Who do you want to welcome into your home with Louise Brace

Ep#13 – Who do you want to welcome into your home with Louise Brace

[00:00:00] Jenn: Hello, and welcome to the direct booking success podcast. Today, we are speaking with Louise Brace. She will be speaking at the direct booking success summit in September.

Louise, welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:12] Louise: Thank you very much, Jen. Thank you for inviting me. So can

[00:00:15] Jenn: we start by having you introduce yourself.

[00:00:18] Louise: Yeah. Okay. So while I'm Louise Brace, I have a company called rental tonic, and I work with owners, hosts, and property managers of short-stay accommodation. I'm a copywriter and digital marketing strategist. Yet, my goal is always to help owners or hosts create direct booking strategies for their direct booking websites and other channels.

[00:00:43] Jenn: Brilliant. And how to let's start from the very beginning. How did you get into this crazy

industry?

[00:00:49] Louise: Okay, I've always worked in communications and advertising. I used to work for the Sunday times. When I was back in London, I lived in Malaga in Spain and have been here for 20 years, originally from London.

And when I came to Spain 20 years ago, I started working as a communication director for tourism here. And I got obsessed and passionate about the tourism industry. and I set up my own company, working with tourism companies here and quite quickly, I got into working with holiday rental companies.

I was working with a European city break company, and then I went to work for Spain holiday.com. And they were like the original, original OTA. So before Airbnb HomeAway or V R B O existed, there was a Spain holiday, and they were a super niche company. Yeah. I have worked with holiday rentals here in Spain.

[00:01:47] Louise: I was working as the editor, writing for owners. So I wasn't writing about the destination. I was writing for owners about how to improve their marketing. Mm. And that's kind of how I. Into the holiday rental market. And after a couple of years, I set up my own company, rental tonic, and I've been well dedicated to the end industry ever since.

[00:02:10] Jenn: Oh my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Well, that's a different story to come in it from that angle. Yeah. So tell me more about this OTA. What was it called? Spain,

[00:02:19] Louise: Spain, holiday.com. so they still exist, but I think Hollydo has just bought them out

[00:02:25] Jenn: Okay. Okay. Which is the name that's cropping up everywhere right now.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you were helping the owners with their marketing? Yeah.

[00:02:35] Louise: So I was helping them to understand how to market their prop, their, their properties better. I mean, that was, I mean, we're talking. My gosh, 10, 10 years ago, maybe years ago, a long time ago. Maybe I'm just trying to think. 20 13, 20 13, I think so 10, nine years ago.

So it was very kind of, it was very much in the initial moments of the holiday rental market. I mean, it still had been around for a very long time, but in the way that it is now in the way that we're looking into a business. So yeah, it was helping owners to understand how to market themselves properly, how to write good copy, how to use reviews for their success, how to use email marketing and also a lot about regulations because the regulatory, Registration and licenses were just coming out here in Spain.

So helping them to understand what they had to do. Right. It was a natural progression for me to start rental tonic when I left and to continue helping owners create their independent marketing channels.

[00:03:40] Jenn: Right. Got it. And you're from the copywriting side of things; is that how you started in the papers?

Yeah,

[00:03:48] Louise: well, I, no, no, no. It was the Sunday time I was working in advertising. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I worked in advertising there for eight years. I was the youngest group head. Probably there's been you since then. It was. But at the time, I was the youngest group head in the advertising department, and, from there, I went to work, for, as, working for, as an editor for a property magazine.

So I kind of trans transitioned from advertising to the other side. So I'd worked. I went to work for a creative agency in London, then to editor editorship. So I have my experience. Across all kinds of communication. Yeah. I've learned; I’ve learned on the job always. it

[00:04:36] Jenn: sounds like it's.

And then why down? Why down to Spain? I was only supposed to be here for a year. I was originally going to travel to South America because I was just fed up with the rat race in London. Mm-hmm. But before we were making plans, a friend and I went to South America, and we came here on holiday for a couple of weeks, and we were like, hold on a second.

[00:04:54] Louise: We can come here. We'll be two hours away from home. We can work. Let's do that instead. So that was 20 years ago. And I'm still here.

[00:05:03] Jenn: Yeah. I think it's light. It's, that's a, a story, I think for most of us, because I came over from Canada. Exactly. And then, you know, yeah. It's been 20 years now. I came over in 2002.

[00:05:15] Louise: I have an anniversary this year.

[00:05:17] Jenn: Well, that's it, migration. That's it? That's it. I haven't been in the UK that whole time, but now I'm back. So in England,

[00:05:25] Louise: you're looking forwards. Are you?

[00:05:28] Jenn: No, I've been to, so I left Canada for London for ten years, and then I was in Spain, near where you are. Okay, lovely. Not for that long Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland.

And now the Northwest of England. Okay.

[00:05:46] Louise: Yeah. So you've travelled

[00:05:48] Jenn: I. And

[00:05:49] Louise: lived

[00:05:49] Jenn: in all those places and lived in all those places. Wow. Yeah. So now in the Northwest of England and love it. Yeah, no, quite happy to be, to be back in, in England. Because I did miss it, even though I missed Canada, I also missed England.

So

[00:06:07] Louise: yeah. I, I mean, I love it when I go back to the UK.

[00:06:10] Jenn: Mm. Yeah, well, it's just something comforting. Isn't it? As I know, when I go to Canada this summer, it's just something that's going to be; it’s just going to be comforted in the surroundings. And,

[00:06:22] Louise: you know, you just kind of get back into that way of life, the culture, and you know, it just, everything becomes automatic again.

So I think it, but I think we, you know, we have the best of both words. So I say, I'm going home when I go back to London and then I'm going home when I come back here again. I do

[00:06:38] Jenn: the same thing I use at home for both. I do feel like I have two homes. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I do now. It's lovely.

Let's talk more about the rental tonic, then. Yes. So you help, you're still helping owners. with their marketing, with their writing, with their websites. Is that another string to your bow?

[00:07:01] Louise: Yeah. Okay. So I'm a massive book, direct advocate. Mm-hmm, and I predominantly work with book direct channels.

I'm predominantly; I’m a copywriter. And so I will work. I work with many companies I collaborate with who set up websites for owners or hosts. And I will write all of the copy. and my goal is always to create the whole story around that accommodation. So, I always say that people don't book a bed; they book an experience.

[00:07:33] Louise: Definitely. Yeah. They don't wanna. They don't want us to just come on your, onto your book, direct website and find, you know, this accommodation you're going to stay in because they can just jump over to Airbnb. My whole idea is to create the experience, sing about the destination and where they are, work with my clients, and understand who their ideal guests are.

And to write a story around what they have that completely resonates with that ideal guest mm-hmm. But yes, I, I do; I can also set up websites. It’s not, it's not my first, it's not my kind of first thing that I do, but I have done in the past for clients, but right. First or foremost, I'm a copywriter.

[00:08:15] Jenn: Well, I think that's powerful that whole story because many people will say to me, well, you know, I'm using Airbnb or whatever OTA is, how can I compete? How can I compete with them? And I'm always saying, but it's your story. That's why people

wanna

[00:08:32] Louise: stay with you. Absolutely. And the other thing is that, yes, it is impossible to compete with the Airbnbs and the VRBOs

when you are on, on, you know, on search engines, you know, you, you can't do it. So, you have to find that differentiation, and also to, you know, talk about the niche, talk about the destination, because that's something that the OTAs don't cover. So when you talk about everything around your accommodation, you are going to grab guests before they first think, before they start thinking about accommodation.

Because once they do that, you potentially lose them to an OTA. And then, you will be sitting with all the other hosts and owners at your destination. So the idea is to create a book, a direct website with everything they need to know about the destination. So they find you before they're in that accommodation mode, bookmark you, and come back to you.

[00:09:31] Louise: Yeah. And, of course, your story also connects with them.

[00:09:36] Jenn: Yes. And I always say it's like going into your website by a side door.

[00:09:40] Louise: Yes, exactly.

[00:09:43] Jenn: Yeah. That you're coming in about the location or the activities or whatever it is about your local area. And then they're like, Hey, what website am I on?

Oh, my goodness. They've got this, look, this, you know, holiday led or wow. Glamping pods or

[00:09:56] Louise: whatever it is. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. That, that’s always the aim.

[00:10:01] Jenn: Yeah, the aim is getting people onto that website. And I always think that you know, you have more competition on Airbnb rather than off of Airbnb.

[00:10:12] Louise: Of course, of course. You know, and I think that many guests nowadays are pretty savvy in the respect they will. If they are at that booking stage, they will shortlist properties. I do it, you know, I shortlist a property on Airbnb or booking, and I always head over to Google to find that accommodation directly whenever I can. And I, I know that I work in the industry, but I don't think it's unique to our industry that guests are doing that. So having those direct marketing channels is super essential for that reason. Yes,

[00:10:49] Jenn: definitely. Definitely. I think there's much signposting in your listing, you know, using the name of your property that people can then go and Google.

Yes. and I find you are a straightforward hack to do. Yeah. But some people go and take the information and Google.

[00:11:07] Louise: Absolutely. As I should. Yes. Well,

[00:11:11] Jenn: that's it. But there are many people out there that don't realise that as well. Yeah. They think Airbnb, VRBO and whatever else are the only places to go.

Mm-hmm, and it's another reason why that destination and the location, all the other things you can add to your website when they're Googling, can find you.

[00:11:34] Louise: Exactly and, you know, and, and if you can really kind of nail a niche, and I know that sometimes that's difficult because you know, you don't have something that you immediately identify as being unique to where you are or what you have.

But if you take, I mean, I have some hacks I'll share at the summit. And the idea is that you can. You will be talking directly with those who want exactly what you have. Mm-hmm, not just about the destination, but really, really digging deep again, sort of going back to that.

Who are your ideal guests? Whom do you want to welcome into your home? What do they want, you know? Yes. Then deliver that on your website. And that's how they're going to find. Yeah. And those are the people who get to you, like, oh my God, I love it. You know, I want to come back because you know what you have talked about, what you've, you know, delivered on your website is exactly what I found when I arrived.

You know those are, those are you, your repeat guests, and those are your guests who will love what you have and give you five-star reviews. And that's where your book direct marketing starts to roll over. Yeah. It pays off, doesn't it? It does. It does.

[00:12:48] Jenn: Yeah. Those people become your ambassadors and are doing your marketing for you.

Yeah. Yeah. So just talking about the summit and that it's coming up and you are one of the speakers now, what's going to be exciting? Is that your presentation? You are tagged teaming. Another speaker, which we've never done before. It's going to be interesting. So you're going to be teaming up with Damien Sheridan.

Maybe you can tell everybody a bit about who he is if they don't know, which would be surprising, but you never know.

[00:13:22] Louise: Yeah. Damien Sheridan is the founder of the book direct show and scale renters. And he is also an SEO strategist, and Damien and I have known each other for many years.

Since I worked on a Spain holiday, we will come together and talk about how to convert your inbound content. So inbound content is the content you have on your direct booking website and how you will convert that content into direct bookings. So he will take it from an SEO perspective, and I will take it from a copywriting perspective. Then we'll bring it together, mould it together and explain how, you know, that should come together to help you convert inquiries into direct bookings.

Because the other thing with when you're writing for your website is that you have to have this. A healthy balance of writing for search engines. So making it SEO friendly, but also making it human friendly as well. So that mm-hmm, people do find you, and they do hit your website. They’ll love what you have because you've written in an organic and any kind of local expert way.

[00:14:33] Louise: So I write from the human-friendly, and Damien will be talking about the SEO-friendly aspects.

[00:14:39] Jenn: Oh, I can't wait for that. I think that's going to be quite a great sort of marriage in a presentation, and it'll be fun. Yeah, I think it'll be great from both sides because, when SEO started rearing its head, everybody was just jamming keywords in their copy, and who cares?

You know, but Google now and AI are so sophisticated that you want to be thinking of your ideal guest first.

[00:15:05] Louise: Absolutely. Yeah. And

[00:15:07] Jenn: then SEO comes out of that.

[00:15:09] Louise: Absolutely. It all starts with whom you want to welcome into your home because it has to be right for you. You know, so we can, the problem is, is that when you, when you try to reach everybody when you try to target a mass audience, you can't, you end up not satisfying everybody.

So it's better to consider whom I want to welcome into mine. Really nail that profile. Think about what you have, what you have around; you marry those two things together. And from there, you can start to write content which will, you know, make your ideal guest happy. And those people that are looking for a specific experience or destination will always be satisfied when they find you.

[00:15:57] Jenn: Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. Perfect. So what are you looking forward to at the summit this year?

[00:16:04] Louise: I'm really excited. I'm really excited to be working with you because we've been talking for, you know, a couple of years now, and I didn't make it last year, but I'm so happy that you invited me to speak.

And I'm always, I always, always love to make connections with a host passionate. About their business and, and really think about it as a business and are also motivated to improve their direct bookings. And so I just love to talk with hosts and owners and, and with other industry professionals working with this, you know, the whole book, natural movement.

[00:16:41] Jenn: Yeah, because it is; it’s quite a fun industry, isn't it? Yeah.

[00:16:45] Louise: I think, I think, you know, we're, it's such a, it, it's a massive industry. It's a global industry, but I think our circle is very small. We all meet and have a great time, so it's nice to meet online with people who, you know, you.

They are on the other side of the world and find out what they're doing and what's working for them. Because I learn a lot from owners and clients that I work with, who talk to me about what does and doesn't work for them. And you can start to develop that as moving forward for them and other clients.

[00:17:20] Jenn: Great. Okay. So we've come down to the last question I'm asking everyone. I hope it's a brilliant answer. What does direct booking success mean to you?

[00:17:32] Louise: I think I, I said before, for me, direct booking success is about welcoming the people into your home that you want in your home. Okay. Because it has to be a two-way Model, you can't just invite everybody into your home and, you know, people won't respect your home.

And I think, you know, as much as it is a business, you have to love it. So it's about welcoming people into your home, making them friends, and making them repeat guests. Receiving those five-star reviews. And I think that the only way you do that is to have that direct connection with your guests.

And that's what comes from having a direct booking strategy.

[00:18:14] Jenn: Brilliant. Thank you so much, Louise. This has been great. Before we go, can you tell people where they can find you?

[00:18:23] Louise: Yes. They can, well, head to my website, which is rent, www dot rental, tonic.com rental to dot com. I'm on LinkedIn as at Louise brace.

And I'm on what else? I'm on Instagram at Lou underscore brace. And that's it. I. Brilliant.

[00:18:43] Jenn: Brilliant. Well, we'll put those, we'll put those in the show notes so people can get a hold.

[00:18:47] Louise: of you. I've got a little card, but I just, I I'm, you know, I'm in the middle of moving everything back away.

Otherwise, normally I'd have a little card saying here, this is how you can get hold of me.

[00:18:57] Jenn: that's a great idea. Just

love that. I love that. That is. Well, we will see you at the summit in September. I can't wait to hear your and Damien's presentation and how it works with the two of you present. I think that's going to be how that's going to work. I think it's going to be great. So I'm, I do, so thank you for coming today.

Thank you