Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Your Competition Is Already Using This AI – Here's Why

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Your Competition Is Already Using This AI – Here's Why · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

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  Most hosts focus on revenue, but the real winners optimize for
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  profit, and AI is making that easier than ever.
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  In this episode of host Planet Bite Size, powered by host
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  Philly, I'm joined by Christopher Dillon from Guesty.
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  Christopher is going to share 5 AI tactics that can help short
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  term rental hosts and property managers reduce costs, save
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  time, and maximize margins. If you want to run a more
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  profitable short term rental business, this episode is for
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  you. Let's get straight into it.
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  Christopher, thank you for joining us on House Planet Bite
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  Size. You've got a bunch of AI tips to
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  help hosts to maximize revenue. So let's start with tip #1.
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  Hi James, good to good to see you.
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  Just a prerequisite. First of all, AI is, is
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  obviously very much here. The real difference now is, is
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  how you're using it because some property managers are only
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  saving time and others are actually growing revenue.
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  So it's very key. But a couple of prerequisites is
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  that you need to be, you have the right system for the AI to
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  work. So here's my 5 practical ways
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  that you can use AI to increase the revenue.
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  So first is with accommodation upgrades.
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  So your AI, for example, can use your system and can offer guests
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  an upgrade. So if one of your guests has,
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  let's say, booked one of your smaller apartments or the AI
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  tool can actually send another automation straight to your
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  guests offering them. Why don't you book this property
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  that's very similar, but that property is going to be maybe 30
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  lbs more or 40 lbs more. And even if a small amount of
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  the guests actually book that, you know, your revenue starts to
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  increase with every one of those.
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  And that's something that you can automate across all your
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  portfolio when you have that AI tool set up.
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  That's a really interesting tip. And yeah, it's not really one
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  that I've I've heard that often. So yeah, if so, like you say
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  there, so long as your system is set up, the foundations are set
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  up to automatically do this if you have the right availability,
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  it's quite a simple, simple thing to do.
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  And like you say, even if only a few people do it over the course
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  of a year, you know that that bits of extra revenue, it adds
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  up. Yeah, absolutely.
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  They can be micro, micro instances from 400 lbs to 420
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  lbs. As you said, if that's rolling
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  across all your properties and your AI is managing all your
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  availability and and its suggestions, that's kind of
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  where you want to be maximum. That's where AI is really
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  helping you increase your revenue per booking.
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  Yeah, and I guess as well, like the people who are booking as
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  well, if they see that extra option and they think, oh, it's
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  only an extra £10 a night, but oh, there's an extra room there
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  or there's an extra amenity. All right, Yeah, let's let's go
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  for that. So, yeah, you can see that.
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  You can see that working pretty well.
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  Quick pause. Now this episode is powered by
• 2:52
  House Fully, the property management platform trusted by
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• 2:57
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  tools, House Fully helps you build a more scalable short term
• 3:03
  rental business. If you're watching on YouTube,
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  simply scan the QR code on screen or hit the link in the
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  All right, back to it. So tip #2.
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  Yeah, tip #2 is how your AI tools can help your guest
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  satisfaction and and loyalty. So AI can, as you know, can
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  automate and personalize the entire guest journey, sending
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  check in details at the right time, responding instantly to
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  kind of questions, flagging issues, flagging issues midstate
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  before they become complaints. So basically the the better
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  result of that is that that you're having better experiences
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  from your guests and more repeat bookings and stronger long term
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  revenue. Yeah.
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  So it's all about automating those guest messages and this is
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  definitely something that I found over the last year or so.
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  I think if you want to be as hands off as possible, and I
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  definitely do, then having those automations when the guest
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  books, the, you know, the mid stay check in, you know, send in
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  the check in details because it's those things that are
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  actually quite time and consuming as a property manager
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  when you're doing all those repetitive tasks, right.
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  Absolutely, yeah. And as I said, this is where the
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  AI is actually personalizing as well.
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  So for example, if you, if I guess maybe might complain about
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  something or raise something about the apartment, something's
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  broken or something's this, the AI is going to be responding to
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  that no matter what time it is at night.
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  And obviously then the AI is able to maybe create a task for
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  you, send that, send the maintenance person over right
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  away or flag it to you. So these are kind of nice
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  automations that are are constantly interacting with the
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  guests, almost simulating a real person, obviously.
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  Yeah. And like you say there, you
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  know, if if the AI does flag an issue, it can potentially tell
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  your cleaning team so that they make sure that they deal with
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  this straight away. And another thing I've noticed
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  with our properties is if a guest mentioned something like
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  recently we had a leaky tap, for example, you know, we had to get
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  the plumber in to sort it out. And then the AI will say, do you
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  want us to follow up and ask for a review from this person
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  because they've mentioned something negative?
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  So we might just not follow up and ask them for a review.
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  So again, it's kind of like it's managing your, your old kind of
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  experience, not just for the guests, but also for the
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  property manager as well to optimize everything.
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  Yeah. Exactly.
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  And it's all about it's all about timing, isn't it?
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  So if you get those messages to the guests at the right time
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  when they're feeling a certain way, kind of use the example if
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  you know, if you know your guests just about to check in,
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  this comes a bit into upsells a bit later, but they can if they
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  know the guests. If our system knows that the
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  guest is going to be arriving quite later, checking in late,
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  then they can maybe offer them, for example, to have a welcome
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  basket in in the property the night before, that type of thing
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  so that the guests can understand that.
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  So this is really ways that that keeps your guest communication
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  rolling in in real situations. Yeah.
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  And I mean, you don't have to kind of accept everything that
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  AI says and you don't have to have it on kind of like
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  automatic replies. You can as well like have
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  complete control where the AI will suggest something but
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  you're still reviewing it and and signing it off.
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  Yeah, absolutely. And that's one key I think I
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  probably should have mentioned at the start as the
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  prerequisite. So a lot of systems will be able
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  to offer AI, let's say, but you really need to understand if
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  that AI is is only suggesting replies or has the ability to
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  become an autopilot as well. So, and you need a system where
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  you can choose, you know, what level you want it to be an
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  autopilot and what what things you want it to respond to and
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  what kind of guest communications you want it to
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  act on as well. You know, so offering upsells
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  and offering pets and these types of things.
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  So a really good quality system that allows you to choose that
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  is very important. So you can kind of enter with
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  it, use it to a certain extent and then and then start using it
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  more, more automatically the more confident you get with it
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  and the more with the more knowledge the AI is picking up
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  from from working with you. Yeah, definitely.
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  I mean, for those simple questions like, you know, what's
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  the Wi-Fi code, you can make sure that it always responds
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  instantly. For something a bit more
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  complex, you might think, right, OK, I, I need to get involved
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  here as the, as the property manager.
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  All right then, Christopher, So tip #3.
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  Tip, tip #3 is increasing revenue per booking.
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  All right? So your AI can be used.
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  Basically the issue is these days is everyone's still getting
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  bookings. But the real difference now, the
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  real margin is how much extra revenue you can generate from
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  the actual bookings themselves. OK, So maximizing every
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  reservation, not just getting more of them.
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  So for example, your AI can detect high demand dates and
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  adjust pricing in real time, while also offering like add-ons
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  or early check insurance, early checkouts.
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  And these types of these types of tools will allow you to
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  really to boost, to boost the, the value of your booking.
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  So for example, the AI we'll see, for example, that I guess
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  might be checking in, might might be arriving early and they
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  can offer an early check in to that guest and early check in
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  might cost this amount. Or maybe if you don't charge for
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  early check insurance, you could, you could put it down to
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  maybe a later check out. For example, if you know that
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  family, if, if your AI knows that it's a family booking, they
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  have a lot of kids, it's very difficult to get your kids out
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  at the right time. And I think me and you both know
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  that from the experience. So having a nice personalized
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  message that says actually, would you like to have a late
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  check out, we can offer these times for you just choose one.
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  And this is an extra €20 or 20 lbs or something like that.
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  So if you're putting these these messages in front of guests at
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  the right time before they even ask for it, the likelihood is
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  they'll have a higher uptake on that.
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  And obviously then you're generating more revenue from
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  that booking that's times 1 multiplied by that, by the
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  amount of properties that you have that would be inclusive for
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  them. And that's great.
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  So instead of having a £400 booking, you're you're
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  increasing that TO450550 without any extra effort from your item.
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  It's just a matter of setting that up so it does that
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  automatically for you. So these are really, really good
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  ways to increase the revenue on your bookings.
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  Definitely it's, it's potentially a lot of marginal
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  gains, isn't it? We hear sports people talk about
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  marginal gains, you know, getting that extra 10th of a
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  second or, or whatever it might be.
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  And, and it's the same really with property management.
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  I mean, you know, there are things that I've done manually
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  in years gone by where I've seen that, you know, we don't have
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  anybody, you know, checking in or checking out for a couple of
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  days. So you get in touch with the
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  next guest and say, look, do you want to come a night early?
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  Because if you want to come a night early, it's only going to
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  be an extra £50, a £100. You think it's yourself.
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  Well, I might as well get a little bit of extra revenue, you
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  know, out of the next guest if I can do it.
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  And I suppose with AI, you can set up those automations and you
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  know, like, like we say, even if it's just a few times a year
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  where you get that little bit of extra, it's going to be it's
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  going to be worth it in in the long run.
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  All right then, Christopher tip #4.
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  So tip #4 is improving your visibility on the OTAs, OK?
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  So the majority of our majority of our property managers out
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  there are using Airbnb, booking.com and other portals
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  out there. So you know, how can AI help you
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  increase bookings and increase revenue by improving your
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  visibility in the OTAs? And it's very simple.
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  We know that the OTAs are responding to how often your
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  property is booked, how often you're changing things, how
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  often you're updating your listings, all these types of
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  things. And with with the right tools,
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  with the right system, your AI can be continuously optimizing
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  these things like pricing, of course, like response times,
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  even listing content. So for example, that AI is going
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  to be constantly run through your system and suggesting you
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  edits again, this is back to the suggestion and then the
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  autopilot on this again, you're, if you have the flexibility to
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  allow your AI to then input changes or actually do the
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  changes for you is is the next level up.
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  But if you're just new to AI and you just want the actual
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  suggestions, because sometimes you have all the data, but
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  sometimes what you need is AI to tell me actually, what should I
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  do and how can I do it? The AI is going to suggest,
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  well, look here, you've got these these five properties that
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  are not bookable on these particular nights.
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  If you change your minimum night stays, this is going to allow
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  you to get extra bookings. But the main point here come
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  back to this again is the visibility.
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  If you're constantly in, if you're constantly updating your
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  listing, changing the titles to be a bit more SEO friendly,
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  changing your pricing, automating all your responses to
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  the guests so they get responses instantly.
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  This is this is what helps you rise in the ranks of the of the
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  OTAs as you know yourself, James, and this is where you end
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  up getting getting the bookings. Yeah, 100%.
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  I mean, I think as well if, if you're maybe not a copywriter
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  and you're not really sure exactly how to sell your
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  property, have a conversation with ChatGPT, put your listing
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  in there and say, look, I need a, an optimized title, I need an
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  optimized description. And you know, the, the number
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  one thing you can do to get more visibility on the OTAs is to
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  improve your photos. So if your photos are looking a
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  little bit tired, a little bit dark, they're not particularly
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  all high resolution. Or maybe it doesn't look like
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  there's much of A theme to what's going on at your place.
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  Then that will be the first place to start.
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  But you know, I mean, I see all the time, actually, I actually
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  have a, a tool that helps us to prepare content for our YouTube
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  channel, for example. And you know, that helps us with
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  the titles with the description to make sure that we're
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  mentioning all the keywords with the thumbnails.
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  And it's exactly the same really for for Airbnb, you know, you've
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  got to put the work in to make sure that you're going to get
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  that, that visibility. All right then, Christopher, 5th
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  and final. So the 5th and final tip and we
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  all hear it so often, but generating more five star
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  reviews or the maximum quality reviews that you can get.
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  So we know, we all know it's very, very important because
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  what it does, it represents an excellent customer experience.
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  Let's say no. And again, this, no matter what
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  type of what type of business that you're running, the
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  traditional holiday rental company or you know, urban
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  service department type building professionals, whatever the case
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  is, you need to get reviews for your, for your apartments.
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  Otherwise, you know that, you know, that is really your, your,
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  your value and how you can actually generate more direct
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  bookings or more bookings after that anyway.
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  So basically what, what the EAI tools are able to do is they can
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  identify happy guests and, and prompt them to leave a review,
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  you know, quicker than you can do it manually, of course, and
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  at the right moment. So we know that you can.
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  And it's different from automatic messages.
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  It's kind of the sentiment. So the AI can pick up and
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  generate like a message, for example, that says, look, we
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  appreciate that you might have had the first day was pretty
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  bad, but our first day wasn't a great experience.
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  But we, we solved the problem with that.
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  Hope everything went really well for you after that.
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  Thanks so much for saying you can really generate a real
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  sentiment message. And that could be sent out then
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  automatically to guests around, you know, maybe on the checkout
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  date or maybe a few hours after checkout.
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  And then AIA understands exactly when the maximum moment is for a
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  guest to maybe to respond to a review or to give a review.
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  Because, because often times you might get guests who leave and
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  don't give the review, even though they might have had a
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  great experience. So you need a clever system in
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  place to at least put that in front of your guests every time
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  to encourage them to, to, to hit that review button and to give
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  you that review. So the take away is that AI, you
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  know, isn't just a tool anymore. It's becoming the engine behind
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  revenue growth in property management.
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  But yeah, so that this is how you can set up the AI to
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  actually, you know, help you get those Firestar reviews.
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  Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
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  And it's, it's important to get as many five star reviews as you
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  can. This, this business is all about
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  reviews, but you know, recent reviews are really important as
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  well. You know, the the OTAs, Airbnb
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  in particular, they will prioritise recent five star
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  reviews. You might have a load of five
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  star reviews from months or years ago, but if you've got 10
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  recent ones, that's going to have a lot more sway in kind of
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  where you stand in in people's searches.
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  All right then Christopher, 5 great tips there.
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  Just give us the lowdown on Guesty and where people can find
• 15:27
  out more information. Well, yeah, Guesty is Guesty is
• 15:32
  great, great, great platform for doing all these types of things.
• 15:36
  So if you're interested in looking at maximizing your
• 15:40
  property management business, Guest, you're very much a one to
• 15:44
  one, sorry, an all in one software that allows you to
• 15:48
  manage your entire business on one platform.
• 15:52
  If you want to know more about Guesty, obviously you have the
• 15:55
  Guesty website. But if you want to talk with me
• 15:57
  directly, I can guide you through a very, very quick demo
• 16:00
  on Guesty and show you kind of why it's it's the number one
• 16:03
  platform out there. Fantastic.
• 16:05
  And we'll put your details in the show notes.
• 16:08
  Christopher, it's been a real pleasure.
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  Thank you for joining us on House Planet Bite Size.
• 16:12
  Thanks, James. Now I want to ask you, where are
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  you losing the most money right now?
• 16:18
  Is it guest communication, pricing or operations?
• 16:21
  Drop it in the comments. We read every single one.
• 16:24
  All right, that's it for this episode of House Planet Bite
• 16:27
  size. If you found this useful, hit
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