Do you like the idea of adding additional services to your rental offer or perhaps you want to provide some activities for your guests but aren’t sure what you can deliver? Then this episode is for you.

I spoke with Di Hammill, one of the Direct Booking Success Summit returning speakers from last year and she has a great presentation to share at this year’s summit so stay tuned to find out more.

Di is not only a glamping site owner and activity provider but a qualified teacher, a Permaculture designer, a natural beekeeper, an archery GB instructor, a blackbelt in TaeKwonDo, a survival medic, a NNAS navigation tutor plus a natural navigation tutor, and a Member of the Association of Foragers. Di is seen as one of the country's leading experts in simple, natural lifestyle and self-reliance and is often asked to comment in the media or speak at national shows about various aspects of her work.

Topics discussed:

• The amount of last year’s bookings in comparison to this year
• Advice for those thinking about starting their own glamping site
• Don’t be frightened to delegate
• Getting strategies and systems in place
• How to add an experience to your holiday/vacation rental
• Becoming more than just accommodation in this current competitive market
• Keeping the personal touch with your guests
• Empowering accommodation owners to look at their customer journey – from initial contact to glowing review!

CONNECT WITH Jenn Boyles:

Website: https://directbookingsuccess.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/directbookingsuccess

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directbookingsuccess/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennboyles/

CONNECT WITH Di Hammill:

Website: https://www.wildharvest.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetipifolk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildharvest_tipis_and_courses/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wildharvestschool/

Join us at the virtual Direct Booking Success Summit (27-29 September 2022), head to https://directbookingsuccesssummit.com/ to get on the waitlist.

Ep#7_ More than just accommodation with Di Hammill

Jenn: Hello, and welcome to this direct booking success podcast episode. Today, we are speaking with Di Hammill; she will be speaking at the direct booking success summit in September.

Di, welcome to the podcast.

Di: Hello, and thank you, Jenn

Jenn: can you tell us a bit about who you are for anyone listening who doesn't know you?

Indeed, I've run wild harvest, tipis, and activities for about 17 years now. We started as activities and added glamping about eight years ago; we've got two teepe sites and a cabin in French Woodland.

Jenn: Wow. 17 years. That's a long time to be in business these days. Isn't It

Di: is. Yeah. It kind of evolved.

It's all about pivoting, yes.

Jenn: Especially what we've learned over the last couple of years. Yes. So tell us about the event side. How did you start that 17 years ago? Where did that idea come from?

Well, I was already a teacher, and then I started teaching natural lifestyle skills that were our lives of foraging, basket weaving, candle making, rag rugging, and then, Those classes kind of grew.

Di: And people started camping in my garden to do my courses. And that's what led me to put up teepe for them. So, we were activities based then added glamping.

Jenn: really camping out to do the activities. In my front

Di: garden. Yes. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, because if they, if they wanted to do two courses that were a day apart, they, you know, to facilitate them coming further.

Yeah, the first group, the first couple said, is there anywhere nearby we can camp? So I kind of said, well, you can just camp in the garden. If you want to do two kick courses back to back. And then that's how it started. Yes. oh,

Jenn: brilliant. Oh, that's a great way of getting into it. So you started with a couple of teepees.

Di: just one teepe actually, because, okay. I ran a retreat one weekend where people were camping, and we were doing the activities over about three days, and they were camping, and it was a very wet May weekend, and they were all sopping wet. And I thought you know what? I just need to pop up central space.

So then I got one teepe and a fire circle, and then I was like, oh, well, I. more teepees and yeah, and we went from having kind them camping to us having 26 beds now across the two teepee sites. 26 beds. Yes. Oh my goodness. Bedding and towels, which we do in the house, I must be mad.

Jenn: Yeah. Laundry has to be the worst part of this whole business.

So you've got two teepe sites

Di: then did you say yes, that's right. And we are quite an unusual, booking format in that we only deal with groups, you know, so if Mr and Mrs. Brown wanted to come with their son, we can't accommodate because you get the whole teepe site. You know, we can't let the teepe's out separately.

We just. The infrastructure isn't designed to be like that. So we were one of the first group glamping venues that, you know, just especially that just only provided for groups. But yeah, there's a few more now.

Jenn: Yes. Yes. Like everything, once something, they see something is success more come out of the come out of the woodwork.

Don't they? They do. Yeah. Well, that's great. So it's a real destination. Isn't it?

Di: Yeah. I mean, we were activities based first, but as, as you're probably aware, a lot of glamping places are now adding activities with that idea that you can just go and totally relax into the environment, you know, without having to think about booking ex you know, traveling externally.

So,

Jenn: and tell us a bit about where you are,

Di: uh, geographically. Yes. All right. Okay. Spiritually in

geographically, we are just 12 miles out of York city in the rural outskirts of York, which is quite flat. It opened just kinda wide open countryside, but quite, yeah. Close. To York and we do find that being central in the country. So we're central from on the east west axis and we're central on the north south axis.

And that works very well. Yes,

Jenn: I guess it would do people coming down from Scotland as well as people coming up from the south

Di: coast. Well, when it's groups, of course they can come from all over. So having a central point to meet when some might, may be coming from up north and others from, so I found the middle band of the country is, is good for this phenomena.

Are

Jenn: you putting together the groups that come are they already put together and they're coming to you to do the activities and stay.

Di: A mixture of both really. I do run retreats where individuals book on either on their own or maybe with a friend or relative. And then they come with other people who they don't know, you know, they'll turn up separately.

But, the probably 80, 90% of my bookings are where the group knows each other already. And they're kind of higher the site. So it might be a team, a team weekend, a hemp party. We do St. Parties, baby showers, birthday bashes. So. Family, just extended family groups we went into when families were able to bubble in COVID right?

Yes. We lost our hen parties, but because we were groups, we were able to do bubbled family groups, so,

Jenn: oh, that's great. That's really great. And such a good idea for those who have, a holiday let or a vacation rental, and they want to add something to make their place more of a destination, something like a course or an experience or a retreat.

It's great to see what your. You're doing and obviously a very successful way of doing it for doing it for 17 years with the courses. And then the retreats came in. What eight, eight years ago.

Di: Yeah. we've been doing the retreats about eight years.

Jenn: So, and tell us a bit more about your background and why you wanted to start the, the, you know, the courses, what was going on in your life when you wanted to start those

Di: courses. Uh, well, I actually lived in a caravan with my three children in a very remote area and off grid. I was already teaching, law and psychology actually at college, but I gave that up, had kids did some postgraduate, stuff.

And then, went back to teaching, but was teaching the things that we, how we lived, you know, the foraging, the basket we even candle making. So that's how we kind of that's our background. Yeah. Qualified teacher just kind of changed what she was teaching and then added the glamping to. Basically to increase the radius of the customer base from being, cuz when people travel for a day course, it might be what one and a half hours.

But then by offering the glamping, I could increase the radius to national, really for people to come on the, the courses

Jenn: mm-hmm and what's the, what's the thing that you love about what you do.

Di: It gives me hope for the future of the world, Jen, you know, because our ethos has stayed pure for the full 17 years.

We haven't compromised that we always do natural and nature inspired things that we only use local resources, our, our temperate climate, at least not tropical. So I've kind of stayed. True to the ethos and that we're still fully booked and that people actually want to come and stay off grid and learn these things.

Especially the young people, you know, that's what gives me hope for the future of the world that they come really quite glamorous. And then they live by fire and leave, you know, a bit kind of smelling of smoke with their fingernails, but they've loved it yet.

Jenn: Do you find that the public's appetite for living more simply has grown in the.

Di: It has. Yes. I mean, I've been, it's been a flurry of media activity for us this week because I've been living and teaching these skills for a long time, but obviously post pandemic and then the fuel crisis. And you know, now the energy crisis, yeah, the media are hot on kind of. So, yeah, definitely there's been an increase, but just lumping in general and getting back to nature, you know, with, or without kind of learning things, just, just reconnecting, we've been disconnected for so long.

It's just

Jenn: that simple life, you know, we live. We're so addicted to technology and screens and just the idea of, you know, being in a field in a tepee or a caravan or something, and just living

Di: simply can I, I, can I earn up to a confession on here? I can because it's other business owners, isn't it. And not sometimes they ask for the wifi password.

So, I say, oh yeah, I'll go and get it for you. And then I just deliberately forget

Because I just think, especially when it's children, I just think, no, you can bloom in well interact

Jenn: yes. That's it just enjoy it. yeah. So tell us about who else lives on the farm with you?

Di: Oh, they're the creatures. Yes. Well, we have,Fred and Barney, two therapy, sheep that we've just adopted. they absolutely love the customers and they are very handily located just between the teepee sat and the toilet. So. They make sure that you stop and stroke them on the way to the loo we've got, yeah, lots of free range, hens and ducks and little chicks, and we often have ducklings, so yeah.

Mm-hmm

Jenn: and tell us . Yeah. Tell us about your special, chick that, uh, bonded with you this spring. Oh,

Di: well, yes, she was, there was a little chick that one of our hens had and, the mother attacked the other hen. So I took the remaining one off the chick. So I brought her into the house and she lived in the house for, since she was about well, two or three days old.

And she took to sitting on my shoulder, under my hair as if this was a wing. So a tiny little chick, it was really cute to begin with. And then she got to be about a foot high . Droppings on my shoulder. So then she, I put her out. No, not and then I put her outside again. I put her outside, obviously when it got to that point, is that right?

Okay. Time to go out. And the others didn't accept her because obviously she was this princess. So she's lived separate from the others. But then the others all laid eggs and didn't sit and she's only very, very young herself. She decided to sit on everybody else's eggs as a teenage mom, just very young bird sat, sat, sat, and I did not think she would make it.

And then we looked and under the hedge with seven little chicks, so, wow. She picked it. I'm so proud. So it maybe is that maternal instinct being passed on.

Jenn: So she's got seven little sort of adopted babies.

Di: Yes. Yeah. So that put them in a pen now, so they're safe, but yeah. Yeah.

Jenn: Oh, that's sweet. And she's still taking care of them.

Yes, absolutely.

Di: But she'll still come out and sit on my shoulder when I go and feed them. you?

Jenn: Will she? Yeah. Even as a big chicken. Yeah. Oh my goodness. She

Di: really bonded. It's so nice to be able to have this job where you work from home. You know, I do the admin, I'm going to see the animals. I do the teepee site.

I can, you know, I'm just around it all the time. So yeah. Very lucky in this kind of work, I think to live out, work from

Jenn: home. Definitely. Definitely and have that space and the animals. I think it sounds, it sounds idyllic. tell us, what would you say for those who are starting out in glamping these days that maybe have started to see last year we had such a, a staycation, boom, you know, the end of the pandemic.

What would, what would sort of advice you'd give to those that are starting.

Di: Yes. Well, if you started out last year, then I think you'll have been in for a bit of a shock. Like you say, you know, the entire nation was locked in our country, the accountant called it an exceptional year. yes. . so this year, you know, you will probably find a big drop in bookings.

but don't let that put you off. Hopefully it will stabilize, but on the kind of, yeah. And also the workload from last year was phenomen. again, that workload should stabilize, but advice, I would say systems, systems, systems, and systems also to delegate as much as you can. So, you know, to begin with, I did everything, including all the tipi site cleaning, and then I suddenly thought I can pay a cleaner at what was then 10 pound an hour.

Di: Because my time doing the systems and the strategy is way more important, you know, bringing the customers in. So absolutely don't be frightened to delegate, but when you delegate, you need systems so that whoever you delegate to is just doing things, how you want it.

Jenn: Yeah. That's important. Isn't it. To make sure that they're doing it, how you want it to

Di: be.

Yeah. I mean, you can't just say to somebody, right? Can you clean the teepee site because everybody's version, you know, is different, so you absolutely need checklists. You know, we've got them on mobile phones for staff, which then kind of fills, fills a form in at the end. And then that form is stored. So yeah, just try and systemize as much as possible really.

Cuz it removes you then from all of those unnecessary tasks, if you can kind of delegate and automate. Read Tim Ferris's book the four hour working week, if you're interested in the concept of automation and delegation, but even in glamping, it applies. Yeah.

Jenn: Yeah. I think it applies in all areas. Doesn't it?

Absolutely. Yeah. If we want to work less or work on the more, the higher strategy tasks automate the rest.

Di: Yep. Absolutely. And

Jenn: what about those who are wanting to add an experience to their, glamping site or their holiday? Let, what would be your advice for those that are wanting to sort of become more of a destination for people rather than a place just to, to lay

Di: their head?

Yeah. I mean, I've spoken before about the need to become more than just accommodation now in this current kind of competitive market. And I do see a lot of people adding activities, you know, often they bring, they just list other people on their website or they'll bring, bring somebody in. so I think we're quite unique in that we.

Offer every single activity from in-house tutors and on the site, you know, we do it all basically. but even if you can't do that yeah, absolutely. Bring somebody in, you know, maybe take a bit of commission if you wanted. or. Don't be, don't be thinking that you haven't got anything to offer because everybody has, you know, you might not think you've got something inside of you that would create an activity, but it could be as simple as you like cooking, do a Curry night or, you know, just buy some bikes, you know, just, just there's lots of things.

You can do treasure hunts, so you can offer in-house activities as well.

Jenn: Yeah, that's a good tip there to look to your own experience and see what you can provide as extra value to your guests. It also helps with that guest experience. Doesn't it? It

Di: does because you then have more, face to face interaction with your guests.

During the stay and you find that they really feel, get to know you a little bit. So when they go away. So your name is in all of their reviews because rather than it's just, oh, it was nice accommodation, you know, you are reviewed, the activities are reviewed and it's just a fuller review basically because of that extra interaction that you have with

Jenn: them.

Definitely. I find that, you know, uh, think the, well, the pandemic is I think, partially to blame, but also think that property management companies in their, And they're greed in wanting to scale quickly. This contactless entry right. Has, is getting slightly out of hand. I know that looking for a property management company to help with our, our, holiday let in, in Liverpool, I haven't been able to find anyone because no one is willing to do a face to face check in as we do for our, for our.

And I do think that having some kind of personal, interaction with guests is what, how you can increase their, their, guest experience from just being yes, like you said, just being accommodation. To being in an

Di: experience. Yeah. I think automation's really important in systems up to the point that they arrive and then yes, then during their stay, it's all about face to face interaction.

And then when they leave, the automation can kick in the game and the automation

Jenn: doesn't have to mean dry or stuffy from a big. Corporation, it can still be quite personal. you know, and is as simple as using the word I, instead of we, you know, if it's you and your business, don't hide behind a, we say I,

Di: yes, that's a good point.

Yeah. So

Jenn: we're, we're coming up to the direct booking success summit in September. It's the second annual. And you were one of our speakers last year, and you're also gonna be speaking this year. I'm really looking forward to, hearing your presentation. Can you tell us a little bit about the topic that you will

Di: be speaking on?

Yes. Well, as you can imagine, after 17 years in business, I've done a lot of trial and error of how to make it more efficient. I'm slightly obsessed with efficiency, Jen, you know, I don't have TV instead. I look at different softwares and play about with and rule 'em in rule 'em out. So to the point where, you know, we kind of built our own tech stack, if you like and automations and systems.

So I really hope to be able to help empower other accommodation owners, to look at that customer journey, you know, right from front. First seeing you online through the sales process, through the inquiry process, to converting to a booking and through the booking process, right. To when they leave your accommodation.

And they get an email saying thanks to staying with us. Here's a discount off your next booking. Please review us here or here in any feedback. Personal email here. that kind of thing. Yeah. So the, the whole customer journey from first seeing you to the end and how it can be better managed. Cause I dunno how many people lose people.

You might get an email and think you've got a pretty organized inbox and you reply, but then often that's it. So how do you keep that customer in your funnel? Because you know, there's a thing about this, uh, like an iceberg only 3% ready to buy at that time. When, you know, when they see you on online a few more when they actually inquire, but they might still not be ready and then you lose them.

So, you know, my system, it captures them at the front end and then it nurtures them and then through inquiries. So we don't really lose anybody basically right up to people leaving reviews. And it's much of that is automat.

Jenn: So I can't wait. I re cause I know that I am gonna learn a lot because it just sounds brilliant.

And I know from what you've done in your, in your business and how successful you've been, obviously this is a piece of that success. Isn't it?

Di: Yeah, well, every interaction it's taken you effort to get that interaction. So, you know, don't lose it. , don't lose it just because there's holes in your bucket basically, you know, kind of get them siphoned through, cuz it's a lot of effort at the front end to get people.

And I know a lot of people aren't doing this whole process, so that that's my aim. Yeah.

Jenn: Yeah. Oh, I can't wait for your presentation. Can I ask you what you're looking forward to at, uh, the second annual direct booking success summit? Is there something you're looking forward to or something that you're looking to learn about at the summit?

Di: Oh, I found last year's talks. All of them. There was something in every, every single one. I really enjoyed them and also chatting to the people afterwards. definitely direct booking wasn't even on my radar as a concept before I saw. your business I didn't even think like, oh, you know, I didn't even think, oh, am I relying too heavily on Airbnb?

I just did it because that's also what you think you did. And then I saw your business and I was like, oh yeah, you know, we could up the number of bookings we get from the direct book through direct bookings and, and using some of the things like from last year and just, just looking more into it. We've increased our direct bookings.

I think we're at about 70%. Maybe 70, 75%. so I'm looking forward to just listening to the journeys, listening to the tips from the experts to see how we can get that up even higher. Yeah. Oh,

Jenn: that's amazing. What great feedback. Thank you so much. So lovely to hear. What are some of the things that you were able to put in practice this year that have helped with that success?

I think there's, there's a lot. How you present the information on your website to make it more attractive for direct booking. and then equally how you present on the booking sys the booking platforms that you're with to again, encourage them to direct bookings. yeah, so things like how to, what things to include on a webpage.

Di: I watched Kelly, is it Kelly Odor's talk about booking platforms. Mm-hmm and there was the Instagram, social media yeah.

Jenn: Kelly

Di: Oder. Yeah. Yes. I know that I don't use haven't used stories as much as I could. So I've tried to do that since then.

Brilliant Instagram stories. That is sorry. Yeah.

Jenn: Yeah, no, but it also all the marketing, all the social media, it's almost a full time. Well, it is a full time job for many people, isn't it? Yeah. And it's learning how we can manage that when we have to manage the entire rest of our

Di: business. Yeah, I, I use something called, Canva which is a design tool.

And then you can schedule posts on canvas. So you just set a month's worth of posts on Canver, uh, kind of walk away and leave it. but, they don't do stories that you can't, you can't schedule a story. Yeah. You can schedule

Jenn: posts. Stories are great for, you know, off the cuff, you know, in the moment kind of sharing.

I think I saw quite a few stories about your little chick.

Di: Yeah. What I'm trying to do now is once a month, I'm trying to create a story. That's just the images of everything that's happened at wild harvest the previous month. Mm-hmm . Like, oh, in June, you know, we had the chicks, we had this group doing archery.

We had basket weaving day. We had, you know, we, we built this or whatever. So like every month I'm trying to do a story of what's happened at world harvest.

Jenn: Oh, that's great. Now, before we end, I wanted to ask you, what does direct booking success mean to you?

Di: Uh, well, if both of our teepee sites say, and the cabin in France, this is an example were all rented out through Airbnb.

Uh, we'd be looking at about, uh, 400 pounds a week saved. Yeah. By right, by getting those same bookings direct that's a lot of money. 400 pound a week is what it is, is capable of getting from us. If all three bookings were. Yeah, possibly more. If we had midweek bookings, I just concentrate on weekend bookings.

But if we then, like last year we had back to back, we had midweek midweek, then weekend bookings. Cause normally I don't bother with mid midweek bookings. That's my time off, you know, I optimize every weekend. But, so if we had midweek bookings as well, we're talking even more than 400 pound week mm-hmm 800 would go to Airbnb.

Yeah. So financial. I don't find the platform, a problem to manage really it's easy enough to manage. I also don't like how all my reviews go to them, you know, mm-hmm , I mean, I have got a strategy to pull my Airbnb's, uh, reviews via L site into my own website so that they're not just stuck on Airbnb, but yeah.

Kind of owning your own customer relations as well.

Jenn: Definitely. And I guess with that money, saved as well, you know, it adds up so quickly. That's, uh, another weekend's booking, isn't it? Yeah. It

Di: that you don't. For a bit of software, it's crazy amount of money because all Airbnb and the platforms are their dating site tech, their dating site technology it's kind of match, make of technology.

that's my other business idea for the future, by the way. So I've been looking into the software, how to create a dating site. And I was like, this is just what Airbnb is. It's dating site software, you know, a seeker. Finds a match and then you have to go through a verification process. So it is very easy to do and yet they charge an absolute fortune for it.

Jenn: Yeah. That's, that's a really great way of thinking of them as a matchmaking site. I love that. I really do.

Di: No excuse to be charging the amounts that they do, basically. No,

Jenn: no, but we're in such a unique industry that we do have the OTAs, you know, Airbnb booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, all that, that will bring us, sorry.

Too many yeah, there are too many. There's a long, so many, but they bring us, they bring us bookings. So it's easy to become complacent and sit back and go, oh, well, they're just, they're bringing me the bookings. It's fine. But what I think people need to remember is the control and also the savings, the financial savings.

Di: Yeah, I think it's important when you're first starting out to be listed on them, you know, to help bring first lot of customers, but equally you can optimize your listings with them to, you know, subtly send people, like check our website for our activities or whatever things like

Jenn: mm-hmm, . Yeah, definitely.

Definitely a good way to, to bring people over to your direct booking, , website. Well, thank you D so much. I've learned so much as usual from you. I can't wait to hear your presentation at the direct booking success summit in September. maybe we could just tell everybody where they can find out more from.

Di: yes, certainly. Well, my business is listed online as wild harvest.org, but I also have, glamp site success.com, which is a, an ebook that I have, with the whole kind of business formula and printables in there. but that's with it. That's on the same website as wild harvest.org. Anyway, so I'm here to help with a glamp sites, basically.

Jenn: Brilliant. And we will put those links into the show notes. Thanks again.

Di: All right. Thanks Jen. And good luck with the summit. I'm looking forward to it by,