Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Your Personal Brand Is Worth More Than Your Company Logo

Transcript

Your Personal Brand Is Worth More Than Your Company Logo · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Don't hide behind a logo. People think they're being
• 0:02
  professional with a logo and in my opinion, it's the worst thing
• 0:05
  you can do for personal brand. But if you say Tesla, you think
• 0:08
  of Elon and actually it's so powerful if you can create a
• 0:12
  personal brand, because anything that you touch is then more
• 0:15
  likely to be successful if you have a good personal brand.
• 0:17
  How do you sell your short term rental on social media?
• 0:21
  What's the value of building a personal brand and how important
• 0:25
  is it to find a gap in the market before launching your
• 0:28
  first listing? Christina Castellina, the
• 0:31
  founder of Empress Hall in Blackpool, is the special guest
• 0:35
  on today's Host Planet podcast and she'll be answering all
• 0:37
  these questions and more. Christina, thank you for joining
• 0:45
  us on the Host Planet Podcast. Let's start with Blackpool,
• 0:49
  which is where you're based. Tell us what Blackpool is like
• 0:53
  and what the challenges are with running short term rentals by
• 0:56
  the seaside. OK, well there's nowhere quite
• 1:00
  like Blackpool for a start, for good and bad for everything I
• 1:05
  find. OK.
• 1:06
  So the in terms of challenge wise, the one thing that I would
• 1:10
  say about Blackpool is it, it is saturated with because Blackpool
• 1:14
  has always been a place that people come on holiday and it
• 1:18
  used to historically be guest houses and B and BS.
• 1:22
  And over time, you know, that's changed and there's now more
• 1:25
  Airbnb rentals and the quality is getting better and better and
• 1:29
  better actually. So it's not that there's because
• 1:31
  years ago it a lot of it was quite dated stock.
• 1:36
  There is now a lot of it's modern, but what we have is a
• 1:38
  massive saturation of one and two beds, which is one of the
• 1:43
  reasons I decided to actually step totally out the game and go
• 1:46
  for like a massive 10 bed that slept 20 because I just
• 1:49
  recognized that there was just a lot of all the same stock.
• 1:53
  So I think competition and I feel like it's a race to the
• 1:57
  bottom rather than a race to the top where instead of people just
• 2:01
  thinking outside the box or holding their price in, just
• 2:04
  reduce, reduce. So it just like pulls the
• 2:06
  nightly rate down, and that's a real challenge.
• 2:10
  So talk to us about your journey then.
• 2:12
  You said that you'd set up a 10 bed.
• 2:14
  Then why did you do that and what were the goals when you set
• 2:18
  out at the start of your journey?
• 2:19
  So well, Empress Hall was actually the, it was the 4th
• 2:23
  sort of project that I did in terms of the SA stuff, the
• 2:27
  service accommodation. So I started with a block
• 2:29
  further down in Cleveleys, which is a totally different hotelier
• 2:34
  that stay there. Really.
• 2:35
  It's more like elderly people or it's couples.
• 2:38
  It's people that want to go into Blackpool for some fun, but they
• 2:41
  want to really kind of come out and you've still got all the
• 2:44
  lovely things of the beach and the seaside, but it's just a
• 2:48
  just a different feel really. So Highcliff I purchased as a
• 2:51
  going concern. So it was already ran as holiday
• 2:54
  let's but just very dated. It wasn't online.
• 2:57
  Everything was like diary and they were charging about 50 PA
• 3:01
  night. So so I was like OK, there's
• 3:05
  stuff we can do here. So that was where I started.
• 3:09
  It was a block of 6 and there's 32 beds, 31 beds.
• 3:13
  And that's where I really started to understand the
• 3:17
  difference between, first of all, one and two beds.
• 3:19
  And I'm looking at kind of the occupancy levels that we were
• 3:22
  getting, the different types of people.
• 3:24
  And I just did a lot of research because I knew I wanted to do
• 3:26
  more, but I didn't want to just do the same as everybody else.
• 3:31
  So that's where in terms of Empress, where that kind of
• 3:35
  falls into it. Empress Hall, I knew that from
• 3:38
  doing my due diligence. There was a massive gap in the
• 3:41
  market for the larger properties and that the nightly rate just
• 3:45
  went through the roof as soon as you could accommodate like 12 or
• 3:48
  more guests. And I viewed Empress Hall not
• 3:53
  really knowing what to expect. And it was just the gift that
• 3:57
  kept on giving and sort of thought, wow, this place is
• 4:00
  incredible. I have to do something with it.
• 4:02
  And it was kind of born from that, really.
• 4:04
  So it was accidental, but wasn't accidental.
• 4:08
  OK, real talk now for all you hosts out there, you know that
• 4:11
  moment when your guest messages you again with hey, what's the
• 4:15
  Wi-Fi code? Or you're staring at 5 different
• 4:17
  calendars wondering if you've accidentally double booked the
• 4:20
  cottage. Yes, we've all been there.
• 4:24
  That's why here at Houseplanner we recommend Housefully.
• 4:27
  It's basically your rentals control centre.
• 4:30
  It handles bookings across all the big platforms, syncs your
• 4:33
  calendars to ensure there are no double bookings, automates guest
• 4:37
  messages, and even creates these really slick digital guidebooks
• 4:41
  that stop all the repeat questions.
• 4:43
  Honestly, it just makes your life easier and keeps your
• 4:47
  guests happier, helping you achieve those all important five
• 4:51
  star reviews. And here is a little bonus.
• 4:54
  If you're a House Planet listener, you can get $500 off
• 4:57
  on boarding for House Philly's property management software and
• 5:01
  30% off digital guidebooks for life.
• 5:04
  Just hit the link in the show notes and use the codes Planet
• 5:08
  500 for the PMS and House Planet GB for the guidebooks.
• 5:13
  And if you'd like a proper walkthrough, there's also a link
• 5:16
  to book a demo with Frank Bosey from Housefully.
• 5:19
  He will show you how it all works.
• 5:21
  Less stress, more bookings, sorted with Housefully.
• 5:26
  So you're in a obviously like a tourist area.
• 5:29
  You've got this big property, 10 or 12 guests that you can
• 5:31
  accommodate. Who did you earmark as your
• 5:34
  target guests and how did you market your property to make
• 5:38
  sure that they were the ones booking?
• 5:40
  So, well, Empress Hall sleeps 20, so it just goes.
• 5:44
  Yeah, it's it's huge in terms of marketing.
• 5:48
  I documented every second of the journey on social media and took
• 5:52
  a lot of people on the ride with me in terms of the refurb and
• 5:56
  the vision and the plan and the excitement.
• 5:58
  There was a lot of PR around it. It was in loads of the papers.
• 6:02
  There's like this amazing, like Love Island style property that
• 6:07
  was hitting Blackpool, so it had a lot of press.
• 6:11
  And then the pictures do a lot of the talking because it's
• 6:13
  different. So it's one of those places
• 6:16
  where it's kind of your jam or it's not.
• 6:18
  But if you want something that's a bit quirky and a bit fun,
• 6:21
  you're going to book Empress Hall.
• 6:23
  So it's it's one of those places where we obviously as soon as it
• 6:27
  gets online, it's there for everyone to see and we don't
• 6:31
  massively struggle with bookings in that respect.
• 6:34
  So with your social media, and I'll talk to you separately
• 6:37
  about what you do on social media with all your branding and
• 6:39
  all that kind of thing. You said you got some press
• 6:41
  coverage there. How did you get that press
• 6:44
  coverage? Right, like contacting
• 6:46
  journalists, it's as simple as that.
• 6:49
  There's no like people think it's that they come to you, but
• 6:53
  they don't really ever come to you.
• 6:55
  You have to go to them with a story.
• 6:57
  But it can't be, it can't be selling.
• 6:59
  So you can't contact a journalist and say, can you
• 7:01
  advertise my property for me? But what they do get behind is
• 7:05
  like local girl does good or local, you know, local mum of
• 7:08
  two opens big exciting property where you know, like that kind
• 7:14
  of stuff. That's what that's what they
• 7:16
  want to write about, but they're not going to advertise,
• 7:18
  advertise your business for you. But by having a story of sorts,
• 7:23
  if it's a good enough story, then they'll, they'll write,
• 7:25
  they'll, they'll print it. And that's, that's kind of what
• 7:28
  happened with Empress. It just kind of had.
• 7:30
  There was a lot to talk about. You've talked about the
• 7:34
  importance there of having the great photography and, and
• 7:37
  bringing people along for the journey as well on on your
• 7:39
  social media in terms of the amenities that are there, what's
• 7:44
  worked best for Empress Hall and and getting those bookings in.
• 7:48
  So we've got a whole games room which has got like a pool table
• 7:51
  and a Pac-Man machine. It's got a selfie wall, that one
• 7:55
  foosball karaoke machine. It's hard to know really.
• 7:59
  We have got an Xbox room which is on the top floor, which is
• 8:02
  for the, I would imagine for the teenagers.
• 8:06
  I don't know, because every set of guests is so different.
• 8:08
  So we could have a hen do and they are loving the party room
• 8:11
  with the karaoke. And then the next week we could
• 8:14
  have like sports people in and they're just obsessed with
• 8:17
  playing pool and Pac-Man. So it's really it's it's quite
• 8:22
  difficult. I wouldn't say there's one
• 8:23
  specific thing. Oh well, there's a cinema room
• 8:25
  as well. So it's, I think the whole, I
• 8:28
  would say it's the fact that it's got something for everyone
• 8:31
  actually, because we go as a, there's a lot of families that
• 8:34
  stay and when we stay as a family, sometimes the kids are
• 8:37
  in the cinema room and they'll, if we go for like around
• 8:40
  Christmas, they'll be watching the Grinch on the cinema.
• 8:43
  Then the lads will have a beer and they'll be playing pool.
• 8:46
  Then I'll be in the living room watching something with, you
• 8:49
  know, and there's just so many different areas.
• 8:51
  I think it's that in itself that makes it that you're not on top
• 8:55
  of each other, so people can kind of spread out and just do
• 8:58
  what they want to do. When it comes to communicating
• 9:02
  with guests and kind of setting up the journey and preparing
• 9:06
  them ahead of time, what are your top tips for guest
• 9:09
  communication? Well I don't self manage so my
• 9:13
  tip is outsource all of that to someone else.
• 9:18
  Great tip. I mean, the agents that I use,
• 9:22
  they're fantastic. They are really good and they
• 9:24
  are, I know that they send emails.
• 9:27
  Well, we've got an on site manager as well.
• 9:29
  So they'll have all the emails running up.
• 9:31
  Then they'll get the code, the door code to get in.
• 9:33
  Then we've got David who's our on site manager that will
• 9:36
  welcome them as well. So there's a lot of little touch
• 9:38
  points along the way that they're going to get.
• 9:40
  And they've got, there's a 24 hour line, but they've also got
• 9:43
  David on site in the sort of back, I was going to say in the
• 9:48
  garden, He's got a flat in the garden.
• 9:51
  I'm sure you get people approaching you as well, maybe
• 9:53
  from Blackpool or maybe through your social media saying they
• 9:57
  really like what you're doing and they like what you've done
• 9:59
  with Empress Hall. What would be your best advice
• 10:01
  to people if they were starting out and they wanted to emulate
• 10:03
  what you're doing? So my top tips would be make
• 10:08
  sure there's a market for it and spend time working at what that
• 10:11
  market is and find the gap in the market.
• 10:13
  Because if I went and did 10/10/10 Empress Halls, then all
• 10:18
  of a sudden that's not a gap in the market.
• 10:20
  So then I'd be like, oh, well, actually is, is it more that
• 10:23
  people are looking for like a nature scene and they want
• 10:26
  something that's really chilled and the opposite.
• 10:28
  So it's just kind of looking at what's missing and trying to
• 10:32
  fill that. And then another big thing, this
• 10:35
  is a really, this is a, this is actually a problem with
• 10:38
  Blackpool. When you ask me, what's the
• 10:39
  challenge with Blackpool? This is a specific problem with
• 10:41
  Blackpool. So Blackpool Council, to have
• 10:45
  Airbnb properties in Blackpool Council, they require you to
• 10:48
  have full planning permission. Now a lot of people don't bother
• 10:51
  with it, but that's what that's what should be happening.
• 10:54
  And basically they've got this protected zone, which is called
• 10:58
  the holiday zone, which they've mapped out.
• 11:00
  And if you buy a property there, they want you to have it as
• 11:04
  holiday as a holiday accommodation.
• 11:06
  So they're more likely to give you planning.
• 11:08
  And if it's outside of that, they're less likely to give you
• 11:11
  planning. So you've got the planning you
• 11:12
  need to deal with. But then what took me by
• 11:15
  surprise is Empress Hall is in that holiday zone.
• 11:18
  So I got the planning permission, but the planning
• 11:21
  states it can only be used as a holiday let now.
• 11:25
  I mean, it's a massive 4 Storey 10 bed house anyway surrounded
• 11:28
  by hotels. So it's really it's a commercial
• 11:31
  entity. But when I came to get a
• 11:32
  mortgage, it was honestly hell on earth.
• 11:37
  No lender wanted to lend because they saw it as a restriction,
• 11:42
  like almost like there was a restriction on the title.
• 11:45
  And I said, no, it's there's no restriction on the title.
• 11:47
  This is just a planning guidance and lender after lender after
• 11:52
  lender wouldn't lend because they said there's no exit.
• 11:54
  I was like, well, realistic. Like if we're looking at this,
• 11:57
  there isn't really another exit anyway, because who's going to
• 12:00
  buy A10 bed detached house in Blackpool?
• 12:03
  Really. Like there's not that, that it's
• 12:05
  not a thing, but it, it was very, very challenging.
• 12:08
  And I know a lot of investors in Blackpool that face the same
• 12:11
  problem. And it's so stressful when
• 12:13
  you're dealing with it that I know personally I wouldn't want
• 12:15
  to go through that again. I wouldn't want to buy a big
• 12:17
  house and then hope that someone decides to lend to me.
• 12:21
  And Blackpool Council were really unhelpful.
• 12:23
  And I said to them, you know, investors need to be able to
• 12:27
  exit onto lending like no one's got endless buckets of cash that
• 12:32
  they're going to then just decide to invest in Blackpool
• 12:34
  when there's lots of other places.
• 12:36
  Could you do me a letter that Elise says to that this is more
• 12:40
  guidance and they refuse to do it.
• 12:42
  And I just thought that's a real shame because, you know,
• 12:45
  there'll be so many people like myself that would invest in
• 12:48
  Blackpool but then decide actually I can't be bothered
• 12:51
  with that. Yeah, that is definitely,
• 12:53
  definitely a big challenge, especially with the with the
• 12:56
  lending and yeah, having having spoken to lots of mortgage
• 12:58
  brokers over the years, especially with like being
• 13:00
  self-employed as well, it creates, it can create a lot of
• 13:02
  challenges even without the, the regulation.
• 13:05
  Of course, in relation to to Blackpool, it is a coastal
• 13:09
  community and so many coastal communities around the UK that
• 13:13
  they're a hotbed really for short term rentals.
• 13:15
  And many of them face challenges as well into especially out of
• 13:20
  season, you know, getting people there, shops maybe being closed,
• 13:23
  a lot of businesses struggling because maybe they don't have
• 13:25
  the level of tourists that they had previously.
• 13:28
  What do you think coastal communities like Blackpool can
• 13:31
  do to improve the offering and to make sure that they've got
• 13:35
  tourists all year round to make sure that they're thriving
• 13:37
  destinations? Well, I think Blackpool's doing
• 13:41
  a better job than it did actually, because they've
• 13:43
  extended the illuminations. We've now got Blackpool by the
• 13:46
  Sea, which takes us through to January.
• 13:49
  So the the season's quite long in Blackpool in comparison to a
• 13:53
  lot of the other places. So we are quite lucky in that
• 13:55
  respect. But I think if you are, if you
• 13:57
  are operating holiday let's or short, short term let's in these
• 14:02
  locations, there's always different markets to tap into.
• 14:06
  So I know that especially for Cleveleys, because it's a bit
• 14:10
  further out of Blackpool, we're always gearing up for the
• 14:13
  winter. And I'm always saying to them,
• 14:16
  you know, what are we doing to incentivize longer stays?
• 14:18
  So we'll go on to the booking platforms and we'll incentivize
• 14:21
  bigger discounts. If they say for two months, for
• 14:24
  example, we'll offer a bigger discount because we just want to
• 14:27
  get through the winter. We know that we make our money
• 14:29
  in the summer. So I don't get obsessive about,
• 14:33
  you know, let's, let's get the best straight.
• 14:34
  I just want people in over winter and then we start the
• 14:38
  season again and we're often we're flying.
• 14:40
  So I think it's just looking at who else could be staying as is
• 14:43
  that, you know, there's always insurance claims where people
• 14:46
  are in between moves, you know, so they can't live in their
• 14:48
  house and they need to somewhere else to stay for a few months or
• 14:52
  you've got your contractors. We have students that stay as
• 14:55
  well for for just completely random from a local kind of
• 15:01
  university type thing. They stay with us.
• 15:04
  So it's just blending it and it's not being really, you know,
• 15:06
  overly, we only do this. It's just being adaptable to
• 15:09
  what? Because it changes all the time.
• 15:12
  And I want to touch as well on your, on your social media
• 15:14
  because you've grown a really big following on, on Instagram.
• 15:18
  What's the the secret to that? And if somebody's kind of
• 15:22
  starting, especially a short term rental and maybe they want
• 15:24
  to promote it more on social media, what would your top tips
• 15:27
  be? Personal brand, I would say
• 15:30
  don't hide behind a logo. The amount of people that
• 15:34
  message me and have a, you know, an ongoing dialogue with, I
• 15:37
  don't know their name because they're hiding behind a, a logo.
• 15:41
  And and then so if I was to meet them in real life, IA wouldn't
• 15:45
  know who they were. Like I wouldn't walk up to them
• 15:47
  go, oh, hi, because I don't know who they are.
• 15:49
  So people think they're being professional with a logo.
• 15:52
  And in my opinion, it's the worst thing you can do for
• 15:54
  personal brand. It's being so if you just think
• 15:58
  of like Richard Branson and Virgin or Elon Musk and Tesla,
• 16:02
  like if you say Tesla, you think of Elon.
• 16:04
  And actually it's so powerful if you can create a personal brand
• 16:08
  because anything that you touch is then more likely to be
• 16:11
  successful if you have a good personal brand.
• 16:13
  Whereas like the so I've got, it's only 11 1/2 thousand
• 16:17
  followers. Empress Hall's got 1000
• 16:19
  followers because Empress Hall isn't quite as exciting to
• 16:22
  follow as the owner of Empress Hall because people want to know
• 16:26
  what I'm going to do next. And she's created that.
• 16:28
  Oh well, what's she doing now? Whereas Empress Hall is just
• 16:30
  Empress Hall. And I know there's lots of
• 16:32
  brands that do have an incredible following, but
• 16:35
  genuine, like generally people buy into people rather than the
• 16:41
  brand. So I would say that's the
• 16:42
  biggest thing is be yourself, be be authentic and share the
• 16:46
  journey of the good and the bad, because I think AI is making
• 16:50
  everything too polished, too perfect.
• 16:52
  So sometimes it is good to be vulnerable and say when things
• 16:56
  aren't working without being like poor me.
• 16:59
  Sometimes it's like, you know, actually, I don't have it all
• 17:01
  together. Life isn't always perfect.
• 17:03
  This has been hard. And I shared that actually, but
• 17:06
  that was probably one of the most stressful times I've ever
• 17:09
  been in in my life. The whole Empress Hall
• 17:13
  mortgaging, our situation because it was hundreds and
• 17:15
  hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds.
• 17:18
  And at one point it was over Christmas, I think 20, maybe
• 17:21
  232022231 of those. And I literally thought I don't
• 17:26
  have a mortgage lined up. And my broker was like, right
• 17:29
  now we don't have one. And just the stress that that
• 17:32
  caused. And I did speak, you know, did
• 17:35
  share some of that and saying this has been the word, like it
• 17:37
  looks like it's been the best year in the world, but actually
• 17:40
  internally it's been one of the worst years ever because it's so
• 17:43
  stressful. So I think there's, you know,
• 17:47
  just just sharing stuff. No, not over sharing, but just
• 17:51
  being authentic. People kind of get behind that.
• 17:54
  And how often do you post? Do you have a posting schedule?
• 17:57
  Do you try and do something every day, or is it quite kind
• 18:00
  of organic? It's kind of like when you feel
• 18:02
  like it. Yeah, it's quite organic.
• 18:05
  I could be better really. I wouldn't.
• 18:07
  I wouldn't say that I'm like a social media guru.
• 18:09
  In fact, I've deleted it off my phone.
• 18:11
  I delete it every weekend. I've got like a love hate
• 18:14
  relationship with it because it's so valuable and I can see
• 18:17
  how valuable it is. But equally I have quite an
• 18:20
  obsessive personality and I kind of have to treat myself like a
• 18:23
  child. So I can, you know, I don't want
• 18:26
  to be hooked into it. So I delete it most weekends and
• 18:30
  we're now on Tuesday and I don't want to put it back on my phone.
• 18:33
  But then I'm like, there's probably public messages there
• 18:35
  and, you know, respond to people.
• 18:36
  So no, I'm not overly disciplined with it.
• 18:42
  I just post when I've got something to say.
• 18:44
  So I could, I could be better. But yeah, it's, it's been
• 18:50
  amazing for business. And, and what of the, what are
• 18:54
  the opportunities that it's led to just to give kind of like
• 18:57
  lift the lid a little bit, you know, to people out there who
• 19:00
  are thinking, oh, I'm a bit frightened of like putting my
• 19:02
  face or doing a selfie video. I'd, I'd rather just put photos
• 19:06
  of my property. Like what has it led to for you?
• 19:09
  Honestly, it's unbelievable. I've been at it a long time, so
• 19:13
  it hasn't happened overnight. I can hear my dog barking by the
• 19:16
  way. Yeah, it's all right.
• 19:19
  It's got such an annoying voice. Mad.
• 19:24
  So for example, the National Landlord Association have asked
• 19:28
  me to partner with them and they are, I'm pretty sure they only
• 19:32
  know about me because of my social media.
• 19:36
  Lots of personal invite, you know, just, I feel like when
• 19:40
  people watch you, they feel like they know you.
• 19:42
  And so many opportunities that are aren't even just property
• 19:47
  have come out like I've been asked to be a school governor.
• 19:50
  And that's definitely because I've been gobbling off on social
• 19:53
  media and they've thought, oh, we'll have a bit of that.
• 19:55
  We need a bit of, you know, just people get an insight to your
• 19:59
  personality that they maybe wouldn't people that over a bit
• 20:02
  you wouldn't usually maybe cross paths with paths with, but in
• 20:06
  just to break it out so much investment.
• 20:08
  So I work with private investors.
• 20:11
  Which is how I've started. I've always done that.
• 20:13
  But before I had a personal brand, I'd have to work so much
• 20:17
  harder to raise money because no one knew who I was.
• 20:21
  They didn't know the projects, they didn't know if it'd be any
• 20:23
  good actually. So social media has given me the
• 20:25
  evidence to say actually, you know, and this is how I do my
• 20:27
  projects. And so lots of private
• 20:30
  investment, I've sourced deals, lots of coaching clients,
• 20:36
  partnerships, any if I want to sell something, I'll go and put
• 20:40
  it on post social media and it will sell even like if I want to
• 20:43
  sell a flip, I've tried it before and I've sold flips
• 20:45
  through social media. Obviously we get loads of
• 20:49
  bookings through social media as well.
• 20:51
  So like local businesses will say, oh, actually, could I book
• 20:55
  Empress all? And it's just because they've
• 20:56
  seen me do a little walk around video there.
• 20:58
  It's it's endless. Yeah, and it's, it's putting
• 21:02
  yourself in the shop window all the time, isn't it?
• 21:04
  And and like you say, the more people who know about your
• 21:07
  business, especially when it's short term rentals, the more
• 21:10
  likely you are to get those bookings.
• 21:11
  You know, local businesses think, oh, you know, my mates
• 21:13
  come in, my family's come in. This is a great place to stay.
• 21:16
  It's so important. And with you, I think you're
• 21:19
  you're active on Instagram and I know you have your own website
• 21:21
  as well. Is it just really those two
• 21:24
  platforms where where you're posting new content?
• 21:27
  Yeah, Facebook as well. I do post on Facebook, but it's
• 21:30
  like an automatic share. So I'm not actually active on
• 21:33
  Facebook really just automatically goes there.
• 21:37
  But yeah, I think you've got a kind of, you've got to, you've
• 21:41
  got to pick your demon. Is that what it's called?
• 21:42
  Pick your? What's the expression?
• 21:44
  Pick your poison. Maybe pick your poison there.
• 21:46
  You go. Apparently the the grown-ups
• 21:50
  hang out on LinkedIn but I'm yet to find my groove on there.
• 21:54
  But maybe next year I'll I'll figure that I'll just think you
• 21:57
  don't overcomplicate it. Pick one.
• 21:58
  Pick the one you enjoy then then get going with that.
• 22:02
  I don't do TikTok either and apparently the algorithm's
• 22:05
  amazing and it's you get loads of reach so there's so much
• 22:08
  opportunity. I don't think it's even that you
• 22:10
  need to just do Insta. Just pick one.
• 22:12
  If I was to probably start again I'd probably pick TikTok because
• 22:15
  the reach is is so huge. Yeah, Yeah, you definitely, you
• 22:19
  definitely do get more of the reach and I think more of the
• 22:21
  organic reach on TikTok that you don't necessarily get on the
• 22:23
  other platforms unless unless you've got lots of followers,
• 22:26
  unless maybe you're paying for sponsorship and and that kind of
• 22:29
  thing. Well, that's great.
• 22:30
  Thank you so much for the for the insight into building a
• 22:33
  personal brand, which I think is so useful out there for a lot of
• 22:35
  people who are running short term rentals and they want to
• 22:37
  get more bookings and more eyeballs on what they're doing.
• 22:40
  But maybe are a little bit afraid, like I said, to do the
• 22:43
  selfie videos and the selfie photos and showing the journey.
• 22:47
  Before we go. Then Christina, we'll ask you
• 22:49
  the questions that we ask everybody.
• 22:52
  Your favorite brand in the short term rentals industry, apart
• 22:55
  from Empress Hall of course. So I would say actually Charles
• 23:00
  Alexander Shortstay, who managed my all of my properties because
• 23:04
  they are exceptional. They're so good and I've been
• 23:08
  through two terrible managing agents and I thought I'm never
• 23:11
  going to find anyone that can do this.
• 23:13
  It's a really hard gig and I wouldn't want to do it.
• 23:17
  So I really hats off to them because they are, you know, when
• 23:21
  I'm like, I'm off for Christmas, like they're not off for
• 23:24
  Christmas. No matter what happens,
• 23:26
  someone's got to answer the phone and they're family run
• 23:28
  business with children. And so I respect massively what
• 23:32
  they do because it's hard to be good at this because it's, it's
• 23:36
  just everything and they are exceptional.
• 23:39
  So they are my favorite 100%. Great shout out for them.
• 23:42
  What was the name? Are they local business in black
• 23:44
  in Blackpool? Yeah, Charles Alexander Short
• 23:46
  stay, they're called and they are local like they'll like
• 23:50
  cover lithium, lithium down to Cleveland's all of the file, all
• 23:54
  of the file coast essentially. I think they've got maybe one in
• 23:57
  the Lake District as well. But yeah, but they're they're a
• 24:00
  local brand to Blackpool. Great shout out for those guys.
• 24:04
  Yeah, it is a tough job, no doubt about it.
• 24:08
  An individual in the short term rentals world that you'd like to
• 24:10
  give a shout out to and why? Oh, an individual.
• 24:16
  Let me think. My brain's gone absolutely dead.
• 24:23
  There's a guy I don't, I can't, I don't actually know his name,
• 24:25
  but I know his, his brand is called Swish and he owns the
• 24:30
  property opposite me. I think his whole brand is
• 24:34
  called Swish Apartments. And he is a mover and shaker.
• 24:38
  And I know he does a lot of things like Google ads and he's
• 24:42
  he's really good at the marketing side and he's really
• 24:46
  pushing up the level of quality in Blackpool.
• 24:50
  So I think actually I would give him a shout out because it's
• 24:52
  brave what he's done. Nice mention for Swish, we'll
• 24:55
  find his name and put it in the show notes.
• 24:57
  Finally, then, your biggest lesson learned from your Empress
• 25:01
  Hall journey. It's not for the faint hearted.
• 25:05
  You're very front facing to the economy so you need to have the
• 25:08
  stomach for it. But I think it is such a joyful
• 25:15
  business. If you really create something
• 25:17
  that you're proud of, it is an amazing business to have.
• 25:23
  Certainly is great note to end it.
• 25:24
  Christina, thanks so much for joining us on the Host Planet
• 25:27
  podcast. Thank you for having me.
• 25:29
  Great to chat to Christina Castellina there from Empress
• 25:32
  Hall in Blackpool. I hope you found those personal
• 25:35
  brand tips useful. That's just about it for today's
• 25:38
  episode. Remember, this podcast is
• 25:40
  brought to you in collaboration with House Philly, which is
• 25:43
  trusted by short term rental professionals across the globe.
• 25:46
  As a House Planet listener, you get 2 exclusive offers $500 off
• 25:50
  onboarding for House Philly's property management software.
• 25:53
  Just use the code PLANET 530% of digital guidebooks for life use
• 25:59
  the code Houseplanet GB. To grab these deals, click the
• 26:03
  link in the show notes or head to housefullly.com.
• 26:06
  For more free education tips and trends from the STR industry,
• 26:10
  visit Houseplanet dot Club where you can sign up for our
• 26:13
  newsletter, listen to our podcasts, and download a suite
• 26:16
  of ebooks for hosts and property managers.
• 26:19
  That's it for today's episode. Until next time, happy hosting.