Intro
[00:00:00] Mark: Gentlemen, my top tip for 2024. All that is going to be explained in this video. Now, in this video, I brought on Maddy from Mount and Maddy has grown to be one of my good friends, one of my biz besties in the industry. And her company, Mount, is going to be one that you need to get into your lives in 2024.
[00:00:20] If it is not part of your business by the end of this year, you've got to give your head a serious shake. Did I say that five times fast? Uh, rentmount. com is free. Free and you can get a cut of every sale that comes from it. Uh, and also all your guest reviews will go through the roof and you will turn your guests into super fans.
[00:00:40] And I explain all in this video presentation with the amazing Maddie from Mount.
Joint Webinar
[00:00:45] Maddy: Uh, good to be here. As Mark mentioned, I'm Maddie. I'm the CEO and founder of Mount. We're doing a joint webinar today to talk about what it means to create a book-direct channel and how to keep it going and flourishing and take it to the next level.
[00:01:00] Um, so that's what today is all about. And you're going to see some sneak previews on kind of what Boosley and Mount are also doing together to drive this initiative forward. Um, before we get into that, though, I wanted to do a quick intro because, uh, I'm not just some random girl coming and talking to you.
[00:01:16] Uh, I have been in the short-term rental industry for about two years now. On the vendor side, but have been a traveler since I was quite young and traveling the world. Um, so that's really why my company Mount exists. We're on the traveller side and we are really trying to get people to travel like locals, authentically responsibly come to stay at amazing properties, and then also have amazing experiences.
[00:01:38] Uh, cause we believe 2024. And onward is going to be the trend of experiential travel. So people not just coming for the place, but really because they have a bucket list item they want to cross off. So this is the thing that we wanted to introduce. And we kind of alluded to in the registration, but Mark and I, and Mark, I don't mean to speak for you, but I feel like we've had enough conversations where I can confidently say that the vendor market and just the tech stack that is the short term rental space is super fragmented.
[00:02:06] You work with the PMS, potentially a guidebook company, book direct website. somehow furnish it all. Like there's just a lot of moving pieces and it's hard to know exactly where to get the best information from. So what Boostly and Mount have decided to put together and grow over the next few months is the STR Co-op, uh, name pending a better one.
[00:02:27] But basically What this co-op entails is it's a community and group, uh, for you guys to get the resources you need, whether you're starting, you're wanting to level up or just become the best in the industry. Um, and it's going to be the cornerstone for all rental, uh, short-term rental entrepreneurs where we can all learn from each other and grow.
[00:02:48] You're going to be able to get deals on tech, figure out which the optimal ones are, operational strategies, expert-led webinars, so ones like these, hoping to continue and do them monthly. Um, and just basically a place. To make sure that you know, if you are evaluating new tech or want to bring on new vendors, you haven't heard of this is the place to get all the information for that.
[00:03:10] Um, so hoping to continue driving that forward. It's all free. It's just basically kind of a value add to everyone in our community. Um, and so we'll keep giving you guys our time to see how we can grow this. Uh, and so more. Amazing companies coming to the table that, you know, you probably have heard of, or you haven't, and this is going to be the way to discover them.
[00:03:30] So Mark, how do you feel about that?
[00:03:33] Mark: Yeah. Amazing. I, uh,
[00:03:38] There you go. Sorry. I just all of a sudden had double Maddie in my ears. I don't know if anybody else could hear that, but it was echoing. Uh, so we're back on track, but, um, yeah, no, I, um. Ever since you came to us with the idea, I was like, yeah, this is fantastic because there is a lot of choice out there.
[00:03:56] And I feel like if we can get together, um, brands that are similar in the thinking of, of what we're in and we can couple them together. And it just means that, the SDR. The host will be able to then go fantastic. I know that I can go to these and it's going to be perfect for me where I am in our journey.
[00:04:13] Cause I feel like we're all, you know, I'm not naive. I know that we are very good, with hosts from that one to 20 to a 25 sort of property mark. And after that, if they want to grow and they want to move on to more customized services, et cetera, that's perfect. But we're, we're here to get them to that 25 property marking.
[00:04:30] And I feel like if we can align ourselves with other brands in the industry that is perfectly suited for. This niche of the, of this industry, this huge industry that I'm all for it. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm excited to see what we can do with it. I'm excited to get everybody's feedback and, uh, yeah, to, to, to, to the expansion of the SDR co-op name pendant.
The meat of what’s going on
[00:04:52] Maddy: Yes, exactly. I love it. Awesome. So that's kind of the preview there. We'll have more information coming soon. So. Make sure you follow both Mark and me on LinkedIn because I think that's where we're going to drop a lot of the news there. Keep everyone on their toes. Um, now we get to dive into the meat of what's going on.
[00:05:07] So we're going to give you guys some context on just 2024 travel trends, what to be prepared for, and how you can roll that into a book direct strategy. And then you'll hear from Mark on exactly what a book direct strategy is and, and how to get that going. Um, just some stats to throw your guy's way so you can get prepared for this upcoming travel high season.
[00:05:26] Is our opinion that the way we travel is changing. Uh, it's not so much about finding the best room for the best price and staying, uh, and figuring out what to do. It's trying to figure out how to take an ethical trip and sustainable trip to the tune that 91 per cent of travellers are starting to see the importance of taking these ethical trips being responsible when they travel and not wanting to get caught in a tourist trap.
[00:05:52] And, you know, if they're spending the money, they want to have it. That great experience that they're going to remember for years to come. Additionally, um, on the planet-friendly sustainable side. This is a great stat for you guys because it plays into how you can market, but 70 per cent of travellers right now are actively saying that they will book accommodations and seek out accommodations if they know that property is planet friendly, has a sustainability acts, uh, baked into it, you know, just kind of really trying to preserve For Um, you know, actively trying to change that and you guys can play a part in it.
[00:06:31] So that should see kind of, you know if you're able to market that way, a lot more bookings driven your way. So that's the stat there. Um, and then this is kind of where we get into the interesting take on how travel is also changing and that travellers want more than just a place to stay. I can't see your faces, so I don't know if you're able to raise your hands or not, but, um, Our take is that you're getting asked a lot of questions from your guests, just, you know, first of all, how to check in, what's the Wi-Fi code, but past that, they want local recommendations, so they're probably going to ask you what should they be doing, where they should be going, eating, drinking, the full works, because they look at you as their guide to having an amazing vacation, um, and that could be one of the reasons they're trying to book your property.
[00:07:15] So what gets me here is that the way travellers are searching for accommodations is changing. I'd argue it starts these days, either on TikTok or Instagram or somewhere you can see visually what the property and that market are all about. I want to say the travel destination for the summer was all around Italy.
[00:07:35] Portofino, all of those, uh, Lake Como destinations because they blew up on TikTok. And everyone's like, I need to go there. And it drove so much tourism that way. Um, so people are visual, they want it in short content bites, and that's going to drive their booking. Uh, decision-decision-making process, so it's going to start with what they want to do and an idea of where they want to go.
[00:07:57] It's going to lead them down this path. And at the end of that path, they'll eventually find the accommodation that fits their agenda. It used to be in the past, you know, let's find a place and figure out how to get there. Then we're going to figure out what to do. And it's a total of 180. So. Just keep that in mind as you are trying to put together a book direct strategy because this is going to come back into play on how you start marketing yourself, your brand, and your properties.
[00:08:23] Can
[00:08:23] Mark: I just added something quickly on that slide. So it's, it's, I think everything is changing the way people search for something. My, my eight year old the other day was humming this song. And as he walked down the stairs I was like, what is that, Charlie? And he said, Oh, I was just watching it on YouTube shorts.
[00:08:41] And what it was is this, uh, this, uh, young artist called Jake. Uh, he has built his brand first on TikTok and YouTube shorts. And now people are discovering through short-form content. And this is a musician. And I know from my own experience, when we go, when me and my family, travel to a new city.
[00:09:00] We won't start our search on Google to find somewhere to go eat or somewhere to do with the kids. My wife, who is a big TikToker, she will go search on TikTok for, uh, things to do in London with kids, and there's just a, a, a, a vast amount of short-form content, and then she picks a place to go eat or drink on the back of that.
[00:09:22] So it's. In the past, the booking journey would start on Google, put your search in and go down that traditional route. But now so many people, and it's not just, you know, Gen Zs, this is like everybody now, this is millennials and Gen Ys are starting their search on. This short-form content. And before you start to roll your eyes and go, Oh, I'm going to have to become TikTok famous.
[00:09:46] No, because as Maddie has just said there, the destination is the one that they're going to first. And then they're building it around experiences or things to do. So this is, this is what we're going to come back to, but it's like everything is changing right now. So, um, please make sure that you pay attention to this.
[00:10:02] Cause this is, this is going to be big for this year, next year, and the years to come. Absolutely.
[00:10:09] Maddy: I also know Jake. He's a, yeah, he's a, he's a cool artist. I found him on TikTok. Big presence. Um, these are just some stats to back up our claims that 83 per cent of travellers right now are actively seeking out and paying for experiences.
[00:10:24] So this is basically once they get in your property, they have a lot of exploring to go do, and they're going to go surfing. They're going to go hot air balloon experience. They're going to go run with the bulls, you know, whatever it may be. Because your property is just the starting point to their adventure.
[00:10:37] They're going to have a whole week, a few days to go experience what your market and your destination have to offer. Um, and so, you know, you should be putting yourself at the forefront of that. But there is a massive disconnect because right now, less than 10 per cent of bookable properties, short-term rentals, glamping experiences, boutique hotels, whatever it may be.
[00:10:59] You guys are not offering these bookable experiences. You might offer a word-of-mouth recommendation, um, some guidebook recommendations, but nothing you get to benefit from financially. Uh, and these. Travellers are spending a ton of money. It's 9. 2 billion being spent every year just on transacting experiences.
[00:11:19] Um, so getting a piece of that pie can change your business for the better. Uh, and it's where 30 per cent of revenue from hotels comes from. It's from really transacting experiences and having that concierge-type aspect. So that when people ask you, what should I be doing and where should I be going?
[00:11:35] You have an answer that's going to generate you some revenue. Um, so that's happening. Um, and so, you know, where we're going to dive into now is some actionable steps you can take. And then Mark's going to show you how to take that into your book direct strategy. Um, but if you want to go about looking at what experiences you should be setting up, we're going to go into knowing your guest, which is also important for book direct strategy, uh, putting together experiences and then using some software to automate it all.
[00:12:01] So if you want to start taking notes, I'd say this is where it is where it is happening. Um, so basically when it comes to knowing your guests. You probably have a lot of this historical data or an idea of what your guest avatar is, but I would look at their average age, you know, who they're travelling with.
[00:12:19] So the group size, are they coming? And it's all a group of girls are all a group of guys because they're coming for bachelorette and bachelor parties. Are they coming with their family? Is it just their significant other? Is it a solo traveller? Um, that really can start to clue you into why they're coming and what they're going to be doing in your market.
[00:12:37] And then also why are they travelling? Is it for a quick weekend trip? Are they coming to stay for an entire week because they want to go exploring? Are they using your property as a launch-off point? Uh, and they're going to explore like two hours outside of the area every day and come back and sleep.
[00:12:52] Like really, why are people coming? Uh, and this really can start driving your marketing strategy. So once you start to figure out and know your guest, you can start to put together some experiences. Uh, good clues are like, are they asking you, you know, Hey, is there a bike rental shop down the road?
[00:13:10] Is there a place to go kayaking? I want to go hot air ballooning. Like, are they asking you for recommendations? That's a great clue and a good starting point. Um, and then because if you have a guest avatar, you can start to. Put together packages for them. So if you know it's a couple that's coming, you know, put together a romance package, start offering them a bottle of champagne when they arrive.
[00:13:28] Uh, you know, electric bikes are another great option, surfboards, golf carts. Then you have experiences with local businesses. I think the misconception here is that you have to take on the ownership and the management and operations of running these extra add-ons and upsells, if you will, for your property.
[00:13:47] And that's not the case. I'd say in the majority. For instance, you should be able to contract that out to existing businesses, tourist operations that have already been set up like a bike rental shop or, a hot air balloon experience business. That's already been running. Like, these exist in your market and they are basically.
[00:14:08] You know, wanting to jump off their seat to work with you because you have the guests, you have their customers and you just need a way to connect to them. So I would also look at who's in your local market that you want to work with because that's a really good starting point as well. Um, and then figure out how to work with them.
[00:14:23] So that's really what it looks like to put together your experiences, uh, and start benefiting from that. Um, when we look at software automation, I think there are a few objections to wanting to start to work. Uh, with these either local businesses or even, you know, offering these amenities at your property.
[00:14:41] Um, I think one of the big items is like, if it is an experience provider, that's in your market, uh, you know, how do you work with them? What does that contract look like? How do I know if my guests are going and purchasing? How do you track it all? There's absolutely software for that. Uh, one of the options is mount.
[00:14:59] That's what we do. Um, but you could, you know, there are others out there as well. Uh, but you get connected to all of the local businesses so you can start selling their inventory. So your guests can purchase with you three tickets, uh, to the amusement park down the road. You know, uh, whatever it may be, uh, we're going to get to the marketing piece in a second.
[00:15:18] That's what Mark's all here to talk about. And then honestly, you got to make sure you have an online booking and fulfilment, uh, carrier as well. If someone buys something from you, you do not want to be the one having to fulfil it. If you sell, if you sell amusement tickets, you don't want to have to be running down to that park, buy the tickets and give them to your guests.
[00:15:35] Like it needs to happen online. Um, so make sure there's some booking software in place that can do that. Um, another thing that we do as well. So good options for the software as well.
How does Mount work?
[00:15:48] Mark: So just very quickly with, um, with Mount, so we'll just go back one if you don't mind. So with Mount, um, how does it work in terms of what you, what you do?
[00:15:57] So if somebody signs up. And take the payment, do the marketing, do the, do the online booking and fulfilment. How does it, how does it work if we were a property that's in say Manchester, and there's like five things in and around us, um, that we think that our guests would like to do? How do we make it so that they get on Mount so that you can then offer it to the services via the Mount software?
[00:16:20] Ooh, yes,
[00:16:20] Maddy: that's a good question. Um, so basically we call everyone in our world concierges. So you would sign up as a concierge. And you'd get immediate access to your mount account. And basically what you do is input your market. So for you, Mark, that would be Manchester. And then our software is gonna tell you if we already have experienced vendors we're working with within your market that you can immediately start selling.
[00:16:44] We'll tell you that. Uh, and then if we have none, because it's a new market to us, we'll also tell you that. And if we don't have any, there'll be a big red add button. And that's what you click. All you need to tell us is the name of the business you want to work with. And then we reach out on your behalf and contract with them, get them set up on the software so that you can sell their experiences.
[00:17:03] And then from there, everything gets populated into a mini marketplace, which is an online landing page that shows the experiences. It has a book button and it takes, if the guest clicks a book, they can actually. Book the date, pay for it, and do everything online. It's essentially a marketplace of experiences, uh, and you're getting about 10 per cent commission from everything you sell.
[00:17:24] So it's become very easy, I think, to start, start this process and start essentially upselling, but I don't know if I'd call it that.
[00:17:31] Mark: Yeah. Well, it's, it's, it's providing a. A solution that people are already doing. And, and it's, it's, it's a, what I love about it is it's a win, win, win. So it's a win, obviously for your guests, because they can have a very smooth booking process with an experience.
[00:17:47] And then it's a win for the supplier. Of this event or, uh, experience because it's free marketing for them. And it's a win for, it's a win. It's a win for you because you're able to get these experiences onto these sites and then get a cut of the percentage without having to do it. Any other work apart from say, Hey Mount, we're in Manchester.
[00:18:10] We're in York, we're in wherever we're in Devon, we're in Cornwall, Scotland, Italy, and there are no, uh, experiences on this site. And then you'll reach out and it helps if you can, if, if, if, um, if Brett's watching now and Brett sends to Mount five people that they know would be cool for the site, that would help you, right?
[00:18:30] Maddy: Yeah, that would be super helpful. Uh, we'll get them onboarded in about a week or two. So then you can start selling their inventory too.
[00:18:37] Mark: Amazing. Amazing. That is, it's a, it's a fantastic, fantastic. So, we'll give the links. Obviously you've got rentmountain. com. You can go check it at any point, but this is, this automation and like.
[00:18:47] Um, so we used to do this in 2011 at the family business. So I'll tell you all a story and this is why everybody should do this. So what we did, and if you want to go on to the next slide, I can build this into what I'm talking about. But what we did was we identified very quickly who. Our ideal guest was so as Maddie put on the slide, no, your guest, we identified very quickly and, our business for those who don't know, and you can go and Google it.
[00:19:16] It's the granary in Scarborough, the granary farm stay it's, uh, it's in the middle of 200 acres. Um, working farm, so we had cows, sheep, goats, hens that were so annoying because they woke me up every morning. Um, we had all the shebang, but on the other side, we had, um, accommodation. So it was the usual, you know, we had 14 bedroom guest house, we had free holiday cottages.
[00:19:42] And we identified who our guest avatar was very quickly. So our main image, our hero image, our unique photo, whatever you want to call it, on any of the listing sites was, uh, the image of the, of the building. We had a nice pond in front of it and we got a picture of our Highland cow and Highland cows, we don't know, they've got very shaggy hair, big horns.
[00:20:02] And it just stood in the pond as my dad was passing, uh, passing it one day, took a picture and it was beautiful. It summed up everything about our experience of staying with us. It was, uh, peaceful, animals, countryside, and it was ideal for families. Families, uh, the older generation just wanted to come away and relax.
[00:20:24] So that was our avatar. And then the second thing that we did is that we started to build a database. Now, if you want to know a real deep dive on this, I've recorded a video and it's on the YouTube channel now of Boostly how to do this, but we set up a Google form. What we would do when every booking came in and our PMS when we were at the farm was free to book.
[00:20:50] So within our, free book, you can set up an automated messenger service. All of the PMSs provide this right, and at the point of booking, an email would go to the guest. If they had booked via the platform, it would pop up as a message on Airbnb or booking.com. And in the message, it would say, Hey, Maddie, thank you so much for booking your stay with The Grainery.
[00:21:15] Um, please make sure that you read this email or read this message as it's very important for your stay. And it would have the normal check-in date, check-out date, um, price, how many people, et cetera. And then it would say to make your check-in as smooth as possible, please fill in this short form. And it would go to a Google form and a Google form took five minutes to create.
[00:21:39] But on that Google form were the key bits of information that we needed. Number one was the name, email, phone number, and email address, which if anybody has booked via an OTA, you know, we don't get their email. So we've got their email. And then we would ask two questions, which comes back to what Maddy was talking about.
[00:21:59] It was, why are you coming to the area? As in, are you celebrating? Is it whatever? And then it was, um, how many people are in your party? And we, we would also add in a third, which was, um, what made you buck with us? So what was the deciding factor on why you decided to buck with us? And those three questions.
[00:22:23] Although we amended them over time, they were key to us because we were able to figure out why people were coming to the area. So why were they coming to Scarborough? Why did they book with us? What was the main reason? And also as well, we're able to figure out how many people are in the party or it was, what are they looking to do?
[00:22:41] So we were able to gather the exact reasons why the majority of our guests were coming to stay with us and what they were coming for. We built this database up and bearing in mind, we've got 14 14-bedroom boutique hotels, three-holiday cottages, and you know, we're open pretty much year-round. So after a year, we've got a lot of data right here.
[00:23:04] And because the guests were staying on-site, obviously we got to engage with them. We got to meet and we got to know them. And we also got to find out where they were travelling to while staying with us. Now, there's a stat that Alan Egan always used to tell me, and it always used to hit home. And we always assume the guest is on our property 100 per cent of the time.
[00:23:27] The guest is only in our property, about 10 per cent of our estate. For the 90 per cent of it, they're out and about and they're exploring. Now, what Maddy is talking about with Mount, it's up to you to find out where the majority of your guests go. Because again, if you know where your guests are going, the majority of the guests, like let's say 80 20 rule here, that where, where are the 20 per cent of the places that 80 per cent of your guests go to when they come and stay with you?
[00:23:57] If you can narrow them down and if you go onto Mount and if they say, Oh, these aren't listed on us, and if you know, the majority of your guests are visiting there, whether it's a cafe, a tea room, whatever it may be, this experience type thing, it could be kayaking. It could be, uh, cycle tours. It could be yoga.
[00:24:16] It could be whatever. Then you pass them to Mount and say, Hey, get them on the site. And then you can message those business owners. And you can say, Hey, I've reached out to Mount, it'll, it'll make sure that you can get, um, get booked easily for our guests that are coming to stay with us. Because our guests have told us that the majority of our, uh, of our guests are coming to go and check you out when they stay with us.
[00:24:36] So that's a win, win, win. That's how you create that database. And the reason why I tell you this story is that back in 2011, I had to do this ourselves. So when we were doing this, we found that there was this one, uh, adventure. Place that all of our guests were going to everybody that I talked to, but we're like, we'll go in here, we'll go in here.
[00:24:57] And it was, uh, it was a farm, it was a farm visit. So you could go, you could feed animals. You could ride the tractors, and do all those cool things. And it was, it was ideal for families. And so after about six months, I plucked up the courage and I went to the owner of this place and I said, Hey, we've got thousands of people coming to visit us and the majority of them are coming to, uh, visit your farm.
[00:25:19] Is there any coupon code that we could get to give to them? So they got a little bit off and they gave us this cool little coupon code. And on it was a very clear marker if they'd come from us, from the granary. And after a year, he called me up and he had stacks of these coupons. And he was like, listen, whenever you want to come and your family wants to come and check us out, you never have to pay.
[00:25:43] So it was a win for us. We never paid when we went to go there for a day out. After a while, what happened was. Is that we were passing so many customers his way and we never asked for anything in return. One year they turned their business and they pivoted a little bit and they started to offer where people could get married there.
[00:26:03] Now they had no accommodation. So when the bride and groom sat down with their wedding planner and they were talking about which places they recommend for accommodation for their guests that were coming in from out of town, guess which was the business that they recommended. It was us. And the cool thing about a wedding is that you're not talking to just one or two people.
[00:26:27] We're talking the whole farm was blocked out for a weekend at a time when these weddings were booked up and they were booked in advance. And the cool thing about that is that they pay in advance as well. So we were able to collect so much direct bookings upfront. Um, and it was a year in advance.
[00:26:46] So we could track our P& Ls. And that was just from setting up one partnership. Now, once we had a track record with that, we went to the other businesses as well, and we did the same thing. But, the annoying thing for me is that A, it was manual B, we didn't get any cut at a ticket. And, and see, yes, we saw the, the win, but it was, it was a long way down the line.
[00:27:12] So something like this, what Matt is talking about with mine, with mount, you get the win, win, win, and you also get the call back as well, way earlier, which is cool, but we got that from building a database. So I'm guaranteeing now everybody who is tuning in to this live. You are on your way to knowing your avatar, whether you've read the book, the right playbook, whether you're part of Boostly, you've done our training, or you're giving it a good stab yourself.
[00:27:40] You know who your avatar is. Now you've got to start building that database and the sooner you can start the better. We did a very free. Google form, but there are providers out there like Staphy that can help gather this information for you and collect those bits of data. The cool thing about Staphy is that not only do you get the lead bookers' information, but you can get the whole party's information and you can ask those questions as well, which is cool.
[00:28:07] And then the final thing of what I'm talking about is. The after-effect of when your business can start to be not just a place that they go and stay, not just an Airbnb, but an actual brand is once you have this in place, once you can start to offer experiences and create the ultimate guests. Inventory for your stay at your places.
[00:28:38] And I'm talking about not just experimental stays here, experiential stays, sorry, not just farm stays, but I'm talking city stays, midterm rentals, the whole shebang here. That you will turn a guest into an influencer, into a super fan. And I won't go too much into this cause I'm going to develop a separate talk about this.
[00:29:01] But if you can do this properly, you'll turn just a guest into an influencer. And what I mean by that is that when a guest arrives and they've booked experiences via Mount, via your platform, and so they've booked it via you, any stay, any experience that they do, whether it is a walk-in tour or whatever, they'll associate with your stay.
[00:29:25] And. Think about the main time when you truly post anything on social media. It's when you're on vacation, right? The reason is you want to show off to your friends and your coworkers back home that you're having a great time on holiday. And if you do this right, your friends will be posting on Instagram, posting on TikToks, posting on Facebook or whatever.
[00:29:47] And they'll be tagging in your business, your brand, your Instagram, your TikTok, your whatever. And so they instantly become an influencer because they are tagging you. In and sharing it to their social network. It doesn't matter if I've got 10 followers or 10, 000 followers and because we're so nosy, they'll see that, they'll see that story.
[00:30:08] They'll see that post and they'll click to see where they're staying. Okay. And that's them being an influencer. And then if you do the next step, right, which once you've got that database, you then use it. In terms of email marketing, text message marketing, uh, producing good content on your social media.
[00:30:27] What will happen is that influencer, that guest will go home. They'll go tell everybody about you and then they'll rebook and stay with you, if not next year, the year after. And then they'll keep coming back because you're going to stay top of mind, keep emailing, keep doing a good social media brand. And, uh, if you want to know more about this, I've got a podcast coming out in a couple of weeks with a chap called Isaac French, who had Live Oak Lake.
[00:30:52] He had it for 18 months and he's just sold it for 7 million. And one of the main reasons why the company that bought it. He had a very strong social media brand and he had a very strong email list and he was a prime example of turning a guest into an influencer, into a super fan. And when you do this correctly.
[00:31:13] That's what you create. This is exactly what we created at the granary, but at number three would never have happened if it wasn't for number one and number two. So however you put that into your world, you can easily do it. If you do one, right? And if you do two, right, you'll do a number three. And this is why a combination of Boostly.
[00:31:32] Um, and the other collectives that we've created in this co-op will be prime for every single person who's watching this video now, doesn't mean you're going to exit for 7 million, by the way, but it just means that you'll be on a very strong, successful business.
[00:31:50] Maddy: Couldn't have been said better, Mark. Oh, thank you. Did you want to take this one or did you want me to?
[00:31:58] Mark: And, and, and I'll let you take it. My voice is a bit going now. So
Bringing it full circle
[00:32:03] Maddy: awesome. Well, this is just bringing it full circle because if you have your direct booking strategy now set up based on what Mark was talking about on the last slide, this is really how you start to leverage it.
[00:32:14] With SEO, Instagram, TikTok, and start to put together your marketing strategies. We now know after this presentation that every single traveller out there is starting their search with experiences. They want to see what other people are doing and where they're going. Um, and so highlight your experiences in your direct booking website, uh, in your blogs.
[00:32:37] In your videos like this call out of title of experiences in your listings. All of this is going to raise you in the search ranks. If someone searches the northern lights in Iceland and your property is in Iceland, and you now have a northern lights experience, you best believe that you are now going to be at the top of those search results.
[00:32:55] And now that person searching Iceland's northern, uh, northern lights, not only found their experience, but they found their accommodation. So they're going to show up to your property pretty happy. And that they didn't have to do a lot of research to get what they wanted. Um, I'd say also what amazing thing people do is they start adding photos of not just their property, but these experiences in their carousel.
[00:33:15] Because again, people are visual learners. They soak up content that way. Uh, and if you can visually convey. You know, it's not just a property. There are experiences attached. Uh, that is probably going to also raise you in the search ranks. So there's just a lot of optimization. You can do there when you pair a direct booking strategy with an experience strategy.
[00:33:37] Cool. Um, Mark, we did it in 41 minutes. Uh, we are at the end of the presentation now. So. This is a mount QR code. So if you want to scan that, uh, set up your free account and see what experiences we might have in your market, go ahead and scan that and get started. Um, it'll also get you in there. So if you want to chat with me or anyone else in the mountain team about kind of your strategy in general, happy to do that.
[00:34:00] Um, and then Mark, if they want to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that?
[00:34:04] Mark: If anybody wants to reach out to Boostly, just go to Boostly. co. UK, but you missed a little thing, what Maddy said there, a free account. So if you're not scanning this code right now, please make sure that you get your phone out and scan it.
[00:34:17] Or if you're just, if you've got your phone, you're like, I can't scan, I'm on my phone. Uh, just type in rentmount. com. Go ahead, uh, check it out, get started for free. And make sure that you all implement it into your business in 2024. I can't stress this enough. One of the key trends for this year is going to be building multiple revenue streams for your business.
[00:34:42] And this is one of the easiest, simplest ways to do it because Mount does all of the hard work for you. If there aren't any experiences in your area just yet, you know what to do. You go log onto the dashboard and say, Hey. We need to do this and then Mount will go out and reach out and help them get set up.
[00:35:02] It's all about creating the win-win wins. Um, so yeah, it's, it's amazing. This is not going to be the last that you hear about Mount in 2024. I guarantee that uh, we're talking behind the scenes of syncing it all together between Boostly and Mount. With our APIs, which is very exciting. So there's going to be a lot more that we're going to be doing, but you all need to, um, get on there and go and engage, check out, chat with the team and work with them because it will be, you will be ahead of 99 per cent of your competition in your area.
[00:35:32] I guarantee it.
[00:35:35] Maddy: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Mark. I appreciate it. , I would say the same thing for Bruce Lee as well. Um, awesome. Well, that's all we have for you all. Having a blast.
[00:35:46] Mark: Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Let Bruce Lee 'cause it's so hard on the teas. Loosely. Looking up those rhymes.
[00:35:53] Don't write it, just do it loosely.
