Pizza parties and sustainability with Bob Garner

Ep#11 - Pizza parties and sustainability with Bob Garner

[00:00:00] Jenn: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the direct booking success podcast. Today, we're speaking with Bob Garner who will be one of our speakers at the direct booking success summit in September Bob. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:14] Bob: Hi Jenn, thanks for the invite.

[00:00:16] Jenn: Oh, you're so welcome. It's great to have you here.

Can we start by asking you to introduce yourself?

[00:00:21] Bob: Yep. My name's Bob Garner, and I own and operate with my husband. Casal dei Fichi has six luxurious holiday departments in Le Marque, Italy.

[00:00:33] Jenn: brilliant. And you've got the other side of your business. Don't you too.

[00:00:37] Bob: I do.

Well, it's not really the other side of a business.

It's just a passion that I spend a lot of time on, environmental issues—so trying to persuade our industry to adopt sustainable practices and attract and retain clients looking to stay sustainably.

[00:00:57] Jenn: great. Well, we will get into that. Because that is closer to the topic you’re speaking on at the summit, I want to find out about you, so now you're saying it's a collection of holiday apartments, yes.

In Italy. And it's an area of Italy that I don't know much about. I have not been there. So you'll have to tell us.

[00:01:17] Bob: more. Absolutely. So, my backstory is that my husband and I were living in London. Obviously, we are British, and we were both in corporate jobs, and as I always say, they pay you well, but they work you hard.

Yeah. And we were spending our excess money on taking lots of holidays to de-stress. So-called stressful lives. Right. And he came to the point. Yeah. It went to the fact that we said, let's change our lives. And then we don't. So stress,

[00:01:47] Jenn: exactly. Check in the job. Yeah. Check in the job. So you don't have the stress then, just yeah.

Every day. The holiday. Yeah.

[00:01:54] Bob: So we, we, we, we joked and, and debated about what we wanted to do, like running a pool by a hotel or a BMB or that it added. And none of them fitted what we were looking for, which was like a fundamental shift in lifestyle. Mm-hmm, to give us more free time to do the things we wanted.

So, I eventually settled on holiday apartments and wanted to move to Italy. We found this area through a friend, Le Marche is not well known, and it was even less well known 15 years ago when we moved here. Oh, But it's a beautiful part of Italy, near Umbria and Tuscany on the Adriatic coast.

Opposite Croatia. And so we found an old farmhouse that had been abandoned for 30 years in a field of mud. Oh goodness. And created these apartments out of it over a couple of years. And then, we started in the holiday rental business, which we love, so we live on site and host our guests. We see them daily, look after them, and ensure they have a wonderful, environmentally friendly, gorgeous holiday.

[00:03:01] Jenn: So you've got, how many apartments did you say? How many apartments do you have? We have six, six employees six. Oh, my goodness. And how many do they sleep? Are they two or four?

They’re all; they’re all one bedroom. And each has a sofa bed in the living room. It's funny. We never really thought it would be family-friendly that people would want to come.

And in the early part, on the late part of the season, it is mainly coupled, but in July and August, it's rammed with families. Right. But they've got the kids in the sofa bed and the, to work well. Yes. They're huge departments. Yeah.

[00:03:30] Jenn: Oh, great. And you live on-site, so it's one big happy.

[00:03:35] Bob: Well, we try, we try to be, yeah, we have our own little space, so we're not, you know, cheap by with them.

Right. And we, you know, we host, you know, for us the most enormous fun or enjoyment of it is the hosting is the time spent with guests. So we get, we spend much time with our guests. We see them every day. You know, we talk to them about what they're looking for, point them in the right direction.

We have a pizza party once a week because we have an old brick pizza oven in the garden. So we make the dough and bring out all the ingredients and the wine every Monday. We host a pizza party, and they all get to put out their pizzas in the oven, have a few glasses of wine, and get to know their fellow guests and us.

So. We love it. That's amazing.

[00:04:18] Jenn: What a great idea. Yeah. What a great idea. Well, I'm coming the following Monday.

[00:04:25] Bob: yeah, we've done 300 pizza parties. So have. Yeah. Oh, oh my goodness. Oh, well, it's an excellent way to break the ice and get to know the guests.

[00:04:37] Jenn: Yeah. How did you come up with

[00:04:38] Bob: that idea? Well, the oven was there, and we wanted to find a way of bringing people together at the beginning of the holiday.

And we thought, oh, well, why not do pizzas? And, you know, Jen, what's interesting is it breaks the ice. You see the diff. Notice the difference in the conversations and the connections before the pizza party when they arrived. And then the next day, after the pizza party, they're all going off to the beach together, in the pool, or to a restaurant and making connections.

And it's funny, many of our guests have, have stayed in touch and coordinated their return visit for the same time they've met here. Oh, oh, isn't that great? So, yeah, we're one, one big happy family.

[00:05:21] Jenn: I think it's a great idea. It's a great idea. You know, it's that personal connection, isn't it? Absolutely.

That we're all wanting to get. So, why Italy? What was it that drew

You? Have I been to Italy many times? It was a tossup between, to be honest, it was a tossup between Italy and France, but I've had so many bad experiences with food in France being vegan. I'm not going there because the French doesn’t like vegans.

[00:05:50] Bob: So to any French people listening, you’ve got to get bit the vegans before I'm coming to visit. At the same time, Italy is so much easier.

Yeah. Yeah. I could see there would be some problems there. I could see the problems there. And where does the, where does the, I was going to say the love of sustainability, but that's not quite right.

Where does the interest come with sustainability? And maybe you can talk to us. What do you do there to make it a green venture?

Yeah. Okay. It started when we decided we would set up the business and had to rebuild the old farmhouse; it had been empty for 35 years. It was just shit and straw on the floor.

The roof was all in the field of mud. Snakes are living there, trees growing out of it, da, da you know, a big, big project to fix. So it made sense at that point to decide about some things that we wanted to implement from the beginning, and eco-friendly was, you know, top of the list. Not that we had a great deal of experience before that with sustainability, but it was something that we knew that was coming, that we knew that we needed to deal with.

And that was the time to get started. And you know, I talk to people all the time when I'm trying to get hosts and property managers to grasp the sustainability net. I tell them you don't have to do everything at once. We didn't. We started with just a few small initiatives, a few things we could easily do that didn't cost too much money.

And we learned, as I say this all the time, that it's a virtuous circle. You take some action; you see the results because of it. Impacts on your branding. It impacts your marketing. It affects your guests returning on the reviews you get on the referrals you get on the direct bookings you get.

[00:07:42] Bob: Ooh, that lovely sweet spot. Oh, that worked. I'll do more of that. I like that. And then you implement a few more things. I always say sustainability. It's a bit like a favourable legal drug. You do a little bit of it. You get an excellent result, and then you want to do a little bit more, and it's like, potato chips, you just can't stop doing it.

I can’t stop because it's so addictive. And that's, all it is is you take some steps, you see the result, you see the bottom line result, you know the effect on the guest, you see the impact on the planner, and then you go, Hmm, I'll do some more of that. And it's, that's how it started. And it's carried on like; now we have a very sustainable business.

We. I know over 30 initiatives in our business; they’re on our website. People could take a look at those. And, but it's just come. It's just evolved over the years, as we've, as we've learned, as we've understood more about the climate emergency, looked at what other people have done, and copied them.

We've created some new initiatives ourselves. We've listened to what the guests have said, and we’ve implemented everything. And it's, it's an evolving story when you it's, there's no end to it because there's always more that you can do. But you know, we are passionate about it and, and now I try and spend time talking to the industry and trying to persuade the the industry to adopt this and, and do it because it's good for the planet.

It's suitable for the guests, and it's good for your business. So it's a win, win, win. Yes, definitely.

[00:09:13] Jenn: Definitely. And I guess it's, it's learning what to do and how to get started or finding out what you're already doing is already starting you on that journey. I'm sure there are things that people are doing.

And then they realise that this is actually something that is good for the planet and, they hadn't even taken that into consideration at the beginning. So it's good. I know you were helping conferences and events like the direct booking success summit. That's coming up in September, helping us be more green and sustainable. I was, maybe you can share re. With everyone, because I was pretty, shocked when you told me that there was a carbon footprint, even though our event is online.

Cause you think of a conference where you're flying to it. Of course, there's an impact there, the paper, the, you know, the goody bags, all that kind of stuff. But I'm thinking online, I'm in the clear, but there's still a bit of work to do. It isn’t there.

[00:10:11] Bob: There is. I mean, let me go back a couple of stages.

Yes. So when we got ourselves established with the eco side in our business, you know, We brand the business clearly about being eco. It’s on our website, it's in our marketing, it's in our emails, it's in our touch day guide, which I would like to give a, a shout out to because touch day has got an amazing eco aspect to their guide that I help them create.

And so that people who use touch day can get up and running quickly with, with, promoting eco in, in your guide. Other guides are available. Love it.

But we got talking to the guests, and each time, we talk to guests, we don't nag them or preach to them, but we gently introduce sustainability, and they see it in action on our property. They see it in the. Plastic-free policy in the, who gives a crap toilet paper in the organic garden, in the car charger in the solar panels, et cetera, et cetera, etcetera.

And they, and they ask us about this, and then they go home. And sometimes they come to contact us again and say, Hey, just want to let you know. We've just planted an organic garden, or we've got rid of you single-use plastic, and that's really a buzz because yeah, we've made a tiny difference to their learning and development and implementation of sustainability.

So that was great. And, we love that and we do that all the time. But then I concluded that wasn't enough and that I wanted actually to be talking to our industry. And this is why I got talking blogging, writing interviews, et cetera, five years ago to try and promote sustainability because in our industry, there were so few people talking about it.

And so few people are doing it, and that needs to change because we need to be reducing our emissions, and we need to. Be getting to net zero by 2050. and that we are nowhere near even approaching that emissions are still rising. They're not even level or going down, so that needs to change, and we need our industry to be involved.

Because 8% of local greenhouse gases come from tourism, so our industry has a role to play. So then I'm, I'm talking to all our industry and trying to persuade people. I have one on one conversations. It's not a business; I’m a volunteer. I do it. Because I'm passionate about it. And I'm having these one-on-one conversations, but ultimately it was unsustainable to have these one-on-one conversations with hosts of property managers though.

I still do it because there are hundreds of thousands out there. And that's why I came up with the idea of green VR events because it seemed to me that the, our events and conferences in our industry in, short term rentals of which there are about 45, they are the gatekeepers to, to the broader community.

If we can persuade the conferences to be green, and to agenda green speakers and have sustainability front and centre in their meetings, we can communicate with thousands or tens of thousands of people much more easily. And so it's, for that reason, I created green VR events, which is an education program for event organisers.

I give them a playbook of 25 actions they can take to be green. We've had a number who've come on board already. Yourselves, the book direct show, vacation rental will summit. Hostfully and others, mm-hmm , but there's still plenty more to go. Yeah. But once we get those events green and we get talking about sustainability at these events, it seems that that's a great gateway to open up that conversation and reach a much wider community because they have much more reach than I do as an individual.

And so it was for that reason I established green VR events, and I've started talking at some of these events now and speaking about what the possibilities can do, but also, most importantly, what the delegates can do. And if I may, I'd like to give you one example, definitely the the challenge that we have are we speaking at the scale rentals conference in Barcelona a few weeks ago?

[00:14:26] Bob: Yep. and I started. With a demonstration because I thought it would be most potent. There were 150 property managers there, each with properties, more than 50 properties. I asked them all to stand up, and I asked them to stay standing. If they believed that sustainability should be a core part of their business, everybody in the room stayed standing.

Every single person, 150 of them, stayed standing. Wow. Great. Wow. Second question, though. Yeah. Now stay standing. If you've already implemented some sustainability practices into your business, 95% of them sit down. Wow. So the great learning there, and if they are typical of our industry, there's no reason to assume that they're not the learning for me.

And hopefully, for them is that there's a massive gap between our aspirations of wanting to do something and our ability or our time actually to do it. and I'm constantly talking to people and they are so bewildered around sustainability. and I try and cut through the mist, cut through the fog and get them to where they need to be because.

Confused. They do nothing inertia sets in and we've got to get them moving and get them taking some small steps. We don't want half a dozen people in our industry doing it perfectly. We want 95% of people doing it imperfectly because the impression and the impact will be so much more. So, that's my challenge to the industry and that's what I'm trying to do.

and we've got a long way to go, but, i'm playng my part.

[00:16:06] Jenn: Yeah, no, I love, I love your passion. Whenever I think of sustainability in our industry, your name is the first one that pops up for me. You know, I think you're the forefront of this green wave, if you will.

[00:16:21] Bob: Yeah. And Jen, Jen, if I could just say, I wish it wasn't, so I wish the first person you came up with somebody.

Because that would mean we were, we were getting somewhere that you should be able to come up with 10 or 20 people in an industry doing it when we get to that stage, I'll be satisfied.

[00:16:37] Jenn: Yes. Yes. I hear your point. I do hear your point. So let's go back to the, the summit. And it's online. So how are we still affecting the environment, even though we are on online summit.

And is there anything that maybe we could share with, those wanting to attend? Anything we can do to, to sort of cut that down?

[00:16:58] Bob: Yeah, well, for the, for the online summit, obviously the impact is so, so much lower than an in person, conference. So, you know, that's a, a great green step. and, but obviously because summits are using servers and servers use electricity and that the electricity is powered normally, from coal or gas, from some carbon it's creating a carbon footprint.

one of the things. The host of the conference can do, and individuals can do in their private life or in their business is see if they can have their servers. whoever is hosting your servers, that they are supported by green energy. And there's a website called green web foundation. And maybe we can put a link to it in the show notes.

[00:17:44] Bob: Oh, wow. Go to that. You're punching a URL any URL, and you'll get an instant answer a whether your website is hosted green or not. OK. Uh,you'll get smiley green face or you'll get a, a, a gray face. And if you get a green face, it means that. Host who's providing your service, running your service.

They're using a green energy supplier. If they're. or, or if it's your own business, it might just be your own business or your own home. the thing to do then is speak to your energy supplier, and say, do you have a green tariff? I would like to move to a green tariff. It won't cost you any more money, but your money is then going to fund renewable energy.

It's going into wind power. It's going into solar, and it's going into, wave power. And so what you need to be doing is going onto a green energy tariff because your energy is by far the biggest part of your footprint. If you can deal with the energy you are, you know, 60, 70% of, of the way there.

So that's one of the real biggies that you can do.

[00:18:49] Jenn: Yeah. I just wanted to say that if you put in the Summit's website in there, it will come back sort of probably as inconclusive. But I can tell you that just because I host my own on my own servers, but I'm a reseller of those services. So the actual server be, and the, I guess the technology, isn't smart enough to figure that out, but the real server is green.

So I have done that. I just can't. Prove it all to you. because I host I'm a reseller of hosting or something like that. I understand. But yeah. So that's great. So we're, we're on our way.

[00:19:30] Bob: Absolutely. And that's, anybody can do that in their home, in their business, a conference. It doesn't matter anybody whoever's using electricity.

If you pay the bill, check it out and, and talk to your host and. That's

[00:19:41] Jenn: great. That's really great. And there's another organization that you're involved with, which is tourism declares, a climate emergency.

[00:19:49] Bob: Yep. I have a finger in a few pies.

[00:19:51] Jenn: You do? So can you tell us about

[00:19:53] Bob: them? At can indeed. Yeah.

So I'm a volunteer outreach coordinator for tourism declares, a climate emergency. It was set up, two and a half years ago. And the principle behind it was that our industry tourism had no unified voice, no, coordinated approach. No, serious, activity around moving to the green agenda. as I was saying, tourism accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gases, but most businesses in tourism.

And of course, when we're talking tourism, it's not short term rentals, it's cruises, it's airlines. It's, it's anything to do with tourism. Most of those organizations are not yet tackling the climate emergency. They're not looking at. Emissions and trying to reduce them. And so the idea behind tourism declare.

Was to get businesses, any business in tourism to declare if I'm an emergency to put a statement on their website, to that effect, you'll find a, a copy on my website, cuz I'll be peeking and then to put the climate action plan together over the year, which would, would be what you as an individual business can do to move from where you are to where you need to be.

Now of course, for some businesses that can take a year, two years, five years, 10. There's no prescription there. It's doing it at the pace. That's right. For your business, for your environment. Because there are so many different businesses in tourism. And I specialize in the short term mentals because it's the area I know.

So that those are the people I talk to and help them get on that path and get thinking towards reducing their emissions because you know, we've all gotta play our part in society. Well, we can't just leave it to governments to do that. It's. That isn't gonna work business and industry also needs to play its part and tourism's certainly got a role to play there.

so yep. Tourism declares is, thriving and, and a part of a wider network, and trying to persuade tourism to take the right steps. and although it might seem like a long number. Steps that you have to take. As I always say to people, just take the first two or three steps and review you don't get overwhelmed by thinking you've gotta do everything straight away.

[00:22:03] Bob: You absolutely do. Just take two or three steps and importantly, really importantly, brand your website, start talking about it to your customers, start blogging about it. You know, use your touch day guide, use your communication, use your website because people need to know that that you are there and that you are green.

the booking.com survey that comes out every year. This year, we're saying that 78% of consumers are looking to stay green accommodation, 78%, but a lot of those of, of your audience and, and the people I speak to can't attract those people because they haven't yet moved. To the green agenda and started to green their business.

[00:22:49] Bob: So there's a whole new market out there waiting to be tapped into. All you need to do is brand your website. And I don't mean greenwashing here, genuinely doing some things, but then talk about it, brand it, and, and cause we're talking about direct bookings. It's an absolute great way of getting direct bookings.

I can guarantee. Yeah, because this is

[00:23:10] Jenn: something, yes, we're doing it for the good of the planet. but it is an amazing marketing tool to get that, the word out that you were green, that you were doing, sustainability work in your own business, but using that for the marketing and if, you know, would something.

You're saying about the property managers that all stood up. I can't, I don't know if you would ask anybody if they don't think sustainability is important and you know, the climate, the ongoing climate emergency that we have found ourselves in, but yeah, it's that. Okay, well, how do I start? Where do I go?

You know, so I, well, I applaud you for what you're doing, because I know you're not, you don't get paid for this. It is a voluntary position. And, and I think it's great. And I, you know, I take your point that you wish there was a lot more of you out there doing the same thing. And I think in time there will be indeed.

You know, people will like to jump onto a trend if you will. And if you can call our climate emergency a trend, there will people that will be jumping on board of it. Definitely any, any other, organizations that you're working with right now.

[00:24:25] Bob: I'm working a little bit with Glasgow declares, a climate emergency, the Glasgow declaration.

That's really, an umbrella of tourism declares. and we're also working with a group of people in our industry. I was, Moderating the panel at the short say summit in London, back in may. And we've collected a group of, individuals in our industry, to try and brainstorm what we can do to move our industry forward, to kick it up the ass and get it where it needs to be.

and all I can say on that one is, is watch this space as we develop some, some ideas. oh, that's brilliant. Knocking them around at the moment. Yeah.

[00:24:59] Jenn: Because you know, there's one thing, if you're an owner operator, even if you've just got a couple of properties or like you, you live on site, so you could be, you have full control over it.

But when you're a property manager and say, you've got 50 plus, and you don't own those places, you've got owners involved and you know, so many more pieces to that puzzle. It starts to get harder to move that needle. Doesn't it.

[00:25:22] Bob: Yeah, but it's interesting, you know, a couple of things. I gave this example, in a presentation recently, one of the,agencies, Holido who obviously are an OTA.

They've started branding, their properties that are eco-friendly, with a badge on, on their website. Mm-hmm and their early data is saying that there's been a, a significant uptick in the click through rate and through to book rate for those properties, with the eco badge, compared to those on their website, with which don't have the eco badge.

So that's a demonstration that people are interested in eco and therefore it can be great for your business. And so I would be saying to prop, if I were a property manager, mm-hmm with, properties that I managed, I would be talking to the owners of those properties saying. If you are looking for more business, start to implement some eco initiatives in your property, we will then brand you as eco.

and then the, the inquiries will root through us to you. Yeah. And you will get more weeks sold. And, and that seems to be the facts and how it works. So, you know, let's, I always say, I don't care how people come to this. Yeah. Whether they come because they wanna save the planet or they come to it cuz they wanna make money.

[00:26:35] Bob: It doesn't matter. The end result is the same. It's good for the planet. It's good for your business. And it's good for the consumer who finds what they're looking for. So everybody wins. So it, it doesn't matter. We, we get there in the end. So yeah, if your only, if your only motivation is to make more money, no judgment, absolutely fine.

Let's get you on that road and get you eco and get you making some more money. and that's gonna be great for every.

[00:27:00] Jenn: And this is the background to what you're gonna be speaking on at the direct booking success summit in September. Sustainability is good for your direct booking business. That is

[00:27:12] Bob: yes. I certainly am.

So I'll give you a little taster if you

[00:27:16] Jenn: like. Okay. Yes, please. Don't give too much away. Now. I

[00:27:19] Bob: wrote gonna give you just one stat. Brilliant on my business. And, and my business is that we have a 90 plus percent direct booking of my business. And we use very little of the OTAs. And a lot of that is to do with sustainability.

Obviously there are other factors involved, but it's to do with sustainability. and I think that's a high rate in our industry. and I put that down to how we manage our business sustainably. And there's no reason to assume that it, the, the people listening to this podcast and the people who be on the.

Can't do the same. I'm not the cleverest person in the world, so if I can do it, they can do it.

[00:28:01] Jenn: that will be our clip for this episode. that's brilliant. So what are you looking forward to most about the summit?

[00:28:11] Bob: I'm looking to talking of course. And, and I'm also looking to engaging with, with the, the audience.

And I hope that will happen, but I'm also list looking forward to learning, because I always think at these summits, you know, there are so many things to learn and I often have my head down thinking about sustainability. So, it's gonna be nice to. Here, some other techniques, tips, suggestions, ideas around direct booking and marketing.

And I'm hoping that I'm gonna learn quite a lot because you know, you never stop learning in this industry. There's always so much more to pick up on and you've got some really bright and intelligent people speaking plus me. So it should be great.

[00:28:51] Jenn: Brilliant, but I am still waiting for someone when I ask them that question to say, I'm looking forward to not having to get dressed. You know, like I am thinking that that is definitely a number one concern on my end, but I don't know, but anybody else um,brilliant. So, okay. So I'm ending every podcast, episode asking this question.

So here it comes. What does direct booking success mean to

[00:29:15] Bob: you? Okay. Direct booking success means to me is controlling your brand. If you've got control of your brand and that's clear and precise and you communicate it well, and you make an offering to the world. In my case, based on sustainability, the direct bookings will come and you, but you need to.

Shouting it from the rooftops, one example I would give probably most people have heard of green washing where people pretend they're doing things. Eco-friendly when they're not really doing it, but there's another expression. Green hushing. green hushing and that's where you are doing stuff and not talking about it.

It's crazy. Yeah. If you're doing eco stuff, whatever you're doing, shout it from the rooftops. Talk to people, blog about it, get it on your website, you know, sing it from the streets if you need to, because you need to be telling people if people don't know what you are doing, they're not gonna come to you.

So direct bookings for me are about really singing about what we are doing and then the customer finds. And they come back and back and back. mm-hmm because, you know, we've got a 65% repeat rate. people come every year because they're like what they're finding. Yeah.

[00:30:34] Jenn: Well, it sounds like we need sustainability and pizza parties.

Okay. That's what we need is that combination. Isn't it? It's bringing everybody back.

[00:30:42] Bob: Yeah. Maybe that's a sweet spot. Yeah,

[00:30:48] Jenn: brilliant. Well, I can't wait to come for a pizza party. That's definitely on my list. So can you tell us Bob, where people can find you.

[00:30:57] Bob: Okay. The best place to find me is on LinkedIn. and we can put a link in the show notes, I guess. Yep. Or I can go to my website, Casal dei Fichi.com again, we'll put a web, a link in the web in the notes because it's, an Italian name.

Yes. LinkedIn, I'm always there. I'm always talking to people, so that's always great.

[00:31:14] Jenn: Great. Well, thank you, Bob. And I can't wait to hear your presentation. See your presentation in September. Thanks for coming on.

[00:31:22] Bob: Okay. My. Take care. Bye.