Scaling & Selling: Lessons from Guest Homes with Josh Guest

Summary

The Boostly Podcast: Scaling & Selling – Lessons from Guest Homes with Josh Guest

Host: Mark Simpson
Guest: Josh Guest, Founder of Guest Homes
Release Date: December 16, 2024

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Introduction to Guest Homes

In this episode of The Boostly Podcast, host Mark Simpson welcomes Josh Guest, the founder of Guest Homes, to discuss his journey in the short-term rental industry. Josh shares his experiences from starting a rent-to-rent business, scaling it to 130 units, and eventually selling the business to the Host and Stay group. This episode is particularly insightful for hosts aiming to grow their rental businesses sustainably and effectively.

Starting Out: Lessons Learned [02:05 – 07:17]

Josh Guest began Guest Homes in 2018 by acquiring an existing rental service accommodation (RSA) business in Brighton, despite having limited knowledge of the industry. Reflecting on his early days, Josh emphasizes the steep learning curve involved in managing properties remotely:

“I literally just some guy basically said he's got these free rental estate properties. I didn't even know the terminology of that.”
— Josh Guest [03:06]

Key challenges included managing logistics from four hours away, dealing with maintenance issues, and unfamiliarity with property operations. Josh advises newcomers to immerse themselves in the details and systemize operations to handle scaling effectively.

Scaling the Business [07:17 – 10:41]

Transitioning from managing a few units to scaling up was not instantaneous. Josh recounts a period of intense networking, conducting numerous property viewings, and facing numerous rejections before gaining traction. Persistence paid off as referrals and positive word-of-mouth began to drive exponential growth:

“It just sort of just snowboard effect just flowing off from there.”
— Josh Guest [10:41]

Acquiring Units vs. Focusing on Guests [10:41 – 13:57]

Josh underscores the importance of prioritizing unit acquisition over guest acquisition, especially in the early stages. Acquiring more properties lays a stronger foundation for sustainable growth, while guest acquisition can follow through established channels like OTAs.

“Initially you've got to go for acquiring units.”
— Josh Guest [11:09]

He advises leveraging OTAs initially to build a customer base before shifting focus to direct bookings, highlighting that competing with OTA marketing budgets is challenging without significant resources.

Marketing Strategies [26:53 – 28:34]

Effective marketing is crucial for scaling a short-term rental business. Josh elaborates on a multifaceted approach, incorporating:

• Networking Events: Building relationships with property investors and landlords.
• Online Advertising: Utilizing Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SEO to attract leads.
• Social Media: Growing personal and business brands on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Direct Outreach: Contacting landlords directly through calls, emails, or LinkedIn to pitch management services.

“Look at the funnel. There's no actual strategy of actually how to actually scale the business there.”
— Josh Guest [27:06]

Role of Technology [29:07 – 32:55]

Technology plays a pivotal role in scaling and managing multiple properties efficiently. Josh highlights essential tools such as:

• CRM Systems and Channel Managers: Streamlining bookings, automated messaging, and payment processing.
• Property Management Software: Tools like PriceLabs for dynamic pricing.
• Maintenance and Housekeeping Software: Managing schedules and quality control.

However, Josh cautions against over-investing in expensive software too early:

“Make sure you're working at your costs and keep costs low.”
— Josh Guest [31:50]

He advises starting with cost-effective solutions and scaling technology investments in line with business growth to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Challenges of Managing Wide Areas [32:55 – 35:10]

Managing properties spread across different locations introduces complexities such as maintenance coordination and quality control. Josh recommends establishing robust systems, including:

• Local Teams: Hiring reliable cleaning and maintenance services in each area.
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Detailed guidelines for property inspections, appliance usage, and emergency protocols.
• Documentation: Comprehensive manuals and video tutorials for property-specific quirks to minimize on-site issues.

“Basically just try and think of everything you might get question of or an issue with and try and document it all.”
— Josh Guest [35:10]

Selling the Business [21:53 – 22:54]

After achieving significant growth, Josh decided to sell Guest Homes to the Host and Stay group. The decision was influenced by opportunities to further scale the business under a larger umbrella while maintaining involvement:

“We agreed a deal from there and I thought, well, that'd be the right time to sort of exit.”
— Josh Guest [21:53]

This strategic exit allowed Josh to leverage Host and Stay’s resources to continue growing his portfolio and explore new ventures.

Key Ingredients for Success [24:21 – 26:53]

Josh identifies several critical factors that contributed to his success:

1. Hard Work and Determination: A relentless drive to scale and overcome challenges.
2. Client and Customer Care: Prioritizing excellent service to earn positive reviews and referrals.
3. Effective Marketing: Implementing comprehensive marketing strategies to attract clients and guests.
4. Systemization: Establishing robust operational systems to manage multiple properties seamlessly.

“If you've really got that determination to drive, then you'll get it to a stage, wherever that is.”
— Josh Guest [24:21]

Future Plans and Additional Ventures [38:22 – 40:17]

Post-sale, Josh is expanding into the linen hire business with Guest Linen, serving Worcestershire, Birmingham, and nearby areas. He plans to scale this new venture while continuing to grow his involvement with Host and Stay.

“I'm looking forward to that and then see where my journey takes me.”
— Josh Guest [40:17]

Conclusion

Josh Guest’s journey with Guest Homes exemplifies strategic scaling, effective use of technology, and the importance of robust systems in managing and growing a short-term rental business. His insights provide valuable lessons for hosts aiming to achieve independence and scalability in the competitive hospitality industry.

For more information or to connect with Josh Guest, visit www.guesthomes.uk or reach out via his social media channels.

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Notable Quotes:

• Josh Guest [03:06]: “I didn't even know the terminology of that.”
• Josh Guest [10:41]: “It just sort of just snowboard effect just flowing off from there.”
• Josh Guest [11:09]: “Initially you've got to go for acquiring units.”
• Josh Guest [27:06]: “Look at the funnel. There's no actual strategy of actually how to actually scale the business there.”
• Josh Guest [31:50]: “Make sure you're working at your costs and keep costs low.”
• Josh Guest [35:10]: “Basically just try and think of everything you might get question of or an issue with and try and document it all.”
• Josh Guest [24:21]: “If you've really got that determination to drive, then you'll get it to a stage, wherever that is.”
• Josh Guest [40:17]: “I'm looking forward to that and then see where my journey takes me.”

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates Josh Guest’s experiences and strategies in scaling a short-term rental business, offering actionable insights for hosts aiming to enhance their own operations and achieve sustainable growth.

Transcript

[Mark Simpson]

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[Liam]

Welcome to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives host the tools, the tactics, the tips and most importantly, the confidence so you can go out there and get yourselves more direct bookings. We do A series where we go behind the host and that's exactly what we're doing today. We've got a guest who has got a short term rental business and particularly today, this guest has not only started his business, scaled his business, but he's now in the. He's just sold his business and going through that at the moment. So this is a really good chance for you as a host to learn from somebody who has done this and you can pick up tips, tricks and all of the good stuff from this podcast. So let me introduce, we've got a special guest, we've got Josh Guest on the, on the line with us. He is from Guest Homes and let's dive into his business. Welcome along, Josh.

[Josh Guest]

Good morning, Liam. Yeah, looking forward to it.

[Liam]

So, Josh, for those, I know you've been on this podcast once before, but that was a little while ago now. So can you reintroduce your business, give us the elevator pitch?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, no, so it started guest homes in 2018. Actually started it as a rent to SA business and sort of got into it a bit out of nowhere actually, because I bought an existing rental service accommodation business which was in Brighton, four hours away from where I live, which was definitely lots of learning curves around that side of things which we can dive into a bit later on. And then I, lots of people then started asking me about managing their properties and where I live locally in Worcester. I thought it was a good market for it here because there's lots of things going on and they'd open up a new premier inn at a cricket club. So actually there's a good market here, let's give it a go. Opened a couple of units up, they were flying off and then. And it just stopped. The traction just started going and more and more people keep asking me to manage their properties and scaled up from there.

[Liam]

Nice, nice. And what do you want people to get out of this podcast? Obviously you've had a lot of experience. What would you like somebody to take away from this podcast?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, so to be honest, just, just hopefully they can pick up lots of little tips and advice depending on what stage they're at in the business. So we grow into 130 units before selling a business. So. So whether you're just getting started and take some bits away from. Just about. Yeah. About getting started or wanting to take advice on how to scale it and exit the business and following my sort.

[Liam]

Of footsteps, really, I know no matter what level somebody is listening to this, whether or not you're looking to get your first unit. You know, at that stage just getting one unit is amazing, isn't it? And if you're on a couple of units you're looking to get to 10 units. And if you're on 10 units, often people are going well however do I scale to 30, 30 and then you've got kind of that 50 to 100 mark and then over that 100. Certainly to me who's got just under 30 units, I'm looking at it just going wow, that, that must take a lot of work. So I'm really eager to learn from you and to dive into that side of things. So you mentioned your, one of the first lessons there was you literally just bought an existing business. So what did you learn in the very early days? What did you feel you learned in the early days and what do you wish you'd have learned faster in those early days?

[Josh Guest]

So well I got into the industry knowing completely literally nothing about it. I literally just some guy basically said he's got these free rental estate properties. I didn't even know the terminology of that. And he literally, basically he showed me his P now over the last two years and I was like well basically what I'm going to pay him for it. I can get my money back in nine months. How hard can it be? I was like I've got money just sat there at the moment in stocks and shares getting like 10% a year. I was like well I can get money back in nine months and then make that back again the following year. So like it's just a no brainer. So but the biggest lesson that I probably learned from that was yeah, being four hours away then taking on those properties then trying to sort the logistics out. We've seen cleaners, maintenance issues, all sorts of that I never really knew about and then yeah, any sort of questions from guests. I didn't obviously really know these properties that well because obviously just taking it over from someone else. I didn't really know the property super well but to try and either spend quite a lot of time down in Brighton which then four hours traveling, either staying down there, sorting things out and, and more particularly in Brighton trying to sort out maintenance or cleaners is quite chaos because it's obviously a busy city and there's not nowhere for anyone to park. So all the tradespeople don't want to do anything for less than probably £100 at a time. So it just change your life always hard to get sorted. So yeah there was lots of learning curve but I definitely recommend if anyone's Looking to either invest in property or rent, to essay or even management. Just to start off, we try and do an hour of where you are so you can sort of learn the sort of nuts and bolts of things until you can build the systemization to scale it.

[Liam]

That's really good. And is there anything that you wish you'd have learned faster from way back then?

[Josh Guest]

Not necessarily faster. I think you've got to learn everything as you go on, but probably just learning more systemization and outsourcing some things. But I think in a way that's part of the journey. And also if you do that too early on, then you probably end up overspending on systemization or endorse overspending on staff. So is in, in my view, it's actually good to learn everything from the ground up.

[Liam]

Yeah. And those I see a lot of the time where people have just got like one or two units and they're going, hey, I want to now make this passive and I want to make this. And you're like, no, that, that's, that's not going to happen. I mean like if anything it gets more involved, doesn't it, the more, more units you get. So you mentioned that was kind of like the early days. That was kind of rent to rent. And I think one thing that we should mention for anybody who's not seen the, the video here, if you go To Boostly on YouTube, you can watch the video of this. But if you are listening, Josh, you're, you're, you're certainly younger than me, but what age were you when you done when you started this business?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, So I was 20 years old when I started.

[Liam]

Amazing, amazing. And a very brave thing to do, but also a very savvy thing to do because like you say you looked at the P and L and just went, hey, I can make money here. So talk us through how you went from those first few units. What was kind of like the next stage? Did it just happen gradually? I mean, you mentioned that you've sold the business at 130 units and you mentioned, I think it was four rent rent units you started with. So what happened in the middle?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, so like I said, kind of came back to Worcester and I had like a bit of a brainstorm moment. Said like actually now we need to, we need to scale this business. Like this is a great opportunity here. So it's kind of like starting from scratch stuff again because technically these first free units I never, I never found. So I never had to go and speak to agents, landlords, Etc because obviously I just bought an existing business so it's fortunate on that side. But then I was basically starting from scratch so I needed to go network, speaking to agents, speaking to some director, landlords etc, try and find some more rent service accommodations. And that's what I was looking down initially because I thought I was going to initially scale up. So I started to look, look around for options to try and do that. But I'd actually quite hard and it took, it did take me three to six months of hard graft of doing lots of viewings with either letting agents or trying to do direct to vendor viewings as well. And I kept getting lots of no's and I thought it would have been easier to start off with because I technically, technically had a track record of these three units even so obviously they didn't know, obviously. But obviously because I'm in a complete different area basically everyone's treating me as a new start business still. So I was like this is actually harder than I thought. But yeah, did lots and lots and lots of viewings and then eventually I got a yes and then I got another yes and then they got another yes and then suddenly within like a two or three month period and the traction just really hit and it just like just drove off and then some of the people were like actually because some of the direct vendor clients are like actually I want a piece of that but I don't want to manage it so could you just manage it for me? And then I sort of just connect me with other investors in the area and they're like oh I know my friend as well, they've got property or she's got a property and pass me their details. And then it just sort of just snowboard effect just flowing off from there.

[Liam]

Do you think? Obviously as you've scaled there and it sounds like you know and nobody should be under any illusion, there's lots of hard work involved, isn't it? With any short term rentals do you think that the focus for people starting up or scaling should be more on acquiring units or more on acquiring guests? What is more important or is there or is there is that siloed or is it just both at the same time?

[Josh Guest]

Initially you've got to go for acquiring units. Definitely. That's definitely the biggest thing and that's probably where I see most people actually fail from it is or they don't realize how much hard work there is especially in that sort of first 12 months, two years. There's always hard work in scaling any business even after that. But those first 12 months, if you really want to get quite a lot of units, you really need to get out there. I know there's people that do like 5 uns and they're like, everyone said no and it's like, well, yeah, go and do another 20 viewings and if you've done a hundred and then you still get in those and there might be something going wrong but. But there's. You've really got to keep getting out there and thinking outside the box. And obviously it's got a bit trickier over the years. More people have done it, so more people have been asked the questions now or landlords have been asked the question about doing rent to essay or management. So yeah, you just got to really get out there to really drive it. But I think that's the biggest thing to start off with, get units and then obviously you need to get a customer, obviously you need to fill the properties, but you can do that quite easily through the platforms. Obviously initially I know this is about sort of direct bookings and stuff like that and that's definitely a route that you can obviously push down towards maybe once you scaled a few units and push more direct bookings, but initially let the platforms do it. So if the property is good enough, you get the booking from the platforms and yes, you paying them 15% but these platforms are spending billions of pounds of marketing. You can't compete with that. And a few hundred quid on when you got a first listing on paying for bookings is nothing in the scheme of things because you'd spend more than that trying to get generate direct bookings anyway.

[Liam]

Yeah, we do openly say as well like some people try and avoid going on the OTAs altogether and we're like, no, do go on the OTAs because ultimately that will bring you a customer base that you can then get emails from and you can then build your direct bookings from that. Don't get me wrong, there are people, there's somebody we know with like an a frame tree house who is just all direct bookings and she's not been on OTAs. And it's amazing but it's a rare story for most of us who have regular homes. You do need to start at least as you say on those portals. But so you've got this mix, you've got to this stage where you've got a mix of like rent to rent and or rental arbitrage for our US listeners and you've also got a bunch of management. At what stage did the portfolio kind of reach that half and half mark and then did you. Do you even out these 130? Did you continue to grow these hundred, sorry, the rent to rent within that 130 or did you go well actually I'm just going to switch to management at some stage.

[Josh Guest]

Yeah. So we probably, probably sort of coming out of very Covid time, we built a fair few rent to rent probably 20 odd units and we said we're just going to focus on now just driving the management. We knew what service we could offer and that's probably when we tipped over to match our levels of rent to rents and management properties and we said let's just drive the management now because we felt like we could acquire those quicker. That was actually that one of our main things, but one of two of our things was we keep obviously having to furnish the properties and pay upfront costs of that. So we were sort of a bit against that. And then the second thing was, well, a lot of people are speaking to now, they also want a bit of this extra income they can earn. So why don't we just scale up the management? That should be an easier sell instead of just offering the rent to rent side of things. So yeah, we pushed that and that went really well and yeah, just managed to scale up from there. So we now, we now still got about 25 to SA units. So we still managed to acquire some more but I've only taken them on from existing clients that we already work with basically and I know that they give us a good spec of property.

[Liam]

What's your opinion? Obviously we're recording this in 2024. There's been a huge amount of change in the industry since. What year did you start the business?

[Josh Guest]

2018.

[Liam]

2018. So you've seen quite a lot of changes in covert right in the middle of that as well. So would you say, are you still looking for rent to rent units? Is it still the opportunity or would you still be looking for rent rent units if you haven't sold or is it now really management is the mainstay of the business.

[Josh Guest]

Yeah. So management is definitely our mainstay of the business to continue scaling that and then the rent to essay side. I'll still take on units if they're a really good unit. And it definitely stacks probably. Obviously from the early days I'd just take on anything and hopefully make sure it did stack but I'd make sure it 100% stacked now so I wouldn't rush into it. And then I'm looking to buy some properties as well. So we already bought, we've got a small portfolio of four properties already. So. But we're looking to scale up more of that side of things. But obviously for anyone starting out which doesn't have the funds to buy, that's definitely still a market for rent to sa. But obviously the market probably got slightly tougher. So just don't jump into the first thing that you see. Make sure you've actually ran the numbers, make sure you negotiate with the landlords. I see some people will pay over the rental asking price now to take out to try and get their first couple of units. But I always paid the rental price at the time. Technically some of ours have stayed the same for the last five, six years. They're actually under market value now. But I paid the right correct market value at the time. I didn't try and negotiate £25 off because I thought there's no point in if you can't make the £25 back, what's the point in negotiating that? Often causing an argument from day one. But I wouldn't want to pay over the asking price because you're technically offering in that landlord a very good service. So. And then you just need to think about the rest the whole property now because you have got the fire rates and stuff. So are you going to have to invest in fire doors? So if you go take on like a four bed house, you need to put fire doors in the whole property. Do you need to put a full smoke interlink smoke alarm system in how much that are going to cost? So it's taken that there's a lot more things you need to factor in and to work out the cost. But if you can still make a profit on it, you can still make a profit on it.

[Mark Simpson]

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[Liam]

That's really, I mean, it's great advice. And I mean, ultimately, if something stacks, why wouldn't you take it still do you know, I mean, it's, it's a deal. And this is the key thing. The reason why a lot of people, I think are worried at the moment is because you analyze a lot and unfortunately just in life, you analyze a lot of things and then deals and you only take the deals, don't you? You know, like this. In terms of the number of opportunities that come to you, when you think back over the last, you know, back to 2018, when you think of all the opportunities that have come to you and you look at the number of deals that stacked, what would you say is the percentage that has done just as an idea of what people should be considering taking forward?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, as in actual. Probably actually deals actually came to me that they're happy to generally give me the keys, but probably say as it probably fortunately quite a high percentage. So we're probably, probably only 25, 30% haven't stacked. But that's probably because I've worked with a small set of landlords, clients that if they were offering me a property, I knew it was good in the first place. And also they knew what I wanted. So sometimes they'd try and offer me something that didn't work. But then they sort of, they sort of learned my model. So then they didn't offer me stuff that was no good in the end. Even some we took on the end last year a block of 4. It was a commercial conversion. So obviously the landlord was already putting in fire doors and stuff like that anyway, putting in the interlink, smoke alarms, the emergency lighting. So if I think it's just maybe changing the model Slightly. If you need to make sure it's got all of the compliance side of things, you might try and target landlords that are basically just doing a full refurb on a place or trying to. Or it's a block of flats, like a small block of flats. So it's got all the right compliance in already, so you don't need to worry about changing everything. You might have to change a few things, maybe some thumbs and locks or something like that, but it's not going to be a huge cost to you.

[Liam]

That's a great advice. I mean, ultimately those ones they're already putting in the infrastructure you need, so it's already more likely to qualify for what you need. So that makes sense. So obviously you've grown the business and you've got to a stage where you've got over that 100 mark, which is really well done to get over that 100 mark because you see so many people get stuck at different numbers. When did you decide, do you know what, now is the right time to sell? Was it a. Was it a pre kind of set thing that you said, hey, I'm going to sell in that year or how did that come around?

[Josh Guest]

So, yeah, so obviously we haven't even mentioned the group that we joined yet as well. So we joined the Host and Stay group. So I met Dale, Dale Smith, the founder of Host and Stay Back a couple years ago in Barcelona and they said at the time that they were looking to scale the business and looking to acquire some businesses. So I had sort of a initial chat then and a slight, oh, that's definitely something that I would be interested in the future, I don't know when. And then we had like a further chat back in the last year, obviously, discuss some prices and how I could sort of. Obviously, as you said before, how many? 26 years old. So I was like, well, I wanted to continue scaling it a bit more, but I was like, if there's some option of where I could stay in the business to help continue scaling it, then I'd be interested. So we had further discussion from there and sort of agreed a deal from there and I thought, well, that'd be the right time to sort of exit.

[Liam]

Nice, nice. And hosting Stay is amazing. We've had Dale Smith on this podcast and I remember his words of advice at the end was go so fast that if the wheel comes off, you've got time to put it back on again before the next person catches up. And you can see at the time when I spoke to him, they were the 12th biggest short term rental company in the UK that were starting to take on the say the big, the big guys. They are a big guy now and they, but they were taken on the, you know, reaching the stages of the cottages and like psychs and that side of things, you know, that few, few of the bigger sort of entities. And yeah, it's, it's amazing because I know they are moving from the north downwards and they've just reached a number of areas that they haven't been in before. They're buying businesses, expanding their units, which is amazing and like you say, especially if you're able to stay on and you know, work with them, then it works for everyone. Right. And I'm excited to see what happens there in general. So looking at the journey so far, what is the key to a successful business in short term rent or why do you feel that you've achieved what others haven't and scale to that and been able to sell? What was kind of the ingredients that you think if you could give your, you know, yourself in 2018, what would those ingredients be?

[Josh Guest]

So I think there's a few different things obviously dealt with kids involved in this. I think in short, one would be just working hard and going fast. Obviously it's similar to analogy that kind of like as you just said about. But I think you've got to work very hard to get any business off the ground. So whatever you're doing, if you, if you've really got that determination to drive, then you'll get it to a stage, wherever that is. So if you're really determined to get to 100 units or a thousand units, you will definitely do that. You might have to work 24, seven a day, but you will definitely do that if you've got that determination. So I think that's one of the biggest things. And then more for this sector involved, there's obviously a few really important things like making sure you really care about your clients. If you're running a management business and also caring about your customers as well, make sure you care about both of those two. Obviously at the end of the day, they're both your main ingredients to paying you as a business owner, bringing the money in for the business and also paying your staff and team, etc. So making sure you're getting really good reviews, whether that's clients leaving reviews or customers leaving reviews. And that's such a big driver also for bringing bookings into the properties. So that is such a key one for the SDR sector to make sure you're pushing the reviews for actually driving more business into bringing on more clients or more properties working out as well, like a marketing strategy to actually obviously drive the business. I think a lot of people actually do any marketing, so they've just grown their business organically. We did that for quite a long time, but once we actually turned on a bit of a marketing funnel, download the scale quicker, I think a lot of people actually, I don't know whether it's, whether it's just. Because obviously technically the STR strategies maybe come from other strategies like buy to let and stuff like that, which are technically side investments, which is more of an investment strategy. Whereas this is actually running a business. Not. This is not just a strategy, this is actually running a business. So I don't know whether people have forgot that you got actually look at it as a, as a business and how to actually structures it, run it as a, all the different elements of running a business. But yeah, marketing, such a, such a key and that even always help bringing in customers as well at the end of the day and clients. So definitely driving that side of things and driving the sales side.

[Liam]

I think you're right. The marketing. So many people don't advertise. And when we, when we say marketing, are we talking ads, are we talking, you know, email campaigns or going to networking events or all of the above?

[Josh Guest]

Yeah, absolutely. All of it. So yeah, you can, you can, you can literally just go on Google and type in, just say marketing strategies and it'll give you a list of 100 different sections. But you can literally go into networking events and that could be any sort of networking events. It doesn't have to be property network events. It could be any sort of network event where you could find property investors or landlords, then go into, run Facebook ads, Google Ads, SEO on your website. Just trying to do, even direct to landlords. If you're trying to scale your management business, you could go on Airbnb, find a direct landlord. They're probably going to go, they've probably got a small website which isn't appearing on Google anyway. And then you could then just call them up and just go and find a direct website. Or you could mail shot them. You get there and try and find their emails, find them on LinkedIn. Yeah, social media is massive anyway. Just even growing your own personal brand as well to actually bring in traction, say for say like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc. People start to reach out to you. Yeah, you've got rumble running a business. You need to, you need to Sell yourself and look at your marketing strategy to bring in leads. How are you going to bring in leads if it's just organic and you're just expecting referrals, which you'll get anyway, but then you might just grow at whatever rate that's just coming in at. So look at the draw. There's no actual strategy of actually how to actually scale the business there.

[Liam]

It's moving forward with purpose, isn't it? It's not just like, oh great, somebody's recommended me to their friend and I've got a unit. And then, you know, it's actually going, hey, this is the funnel, this is who I'm going after. I'm going to go to this networking event and I want to try and get two leads from it, you know, like, or, you know, go to places with purpose, which is key. So there's two more things I really want to touch on and the first one is technology. How important has technology been at scale and is there any kind of tech which has really helped you to scale?

[Josh Guest]

You know, technology is huge, especially in this business. It's, it's, it's changing by the day. Well, even at the moment. So we've kind of, well, the biggest section of AI, I'd say is been coming in the last six, six to 12 months. And we probably missed that boat of personally using it because we obviously we had this acquisition going on so we haven't really personally used it ourselves. But I know the host and stake group uses AI a lot. So yeah, I think technology is huge. All of the different systems that we've used have been a huge, big impact. So CRM system, so channel manager, that's huge. Like you just, you just can't go without that on scale because that's bringing in at the end of the day, we book ins and then we your automated messages out, take managing all your payments, etc. So that's literally, that is, that is the main bulk of the business. So you can't live without that. But all of the other technology that goes with it, whether it's like breathe, we're dealing with housekeeping and maintenance. We use price labs for our pricing. That's been brilliant. There's many other different software as well that we've bolted on. But yeah, all of the software is key. The one thing I would always say though, on the flip side of this, with technology, especially when you start out, you don't need to go and get everything from day one and make sure you actually really work out your costs. So there's there's so many different channel managers out there now. They all do something different, none of them are perfect. But when you start in, look at the lower cost ones, you don't need to go and jump in paying 50, 60 pound a month for a unit for a high end one, which might do a few extra things because when you. Then when that's 10 units, you can be paying £600 plus what you have a bolt on software, you might be paying 100, 150 pound a unit. You're not making much money really then. So you just make sure you're working at your costs and keep costs low. Initially on the software, it's absolutely fantastic. But make sure you actually generally need it and generally is it going to generally help? Because we've done this in our business even the last couple of years where we just added on extra softwares wherever. And that's not even just, even for this sector, whether it's just like a business CRM system for managing sales and stuff like that, or, or just how the team's communicating. And before you know it, you've added another 10 users. Each user is costing 10, 15 pounds a month and you're like, wow, actually we're spending another £5,000 on software a year. And it's like that didn't actually make us any more. We're not even using it either. So did it even make any more productive or not? So make sure you actually really make sure you get to use it.

[Liam]

It really does add up and I think it's great advice about not trying to get the most expensive software. I speak to so many people who are just starting out and they go, oh, I want the best pms, I want the best this. And, and you go, hang on, this. It'd be a bit like, you know, when you first get your first car, you don't suddenly jump into a Porsche or a Ferrari do you know, I mean like as in this, it's the cost of running it, the insurance, everything. So ultimately start off with something that the right price, the right spec for what you need. And of course as time goes on you can always change which is, which is good.

[Josh Guest]

So another point, just adding on to that. I was gonna. Always gonna say the exact same thing but with, with say a car or something like, but, but so, and sometimes though, I think sometimes people, because it looks the best, then they'll try and go with it. Especially with a software mate, because a car is obviously you physically can't afford the next one. But say with software you might be able to afford their monthly payments. So you just go with it because it looks the fanciest one. But don't, don't get, don't get sold to make sure you, you actually work out what you need.

[Liam]

It's being in the cool kids club, isn't it, sometimes which, which draws people in. So one other thing I want to touch on is the challenges that you've overcome and particularly one which I think a lot of people get some benefit from is as you scale the different markets, you may manage quite over wide areas, over a number of areas. And I think that challenge is a big one for people to overcome. I mean you started literally from the word go. You were somewhere four hours away. So I guess you got the practice in early. But what advice would you have for people around that challenge? How do you deal with if there's suddenly issues or how do you deal with a place that you can't actually see most of the time? Yeah.

[Josh Guest]

So kind of setting up a, a system for your business as such of how you're going to operate those properties. So make sure. There's obviously a few key things here like make sure you've got a cleaning company or team on the ground, making sure you've got a maintenance team on the ground. Obviously when you've got like one or two units, this is not employing these people, but making sure you have a set of contacts to call if you do have any urgent things that need sorting and then build in all sort of lists of things of how to run things. So say for the cleaners, they need to have a cleaning specification, you might ask them for photos or a video, which you should be doing anywhere, wherever the property is and make sure. So if you're further away, you've still got all the information that you require, whether you're five minutes away, making sure that the property is inspected regularly, whether that's yourself going to adapt property wherever it is or you paying somebody else to go. So factor in those costs as well. And then. But most of the other back end systems you can obviously run from anywhere. So that, so that is that the rest of it can scale wherever you are.

[Liam]

I think that's an awesome tip, especially about the inspections using software like getting photos from your cleaners all the time. You know, if you can't physically see it, just having videos or photos, you can get a lot of information from that and the team is so important. So.

[Josh Guest]

Same again as well. So when you on board the property. But this should be still again in my view now this should be wherever the property is. So we set a structure for everybody to bring them wherever it's two minutes away or field. And we actually, to be honest, we actually even went through this probably about 2 1/2 years ago where the property further afield. We were doing a better job of onboarding them because we had to than the properties that were 10 minutes away because. And this was like my whole team. We were technically. You'll be like we technically people like well, we didn't, we didn't need that bit of information. We just skipped past it because we knew we could get there in 10 minutes.

[Liam]

Yeah.

[Josh Guest]

And I absolutely got. We need to all of this and go let's pretend we can't get there in 10 minutes. And we need to make sure everything is systemized, everything's written down. We've got full written down list of everything. So it's like making sure you've got videos of how all the appliances work in the property, written instructions, make sure we've got the manuals filed somewhere. If it's like a quirky property to find or get into, make sure you've got clear instructions of that. Basically just try and you'll never ever bulletproof anything 100% however you however could you do it. But try and think of everything you might get question of or an issue with and try and document it all. Basically.

[Liam]

Yeah, I think it's great advice and especially I mean that what you're saying there about not worrying about the local ones compared to the national ones, you know, it is absolutely right. Treat them all the same because ultimately if you can avoid the call outs, if you've got a video to show that guest to avoid the call out that makes it cheaper for everybody, the owner or if it's your own one, you know. But one thing that you've reminded me of is, is that one of the changes we've done recently is the refilling of the gas. Obviously as we record this we're in November so lots of people got their boilers on. It's super cold here in the UK and just the refill loop but the boilers are just so important and it's one of the things where now I look at it and on all our recent properties we've got a picture of it or we've got the, you know how to do it but for the older properties we haven't. And this is one of the things which you look at and you go oh, I wish I'd have got all that detail. And even things like bulbs you Know, sometimes you get asked, hey, can you bring a bulb? You don't want to have to ask a guest going, is it a screw in type? Is it, is it a bayonet? If you've got that listed down somewhere, when you onboard the properties going, actually in this property, we just need, you know, screwing types or the bayonet types, you can make it a lot easier when stuff goes out. You can actually say to your cleaner, hey, take one of these with you. You know, like, you can really systemize stuff, can't you? So it's really exciting, Josh, to first of all hear the journey since we last spoke, but also the fact that you've sold and host and stay, you know, them coming in and you, you're working with them now, which is really cool. And you've shared so many tips with us on this podcast. So is there anything else that we haven't covered, any other tips or anything else you want to say before we share your details and let people get in touch?

[Josh Guest]

I'll just say, yeah, if, if you're either looking to get started or to continue to scale, just make a plan and go with it and give it a go. There's nothing stopping you in scaling or getting started.

[Liam]

That's cool, that's cool. How do we get in touch with you, Josh? If somebody is listening to this going, josh, Josh sounds like he's got a lot of experience. I want to reach out to him. Is there a way to do so is there a way to check out guesty homes and host and say, yeah, absolutely.

[Josh Guest]

So, yeah, well if you get guest homes website still up, so just go onto www.guesthomes uk. You want to reach out to myself personally, then just drop me a, a message on Instagram or Facebook. So on Facebook it's just Josh guest Instagram's underscore. Josh Underscore, Guest underscore. It's pretty easy to find me on there or LinkedIn or anything. Any questions about scaling, starting or exiting? Yeah, just reach out to me and drop me a message.

[Liam]

That's cool. And to finish, what's the plan for the future?

[Josh Guest]

Never know where it will take me. But yeah, lots of stuff going on. For a complete different podcast. We also have our own linen business as well. So we have a linen hire business which is called Guest Linen. So we at the moment we're facilitating within an hour to an hour and a half of Worcestershire. So that's all the way up to sort of Birmingham hall of the Cots walls down towards Bristol Bath area. So we're going to be scaling that up, and that's obviously be a completely different podcast on its own. And, yeah, I'm going to take obviously, a long think about it over the next sort of 12 months. I'm going to continue with obviously working with host and stay as well, continue growing out their portfolio of properties. So I'm really looking forward to that. And then see what, see where my journey takes me.

[Liam]

Yeah. Well, you've certainly earned some time to ponder that question. And if anyone's listening and you need linen hire in those areas, obviously you know who to contact as well. So thank you so much, Josh, for coming onto the Bruce Lee podcast.