A Cracked Code: The Visibility of Rentals. How Can You Profit? with Bart-Jan Leyts: An EOFire Classic from 2023

0:28Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? We have to hold ourselves accountable and how to become the CEO of your rental versus the manager of your rental and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Bart and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook.

1:07Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic, all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Bartion, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with Hi John, thanks for having me by the way I think the most important thing is letting other people or letting other people help you and by this extent we have to hire the good people and surround us with the good people So getting help is not a weakness.

1:55It's like, in my opinion, it's a strong thing to ask for help. And Fire Nation, that's one reason why we end every single episode by saying you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Surround yourself with the right people, build the right team, make good decisions. And today we're talking about a cracked code, the visibility of rentals. How can you, Fire Nation, profit? So let's talk about your origin story, Bartian. How did you get to where you are today at 23 years old? That's a good question. So my company, Loreca, was founded 18 to 19 months ago. First of all, my name is Bartian and I'm based in Bruges.

2:39So Bruges is like a very touristic city, like with a lot of tourists from all over the world. and my company was founded in bruges and is specialized in this tourist uh sector so in the hospitality sector so my dad owns a bed and breakfast like as a side business um but due to covid like demand for tourism was really bad like i think it was all over the world tourism tourism was really down nobody was traveling anymore so um of course during these times i didn't have much to do because everything was closed so I really started tinkering with some ways to really help my dad like in boosting the profitability the KPIs of the bed and breakfast for this I created an algorithm that maximizes the visibility of his bed and breakfast on for example a booking.com and Expedia and all the other channels that are out there on the market for this okay I thought I have a algorithm that helps my dad but then I started contacted contacting some people and it's then like then I knew okay I have something big here so we went to a proof of work stage where we really adjusted our algorithm to different hotels in Belgium very close to the city I live with after this phase was done and we were really to go to market so like the prepare for market time was really long.

4:08It took like six to seven months before our launch. So the 19 months ago I spoke about. But once this was done, we were really able to go to market. So those were my early days. But across the line, we were really, okay, the algorithm boosts the visibility of rentals on the channels. So on a booking.com, on an Airbnb, et cetera, which results in a higher ranking. And this high ranking results in more bookings, a higher daily rate, more people booking in general. And if all these things happen, the KPIs of a hotel, a rental, they all increase, which results in people implementing our algorithm as of today having 24 % increase in revenue.

4:52So that's where the story all started. Very impressive. And I have actually been to Bruges. It was quite the picturesque town slash city that Bartillon is talking about. Myself and Kate spent an entire day there just wandering the streets, taking in all the beauty. You know, I can definitely see why it's such a massive tourist attraction and why there's a lot of revenue to be made if you're doing things right. And let's get specific with some tactics, Bartian. Like a lot of my listeners, they're entrepreneurs, they're small business owners, and real estate can be part of that portfolio. And so a lot of Airbnb, VRBO, bed and breakfast, et cetera.

5:33what are some things that people who have rentals should be doing to maximize their profit? I think if you're owning a rental, the first step is to becoming the CEO of your rental more than becoming the manager of your rental. Because that's the problem we see daily when we speak with new clients. All of them are very good managers, their operations are flawless, but they don't think about the strategy. They don't think about a long-term strategy. how can I maximize my rental and maybe go to two, three, four rentals? Or if I own a hotel, how can I really maximize the profitability of my hotel?

6:11So this is part one. The second one, and this is where LORICA is really different, is the visibility in the market has to align with your revenue strategy. How you put your pricing should be dependent on how visible you're in the market. For example, John, if you would go again to the lovely city of Bruges and you would book a hotel, I'm 100 % sure that you are less likely to book a hotel that on booking.com you have to search for 20 minutes for. So this is a very simple explanation, an example of how important the ranking is. The more visible a hotel is, the more visible a ranking is, the more visible a brand, the more chances they have of being seen and the more chances they have of being booked.

6:57So really, for hotel owners or people investing in real estate, A, become the CEO of your rental and B, increase your strategy by boosting visibility. Let's get some specific tactics. Is there anything that you would really recommend the individual renter who is now becoming a CEO based on your advice? What are some specific things that they can do? Like what are some things that you've seen work successfully in Bruges or potentially some of your clients? Like what have they actually done? So first thing is of course the operations. Operations have to be flawless before you start about thinking strategic ways.

7:36Because if you think first on a strategic level and you increase all the bookings and your operations can't follow, you have a big mess and a long-term strategic issue. So if operations is done, I believe every good manager and therefore every good CEO can perfectly manage the operations of their rental. But really the strategic level, it's what differentiates them from their competitors. so for them the first question is to ask why should i be visible on which ota so ota is in online travel agencies like booking.com expedia airbnb why should i be on there what is my purpose of being on a booking.com or on an airbnb the algorithm of this channels works like this so So Airbnb or Booking.com verifies with each other.

8:29So if Airbnb sees, okay, the position on Booking.com is really high, then they will lower the position on Airbnb because their chances, so the chances of Airbnb selling a room decreases because Booking.com sells the most rooms. So Airbnb has less possibility of earning money on that platform. But these are all steps that like in a strategic level should take in mind because you have to check the data. The data is very important. For example, in Bruges, again, about the lovely city of Bruges, booking.com is the market leader. All traffic goes to booking.com. Booking.com is most important. So a wise and a smart CEO of a rental should maximize their position on booking.com despite their position on Airbnb, Expedia, and all the others.

9:23And for there, it's really important to utilize your presence on booking.com to use the billboard effect to direct people to your brand.com website and maximize commissionless bookings as well. That's very interesting. So, I mean, is there a situation where you should potentially not be putting your rental on Booking.com or on Expedia if it's going to get penalized by Airbnb or how should you look at that? I think it's very important to understand your rental. Like if you're a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Booking.com might not be for you because Booking.com is really about competitive markets, differentiates yourself from your competitor within a geographic region.

10:09While Airbnb is like, you know, more, they started like as rent your own house to someone else, they evolved from that. But so it's really about understanding your rental and what's your purpose for every kind of customer. This new thought process has to be done. Yeah. So my experience, and again, tell me if I'm right or wrong here, that Airbnb may be more of like the experiential when people are actually looking to find some cool rentals or like, you know, maybe it could be like a tree house, something out in the wilderness, on a lake, on the ocean, on the beach, where like maybe booking.com is like, okay, like I'm booking a trip, a flight to Paris.

10:50And so I'll just book my flight and my stay at the same platform, which could be booking.com or like an Expedia. Is that correct or am I missing something here? That's correct. That's especially a good way of thinking of it. But it's not that because your rental is more suited for booking.com that you shouldn't think about your presence on Airbnb because, as I said before, they are all correlated. It's one big mathematical equation. So you really should think, okay, I should maximize my online visibility, but maximize it towards a certain point. And this is like how we work. So first we draft up the strategy together with the clients.

11:30What do we want? Which kind of guests do we want? Do we want to go for maximum occupancy? Is operations ready for this? Yes or no? And then we custom develop it into our algorithm. So this is where we are not a software, but an algorithm as it's custom developed for every client, but this maximize the traffic. For example, if the data shows that, I have never had it, by the way, that in Paris on a Saturday night, Airbnb is booming. Instead of booking.com, then will the algorithm boost the visibility on Airbnb? So these are all things that an owner should consider if they think in a strategic way.

12:09Very fascinating stuff. And FireNish, we're going to be talking some more specifics about both rentals, but about identifying your niche in the marketplace when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business. And they are also our featured partner, HighLevel. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or a course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack. Seriously, think ClickFunnels, Calendly, MailChimp, Kajabi, and even your CRM, all rolled up into one powerful white label solution.

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13:18Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level, join the revolution. Fire Nation, let me ask you a question. What if you could stop guessing your way through entrepreneurship and start following a proven playbook. That's exactly why I created the Freedom Circle. Over the years, I built multiple businesses and helped countless entrepreneurs build theirs.

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14:29You've got everything you need to finally create income freedom and time freedom in just 90 days. So Fire Nation, stop reinventing the wheel. Start following the proven path. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. That's freedom-circle.com. So, Bartion, we're back. And as I mentioned before the break, I also want to talk a little bit about identifying a niche in a marketplace that was prior to this being underserved. You did this with Loreka. You saw a void in the marketplace. You saw an opportunity that wasn't being seized yet by other people. Talk to us about that process. How did you see that opportunity?

15:13What did you do to execute? First of all, I started researching, okay, which kind of companies can help? To like my surprise, nobody could help me. So I was thinking, how can I do it myself? But then I realized if I'm doing it myself, it means I'm the first mover in a niche market. So this meant we had some like big questions to be answered. Do we want to go for thought leadership or do we want to go for product excellence or do we want to go to both or do we want to like some part of both so it's really like thinking about scaling the business in a proper way but we are the first mover we are very sure that in some situation people will think okay this is a great idea i will do the same but it's like we are really making sure that our product is at an excellent level and that we are We are the first mover in a niche, but this was a hard process, of course, and I really want people to understand it because we made a lot of mistakes, unfortunately, especially in development-wise.

16:26So what does it mean in our sector that hotels or rentals have received wrong bookings with the wrong rate? So these were all the mistakes we made, but for people listening to this, please allow yourself to make these mistakes because mistakes will always happen and these mistakes will get you towards this leadership. Fire Nation, really interesting thought process about going through, scratching your own itch, and then getting into a market that needs solutions that doesn't yet have great solutions or potentially any solutions to that key problem. Now, you're a mere 23 years old. Talk to us about scaling a business at this age.

17:10Very good question. First of all, my life changed, of course, very hard because two or three years ago, I was just an average student doing some side businesses, but nothing significant. But then suddenly I became owner of this unique company in a niche. so it was all about you know first of all i had to surround myself again with the good people and i had to understand that from the moment i was making money with the company i should invest it in the right people and with this i needed to be consistent so i needed to educate people in a consistent way but i also demanded from the people like please be consistent in a like how we treat their customers and be the development phase in all the other aspects but what is also in our company culture is as i said we have to learn from the mistakes everyone makes mistakes and we are not the kind of company that like fire people about making mistakes but like the process of mistakes is most of the time more valuable than the mistake excel itself One other thing I always suggest is we try to automate everything that's possible.

18:30So we invested a lot in like the digital and the automation part. And what we agreed in our company is, please, if we make a mistake, we have to hold ourselves accountable. Nobody's perfect, especially startups. So it's really a very strong perspective to hold yourself accountable. And then last step I would recommend is for really like startups who are scaling, please be brave enough to tell your brand story. This brand story helps to scale you, helps to understand your product, helps to create brand awareness. Fire Nation, really important stuff to really take in here to understand as you're building a business really at any age.

19:20And Bartian, what I really want you to do is take a step back. Give us the one key takeaway that you really want to make sure our listeners get from our entire conversation today. Then give us the best way that we can connect with you, that we can follow you, that we can learn more from you, any call to action you have. And then we'll say goodbye. Key takeaway, especially for people who are like in the process of starting something, and especially for young people, please be brave enough. You only have one life. this idea that you have right now, maybe in five years, someone else is doing it and you will regret it for the rest of your life.

19:55So really be brave enough to put this step forward. You only have one life. So you only have this one big chance. It's maybe a big utopic to say, but please be brave enough to be an entrepreneur. And then what are the best ways to learn more about Lureka, to connect with you, any call to action you have? Yeah, people can always visit us at our website. So it's www.loreca.be as you're Belgium based, or they can connect with me on LinkedIn. So my name is Bartian Leitz. Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with BJL and JLD today.

20:36So keep up the heat. If you have any direct questions for Bartian, find this episode on the podcast listening app Podopolo. Post a comment, start a conversation. and Bartian thank you for sharing your truth your knowledge your value with fire nation today for that we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side thank you very much hey fire nation a huge thank you to our sponsors and Bartian for sponsoring today's episode and fire nation what can three thousands of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you how about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment my first traditionally published book the common path to Uncommon Success is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment.

21:19It took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic, all in just 90 days.

22:08Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Thank you.