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The Boostly Podcast
Fries With That? How to Master Upsells & Boost Your Short-Term Rental Profits
00:29:43
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- [00:00]
Mark
All right, Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome everybody to a very special little webinar called Fries with Vats. So this was an idea of Maddie Rifkin who is on her way to be joining us. We did a session at the Short Stay Summit in London and it went down really well and we thought, well, let's get it online so we can record it, pop it on the YouTube, the LinkedIns and everywhere so that more people can get access to it. We have got amazing people that are with me on the stage and we've got people in the audience, which is fantastic. And audience members, those who have taken time out of your day to join us, you are going to have the exclusive opportunity to ask questions at the end. I'm going to let my esteemed panel introduce themselves in a second. But before we get going, if you look on the right of you, there is a little chat box. There's a chat box and there's a question and answer. So in the chat just say hi, let us know where you're tuning in from around the world, let us know more about your business, even pop in a little web link so you can promote your business, which is all good. And then if you've got any questions when it comes to upsells, leave it in the question box. I will take that and then I will make sure that we I asked our esteemed panel as we go. So let's get started, shall we? We'll start with Laura, then go Mike and then go City. Could you just keeper a couple of minutes just to introduce who you are, where you're from and then we'll go from there.
- [01:27]
Laura Muse
Hi, my name is Laura Muse, I'm based in the uk. I have five star award winning holiday let's in the fabulous Pete district. I'm still quite new to the industry. I've only been a host SL owner for the past 3 years but I have learned a lot, a lot. And we're all about it's feeling when you stay at Musascaped it's not just head on a bed and we've created some amazing packages for guests that have hit national press and yeah, that's me really in a nutshell.
- [02:01]
Mike O'Connell
All right, I guess I'm up. So I'm Mike o', Connell, I'm the founder of Happy Guest. I'm also a short term rental owner operator as well. Been in the industry for a few years and to be on here.
- [02:15]
Mark
Nice Sidi.
- [02:16]
Siddhi Matal
Hey everyone, I'm Siddhi, the co founder of Whyhangri. So we are UK's largest private chef platform. And although it might sound super exclusive, actually you can book chefs from as little as like 30 to 40 pounds per person. So it's really quite affordable as a restaurant alternative. We have been on Dragon's Den, we've done over 25, served over like 50,000 guests, and we've been around for five years, so we're pretty big in the consumer market. But the reason we're now looking at the STR market is because more than half of our bookings are actually coming from people on holiday in an amazing venue, booking chefs. So we are just making it very easy for you guys to actually earn commission rather than us paying Google and Facebook that money.
- [02:57]
Mark
Nice. So those of you in the U.S. you heard the Dragons Den, that's basically Shark Tank. Our version over over here. Massive, massive show. Sidi and a co founder were amazing. And you're going to be hearing a lot more of why hungry very soon. So in the chat, could you just please let us know where you are tuning in from, whether it's live or even on the, on the replay as well? Got Julie, Mark, Jojo, Elizabeth. Again, people from all over the world, which is amazing. So let's kick right off. We've got the first question and I want to start with Laura, because Laura is somebody in her business who has tied, taken upsells and just taken it to another level, which I obviously love to see. So when it comes to figuring out what your guests actually want to buy, not just what you're gonna sell them, how do you, like, take, how do you figure out? So for Muse Escapes, how did you work out exactly what it is that you were going to pop in front of your guest for. For upsells, we'll start with Laura, then go Mike, and then we'll, we'll go from, like, city's angle.
- [04:02]
Laura Muse
Well, obviously you have a range of tools available. There's pre checking forms and there's all that jazz. But really for us, the nuts and bolts of it is we contact all of our guests. So 98 of our guests, we speak to every single one of them on the phone. We have a special guest services manager that does that and we look at his reviews, we see what people have commented on why they're coming to stay in the area. But I love AI and I love that everything's automated, but there's nothing better than the personal touch for an actual guest who is checking in. And I think that's one thing that's elevated. Us versus competitors in our local area is Everything is online these days and I am a massive advocate for that, as you know, Mark. But when people come and stay with you, something that creates that feeling is contacted, that contacting them, asking them why they come in. What can we do to make your stay extra special? We do, we do off like just really random upsells if that guest has asked for it. We're not a one size fits all business. We do have three types of guest avatars. But yeah, we, we don't really believe in. If it's sparing you inventory, let's sell it. And we really create something that's really special for us, individual guests who are coming for us. And that can be something from. We don't do hens, but we do things like a boot. Obviously everyone's off booze at the moment. So we've actually done a booze free vacation retreat which was listed in national press because some of our guests asked for it and they wanted a retreat that was not centered around alcohol and it gave them access to lots of other different things that it was more of a health retreat. So yeah, I think for me you've got to pick up that phone and speak to your guest.
- [06:03]
Mark
So for American viewers, Hen is basically a bachelorette. Laura's not selling livestock when you go and stay at home. So opportunity massively we're gonna go off booze and selling hens. So, so I'm going to be the translator I think today in, in, in this worldwide audience. So let's go on to Mike. So Mike, obviously you've got, you're wearing two hats here. You an operator, like you say, you've got, you've got property, but you are also somebody who's created a platform that helps with, with, with upsell. So first and foremost, when it comes to you deciding what you offered, answer it there. But then now that happy guest has been going for a good few months and you obviously get to see behind the data now what people are offering. How do you, how can you answer it on no. Sort of twofold. Yeah.
- [06:55]
Mike O'Connell
And Laura took a lot of the, you know, words out of my mouth there. Kind of where we see success. You can put together the best guidebook and put together the best upsells. Right. But if you don't know who that guest is, you're gonna have a really hard time selling them something that they want. Right. So like, much like Laura, our best operators myself, what we're doing is calling these guests or contacting them, you know, as soon as we possibly can fresh while that bookings and you know, recently created. Right. You need to listen and not invent. Right. And the people that are really good at upselling, you know, they're hitting them before they're even seeing their upsell guide. And we have the ability to actually tailor that, you know, for the guest. And you know, what our team likes to do. What I do is like a 30 second phone call, you know, can create an upsell and write down kind of what you think that guest Persona is. One of the questions that we like to lead with is, hey, you know, we notice you book, are you celebrating anything special? Which then kind of opens the conversation. Maybe they're not. Maybe it's a business trip. Right. So then that kind of leads down that rabbit hole of, you know, what should we be offering it? Seasonality is a big thing too. I can't tell you enough times where it's like I book a mountain stay and someone's offering a lift ticket in August. Right. Or a snowmobile rental in July and vice versa. Like I'm not going to rent a pontoon boat in Michigan when I'm staying there in, you know, February. So just being cognizant of, you know, your seasonal businesses, you know, there's not many places that, you know, it's the same all year round. Just that's something to think of as well.
- [08:29]
Mark
So I, I love all that and I, I definitely believe in, in the human element. And at the end of the day, if you can quick fire get on the call and speak to 10 guests, you're going to get a lot of data very, very quickly. So, Siddhi, if there's anything you wanted to add to that, please do. But I feel like you're, and I feel like I'd like you to touch on anything on there, but also start offers on the second one. So the second question is, once you know your upsell, what's the easiest way to set it up without adding loads of extra work? You can come at this from a tech point of view. Obviously you are creating the tech for business.
- [09:01]
Siddhi Matal
Yeah.
- [09:02]
Mark
Private chef. So there's anything you want to couple onto number one, please do crack on with number two.
- [09:07]
Siddhi Matal
Yeah, I think just to add on to number one, I, I was reading the stat in Sear industry that less than 17% of people are actually offering upsells and most of them are actually only just doing early check in, late checkout. So actually you guys are early if you're thinking about this, which is exciting. I think one other stat that we see from why Hengry is People are actually googling what to do in the area, what food to eat really before they even book your venue. So for example, for us we get loads of holiday home people booking, but they don't know the postcode yet. So they just say, for example Cotswolds or Lake District. They don't know who they're going to book with yet, but they're already googling food options. And like Mike and Laura mentioned, the number one book occasion is birthday. Then like, like bachelorette, like some of these celebrations and then family get together. Multi generational is huge. And then also so actually anything five plus people, they're always looking for food options because usually they don't want to be cooking for multiple days. So I think that's big. And the one other thing that I want to remind people is that actually Airbnb is going to be launching chefs. And what that means is they've obviously identified that food is such a big part that hotels offer that a str property doesn't offer. And often in a larger group it's just a nightmare thinking of food yourself in a rural area. So that's kind of like a key differentiator which people might actually say, oh my God, amazing. You guys offer stuff. So I think the one thing is offer it as early on as possible. Like even mention on your website we will give you catering options afterwards or whatever. So we see a lot of people who add why hengry in inquiry level data. Get a lot of uptake because customers are very excited. Oh, okay, great. Food options will be sorted. And also on the website, how integration works is really simple. There is one affiliate link that you can add to your emails. We can also give you a widget which is like no code. You just add it to your website. One click. And we're also launching on guesty and touch day soon. So you can add it to your guidebooks. Obviously Mike, when we're in us Happy guest is the one we do intend to go to us. But yeah, for any one of you, any part of tech integration takes like less than five to 10 minutes and we sort out all the links for you. So it's as simple as just inserting it in your email or your website.
- [11:20]
Mark
Yeah, I feel like the thing with, with that is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you look, look outside you will see there's software providers that have made their life easy. So once you've done the first step, figuring out exactly what you're going to upsell. And like city says 17. Such a low amount of people actually offer it. So figure it out quick, use your data. So call the guests, super simple to do or even Google forms however you want to do it. Then once you figure it out, you don't have to then go, ah, I can't do this because I don't know how to set this up with my PMS of choice, etc, it may have already been done. So check out the extranets, the marketplaces and have a little look because it's all, it is all in there. So Mike, again jumping on question number two. Obviously you've created Happy Guest around this. Is there anything else that you want to add on top of what, of what city just said then?
- [12:13]
Mike O'Connell
Yeah. So technology is wonderful. I have a tech company, right, and it sounds a little kind of ass backwards. But what I like to tell host is Happy Guest is there for you to free up time to then utilize that extra time to kind of run a full fledged concierge service. Right. If you're filled up with answering guest messages, chasing down rental agreements, all that kind of, you know, mundane process, it gives you time to then actually connect with your guest. So yes, Happy Guest facilitates upsells, you know, and can guide guests to purchasing certain things. But nothing's going to convert like, you know, a human touch. Right. One of the things that I find to be great is I always try to picture my dad as a guest who is not technically sound like he's got an iPhone. I don't know how they let him have that. And he'll probably listen to this later, but you can. What drives me nuts is if when I go to a property and there's just a QR code scan for our guidebook, right? My dad's never going to do that. He's going to sit on, you know, the, the couch and then there's a coffee table there. Never going to stand that. So what we found out, converted really well, is we actually print out these old, like New York Times Sunday papers where they're this elegant, beautiful, you know, printout and that generation of people is going to flip through it. They're going to see restaurants, they're going to see, you know, events. That's all the same stuff that you'd see in the guidebook, which we update seasonally. So don't sleep on your, you know, physical assets in the home because I think that they convert just as well. So if some mom's getting ready, Dad's out in the living room, he's not going to scan the QR code But he might pick up the newspaper. So there's a lot of cool things that, you know, maybe we jump to tech a little too quick. But you need to have both.
- [13:59]
Mark
Do you, Laura, in your property, do you have both? Don't you. You've got the, you've got the physical and you've got the, the digital as well. Is that, Is that all right?
- [14:07]
Laura Muse
To my thinking, yeah, we do. So, I mean, obviously, when I, when we was looking to do upsells, my key thing is probably a little bit different to everybody else maybe, is I were really keen to keep. To create a little ecosystem within the Peak District so that people weren't buying outside of the area, they were using local produce that we use in local experiences. And that's one thing I think we've done really particularly well is we've partnered. We've partnered up very well with the Tourism Board, we've partnered up very well with local businesses within our area. So when people, you know, the biggest thing is when people book on booking.com etc, the money doesn't go into that local area. Whereas when it's a direct booking, I'm really keen that when that guest comes to State News Escapes, they spend their money within the Peak District. They don't go outside of the Peak District to spend that. So we've got really good partnerships. And yes, they book online, then they've got a, you know, a menu of things they can add at source. When they've booked, then Claudia would call them, we could upsell again. And then they've got a guide book in. In the apartment. They've also got a virtual guide book which comes before the stair. So there's four touch points before they've even checked in, really, of what they could purchase. But for me, like, you know, if somebody's in and they want a breakfast pack, we use the. The local supplier down the road. It's a quick email, it's delivered literally to the actual customer. So I think relationships is a really strong part of upselling and especially when you. You want it to be locally sourced and it's, you know, you're trying to. We want to keep. Spend in. For me, for example, in the Peak District, I don't want it to go to Staffordshire or wherever. So, yeah, that was one thing that I really wanted to do was partnerships.
- [15:54]
Mark
You know, so let's just keep it there for a second. When it comes to partnerships, relationships, you're 100, right. How there's gonna be people watching this and they're gonna be like, well, that's all well and good, but I don't know where to begin. Like, how did you sort of not only find them but how did you contact them? What was like the sort of the script that you had to get in front of them. How did you first start that?
- [16:18]
Laura Muse
So I got quite heavily involved with my tourism board, which is Visit Pete District and Derbyshire in England. I don't know about the US or wherever, but it's in England. Obviously you've got many Layer District, whatever. They do a series of events. I became a member, they do networking events. I went to everyone. They do things called member days. So then I go visit other local attractions. So we go visit the local kayaking center, we go visit, you know, the local stately home. And it's by doing things like that that I got these connections with people and that's where the relationship started. And my picture is. Hi, my name is Laura from Userscapes. You know, I really want to give my guests an exceptional five star experience, but I want to keep the spend within the Peak District. Can we work together? You know, and I don't take, you know, I don't cream anything off the top from that and I genuinely don't. You could, but I, I don't. I just want to give my, my guests a really great unique experience with local family businesses. So that's what I to do. I don't know if I've answered your question there.
- [17:23]
Mark
No, you're 100%. 100% right.
- [17:25]
Siddhi Matal
City.
- [17:25]
Mark
We're gonna keep it with you. So you're a, a guest, right? And you've just come a holiday and you've booked a place and you've gone and you want something to do, right? You see, your property can offer private chefs, right? So how would you encourage a host, a property manager in this room to then market the fact that you can offer your guest private chefs? Like, what are you encouraging? How are you encouraging? How is your team going to host and saying, okay, this is how you actually sell?
- [17:57]
Siddhi Matal
Yeah, that's a great point. And I forgot to bring this up before. We actually offer 10% commission back on every single booking. So Laura. I know. And then that incentive is, for example, our average AOV is £800, so someone can earn up to 80 quid on a booking. And actually, I completely agree with Laura. We partner people up with local chefs. So for example, a customer goes on, creates a request, see a bunch of local chefs, which is like quite important for actually customers also to book local to the venue. And then when that booking goes through, etc. The hosts get a significant chunk for actually just kind of adding that link and ensuring that it's local chefs being shown. So I think that's, number one, monitoring incentive is quite nice because I know it's hard as a PM to make sure you're doing all this stuff and earning money, and then number two, where all of this works, Mark. So, like, inquiry emails are so good because we get told even. Even if they're not yet booking a venue, they get very excited to know that the venue has some form of partnership so they don't have to worry about this later. And like our platform, the benefit is chefs and services are quite flaky. Like, if you try to find a chef, they might be unavailable the moment you try to book them.
- [19:07]
Laura Muse
So.
- [19:07]
Siddhi Matal
So with why Hangry, you're really making the customer's life easier because you're saying on a Saturday you have six options and if to get booked, you still have four options. And it just takes the stress away of, oh, my God, like, I haven't found a chef, or I called them and then they ghosted me. So why Hangry just makes all that really easy. So as a customer, you're like, okay, cool, I want to book something I've paid and booked. So yeah, but the earlier up you put it, it actually also increases host conversion. Like, we know people who are now starting to add it to their websites just to differentiate and say, yeah, cool, we add this experience, we offer it to their guests. So I would say, yeah, for upsells. One of you guys made this comment, but it's not something that comes after booking. If you're offering something like this, you might as well shout about it earlier on. Like, Laura, like, the more you offer stuff, people are attracted by it and they'll come to you. It's kind of like booking one hotel versus the other. You book the one which has more amenities if everything else is the same. Yeah.
- [20:02]
Mark
Mike, what do you want to add to that? Because marketing obviously is a. Is a big part of.
- [20:06]
Mike O'Connell
Yeah, no, and I wish Matty was on here too, because, like, UGC is. Is big for us. And when you have kind of those videos and photos to create fomo, the term, you know, fear of missing out, it goes a long way. We have loads of properties which we work with Maddie from Mount, where all of the tours, local activities, things that you can book, have these awesome reels that are kind of in your. In your face. We also have a setup within Happy Guest where you can kind of tease Upgrades right as they're signing the rental agreement. So that rental agreement gets signed and then you can actually tease out what upsells are going to be available so they get a glimpse of it. And you can get really creative too. If you know that guest Persona, once they book, you can go in there and kind of switch it around and, you know, do different fits if you want to get really wild, especially if it's a repeat guest or a direct booking.
- [21:00]
Mark
So at the, at the summit, the short stay summit that we're talking about, there was an extra point brought up by one of your co founders. Mike Benny said one of the cool things about this as well about upselling is we know how our guests are booking. When they make that booking, they're probably reserving or inquiring about staying at three or four places at once. And then what they're gonna do is they're gonna see, you know, how it all falls, who likes what, and then they'll probably cancel two or three and then just keep the one. And if you are offering upsells, and let's just say the private chef example, let's just say I'm gonna book at Laura's place and I've gone on reserved and paid for a chef voi hangry. When it comes to actually deciding which one I'm gonna state and keep my booking with, it's obviously going to be Laura's because I've. I've already booked in the experience. Whereas if you didn't offer any of this and the person has gone and booked three places, the chances of them canceling yours becomes greater if you add in that human touch as well, where somebody calls as soon as the bookings made, have a little chat again, it just makes you more likely that you are the place that they're going to arrive. Because I feel that the big misconception in our industry is that when the booking comes in, they feel like that's job done. That's not, it's not job done. It is not a confirmed booking until they step through your door. And I feel like everything that you can be doing to put in front of a future potential guest or a potential guest, including upsells, is key. So if you are watching this or watching back to this and you are not yet doing upsells and you're thinking how, then hopefully this webinar has been able to, to give you some inspiration on how to get started. So the final question then, and we'll go Laura, then Mike and then City. If you were to get Started or you have once got started, what would you do right now? Laura, if it was to do one thing after this webinar, after watching it, listening to it, what would you do to. To. To. To get started in the upsell journey?
- [23:03]
Laura Muse
Well, I just want. Can I. I don't want to be a pain, but can I just go back to last question? That's what's in my mind. So the. The reason I started doing the upsells, probably answers. But both questions is because I started to experience them myself. So I went kayaking, I went absailing. I had the private chef at my property. I had a. In, you know, we hired a local pampering service that came and did massage and facials at my place. So it kind of started because I wanted them. I wanted them for me and my family and my friends when they came to stay with us. And for me. The reason I'm so passionate about it is because it is a feeling. Like it. It tells a story. Because I've done these things, it tells my guest a story. So you're not pushing a product. You're pushing a feeling and an experience that I think if you don't experience yourself, maybe not as passionate in doing. So if I was to start again, if I'm being really blunt, I won't do anything different. I. I feel by using and experiencing my upsells is why we do so well with them.
- [24:13]
Mark
Love that, Mike. Anything to add?
- [24:15]
Mike O'Connell
Piggyback off of that, too? I mean, different guests are staying at the. At the property at different times of the year, right? So that initial call, are you celebrating anything? I would just make that call, even if you don't have any upsells available, just to kind of understand what the guests are coming, you know, for, right? So say a hendo comes or a bachelorette party. You might, you know, learn that on the phone. And they might say, oh, is it okay if we have, you know, an IV person come in? And you're like, yeah, sure. But I feel like in your mind, you're like, maybe I should be the one that's setting this up. I feel like that local IV company would probably give me a kickback or some sort of referral code, and then that's just going to start snowballing, right? And like Laura said, here in the states, every single municipality has a local tourism board, whether it's a big organization or a small one. Every local museum, Guess what? They don't want to deal with the big, huge OTAs, which they are forced to anyways. They're taking a massive cut. What's the worst that happens? They say no. Walk into the museum, right? If you're in town or if you're local, go ask them, hey, do you have any referral programs for local operators and business owners? And nine times out of 10 they're going to say yes or yeah, you know what, we should create something like that. So I think a lot of people are just scared and, you know, don't want to, you know, mess up a good thing. And it doesn't even have to be upselling, right? Because we're in the world of reviews. If you can offer all of these great recommendations, maybe there's a tour like in my town, they're shooting this HBO series and the local, you know, museums doing this, you know, fully guided tour. You get to go to all the sets, 250, selling like hotcakes, right? If I push someone to that, even though I might not make money off of it, it might reflect in the review. So focus on that. And then it's like, if I can make some more money, why not? So that's kind of my advice there.
- [26:02]
Mark
Cool city to wrap this up. What do you got?
- [26:06]
Siddhi Matal
Yeah, I mean, I was just. You guys have covered a lot. I think like testing is such a good way where before you even like forge all the partnerships, it could be as simple as updating like your email, whether it's inquiry or booking, saying, hey, let's say, of course I'm gonna say chef for catering. Let's say we have options available. Email us if you want recommendations. And you might just find people emailing you back and saying, oh, can you tell me? And then you suddenly know if you have demand or not. So you can even just start off by telling them you have something and seeing if someone emails you back, for example, or just adding that to your website and then seeing who comes in on the back of that.
- [26:39]
Mark
Nice. There's loads and loads of little actionable nuggets in this webinar. So please make sure that if you need to watch it back, it's obviously going to get recorded. And we'll post that on all the socials and. But my most important takeaway for you all is just get going. You know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Like I said, just use this next week, seven days after here to pick up the phone, speak to your past guests, see what, what experiences they did do, or even call the new bookings that are coming up and ask what they are looking forward to do. And with all the Data, you will find something to offer and then once you do, go and check your pms, go and check the marketplace because they may already be linked up to providers that can put you in touch of people such as why hangry? Such as Happy Guest. So this is the opportunity now. We're going to start with Laura, then Mike and then City. Where would you like people to go to find out more about you and what you're doing?
- [27:33]
Laura Muse
Come and see me on Facebook, Laura Muse, Official Laura Muse. That's me. Or you can visit musescapes.com and have a look at our amazing upsell offering.
- [27:45]
Mark
Love it, Mike.
- [27:46]
Mike O'Connell
You can come see us on Instagram, LinkedIn, our website. It's all Happy Guest, Official Laura. We didn't copy you, but you know, one little takeaway. I, I see this all the time and it's wild how many are converting anyone that offers pets pet friendly accommodations. Add an upsell in there for pet walking, pet sitting. If you're in a town where you know a family's coming in, if you're going skiing all day, guess what you don't want to do? Go let out the dog at noon. I am shocked how many of these are are converting. And like it's a fun little thing that you can have your cleaning team do. It converts like hell. So just try it out, see what happens. What's the worst that worst?
- [28:25]
Mark
I can see City spinning. A what? Not a Y hungry but like a Y pet spin off of.
- [28:31]
Siddhi Matal
I love it.
- [28:32]
Mark
Why pet your tech brain going already? It's like, hang on a second. Go on and let everybody know what.
- [28:37]
Mike O'Connell
They need to go.
- [28:38]
Mark
Go.
- [28:38]
Siddhi Matal
Yeah, I just pinged the link in comments but really the website, there is a footer where you can sign up to be affiliate or honestly just add me on LinkedIn, City Matal and send me a message. We really do everything from setting up your link to invoicing to telling you what to do. So really it is the one stop shop of everything and it takes you like less than five minutes to add those links. So yeah, just add me on LinkedIn and DM me. It's probably the easiest.
- [29:00]
Mark
All right, brilliant. Thank you very much for spending some time with with me today. You free. It's been lovely and it's been good that we could document this, this panel that we did in in real life, put it online so we can share it on the socials. Everybody that's tuned in live with us, I hope you've got somewhat from it and if you need to watch the replay, like I said we'll try and get it on YouTube, on the boostly YouTube and the linkedins and all that good stuff. Without further ado, let's get a picture for the socials. You free? On the count of three, give me a nice big smile. One, two, three. Look it. Lovely. All right, let me pause the recording and we'll let you all go on with your day. Have a great time. Thank you very much for joining us.