[00:00:00] Brad: What most travelers don't know is that OTAs charge a commission to the property management company, to the host, right? But the host isn't typically going to eat that. They're going to. Mark up the nightly rate in order to cover their costs because of course, you know that cuts directly into their commission and that That boosts that nightly rate.
[00:00:21] So most of the time people don't know They don't know that you've just reduced the price from what it was 60 days ago, you know, so we what we're going to do is be able to increase value, uh, for your listing by showing that you've reduced this price 20%. You're serious about, about getting it booked and let's have a
[00:00:41] conversation.
[00:00:49] those rhymes. Don't write it. Just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you'll better put direct. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.
Intro
[00:00:58] Liam: Hi, welcome back to the Boostly podcast. This is a podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence to help you go out there and get more direct bookings.
[00:01:08] And we have the mini series on this podcast where we interview people who are services or. People that you need to know about as a host, uh, wherever you're based in the world. And today we've got a special guest. We've got Bradley DenDulk and he is the founder of Getaway GoGo. You can go and check them out at GetawayGoGo.
[00:01:28] com. And they're an awesome place to consider listing to help you drive direct bookings. And I'm really excited to dive into that. Come along, Bradley. Bradley, welcome.
[00:01:38] Brad: Thank you, Liam. I'm super excited to be here.
What is GetawayGoGo?
[00:01:41] Liam: I'm excited to have you here. So I know I've given a little taster there, but can you give a elevator pitch on, on your business?
[00:01:48] What is a GetawayGoGo
[00:01:50] Brad: Sure GetawayGoGo is a last minute vacation rental book, direct marketplace, and we really combine the convenience and marketing power of an OTA and the pricing and direct communication of, of, uh, direct booking along with the high demand and, uh, excitement. I think of last minute discounts.
[00:02:11] Liam: Can you give us a brief history of how GetawayGoGo came around? What is, um, what is the reason it started? Yeah,
[00:02:19] Brad: so, uh, I was a vacation rental property manager. Um, we owned a company called Beachside Vacation Rentals in Southern California. And our territory was an hour north in Orange County. We're in San Clemente, California.
[00:02:34] And an hour north up into South Los Angeles County, Long Beach, down through Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, San Clemente, and then down into, um, San Diego County as well, so Oceanside and Carlsbad. And what I realized as the, uh, head of revenue management, and as well as marketing, is that even though we were super high occupancy, We had 100, 000 followers on social media, and we had newsletters and we had, uh, you know, great headlines and all the things that go beautiful photos, professional photos, everything.
[00:03:17] But every once in a while, hey, we would, you know, we would have last minute openings at our properties, and I was trying to come up with a strategy to, um, to, you know, to minimize those. And. What I really need. I mean, so we did a lot of those different things, but I realized that what I needed was like a hotel tonight for vacation rentals where I could tell people about my awesome deals in a way that was, you know, easy for them to find.
[00:03:45] And of course, we're, we're targeting, you know, last minute travelers at that point. So I realized, Hey, you know what? We need this and there's a lot of booking, uh, barriers really with the OTAs with you have high, you know, high commissions for the property manager, you have a high service fee for the traveler, uh, you have filtered communication and their reservation policies and those things really impede last minute bookings.
[00:04:14] And so I decided, Hey, you know what? It's not out there. So let's do it. Create, let's create a place. Let's create a last minute marketplace. It's book direct. Um, and, uh, and so we called it Getaway Go Go and. And that's how we started.
How does it help host?
[00:04:31] Liam: How does it actually help hosts? And what do they need to do? So I'm a short term rental host.
[00:04:36] Many of the people listening to this are hosts. What would you say to us that we need to do to, to help get some of these, um, last
[00:04:43] Brad: minute bookends? Yeah. So are you talking about in general for GetawayGoGo, or are you talking about like what you can do in general?
[00:04:51] Liam: A little bit of both. Let's start with the GetawayGoGo and then we'll move into the general.
[00:04:56] Brad: Okay. Yeah, well, I'll tell you whenever whenever there's an opportunity to list your property for free somewhere. Um, I would say take the opportunity and get away on GetawayGoGo. You can list for free. So you're listing your property for free through one of our connected PMS partners, and you need to be connected to a PMS in order to do that.
[00:05:17] And even if I could just say, even if you have just a few properties, I would say connecting to one of the PMS Software packages is really just the way to go when we go to the trade shows and people will say, Hey, we're just going getting going 2345 properties. I'd say the first thing you need to do is get a P.
[00:05:36] M. S. Get organized. Um, I'd say that's that. That's one of the first things. Um, as far as I get away. Go again. You get the list for free and, uh, you have the opportunity of Of making creative headlines, you know, right now on some of the other platforms, the headlines are hidden on Getaway GoGo, you know, promote your property with an amazing, with an amazing headline.
[00:06:00] You could do that again for free. And, uh, once you do get, um, a booking, it's just 10 a booking. So, uh, there's no, and there's no service fee to the traveler. No commission to use just 10, 10 a booking. So what we can do for you is really give you a free, uh, a free listing and you only pay us when we've done our job and you get a booking.
How does it help guests?
[00:06:24] Liam: Let's move on to how it helps, um, guests instead. So how do, why would guests use GetawayGoGo and what's, what's the benefit for them?
[00:06:33] Brad: Yeah, number one, we, uh, we only work with professional property managers. Um, so I think there's a level of trust there, right? And because they're going through a PMS system, um, there's, you know, that, that risk of fraud is, is, is very low to non existent, right?
[00:06:47] So that's number one. Uh, number two is there's no, there's no service fee. So let, let's say a One of my properties in Newport Beach, um, you know, I can go to that property right now and I can tell you that, you know, for a full week, you're going to save several hundred dollars, uh, just by booking through Getaway GoGo.
[00:07:05] Cause at the very end, the pricing may look the same on some of the bigger, you know, let's say on some of. The bigger sites, but when you actually get to the checkout and you see that, uh, service fee that that's not going to be there. And, um, so get away, go, go is going to really help with that. And I can tell you another thing is that is that the, uh, what, what most travelers don't know is that is that the, the, uh, OTAs charge a commission to the property management company, to the host, right?
[00:07:37] But the host isn't typically going to eat that they're going to. Mark up the nightly rate in order to cover their costs because of course, you know that cuts directly into their commission and that that boosts that nightly rate. So, uh, so by by working with Getaway GoGo, they're going to get that book direct price because they're not going to need to yield up 10.
[00:07:59] You know, to the travelers. So the travelers really going to get number one. They're getting trust. Number two, they're getting a book direct price. And number three, here's here's what I think is really important, too, is the power of a marketplace is that they only need to go to one place. Let's say there's 10 companies in my market.
[00:08:17] And they have they have websites, which are really good. And I had one, too. And I'm a big believer in that. I think you should have one. But the reality is that, you know, 65 85 percent of people use some kind of a marketplace, a travel marketplace to to shop. And so they're going to go to a travel marketplace, we can see everything together.
[00:08:36] And now they can go through easily and see all the deals. On one place also on Getaway GoGo and we're going to show the discount. So what we're doing is we're tracking. We're tracking what the prices were. You know, up to 60 days ago for the same prices today. And now we're showing like 50 percent off. Most of the time, people don't know, they don't know that you've just reduced the price from what it was 60 days ago.
[00:09:06] You know, so we what we're going to do is be able to increase value, uh, For your listing by showing that you've reduced this price 20%. You're serious about about getting it booked and let's have a conversation.
Biggest challenge?
[00:09:19] Liam: What would you say has been the biggest challenge? Obviously, you've you've started the STR company.
[00:09:23] You've you've had successful businesses in the past. Now, you know, you've got get away go go. What's the biggest challenge at the moment? And how are you either overcoming it already or how do you plan to overcome
[00:09:33] Brad: it? Right. I think the biggest challenge for us right now is, is that there's a lot of PMS that don't want to connect with us.
[00:09:40] Um, and just having the time and the resources to do it. We have eight in the queue right now, uh, with tens and thousands, tens and tens of thousands of properties that are ready to come on board. Um, but it's just that, you know, the challenge is, it's just having the, the staff and the resources to get it done quickly.
[00:09:59] Liam: Having a blast.
[00:10:00] 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. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
