In the competitive world of short-term rentals, what if your greatest asset was actually your competition? It might sound counterintuitive, but sharing guests could be the key to increasing direct bookings, building stronger relationships, and creating a thriving community of trusted property managers.
In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Deborah Labi, founder of “Have You Got?” and a visionary in the hospitality industry. With 18 years of experience managing properties in Australia, Deborah shares her unique perspective on collaboration over competition.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
- How to initiate collaborations with other property managers in your area
- The potential for positive reviews and increased word-of-mouth marketing
- Strategies for making your direct booking approach “leak-proof”
- The future of guest referrals and their role in the hospitality industry
Competition is gone. Because if you can help the guest, then you’re all working together. – Deborah Labi
Deborah Labi is a dynamic entrepreneur and innovator who has spent 18 years shaping the vacation rental industry. As the founder of “Have You Got,” she pioneered a monetized guest referral system and direct booking platform that revolutionizes how property managers connect with guests. Her commitment to excellence led her to establish “The Guest Inspector,” providing comprehensive solutions for short-term rental businesses, while her creation of The Techsplained Series and Tech Minis serves as a valuable industry resource. Beyond hospitality, Deborah’s entrepreneurial spirit has led her to venture into diverse fields including mental health advocacy, publishing creative works, and developing homewares products, demonstrating her passion for innovation across multiple industries.
Connect with Deborah and Have You Got:
Have You Got Manager’s Site: www.haveyougot.com
Learn how Have You Got works: www.thehaveyougot.network
Instagram: www.instagram.com/have.you.got
Are you ready to reimagine your approach to guest management and explore the untapped potential of collaboration? This episode offers valuable insights for short-term rental hosts and property managers looking to thrive in an ever-changing industry.
00:00:00 Turning Competition into Assets: The Power of Guest Referrals
00:01:20 Deborah Laby’s Journey in Short-Term Rentals
00:03:23 The Power of Guest Referrals for Direct Bookings
00:05:31 Building Trust Through Guest Referrals
00:06:46 Collaboration Over Competition in Hospitality
00:10:38 Implementing a Guest Referral System
00:12:46 The Impact of Guest Referrals on Reviews and Word-of-Mouth
00:14:40 Introduction to “Have You Got?” Referral Network
00:19:55 The Future of Guest Referrals and “Have You Got?”
00:25:28 Getting Started with “Have You Got?”
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Show notes are available at: https://directbookingsuccess.com/podcast/
Join me and your fellow STR operators and property managers to master optimising the guest booking journey with Book Direct Pro.
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Thursday, October 31st, 2024
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- Why expanding your guest base is crucial for scaling your vacation rental business
- The secrets to not only capturing their interest but also gathering the crucial details that turn curious visitors into booked guests.
- How to craft compelling campaigns that resonate with new guests and drive them to book with you.
- The essential tool and templates that will streamline your marketing and supercharge your success.
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Transcript
Imagine turning your competition into your greatest asset. Sounds crazy, right? But what if sharing guests could actually lead to more direct bookings, stronger relationships, and a thriving community of trusted property managers? Stay tuned.
You are listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast, bringing you all the information you need for your short term rental to stand out from the crowd. I'm your host, Jenn Boyles. As an owner and manager myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate the hospitality industry. I'm here to help so you, too, can have direct booking success.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Direct Booking Success Podcast. I'm Jenn Boyles, your host, and today I have Deborah Labi with me. Now, Debra is not only the founder of Have You Got but also the visionary behind the guest inspector, the Greenpath Podcast, the Text Plane Series, and so many other things. She actually started managing her properties in Australia 18 years ago. So welcome.
Thank you very much, Jenn, lovely to see you, and thank you for this opportunity.
Oh, it's so great to have you here today. Let's start off with a bit of your background and how you got started in short term rentals.
So it was back in 2006, and I suffered a little bit of a personal trauma, and I really needed to go overseas. I just moved into my home, and a friend of mine suggested that I rent my home. And I was like, why would anyone want to rent a home in the center of Sydney? Because when we were doing holiday rentals, we were going up the coast and down the coast in the bush holiday, right? So it didn't occur to me that someone wants to go to a city and rent a home. So anyway, I thought, okay, I'll figure it out. I managed to do it great. It was all great, and it just snowballed from there. So I was managing my property. I took on a couple of other properties. Word got out, just word of mouth. Through one of them was an old school friend, and then through her, all of her friends, and my neighbor, she knocked on the door. Hey, you're doing holiday rentals. Can you look after my home, too? That's pretty good when your neighbor actually hands over their property when they go on holiday. So everything was ticking along wonderfully. I had the thought about, have you got back in 2016? And I'll explain how and why that all came to be. And then I started going to conferences from about 2017. So I sort of discovered the global world of vacation rentals. Wow, there are other people in the world doing this. And then Covid came along, in 2020, and I lost my business. I had been working remotely. I was a digital nomad for about 15 years. So working remotely and going back and forth to Australia a couple of times a year just to polish things up or reorder linen stock, stuff like that, keep an eye on the properties. And so with Australia closing the border for two years, I didn't want to get locked in. I wanted to get locked out, so I chose to get out. And so there was. I lost my business. But there are so many other opportunities in this industry, and I had so many ideas. So it's not like there was a dull moment after that.
Great. We're going to start by talking about guest referrals, because why do you think they could be such a powerful tool for direct bookings?
Over my years, I turned away, I would say maybe not thousands, but definitely hundreds and hundreds of guests return guests, website inquiries. And the thing is, when you start off in the industry, pre OTAs, back in the day, when there were listing sites and they gave you the booking, so when you start off your career in this industry with direct bookings, you want to keep direct bookings because that gives you the control over your business. So when I got these inquiries, I'm sorry, I can't help you. I kept thinking, I don't want this guest to go to an OTA. I would much rather this guest went to another independent property manager only because I just didn't want the OTAs to get the business. I thought, if that guest found me, I would want to keep it. I want to give it to another little guy. So that's where the idea came from about sharing the guests and aids to keep the guests off the OTA. But it's also a really good service to give the guest. The guest has come to you because they want to book something. If you just say, I can't help you, and you just send them off into the wilderness of OTA listing sites, things like that, it's not a nice guest experience. What if he can say, I haven't got anything for you, but I'm part of a network, or I can refer you to another property manager, you know, they'll look after you. It's a nice way for the guests to actually feel looked after rather than being turned away. I mean, if you wanted to find something where you wanted to book something and someone turned you away, how would you feel about that person versus the person that's being helpful? So it is all about offering that guest a helpful service, and they will remember you for being helpful rather than turning you away.
And how does that build trust between the guest and the host because there's a recommendation behind it.
So word of mouth, referrals, recommendations. If there is another independent property manager who's all about taking direct bookings, chances are they're sort of at a certain level, they've got their own website. Their business depends on good reviews, good service. So if this guest has found me and has understood that they could trust me, if they're new to my website, they've gotten the idea that they can trust me and they're making an inquiry and I can't help them, but yet I'm still going to help them, then that's a pretty big signal to the guests that I'm going to look after you. And since I can't look after you with one of my properties, but another of the managers can look after you. So it is all about making the guests feel looked after now, even if the guest is a return guest. Great to have you back, but I'm really sorry I can't help you this time. But, you know, I know other property managers, blah, blah, blah. So as long as you're helping the guest and you're referring to the guest, then it is all about trust and staying together like that.
Yeah, yeah. And I can see from the guest side of things they will feel so good that you're taking the time. It's not something you have to do, but you're taking the time to refer them to someone else. Now, let's talk about the competition. We're in hospitality, and thankfully most people that we meet in hospitality are very hospitable and very nice. And I've spoken to a lot of people coming from other industries that say, wow, I wasn't expecting such nice people because a lot of industries aren't like that. However, if you're in an area and Joe Blow is down the street, and they're running their property management business, you can't feel them for thinking of them as the competition. If you start referring guests to them, how can this actually benefit?
Well, remember that you're the one helping the guest and they will remember that. Think of that scenario earlier. I can't help you. They go to your competition and they book with them, and now they're building a relationship with you by saying, I can't help you, but I will help you. They're going to remember you. Wow. Now the idea is that it's the back and forth. This collaboration is always a two way street. So they, the competition will eventually also have to turn away a guest. Now just remember, if you turn away a guest, you've lost the guest. So if they. If the competition ever turns away a guest, because, oh, no, I don't want to give them the guest. Well, you know what? Hey, presto. That guest is on its way over to me and I'm being helpful, so that guest will stick with me. So it's all about creating a network of people that are ready to help the guest. The guest is the priority. Competition is gone. Because if you can help the guest, then you're all working together. You're going to give them bookings, you're going to get bookings. It's a two way street and the guests will always keep coming back.
Yeah, no, I like that. Such a good thing to remember that you're helping each other. And when that host or that property manager gets into a situation where they have to turn away a guest, they might think, oh, yeah, you remember that time that Deborah sent us?
Now think about it. It's not just, I'm full. What about if your return guest comes back to you and says, oh, look, I really want to come back. Have you got a property with a pool? No, but maybe someone in my network does. Let's see. And that could happen to your competition as well. So it's not just about my calendar being full, it's about what sort of properties do you have? Do you have any pet friendly properties with a pool, with whatever else, games, big screen tvs? It's also about broadening your inventory, what sort of amenities or the niches that you offer. And yes, just helping the guests. Plus, also, there are times where, for example, the hot water goes in a property and you need to relocate the guest. Really? Do you want to spend your time online trying to find another property for that guest? It's usually like, I need to find something. Now, the guest doesn't have hot water and they're on holiday, so even a property manager having to relocate a guest can use it and they could easily find the property for the guest. Yeah. Within the network.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think you've made a really good point there. It's not just if you're full, if it's something else that has come up, if something's happened to your property and you need to rehouse people, I think that's a really good idea. So how do we start this?
I think it's a matter of doing an Internet search and picking up the phone and saying, look, this is what I want to do. I don't want to turn away a guest. I think it's really bad for business if we turn away a guest. And I'd really like to be able to share them with you. Like, I can see your properties online. They're pretty good. Your reviews are really good. Do you want to get on board and do you want to do some sharing and get a network going? I mean, it only takes one other company, but if you've got a number, then you've got a better choice, you know, so you've got a broader range of property. You might have really. Ideally you want studios to villas, but you never know who's going to come back and ask what. I had a range, but at the most, I only had six properties all year, which skyrocketed to 15 in summertime over peak season. But I had the range, but I still always had people coming back. Have you got a property in this other suburb? No, you know, it just kept. It broke my heart, all the inquiries I bought returned guests. I can't help you. Can you change your dates? And then I would even go online and I would look for properties and it was just always a bit fruitless and it took too much of my time. Yeah. But get on the Internet, pick up the phone, start talking to some local managers. But I have found it a little bit. You do actually need to educate them. This is a whole new way of thinking about collaboration versus competition. So you might have to convince them that it's worth it for the guest satisfaction and the return guest to keep them between your network, your local network. It's worth it.
Yeah. And I think that that, like in anything, anything that's worthwhile doing, I think needs a conversation and to talk about reasons why you want to do this. And keeping the guest in the area is really a win-win because if you're full, they might decide to go somewhere else completely.
Yep, that's true. Keep them in the area better that the guest is there and someone else gets a bookie and the guest stays local. Yeah.
Now, what about those reviews that these guests are making? They could be making reviews for the person that you've referred them to, but they could actually be referencing you and your business.
Exactly. They can say how helpful you were and we couldn't stay there, but we stayed here and it's great, too. And da da da da da. It's a win win. Yes, absolutely. There's definitely that possibility that they can thank you in a review.
Yeah, yeah. No, that's amazing. So it's another person out there blowing the horn for you. And now, remember, if you've helped that.
Guest and a friend of theirs wants to come visit the area, the helpful one is going to be, yeah, they really care. They really will look after you. That is going to add to the word of mouth about your business because you were so helpful.
Yeah. Even if that second stay was amazing, they're going to say, this is the place I stayed first. They were awesome. When they couldn't accommodate me, they moved me here, which was great, too. But this person was so helpful.
It really cements the relationship with the guest.
Yeah. And I think it's just getting out of that mindset of competition. So collaboration over competition.
Everyone needs to put themselves in the situation. They're coming to someone for something. One person says, sorry, I can't help you, you gotta leave. And the other person says, I can help you. I can't help you, but I can. Now you are that person. Which one would you rather go to? Which one will you go back to?
Yeah, I know which one I would go back to, definitely. All right, so let's talk about what you have. Because this is basically a referral network that you have created. So can you start to tell us the story about how this came to be.
So this goes back to 2016 when I finally got so sick of typing. Sorry, I can't help you because, you know, it dawned on me that not only am I not being able to help the guest, I'm actually turning away a bookie. This is money. They want to hand over money and book a property and I'm turning them away. Oh, my God. That really, like, it was very frustrating and I didn't know any property managers in Sydney and I thought, you know what? It's time. I got to build a network. I've got to build something that can automate it or make it easy. People can join the network and you can grow from there. So that's how the idea started so I could refer to the guests that I was turning away to explain how Have You Got evolved and how it is today. If you want to look at it on the micro level, property managers sign up and it works locally. You have a guest you can't refer to. You fill in a very short form. Guest name and email, phone number, dates, location, any keywords that they're looking for, bedrooms, whatever they're looking for. It's a very short, simple form. If you already have a WhatsApp group, chances are you're already putting that information into the WhatsApp group. But on Have You Got, you fill in this form, you hit submit and that's all you have to do to refer your guest. Have You taken over from there. And then within 10 seconds the guest will get an email saying, so and so referred you to remind the guest who it was that is helping them and a link to have you got with their search already in there with the properties that are available for their stay. And if they book one, it's exactly like a listing site. There's the property, the photos, description, reviews, location, everything is there. If they book it, then the referrer gets a commission and then the referring manager will get an email saying your guest booked and this is how much commission you've just earned. So that's all you had to do to refer to the guest. Fill in a form, hit the button. Have you got us everything else? Now, if there are no properties available, we don't want that because that's a bad guest experience. So we advise the guest to either change the dates, change the area a little bit, and the property manager gets notified too that they were not especially, like if it's a last minute thing, you know, advise the guests to change location dates or, you know, to try and be a bit more flexible to try to help them. So that's how the guest referrals work. So if you can get property managers on board in your local area when a guest is coming to you and they want to stay in this area, if there are other property managers, hit the share inquiry button and hopefully the guest will find something local.
And does this cost more to the guest?
It costs the same as if they'd booked it on Airbnb. So what happens is it's the same price as Airbnb. That markup is the fee that we take. So the property manager still gets the direct booking price so the property manager doesn't miss out on a direct booking price. Oh, and so I need to say that when the guest books, the property manager who got the booking gets a WhatsApp notification that you got a booking and an email instantly and an email saying, this is the booking, this is the guest, the name, the dates, all the details, phone number, how much they paid for their deposit and what's left to collect, and it's yours. You take the payment, you put it into your PM's, it's a direct booking. It's exactly like the guest that emailed you saying, I want to stay here, da da da da da da. And this is the price that I saw quoted.
So, okay, so that the mission that goes to the person who's referred to is preferred. The booking is from that little bit of markup, like an Airbnb commission.
So that's the fact that we split for the commissions and the property managers. The property managers get their book, direct price. As long as you're marking up the rates on Airbnb by 15%, you'll get your direct booking price. Yes.
Which we all should be doing anyway. Right.
The other thing is that if you find that the guest is not a good fit, like, oh, my God, it's a bunch of 16 year olds. I'm not having this guest. You can actually cancel the booking. You don't have to accept it. Even if you have accepted it and you've discovered through your guest verification that it's like, oh, no, no, no, wait a second. You can cancel the guest and it's penalty free, okay?
Because it's a direct booking, right?
It's a direct booking.
So it's just the referral process.
You're involved, but it's also an instant booking. So you can accept it or you don't have to accept it. And I built this. I designed this for property managers. I don't want anyone telling me what I can and can't do if I don't want that guest. Don't you dare penalize me. So there is no penalty. You just have to. CC, have you got in, in the email to the guest to say, I'm sorry, it's not a good fit for whatever reason, and the guest will get a refund of their booking fee?
Yeah, well, it does sound very fair. Cause the guest is only paying what they would pay on Airbnb and they've already gone through one property manager who said, sorry, I can't help you, but I know where you could stay or how I could help you. And usually I think if it was me, I'd think I'd pay a little extra for that help.
Now, the thing is, I'm all for direct bookings. The primary goal is everyone gets direct bookings because there will be one day when your direct booking strategy is working too well and you have to turn away a guest. Direct bookings are great, but Have You Got is the safety net. So even though that guest has come back or found you on your website, you can still help them even though you're full or you haven't got the right property and things like that. So I say that it makes your direct booking strategy leak proof, because there will come a time where if you're really doing well with direct bookings, you might have to turn them away. And that's really bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just want to add also, I'm thinking that's the micro level, the local level. And I always used to get asked, we're going to Melbourne next. Have you got anything in Melbourne? In Australia? Now, the thing is, they've met me, they like me, they trust me, and now they want to go to Melbourne. So I was like, no. And then one guest actually asked, they were going to New Zealand. Have you got anything there? No. So if you zoom back from the local community, the local referral network, you can actually refer guests to anywhere in the. Have you got? Network. So some guests, you know, they might be in London and they might say, oh, we're going to Edinburgh next. Have you got anything there? Yes, I'm part of a network. Sure, let me help you. Or we're going to Barcelona next. Have you got anything there? Yeah, sure. So you can help them. I mean, guests always ask when they're going somewhere else, they mention it. Oh, yes, we can help you. The beauty of this is that you could actually have a button on your website that says, where are you going to next? We're part of a global id verified network and we can help you there. They hit the button, they go down the rabbit hole and you've just earned passive income from a button on your website.
Oh, my goodness. Love it. Deborah, what a good idea. And do these referrals work better for certain types of properties or locations?
No. Have you seen it everywhere? It's fine for everything. Guests want to go somewhere and they want help to find something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, it's hard work. That is hard work finding accommodation. Some people dread it, some people love it, but it's hard work. There's a lot out there. And Have You Got one website where all the independent property managers are. And the key thing about having a clot is that every property manager has been id verified and they haven't been id verified by me. They've been id verified by a verification company. But during the registration, they go off, they get verified and then they get let back in. And now you're in, you've been verified. So, I market Have You Got as a scam free website? There's so much scamming going on on airbnb now, booking.com and that making the headlines to, well, you know what? If you want to book with confidence, you book within my id verified network. Again, it's all about trust and helping the guests and everyone's happy. It also means that you can refer confidently, too, because when you're referring to the network, no scammer is going to pick up your guests.
Yeah. No, I love it because we all know about the scams. We've heard about them, we've seen them. And what a better way to get to that trust than to go through someone that you trust.
Absolutely.
And that's where the referral comes in. Now, what about the future?
Yeah.
Okay. How do you see the future of guest referrals going? Because they could play quite a bigger role. Quite a big role.
Now, the way I look at it is that you've got the OTAs, they're feeding you some guests, you've got your own bookings, direct bookings coming in. If you want to consider, have you got or a referral network, an OTA. There's lots of inventory and lots of bookings going around and they're all direct and they're all staying in the network. Now, wouldn't that be wonderful? We're offering a service to the guests that the OTAs can't offer. There's the quality there because everyone's verified, everyone's professional, so there's not going to be any like, oh, my God, the place had bit buggles or it wasn't anything like the listing photos. It's not like that at all. So we could end up with a pool of guests that only book in the have you got? Network because it's so trusted. So we could really build something quite independent. And like I said, direct bookings are the main thing and then referrals are the backup. So it is all about, I want everyone to get as many direct bookings as possible.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's.
We'll see.
Music to my ears, Deborah. Music to my ears. So if people are interested, they're going, okay, this is what I want to do. I want to find out more. Where should I go?
So if they want to register, they can sign up at www.haveyougot.com. you have to just register and be verified. And then after that I can get all of your properties on with just one URL. We can discuss it when you sign up. One URL, I onboard all the properties. It's not a problem. You'll be on the map.
Yeah. And so if you're listening to this, go to haveyougot.com. I think the idea of collaboration over competition is a hard one for some people to get their minds around because we're brought up thinking that if you have a bakery and there's a bakery next door, they're your competition. Don't tell them anything because they might steal our secrets or whatever it is, or they'll get the customers in. So I can see that being a point that people just need to get their mind.
I'm finding that it's the. I did a survey actually on LinkedIn, and I'm sort of finding that it's some of the larger property managers that don't want to share guests. And their excuse is I paid a lot of money to attract this guest and I think they've got such a big inventory that they figure, well, I don't have to turn them away, I'll just put them somewhere else. And in fact, if they do ever turn them away, then you spend so much money to get the guests and now you've lost them. The other thing is that if they've got so much inventory and us little guys don't have so much inventory and we're doing all the great service, we're the ones getting all the good reviews and we're the ones getting the return guests, then we're going to be the ones sharing them into the network. And it could be the bigger guys that clean up a little bit on some of those bookings. So it pays to be on have you got.
Yeah, I can see that. And I can see that. Even if you are thinking, I don't want to share, like being in that sandbox, I don't want to share my toys with the other kids, but it's still another channel that's bringing you booking.
Exactly, exactly. You get other people's bookings. You get direct bookings from the guests coming directly to Have You Got. So yes, it's definitely, it's another channel. And you can make referral income and you can make passive income not only for that global passive button on your website, but you could also have a pop up as a guest is leaving your website. Oh, we didn't find what you're looking for. We're part of a local network and maybe someone in my network. Here's the referral link. And hey, presto, there could be another passive income thread for you. There's two locks of passive income, plus the referral commission you can make money on. Have you got doing nothing.
Yeah, love it. Well, not totally nothing. You have to have great customer service and experience for your guests and all that kind of stuff. You have got to be a. Yeah, yeah. No, you've got to be an awesome property manager. That's what we're going for. But there's a lot of really awesome property managers out there and I love that you're wanting to champion them. Share those bookings and create another channel that is bringing in the bookings, which is so important. Thank you so much, Deborah. I'll put these links in the show notes. Thank you so much for your pleasure.
Thank you very much for the time. Thank you.
A huge thank you to Deborah Labi for coming on the direct booking success podcast to speak about the power of referrals and her new venture have you got? And I thank you for including this episode as part of your day. Please make sure you are following the direct booking success podcast on your podcast app or on YouTube so new episodes will be dropped into your feed each week. Next week on the direct booking success podcast, I'm going to be speaking with a special guest who will be giving you practical advice on how you can break free of Airbnb. Until then, go out and take action for your own direct booking success.
Hey, thanks for listening to the direct booking success podcast. For more information about this episode and others, head to the website directbookingsuccess.com podcast. See you next time.