Sun and Co is a coliving space in Jávea, a small coastal village near Valencia in Spain.
What I found super interesting is that Sun & Co operates as a coliving space from September to June and as a hostel, under a completely different brand, during the summer.
We discussed with Jon Hormaetxe Castells how you can integrate the coliving concept into your existing surf hospitality business.
Also, how Sun & Co operates, what are their occupancy rates, how they find customers, and what is crucial to run a successful coliving business.
Listen to podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Soundcloud.
What we discussed:
How did Sun & Co start?
How long do the coliving guests usually stay?
How are the differences between regular short-term vacationers and coliving guests?
How does the model of combining a hostel and a coliving space actually work?
What processes do they have in place?
How does Sund & Co find customers?
How important is the community aspect when you run a coliving space?
How does the guest capacity change when you switch from a hostel and a coliving house?
How can it be applied to your existing surf hospitality business?
Surfpreneurs podcast is hosted by Peter Fabor, the founder of Surf Office.
Surf Office helps surf houses, hotels and villas boost their group bookings by hosting retreats with tech companies searching for productive team-building experiences.
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Transcription (automatic, sorry for typos)
[00:00:00] Peter: [00:00:00] Hey, I'm Pietra and you are listening, surfing this podcast, where we chat with inspiring entrepreneurs and we discuss about their businesses and ideas. In this episode, I'm going to interview John from San Inco. Simon co is called living space in Javier, a small coastal village near Valencia in Spain.
[00:00:17] What I find super interesting is that. Cooperates as it called living space from September to June and as a hostel, under a completely different brand. During the summer, we discuss with John about how you can integrate co-living concept into your existing hospitality business. Also how sun and coal operates, what are their occupancy rates, how they find customers and what is crucial to run a successful living business.
[00:00:46] Hope you are going to enjoy this episode.
[00:00:48] Jon: [00:00:48] Yeah, he hadn't quite on time, uh, in this town, but it's called , which I find myself very privileged. Cause it's by the sea, it's a small town it's located between Alicante and [00:01:00] ambulancia so sunny signing here. We have a patio I can go out and we already are allowed to go surfing and paddle boarding, which is a big relief for me as well.
[00:01:11] Peter: [00:01:11] But you don't have any guests inside of your collar right now with just you and your colleagues.
[00:01:18] Jon: [00:01:18] Exactly. Yeah. Their government, uh, told us that we needed to set down the, the close the space. Um, so currently I think until mid June, uh, we, we will, we will be closed.
[00:01:32] Peter: [00:01:32] Mm. And how, uh, from what I understood when we discussed before together is that you, you run the hostel during the summer and then you switch it for the rest of the year to call living space.
[00:01:45] So now you said that, uh, the government, uh, shut down the, the hospitality businesses until the. Until mid June. So for the summer you are already going to switch to hostel and [00:02:00] then after summer coming back as, as calling.
[00:02:03] Jon: [00:02:03] Yeah, exactly. Like, I think this can be like a really interesting story because, um, we opened.
[00:02:11] First of all, we opened a hostel and it was like seven years ago, more or less. Um, so we refer to this, this house is a 19th century house, uh, located in the center of Javier. Um, and we created the hostel, um, for the first two years, uh, we, we wanted to run a hostel and we show that, uh, summer seasons were summer season was great.
[00:02:36] Were great. And, um, July and August. And September doing not bad, but the rest of the year, uh, was like not doing well most of the time closed. And we, and that's when, I guess like many, many other businesses like ours are struggling with, which is the seasonality. Um, so we. Came up with, [00:03:00] we saw, I'll tell you one of the businesses that we show the first the first time that you ran, but before it was Academy of space and we were like looking around seeing what's, what can we do to find guests who can come also in the low season?
[00:03:15] So, um, before I met the other co-founder I used to work in a, in a coworking space. So I knew a little bit about, uh, the world of digital nomadism, the remote work. Well, and, and the micro founder, he was already an expert on running hospitality businesses. So we came together and we decided to lounge . Um, so that was in October, 2015.
[00:03:41] And. Um, we were able little by little to start attracting more and more digital nomads. And at this point, uh, before started, we were running, uh, Colinas space Ana from September, till June. And it was only [00:04:00] Sancho, only digital nomad, only remote workers, uh, where the minimum stay was one week. Uh, the habit to stay once a month.
[00:04:09] And then, eh, we used to where we close in in June and we opened the youth hostel Javier in July and August. And that youth hostel Javier it's another brand, it's another business. Eh, it has another booking system that type of a staff, eh, and then the room distribution is also different. So we can accommodate more people in the summit.
[00:04:34] Cause the Avenue to stay is one day and a half more or less. So, so yes, right now, uh, I meet June. We'll probably go with straight forward to, to the hostel. Uh, luckily the hostile clients are most Spanish people. Um, so we'll see, how can we adapt the space? But hopefully, uh, national duty SIM will [00:05:00] be going well.
[00:05:01] Alright, we're going at least around . So maybe we can, we can make it work this way until September. How
[00:05:10] Peter: [00:05:10] does it, uh, what changes do you need to make, uh, when you switch from, from living to hostile, I can imagine that in hostel you have bunk beds and in Colleen you have private rooms. Am I
[00:05:24] Jon: [00:05:24] right? Yes. So just so you have an idea, like, uh, in the summit and the hostel we've got, like what rooms and eight people rooms, all of them are dorms and we feed 48 people here in the house.
[00:05:37] Uh, in the Sancho season on the court, when the Columbian is open, we offer private rooms, um, uh, quadrants and twin rooms. So the rooms are pretty flexible and we try to play around with the, with the beds beds are really wood quality beds. Even though we have bunk beds, there are like a custom made and [00:06:00] the mattress is a really good, so that allow us to kind of, uh, Recreate the rooms in order to accommodate different type of targets in the co-living CSUN people stay for a month and most of them want a private room.
[00:06:17] So we kind of like, kind of move a couple of furniture, really to have a private room out of the, for example, that can be the room that we use for the summit. I
[00:06:31] Peter: [00:06:31] wonder, what is the average capacity, like you said for Austin is 48 people. So when you operate, how many people you have usually an average thing there,
[00:06:41] Jon: [00:06:41] we have 14 people more or maximum capacity will be 16.
[00:06:46] Um, the interesting thing is that after four years, and I think, um, while the key aspects here, the hospitality industry is like, um, you slowly. In the, in [00:07:00] the winter, what do you try to have? Is your cost as low as possible? Um, sometimes you are not able to break even, even in the, in the, in the low season. So some of the profits that you generate in the summit, do you need to dedicate to Coburn some of the expenses that you had in the, in the winter season?
[00:07:20] Uh, but right now with this formula, we are able to make profit in the low season and they're them. The capacity, right. A richest to be, I think last year was 72%. We only in the low season, which is really high already for the tourism industry. Um, so, so yes, that's that way we, after 40 years of running in San Diego, we are able to keep the house nearly full all year around.
[00:07:47] Oh,
[00:07:48] Peter: [00:07:48] fantastic. Fantastic. Number 72% in the last season is like
[00:07:54] Jon: [00:07:54] dream of,
[00:07:55] Peter: [00:07:55] of many businesses, business owners, operators.
[00:07:59] Jon: [00:07:59] It's [00:08:00] like it's a little bit tricky. Although the number of people that we accommodate in the low season is lower. But they pay a higher price because instead of staying in a dorm, they choose a private room.
[00:08:15] It's also true that they stay longer. So obviously like the price you can search for a room, uh, in a hotel, a private room in a hotel for a person who stays only for one night, they can be hired out for a person who stays for a month, for example. Uh, but it's true that, uh, that the year is pretty high on.
[00:08:39] And after, as I said, after two years, we break even. And then now we are also making profit in the, in the, in the low season, but, uh, I'm not gonna lie like, and everybody knows that that summer season. And that's the main reason why we switched to, to a hostel in July and August is [00:09:00] because we feed 48 people here that stay for one or two nights.
[00:09:04] Obviously the. Their rotation is a lot higher. And also the profit is hired in there, in there in the summer.
[00:09:15] Peter: [00:09:15] And what, uh, your you're the, you already perfectly describe it? I I've been telling it to people for a long time that if you operate the hospitality business, you cannot focus on one type of the customer.
[00:09:29] Because you, if you operate co-living space during the whole year, it means that you are losing that money, that extra money you can make during the summer when customers are staying shorter and they are willing to pay more. And I saw it when I operated my, our call space. You know, it was before that, for instance, we were losing money during the, during the Christmas season because during [00:10:00] Christmas new year's Eve, Nobody wanted to stay in the coding space, or we had very few customers,
[00:10:06] Jon: [00:10:06] but the
[00:10:07] Peter: [00:10:07] demand for this, uh, for this period in general was quite high, but we were so strict that we are living space and we cannot accept a different type of customers that we were just, yeah, we were just ignoring this, this customers and now I see it's completely wrong.
[00:10:26] And I see a lot of operators of. Of course living spaces, doing the same mistake. They're focused on the oncology and customers and they are for instance, operating during the summer where they can make more money and. Fits with short term rentals, but they just don't want to change their concept. And you create this interesting idea of switching the brand.
[00:10:49] So does it mean that you also like
[00:10:51] Jon: [00:10:51] change the
[00:10:53] Peter: [00:10:53] logo on the, on the building and the branding inside or it's just a different [00:11:00] two different websites, but the is exactly the
[00:11:02] Jon: [00:11:02] same,
[00:11:06] like, um, Everything, obviously the houses, the house as it is. And if you see it, you look at the picture in the summer, you come here and you come here in the winter, you recognize that it's the same house, but it's true that we changed the logo. So for example, for , and that's interesting that you mentioned the.
[00:11:26] Mixing the two concepts for Sonoco. We have only the booking system. It's only through our website. Why, why it, we want to make sure that the people who come to stay at Sanko are people who are remote workers or the dynamics of people who come to work on a project. And obviously they know that their minimum stay is one week because war.
[00:11:54] Then you are looking for like people who come to in a space, they are looking for other likeminded, people like that. [00:12:00] Like they try going to a hostel, but then they need a space where they can work from, um, they want to meet other people who are also working remotely, so they understand it so that they can't even call it.
[00:12:13] I want it to get. And they don't want to meet somebody only for two days and then another person for two days, because they get tired of constantly meeting new people and they value a lot more like longterm relationships. So I stay in for a month with the same person. That's something that they really value and actually.
[00:12:32] That's also something they are trying to avoid when they go to other places. Like if you run a, go live in a space, but they see that you are mixing it with eh, hostile clients, for example, um, they want like this. Um, so you need to be very careful on the way you do it. For example, in our case, it's very clear when Santa Encore is open, the hostel is closed when the hostel is open.
[00:12:57] The Senate inquiry is closed. I know they are. They [00:13:00] also exist the concept, like for example, selling, which I don't know, how are they doing? But it's very clear that, eh, when it goes to Salina, that person is not expecting only to be surrounded by the dynamics. They know, and it's clear that they are open.
[00:13:13] For any type of tourists. Um, and I guess like for all of the options they have, it's one, the, it can work for them because it might have also like a working space. I, in our, in our case, and if you run a Columbian, a space and you promote yourself as a colleague in a space, people are going to expect to have other like minded people who are staying for a longer period.
[00:13:34] I mean, you mix. Them or you like them, or you always accept tourists? Not there. You know, don't expect that that's when I was seen as something and not wood. Going back to going back to your question. So at Santa Monica, for example, when Sangre it's open, we accommodate like I work in a space because people need to work on their [00:14:00] laptops.
[00:14:01] We take out the reception. Uh, we try, we, we tend to make it. More of a home feeling, or this is going to be the place where they're going to leave for a month. So it's really important to make the space as homey as possible also because when people are on the go and traveling, they miss that home feeling.
[00:14:20] And one of the goals of our work has always been to make this a home for them. Um, and, and I really love it when, when they call it home. Um, I also feel like a home is a place where. People connect on a deeper level, like where they feel more comfortable and safe. And that also involves the personal relationships.
[00:14:41] And then, eh, the rooms we take out some mattresses, we put some, um, staff so they can hand it out. So it's more comfortable for people that they want to stay longer. So they have more space. They can, eh, when, when we have the hostel system. And there's not as much [00:15:00] space to hang your clothes. It's just your wardrobe, your storage, you put your leg as there and you go while at Tenneco, when, when they stay longer, they have more space to, to feel more comfortable.
[00:15:11] And then they, one of the biggest differences is the dynamics in the house. So it's a lot more time consuming. I will say when we run the Cody in a space because we really. To try to build the community. So we organize a lot of community building events. We have a family meeting every Monday where we all come together in the house and we plan the rest of the week.
[00:15:32] Uh, that is a lot more work related to marketing, to SEO, to position yourself. The main reason is because in the summer days, there are so many tourists here that we don't really know to promote ourselves as much or related to social media. And I know online marketing because we are also a feature in the booking platform.
[00:15:56] So when [00:16:00] only what people can only work through our platform, because we want to make it like targeted
[00:16:06] Peter: [00:16:06] you're on websites,
[00:16:08] Jon: [00:16:08] we're on work site, but in the, during the summit, in the hostel. And we had a pro, like I said, any other hostel, we are on booking.com, foster worldwide. Oh, these Airbnb, all of these platforms.
[00:16:20] Um, and they walk in. It comes without us not doing so much. So, uh, in the summer season, there is a reception here. We have one person at the time, only the cleaning people come every day and is taking takeout, taking takeout. And, um, people come, they leave their staff, they go to the beads, they come back, they have a sour Lego for the dinner.
[00:16:44] So in reality, it's a lot, a lot easier operationally to, to manage the hostage. Why do you need a little bit of, more like a dedication I would
[00:16:56] Peter: [00:16:56] say. Yeah, but, uh, you mentioned [00:17:00] that before sun and coal, you worked in the, at the coworking space. If I'm not mistaken, it was in a, it was in Scotland,
[00:17:07] Jon: [00:17:07] right? Yes.
[00:17:09] And
[00:17:09] Peter: [00:17:09] so how. Because all these digital nomads coming to San and they, they need to work, right? Like how, uh, how the set up looks like and what you can see as a, as a something you learned from the coworking industry and you applied for, for San
[00:17:29] Jon: [00:17:29] Francisco. Um, so first of all, um, They, they, they need the internet needs to be good.
[00:17:40] Um, a funny story around that is that when we opened Sanko, the internet wasn't really work here, but, uh, and we did our best to improve it because we were located in a town and people were really, they were understanding it and very supportive. Uh, now we have optical fiber, [00:18:00] so I'm really with routers. So that's one of the basics.
[00:18:04] The internet needs to be really strong. That's one of the reasons why they come to live in a space because they expect the internet to be rude and the internet will be good. There's not like three megabytes download on one upload where you can watch a movie. I stream a movie. Like download and upload, I guess like with hundreds upload, depending on the number of people hundred download, maybe you can manage and it will be okay.
[00:18:30] Then we have also office chairs and a proper working area. Um, I think they also expect that, uh, if, if, and they value a lot, um, they are always, these anomalies in general are always working remotely and on the road. So, um, what would the position of their bag? It's just not the best. So that's something important.
[00:18:55] They, they, they value a lot. Um, and then, uh, I think [00:19:00] like, um, I'm a big fan of, of community building and of making them, uh, making the, becoming involved on the, on the, that, having the house. So from coworking, and what I learned is that, uh, we need to make an effort to facilitate that they connect together.
[00:19:19] Um, that's why, uh, we organize like, uh, events every week, professional events and social events. And I know all of these events are run by by members. So that makes, uh, creates an atmosphere of things going on all the time. Uh, people are free to join or not to join, but they're not a great excuse just for them to interact on connect and actually even more when they are the ones leading the events.
[00:19:45] I think they really time was fear of leaving, not expecting anything in return. And I think that's really interesting because one on one hand is less time consuming for. For the hosts, because they do give the leadership of [00:20:00] organizing events to their members. So you don't have to be in every single event all the time to take them to all of the different places.
[00:20:08] And on the other hand, like they feel like really, like they are giving something back to the community and they are really nice. People check.
[00:20:24] Peter: [00:20:24] So do you need a specific dedicated person who is kind of has the position of community manager to organize all these events and great it, or it happens naturally, as you said, that members are organizing these events by themselves.
[00:20:42] Do you, do you need somebody else, like in your team? Who is like investing time too, to make it happen, or it happens already. Naturally, you
[00:20:54] Jon: [00:20:54] need to facilitate, and you, you, you need to give them the, you need to solve on the [00:21:00] path. So, so they feeling encouraged to, to do it. Like, uh, if you, yes, tell them I work on this, the house, they're not going to do anything like that.
[00:21:11] But if you leave them some tools and clarity on how it works, they're, you're gonna, eh, Become part of the creation and the moderation of the events. Like for example, various specific question, like for, for that to happen, we have a meeting every Monday we call it the family meeting. I need a family meeting.
[00:21:30] We all come together. The people in the house, we talk about the different things that we need to discuss in the group. And then we plan the whole week together. So we decide what are the professional events that we want. To happen in this week. And what are the social events that we want to see happen in this week?
[00:21:47] Professionally, Randy can be like, eh, copywriting skill set. It can be a SEO skill set. It can be a Facebook ad, excuse her, depending on always in the house. Um, the no list that people in the house [00:22:00] have on the world, out of the things that people in the house want to learn, we decide that, and then social events, uh, like can be cooking together now after coronavirus, he's going to tell you that, but it definitely come you're hiking or he's going to be like, eh, eh, yeah.
[00:22:16] Going to, uh, and so depending on who is teaching, for example, if I'm teaching a skillset. Roman is the event leader. So it's, it's clear like on Tuesday at 7:00 PM, Roman is a skill set on how to. Do better SEO. And then on Saturday, hiking and lead by Sienna because I wanted to go hiking. So we are ready on Monday.
[00:22:42] The whole schedule is clear and all of the events, events, leaders are active and usually they are, the members are the ones who are leading the different events. So then you don't have to go hiking. I mean, you, you don't have to be on the SEO excuses because that [00:23:00] person is in charge of leading the event.
[00:23:02] Um, but you need moderation. You're not like, okay, come here on. Everything happens by itself. You need to be a little bit of a getting clever moderation. To empower them to lead the events. Uh, so it becomes less time consuming for yourself. I will tell you like clear numbers, like 16 people. We doubled maximum capacity cases.
[00:23:22] Team people is through that. We always try to have somebody around, uh, from between 10 in the morning and 10 in the evening, but it's not. Uh, it's not like a hoster where you need to be here all the time in case something happens, or somebody knocks the door, you know, when it's the ticking, uh, you have to be there when there is a taking.
[00:23:41] But apart from that, it's pretty flexible. And I will say like, if you have one, two people plus a volunteer who helps you do the hosting on a staff, uh, that will be enough to run the space. Even with one [00:24:00] person, even with 40 hours full time, somebody or 2020. Uh, so it's not it's as you see, as like a leader is self managed, it's a self managed system, but if it's that self managed system, if you are clever on a structure in the community,
[00:24:21] Peter: [00:24:21] can you imagine like, Let's let's, uh, brainstorm this, that, uh, most of the people listening to this podcast, uh, have some sort of, uh, surf, uh, related to business. So let's imagine that I'm a surf hostel somewhere in Portugal and, and, uh, my clans are surfers people coming for surf camp who want to, to learn surfing.
[00:24:49] And now I'm thinking about, uh, opening the. I call it living space during the last season. And what things can I transfer from [00:25:00] what I'm already doing? Like, because. If you have a surf cam, you probably organize some barbecues for your guests. You go to serve with them. You'll help them to organize different activities.
[00:25:13] Maybe organize some movie nights. So I see a lot of similarities that surf cam, that surf cams are really doing. And what would be something extra they need to do if they want to operate a living space for digital nomads, are these like special events of like learning a CEO or that's an, that's not a typical activity.
[00:25:37] What, uh, what people are doing at the surf camp. So what are these other activities that people do in the co-living, but they don't do in the regular. Let's say commonality.
[00:25:51] Jon: [00:25:51] Um, I think, I think more than what type of events you organize is, um, what. [00:26:00] Type of people do address, uh, uh, um, how you, how, how much did you care about them to, to connect together?
[00:26:08] Like for example, like, I, I see people coming here to Santa and crumb. I obviously, they, when they leave, they don't remember their skills, which are nice things to have. What they remember is, uh, the people they met and the connection that they have. So if you're not able to attract people who work remotely and you care about them in order to make them connect.
[00:26:31] They're going to remember your space, the problem, when it comes, where, um, you bring different type of people into one space where they have different type of freedoms. So they don't connect as much as I do. If I'm working on my laptop here and then I'm having Lance and then I continue working on them.
[00:26:50] On the event in the evening where we all get together, uh, we are living together in the same house and we are always staying like three weeks in the same house that [00:27:00] makes me, eh, have many chances to connect with other people. If I mix that with some people who are coming to shore for four days and they are surfing and then they will be sitting and sightseeing around, you already have two different type of people who are like how different that is.
[00:27:16] And they are staying in a different lens of a state that. That's a make them connect and there is like a barrier here. Um, so if I will have a source, I will totally forget all the, during the high season, I will focus only on the things they know how to do, um, for the low CSUN. Um, I don't know. I will, I will, I will maybe try to market myself in the digital nomad world.
[00:27:44] Um, Try to, to, to show an image of, of a space where the dynamic comes. I will try to invite some of the dynamics that I might know in the sector, uh, to, to, to come for two [00:28:00] weeks for free. So we come brainstorm and I can, we can see how can we implement and make this space feel more attractive to, to them.
[00:28:10] Um, the way we are started, uh, because we had the financial security from, from the hospital, uh, in the summer, it's true that we. Well, I started operating the . It took us three months to , but we had one thing to yellow. We will never going to mix the two type of guy in the tourists would be, um, for example, um, right now, like, and like 20% of the clients as returning guests.
[00:28:45] And 20% of the clients who come to . So coming because they hear about us. So it has been a big, a big work of, of focusing only on the Italian nomads and little by little [00:29:00] making the ball. Eh, Grow and grow. But going back to your question, if, if I w I wouldn't think about an event, a specific event or a professional event, you can implement events, but it's more about having the same people who have the same interest and want to invest the time in the, in the same type of people in staying in your house while you take care of them and make sure that they have what they want.
[00:29:26] And, and, and. And talk it out. I don't know if I answered your question.
[00:29:32] Peter: [00:29:32] Perfect. Answer is a question and I wanted to actually ask, um, uh, how are you? Because that was my, that was the direction where I wanted to go to ask you how you get the customers and you basically give a very good at devices, like how to start at the beginning with, uh, maybe inviting some digital nomads with a lot of followers.
[00:29:56] And, and these are like, these are great tips. Great ideas. Do [00:30:00] you have any, because you said that, uh, for a hostel, you are using different OTs, like booking.com also world. And so to, to get the bookings and then you are paying commission to this OTA, but you have, uh, do you use any websites like this for, for Colleen that, um, they give you leads or it's all organic and they come.
[00:30:26] You think you're using your breath because they know they, they know about your brand and they find you on the directory book on their website. Because I can imagine that if someone is starting for living space, now they don't have this brand. You have built over the last four or five years. They have to start from scratch.
[00:30:44] And if they're not normally in the, in the community of this Sonoma it's remote workers. And so, uh, they may be, need a bit, uh, help a boost to start to get like first bookings and so [00:31:00] to operate the business. So how, uh, what is your experience with like, uh, faith advertising, OTs? And getting the customers besides of organic, organic bookings coming from two, three, our website and Brett
[00:31:18] Jon: [00:31:18] for us like the OTs, uh, having worked that well, um, we, there is one that is called dot com, uh, where, when they call you in a space or feature there.
[00:31:31] Um, that is one it's called any place. There are a few out there, but to be honest, like not many of our leads come from those directories, um, breasts, eh, we, we do it out of pitching to defense and media and press, and that's how to work really well, um, to attract customers. Um, [00:32:00] And apart from that, like most of the leads been organic.
[00:32:06] Um,
[00:32:08] Peter: [00:32:08] you mentioned this, uh, call it bing.com and similar websites. And you said that you haven't got many leads and can you be more specific? Because I met a lot of people who want to start a business and they have very high expectations. And hopes that how many leads they can get through this website. So what is like not many, can you get like a five customers per year from these websites or even not
[00:32:36] Jon: [00:32:36] that.
[00:32:37] And something like that, but at least, um, at least for our service, like, I'm just trying to find the, the real numbers here, but I, I can't. Um, but yeah, like not more than 10 customers. Um, let me see, let me give me a second because I think I have a, like I told you the numbers and the [00:33:00] number of people that we we get and I can give you percentages.
[00:33:04] So that might be also helpful for.
[00:33:07] Peter: [00:33:07] Because, uh, until you find them just, just one thought that I, I never understood this is businesses trying to be like a marketplaces type of Airbnb for co-living spaces, because there are not many cultivating spaces around the world. Of course, it's a growing market and there are, there are more and more every year, but it's a very niche market.
[00:33:33] And if your business model is. To take some commission, like 10% from every booking. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not a big business. And not even like, to me, it doesn't sound even a sustainable business to cover expenses of few people doing it. That's why I was curious like, Oh, it's how these businesses can. These marketplaces for co-living spaces can survive because.
[00:34:00] [00:34:00] You also, when you, as a customer visit one of these websites, like dot com, you can see the name of the cordoning space or your search. I want to go to Spain and I see that. Okay. And in house that is a sun and coal and it's, there is. Name written son and call. So why, why would we book using that website?
[00:34:23] Like I would just go directly to summit, go and learn more about, about your, about your business. What do you do? And if I like it, then I booked directly. What on Airbnb? You don't have this because people. Don't, they don't see the name of the business and they don't see the location of the business. And so, and on booking.com, I think it's just more convenient and there is more trust to RSP on booking.com then on the hotel website, but we call it being space.
[00:34:53] I think it's exact opposite.
[00:34:56] Jon: [00:34:56] Yeah. It's not like people are [00:35:00] pretty. Excuse me. So I'll do say when it comes to shirts for staff, so they don't maybe need us as much as like, as us as they do, or if they find out exactly they come last, you said like to the, to the proper website. Um, I, I would like to. Um, ma make sure that your main business is the high season.
[00:35:21] I miss that the sort of camp. Um, and I, I will try to build little by little, the community of by positioning yourself, uh, on the, on the market, by making the pictures that you need to make, uh, to, to look like a live in a space. Um, and then like, eh, and I will try to too. To reach out to publications or to the newspapers and blogs to be featured.
[00:35:50] That was one of the biggest, uh, strategies like, and this, I know my community in Vasco highlight, they invited so many people who write [00:36:00] for blogs and, and press for free at the beginning. And that got them like, uh, like put them on the map at the beginning. Which can be tricky if you, I don't know. Maybe if, if you know about Facebook ads and , and you know, really you are really good at finding what are they, what they are looking for to attract them to your space.
[00:36:24] That would be also, uh, I, I interesting way, but I, what I found out so far is that this kind of hard to classify. That's if I, these people are on marketing in that sense has been, has been tricky. But, uh, as I said, like a referred Alan and finding leads on different, eh, press and articles and blog has been something that worked really well for us.
[00:36:53] Peter: [00:36:53] Awesome. Uh, yeah. Thank you for, for sharing all these [00:37:00] insights and your story. I hope that is. This is going to be insightful for, for everyone listening. So if people want to learn about you and where they should
[00:37:14] Jon: [00:37:14] go, they can come
[00:37:19] and they will find us. And, and also what my name is, John J O N. And they will find like, uh, I need mainly my, in my, in the website and also they can also find me on LinkedIn.
[00:37:36] Peter: [00:37:36] Perfect. Thanks a lot again. Hope to see you soon.
[00:37:41] Jon: [00:37:41] Yes. Yes. This happens. We will be back stronger.
