0 (2s):
Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Being Boss. Today, we'll be breaking down a cracked code, the visibility of rentals. How can you profit to drop these value bombs? I brought Bart-Jan Leyts in the EOFire Studios. Bart-Jan is a 23 year old entrepreneur who founded Loreca. And today Fire Nation, we'll talk about rental income, how to maximize that for any hotel years out there. We'll be talking about that as well. We'll talk about how to make a business unique and why that is so critical, so important and so much more.

0 (42s):
And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Bart-Jan and our sponsors. The best podcast listening and discovery app in the world is here and it's called Podopolo. Visit Podopolo.com. Download the app, mention John Lee Dumas, my Podopolo username when you sign up for a free account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com. Marketing Made Simple hosted by Dr. JJ Peterson is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals marketing made simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing work. In a recent episode, Amy Porterfield shared her five email Marketing Secrets for long-term business growth. Listen to marketing Made Simple.

0 (1m 24s):
Wherever you get your podcasts, Bart-Jan, say What's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 36s):
Hi John. Thanks for having me. By the way, I think the most important thing is letting other peoples or letting other people help you. And by this extent, that by this extent we have to hire the good people and like surround us with the good people. Like getting help is not, that is not a weakness. It's like it's for, in my opinion, is strong thing to ask for

0 (2m 3s):
Help in 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 profits? So let's talk about your origin story. Bart-Jan, how did you get to where you are today at 23 years old?

1 (2m 32s):
That's a good question. So my company Loreca was founded 18 to 19 months ago. First of all, my name is Bart-Jan and I'm based in Brugge. So Brugge is like a very touristic city, like with a lot of tourists from all over the world. My company was founded in Brugge and is specialized in this tourist sector, so in the hospitality sector. So my dad owns a bed and breakfast like as a side business, but due to covid, like the amount for tourism was really bad. Like I think it was all over the world. Tourism. Tourism was really down. Nobody was traveling anymore. So of course during this times I didn't have much to do because everything was closed.

1 (3m 18s):
So I really started thinking 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 out 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.

1 (4m 4s):
After this phase was done, we were really to go to market. So like the prepare for market time was really long. It took like six to seven months before like our launch. So the 19 months ago I spoke about, but the ones this way is done. We were really able to go to market. So this 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 the higher ranking. And this higher 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.

1 (4m 56s):
So that's where the story all started.

0 (4m 58s):
Very impressive. And I have actually been to Bruge, it was quite the picturesque town slash city that Bart is talking about myself and Kay 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. Bart-Jan, 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, V R B O, better breakfast, et cetera. What are some things that people who have rentals should be doing to maximize their profit?

1 (5m 45s):
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 2, 3, 4 rentals, or if I own a hotel, how can I really maximize the profitability of my hotel? So this is part one. The second one, and this is where Loreca is really different, is the visibility in the market has to align with your revenue strategy.

1 (6m 25s):
How you put your pricing should be dependent on how visible your in the market. For example, John, if you would go again to the lovely city of Brugge and you would book a 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 and example of how important the ranking is. The more visible a hotel is, a more visible, a ranking is a more visible a brand, the more chances they have of being seen and the more chances they have of being booked. So 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.

0 (7m 12s):
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 Bruge or potentially some of your clients? Like what have they actually done?

1 (7m 33s):
So first thing is of course the operations. Operations have to be flawless before you start about thinking strategic ways. Because if you think first on a strategic level and you increase all the bookings and your operations can 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 E o, can perfectly manage the operations of their rental. But really the strategic level, it's what differentiates, differentiates them from their competitors. So for them, the first question is to ask why should I be visible on which OTAs, so on OTAs and online travel agencies like booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, why should I be on there?

1 (8m 19s):
What is my purpose of being on a booking.com or on an Airbnb? The algorithm of this channels works like this. So Airbnb or a booking.com verifies with each other. So if they see, okay on, so 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 room. 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 out the, you have to check the data.

1 (9m 5s):
The data is very important. For example, in Brugge, again about a lovely city of Brugge 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. And for there it's really important to utilize like your presence on booking to com to like use the billboard effect to like direct people to your brand.com website and maximize commission less bookings as well.

0 (9m 40s):
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 gonna get penalized by Airbnb? Or how should you look at that?

1 (9m 56s):
I think it's very important to understand your rental. Like if you are a cabin in the middle of nowhere, booking.com might not be for you because like booking.com is really about competitive markets differentiates yourself from your competitor within the geographic region. While Airbnb is like, you know, moral they, they started like as rent your own house to someone else. They, 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.

0 (10m 30s):
Yeah, so my experience, and again tell me right or wrong here is that Airbnb may be more of like the experiential when people are actually looking to find some cool rentals when like, you know, maybe it could be like a treehouse 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, and 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?

1 (11m 3s):
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. What do we want? Which kind of guests do we want to want go for maximum occupancies operations ready for this, yes or no? And then we like custom develop it into our algorithm.

1 (11m 43s):
So this is where we are not a software, but an algorithm as it's custom developed for every client but is maximized 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, like if they think in a strategic way.

0 (12m 13s):
Very fascinating stuff and fire niche. We're gonna be talking some more specifics about both rentals, but about identifying your niche in the marketplace when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Ready to dish your subpar podcast listening app and download an interactive app that has every feature you want and need with more great features being added all the time. The app is Podopolo and you can download it free and start listening right now at Podopolo.com. Podopolo gives you access to every podcast at your fingertips with easy, discoverability, audio and video podcasts and every genre and language and instant recommendations. So the perfect podcast and live streams find you without you having to lift a finger.

0 (12m 55s):
My favorite feature PODOPOLO was interactive. So you can create and share short snippets and discuss episodes with friends and your favorite hosts. Join me on Podopolo where you can interact with me, connect with others, ask questions, and share your thoughts on your favorite podcasts. Visit Podopolo.com, download the app for free from either app store. Mention John Lee Dumas Podopolo username when you sign up for an account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com.

2 (13m 24s):
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0 (13m 54s):
So Bart-Jan, we're back and as I mentioned before the break, I also wanna talk a little bit about identifying a niche in a marketplace that was prior to this being underserved. You did this with Loreca, you saw a void in the marketplace, you saw an oPodopolortunity that wasn't being seized yet by other people. Talk to us about that process. How did you see that oPodopolortunity? What did you do to execute?

1 (14m 23s):
First of all, I started researching, okay, which kind of companies can help me to, to like my surprise, nobody could help me. So I, I was thinking how can I do it myself? But then I realize if I'm doing it myself, it means I'm the first mover in a, in a, in a niche market. So this, 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, although we want to go to both or do we want 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.

1 (15m 5s):
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 like, we are the first mover in an, in a niche. But this is, 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. So what does it mean in in our sector that hotels or rentals have received wrong bookings, so 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 total leadership

0 (15m 56s):
Fire Nation. Really interesting thought process about going through scratching your own itch and then getting into a market that needs solutions. It 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.

1 (16m 18s):
Very good question. First of all, my life changed of course very hard because two, three years ago I was just an average student doing some side businesses, but nothing like, not insignificant. But then suddenly I became owner of this, of this unique company and 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.

1 (16m 58s):
But I also, the moment from the people, like please be consistent in a, like how we treat our customers and B, 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 a mistake Excel itself. One other thing I always suggest is we try to automate everything that's possible.

1 (17m 38s):
So 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 ourself 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 like be, be brave enough to tell your brand story every, like this brand story helps to scale you, helps to like understand your product, helps to like create brand awareness.

0 (18m 20s):
Fire Nation, really important stuff to really take in here to understand as you're building a business really at any age and bar, what I really want you to do is take a step back, give us the one key takeaway that you really wanna 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.

1 (18m 46s):
Key takeaway, especially for people who are like in the, 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'll regret it for the rest of your life. So really be brave enough to put this step forward. You only have one live, so you only have this one big chance Is is maybe a big utopic to say, but like please be brave enough to be an entrepreneur.

0 (19m 18s):
And then what are the best ways to learn more about Loreca to connect with you, any call to action you have?

1 (19m 24s):
Yeah, people can always visit us at our website. So it's
www.loreca.be as you are Belgium based, or they can connect with me on LinkedIn. So my name is Bart-Jan

0 (19m 36s):
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, so keep up the heat if you have any direct questions. For Bart-Jan, find this episode on the podcast listening app. Podopolo post a comment, start a conversation. And Bart-Jan, 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.

1 (20m 1s):
Thank you very much, sir.

0 (20m 4s):
Hey Fire Nation, the huge thank you to our sponsors and Bart-Jan 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 fulfillments. It 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. The best podcast listening and discovery app in the world is here and it's called Podopolo.

0 (20m 45s):
Visit Podopolo.com. Download the the app, mention John Lee Dumas my PODOPOLO username when you sign up for a free account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com. Marketing Made Simple hosted by Dr. JJ Peterson is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals marketing made simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing work. In a recent episode, Amy Porterfield shared her five email Marketing Secrets for long-term business growth. Listen to marketing Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts.