A quick peek
[00:00:00] Georgina: So, um, it was a bit of an eye-opener realising the booking. Coms, the Airbnbs, um, are there to be. Used to suit yourself rather than the other way around, they're not doing me a favour. And I spent probably, especially after lockdown, it was like my life's work to move to book direct. So we're looking at about 80 per cent of the book directly at the moment, and I want to get it to hundred per cent.
[00:00:22] I only ever turn them on when I need to. That sounds rude. I don't mean to be rude. No, I only utilize them when I need to. So
[00:00:30] Liam: having a blast going to get it on the Boostly podcast. Boostly like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the G is loosely making up. Those rhymes don't write it. Just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you'd better put it directly. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.
Welcome back
[00:00:47] Okay, everyone. Welcome back to the Boostly podcast. This is a podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence. So you can go out there and get yourselves direct bookends.
[00:00:57] We do a mini-series on the Boostly podcast where I get to introduce and. Interview hosts from all over the world. So you can learn their tips and tricks and all the things they do in their business, which you can put into your business as well. And this is always great fun. I always learn something. Today we've got an old friend of Boostly, somebody who has been in the Boostly community, for many years.
[00:01:19] She's fantastic. I've seen her on television appearances as well. So, um, I'm going to mention that we've got Georgina Behrman of, um, See the Seacroft bed, breakfast and bar. She is the owner there. And, uh, I'm excited to dive into this because recently she's been learning all sorts of, uh, marketing tactics and, uh, even showing me a thing or two, which is amazing.
[00:01:42] So welcome along Georgina. Thank you for joining me.
[00:01:45] Georgina: Thanks Liam. It's probably about time we did this.
[00:01:48] Liam: So definitely as we've said beforehand, there's a few people within the community that, um, Uh, that we want to try and, uh, come and do this. You can introduce yourself Georgina and your business if you give us the elevator pitch.
[00:02:02] Georgina: Sure. Um, I'm Georgina Bergman. I've got the Seacroft Bed, Breakfast and Bar in Lytton St. Anne's. It's an eight-bedroom, um, bed and breakfast. And, um, we asked, we trade all year round, um, obviously on the peak season offseason, we're trying to boost that at the moment. Um, what else can I tell you? Um, gosh, we were on the hotel inspector.
[00:02:23] We did the first crazy step in marketing we ever did. So you people may remember, um, I've aged a lot since then, I think. The stress has got to me.
Being on hotel inspector
[00:02:33] Liam: I, I, do you know what? I didn't know you were on that until you told me. So I then went out and dug out the episode and I love Hotel Infecta. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.
[00:02:42] So watching that and for any of our US kind of listeners to this, there's something where an expert goes into bed and breakfast and hotels up and down the country. They go in and they say what could be improved and all this sort of stuff. And, uh, when you went on that Georgina, what was your, just talk us through briefly, the thought process of going on that and how did it help?
[00:03:02] Georgina: Yeah, I questioned myself quite often about why we did this. Um, we, I knew we would, so when we took over Seacroft, it was doing nothing at all. So we were, um, we were starting really from scratch. Um, and then we got to the point after a couple of years where we knew we got a good product, we got a good service and got it going, but we'd literally.
[00:03:20] Nobody knew who we were we were invisible. And so um, I've got a business studies degree, but I did a long time ago. So digital marketing comes marketing's on board and things have changed quite a bit since then. So my way around that without knowing about digital marketing at the time was how can I get some national coverage?
[00:03:40] I thought well I'm not Going to do four in a bed, I'm going to do the hotel inspector, but at no point did I ever think they would come even, even right to the very last sort of the app application went in, in September 2017, and even up to January 2018. I didn't think they were coming. And then they said we're coming next week.
[00:04:02] I was like, Oh,
[00:04:02] Liam: wow.
[00:04:03] Georgina: Yeah, that was that.
[00:04:04] Liam: So whereabout is the property just tell us about the general area. Just, um, what, what is it like in that area? And bear in mind, we've got UK and US listeners.
[00:04:14] Georgina: Okay. So, um, for anybody who does, who's outside of the UK, I'm in the northwest of England. I'm on the northwestern coast, about one hour west of Manchester.
[00:04:23] We're a little bit south of Blackpool, a little town called St Anne's. a dual town called Lytton St Anne's. Um, People who are keen golfers might know Royal Lytton, we're about a nine-minute walk from there actually, and a two-minute walk from the beach, so it's quite handy. Um, so yeah, so, um, our sort of cousin is Blackpool, so anybody locally will know for Blackpool Tower and all the facilities we have there.
[00:04:46] We're kind of a little bit more sleepy than that, it's very flat, there's lots of things to do for young children, there's lots of bars, restaurants and cafes, it's sort of a more chilled vibe really, so.
Guest avatar and the local area
[00:04:55] Liam: Who is it that tends to come and stay with you? And what do they tend to like to do in the area?
[00:05:02] Georgina: So actually, I could probably answer this more fully this week than I probably would be able to normally, um, having done a bit of an assignment on it.
[00:05:10] But we have, we've gone beyond the customer avatar to a customer persona. So generally speaking, we catch the nostalgia, people who are sort of chasing nostalgia from their childhood. So our client base is usually around age 50 to 65. They've had the experience of coming to Blackpool historically with their families.
[00:05:29] Often they'll bring grandchildren with them. For us, with our eight bedrooms, it's quite steep accommodation. We tend to sort of, um, accommodate, uh, adults, um, rather than children, that kind of thing. It's, it's just, it suits us, um, our offering better, if you know what I mean. We're just not, we're not kitted up, we don't have the space, to be honest, to offer anything else.
[00:05:52] That's, that's where, um, where we're at. Um, yeah, um, yeah.
[00:05:55] Liam: One of the things I wanted to jump in there and just, uh, talk about is I know that I mean, we're all about direct bookings at Boostly, and you shared a stat with me just before we went live. I want you to share it again.
[00:06:09] Georgina: Right, so, I'll tell you, being on TV is one of the most amazing things ever, and as a result of that, one of the OODs for me was, from Boostly, actually recommended Boostly to me in another community group.
[00:06:19] And that's when I joined. Um, so, um, it was a bit of an eye-opener, realizing that the booking. Coms, the Airbnb's, um, are there to be used to suit yourself rather than the other way around, they're not doing me a favour. And I spent probably, especially after lockdown, I spent, it was like my life's work to move to BookDirect.
[00:06:40] So we're looking at about 80 per cent BookDirect at the moment, and I want to get it to a hundred per cent. I only ever turn them on when I need to. That sounds rude, doesn't it? I don't mean to be rude. No, I only utilize them when I need to. So,
[00:06:53] Liam: yeah, I mean, that is amazing. And you know, just to be at 80 per cent direct bookings, there's so many people listening to this, which is just like, yeah, I'd love to be.
[00:07:00] It wasn't
[00:07:00] Georgina: like that. It wasn't like that at the start. It was a hundred per cent. And I remember paying out something like, I mean, bearing in mind I only got eight bedrooms, one August when I should have been full with my guests, I paid out some 860 pounds to them.
[00:07:13] Liam: In commission. And
[00:07:13] Georgina: so, yeah.
[00:07:14] And I, I, when I joined Boostly, I think Mark probably will tell you that I thought he was a dodgy guy and that it was after my money and I wasn't going to give him any money until he gave me something. And the thing that he gave me was the Google ads training. And that was the best thing. I saved myself so much money doing that.
[00:07:31] And I joined Boostly immediately. So.
Why Hospitality?
[00:07:33] Liam: So. Take me back. Why did you get into hospitality? Like I know this is one of those madness. I don't know.
[00:07:41] Georgina: I woke up one day. No, I have a family background in hotels. So I grew up in one. I think I started working in hospitality at eight years old when I first took my first breakfast to my first guest.
[00:07:51] So, um, both, well, my parents had an I'm going to do something completely different and then after I did it, believe it or not, I didn't like school so much. It just was far too boring for me. I wanted to do exciting stuff like business. So I decided that I wasn't going to go to university. I wasn't even going to do very well at that level.
[00:08:13] So I was going to go and, um, do Go and do a HND in hotel and catering at my local college. So I passed that and decided that it was then time to do a degree. And then in between. Time something happened where I was all I was working for Whitbread at the time as an in-house trainer for Beefeater and I wanted to sort of sort of nurture that and there wasn't the training available so I ended up um doing a post a PGCE um after my degree and then um Ended up teaching for 16 years.
[00:08:42] So I had a massive like time out and then all my entire family have always, always had their own business. And there was always that sort of nagging in the back of my brain. I wanted to do my own business just to see if I could do it and be to see if I can make it rock. So, um, I started looking. And then I found, um, I found one that was run by, um, really successfully in the local area by an ex-head teacher and his wife.
[00:09:08] And they were, they spoke my language at the time completely. And then by accident, it's almost like the planets aligned. I found this one and the people had it. We're ready to retire. He hadn't been very well. Um, and they'd run all their trade down. It was doing Minimal. It wasn't it.
[00:09:25] We couldn't even finance a mortgage on it at all. So we had to yeah look outside That's a whole nother story. We did it eventually, but they weren't keen and then yeah when we finally got going I think post Uh, post COVID we were as I put my notes here tickling the VAT and not, the VAT threshold.
[00:09:46] So yeah, it's worked out. It's well, so madness, complete madness.
[00:09:50] Liam: This has been fun, Georgina, and I knew it would be fun. Uh, time's flown on here and uh, yeah, I've picked up. First of all, the, uh, You know, the hospitality, uh, feel and, you know, like I can see you're an awesome host. And also the fact that if there's any marketing that you haven't tried, if you listen to this, just go, no, I don't do Google ads or I don't.
[00:10:10] Find out Facebook or I don't do any marketing. Well, everybody can do it. And this is something which I know that you want to share. So the last thing for yourself, Georgina is, is it a, anyone you want to shout out to, and then B, do you have a mantra for us to, uh, to see us out?
[00:10:26] Georgina: Yeah, I want to shout out to Jamie.
[00:10:29] He's my husband who puts up with me. He's a quiet one of the team, you know, so he's like, Oh God, what's she done now? And, um, the great team of, uh, of lecturers and my fellow students at Manchester Metropolitan University who are doing the MSc in digital marketing communications. What an eye-opener that's been.
[00:10:47] What a blast. So, um, yeah, that's good. So the mantra is never given up. Just never give up.
[00:10:54] Liam: Nice. I've got that, from this podcast. And, uh, thank you so much for sharing your journey. I've certainly learned things and, uh, I hope you listening to this have done as well. If there are people, you know, who get value from the Boostly podcast, please share this with them and, uh, come and carry on the conversation on the Facebook, uh, hospitality community, quick search on there or find us.
[00:11:14] And you can come and join other hosts in the community and ask questions. And, uh, yeah, thank you so much, Georgina. This has been fun. We'll see everybody on the next podcast. Can I get it on the Bruce Lee podcast? Bruce Lee likes Bruce Lee cause it's so hard and the tea is loose-leaf.
