Thanks For Visiting

Do you have burning questions about starting up your first short term rental? What if your tenants throw a big party? What if someone gets hurt? The questions are endless! We had the pleasure of meeting Jesse Gross, CEO and co-founder of Makomi, which is a short term rental management company. He has so much experience, because they manage properties from all over. We’re going to talk about the “W...

How do you keep up high occupancy rates? You have to market! Kelly Rauch is a marketing expert. We want your short term rental to be the best that it can be, and offer the best guest experience it can, and for you to have high occupancy rates. Marketing your property is going to help keep your occupancy rates high. We’ve talked with Kelly before on social media marketing and having your own websit...

We are big believers in hospitality when it comes to being a host. That’s why we were so excited to read about our guest, Joseph Michelli, on the Airbnb blog. He’s an internationally sought after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on customer experience. His...

Have you ever said to yourself, “Our weekends are rocking, but how do I get that weekday occupancy up?” We are all about the guest experience, but we are still trying to run a profitable business. Unless you’re in a big vacation spot, you’ve probably got some work to do to take advantage of those weekdays and make yourself some more money. We’ve got some great strategies you can use to keep your p...

This episode is all about the importance of booking all guests — including your mom, your grandma, and regular corporate clients — through the app, whether that’s with Airbnb or another platform. Sometimes hosts are tempted to take cash, PayPal, or Venmo bookings, but trust us — it’s way more trouble than it’s worth. Resources: Want to open your own short-term rental? Then get your FREE copy of 7...

A few weeks ago, Kelly Rauch taught us about how we can utilize Instagram and Facebook to market your short-term rental —  go check that episode out if you haven’t already — and today she’s back to share how you can leverage a personal website to grow your short-term rental business. Resources: Connect with Kelly on IG: @kellykrauch Check out the website for the property that Kelly is managin...

Jennifer and Jamey Ratcliff are an incredible couple — and an incredible couple of entrepreneurs in the Columbus area! They own a local restaurant, Arch & Eddie’s, and a local brewery, Sixth Sense, in addition to an adorable condo that they rent out using Airbnb. But, with three businesses, Jennifer and Jamey are obviously really busy! That’s why they wanted to hire a co-host to help their Air...

When people start hosting short-term rentals, especially if they’re sharing their own home, they are usually worried about two things: damaged/stolen property and parties (which can lead to damaged or stolen property)! Unfortunately, things do happen, although less than you might think, but there are things you can do as a host to minimize any costs associated with the damage and ensure your hosti...

We have an exciting announcement that we just could not wait until next week to share with you: Sarah and her husband Nick were chosen by Airbnb to be the feature of a new program they’re launching called How to Host! So Nick joins us once again to talk all about the process and share five things every host should know for creating a business plan that will help them turn property into profit. Res...

There’s a question we get asked all the time: What the heck is a co-host?! At its core, a co-host is just a joint host — which means the role is open for interpretation! One of the reasons we think so many people find the idea of being a co-host so appealing is that it’s kind of a choose-your-own-adventure job, which means you’ll really have to sit down and talk to your partners to figure out what...

We met today’s guest, Kelly Rauch, at our most recent local Airbnb meetup — so, let that me a lesson to you: go to your local meetups, or if one doesn’t exist, start one. You can meet some really cool people there... and then, a week or two later, you might even be on their podcast! Kelly is a marketing expert who just blew us away when she told us how she used social media to launch a new high-en...

We often talk about strategies for hosts who are already in the game (how to welcome guests, how to set pricing, etc.), but we’ve missed an important step: getting the property you can use as an Airbnb! We also know that a lot of your are listening because you are still planning and working up the courage to open your first short-term rental — and the more you know, the less scary that becomes! So...

We host an Airbnb meetup here in Columbus, and at our most recent one, we heard about BJ Allmon, co-founder of InnTown Stays — and we knew we had to talk to him! Because BJ is staking a unique niche in the short-term industry, and he’s solving a big need at the same time: homes for people who are recovering from a disaster. InnTown Stays is a service that makes it just as easy to lease a house as...

Cody Boyce and his wife recently started listing their home on Airbnb while they’re travelling for business, and Cody’s already automated this thing up — for free! So, we’re going to learn all about the Zapier automation that Cody is using to make his life easier and what it’s like when you’re listing your personal space. Resources: Learn more at crate.media Instagram: instagram.com/codydboyce Tha...

We met Marc Kade at a real estate investor meetup about a year ago — and, oh boy, this is the guy to talk to about all things lending! He’s a branch manager for PrimeLending and a real estate investor himself, and we brought him on because we know a lot of you want to know more about how to actually acquire the properties to use as short-term rentals. Now, even if you’re not in the real estate inv...

We are so excited to share our conversation with Tiffany Caliva, host of The Beach Lodge in Hollywood, Airbnb Superhost, and one of our Instagram Super Heroes! Tiffany tells us about her journey from new host to Superhost, how her account blew up on Insta (plus why an Instagram account is so vital for marketing your rental), all the work that went into transforming a beat down property into The Be...

Today we’re talking to a flippin’ Instagram celebratory in the real estate world, Wendy Doris, AKA @FlippinWendy ! Resources: Learn more at flippinwendy.design Instagram: @FlippinWendy Want to learn more about flipping houses? You can get Wendy’s ebook if you send her an email: Wendy@flippinwendy.design Black makeup towels Smartbnb Thanks for Visiting is a production of Crate Media . Mentioned in...

We believe that true superhosts should endeavor to serve all guests, but sometimes, you just don’t know what you don’t know – so, today, we are going to learn about how to make a short-term rental space accessible to people of all abilities! Our guest is LeAnne Lavender, who herself learned so much about renovating or redesigning your space to be ADA compliant after her husband experienced an acci...

You don’t even have to own property to make Airbnb your side hustle or be part of the short-term rental industry – there are so many roles that need to be filled, and that means there are lots of opportunities and options! Whether you are interested in photography, turnover, co-hosting, staging, creating experiences, or hosting your own space, we have got you covered!   Resources: Thanksforvi...

We’ve spent most of our show up to this point talking about Airbnb – but, today, we want to introduce you to some other short-term rental platforms that cater to a very specific niche: rentinting out your RV! So, Sarah’s husband Nick returns to discuss what it’s been like using Outdoorsy & RVShare to diversify their short-term rental business and how you can use these services to turn you...

If you are in a relationship, you can’t just start letting strangers stay at your house – even if they’re helping you pay your rent or mortgage! You have to make sure it’s cool with your partner, first (and your landlord!). So, today, Sarah invited her husband, Nick, to join us and talk about his initial apprehension to let strangers stay in their place, why he ultimately decided to join Sarah in...

With Summer in full swing, we wanted to touch on something that all Airbnb and short-term rental hosts need to consider: holidays! So, today, we’re going to share our tips for both taking a holiday for yourself and giving your guests that are on vacation a holiday they’ll never forget – while also maximizing your earning potential all year round! We’re also going to share some of our holiday horro...

Even if you don’t own property, you can still be part of the short-term rental industry by managing properties for other people who want to take advantage of platforms like Airbnb but don’t have the time. It’s been a really successful part of Sarah’s business, but she needed some help keeping all of those properties up to her high cleanliness standards – so she turned to Properly (which also happe...

We met two amazing young entrepreneurs, Tia Brown and Kyle Brown, at a local Airbnb meetup recently – and they probably didn’t even get two sentences out of their mouths before we fell head over heels for these two! So, today, we want to introduce you to this amazing power couple. They share how and why they took action to start the business, what it takes to run the entire business a two-person o...

Ria Greiff is a radio personality, podcast host, and Airbnb Experience host expert! So she doesn’t just talk the talk – she walks the walk, and she has some great advice to help you walk it too. So why is hosting an Airbnb Experience such an incredible opportunity?! Well, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you don’t have to own property, you don’t have to own a business, and you can mak...