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441. Koryn Okey

 [00:00:00] [00:00:30]

Welcome and Introduction

Sarah Karakaian: Hello, welcome back to another [00:01:00] great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for visiting

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s start this episode like we do each and every week and that is featuring one of you are the incredible listeners out there Who’s going over to strshare. com Sharing everything you can about your short term rental so we can feature you, feature you here on the podcast, on our Instagram, on Sun

Sarah Karakaian: I don’t, I’m not making meals.

Sarah Karakaian: Why not? Can you order

Sarah Karakaian: me pizza? Okay, I can do that. I’m not feeding

Sarah Karakaian: people

Sarah Karakaian: though. I’ve really been hankering for those arepas that are just down the street. [00:01:30] Those are so good. But getting back to strshare Feature you on our podcast, on our Instagram.

Listener Feature: Stay in Our Space

Sarah Karakaian: And who are we sharing this week?

Annette Grant: This week we are sharing at Stay in Our Space.

Annette Grant: Hmm. I like the call to action. I know. And it’s stay in our space.com. Well done. I just, I was, I really liked that handle and the domain. Speaking of domains, the one thing I wanna highlight that I really like about stay in our space.com, they do direct you to their direct [00:02:00] booking site at work. on their social media.

Annette Grant: And the one thing that I really, I haven’t seen this, um, highlighted, so when you go to their site, they have a section, which is really great, um, they, um, they show you the amenities, but at the bottom, it says Our Value. Book direct and save big on fees. And it gives, um, it helps educate guests, if they’re not familiar, you know, what, what would be the added benefit [00:02:30] to booking direct?

Annette Grant: So it says our guests can enjoy added convenience of booking a stay at the lowest rate available online. Booking direct through our website will guarantee you’re getting the best value in the day. Go on to explain no booking fees, direct owner communication. Best Rate Guarantee, and then they also ask you to subscribe to their newsletter and save.

Annette Grant: And so I just want to say, I like that they’re just reiterating what Book Direct is and what, um, the value is. And it’s like, hey, save big on [00:03:00] fees. So I just, I love the way that they are educating guests. And here’s the deal, uh, Stay in our space. Thank you for that. Because then that helps each and every other host when someone wants to go and book direct.

Annette Grant: So if someone books direct with you, it’s helping the ecosystem of them just learning how to book direct with other hosts. So they’re doing an incredible job, not only for themselves, but for all of us. And the other thing I want to highlight that I think stay in our space did a [00:03:30] really, really excellent job at is you can see the photos that they use, especially throughout.

Annette Grant: They’re just, they’re staged really well. Like they have these awesome bistro lights outside. So they’re always making sure that they’re on and they’re at this good angle. I’ve just, Sarah and I’ve been reviewing so many listings lately and it is like, we’re still very surprised at the lack of professional photos and just looking at your own photos and like, would you book the space?

Annette Grant: And [00:04:00] I would absolutely book the space because the way that they are presenting it to potential guests is amazing. So, um, especially their outdoor and their outdoor at night pics make this place look so special. And I do see there’s a lot of opportunity for most hosts. If you aren’t showing your space, Um, at night, especially if you a lot, a lot of amenities that can be enjoyed at night.

Annette Grant: Like they have these bistro lights outside, they have a fire pit, they have a hot tub, they have a lovely deck. [00:04:30] You want to show your spaces to your potential guests at those like hours that could be amazing. So if you don’t have any of those evening photos, it might be something that you want to start to weave in, um, into your listing and also onto your social media.

Annette Grant: All right. I’m feeling inspired. I am too. These pictures, these, these photos are good. I knew the name of it. Just like stay, like they’re telling you what to do. Yeah. Masterclass. I think it’s cute.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah. It’s good. All right.

Diving into Breezeway

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s get into today’s episode. [00:05:00] And listen, everyone out there, I am not quiet about what I love and don’t love about this industry.

Sarah Karakaian: And the one thing I love is productivity, efficiency, and the software that helps us do it. And so, we haven’t had Breezeway on in a while, Annette,

Annette Grant: and

Sarah Karakaian: The whole point of today’s episode Well, we’ve had Justin. Yes, you’re not wrong. But Justin’s our safety

Annette Grant: expert. Not our operations expert. Yes. But he is so [00:05:30] important and a part of the Breezeway family.

Sarah Karakaian: Well, there’s things about Breezeway that, first of all, I have foes tell me they don’t quite understand what it is that Breezeway could do for them. Or they have Breezeway and they’re like, I just don’t know, like, what do I know about how to use this? And I get excited because I’m like, oh my god, I’m going to change your world.

Sarah Karakaian: So we’re going to talk about some of the features that can help hosts out there, whether you have one property or many, but then the meat of this conversation really is a feature that Breezeway offers that I honestly didn’t get [00:06:00] at first. I was like, I don’t know if I need this Breezeway

Breezeway Messaging and Operations

Annette Grant: and Listeners, I want you to pay attention.

Annette Grant: Even if you don’t have Breezeway, there are money making tips in this episode. And if you do have Breezeway, this, we are going to expose to you a way to make operations a profit center. For you

Sarah Karakaian: and what real quick just because I think we really get into the episode right off the bat Operations is how you know when where and how your cleaner is gonna do their job [00:06:30] Even how you pay them same with your your maintenance your inspection schedule Maybe you use breezeway to remind you a cadence of changing the smoke the batteries in your smoke detector and doing different safety checks but there’s so many other elements of the software that I really love and Annette’s that’s not wrong, it pays, it more than pays for itself with some of these, uh, features that it offers.

Sarah Karakaian: So operations is really everything. After you buy your property and you start [00:07:00] operating it, it’s how you keep all that stuff in line. So that’s what Breezeway has done for our company for years and years and years. And it’s even better when the team behind the product is as cool as they are. But we’re going to feature three products that Breezeway offers or three features they offer inside their software and one of them I wasn’t convinced on so I had questions for Koryn.

Sarah Karakaian: I even went out into the streets and asked some of the super users, you know, how they’re using it and I’m real excited to share with you my findings.

Sarah Karakaian: Koryn, I cannot believe this. You’ve never [00:07:30] been on our podcast, but you are an integral part of the Thanks for Visiting world. Welcome to the show.

Koryn Okey: I’m so excited. I can’t, I truly couldn’t believe it. I was like, no, this can’t be right. But I know. And that was like,

Breezeway Events and Learning Opportunities

Annette Grant: Yeah, for, for listeners that don’t know, we create, um, a lot of content about Breezeway with Breezeway and, um, Koryn invites us, and if you, if you don’t participate, Breezeway does some amazing, amazing events throughout the [00:08:00] year.

Annette Grant: Um, actually, and they’re free. Please attend. Actually, Koryn, go ahead. Why don’t you tell them about these events? They’re good. They’re very good. Just because that is our mission to help hosts up level and your events do that. So can you share with that really quick, um, how they could find out when you do those free events?

Annette Grant: Just get right to the point.

Koryn Okey: Absolutely. It’s actually perfect timing because, um, So we started five years ago with our annual Elevate Property Operations Summit, and so it’s a free event, it’s virtual, um, it is typically two days of [00:08:30] thought leadership content that is really just, as you said, Annette, about making the industry better and helping, um, helping folks do what they do every day and to the best of their ability without Bye.

Koryn Okey: Bye. doing more than they need to. Um, and so we started doing that and then we were just seeing really great success with it. And we started offering, uh, longer format sessions of our elevates conference, uh, on a monthly webinars. So, um, we do anywhere from eight to 10 a year. Um, [00:09:00] again, all thought leadership.

Koryn Okey: So they really are panel type conversations where folks are coming in, sharing what they’re doing and how they’re, um, how they’re operating. Um, and we are, um, we just launched last week, our, uh, 2025 Elevate Summit, which is going to be March 11th and 12th, um, so mark your calendars and, um, and, and register and sign up.

Koryn Okey: You can do that at breezeway. io slash elevate to reserve your spot. A lot of really great content.

Annette Grant: Free. I want to reiterate [00:09:30] that F R E E, free. And

Sarah Karakaian: I, every time, whether I’m attending as a attendee or a visitor. On a panel of some sort, and I always meet an operator who I’m like, Oh, how are you using that?

Sarah Karakaian: How are you doing? We were actually just talking about this before we hit record of The cool thing about business is that despite I think the rap that it gets it is a creative Outlet because there are so many ways to run your business to host to provide hospitality and so I might have something that [00:10:00] works for me, but then I’m on I’m watching someone talk about how they Actually, it’s about something we’re going to talk about today, which is Breezeway Assist.

Sarah Karakaian: And I was like, wait, you have how many properties and you use this, this thing? And like, what? And so I got on a Zoom call, I asked, I was like, hey, would you mind hopping on a Zoom call and telling me how you use that? And he was so Giving and and willing to share. It was Yeah. So attending these things is how you meet people and how you get other creative ideas to solve issues.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, sure. Absolutely. And

Koryn Okey: I think Sarah your point right of like you guys have been doing this for a long time. You share [00:10:30] and teach with so many people. But I love that like we’re all continually learning and improving what we do. And and so we really are thoughtful and like in who we’re asking to speak on these panels and um and the message and try to keep it so that it’s applicable to everybody.

Koryn Okey: So whether you have Yeah. So even if you have one property or you have, you know, 300 properties, you’re still learning something.

Sarah Karakaian: And the way they use, there’s always some new feature coming out with software or, I don’t know, just some new challenge that I haven’t [00:11:00] had yet and I’m like, well, I need to prepare for that.

Sarah Karakaian: It’s just a good way to get out of your own bubble and see how other businesses are operating.

Koryn Okey: Yeah, I’m excited. This year we’re, we’re changing up day two a little bit and we’re actually going to make it, um, really like breezeway client focused. So, um, you know, I think there’s this idea that when you implement software that you start with what you use and it’s really easy to just like, you’re so busy doing so many other things that it’s really hard to be like, what’s this new piece of functionality?

Koryn Okey: Like, what can I get out of that, that tool now? [00:11:30] Um, and so we really wanted to like kind of bring people in and talk about specific parts of the system that they may know or may not know and really dig into those. So, um, we’re going to have an interactive session, uh, at the very end of day two, which is a best kept secrets.

Koryn Okey: And we’re going to ask some people to come in and share what they want and how they use the platform. So, um, that’s all still coming together, but I’m like beyond thrilled that we can, you know, do that and offer that to folks this year. What if people can’t make it live? Um, so we [00:12:00] record all of the session.

Koryn Okey: So if you register, you’ll get access to all of the recordings. Uh, just wanted to check.

Sarah Karakaian: What do you think is going to be? Maybe you already know with getting prepared. What do you think is going to be a part of Breezeway that people don’t utilize that you wish they did? Because you’re like, guys, the host that utilizes aspect.

Sarah Karakaian: Love it. You need to take time to figure out how this can help your business.

Koryn Okey: I think it changes depending on like what the conversation is. You know, I’m always [00:12:30] amazed by folks who, um, right. Who aren’t used, who are, who are texting their guests still like through like a manual process, um, and sort of missing out on some of that automation.

Koryn Okey: Um, one of my favorite pieces of our messaging platform, and we, you know, we may talk about it at some point during the conversation, but is that that through messaging, you can ask your guests to check out. And when that happens, that then notifies your cleaner that they can go in and get into the property early to start the clean, which then, you know, has this whole snowball effect, as we [00:13:00] know, to potentially allow the next guest to get in a little early.

Koryn Okey: And, um, I mean, we’ve had, I don’t know what the number is now, but like hundreds of thousands of people who are using this checkout message. And on average, seeing anywhere from like Just over two to two and a half hours of additional clean time that people are getting and so I think sometimes people are like, Oh, I’m going to send this message and it’s going to be like information to the guests that the guest wants or the guest needs, but we’re not necessarily thinking about like what that can mean for like your [00:13:30] operation.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, and I, I, I don’t listeners out there like guess will tell me, Hey, just so you know, I’m checking out like and so if you can. Invite them to, like, if you think about it and you want to let us know when you’re, if you’re heading out early, uh, whether the messaging is, our cleaning team loves to get an early start, or whatever that message is, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Sarah Karakaian: Guests want to communicate with you and let you know what their plans are. And, yeah, I love the extra time operationally, too, to [00:14:00] surprise and delight your next guest.

Koryn Okey: And I think sometimes, right, people are like, oh, I can do that through my lock, right? I, I can, like, have a lock automatically notify me when a guest checks out.

Koryn Okey: But I was, you know, I think back a lot of time, like, we went on a family vacation, we left at like 4am, cause, you know, I’m in Ohio, so we’re driving back from the, from the beach, and I’m like, oh, we forgot to enter that code, right? And so like, then you’re sort of like, out of luck, cause I’m not physically in, in North Carolina anymore, when I realized, but if I was [00:14:30] doing it through like, text, I could do that at any point, no matter where I am, and that was a big like, You know, it’s really easy to say like, Oh, this is really important as like a service provider and like, or as a, you know, a software provider.

Koryn Okey: But when I thought about it and I was myself in the guest shoes, that was like really like, Oh, thank goodness. I could just text them and tell them

Sarah Karakaian: right. And so everyone, so there are lock softwares out there where when a guest leaves, you can tell them in your guide, like press, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and that’ll automatically when they’re heading out and that’ll [00:15:00] automatically domino this situation.

Sarah Karakaian: But I agree with you, Koryn, that people, it’s more inherently, uh, it’s more inherent, uh, activity to text someone than to remember. Even if the code is easy like that, to do that on their way out. I agree. And let’s, so this is, this is through. Was that.

Koryn Okey: Screaming kids, everybody was tired, you know, taking the trash out, emptying the fridge, all the things we’re supposed to be doing.

Koryn Okey: That was the last thing on our mind.

Sarah Karakaian: I get excited about talking about Breezeway because I [00:15:30] love it very much. And a lot of, I, and then I do get a little passionate is maybe the word when hosts tell me that they don’t use it or they have it and they don’t use it like they should, or they don’t really understand how it can help.

Sarah Karakaian: So that’s what I really want this episode to be, Koryn, is. Sharing with hosts, like what this can do for them, what it’s done for my business. And I do want to tell some personal stories now if I’m actually getting the really incredible opportunity of working inside another business and helping them, [00:16:00] um, tighten their operations.

Sarah Karakaian: But what we’re talking about right now is Breezeway messaging, right? What are some other features that you can set up once and adjust? Works for hosts, whether it’s making them more money or getting them more reviews. Let’s talk about how Breezeway can help hosts do those things through Breezeway messaging.

Koryn Okey: Yeah.

Maximizing Revenue with Gap Nights

Koryn Okey: Um, I think, you know, one thing that that stands out immediately, [00:16:30] like as you ask that question, Sarah is, um, is Gap Night, right? And so what Gap Night does, uh, and how it, how it works is because of the integration, whether it’s with your PMS software or whether it’s with an Airbnb, uh, platform, we know when there’s an opening at the front or end of a stay.

Koryn Okey: And so you can set up automation within Breezeway that essentially allows you to say, Okay. If a stay is, if there’s a two night opening, right, maybe you have a three night minimum, and you have a two night [00:17:00] opening, offer this guest an additional night at the end of their stay for a discounted rate, um, and, and so the platform, you essentially, you put in the parameters, like what are your rules, when are you gonna, when do you want to send this, do you want to send it at the beginning or at the end of a stay, um, and what do you want to say, uh, and then that, the system just knows when a reservation meets that time.

Koryn Okey: sort of requirement to send that message out. And I will never forget being at a, um, at a conference. This was years ago [00:17:30] with someone, I think she had maybe five properties and she came up after, after I spoke about something and she’s like, this was great. But like, what I’m more excited to tell you is I just got a stay extension.

Koryn Okey: Like while I was sitting here, I didn’t do anything. And I was like, no way, that’s awesome. And it was, it’s just like one of those things where, you know, When everybody’s so busy running their business to like go through and identify when you could offer those additional nights is a lot of work. And sometimes people might think like, Oh, it’s not worth it.[00:18:00]

Koryn Okey: Hey, I mean, you’re driving it. You have the ability to drive a ton of additional revenue, but also if it can be automated and happen. And then you’re just like getting a notification that like, Hey, somebody booked another night or somebody booked two more nights. Right. Like. That’s free money.

Sarah Karakaian: I actually have a, I have a guest who stays, um, my friend, my guest Kelly.

Sarah Karakaian: She stays with us multiple times a month. She’s a nurse. She works in another state. She drives over to Ohio and she goes to work during the week. So she’s great because she’s been staying with me for years. She books direct and she stays during the week. It’s like the best. And she’s so kind. [00:18:30] Well. I forget why, we were, we were messaging and I was like, Oh, I should figure out, see if there’s a way where you don’t have to get those Gap Night, um, heads up so much because she stays with us so often.

Sarah Karakaian: She’s like, no, no, no, I actually like getting them because I like to know. If there’s availability, if I could come early or if I could stay a day later. So even like your regular guests, just likes, they don’t have to ping you. They don’t have to ask you. They don’t look in your calendar. She’s like, don’t stop that.

Sarah Karakaian: I like knowing if I could come earlier, stay late. I thought that was such an interesting perspective, too. I thought I was bothering her and she [00:19:00] loves it.

Annette Grant: And I want to just I want to pause because there might be a lot of listeners that don’t even know what the gap night is. I mean, obviously, Corrine. I explained it is the opening in the calendar before or after, but for, for listeners, cause it’s what we need to do, should do.

Annette Grant: You can do this even if you don’t have breezeway, you should be sent, you should be sending these messages because we get limited inventory, we get 365 days. And so we have to maximize that. And this guest has already chosen you. So I’m [00:19:30] offering it to them that, and the only thing that they could possibly say is no.

Annette Grant: And like it just think if you get one extra stay a month, what that does over time, but especially what Koryn is saying, if you have multiple properties, if you can have this just part of an automation, this is bringing in thousands of dollars of more. Reservations. Um, some of some people in our membership.

Annette Grant: Yeah, they, they, they started doing this and they are like literally thousands of dollars per month. Um, to their bottom line with [00:20:00] guests that already chose them. So that’s what’s so great too. It’s not like it’s a whole brand new guest. It’s already someone that they’re already, um, you know, either they’re already in your property, they’re already reserved to come.

Annette Grant: So it’s not like you’re handling more guests. You’re just handling more revenue, um, and longer, longer stays. Yes.

Koryn Okey: And I think it’s, you know, to your point, too. It’s also like, you know, yeah, like, just like Kelly, right? They don’t have to take advantage of it. They can ignore it, right? People who have a lot of folks who come from drive to markets, this is like, [00:20:30] huge opportunity.

Koryn Okey: If you’re if you’re a fly to market, that’s probably a little bit more challenging because they likely already have their, you know, their return flights. But drive to markets. There’s so many people where it’s like, Oh, there’s a great day, you know, and you and you have the ability when you set this up. Um, and again, in that great point, whether you’re doing it through our platform or you’re doing it manually or in another way, right?

Koryn Okey: Like There’s that point that we all get to either gearing up to or getting ready to leave a vacation where we’re either like so excited and like I just wish it was here [00:21:00] already and like if you could magically say to that guest like, hey, do you want to come a day early,

Annette Grant: like stay a day late. You’re having an awesome time and day.

Annette Grant: Like I say this all the time. Like work changes for people. Life changes. It’s like, Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like I could just work from here the next day. Or you’re just, I think about this all the time. Like, hotels never ask like, Hey, would you just like to extend your stay? And there’s so many times I have a very flexible schedule.

Annette Grant: I could stay longer or want to stay longer. And, you know, so I just, I think it’s a [00:21:30] great way to show hospitality. Also, even if they say no. They know that you’re paying attention to the calendar, you’re offering them something. So I think it’s a really, um, extra layer of hospitality that it’s just like kind of piques their interest.

Annette Grant: Like, Oh, well maybe I can, you know, and even again, even if they say no, it was you making another offer to them because you’ve enjoyed having them or, or want them to come early to your property.

Koryn Okey: And it puts that in the mind that like, maybe it doesn’t work out this time, but like, let me think about that [00:22:00] for the next time I’m coming back.

Koryn Okey: Right. Great. And. Um, I mean, ideally, they book the whole duration of their stay at the initial booking, but I don’t know, there’s something, there’s something great about, like, you know, that, that opportunity to continue having this amazing time in, in your property, and so, um, I think it just is, it’s great because it puts that idea into the guest’s mind that this is an option because, like you said, hotels don’t ask you, hey, do you want to stay another day?

Koryn Okey: Do you want to come a day early? Um, yeah. So that’s a [00:22:30] great opportunity for us as short term rentals.

Annette Grant: But for, for a host, when they set that up in Breezeway, is it, um, could they set it up for both stay early and stay late? Yep. And then they can change, they can change the messaging there. And it’s literally the, the software is going to see when those openings are there and make that offer.

Annette Grant: So think about setting this, like it’s another team member, essentially, once you set up, set up the automation. So great. Love it. Love

Sarah Karakaian: it. I, I could talk about brazen [00:23:00] messaging all day and we might come back to it, but I want to make sure we hit all the heavy hitters, Koryn.

Koryn Okey: Yeah.

Sarah Karakaian: Because I also think this is going to come up during that session of like what is working for hosts maybe not everyone knows about.

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s hit on inventory a little bit.

Koryn Okey: Yeah. Okay.

Sarah Karakaian: What do you mean inventory?

Koryn Okey: Yeah, it means a huge opportunity.

Inventory Management with Breezeway

Koryn Okey: And I think there’s, you know, when we say inventory, I think there are probably two things to sort, or two distinctions that need to be made, right? You have like your home inventory, [00:23:30] and like, what elements or items exist within that home, right?

Koryn Okey: Oh, yeah. dishwashers and things like that. And then you have your inventory of what I call like your consumables or reusables, right? It’s your shampoo, your paper towels, your toilet paper, um, all of that good stuff. And, and so Breezeway is going to help you with both of those things, um, within our platform.

Koryn Okey: But I think, Sarah, what you’re talking about, right, are like the consumables, the like, how do I know, um, [00:24:00] you know, when I’m running low on batteries or light bulbs or something like that.

Sarah Karakaian: Exactly. But since you mentioned it, cause you’re absolutely right, just Monday, actually a property Annette and I own together.

Sarah Karakaian: The cleaner, whose English is not as her first language, so she was trying to communicate with us, like, something is going on in the dishwasher. She sent us a picture of the code. And because in my Breezeway, we’ve already outfitted all of the, they call them elements in Breezeway, all the elements of the home, the dishwasher, the oven, with the serial number.

Sarah Karakaian: We take a picture of the serial number, the model number, [00:24:30] all that. Before my inspector even arrived to do the cleaning, she already had an understanding of that model number, what that code in the dishwasher meant, so that she could troubleshoot it when she got there. It was awesome. Done. Boom. Fixed. Not a big deal.

Koryn Okey: Amazing.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah. So

Koryn Okey: it’s one of those things where, like, you don’t think about needing it until you need it, and then it’s like, what if they needed a part? What if there was, like, a simple thing that they could do, and if you have a 30 minute lead time, right? Like, that can make or break that guest [00:25:00] getting in on time.

Sarah Karakaian: Exactly. Or my stress levels of, like, if they don’t have a dishwasher, then they’re going to want a refund, or I have to Send my guy in there when they’re there. Now this is awkward. It’s like I get stressed about it. It’s a slow time in Columbus to right now. I can’t afford to lose revenue or to spend more money on a technician that I don’t necessarily need to.

Sarah Karakaian: So I can hit up YouTube and see if that if that error code is something that we can fix. It was just nice to know that when we when we bring in a property, whether you’re it’s a property you own or you manage, it’s [00:25:30] onboarding checklist that you go in the property. You take Stock of all the elements, even the TV model number, right?

Sarah Karakaian: So when your guest messages you, Hey, the TV is doing XYZ. You don’t have to ask them to do any homework. You already know brand make model number. You can either send them, I’ve just, sometimes I sit cause it’s easier. Send them, Hey, this YouTube video at minute marker two talks about this exact TV and how to fix it because we have, we know that information or, or my, my, we can get into this later, but my, my VA [00:26:00] is my, the people who help us with guest messaging are equipped with that info too.

Sarah Karakaian: So, yeah. It’s so good.

Annette Grant: So there’s dual inventory. So this is the actual elements of the home. Yes. The key elements and then inventory. Another inventory tracking inside Breezeway is toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, conditioner.

Koryn Okey: We could geek out about this for a long time, right? Um, I think, you know, when I think about inventory and supplies, right, that’s what we call it in Breezeway is, um, [00:26:30] You know, this is, I don’t know how often I talk to people and they’re like, I didn’t even realize that we kept like losing hangers or that we, you know, like all these things just randomly kept disappearing from the house.

Koryn Okey: We talk a lot about like robes and things like that. Right. I think people like growing things, growing legs and walking off. But a lot of times, you know, if you’re not in your property, um, on a, on a regular basis, like you need somebody who’s going to be able to track that. And if you have different people coming in, like I may leave and make a mental note of like, Oh, we need to [00:27:00] like bring more toilet paper to the, you know, the supply closet, but like, if I’m not the one in that property the next time, like.

Koryn Okey: Too bad. Right. Um, and so basically with inventory, what you do in breezeways, you set it up and you say, these are all of my items. And then you have the ability to say, this is how many I have on hand. And if you have things like maybe you’re in a market where you have multiple warehouses or you have properties that are across a big geographic area, you can also say, where are they?

Koryn Okey: [00:27:30] Right. They that could be as simple as they’re in the owner closet, the property, or it could be there in the office, they’re in the warehouse, right? There’s a lot of different ways that you could, uh, you could sort of like use that like destination or that like location of the inventory. But then what you can do is you can also set it up to say like, At what point do I want to know when I’m low?

Koryn Okey: Right? So let’s say we start off with 100 rolls of toilet paper and I want to know when I get to 40. Um, you can set that up so [00:28:00] that when that the person in the property, and it does rely on the person in the property taking an action, but when they say like, okay, I’ve used five and that brings me down to 39.

Managing Inventory Notifications

Koryn Okey: You are getting a direct notification that, hey, your inventory is now low in this. And then that can spur the task for you to reorder it, and then when the new items come in, you can adjust that inventory level. Um, it also gives you, like, quick, like, overview of, like, what you have and making any assessments.

Koryn Okey: [00:28:30] Um, you know, I said, like, it does require that a user actually Recognize that they like used an item, but there are also ways where you can make it easier, right?

Streamlining Inventory Management

Koryn Okey: The cleaner or your inspector could go in and say, I grabbed five of these things and pull that from the inventory. Or you can set up sort of, um, associated at templates like costs and supplies that are associated with that work that you’re doing.

Koryn Okey: So every time I go in to do an arrival inspection, I’m making sure that all of these things are [00:29:00] here in the house and that’s automatically pulling it. So you can make it so that it’s like a one off where the cleaner or inspector is telling you that they use things. Or you can set it up so that it’s automatically associated with the work and it’s being deducted.

Koryn Okey: Just by the user completing the task.

Benefits for Owner Operators and Co-Hosts

Sarah Karakaian: I think if you’re an owner operator, and you are a solopreneur, this is great so that you don’t have to rely on yourself to always remember. If you just, if you do an inspection or you’re cleaning [00:29:30] yourself, just do this work so you always know. And co hosts, talk about a selling feature to potential owners of talking about the different software that you invest in to make sure that you are Um, you are keeping their, their properties and your systems organized.

Sarah Karakaian: You can tell them a little bit, you don’t have to go in depth, but I’ve told owners that, Hey, if you were in our program, we will, we make sure that yes, we have consumable consumables for guests. So they have what they need when they need it. But we’re also, because I can put costs [00:30:00] associated with it. I can keep a really tight eye on how much we’re spending to accommodate a guest.

Sarah Karakaian: And it’s all within the Breezeway platform. So it’s like this. It’s a great way of staying organized and bragging to a potential owner or just yourself that you’re able to stay organized.

Avoiding Inventory Pitfalls

Annette Grant: Because two things happen with inventory and none of them are good. Either number one, you run out and that I don’t need to tell people why that’s terrible.

Annette Grant: Or number two, which we’ve done this in our past. You overpurchase. Yeah. So you spend money on stuff and [00:30:30] sometimes you overpurchase on stuff that like you never go through and it’s just sitting there and then you end up throwing it away. So it’s like, if you’re not keeping track of it. It’s got two scenarios that both don’t end well, and so, um, it’s one of those things, just keeping track, like, and I love that you said this, Koryn, and this might be for a lot of us hosts, it’s like, you’re only as good as the person actually keeping track of the inventory, so whether it’s on a spreadsheet, whether it’s in Breezeway, it’s like, you have to dedicate time.

Organizing Your Inventory Space

Annette Grant: And a place and especially the place for all of [00:31:00] you that I’ve tell the story all the time, but that is how Sarah and I started like our first hosting dates is Sarah came over and helped me organize my supply closet because I was doing one or two things. I didn’t either. I didn’t have it or I overbought and I like could not get it straight and she helped me.

Annette Grant: She was like, well, number one, you don’t have a place. So sometimes you have to start with the physical space that you’re using to keep your inventory too. And so I want to just offer that to everybody of like, that’s the one thing before you [00:31:30] start using these tools, make sure you and your team knows where all the inventory can be found.

Annette Grant: Cause mine was like in four different closets all over the place. And no wonder, like, It wasn’t working for me. Sarah Set Be Straight.

Koryn Okey: See, look at you guys helping each other.

Proactive Inventory Forecasting

Koryn Okey: Um, I do think too, you know, the other thing that’s really interesting is, you know, once you start using this, a system like this, you can also like proactively forecast, like maybe you want to.

Koryn Okey: Maybe you want to change the shampoos or the soaps or whatever you’re using in your, in your [00:32:00] properties, but you’re like, I already, you know, and I already bought a thousand of them. So it takes me a while to like get through them. But like, at what point, you know, you can’t just wait until you run out of the old stuff to be like, now I need to get the new stuff.

Koryn Okey: And so you can, you know, you have the ability when, when stuff’s in a system like this to like, Like, say like, hey, what am I going to need over the course of the next six months? What are my numbers and do I have enough of them? Or, okay, it looks like I’m going to run out in, you know, in, in July. So let’s think back and, you know, work [00:32:30] backwards from those deadlines.

Koryn Okey: Um, and, and that is, um, you know, that can be super helpful. Uh, not even in like the day to day, but just in like the running of the business,

Annette Grant: because a lot of times when you’re choosing, uh, let’s say a new supply, it’s because you did find a better price on it and it’s like, wait, I want to, yes, I want to use these, but I want to make sure I’m not overspending again.

Annette Grant: So let’s use what we have because we’ve already spent money there, but we’ve, we found something better. That’s going to be less expensive and impact the bottom line. And so I think inventory, [00:33:00] I love this because hosts, we are giving you. We started with, um, started with Gap Nights, like that is a way for you to make more money.

Annette Grant: And we see that, that’s inventory, all right? And we see it with actual inventory where hosts are losing money because they’re, you know, overbuying or having to apologize for not having things there. So both of these, I just want you to put that, um, you know, the thought into it that these are money making.

Annette Grant: Activities for money saving. Yeah, money saving money earning. So the stuff that we’re talking [00:33:30] about on the show. This is all going to your bottom line and we want that to be healthier.

Sarah Karakaian: Okay, Koryn. And this is the one that I, you know, I love breezeway very much, but this one I didn’t I didn’t get it. I was like, I don’t know that I understand this.

Sarah Karakaian: And so

Koryn Okey: we’ve all been there.

Sarah Karakaian: I have and I have faith in breezeway. And I was like, I need to talk to some super users.

Introducing Breezeway Assist

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s talk about Breezeway Assist. Yeah. What do people think it is?

Annette Grant: Yeah, what is it? actually? Let’s then I’ll, yeah. And who can participate [00:34:00] in it? Yeah.

How Breezeway Assist Works

Koryn Okey: Yeah, so I think, uh, so Breezeway Assist is a new product that we launched in 2024.

Koryn Okey: And, you know, I think in order to answer this, I want to give just a quick, when we launched Breezeway in, in 2017, uh, we launched it with our core operations product. And that has always remained like a huge focus for us, you know, we, um, there’s a lot of value that, that folks find out of that, but everything that we then added onto that, right, whether it was [00:34:30] messaging, whether it was like inventory and supplies, which technically falls under operations, whether it was, um, our guide, whether it’s, um, whether it’s this assist product, right, we did so because there was like a, a natural sort of segue into this, right?

Koryn Okey: Like, yeah. We launched messaging because once a guest arrives, most of the time that they’re coming to you, there’s an operational issue. And it just naturally made sense. For Assist, it was sort of the same thing. When we launched messaging, we launched it with an away [00:35:00] message. And so you could say, these are my office hours, and outside of those office hours, if a guest messages me, send them this message, right?

Koryn Okey: And oftentimes that message is like, if this is a true emergency, here’s my after hours number, call me. And what that immediately did is it reduced the number of calls that people got after hours. Because people were like, Oh, okay. It’s midnight. The blender is not working. It’s not an emergency, right? I’m not, I’m not going to call them to tell them that.

Koryn Okey: Um, [00:35:30] and so when we, when we started looking at like, okay, we’ve now got all of this property information and we’ve got, you know, we’re communicating to guests pre arrival, um, and, and telling them like what they should know about the property. We were still seeing this place where people were getting burned out.

Koryn Okey: Because like managing guests is a lot and taking care of them and providing that hospitality and, and it is not an eight to five or a 10 to 10 type job. Um, And, and so we launched the assist program to really [00:36:00] help folks who were just, just getting like sort of clobbered by guest requests, right? And, um, the idea with assist is that.

Koryn Okey: It is a team of hospitality professionals. So these folks know and understand our business and they are acting as an extension of your business. Um, it’s different from like a call center type thing where they’re like getting this like standard like This is, this is, let me call them and ask them what they wanna do.

Koryn Okey: Right? [00:36:30] Right. Like, these people who are answering and responding to your guests understand what would happen if they were talking to somebody that you employed, like to one of your actual employees, or to your friend that helps you, or to the co-host, right? Like, they’re, they’re still having that same interaction and every step, or, or, you know, response to a guest is done.

Koryn Okey: Based off of the instructions that we get from the host or the property manager or, you know, the operator who says, this is how I want to handle it. [00:37:00] These are the things that need to be brought to me, or these are the things that can just be created and we’ll look at it in the morning. Right? So assist is, is truly, um, it can be 24 seven, like 365.

Koryn Okey: It can be just evenings. It can be just weekends. It can be just evenings and weekends. Ooh,

Annette Grant: hold on. Stop right there. Cause that just, that’s where hosts get excited.

Flexibility and Cost of Breezeway Assist

Annette Grant: That’s where you piqued a lot of interest so it could really just be on the weekends having someone assist It could be just [00:37:30] in the in the evenings when you actually like want to sleep and not have your phone Okay, and I know everybody wants to know and you might not be able to answer this so if we have to you know Send them somewhere else, But how much is this?

Annette Grant: What’s this cost? What’s the investment? I don’t want to say cost. I want to say what’s the investment here? Because this is an investment of time back. Is it per use? Is it by the hour? Do they need to reach out to see what that looks like? Um,

Koryn Okey: so they’re, you’re going to [00:38:00] want to reach out to somebody to get the exact pricing.

Koryn Okey: Because it probably

Annette Grant: depends on

Koryn Okey: how many properties and how many hours. Exactly. And what I can tell you is that, um, my understanding, because I’m not specifically in sales, is that you purchase up to the number of hours that you want. So, right. When I talk about, like, um, just week nights and weekends, right.

Koryn Okey: Maybe that’s, I don’t know, I’m going to, people are going to be like, she doesn’t know how to do math. Maybe that’s 128 hours, right. Um, or maybe it’s 70 hours. So you, you purchase up to those number of hours. Um, our team can [00:38:30] easily provide you. Um, with more information specific around costing for like how you run your business and what you’re going to need it for.

Koryn Okey: And the thing that’s really nice about it is, let’s say that, you know, you are a host that says, Hey, I just want this on the weekends. But then you’re going on your family vacation or you’re going to a conference. You have the ability to change that. Flex. Okay. Um, and. I think, you know, the, the thing that is interesting about [00:39:00] assist is that, um, you, they answer, not you, but that team typically can handle just shy of 90 percent of most questions that come in without ever escalating them to your team.

Koryn Okey: Um, and when I say escalate, I mean like. Involving you at 2 a. m, right? They know what to do if there’s a lockout. They know, like, what to do if, um, the guest has a flood or something like that, right? They, they have those steps and [00:39:30] they’ve all come from instruction from you on what you want them to do. Um, Or if they do have a question like, Hey, the microwave stopped working, like, okay, that becomes a task in our operation system that your team can work on in the morning.

Koryn Okey: Right? You’re not going to send someone out at midnight for the microwave. Um, but so, you know, they’re handling a lot of that and you have the visibility into all those conversations.

Annette Grant: Well, that’s what I was gonna say. That’s where this, um, this is a place where this [00:40:00] differs from, let’s say, like. Hiring an independent virtual assistant is like they have the behind the scenes like you would obviously have to let that assistant into your breezeway But they can have access to your breezeway, correct?

Annette Grant: And then start making like if they need to make a task for you, it’s there So they have that behind the scenes of all the work and all the time that you’re putting into to breezeway To help the guest and to help you

Koryn Okey: For sure, for sure, and I think that like, you know, it’s where the, it’s where that’s like, [00:40:30] that’s like the best part, right?

Koryn Okey: That’s where everything sort of comes together, and you’re like, this thing is humming along, because It’s not going to be like, I don’t, I mean, sales team might be like, what are you saying? Like, it won’t be perfect when you set it up. Right. Because there’s going to be scenarios as there are in any hosting environment

Sarah Karakaian: where

Koryn Okey: like, you’re like, wait, never heard that one before.

Koryn Okey: Right. Um, and then they’re not going to know exactly how to handle it. But what is so nice is we’ve been doing this now, probably about a year and a half. We have a [00:41:00] ton of folks who are using this and As we continue to find those, like, one off things that, like, Joe Schmo in Arizona experienced, that becomes part of our onboarding and part of the questions that we ask you.

Koryn Okey: So, You know, you actually get better at providing that information because somebody else experienced it and you didn’t have to be the first to see that happen. So our implementation and sort of onboarding for assist has evolved significantly. In fact, we just launched, [00:41:30] um, we call it blueprint, but it’s basically like a catalog of like what happens when and where do they go for this information.

Koryn Okey: And when you think about like, you know, Sarah, you talked about like the. The YouTube video, right? Like, that’s a prime example where that could just be built in. So if a guest calls with this answer, with this question, send them this. Uh, so it’s just, it, it works really well because, um, you know, I think people are hesitant and, and very candidly, like, I was a little [00:42:00] skeptical at first, right?

Koryn Okey: Like, this is their brand. Right. We work so hard in this industry to attract guests and to provide them with this incredible service and to make sure that they love everything about us and give us a five star review. Um, and so handing off those interactions to someone else. Like, that’s terrifying. But I, I can, I can confidently say, you know, a year and a half, almost two years later, that I haven’t spoken to [00:42:30] anyone who said My guests were treated any differently or at any lower level of service than they would have been with someone on my team.

Koryn Okey: And that makes them so happy to be able. To know that they’re not burning out themselves, their team members, but their guests are still getting that same level of service.

Sarah Karakaian: I have a quick question for you, and then I would like to share with any skeptics that are listening right now what they might be thinking, so I can smash them, because I think I can.

Sarah Karakaian: Koryn, are they all U. S. based, or is it a variety? [00:43:00] Who’s behind the, who’s on the other end of the phone?

Koryn Okey: Yeah, they’re not U. S. based. They’re over in the Philippines, but they, um, they’re all, they all have a hospitality background.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, and I can share this.

Real-World Experiences with Breezeway Assist

Sarah Karakaian: So here are my concerns was, yes, can they have the brand voice that That I have, and I, I actually hopped on, did I, Koryn, you can back me on this, I hopped on a call with, um, a super user in Florida, we actually have one of our members inside of our membership who is obsessed with this, [00:43:30] and though, both those case studies, the woman in Florida had a co hosting business.

Sarah Karakaian: Um, and I can tell you how she used it. And then Lynn in our group, she had, she is an owner operator and she was just tired of feeling she always had to take her phone with her,

Annette Grant: but she missed, I’m going to say it. Yeah. Something happened. Yeah. She missed a guest call because one night she actually like fell asleep and didn’t hear her phone.

Annette Grant: So that’s what I want to share too, is with Breezeway Assist, there’s redundancy because when it’s just you. It’s just you [00:44:00] so that was someone that like had to learn the hard way of there wasn’t she had no backup for herself because That’s what you do as a host. You know, you’re gonna answer all the calls and make them.

Annette Grant: So, um, yeah. Yeah, it hurts my

Sarah Karakaian: Well, and I know I’m both instances the co host and the owner operator They both said the price the investment is like a no brainer Price. So, uh, it obviously depends on how many properties when you need them. So definitely,

Annette Grant: I think both of them [00:44:30] too started with just, uh, nights.

Annette Grant: Yeah. Then they started with weekends and then they just went full time. They use it around. They were like, wait, why? Like they saw how the guests were being taken care of and they were like, wait, financially, this makes more sense to just have breezeway assist around the clock. So it was also, they dip their toe in the water and then just kept like getting warmed up and went all the way in

Koryn Okey: one seasonal markets.

Koryn Okey: That’s huge, right? Because the last thing that you want to do is hire [00:45:00] someone and then not have anything for them. Yeah. Mm

Sarah Karakaian: hmm.

Koryn Okey: Um, and so this is, this is sort of like expanding your team without. Without, like, making a full on investment, um, because, like you said, Annette, like, there’s, they’re, you know, they’re an extension of you, but they’re not just you, right?

Sarah Karakaian: And that’s where I got confused, though. I was like, well, so Breezeway Assist helps in house guests. And so I was like, well, how do I [00:45:30] separate inbound from guests who are in house? And this is where I needed to hop on the phone with some users of Breezeway Assist and ask them and I, I understood it. You train your guests or you have the right, uh, messaging in the property, maybe automated messages, maybe on the OTAs of what to do once they’re in house.

Sarah Karakaian: Like you need to use this number, whether you text or call us. If you’re a guest in house, this will get you, this will get you the help the fastest. And that way. [00:46:00] You can separate, which I, I do, and I can’t believe I didn’t understand this at first. Cause Annette and I like to put things. Whether it’s a, if it’s a business, um, call, this ring happens, right?

Sarah Karakaian: Or if it’s an owner who’s reaching out, this happens. Like if you, if you segment where the different inbound things are coming in your life, it helps reduce the chaos, the clutter. So having all of your in house guests be a part of Breezeway Assist and Breezeway Messaging and they know the number to reach out to and then any inbound reservations that can wait [00:46:30] until whether if, if you’re using instant book and they meet all the parameters and you have your.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah. Your, um, guest verification that can happen automatically, but if he needs a little bit more of a of a judging, it can wait to the next business day or until you get the message, um, to to handle.

Annette Grant: Yeah, host, you know, you have your phone on the Airbnb ding and you’re like, it’s someone that decided to like.

Annette Grant: Plan their vacations seven months out at three in the morning and you’re like, oh, I thought I were locked out This is somebody that they just want to see if I you know How [00:47:00] close I am to the stadium and you’re like, are you joking me? Like because you you got to be on top of it

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, but it that and it works brilliantly and I was like, oh I get it like you’re you’re putting the different Aspects of your business in buckets and keeping it separate and taking care of the people who’ve actually already paid you who are in house where if they’re reaching out, sometimes it’s because of some sort of friction and you’re taking care of them right away and you don’t have to rely on good service, not being at dinner with your family, being on vacation, [00:47:30] sleeping, whatever that is to miss that.

Sarah Karakaian: And then I understood it. I was like, Oh, I that that’s actually pretty smart operationally.

Annette Grant: Well, and, and, oh, go ahead. Sorry, Nat. Yeah, I just, I want to go back to the part two of like, if anybody has been wanting to expand their team, But it seems like a heavy lift. You know, you don’t wanna, you don’t wanna do go through the hiring process on Indeed or getting resumes.

Annette Grant: You don’t wanna have to worry about actually paying someone, what’s their [00:48:00] hourly rate look like? How am I gonna do taxes? How am I gonna like. This is a way to, again, to lean on, um, a platform that has all that taken care of for you. So, um, they’re the ones worried about hiring. They’re the ones that are worried if someone’s, um, call, I’m just going to say it when someone calls off sick or someone’s got a flat tire or someone can’t make it because that happens with your team, um, or someone needs to go on vacation.

Annette Grant: And again, they just take, take out a lot of the, um, the work initially, because this is a way to, to. [00:48:30] To start to lean into how busy would a team member be also, um, and again, that seasonality, which is really, really nice too. Cause I, all of us hosts out there know, like, well, what am I going to have people do when we’re at 26 percent occupancy, you know, during January.

Koryn Okey: And I think too, it’s, it’s also like, you know, you also think about like, we’re looking at things on like an economy of scale, right? You might get. I don’t know, whoever’s listening might be like, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, right? Let’s say you get a hundred calls and you [00:49:00] find out that like three of them didn’t go great.

Koryn Okey: We’re going to, we’re going to exacerbate that a lot faster and say, Hey, something needs to be done about this. Right. And we’re, and, and it isn’t like a set. This is not, you know, Sarah, to your point, like, what can you set up and then just sort of go about your day? This is not a set it and forget it type thing, because you do want to constantly, just like in your, in your business.

Koryn Okey: Even if you weren’t using assist, right? You’re constantly reviewing and looking at your processes. And are there ways to make those better? And, you know, you know, talking with the team to say, [00:49:30] Hey, is there anything that I should be aware of? Is there anything that I should be thinking about that you’re seeing across the other, you know, 300 companies or 500 companies that are doing this, that like could make my business better, right?

Koryn Okey: So you have that opportunity to not only And Learn things faster and implement them in your business and it doesn’t just have to be For the assist team, right? You can take those learnings and share them with Folks that you work with or just for your own knowledge and well being. But I, I also wanted to say, because I think this is a big [00:50:00] one, right?

Koryn Okey: Your, uh, your comment about Lynn and sleeping through that one call, right? There’s so much regulation that’s out there around like how quickly you respond to guests and how available you are to guests. Right. Um, it also takes that out. We were in Hilton head last year. Um, And we were talking with a property manager and they were saying like, you have to respond to a guest issue like within like, I want to say it was like 60 or 90 minutes and don’t quote me if you’re in Hilton head.

Koryn Okey: I might be wrong, but, um, you know, there’s a specific time [00:50:30] frame that you need to respond by. And if you’re asleep and you miss that, you’re not going to meet that. And then that has this like whole, like, again, that snowball effect. Our team is, I mean, that’s what they’re doing. They’re on it. And, um, and they’re responding very, very quickly to any of those, those questions that come in.

Annette Grant: Well, yeah, because even if you’re going out there trying to hire on your own, it’s like you still might have, let’s say it’s the evenings or the weekends, like. You know, especially if you’re in the U. S. and it’s like, well, someone’s going to, they’re going to sleep at [00:51:00] night and they might still sleep through, um, the messages or a call.

Annette Grant: So you still kind of, and especially when it’s one person, let’s say you only, if you have one property or two property, like how often is that even happening through, throughout the night too? So it’s easier, like you said, economies of scale there because people are, they’re staying busy because they have more than one client that they’re working with.

Koryn Okey: And it is not I think sometimes you you like get into this scenario where like you have to boil the ocean and figure it out like what do I need to tell them what do they [00:51:30] know like you don’t have to think about that stuff

Sarah Karakaian: and we it’s work that you you should do but you don’t do as a host because you’re just in it and so if you would like to have it not be your 24 7 365 like thing that’s always tapping you like it’s all it’s always on if you would like to You Separate yourself from it.

Sarah Karakaian: At some point. This is a great first step, I think.

Koryn Okey: Absolutely. Because it’s affordable

Sarah Karakaian: and it’s flexible and yeah.

Koryn Okey: The flexibility is key too and I [00:52:00] remember when we first launched this, um, we Actually, I was wrong. We launched assist in 2023. As I was thinking back through this, I was like, that wasn’t last year.

Koryn Okey: So assist has been around for, for two years now, not 18 months. Um, but when we first launched it, I remember talking to a manager down in Mississippi and she said to me, I let my entire office staff have Memorial day off. How often, right, in our world, we work holidays, like, you know, her, she still had [00:52:30] staff members working and, like, maintenance and operations and things, but her staff that is in the office, they all took, they all got to take the holiday off because the assist team was, like, responding and representing them, and so, um, that’s not going to be the case for everybody, but I do think, like, when we think about our own life, like, when I made a shift in my role and I wasn’t, like, client facing, I was like, Wait, I get my, I can work on the weekends or not if I, you know, I made that choice.

Koryn Okey: So the choice wasn’t made for me. And I, I loved hearing that from her saying like, everybody was [00:53:00] so thrilled, um, because they, they got that day.

Annette Grant: No, so listen, I’m sold. Sell some gap nights, everybody. You’ll get the gap night so it’ll help you pay for assist. No, this and this is the way as a host, you have to be thinking about things like, okay, how am I going to weave in potentially a new expense, but it’s like, okay, well, what’s the automation like trying to sell these gap nights that will help me pay, um, you know, for the investment in assist.

Annette Grant: So these are the type of things if you’re so in it right now that you can’t even think about. [00:53:30] Getting, you know, a Gap Night message together on your own because you’re doing all the things. This is where that like slow down to speed up. There’s probably a lot of opportunity between your inventory, your nights that you’re not selling out, um, other things like that you, you’ll have time, um, to be able to, to earn more so you can have like more team members.

Koryn Okey: Yeah. And you guys, something you said, I don’t know who said it, but one of you said something that reminded me, you asked me one of the pieces of messaging that [00:54:00] I loved, um, or that, you know, people found value in. And I, I didn’t think about it until we were, we were just talking about like, you know, issues coming up and communicating when things were going to get addressed.

Koryn Okey: Um, with messaging, when you have a guest that reaches out to you and says, Hey, the, the, You know, the TV isn’t working and they’ve troubleshot and done all the things that they needed to do and you do need to actually send someone out, you can actually send updates to that guest that is on John is coming today.

Koryn Okey: John has been scheduled to [00:54:30] come do that work. John has started the task. John is left. And that’s again one of those things that is like a time suck because you want to communicate. You can’t just have like John show up at my apartment that I’m renting and. And who is this guy that’s here, right? But if I get a text that says I’m, uh, somebody’s coming, I’m going to know that.

Koryn Okey: Or if you’re at the beach, or you’re at a game, or wherever you might be, um, you are communicating and, again, leveling up that hospitality to your guests, um, without having to manually.

Sarah Karakaian: It’s such a [00:55:00] professional layer, too. Yeah, I think. You know, there is something about appearing, perception is reality, and when you have All of these ways that you’re communicating, not too much, and you’re not babbling on, it’s like, this is the issue, the guest doesn’t, they just want it fixed, or they just want it tended to, and so, it, it just makes you look put together, um, you’re not scrambling while you’re trying to coordinate this, and also messaging a perfectly crafted message to the guest, it is, I do love using that feature.

Sarah Karakaian: We, I would use it even if the [00:55:30] John was my husband or me, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I’m not

Annette Grant: going to tell Nick about John. Don’t worry. Mom’s the word.

Sarah Karakaian: Is there anything else about breezeway? I mean, there’s a ton of stuff, but that we, that revolves around. Cause I really wanted to touch on messaging inventory and assist today because I don’t want to overwhelm everyone, but What are your thoughts?

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Sarah Karakaian: What should their next steps be, if they want to explore it, [00:56:00] maybe see a few examples of how it can work for them. And even small, like if you’ve got one property, you get Breezeway, at least the core Breezeway for free if you’ve got one property, Koryn, correct? Yep,

Koryn Okey: that is, that is, that’s exactly what I was going to say.

Koryn Okey: And I think, you know, we, I’m so excited that we talked about messaging and inventory and, you know, assist because There’s so many people out there that think, oh, Breezeway is an operations platform and that is, you know, as I mentioned earlier, that’s our core. That’s what we started with. We [00:56:30] continue to invest in that does mean there’s a whole nother hour of conversation around the operation side of things, um, on its own.

Koryn Okey: But I love that we talked on some of these things because a lot of the times the people lead with the ops piece and they don’t know about these other offerings. And so, um, So super excited to have the chance to share all about that with you guys, um, and yeah, I think, um, you know, come to Elevate Learn that day too is going to be for clients.

Koryn Okey: But if you are [00:57:00] interested and you want to hear, um, you know, you can, you can listen in and you can, um, you know, hear what folks are saying and how they’re using it. Um, and if you don’t want to wait until March and you want to learn more now, um, in the show notes, I believe there’s going to be a link that folks can click on that will take you over to our site.

Koryn Okey: Um, you can also go to breezeway. io slash TFV. Or, you know, when you’re filling out a form, put in things for visiting. Um, and as Sarah said, yes, you’re going to get, um, opera, the operations [00:57:30] product free for your first property, um, or. Um, you can get, or if you have more than one property, it’s 19. 99 for those additional properties for operations and messaging, and then our guide, which we didn’t talk about, um, is bundled into that price.

Koryn Okey: So, um, yeah. It really is. I mean, this. I’d love to talk to you guys.

Sarah Karakaian: It’s one of my favorite pieces of tech and what, you know, for, yeah, it’s just so good. Easy to use. Teams would love using it. I literally, I was one of my team [00:58:00] members, we’re, we’re doing a. Emerge right now, and she was like, Oh, I really hope she still uses Breezeway because people like knowing your team wants to be on top of things, too, I guess is what I’m trying to say, and they take pride in their work, and they love that these checklists and the operational side of Breezeway and all the automated messages just helps us stay at the top of the heap when it comes to competition and our product.

Sarah Karakaian: So, yeah. Thank you, Koryn. Thank you so much for your time today.

Koryn Okey: So fun to be here. Thank you guys for having me. Thanks for all of your support for [00:58:30] Breezeway all year round.

Sarah Karakaian: No, it’s, yeah, because hosts need to know about it. Again, it’s Breezeway. io forward slash TFE. Check it out, or you can always DM us, email us.

Sarah Karakaian: We’re, I’m happy to give you a candid, um, Feelings about, I mean, I think you already know how I feel about it. But, um, with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant, and together we are Thanks for visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: Talk to you next time. [00:59:00]