Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

I feel like the announcer, like at the boxing matches, when that microphone falls down, you know, and he grabs it and he starts doing his thing in the screen. Anyways, so what is up, Micah man? Welcome back to Live Let Thrive, your favorite Airbnb, VRBO, short-term, mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world coming at you from. Well, I'm in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Micah is in from in beautiful Arlington, Texas. And we're gonna throw down, throw some bars today. Are you Micah?

SPEAKER_05 0:54

Yes, sir. Who we got today, man, to throw bars with.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Well, this is episode 244, by the way. So we have a certain Bart Sobies, the visionary behind the accommodation show. And I booked on.online. Bart is a force to be reckoned with with the tour in the tourism industry, starting his first online business as the tender age of 15 and building it into a successful tech company

Bart Sobies introduces iBooked.online and the Accommodation Show

SPEAKER_01 1:23

with a passion for all things tech, marketing, and investment. Bart has led sales and marketing team to multi-million dollar success. I'm gonna stop there if you don't mind, because you have like a like a book written here. So, but we can get into that the rest on today's wonderful podcast. Welcome to the show, Bartman.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Thank you so much for having me, and it's so cool that we can do this. I am in Melbourne, Australia at the moment, so the other side of the planet. Um, I am on Saturday. You folks are on Friday, so I'm coming to you from the future. Um, I don't have the lottery numbers yet, uh, but it's so so nice to be able to connect in this way.

SPEAKER_05 2:03

Yes, it is. You are officially our second Australian right behind Julie George to come on the show. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

That's that's an awesome privilege. It really is. It's it's amazing. So you might not know this, but uh roughly around about 60 to 70 percent of our clients are in the US. That's for iBooked Online. And the accommodation shows 70% of the audience is US as well. So we might be distance by or far by distance, but close in terms of uh content and everything that we do.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Oh, nice. Can you go into what is iBookedOnline.com or iBooked, it's iBooked Online, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:40

It's iBooked.online. So we are a website company. We develop websites for direct bookings, and our philosophy is to really understand the guests. So understand the journey that a guest takes um when they visit your website to make sure that if they get to your website, we're gonna get them through to the checkout and actually make a booking. So what we do is we look at things like uh getting rid of blog posts and newsletters and all this stuff and all this junk that people aren't looking for when they're trying to make a booking and get you directly to check out. The same way that if a guest was to go into an OTA, they're not looking at newsletters and blogs and all this other stuff. They're going straight to what they're looking for, and that's to get to check out. So that's what we do. We work with uh all sorts of clients from small short-term rental operators all the way through to um uh boutique hotels, uh, small hotels and that sort of thing. Um, and as I said, roughly around about 70% of our clients are in the US, but we are worldwide as well. So we cover absolutely every single country in the world uh as long as there's a banking system.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

Nice, nice, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

So that is that is cool. Um so you know Boostly websites. Do you know Boostly websites?

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Mark Simpson.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Yeah, so we have our own. I I think you're asking about uh those kind of websites. Uh we have our own platform um that we've built. Um we've used sort of similar sort of ideas as as Boostly.

The AI challenge: three bookings overnight from a ChatGPT-rewritten listing

SPEAKER_03 4:09

We were using WordPress as the back end for our systems. Uh but uh yes, so it's all WordPress, but then we've got our own uh secret source that we put on top.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

So what I was I had a quick question because we met because you were running a AI uh you were running an AI uh webinar challenge. Yeah, so I challenge. Can you this is I know this is what everyone wants to know, and this is the biggest thing. How are you using chat GPT in your business, in your short-terminal business?

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Yeah, look, uh so let me I'll tell you the story uh of how this all came to be. So chat GPT and AI has been around for for for forever. Okay, if you've ever used uh Microsoft Word and it goes through and it says, hey, we think that this word is incorrect, you've already been using some sort of version of AI back a long time ago. And all that's happened is that um OpenAI have created a GUI or a front end to it, so now it's usable for everybody, right? So there's this robot, it does all this cool stuff, and now you can start to interact with this tool and start to talk about it. So back in November, um, I started reading articles in the press. I was like, okay, there's this new tool called ChatGPT. I'm like, oh, I should probably check it out. It didn't take me until December. And in December, I'm like, oh, let's have a look at it. And I remember jumping on and then just starting to talk to it and asking it questions and always answering stuff. And I'm like, uh, can you please give me 30 reasons why someone should book direct or use a book direct website? And it gave me 30 reasons why people should get a book direct website. So I'm like, oh my God, it's actually working, it's actually doing this stuff. Then I then I figured out I was following some influencers, and they said, Did you know what? You can put this data into a table. I'm like, oh my God. And then you can ask it to create social media posts for you based on um these 30 ideas. I'm like, oh my God. And then you can ask it to do the emojis. So then you've got a table of 30 posts for 30 days, and it does it within under five minutes. And that's when for me the penny dropped, and I'm like, we can use this in our short-term mental business to revolutionize what we're doing. Um, and that's where the the five-day AI challenge actually came from. Um I'm happy to kind of delve into some of the things that we covered as well.

SPEAKER_05 6:30

Oh, yeah, for sure, man.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Yeah. So, so look, with Chat GPT and with these things, it's this is the future. And if you're not familiar with it, and if you're not using it every single day in your life right now, then there's a good chance that you're missing out on some opportunities. And I say that because in a lot of the work that we do in our business, um, and a lot of the work I do, even my private life, personal life, I'll be using this tool to help improve uh the um the content that I'm creating. I'm gonna give you an example that we use from the challenge of one of the things that a short-term rental operator will be doing all the time, and that is you'll be optimizing your descriptions and you'll be optimizing your titles because that's how you get bookings, right? If you're on any of the OTAs, if you're on Airbnb. We had people use this tool and use the tips that we gave to recreate their description on day two of the challenge. They came back the following day and they're like, Ba overnight, I got three new bookings based on using Chat GPT and based on the changes that that we made. Now, I don't know if it was because of that. I mean, it might have just been a coincidence, but we actually had two or three people come back and say, wow, it's actually making a uh measurable difference to my business just because uh of this tool.

SPEAKER_05 7:56

I did it as well. I did the uh I used the chat GPT to create a description and to create a title, and it worked pretty quickly. It's amazing the things that you can tell it to do about your property and it'll spit it back out. It's crazy. Now, are have you learned to use any other AI, like such as giving chat GPT or like saying, hey, describe this picture? Like I know that those AIs are out there as well. Are you have you started implementing those?

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yeah, so uh one thing that I encourage people, and this is so I I work with lots of students, and I'm teaching them about Chat GPT and AI and that sort of thing. A lot of the tools that were developed in the past that you might have been using in the past would have been based on the open AI technology. So it's exactly the same thing.

Using ChatGPT for property descriptions, imagery analysis, and website builds

SPEAKER_03 8:46

And all these companies have done is they've just found ways to plug into this open AI tool and then create a new front end. So that means that you're when you're using it, it just feels a bit different. You can ask it different questions, it's got a bit of a few prompts already in there for you, and it's kind of curated it for you already, but it's using the same technology stack. Now, there's not that much, or there's not that many companies that have uh released open APIs to their um to their uh technology, their AI technology. So most of the time you're probably always gonna be using open AI, but to answer your question, um using it for imagery is incredibly important and it's something that's gonna change. When you're doing your descriptions of your pictures of your property, you can start to upload those. Now, ChatGPT-4 has just come out and they're gonna be doing that. They're gonna be letting you upload pictures and then it'll analyze the pictures. Now, one thing that I saw it do um is they got a scribble, right? A doodle of a website. And they said, uh, what I want the website to do is to tell a knock-knock joke. So in the title, it says um uh knock knock, and then you press a button, it says who's there? And then it gives you the second prompt and then the final joke at the end. So they just did a doodle of it, uploaded the picture, and then said, Hey, create a website for me based on that doodle. And it went through and created a website that works that tells people knock knock jokes um based on the technology. It's just it's just insane.

SPEAKER_06 10:16

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Like that, and that's just the beginning. And and when we talk about these tools, it's exponential, right? Because now Google are developing their own one. Facebook, Meta, is starting to use this technology in its chat, and they're doing, they're gonna push really hard and really fast. And you know how we were talking about uh you know the metaverse and the meta world and all this sort of stuff. It was gonna be the next big thing. Everyone invested heavy in it, and there's nothing's really happened. This one's different. This one is the, in my opinion, the the new Bitcoin, the new everything. It's gonna change everything for good. Well, hopefully for good, but forever. So you gotta get on it, you gotta learn it, and and you'll you'll find that you can do things way faster.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

Wow, that is awesome. Yeah, I'm I'm all for the AI and hopefully, you know, and I haven't I found a few ways to use it, but have you have you thought about using it for like guest messaging and how you would go about doing that?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yeah, yeah. Look, in a in the kind of business that we run in short-term rentals, quite often we've got different teams doing different functions, right? And quite often, especially when we're in the smaller side, one of the first hires will be some sort of a VA to help manage all the messages coming in, um, to help manage get it putting on new properties and that sort of thing. And generally, when we've got when we're using VAs, they'll be abroad and um English might not be their first language. Uh, so you can the number one thing you've got to do is train your staff, is is what I'm trying to say. Train your staff and using it. It doesn't matter if they speak perfect English on or or their English isn't is isn't so great, but when you're responding to customers, then you're gonna get a better response. And the key with these tools is to iterate. So when you get the response, it might not be perfect, and then you might say, Well, that tone, it's not quite right. I need to be a bit more formal, or I mean it need to be a bit less formal because I actually find that ChatGPT at the moment is making everything quite formal, and you want it to be a bit more casual because you know iBooked Online is quite a casual business, so we're responding to a client, we want it to be more casual. But the the satisfaction level of our customers is measurable, our NPN score has actually gone up um uh because uh NPS score, sorry, because of this tool. Now, give me let me give you two tips. You know, you're talking about responding to customers. One of the things we generally don't get right is responding to reviews, because after you respond to the fifth or the tenth review, I mean, what do you write? You don't even really know these people, and you've got to write a review, you don't know what to write, use it to respond to reviews. The better part of it is responding to negative reviews because the problem with a negative review is that as a human being, you get emotional, right? They're attacking your business, they're not happy with something, and so your ego comes out like no, the that that person's wrong, everything was perfect.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

How could they say that?

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And you start to respond from that point of view, but the robot will not do that, it doesn't care, it's just gonna

Responding to negative reviews: how AI removes emotion from conflict

SPEAKER_03 13:38

create the best response possible and have a bit more empathy potentially for the person that um that's had a negative experience, so you can get a lot more done. Uh, it's it's it's amazing what can actually achieve in terms of the the negative things. If you've got any kind of um confrontation or conflict, I find that it really helps because I'm not I'm not great at resolving conflict. So this this this tool helps me a lot.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

I love it. I I've used it for negative reviews as well, and that is a great way to use it. It's responding to things that aren't necessarily in your favor, it does give a lot of hints to do it and hints on what to say, and you know, it especially on conflict, it definitely does that. So, one thing that we had is uh like your funnel for your website for iBook.online. Is it you you build a website for someone, or are you the middleman and they come to our website, or how does it work?

SPEAKER_03 14:31

So uh we build websites, so the full website has got your logo, your brand, everything that speaks to you. Now we're actually using a lot more Chat GPT to help people with their descriptions and help optimize everything there. But the main thing um with what we do is we make sure that we understand who we're working with and how many properties they have and where those properties are located and what the experience is gonna be like for the guest. So we do a lot of uh thinking about the avatar. So who's actually gonna book um and what their journey is gonna be through there. Now, one of the other things that we looked at with the with this tool was was um uh creating guidebooks and blog posts and that sort of thing and articles. And you can personalize it to your guests. So um in in the training, one of the things we did is we showed how to um create an experience, right? We're selling experiences, we're not selling accommodation. And we want to talk to people in such a way so that they can imagine themselves having that experience. What is it gonna be like when I get there? And that's the biggest question. What is it gonna be like? I've never been to this place before. I don't know what the place is like, but I also might not have been to the area before. So what you can do is you can say, well, I know that most people that travel to see see us on a weekend are uh couples coming to a city for romance, right? To get away, that sort of thing. So we're gonna write, we're gonna ask it to, we're gonna prompt Chat GPT and say, Hey, can you write what the perfect experience would be in LA? Um, and uh the for a couple, they're coming for the weekend, they're staying in my my Airbnb um or my short-term rental, and we've got a king-size bed in a uh a spa or a jacuzzi, and we've got um um high-speed Wi-Fi, right? And then what you ask it to tell you what the perfect weekend away would be in that city, and then it'll start to fill it out for you. It'll say, look, um, come and visit us because not only you can get to stay here during the evening, you'll get to go to one of these awesome restaurants for dinner, then you can go to the theater, and it'll just sort of tie this whole thing together and create a story for your guests to read, and that is how you drive more direct bookings by selling the experience, not just the room.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

I love that. Did that answer your question, Steve? Yeah, I'm asking questions via the chat right now because the internet over here in Mexico is a bit slow. So I'll be I'll be chiming in via chat. Uh maybe I'll just I'll just plug in chat GPT to ask you guys.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

You muted yourself, but you were coming in good. I think it's with your camera off again, doing good. Yeah, so uh with your websites, like right now, like do you guys are you guys integrated with like the major OTAs, not the major OTAs, but like the um the uh PMPs? PMS either, yeah. The PMSs or well, PMPs, whatever they want to call themselves now, due political reasons, but yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Uh I actually didn't know that that that that there'd been a change in there to PMP. What was what's the last P for? Property management platform, by the way. Platform.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

Oh property management just doesn't cut it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, oh I love it. I love it. Like I it shuts down once a month. What can you do?

SPEAKER_03 18:00

So so my my background isn't from um working with in in this space. Um, I mean, I had Airbnbs, you know, five, 10 years ago, and I've been, you know, I've got a few properties now, but it's not the core of my business. My core is kind of teaching you guys about marketing and websites and that sort of thing. Um, but when I came in, I I had no idea what a PMS was, and uh I found it quite quite alarming. So it's good to hear that they've addressed that. Um uh do we integrate with PMS systems? So we can work, we're a PMS agnostic, so uh, or PMP

PMS integration and the iBooked.online booking funnel

SPEAKER_03 18:35

agnostic. So it doesn't matter which one you're on, we'll find a way to work with you. Some of them we integrate with in terms of calendar syncing, some of them we use their booking widget. It just depends on what you have already. One of the things we don't try to do is try to dislodge you from your PA PMS right now, uh, because generally that can create a lot of heartache to try to move somewhere and try to start again and start afresh. So we'll find out what you're working with and then and then kind of plug it all together from there.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Are you there? Yes, okay. So, and and your years of knowledge and experience in this and uh at the cutting edge uh of Chat GPT, which um so many people are excited about. So, what what does I mean go old school with it a little bit? What is a guest? Uh, someone look okay. I want to go like like you mentioned LA. I want to go to LA. Um, I'm gonna go Google. Okay, I'm gonna try to look for a place in LA. I've always done like kayak kind of thing. If I'm not gonna go to Airbnb or if I'm not gonna go to VRBO, whatever. I like it how it all puts it all one spot and I can choose a cool place. But of course, hotels have never been good about giving us descriptions about what to do when we get there, right? We just get a bunch of pictures of their, you know, their pool, their sauna, all that crap they have. Um, Airbnbers are a little bit little bit better, a little more descriptive, you know. And now which I can be a little bit better, but but like Boris, what have you discovered to get someone that's looking on Google or looking whatever at any particular city, Cleveland, Ohio, or New York City or whatever, Philadelphia? What gets them from just looking at some spots, seeing your place to actually booking the place?

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yeah, I love this question. It's it's awesome because you know what? What you've said is like incredibly difficult. Even the hotels struggled to get direct bookings when the OTAs popped up. Do you remember the airlines back in the day? Like the airlines weren't getting any bookings direct, they were all done through the OTAs, and the airlines are sitting there, what what do we do? How do we get people to book on our website? Same thing would happen with the hotels, but now all the big hotel chains, they've created great loyalty programs, right? They've created brand recognition so that so from a from a guest point of view, they're like, Oh, cool, I'm gonna go and book with that brand and that and and I'm gonna be loyal to that brand because they've got good rewards and good programs and that sort of thing. So then if you're a smaller host, how could you possibly compete against you know the OTAs and these Goliaths? And it's about being a little bit clever because one of the things that you said just there is people use Google and a lot less people are using Google than before and using it in the way that they used to use it to find a hotel and to find things because they will go directly to Kayak or Airbnb. That's why Airbnb, if you look at their marketing budget and what they've done, they've they're managing to adjust things because their brand is so strong, so they don't have to do the same level of investment in marketing Google search as what Booking.com does. Um so you as a host, what can you do to get that engagement? And it is to uh reach out to your target audience on the platforms that they're using. If you're targeting an older demographic, uh retiree demographic, um then you want to be active on Facebook and you Want to be active on there and creating a very strong social media presence. Same thing if you're targeting a younger generation, you want an incredibly strong presence on Instagram and TikTok because that's where they're constantly looking, you're constantly coming up on their wheels and their feeds. And when it comes to booking, then they're going to go, oh, cool. I know that brand. Oh, yeah. And I've got some sort of a discount or some sort of a reward by booking direct. So if you're trying to capture people that are in that dreaming phase of their perfect trip, you have to start really early in the funnel and be one of the places that gets known for providing whatever it is. Same as if you're targeting business travelers or no traveling um nurses and doctors and healthcare workers. You can create a brand that targets that particular group

Why loyalty programs fail for small operators - make guests feel special instead

SPEAKER_03 22:50

of people, but you have to be specific about that niche. And then you can you can get through to that. To finish off the question, you said, how does Chat GPT come into all of this? Chat GPT comes into it because all it is, it's a tool to communicate more effectively. Right? It's a tool to be able to get your message across to someone more succinctly with more information and more data so you can get some information through to them. So what it will do is it will uh communicate more effectively on your social media posts and at speed. So you can do a lot more, a lot faster, and you can create 10 times the volume of posts that are really great and that communicate really well, and you can get in front of your guests.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Did I answer your question? Yeah, man, that was really cool. Um let me ask Micah real quick. Mike, what do you look for when you start trying to plan a vacation? What what kind of where do you go? Do you go to Google? Do you go to kayak? Do you what do you do when you start trying to plan a trip?

SPEAKER_05 23:54

I use reward points, so I don't use none of that. I go to chase.com. Uh but no, uh honestly, we plan it out first where we're gonna go. Like, I'm gonna tell you the last family vacation we went on, right? We went to Disney World. So it's like, okay, let me see what are the best and we were traveling as a group. So one of the first things I do is I only use Airbnb if I'm traveling as a group. If it's just me and my wife, eh, we'll barely use it because we can just use reward points and go to a five-star hotel stay for free. So I do what I went straight to Airbnb, and then I booked everything else through my uh Chase Rewards program. And that kind of goes back into what you said earlier about loyalty programs, right? So, what are what are some loyalty programs that people can impl? Well, well, Steve, does that answer your question? Uh you're still answering it.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

You're still answering it.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

Yeah. So then that kind of goes back into the loyalty side. What loyalty programs can small business owners, people who are getting into the direct booking space, offer to two potential guests for them to come back or for them to want to, hey, I want to join that loyalty program.

unknown 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Look, I think there's always two things that you're looking at when you're doing that is that one is you're doing it for the loyalty program. But Mike, have you ever had like a really terrible experience when you've booked one of these hotels with your loyalty points?

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Not really. No.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

Right. So that's the two parts of the equation. Right? So all good with all good and well having a loyalty program, but also you're not loyal to just the points, you're loyal to the brands and the experience that you're gonna have. Right? You know what it's gonna be like when you get there. And the reason why you book it because it's hassle-free, because you know they're gonna look after your kids, or you know that there's gonna be a high chair, or you know that they're you know, all the things you just know it's gonna be sorted out and looked after. So as a property manager, that's rule number one is you have to meet the client's expectations. That's how you build loyalty. It's by delivering them an exceptional experience, and then they will come back to you. Okay, so if they're coming for a holiday, if you're in a holiday destination, then they'll come back to you because like, all right, cool, I could book wherever, I could go on Airbnb, I can go on all these platforms and take a bit of a risk, or I can stay with this particular person because I really like them, they provide a great experience. What other properties do they have? In the in the step between that first visit, so getting that person for the first visit can be the hardest part, that initial customer acquisition, because everyone's trying to do it at the same time. And big companies will spend or just completely outspend you in terms of marketing to get people out there. So you can go a little bit more niche and then find the people that are looking for you. And then afterwards, it's all about just keeping in constant communication with those, with those guests. In terms of loyalty and reward programs and things like that, you want to make your customers feel special, but you're not gonna be able to get enough volume to do a points program and not a points program that makes much sense to people as well, because you're not always traveling to Disney World, right? Like if they've got you know, you're gonna be traveling all over the place. So you need something to be a lot more broad and you don't have that scale. But what you can do is you can make a few promises. And if you promises are is that hey, if you do keep in staying with us, then we will always give you some sort of a discount or some sort of a bonus or some sort of an offer. By the way, one of the best things that you can do um is rather than give things away, it's better off to add value. So if you stay with us, we'll give you an extra night free, or we'll give you the late checkout, or we'll give you the happy hour at the bar, or we'll give you a voucher to a restaurant, or whatever it is. Um, that builds far better loyalty because it leaves a memory. We don't remember the discounts, we remember those, the experience. So we're just trying to improve the experience through that loyalty. Um, and that's kind of one of the best ways to do it. And then the other part of it um as well, in terms of loyalty and all that sort of stuff, it's all about the one thing that a lot of these chains aren't doing very well at the moment is creating a really great guest journey. So from that moment that someone books all the way through to check-in and stay, you know, the emails, the SMSs, the excitement, all that kind of stuff, they're not really there just yet. Um, and that's something that as a small business owner, you can personalize, you can understand your guests um and deliver a better quality experience. And that's how you get them to book and re-book and refer their friends and family.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

I love what you said there because it's been it's been coming up a lot on our show with people dropping in saying, don't just give them a discount, 10, 15, whatever it is. Give them something to value. And and so when I mean, has that always been the case? Is there like a big shift going on? So people we just like is it psychological? We just like to get in the oh, cool, a perk. We like perks over actual having to do math and 15 off of uh $300. What's that? You know, I mean, what is what do you think uh contributes?

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Yeah, look, uh the the one thing to to note so getting a good deal is important. Okay, you don't want to be going to a book direct website and paying more. So having sort of an indication on your website that they're gonna get the best price by booking direct is important. It doesn't have to be by much, right? It can be five or ten dollars less. They're still getting the best deal, the best price, right? So so that's that's that's one part of it. The other part of if you're ever gonna offer a discount, especially in the space that we are, the difference of the 15% is generally not really that much to sway you and motivate you. So you go, oh, 15%, and then people don't know what 15% really means because you have to do up the math saying, oh, okay, on that booking, it's 10 of a thousand five hundred,

The $100 discount beats 15% every time

SPEAKER_03 29:50

no, or fifteen percent of a thousand five hundred, and then people get lost in the math, right? And it's two hundred twenty-five dollars. But if you said you're gonna get a hundred dollars off, then people are thinking, oh, it's cash, you know, a hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

So whenever you're doing a discount, use the number, don't use the percentage. Uh, because the percentage never sounds as good as the actual number. If you actually look at when we do specials for our programs, we never ever count do it a percentage discount. We just go five hundred dollars off and people go, wow, I saved $500. Um, so that's uh uh that's that part. And what are people's expectations and have they changed? Look, you're talking to different um uh when we talk about direct bookings, there's different reasons why people will book direct. And we've done a we did research on this about a year and a half ago where we surveyed roughly about a hundred different people that had booked direct. And we said, Why did you book direct? Why did you choose to use iBooked Online websites to book direct? And they turned around and said, Well, one was to support the owner, right? We want to support local, we want to support the owner, we like them, that sort of thing. And then the second reason why they booked direct, and this one kind of really took us aback, was because they couldn't find the answer to their specific need or their specific question on an OTA. I'm coming to get married, I'm coming to propose, I've got a child, I've got two children, I've got three children, I need a high chair, um, I need to make sure that there's a microwave in the property. Um, do you guys have a microwave or you don't have a microwave? They need to be able to get in touch. And right now on an OTA, it's an ineffective way to communicate because you don't know when the response is going to come and you don't have time to sit around all day going, I want this property, blah. I just need the answer to my question. I'll call up, find out the answer, and then I'll keep it going about my day. So right now, that is one of the main reasons and the main opportunities. Someone calls up, hey, do you want to get it? Let me book that in for you right now before someone else books it. Yeah, cool. And I'll give you a discount or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 32:00

You know what? You said one, I never thought just telling them the amount. That's a great idea. I'm gonna start doing that one instead of saying 10% off. Hey, you get $300 off. That's way better. Sounds better, people understand it, it's quick to the point, they don't have to do the math. Um, one thing that you said that I 100% agree on, and why people should look to book have direct bookings is you talked about brand, and then you said certain things they can't find on an OTA. Like OTAs, in all honesty, it lacks consistency because there's too many people on it, too many different types of hosts. So if you can bring that consistency of a great experience to a guest, they'll be willing to rebook. So outside of supporting the owner, getting specific questions, was there anything else that they that they they said? Because I'm I'm happy you actually interviewed the people because that's something I forget to ask. I always ask, I sometimes ask, where did you find me? And I forget to ask those lasting questions for to get them to want to come back.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Yeah, yeah. Look, um, so look, those are the those are the main sort of leading categories that we found was one, we've got extra questions, two, um, was price. And then the third one was uh I'm already loyal to this particular person. So I've booked here before, I've stayed here before, I've been referred here as well. One of the things that I would say to you, when a guest stays to you, we we kind of been hopefully everyone's been taught to ask for a review, right? And you're not asking for a review on on an OTA, right? You've already got plenty of those. You don't need more reviews on those, it's not going to make much of a difference. But if you start to get reviews on trust pilot, if you start to get reviews on Google Business Profile, what you're doing is you're reinforcing your SEO and your rankings, so you're doing way better on there. Use ChatGPT, by the way, to create those emails. Every email that you're creating, all those templates you've created in the past, go back, put them back in, get them to fix it up for you because it'll probably uh get a better result. Um, I've lost my trail of thought. Um, so uh oh the the the yeah, so then then on that last email

Why people book direct: supporting the owner and getting specific questions answered

SPEAKER_03 34:10

when they check out, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:11

No one ever thinks about like, oh, can I make more money from this guest?

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Oh no, I can't make more money from the guest. Have you asked them to rebook for the next year? Have you asked them to refer a friend or a family member? It's sales 101. Sales 101.

SPEAKER_05 34:30

That you know what? Right now is spring break. People are staying for a week long. This is the perfect time to ask them that. I love that. I love that. Now, now my question, you said trust pilot. What is trust pilot and how can we use it as uh uh short-term rental business owners?

SPEAKER_03 34:48

Yeah, look, uh trustpilot is just a review platform. Um, it would be more of your company and your business rather than uh a stay itself, right? But if you've got a property management business that you've built up and you want to get those reviews, um, oh my Google's going off. Uh, if you want to get those reviews, then you would use trustpilot to um to have more places of trust leading back into your business. Okay, people read reviews, people right now know as well if they're looking just on an OTA. Those reviews I I went over to to Vegas, right, to try to go to the VRMA conference last year. I spent hours on all the OTAs trying to figure out which hotel to stay in because I had no idea. And the reviews would not give me any indication as to what I was gonna get. And the hotel I ended up in, I absolutely hated it. I had to check out uh within the next day, nothing was available, and I was just scrambling to find somewhere else. I paid twice, right? They wouldn't refund me. I'm like, I don't care, get me out of here. And all the reviews, 4.5 stuff, five, 4.5 out of five. I'm like, what's going on? Like, who are these people? Why are these reviews inaccurate? So, um, and other people having this experience as well, I'm sure of it. So you want to have um uh more sources of reviews and of truth going on. So that if you are a smaller business, if someone googles you, then they go, okay, cool. Oh, they've got good reviews here and here and here and here, and it all matches up.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

Love that.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

Yeah, so Trust File is just another review platform, if that makes sense, a bit more independent.

SPEAKER_05 36:31

Okay. Now I oh go go ahead, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Oh, uh, just real quick on the uh on the rewards program kind of deal, uh, to touch on it real quickly. Um, I know it's you and and you just said it like in passing about um a bad rewards program, and I and I'll attest to that because I used to use hotels.com because they had this cool thing after nine stays, you get a free night, right? And there you go, yeah, free night instead of you know 10, 20. There you go, their value thing. I thought that was the coolest shit ever. That was a way long ago before I was heavy into Airbnb. And then one time I stayed at this hotel for like six or seven nights, and I was oh cool. So I I reckon the next night's gonna be free. And I went to where you can see how many nights you've accumulated to get that free tenth night. And I accumulated like one night, and I called them. I said, Well, what's going on here? I've been here for like seven nights, and they're like, Oh, that's per stay. That's not that's not per it's per hotel, that's not per uh day that you stay. So I was like, wait a minute. So I mean that pissed me off so much, you know, because it's not it's I'm sure it's in the fine print on page 3073 or something, but uh that pissed me off so much I stopped using them and their reward. I said they could shove up their you know, reward program up their ass. I didn't I didn't want to use them anymore, so I know what you mean by saying you do the wrong kind of rewards program, you're gonna get the wrong kind of results.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Now, one thing I I'm gonna get so much shit for this, and I you told me that I can use uh S swear words, so the the next thing I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

No, I said we can, you can't, sir.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

I'm just oh god, yeah. In Australia, we can swear on on radio, which is kind of cool. But um, so this will be a little bit unpopular, but it's absolutely true. You must consider the size of business that

Don't overcomplicate when you're still acquiring properties

SPEAKER_03 38:18

you are when you're making any kind of decisions in terms of what work you're going to be doing. It's all good and well for me to sit here and go, yeah, more direct bookings, and you're still struggling to get more properties on, right? So the first thing to do is if you want more properties, then you need to build a lead funnel for more properties. It sounds really nice to have uh loads of direct bookings, but we'll get there, right? Right now, you need to focus on building a great customer database, a great experience for your guests, getting more owners on so you can get to scale, and then the direct bookings pay themselves off. Executing an effective rewards program for a small business. Um, I've been doing this for 15 years, right? I've been working on loyalty programs with um hairdressers to restaurants. Um, I was there on the phone calling restaurants before they there was anything like online ordering.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

And I was like, hey, you need an online ordering website, they would slam down the phone and say, online ordering, no one wants to order online. I mean, that's how you know that's how long ago I started this.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

If you are small to create an effective loyalty program, it's gonna take you so much time and so much effort and so much communication because you can create the program, but you have to let people know that it exists, right? And then get them excited about it and all that kind of stuff. Don't really bother. What you want to do is you don't create a loyalty program, find ways to make people feel special. Feel special is the uh operative part here because the OTAs can't do it, they don't know the people well enough, they're a big corporation, but you are an individual host, you can make them feel special, and that's how you build the loyalty. Um, and then in terms of the rewards, you can do something super simple. Keep it simple so that people can understand what it is that that thing is. Uh, you know, if you if you come and stay with us, uh, because you've stayed with us twice, we'll give you a third night free every single time as long as it's available. You know, that costs you nothing as a business. So those kind of things just keep it super simple and so it's understandable for everyone, and don't worry about points and stuff. It's just you you you know, like I've I've got so many loyalty cards, like the cinemas and stuff, and I've got no idea how many points they keep on expiring, and and that they're way bigger than most uh small um operators.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

Now you you said something there that you said if you can't pick up additional properties, you shouldn't be worrying about direct bookings. That is huge, and I I agree. And I want you to kind of go further into that. What point should a person look into going into direct bookings? Like, is there a certain amount of properties they should have, a certain amount of reviews? When should they be looking into going into direct bookings?

SPEAKER_03 40:59

Um am I allowed to contradict myself and confuse everybody? So look, look, you're a business owner, right? And you're trying to build a business to scale. And half of the puzzle here is understanding where you're trying to get to. And every single client that I consult with, and I consult with loads of property management companies from you know that are just dying, they have two properties all the way through to 100 properties. It doesn't really matter because we do lots of training and that sort of stuff. And then we talk about this. We talk about where is it that you want to get to? What is realistic? You know, are you gonna quit your job and then get into this? Do you like it? You know, are you do you care about guests and their experience? Are you into hospitality? You know, you've got to be into hospitality to get into this business. If you're not, I don't really recommend it. It's probably not gonna be, it's not gonna, you're not gonna like it when someone calls you at two o'clock in the morning with an issue with the toilet, right? Like you need to be hospitable. But the point being is that if you're looking to exit the business and build a bigger business, you must have your brand principles sorted out. You need a good logo, you need a good website regardless. Even if you're not focusing on direct bookings, you need to have that part sorted out because what did I say before, people will call you inadvertently, they always will call you as long as you've got a number, but you need to have a way for them to find you and you're gonna pick up extra bookings regardless. So it's something you can put into the start of your journey, but you just don't need to overcomplicate it, is what I'm saying. So then you don't need to do um, you can do basic SEO, you don't need to do advanced SEO, you don't do Google AdWords, you don't do Facebook marketing and stuff. It's not gonna make much of a difference until you get to a certain scale. The other tip that I'll give you on the back of this it's always two websites, it's not one website. One website that targets your owners, one website that targets your guests. Always you can have it as subdomains or whatever, but always two websites. Otherwise, for a guest that's looking to book accommodation, you're telling them about profitability of short-term rentals and your management and fees and all this stuff. The guest doesn't care about that. The guest wants to know about the properties, and the same way as someone that's an investor or has properties, they don't want to hear about you know the stays and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

You you brought up you brought up a lot in that in that quick snippet. You've said something that really did out. You said SEO. Yes. How does how do you guys handle SEO? Like let's say, hey, I want my business to rank higher on Google. Um, or if someone's looking for an Airbnb in Washington, I want to be able to pop up. How do you guys handle that?

SPEAKER_03 43:43

Yeah, so um uh with the advent, so we're gonna go back to the AI stuff because the biggest problem that we have is we don't have enough time. And if you're anything like me, you've got a list of a hundred different things that you'd like to do, but we don't do them. We don't execute. Then we don't go back and rewrite the blog or rewrite something that you know you need to rewrite or guest welcome emails. I'll look at that later on. SEO is one of those things where it's on the list, but most of the time people don't touch it because one, they need to educate themselves on it. Then they need to figure out what they're gonna do, what their competitors are doing, and then create a strategy and then implement that strategy. With ChatGPT, you're gonna do two things. One, right now, you're gonna go and look at your meta descriptions and the titles of your website, and you're gonna ask ChatGPT to improve them, but you're also gonna target your avatar. You're not gonna do just generic, hey, this place. We are a blah, blah, blah, property management agency, and we've got really great places to stay. You're not gonna do that. It's not gonna work, it's not gonna do anything because everybody else is doing exactly the same thing.

SEO metadata and targeting your avatar with long-tail keywords

SPEAKER_03 44:54

So you're gonna target your avatar. Um, perfect place to stay for pets on for a spring break. Cool. Awesome. Now you've got a long tail keyword um chain that we're gonna put in there, we're gonna target that, and then we're gonna start to drive some traffic. We're not trying to get all the traffic from the internet, we're just trying to target those people. So, what you'll do is you'll go through and you'll do your titles, your meta descriptions, and then also, depending on when you're listening to this, you'll also use it to do your uh image descriptions. Because you'll also give a bit more context around your images rather than hey, this is a kitchen, or say this is the perfect place to prepare a romantic dinner, right? Which is way better. Uh, so then you'll you'll get all of that sort of done. And then if we go even more advanced, and uh what I if you if we've got time, I'd like to talk to you about it, but you're gonna put together some articles about your local area that appeal to your avatar. Um, and you can use a tool like Chatby G GPT to do it. Um, and that's where it gets really exciting because you can do a lot of cool stuff.

SPEAKER_05 46:03

Can you explain what a meta tag is and what a meta tag is, because I think people I lost them on that.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, so meta tags are basically uh what Google or Bing or the search engines use to understand what your website is all about. So generally they should the nowadays it's it's but back in the day, so at the sort of foundation of the internet, Google wouldn't know what a website is about. It would just be a page of text and data. They didn't have robots that could read it all and kind of figure out what's on there. It would just be they'll read the title and go, well, we think this article is about AI. We think this article is about um the president, we think this article is about whatever subject matter, and you'd have to tell it this article is about. And you'd do that through the title, and you'd do it through the meta description. The meta description is just a longer version explaining what the web page is all about, which a human being doesn't see when they look at a website, but the robots in the background can see what it's about. Nowadays, it's not as relevant as it was 10 years ago, but it is still relevant because you can give the robot a bit more context as to what's going on in your web page. So, what you want to do is when you get this description, you want to put words in there that are going to be relevant to the audience that's looking to stay with you. Because then it's someone's typing in going, I need the perfect place to stay uh in LA uh for for for me and my kids, then then you want to come up because that's what you cater towards.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

That's awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. So many cool things here, man. And we always jump around. Uh, but going back to real quick, like you're saying, in other words, uh what I heard is like, okay, while you're accumulating properties or whatever, uh keep it simple. Uh don't go and start, like you said, uh a crazy complicated uh awards program and try to get all these direct bookings and all this and that when you're in the phase of picking up more properties. And what automatically reminded me of was your um your uh fellow Australian uh Julie George. Uh when you read her, you probably read her book, maybe Millionaire Hosts. Um but she but she she got I mean hundreds of properties. The way she was doing it was ingenious, but she said, well, she's gonna just use the best tool available and not try to make it complicated. And she only used Airbnb. That's all she used, and she was able to scale like that and and you know, bring in other people to uh to manage units for her and take a percentage and all this, you know. She she was able to allocate work to other people, and that really just you know shot it off. So so I like that part of it. You know, you don't always have to do this all complicated, crazy stuff to to get ahead, you know. You can just keep it simple, uh may you know, of course, run a great business, um, and then and then you can scale that way. So that that's refreshing because we get especially on this episode, we're getting into the deep end of all this metadata and all this stuff like that, which is people are like, uh driving in their car. I don't even what the fuck is that? But but you might get there eventually. I don't want to discourage people, uh, you know, grow your business. And and I do like the two website um advice you gave. And I've been I was going back and forth with my my business partner, Federico, on this one. I was like, okay, we have the RBUST site, and there's a page on there about our management, you know, because we want to pick up more properties and management too. But I was like, I think we need another website just for that to send to people prospective property owners that we we would like to manage their properties. Because when they go to rjustrentals.com, they just go to okay, where do you want to stay? Uh, okay, you go up to the top and hit the little three-line thing, and you go to page, you know, the page three, and you can find out about management. I was like, I know we got this website, we're paying for it, but I think we need another thing apart from it to attract people. We just had that conversation. And so when you said that you always have to have two websites, that really yeah, that hit home for me, man. Thank you for that. That that resonates.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Look, uh, even for us, so we've got different landing pages that do different things. So if you were to go to iBooked.online, you'd hear all about websites. We build websites, we build also websites, we're gonna help you with that, and we're gonna join you on your journey. If you go to iBooked.online forward slash AI, guess what? It's gonna look different. And we're talking all about AI and how you can use AI in your short-term rental business to bring you more business. It's got a five-day challenge in there. I'm kind of uh dropping so dropping some uh some marketing into this. But the point being is that the people that want to look at the websites will go to iBook.online. The people that want the AI information are gonna put the forward slash AI at the end of the URL. Same thing that you guys need to do, or everybody needs to do, is to really think about how is your potential guest getting to your website? And so that's the guest, but if you're looking for an owner, what are how are you getting in front of them, right? And they is the only way you're gonna find them through through Google? Is it Google? Is it because you're doing really cool stuff on Instagram? So, what's the journey? What's the funnel of this person getting into your business? Or is it because you've gone to local real estate meetups and now you're talking to real estate agents? Your front page needs to appeal to the people that you're talking to, to the way that you're driving them to your business. And that is how you're gonna get higher conversions because they're going, oh yeah, I was at that real estate thing, and this makes sense. Cool, now I fill out the form and I'll take that next step. So, um, and then you don't like if it's a if you're talking to them, you don't want to distract them with other stuff because that distraction uh has been proven, proven to dramatically reduce your conversion rates, you know, like in the 80% because they're like, oh, what is this? I don't get it, whatever, I'm gonna go do something else. It's just too difficult. Um, so yes, the the two pages is thing. And um, Stevie, what I recommend is you can get a website built on freelancer, but then you've got you've got to maintain it and you've got to need someone there. You can also use a platform like Lead Pages. Um and if you use Lead Pages, then it's kind of like a drag and drop editor, and their platform is all just designed for leads. Um, so that works really well.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Great advice, man. Great advice. Appreciate that. So no worries at all. Sorry, sorry, what were you saying, Steve? I think he was just saying good advice. Great advice, actually. Yes. Sorry, the Wi-Fi in Mexico, you know how it is.

SPEAKER_05 52:55

Gotcha. Do you have anything else? Stevie Stacks.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Yeah, how do I get people? Okay, now I know uh chat GPT thing, that's cool. But how do I get these owners to give us their properties, man? I mean, how do I make a website that's gonna convince them to do so? Because they've heard a lot of these sales pitches

Two websites: one for guests, one for owners - never mix the messages

SPEAKER_01 53:15

already. How would how do you pick up? Well, you're not in the in the um action of doing that right now, but what would you suggest um for us trying to pick?

SPEAKER_03 53:25

Uh look, uh I am in the action of doing that, but not me personally. I've got over 20 people that 20 companies that I can start with, and we talk about it all the time. All the time. Most of them, most of them tell me they've got more properties than what they can handle, right? And for a lot of people listening, they're just like, for God's sake, why are you telling me this? All right, I'm just trying to get started, I'm trying to get my first properties. For those that are looking to scale and to grow, you need a very strong brand so that when people get to your website or get to you, then they go, Oh, cool, I understand what it is that they're actually offering. And that is the key to the whole thing. What is it that you're actually offering? And as long as you say what it is that you're offering, generally people will engage. So when you design the the the website, you need to think about who's visiting. Is it gonna be real estate agents or is it gonna be individual mums and dads that are looking to get their properties managed? And then you need to think about those mums and dads, and you might need to think about what stage are they at? Have they got an investment property that already has a tenant in there that you're trying to convert into a short-term rental? Or are they someone that's already got a short-term rental but they just can't be bothered? It's all too difficult. It's too difficult to manage, there's too many complaints, there's too much regulation, is there's all this stuff, it's not profitable enough. I don't really understand it. And if you're trying to address those things, you're gonna address those pay pain points in your messaging on your website. And then based on that, I go, Oh, yeah, I do have those pain points. All right, these people can solve it. So that's the one thing is clear messaging and then all the trust signals. So, yes, we've got all these properties that we manage, but reviews, testimonials, reviews, testimonials, trust pilot, that sort of thing. Keep in getting the reviews and the testimonials and keep on doing an amazing job with the owners that you already have, and you'll find that your business grows very, very quickly because people will talk about it. Because the one thing that I think a lot of property managers may not appreciate, and once you've been in it for long enough, you'll know, but these properties are these people's lives, right? They've put everything into this investment property for a lot of people, they put everything into it, so they need to know that the person they're working with they can absolutely trust. So you're trying to build trust as quick as you can, and that's why people that are already established have such an easy ride. But if you're trying to generate more traffic, more business, more leads, and that sort of thing, very clear messaging um and very clear trust signals to get people to actually convert. And then you've got the top of the funnel stuff, so all the Instagram and Facebook and reels and all that that kind of keeps in cementing you.

SPEAKER_05 56:25

No, yeah, you you said something earlier. Hold on, real quick, Steve. You said something earlier. And I think I've been making a mistake in my business. Uh, my my bit my target avatar is business travelers and families. Yeah, and I've been loading up on all these Facebook, these Instagram reels, but I'm like, uh is my target avatar really there? You know, because I don't really target people my age. And I'm I think that's a very important one when you're targeting on uh what is your you guys' perspective as well, is targeting on social media.

SPEAKER_03 56:55

So let me say that I you lost me the last part. So you're creating reels that are doing what?

SPEAKER_05 57:02

My reels basically advertise our property. Basically, it's what it does. And we we kind of like in the description tell them, hey, this is a great place for traveling nurses, etc. Um, and then like on our really big houses that are targeted to families, we tell them it's targeted for families. But on reels, we're like, now that you say about you said if you're targeting the older crowd, you need to be on Facebook. I'm like, well, these reels are on Instagram. I'm like, is it really worth the time?

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Let me uh I gotta do two things here. So um, not to divert audience away from you guys, but we just actually did a three-part series uh that's come out on Instagram. Um, so that's kind of going through all this stuff. It's with a really cool guy called Paul Anderson, the social media hotel yeah. You guys should have him on. He's he's amazing, he's really good, he knows his stuff. But um, it's sort of we're dealing with all the time. Uh, Michael, the one thing I would ask you, just if we're talking about Instagram and you're advertising your properties, are you also advertising all the wonderful things there are to do in the local area for a family?

SPEAKER_05 58:07

Yes, we've created guidebooks and then we also create reels behind it.

SPEAKER_03 58:11

Yeah, okay. So that's one of the key things, right? Is that you're trying to sell the experience, you're not trying to sell the property. Um, the pro the that's what everybody does. They get the property, they do some nice visuals and thing and put the property up. That's okay, right? Who's got who's got time to look through your 30

Sell the experience, not the property - airlines show hugging, not airplanes

SPEAKER_03 58:28

properties on reels to then make a booking? That's not the that's not the process. On Instagram, you're getting people believing in it, knowing that you've got nice properties. Of course, the properties, the product has to be in there, but you're selling the experience of what it's gonna be like as a business traveler, right? What are they gonna be doing in the local area? What are they going to restaurants afterwards? Are they getting an airport pickup? Are they what is what are their needs? What are their requirements? Are you showing that they can iron their shirts because you've got an ironing board and all that kind of stuff? So you're targeting your demographic and your avatar. Um if you're using Facebook as well, so Facebook, yes, you would use that to target an older demographic and older generation, but you've got to be careful, you've got to really understand why they're traveling. You know, are they retirees that are coming just to visit? But you keep it really narrow. Don't go on too many platforms, don't do too much, just keep into your lanes because otherwise it gets super confusing because you can't do retirees and young young families traveling together. It just doesn't make sense. Even though they both could stay there, right? Figure out who that ideal guest is and then focus on them.

SPEAKER_05 59:36

I love that. Sell the experience, not the property. And this reminds me, I don't know if Steve remembers the uh we have these Rio Frio. Yes, that's what they do. They sell the experience, not the property. That is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

In between let's talk about the airlines because the airlines are it's just such a it's such a clear example. When's the last time that you've seen an advert of airplanes?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

You're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

You don't see the airplane, you see the experience getting on and off the airplane and the nice stewards and stewardesses and the and the they're getting there, they're getting to the destination. Who cares about the airplane, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Hugging the grandchild when you get off the plane and all that stuff. Yeah, just like oh well you've flew on uh American Airlines. I mean, they they shove these Bonvoy commercials down our throat once you try to get on their Wi-Fi and watch movies or whatever. And those bonvoys, you never see the hotels, you never see. I mean, you might see the exterior of a place, but you just see like the the grandpa running and the the granddaughter picking them up, or or someone surfing somewhere, or someone you know, sky dot you see all these experiences, you don't see they're not showing you hey, check out these white linens we use. Hey, we bleached the hell out of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:52

Yeah, so once again, so we're trying to capture emotion, right? That's the the whole key to this thing. So we're yeah, we're it we we remember the emotions, we remember the feelings, how we felt, we remember how we felt uh during the terrorist attacks of September the 11th. That feeling, as I'm talking about it, it's there, right? And that is when we're talking about marketing, we're trying to create a feeling, an emotion about our marketing. Now, I'm not trying to associate that terrible event with what you're meant to do, but I'm just trying to uh accentuate that you can um with really powerful things, you can get really powerful emotions that you can draw back on. And a lot of the marketing and the advertising is targeted around the feeling that you get. Um, even the the the big brands of soft drink, they do the same thing. They're trying to get your feel, the feeling, and the emotion to come out of you uh the same as you're traveling. Now, you're you don't have the budget to be creating this kind of these big things, but you can still create a feeling and you can create an emotion. So it's all about communicating, right? So when you're creating wheels, it's all video, but use AI to help you and say, I want people to understand what it would feel like to travel here and to have this particular experience. Use that, pop that onto your OTA listing, pop that onto your website, and you're good to go. Same when you're targeting your owners as well. What would it feel like for an owner to work with you to have peace of mind of knowing that you're the person who's going to look after their property property and their profits and their revenue and everything else?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:39

That was an entire bar, ladies and gentlemen. Wow, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

Go ahead, Steve. Yeah, one more question. Will chat GPT destroy the world?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

It's terrifying.

Will ChatGPT destroy the world? Regulation, voice synthesis, and impersonation risks

SPEAKER_03 1:02:55

It's absolutely terrifying as to what the potential actually is. Um the analogy that I have is if you can look at the way that a scam works, and a scam generally is people pretending to be one thing or another, um, to then get something out of you. That's where it's terrifying for me because this stuff is so real that then you can manipulate it, right? Um, and they're doing that with pictures and things like that. Um, they're talking about like politically, uh they could they're calling them guardrails, so these sort of uh boxing it in so that it can it you can kind of stop it getting out and then doing some crazy things. Um I'm not I just to be clear, I'm not an expert on AI. I feel that I'm an expert in marketing short-term rentals, and now I'm probably one of the the forethinkers of using AI in our in our businesses, right? So I don't have enough technical depth to really understand it and to be able to give you a real example. But you know, I've I've I've watched I've uh read all the Asimov books and it's all about this kind of stuff. I've watched all the movies and it's pretty terrifying. Um, so will it will it destroy the world? I don't think so. I doubt it, but does it need to be regulated and does it need to be looked into seriously? A hundred percent. It can't just it can't just go on its own. It's too powerful.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:37

You're talking right up Steve's alley now. He hates AI.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:41

I don't hate it. I yeah, I don't see he's a conspiracy theorist, no joke. There's a there's a smart dude named Elon Musk who who's who fears it greatly. So uh you know I'm not as smart as him. He's a smart guy, and he he agrees like with you it needs to be regulated. Uh at least to have something there to be overlooking it, you know, make sure it's not gonna get out of hand.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

But I I I just I can't I can't see how it's that whole thing of being able to impersonate someone else, right? That that that's the part that really is terrifying, that you won't be able to tell the difference between who's who's giving you the instruction. You know, was it your boss that told you to do that, or was it the AI that told you to do that? Was it the government that wrote to you, or was it the AI that decided to go rogue and do whatever it's doing, or some sort of thing. So that's where that's where I find that there's a a lot of potential for misuse uh because it's getting so powerful so quickly in terms of being really convincing of who it is. Um, I wrote an article, okay, here we go. I read an article about a journalist who managed to uh synthesize his voice using artificial intelligence. And then that voice, he managed to get it that he got into some organizations that have his data. Terms of voice recognition, that's the way that they ID them on the way through, like on the phone. So you call up and they go, Are you blah blah? Yeah, yeah. My name is Blah, and then it recognizes you, and it says, and then you give it the right, so your date of birth, and it knows who you are. Then all of a sudden he was able to get access to some of his government stuff based on voice recognition. And he had spent five minutes just programming a bot to do that. So and that's uh look, this is within months, right? This is like this has been building for ages, but it's just been released. So there's a lot of lot of um uh things that we need to push governments to do to look at this stuff. Um, but the problem is that you have governments that will look after it, and then you'll have governments that might not.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:44

And the and the and the funny part with that, if you can remember back to the um when the it see, we're aging ourselves, but I remember when the internet kind of started, and then people were scared of its potential and this and that. And so a few years after it started, they started having these hearings in Congress, and with these old guys, right, that have been in in Congress and Senate and president, they're all like 60, 70, 80 years old. They're like, Yeah, so uh what is an online and how do I so they're they're the ones trying to govern this thing, right? Just same with now. The ones in there are old and they don't know what a chat GPT and all this stuff is, so yeah. So you're trying to get older dudes or old mostly dudes, older people to to try to regulate and and you know keep this thing from blowing up the world, but they don't know what they're doing. Anyway, sorry to we we sidetracked there for a minute. I th I think so.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:36

My my my top tip here is if you want to educate yourself on the potential downsides, I probably there'll probably be a hundred people that have way more knowledge than than any other three of us here, and you can YouTube them, Google them, and spend a lot of time looking at that. I don't think for the average person, in terms of them using it in their everyday life to improve their their short-term rental listing, to improve the way that they communicate with people. Uh, you know, like there's just the I was I was writing uh a letter to a bank and I was like, I don't know what to write. And I'm like, okay, cool, can you please help me out? And it just figured it out for me. Um, I was writing an agreement with someone, and it just gave me more ideas than I was able to have myself. Start using it, figure out the prompts and the commands that are going to work for you, be patient with it. It's not gonna work the first time or the second time, but it will work on the tenth time. You go, ah, cool, that's the answer that I want. Keep on iterating. Um, and also think outside of the box because, for example, you can get it to help you figure out Excel equations that you could never do before, and it'll actually help you figure those out. So, those are the three things. Don't be afraid of it, give it a go, learn about it, and be involved in the conversation.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:57

If you know how to use it for coding, you can be very dangerous. But yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:04

Well, you just said there, it made me think of something, and and you know, you've ever been writing a text message or something like that, and you're and you know, our spelling is probably horrendous because the guesses the words for us now. How to fit okay. He he wrote XQMP. That me that meant Sunday, he meant to say Sunday, and it and it you know, it does it for us. It got to the point where every now and then your phone will just kind of leave you high and dry and stop guessing the words for you, and you'll be typing, you're like, Holy crap, making all these spelling errors, right? Because we got so used to our phones changing all these words automatically for us. And when you said there how um, yeah, you were just trying to decide something to write to the bank, you just said, Oh, I'll chat GPT it or whatever, and it wrote you something perfect to send to the bank. I'm like, wow. So not only is our spelling gonna be kind of like um reliant on on AI or whatever, uh, but our actual thoughts and how to process and how to say something is gonna be reliant on it as well in the f in the near future. That's kind of I don't know, it just jumped out at me.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

So the the the two things that that are happening, one is that it will start to be able to read the the physical world around us, so images, and start to understand what those images are. So that's a dog, a cat, and recreate its own images, which is really cool. Um uh read text, that's been around for quite a while. But the one thing I cannot wait for, I cannot wait for this stuff to be able to pick up a voice message or a voice um message that I'm sending you guys, and then it translates it into text and then sends it both as voice and text to you. Um that's the part where it's sort of it's gonna change things for good. I think that there'll be less and less use of actually people typing and a lot more voice um coming back and forth. And then I think that you as a receiver will receive the voice and you'll also receive the text um each time so you can choose which one. All the videos you watch nowadays is the same, right? There's someone talking and there's a text uh underneath. So it's gonna be the same sort of thing. That's how we're gonna get our medium. And I can't wait for that to happen because right now I have to send a lot of messages all the time, and I'm just using my voice, but it just doesn't transcribe it for me. So that let me see, let's say by the end of the year, but uh here's Facebook, all of them they'll they'll do it, they'll all have it done.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:20

Yeah, it's already here. You know, you can connect chat GPT to Siri.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

Yeah, yeah, but it's what I'm saying is it's not, it's not, it's not inbuilt yet. I mean, like it's not doesn't do it. Uh you can do it. I'm saying that they're gonna uh build it in.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:38

So just do it just make it massively and just have it built. Now that's oh yeah, that that that's wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:47

Yeah, there might need to be some regulation. Do you have anything else, Steve?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:54

Yeah, yeah. One more serious question. Bart, are you single-handedly gonna bring sideburns back?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

Oh, sideburns? I don't know. I was I was uh literally, literally the other day, I was talking to uh I was about to book myself in for another haircut, so maybe I'll have to I'll have to figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:15

Keep it going, man. I dig the sideburns. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. That's all I got, Micah. It's been a great guest,

Where to find Bart and the five-day AI challenge

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

amazing guest.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:25

Yeah, yeah. You've really, man, you've really blown my mind with not only the AI stuff, but just some of the stuff of your knowledge in the short-term rental space about selling the experience, not the property. I love that. Um, but yeah, where can people find you and where can they get an iBooked Online, iBooked dot online website?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:42

Yeah, so iBooked.online is the core business. Uh if you want to take part of the five-day AI challenge, uh iBooked.online forward slash AI. We've got an awesome package worth a few thousand dollars for a couple of hundred bucks. Get on there, you'll get a membership to our programs, to meet all these cool people within our community. I highly recommend it. And uh it's all backed up by a money-back guarantee. So if you don't succeed um financially from it, then we'll refund you. Um, you know, terms and conditions apply, but you get the idea. So those are the two things. I am so accessible. Uh, jump onto Instagram, find me, uh iBooked Online, send me a message, I will personally respond uh and be able to help you with with different bits and pieces. Uh, we've got a Facebook group and the accommodation show as well. So look, I don't want to overwhelm people, but jump onto the website iBook.online forward slash AI is where you want to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:39

Got it. See all those, see all those values he threw at you, Mike. I didn't hear one percentage in that sentence. Love it. But yeah, we're hopping on Bart.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:50

Thank you. Thank you, thank you guys as well. And thank you for the awesome work you're doing for the industry and the time that you're taking to help people out. Um, it makes a big difference. And I like your approach and you're just uh opening people's minds. It's it's uh it's really great. So so thank you. Yeah, thank you, rock on baby.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:07

Rock on, we look to have you back on the future. We are indeed, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:13

All right, I say I say indeed, and thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:16

Thank you. Bye. All right, Stevie Stacks, we got episode 244 in the books.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:27

Yeah, man, that was eye-opening. I love that episode, chat GPT heavy, which you loved, I'm sure. Oh, yeah, and um, and and the keep it simple part, which I loved, you know. Don't try to complicate things too much, just you know you can utilize technology to help your business. Don't go crazy with it saying we got a chat GPT everything, but utilize it in ways that are gonna make sense for your business and help it grow. I love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:53

Thanks, man. I loved it. That was a really, really good eye-opening episode. I loved his thoughts on social media, um, what to actually advertise. Like that, that that was a hit. Like when he said advertise the experience, and then that just immediately reminded me of the in-between Texas. You never see their properties. You see the Frio River, you see all this awesome stuff around it. You never see their property. That that was a that was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:18

Exactly what I thought of when he was saying that, man. Yeah, and they hit and they went big time at the TikTok doing all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:24

Yeah, and they're they're crazy book. Yeah, we need to get them back on, by the way. I think they're having a baby, so you got to get them back on.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

Sweet. Yeah, cool, man. This is a great episode. Uh, where can people find us, Micah, man?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:36

Episode 244 in the books. You can find us at liveletrive.com. Email, email us at liveletrive at gmail.com, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, all that stuff. We'll be selling you the experience of Livelet Thrive. Uh yeah, make sure to follow us, subscribe, leave us a review. And uh yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen to us and uh hit us up. And by the way, we are having a meetup. Well, this episode is gonna drop the day before the meetup. So if you're listening now, tomorrow is a meetup. So get your ass over there on the eventbrite, get your tickets. So uh see y'all there, and hopefully we get to see y'all and meet y'all. And we are out. Any closing thoughts, Stevie Stacks?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

Uh, we're gonna give 17.39% off for tickets. For I'm just kidding. Uh, value. We're giving you value. It's free to go. Uh, food, drink, fun, str talk, all the stuff you love. Come with come to the meetup, meet us, meet me and Magic Mikey Brown. My I was gonna say Mike Brown, Micah Man, Mike, Magic Mike. You can tell that tequila is finally hitting. So, yes, sir. Micah and Stevie stacks.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:47

Find us no magic mic going on. This is a short-term rental meetup. Oh, you never know. If Steve wants to do it his personal time, let him do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

Providing 12 inches of value. That's an end right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

Yeah, that's y'all. All right, y'all, we are out.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:12

All right, y'all, we're out. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.