A quick peak
[00:00:00] Heather: Right now in 2024. It's such an amazing way to differentiate yourself. With direct booking, you're either forced or pushed over to make a booking. com But with your direct bookings if you have all of your photos They are designed properly and everything then people will be that much more invited in to book your property
[00:00:19] Liam: Having a blast going to get it on the Boostly podcast Boostly like Bruce Lee because it's so hard and the t is loosely Making up those rhymes don't write it.
[00:00:27] Do it loosely if you want my respect You'd better put it directly Um, here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.
Welcome back
[00:00:35] Hi, welcome back to the Boostly podcast. The podcast gives you the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence so you can go there and get more direct bookings.
[00:00:44] We do a mini-series on the Boostly podcast, where we shine the Boostly spotlight on businesses, people, and services that you need to know about as a hospitality host. These services can help you or inspire you in some way. So today we're going to dive, uh, we're going to dive into a business and to understand their kind of model and what kind of services they do.
[00:01:05] We've got some amazing co-founders. We've got Heaven and Erin. Uh, their business is called Pink Wall Designs, and we're going to be diving into a lot of the interior design and What that means for direct bookends today. So welcome along Heather and Erin. Thank you for joining me today.
[00:01:21] Heather: Thanks for having us.
[00:01:22] Liam: So the first question I'd put here is what can the person listening to this podcast expect from the next sort of 15, 20 minutes? What will they get by the end of this that they don't necessarily know now?
[00:01:33] Heather: They are going to realize and learn that their guests. And do their marketing for them.
Who is Pink Wall Design?
[00:01:39] Liam: Nice. I like that.
[00:01:40] I like that. So give me the elevator pitch for your business. Who are pink wall designs?
[00:01:46] Heather: So we are a hospitality interior design company. We focus on vacation rentals and boutique hotels. Um, and we are designing interior design and marketing. And the reason why we are both is because. It's kind of all in the same, uh, when it comes to vacation rentals and boutique hotels.
[00:02:04] Um, Those things are products. They're not like investment property and yes, they are. But ultimately, those things are products just the same way a Starbucks coffee and McDonald's cheeseburger are. Those are products. People are buying, um, you know, time spent in those products from you. So, um, they need to be designed properly.
[00:02:25] They need to be packaged. Well, they need to be marketed correctly and you need to be treating these, um, properties like a business. Not like a side hustle or you know, I have this one Airbnb. I have this one rental property You are in the hospitality industry as a business owner. That's cool. And that's Sorry, yeah, and that's that's our main like mantra sort of thing for our business and then we facilitate and help Operate and do that.
[00:02:52] Liam: How did you guys get into this area of design, particularly within hospitality? Take me back through the history.
[00:02:59] Erin: So both investors first, and then we developed through our investment and our own experience, um, you know, the need and the market for interior designers, specifically focusing on vacation, rental, short-term rentals.
[00:03:15] So Heather and I, we met. Completely random. And, um, from there, kind of developed both her and my experience together. Like, I have, you know, the real estate background and she has the marketing background and we were both doing short-term rentals at the same time and then developed, you know, this natural interior design, um, aspect as well and developed pink wall designs.
[00:03:42] Liam: Nice. Have you got short-term rentals yourself then? Have you both, uh, you're both involved in short-term rentals in some way?
[00:03:47] Heather: Yes. Yes. And we are all always actively looking to, uh, joint venture with other people too. So we're not only, you know, have our business going, but we also are looking to build our portfolio as well.
[00:04:00] Liam: Can you give me an idea, of where you tend to have your clients mainly? Is it, is it localized? Is it statewide? Is it, uh, national? Is it, uh, international? No.
[00:04:11] Heather: We are both currently, uh, just outside of Toronto, actually, and, uh, we work anywhere in Canada and the U. S. So, we have, um, like, digital packages where it's more remote, um, and then we also have packages where we will go out to the properties as well.
[00:04:27] So, we can go anywhere in Canada, U. S., and, um, Yeah, that's what we're currently located in Toronto.
What can people expect from your short-term rentals?
[00:04:36] Liam: What can people expect from your short-term rentals then? Is it, uh, what kind of, uh, design do you tend to lean towards or does it depend on the property?
[00:04:46] Heather: It depends on the property. Go ahead, Aaron.
[00:04:49] Erin: Yeah, I was just gonna agree. Um, so we hone in on understanding the market who is your guest avatars and why are they visiting your properties. So that is number one as to why we are going to be designing the way we are going to be designing. Um, and then number two, And that's very dependent on location, um, you know, amenities that are around you, uh, demographics, um, so it can be several different things.
[00:05:20] And from there, we, you know, focus on bringing that experience to a property as well. You know, people nowadays. They're not just wanting to go and have a place to sleep, right? They want to spend some time in this property, especially, um, if they're choosing between going to a hotel or an Airbnb.
[00:05:40] So from that, we're bringing all of those elements together, bringing in that wow factor and allowing people to just have a great time and appreciate the design.
What aspects attract guests?
[00:05:50] Liam: What? Aspects, um, really attract guests and are there any kind of top tips for, for the people listening on the, on the call?
[00:05:59] Heather: Yeah, there are a lot of things that you can do.
[00:06:01] Like, you just have to kind of get creative, right? And you can still get creative in small properties. They don't have to be these large, huge mansions. Um, just think about what people would like, what would you like to sort of see if you're going to a property, right? You can start there. Um, and instead of just having a bed and like a bathroom, those are kind of bare minimum things, you know, even just a basic feature wall is like really like, wow, like it makes you like take notice, right?
[00:06:29] Like that's what you want to do is evoke emotion in the guests, evoke like some sort of like, Oh wow, this is cool. Or like, you know, that type of thing. So basic feature walls are. Very easy to implement, very easy to, like, and incorporate into a design. Also things like, you know, if people say amenities, right?
[00:06:47] And that doesn't just necessarily mean like schools, hot tubs, that type of thing. Even if you don't have the budget for those types of things or the property doesn't allow for it, there are a lot of ways that you can utilize even gains inside of, you know, living rooms. We've had clients before where they've been more of like long, kind of narrow living rooms that you look at and you're like, Hmm, can't do much here.
[00:07:08] But then. You know, shuffleboard is a great example of a very thin, long game, very narrow, doesn't take up a lot of space, but now that's an entertainment zone that you just created for your guests, right? So anything that kind of like brings people together, our thing that we really kind of focus on is making the property, the destination, and then having the location secondary.
[00:07:30] And so if you get a good property in a great location, and then you design it properly, it's a home run. If your location isn't. amazing, the property is still like the destination. You can still make great money and still host a lot of very happy guests if your property is done well. So there's just more opportunity as an investor as well to, um, you know, utilize that.
[00:07:54] Different types of real estate in different areas when designing things properly.
[00:07:58] Erin: And to add to that too, like the design is your curb appeal. Like people who are doing direct bookings, they are going online and they're looking directly at how your property looks. So incorporating anything that can kind of be that hero.
[00:08:12] A photo, um, you know, like fun features in the house, those feature walls, like Heather was saying, neon signs, anything that's going to bring attention to your listings, um, will be popular in the market and be a reason why people choose your properties.
[00:08:27] Heather: I was going to, I was just going to snowball slightly and say that, like.
[00:08:30] Um, another thing that's great about direct bookings right now is that the only other competition is OTAs, which are so bad. You go online and it shows like the outside of like, you know, the structure of like, there's never really any interior photos and stuff. So right now in 2024, it's such an amazing way to differentiate yourself.
[00:08:54] With direct booking, because you're either forced and pushed over to like a booking. com, but with your direct bookings, if you have all of your photos there designed properly and everything, then people will be that much more invited in to book your property.
[00:09:08] Liam: So what would you say to somebody who is listening to this going, Oh, I'd like to do interior design, but One, I'm not too sure if I've got the budget for it, and two, I'm not sure if it makes a big enough difference.
[00:09:19] What would you say to those people?
[00:09:20] Heather: I would say, we would say, um, if you're going to be in the hospitality business, you have to have design to be profitable. Like, you can't skip out on paying your property taxes if you're going to buy, like, a house. Um, you have to pay the property tax, right? So, you cannot skip design.
[00:09:37] Like you just have to have it. So you either got to raise more money if it's that kind of deal. You have to find more budget. You have to get a bigger loan. You have to figure out something because it is just necessary. There's too much competition now. It's too saturated to just throw up your furniture from the Facebook marketplace or like, you know, the stuff that you have in your house that's not working anymore.
[00:09:56] Um, so it needs to be properly packaged and that's, that's proper design. So I'm. Design is like a non-negotiable in our opinion.
[00:10:04] Liam: Thank you so much. The thing I'm going to take away from this podcast is, is Hire good people and get out of their way. You know that it does work. Um, when you hire good people and then you get out of their way and leave them to, uh, to do what they need to do or to advise in the way that they need to advise because that's why you hire them in the good in the 1st place, which is why good investors do so all the time and why people get great results from it.
[00:10:31] So thank you so much. Erin. Thank you so much. Heather. Was there anything we missed along the way or any last shares before we say, uh, say good night?
[00:10:38] Erin: No, just thank you for having us on. And a thing to add is we do offer free consultations for anybody who, you know, does have questions for us. If, um, we have suggestions to give you, or if you have an upcoming property, we are happy to hop on and, um, chat with you there.
[00:10:57] Liam: Awesome. Thank you so much and uh, we'll see you on the next one. Thank you for having us. Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Let Bruce Lee 'cause it's so hard on the tees. Loosely. Looking up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
