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

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:06] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:07] Sarah: Let’s start this episode like we do every week and share one of you, our incredible listeners, who’s heading on over to strshare.com, sharing everything you can about your short-term rentals so we can celebrate you here on the podcast, on our email newsletter each and every week, of course, on Instagram on Sundays. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

[00:00:26] Annette: This week we are sharing @hotelstellas with an S. Again, that’s @hotelstellas. And I want to note here, this is one of the first times we’ve really done this. This is a host. We actually featured them a few weeks ago, and they were at Goldie’s Beach House. And the reason I’m re-featuring them is, number one, they went to the website twice and put in both of their properties. So kudos to them.

[00:00:51] But what I love is this is a host that actually has two separate Instagram accounts, two separate domain names and direct booking sites for their independent properties, which I looked up. I believe they’re only about 10 miles away from each other.

[00:01:08] And the reason I’m highlighting this is it is so well done. So many hosts ask us all the time that have multiple properties how they should do their social media and their direct booking. And most of the time, our advice is to combine them because it’s a lot to manage if they’re all separate.

[00:01:25] But Hotel Stella’s, check them out. They’re doing an awesome job of being able to maintain two separate accounts and two separate direct booking sites. However, when you go to their link in bio, you will see that they are both offered there. You’ll see that there’s a sister property. It even says, “Stay at my sister’s Goldie’s.”

[00:01:45] So I really like the way that they have done this. They’ve done a great job at it. We highlighted it on the Goldie’s Beach House. I’m going to also highlight it here. They have done an amazing job of making both of their properties shoppable via Minoan. And if you are not taking advantage of that, please do, but check them out for this inspiration.

[00:02:11] Their branding is so wonderful, but also their photos. Something I just want to talk about is they have a hot tub of sauna. They even have just like this little corner nook where they have a croissant half eaten and a coffee cup there. So there’s just some lifestyle photos that are enviable.

[00:02:32] Please check them out for inspiration and a multitude of place from them making their property shoppable to having two different handles to two different direct bookings. They really are giving you a master class in how that is done. And the branding and the photos are top notch. So well done, and thanks for putting your next property in so we could highlight that here and share how this can be done in a really wonderful way. Well done.

[00:03:00] Sarah: All right, Annette. Today we’re going to talk about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart because I suffered from it for way too long back in the day, and that’s hosting burnout. And I remember, for me, hosting burnout was in the form of always needing to be available for my guests. And at first, that was a thrilling part.

[00:03:19] I loved it. I loved being able to have this warm and hospitable tone to my messages to my guests. I loved hearing the questions they asked that I could figure out ways they wouldn’t have to ask in the future. And I think it’s essential for all hosts to be that involved in their properties, in their guest communications at the get go. When you’re year 1, 2, 3, 5 in and you are feeling like you cannot go out to dinner with your family and friends, you’re feeling like you can’t go on vacation without having your phone on you or–

[00:03:53] Annette: Or you’re starting to get angry at the simplest and most innocent question that your guest has because they are so excited about their trip or potentially booking with you.

[00:04:04] Sarah: Right. It is time to leverage help. And we talk about a little bit in the episode today. We’re interviewing Rich Sipos, who is the head of sales at Extenteam. It is our industry’s first staffing as a service company, offering a unique labor subscription model that extends local teams with professional global talent.

[00:04:26] I appreciate Rich’s perspective on this whole episode because he used to be a property manager and a host. He ran a cleaning company, and now he is head of sales at Extenteam. So he understands the pain points that I think a lot of some technology companies don’t get because they’ve never been on our side of what’s going on. But today’s episode, it’s not just about hiring a “VA” to solve for your problem. It is about hiring a customer service professional with a hospitality background and at a price point that makes sense for us hosts who have smaller businesses.

[00:05:07] Annette: Rich, welcome to the show.

[00:05:09] Rich: Hey, thanks for having me. We’re really happy and excited to be part of it. So thank you.

[00:05:14] Sarah: This topic is going to be so helpful for our listeners, and I have to say, and Rich, I was sharing this with you before we hit the Record button, that I was very hesitant to work with the Extenteam a few years ago, but I’ve always thought about it.

[00:05:33] Now that you have this new offering that we’re going to share with our listeners about how they can stop being glued to their phones– so everyone that is what today’s episode is about, is how to stop being glued to your phones so you can either get back to time with your family and friends, look at another proper that you could buy and do some underwriting, have some time to do that. Whatever it is that you want to do and not necessarily have to be on your phone just in case a guest answers.

[00:05:58] We’ve all been there, going to dinner or to a cocktail with a friend and having to have your phone. Eventually I switched to an Apple Watch, sorry, because I didn’t want to be rude and have my phone out. But I was still never 100% present. But before we get into all that, Rich, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to work with Extenteam.

[00:06:18] Rich: Yeah, yeah. For sure. So going back 20 years’ time, I started and founded Park City Resort Properties in Park City, Utah. So I saw a need for higher level of hospitality within the area, and I thought, I could do this. So I created Park City Resort Properties, just like many of your listeners, of course, getting into the business.

[00:06:44] I was a vice president of a homeowners board there, and I started to knock on doors, saying like, “Hey, this is what I’m doing. This is what I can offer. Is this something that you’re interested in?” And I quickly got four or five clients pretty fast and just started the business from there. Learned on the fly and figured everything out.

[00:07:09] Fast forward, nine years after that, and the company was acquired. And then in the meantime, I had bought a cleaning business, and we grew that cleaning business into a service-oriented business as well, managing HOA functions and some other things like that, but still doing commercial cleaning, individual property cleaning, and then, of course, many, many vacation rentals in that business too.

[00:07:40] So I’ve been heavily involved in everything when it comes to the industry. And then for the last three-plus years, I’ve been leading the sales team with Extenteam, growing the business from startup to where we are now. So that’s my journey in the industry. But prior to that, I was a software consultant. So like everybody’s story, not falling into the business per se. I truly chose to be in it. But in the same sense, I’ve been heavily involved since the last 20 years.

[00:08:15] Annette: I want to pause for one second. This is nothing to do about the Extenteam, but I know I have so many listeners who want to start co-hosting for others or managing other people’s properties. I heard you say, Rich, you knocked on doors. Did you literally do that?

[00:08:29] Rich: Absolutely.

[00:08:30] Annette: I love that because you have to go out. I’m just going to call it hunt for the leads. Sometimes it’s just going out and ask. You got to make the offer to people and ask them. Really quick, how many people do you have to ask to get that first four?

[00:08:45] Rich: I don’t know. I would say probably 20. I’m not sure. Not that many really, to be honest. Yeah. We were in a neighborhood that provided short-term rentals, allow short-term rentals. So a lot of the people that are purchasing homes there were interested in renting them. So it was really, really good timing first of all, and then I think there was a level of trust being that I was on the homeowner’s board and just keeping a level of professionalism that people can trust, respect, etc.

[00:09:22] Annette: I love that. And sharing that because I know so many listeners out there want to either grow their portfolio or they want to grow their co-hosting business with other people, managing their assets. And I’ll share, this is exactly why Sarah was calling. I think it’s the first pain point besides cleaning.

[00:09:42] Let’s shoot it straight now. Cleaning, I will say, is probably the number one pain point. But then once you solve for that, it is all of the calls, all of the questions, all of the emails. And I want to add to what Sarah said. It’s not just the out to dinner with friends or family or trying to, in my case, go to a football game or tailgate.

[00:10:03] It’s that, my stomach’s going to drop right now because I think every host has experienced this, sleeping next to your phone with the ringer on and still missing the call from the guests. That to me, it’s the one that hurts the most. You wake up and there’s some texts or some messages of like, can’t get in, or there’s a leak or something.

[00:10:23] And that’s where just having other support 24/7, not just yourself. Because Sarah, you had that happen. That dreaded, you fell asleep. You swear you’re going to be able to wake up and hear everything because you’re a light sleeper because we have guests. And then one night–

[00:10:39] Sarah: Rich, I want to highlight this story really quick because I think it’ll get the pain out of everyone. So when we get to the solution, it’ll be even that much sweeter. But I had that same problem happen.

[00:10:48] Not only did I have my phone on, but also one of my inspectors was on duty. And she’s also supposed to keep her phone on. Well, she didn’t, but I did. So I had the fail safe of me, but I missed it. I slept right through it. Rich, it was Christmas Eve, and they were arriving for Christmas Day’s festivities the next day.

[00:11:07] They had brought all the presents to the front door of the property, and they couldn’t get in. The smart lock wasn’t working. I forget what the glitch was. They couldn’t get in. They were calling me. I was not answering. It was snowing. It’s cold. All their gifts are on the front porch. And later I could see on the camera, and they had to go to a hotel. Do you know what I mean?

[00:11:30] I was a part of that memory. And that’s not the memory that I want to be a part of. I want to be part of all the family memories that they created in that space because they were able to check in smoothly and all that kind of good stuff. So with that, Rich, tell us about Extenteam then. So you’ve been with Extenteam now for three-plus years. Talk to us about the journey. Where did it start? What was the initial problem it was solving for, and where is it today?

[00:11:58] Rich: Definitely. So back a few years ago, we were solely providing dedicated team members to companies. Our ideal customer was not a new operator, was not a host. Our ideal customer was a professionally managed business with, say, 100-plus properties. So those companies have much different problems that are the same insane problems, but on a grander scale.

[00:12:29] So they wanted to have somebody that really represented the brand, that really was responsive, that really was an industry professional. So we saw that as the need for most of those customers, whether that was from the guest side, from the back office side, or anything. So providing dedicated team members solely to property management companies is how the company got started.

[00:12:57] We quickly realized, and we’re constantly evolving, constantly innovating when we’re thinking about our what our ideal customer is. And we want to be able to solve problems for customers with one property under management or 50,000 under management. So we want to provide those staffing solutions to those companies.

[00:13:17] So we created the Tailwind product, which truly is 24/7 guest communication with the shared team of hospitality professionals. So not just AI generated responses, true hospitality professionals, answering those questions, answering those problems on a 24/7 basis. So you don’t have to be afraid of somebody calling off of work or somebody is sick.

[00:13:44] You always have somebody there that’s on the team that can answer those questions for, like I said, any size operator. Tailwind’s really geared for smaller operators. But it can be adjusted so that it can work for just about anyone.

[00:14:02] Annette: Right. And I’d say most of our listeners are probably one to five properties. When they’re hiring, we’re hearing it a lot. They’re all ready to hire because they finally are in the groove. They’ve got all the kinks worked out. Now they do want some of that freedom. And I think your first team member that’s going to help with communication, just the backup for you is very nerve wracking, but you just crushed my biggest fear, which would be, okay, great, I hire someone to help, but then what if they call off? Then I’m right back at square one. Or what if it’s the holidays and I want to give them some time off?

[00:14:41] So you’ve already solved for that I would like to just call it redundancy issue, of having redundancy with my backup plan or having that person there, or if someone on the Tailwind team calls off, it doesn’t matter. There’s other Tailwind assistance to back it up. I think that is awesome right out of gate that that’s taken care of immediately.

[00:15:01] Rich: Right. Exactly. And like I said, the people that are working in the team are experienced guest-facing hospitality professionals. So when they’re looking at a particular company’s knowledge base, they understand what’s expected from that company. So you do have brand awareness that way as well.

[00:15:22] Whether you have two properties or 10, somebody starting out with one property, you’re only starting your brand awareness. You’re only trying to figure out exactly what you represent relative to another host or another property manager to set yourselves apart from one another, providing a higher level of hospitality.

[00:15:43] So when the team is looking at those knowledge bases, they understand the difference between the companies that they’re working with. So again, it’s a shared team, but you don’t have that fear of somebody not being available. Somebody is always there.

[00:15:58] Sarah: These are virtual assistants, right, Rich?

[00:15:59] Rich: Sure.

[00:16:00] Sarah: So they are virtual. Because that’s a word that gets thrown around a lot so much so that I almost don’t like the word anymore because–

[00:16:08] Rich: I don’t either.

[00:16:08] Sarah: It becomes this word that’s like, oh, I get to be a lazy host now, or I get to go to an island and not care about my business because these other humans are running it for me. And it’s my understanding that that is not what Extenteam is saying. This is someone who you provide the information about what your brand standards are. You have it all dialed in so that– essentially you have SOPs, systems and processes that is easy for someone else to follow.

[00:16:37] Extenteam’s job is to hire people with experience in the hospitality industry and the ability to access that information quickly to get back to the guests within a short period of time. Can we dig into what I just said there? Is that correct? And talk to me about that necessity of having hospitality experience already before they join Extenteam.

[00:16:59] Rich: Yeah, absolutely correct. So when we talk about virtual assistance, that idea is antiquated, in my opinion. So you have somebody that initially was responsible for your calendar, for helping you organize your day. This is nothing like Extenteam is whatsoever. We’re providing the people that have experience in the short-term rental industry, in the hospitality industry, the five-star hotel space.

[00:17:27] These are guest-facing professionals. So big difference when it comes to having somebody be an executive assistant, an admin assistant, or something like that. So going back to picking up things from each company, we get knowledge base, and that knowledge base is continually updated by the partner.

[00:17:48] As things change, knowledge base is updated. We get the latest information on how to handle things. And our biggest thing is we want to solve 80% of the problems. There’s going to be 20%, 25% of the problems that we can’t, and we have to have the right people that are on the ground with the companies that we’re working with that we can get in touch with quickly so that those problems can be solved quickly in person. Anything that we can solve remotely, we’re working towards solving all of those problems for those partners.

[00:18:25] Sarah: That’s a relief because, I can tell everyone listening, I have virtual assistants that are not Extenteam. Although, again, this is very enticing to dig into this more because we’ll talk about the price savings in a little bit, Rich, if you’re okay with that. But I also have inspectors, so they’re boots in the ground.

[00:18:47] So I have all of these people, and then there’s me. And I can tell everyone that I am still sometimes being asked questions by my team, who is even my boots in the ground team. They’ll sometimes still have questions for me. And I am obsessed with updating my SOPs and making sure that I’m getting them what they need before they even need it so they don’t have to reach out to me so they can really be self-managing.

[00:19:12] But they still sometimes need to ask, and that’s totally understandable. So how does that work? Let’s say a guest reaches out to an Extenteam member, and they do need to ask someone that’s boots in the ground for assistance or help. What is that? How would that work out?

[00:19:30] Rich: Right. So we have a list of people that we should call at any given point of the day or a day of the week, etc. So those questions would be sent to that person, whether it’s via phone, email, or text, or however the partner wants us to communicate with them. And then when those problems are solved, we want to update our knowledge base so that those questions that are common, especially for a particular partner, that we know these questions are going to be asked a lot from this partner.

[00:20:04] And we want to make sure that those are updated so that we can have less questions for each person that we’re working with or each company that we’re working with. Ideally, we want to make it so that it the partner is hands of, as hands off as they want to be. And then just continuously updating that knowledge base.

[00:20:26] Annette: I’m actually going to read something from your website because obviously probably you spent a lot of time on this, but this is something else I want to share with listeners. Inside our membership, when people are ready to hire, again, something else that is a pain point for them is, do I have enough things to keep them busy?

[00:20:43] That’s a really big thing of like, well, what if I’m booked? What if my bookings come in and they’re only working one hour a day, or two hours a day, or we have a slow week? They’re very nervous about keeping them busy. And then two, payroll and paperwork. And I just want to read this. With Extenteam, their Tailwind product, no recruiting, no screening, no payroll paperwork at a fraction of the cost of hiring in house staff.

[00:21:07] So that’s what I want to share because for me, that’s always been such a nerve wracking, like, I don’t know how I’m going to keep them busy. Am I going to be able to afford them? So I just want to share with everybody, like, you’re not going to have to worry about what’s payroll every two weeks. Am I going to be able to keep them busy?

[00:21:23] Because I have hired people before, and everyone says hire before you need them. And I’ve done that, but I couldn’t keep people busy, and then I had to let them go. And so that is not a fun place to be when I thought I needed them but I just really needed to get some of my time back. And once I got my time back, I solved all the issues that have been piling up and then I had to let those people go, and that isn’t long-term solution.

[00:21:46] So just after saying that, with the payroll, with the paperwork, with the onboarding, can we go into that? Because I see right here like, listeners, if this is a pain point that you’re wanting to solve for next year, you can schedule a free consultation. Please do that. At least, give yourself that opportunity.

[00:22:03] But Rich, can you take us through onboarding? How long will that take me to get my– I’m just going to share the word knowledge base is stressing me out too. Sarah, that is music to her ears as her personality type. My personality type, knowledge based, I’m like, “Oh no, this is just going to be more work for me.” So if we could walk through onboarding, I would appreciate that. And we can talk price for that.

[00:22:24] Rich: Yeah, yeah. Sure. So starting from cost, we provide this on a subscription model. There’s no long-term commitments for what we’re doing. And it’s per property pricing. So you’re not paying for a particular team member. You’re not paying for someone to be on your payroll.

[00:22:46] You are really paying per property pricing for a service-level agreement. Very, very simple. We provide three tiers of service. There’s a starter package, a growth package, and a pro package. So when we’re talking about 24/7 guest communication, the starter package will cover SMS messaging and emails through our unified inbox and with our proprietary Tailwind software.

[00:23:14] The growth package also includes that plus OTA messaging, plus reservations, dealing with reservations. And then finally, the pro package– I think I said growth package in the middle, correct?

[00:23:26] Both Annette & Sarah: Yeah.

[00:23:27] Rich: Pro package would be everything– that’s their OTA messaging, SMS, email reservations, plus phone calls. So the pro package covers everything. Very typically, our customers choose growth and pro just depending upon their business model and how they do things. But that’s how we operate there when it comes to pricing. Remind me the other part of the question there.

[00:23:54] Annette: Yes. So the pricing–

[00:23:54] Rich: The knowledge base. Okay, knowledge base.

[00:23:56] Annette: Onboarding, this knowledge base. I’m like, how long is it going to take me to put all of my information into this knowledge base so I can have my team, my Tailwind team.

[00:24:05] Sarah: It’s like a swear word for her.

[00:24:06] Annette: Yeah. Knowledge base. Export my brain. Is that happening yet with AI?

[00:24:12] Rich: It’s a pretty simple thing. So any of the real neat information that we need to know that really is specific for a company’s brand, that’s important for us. We want to know what that is, whatever that might be. We provide a welcome basket for every guest. If somebody’s asking about that, here’s what you need to talk through. So just simple things like that.

[00:24:39] But beyond that too, onboarding each property, making sure the connections are there for Vrbo or Airbnb, making sure they connect properly, making sure the OTA messages are coming through. So we work through that with each individual person that we’re working with until that’s correct. It’s very easy, especially with a small number of properties, to get through that onboarding.

[00:25:04] And then as things are forgotten from a knowledge base, and you say, oh, wait a minute. We can then update the knowledge base at any moment in time, real time knowledge base updates. So we can get that information into there as you forget things. Everybody forgets things, no matter what the case is. You could write out the perfect SOP, and then you’re going through your day and you’re like, “Oh, wait a minute. I forgot this key point that I need to put in there.” So it’s just constant updates and constant knowledge base updates.

[00:25:35] Annette: That’s easy for us to do. We can just go into our portal inside Tailwind and update. Maybe we changed the code on one of our doors or something like that. Let’s say an owner closet. We could just go in and change that. Is that something independent that the host can do?

[00:25:51] Rich: Yeah. And you’ll have access to a partner success manager or a Tailwind team lead to go through any problems and things that you have as well. So it’s not like you’re just on your own. Yes, there’s things you can update on your own too, but it can also go through a person, making sure that we’re getting things completely right as well. So you do have access to that too.

[00:26:14] Annette: And listeners, I want you to research on your own, but I am going to give– some of their plans start as low as $49 a month. Yes, I did not stutter. I did not. That is exactly what it says. So they have a solution that is extremely affordable. And that’s one of the things too. Sarah and I partnering with Extenteam, that was something we wanted to be very, very cautious of.

[00:26:36] We know that this next year, everyone really needs to make sure that they’re mindful and profiting the most, but also getting their time back. And this is also that affordable solution for you as an independent host to be that independent operator if you have it, but still have that 24-hour support and hospitality that your guests deserve and that you deserve to be giving your guests.

[00:26:59] But this price point is amazing. As far as how quickly, and I like that you said subscription based, so it’s just once a month the bill would come due for them. Awesome. Sarah and I have properties in different locations. Does it matter where your properties are? Can they be in different states? Does that change the team at all? Does that change the pricing at all?

[00:27:24] Rich: It does not matter whatsoever. No. I think it’s important for our team to know that your properties are in multiple locations. Of course, that makes sense. But that doesn’t change anything when it comes to the pricing that we provide.

[00:27:38] Sarah: There is a multitude of technology that a host might have as their tech stack. I feel like our tech stack got out of hand the past few years. But anyway, an Extenteam member might need access or might need to know whether it’s where to get the lock code from. There’s already so much information if one of our hosts is already using a property management software.

[00:28:03] Does this Extenteam member have access to that, or what is your proprietary software? What does it connect to so that we don’t have to repeat ourselves? You know what I mean? As we’re building out that knowledge base.

[00:28:15] Rich: Great question. So we’re integrating with different PMS systems now, and we’re continuing to integrate with the ones that make the most sense for our customers. And as quickly, we get those in, a lot of that information we can pull down. If there’s things that we can’t get to, we would need a log in for those systems, and the team is very familiar with many, many different PMS systems and where to get information.

[00:28:42] But if there are obviously those types of problems that we can solve and we can get into those systems quickly, then we can do that as well. We’re trying to solve everything through our own platform as much as we possibly can. There are instances where that’s not exactly possible at this point in time.

[00:29:00] I think in the future we’ll have a lot more integrations, and most of that information we’ll have very, very quickly at our hands. But there are times when we have to get into a system, and that’s possible.

[00:29:11] Sarah: I love you answer of, yeah, they just gave us a login, and they can log in themselves and find the answer. So they’re willing to be problem solvers and find solutions if they have what they need to do so.

[00:29:22] Rich: Yeah. We want to really distinguish ourselves well above and beyond some types of call centers that are out there. Call centers can answer a phone, can answer an email, and pass that information on to someone else. Our idea is to solve the problems, as many problems, as many issues as we can, and continue to evolve in that as well.

[00:29:46] So the more problems that we can solve remotely, that’s what we’d like to accomplish. Passing on information doesn’t really help that much. There are times when we’re going to have to say, “We need somebody instantly to come to a house that has a leak or that there’s a fire in the kitchen. But outside of that, we really want to be able to solve the problems that most guests have and not pass them on. Otherwise the service is nothing. It really doesn’t make a difference.

[00:30:18] Sarah: Can we as hosts see these conversations happening in real time if they’re online? If it’s via the OTA, if it’s an SMS text, or an email, are we able to– not that I want to give our hosts a reason to be overly–

[00:30:33] Annette: Trust but verify.

[00:30:34] Sarah: Trust but verify. Yes, Rich. If we wanted to trust but verify that our team members are handling and using the language we want them to use, for me, that’s really big in my company, can we do that?

[00:30:48] Rich: Absolutely. Yeah. That’s a big part of it too. And like I said, access to partner success manager Tailwind team lead, that’s really important too. So when there are situations when an operator is looking at texts or messaging that’s going through– and we can actually record phone calls too if that’s something that you’re looking to listen into as well, then we can provide that information to you.

[00:31:16] You would have a log into the system. You would be able to see messages going in and out and what’s happening. I think that’s key. That’s part of building trust with the company. It’s part of building trust with the team. So I think it’s essential that everybody is on the same page.

[00:31:32] Annette: When you hear testimonials from your current clients, what is something that you just hear over and over and over again that the Tailwind team has allowed them to– what is it? Is it to feel different, to grow their business? What do you just hear over and over that makes you super proud of the Tailwind team and Extenteam?

[00:31:51] Rich: I think we’ve all been in the situation to where we get pushed to the limit of what we can actually take. And so our own hospitality becomes non-existent in some cases. So we don’t want to be projecting that across. And by eliminating that from an operator, from a host, they are actually getting true hospitality with the Tailwind team rather than an aggravated response from a host that’s completely inundated with other things that’s going on.

[00:32:25] So I think that’s a big, big part of what somebody says, “Oh, my goodness. This is great. I actually feel happy about a lot of things again. It’s 8:00 PM at night. I don’t have to answer that OTA message that’s coming in. Somebody’s answering it quickly.” It could actually turn into a nice reservation to where you’re out to dinner and you’re having a cocktail or something like that.

[00:32:50] And you’re looking at your watch and saying, like, “Oh, my God, somebody’s messaging me.” But you don’t want to answer that in that situation. Or if you do, it might not come across as exactly where you would want it to. So I think that’s a huge part of it too. I think that’s something that people tell us.

[00:33:08] Sarah: I feel seen.

[00:33:09] Annette: Yeah. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. We have all done this. We’re like, any question. How far are you from this? And you’re angry, messaging back. I’m going to put my hands up. Hosts, if you are at that point, you have got to get help because you are going to ruin your business and yourself.

[00:33:27] It is called burnout. It is real. And you have to understand that person, it might be the 1,500th time you’ve answered the question, and you know it’s in your listing, but they ask it, and it’s exactly what Rich just said. They need someone that is fresh, a little bit distanced from the actual property, from the guest. Know thyself.

[00:33:52] You know if you’re starting to get burnt out. Don’t let yourself get past that point because your guest does suffer. And then all of us, all hosts suffer from us having that– let’s call it what it is. You’re angry at guests that have never done anything just because they’re asking questions that they should be asking.

[00:34:10] Sarah: We’ve all been to that restaurant where you sit down and the server or the bartender is annoyed with you and you’re like, “Isn’t this what you do for a living? Wait, isn’t your direct take home, at least in the States, related to my hospitality experience?” But you will still get that disgruntled bartender, and it’s because they’re burned out probably or they’ve got something on their mind.

[00:34:29] Okay, Rich, I do want to point something out. These Extenteam members, for us in the United States, these are overseas team members, correct? And is English their first language?

[00:34:38] Rich: Yes. That’s a really good point. So our Tailwind team is currently all located in the Philippines. We do have dedicated team members working in Mexico, Europe, Colombia, etc., but our Tailwind team specifically is all located in the Philippines. We do have our product operations manager that’s here in states.

[00:35:03] And then we have other team members supporting it too that are also in the states. But the actual Tailwind team are all located in the Philippines. So as the first language, almost. I would argue that English is almost the first language in the Philippines. So yeah, there’s no issues there when it comes to being able to understand somebody or being able to articulate a particular issue. No problems whatsoever.

[00:35:32] Sarah: Because the English language, we all know how simple it is and how it all makes sense all the time. Wink, wink.

[00:35:37] Annette: I was going to say, though, I have a Filipino VA for another part of a business that I do, and she corrects me. She’ll go over my emails, like, “Annette, that’s not right.” And I’m like, “Yeah, you’re correct.”

[00:35:52] Sarah: I know that would be a concern for some people listening that if they are overseas, that there would be some miscommunication with the English language or the written English word. Because sometimes things, whether it’s how you spell it or even just– I forget what they’re called, but when it’s just this random saying that you have to just understand in English language what that means, the Extenteam with the Tailwind platform, are they–

[00:36:19] Rich: Yeah, nothing’s going to be perfect. Nothing will be perfect, not even in having a local person answering questions about local things. Nothing is going to be perfect. So knowing that, again, we’re hiring customer-facing hospitality professionals. These people are used to talking to people.

[00:36:41] They’re used to handling guests-escalated problems. So this is what we do. This is what Extenteam does. We find the exact right people, and we have them in place to perform that exact right thing. It’s not hiring a general VA for this particular situation whatsoever. That’s not the case. So making sure we’re getting the right people.

[00:37:05] We know exactly who we’re looking for at this point. We have over 400-plus people working in the Extenteam right now. So we’ve done this before, and we know what we’re looking for, and we’ve made mistakes as a company. We learned from those mistakes, and we just get better on a daily basis.

[00:37:24] Annette: Again, when this episode is over and, listeners, you want to go check it out, just the fact that you can cancel anytime, I know that hosts have these problems to solve. And like you just said, hiring over 400 team members, you’ve got the experience there. You have the experience. I want to ask some cleaning questions too, just because you had that cleaning company.

[00:37:49] But you’ve had the cleaning company. You’ve had the vacation rental company that you sold. So you have all of this experience, and that’s what I want hosts to understand too, is when you are doing everything on your own, it’s you, and there’s power in a team, power of a team of people, and power of people doing this every single day, helping hire talent, working with other property owners across the country, across the world.

[00:38:14] Rich: Yeah. And affordability is a big part of it. Everybody who’s doing something completely on their own, then you get to be at 80 properties, you’re not doing that all that on your own anymore. But when you’re at 2, 3, 4, 5, each one that adds on, especially if they’re really far apart from one another, or if they’re in different places, if they’re in different states, different countries, or whatever brings a whole new set of problems too.

[00:38:41] So the more and more that you get on your plate, you’re not going to be able to just hire somebody straight out from your local area. It’s not going to really help what you really need to solve. This 24/7 guest communication really solves a lot of those issues.

[00:39:00] Sarah: I have a question about the SMS and the phone calls. Will I have to already have that already set up and then the Tailwind platform will somehow port it in or is the SMS and phone calls part of your software and then then you will import my numbers into it? How does that work?

[00:39:13] Rich: Great question. There’s different ways that we can pull your phone information into Extenteam, or we can create a new number, and then you can forward things into that number. So there’s many ways that we can solve that problem itself. So no worries there whatsoever either.

[00:39:35] Sarah: And you serve hosts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, wherever else? You will serve any host anywhere?

[00:39:44] Rich: Yeah, there’s not a lot of limitations. Language limitations could be in some cases. But if we’re able to answer in English and even some cases, a couple of other languages. But languages could be an issue in some cases situations, but at this point, most of our customers are working in English.

[00:40:08] Annette: My final question is, I know that the Tailwind team would deal with– and by the way, I know that we’ve been saying Extenteam and Tailwind everyone. Tailwind is the product that Extenteam is offering to our smaller host. So you will want to ask about the Tailwind product. If we have a direct booking site, because when I’m looking, it’s like OTA assistance, could our Tailwind team member help us with direct bookings also?

[00:40:37] Rich: At this point, we’re really working only with Airbnb and Vrbo. But we’re looking on a daily basis as to what’s next, what other API connections that we need to the other pieces. So getting more information from our hosts, from our property managers, from the companies we work with, that’s how we’re determining what comes next.

[00:41:04] Sarah: Yeah. And I assume when you figure out what PMS make the most sense to integrate with that, that will be the problem they can solve for. I had another question. Oh, I wanted to share that we are really excited about Extenteam and their Tailwind product and how they’ve solved for us smaller hosts and still being able to provide professional 24/7 guest communication.

[00:41:27] But I wanted to hear from someone who is actually already using the product, and I wanted to share that I spoke to a gentleman out in Colorado. He purchased a property management company, and he needed to get up and running very quickly to solve for the pain points of there were already some reservations that they inherited, and he couldn’t speak more highly about the Extenteam members and about Tailwind.

[00:41:52] And I believe he also has dedicated team members. And so if someone’s listening right now, Rich, too, and they’re like, could I have someone that actually helps me with whether it’s bookkeeping for my short-term rental, anything else that’s administrative that could be done remote, I assume, when they book a call with Extenteam to find out more about Tailwind, they could also ask the questions about a dedicated team member. Is that still an offering that you have?

[00:42:17] Rich: Yes, of course. Of course. The key about hiring a particular person for your business, we’re going to understand what problems you’re trying to solve before we come up with a solution that we can give to you or multiple solutions that we can give to you. But when it comes to a dedicated team member, we’re going to match the exact need that you have as closely as possible.

[00:42:40] So if that person’s going to be doing operational bookkeeping, and they’re also going to be responsible for somehow creating owner statements, then we’re going to find that right person for that fit. Now, it could be different. Somebody could be primarily selling reservations. Big difference taking a reservation and actually selling a reservation.

[00:43:02] So then we’re going to look for somebody who has real sales experience match their predictive index to and more of the sales profile and find that person for actual selling reservations. So we’ll match the need that a customer has. We have customers that grow out of Tailwind as well.

[00:43:22] So say they get five properties under management, then all of a sudden they gain 10 more, 12 more. A lot of times this can happen depending upon how people want to grow their business. And now all of a sudden they have 30 -plus properties and they’re saying, wait a minute, I need somebody that’s going to handle more than just guest communications.

[00:43:43] I want somebody that’s going to really truly understand my business inside and out. Let’s get a dedicated team member in there too. And then cost wise, it could probably make sense that you switch over. So yeah, we can provide a solution for what people need.

[00:43:59] Sarah: You said something real quick that I want to unpack before we wrap up. You mentioned predictive index. Can you explain what that is and why that is probably one of your secret ingredients into finding the perfect team members to solve for these different areas in the short-term rental?

[00:44:17] Rich: Definitely. It’s like a personal assessment test. We’ve all taken these little tests to say what profile you fall under. And there’s lots of other different tests out there. But predictive index will put people into a specific profile that says what their strengths and weaknesses are. So when we provide somebody who’s in a sales profile, when we’re looking for somebody that’s to do sales, whether that’s outbound sales for gaining new homeowners, whether that’s selling reservations, we’re looking for those predictive index profiles that are really sales specific.

[00:44:52] That will give us the better candidates rather than someone who is more relationship driven. So somebody who is more relationship driven probably isn’t going to be the best person to sell reservations, but they might be perfect when it comes to guest services.

[00:45:07] And then there’s a whole other set of people who are better with numbers, and then those positions fit those people a little bit better. So we find the right profiles that fit the people that we’re actually hiring as well, which gives a much better chance for quicker fit and somebody that can jump right into situations as well.

[00:45:28] Sarah: Fun fact, Annette and I, anytime we hire someone, they also take the predictive index test. Annette and I have taken it, and we know who we are, and then we can also see what her profile is and mine is and the best way to work together. So the fact that Extenteam leverages something like that to help them build out their teams, you are putting–

[00:45:48] Annette: The game changer.

[00:45:48] Sarah: Yeah. You’re putting the right people in the right seats to begin with, which I think that is a big misstep that so many people make when they’re hiring mostly because they don’t know that they should do that or the power of taking those tests. But that’s incredible.

[00:46:02] Rich: Yeah. We want to give people the highest chance of success right from the beginning.

[00:46:06] Sarah: All right, Rich. Anything we haven’t asked you that we should ask you before we hop off? Did we grill you?

[00:46:11] Rich: Maybe I can come on again. I could be a regular guest.

[00:46:16] Annette: I have one last question. With your cleaning company, what was the secret sauce in hiring good cleaners?

[00:46:24] Rich: Yeah, that’s a really good question. That’s a tough one because, again, I was cleaning only in a specific area. People first. Absolutely people first. So making sure that the people that we’re hiring know that there’s a place for them to go hire if they want to get there. We had plenty of properties to clean and plenty of things to do in our office that if people had the skill sets to move up in their careers, however they wanted to, they had a place for those things too.

[00:46:55] We also wanted it to be a safe place for people to work. So making sure that we did a lot of fun things for the team. Cleaning on a daily basis is very repetitive. Of course, you’re cleaning the same houses. You’re in the same places. Sometimes you’re only cleaning kitchens.

[00:47:12] Sometimes you’re only cleaning bathrooms. That gets very monotonous. So trying to keep the monotony out of it. And at the same time, really taking care of the people that we worked with. That was the key. And I think we retained our top housekeepers for many, many, many years. And I believe that it’s still the case now that many of the same people are still working for that business.

[00:47:34] Annette: Awesome. No, love that.

[00:47:36] Sarah: Come for the guest services, and staying for the cleaning tips. Thank you so much.

[00:47:40] Annette: Let’s take care of your team. No, I love that because they are doing the toughest job for sure.

[00:47:45] Sarah: All right. So if people want to find out more about Extenteam, we have a link in the show notes. Go check it out. Definitely book a call. Ask your questions that you might have, and take back your time in this year before the year’s end. Honestly, give yourself a little gift. Start 2025 off correctly. And I think it’s also good for hosts, especially if you want to grow in this industry, to learn what it is like to pass the baton on to someone.

[00:48:15] You have the Extenteam product leads helping you with the database, the bad word, the knowledge base, and learning that, like you said, you’re going to answer all the questions of the knowledge base, and there’s still going to be times that you’re going to have to answer some questions, but it gets stronger and clearer the longer you work with this person who’s already in the right seat.

[00:48:37] They’re already meant to ask guest questions. They are already meant to remain friendly and solution-based. So Rich, anything else you want to share, or if people want to reach out to you specifically, how can they get ahold of you?

[00:48:48] Rich: Yeah, really simple. My email address is very simple rich@extenteam.com. Really easy to find me there. You can find me on LinkedIn as well. No problems finding me.

[00:49:00] Sarah: Perfect. Well, with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:49:02] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:49:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:49:05] Sarah: Talk to you next time.