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460. Hosting Hotline

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

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

Sarah Karakaian: and this is the Hosting Hotline. If you wanna get your hosting questions answered here on the hotline, go to hosting hotline.com, ask your hosting business questions, and we’ll get them answered here on the podcast every Tuesday.

Don’t be shy hosting hotline.com. Go ask. Today, we have a question from Valerie.

Hosting Hotline Caller: Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. So I’m looking for a safe, like, um, they have in hotel rooms where a guest can come in and input their own combo every time, and believe it or not. It’s not easy to determine that online, and I haven’t found what I’m looking for. Thank you.

Annette Grant: I loved her attitude. Thank you. I like it. I like that. She’s so cheerful. All right, so [00:02:00] this is, this is a great question. I especially like this too, if you are doing shared spaces. Mm. Um, maybe you’re onsite with your guest, that just gives them that extra feel of security and too, it really does mimic a hotel stay and so Sarah and I always like to, any anyway that we could mirror what hotels do amenity wise that’s possible in your, uh, short term rental to do that. So what we did is we are gonna link to it in the show notes. We searched our, we went to Amazon. ’cause a, one thing that we love about Amazon is its speed to delivery, but B, I’ve had a. Always a wonderful experience returning anything to Amazon.

They make it really easy. So Valerie, we’ll link to the one that we found that’s most similar to what you see in hotels, uh, at a very affordable price. Also less than $150. And again, try it, test it, make sure you like it. [00:03:00] But again, for the return policy, I like it. So if it’s not, not up to speed with what you want, you can return it very easily.

But before we install a safe, just like anything, we wanna talk logistics, uh, we think it’s a great idea, but it is gonna come along with a few extra responsibilities for you and a few extra responsibilities for your team.

Sarah Karakaian: So here are the things that you should consider. Let’s think about guest communication.

Guidebook instructions whether your guidebooks are digital or they are physical, or both clearly explain how to use the safe and definitely include photos. Bonus if you could include a video and you could host it on Vimeo or a private YouTube so that you can walk your guests through how to use it. But you’re gonna let guests know if there’s a default code or how to set a personal one.

You might think it’s easy once you get to read the instructions and you have time and space. But remember, a guest wants to throw their stuff in there. Lock it up and [00:04:00] leave. So the more we can meet them where they’re at, make it very easy to understand how to use it, the better experience they’re going to have.

Annette Grant: Yeah. ’cause. I don’t know if you’re all like me, but like when I go to the spa and they show me like, okay, just put your number in. And then I like, wait, wait. Always forget it. I always have to have them come and help me open it. It’s just like

Sarah Karakaian: you guys, we were just, Annette and I were just, we were working in Florida and this exact thing happened where the lady came in and shared with Annette how to use the safe, how

Annette Grant: literally she turned around and I like blanked on it. It was, it just, she did,

Sarah Karakaian: everyone in the spa was like trying to show Annette like how to use it.

Annette Grant: And it, it happens every time. It’s like the retention of it is like, it happens every time.

I’m not proud of this. It’s just is what it is and we’re gonna move on from it. So do, do anticipate some additional guest communication. Um, next is a liability. You wanna make sure that you have signage in, in or something in your guide saying, Hey, I’m not [00:05:00] responsible if you leave personal items here. Of course, if you find them, you’re gonna try to mail them back. But you, you do wanna put something, um, liability wise on if they leave it, forget it, what happens next, what person is safe or not. Yeah. Helps set clear expectations protecting you to. One thing that you need to consider that we, a lot of times we probably haven’t even thought twice about, because these are in hotels, is where are you going to mount it and place it because that’s the point of the safe is mounting it. So if someone comes in, were to break in, they aren’t just able to remove it. Um, they are heavier than you think, and they need to be securely mounted. So it’s like, what, what’s it gonna be bolted to? What’s a safe height? Like you need to make sure all of your guests can get to it. Can you open up the door without obstruction? So you just have to really kind of think through the placement of them. And how many are you gonna put in your house? Like let’s say you have five bedrooms. Does each bedroom get one or is there just one? So that’s kind of a thought you need to, you know, kind of flush out also, is like every room going to have one [00:06:00] or just one main safe for the house.

Sarah Karakaian: How about backup key access? You know how much we love backups for our backups here at Thanks for visiting. What if a guest locks the safe and forgets the code? Not what if when they, when they, you’ll wanna keep a backup key somewhere, quote unquote, on site. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, depending on what your operations are at your office at some place where you can hidden.

But accessible. So either, is your team gonna come and save the day? Are you gonna instruct the guest how to get the backup key to open it? Yeah. Consider like

Annette Grant: what if there are

passports in there, they gotta get to the airport and

Sarah Karakaian: Right. What are you gonna do? Yeah. When like, again, that said, when that happens, yeah.

Annette Grant: When I’m staying with you and I forget what my combination is. Uh, and next, again, this is for your team. What’s the turnover process? Like you’re gonna have to add safe inspection to your cleaning and turnover checklist. You’re gonna wanna make sure that it’s open, that the code is reset between guests, that your past guests didn’t leave anything because, they are [00:07:00] gonna leave things in there. You know, people leave things behind all the time. We don’t need to tell you that. Whether it just be out in the open or in drawers. So, you know, be prepared. ’cause they’re going to leave. Really important stuff. Phones, passports, money, medications, you know, what have you, jewelry.

So, um, probably wanna have your team, maybe that’s the first thing that they do is open and check the safe, make sure that nothing’s left behind

Sarah Karakaian: when Annette does leave her things behind in your rental. What is your procedure? Oh, no,

I don’t leave ’em behind.

Annette Grant: I probably just, I don’t leave things. I just forgot the code, so there you go.

I’m gonna defend myself a little bit. I won’t leave things behind, but I might forget the code.

Sarah Karakaian: Okay. So what happens when a guest, not a net, but another guest mm-hmm. Forgets the items, they piece out, they forget. And this happens like we actually had this conversation with Colleen, our COO, here at, thanks for visiting.

She used to work at. Marriott and Hilton Hotels. And so she has a wealth of knowledge of what happens with [00:08:00] safes and she’s like, you will not believe the large sums of money people leave behind. The weapons that are left behind. Mm-hmm. The medication that people leave behind that they need to, to stay healthy when they’re traveling.

So what are you gonna do? What is your SOP or what is your checklist for when a guest tells you, or the cleaning team finds it? Then what happens? Who should be contacted? How is the item secured until the return or dispose of the item said item left? Mm-hmm. Whether law enforcement needs to be involved in specific cases.

So just think about all these things. Create your system and know,

Annette Grant: and this is even if you don’t have a safe, this is for any forgot. Yeah, for sure. Forgotten items.

Sarah Karakaian: Right, right.

Annette Grant: Yeah. But we definitely think that a safe is a very thoughtful amenity, but it does come with these extra considerations, Valerie.

So just like any other amenity you add to your property, you gotta make sure you’ve thought about installation, the usage, communication, follow up procedures. This might even be something I would reach out to my insurance company [00:09:00] about. Just say, Hey, I wanna do like a personal safe. Is there anything I need to know about installing it on my property just to get their two thumbs up.

Sarah Karakaian: Wonderful question, Valerie. Thank you so much. Again, it’s hosting hotline.com. Right now go. You know, you have a question in your head. No question is too silly. If it’s about hosting, if it’s about business, ask us. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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