know where they can reach out to you and find out some more information about you?<\/p>\n
Mark :
So the best place and the only place is this one. It\u2019s The Book Direct Playbook. Go and find it. Audible, Amazon, wherever it may be. Go and find it. And once you get that, you get access to my Instagram, you get access to a course and all that cool stuff. So go and grab that. Come and say hi. I do love an Instagram DM, so come and say hi in the DMs and if you\u2019ve got any questions at all, just throw them at me and we\u2019ll see how we can help.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
And I know you guys love to slide into people\u2019s DMs, so make sure you guys follow Mark on Instagram. What\u2019s your Instagram handle, Mark?<\/p>\n
Mark :
It\u2019s @boostlyuk, B-O-O-S-T-L-Y-U-K.<\/p>\n
Ashley :
Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. I\u2019m Ashley at Welcome Rentals and he\u2019s Tony at Tony J. Robinson, and we will be back on Saturday with a rookie reply.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n