We're going to introduce ourselves, of course, starting doing this, sharing data with you.

We're talking about what the book direct date is, how it got started,

and try to think what will are interesting in this topic nowadays.

I think direct bookings are actually cheaper for hosts. Is it as well, in a way,

isn't it direct booking actually pushed by people who want to flock there? You know, direct bookings,

software, websites, challenge management, right? Is it a whole conspiracy to get us to buy

yet more services in software? Again, I'm the devil's advocate, no hate here. All right, so,

as I said, so Mark, maybe you want to choose yourself for people who may not know you yet?

Yeah, so first and foremost, my name is Mark Simpson. I founded a company called

Boostley back in 2016. I've been in this industry of hospitality and short term rental for many,

many years now. A lot of people in the Zoom room will, I think they know who I am,

but for those who don't, I was pretty much born into hospitality on a two-day

care farm stay bed and breakfast in Scarborough in the northeast of the UK.

I grew up with my free brothers and sisters and I had one goal and that was to escape.

I wanted to escape the small town. I wanted to go and travel and I wanted to be a soccer player,

a football player, one problem with that. I'm not very good at playing football. If anybody's

ever seen you play football before, you will know why. So I fell into soccer coaching and got my

qualifications, got my UEFA B badges and then got the amazing opportunity to go to America,

spent many years in America coaching, coaching soccer, coaching the football and 2011 ended up

back in the UK, ended up in London of all places and my parents who had the business for about

25 years at that point asked me and my then fiancee now wife to come back into the business and

that started me on this very crazy journey of helping that family business grow online visibility

...