I hope you’ve been enjoying some quality family Christmas time, making memories with the loved ones you are able to see, and replenishing yourself for the projects of Q1 2021.

I love the magic that Christmas brings, but also the quiet space from the march of a typical week. These final few days of the year and the first week of the new year offer us the time to pause for reflection and design, with intention. I hope you look back on your 2020, and despite all the challenges of the year, you can acknowledge all of the incremental progress that has been made on your journey in property investing. It is important to think about the past year intelligently because past performance is the best predictor of the future.

Reflection is one of the most important things an action oriented entrepreneur can do – why is it so important to reflect and acknowledge progress? We tend to unconsciously discount the progress we have made and be painfully conscious of the shortcomings in the immediate future. 

If that sounds like you, then this quote may be helpful, “Things are never as bad or as good as they seem”. It’s been attributed to a few different people so not sure who originally said it. 

So, this instructional post is building on a mini tradition for me to share at this time of year – and it contains absolute gold for you, if you choose to invest the time to work through the following 6 sections and answer the questions for yourself and your own last 12 months in property.

This intelligent reflection forms the most important part of the year end review – a powerful way to reconcile the last 12 months and transition into planning the next 12. In my questionable opinion it’s essential to punctuate this time of year with such a process. I am starting this exercise myself now and it forms the first part of the overall review and goal setting process that I invest significant time in over the final week of the year, and first week of the new year. I will follow up this with my summary on the goal setting process next week.

Happy New Year when it comes, and wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2021!

Below are the 6 phases of the intelligent reflection process with all the questions for you to answer. 

PART 1 – GRATITUDE REFLECTION

*What new capabilities did I master?

*What behaviours really caused me to win?

*What are my personal current strengths?

*What are the business’ current strengths?

*What were your biggest accomplishments this last year?

*What marketing or business development won this year?

*What was the best thing your property business created for you?

*What was the most extraordinary value or customer experience that you created? (who did we really move the dial for?)

PART 2 – CONSTRUCTIVE REFLECTION

*What were the most important lessons learned?

*What were your weak points, what do you need to improve?

*Are there any threats to your business or market?

*Any missed opportunities?

*What are the current weaknesses of your business?

*Were there any ways to improve customer service in the last year?

PART 3 – GETTING REAL

*Specific metrics for your business this last year (what was it you were focussing on? What were you trying to grow? What were the conversion rates you were trying to improve?)

*Products/services I sold in 2020?

*2020 gross revenue?

*2020 Expenses?

*Split expenses into 3 categories- what percentages were:

Marketing _

Operations _

Income/Salaries/dividends _

*2020 net profit

PART 4 – MEASUREMENT (need to compare year on year, power of measurement)

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your:

[assess all those that are relevant to your property business. NB, even if you don’t think you are marketing there is a good chance you are ie your version of lead generation may be networking to identify potential JV partners]

*Lead Gen –

*Lead conversion –

*Customer fulfilment (following through on the promise)-

*Human resources (are they the best people in their roles)-

*Financial Systems (how clear on numbers month on month)-

*Market research –

*Satisfaction of the people in the business –

*Satisfaction with your work life balance –

PART 5 – LETTER TO YOURSELF

Write a  letter to yourself (having reflected on each section). Write it as if you’ve gone back in time and are writing the letter on 1st Jan 2020 explaining the bumps, scrapes, wisdom to come (and wow there were many unexpected bumps due to covid). So to give you some guidance notes, you could be writing to yourself about what you will face (in the year that was), where you will despair, where you will draw strength, what beliefs will be tested, what capabilities will be gained, don’t forget all the good stuff to come. 

Why do this? This exercise helps you examine the past with a present perspective. It works on the idea of reconciling expectations from a year ago with where you really are today. Essentially, this puts a proverbial ‘bow’ on the last 12 months and who we have become. 

PART 6 – NAME IT

What single word would put a name to your 2020? (look to be constructive with this). 

See you next week with part 2 on the goal setting process.

Over the last 3 years, my blog post in the final week leading into Christmas has followed the same theme – about ‘presence’ over presents. I want to stick with that theme and add in a little piece about happiness too. As a father, husband, son, brother, uncle, godfather and friend, I’ve gradually come to realise over the years that the magical time of Christmas is an opportunity for so much more than giving and receiving  nicely wrapped presents.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to give presents, and my kids in particular love opening them but what I’d really like to teach them by example over the years, is how to be fully present and create rich memories.

Whilst many of us won’t get to be with extended family this year (for us, our big family gathering in Spain can’t take place) I wanted to share a few ideas from my Christmas blog post last year that we can still do (even in our scaled back Christmases) to enhance the time we have with our loved ones and create enriching and lasting memories.

Here they are:

#1: CAPTURE THE MEMORIES

-make a conscious effort to pull the phone out and take some quality pictures of your loved ones laughing, playing, dancing etc (be sure not to bury your head in texts or social media, get back to that family meal/game/chat and really be there). Then be sure to schedule time over the holidays to compile your photos into an album (physical or online) to share with those you love for years to come.

#2: TIME vs TRINKETS

-in place of impulse buying gifts to bulk up what’s under the tree, write out a Christmas card or hand decorated note with a selection of experiences you will share with that person next year (I love this one – I did it for each of my kids last Christmas and this year we created special memories 1-to-1 with each of them. For my youngest, who loves crafting, I ordered a set of cardboard den building boards- we spent most of a Sunday together designing and building a den, making hotdogs and then crawling inside the den to eat our lunch and watch a movie. My middle son chose to do the high ropes course and zip wire at Go Ape, followed by a burger, and my eldest chose to have a go at clay pigeon shooting. We created wonderful memories and photos together and I know they appreciated the 1-to-1 time when normally everyone is talking over each other.)

#3: DON’T JUST GET TOGETHER, GIVE TOGETHER

-It has been said that families who give together make lasting and meaningful memories together.

-This might be organising a financial donation to a chosen charity, giving out soup and sandwiches to the homeless or any number of different charitable things.

-Last year my wife and I organised a surprise dress up night with a twist, a little like a secret santa where we had to buy an outfit from a charity shop for another family member on a £20 budget. There were 17 of us so we donated in the region of £340 to various charities by buying up old clothes and random accessories, and then after the party we donated all the goods to Cancer Research for them to sell on again. 

This year we will carry on the tradition with our kids, just on a smaller scale. 

 ‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY….

So, a quick note on happiness as promised at the beginning. 

This year has certainly thrown it’s challenges at everyone and that’s really taken us on an emotional rollercoaster. In amongst that however, it feels like in many cases, that lockdown has helped many find happiness in simple things again.

I’ve been reminded twice this week, through listening to some of my favourite podcasters, of this vital fact –

THAT HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE, IT’s ALREADY INSIDE US.

In the book, “Top Five Regrets Of The Dying” by Bronnie Ware, her interviews revealed that in the moment of death, people truly realised that happiness is a choice. One of the top regrets recorded was, “I wish I would have let myself be more happy”. Wow!

I know that many property entrepreneurs out there, myself included, can can too often forget to pat themselves on the back for their mini accomplishments. It is so important for us to give ourselves permission to celebrate small things and feel that happiness regularly. 

I heard these wise words in one of those podcasts, “Don’t be happy once you achieve, be happy along the way and you will achieve faster.” In other words, don’t be telling yourself, ‘I’ll be happy when I have a property portfolio of X, producing Y monthly income’, but rather find ways to let out your happiness regularly along the journey and the success will come faster. 

Going into Christmas and the new year ahead, give yourself permission to unlock your happiness regularly. 

I hope some of these ideas resonate and help others out there to be fully PRESENT and HAPPY this Christmas and beyond.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

This week our Ops Manager and I met our new account manager from booking.com (referred to as BDC from here onwards) on zoom. Apologies in advance that this won’t be a relevant read for non serviced accommodation people, however for those in SA, I hope this little update serves as a helpful reminder that leads to more bookings. 

Although we generate the majority of our bookings direct, we do still have a few properties that benefit greatly from BDC acting as part of our sales team. So it is still important for us to understand what their data is telling us so we can optimise the properties where we want to attract guests through their platform.

The aim of this post is to highlight some of the tweaks you could make now to optimise your listings and ultimately secure a few more bookings. I’ll share what recommendations were made by the BDC account manager and explain what they mean so you can weigh up your own options.

CANCELLATION POLICY

BDC recommendation – Reducing your flexible 30 day policy to 0-1 days before check in would match the current demand in both policies and book windows.

It is no surprise to hear that 81% of guests want to have free cancellations right now. With our current cancellation policy of 30 days (ie only get a refund if cancel 30+ days before check in date) it makes our properties less attractive compared to those with shorter cancellation periods. Combine that with the fact that 50%+ of stays are booked last minute, it means we are missing out on more potential bookings. In other words, if prospective guests were to filter their search on BDC based on a free cancellation policy, our properties wouldn’t even be seen. 

Whilst moving our policy from 30 days to 1 day doesn’t work for us, we can reduce it to 7 days to close the gap in terms of what the current demand wants in terms of policies. 

LENGTH OF STAY

BDC recommendation – With 46% of guests booking a 1 night stay, ensuring no minimum length of stay restriction will allow you the best opportunity to attract bookings

We’ve typically worked on the basis of a 3 night minimum stay and with some properties do a 2 night minimum stay. You will need to weigh up if the profit generated by a 1 night stay justifies the service time associated and the exposure your property gets to wear & tear. 

 A happy medium may be to set your pricing such that the price for a 1 night stay is higher than the nightly rate for a 3 night stay. Whilst BDC is capable of doing this we have encountered challenges with our channel manager Kigo being able to map across price variables like this for us. However, this is something the account manager is now exploring for us with her technical team. 

THE GENIUS PROGRAMME

BDC recommendation – Make the most of our Genius programme – which offers visibility boosting and an opportunity for incremental bookings and revenue. 

The Genius Programme is essentially a discount of 10% offered to corporate and repeat bookers and BDC quote the following benefits:

1. Visibility boost – with tagging and filters
2. 18% incremental bookings
3. 17% incremental revenue

The stats we got from BDC did show that our Genius properties did receive more bookings than the non Genius ones. If you’re using genius however you need to remember that any other promotions you go in and add will stack on top of the genius 10%. So if you were to create a manual winter promo offer 15% off, and then your property was booked by a genius guest, you would end up giving out an overall 25% discount, then of course you have the 15% commission to BDC, so you’d only be left with 60% of your ideal nightly rate. Just something you need to be on top of. 

To be eligible for Genius your property needs to meet the following criteria:

-be available and open-bookable on Booking.com

-have received 3 or more guest reviews

-have a review score of at least 7.5*

You can check in the opportunities section of your extranet to see if any more of your properties have become eligible. 

THE PREFERRED PROGRAMME

BDC recommendation – Make the most of our Preferred programme – which enables you to fill more occupancy without impacting your bottom line. 

The preferred programme is essentially paying BDC a little extra in return for them boosting your visibility to the BDC audience. Instead of the standard 15% commission, you are charged 18%. BDC list the main benefits to be:

1. Fill more properties without discounting
2. Grow business long-term
3. Receive more visibility & reach more guests
4. Stand out from your competitors and earn on average 65% more page views

You become eligible for this once you meet certain scores for performance, reviews and pricing. 

For our area, 84% of all guests book a preferred property that has the little thumb icon. Check if you have any properties eligible for the Preferred Partner Programme that are not yet activated. 

MOBILE RATES

BDC recommendation -Take the opportunity to offer Mobile Rates – this allows you to stand out from competition in an evolving market. 

This is essentially offering a 10% discount to mobile users.BDC list the main benefits to be:

1. Mobile rates give partners 26% more bookings from mobile traffic
2. Stand out on mobile devices with badges
3. Positively impact your overall ranking on Booking.com.

We learned that 74% of all bookings in our area are made on a mobile device.

This is one of those situations you have to be careful of not discounting too heavily by accident ie the 10% mobile PLUS the 10% for Genius. 

So there you have it. I hope this might prompt a quick 5 min check on things to optimise your BDC listings that might just bring an extra booking or two in the weeks ahead.

And do share any other tweaks here that have been working for you.

Earlier this week I shared a 9 minute animated summary of the book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. I wanted to circle back to that and highlight something crucial, something that all property entrepreneurs need to do yet so many fail to. It’s something I strongly believe in, and work hard at consciously practicing. 

Anyone who’s worked with me in mastermind groups know that I’m a stickler for this, but it’s only because I want to help people to become their next level version… and to do that, they need to practice this crucial thing?

What is this thing?

It’s celebrating!

So you want to achieve XYZ goal in property? Celebrating is a key ingredient to getting you there. OK, I like to crack the champers as much as the next person, but I don’t literally mean bringing out the bubbly at the end of each work day (that’s a slippery slope in the wrong direction). 

What I’m really pointing to here is that the only way to sustain productivity, is to genuinely feel good about what we do.

For context, let me quickly back up and share BJ Fogg’s 3 step habit forming framework, then I’ll circle back to the celebrating piece and it’s relevance to property entrepreneurs. 

Here’s a quick summary of Fogg’s 3 step ABC method

A- is for Anchor moment

Use an existing routine in your life that will remind you to do the new positive behaviour. Here’s a simple template sentence you can use to fill in the blanks –  “After I……[something you already do], I will…..”[your new positive habit]

B- is for Tiny Behaviour

In other words to physically do a small version of the new positive habit you want to embed ie two press ups.

C- is for Celebrate

This is something you do to create a positive feeling inside yourself for having completed the positive behaviour (Fogg calls this feeling ‘Shine’)

This final step of the framework is the crucial step, and it’s the one that is too often missed out. Why is it so important? In Fogg’s words, “It’s emotions that create habits. It’s not repetition. It’s the emotion that your brain connects with the behavior that makes it become automatic, or in other words, a habit.”

[Read that last sentence again, you need to remember it.]

The celebration is something you do to create a positive emotion inside yourself. You need to get really good at creating that inner feeling of success from doing the small things that you know will lead to the big results. 

Fogg tells us that, ‘Learning to celebrate after a tiny win is the most critical component of habit development.’ The problem is so many people hold back on the celebration because they think they should only celebrate huge successes ie the the day they purchase a property, but that’s a huge mistake. 

Lets use an exercise related analogy to capture the message. If your goal is to bench press 120Kgs – as you work towards the goal you are not measuring did I lift 120kg today? Rather, you are measuring did I show up and go through the necessary pain to get closer to the goal (the pain being the core work out, the stretching, the work on other muscle groups). Did I show up and do that? – Yes, then that feels good, you create an inner feeling of success, your inner shine. And the more you do it, the more you feel good about it.

So what might be your equivalent ‘property workouts’? The small sessions you schedule each weekday that will eventually get you to your desired property portfolio and income? It will likely be groups of activities like phone calls (for due diligence, for quotes, for selling, for marketing), spreadsheet analysis, viewings, batched admin tasks etc.

Whatever it is, you need to schedule those property workouts, do the task and consciously acknowledge and celebrate each mini win. Create that positive emotion and find your “Shine” so you can form the habit and make the behaviour automatic.

Even though we won’t always overly love the nature of the task, we can train ourselves to love the feeling of the mini win. This is important for property entrepreneurs (and anyone for that matter) because it reinforces delayed gratification, which our subconscious doesn’t like to do.

When you feel successful at something, even if it’s seemingly pretty small, your confidence grows quickly and your motivation to do that positive behaviour again increases. Even better, motivation spills over to perform other related behaviours and this leads to success momentum.

Moral of the message is, don’t resist celebrating the small wins, that will only hold you back. 

So, what’s a small win for the week that can be celebrated here?