Utilizing Referral Groups & Communities To Boost Bookings

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Boosely Podcast. This is the podcast that gives host the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly we're going to help you with the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookends. Today we're going to be talking about how you can get more bookends, particularly how you can use referral groups and communities and how you can kind of use those to your advantage as a short-term rental host. And the person who's going to help us with that is a short-term rental host herself. She's also a recently published best-selling co-author of the book Hospitalable Hosts 2. And I'm just really excited. I've spoken to this person on social media. I'm really excited to find out more about her story and the things that she's doing that works well in her business that you can then do in your business as well. So I'll introduce myself first. My name is Liam, I'm Mark's co-host and today we're going behind the host with Mel Creel. She's got a company called Beachfront Apartments in Shockers Rock and we're in South Africa here. So this is going to be a really cool sort of bit of information from somewhere that we don't normally hear from in terms of the host. So I'm really excited today. So without further ado, welcome along Mel. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you Liam, really honored to be here and super excited to catch up with you. Yucky said we've been chatting on social media for a while now and it's really nice to be able to chat in person. Definitely, definitely. So for those who aren't familiar with yourself, if you can give yourself an introduction, anything you'd like to share and any information about your business that will really help to build up the picture of your kind of business in their mind. Well, it really started. I'm actually a motor farmer so we live in a farm and I had a bit of emptiness syndrome as most people do when their children move on to university and ultimately they've actually left the country and I in the UK. So I was finding it really difficult to sort of find my place again. We did a sense of purpose and really hospitality really found me. I think like a lot of us, but it's just been the best thing I've ever done. It's just opened doors to new friendships, new business opportunities. It just really has been such an awesome journey and what's the biggest takeaway for me so far is the community that's around it. Like we always say that, you know, there really are hospitable people right down to our core. So I'm really, really chaffed to be in this industry and it's overtaken my life. I absolutely love it. My husband rolls his eye when he sees me, cheching to somebody because he knows it's going to be another hour before I come back, but it's I can't resist it and I've just had grown so much through it and it's been an awesome, awesome time. Awesome to hear and your business itself. So I don't know the location. What is the location like? Why have you chosen that and what is your short term rental? Is it just the one at the moment or is there a bunch of them that you look after? I do have five on my website, two of which I own and two I do a profession with the owner. We are located on the dolphin coast of South Africa, which is KZDN. It's Wal-Motors, look like Cape Town where you swim in the cold water. We've got Wal-Motors. We've got a topical climate so you pretty much can come to us all year round. So we definitely had destination points rather than just the seasonal one. My husband's unfortunately on the beach front, so hence the name. So I'm right on the beach side and they direct access to the beach and very secure, very well located as far as for families and for elderly and for everybody. It really is a perfect location from that point of view. Flats are easy. We've got an airport that's only 20 minutes away. So we often are on routes. So people either flying up from Cape Town, they stay with us and then go to the parks, you know the Kruger Park or something like that, or dude, but the other way around. So we are sort of on that route. So if you wanted to drive from us to Joeburg, which is Hennessburg would be a six hour drive from Cape Town would be a longer drive. It's about 20 hours, so I would suggest you would fly there. But we have flasks that go out from Durban to all of these different destinations. So we ride in the middle, put it this way. We sort of halfway between the two. I was talking to Ron Jensen on behind the host podcast and we were talking about how important it is to have somewhere which is either a seasonal one that you understand or somewhere which is available all year round. And you just mentioned that pretty much it's all year round. Is it for for your accommodation? Yes, definitely. For our school holidays and we have our summer holiday in December. So our Christmas time out our new year is our busiest time and our yesterday like coming up to now is our very busy time. It's a very popular time to travel. It's not as hot as as it is in December. But then again, for us cold water, it's probably, I mean, I'll put my turn to the pool. And if it's not 25, I might not get in because it's not warm enough, you know. So yeah, we're very spoiled from that point of view. Our winter is very mild. We don't get our rain and winter either. So you've got really nice days and winter. And a lot of my international actually will come out then. It seems to be the time for them. But a lot of expats will come as well because it's suitable for them to visit their friends and family and also for schooling. It does coincide with that, but pretty much all year round. That's perfect. And you know, it sounds to me. I mean, I've never, you know, honestly, I've not considered traveling to South Africa. And it just sounds like such a nice place in terms of the heat all year round and, you know, sort of the warm water. You're certainly selling it to me. It's a great time to sort of branch into the guest avatar. Who is it that you normally host? Does it tend to be more international travelers? And if so, where from? And initially, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. COVID did throw a proper curveball for us then. I was building up my International's Narski. And the majority came from the UK, Australia is another big one. And of course, Germany, we have quite a big German community where actually I live. My husband's half German. So, yeah, we have that as well. Some others as well from Europe, but not a lot. We tend to sort of have that main market. I know there's a lot of focus on attracting more international's and we would love to have been back. But at the moment, host COVID has been a bit slow from that point of view. And our own market, with our exchange rate is also thrown a little bit of a curveball there. So, they are actually traveling within South Africa. So, we have been busy. It's not that we're quiet at all. We are coming up to Easter, we fully booked. But you're on the whole. It's been a bit of a mixed bag. Majority are our own country and Africa. So, you'll get people from Zimbabwe, from the rest of Africa coming. But yeah, a bit of a mixed bag. That's cool. That's cool. And at the end of the day, I mean, COVID has been such a challenge, which I think we're all still riding the COVID, staycation boom, then another, you know, sort of locked out. You know, across the world, it's just has such an effect and really throwing things out, having it for the last couple of years. So, I think we're still quite away away from what is normal travel, isn't it, at the moment? So, hopefully things will settle down. So, before we dive more into some of the cool stuff, we're going to be talking about today, which is the, you know, the referral groups and something that you've made, which is short term rental made easy, which I'm looking forward to talking about. Let's just dive into your new project, which is Hospital Hospitals, too. So, for those of you listening into the podcast or watching on the Facebook Live Hospital, host two, I'm sure you've seen some posts because they are everywhere on Instagram and on social media. Hospital Hospitals, too, is a project by Jodie Sterling, which has got some amazing short-term rental hosts all over the world together in one book. This is the second edition, and Mel is one of the authors in it, and this book just went to Best Seller in the last two days. Is that correct? Yeah, it has, yeah, we've done really well with it. It's in three different categories, and it's doing well. So, yeah, it's been fantastic doing it. Honestly, the people that have made through this and chatting, and it's, I'm seeing them all now in the States and just thinking, oh my gosh, how only I could be there like I said to you earlier on. But it's just so, you know, when you find somebody that talks the same language, I talk about my tribe, and oh, I feel like I've found my tribe. It's just so nice to be able to network the same people who understand the language we speak and our passion behind it. So, yeah, just so honored to be in the book. It is hospitality in general is addictive, and there's no clam like hospitable host in general, to know. I mean, as I know from being a part of it, for anybody listening, if you go onto Amazon and type in hospitable hosts too, you'll be able to get this book. I thoroughly recommend you do. I've started reading it and it only arrived two days ago. I've read Mel's chapter. I've read a few others. And if you just need, as we record this, we're actually, as during the short-term rental wealth conference in Nashville, where we're seeing everybody there, well, I'm distracting myself from social media. And so I don't get pho-mo by reading these chapters. So I feel free to do the same. So how does it feel, first of all, to be a best-selling author? And how did it feel to write your chapter? I think it's really sumpenny to be, to be totally honest. I think when I get to be with everybody and hear the excitement and see it, then maybe I actually feel like I'm a best-selling author. At the moment, it doesn't quite feel like that. And this order seems a little bit surreal. I'm getting there. It's there. I know it's written there. When you've got the, I'll just hold it up to the camera. I don't know if it'll give us it. But yeah, as soon as you see it in print, you're in the book, which is amazing. And for the people listening, what can they expect from your chapter? What do you share within the book? And what do you want them to take away from from your story? I think my chapter was really about finding my sense of purpose, like I mentioned right to the beginning. And from that, I learned that when I first bought the property, I was so concerned about pricing it and understanding the dynamics that I lost focus as to what was important. And I can't quite remember if you heard on one of the podcasts, but you talked about abundance, and having abundance, man said, and once somebody absorbed that and got over the hurdle of trying to watch what my neighbour was doing and what everybody else was doing and just looked at what I was doing and then started to reach out and say, I actually reached out to the other host who's got basically a mirror property of my own and said, well, look, why don't we chat? Because I kind of saw her on Airbnb and she dropped her rates and I would drop my rates and you're playing this game and I thought, you know what, this is actually not working. Let's rather talk together. So my chapter talks about networking and reaching out to better hosts rather than just concentrating on getting the guests. I guess obviously come to you and it's important and it's important to retain them and build that relationship, but it's also important to have a relationship with the hosts and people in your own complex particularly because we do look out for each other and we do look after each other's guests if the one person isn't there. So it becomes a real collection of minds that think the same way and also from that I learned to share my knowledge and not hold it back because the more I shared, the more they shared and so it became a much easier transfer of information and the whole process is being so much more rewarding through it. So I think it's a change of mindsets. I think that was my biggest thing that I'd like people to take away is that you don't have to hold anything to yourself and think you can't share when actually the opposite is true and the more you share, the more it comes your way. Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two Bootsley books that we brought out, the book, Derek Playbook and the book, Derek Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best selling in a hospitality category on Amazon. For just two pounds you can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the Blueprint and then for a 101 mark in tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon. Now just type in book, Derek Playbook or the book, Derek Blueprint and we'll see you on your side. It definitely comes through and it's so true isn't it that think of it like a table that when there's only one pillar to the knowledge, you know a table wouldn't stand up but when you get to meet these awesome hosts and these people around you're particularly in your local network. It's like having little extra legs on this table of support within hospitality for your local area. So it definitely comes through and of course off the back of that you get and ask more information and one thing that struck me in the chapter is that you love to share you know how to help, how to get people started on their short-term rental journey and that comes through very much so in the book and this helped you build even more connections but also you've created this awesome referral group. So talk us through the referral group and how it came around and the benefits that it brings you now both I guess you know sort of in all the ways all the benefits it can bring your benefits basically. Yeah so the awesome host group was started really with a bunch of us who and father of us and we were just chatting about how we could share guests because we wanted to make sure that our guests we couldn't accommodate them that they would be accommodated within the same area because they they're coming to us for a reason and they don't necessarily want to be 100 kilometers away where they don't have the same beaches and facilities that we offer. So instead of just saying sorry we thought and put the phone down it was about okay it's sure it's easy to see if we can find somebody else accommodation in one of other people so it was just it started very slowly initially and then word of mouth sort of spread and then we had more people joining and that was when I found the dilemma of one that some hosts were very protective of their guests they were scared that their guests were going to book with me and not come back to them so there was that hurdle to get over and the other one that they were perhaps more takers and givers so at that stage we hadn't actually monetized it it was just really good shared here she'd there and when I started looking at it from from the outside I realized that some were very professional about how they wrote it out and said look they've got this guest who wants accommodation where the other ones were just sort of forwarding on a message from somebody else so it was very itty bitty so I formalized it so what happened is we we have a set format is to how we share a guest so it's it's also by name in case somebody asks it's the same request it's not duplicated and then also we agree that we only pay a commission to the host who afforded one said check out because we don't that circumstances change and we don't want to be changing money backwards and forwards so we incentivized it for the person who who shares it and you know when you think about it I'm doing my marketing or I'm putting advertising on the OTAs I'm paying probably 15 to 20% commission anyway so we have to we we make a 10% and the marketing is still done by you we've reduced it even more far peak time so when we have our um our sort of race go up quite considerably during our Christmas and Easter time we reduced it down to 5% but it was just really it wasn't really about the money it was just much about evening the plane so everybody knows what set of rules to play by and that is not confused as to the expectations and that has been if it has grown actually I started it in 2019 and we are now 65 posts with multiple properties we must be close to the last count I did and it's difficult to count but I would say we'd be close to the 350 mark as far as properties go so it does vary the RFU guest houses and the RFU B&Bs but the majority are self-caching which is what I do and but sometimes I do actually have a guest who wants to stay only for a nut and wants to the beaten breakfast kind of option so it hasn't been wasted I think it's such a good idea to do this and especially what that allows you to do like you say instead of a guest ringing up and say hey have you got this and you're just like no we haven't got availability goodbye they're not going to call again if that's our kind of answer as hosts whereas if we can say hey we're full but I've got a network of hosts and you know I'm sure we're about to find you something locally let's put you in touch with those people you're being helpful to the guest you're being helpful to the other host your cash flow and during that and you're becoming what I'd call the key person of influence in your in your local market and what that'll encourage the guest to do is to call you again next time or to effectively you get good will from the other hosts because you're bringing them business as well so what advice would you have for somebody who is in a situation where they're in that kind of mindset whereas they don't want to be referring people to other hosts or they're worried about sharing information and guests what could they do first of all to help their mindset and to how do they reach out to these other hosts how did you find people who would come and join this group how did you kind of touch base and make contact I think the biggest thing to just say to get past your mindset is that the guests so appreciates the gesture that even though they might stay with your neighbour they're going to remember you your your impact is much more than just the accommodation you know being kind and being hospitable and being considerate and following up far exceeds everything else and so for me it wasn't difficult finding the guests the guests even though they might not stay with me and I referred them onto my neighbour they will remember me and they come back to me because they appreciate that's person you know I think with our techno world we so used to just you know searching on Google or going on to whatever platform to find accommodation but you've got questions and that doesn't always get answered so having a human to speak to makes such a difference fishy if you're under a time constraint or you've got particular needs the pet industry here has gone to the roof you know and it's so difficult to find pretty places that are closer to the beach and at friendly beaches allows the pets so those are the kind of questions that often get and so it was easy to find those people because I'm a pet lever and you know we have things in common and the first thing you do you start sharing your pictures of your dogs and so it's very quickly to make friends with with other hosts and then what I did with the final of the host goes is that I offered training basically I just I said look I've got I can give you a call if you want to chat so if you've got any questions let them get to know me I'm I showed them what I do and they're heading questions and then try to help if they're heading any questions and a lot of the time it involved around how to move off it's eb and b to go into the OTAs or how to take direct bookings and the paperwork behind it and the payment gateways and all these sort of things so that started a workshop so what I would do is because I wanted the other hosts to meet each other I would host a workshop every quarter and just everybody would come together and get chatting and the same questions would arise and then I would address a particular topic so that was the askbreaker and once you know you get referred from one person that's it they refer their friend or their family you're not starting from you know zero you're really on the pillar you're really moving up the line so it hasn't been difficult to be totally honest and it kind of just finds me I'm not actively looking for hosts I will comment if you know then if I see on a on a group that somebody's needing assistance and I'll offer my assistance that they take it up or they don't it's entirely up to them but that's all free and that's there's no charge of that and I love to be able to network with other hosts and we all feel the same journey somewhere along the line you just feel quite isolated initially then you feel quite chaotic and now you want to look to now take on more properties so you go through that journey and it's nice to be able to network the people that are talking the same language as you I think it's so important just to let you say because it can't be lonely in hospitality so have an a clan of hospitable hosts or we have an a clan of people in short-term rental in the same sort of going through the same sort of stuff that we are is just so important which is why we do things like this where we interview hosts and it's not always you know sort of sunshine and lollipops is it sometimes hospitality can be tough there's some some tough decisions you have to make and actually have an a network to bounce these questions off is just so important and it's one thing which i've got most mentioned if if anybody is not already come into the free Facebook group called the hospitality community on Facebook come and check us out that is a place which Mark Simpson has has got a kind of big Facebook group where you can come and talk to fellow hosts and share any worries and concerns in a nice safe environment so I kind of feel we've got to understand where your business is I kind of feel you know that networking has really worked for yourself and is something which would encourage other hosts to to do to build these referral groups and it makes sense to me how I've certainly got inspiration because we've we've got a local group here but not everybody is on the same page with knowing how to do some of the stuff so that workshop's idea is fantastic you know this is really good what I'd love to find more out about is two things one how did you get started in this business you know like well is is hospitality new to yourself what did you do before this and how did you get the hospitality bug sure and you know when I reflect back I actually think I was all building up to this and I had my first job was with the bank and I was in foreign exchange dealt with a lot of international visitors doing phoenix and I had the same question keep coming up so I created a flyer and for my my the guests one of my guests clients so I really started with a sort of flyer and putting things together to get some sort of system so the start was already there so the marketing I had done public relations background so that was there and then from that I married a farmer totally took me off check I had no plans to get married when I did I had plans to travel the world and do all sorts of things and yeah love bits and the the bike happened so yeah I made a farmer move to the country gave up my high heels and changed to two Wellington's and that was the the start of a new journey so yeah I found myself on the farm not really knowing quite what to do with myself as far as time goes so my father-in-law was very kind and suggested I started a little poultry business that he had it some experience in so I thought okay oh how hard could this be you know a little a few little chicks you raise them and then you sell them again well I nearly cooked them that's I didn't know the first person out there all like get it to the side and I thought oh my gosh I don't know what I'm doing so I started then already to empower myself with knowledge and the same sort of if I started you know carried all the way through to my my short-term rentals as well so yeah that journey was that so that was my marketing and that's where I discovered I liked to do the packaging and my labels and the branding so that was the start of that and that progressed on to when the children went to school I was asked to do the the branding for the new 150 celibration so hence there it comes again and after that was a health shop so it was customer service which I had trained in any way when I was at the bank so that was easy for me and then really what happened was my daughter went to Stalemboss University and I was going down to the turn I needed somewhere to stay so we went on to Airbnb and at stage it was quite early and for us in South Africa I know Airbnb has been around for a while but it was it was sort of new we didn't really do that and I found the most amazing host and she I only ever stayed with her no matter what I went daughter was there for three years and then in Cape Town but I only ever stayed with her she was my go-to person and she convinced me that I needed to do this so we had a really bought a property on the on the coast and we had given it to a property manager so then I thought okay well let me give this a try so I worked in conjunction with her I said to her look if you if you hadn't sold the dance by a certain date normally two weeks before could I have them back and you know our chance sold in and that's where the momentum built and you know I look I look back now it wasn't long that they had my property because I realized I could actually do this and I love the interaction with the guests you know when you when you remove from it you don't actually know how to make it better so I wasn't it was important for me to get the feedback I needed to know did they did they need more blankets did they did they like the coffee you know all the little things that they they liked and what I could improve on so I needed that feedback and I wasn't getting that with the the property management so it definitely worked for me far better when I took the control back myself and could really iron out any issues if they were and also how to take it the next level to to make myself different from from my neighbour you know make sure that I was offering just those little extras and little surprises and giving them experiences and following up with what they need to and so it it kind of found me like all of us I think it sort of like you said right at the beginning it it bats and it doesn't really go and I actually love it if you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start then I recommend you go and booking a call with Boosley and our team right now we can walk you through exactly what we're offering how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only on niche but could be in your location as well Boosley has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increased their direct bookings and if you are interested then all you need to do is go to Boosley B-O-O-S-T-L-I dot co dot U-K boy slash call and booking an appointment with one of our sales team what I like about that is is first of all you know you were a guest and you were inspired to to do it you know short-term rental because of the experience you had which is cool because you sort of start to realize that hey this this could be a business and this kind of that that wow kind of moment to to find that and also the other thing that I like is that you actually tried and there will be people listening to this thinking about should I use a management company should I do it myself but actually you actually worked out with the management company that hey can I dip my toe in the water and can I try selling some of the nights and that's what grew your belief your passion for it and of course that's when you got all the information from the guest directly so it's not having to be filtered through a management company all of a sudden you can make adaptions changes to your listing really quick that will help your guests build that relationship and ultimately in the same way that you would only go and stay with your preferred host certain guests will only come and stay with their preferred host us you know as hospitality owners which is amazing so let's dive into the what you use within your business so you mentioned your help of a host what are the top say to tech or software or things that you do within your business I guess tricks that you do within your business which you go do you know what I think this is what every host out there should be doing. There are a number of ones but I would say when when I'm dealing with my group the the big thing is to know what to charge their rates is a big Stanley point and you know that tends to be that they will go and compare themselves to somebody else and you're not necessarily yes it might be the same complex but you're not necessarily comparing the same apartment to the other apartment so it's important that you know where you fit in the market so from that point of view and price labs has been amazing I use them that that is my number one go to and then also I like to use touch day because I feel like you know you need to be able to give information to your guests and about your apartment and make it easy for them. The other thing of course is the referrals is to be able to get those referrals onto your website so those are the sort of three key and I use reposer for that they they so it's many of those three price labs touch day and reposer. Awesome and just for the people who are listening obviously like you say touch day is an awesome guidebook one to go and check out it just means you can send this cool link and your guests can have all the information about your you place to say and Rapunzel is it the yeah I think reposer or Rapunzel I'm not sure on that one but basically it's a word press plug-in that will allow you to bring in all your awesome reviews so all that real estate of great reviews great testimonials that you as a host have already got on Airbnb booking.com via via it'll allow you to pull in that information and display that on your website which of course helps you to build trust and ultimately the more trust you've got the more likely they're going to book on your website instead of going back to Airbnb especially with the the better rates and that side of things so really really important. So what does the future look like to your business Mel? Oh it's a good question and I should have been thinking about this one actually and as much as I would love to buy more properties I think I've got I think the the bug of teaching other hosts have also with me I love being able to network with like-minded people so it's probably a bit of both sides it's going to be two hats probably a buying additional property and I had you have some that I've got lined up and then also growing the actual training side where I can you know make a difference to other hosts so they don't have to struggle the way I did and and just listen listen what I'm going to say listen and maybe like smooth the path a little bit better because there's so much tech out there and you can get so overwhelmed when you first start out that you think oh no you can't possibly do this and it's just maybe simplifying it and concentrating on you know certain things getting your your credibility on Facebook making sure that your different platforms all speak the same language that your your voice is the same making sure your your ethos and your values come through so these these little things are I love doing and I think helping others as much as I enjoy having my guests and they number one always but I think I it's a bit of a struggle probably both sides I'm sick site and then I can you know it emanates from you is the the the the host hospitality you know the host being a hospitable host is perfect for you because it really shows that yeah absolutely love this this industry and and what it has allowed you to to do and also what it gives back and we're not just talking monetary but in terms of the guest experience helping other hosts and and doing that side of things so I look forward to seeing what you're doing the future and of course we've agreed before this call that we're going to be a Nashville at some stage at the same time absolutely we go in there's fun next to let's do let's definitely do everyone else is there why aren't we let's let's make sure we're there so as we bring these towards towards close we love to just do a couple of fun questions and one of the questions male I'd love to ask you is where in the world is the most interesting place where somewhere that's everybody listening to this should at least go and Google or even go on holiday too I wish I could say I was well-traveled Liam but I'm not being at the bottom of Africa it makes it very difficult to get around and so to say I mean I've always had a lot of wishes to to visit for example Germany and I've always had a wishlist to go to Europe and even the states the states are now what's seen Nashville and everything they do it would be something I would love to do so as far as the rest of the world I can't give you too much because I haven't traveled a lot other than going to Australia and the UK many and our local areas our neighboring countries Mozambique which we absolutely love going to our family it's our go-to place for our holidays mainly because it's just it's a drive which is part of the process we are able to sort of make the trip with the family it's only a days drive from where we live but it's that's physical moving from one place to another place and we just love that it's also on the beach nine or ten times these all our friends are there with in big houses so our children and our friends we all meet up so out with Mozambique on my list if you haven't been there before but of course our country we are so buried I think a lot of international so I'm generalising so excuse me here but you know I think we just got the animals and we've just got Cape Town there's a lot in between there really is and there's a wealth of culture history landscapes you name it's and activities and we know it was a while let's just one and even here in case it in we've also got our own and wine routes so there's lots on offer but yeah need to come to South Africa not us go to Mozambique do you know what you're such good ambassador for South Africa in general because I certainly I mean like there's the saying I'm based in Norfolk here in the UK and there's there's a saying which is pretty much that nobody leaves Norfolk most of the time but I'm certainly interested now in traveling to South Africa I've I've got a few friends who have been and absolutely love it so yeah definitely a good advert for South Africa what would you recommend when it comes down to either a book a movie or a podcast unfortunately you can't say hospital hosts too but what would you recommend that everybody listening go and check out what has helped inspired you on your journey or something that you just find interesting it can be hospitality it doesn't have to be but something a resource that you've used that everybody should check out yeah I have been following Jane Boyle and she does the Teke about Derek Buckingham's and that has been an inspiration for me she does a a summit once a year and she gets a whole lot of people together from photographers to Instagramers to bloggers to all sorts and I really have enjoyed her course I've done a twice now and she's got another one coming out but she also does podcasts and it's it's very relevant for direct bookings hard to make sure that you're getting direct bookings and hard to bring that up to the floor see my batteries about to darling I hope I'm like okay I hope I'm still going we're bringing it to a close anyway okay what was the name just so we can go and check her out on Instagram or I have podcast um Jane Boyle and it's um direct booking success awesome we'll go and check that out and so that brings us as the battery is dying to the last question which is have you got a mantra or a saying that really resonates with your one that you'd like to hear with the listeners well because I've got farming roots I thought this one was quite appropriate that I would I'd read to you and because I had so many that I had to write it down you harvest what you plant so plant intentionally so plant good habits could values good work good decisions and good and you decide on which of those are so it's it's a bath it's very much a bath um what you put in was what you reap I've also been making a very concerted effort to get up every morning and be grateful for what I have um I think people come to COVID it was all our noxen and bumps along the way so I'm grateful that's all over and that we got to start again um and I think you know with gratitude brings abundance as well and that ties in very much with how I believe in and doing my business as well I believe there's enough for everybody and sharing and helping other people actually brings you more so it's it's really is gratitude and abundance is probably what I'm really about that's awesome and uh I like the fact you're prepared with that quote as well that's that's very good so uh Mel thank you so much for sharing your your journey with us today on behind the host podcast I've really got a lot of inspiration out of this to to go off and uh help with we've already got a referral group but for anybody out there who hasn't definitely start to reach out to other hosts in local groups you know go to network meetings and that side of things and you know how I can provide more value to them as a host is something which I've taken away from this and uh what I'll get obviously back out of that is is hopefully they're the more referrals and um you know goodwill ultimately which is cool so and also just generally being a hospitable host so what's the best way to get in touch with you and um you mentioned your course during this as well how can people find out more about that probably just if you will be on Facebook you know just um Melanie Creel you'll get me on Facebook um all the links are listed there and short-term wrinkle is one of them that's on there LinkedIn Facebook Instagram and pretty much on my name or beach friend apartments in choppers rock about all means anybody's welcome to contact me um lab to share some info and of course if you would like to visit South Africa I can definitely recommend a good beach fire beach side apartment for you I like it get in some promo in there so um yeah that brings us to to the end of this this has been fun thank you so much Mel for doing this today and for spending your time with us um any last years before we uh bring it to a close well I think you need to read the book if you haven't read the book I've been sharing that with all my hosts as well and I know when I read the first one I couldn't put it down so be prepared you're not going to put it down and you get hooked on it and you just think wow you can resonate with so many people's stories so I would really suggest everybody get out there and read the book dot my chat to somebody else's there's lots to take from it and um you know don't don't be in Ireland um reach out to to your fellow hosts and work together it's far better far easier and you build a network it does sound very very rewarding at the end of the day so everybody listening you can go check out on amazon just hospitable hosts too and uh and purchase that book thank you for spending your time with uh with Bruce Lee today and um we know there's a lot place you can put your attention and we really thank you for putting it with us so thanks very much we'll see you on the next one thank you thank you thank you