Get Paid For Your Pad | Airbnb Hosting | Vacation Rentals | STR Revenue Management

There are any number of forums and online groups for short-term rental hosts. But Airbnb operators who manage 25-plus listings don’t seem to have a community where they can share the unique challenges of scaling and managing a vacation rental business with multiple units. Enter STR Legends Live Mastermind Retreat, an epic live event planned for this summer in Puerto Rico.

A master at organizing live and online events, Eric Moeller is the host of the Airbnb Mastery Summit, a platform where he interviews top experts in short-term rentals and real estate from around the world, and the creator of Cohost Mastery. In addition, he serves as the founder and CEO of Homtel, a luxury, short-term rental leasing and hosting company out of California. Eric also happens to be helping me cohost the upcoming STR Legends Live Mastermind June 27 through July 1, 2019.

Today, Eric and I explain why we organized STR Legends Live, describing the need for a community of established operators focused on scaling a professional short-term rental business. We discuss the topics covered at the retreat, who can apply, and what attendees can expect at the event—including a villa on the beach, personal chef and mind-blowing excursion. Listen in for insight around how you can benefit from the mastermind (even if you can’t attend) and learn how getting involved in a community of operators can help you grow your own Airbnb business!

The impetus behind STR Legends Live

• Community for established operators of multiple units
• Focus on growing professional business, finding clients
• Opportunity to network + share ideas and challenges

The topics we’ll cover at the retreat

• Best tech to manage calendars, pricing, etc.
• Growth challenges, strategies to scale business

Who’s invited to apply for the event

• Operators with 25+ units in position of growth
• Property managers and developers

The sponsors and presenters scheduled for STR Legends Live

• NoiseAware and Organized Gains
• Talking to Booking.com, Properly

The particulars of STR Legends Live in Puerto Rico

• 11BR villa on beach near San Juan
• Runs from June 27 to July 1
• $3500 all-inclusive fee ($1K deposit)

How small operators can get involved in STR Legends Live

• Introduce lead for all-access pass to content
• $250 reward if lead chooses to attend

Cohost Mastery

Airbnb Mastery Summit

Eric on LinkedIn

Airbnb Profit Club on Facebook

STR Legends Live Retreat

Eric on GPFYP EP175

Eric on GPFYP EP256

NoiseAware

Organized Gains

Booking.com

Properly

Simon on GPFYP EP277

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

Instagram: @GetPaidForYourPad 

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Airbnb News Facebook Group

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Airbnb is a momentum game. The more bookings you get, the more users see your listing in search results. Build a solid reputation, and you become one of the top Airbnbs in your city. But in order to get those initial bookings and build that momentum, you have to make it as easy as possible for guests to book your Airbnb!

My friend, Simon Lewis, lists his home in Cape Town, South Africa, and it’s a beautiful space in an ideal location. Unfortunately, his bookings have declined in recent months. Today on the podcast, we’re taking a look at his listing to find out why.

First, Simon describes the features of his Airbnb, explaining what makes it special and how it’s managed currently. We debate the pros and cons of allowing one-night stays, and Simon explains why he’s hesitant to set his listing to Instant Book and relax his cancellation policy. We also discuss simple ways to improve your position in search results, like changing the order of your photos and maintaining your calendar. Listen in for our plan to improve Simon’s results on Airbnb and learn how to build momentum for YOUR listing so it ranks near the top!

An overview of Simon’s Airbnb in Cape Town

• 1BR by beach in desirable area
• Slow during winter months (May—August)
• Friend does check-ins, local cleaning co.

The benefits of using the Instant Book setting

• Airbnb promotes listing in search results
• Build momentum as reputation grows

Why Simon is hesitant to use Instant Book

• Fear of theft from personal home
• Avoid bad reviews by talking to guest first

How you can protect yourself AND use Instant Book

• Use Airbnb Resolution Center for stolen items
• Allowed to cancel booking 3X penalty-free
• Set conditions for who can Instant Book

Tips for maintaining your Airbnb calendar

• Open up for booking full year in advance
• Update daily to demonstrate accuracy

How to order photos for your greatest advantage

• Use collage of photos in first position
• First 5 should show different spaces
• Research nearby listings + stand out

Our plan to improve Simon’s results on Airbnb

1. Set listing to Instant Book
2. Maintain calendar
3. Reduce minimum stay to one night
4. Change order of photos
5. Shift to flexible cancellation policy

How to handle requests for early check-in

• Allow guests to leave bags while cleaning
• Recommend nearby restaurants, shopping

Simon’s Airbnb Listing

Simon on Twitter

Get Paid for Your Pad on YouTube

Get Paid for Your Pad Blog

Get Paid for Your Pad Email List

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

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Airbnb News Facebook Group

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Today I chat with Kevin Mah, founder of Rankbreeze. Kevin is an Airbnb SEO specialist and he did a study to find out how Airbnb personalization affects search results. Airbnb's search algorithm takes into account the user's unique profile when calculating which listings to show. Factors include historic data such as what listings the user has clicked on in the past and historic bookings. 

Here are some takeaways from the study Kevin performed. 

1. The longer a user spends viewing a listing, the more likely Airbnb is to show that listing again. This suggests that it's beneficial to have a large number of photos and a wordy description to increase the time that potential guests spend viewing your listing. 

2. The personalization effect is smaller for listings that typically rank on the first page. In other words, no matter the user profile, certain listings are always shown by Airbnb. Listings that rank on lower pages have more variability. This confirms the importance of getting to the first page. 

3. Airbnb refused to move listings with poor photos up the search results, no matter how often they were clicked on. This reinforces the importance of having high quality photos on your listing. 

Email: [email protected]

Website: RankBreeze

More info: Rankbreeze Review 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

Instagram: @GetPaidForYourPad 

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Airbnb News Facebook Group

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In today's episode I discuss news updates in short term rental land with Margot Schmorak, CEO of Hostfully.

Items discussed:

Skift Forum Europe: Airbnb Is Doubling Down on Experiences

The Airbnb Invasion of Barcelona

Airbnb Leads $160 Million Investment Into Hospitality Startup Lyric

Airbnb improves security deposit feature

STR Legends Live

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Today I chat with John Oden, superhost with properties in Nashville and Florida. John hosts his properties with his wife Ellen under the brand Stay in the South. He's a firm believer in offering his guests the best hospitality possible by creating outstanding guest experiences. Here's how he does it.

1. We really focus on building a great guest experience, and we do so by making sure we absolutely nail the basics. Cleanliness is #1 - we are fanatical and impress that upon our housekeepers, who are wonderful. Getting our technology right - the fastest WiFi we can get in every property. We have just gone through a round of HD-TV updates where we have a HD-TV with cable and WiFi in every living room and each bedroom. The last two homes we updated, we went with 4K TVs.
2. Coffee! Guests love it - we have a Keurig coffee system in each property and are also adding a secondary drip coffee maker in each property for those who prefer it.
3. Lighting - we use LED lighting everywhere, inside and out. Almost eliminates bulb changing. Dusk-to-Dawn lights outside, and festive string lights over the outdoor courtyards and decks. 
4. Prior to guest arrival, we have all the TVs on, and have the place lit up so the guests arrive to a bright and lively space. Especially important when guests arrive after dark so they aren't trying to find their way through the shadows
5. Beverages - we provide bottles of water in the fridge, coffee service with sweeteners, creamers, tea bags, tea kettle.
6. We also ask about guests preferred beverage, maybe a bottle of red or white wine, craft beers or even something totally different. We have that waiting upon their arrival.
7. Personal hand-written note in the guest book, welcoming the guest by name, thanking them for booking with us and encouraging them to call or text anytime if they have a question
8. We contact our guest immediately upon booking, or even inquiry, and offer our local expertise to help them find things they might not find on their own. We ask them about their plans and things they would like to see and do, and make suggestions based on our local knowledge.
9. We communicate multiple times before, during and after the guests stay.
10. We publicly respond to every guest review, 93% of which are five-star. We thank the guest for choosing our place and booking their stay, thank them for their kind words and for taking care of our place.
11. We don't sweat the small stuff. Glasses get broken occasionally. Towels or linens get a stain, or small items go missing. The cost of these things in trivial in the big picture, and we'd never try to recover costs from guests from these small issues. Cost of doing business.
12. My goal is to respond to every inquiry, booking or question in less than five minutes. With phone, text, email, and OTA apps on my smartphone in my hand, I hit this goal most of the time. Always within less than an hour. Typically within minutes.
13. We aim to build a relationship with our guests from first inquiry. We aim to begin building goodwill long before the guests arrive at our property. By the time they arrive, we have a relationship, and this helps if problems come up (Internet outage, house mechanical issue, etc) and if an issue does arise, we get on it immediately.
14. We realize we can't make everyone happy all of the time. When we have the (very rare) unreasonable guest, we deal with them graciously, and let it go.
15. We care about our community. Every one of our properties was an abandoned disaster when we acquired. We have saved all of our properties from abandonment and have returned them to a beautiful state, which increases the value of the entire community. We make it clear that our houses are not party houses, that quiet hours are to be observed and that we expect guests to be respectful of our neighbors and neighborhood.

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Today I chat with my good friend Jesse Krieger, who helped me publish Get Paid For Your Pad in 2014. Jesse has since grown his publishing business and has published over 50 books. But the topic for today is how Jesse rents out his primary residence in Las Vegas on Airbnb when he is out of town.

Jesse has branded his listing as "The Publishing Palace" and makes the listing stand out by having a primary photo that shows his backyard during a wedding party.

He also has given his home a lot of character by having themed rooms each with its own mural (created by former podcast guest Annie Kim, see podcast episode 245, How to Integrate Art in Your Airbnb)

Jesse also shares how he almost missed a flight after his neighbour pranked him into thinking his guests were throwing a massive party at his house.

Enjoy!

Email: [email protected]

Airbnb Listing: The Publishing Palace

Website: Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

Instagram: @GetPaidForYourPad 

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Airbnb News Facebook Group

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It's that time of the year again, the deadline for filing US taxes is April 15th. Reason enough to invite Miguel Centeno on the show to explain what Airbnb hosts need to know when filing their taxes and how they can avoid paying the IRS too much of course.

In addition to taxes, we also talk about investment insights that Miguel has gained over the years by filing the taxes of thousands of Airbnb hosts all over the US. One observation he has made is that a lot of his rural clients are outperforming those located in the big (sub)urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles.

Miguel has also personally joined the Airbnb tribe as he has invested in a beach front property in Baja California. We discuss the purchase process, the approach to renovating the property and the performance that Miguel is expecting.

Last but not least, Miguel is offering listeners a $50 discount on tax filings. Go to https://sharedeconomycpa.com/gpfyp/to take advantage of this offer or simply mention that you've listened to this podcast. 

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://sharedeconomycpa.com

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

Instagram: @GetPaidForYourPad 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/getpaidforyourpad

Airbnb News Facebook Group

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Today's guest is Jeremy Mays, CMO and co-founder of GuestBook. He and his team have recently released an eBook called "108 Tips, Tricks, Ideas & Techniques For Property Managers." (Download a free copy here).

I have read the entire book and selected my favourite tips from every category and discuss these with Jeremy.

Hospitality

Leave hand-written thank you notes at the properties

Smell – Vanilla is a great smell. Wall plug ins. Candles and various air fresheners.

Scaling your business

Meet with Investor Organizations: A major portion of the local vacation rental inventory may be owned by a group of investors. Find out more info about these groups and market to them as it might equate to multiple units, not just one here or there.

Develop a presentation that you give to all prospective clients: Develop a great “pitch deck” that talks about the many reasons why owners should pick your company over others.

Team Building & Management

ALWAYS show your staff how much you appreciate them: Your team is on the front lines and always be doing things to thank them for their hard work.

Communications

I would recommend setting up a back end group chat on instant messaging apps like whatsapp / telegram as almost everyone uses it these days.

Efficiency

Have plenty of sheets, towels available so that you don’t have to do the laundry in the short amount of time between stays

Interior Design

Include a luggage rack. It will save your furniture from dirty suitcases and bags and it’s great to help guests pack / unpack.

General operations

Foster Positive and Lasting Relationships with residents and owners. Always be thinking of ways to surprise or bring a smile to your owners

Profitability

Fill up calendar gaps by offering your guests to extend their stay

Marketing

Make short videos about what makes your market unique: Interview local restaurants, best surf spots, best hiking trails, local hang outs, surf shops, best sushi place in town and all points in between. Promoting these hot spots will drive traffic to your site and also result in more units and more bookings.

Email: [email protected]

Website: GuestBook

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @GetPaidForUrPad

Instagram: @GetPaidForYourPad 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/getpaidforyourpad

Airbnb News Facebook Group

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If you like the show, please consider leaving the show a review in iTunesor Stitcher. A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely! Thanks!

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