Intro
[00:00:00] Liam: Hey, and welcome back to the Boostly podcast. We've got a treat in store for you today. And as always, you listen to the podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence. So you can go out there and get more direct bookings. And we're going to be discussing direct bookings today.
[00:00:15] We're going to be discussing all sorts of things within the industry. And we've got a special guest who has been on the behind-the-host series before she's come back with an update, and there's been so much happening. In her business and her life from media appearances to, uh, helping out with now, what she's a bestselling author and she's helping out with that side of things as well.
[00:00:37] So let's introduce her. We've got Rose and she is the CEO, CEO and founder of your family's place. Um, you can go and check them out at your family's place. com. If you want to go and have a look straight away, she's the mom behind hosting in motherhood as well. So, uh, that's an awesome group, which we're going to be talking about.
[00:00:57] As I mentioned, she's a best-selling author and recently she's been helping out the STR community and our industry by actually doing a television appearance as well. So, Rose, I'm excited to have you back on the Boostly podcast. Welcome along.
[00:01:12] Rose: Well, thanks for having me back, Liam. It's great to see you on Zoom, but it's even better when we get to be in person.
A bit about Your Family’s Place
[00:01:18] Liam: Just so for those who haven't. No, we don't know you from the previous appearance. Can you give yourself an elevator pitch introduction, and let people know where you are in the world and your business and that side of things?
[00:01:29] Rose: Absolutely. So my name is Rose Tipka and I am, first of all, a homeschooling mom of six kids.
[00:01:37] But I also own 3 million worth of vacation rentals in Ohio, right outside of Amish country. So my vacation rental company is called Your Family's Place, and we specialize in really large homes for large family groups, just like my family is large. Those are the groups that we. like to host at all of our homes.
[00:01:58] I'm also the mom behind hosting in motherhood, where I share a lot of the practical tips that I use to professionalize my hosting business. The reality is between 60 to 70 per cent of the hosts in this industry are women, and most of us are mothers. And we certainly have unique things that we're thinking about.
[00:02:18] And so I like to talk to all hosts, but especially to other mothers who are sort of on that same path as me because this is excellent. Career and industry for mothers,
About the recent television appearance
[00:02:28] Liam: the recent television appearance. So talk me through what that was and, uh, how it came about.
[00:02:35] Rose: Yes, so one of the things that I know about our guests is they're mostly coming from the Cleveland area So where we are Cleveland is about an hour and a half north And a lot of our guests are in that area That's where we target for like our Google ads and our meta ads and stuff like that So I did some research on the morning Talk shows, because the morning news shows, they have high listenership in women between 35 and 65.
[00:02:59] And that's also the people that are making the reservations at my house. So I worked some connections of people that I know had done some different, um, different segments on the different news. And I asked for, um, Hey, do you know the email of the producer you use? Do you know this person? Could you connect me?
[00:03:18] I did a little bit of that. And, um, I sent out a bunch of emails and my email had that pitch, a version of that pitch that I just gave you. And as part of that, I said, I think I would be a good fit for an upcoming segment with my top tips for avoiding vacation regret. So that phrase, avoid vacation regret, it's, it's a very clickbaity kind of phase, but a phrase, but people get that.
[00:03:42] And that makes And, um, I heard back right away from a couple of places. Um, and I would Be able to book one on New Day Cleveland, which is the top morning, um, like a news show in the Cleveland market. And, uh, I came in, I did the whole hair and makeup thing because I'm billing myself as a vacation rental expert, so I have to look the part and it was a really exciting experience for me.
[00:04:06] Um, I got to share my tips and that video is shared everywhere. So I use that then, um, using that to put more pitches out to other places, but I also think it's really good for us too. Be ambassadors for the industry and show that there are some excellent hosts out there who want to make sure that our guests are well taken care of and just taking a hold of that narrative and putting it out there for us.
Diving into visibility
[00:04:31] Liam: Let's talk about visibility. And I know there's a story we want to dive into about visibility. Talk us through that.
[00:04:38] Rose: Yes. So, um, it was last year, we were finishing up construction on a very large house that we were building. Um, it cost us a lot of money to build, 1. 5 million dollars to build this property.
[00:04:50] And it was a long time in the works, and we worked with several talented tradespeople to make this vision, that a lot of people thought was crazy, um, come to life. And so as we were nearing conclusion, I reached out to a local, uh, news reporter. And I asked her to come by and tour the house because I wanted to talk up all these amazing contractors who built this house.
[00:05:15] It's not a regular house. It's on the side of a hill. It's 5, 000 square feet. There's a pond. There's a waterfall. This isn't just your everyday kind of build. So I met with her. I did that interview about these great contractors and I thought that was it. Well, two days later, when the newspaper article came out, the headline was couple built 1.
[00:05:36] 5 million house. And a lot of people could not get past that headline. And the article that she wrote was just about. You know, this big expensive house that we were building, and it had nothing to do with the interview that I gave, um, and some people online had some very big feelings about that, um, that perhaps I should instead be investing my money in filling in the potholes on the road, or maybe building 55 and up housing, and don't get me wrong, all those things are valid, but that's not the industry that I was doing, um, and the comments got with me.
[00:06:11] They got nasty. They got nasty. And I, for my mental health, I just decided, I'm not looking at this anymore. I did find out later, that some of my friends were in the comments. Fighting for me, but that was fine. I just needed to not look at it I felt awful about it because that was not the interview that I had given well the article got so much Traction that the newspaper sold the article to two bigger newspapers farther north from us.
[00:06:41] And those papers ran the articles on the front pages of their paper. And I was hunkered down kind of being prepared for what was going to happen next. But in those markets, the article went over much differently. And at the end of the day, I ended up getting 15, 000 worth of direct bookings from people who saw that article and went right to my website.
What is Hospitable Host and more?
[00:07:08] Liam: One of the things that I want to dive into today is all the awesome work you're doing around hospitable hosts, which is best selling book, which you're featured in as one of the authors and all the work which hospitable hosts are doing in general. And I know you're helping out with that community. Can you talk us through, I guess, for the people who haven't heard of hospitable hosts, what it is, and then talk us through some of the good work you're doing?
[00:07:33] Rose: Awesome. So you ready for the hospitable host pitch? I got this one ready to go. Hospitable hosts right now are 84 and soon to be 120 of the best hosts around the world. So we have hosts in the States, in the UK, Australia, South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. We have them everywhere. We are the best hosts in the world.
[00:07:56] We are industry experts and subject matter experts in a wide variety of subjects. So we view ourselves as the host's go-to location to connect with the top people in the industry and learn how to be a hospitality. focused host. There's a lot of information, you know, Boosley focuses a lot on book direct and there's other folks out there that focus on how to finance things and all of that kind of stuff.
[00:08:24] We are carving out our niche as a hospitality-focused brand and educating guests and hosts on how to be more hospitable so that we can raise the standard and set some benchmarks for hospitality. This means when we go to a hotel, we sort of have an idea. We have that benchmark of what that hospitality experience is.
[00:08:49] There is no sort of standardization in our industry, and part of it is because each place is a unicorn, absolutely different. But when we start setting some standards that say this is really what being hospitable means, and we spread that education through our online course, through our podcast and all of that kind of stuff, we want to focus hosts around the world on really taking care of those people that walk in our doors, sleep in our beds and stay with us.
[00:09:18] Liam: Rose, how can we find out more? How can we get in touch?
[00:09:21] Rose: Absolutely. So my, my, uh, property management company is at your family's place. Um, and then I am at hosting in the motherhood on Instagram and our websites are also your family's place. com. It's a booster site and hosting in the motherhood. com.
[00:09:37] Liam: Thank you so much. And thank you for the, uh, the mention of the Boostly site as well. So I've taken away loads of tips. And if the, if you're listening to this and you've got value out of this, which, uh, I hope you have, please do share this with somebody else, another host, a friend. Appear, whoever you will get value out of this podcast as well.
[00:09:56] Um, obviously come and give us a, give Rose a follow and give Boostly at Boostly UK a follow as well. And, um, yeah, this has been so fun, Rose. So, to see us out, I'd love to just ask what the future is it's just under two years since we last talked to you. What does the future hold for you to see us out?
[00:10:13] Rose: So, um, we are in the process of building a giant indoor pool at one of our homes right now. That's our project this spring. I'm very excited about that. But what we are looking forward to this year is acquiring our first property outside of our current location because we built a brand of your family's place.
[00:10:34] But we also know that folks want to travel to more places than just Ohio. So we are looking at expanding our brand to other locations that we love to travel that other families love to travel to. So that when folks are going someplace different, they can have that your family's place experience, but in lots of different areas.
[00:10:53] Liam: Nice. Well, I'm excited to see how that goes. And I know, uh, we'll, we'll have you back for an update in, in a few years. And, uh, I'm sure we'll be talking about all other exciting things and I'm sure more. Media appearances and, and stuff like that because um, the passion for the short-term rental industry that you have is infectious.
[00:11:11] And uh, I certainly gonna take that away from this podcast. So thank you very much, Rose. Best bye from me and uh, feel free to say bye to everyone. Yeah, we'll all see you on the next. See you, everybody.
[00:11:20] Rose: Thank you.
[00:11:21] Liam: Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee
[00:11:24] podcast. Bruce Lee. Let Bruce Lee 'cause it's so hard on the teas.
[00:11:27] Loosely. Looking up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
