Welcome to Boostly Podcast Episode 542.
In this podcast, Liam welcomes Sascha Tucker, a friend and host from the UK who has built an amazing holiday rental business in under four years.
Sascha is from Norfolk and has scaled to over a hundred properties. He introduces himself and his business, Norfolk Holiday Properties, and explains how he fell into the industry.
He was previously working as a photographer and videographer in Portsmouth but moved back to his hometown of Norfolk and decided to start a short-term rental business. He initially used Airbnb but later expanded to other platforms as well.
He talks about the early days of his business and shares some tips and lessons he's learned along the way.
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamps (audio)
Whilst you’re here
Follow Boostly on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on how you can increase your direct bookings
Visual – YouTube
Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
[00:00:00] Liam: Okay, so welcome to another live broadcast of the Behind the Host podcast. And, uh, today on the Boostly podcast, we've actually got special guest who's from my part of the world here in Norfolk, in the uk. So, Today we're joined by Sascha Tucker. Sascha is, uh, a friend and an amazing host who hosts here locally.
[00:00:22] He's actually scaled to over a hundred properties, um, and has built this amazing business in not very many years. In, in under four years, I think it is. We'll find out more. Um, He's here to join us today to tell us his story. Hopefully you can find inspiration from it and you'll be able to learn some tips, how you may be able to scale a successful holiday, let business too.
[00:00:42] Um, before we get started, I do just need to give a, uh, a shout out to, uh, well, Mr. Mark Simpson. Um, today I've talked to several hosts who have got. Sort of benefits and who have been inspired by his story in the book Direct Playbook. So if you haven't already, go and check [00:01:00] out it's on Amazon. The book Direct Playbook is a really useful book, which will teach you tips and tools and tactics on how you can get more direct bookings, and, uh, is under 20 pounds on Amazon, so well worth the investment.
[00:01:13] So without further ado, let's introduce to you our guest. Let's say hello to Sascha. Sascha, welcome along.
[00:01:19] Sascha: Thank you so much for having me. It's always, uh, I'm just flattered to be considered podcast worthy. It's always nice.
[00:01:25] Liam: A hundred percent your podcast worthy. So, um, Sashin is very, very modest, but, uh, we've, we've.
[00:01:31] Met at the, uh, book direct. Oh, no, that was at the, uh, summit in London, wasn't it? It, yeah. Yeah. There was, uh, the, was it the, the book direct summit? I think it was something like that, wasn't it? Um, who,
[00:01:42] Sascha: bay Summit, I think. Yeah.
[00:01:44] Liam: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, uh, we, we met and then we, we, we've known each other obviously through Friends of Friends for a while.
[00:01:50] Uh, both from, from the same. Uh, the world at Norfolk in the uk. But, um, that was just awesome to get to know his business and as soon as I heard his story, I was inspired and I thought that'd be good to [00:02:00] share with everybody on here as well. So, uh, Sasha, would you like to, uh, introduce yourself and your business, how you got started in, in hospitality?
[00:02:09] Yeah,
[00:02:10] Sascha: sure. Uh, so I'm Sasha. I'm director and owner of Norfolk Holiday Properties. So we're a accommodation agency based in the fine city of Norridge, and we cover all of Norfolk. Um, I'm, I'm one of these people that fell into. This industry. So it's, it's not something that I saw myself doing. So if, if I go back a few years ago, I was employed as a photographer and a videographer, and I lived down in Portsmouth, um, living and working down there.
[00:02:42] And I was there about three years. And I decided that I wanted to move back to Norridge. I'm from Norridge, that all my friends are here, most of my family is in Norfolk. And I decided it was just, it's, it's a nice place to be, no offense to, to Portsmouth. I, it's a nice [00:03:00] place. Uh, but yeah, I wanted to move back.
[00:03:01] So it was at that point that I, I hadn't had anything to do with kind of short state properties. Uh, hadn't really had, had had that anything to do with Airbnb, you know, for a start. And that's kinda the. Thing that we used, um, in the early days, which I'll come onto. Um, but I started thinking, what can I do?
[00:03:18] What I need to move back and I need to have an income when I go. So I was lucky at that point because my parents had two holiday lets, uh, which they managed very much as a lifestyle business. Um, so it was, you know, good income for them, something that they did together. Unfortunately for me, they had no real interest in continuing with them on the management side of it.
[00:03:45] So that's where I came in. I said, okay, I can manage those and it'll give something to do when I come back. Um, so I moved back and I slept from one Airbnb, cuz they weren't even on there at that point. That's kind of going back kind of four years or so now. Uh, and [00:04:00] then that allowed me to kind of work out the, the industry, how to, uh, manage a property.
[00:04:05] And then I was able to offer that as a product to our owners, which is what we do now. Uh, and that's, that's kinda a short summary of how I got here.
[00:04:15] Liam: Amazing. So, I know we said at the start, sort of how many mentioned now. So that was how long ago? Four years did
[00:04:21] Sascha: you say? Uh, we just, uh, yeah, a little over, a little over four years now.
[00:04:26] Liam: Amazing. And so in that time you've scaled, what does the business look like now and, um, you know, sort of how do you operate now as opposed to, uh, there was a side hustle back then for your parents? How, what does the business look like now and, and, uh,
[00:04:41] Sascha: yeah. Um, I mean, I, I'm lucky enough now that I have a team with me.
[00:04:47] We've got, uh, a nice shiny new office, which we moved into at the beginning, beginning of this year on Birth Street in Norridge. That was, uh, you know, a dream come true. How, how it compares now. I mean, when you go back to when like [00:05:00] first started, obviously just working homes. Only me, uh, just work out the laptop in my spare room.
[00:05:06] The next step we took was I, I, I managed to get to I think, kind about 20 properties. Just, just me, ish. Maybe it was between 20 and 30. Before we made our first hire. So that at, at, at that point we then moved into the office, into the spare room at my dad's house and, uh, hired an absolute legend called Joe who's still with us now.
[00:05:35] Um, and he was, you know, we interviewed and he came and saw us in this tiny little room. It's like the size of, I dunno, probably the room I'm sitting in now is absolutely tiny. You have room for one desk. We would sit opposite each other. Facing, you know, facing each other. And I, I couldn't believe when he said, yeah, okay, I'll take the job.
[00:05:51] Because I thought, well, who the hell's gonna agree to sit opposite me for eight hours a day in this tiny room? Uh, but, but he did. And I, I think for the right person, it [00:06:00] kinda seemed like an exciting proposition at the time to get involved a bit. Um, and that was kind of like the, the first hiring for me.
[00:06:07] That was the point that we transitioned from just being, uh, I dunno, one man band. To a proper business. And that was kind of like a key moment for me. Um, I could talk a little bit about, uh, our first property as well. Cause I always kinda like telling that story. So the, the first, the first one we, we took, so the first might have gone as a proper kind of customer, not owned by leave of my parents' property.
[00:06:34] So the third box we had, I got lucky at that point as well. I say, I say luck a lot. It it, I got lucky then. Um, cause it happened to be a nice proxy that came to me. So it was a friend of a friend. And, um, it, at that point I would've said yes to anything. That's kinda , that's what I'm, that's what I'm getting at.
[00:06:53] So I was fortunate that it was actually a decent property. So it was based in Norridge, it had parking, [00:07:00] uh, garden walking distance to everything. And it did really well. So straight away at that point, we had some reviews from guests, and I had one happy owner underneath my belt. Because there is an inertia to get over.
[00:07:12] It is extremely difficult to make somebody trust you with what is often their single biggest asset. When you have no credentials, you've got no track record. Uh, and in my case, you're a young guy, you know, on your own. So that was the, the hardest part is kinda getting the ball. I was fortunate the first one, cause it happened to be a good one, said yes to it did well, and then we went from there.
[00:07:36] And
[00:07:37] Liam: for the, for people who are listening in, what would you say made that a good one? Because there'll, there'll be people who are in similar sort of boats to how you was four years ago who are looking to get their first, perhaps they've got a couple of, uh, you know, their own units or, uh, perhaps they do rent to rent or, or something like that.
[00:07:54] What would you say to the people who are looking to manage and about getting that next property? What sort of [00:08:00] things made that a good one and that they should look for?
[00:08:03] Sascha: Yeah. I think for primarily it has to be a certain standard property regardless of what location they're in and what type of property it is, whether it's an apartment or a terrace.
[00:08:15] It has to be nice and we always say now cause we, when owners come and talk to say, what kind of things should I be looking at? Sometimes we'll come to us a stage that they just want to know what, where they should look to invest. Maybe they don't even own something yet, but they come to us and they ask for advice.
[00:08:30] we say, well, think about where you wanna go and stay. When, when you go away somewhere, you want something more than where you live at home. So if you think, don't, don't think play. You know, it's gotta, if it's got, um, some character about it, some work, um, that's great. If it hasn't, then make it colorful. Put some features in there, you know, all that kind of stuff.
[00:08:52] So it just can't look like somewhere that. You know, you'd normally go and, and, and, and rent. I, I suppose. And then once you've kind of got that [00:09:00] base, then start looking at like the, the things like location. Uh, parking is obviously a massive one, but it's not the end of the world. It just affects what kind of price you can charge for it.
[00:09:09] So that's where I start. That's
[00:09:12] Liam: cool. That's cool. And so fast forward now to when you've taken on Joe, which sounds amazing. And you know, you're around that 20 sort of properties, uh, stage. What changed within the businesses? Did, um, did your day-to-day routine change as opposed to doing, I guess everything at the start as you taken on more members of staff?
[00:09:32] How has your routines changed as you've developed as a company?
[00:09:38] Sascha: Yeah, so. I mean, the first thing that that changed is that what, what Joe and I used to do is that we would alternate and have a weekend off. So every other weekend I then got to have off, I mean, kind, kind of, I, I'm one of these, I don't really switch off.
[00:09:54] Um, and even when, even when I'm not the one that's working or say on call [00:10:00] for the evening, it's, you know how it's you, you do this yourself. It's really hard to actually. Uh, be at work. So, but that was the first one we did. So we kind of had some hours structured it. Um, and then Joe kind of took over a lot of the, kind of the guest side of things, and then I dealt with the owners and that's, that's basically still how we structure our business now.
[00:10:24] Um, we're still a small, we're, we're a small team. We've got four members of, of the team now, and we still split it between guest experience and owner experie. So there's two very different sides to the. So we've got a couple of people who say, um, their main job is to answer the inbound calls and guests emails, messages on, um, all the platforms.
[00:10:46] Uh, make sure that they're, they've got the information they need for their booking. They'll answer the questions if they have a need in their stay. Um, and then the owners is, you know, that's a, a massive job in itself to manage. [00:11:00] Um, To manage that side of things. So you know, the own statements and the payments and uh, even just the, the things when, when stuff goes wrong, you know, something breaks down the property and we've gotta get an appliance engineer out and that's gotta be coordinated and, um, fed back to the owners.
[00:11:14] So that's a massive part of it. That's kinda how we split things up at the moment.
[00:11:20] Liam: That's cool. And what I love about that is the focus on the two sides, cuz uh, there'll be many hosts who, you know, either got their own, uh, listings or maybe don't manage for people at the moment, but all of a sudden you've got two clients, haven't you?
[00:11:33] You've got your guest on one side of the, the coin and on the other side you've got the, uh, client, the, the owner of the property, and you, you're providing the service at both sides. So having that focus. On both is is just so important and it clearly works at the end of the day for, as you're building more, as you're taking on more listings, um, has there been any challenges along the way while you've been growing?
[00:11:56] Yeah. Um,
[00:11:57] Sascha: I was gonna say then I think that [00:12:00] I, you guess two very different customer. So we're kind of an unusual industry in that if you are in the property management business, you have two diff completely different sets of customers. They have to be, um, dealt with different ways they have to be marketed to in very different ways.
[00:12:17] So that's just an extra challenge that unfortunately we, we have in this industry. Um, and I think that I, when we kind of moved into more, or, or kind of through the management service, I kind of underestimate how much time you need to allocate to dealing with, with, you know, the owners and making sure that they have everything that they need.
[00:12:35] So that was something that we learned pretty quickly. Uh, the more profit that came on, right? We need to dedicate more time to this. Um, so yeah, that's, that's, that's one challenge we have had to, um, the other one, which I was gonna mention, this is more on kinda the guest side of things, dealing with those, so, Back in, you know, when it's, when you're in, when it's only one person in the [00:13:00] business, it's really easy to have everything you need to know in your head.
[00:13:04] So, I mean, you know, you can layouts some properties. Uh, so I, I happen to know, I, I'm pretty sure I know all of our properties, like, almost like my own house at the minute, which I, I'm surprised cause I've kind of kept that knowledge as we've gone. But see, I, I, I would, I know where the boiler is, where the fuse box is and things that I just have it in my.
[00:13:24] When you then bring people in the team and you want someone to be able to manage that kind of stuff, you can't expect them to to to know that. Especially if they come in later on and they've got X amount of properties that they have to suddenly know. Cause when, when a few trips and a guest up to the powers, you know, you have to be able to deal with that.
[00:13:41] So the way that we kind of got around it, so this was a challenge, basically getting stuff outta my head and putting it down so that it could be accessed by everyone we use. Um, a great bit of tech. Um, Called SharePoint, which I'm sure everyone will, will have heard of, is part of the Office 365, um, suite.
[00:13:59] So [00:14:00] we have, um, a database, every property, and it goes into very in depth into kind of the, the property information. So on that it will say, where is the boiler? Where's FUS Blocks? Water stock, got gas meter, um, wifi. And then it also has things about the layout of the property so that even if, um, let's say one of the team picks up the phone and they've got an inquiry.
[00:14:22] And someone says, has it got a ground for a bedroom? Cuz I've got, um, my mother's coming and she's, um, not very mobile. All that information is there. So it's kind of the working, um, and, and living document that evolves so that if somebody asks a question and the answer isn't on there or you find out it goes on there for next time.
[00:14:40] And that's, um, been a game changer for us. I love that.
[00:14:44] Liam: I love that because at the end of the day, like you say, it grows with you. It's something where even if your staff hadn't, you know, stepped foot in that property, they've still got somewhere they can go to to answer that question for a guest, um, and save time ultimately.
[00:14:57] So that is, uh, it's a massive one. [00:15:00] Is there any other tech that you use in your business that's helped you along the way?
[00:15:05] Sascha: Um, the only other key one for us is art, is our booking system. Obviously we can't function without that. We're on super. Which, um, yeah, it, it does the.
[00:15:15] Liam: They're awesome. Yeah. Super control.
[00:15:16] One thing that I love about Super Control is the book and Widget is very easy to, to book with. Um, Boostly, as, as you may know, we sell websites and so we get to see a lot of the different, uh, PMSs, um, you know, how they. How they interact or, and how they work on a website. And, uh, super Control is, is very good.
[00:15:34] Along with we, we've partnered Boostly partnered with about 15 different PMSs, but Super Control is, is one of the ones we've partnered with. And is there any other pieces of tech that you use with it or, um, anything else that you found helped you along your journey at all?
[00:15:48] Sascha: I'd say we're actually fairly light on the, on the tech.
[00:15:51] I know, I know a lot. Some people have, you know, just perhaps loads and loads of it. I'd say we're pretty light. I mean, the two things we use is Office 365. And [00:16:00] super control. That's cool. Now there is one more. We use, um, a password manager called Dash Lane, which is awesome. I'd recommend checking that out so that you can give logs and share them without actually having to share the password.
[00:16:12] So again, team access to single login site, you can do that quite safely. So that was important. Uh, what was the name of that one again?
[00:16:21] Liam: Dash Lane Dash. Definitely. Yeah. Cool. There's, uh, I mean there's amazing, there's two things which I find inspiring about. That one obviously is that you can, um, You know, you can be relatively lean on tech and still build a big business.
[00:16:37] And the second thing is that how it just works, you know, it just, everything seems to just work for that, which is, which is cool. So having a good pmms and a good effectively, you using like office is a organizational tool effectively. Is that, is that, um, yeah.
[00:16:53] Sascha: I, I, I didn't want us to have to be logging in and out and switching applic.
[00:16:58] Too much. So I was, [00:17:00] I, I wanted to keep it as lean as possible. So every tool that came with Office 365, I've had a good look through that now to see if, which ones we can use. And I think there's still more in there. There is so much. I think there is more tools we can use within it. Um, but yeah, SharePoint can't, can't recommend it enough.
[00:17:20] Liam: So let's talk about where you're marketing your business at the moment towards guests. Where do you tend to get your guests come from, and uh, and how do you market in general?
[00:17:30] Sascha: Yeah, I mean, no surprises. The main, uh, driver of bookings for us is the OTAs and obviously the big ones. It's Airbnb, first and foremost.
[00:17:40] Uh, booking.com and VRBO then make up a, a good share of it. Uh, then we kinda, you know, a mix of the others. Like, uh, like everyone who's after book direct, we use it as a tool to, uh, hopefully win the Evo repeat business or convert them to a direct booking, um, when they first get in [00:18:00] touch so that we, we consider that kind of a lot of our marketing spent.
[00:18:04] Obviously there's, there's service fees involved in those sites, so that's where a lot of our kind of marketing budget is, is gonna. And then the other kind of place that we advertise, like more traditionally, I suppose, like to get our website name out there. We use all the, the local, um, tourist websites, um, primarily.
[00:18:23] Liam: That's cool. That's cool. And is it different for the people listening who, you know, want to increase the number of units they've got? Do you market differently towards owners or is that just towards guests and owners see that and then come to you for, for their listing? , we've,
[00:18:41] Sascha: we've tried both. And I, I think that the latter that you just said, I think you can, you, you can tick two boxes with, with, um, yeah.
[00:18:49] At once there. So when, cause owners search for the same thing that a guest would. Um, and, and then if you are marketing to guests and they see an advert guest, they're gonna assume that that [00:19:00] company's going to offer management services as well. So I mean, we've, we've actually done very little marketing, um, for owners.
[00:19:09] It's all been quite organic, which is nice. I mean, I, I think we do quite well from our, our name because if people are based in Norfolk and they're looking at Holland, they type in Norfolk and holiday properties, and then we come up, so that, I think we do quite well out of that. But there is, I mean, there is demand, there's, there is a lot of demand for it.
[00:19:27] So if you can offer a property management service and do it, You are gonna get kind of people talking to each other. So we get a lot of owners who know another owner and it's kind of grown that way. Um, but yeah, we don't, we have a pretty healthy pipeline of leads kind of coming in, so we haven't really had to go out there and, um, you know, source more.
[00:19:51] Liam: And compared to the early days of, you know, when you mentioned, I think one of the lines in this podcast was, you know, undertaken any property and that so happens the [00:20:00] properties, it was good. Do you get many properties that come to you now, which, uh, which you either turned down or how does that look like these days?
[00:20:07] Is it case of, do you have sort of a, um, a vetting sort of process? Yeah,
[00:20:11] Sascha: I mean, occasionally we do, which is always heartbreaking. Cause you, you want to, we'd like to take it on and we'd like to be able to help out the owner, but sometimes you just have to advise them that it's not suitable. We would, we, we'll never take on a property now that we're, um, if we're not confident that it'll generate the returns that them and, and us would be happy with me as well.
[00:20:31] Advise him to go, go down that route. Um, yeah, so I mean, we're all about. It'd be easy to take on anything, especially when, if you do, if you are keen to grow your business, get the numbers up. It's uh, it's a hard thing. Cause it would be easy just to say yes. Yeah, we'll, we'll do it. And I, we are about growing in the right way.
[00:20:51] So now we don't, well, pretty early on we, we wouldn't, we, I kind put in head right, we have to have a certain standard here cause you, it's not worth it if you take on a [00:21:00] property, which is sub. You're gonna, your brand, you're gonna have, um, give yourself a whole headache of, you know, bad reviews. Uh, it, it will hurt you.
[00:21:09] So yeah, we do have a certain set of standards and we do occasionally have to properties down for the, for the right reasons.
[00:21:17] Liam: Exactly, and, and that's the, like you say, your focus, you're serving both sides. So you, you want it to be right for the guest side as well as the, the client side, aren't you? And that is kind of managing that, which is cool.
[00:21:28] I'm glad you mentioned the name cause it's something which I wanted to come on to was Norfolk Holiday Properties. Did you know back then that was gonna be a really good, um, domain to have or was that something which has happened, uh, you know, sort of with a bit of luck, how, talk us through how the name came.
[00:21:45] Sascha: Yeah, I suppose a bit of luck. Yeah. Uh, we, um, but I think would, if you were to try and if, if we were to do, have done this a few years later, you'd really struggled to get our domain name. So I, I, I'm very, very proud of it. Cause it is, it's good [00:22:00] that that's what says the team. We, the reason that we have it is because, um, my dad bought, I mean, the company didn't exist, but, um, when he, this kind of 10 years ago, probably 10, between 10 and 15 years ago, that domain was.
[00:22:17] And there, there was no, the company didn't exist, but my dad bought the, bought the domain, um, after, um, kind of starting the first, their first holiday home. And back then it was, um, there's no kinda Airbnb or anything. The sites was owners. Owners direct, I think. Is that one of the, I might've got that wrong.
[00:22:35] There was like a old site and that was like, that was just how people
[00:22:38] Liam: did. Yeah, they, I mean, there used to be a case of they'd, they'd find you ring you up, wouldn't they? And book that that way, and
[00:22:44] Sascha: then Airbnb. Yeah, it's very much that kind of stuff. Yeah. They send checks in the posts and things. Thanks Francis.
[00:22:50] Yeah, it's, it's funny cause things are going
[00:22:52] Liam: slightly back more that way. Now usually people have got the tech to be able to have direct bookings as, as you have for, for your website and for anybody who's, [00:23:00] uh, listening to the podcast instead of, uh, watching on the YouTube. Uh, such as actually sitting in front of it, it says Norfolk Holiday Properties with new logo.
[00:23:07] Is that new rebrand
[00:23:09] Sascha: recently? Little re. When we, we, we moved into our, uh, office on street at the beginning of this year, and at the same time when we, before we had it decorated and branded and that signage go up, we had a little rebrand. So before that, the logo, the logo hasn't changed massively, but it was something that I made myself just on Photoshop and it, it had done as well, but it needed a little bit of refining.
[00:23:34] Yeah. And little rebrand and, um, yeah, sitting in front of our, our banner now upstairs in our, in our office in the meeting
[00:23:40] Liam: room. Love it. Love it. And is there anything which your perception of hospitality or, you know, sort of Airbnb or, or of, of serving has changed since the early days? Is there anything which you thought, um, you, you, your views have changed on hospitality or anything like that?
[00:23:58] Um, since, since the early [00:24:00] days. Yeah.
[00:24:00] Sascha: My, my perception of it. Yeah, definitely. I, I don't think that the term passive income should ever be used in the same sentence or paragraph as short term net or probably even property in general. Cause it's, it's anything but I mean it's, um, this, this industry is, is brutal
[00:24:21] You've gotta be, you've gotta be hard as nails, uh, to, to just to kind of get through the, you know, the, you know, reviews and, and things. So, It's, uh, 24 7 business as you'll know. And it's, uh, one of the hard things is that you can't really switch off. Mm-hmm. , I find it, I certainly find it hard to, even now, you know, you have to have somebody on call all the time.
[00:24:42] And even if that's not you, you are still kind of responsible for them. So, yeah, it's, um, it's, it, it's not something to be underestimated, but it is. It's not to say it's, uh, something you, you shouldn't do. Cause it's a, it's an amazing industry. Fantastic opportunities. .
[00:24:59] Liam: And uh, [00:25:00] really that brings us on to, you know, sort of last few questions really, which is, um, you know, what has this business allowed you to do?
[00:25:07] You know, is there, how has life changed, uh, you know, on a personal level since, since the early days?
[00:25:13] Sascha: I'm a lot busier, less, not, less time off. Um, yeah, I mean, I think the main thing that I, that I like about this is, is the opportunities that it brings. And it's about, um, for me, I, I mean that in a sense of the people that I, I meet.
[00:25:29] So people like, like yourself, I meet fascinating people that I can chat to for, for hours and, and who knows where that will lead in, in future. And then what, what's also nice is that I'm getting to do that, have these opportunities while it's also doing something which is helping, um, Norfolk and putting us on the, you know, putting us on the map.
[00:25:51] So it's, it's nice to be able to have those opportunities as a byproduct of running a business, which, um, Can contribute [00:26:00] to tourism in in Norfolk. Um, you know, we get to bring thousands of guests here every year, which is fantastic.
[00:26:07] Liam: Well, it's one of the things which uh, you know, you bring pleasure to both the guest side of things.
[00:26:12] Obviously doing a great job for the hosts. I dunno,
[00:26:14] Sascha: like the hope, say . Yeah. And
[00:26:17] Liam: uh, it obviously shows, which is amazing. And uh, thank you. You know, it's great. I dunno what's going on with my camera. Sorry. Anybody who see the live on the, uh, on the camera, I keep disappearing so I'm just gonna switch. Yeah, you
[00:26:27] Sascha: going my camera light.
[00:26:29] Liam: Yeah, absolutely. I'll just power cut at this end, . Um, but uh, yeah, that brings us towards the end. I really feel we've got to know your business and, uh, you're, you're awesome, um, you know, sort of offering here in Norfolk. Um, as we come towards the end of these, we like to, uh, you know, do a couple of quick fire sort of questions, so, um, What I'm gonna do is just get my camera.
[00:26:50] There we go, using the old camera instead. Um, but yeah, just a couple of quick fire questions. The answers can be as short or as long as you like. Um, so what does your [00:27:00] morning routine look like?
[00:27:02] Sascha: I'm not a morning person. Not at all. So I'm, I'm, I'm someone that is, uh, I, I struggle to get up early. I'm not someone who gets up at 5:00 AM and goes for a run.
[00:27:12] As much as I would like to be doing that, I tend to, I, I work late and then I get up a little bit later as well. So I, I'm often not the first person in the office , but then I often stay later. So, you know, I'm, I'm putting my out in
[00:27:25] Liam: more, more of a night owl than a, um, yeah, I'm, I'm trying to shift it, but I'm at the.
[00:27:31] That's cool. Um, what is the best compliment you've ever been given? Personally
[00:27:36] Sascha: or with the, with the business? . Either or, either or.
[00:27:40] Liam: The best compliment
[00:27:42] Sascha: I, I, I think, um, when, when you give us praise for getting, you know, crossing the hundred property mark and, and I think just being like, like I said earlier, being invited on a podcast like this, that's a massive compliment.
[00:27:55] So yeah. Thank.
[00:27:56] Liam: Hey, there's, there's so many people. I mean, I know people listening to this on the live [00:28:00] and also on the podcast afterwards. Um, you know, it is no mean feat to, to get any hospitality business going and to keep it going and then to scale it and grow it, build a team around it. That all takes, uh, time, effort, hard work, and, uh, you know, it's, it is obviously paying off, which is why we love to, to, to meet people like yourself, Sasha, and, uh, have you on the behind the Host podcast.
[00:28:19] So, uh, last question then is who inspires you?
[00:28:25] Sascha: Who inspires me? Um, sounds a bit cheesy, doesn't it? I was gonna say my dad, .
[00:28:32] Liam: No, it's good.
[00:28:34] Sascha: He's, he was, um, he was there and he still is there to kind of support me and particularly kind of during the early days when it was, it was just me. He was, uh, yeah, kind of, uh, able to provide me with some support and advice.
[00:28:50] Um, and yeah, I, I hope to kind of. Successful in that, you know, like, like he has been and live, live a good life. [00:29:00]
[00:29:00] Liam: That's amazing. And I'm sure there's a lot of people who are, are gonna be resonating with that. Um, thank you for, for sharing Tasha and for the people listening, how can they get in touch with you or come and view the, the, the homes as well?
[00:29:12] Sascha: Yeah. Um, so we, so our office is on Birth Street in Norwich. We're next to the John Lewis car Park entrance. Anyone who is local coming by, give us a wave. Um, our website, Norfolk Holiday Properties dot code uk. And follow us on Instagram. So username, Norfolk holiday properties, and my personal one is sasher tea, T E e.
[00:29:34] Awesome,
[00:29:34] Liam: awesome. And I'm sure you're gonna get some followers off the back of this. Please, everyone go and check out, uh, Sasha's site and also go and see the lovely places, cuz you've got some amazing places, uh, you know, around Norfolk and uh, around abroads as well. So, um, stay, , come and stay. Exactly. Um, well thank you very much Sasha and, uh, you know, for your time today, we'll uh, we'll draw this to an end.
[00:29:55] Is there any closing comments, uh, that you want to share with. [00:30:00]
[00:30:00] Sascha: Thank you for having me. If anyone wants to reach out and chat to me, I'm, like I said, I, I like meeting like-minded individuals who are, um, working in the industry. So yeah, send me a message. I would love to, to meet if you local, pop out for a coffee.
[00:30:13] Otherwise, we'll have a chat.
[00:30:15] Liam: Amazing. Thank you so much Sasha. And uh, yeah, we'll speak to you again. Bye for now. Having a blast.
[00:30:21] Sascha: Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee led Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard on the tee Is loose leaf picking up those rhymes? Don't write it, just do it loosely.
Before you leave
Please go and rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify Google Play or Anchor or visit Boostly Hospitality Podcast for the full list of episodes!
If you have enjoyed this post and want to feed my caffeine addiction you can “Buy me a coffee” ️
