Hospitality is an important element of the short-term rental business, but it’s too often forgotten in favor of saving money. But little touches, like a tissue box tucked under the bathroom sink, can make or break a guest review.

On this episode of Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing, Jonathan interviews Katie Cline, a senior global public relations and communications leader. Katie is also a storyteller and the host of the Suite Success podcast. In the last three years, she has become a short-term rental investor, using her hospitality background to create memorable stays for her guests.

Jonathan and Katie explore her decision to get into short-term rentals after she built a successful career in hospitality. Katie explains hospitality's role in STR success, catering to guest needs and wants in a property, and ensuring you’ve set the right expectation within the first 10 minutes of their arrival. She shares why she believes AI is removing personalization from the STR world, the importance of responding quickly to a guest’s concerns, and the difficulties of scaling a business, maintaining high standards, and retaining a personal touch. As they wrap up, Katie explains why differentiating your brand from others can help your STRs stand out and her thoughts on Marriott’s acquisition of Postcard Cabins.

Boutique hotel hospitality translates well to STRs, and Katie Cline shares how she does it.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Katie Cline’s decision to get into short-term rentals after building a career in hospitality
• The role of hospitality in creating STR success
• Catering to yourself to understand what your guests want in a property
• Setting expectations within the first 10 minutes of a guest’s arrival
• Katie’s advice to address an issue if you hear it more than once
• How AI is removing some of the personalization from STR stays
• Using a quick response time to mitigate any issues with a stay and using open-ended questions to understand a guest’s needs
• Scaling the business while retaining a personal touch and maintaining high standards
• Differentiating your brand from the competition and knowing your market
• Responding to guests’ needs and wants when they let you know something is missing
• Taking a page from the hotel playbook to set yourself up for success
• Marriott’s acquisition of Postcard Cabins and what was behind that decision
• What you can expect to hear on Katie’s podcast, Suite Success

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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://zenandtheartofrealestateinvesting.com/podcast/216/ to download it.

Supporting Resources:

Suite Success podcast - www.suitesuccesspodcast.com

Suite Success on YouTube - www.youtube.com/@suitesuccesspodcast

Suite Success on Facebook - www.facebook.com/suitesuccesspodcast

Find Suite Success on Instagram - www.instagram.com/suitesuccesspodcast

Connect with Katie Cline on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/katiecline13

Trout Landing - www.trout-landing.com

Katie Cline’s website - www.bykatiecline.com

Website - www.streamlined.properties

YouTube - www.youtube.com/c/JonathanGreeneRE/videos

Instagram - www.instagram.com/trustgreene

Instagram - www.instagram.com/streamlinedproperties

TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@trustgreene

Zillow - www.zillow.com/profile/StreamlinedReal

Bigger Pockets - www.biggerpockets.com/users/TrustGreene

Facebook - www.facebook.com/streamlinedproperties

Email - [email protected]

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you.