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Why Short-Term Rental Hosts Should Attend SCALE UK in Manchester · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  It's all well and good having people telling you what you
• 0:02
  should be doing, but it's even better for people to tell you
• 0:04
  what they are doing and what's worked and what hasn't worked.
• 0:08
  If you want to grow your business successfully, hear from
• 0:10
  the best, network alongside the best, and don't miss it.
• 0:14
  What can people expect from this year's Scale UK in Manchester?
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  Why should hosts and property managers attend events in the
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  STR space? And what are the lessons learned
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  from hosting conferences around the world for the vacation
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  rentals industry? Damien Sheridan from Scale
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  Rentals will be answering all these questions and more on
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  today's Host Planet podcast. Damien, thank you for joining us
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  on the House Planet podcast. Scale UK is back.
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  It will be held in Manchester on the 12th and 13th of November.
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  What can people expect from this year's event?
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  I don't know where to start, James.
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  So, well, we're, we've got a different location this year.
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  I guess that's fundamentally the biggest change We're, we're
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  moving up north to Manchester. We have traditionally, like many
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  other events, held our conference in London, America
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  Square two years ago, The Oval last year.
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  And this year we're moving to Manchester.
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  We felt like it was good to freshen things up, appeal to to
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  a different crowd across the UK. And yeah, we're looking forward
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  to that. We have two days, two days to
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  educated to both Scale and the book direct show.
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  And yeah, we've, we have a ton of speakers.
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  We've got 50 odd speakers, We've got probably 30 odd sessions.
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  And it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of networking, and
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  it's going to be a busy couple of days.
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  Fantastic. And just tell us in terms of the
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  location change we've seen especially STR events in the UK,
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  most of them are held in London. How important is it, do you
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  think, to get out to the regions?
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  I'm not going to lie, James, this is a bit of a punt and it
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  was, it was really off the back of a few conversations I've had,
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  but we really didn't know necessarily that this was going
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  to resonate with so many people but and sponsors as well, but a
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  lot of people have jumped on this.
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  Our ticket sales are, are much faster than they were
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  traditionally for our London event.
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  And I think it's just created a bit of excitement.
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  I, I hear a lot of people going, yeah, it's great.
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  It's coming up north and you know, that's, that's what we
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  wanted. We want to resonate with more
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  people. We don't want to be pigeon holed
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  in certain venues or, or cities. And we like to think of
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  ourselves as, you know, forward facing fresh and, you know,
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  wanting to really to appeal to more people.
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  So it was, yeah, it was, it's an exciting how it's how it's
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  transpired. It's been an exciting
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  development and really one that works.
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  We're very, very much looking forward to.
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  Yeah, we're seeing this with our roadshow next year where we're
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  going to seven different locations across the UK.
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  And the question we've always had in the past is when are you
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  going to do, do an event in X location?
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  And I think, you know, in, in terms of property managers going
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  to London, spending a couple of days there is really expensive.
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  If they have something on their doorstep, I I imagine it's going
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  to open you and eventually yours with the roadshow up to new
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  audiences, right? Well, look, I hope so, James.
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  Yeah, but we don't for one moment, we don't appreciate the
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  fact that these are expensive events to go to.
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  Even if you're just going for one day or half a day or
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  whatever it is, you've got your travel, you may have
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  accommodation, etcetera, and you've got your time off work,
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  which for a lot of people is the biggest obstacle.
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  But I think once you're all in and you've made that decision to
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  go, obviously like yourself and ourselves, we try to make our
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  tickets as affordable as possible.
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  And yeah, I just think it's, it's really important for people
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  to be there to, you know, to see the value of, of networking,
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  collaborating, the education, et cetera.
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  And yeah, and I just hope we've, we've, we're going to appeal to
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  even more people this year and in Manchester.
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• 4:07
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• 4:11
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• 5:22
  Tell us about the stand out sessions then What can people
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  look forward to? What do they need to be making
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  a, you know, mark in their Diaries to make sure they get to
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  attend? Well, you've got to see my own
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  session. Of course, I will be speaking,
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  but I won't make too much of a big deal of that.
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  So that we have a lot of direct booking strategy talks planned.
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  It's, I mean, it's all on the schedule.
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  I am hesitant to, to identify just one or two because we do
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  have so many amazing speakers and, and many coming for the
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  first time. We've, we've made it, We always
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  make a big play on trying to encourage more women to, to come
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  and, and to be involved. We're close to having a 5050
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  split and we'll see how we go. Come, come November 12th.
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  Uh, but that, that really excites me.
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  The fact that we've got so many women on board this year, umm,
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  and sharing their stories. I think the most, probably the
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  most important thing is we've got a lot of property managers
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  for the most, uh, most property managers ever involved in a show
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  and they're sharing their stories.
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  So it's not necessarily industry experts who are sharing theory.
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  Maybe these are property managers who've got down and
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  dirty and cleaned their toilets and, you know, they know how it
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  is from from the bottom up. They've they've got some amazing
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  success stories. We've got a couple of speakers
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  who sold their business this year and they're going to share
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  that experience. So yeah, very excited really to
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  have the the property managers on board as well.
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  I think, I think that's really going to help kind of resonate
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  with with our attendees. We've all cleaned a few toilets
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  in our time. Tell us then who is Scale UK
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  designed for? Who are the people that need to
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  be coming along to this event? So we primarily have dedicated
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  this event to professional property managers.
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  So they are property management companies who operate and manage
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  more than 10 units. Our second day, however, so the
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  Thursday, the 12th is open to all because we have the book
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  direct show that day. And that is primarily focusing
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  upon direct booking strategies and all of those, you know, hot
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  takes in terms of trying to get more direct bookings reduce that
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  reliance upon the OTAs. So day 2 is open to all day one
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  open to professional property managers.
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  So it's a bit of both. We're going to have a nice
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  variety of people over the two days, probably by 200, between
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  2, by 250 or so in 10 days. And talk to us about the
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  networking opportunities. You and I have been to lots of
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  STR events and we always hear about how important networking
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  is. So how do you curate that
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  experience and make sure that people get the most out of the
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  networking opportunities? We're still learning.
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  It's, it's pretty hard, James, because I, you know, I'm an
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  introvert and I know, I mean, I'm so busy at, at these events,
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  it's hard for us to take the time out to, to, to talk and,
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  and network. But I know how it is going to
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  other events, how if you're the only person in the room, it's
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  pretty difficult to get out and talk to somebody.
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  And you know, that first, that first break, especially or upon
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  registration on that first date can be really daunting.
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  So we're trying to think of a few things to to get people to
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  be a little bit more comfortable.
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  We've got a pre event the night before, which is going to be a
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  lot of fun. And it's really focused upon
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  those those people who perhaps haven't been to a scale show
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  before. They don't know anybody there.
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  But we're working with Bruce Lee simply owners and boom on that.
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  Mark Simpson's going to be curating the, the evening going
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  to be a lot of fun. But I guess just the networking,
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  the value of networking, it just it's, you can't really, it's
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  hard to, to say how important it is.
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  You know, we, we have, it's a really, it's a really difficult
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  job being a property manager. We're, we're very siloed.
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  We have our head down doing so much, you know, greeting guests
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  each day and just dealing with everything we have to do.
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  It's hard to look up every now and again and think, you know,
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  can I afford to take two days, two or three days away from my
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  business to meet others to, to, to get inspiration to, and, and
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  really just to, to forge relationships.
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  And it might sound a bit corny, but it's incredible the power of
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  those relationships that people get from these events.
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  And we, we see that, we see people coming together and
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  forming, you know, official partnerships, um, let alone the
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  ones with, with our sponsors. So that to me excites me more
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  than anything else from the networking, seeing property
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  managers come together and, and, and, and move forward together,
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  you know, regardless of the, the level of competition that they
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  might have, you know, I think most of our attendees see the
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  value in networking over any kind of competitive streak that
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  they might have. And I think that's really
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  important. Yeah, it is.
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  And I think what I've seen and host planet, we've experienced
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  this as well at some of our events, particularly the dinners
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  that we've put on, is being a connector in the industry.
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  And I had a couple of calls the other week with two people who
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  were at one of our dinners and you were at one, of course,
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  Damien. And both of them said to me, oh,
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  I've, I've done some business with other people in the
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  industry as a result of sitting next to somebody at your dinner.
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  So the power of that and being able to instigate that is, is
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  really important in terms of the, the speakers and curating
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  the topics. How do you put that together and
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  ensure it's as impactful as possible for the attendees and
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  also for the exhibitors? Well, one thing we, we do like
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  to do and we've done from day one is we ask all of our
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  attendees what it is they want to learn about.
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  So they choose up to five topics that they're interested in.
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  And we do hold back the vast majority of our sessions
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  according to those topics. So we, we, we feel that we're
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  unique in terms of conferences in, in our particular industry
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  that we really do try and curate the, the sessions around what is
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  popular, what is trending amongst those attendees.
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  So it really should be of value to, to everybody who's there.
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  Now there's, there's things you can be pretty sure of, like
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  regulation, like AI, data trends, market trends, etcetera.
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  And they're, they're always revenue management, they're
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  always a part of it. But we, we try to just keep an
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  eye on what it is that, that perhaps is changing because I,
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  I'm not a professional property manager of over 10 units at this
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  time. So I, I know things are
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  sometimes out of my remit and I, we don't, you know, you know,
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  fully understand what's maybe going out on the ground.
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  So that's why it's important. We need to know.
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  And as much as we have a lot of conversations with our attendees
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  and clients and people we work with all the time, it's great
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  for us to know everybody who's coming to the show, what it is
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  they're feeling, are we right, are we wrong?
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  And just making sure we have those key themes on board for
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  over the two days. We had an event in April in
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  London and I think one of the most impactful sessions was when
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  we had three property managers on stage sharing their story,
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  their challenges, their lessons learned.
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  You could see everybody in the audience just hanging on their
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  every word. How important is it for other
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  property managers out there to learn from others who've been
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  there and done it? Especially for the people out
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  there I'm thinking who've maybe never been to a conference event
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  before, you know, what are the, what would you say to those
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  people, the advantages of coming along and, and learning and
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  networking? You, so you mentioned a three
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  person panel with property managers.
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  We have the same this year. We have actually several panels
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  with property managers. But one especially is we know AI
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  is a hot topic and chosen by the vast majority of our attendees
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  to learn about. But we wanted a session whereby
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  we can learn from what property managers are actually doing.
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  And they're real. They're they're real life
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  day-to-day operations. What tools are they using?
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  Why are they using it? So we've got, we've got 3
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  property managers who, who are going to share their stories,
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  share the tools that that they use.
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  So really excited about that because it's, as I said, it's
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  all well and good having people telling you what you should be
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  doing, but it's even better for people to tell you what they are
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  doing and what's worked and what hasn't worked.
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  So little things like that I think can can really inspire
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  other property managers, maybe ones who are maybe starting out
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  on their journey, maybe even those, they may have more, more
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  units, but they maybe haven't dipped their toe into AI or any
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  topic like this. So to learn from those who have
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  and have experienced it and done the right things, wrong things,
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  I think that's invaluable. What are the challenges of
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  organizing an event in the STR space?
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  And when you are in that planning stage, how do you kind
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  of switch things up and think right, how can we do stuff
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  better? What are the things that you
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  think you can improve on going forward?
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  We can always improve. There's there's never a perfect
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  event and you, we will never, you know this, we spoke about
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  this last weekend. You're never going to please
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  everyone ever. There will always be, you know,
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  some people who don't get the same experience as others.
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  We try to obviously, you know, make an appeal to as many as as
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  we can. Some, some people might even be
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  colder during the event or they might like the food more.
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  It's very difficult. The, the level of detail you
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  need to go into is, is mind blowing prior to an event.
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  So we really just, we try and just communicate.
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  We try and speak, you know, we're fortunate in that our
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  company is just four of us. So we can, we're real people.
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  We can speak to people and we, you know, answer a lot of
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  emails, a lot of questions. So we just try to just make it
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  appeal to as many people as possible.
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  You know, this, this, this event in, in Manchester will be our
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  20th. I I can't believe it.
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  So our 20th conference. So I'd like to think the
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  previous nineteen. Well, you know, we've, we've
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  learned a thing or two, but no, I mean, there's always things to
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  improve upon. And yeah.
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  And we welcome everyone's feedback always, because without
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  that, you know, as you know, we can't learn unless people tell
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  us, you know, and they, they feedback on our surveys after
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  the event. That's how we learn, you know,
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  and we accept the fact that we're not, we're not always
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  right and sometimes we're, we're wrong.
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  We've, we've tried things that are wrong.
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  I hope the choice to move to Manchester isn't wrong, but I
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  don't think so. Yeah, it's, it's always a
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  challenge. Yeah.
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  And, and you know, you're always going to get feedback, sometimes
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  good, sometimes bad. How much do you think the onus
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  is on the people who are coming along, whether they're
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  exhibitors or attendees? They have to take maybe a level
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  of responsibility to kind of, even if you are an introvert,
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  put yourself out there a little bit and try and talk to people
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  to get the most out of it. Because if you come along and
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  hide in the corner a little bit and don't really talk to
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  anybody, you're probably not going to get that much out of
• 16:27
  it. And that's whether you're an
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  attendee or you're an exhibitor, maybe just sat there at the
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  table. Yeah, You know, I never really,
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  I'm conscious of telling people what they should do at an event
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  because everybody's different and everybody has their level
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  of, you know, social awkwardness.
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  And, you know, I would never want to tell people, hey, you
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  need to get out there. Come on, meet someone.
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  With that said, we, we have an amazing amount of, of, of
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  education there. So if somebody is quieter and
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  they don't want to necessarily mingle, that's fine.
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  But come and at least just hear the sessions and learn from,
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  from everyone. Yeah.
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  If you're, if you're OK with, with, you know, just approaching
• 17:10
  people during, during the breaks or in evening drinks or coming
• 17:14
  along to our, our prescale event, you're going to get more
• 17:17
  out of it. Yes, for sure.
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  But do what you're comfortable with because as I said, we're
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  all different. We all have our our different,
• 17:24
  our different comfort levels. If you can't push yourself out,
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  yes, you will get more out of it.
• 17:29
  But yeah, do what you're comfortable with.
• 17:31
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
• 17:32
  And you mentioned that this is now the 20th event.
• 17:34
  Congratulations on that. It's been amazing to see the
• 17:37
  growth of scale, not just in the UK, worldwide.
• 17:40
  You, you guys, you guys are everywhere.
• 17:42
  What have been the biggest lessons learned from the other
• 17:45
  19? Not to do too many in one year.
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  We've, we, if anything, we're scaling down a little bit next
• 17:53
  year in terms of our events. But yeah, just, yeah, not to do
• 17:58
  too much. I think we, we did have plans
• 18:00
  to, to do an event in, in the US next year, but that's been put
• 18:04
  on hold for the moment. But just to try and do what's
• 18:07
  within our capacity and, and do, do things for the right reasons.
• 18:12
  Perhaps we we're guilty of trying to do too much too soon,
• 18:17
  considering we've only been doing this for three years.
• 18:19
  It's the growth has, you know, it's surprised me for sure, but
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  it's, yeah, look, it's all great and it's fun and everything, but
• 18:29
  just mental health I think is important.
• 18:31
  Just just consider your mental health and the travel that's
• 18:34
  involved in doing things and living up to a certain level of,
• 18:38
  of, of service and what doing what you do well, I think is
• 18:43
  important and, and keep doing that.
• 18:46
  Fantastic then, So tell us where can people find out further
• 18:50
  information and book their ticket?
• 18:52
  Well, you can search for scale UK or go to UK dot scale rentals
• 18:57
  dot show links are all there to to check out the agenda, the
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  sponsors, the speakers, the tickets of course.
• 19:05
  But also look, if anybody has any questions, they can contact
• 19:09
  me, find me on LinkedIn or I'm at Damien at scale rentals dot
• 19:12
  show. And yeah, we're, we're, we're
• 19:15
  ready. We're approachable and we, yeah,
• 19:19
  we're here for any questions. So we hope to meet as many
• 19:21
  people. As I said, we're got about 200
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  and between 250 and and 270 attendee tickets, well beyond
• 19:29
  half that already. So we're, we're pretty sure it's
• 19:32
  going to be a set out. So get your tickets.
• 19:34
  Superb. We'll put all those details in
• 19:36
  the show notes. We're also hosting an event,
• 19:39
  holiday Let's Success. It's the day before Scale UK in
• 19:42
  Manchester on the 11th of November.
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  That's over in Chester, so only about an hour away.
• 19:48
  So yeah, please come along to that as well.
• 19:49
  It's free to attend Sykes Holiday Cottages collaborating
• 19:52
  with us on that. We'll put the details in the
• 19:55
  show notes. In a sentence then.
• 19:57
  Damien, why should people be attending Scale UK this year?
• 20:00
  If you want to grow your business successfully, hear from
• 20:03
  the best, network alongside the best, and don't miss it.
• 20:07
  Love it Damien, it's been a real pleasure.
• 20:10
  As ever, thanks for joining us on the Host Planet podcast.
• 20:13
  Thanks very much, James. Great to chat to Damien Sheridan
• 20:15
  there from Scale Rentals, head online to sign up for Scale UK
• 20:19
  and make sure you drop into holiday Let's success in Chester
• 20:22
  the day before on the 11th of November.
• 20:25
  It's free to attend and the link to register is in the show
• 20:28
  notes. All right, that's it for today's
• 20:30
  episode. Remember, this podcast is
• 20:31
  brought to you in collaboration with House Philly, which is
• 20:34
  trusted by short term rental professionals across the globe.
• 20:38
  As a House Planet listener, you get 2 exclusive offers, $500 off
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  onboarding for House Philly's property management software.
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  Just use the code Planet 530% of digital guidebooks for life.
• 20:50
  Use the code Houseplanet GB. To grab these deals, click the
• 20:54
  link in the show notes or head to housefully.com.
• 20:57
  For more free education tips and trends from the STR industry,
• 21:01
  visit Houseplanet dot Club where you can sign up for our
• 21:04
  newsletter, listen to our podcasts, and download a suite
• 21:07
  of ebooks for hosts and property managers.
• 21:09
  That's it for today's episode. Until next time, happy hosting.