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Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Bri asks: How do I prepare guests for nuisance neighbors? I have a neighbor who lives two houses down and he is senile. He does get really chatty and he has doomsday stories. The other day, my guest engaged in conversation with him, an...

Today’s expert guest (and one of our new business partners!) is Mike Navarro of Columbus, Ohio. Mike and his wife Ingrid entered the residential market as first-time homebuyers and have since expanded into multi-family housing, constructing single-family homes ranging from 400 sqft to 4500 sq ft. Their diverse portfolio comprises over 20 units, including single-family homes, multi-units, and condo...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. A listener asks: We are about ready to launch our first short-term rental on the beach. I've been vetting cleaning companies and have been a little surprised to learn of common standard practices related to washing (or not) the top lay...

Today’s expert guest is Wendy Doris. Experienced house flipper, host, co-host, and Hosting Business Mastery Method ( HBMM ) coach, Wendy loves the details, especially when it comes to the operations of her business. We lean into that expertise in this episode, jumping into the deep end on supplies as they relate to short-term rental listings. Managing more than a dozen properties in the Phoenix ar...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Katelyn asks: My husband and I own Stay Old Town Road in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's four small, super charming historic houses on one property in the best tourist location in town. We got into hosting because we love travel and hosp...

Today’s expert guest is Justin Ford, an international safety superstar when it comes to short-term rentals. Returning for his record thirteenth appearance on the show, the wisdom just never stops with Justin, as he’s become a close friend of the show – and hopefully, a trusted advisor to all of our listeners. Justin updates us on his latest travels, taking us from a safety survey in a $40k/night C...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Samantha asks: We recently started our short-term rental business and we currently have two rentals down at the beach. We are allowing pets at both of them because we're dog lovers ourselves. Our first guest had two dogs, and when we w...

Today’s expert guest is Gwynne Beatty, a specialist in property damage claims, water restoration, mold remediation, maximizing your claim, and managing the repair process for residential and commercial properties. She's here to pull back the curtain on the claims process and give you the knowledge and tools you need if (and when) you find yourself with property damage. She’s a public adjuster (don...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Francesca asks: I am looking for ways to enhance the guest experience through concierge services. As an example, I saw someone post that they'll put away Instacart groceries for guests before they arrive. I'm looking for unique and cre...

Today’s expert guest is Lynn Smith, a short-term rental host and co-host for properties in Oklahoma City and the surrounding area. Informed by a mixed background in public health, event planning, and sales, Lynn started her hosting journey in 2020. She’s a star member of our Hosting Business Mastery Method and has actually taught us so much over the years, that it came time to feature her unique p...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Sandrine asks: I have a few questions regarding guest communication. How much is too much and how exactly do you handle communicating the rental agreement? Do you send the rental agreement right through the booking platform, like Airbn...

Today’s expert guests are Bob and Callie Karlen. A husband-and-wife investing team, they currently house hack their primary residence near Minneapolis, own and operate Bigwater Cove – their STR cabin in Northern MN – and are hoping to scale their portfolio in 2024 in the commercial boutique motel space in the near future. Following last week’s informative discussion covering a painful acquisition...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Holly asks: What systems and processes do you use to train virtual assistants and other staff members? Where do you store them, how do you build them, and on what platforms? We are trying to systemize every single process so that we ca...

Today’s export guest is Tanya Rooney, a creative real estate seeker, life guide and owner of BAFS Real Estate + Yay You’re Here Properties. We’re thrilled that she’s taken the time to join us today to talk about a very important, and very on-trend, topic in our industry: motels and mid-term rentals. She gives us the low down on a painstaking deal that did NOT go through, sharing important lessons...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Whitney asks: Can I create a parent-child listing for two homes that are next door to each other? I own one of them and my neighbors own the other. I'm the co-host for their house. I would like to create a parent-child listing to accep...

Today’s expert guest is Sara Sokol. Sarah is the creator of the Dogs Welcome Facebook group and vacation rental listing website as well as owner/operator of her own very pet-friendly, and award winning, vacation rental on the coast of Maine. She created the Dogs Welcome community as a place to connect dog friendly STR hosts with humans who travel with their dogs as a place to advertise her own pro...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Jennifer asks: I run Pepin Forest Treehouse in Wisconsin. How does growth become exponential and how do people tend to do it so quickly? What does that look like with debt-to-income ratios? How are people growing their businesses on su...

Today’s expert guest is Tara Zirker. Tara is the owner and founder of Successful Ads Club, a high-touch support training platform where she teaches thousands of business owners how to rapidly scale their small businesses through the power of Facebook and Instagram Ads with tiny budgets (and has received over 1,000 positive student reviews!). She’s worked on ad campaigns with people like Marianne W...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Caitlyn asks: Midterm rentals are a really great option for a lot of us hosts. What do we need to be looking out for when looking for great tenants? (00:01:47) Guests vs. Tenants: 28 Days Later (00:05:13) Building Rental Processes in Z...

Today’s expert guest is Kenny Bedwell, in a session recorded at TFVCON2023 in Columbus, Ohio. Kenny founded STR Insights in 2021 as a tool to help investors find the most advantageous STR markets for their unique circumstances using advanced data analytics. We pulled Kenny aside to have a side chat – between his immensely popular educational sessions at the conference – to dig in a little deeper o...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Claire asks: My name is Claire and I have started managing a number of other Airbnbs on the island that I live on. I made the mistake of having the listings under my Airbnb account. I really need support on how to run this (co-hosting)...

Today’s expert guest is Catherine Ratcliffe. A vacation rental owner and host since 2018, she’s pivoted from a successful HR career to run a consulting business where she takes on tough subjects for employers and hosts – including today’s heavy topic, the global human trafficking crisis. Catherine shares subtle details to look out for and security protocols to implement in your business to combat...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Samantha asks: We are super slow right now. With the exception of trying to figure out how to fill my units, is there anything else you recommend that I can do to better prepare my space for when we are busy? Do you have suggested prev...

Today’s expert guest is Bill Allen in an interview conducted during TFVCON2023. Bill’s informative presentation inspired and empowered attendees to seek out creative financing outside of the typical bank structure. It may sound scary, but the logic behind this shift will surprise you! Amid the buzz and bustle of the conference atmosphere, Bill gets tactical with tools to shift your mindset from le...

Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between. Daisy asks: I'm looking to refresh my property and I want to stay on a budget. I also want to add some personality and interest to my rental. I'm thinking of an accent wall, maybe a mural or wallpaper. How do I add some unique decor, w...