THE SA CEO PROGRAMME
87% of SA operators are running a hospitality business with a property investor's mindset. This is the programme that changes that
Limited to 15 participants. Application required. Next Intake 14th September 2026
THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
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THE EXAMPLES BELOW ARE REAL - THEY ARE NOT UNICORNS.
OUR BLUEPRINT PROVIDES PARTICIPANTS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND SUPPORT TO REPLICATE OR ECLIPSE THESE RETURN.
3 BED TERRACE
LIVERPOOL
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LOCATION RESEARCH SUGGESTED £23K REVENUE​
ACTUAL REVENUE 2025 - £53,000​​
PURCHASE PRICE £129K
CURRENT VALUATION £150K
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ADR - £89 Higher than Competitors​
Occupancy 34.1% Higher than Competitors
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10 Year ROI based on 2.5% HPI - 522%
10 Year ROI based on 5% HPI - 615%
10 Year ROI based on 7.18% HPI - 714%
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AIRBNB WORLD TOP 5%
5 BED TOWNHOUSE
WIRRAL
LOCATION RESEARCH SUGGESTED £45K REVENUE
ACTUAL REVENUE 2025 - £81,000
PURCHASE PRICE £157K - RENOVATIONS £100K
CURRENT VALUATION - £350K
FORCED APPRECIATION £73,000
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ADR - £190 Higher than Competitors
Occupancy 40% Higher than Competitors
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10 YEAR ROI AT 2.5% HPI - £400K
10 YEAR ROI @ 5% HPI - £517K
10 YEAR ROI AT 7.18% HPI - £640K
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AIRBNB WORLD TOP 10%
Properties we have guided to World Top 5% and Top 10% status. Average houses. Exceptional execution. Proven results you can replicate.
The PROGRAMME
Most SA operators never close the gap between where they are and what their business could deliver. Not because they lack capital or the right property, but because nobody has ever shown them what professional hospitality execution actually looks like from the inside.
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The SA CEO Programme changes that. Over twelve months, working directly and personally with David and Samantha, you will develop the knowledge, judgement and operating systems that separate the 13% of professional operators from everyone else. The programme begins with a three-day residential at our World Top 10% rated properties, where you will experience the standard you are building towards. Ten progressive modules follow, supported by weekly then monthly calls, a private community and direct access to us throughout.
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This is not a course. It is a transformation. Fifteen places per cohort. £10,000. Application required.
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Special Offer - £6,000 (inc VAT)
WHY MOST SA OPERATORS PLATEAU
Most property investors arrive in serviced accommodation with capital, enthusiasm and deal-finding skills. What they do not have, and what nobody in the property education space ever gives them, is a hospitality operator's mindset.
The result is five capability gaps that silently constrain performance from day one:
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They evaluate properties like investors rather than hospitality strategists.
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They optimise for occupancy rather than profit.
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They decorate spaces rather than engineer conversion experiences.
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They provide accommodation rather than systematise guest excellence.
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They compete on price rather than position for premium rates.
The result is mediocre returns, constant firefighting and assets that plateau rather than compound. The gap between where they are and what their business could deliver widens every year, because the operators who do understand hospitality execution are pulling further ahead, not standing still.
The SA CEO Programme exists to close that gap.
Essential education and support irrespective of the operational model
The programme is essential for aspiring professional operators irrespective of the operational model - hands on, hybrid or hands off.
Having the ability to professionally research, acquire and position your property to maximise the revenue is even more important if you intend to outsource. Knowing how to develop design, pricing strategies, guest communication and set up and refine technology to ensure consistently excellent execution is universally beneficial. Whether to define the model that works for you, whether its set up your own systems and processes or ensuring that partners can deliver the standards and experiences for guests that maximise revenue and profit.
Looking to Outsource Operations?
Most operators chase SA because they want “passive income.” Here’s what property education won’t tell you:
Passive operations are harder, not easier.
When you outsource hosting, you multiply profit leakage points:
- Management company takes 15-25% of revenue
- Their cleaners cost more than yours
- Their “systems” are vanilla, not optimized
- They optimize for their efficiency, not your revenue
- They have no incentive to maximise your ADR or Profit
- Quality control becomes invisible to you
The result? You accept whatever revenue they generate because you don’t know what’s actually possible.
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It is more important you know what you can demand.
Looking to Self Operate
Everything you need to research, locate and define your strategic positioning to maximise revenue. How to define the best operational model for your circumstances while developing the hospitality expertise essential for exceptional results - even from average properties.
There are many different models and the programme will equip you to operate the best one for you. While we advise to retain the channel management and dynamic pricing this isn't essential - what is essential if that you know what you need to know to manage any partner you work with.
When you know - major elements of this operational set up demand very little of professional operators and we will guide participants to set everything up in the most stable model for them.
If you acquired a hotel you wouldn't look to a property expert for advice?
Serviced Accommodation or Short Term Rentals are essentially Hotels. They are most certainly closer to being Hotels than they are to being Buy To Let's or HMO's.
This isn't right for everyone
We accept fifteen participants per cohort. Not because we are artificially creating scarcity, but because genuine transformation requires genuine attention. Every participant works directly with David and Samantha. That means fifteen is not a marketing number. It is a capacity reality.
We are looking for operators who are serious about building professional SA businesses and who understand that the capability gap is closed through knowledge and systematic execution, not through finding a better property or a cheaper management company.
This is not the programme for you if you are looking for shortcuts, set-and-forget solutions or done-for-you services. It is not for you if you believe that more properties will solve a methodology problem, or that passive income means no involvement or knowledge. It is not for you if you cannot commit to twelve months of deliberate capability development.
If none of that describes you, keep reading. If it does, our Substack is the right place to start and the door here will be open when you are ready
Why work with US?
Every participant in the SA CEO Programme works directly with David and Samantha. There are no associates, no delegates and no substitutes. What you are paying for is access to two people who have built, operated and refined World Top 10% rated SA properties from average houses in average locations, and who have spent decades developing the hospitality expertise that makes that possible.
David's career spans senior operational leadership across some of the UK's most respected hospitality businesses including M&B, Restaurant Group and Fullers, before moving into national leadership roles leading a Sector Skills Council, a National Skills Council and the UK's principal hospitality trade body. In those roles he worked directly with Disney, McDonald's, UK Government Secretary of States and the leadership of the UK hospitality industry, shaping the standards and capability frameworks that define professional hospitality practice.
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Samantha's background combines senior hospitality operations with a rare commercial and creative range. She conceived, built and successfully exited a cutting-edge table reservation technology company, and brings that blend of operational rigour and entrepreneurial precision to every property she designs as a professional interior designer. The spaces she creates are not decorated. They are engineered for guest experience and commercial performance.
Our properties are not illustrations of what is possible. They are the proof.
core modules
HOSPITALITY CEO MINDSET
Property investor thinking is the single biggest constraint on SA performance. Not the property. Not the location. Not the market. This module establishes the paradigm shift that changes every decision you make from acquisition through to guest experience, and demonstrates through the Airbnb Algorithm and Edinburgh case studies why regulation removes amateur operators whilst creating a growing competitive advantage for those operating to professional hospitality standards.
LIFE DESIGN, VISION & STRATEGIC PLANNING
Most operators build without defining what they are building towards. They acquire opportunistically, set arbitrary income targets and allow the business to consume their life rather than serve it. This module works backwards from the life you actually want to the specific business parameters required to deliver it, and challenges the assumption that more properties equals more success. Strategic clarity is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between building a business with purpose and drifting into reactive property accumulation.
MARKET ANALYSIS & SITE SELECTION
Location mistakes cannot be fixed through operational excellence. This is the one decision you cannot reverse, which makes it the one decision that demands a professional research framework rather than gut instinct or software forecasts. This module teaches the three-level analysis that professional operators use, from macro demand drivers and regulatory landscape down to street-level competitor assessment and property-specific opportunity evaluation. The critical insight is that software forecasts systematically underestimate what professional execution delivers, as our own properties consistently demonstrate.
FINANCIAL APPRAISAL & INVESTMENT STRATEGY
Amateur financial appraisals produce amateur decisions. When software forecasts cap your revenue expectations at £45,000 and professional execution delivers £83,110, the entire investment model changes. This module teaches you to build financial projections that account for what professional hospitality execution actually delivers, covering total investment calculation, capital efficiency versus equity creation pathways, and regulation and compliance costs that most appraisals ignore entirely. The numbers most operators dismiss as unrealistic are the numbers professional operators build their businesses on.
GUEST AVATARS, USE CASES & STRATEGIC POSITIONING
Average operators try to appeal to everyone and end up being exceptional for nobody. They furnish generically, write bland listings and price without understanding who they are pricing for. This module transforms market research into specific guest profiles that drive every subsequent decision you make, from design choices and amenity provision through to listing copy and pricing strategy. The critical insight is that guest avatars are not restrictions on who can book. They are the clarity that makes you exceptional for the guests whose bookings your business is built to attract."
DESIGN EXCELLENCE & VISUAL STORYTELLING
Design in serviced accommodation is not decoration. It is strategic communication that either wins or loses the booking in three seconds. This module teaches how professional design creates the pattern interruption that stops a guest scrolling, the visual storytelling that converts that pause into a click, and the functional excellence that converts that click into a five-star review. Every pound invested in design is competing for guest attention in the micro-moment when booking decisions happen. This module ensures that investment works as hard as it possibly can.
TECH STACK & OPERATIONAL STRATEGY
Most operators build their technology stack by accumulating tools. They select software based on price and promises and end up with disconnected systems that create gaps, inefficiencies and points of failure that guests experience before the operator even notices. This module works backwards from your guest experience vision to the specific operational capabilities required to deliver it consistently. The result is not a shopping list of software subscriptions but a coherent operating system where every component serves the guest experience you have promised and the revenue targets you have set.
MARKETING, REVIEWS & CHANNEL OPTIMISATION
Fighting Airbnb keeps operators poor. The commission is not the problem. Mediocre execution that fails to justify premium rates is the problem. This module teaches how to generate demand, earn World Top 10% status and maximise platform visibility without algorithm gimmicks or shortcuts. The contrarian insight that most property educators will never tell you is that platform algorithms reward genuine quality signals, which means the most powerful marketing strategy available to any SA operator is delivering an exceptional guest experience consistently and systematically. This module shows you exactly how that is done.
OPERATIONS & GUEST EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Exceptional guest experience does not happen by accident. It happens because every touchpoint from initial enquiry through to post-checkout follow-up has been deliberately designed, systematically delivered and continuously refined. This module builds the complete operational framework that makes consistent excellence possible, covering communication strategies that balance efficiency with genuine personalisation, turnaround protocols that eliminate blocked days between bookings, maintenance systems that prevent rather than react, and the integration chains that connect every operational decision. The honest conversations about minimum stays, pricing for operational load and why outsourcing guest communication is a strategic error rather than a time management solution are all in here.
MEASUREMENT, METRICS & CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
90% occupancy can mean you are a busy fool. Vanity metrics mislead and amateur operators celebrate the wrong numbers while the performance gap between them and professional operators widens. This module teaches you to read your business through the numbers that actually matter, understanding why RevPAR tells you more than occupancy or ADR in isolation and how to identify early warning signals before they become revenue problems. The critical principle is that professional operators do not set and forget. They measure, learn and refine continuously, which is precisely why the flywheel of exceptional execution compounds over time rather than plateauing.
READY TO APPLY
Fifteen places. One cohort per year. June 2026.
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If the capability gaps described on this page sound familiar, and the methodology that closes them sounds like what your business needs, the next step is an application. We review every application personally and will tell you honestly whether the programme is the right fit for where you are now.
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If you are not quite ready, our Substack publication The Brief delivers evidence-based insights from our active operations every week. No cost. No commitment. The door here stays open.
NOT READY TO APPLY YET
If you would like to speak with us before submitting an application we welcome that conversation. We would rather spend thirty minutes establishing whether this programme is right for you than have either of us commit to something that is not the right fit.
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Contact us directly and we will arrange a call.
