” Making A Difference, One Stay at a Time! “
In this episode of Direct Booking Simplified, we sit down with Debbie Todd, a Hospitable Host and a STR Impact Expert who’s redefining success in the industry. Discover how Debbie transformed her family getaway into a thriving business that gives back to the community. From involving her kids in operations to donating 5% of each booking to charity, Debbie shares her unique approach to creating a purpose-driven vacation home rental.
Learn about her transition to self-management, marketing strategies, and the tools she uses for success. Debbie also reveals how her giving-back model has become a powerful branding tool that sets her properties apart from others
Summary & Highlights
Debbie’s approach to vacation rental management is a powerful blend of business savvy, community focus, and personal development. Here’s a concise overview of her strategies:
Meet Debbie Todd:
She is a mother of three, a physical therapist, and a Hospitable Host with a passion for giving back. She began her mission to make a difference through her rental properties in 2021 and expanded her efforts to the local community by launching Hocking Hills Gives Back in July campaign. Involving her children, guests, and community, Debbie’s initiative has raised nearly $53,000 and their volunteer hours continue to grow. She has also partnered with Hospitable Hosts to create the Hospitable Hosts Impact Community, aiming for a greater global impact. Her dedication is unwavering: to make a difference, one stay at a time.
Purpose-Driven Business:
Debbie’s vacation rental journey began as a family getaway and evolved into a purpose-driven enterprise. Her clear “why” guides business decisions and creates a meaningful foundation for operations.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation:
Embracing a growth mindset, Debbie consistently learns and adapts to industry changes. This approach allows her to improve operations and stay ahead in the competitive vacation rental market.
Family Involvement:
By integrating her children into various aspects of the business, Debbie provides them with valuable life lessons and a sense of ownership. This family involvement strengthens both the business and family bonds.
Giving Back:
Central to Debbie’s business model is a commitment to giving back. By donating 5% of each stay to charities and involving guests in the process, she creates a unique and impactful vacation experience.
Unique Branding:
Debbie’s focus on social responsibility and community impact sets her rentals apart. This unique branding attracts like-minded guests and creates a strong, positive reputation in the market.
Expanding Influence:
Through the Hospitable Host impact community, Debbie is spreading her giving-back model to other hosts. This initiative amplifies her impact and inspires industry-wide change.
Operational Excellence:
Utilizing tools like Hostfully, PriceLabs, and StayFi, Debbie ensures efficient management of her properties. This tech-savvy approach optimizes operations and enhances guest experiences.
Strong Guest Communication:
Debbie prioritizes consistent, automated communication throughout the guest journey. This approach improves guest satisfaction and helps build lasting relationships with customers.
Multi-Faceted Marketing:
Leveraging social media, blogging, and newsletters, Debbie engages her audience and shares her journey. This comprehensive marketing strategy builds brand awareness and fosters community.
Community Engagement:
Initiatives like “Hocking Hills Gives Back” demonstrate Debbie’s commitment to local community involvement. These efforts strengthen ties with local tourism associations and enhance her business’s positive impact.
Legacy Building:
Debbie views her business as more than just a source of income. It’s a vehicle for imparting life lessons and creating a lasting, positive impact on future generations.
Encouraging Action:
By sharing her story and strategies, Debbie inspires other vacation rental owners to incorporate giving back into their businesses. This call to action has the potential to transform the industry.
Through these strategies, Debbie demonstrates how vacation rental owners can achieve success while aligning their businesses with personal values and benefiting their communities.
Learn More From Debbie Here:
Transcription
Gil: What’s that one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new?
Debbie: Why are you doing it? That is a huge, and there’s not a right or wrong answer to that, but I think, and it may change your answer may change and evolve over time, which is awesome. But I think it took us a little while for me to figure out why.
And once I got a, why I’m like, Oh my goodness. Like it just made decisions easier. It made purchasing easier things that when they don’t go, right. I kind of go back to my why and say, all right, we can do this. But with that comes time. You got to sit and kind of soak in it a little bit of, you know, it’s not like, Oh, it’s my why.
And let me move on. It’s something that you really want to like hone in on and think about, ask your, your family about it. Like, why are we doing this? You know, and get their input. I think that would be, yeah, that would be my biggest.
Gil: Hey folks, welcome back to Direct Booking Simplified, where we break down the strategies and tactics to win in direct bookings. On today’s show, I have Debbie. Welcome to the show, Debbie.
Debbie: Hey there. Thanks for having me.
Gil: Yeah. It’s so good to have you on the show. I’m, I’m really excited. There’s, there’s so much to talk about.
I always feel very happy when I have a conversation with you. So I was
Debbie: going to say the same thing about you.
Gil: I don’t know what, I don’t know what it is. You have absolutely one of the most, what’s that contagious energy? I would say in a good way, in a very good way. Um, I, yeah,
Debbie: I try. Yeah.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. So maybe to kick things off to mind, giving folks a kind of an introduction on who you are.
Debbie: Absolutely. Yes. My name is Debbie Todd. Um, I live in Columbus, Ohio with my husband and three kiddos. They’re 16, 15 and 12. So we are busy, busy, but it’s, it’s awesome. Um, we have two vacation rentals in Hocking Hills, Ohio. Which is about an hour from us in Columbus. And we kind of got into it by accident. Um, in 2020, my husband wanted a place close to home that we could just get away with our family because we, most of our travel is sports.
So we, you know, we can’t just. We have to be close.
Both: Right.
Debbie: So, um, he found a place. He’s like, what do you think? I was like, you’re crazy. We can’t afford another house. What are you talking about? So we got another couple involved and we went into it together, not having a clue what we were doing. Then COVID hit.
And so we were like, all right, maybe we’ll use it. You know, maybe it was funny. Cause we said, Maybe we’ll try renting it out and just see if maybe like a rental or something, you know? So we connected with Evolve Vacation Rentals at the time
Both: and
Debbie: then it just, it boomed. Like we were getting bookings every day.
It was insane. We were like, what is happening? So needless to say, it was wonderful. We couldn’t even use it because it was booked so much. So my husband and I were like, let’s do it again. Like, this is fine. What, what, you know, so the other couple didn’t want to, you know, they were like, no, we’re good. So my husband and I bought a second one, renovated it, and then.
We ended up selling the first one, made a great profit and then bought a third one. So, so actually we’ve got two. So my husband and I own two in Hocking Hills and we’re in the process of building. So it’s just been like this crazy, like learning experience.
Gil: Yeah. What are the, what are these types of homes?
Are these like really large homes? Are they more kind of modest ones? Like give me a sense of like, what do you, what do you have?
Debbie: So the two that we have, one sleeps 18 and one sleeps 12. So they’re more bigger, multi generational family. We get, it’s so cool. We get, um, family reunions. We get groups of friends.
It’s just, it’s been really fun getting to know our guests.
Gil: Yeah. Did you, how did you decide to get such a large home to, to start off with? And maybe like, what was your, what was your first home that you purchased?
Debbie: The first home. It was a four bedroom and we ended up making it, we had some bunk beds in there, we, it slept 14, um, cause we added like a game room and it’s just kind of, that’s kind of where it started in the house.
We weren’t really, we were looking for something for our family and, um, we kind of built, designed it around that. And then, um, the other two, the second one we bought was a. Two bedroom, two, two bath.
Gil: Okay.
Debbie: Bones of it were so good. It had like a full unfinished basement. So it is now a five bedroom, three bath.
And my husband’s got the design. He is like, he does most of the work. Um, it’s funny cause both of the ones we purchased, Besides the first one, I was like, we are not buying these. I’m like, no, I don’t have the vision. And he’s like, I’m telling you, these could be, and I’m like, I don’t like them. I don’t like them.
I don’t want them. And then they have been amazing.
Gil: Oh my gosh.
Debbie: Yeah. So we, we designed them, like renovated them to fit big, big groups. We, they both have game rooms, um, fire pit areas, hot tubs. Like we just, we want people to come and just relax and enjoy. Um, and we, when we go, we want people to enjoy what we would want to enjoy basically.
Gil: Right. Right. Would you say that you’re part of your ideal guest avatar then in that sense?
Debbie: Yeah, I would. Absolutely.
Gil: Nice. Nice.
Debbie: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Gil: That’s amazing. Your, your, your husband has like the, the whole HGTV vibe going on.
Debbie: It is. Our kids are so funny because they have also been included in the renovations, which they were pleased.
You ask them now, like, would you want to do another renovation? They’re like, no, please don’t make us do it. Because we put them to work. We, I mean. Yeah. . Our flips were three months. Got it. And it was insane because we both had wait
Gil: three month flips. You went from a two, two to a five, three in three months.
Debbie: Mm-Hmm. . How did
Gil: you pull it off?
Debbie: I don’t know, honestly. Um, gosh, I, there was one time that my husband, we both have jobs, kids are all in school, sports. He left his, you know, full time job. He would drive an hour, go work for four or five hours, get home at midnight. Go to bed. I mean, weekends, I, there was one weekend that I drove back and forth five times because I would go help paint and do what I could.
Then I drive a kid to practice, get, when they were done with practice, we’d drive back. We would do more, like, it was, I’m like, you just, and then you forget and you’re like, Oh, it wasn’t that big of a deal. And then we did it again. And I was like, what are we
Gil: doing? Oh my gosh. Is your husband also in construction or is this a side thing that he just picked up and got really good at?
Debbie: He used to do, he’s an athletic director at a local school and he did a lot of, um, his dad taught him a lot. And he did some construction like in the summers, like between school, like in college, um, so he learned a lot that way. And he’s just, I mean, he’s just super handy. There’s a lot of stuff around our house.
So I’m very, very grateful for him.
Gil: I always get amazed about our industry and everybody coming in from very different angles, very different backgrounds, and. What seemed almost irrelevant backgrounds ends up becoming like our secret sauce into how we made our portfolio successful.
Debbie: I know.
Gil: Every time I, every time I hear one of those stories, it just kind of brings me back to like making it so accessible to so many different folks in the right angle.
Debbie: Well, and what we have available online between podcast and just resources, um, you know, my son who is a junior in high school right now, he is taking a business marketing class and I am super pumped about it. Cause I’m like, you can teach me. And he’s like, what do you mean? I And I was like, I’ve like Googled all this.
Cause he asked actually last night, he’s like, mom, what’s our mission statement, our vision statement. And I started laughing. I’m like, well, this is what I think it is. And he’s like, how did you know? And I’m like, I Googled it. Like how, what’s a mission statement. So I see that is, you know, when we got into this and I started thinking of it as like a business, um, it was very intimidating because I’m like, Oh, I don’t know how to do this.
I’m not good enough. I didn’t learn this in school. I didn’t. And the more I talked to people, the more, I learn, you know, just from other people is we can do whatever we want to do. It may take us longer. Um, but it’s so rewarding to learn new things and, and to be okay with not knowing, you know, it’s like it, you don’t have to know, have it all figured out and it actually, you’re not even the most X, the experts out there, they don’t have it figured out.
It’s just lots of it’s trial and error. And then you’re like, well, that didn’t work. So I’m gonna try this. And so that’s been a really. Probably the one of the best parts about this, that our kids have been able to see us not only take risk, but then, you know, make mistakes, learn from our mistakes, try something else.
And that’s, I mean, I’m like, that’s invaluable right there. Like, I just, that’s been so fun to share with them.
Gil: Yeah. It’s almost, almost natural. It’s not like you’re forcing a less, like a life lesson on them. They’re, they’re actually absorbing through almost osmosis.
Debbie: It totally. And it goes in seasons, right?
I mean, there are times that, you know, Hey, we share our finances with, we share everything with them, you know, just letting them know, Hey, this is, we want, we want to share this. So you learn, I’m not going to say that every time they’re fully on board, sometimes we get the glaze looks and like, Oh, do we have to listen?
You know? But, um, but they’re getting it, they’re getting seeds of information. And like, like I said, my son picking this business class, I just think that’s super cool that he’s interested in it, you know? So,
Gil: yeah, do you have any stories of failure? That your kids got to observe and like what they learned from it
Debbie: Right off the bat.
I’m sure there’s a yes to that. I just probably have to think about it a little bit more probably what I have This isn’t so much failure, but just really hard work Um is our renovations. I feel like That was something we didn’t think about. Oh, we’re going to include them in this and show them. It was just kind of, we were all thrown into it.
And what’s been really cool is it was, there were so many tears. My poor husband. There was one week and we were all there and it was almost like he had four children, including me, because he had to literally like, okay, I need you to go put this stand together. You know? And I mean, I have, we, I don’t know how to put a stand together.
So my daughter, my 12 year old daughter’s putting a nightstand together, which is still up by the way, it’s still intact. Um, But, I mean, it was hard. I mean, we’re all, like, it’s, we’re tired, but to see them, when we go and bring friends, they go into those places with their friends, and they’re like, let me show you what we, they have ownership of it.
And that has been super cool. And that, we don’t say anything to it, you know, but they are just so excited to bring new people, to show them what it was before, what we’ve done to it. So that’s been a really cool, cool thing to watch.
Gil: Yeah, I can, what it hears, what it sounds like they, they learn a lot of grit in that process of like just pushing through when things are probably not easy and it’s in the harder times, but also a lot of pride coming out of it because you put your sweat into it.
Debbie: Right. And I think kids like growing, not all, and I’m, this is just a kind of what I’ve noticed is it’s so easy to be like, Oh, I’m going to go out of school and make, I’m going to be a millionaire. And I’m like, no, it doesn’t usually, not saying it doesn’t happen, but yeah. There’s usually a system, a process of, you know, making money.
You don’t just start making money all it’s, you know, um, so just giving them a little bit more of reality, uh, you know, of life, you know, life lessons.
Gil: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I remember maybe like, maybe it was two months ago. I saw you and your daughter on a, on a, on an Instagram post and it was about a book. Um, can you tell our listeners a little bit about kind of the, the story behind like what your daughter was inspired to do?
Debbie: Absolutely. Um, so through this awesome short term rental journey that we’ve been on, um, I had the honor and privilege of being an author, a published author, um, on Hospitable Host volume three. And basically it was just the ability to get our story out on print, kind of like what we’re about. So that was really cool.
Um, although When I, when we decided to do this, to, you know, publish this, um, with 39 other amazing authors, I knew there was something bigger to it, but I didn’t know what, but I’ll, I’ll share that in a little bit. Um, but right after that was published in February of this year, I was at work and I’m a physical therapist and I was talking to my co worker and I was sharing all of our give back opportunities that we use through our rentals, which is like my passion.
And she’s like, you should do a give back journal. And I was like, What do you mean? So we were just kind of talking about it. Well, I came home and I, I’m the dreamer. Um, I, you know, I tell my husband, I’m like, I have another idea. And he’s like, Oh, Debbie, you know? So I told him, I said, Hey, Mandy had mentioned, you know, we should do a give back journal with all of our give back, you know, things.
And my daughter walks through and she’s like, what are y’all talking about? So I just mentioned it to her and she looks at me. She’s like, mom. I love that idea. Can we do a kids give back journal? And I was like, uh, yeah, of course she’s like, well, how do we do it? I’m like, I honestly don’t know. And then I was like, Jody of hospital, my host, I said, we are going to.
We had just published the book. So I reached out to Jodi and I said, Hey, is this something you can help us with? And she said, 100%. So she would have zoom. She’s in Australia,
Both: right?
Debbie: You would have zoom meetings with my daughter who’s 12 and she would sit right here and she would just give her homework.
She’s like, all right, I want you to, you know, decide the color of the cover. What do you want the cover to look like? What type of font? Um, and then just helped her kind of take it into the small pieces because my daughter, I love her. She is like the most joyful child and, but she struggles with, you know, she has ADHD and what we love to tell her is like, that’s something you struggle with, but it does not define you.
So it was her way of kind of, you know, overcoming that and just in small little spurts, we would try to do this and this. So in july of this year, she published young heroes big hearts and it’s a year long give back journal that, um with examples that kids can go out and share kindness and give back to their community.
It’s It’s super cool.
Gil: Oh my gosh. And this is your youngest. Is that right?
Debbie: Yep.
Gil: That’s amazing. That’s amazing. For like our listeners here, tell us more about like what, what, what does a give back journal mean to you? And like what, like what was your original inspiration towards that?
Debbie: I think, you know, I, I have a heart and I think I, my parents, I grew up with this with my parents.
nursing homes. Um, Just all, all different places. And I’ve just always had a heart for giving back. Um, even my job, I think as a physical therapist, that’s just in my, you know, just in my being, and I actually work in a prison setting, which is even more of a, um, a way to look outside of ourselves. So I think what’s super important, my why.
My husband, both of our, our wives is to teach our kids, not only hard work, what we’ve been talking about, but looking outside yourself and needs like, and it’s simple needs you like, is it a, a smile at someone that walks past? Like, it’s just, I want them to be intentional because it’s so easy for all of us, right.
To be in our world, we’re on our phones, we’re at the airport. I don’t even look up cause I’m on my phone. I’m doing work. Um, and sometimes just the ability to, To see people.
Both: I
Debbie: think that’s to be able to share that with others. And at such a young age, and I think what I love about the journal, would that be in a year long?
It takes it week by week to focus on one thing. And how does that make you feel? And to become like a habit, not a, you know, just part of your day life and not like, Oh, I’m gonna do something nice and kind of like you want it to be. part of their life. Um, because it just, it, it gives more meaning and more purpose and more intention to, to living, you know?
So that’s, I think that’s what makes me super excited. It was like, how can we get this into you? And actually I say young hands, but I’ve had multiple adults, like, We love this. We’re doing this too.
Gil: Is that, so you alluded to something that you, you might be doing. Is that probably the next phase of this?
Debbie: Well, what the,
Gil: you mentioned, you mentioned that there’s, there’s a bigger story or something else that you might want to do as well. And in addition to this.
Debbie: So with when we started t know, again, it started o our family to get away. W started getting the renta oh, well, this can be pass not super passive because managing it.
So, um, fell But then as I started becoming more involved in the business and making it a business, I guess, I had the feeling of how can we use our rental, this platform that we didn’t even know we were going to have, how can we use this to give back in different ways? And I love being able to provide it to families and friends coming together.
That, that is fantastic. But I’m like, can we do more? So we had our kids each pick a charity. That they felt strong about. And what we do is we give back 5 percent of each stay to one of those charities. And we include our guests because they get to pick where they want their money to go. So it’s been kind of, it’s been really, so each rental we get.
5 percent is going to one of these charities. So our kids get involved, so they get excited. And then our guests get to learn about those charities. And then they also get to pick where they want their money. And we’ve had some really cool stories between the guests, like connections. And it’s just, it’s been a really cool way to kind of include.
So we started that way. And then. It became like a ripple effect. I’m like, well, what else are we doing that we could somehow give back? And so products we were purchasing on a regular basis, I reached out to them and I’m like, Hey, we want to sponsor a child. We would love for you to be involved. So they gave us discounts that we then used to sponsor a child.
And I’m like, okay, what else? You know, so. It’s been a really cool journey. We included our, our community, our local community, and now, which I alluded to before with Hospital BeHost, and as I’m about to say this, I’m like, I can’t believe I’m saying this because this is so cool, but we have started a Hospital BeHost impact community that hosts property owners, co hosts, property managers can be a part of this larger movement.
And give back and it’s in different ways because I’ve noticed through the years, You know, not everyone can give back financially One’s different seasons. So I’m like, okay, we have a financial way to give back We have a resource way that you can provide, you know Your rental for stays for the ronald mcdonald house our dream foundation We have you can give back your time Like if you’ve got an expertise that you’d like to share You You can give back your time and help educate other hosts.
So it’s just, it’s been, and it’s just getting started and I’m, I can’t wait.
Gil: Oh my gosh. I can see all the, we’ve had many conversations about give back and in the past, and I, every time you, you touch on this topic. I just see so much passion coming out of you from this.
Debbie: And I, I think, you know, I’ve been doing, we’ve been doing this and I’ve seen the, the ripple effect that has had with our guests, with our community.
And, you know, I guess my big thing is people are probably like, okay, whatever. But I’m like, this can change the way you do business. You see your rentals. Um, we had an amazing month in July. And we were able to give a portion of that back to our local food bank. And it was like, because we did so well, we were able to give more back.
Like it was, it is, so it’s kind of like, you know, I did a big toilet paper purchase not too long ago. And I’m like, Oh my goodness. So it just, it makes you look at your business in a different way. Um, Which has been really neat. So, and I’ve got the guest have, Oh my goodness. So many guests have said we have picked your, and this is not why we do it, but you know, this is kind of on the, they’re like, we’ve picked your place because we love being part of something bigger, you know, it’s like intentional, purposeful travel.
Um, and then they have, you know, some, I say, if when something goes wrong, because things go wrong, you know, out of our control, it’s like, Our guests have been so, um, given grace. And I think a lot of it’s cause we’ve had this upfront communication about things that are just super important. And, you know, so it’s helped our communication with guests.
Um, It’s just, it’s, and it’s just cool. It’s just awesome.
Gil: Yeah. I get the sense that they don’t probably see you as just another rental, another Airbnb out there, um, that there’s a bigger cause to the stay that you’re doing, the culture, the kind of like the brand that they’re staying with when they stay with you.
Debbie: And you, it’s just a different, you’ve, you attract like minded guests, right? It’s like, It’s they see what your brand is. And if some people don’t care, then, you know, that’s fine too. You know, but, um, I would say probably 90%. One of our guests has mentioned something about the give back of being either involved in one of the organizations we’re a part of, or.
What it’s, we had a host recently stay at one of our places and she’s like, I’m going to incorporate, you know, we, we give blessing bags to our guests that they can take with them and give to the homeless. She’s like, I’m so going to do this in our rental. I’m like,
Gil: wow. You’ve you’ve pretty much used your rentals as a platform for you to kind of go towards your cause. And
Both: it
Gil: sounds like you’re also. Um, translating this to other hosts to put into practice as well, too, as I can’t wait to see what you and the hospitable host community kind of put together. Um, yeah,
Debbie: and
Gil: it’s, it also sounds like it’s, it’s not a, it’s not a zero sum game.
It’s not like you’re actually giving back 5 percent and, and, um, that’s taking off your, your revenues. Yes. There’s There’s a bigger thing to it. Um, there it’s, it’s not just about just taking away from your pockets, but you’re actually building something a lot bigger than that.
Debbie: Yeah, absolutely.
Gil: That’s, that’s awesome.
That’s awesome. Um, so what’s, what’s the next, so what’s the next phase for you look like? What are you spending your time on now?
Debbie: Um, let’s see how much longer, how, how long do we have? No, just kidding. We were talking about our to do list and I’m like, okay, what do I have to do? Like what needs to be done today?
Um, some of our big things, well, the impact community, um, the hospital by host impact community. Now that that’s set up, our goal is to get it out there. So this is, this is helpful for that, but you know, speaking at conferences, um, getting on podcasts, just getting people aware of, Hey, you can also be a part of this awesome movement and this huge impact.
Um, so that’s probably, you know, one of the things we are also in the process of building, which we’ve never done before. Um, on our, we’ve got. One of our properties is on 14 acres. So we are going, we’re parceling off part of the property and we’re going to build a 7 bedroom, 4 bath, um, property, or, uh, rental there, uh, so that’s been a whole different, I mean, I’m on a whole nother, like, learning with that.
So that’s been fun. Very, very beginning stages. So that’s a big one. Um, and then our local community, Hocking Hills, we, I just spoke with the board, um, of the Hocking Hills tourism association, and they are going to help us promote Hocking Hills gives back in our local community. Um, so that’s, that was really fun.
So we’re just getting started with that too.
Gil: How do you have time for all this stuff? You have so much going on. Like, I don’t know how you do it, Debbie.
Debbie: Um, I’m a night owl, so I don’t usually need a lot of, well, I need sleep, but I probably I do a lot of things at night. So if you ever get an email from me at 2 AM, sorry.
Gil: That’s okay. I’m on the West coast, so I don’t usually have that problem. I usually wake it’s usually waking up to early emails more than anything else. That’s awesome. Um, Last time we talked to you mentioned that you actually had done also really well on the direct booking side of things Could you give our listeners a sense of kind of some of the areas that you’ve invested into to drive up that direct booking rate?
Debbie: Absolutely, and I would like to start this saying When we first started with, um, the rentals, we used evolve vacation rentals and what they basically took over, they did our listing and
Both: it
Debbie: was great because I, we didn’t know anything at the time, so they took our listing. They’re the ones that, you know, took care of the pricing and it was really nice because it kind of gave me the ability Well then, and actually I, I, I might have said I would never do direct booking.
Don’t ever say never. Um, but what ended up happening as I started learning more, I was like, I think I can do this. So our third property, when we renovated it and got it up going, I directly, Um, started, I worked with hostfully and there are PM, our PMS and got price labs and just learned that whole process of setting up our listing.
And we’re also on Airbnb in Verbo because we do get, you know, bookings from there also. So I had one kind of direct booking. And then the. Our other one I left with Evolve because I was just I wanted to kind of feel it out. Um, I was going to give myself about a year, figure things out, and then bring, um, what we call Woodland Lodge over.
Well, after about seven months, I was like, I want it over. Like, I loved, um, being able to have total control of our listing. Um, and again, very happy with Evolve, but I was at the point in time that I was like, all right. We can do this now. So what we’ve incorporated is price labs, which is the dynamic pricing, which has been great.
And then, you know, I haven’t, and I’m still learning about that also of, you know, what it, what goes into all of the pricing and they, their system is set up fantastic. And then also what has been huge. And I think of, um, with getting more direct bookings is stay fi and that is, um, Yeah. When people come to our cabin, they’ve got to hook up to the system for their wifi, but we get all their emails.
And so we’re able to email them after their stay, we can set up all different types of automations. Um, I actually, and this is another thing you don’t have to know how to do it all at one time, it’s baby steps. And after having, you know, the, the direct booking and stay five for, you know, half, two years, Just three days ago, I set up an automated email that after 10 months, an email will go out to all the guests after they check in and we’ll be like, Hey, how’s it going?
Just to kind of remember us kind of, you know, come back to Hocking Hills. Um, there’s just different ways you can, you know, reach out to the guest. Um, and I think that’s been super helpful, um, along with social media, and just having a website.
Gil: Yeah. You, let me get this clear. So you were originally on Evolve for the first two properties to sound like you sold the first one.
Um, and then you, you kept the second one. And then when you launch your third one, you immediately self hosted it yourself. And you didn’t, you didn’t basically involve evolve in that. Um, and then you started to migrate your existing second property over to self management, um, in that process. Um, And then you use day five for email capture.
Did I get it right that you were able to get a solid direct booking rate? Um, and you’re now just more recently starting to do the automated emails. Uh, the triggers, the 10 month, like you’re able to actually get a lot of success. Um, even before you’re able to, or before you put some of like more robust email practices in place,
Debbie: we were,
Gil: Wow.
So that, what that tells me is that you actually have a lot of room for growth and to increase that rate even further up.
Debbie: I hope so.
Gil: Yeah. So how do you nurture your customers today or prior your guests today?
Debbie: So we communication, I just, I love communication. I feel like it’s key. Um, I think it can open up for lots of opportunities to, um, kind of get things out there in the open, or if things go wrong, you can kind of catch it, you know, right away.
So when people book with us, we have automated emails that go out to them, um, Obviously telling them about the stay, but then also sharing about the area. We send an email about our givebacks, like different ways that, you know, we, there’s also, we also do volunteer opportunities or they can do, um, a private chef.
So we kind of spread out the emails, not to, Bombard them with too much load of information, but that by the time they get to our place, I almost kind of feel like they know us a little bit, our brand, what we’re about. And then, you know, I would say that probably the most important communication point is after the first night stay, we have an email or actually we have a text that goes out and says, Hey, how was your, you know, how was check in?
How was everything? Let us know. Hope you’re having a great time. And I feel like that is like a key because you can catch things or they’re just like, this is awesome, which we like those, those responses too. Um, and then the same thing with the checkout, we, you know, we have a checkout email a week later, and then I just added the 10 months just to kind of keep it.
And we may, we may do a six months. I don’t, I’m not sure, but right now that’s kind of what we do. I do a newsletter.
Gil: So it sounds like you’re doing a lot of Automated messaging already kind of throughout the booking flow. I’m guessing you’re using hostfully to kind of manage that.
Debbie: Using hostfully for that.
Gil: And then you use, you collect their email and stay fi and then you also retarget them 10 months later and you’re possibly adding more emails in there. Um, and you’re just about to get into one of the other things you do, which is the newsletter. Tell me more about that.
Debbie: So I, um, spoke, you know, was hearing about blogging and newsletters and I’m like, Oh my goodness, I can’t add another thing to my plate.
But then I was like, you know what? I think this is super important to try to get with, you know, website, SEO, um, newsletter, just getting information out to people. So I kind of bumped it up on the priority list. And so we, I am doing a blog on our website, um, every month. So, and I, that’s another thing is setting expectations.
You can. Manage, someone was like, Oh, you need to do a weekly newsletter. I’m like, there is no way. So right now I’m blogging once a month and then I will do a quarterly newsletter. And basically the newsletter is pulling the last three blogs. And sending it because I, I’m like, I gotta make this, I can’t be doing things three and four times.
And, you know, I try to do the blogs that they’re very, you know, things around the area. Um, just kind of what, I did a, um, on social media, I was like, what do people want to know about? And so that’s what I’m blogging about, you know, and I’m using chat GPT. That is very helpful to help set up the ball. I mean, saves a lot of times and you still have to tweak it and figure things out.
But, um, that has been a huge. Huge time saver. Um, so yeah, I, I tell my kids, I’m like, I know how to use chat GPT. And they’re like, and I’m like, of course you do, don’t get in trouble. You can’t use that at school, you know?
Gil: Yeah. Um, you said something very interesting just now. You asked social media what they’re interested in hearing.
Tell me more about that.
Debbie: So, yeah, I decided, goodness, two years ago. Um, I did not have a social media account before we started our business. Um, I never posted, I wasn’t even like a fake, like I never posted. And when we started this, I was like, all right, if you want people to know about your business, you need to talk about your business.
And so I was like, I think I’m going to need to get on social media. So. I had a Facebook account, didn’t really use it much, started Instagram and had just built a following. My goal was to post every day, something, and whether it’s a story, whether it’s a real, whether, and it would take, when I first started posting, it took me so long.
To do a post now, it is a piece of cake. I can do it really. And sometimes I automate them. So I’m kind of all over the place. I need to get better. And my daughter is going to actually hopefully start helping me with this next year. But, um, yeah, I, I tried to engage with, you know, Hey, any, and sometimes even with decorations, I, we, we don’t post just about our properties.
We post about the community, things going around in the community. I do a lot of behind the scenes, just feel like we’re more than just a property. And it’s not a right or wrong way. And that’s another thing is knowing we each have our individual, what we want to take from this. So I wanted people to know how we got into it, what goes into it.
And it’s been really fun and it’s almost like a journal for me. It’s kind of like a creative that we can go back three years, two years and be like, Oh my gosh, remember when we did this? So it’s, it’s been kind of like a. It’s my little fun thing on the side.
Gil: Yeah. So are you, so now that you’re doing this new build on yours, it was a seven bedroom, four, four bathtub really quickly.
Um, are you then posting about kind of the whole build out journey as part of that?
Debbie: We are. So it’s right now we’re in like a really slow phase because we’re, you know, trying to find an architect. But like, I’ll add that in my newsletter. Hey, this is where we are on our new build. This is what our next steps.
Um, just because I, the people’s response. They’re like, we love hearing about that. Um, I can tend to, I tend to be, you know, I have a lot to say, so I have to be very careful to bring it back. But it’s funny. People will go up to my husband and be like, Oh, we saw, saw Debbie’s post. And he’s like, he doesn’t even watch them.
He’s like, I get enough of that at home. I don’t need, but it’s fun. Like my, some of our kids, friends. They’ll, they follow. And so they’ll respond like, Ms. Debbie, that’s so cool. Or, you know, so it’s, again, it’s bigger than the property.
Both: Yeah.
Debbie: This bigger legacy of just, you know, obviously. You know, we want to be able to provide generational wealth for our kids, but it’s to me, I look at it as more, what else are you leaving?
You know, these life lessons, these, you know, for them and their friends and you know, whoever else is, is following.
Gil: I would say that’s very true. Like, I think your kids will, well, they’ll definitely get the, the benefit of the equity that grows over time with some of these rentals and the cashflow. But I think what’s even stronger is.
Some of the things that they’re exposed to this early on in life, I never got exposed to it. And like, it wasn’t until I got into my real career and in product management that I started to see what the external world was like. I even, I don’t even think like in college, I was that aspirational. I had my blinders on.
I was like, I’m focused on getting my degree, getting my master’s. But I didn’t, I never thought about doing some of these things. And like, I think that they, your kids will get a lot of benefit of like, just seeing what’s possible when you don’t try to like box yourself into like, what is the norm, how I should do things.
But you’re thinking about, okay, like what are my ambitions? What am I passionate about? How do I chase that? Like seeing your daughter publish a book at age 11 when she did it.
Both: That’s
Gil: amazing. What other kid in her school can have that type of story? That’s those are just amazing lessons. I think that like.
will propel them way more than, like you said, that’s the property themselves.
Debbie: Absolutely. And I’ve had even adults, which I, I don’t know, I love maybe just because I’m getting close to 50 and I just am, we’re not set. Right. I mean, like there’s always room for improvement or trying to, and people are like, Oh my gosh, you know, I want to try something different.
I’m like, do it like, and there’s different ways to do it and being smart and use it, you know, but I just, I sometimes I do think we’ve grown up of these kind of blinders, like, okay, this is what I went to school for. This is what I’m supposed to do. And, um, there is so much more out there, especially when you find something that you’re super passionate about.
It’s just like, watch out.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, Debbie, I usually end the show with two questions. One’s a mindset question. One’s a kind of a big action item takeaway question. Um, the first question first, um, what’s that one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new?
Debbie: Why are you doing it? Why are you doing it? That is a huge, and there’s not a right or wrong answer to that, but I think, um, and, and it may change your answer may change and evolve over time, which is awesome, but I think. It took us a little while for me to figure out why. And once I got a why, I’m like, Oh my goodness.
Like it just made decisions easier. It made, um, purchasing easier. It may like it things that when they don’t go right, I kind of go back to my why and say, all right, we can do this. So it. But with that comes time. You’ve got to, you’ve got to sit and kind of soak in it a little bit of, you know, it’s not like, oh, it’s my why.
And let me move on. It’s something that you really want to like hone in on and think about, ask your, your family about it. Like, why are we doing this? You know, and get their input. Um, I think that would be, yeah, that would be my biggest no, your why.
Gil: Yeah, I’m a huge fan of like the, I don’t know if you see it back there, but like the Simon Sinek start with why, like, I’m a big proponent of, of that book.
I, I probably read it like three or four times myself. It’s, it’s, it’s, it takes you a while. Like you mentioned, like, you don’t really know what your why is and you might guess what your why is, but when you find it, when you figure out like what drives, what gives you passion and purpose in life, it changes kind of like to say like your outlook on life.
And how you make decisions because right now, probably your properties are, you’re not making decisions just purely on cash flow and cash on cash and all that stuff. It’s, there’s a bigger purpose to it, a bigger mission that you have on what you’re doing now. Um, and then probably it makes it easier for you to make decisions like, okay, maybe this doesn’t give me as much cash flow, but it opens the doors for all these other things I want to pursue.
Debbie: Exactly. And, you know, in the cashflow, you know, we, I’m all about giving that, but it also, we re evaluate, you know, we do the 5%, every year we re evaluate that because the things change. Right. And we’ve got to have a business to be able to do it. So, you know, the, the cashflow, the making, that is important because without that, then we can’t continue to bless others.
Um, but again, it, like you said, yes, it, sometimes decisions that Seem to make the most sense. Like it is, it’s a little weird through this process too, because I feel like I’m doing things sometimes like not the norm because it’s not, but sometimes that’s scary because you’re like, well, am I doing it wrong?
Because it’s not what everybody else would do, but then I do it and then things happen and it’s like, yeah, this is exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. Um, so yeah, of course.
Gil: That’s awesome. Um, all right, last question. What’s the one big takeaway that you want our listeners to walk away with and put into action today?
Debbie: I want your listeners to, now that we’ve kind of talked about, um, different ways of giving back, and I’ve got, I have a thousand more ways, by the way, just to let you know,
I would love for your listeners to go on to hospitablehost. com. Go back to the impact community and there’s different ways. There’s, you know, um, financial ways, there’s resources time. Pick one thing that, that seems reasonable for you and your business. Pick one thing that you can start. With giving back.
And we, I tell you to go there first because we, we’ve tried to make it easy because I know everyone’s busy, you know, I know everyone’s busy. So start there. Um, you can also go hospitable, hope like Instagram, hospitable host, or, um, Debbie hosting with heart. We’re always put, put in other things, but I would love for your.
Your listeners to pick one thing to start with and just see what happens with it. Um,
Gil: I like that.
Debbie: I would love, and even if as things start to go and you’re like, oh, but how would I start this? Reach out to me, message me, you know, again, Debbie hosting with heart. I love talking with the amount of hosts I’ve talked to of starting things in their local community.
Um, they had an idea, but they didn’t know quite how to make it happen. I am. I love talking with people about that. So, but again, that takes a little bit more time, which is, you know, but one thing.
Gil: Awesome. All right, Debbie, I’ll be sure to include links to kind of everywhere you’re at, uh, all your social files.
Also the link to the hospital host page as well, too. Thank you, Debbie, so much for being on the show, sharing with us. with us your passion and how it’s fueled your business. Um, and also give us a glimpse at kind of how you built your brand and how you leverage direct bookings as well too. So I appreciate that.
Debbie: Thank you for letting me share. I appreciate you.
Gil: Awesome. All right. We’ll meet again soon. Thanks.
Debbie: Bye.