← The Boostly Podcast
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- [00:01]
A
Hi, welcome to the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, most of all the confidence so you can go out there and get direct bookings. We're shining the Boostly spotlight on a service that you need to know about and something which is quite different. In all the years that I've been on the Boostly podcast, I've not met a guest like our guest today and I hadn't even crossed my mind. So this is going to be super exciting for you to dive into today. Today I'm joined by Etta Dunnemann. She's the founder of Visit Dark Skies. She helps remote hosts create unforgettable experiences using the natural light of the sky. We're going to explore how you can turn stargazing into a unique selling point, why guests are craving these experiences, and how you can easily offer them at your property if it's the right kind of property. So I'm excited to get started. Welcome along Etta.
- [00:57]
B
Hi. Yeah, excited to be on the podcast. Hi.
- [01:02]
A
So, Etta, thank you for joining me. What do you want the listener today to learn and take away from this podcast?
- [01:10]
B
Yeah, the eye can greatly adapt to darkness, but this process takes 30 minutes and most people do not know about this and I think they miss an incredibly powerful experience being in the outdoors. And yeah, actually there's a huge opportunity for hosts in remote regions to set the sky in scene and that's what we're doing at the visit. Dark skies.
- [01:37]
A
Nice. Well, why is this business in particular important to you? Tell me the story of how this all came around.
- [01:46]
B
Yeah, I met amazing people from the dark sky movement, so called dark sky movement, people that want to protect the natural night sky for future generations. And I had beautiful dark sky experiences myself in several dark sky parks and remote regions. And I'd love to inspire more people worldwide to have this contrast from their daily life in cities because I, I think these are such powerful moments that you can have. So, yeah, I'm a lighting expert, lighting designer. I have been working in light planning, but also in light research and in trend research also. So I was aware of the amount of light pollution, how light pollution is raising spoiler. It's 10% per year, which is really a lot. Right. So I knew stargazing related travel was about to become something and actually this year it has become trend number one in booking.com trend report. So that was exciting to me and I wanted to contribute something to the space. So my challenge was I want to found something digital, use my knowledge about the dark sky movement and bring something to the world, let's say. Right. So my challenge was creating a business for something that's free, right. The natural night sky, which took a while until I crafted this. And also I wanted to explore solopreneurship, like creating a digital product, selling it from one laptop to the world, like with interesting partners, newest apps, digital tools. That's something I really love to do.
- [03:48]
A
I mean, it sounds like a wonderful idea and something which, like I say, I haven't found before, before we have this conversation and before Mark introduced us. But to give hosts who are listening to this, can you give an idea of what kind of services you offer and how it helps them with their hospitality business?
- [04:05]
B
Yeah, sure. My core product is an audio file of 30 minutes and the experience concept around it, you could say. And I offer this as a ready made solution for hosts in remote regions. They get a package of marketing material that they can use. I'm hosting this audio file with an explanation for the guests. They get all the distribution rights and my support in, you know, helping them how to set it up, advising them a little bit. Yeah. And this is, this is what I'm selling. And they are ready to go in two hours, maybe two hours of investment. It's very easy to implement. And then you have an activity you need. No guide, no knowledge about the stars. You can just give the QR code to your guests and they can stream the audio from their smartphone, maybe use a speaker, maybe not. Depends a little bit on how many they are. And they lay down for 30 minutes and look into the sky constantly and listen to the audio and it helps them immerse themselves in the night sky.
- [05:16]
A
I love it. In a world where experience of guests is uber important for us as hosts and how experience is actually driving bookings, you know, people are looking for certain experiences. What can the impact be for guests if they use this, if they use.
- [05:34]
B
This product so they can make a lifetime memory. Right. It's very unusual as an adult that you lay down in the outdoors for 30 minutes and watch the sky. So this uniqueness of the activity alone, even if it doesn't, I mean, it does sound super simple, but you're not doing it usually, right for this amount of time. So even this is, the uniqueness of it is interesting. And then you're doing this hopefully in a remote region with a tremendous difference of stars to your hometown. And that has this overwhelming effect. And why is it 30 minutes? Because the eye adaptation process takes 30 minutes. So after 30 minutes, your eyes can see a lot of light, a lot more of light. So you also see the tiniest stars at the end of the universe and that makes the sky much more three dimensional. And then this creates this immersive aspect of the activity that has this wow effect that people will tell about 10 years later, I'm sure.
- [06:46]
A
Yeah, definitely. And those lifetime memories, I mean, like, it sounds cool, it's something that I want to do. And instantly, as soon as you hear, oh, that would be cool, I want to do. Then others, they'll talk to other people about it and obviously it'll bring more people to the product and it's a great experience. What would you say are some of the challenges and some of the wow moments since you've started this?
- [07:08]
B
Sure. I've been starting in the pandemic. I would say that would be a challenge because the trend was ongoing. Right. In 2019, the Lonely Planet Dark Skies was launched as the first theme booked theme book versus regional books. So actually everything was good. But then the pandemic, of course, hit hard on the tourism branch and of course nobody wanted to talk about the stars. Right. That's also clear. So, yeah, I created products during that time, did live translation and work my way forward as a. Because I'm not a marketeer, right. I'm a planner by education, so I needed to learn all the things about creating a company and stuff. So I used that a little bit as a learning time and advised other founders how to use digital tools. And that was a challenge to be persistent, I would say. But now, yeah, it feels a little bit like doing this for three years now and people are ready again. And yeah, it's a good time at the moment. And that was maybe the biggest challenge. And at the moment, maybe it's creating visibility. Right. I think this year is great for me to scale with this booking.com trend. I have an opportunity to tell more about the product now. I've done really good, have clients all over the world. I can double down on this and I would say that's a challenge for this year.
- [08:53]
A
It's very cool in general though, doing this. First of all, you're absolutely right. The trend is. Is something which because I haven't heard of, and as hospitality owners, I get excited if something. Obviously it's been around like say three years for yourself, but it seems new to me and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of hosts listening to this who feels the same. What are you most excited about in hospitality or in this space at the moment?
- [09:21]
B
I like working with the hosts myself, like really exploring great SDR spaces or unique properties around the world. I get in contact with them.
- [09:32]
A
And.
- [09:34]
B
Of course, star bathing has been, you know, raised by booking.com as a term. And actually I think I'm the only one offering any activity around star bathing. Like really not doing astronomy, but just exploring the night sky and immersing yourself in it. So that excites me. But also, yeah, great designs. I'm a designer, so interesting furniture that bring that sets the sky and scene is also interesting to me.
- [10:03]
A
It's interesting to me. And you know, I'm the type person who definitely sit there and listen to it because I look up at them, but I don't know anything about them. So, yeah, it's really interesting. And I guess there's people out there with these kind of ideas and things that they want to do. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back and talk to yourself before you created the solopreneur journey?
- [10:28]
B
I would maybe start early to go into market because I'm educated as a planner. So for a long time I planned my business and I thought this was work because, well, before I was planned, I was paid for planning, right. But then, yeah, at a certain moment I realized, no, actually you need to, you know, just put it out into market, get feedback, put it out again and just sell it. Right? Not plan next thing. So I would say that's the advice I would give. Start earlier getting.
- [11:04]
A
That's a great bit of advice because so many people get caught up in their kind of like, hey, I'm gonna produce this logo. Hey, I'm gonna produce this. And they do everything before actually putting it out there and getting feedback. And obviously the quicker we get those feedback loops, the better because then we're producing value, aren't we? So really good bit of advice. What are some other tips that you can share with hosts listening to this? Perhaps they haven't heard of this opportunity. What were some tips that you can share?
- [11:32]
B
Sure. I have been recently on ITB International Tourism Burza, which is congratulations Worldwide Tourism Fair here in Berlin. And yeah, maybe to share. I have been to the Google keynote and they told us about what people are searching. That's always interesting to hear, right? And they told us that no, no surprise, short videos are skyrocketing. Skyrocketing for people. They really want to look to those videos and have get an impression. And also interesting to me was they search for the word inspiration earlier and curate their activities earlier. So that's maybe also Good to know. For hosts, it's not enough to offer an accommodation. You also need to inspire people somehow to come to the place.
- [12:36]
A
100%. And I think even just this concept alone, certainly for some of those remote hosts, especially. In a moment we're going to ask you to share obviously details how people can come and get in touch and find out and we're going to dive into a few other questions, I guess just going slightly off piece now. How do you manage. We mentioned just before we hit recorded that the UK is terribly cloudy. How do, how do we get around that? Is there any kind of, any advice or is this, are there certain locations or properties which work better?
- [13:15]
B
Sure. On a worldwide scale, of course, there are different regions. Some of them have 200 clear nights, like in Spain, for example, per year. And in the UK, maybe it's 60 or 70 or 80 nights per year that are free. But nevertheless, in Scotland, in the UK and Ireland, like actually England, all the countries have whales. Of course, they have their dark sky enthusiasts and stargazing enthusiasts, maybe because of the scarcity, I don't know, I don't know the origin, but you can use a cloud radar app like reganradar, it's in Germany, but interesting apps to predict the clouds and they're really good. So sometimes they, you can, yeah, it's a 10 minute, 10 minute thing to. They, they really tell you. Now it's cloudy but at 10 minutes it's free of clouds and you don't believe it but it's, then it's true and you go out and so you can really use these apps. And actually also sleeping outdoors, like in an outdoor bed is, is a great activity that you can promote and most people have never slept outdoors and it's also great with clouds. And yeah, for this I also realized that and I'm, I'm happy that I'm, I have created my first daytime product also this year. Well, I created this last year but now it's in the market, it's guided cloud gazing. So it's actually the perfect cloud complementary thing.
- [14:57]
A
Oh, nice. Yeah, I was going to say there's, there's definitely a lot of the, the clouds here, but also where I am, I'm, I'm in, in Norfolk in the UK and I used to live in Norwich. We're now just slightly outside of Norwich and it is so vastly different. The sky, the detail that you can see. I love, love going to the north Norfolk coast and there's, there's a lot less, there's, there's a Lot more stars. There's, there's a lot less people and, and you can definitely do what you mentioned in there, which is look up at the stars and relax, which is cool. So is there anything else you'd like to share that people should know from this podcast?
- [15:38]
B
Maybe if you have never looked on it. The light pollution map is a great place where you can see if your area, your location is actually good to be marketed and if you happen to be in a green area or even better, in a blue or lilac or gray area on the light pollution map. So in expert terms, bottle scale 1 to 4, you can market the stars very well. And maybe that's interesting for you now that you go under light pollutionmap.info and have a look.
- [16:14]
A
That's cool. And we're now going to share the details on how people can get in touch. But just before we do, was there anything we missed along the way or anything else you'd like to say to our listeners?
- [16:26]
B
Yeah, because you mentioned uk, the cloud gazing thing has been done in collaboration with the Cloud Appreciation Society. And maybe that's also an interesting tip that you can look at.
- [16:38]
A
That's cool. I wouldn't have known these exist. And I think like anything, anything that can give hosts listening to this the edge of going, well, these are things which people have got access to from, from most locations, you know, like for, for most locations people can see the sky. So this is a very cool way of making a moment to, to remember to last that lifetime which other hosts may not be capitalizing on. So very, very cool. How can we find out more and where, where are the socials? Where can we come and connect with you?
- [17:16]
B
I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram as well. I have my website. If you go to visit darkskies.com that's the page actually for customers. You can also buy it on my website. But the interesting page for hosts might be visit darkskies.com sky. That's the. There I'm explaining the product and how you can do it. And you can apply for a license or get the brochure or look at the video.
- [17:46]
A
Very nice, very nice. And we'll have those links. If you're watching this on YouTube, that'll be underneath. If you're listening to this on audio, when safe to do so as long as you're not driving, just click the link and you'll be able to go and check Etta's website there and find out more because this is an exciting concept. So lastly, Etta, if you had to pick one mantra that you say that you live by, what would that be and why?
- [18:11]
B
I would say go deep into relationships, into nature, into the sky.
- [18:19]
A
I love it. That is go deep. And yeah, you know, enjoy. Enjoy these experiences ultimately. And I've really enjoyed this experience of getting to know you, Etta, of learning know about the product. Something which I've never ever considered or thought of before. I will certainly be going to check out Visit Dark Skies and the link, as I say to everybody listening is in and around this podcast. Thank you so much to Etta for being our guest today. And thank you too for listening to this on the Boostly podcast. If you'd like to continue this conversation within one of the communities, you can go on Facebook and search the hospitality community and you'll find our Facebook group. You can come and join us. You can talk about this podcast or any hospitality questions you like in there. We look forward to seeing you in there or seeing you on the next episode. Thanks so much for watching. Bye for now. The Bruce Lee Podcast Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee Cause it's so hard and the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.