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418. Hosting Hotline
Introduction and Welcome
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hello. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian. I’m Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for visiting. And this is the hosting hotline. If you want to get your hosting questions answered here on the hotline, go to hosting hotline. com and you can ask us your question there.
We can hear your voice, the inflection, give us all the details.
YouTube vs Podcast Preferences
Sarah Karakaian: But today we are doing things just a little differently. You may or may not know Annette and I have reinvested a lot of time and energy into our YouTube channel, which is different content than you get here on the podcast, because some people are visual, some people you want to be able to listen to the podcast on the go, maybe you want to do both.
It’s been really fun. We’ve been getting to know people over on our YouTube channel as well. Have you been having fun on YouTube Annette?
Annette Grant: I have. It’s been good. I have to admit, I like, I watch YouTube. More than anything now.
Sarah Karakaian: More than podcast listening?
Annette Grant: [00:02:00] Um, I think I’m gonna have to say yeah. Really? Yeah, because I have it in the background a lot.
For those of you that don’t know, I live alone. So I just like to have some background noise and I listen to a lot of music on YouTube. So it allows me to toggle between music and education and I think I probably watch YouTube more than listen to podcasts these days.
Sarah Karakaian: I can say this when I’m driving to and from all the different things that I’m, properties, whatever.
It’s podcast for me for sure. If I’m at home and like Nick, my husband, if he’s in the living room watching something, it’s usually violent and sci fi and I cannot, I will be in our office and if I don’t feel like reading or doing something else, like I’ll put on YouTube on my laptop and watch in the office, whether it’s educational or something else.
So that’s what I’m watching YouTube when I’m at home.
Annette Grant: But I bet if you did a time study on me because still when I walk and I’m in my car, I still go back to podcast, even [00:03:00] though I could do it on my phone, that’s like a habit. So I don’t know if we did a time study, it still might be neck and neck, but I love both of them.
Sarah Karakaian: Send us a DM, you guys on Instagram, yet another different platform and let us know what you, consume. Again, I think we’re safe to say we consume both.
Dynamic Pricing Inquiry
Sarah Karakaian: And so therefore we’ve got different content on both, but we had JennyPrice1781 leave us a comment on a YouTube video we did diving in to dynamic pricing.
And Jenny asked, “do you still recommend dynamic pricing even if you are in a rural area and don’t have lots of activities in the area?” And we’ve got some thoughts for Jenny.
Annette Grant: My first thought is we use Pricelabs. They offer a 30 day free, no credit card commitment. So right there, there’s like zero risk to try it because I am always interested in what software will [00:04:00] recommend. I always like to like fact check myself, second guess myself and always be learning. So for the simple fact of understanding what a dynamic pricing software would offer me for the information that I put in about my home and area.
I would be highly, highly interested to make sure that the work that I’m doing is similar. So right there, zero risk. I would try it just because I want to know where I’m falling and what they would recommend.
Benefits of Dynamic Pricing
Sarah Karakaian: And I think that’s the first thing, especially new hosts, when they come and they start hearing about dynamic pricing, they think that they can beat dynamic pricing.
I get it. Like they want to save money and I understand that. But I will say. And die on this hill that when you are just starting out and like so many hosts, you were just on one platform like most likely Airbnb. First thing I would invest in is dynamic pricing because it’s the one software that will actually help you make more money,
Annette Grant: right?
Curiosity would kill the cat here. Are you still allowed to say that? I don’t know if you’re not, probably not. But I would just want to [00:05:00] know what are the best in the business, the algorithm, what is this data scraping monstrous, amazing machine pulling data from my area.
So Jenny, that’s my thing right there is like, you want to be the best of the best. And I don’t care what area you’re in. Even if you are in a rural area, I want to make sure that you’re competitive.
Competitor Analysis and Pricing Strategies
Annette Grant: So that goes to the next thing, Sarah will speak to this. You said you don’t have lots of activities in the area, but what might she have in the area?
Sarah Karakaian: I’m hoping you’ll have some competitors. There are instances where you might be, you have such an incredible property that people are going to travel just to go to your property. But if you’re in a rural area because if people go there to disconnect, unwind, maybe it’s more of a camping, glamping area.
We get it. We have that here in Ohio as well. We have people who have the same idea that we do to capture people who are trying to get away and unwind, go hiking and offer accommodations. So I would say, [00:06:00] and we asked our revenue manager this too. Let’s say you’ve got one, two competitors. Okay. Try the free trial with Pricelabs
and if you feel like you’ve rocked it out and you don’t need it fine, but if you have three or more competitors, really what dynamic pricing is about is about making sure. That you are priced competitively against other properties. You want to make sure that you have appropriate pricing during peak seasons and yes, peak events, but that’s kind of a bonus.
You want to see where you can maximize available revenue in the market and you won’t know if you are not comparing yourself to your competitors.
Annette Grant: And let’s say, and I’m not sure when you’re saying like we don’t have a lot of activities, but I’m telling you, if there is one event. Or one activity near you, like one event a year can like triple our monthly revenue.
So like knowing about that event and understanding Jenny, how to price it is incredible for you. And what’s [00:07:00] cool about it is that something that once you get that dialed in those specific events or activities. . That compound effects, especially if it’s something that’s annually or, you know, something that happens over and over again, you do not want to miss out on that either a peak season, that event, the thing that you can also really increase your nightly rate for
Sarah Karakaian: or not to sound whatever, but how many times have there been a quote unquote event that I would not have considered it to be an event and other people do because Everyone’s interests are vastly different and so, Jenny, you may not know that there’s an event or an activity happening because unless you have your Google linked up to your area, and again, like, especially in rural areas, different areas are called different things further apart, so something that’s 15 miles away might be going on in a different town, but it could very much affect your rental and you won’t know it because you don’t have it.
AI, essentially, or an algorithm there to help you harness it.
Annette Grant: And [00:08:00] the last thing I want to say about it is I am also the type of person like if there’s that software out there, if they’re again, like I got it, I got to scratch the itch. Like I want to know, like, I don’t like unanswered things, especially like, cause you can sit out here forever wondering, should I try it?
Should I try it? Should I try it? And the reason I also say try it is a there’s a 30 day. free trial, but try it. If you don’t like it, you can always not use it. So I, you know, I have so many things that I’m like, Oh, I want to try that. I’m gonna try it. It’s like, let’s just try it, get it over with. And then it’s not taking up space in my mind anymore about, um, what if, or should I use it?
So I encourage you try it, see if you like it.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Annette Grant: And then, but it is, it isn’t something Jenny, I want you to think you can just dive in today. You’ll see a result tomorrow, understand it. And then that’s it. You are going to have to, Understand it. Um, tweak it. It is an art and science. You’re your home is an investment.
Any of the software that you should purchase is an investment. And again, what circling back to what [00:09:00] Sarah said at the beginning of the episode, we always let all hosts know if there was any piece of software that we would bring in first for our short term rental, it would be dynamic pricing because it is the one that can truly help you make more money immediately.
And forever, not that the other ones can’t, but you could see an immediate ROI on that investment.
Conclusion and Sign-off
Sarah Karakaian: All right, Jenny. Thanks for watching our YouTube channel. Thanks for asking the question in the comments. And if you’re curious about this video that Jenny was commenting on, we’ll make sure to put it in the show notes.
Put it in the show notes. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian. I’m Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for Visiting. Talk to you next time. [00:10:00]
