Here is a transcript of the video:
I am very happy to welcome Nicolas Fatou who you know well, who has the Automatique BNB and it is an activity in general, so we will be able to discuss with him, ask him all our questions, even the worst questions, he There's no taboo, so that's really nice. My name is Nicolas, actually Nicolas Fatou , and then my, I am known as Automatique Nicolas from Automatique BNB . And so I do, on the one hand, short-term rentals . Currently, I manage 20 short-term rentals with the particularity that on the side, I still have my professional activity. I am a CPE in a college, so I am a civil servant in national education. And since 2021, I have been helping short-term rental companies reduce all the time-consuming tasks they may have in this activity. And my promise is to allow them to manage their short-term rental in just 2 hours per week. Awesome !
When I started short-term rental until 2021, yeah, that's it, I was 100%. And in 2022, I moved part-time to national education. So there you have it, I combined these two activities, well these three activities themselves: CPE and at the same time short-term rental . And I am therefore also concrete proof that well, what I put in place in my support, that is to say the fact of managing several properties and having free time to do other things. For me, it’s to have another professional activity or do training. For you, it could be having a family life, enjoying your life in a different way. Well, it works, so there you go.
And then, the reality too is that the fact that I am a civil servant, well that allows me, even if at the moment, the rates are a little complicated, it still allows me to continue to invest in real estate, because this status, even if I am part-time, makes it easier for me to obtain credits. And I repeat it often: before being an infopreneur , because that's what we call online trainers, I am above all an investor, because my journey began in 2016, and I, it It's really something that I want to continue to act on, that is to say, to be able to continue to invest quite easily, and this status allows me to do that.
And on the other hand, it's also the reality, it's that I, my job, I love it. So there is something that we need to share transparently, which is that before we started this interview, I told you, good Nicolas, frankly, I admit to you, all the speeches on ' automation , not necessarily super agree with everything. It's true that at the complete poster , you see, we have a lot of people who sometimes arrive a little disillusioned, you see, to say to themselves: "Well, in fact, I thought that I would have nothing to do, what . Nothing. " Really. And for me, it’s true, I have a little trouble with that, because we remain a professional activity, there are still things to do and etc.
And you said to me: “Let’s talk about it, it’s interesting. » And so that's a bit of the starting question that I want to ask you in relation to this, what is your position precisely on this, on this famous subject of the automation of seasonal rentals ? So, my position on this is clear: I'm not saying that by automating your activity, there will be nothing to do. Besides, my promise that I said earlier is to manage your short-term rental in 2 hours per week. It's not managing a short-term rental in an automated and you don't have to do anything, that doesn't exist. This is the world of care bears.
On the other hand, automated for me is essential. For what ? Because there are tasks which are important to implement and which do not bring added value whether it is you who does it or whether it is an automaton which could be a channel manager or other. That is to say, for example, you are having a family meal at 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m., you are eating, someone is reserving your accommodation. The traveler currently needs accommodation quite quickly and that is why he sees there, one minute, then what he needs. It's just information to be able to access the accommodation, to be sure that payment has taken place, that the calendar is synchronized, and etc. That’s automation that will do it. You, the added value that you will bring, is that if this traveler who arrives at 7:30 p.m., perhaps after half an hour, an hour, he is stuck or he has returned to your accommodation, he can't connect to I don't know, the wifi or the hob is buggy, and etc. Well, he's going to call. You will be able to answer, but that means that it will have taken you 5 minutes to answer the phone. If you didn't set up the automation , well from 7:30 p.m. when you had the reservation, you had to stop your meal with your children and your husband, you had to send him all the information, and etc. And that's in the best of all worlds, if you saw that there was a reservation that had fallen through.
Besides, even the biggest groups , like Hilton and so on, there is automation . When you book with them on their website, it's not someone writing the message to thank you, it's automated. We give you the information, we give you a telephone number directly. That's it, if there is a problem, you contact us, here is your reservation number, we are available in such a way. And then there is message automation.
But on the other hand, you make something available so that people can contact you. And when you call them, on the other hand, well when they call you, you are immediately available, and that's what people expect today, is to have the answers to their questions. And sometimes, they will get the answers to their questions thanks to the welcome guide, thanks to automated messages and from time to time, they will get them, uh, via a human, but not always. Actually, not always.
But on the other hand, if you always put human, human, human, for you, it will be very time-consuming. And the moment you have a traveler who shows you something important and he really needs you because the information is nowhere, you, perhaps at that moment, you will not be available. Well, because you only have one day, like everyone else, and maybe you'll be a little annoyed because you feel like you've answered the same question 10 times to 10 different travelers.
But that, uh, that's why a lot of systems, and even big groups like C discount , Amazon , et cetera, automate as many things as possible. On the other hand, where these large groups are strong is that they have customer service that responds quickly when there is a problem. And that's where you have to do your part of the bargain, is to be available when the traveler calls you.
But therefore, he must logically call you only in emergency cases which are not foreseen in the entire automated system that you have put in place. Hm, okay. So, that's precisely my next question: what if we had to give, you see, two or three examples of the things that you recommend automating or the things that need to be automated first, you see, for example in its activity B, it seems obvious people often do it, it's the synchronization of calendars, autonomous entry , therefore the automation of access to housing, the same with connected key boxes, it's very good, it's even more secure than one, than a key box or than one, in fact, which would be the ideal world, is a connected lock.
For what ? Because it is impossible to duplicate the connected lock, you know who entered the accommodation with what code, you know when your cleaning service provider came by. So that's important. And automate the sending of the welcome guide so that the person can prepare their stay, so that they have all the information, automate the collection and automate the deposit, that's the basis for avoiding, uh, losing time to, to do these actions.
And there, moreover, all these actions, when you go into large groups, it's automated, so that's important and that, for me, is the minimum that needs to be done today. today. We are in an increasingly digital world and people are very demanding with that. They don't understand why when they have just booked, they don't have a message, an email that arrives in the seconds that arrives in their mailbox. We're all the same, we've just taken out our bank card, we've just paid, it's not to have a pre-app, finally pre-approved, where it says "well, we'll wait for the owner to tell you agrees.” People don't like that. We are in the instant now, we wait a quarter of an hour to receive an email when it could be instantaneous. People are more and more demanding with this. We're talking about artificial intelligence, et cetera.
I mean today, waiting 15 minutes for an email, waiting for an owner to grant us the ability to stay with them and so on, that creates friction in the traveler's journey and there are a lot of travelers now who are say "yeah, it's not very professional, it's not very serious, I don't even know who I paid", et cetera. And there may be a cancellation happening right away. So, that’s why I say that automation also improves the traveler’s journey, because it makes them safer and reassures them by saying “there is a system behind it which is quite responsive”. So, it is in this sense that I think that these are the first steps at a minimum that must be automated today.
And you, for the 20 properties, how long does it take you to manage the 20 properties each week? Well, today I spend between 15 and 20 minutes every day. That is to say, what happens is that I have my little routine every day, my, I look at my calendar, I look at what is filled, by filled, and I especially look at my three indicators which, for me, are important: my turnover, my average price per year, and my occupancy rate. And I look each time if these three data overperform, underperform, or are at the same level
“Hmm, ok, ok for that. What do you think are the prospects for Chat GPT in our field of activity? Well, I think that Chat GPT will be able, at some point – well, it already does it, but still with a lot of bugs – to be able to answer questions from our travelers that are quite simplistic, well quite simplistic . This is how to use – uh, I don't know – how to use the microwave, how to use the dishwasher in the apartment, et cetera. He will be able to respond with a chatbot . It's complicated in the sense that if the question is asked incorrectly, the answer will be poorly transmitted. The advantage with artificial intelligence is that even if the traveler asks the question in a foreign language or makes spelling mistakes, et cetera, the artificial intelligence will understand what is happening and respond. So, these are things where it is certain that it will evolve, uh, very very quickly, and that is, it is, it is still positive. Even we see it, even when we go to Airbnb , when we ask for assistance , we, we, we ask questions, it quickly sends us right to left on the, the good stuff before a human speaks to us. But that's the same thing, I'm sure there is artificial intelligence behind it, because whatever the form of the question, they quickly understand where we want to go. So, it's going to be the same, eh. I think that subsequently, what will happen with artificial intelligence is that the traveler will be able, uh, to have an application where he asks the questions, he will have the answers, and if the answer is not possible by artificial intelligence , I don't know, it will call you or it will give you information so that you can call the traveler. I even tell myself that in a world perhaps not so distant, uh, someone who is in the, who is in the apartment will be able to say instead of saying today tell me Siri et cetera, that's is basically tell me how to use this thing, and then there's something, maybe there's a microphone that will respond. Well, it might even be the future, I don't know, but uh, it's going so fast, artificial intelligence, and there we even see, for example, Airbnb in its winter version is in the process of setting up artificial intelligence to know in what order to put the photos. I don't know if you've seen your Airbnb . This means that today, artificial intelligence will not do it for you. For me, it's not that vision, but if you already have knowledge, et cetera, your knowledge and your power will be multiplied. So, if today you already have training, finally free training, paid training, finally, in short, the way in which you have developed knowledge in short-term rental, to talk about, the announcement, when the ' artificial intelligence will make you suggestions, well you will be able to immediately think whether what artificial intelligence corresponds to the way you see things or not, and will be able to save you a lot of time. It's the same as editing a welcome guide, or editing automatic messages, or editing an announcement. If you know, for example, you know how to build an attractive on, uh, on Airbnb , uh, you will give all the elements to Chat GPT , and it will be able to come up with, uh, something that is even more powerful than this that you wanted to do. On the other hand, if you give him anything to do, he will do anything to you. It's not, it doesn't make you belong. It's like automation, it doesn't make you, uh, in your place, it's at a given moment, it's to multiply, uh, the power and your knowledge. In any case, that's the way I see things, uh, and on the other hand, what will be good, perhaps - well, I don't know, it's my vision - is to say that uh, it will revalue manual professions because that, artificial intelligence will not give you this possibility. That is to say, artificial intelligence , for the moment, we are not replacing the cleaning lady , for example, uh, but uh, but there you go, after maybe later, that will do it , but in any case, it's not, it's not at all the case, uh, that's it. So, uh, I think that it can really, uh, multiply the knowledge of people who uh, already have knowledge, but that, if you are not trained, well if you enter anything into Chat GPT , that will be nonsense in the end anyway. And do you use it for automation? So, for example, to recreate messages, for example, I have clients, so my email sequences are more or less always the same, but for example, if I see a client who tells me uh, I don't know , uh, what is the wifi code, and then I see that the Wi-Fi code, it is installed in my automatic message, I say to myself, that's been several times that the client tells me it's still strange , so I'm going to put my message back in Chat GPT , I'm going to say here, can you highlight the wifi code more, modify it in the message if necessary so that if a traveler comes to my accommodation can see quickly the information, and then like that, he quickly restructures the message which keeps the substance of what I was saying, except that in a few seconds, he redoes the thing. The same when, for example, I have a fairly long and fairly complex message from a traveler, well that simply allows me to structure my idea, that is to say, I'm going to tell him, here's the message that I received from such a traveler on Airbnb , I want to reply this, this, this, this, this, can you structure my response so that the response is professional? So for me, instead of wasting 10 minutes creating a message, because there, well ah I didn't automate it, well, directly in a few seconds, well, in a few minutes in any case, it's done. Same for responding to a traveler comment, instead of always having the same traveler comment responses, well it also allows you to have responses to the traveler comment that are different, but which are also done in a few seconds and which are professional . But above all, I'll repeat it here, to use artificial intelligence and in particular Chat GPT , you have to provide a good prompt , that is to say give it the context in which it will work uh and what is -what you expect from him and know how to reread the answer he will give you to be sure that what he gives as an answer corresponds to what you wanted to say. So, in fact, the advantage is that you say to yourself… Uh, I want this to be the result I want to have. I don't want to waste time going through the whole process to achieve the result. I know that to achieve the result, we need this and that and we ask Chat GPT to structure to achieve this result in a few seconds instead of putting it in several minutes or several hours and so that saves us a lot of time. time what. Yeah, great! Can you give us the worst errors that you have seen in automation or the errors or the error, I don't know if there is perhaps only one example, but you see in relation to that, the errors you see on the automation?
Well, already on automation today, for example, to connect in an iCal synchronization, that is to say we synchronize the calendars between for example Airbnb and Booking . We suggest you do this with an iCal connection. An IAL connection is not instantaneous. The problem is that, as it is not instantaneous, you have the risk of overbooking which is significant. For me, the iCal is old school, that is to say, it's what was happening 5, 6 years ago. Um, now we need to connect to XML . And when I hear people who say, yeah but the XML connection, you have to pay a channel manager . Ok, uh, you're going to pay a channel manager, except that here, the advantage is that you don't risk overbooking and uh, you have peace of mind. So that, for example, for me it's a big mistake, to still stay with tools that are obsolete, that can work 90% of the time or 95% of the time but there is always 5% of major errors which means that if you have a lot of accommodation or if you are in a tense period where there are a lot of reservations, well there is too much risk of overbooking, for example.
This also happens in automation , well quite simply people who don't even automate the confirmation of the reservation. Finally, that's the basis, I mean, I said it earlier, we have a credit card, we have just paid, we have apart from the message from Airbnb , we we don't even know, or Booking , we don't even know if the owner is aware that he has a reservation in his accommodation. And so, that’s important.
Another mistake is not giving any news between the time I book and the time I come, I arrive. It's actually, I've been booking for 10 days and I haven't heard anything. So, I'm not even sure that when I show up in front of the apartment I'll be able to enter the accommodation. And what happens when you don't do that, well after a while it will stress the traveler, he will ask you lots of questions at once in fact, and you may not be able to answer him immediately and there, if he is still within his time frame to cancel, he will cancel in fact, he will cancel he will be ready to pay more by saying but I will tell you if I arrive at such a destination as I can go back. So uh so that's it for me these are errors which are important uh and conversely the most error which is in the other direction is to automate everything and to actually think that we have nothing to do we we're going to stand under the coconut trees and then we're going to let the shop run, no that's not possible, we're doing a hospitality job, we mustn't forget that we have 1, 2, 5 or 30 accommodations and so at a given moment in hospitality the other must be available at a given moment when the traveler needs it and that is also important uh that is why it is important I say to free yourself all this time to be available to the traveler when necessary but if you have nothing automated beforehand you waste all your time in everything that is not automated and when at a given moment the traveler needs you for a request well either you are not available or either you are accran or you have a huge mental load and in addition in your tone in the way in which you are going to respond to the traveler it will be a little dry you will be a little laconic or you will perhaps - not even answer him because you only have one day and then at that time you are not available so in fact you really have to keep in mind, in any case for me, that's how I see it. if my phone rings it means there is a problem so I have to answer that but I shouldn't tell myself I have 30 calls 50 calls per day and well once on two I can't answer otherwise the traveler will tell you it's not going well yeah so you shouldn't be in the fully automated extreme and think like you said earlier that we're not going to do anything about that. is a false promise I say it clearly it's bullshit and the opposite of nothing automa by saying it will dehumanize that it's the same it's bullshit unless you are in the qu or 5 star segment or there welcome personalized et cetera but here you are not on the same range of services yeah to conclude our exchange do you want to tell us a little about what you do and how we can be helped by your services so What I do is I support both rental companies, sub-renters and concierge services in reducing all their time-consuming tasks. That's why I teach them to automate, so here we're talking about automation but also learning to delegate, that's - say to recruit a winning team recruit cleaning service providers City managers to structure yourself as I said earlier uh it is the structure behind me that I created which allows me today to be in management and also therefore to standardize your activity and therefore the promise behind it is to allow you to manage your short-term rental in just 2 hours per week so for that I put support in place and coaching and I say support it's not training it's not just you watch videos and then you don't have access to me it's support, that is to say there is also a video space but there is above all support where we do personalized coaching together based on your situation. “
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