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[00:00:05] Sarah: Hello. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:09] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:11] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:12] Sarah: Let’s start this episode like we do every week, and that is sharing one of you who’s going to strshare.com, sharing info about your properties that we can then share it with the whole hosting world on our podcast, on Instagram–

[00:00:25] Annette: Get them, Sarah. The whole hosting world.

[00:00:27] Sarah: Yeah. Via our email list. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

[00:00:31] Annette: This week we are sharing @the.bungalow.butlers. And they are the innkeepers at the Parlor House. Please go give Maddie and Aaron a follow. I am swooning. I keep putting my phone right in front of Sarah’s face because I want this paint color in our next property. They have the most amazing paint color and wallpaper. I would say, Sarah, what’s our grandma chic that we like? Millennial chic?

[00:01:01] Sarah: No, it’s grandma chic.

[00:01:02] Annette: Grandma chic.

[00:01:03] Sarah: I’m grandma chic. I call it grandmillennial.

[00:01:06] Annette: Grandmillennial. They have rehabbed this first bungalow. I know they’re working on their second one. Give them a follow. The photos in their Instagram are amazing. The use of color, I think, is really, really smart in their home because it does pop in the photos. This is something in our short-term rental to play with color and be able to have it pop in your photos, I think is worth it. It’s an inexpensive way to really bring that warmth and color. They’ve done a great job with it.

[00:01:40] I love the style. The wallpaper is amazing. Well done. We can’t wait to see the next one. And I just want to share one thing also about the butlers, is they live in an area– again, I want to champion host hacking. They live in an area that does have regulations, and they’ve worked within these regulations. They actually live on property.

[00:02:05] Sarah: They lean into it.

[00:02:06] Annette: Yeah. They lean into it. And that’s why I even love in the copy where it says innkeepers at the Parlor House. And so I just want people to know that even if regulations come in or you have a property, how can you take your current property and “host hack” and make it an asset instead of a liability for you?

[00:02:27] And they have done just that. And again, I love that copy there. They are innkeepers because they’re basically sharing with you that like, we are here. We are on property, but in a lovely, lovely way and gave that name to their self, which is great. And that segues into today’s episode because we are going to share how many of us hosts out there own one to just three properties. That there are hundreds of thousands of us independent, self-managing hosts, not these giant property management companies. And this episode is for you. Sarah, who do we have on today?

[00:03:09] Sarah: We have on Dave and Alexa, and they lead Rent Responsibly. And if you don’t know what Rent Responsibly is, it is probably one of the biggest– we are the biggest fan of Rent Responsibly. We are so thankful Dave and Alexa have joined forces and created Rent Responsibly pretty much around the same time we founded Thanks for Visiting.

[00:03:31] And they focus on supporting advocacy efforts across the US with research and tools to help hosts succeed in their fight for fair and reasonable regulation. So they’re not anti-regulations. They’re not saying regulations are bad. It’s just what is fair. And like Alexa says in the episode, she believes there is always a win-win, but sometimes you have to dig deep to find the win-win.

[00:03:57] And I’m going to hook you here because at the very end of this episode, Dave, parallels the hosting industry to the automobile industry, and it’s really going to flip the script on you on the future, on what lies ahead for us in the hosting industry. And spoiler alert, it’s hopeful.

[00:04:19] Rent Responsibly, Dave, Alexa, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have today’s discussion with you.

[00:04:26] Alexa: Thanks for having us.

[00:04:28] Dave: We’re thrilled to be here yet again. You guys are our favorites.

[00:04:33] Sarah: If you don’t know who Rent Responsibly is, what they do for us, you have to make that your thing to do this evening–

[00:04:42] Annette: After you listen to the show.

[00:04:43] Sarah: After you listen to the show because you’ll be so inspired. But Dave, will you give us a little recap on why Rent Responsibly exists, maybe the founding story a little bit? And then, Alexa, if you want to then take us into the state of the short-term rental industry report that we’re going to dissect today.

[00:05:01] Dave: Of course, we’d love for each and every one of your listeners to know who we are, what we do, and how we can help them. Alexa and I met actually just before we co-founded Rent Responsibly, doing stories called Humans of Short-Term Rentals based on a cool book called Humans of New York.

[00:05:23] And we just knew that our industry was undercelebrated, undereducated, underresourced, and we saw this big gap in our industry where both longtime veterans, both been on the host and property management side, and our mission was to build a sustainable future for short-term rentals in every community.

[00:05:45] And we saw these regulatory issues, and you’ll commonly hear Rent Responsibly associated with advocacy and regulatory issues, but at our heart, at our soul, we are a community building and education platform for short-term rental operators, no matter where you are.

[00:06:02] And we believe that we’re servicing and part of the most entrepreneurial, inventive, innovative, and coolest community in the world, and we just want to connect folks, and there’s a big reason to do it. I’ll let Alexa pick up there because we’re working hard every day, and she can fill you in on the rest.

[00:06:24] Alexa: Sure. Yeah, when Dave and I first met, I was a journalist covering regulations in the industry. And Dave was then at NoiseAware where he was also part of these regulatory conversations. They were very noise and party house focused at the time. This was late 20 teens. And so once I left journalism, that’s when Dave and I started working on that Humans of STR series that I mentioned.

[00:06:53] And I’ll double click on that because one of the things that frustrates me both coming from this industry and as a journalist is that our industry is not covered well. It’s not covered accurately, at least. And so that really bothered me amongst many other things about regulations and advocacy.

[00:07:12] So we founded Rent Responsibly to address some of these issues. And one of the challenges that advocacy issues face all the time is a lack of data at our fingertips to use in these conversations and a lack of data to give to those who talk about industry, namely the media, to cover it accurately and correctly and really show the industry for what it is and all the wonderful things that hosts do on a day-to-day basis.

[00:07:43] And so that led us to doing our own research. We decided if the data wasn’t there, if there weren’t reports that were meeting our needs, let’s go create them. Let’s go ask people the things that we want to ask them. And in particular, let’s go ask government officials and policymakers the things that we want to ask them and see what we get. So that’s how we started these state of the industry, state of the community style of reports.

[00:08:09] Sarah: How many have you done to this point, state of the industry reports?

[00:08:14] Alexa: This is the second. You might remember in 2022 we released the state of the STR community report. This latest state of the STR industry report is much the same. We ask some of the same questions, but it is still with that same goal in mind to get literally a state of what short-term rental hosts and managers and owners are doing in our country, particularly as it relates to advocacy and regulations.

[00:08:43] Sarah: You asked 4,000 hosts and then 2,000 policymakers, correct?

[00:08:49] Alexa: Mm-hmm. Actually, a lot more. And those numbers are after you whittle out the responses that aren’t usable. So we’ve reached even more than that. And those numbers are what we got back in terms of viable data. So it was a huge study.

[00:09:04] Annette: Let’s share also the complexity of the report, and this isn’t, I’m going to say it, a survey that Sarah and I would send out, Google Forms or Survey Monkey, and get it back. You partnered with some powerhouses to put this together. So can we share the background of the report too?

[00:09:29] Because I really am going to encourage everybody, and we’ll talk about a lot, but we will link to it in our show notes, so if there’s anything that you want to dive deeper in, we’ll make sure to have the full report available for you. And please, we implore you to review it and then use it in your community or your HOA or your city council meeting.

[00:09:49] I think everybody knows, just prime time to say this, Sarah and I met at a city council meeting where they were wanting to put some very strict rules and regulations. So showing up matters. Participating in these reports matter. So read the report, arm yourself with it positively.

[00:10:07] So if there’s a meeting in your town or you are part of maybe a news article of the positive PR for yourself, you can arm yourself with some national data, but could you explain the powerhouses that you partnered with to make sure that you were mining the best data for the report?

[00:10:28] Dave: Sure. So our lead researcher is a PhD named Brumby McLeod at the College of Charleston. First of all, his name is Brumby, which just makes him lovable on the outset. And he is a lovable man, but he has spent his life studying the utilization of second homes in the United States. He is the unicorn we always wished we could find, and we found him a number of years ago.

[00:10:57] And his obsession, and ours too, is to really understand how vacation rentals are used across the country, and they are used differently from different types of communities, rural, urban, destination markets, and then also the value that they bring when rented short-term. And so Brumby was our lead researcher.

[00:11:21] We partnered with his school, went through all the check downs of how they do research. And then we also worked with VRBO Expedia as our primary partner to help distribute and reach a lot of the folks we ended up surveying. And then on the other side to reach the local government and both elected and staff members, which is a very key distinction.

[00:11:48] We partnered with GovOS, and they provide software to cities, and they have a huge reach into that audience as well. And everybody had the same mission. We wanted to find out how to connect the needs and the shortcomings or the areas where light has not been shined before for local governments, local and county, and then also do the same on the short-term operator side.

[00:12:19] What needs do short-term operators have vis a vis regulatory issues, compliance issues. And then a variety of other perhaps interesting data points that are not regulatory related, but are just general practices, demographics, other things like that, that nobody had ever looked into before. I’ll just touch on the Study itself.

[00:12:47] It brought in 130,000 data points, unique data points that had never been accessed before. We had 29 organizations, including shout out, Sarah and Annette, for our distribution partners. We had quite a few sponsors, which you’ll see on the report. Much respect, mad respect to all of them. Without this village mentality, could never have been done.

[00:13:11] Annette: Wonderful. And listeners, if you want to learn more about Brumby, he was actually on Episode 363. So I think also go back and listen to that too because it’ll shed some light also on the educational side of this and the research side. Let’s just dig into this. We’re going to let you guys take the reins here of what you think is important.

[00:13:38] Everything was important that the report found, but I want you to dig into things that were surprising, things that you think all hosts should know, especially if they are participating in some local government advocacy. But I don’t know if you both just want to dig in because I’m sure you’re excited to share the results and what’s been fun and what’s been surprising with the results.

[00:14:04] Alexa: One of the things for me that is still surprising, and I think if I had to boil it down to one thing I wanted everybody to know, it’s that government officials leaned positive in their stance on short-term rentals, which is surprising to a lot of people when they hear that, and for good reason.

[00:14:25] When you’re a public figure and you’ve got all these people yelling at you about short-term rentals being disruptive or taking up housing and all those things, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to come out publicly and say that you like short-term rentals or you find them valuable in your community. That makes sense.

[00:14:41] But at least behind closed doors, we have a lot more public officials who are positive and who are therefore more likely to be open to what you have to say as a short-term mental advocate. So I hope that people take away from that one stat alone that they shouldn’t be scared to walk into City Hall and introduce themselves to their council members or invite your planning director to coffee. These people tend to be positive or at least neutral, as the numbers show.

[00:15:13] Sarah: We can share, Alexa, when Annette and I met at the city council meetings all those years ago here in Columbus, that one of our council members owned a short-term rental. You know what I mean? And so we even invited him to– we had a meetup here where we try to get all the hosts in Columbus. We didn’t try it. We did it.

[00:15:27] And we asked him to speak. And that was pre Thanks for Visiting podcast days for sure. So that’s the thing that we don’t realize too, is that a lot of times, and I don’t know what you guys think about this, people don’t realize when they say short-term rentals that we’re talking about that vacation home that your family books every single year or that your uncle has a vacation home that he lets you use on his off season and putting those two things together.

[00:15:53] Maybe don’t focus on the neutral counsel or the policy makers, but the ones who are in favor, what is it about short-term rentals that you found they see as having positive effects on our communities?

[00:16:07] Alexa: Well, we can answer that with a couple of the questions, but I will add one dimension to this positivity sentiment before I jump to that other figure, and that is that if they had stayed in a short-term rental, they tended to be more positive. That piece, I think, is not as surprising.

[00:16:24] But to your point, if you think about the term short-term rental, it’s very sterile. It’s a government term to define the length of stay. It does not say anything emotional about how we use these properties, which is exactly what you said. It’s going for our annual beach vacation. It’s the cabin in the mountains that our aunt left us or that we spent Thanksgiving in every year.

[00:16:48] And so that’s part of the reason why we asked this question of government officials. Have you stayed in a short-term rental? Yes, most of them had. And those who had were more positive about them because that they had that emotional firsthand connection. Going back to your original question, we asked government officials a lot of different things about their communities. And we talked about housing. We talked about local economies and all sorts of things.

[00:17:13] And one of the other surprising facts that came out to me was how highly government staff and elected officials rated guest spending in their destinations. I know we might hear about this when you start getting your DMOs involved in conversations, but they’re really the only ones talking about that kind of data.

[00:17:35] So as a short-term rental owner or manager, when you’re talking about short-term rentals in a public comment forum or some other conversation, if you bring up how much short-term rentals in your area are contributing to guest spending, and we know that government officials really find that valuable in their communities and in their jurisdictions, that can really add a lot to the conversation.

[00:18:03] Sarah: Dave, what was your biggest finding? What surprised you the most when the data came in?

[00:18:10] Dave: I will answer your question, but the one thing I want to add to Alexa’s comment was there were certain statistics that just jumped off the page as extraordinary. And one of them was how often and how many businesses, not just short-term rentals, don’t just recommend to their guests, which I think is part of that natural experience.

[00:18:35] What do I know that’s unique about the community or my favorite restaurant? All these things that are standard, but all of the employment statistics around part time labor and where you’re purchasing goods from to perhaps renovate your home. The stimulation of the economy from short-term rentals really is unlike, I think, any other element of travel and tourism, and this report helps bring that to life.

[00:19:04] But with 95% of respondents on the operator side saying that they support the local economy through referrals and purchasing, it’s basically 100%. So everybody is contributing to the local economy, and that is not the case with every business in town. So it really is an important statistic.

[00:19:25] But in terms of what jumped off the page to me, the most surprising thing, is really something that was the most consistent statistic from 2022 to 2024, was the profile of the owners of the homes in our industry. So I would play the make you guess game, but it was 70% of operator or owners rather own one property. 70% one property, and over 90%, approximately 93%, own three or less.

[00:20:05] So this understanding, or this narrative around this corporate ownership model, or Wall Street buying up all the housing, is just not true. It’s just not true. And it’s across the board. So the more that folks understand on both the policy side and people on our side, the makeup of our industry, if you fall into that category of owning one to three properties, you have 93% of brethren who are just like you. And you’re the heartbeat of this industry. And I just love that because that’s who I was when I was an owner. And I’m sure many folks listening to this can smile knowing that you are the engine of this industry.

[00:20:50] Annette: I want to piggyback off of that stack and go over really quickly the key findings section under the small business industry. It’s talking about these hosts that this is supplemental income source for majority of the owners. And I’m just going to read some of the stats.

[00:21:08] Half of the owners, 44.1% earned 41% or more of their income through short-term renting. This is very interesting. One in four made no profit or lost money while 47.8% made up to $24,999 in profit. And I want to pause right there because I think that’s another narrative. One in four made no profit or lost money.

[00:21:34] There is a lot of messaging out there of passive income, get rich quick, quit your 9-5, and this one property is going to cash flow you and replace it. And so I think that statistic shows that these are second homes. People are just trying to offset. And I’m not saying no profit or lost money is a negative thing at all.

[00:21:59] That is showing that the why behind owning the properties and operating them as a short-term rental isn’t for just the cash, just the cash flow, just the money. And that shows they’re trying to offset the investment or just maybe keep up with their capital expenses. And then that second stat of the 47.8% making below $25,000 in profit, I think also lends to that of these really are second homes.

[00:22:30] They are most likely using some portion of the year for those stats to stay with those analytics there. And I think that’s something very, very powerful too, where people are thinking that we’re coming in, taking all of the homes, and just profiting off of all of those.

[00:22:49] And people are admitting this like, look, I’m not making money. I’m potentially losing money, or I’m making less than 25k on this “side hustle” or hosting all year long. And then it’s just important for everybody to understand too, because I know right now with the economy, with the election, everybody’s wondering like, well, is my house making money?

[00:23:11] It’s like, it’s not all about the cashflow. And I think that statistic right there really shows that. Were you surprised about the financial data like that that came in from the respondents when they said they made no profit or lost money?

[00:23:28] Alexa: I’ll take that one first, but I’m very curious to hear what Dave has to say on this. I was not surprised at all. This is something that we see anecdotally all the time where, yes, short-term rentals can be a helpful source of supplemental income. People can use it to offset costs, save for retirement, send their kids to college, pay medical bills.

[00:23:47] We hear that stuff and see those stories all the time, at least inside of our industry, not so much outside. What I look at with stats like this is how do I then bring this down to ground here where I live? And when I was in the middle of my advocacy effort here in Chapel Hill, this was a few years ago, but I would bet the stats might still hold today where I looked at a number of things.

[00:24:17] One of them was, how much is the average short-term rental here generating in revenue, never mind expenses, never mind profit? We’re just talking about revenue. And how much is the average long-term rental in a comparable property making? Those two numbers were a dollar apart, and long-term renting made a dollar more, on average, then a short-term rental in a given month.

[00:24:45] And so if you look at a big report like this and you see all these national numbers, they are great, but also they point you to where to bring this data down to ground and find the data for yourself that proves locally, even on the local level, that short-term rentals aren’t a cash cow, and people are doing them for other reasons besides just the money.

[00:25:09] Dave: Picking up on that, I feel like, Alexa, you talking about your personal experience in Chapel Hill, everybody’s only local in one place. And so we did break out different types of markets. And it was not the same across the board. Of course, in vacation and destination markets, you’re going to have more second homes and rural and other destinations will be a lot more growth, and the sentiment is different. It feels like more of a change in your community and so forth.

[00:25:42] But I think the constant and the standard here is actually that folks who are in the short-term rental industry and on the ownership side or the manager side, the reasons are really personal. And I lost my mother a few years ago, and she left the house to us, and we wanted to keep it in the family.

[00:26:06] We looked into short-term renting it. It just wasn’t going to work economically, and so we’re in the process of looking for its next life, a new owner. That’s okay. But other people in different markets, there are ways to keep your properties in your family or even make that 25k and have the resources to keep your property upkept or even do improvements.

[00:26:32] There’s just so many personal story. That’s what keeps getting me going, is that the data and the stories are actually complementary to one another, but they’re two halves that aren’t whole without each other. And so my personal story in Dallas was I, at different times, was a property manager, a single unit owner.

[00:26:52] I had somebody who was my property manager for my property when I was out of town. And then I started renting my own personal home when I was out of town. And I had roommates that I found on the platform. Gosh, what an error that was.

[00:27:09] Annette: You were the host hacker extraordinaire.

[00:27:11] Dave: Oh, my goodness. And I was on duty for seven years until my phone stopped ringing. I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, it’s the part time all the time job. Isn’t that what you guys call it? Anyways, my experience spanned the spectrum. And then I served on my city’s short-term rental task force in 2020. And one of the neighbors calls me a criminal for doing what I’m doing. After all this stuff we just talked about, there are people who looked at that as criminal behavior.

[00:27:43] And so I think that’s actually one of the pieces that really fires me up. I said, just don’t call me a criminal. I will spend the next 10 years of my life proving you wrong and trying to revolutionize something because that was so offensive to me. But she wasn’t the only one who feels that way.

[00:28:02] So a lot of what we focus on, and I’m going to pivot a little bit here with the findings, is that government’s needs are largely not met yet today for what they need, the information they need, the data they need, perfect stat moment, only 18% of elected officials said that they had all the data that they needed to make policy. Yet many of them are going forward anyways.

[00:28:27] So the reality is there is a huge part for us, the vacation rental, the short-term rental owners, the operators, the enthusiasts, the podcasters, that everybody in this industry to know that we have a role to play in filling those gaps to introducing ourselves.

[00:28:52] Data gap and human story gap, both of those are critically important. And the reality is the tool we’ve built, that’s what this survey is. It’s a tool that everybody listening can use to help you on your journey to improving your management, your operation, but also your engagement with your community.

[00:29:15] 40% of respondents said they planned on taking at least one advocacy action in the next 12 months. But at the same time, we have 8,746 jurisdictions in the US that we predict will have new ordinances within 12 months, and you’re likely in one of them. And if it’s not the next 12 months, it’s the next 24. So just know that now is the time to take this type of information to ground, as Alexa said.

[00:29:48] Annette: Where are you getting that 8,723 number from? How’d you bring that together?

[00:29:56] Alexa: We asked a series of questions of staff and elected officials, asking them, do you have an ordinance on the books? It was roughly 50-50, yes, no. Of those who did have one, we asked, are they planning to update it in the next 12 months? Roughly a quarter said yes. About half said unsure. So thinking just about those who know for sure, we’re going to update our policies, hold them aside for one second.

[00:30:24] Of those who did not have a policy on the books already, similar response. About 25% said that they would be enacting one in the next 12 months, with another big chunk saying that they were unsure. So if you take those definite yeses from those two piles and extrapolate that out based on the number of jurisdictions across the country, you get 8,700-plus jurisdictions that are going to enact or update their policies. And that’s not including all those maybes. So there are 1,000 more maybes that are floating out there that we don’t know about yet.

[00:31:00] Annette: Can our listeners, if they go to rentresponsibly.org, can they find out what cities this is happening in? Can they lean on you guys to help them navigate these said ordinances? Are you the first line of defense for them? Where should they go to?

[00:31:21] Alexa: I love this question. The first line of defense is you, the host. There are 30,000-plus jurisdictions in the country. We have a legislative tracking software, but even software that’s really robust is not going to capture or be able to track those really small markets. And one of the curious things about vacation rentals and short-term rentals is that some of the areas that we in the industry think of as big destinations actually have very, very small resident populations.

[00:31:52] And that is what a lot of these tracking softwares will use to determine exactly how small of a town or a village we’re going to go down and track. It’s that resident population size. So what we tell everybody is you need to be subscribed to your city updates or your town calendar or your council meeting log. Anything that your town has, you need to be subscribed to it.

[00:32:15] The tracking technology will only get you so far. What people can come to Rent Responsibly for is all of the resources that you might need to get involved in the conversation, and that includes before something gets onto an agenda in a city council meeting.

[00:32:33] If you’ve been through a regulatory discussion or an advocacy effort, those things start months and sometimes years before it ever gets on a council agenda and would trigger one of those email updates to you if you are subscribed. So we’ve got all the resources that you might need, including this report and tons of other guides. That’s what we are here to help with.

[00:32:57] Annette: Everyone, your number one line of defense, look in the mirror, but then absolutely Rent Responsibly will have your back there.

[00:33:05] One of the things you talked about is what are some of the issues– I think our hosts are going to feel a lot of understanding than this. You were asking some of the issues that they’re facing, and it seemed like the actual maintenance, the property maintenance itself and finding people to help them with that was overall the number one issue they were dealing with. Correct?

[00:33:32] Do you want to go through some of those issues that hosts were dealing with just so our listeners can feel that they’re not out on the island by themselves with some of the issues that they are facing as a host? Can you run through some of those?

[00:33:47] Dave: Sure. I’ll give you a few. And I don’t want to give you all of them because we do want people to read this dang thing. But no, we love talking about this. It’s the kind of chatter that happens around Facebook and everywhere else. But a lot of folks haven’t put statistics behind it, so the top non-regulatory concerns that folks have were declining demand.

[00:34:18] Maybe everybody can just go, I’m not the only one. But guest property damage, normal wear and tear parties, these are liability things that could go wrong or don’t feel like they’re going right. The other statistics we asked were, what are you trying to improve next year? And so increasing revenue, increasing occupancy, increasing inventory count on the manager side, things of that nature.

[00:34:46] So pretty normal stuff. But overall, I think folks are feeling the pinch or the come down or the deflation or the correction, or you pick the word, for post pandemic normalization that is really putting pressure on folks to think about what they’re doing, how much they’re spending on the expense side. But really, how are you going to stand out? And how are you going to level up if you want to stay in this game?

[00:35:17] And so we also included a lot about the tools that folks use, the communication patterns, how often they’re communicating with guests. We know that the more you communicate with guests, the higher your reviews are in general. It correlates. So there’s a lot in here to help folks improve their operation and perhaps feel a little bit better if your numbers aren’t quite where they were last year.

[00:35:42] Annette: And I’m going to go to, there’s one section, the areas of property management that are the most challenging. I’m just going to read them off really quickly for everybody. It was maintenance, cleaning and turnovers and then marketing. I thought marketing number three and then regulation after that. And then accounting and finance was very interesting.

[00:36:05] So again, we’re not going to give all of them away. But I want to share with everybody too because I am a TLDR. I go straight to the PS, but this is laid out. It’s very user-friendly. It’s bullet pointed. There are lots of charts and graphs. If you’re visual also, like me, it is something that you can sink your teeth into.

[00:36:25] And like I said, I think you really should download it and have it in your Google Drive so when you are going to that city council meeting or you’re getting that email together for a representative in your town, you can attach it or refer back to it. So with this report, what can we all collectively just on our day to day– I was just reading through here. Parking’s an issue. Dave, you said this, I think the very first time we ever met, that it’s like, parking, trash, and parties. But really parking and trash. Those are big things.

[00:37:06] It doesn’t take maybe going to a city council meeting or anything financial, but what can we do to take responsibility as a collective for the community? Is there something we could do with our property? Is it a mindset shift? What’s something that’s absolutely free, whether you remote host, you co-host, you manage, you have fractional ownership, what can everyone do under the umbrella of Rent Responsibly that will move your mission, which is all of our missions forward? What’s something that you could offer for our listeners?

[00:37:49] Dave: I think it’s the mindset shift. The mindset shift that we see happening in across the country is that it is our responsibility. And this is a royal we concept. We, the enthusiasts, we, the hosts, we, the folks who power the industry, the 93% who own 1 to 3 properties and the property managers are all in this together, but separately, we have no power.

[00:38:29] When we come together, we actually not only have power to shape our own future, but the knock on benefits of having a community of hosts, owners, managers locally, that you can meet up with, that you can do sip and stirs, to take one of my favorite events that they do in Vermont, where they are sharing information and banding together, that is not just a regulatory opposition strategy.

[00:39:00] That is becoming big boys and girls and growing up into the industry we are and arguably already have become, which is a very significant part of your local economy, of your local real estate tableau and usage of all the properties. If you look at them across a large city, a small city, a destination market, short-term rentals are there, and they’re important.

[00:39:27] The mindset shift that you have when you realize that we as an industry have the future in our own hands is one of action. So what actions can you take? What actions should you take? How many actions should you take? Well, of course, we asked some of those questions in our report. Go check out what people are doing and actually what the city wants you to do.

[00:39:53] But the fundamental mentality shift is if you’re just in your hole and in your silo, you’re actually doing it wrong. You have an opportunity, and it’s an email away, to introduce yourself to your elected official. Or, if that feels a little weird or governmenty and not for you, introduce yourself to your local chamber of commerce. Maybe that’s not your thing. How about your destination marketing organization, your DMO?

[00:40:25] We talk to these folks all the time, and they say, I don’t know any of the hosts in my community. So I just read the news, and that’s how I get all of my information. Again, this is the data half, the anecdote, the human half. You can fill in the human half of the equation that helps us tell our story.

[00:40:45] And the mentality shift is that if you’re not looking in the mirror, please do. You’re beautiful. But also, you have a role to play, and it doesn’t matter if you just started, or you’re even ambitious and want to get in. Your opinion matters, and your presence matters. And it will change the industry as we all wake up and smell this coffee. We’ve seen it happen over and over again. And in the coral areas, if you don’t introduce yourself, bad things do happen, and you’re behind the eight ball. So there’s a lot there, but it’s a mentality shift.

[00:41:22] Alexa: Yeah, I’ll pick up where you were going with that, Dave. Although that was a mic drop in itself. I don’t know that I can follow it up. But throughout a lot of the questions that we asked, we were mining for ways for hosts and managers to create win-win opportunities. We are very big on win-wins at Rent Responsibly.

[00:41:42] There is a win-win solution to everything. We just got to do a little digging and find it. One of the things that we found, for example, was of all of the jurisdictions that are already deploying short-term mental ordinances, we asked what’s working well? What’s some of the low hanging fruit that’s working for our community that could work for others that we don’t need to debate on anymore?

[00:42:04] The responses were, in order, permits and licenses, local responsible party requirements, as in a local responsible contact, and parking management requirements. With the exception of the permits and licensing, those are things that we as an industry and as individual hosts can adopt proactively.

[00:42:24] If we go ahead and appoint a local responsible contact, whether or not our ordinance requires it, that’s a better experience for us as a host, for our neighbors, for our guests. That’s a win for everybody. Same thing with parking. If we are better in the lead up to a stay about informing our guests about parking and how many cars they can and can’t bring, they’re going to have a much better experience on site when they are prepared for parking limitations.

[00:42:52] Our neighbor is going to be happy. Our council people are going to be happy. And so if we are more proactive and we start to adopt these things, they become wins for all. And then when you’re looking at figures like 8,700-plus jurisdictions are going to be adopting or updating their ordinances, maybe if we’re more proactive, those ordinances will be more positive and effective and sustainable in the long term.

[00:43:17] Annette: I want to offer the parking, going back to your win-win, that’s what everybody could do today because if you are communicating more clearly to your guest where they could and should be parking, it’s going to make their stay better and then obviously for our neighbors and communities.

[00:43:40] But that is something, again, win-win. Everyone, look at your parking, the way that you are communicating parking to your guests. I also think cleaning. Actually, Sarah and I own a property, and we just had our landscaper. We’re like, can you actually go into the road where the curb is and clean up the curb? We’re going to do that.

[00:43:59] And it’s like, oh, that’s not ours. Whatever. But it’s like, how can you just, even your parking area, make it more clear for the guest, for your neighbor to see? That’s their first point of contact that you care about that. But I love that because that’s something free that we can all do win-win and help everybody out today too. No, it’s great. So good.

[00:44:17] Sarah: This has been out now for a little while. You got 4,000-plus STR hosts to take the survey. Have you heard any feedback about the survey? What has been the resounding feedback from hosts and if they’re shocked, if they want to know more? What was that experience like for you guys?

[00:44:38] Alexa: One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve gotten is from alliances, short-term rental alliances. Dave mentioned at the start of this conversation how many of them participated as in invited their members to take the survey or were just otherwise really supportive of it because they know how important this data can be for these advocacy conversations.

[00:45:01] And of all the alliances that we’ve talked to about it, they have loved it. They have printed it and kept it with them as they’re going to possibly be meeting with council members and chambers of commerce and whoever else in their community. They’ve been sharing it with others. They have written to us and said, oh my God, this is so helpful. I am so thankful this exists. And then they will quite often give us a list of five more questions to ask next time. So we’ve a–

[00:45:30] Annette: Can you make it better?

[00:45:31] Alexa: Yes.

[00:45:32] Annette: Can you make it better next time?

[00:45:34] Alexa: Next time can you follow up to this question with this one about neighborhood character? And yeah, we have a long running list of questions for the next one. So it’s been especially popular amongst leaders of alliances, but operators as well.

[00:45:48] Dave: Permission to do a humble brag.

[00:45:50] Annette: Please. And no, it doesn’t even have to be humble. You can just brag.

[00:45:55] Dave: Yeah. Well, I’ll brag on you guys too. National media is hard to get the attention of. Shocker. And when it does touch on short-term rentals, it’s often Airbnb-driven, public markets doing this or that. But since this survey came out, no way to know if it’s exactly or directly cause and effect, but I’ve seen three or four articles about the hosting experience and what hosts are doing to amenitize their property and the human side.

[00:46:43] We talked about the humans of short-term rentals. They’re interested in that. And then also on the regulatory side. There was an important Wall Street Journal article. And Rent Responsibly was seen as a resource for the New York Times, for the Wall Street Journal, and we have a call with Skift coming up, which is, if you don’t read Skift, they have great coverage of short-term vacation rentals and travel in general.

[00:47:10] And so I think the reality is that as our industry grows, matures, people are going to start getting these stories right, or at least start focusing on the bigger picture and the people involved. There are a million of us. There are 800,000 hosts and about 200,000 people in property management companies.

[00:47:32] And that doesn’t even include all the vendors and any service provider. There’s a direct 1 million people in this industry, and we’re so excited and proud to be studying it and sharing information about it, but look at you guys, Sarah and Annette. You guys are leading as many people through this wilderness as anybody else. And we have to understand how exciting and dynamic and how much of our fingerprints can be on the future of this industry.

[00:48:04] Annette: The mention of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, I want to bring that back to the 8,743 jurisdictions. I can also share that, just obviously national stuff, but Sarah and I have reached out here locally. We were in our publication. It’s called Columbus Monthly. They actually did a few page spread on us, and it was about a multitude of things from short-term rentals to our podcast to our event that we hosted here.

[00:48:35] But I share that because, hosts, I know we all get so– I mean, at least I do. I get so fired up at all the news of negative this, negative that, of the stays, but you would be surprised. Reporters are looking for stories. Give them the story. Give them the story of the house that’s 100 years old that you rehabbed and someone just came and had the best family reunion.

[00:49:02] Give them the story of you are hosting maybe it’s midterm stays or hospital stays for nurses in your area or for your children’s hospital. Tee them up with the story. When we are in those publications, they are not reaching out to us. We are reaching out to them. So I will also say that’s something free that you can do. Do you know an editor? Do you know someone? And it can be your small local newspaper. Those are the most important because people are going to see a face, someone that they know, and you can tell your story.

[00:49:33] And like Dave said, let’s say even a fraction of us do that, that’s 1,000 stories that are out in the news that get picked up. So I also just want to say we can’t just sit back and wait for the news to be positive. We have to outreach to them. So if you have that within you to write, just send that email.

[00:49:50] And we can share– we sent how many emails? We’ve sent so many emails about Pot Lake and one person, and it only took that one person. And the one person that wrote back was actually the biggest publication in our area. So I do want to let you know, 99 of them are going to say they’re not interested, but you only need the one to be interested.

[00:50:10] And it’s a great way. It’s marketing for– if you want direct bookings, you’ll never know what relationships are going to grow from that. So it’s a great way. On the report, people know that marketing is a pain point while you got to get out there and market yourself. And I think putting your own story in a local publication is a great way to do that.

[00:50:33] Alexa: As a former journalist, I could not agree with you more. I would have loved to see more people coming to my inbox with story ideas. I will also share that you don’t need a journalist to cover your story. You can submit an op-ed or an LTE at any time about anything that you want.

[00:50:51] Annette: What’s an LTE. Help us out.

[00:50:52] Alexa: Great question. It’s a letter to the editor. These are typically very short pieces, so you have to flex your writing muscles to keep something brief and to the point, but there’s still a lot that you can do with 200, 300 words. These are typically submitted to papers in response to some news story, but they don’t have to be.

[00:51:15] And a lot like reaching out to reporters, your chances of getting one actually published aren’t that high. But if you just keep trying, keep practicing, the right one will be, and you can take that storytelling into your own hands a little bit more.

[00:51:30] Annette: You just gave us another episode idea, so we might have to have Alexa, the ex-journalist on to help our host tee up how to do those LTEs or those op-eds. So we’re going to extend the invitation now to have you back to help all of our hosts be able to write their own story and submit that. That would be great if you help us with that.

[00:51:50] Alexa: I would love to come back and talk about that. Yes, yes.

[00:51:54] Annette: Awesome. All right. So in the meantime, everyone, please download the report, reach out to Alexa and Dave at Rent Responsibly. Let them know what you thought about it. Sign up to participate in an alliance near you. If not just participate, if there isn’t one in your area, you’re the leader. You can lead one in your area. But any other thing that our listeners need to know today about Rent Responsibly or how they can get involved?

[00:52:23] Alexa: I’ll give Dave the final word. I will just double click on what you said about alliances. Yes, if you consider yourself first line of defense, alliances are second line, and they’re right behind you.

[00:52:35] If there isn’t one in your area, consider starting one. We’ve got a ton of resources from free guides and templates all the way up to professional services that can help you. You can go to rentresponsibly.org/alliances and check the map. If there is one in your area, awesome. Join it. Become an active participant. Consider volunteering for a committee or a project or even the board. Your local alliance probably needs you. So we hope to see you there.

[00:53:02] Dave: Yes, do whatever Alexa says. That rule of thumb has served me well for now going on five years, and I could not be more thrilled with my partner. You did ask me to have the last word. I will be so brief, but we’re going to cover 100 years of the automobile in, I don’t know, 60 seconds here, because the only analogous scenario that I’ve ever found in studying history across the country, across the world, across the galaxy, for what we’re going through and evolving into as the short-term rental industry is before our eyes, and we’re all a part of it, is the post Ford Model T era of the American story of creating the rules of the road.

[00:53:54] And in 1908, Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line. Just 100 years later, Airbnb founded 2008, and very quickly, within less than a decade, there is millions of cars on the road and millions of short-term rentals across the country in every community. But yet it took till the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s for the rules of the road to finally settle.

[00:54:23] Here we are in 2024. We are in the same exact decade when the rules of the road were set for cars 100 years ago, but I’ll be damned if they’re not set within five to 10 years. Things move so much faster here in this day and age, but the question then becomes, how did it happen?

[00:54:45] And it wasn’t until the gearheads, the enthusiasts on the automobile side, the drivers, that’s you, the hosts, the owners, the managers, got involved and started picking up the baton and doing what government couldn’t, collaborating with government, doing research like we’re doing, and bringing it to ground, as Alexa says, and really helping the community you live in figure out the rules of the road that work for you.

[00:55:13] And then over time, they normalize and become standardized. That is how it happened 100 years ago. It’s how it has to happen here. And the resources to do that are growing. The network of alliances is growing. But it really, really is an opportunity more than anything, because the people who take a leadership role now will be leaders in the future.

[00:55:36] You probably have that leadership gene. You probably have that entrepreneurial gene, and the hospitality gene. That’s all it takes to be successful in this industry. And the gene that we’re helping everybody turn on is the community engagement and community building gene, which, if you like people, people are awesome.

[00:55:57] People who do what you do are awesome. You can learn a lot from them. And I think that’s the way we get to our settled rules of the road and we thrive. And in the next 100 years, this will be the most important industry in the country. It’s not automatable, and it’s what everybody wants to do and where everybody wants to go. And we’re renting world. And I just can’t wait for the future, but it can’t come fast enough.

[00:56:20] Sarah: Yeah, mic drop. Dave, Alexa, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your time with us today. Thanks for doing this report. We’ll put all the links in the show notes so that everyone can read the report. If you didn’t get involved this year, get involved the next time they do it. Be on their newsletter. It’s the most important newsletter next to Thanks for Visiting’s that you can be on.

[00:56:41] Annette: Nice shot, Sarah. Good job.

[00:56:42] Sarah: And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:56:44] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:56:46] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:56:47] Sarah: Talk to you next time.