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- [00:00]
Liam
Welcome back to the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training and most of all the confidence so you can go out there and get yourselves more direct bookings. We do a spotlight series where we look at services, businesses and things you just need to know about as a hospitality member. And there's a host out there. So today I'm joined by a special guest. We've got Eric, who is the founder and CEO of Savvy. It's a platform which is really shaken things up, helping guests book vacation rentals but without those fees. So this is really good for your list for our listeners, for Boostly listeners in general, we're going to dive into what that means and how it can help you as a host. So welcome along Eric. Thank you for joining me today.
- [00:43]
Eric
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
- [00:44]
Liam
So the golden question. Let's start with a quick intro for anyone who hasn't come across Savvy yet. What is savvy and what makes it different from the usual platforms out there? And if you give yourself an introduction to Eric, great.
- [00:58]
Eric
So why don't I start with the introduction on me because that's what sort of helped us see the opportunity with Savvy and the need for, for such, such a product. My history started a company called bedandbreakfast.com back like in the early days of the Internet we were the largest website in the world for information on bed and breakfast. We had the first central reservation system that we distributed to Expedia and Travelocity and all the big players for innkeepers. We also had the leading property management softw system. Sold that 2010 to HomeAway. They got acquired by Expedia 2015. In 2013 I co founded a company called Turnkey Vacation Rentals. We were a technology enabled national branded property management company. We built it to be number two in North America and we sold it to Vacasa in 2021. Back somewhere 2012 I bought an inn, a boutique inn outside of Austin, Texas. It was 12 keys. We've since taken it to 20 keys. It's a top rated property on TripAdvisor and Google and I've had a couple of vacation rentals. So suffice it to say I've been pretty squarely in hospitality for 30 years. I'm the old guy on the block now. But love hospitality. I love what it stands for. I love giving people a reason and a way that create memories with friends and family and I think that's sort of what life's about the opportunity for savvy. And what is it is everybody that I know is sort of fed up with the fees on Airbnb, the fees on VRBO, even the fees on Ticketmaster, StubHub, hotel fees. And then it creeps into gratuity inflation. I mean, in the States, you know, you go to get a hamburger now, and it's like they spin the little thing around and they want you to tip them $2 because they handed you your hamburger, your coffee, or your Coke. It's crazy. And it just got out of hand. And we saw that. I was as frustrated as everyone else, and I think I just felt that I've got the experience and the ability to fix it. So let's fix it. Let's create an ota, if you will, that is book direct, that we're not forcing ourselves in between the guest and the host, and. And that let's get rid of the fees so travelers can save hundreds or thousands of dollars per reservation, and let's allow the. The travelers to get directly in contact with the host so hospitality can flourish. I mean, I don't, you know, we have, I think, a great website@savvy.com Airbnb Very nice site, Vrbo, but it doesn't matter how good your site is, it can't provide the level of hospitality that a professional in the industry can. And so what we're trying to do is, is get out of the way of the middle and make it easy for travelers to find professionally hosted properties and do it for a lot less money so they can either travel more often or upgrade their stay to a longer stay or a nicer place, or bring in a chef to cook for everyone or take everyone out on a excursion or whatever it is. And that's sort of what we're about.
- [04:35]
Liam
That's very cool and something which speaks to our own heart here at Boostie. Anything that can encourage more people to book, especially direct or without causing any more fees unnecessarily to all of the big which already got enough. Enough money, we'd all agree. So it sounds as though it's been quite a journey. What was the moment made you think, hey, there's got to be a better way. Was that back in 2013, the boutique hotel, or was that in the last few years? Was it since the dreaded Covid?
- [05:06]
Eric
When was the moment?
- [05:07]
Liam
This has got legs.
- [05:08]
Eric
Great question. And there really was a specific moment. I mean, I think it built up in 2013, 2010. I remember I met Brian Chesky at the largest Bed and breakfast conference in the industry. I think it was in Vegas this year, I'm not sure. But anyway, you know, here's this guy and he's like, yeah, we're air bed and breakfast and we've got air mattresses for. They go on the floor of the living room. And. And I was like, okay, these guys are crazy. They're not going to get anywhere. And hats off to them. I mean, they built an amazing business. And he's done a, he's a great leader. I think he's done a great job. But it was over time, as it got more and more, I don't know, crazy. I don't know if it was just that airbnb charge fees, but then the Ticketmaster fees and then the gratuity, it all was building up. But while this was happening, I tried to book. I booked a property in Seaside, Florida to take my wife and my daughter and a couple of her friends out there for a few days. And it was going to be four nights for $400 a night. So like $1600. So I expected cleaning fees, taxes. We're going to be at, you know, $2,000 or so. $2,700 for a four night stay that was supposed to be 1600. And I just thought, this is ridiculous. And I think that was what sort of threw me over the edge. And, you know, as I started sort of bouncing it off of people like, hey, you ever booked a vacation room, dude? Yes. So frustrating. And I just thought, okay, yeah, I, I know how to fix that. Let's, let's fix it. And we're not gonna, you know, there's a lot of people that will be happy to continue to use Airbnb or continue to use VRBO or Ticketmaster or StubHub or whatever, but I think there's a large segment of travelers that are savvy and that aren't gonna pay 15 or 20% more if they don't have to. So, you know, we've, we've stood up the site. We've got a super cool price comparison tool on there that I haven't seen anybody else do. Right. You give, you find a property on our site and you give us the dates. We're going to show you the savvy price, but then we're going to show you this, the price for the same property, for the same dates on Airbnb and vrbo. So you can see right there that you're saving a chunk of money. I had lunch last week with a friend and I told him what I was up to. And he's like, oh, I'm trying to book a place in Port Aransas, Texas. It's down on the coast. He said, I'll check it out. I got a text from him the next day and he said, I just booked a place on your side. I saved eleven hundred dollars. I'm like, okay, that's. That's what it's about.
- [07:51]
Liam
One hundred percent. One hundred percent. And during that answer, I just. That twig to get savvy, you know, it is like, hey, get savvy about booking, isn't it? So I love that brand.
- [08:02]
Eric
I mean, yeah, thanks. I think it's. I think it resonates. I mean, savvy people, whether it's a savvy property manager that wants to own that relationship with the guest and provide a higher level of hospitality and they sign up for our program, or it's a savvy traveler that's like, I'm done with those guys. I'm going to, I'm going to. I'm going to use a newer, better way to do it.
- [08:30]
Liam
It's very cool. So how does it actually work? Obviously, you've saved the fees for both the guest and the traveler. So how does it work on the, on the. Both sides of the stay?
- [08:39]
Eric
What's the model? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It's the, it's the original model that I launched in 1995 for bedandbreakfast.com it's the same model that Dave Klaus launched for vacation rentals by owner in 1995. It's an ad model, so any professional host can list all of their properties, 5 or 500 or 5,000 on our site for free. And when and if they want, they can choose to upgrade to a premium listing for a low monthly subscription and no commissions, no booking fees, no transaction fees, no service fees. And they can do that for a month or two or three or all year, buy property, they get to really use it, how it works best for them. Because, you know, if I'm a property manager, I get a new homeowner that signs up with me and maybe want to boost them up a little bit for a second to show them, bam, I sent you a reservation, Right? But I may not need to do that in peak season because I may be sold out. I may not have inventory to sell. So what, you know, why pay us? So we try, try to create a model where, you know, if we can get the vast majority of property managers that all want to drive direct reservations on the platform at no cost, so no risk to them, then it's valuable to travelers. And then more and more travelers are going to come because we have the inventory. So yeah, if out of all the, the free listings we get on our site, we get 10% of them ultimately to pay a low flat monthly subscription, great. That's, that's, it's plenty. We don't need to be making a thousand here and 3,000 there and 600 here. I mean, that's, it's just, that's too much. We, we want the traveler to keep more of the money so they can have a better travel experience. We want the host to keep more of the money so they can have a successful, most often mom and pop business and so that the homeowner can make more money themselves.
- [10:45]
Liam
Yeah, it makes sense. And I don't mind seeing more ads if I'm getting it at a direct price. Do you know? I mean, it just makes absolute sense. So for sure.
- [10:53]
Eric
And you think about our job is still to serve you properties we think you're going to be interested in. Right. If we flood the zone with a bunch of paid advertisements and none of them meet your criteria, you're going to bounce and go somewhere else. So, you know, the magic sauce for us is going to be that we've got to make sure that we're still serving travelers properties that meet their needs while giving properties that are paying a little more exposure.
- [11:20]
Liam
And everyone's got a, you know, you've got to run somehow. Right. And I think that's what everyone's question is, how come it's free and all of this and it makes sense. And I've got to be honest, I was on site last night, I didn't spot the ads. I think it's where the human eye, you're drawn to the property and the experiences as a booker, very easy to book, by the way. And I didn't spot the ad. So it's marvelous when it comes down to it.
- [11:45]
Eric
Yeah, Liam, I will say just real quick, I mean we focused the last year and a half on building out supply. So we have 150,000 listings in North America today from 2,500, over 2500 property managers. We were just now starting to go out with the launch of savvy.com and drive awareness on the demand side. So we're not pushing or recommending that hosts upgrade yet because frankly we don't have the demand yet. Where I want someone to pay us, when someone's going to pay us. I want to deliver value and I'm not sure I can deliver value to everybody yet. So it's like let's get demand going. Let's let people know there's a better way to book, a savvier way to book. And as we start getting more and more demand then I think you'll start seeing more of those paid listings.
- [12:38]
Liam
Yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense. And you mentioned is professional hosts. What led to that decision and how does it affect the guest servants?
- [12:48]
Eric
You know the second thing that we determined that people were frustrated with with vacation rental websites behind service fees was consistency and showing up at a property and it not being as advertised or it not existing. Right. I mean you can have ratings and reviews but the, the variability is what scares a lot of people. Right. It's the same reason people in the states go to Starbucks instead of the local coffee shop is they know what they're going to get. Um, it's the same in vacation rentals. I mean in speaking with people there was a lot of frustration around consistency and variability and we thought, you know, let's, let's make it where you have to be a professionally hosted property to be on our site. So we want to, we want properties that are supported by people that it's their full time job. They're hospitality professionals, not hey, it's me and I've got my buddy's place and two others and I'm a property manager. No you're not. That's a, that's a gig for you. That's a side hustle. We're looking for properties where when a traveler shows up at 11 o' clock at night with their family in tow and they go to go to hit the lock with their phone and the Bluetooth isn't working, there's someone that they can call that's going to get their butts inside that house. They're not going to be left outside in the car overnight because some dude doesn't get back to them because you know, they're out partying or whatever. We want that reliability, we want that consistency and we want to give travelers peace of mind.
- [14:31]
Liam
That's been ultimately 100% identify. Consistency has been something which I have talked about for years and there's a story, I think this is written by the chap who, he owns the Hilton chain or something like this. But he said about uh, if you have inconsistent experience it'll actually switch you off quite quickly because you just don't know what to expect when you're paying your fee. If it's different each time you stop Trusting to pay your fee because you don't know really what you're paying for affects all of us. Especially if so if somebody goes and book short term rental and they have terrible experience, all hosts lose out.
- [15:08]
Eric
Ultimately, the industry suffers. Oh, for sure, for sure.
- [15:12]
Liam
100%.
- [15:13]
Eric
We used to have, back in my bedandbreakfast.com days, we had a three strikes your out rule. Once an innkeeper had three verifiably bad contacts to us on the stay, we're like, yeah, you guys are off the platform because it's bad for the industry. Not just the site, but the industry. And I think all of us in the industry want to maintain and protect that. And again, you can have ratings and reviews and you can have background checks and ID verifications and all that stuff. But ultimately I think you do want to weed out the trash. You don't want to just leave it on the site because there are people out there that could care less about hospitality and they're just trying to make a quick dollar. We don't want them on our site.
- [15:59]
Liam
As a host as well. We've got responsibility as a property management agency to make sure. I mean, I get so many investors go, oh, if I just stick some IKEA furniture in here and this, how much can I make? And I'm like, yes, probably not for me, because I want the people at the end to have a great experience. This isn't just a quick, you know, a quick turnaround of income. This is like, hey, what's their experience? And you see then across a longer period of time, you know, if a listing's got high ratings, then it makes even more money in year two, year three, you know, like it's well, for sure.
- [16:31]
Eric
And that whole repeat guest thing, right? I mean, it's, it's five times more expensive to get a new customer than it is to, to keep an existing one. So, you know, yeah, you're gonna do that by providing a high level of hospitality.
- [16:47]
Liam
And I also feel for the, the actual user. I, I mean like people spend their hard earned money coming to stay in, in the homes that might be their one time that year. If it's a crap experience, then, then you know, it shouldn't ever be like that. And this is why I'm so passionate about making sure that hospital is so good.
- [17:05]
Eric
No, I love it.
- [17:07]
Liam
I had this before. I've really understood. But I'm going to ask it anyway on the basis of where do you see Savvy fitting into the mix? Went on to everyone listening to this is working hard to grow their direct bookings. Is Savvy more of an OTA alternative or something in between, or is it genuinely a direct book? How does. What's your feelings on it?
- [17:29]
Eric
You know? Well, first of all, it genuinely is a direct booking. I mean, the host is the merchant of record. We're not processing the payment, we're not holding the payment. We're facilitating a reservation that's a direct reservation. I don't know what that means to a traveler, Right. I know that on the supply side of the inventory, as a hotelier myself and as being in the industry, I know what book direct means. I don't think Joe Average Traveler maybe understands that. But when you, you know, we facilitate a reservation. So when someone comes to Savvy and they find a property and they hit book it, we're going to capture all of their travel information, their days of stay, number in their party, their credit card information, and we're going to securely pass that through the property management software over the API to the host, and they're going to process it just like it came from their website. Right? So it's truly a book, direct reservation. Now, where do I see us fitting? It's funny because I hear people dog on OTAs, right? I just was in San Diego at the Digital Travel Connect conference and it was a hotel conference. And, you know, typical stuff, sick of the OTAs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like they're sick of the OTAs in the current format. I would call us an OTA, but I would call us a booked direct OTA, right? So where do I think we fit? I think we. What we're trying to do and where I think we'll end up is create an ota Alternative, an OTAA, OTA 2. I don't know what that is. To where travelers can go to one place and see all the inventory and have a clean UX ui, make the reservation, but the reservations being processed directly by the professional. That way it's a win for the traveler and it's a win for the host. Now, where do we fit? I think I wouldn't tell a host to get off of Airbnb in VRBO and get on us. I would say stay on airbnb, stay on vrbo. They've got huge reach. We don't have much reach yet, but it's coming. But in the meantime, it's free to get on our site. Get on our site. Travelers are going to start shifting from Airbnb and Verbo to Savvy, and you want to Be there when they start wanting to save 15. 20. I saw one that was, and I'm not kidding, 50% more once you added the fees on Airbnb than it was on Verbo and It was like 38% then. Then, then it was on Savvy and it was like 38 more on Verba than it was on Tabby. On average, travelers are saving 15 to 20%. That's going to move some material piece of the traveling public From Airbnb and VRBO to savvy.com and so you want to be there as a host if you're a savvy host, because it doesn't cost you anything. And then once we start driving some real awareness and visibility, we can help you build your book direct traffic, because we all know it's not free. To build book direct traffic, you got to spend money on your website, you got to spend money on Google Ads, and you got to spend it on SEO and you got to spend it on social, and you're doing press and you're doing email marketing. I mean, it costs money to drive direct reservations. You can sign up with us. Doesn't cost you anything. And we're driving direct reservations. So I think we found a, a really sweet spot. It's, it's resonating with professional hosts here in the States. I mean, the fact that we've already added over 2500, we're onboarding about over 3000 properties a week right now organically. Not a big property management company coming on, but just through our, you know, regular business.
- [21:32]
Liam
That's really cool. And I love that, I love that it's kind of a disruptor in the space, you know, like it's, it's kind of sitting somewhere in the middle there, isn't it? Which is, is, is proper cool.
- [21:41]
Eric
Yeah. It supports what hosts want and what travelers want. And that's why I think it's, it's. We're going to see some good growth.
- [21:50]
Liam
Hey, that's why we wanted to have you on the podcast and introduce you to the, the listeners or the listeners to the brand. This is something which needs to be talked about. You mentioned, obviously there's not that, that push on the guest side at the moment, but still, as we talked about vrbo, what. What kind of guests do you expect to use the platform? I think there's this kind of. From vrbo are slightly better guests. People from booking.com are slightly worse kind of guests. Is it, is there a kind of classical kind of guest that books through Savvy or Have you noticed any trade trends or shifts in patterns?
- [22:26]
Eric
You're gonna think, you're gonna think that this answer, this was like a pre fixed question but it goes back to our brand, right? We think savvy travelers are going to be the ones that we get. If, if you're booking, if you're, if you're you know, a grandparent and you're booking a multi generational trip that's going to cost $50,000 on the coast in the UK or southern France and you can save 7 to $10,000, you're gonna do it right. You just paid for everyone's travel or a day on the boat. Plus plus plus if, if you are, you know, fresh out of school and you're just starting your career and you've got to go to, you know, you're in a wedding in a town three hours away and so you're sharing a vacation rental with someone that's 300 a night for two nights, 600 US and you can save a hundred dollars. I mean that covered your gas costs, that covered, you know, maybe a night out for. So I don't, I don't think it's a specific, you know, Gen X, Gen Z boomer, high end, you know, tight, don't want to spend a lot of money. I think it's, it's going to be people that are smart and people that value their money and most people that have made a lot of money did it because they're smart with their money and they value their money. So I truly a part of, part of the brand of savvy and savvy.com is I really think it's going to be the people that aren't chumps.
- [24:10]
Liam
I love that, I love that. I mean like you say, there is no reason not to do it and ultimately this is what I've been saying for a while which is there isn't a reason why I wouldn't book direct with a professional host. And people always go, well aren't you worried about this or worried about that? And I'm like no, as long as they're a professional host and they've got an easy way to book and this is clearly got good reviews. There is no disadvantages to saving that money. And, and that does mean like you say you can go and spend that savings on, on the nights out, you can, you can still keep the same budget but go and have more experiences. Which is, is amazing.
- [24:40]
Eric
Liam, I, I, I couldn't agree more vehemently. And all I would say is, you know, it's a huge market, right? It's a big industry. You look at the market cap combined of Airbnb, VRBO and booking, and you're at 200 billion or so.
- [24:58]
Liam
Mm.
- [25:01]
Eric
Let's say that 10% of the people feel like you do. We don't need everybody. If we can meet the needs of 10% of the reservations. 5%, 15%. We don't need to be half of the industry or a third of the industry. It's a huge business and you're saving people a ton of money. And the best part about it all is you're helping millions of people create great memories with friends and family. And that, like, gives me goosebumps. I mean, it's like, how cool is that?
- [25:35]
Liam
Yeah, that's exactly the reason I'm in the industry is because ultimately these are the memories that people will remember literally their entire lives. And we're helping them do that. What's not to love about this industry? I mean, there's some stuff which comes along with it, but actually when you look at the greater mission, then, yeah, it's. It's pretty cool. It's pretty good, isn't it?
- [25:54]
Eric
Yeah.
- [25:55]
Liam
Yeah. So you've got a lot of experience, obviously, through the various businesses and the time in hospitality. I want the listeners to get an understanding of the kind of, some of the mindset and the lessons. What are some of the kind of standout wow moments and some of the challenges along the way across either this business or any business and how you overcame the challenges.
- [26:20]
Eric
Great. That's a great question. I think the challenges that I think are real in any business is putting together a solid team, right. And getting the absolute best people that you can afford on your team that have the background and have the experience. And you know, when I first started out with bedandbreakfast.com and I hadn't created a business yet, I mean, that was really hard. It got easier when we did Turnkey and I would say, thankfully, just because of the success that I've been fortunate enough to have in the industry and my length of time in the industry and the relationships this time, it just was easier because I knew people, right? I knew who to bring onto the team. So that out of the gate, I mean, our. You look at our advisors, we've got the co founder of HomeAway on our advisory, we've got the founder of VRBO as an advisor, we got four year CEO of Travelocity as an advisor. I mean, and then you look at our employees, we've got people from HomeAway from VRBO, from Expedia, from Turnkey, from Bed and Breakfast dot com. So it just gets easier with the amount of gray hair I have.
- [27:44]
Liam
You sort of collect people along the way, don't you? Is you do.
- [27:47]
Eric
I mean, you do.
- [27:48]
Liam
It's amazing because you find great people and you hold. If you find great people, you go, hey, you know, come and join me on this project or come and do this. Yeah, I love that.
- [27:58]
Eric
Yeah, yeah. You know, that, that, I mean that's one thing I would say that is tough. You know, raising money can be tough. Right. So having, having access to capital and if you're going to do that through friends and family or you're going to do that through angels or you're going to go the professional DC route and all the different just hoops you have to jump through for that, that's no fun. Raising money is not fun. I'd rather be out there creating cool experiences for people than raising money. But it's one of those things that, you know, you learn what people are looking for and what they need to see and it gets easier.
- [28:42]
Liam
That's cool. It's the belief, I imagine gets easier as time goes on.
- [28:47]
Eric
Well, for sure. And just, I mean one of the main things you learn when you're investing and, or raising money is people invest in people. So yeah, the idea is important, but people are betting on you that you can deliver and after you've delivered before, just that gets easier. But doesn't mean it's a slam dunk. Obviously still have to have the opportunity.
- [29:18]
Liam
Thank you for sharing that. I mean the mindset does mean a lot and certainly for somebody like me, I, I thrive off this stuff. So thank you very much, Eric. So zooming out a bit and talking about hospitality more generally, what are some of the sort of vacation rental, vacation rental industry, how is it evolving? What trends are you seeing and what do you kind of expect to happen over the next few years is regarding to how people are booking and using platforms such as Savvy or any platforms at all.
- [29:47]
Eric
I mean, I think you're going to see with the Vacasa Casogo merger you're going to and others out there, whether they're doing a broader play like Evolve Vacco, but then you've got Wander and you've got others that are doing specific sort of niche branded property types. I expect you'll see more of that. It's one of the things that we were going to do when we bought the end that I own was we were going to do a roll up of ends and try to do like a joie de vie of, of bed and breakfast and ends. And we realized, wow, that's a lot of work. And then we started turnkey and it was like, that's way more scalable and more fun. Let's go do that. But I think you'll see, you'll see continued consolidation in the space because there's efficiencies there. And, and you know, you just, when, when you go to one destination and the property manager is only in that market and now you're going somewhere else, well then that doesn't help you that you found a great property manager in Vail, Colorado and now you're going to Miami, Florida. It's like, okay, so I think, you know, continue, things will continue there. You'll continue to see more and more emphasis on bookdirect because just not only the money that it saves but the higher level of hospitality that is allowed to be provided in that scenario. Yeah. And I, I mean you've seen the supply can, it's been going crazy. I mean the, the, you know, occupancies is down here in Austin where I am and probably in the States. I haven't seen the latest, but just because there's so much more inventory. Right. And, and you're seeing some inventory go offline as destinations come in and the governing body say, hey, we're, we're going to limit the number of short term rentals in this location or et cetera, the number that we allow licenses for. But I mean, I tell you what, it's one of the oldest professions in the world, right? Hospitality, it's not going anywhere. It'll continue to evolve. You've got the whole wellness craze going right now, which is an admirable thing. I love it. People's mental health and physical health. I think you'll continue to find the innovators out there and the creative people that will continue to bring the most amazing hospitality experiences that we've ever experienced to fruition. So I'm looking forward to it. That's for sure.
- [32:32]
Liam
I completely, you're right about that professionalization and you know, sort of trying to find a host in, in the other place that eventually you brand which covers both and that professionalization. That's very cool. And Eric, this has been so much fun because I've genuinely, I mean I, I enjoy all of the guests that I speak to, but here I learned from your experience and hopefully our listeners do as well. So I want to throw the mic open and just say hey, how do we find out more, learn about savvy and come and see all the things?
- [33:06]
Eric
Yeah. Well, first of all, really enjoyed the conversation myself. It's one of the cool things about being in the industry and the people that you get to meet and the stories that you get to share about hospitality is cool. Sort of icing on the cake. Hey, how do you find out about Savvy? Savvy.com it's an easy one to remember if you're, if you're a host. Right now, we're not. We're in North America only. We've where our plan is to roll into international, which will be Western Europe. To start Q4 of this year, we are in discussions with five different companies that represent about 200,000 properties internationally that we're hoping to get on by the end of the year. But all the details are on the site. And if you're, if you're a traveler, you know, next time you're together with friends and family and you're talking about vacation rentals, how you can help is just let people know that there's a more efficient way to book vacation rentals with professional hosts that save you a lot of money and tell them to be savvy.
- [34:13]
Liam
Love it. I love it. And I know you're going to have so many hosts reaching out as soon as this is available and. Yeah, exciting to see. So, Eric, we love to end these with squeezing every last drop of value. And the one question I'm going to end this on is, is there a piece of advice, a mantra, A mantra or so that has kind of resonated with you?
- [34:37]
Eric
Yeah. You know, I would, I would say if you look back at my career, bedandbreakfast.com turnkey there's another company that I didn't mention. It's called Fun Air. I launched it in 2013. It's. We manufacture inflatable toys for mega yachts. Right. You can check it out. Funair.com it's really, no pun intended, but it's fun. And, and to now with Savvy. I think the common thread that you'll see with me is I like creating businesses that bring people together for experiences and hospitality. I, I think life is about relationships and with friends and family and anything that I can do to create a successful business to enable that or throw gasoline on that fire and make it easier for people to create more of those or better of those, I think that's what's the driving force for me. And then that's what makes it fun, is that it's not a business. It's like, hey, if you're passionate about something, it's not work, right? I mean, I'm fortunate enough that when I sold bed and breakfast.com, i don't need to be doing this. I don't need to launch Savvy. But I'm going to because I just, I have to because I can do a much better job than what's out there. And that'll help a ton of people, whether they're hosts or travelers. And so that's what gets me fired up and that's what gets the team fired up. So as long as you have the reason for why you're doing what you're doing, and that'll keep you going.
- [36:29]
Liam
Very cool. Very cool indeed. And Eric, thank you so much for joining us on the bus. It's been fun. Thank you to if you're listening on the podcast or perhaps you're watching on YouTube, check out the links underneath. Go and check out Savvy and look to see you on the next episode episode of the Boost Leaps. Thanks again. Bye for now.
- [36:47]
Eric
Sounds great, guys. Appreciate it.
- [36:49]
Liam
Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Boost Lee podcast.
- [36:52]
Eric
Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea.
- [36:55]
Liam
Is loose leaf Making up those rhymes.
- [36:57]
Eric
Don'T write it, just do it loosely.