Thanks For Visiting

Naturally, every host is concerned with starting and running their listings. But what do you do to efficiently—and ethically—close down a listing without all the overwhelm? Tracey Northcott has been an Airbnb Superhost for nearly a decade and a guest experience specialist consultant for the last two years. She’s a writer, a speaker, a mentor, and she lives in Tokyo, Japan. She’s had to really look...

Is there something you know now that you wish you had known months or years ago that would have made you much more money? Well, why not learn from the paths of others who have done this work? We may not be able to turn back time, but we can pass on that knowledge to help others speed up their journey! Enter Ashley Wilson. Ashley’s blog is At Home with Ashley , where she writes about home decor, DI...

From planes to trains to automobiles, the Smith family has turned their one-of-a-kind getaway into a family business. A rusted, empty World War 2 train car sitting on the edge of the family’s property sparked the pursuit of a dream to share their creative visions and host unforgettable getaways—which expanded into three truly unique spaces. One of the truly impressive aspects of the Smith Family B...

Whether you are on the management side of a short term rental or you have your own short term rental and hope to hire a manager someday, understanding rental management agreement contracts is essential. We’re going to discuss five often overlooked points of a management agreement that apply equally to both owners and managers. While no two businesses are the same in this industry, it’s important t...

We’re getting down and dirty with cleaning with Jill Mason, the founder and CEO of VRScheduler.com . She’s been working with property managers and cleaning companies for over four years to make them more efficient and accurate, and she’s recently pivoted into staff training with her new cleaning certification program. We have always highly recommended showing proof of the hard work you put in, and...

We’re always looking for great ways to elevate our guest experience, and one easy way to do that (and make more money!) is by offering concierge services. Meghan Alfonso is the CEO and founder of GAT, otherwise known as Girl (or Guy) About Town, a concierge company in Arizona. We talk about what concierge services you could offer, how to handle setbacks in this line of work, reaching out to local...

What if you could simplify the way you run your short-term rental business? Margot Schmorak is the CEO and co-founder of Hostfully, a property management software company that services thousands of properties worldwide and helps you do just that. Hostfully helps to automate guest communications, distribution across multiple platforms, and integrates with other companies in the vacation rental spac...

Are you interested in hopping into the rental world full time but unsure of where to start or how the numbers will shake out? The world of co-hosting is an amazing place to start, especially if you are interested in the short-term rental or vacation property world. Your income can be whatever you make it. We’re going to dive into the exact numbers and hours invested into a property and outline how...

When people talk about starting a new business, one topic that doesn’t get enough attention is choosing your customers — but this is imperative to running a successful business. Co-hosting is one of the biggest opportunities out there for building a business, and you can start making money right away, but your success depends greatly on which hosting clients you choose to work with.  Every pr...

Things are opening back up in the US! While we all take a moment for a collective sigh of relief, remember that COVID-19 hasn’t gone anywhere just yet. How can you prepare yourselves for a second wave and potential future stay-at-home orders? To talk about that we have returning guest Steve Trover. He’s been in the vacation rental industry for over 20 years, so we lean on him and his expertise in...

How do you juggle owning two businesses, starting your first short term rental, and filming a TV show at the same time? That’s what Brad and Heather Fox, a married couple who own Fox Homes & Realty and Foxwell Design, ended up doing. They share the story of how this all happened, what factored into their decision when buying a property, and tips to stand out from other listings. Resources: Lea...

Catherine Williamson is one half of the very popular blog Beginning in the Middle. She and her husband are designers, renovators, and Airbnb Superhosts. In 2013, they moved from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, where they noticed a gap in the market for unique, well-designed spaces. They decided to pursue their passion for design and hospitality and have been working together to restore old homes...

Is downtime in your business leaving you feeling down? Don’t worry! We’re going to outline 5 things you can do during a downtime — whether it’s a slow season, you need to take a break from hosting, or for any other reason — to make your listing even better when you’re rarin’ to go. Downtime is the perfect time to take care of those “I’ve been meaning to do that” tasks, so take advantage of that ti...

We’ve talked about safety before, and we’ve talked about cleaning, but one thing is now clear in a COVID-19 world: Cleaning is safety. We have our safety expert, Justin Ford, back on the show this week to talk about how things have changed dramatically since his last appearance. Guests are concerned about the safety of short-term rentals, so how do we address those fears and concerns, while making...

Everyone wants their property to stand out from the crowd, and one way to do that is through experiential properties. These properties take their guest experience to the extreme. Bryndee Barton, the designer at Loma Homes, has an incredible Star Wars-themed rental that you can experience right now. She started in the more traditional real estate realm and now she focuses on managing Airbnbs that t...

It’s totally possible to build an epic rental business! Steph, the owner of EpicBnb — a Nashville-based hospitality company specializing in design, short-term rental management, and consulting — tells us all about how she is currently building out her own business, from picking which properties to manage, to building out a team, to working with her local associations to strengthen the rental indus...

Is mid-term the new short-term? The typical length of stay, at this point in time, is drastically changing. How is your business going to adapt and pivot in order to have the best chance of surviving and thriving, now and into the future? Mid-term rentals are a great opportunity, so let’s talk about what they are and how you can take advantage of them. Resources: Airbnb HomeAway Vrbo HousingAnywhe...

We are in a very weird time, and we don’t know exactly what the other side of it will look like. We’re going to go over nine ways you can pivot your short-term listing, whether that’s during a slow season, a huge event comes to your area, or any unexpected circumstance occurs. These tips are meant to be timeless and apply to any rapid change in direction. Resources: #STRShareSunday: @208studio Tha...

We are dealing with a virus that has taken the world by storm. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been alive, there hasn’t been anything quite like this in living memory. Not long ago, we talked about how you should handle cancellations. Now we are starting to settle into a new normal, and there have been several new updates to the situation we would like to address. Let’s take advantage of all of...

We know adulting is hard but trust us: proper insurance is essential! It is going to benefit you, your guest, and your property (whether you own it or not). Darren Pettyjohn is a co-founder at Proper Insurance Services, which offers a custom insurance product designed for vacation rental and short-term rental owners. Darren is here to answer all of our questions about insurance as it relates to yo...

There’s one area of safety that pretty much everyone in the short-term rental game has to consider: dryer safety. To give us all the details, we are once again joined by our resident safety captain, Justin Ford! Justin tries to make safety exciting, and so far he’s done a great job of it. He’s a former US Coastguard safety officer, and he started the largest vacation rental company in the Northeas...

Whatever your mission is in this journey of short-term rentals, revenue is going to be a common driving factor. One of the common shortcomings when it comes to vacation rentals is not properly compensating yourself for all the services you provide. You may be trying to pass on as much of the savings to your customer as possible, but if you aren’t taking care of yourself, you’re going to risk burno...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the coronavirus disease. We wanted to address some of the questions and concerns hosts may be facing, including cancellations, cleaning questions, and how to handle reservations. Resources: WHO Advice for the Public: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public What if I need to cancel because of an eme...

Do you want to grow your short-term rental side hustle into a full-time gig? Steve Trover is an expert at scaling businesses. He got into the vacation rental industry in 1997, where he started helping others manage their own properties. He eventually went on to scaling his own management business, eventually managing over 350 properties and 100 employees. He now helps vacation rental companies ide...

We’ve talked about this topic a TON, but we’ve yet to have a professional photographer on the show. That’s why we’re so excited to have Matthew Garsky, who has been photographing Airbnb properties for several years now — he’s even been hired by Airbnb to do photography! Resources: Instagram: @matthewgarsky #STRShareSunday: @_thepondhouse Thanks for Visiting is a production of Crate Media . Mention...