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Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:05] You are listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette’s background in business operation–
Annette Grant: [00:00:14] And Sarah’s extensive hospitality management and interior design experience. We have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries, earning us over $1,000,000 and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:28] We love sharing creative ways for your listing to stand out, serve your guests and be profitable. Each episode, we will have knowledgeable guests who bring value to the short-term rental industry–
Annette Grant: [00:00:39] Or we will share our stories of our own experiences so you can implement actual improvements to your rentals. Whether you’re experienced, new or nervous to start your own short-term rental, we promise you’ll feel right at home. Before we dive into the content, let’s hear a word from our sponsor.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:01] Hello. Welcome back from the great week. I am Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:01:04] I am Annette Grant, and together we are–
Both Sarah & Annette: [00:01:06] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:08] All right. We’re going to kick off our episode like we do every week, and that’s sharing one of you, our amazing listeners who’s using our hashtag on Instagram, #STRShareSunday. We will share you on the Gram on Sundays, a whole bunch of pictures, tagging to your Instagram account and we’ll also share you to our email subscribers, here on the podcast. Annette, who are we sharing this week?
Annette Grant: [00:01:24] This week we are sharing @mirariverfrontgetaway. Again, that’s @mirariverfrontgetaway, and it’s M-I-R-A. And I want to go straight to this amazing thing that they have because Sarah and I just recorded a YouTube video about this. Shameless plug if you don’t follow us or subscribe to our YouTube channel, you should do that today. But Mira Riverfront Getaway is a shining example of the video we filmed today, and they have a VIP program for their regulars at their property.
And I’m going to read off exactly what this is so there are no questions left unanswered. Their VIP program is for their quote-unquote “regulars,” which are our guests who return each year to one of our properties. To meet VIP status, you must stay a minimum of three nights in a calendar year for three consecutive years in a row. To show their appreciation, their regulars will receive advance booking, access to our summer calendar for the following year before the release date. So there’s exclusivity there, VIP welcome basket and gift– I’m interested–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:28] What’s in there?
Annette Grant: [00:02:29] And then 10% off bookings made at least six months in advance. Boom. I love this VIP program. Well done Mira Riverfront Getaway. Please go to their Instagram, give them some love, check out their website, check out their VIP program, and I encourage you start one for yourself today. Speaking of VIP, lead into our guest, because we just had a VIP experience at her vacation rental and we were admittedly complete strangers when we walked in her door, but we felt like family when we left. Who is on our show today?
Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:05] Yeah, that was a little cryptic. So we were strangers. We were brought together for a mastermind, end of the year just some ladies getting together and talking about business growth. And it was so funny because our friend Haley said, hey, my friend, Veronica, has a vacation rental. And of course, Annette and I are not only excited about meeting Veronica but also seeing her vacation rental because we’re obsessed.
Annette Grant: [00:03:27] On the beach.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:28] On the beach. Like water. You could touch it. Veronica Romney is a dream team architect who helps online entrepreneurs build their dream teams and train their rainmaking marketing leaders. She’s a former speaker and trainer for Tony Robbins– yes, The Tony Robbins and Dean Graciano, and the former chief of staff of Mega-brand Boss Babe. Maybe you listen to their podcast too.
She’s no stranger to the stage and has been in the online marketing world for over 15 years and has been featured in places like Forbes, Inc, HuffPost, ABC News Radio, and so much more. When she’s not helping her visionary clients scale to eight figures plus, you can find her wrangling her two-man cubs and the beautiful oak trees of North Carolina. Veronica, we are pumped to talk to you today. Welcome to the show.
Veronica Romney: [00:04:20] Oh, my gosh, what an intro. I’m so excited to be here.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:04:23] You’re a star. And it’s so funny because we could really talk to you about two things and maybe we’ll figure out a way to do that. One, building dream teams because you have a really good how-to-hire freebie that I think we can share with our listeners in our show notes, which could be really interesting for people who are growing their teams. But also you own a vacation rental property and you have no surprise, made it your own in terms of how you manage it. And so we are excited to talk to you about that today.
Annette Grant: [00:04:52] Yeah. Veronica, why don’t you just let our listeners know about your property, how you purchased it, when you purchased it, made this dream come true, then we’re going to segue into this hybrid with your property management team that we cannot wait to share with our listeners.
Veronica Romney: [00:05:09] Well, truth be told, I’ve actually never publicly talked about the Seaglass Lookout, so this is a first for me, and I hope that it sounds just as smart as I do talk about the other things that I geek out about. But yes, and we’re no strangers, by the way, to invest in properties. We have done this thing where we lived in a townhouse and then turned it into a rental and then lived in a townhouse, but these are long-term rentals where we have families that stay with us for at least a year contract. So really this beach property was the first time we’d ever done a short-term vacation rental and it scared us to death.
It was really scary. However, we were very motivated because we wanted this for ourselves, so we wanted to literally, for me, my husband, and my two little boys, we moved to North Carolina, we started vacationing on the coast, and fell madly in love as one does. There’s a reason that Nicholas Sparks lives here and writes books about North Carolina because you just fall in love and it’s usually on a beach. And we fell in love with this island called Topsail Island, back when the sails of the pirates would come in and hide in the harbors and things like that.
There’s a city in the middle of it called Surf City, very family-centric. It doesn’t have the vibe of Wilmington, which is very college-oriented and more youth. It is very family-centric. We loved it. And we would spend close to $1,000 for just the weekend. That’s ridiculous.
So we are investment oriented. We have our own entrepreneurial pursuits, of course. So we’re like, why don’t we buy an asset, and then hopefully it can pay for itself? So it can subsidize itself with its rental income.
And so we did. We got aggressive and it was right after the pandemic had started. So everybody was doing the staycations and everybody was hunting for properties. I like to boast that I found it first before our realtor did. Of course, I did. I’m a classic overachiever on paper in all ways. So I found it, we put in an offer. We bid like 50 grand above asking because we just want to play. And we got accepted within 24 hours because thankfully the seller didn’t want to play the game either. And we put an offer over bid, sight unseen.
Annette Grant: [00:07:21] I didn’t know that. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait a second. This is your first short-term rental.
Veronica Romney: [00:07:27] Yeah.
Annette Grant: [00:07:28] You went 50 over asking, sight unseen. How are you running the numbers with this? You said you were not scared to death because you’d go straight in. So were you and your husband running numbers? Were you running numbers? Were you–
Veronica Romney: [00:07:41] We had an idea. Again, because we were renters first and we knew the rates were for like a one-and-a-half bedroom on the beach in a condominium. We could only imagine some of the rates. my family would come to town, we would start renting the bigger houses on the beach, and we were charged thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for a couple of days.
So I knew what my experience was renting on the island several times. So we guesstimated it the best that we could, but we really didn’t even really run the actual numbers until we were already in contract, which is very gutsy. I know.
Annette Grant: [00:08:15] Right. So you weren’t that scared. You trusted yourself. All right. So were there other bidders or did it get into a battle because like you said, it was during a pandemic, or was it like they took it and they were done?
Veronica Romney: [00:08:26] No. This was completely on the sellers because everybody else on the island, they were in massive bidding wars where they would list it right before the weekend, then they would go to the 20 people that would put in their submission within 24 hours, and they’d go to those 20 like final offers by Sunday and then it was more lucrative.
So because of our particular seller, he, I think he was a he, he just wanted to be like one and done. So it was technically me, us, and another submission and we were over him so he was like done, of the two you’re the best.
Annette Grant: [00:09:03] Wonderful.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:09:04] And so sight unseen. Was that just because you happen to be on Zillow one day and you saw it and you’re like that guy, or– ys that it? You’re nodding your head.
Veronica Romney: [00:09:12] I was frantic. I would check Zillow and Realtor.com on a regular basis multiple times a day and saw it first. Yeah.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:09:21] Got you. So, listeners, if you want something, go get it.
Annette Grant: [00:09:25] Okay. So you’ve got the place, Sarah and I know the story, but let’s talk about you acquiring it and then starting your short-term rental–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:09:35] Because it’s already a rental? It was already operating.
Veronica Romney: [00:09:38] Yeah. No, it was already a rental. So here’s the thing about the island. It’s dominated by property management groups. And I’m talking like 20, 30-year-plus property management groups that have the bulk of the real estate. And again, that was our rental experience as a renter ourselves, where we would have to go through their website, go through their listing service to rent from them, and there was very few Airbnb properties. There’s now more coming on the island. But even if you really think about it, it’s shocking how little inventory is actually on Airbnb compared to the massive property management sites.
So when we picked it up, that’s what I’m saying. We got the numbers after we had already been in contract and we saw that they already had like 80 grand in rental income booked for the year. So that was hallelujah. I got relief, but it was all through this property management group.
And I don’t want to dog on them, so I’m not going to name them, but they have a reputation that precedes them not being awesome or excellent. This is not a Nordstrom experience, but they had our bookings, so we knew we were coming into the property and we knew that we were also inheriting this property management company and team. Yep.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:10:50] So you knew about their reputation before you even learned they were managing the property?
Veronica Romney: [00:10:57] Mm-hmm.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:10:57] You heard of them. And so when you get into a contract like, Oh. Abc Property Management has this property. Well, that stinks. So then what does the ever-resourceful Veronica decide to do at that moment?
Veronica Romney: [00:11:10] She shows up to her personal booking hours before she’s supposed to.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:11:15] Okay.
Annette Grant: [00:11:15] Okay.
Veronica Romney: [00:11:15] Literally. So you want to know how your property is being managed and maintained, come when you’re not supposed to come. So we were going to show up, but again check-in, is that whatever for? Usually, it’s at 4 p.m. Eastern. And so we made a point to leave blazing early in the morning because we live two and a half hours away. We came really, really early and we already had our keypad code. So we walked in just to see what it was.
Because there is normal flip cleaning where you can like, okay, there’s hair in the bathroom. That makes sense. There’s sand in the house. Well, that makes sense. But you can see when things have been caked, you can see when it’s been in distress for a really long time. Fan blades don’t lie.
Annette Grant: [00:11:59] Oh, that’s a really–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:12:01] I read a t-shirt that says that.
Annette Grant: [00:12:02] Fan blades don’t lie. Every listener is like, damn, they don’t lie. That’s–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:12:08] Okay. They don’t lie.
Annette Grant: [00:12:09] Facts.
Veronica Romney: [00:12:09] They don’t lie, and they were also renting the property out as pet friendly. So I came in and I saw the fan blades and I saw the corners and I saw the condition and then I made the horrific realization, well, I had to do it, but I didn’t want to do it. Ignorance is truly bliss, but in this case, I couldn’t. I flipped all the rugs in the house.
Annette Grant: [00:12:34] Oh, no.
Veronica Romney: [00:12:35] You don’t want to know.
Annette Grant: [00:12:36] I’m going to use the word saturation.
Veronica Romney: [00:12:39] You don’t want to know.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:12:39] Okay. All right.
Veronica Romney: [00:12:40] Do you know, like a tree ring? The more rings, is like the age of the tree?
Annette Grant: [00:12:44] Oh, no. Okay.
Veronica Romney: [00:12:46] So needless to say, all rugs were disposed of immediately. And same thing with curtains that also, if you were to lift the curtain, you would see that there shouldn’t be a trim. It’s not the trim. So that’s the thing. We came in and it was interesting because a cleaning crew that showed up and the inspector that showed up, they saw us there first and you could tell like–
Annette Grant: [00:13:09] Just fear.
Veronica Romney: [00:13:11] Busted. And then the other thing, too, is I’m a daughter of a 33-year-old HVAC contractor. My parents own an air conditioning company for 33 years in South Florida. So I’m the daughter of said person. And so one of the other things that we did immediately was we opened all the grills and we started looking at the filters. 75% of them didn’t have filters. And the ones that did have filters, they had been in there for at least eight months.
And then the ones that didn’t have filters, I think tenants had taken it out and put in closets. We found them in the closets, these like not saturated but like caked air conditioning filters. So the things that we found, guys, you don’t need to know.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:13:52] Do you know what that tells me too as a property owner and as a fellow property manager, it’s like, not only were you lackadaisical about the cleaning. The safety of the property and the care of your expensive utilities and appliances that have been neglected, which is just crazy disrespect for your client or homeowner. Okay, so then what do you do? The cleaning team, it’s like, do you hold them accountable or do you call the property management company right away?
Annette Grant: [00:14:17] Yeah, you make them a list.
Veronica Romney: [00:14:18] We call the boss. We call the boss because if your team and I say this too as a dream team architect, if your team, if your kids are running amok, it’s like, well they were left without supervision. I don’t even leave my six-year-old and nine-year-old at home without some supervision. It’s the same idea. Like your cleaning crew is going to be lackadaisical because you don’t hold them to a standard and then hold them accountable to, no different.
So I went straight to the property management group, but now there’s the property management, like the LLC, the entity itself, and they have teams. There’s team four, team three, like the team number. So we were appointed to a team. So I immediately was like, What in the world? And I complained about the team.
So they came onsite and assured us that, but you would be horrified like no beds had bedbug protections or mattresses. Just the things that you talk about in your YouTube and your social media IG reels, like the basics, was not even there. And these are 30-year property management teams. There’s no excuse. And so yeah, we went straight to the team and then they made apologies and they switched out our cleaning crew and all the things. But then again I did it again, where I showed up weeks later.
Annette Grant: [00:15:30] Dang. Were you booking under your name? Did you have an alias where you booking under an alias name?
Veronica Romney: [00:15:38] No,
Annette Grant: [00:15:38] Okay.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:38] You even made it easy for them.
Veronica Romney: [00:15:39] I did make it easy.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:40] Owners call me. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
Veronica Romney: [00:15:42] Well, in this case, because again, we have one person who’s leaving at 10 a.m., and the next person who’s leaving a 4 p.m., but we live local, so why can’t we go to our property between ten and four? So we would go sometimes even in between the tenants just to check it out or like to hang out by the beach and have access to the shower in the bathroom, in the hot tub. Why not?
So we would go unannounced. And again, all the things that they had made, promises were not being fulfilled. So then we fired or requested a new team. So then we were still being held captive by the property management group, but we were assigned to a different team. And then we all broke out.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:16:17] What does held captive mean? Is that because you were contractual?
Veronica Romney: [00:16:20] They had our leases. They had all the rental bookings.
Annette Grant: [00:16:22] Right. And let’s explain that to listeners because I think Sarah and I know this. So that first season we’ll call it, they had all of those bookings that were booked and none of those bookings were via Airbnb at all, correct? They were all direct bookings with that site. So the good news is none of the reviews were going to–
Veronica Romney: [00:16:43] Correct.
Annette Grant: [00:16:44] Your account. So I do want to say there is a silver lining there of that you weren’t on Airbnb and none of these reviews were reflective truly of you being the owner and caretaker of the property. So they had the whole season. So as the season goes on and sounds like it’s not going so smooth, where does this come in? Because like you said, everyone, this island, they still deliver linens. So where do you decide, I’m going to shake it up a bit.
Veronica Romney: [00:17:15] Okay. So this is how it goes down. This is how the breakup goes down.
Annette Grant: [00:17:17] Yeah. We want to know. How do you break up? Because they still have the contract, so you got to give them some leeway.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:17:22] And give us all the sassy details.
Veronica Romney: [00:17:24] Yeah. So the sassy details goes like this, and there’s seasonality, obviously, everybody wants to go to the beach in the summer, and then come wintertime, a lot of the property manager or property owners decide to winterize and just shut it down. Like they just lock up the house for several months in the winter because who wants to go when it’s like 20 or 30 degrees to the beach? I do.
Annette Grant: [00:17:43] December was amazing.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:17:43] It was amazing.
Veronica Romney: [00:17:45] I do. But not everybody else. So we didn’t do that. But these property management teams are very accustomed to basically having a very extended holiday. Is almost like teachers that go on break for summer. So they pretty much just lock up shop. So we were coming to the property in November, tons especially when there was nobody there. We come in November or we come in December time.
It’s gorgeous and no one is there on the beach. You feel like it’s exclusively your own beach in these winter months. But it’s a duplex. It’s a townhouse. We share a wall with another unit. And the people that bought are also very young in their 30s, young family, we know them personally and they forgo the property management route completely and they went straight to Airbnb.
So I was stalking their Airbnb, as one does, called Internet research, and I noticed that they had already had like 20-something bookings into the next year. So here I am in November, but they already have 20 bookings in 2022 or 2021, one of those. And I was like, “Wait a minute.”
So then I looked at my portal and I got two. Why do we have two when they have 20? And I’m like, is this like a blockbuster Netflix situation? Like why are we not fishing where the fish are? And so I remember calling the property management team. I’m like, Hey, I have a concern, we’re paying you a really high fee. But part of that fee is also like advertising and marketing. Like you take care of it. But these people who are on Airbnb are having 20 bookings and we have two.
As a marketer, I’m not down for this. So can we get on Airbnb? And they’re like, “No, we’re anti-Airbnb.” And I’m like, “Why are we anti-Airbnb?” Because of the legal and the exposure and the liability, blah, blah, blah, it’s all excuses, in my opinion. I’m like, “Well, fine, do you have a problem if I listed on Airbnb Because why do I have to forgo revenue in November, December, January, February, March if people want to book? Crazy people like me that want to go to the beach when nobody’s there? He’s like, “Yeah, we totally have no problem with that.” I’m like, “Okay, great.”
So I put it on Airbnb, got bookings immediately through the winter months. The only month that I don’t have a booking is usually just January. The rest of the month, I have bookings. So we went from having bookings from May through September, some in October, to now having bookings every month of the entire year except for January.
But here’s what I did that was maybe not so nice and I’m just going to own it. Extreme Ownership. I love that book. I think they were under the impression that I would only list the property on Airbnb during what they deemed their slow ones, and I just left it open for all of the next year.
Annette Grant: [00:20:24] Okay.
Veronica Romney: [00:20:25] And lo and behold, we got booked on Airbnb like Mad Crazy, and the property management group was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You have all these bookings, but now they can’t use.” Basically, I kept on going into their portal and blocking things out as, on a rental, on a rental, own a rental. And there goes all their money. There goes 18 to 20% management fee week, after week, after week. The more I put, on a rental owner, on a rental, on a rental. And that’s when the fight went down. I’m like, well, listen, if you’re not renting–
Annette Grant: [00:20:56] The rubber meets the road. It was time. Okay.
Veronica Romney: [00:20:58] Yeah, I beat you. I win. If this was a competition on who can get better listings and faster listings and more expensive listings, I win by doing it myself on Airbnb. So are you going to help me or are you going to meet me in the middle? Because I’m happy to have you co-manage this with us. You already list it on other third-party websites. I’m okay with that.
And they wanted nothing to do with it. They wanted me to cancel the reservation on Airbnb and transfer that renter to their portal, to their system so they would have to rebook and sign their agreement. And I said, absolutely not.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:21:33] No. I have so many questions for you. The first question is, well, first–
Veronica Romney: [00:21:38] I got legal trouble talking to you.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:21:41] I don’t think so.
Annette Grant: [00:21:42] No. No, we’re just going to say no. We don’t.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:21:45] Annette and I learned this as we start to infiltrate the more– What we call? Legacy vacation rental companies, is they have this, and I’m sure we have our own faults as the new kids on the block, circa 2008 and two now. But they have this anti-Airbnb thing. Now, we do champion not putting all of your eggs in the Airbnb basket. We’ve said it many times. But to completely forgo the probably the number one lead generator for
Annette Grant: [00:22:16] A company that spends billions of dollars–
Both Sarah & Annette: [00:22:19] On advertising–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:22:20] Is bad business. So did you sign–
Veronica Romney: [00:22:24] Versus Blockbuster? What are you thinking?
Sarah Karakaian: [00:22:26] Yes, it’s like guys, you have to just they won and we have to now, we’ve got to play ball. Did you sign in your contract? Number one, how does that work when you purchase a property that’s already being managed with 80 grand bookings? Did you how did that work with your contract with them? Or was there only like, Hey, we’ve got your bookings and if you don’t want them, fine. Is that what happened?
Veronica Romney: [00:22:47] No, they didn’t strong-arm us in any agreement and I actually reviewed the agreement. There was nothing in the agreement that I couldn’t do Airbnb. So I basically competed with them. And they just bowed out. They’re like, you’re doing it, unlike any other owner that we have in our portfolio. Fine, I will break the four-minute mile, if nobody else wants to run a four-minute mile, that’s their choice. But this horse is running a four-minute mile.
Annette Grant: [00:23:14] I want to know, how did you start doing your pricing structure? Were you looking at what the old management company had for those weeks? Were you looking at your neighbors? Were you kind of doing all the dynamics?
Veronica Romney: [00:23:28] I requested the price table. So I wanted to see what their intentions were to price my property. And they’re like, we are our expert in our group does this nonstop and he sees the other. I’m like, Yeah, yeah. And then I went on Airbnb and started doing my research and like basically, plugging in dates on different Airbnb websites to see what they were listing and what they were including linens, not including this or that, or what extra fees, what the average cleaning fee would be. So I just did it. Again, stalking, also known as Internet research.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:23:58] You’re an owner who cares. And a question for you, and I don’t know if the hindsight’s 2020 right but had you not had the experience you did with seeing how they cared for your property, do you think you would have been as aggressive when it came to and how it ended up? Or do you think it was kind of like having a bad check-in and then winning you back was just really hard? Or was it just–
Veronica Romney: [00:24:21] I think that’s a fair question. Like when did my new boyfriend fart in front of me? I don’t know. I think that’s a fair question. Do you know what I mean? And I get what you’re asking. I don’t know, because we haven’t revealed this yet on the podcast, but I still work, I co-manage my property with property management, not that one, that is Airbnb-friendly.
So I’m not anti-property management, in fact, the properties that we rent in the West Coast, all those townhouses that we lived in previously before we converted them to rentals, we have a property management named Ludi who is such a badass. I love her with all of my heart. So again, I’m very pro-team by the nature of my profession, but I’m also very pro-property managers who are excellent at their job. I just knew that I wasn’t with somebody who was excellent.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:25:09] Absolutely. Well, let’s skip ahead. So what happens? So you guys break up. What happens?
Veronica Romney: [00:25:14] So we break up. At first, I’m really excited because I’m like, Freedom, Braveheart. And then I have this moment of panic because I’m like, Oh, no. Because before we got our property manager for our West Coast properties, in the mountains that we have it in, me and my husband were doing it and we would get the three in-the-morning phone calls when either was flooding or the washer broke.
So those memories didn’t fade. We know what it is to get the phone call. We know what it is to have a mother call us on behalf of their child who is renting, threatening to sue us if we don’t release her from her contract because we don’t allow her pet ferret. I don’t even know. We’ve seen the horror. And so I told my husband, Scott, I was like, okay, I don’t want to do this without onsite help of some kind. And that onsite help can be a really amazing cleaning crew that does beyond just the base cleaning plus.
And that’s when I went into like sole resource mode like crazy because I knew for a fact with the busyness that is my personal life and my husband’s, we both work full-time and have two little boys and we’re two and a half hours away. If the stuff hits the fan, I’m not driving two and a half hours, you know what I mean? And so I knew, he knew that we needed some onsite support. We just didn’t know where to find it. And that’s when the search of searches went down.
We interviewed cleaning crew. I even reached out to other Airbnb hosts that were on the island, like, do you want to host my property? I was asking anybody because I knew that I needed somebody onsite.
Annette Grant: [00:26:48] Were you doing all of this, like when you’re interviewing the cleaning crews, were you doing this on Zoom, or you and your husband going there for the weekend and then trying to connect with them?
Veronica Romney: [00:26:58] We would do the legwork at home and we would do a lot of phone calls and DMing and all that stuff at first. And it’s like when you’re dating, we would message each other back and forth. There was no scandalous texting. But we would just message back and forth at first, and then if it progressed enough, we would make a point, okay, we’re coming in two weeks and then we would try to batch interview everybody.
So I reached out to almost every, what I would call, more boutique property managers on the island that had maybe 100 properties or less in their portfolio. They weren’t like the big warehouse ones that we were already a part of and I met with four or five, and one day I also met with three different cleaning people one day just to see what the lay of the land would be and what our options were.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:27:41] What happened? Who was the one?
Veronica Romney: [00:27:44] We found a boutique property management group. I think they have 80 properties. It’s Laura and she manages more of the client-facing side. And then there’s Chop who is definitely like the construction management maintenance arm, and they personally live on the island themselves on like on the sound side, which is like the intercoastal. So they personally live on the island, their office is on the island, as opposed to some of the other ones that were off the island or they were in Wilmington, which is like an hour away, which no, thank you again.
And they weren’t ant-Airbnb. In fact, she’s like when our properties aren’t doing well on the traditional listing sites, we actually open up the Airbnb’s ourselves for our owners like, Oh, wow, so you’re already doing that. I’m like, okay, here we go. And so we just worked out a flat rate. Every time we would have an Airbnb, they would charge us a flat rate as opposed to a percentage to basically be the onsite support.
Annette Grant: [00:28:44] I love that. And so you actually signed a contract with them now? A management contract, and are you on their site currently so they could get bookings on there?
Veronica Romney: [00:28:52] Yes.
Annette Grant: [00:28:53] Love that.
Veronica Romney: [00:28:55] Yes. And they send an email to all of their owners every year, like the new properties that are out or things like that. I will tell you that we’ve been with them now, it’s not been a year, but we’re still winning the race. Airbnb and I are still winning the race.
Annette Grant: [00:29:11] Right. Okay.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:29:11] Interesting. So now when it comes to operationally, whether it’s booked via Airbnb or booked via whatever other OTAs or direct booking site, are the systems still the same? Do your Airbnb guests still reach out to them like everything is the same, it’s just it flips from commissions to flat fee? Or how does that work?
Veronica Romney: [00:29:30] I’ll be honest, this is like a little bit of a dance. Because at first, I didn’t do any communication with the people. It was completely on them. And then we started getting reviews that I didn’t love. And I think it’s because, now I think as a marketer, I freaking know people like to do business with people, which is why Alexa is Alexa versus a machine.
Even with the robots in our world, we like to interact with humans or personalities or personas, which is flow from progressive mayhem. So I could tell that because it was a property management group, you could tell that they would just like, complain to complain in some capacities to see if they could wiggle out of free night, which really frustrates me. But it’s just working with some renters. Not everybody cares about your property the way you do.
So at first, I relinquished all communication and it’s now like they were doing a bad job. But I can just tell that the connection, that genuine connection was missing. So then I’m like, “How about this? What if I do the razzle-dazzle before they get there?” And so, especially in Airbnb, because you can automate the messages. So when somebody books, you can do a template message that goes out five minutes after, 10 minutes after. Again, I’m a marketer. I know how to work this. I can make a really fancy guidebook, I have a website, seaglasslookout.com. Shout out.
So I can do all the fun stuff. I have an Instagram account for the property. I can do all of that. But then when they get there, if there’s an issue, the communication is to talk to the onsite staff. So if there’s an issue with the hot tub, with the door, with the keypad, with the ever whatever, it’s you talk to the onsite staff and then once they check out, I pop back into their messages on Airbnb, thanking them for their visit and inviting them to leave us a review. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So it’s a sandwich where I do the razzle-dazzle travel concierge where I’m like, just loving. And by the way, I actually really enjoy it because they’re telling me why they’re coming. We’re coming to celebrate our family. My grandpa’s 80th birthday. I’m like, “Happy birthday, Grandpa.” Like, I actually love that part. And it takes seconds in a day.
And then what happens is when they’re at the property, because we have that rapport, they’re sending me pictures of their kids catching fishes from the dock, or they’re sending me pictures at the beach during sunset and sunrise because they know I love that. So now we have a relationship.
Annette Grant: [00:31:51] Or eating lunch at Shaka Taco, which I can every day because Veronica knew all the places to eat and I think we ate all of the hot spots.
Veronica Romney: [00:32:00] Right. And I don’t know if we have time for the cannoli story that you did.
Annette Grant: [00:32:07] Might have knock on their door when they were closed because Veronica said we had to get it.
Veronica Romney: [00:32:12] But yeah, like now we have this rapport. So if something happens, I still getting five-star reviews. So even when the Jacuzzi wasn’t working, I got a five-star review because they knew that I cared about the property as much as they cared about the property. And we have that rapport.
Annette Grant: [00:32:26] What I love your the analogy about Flo and Alexa and mayhem and that people want to, I think they do have a little bit more. Well, A, it’s human to human. So when you’re talking to someone versus a company, your tone and your understanding is very different. Can you take us through like what were some of the reviews? What were some of the things that weren’t up to Veronica’s standards? Like what were some of the mentions in the reviews that you’re like, I got to take this over.
Veronica Romney: [00:32:53] So instead of five stars on cleaning, it would be three or four. And and quite frankly, we actually changed the entire cleaning crew out. So it wasn’t any different. It was just, again, if you could wiggle something out of it, having a hot tub on the beach is a luxury, but man, that’s the most high maintenance thing we have in our house is that hot tub because families come, it’s a heavy cover so they’ll just leave it off their entire stay. The kids run in, they don’t rinse off their feet, they’re sand. And then it gets cold and then it takes a while to heat up. So the hot tub is always a thing. It’s always the thing.
But again, when there’s no rapport, they’re like, “You’re not maintaining your hot tub.” Like, “Honey, that’s not what it is. That’s you.” So now it’s like when I complain about the hot tub, like, Hey, just remember I put in the manual that it does better. Like, I can reference the things and I reference them. Remember, in the guidebook I talk about like one of the tips I left in the guidebook and I also put it in the manual like, “Oh, that’s right. Thank you so much.”
So it’s just different. But it was a lot of that. We didn’t have certain amenities or they complained about like a missing hairdryer. Now, all of these have been remedy, of course, but it was tick-for-tack type of stuff. And yeah, it’s just frustrating.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:34:03] Well, and I’m sure a lot of that starts when they walk in and they have a three or four-star clean, and automatically you are like on their bad.
Veronica Romney: [00:34:10] Oh, instantly. Yeah. Well and that’s the other thing too that we had to work out. Even the cleaning crew that came with the boutique property management company that we’re a part of, they weren’t accustomed to. Even though this property management group was pro Airbnb, I still wanted to do it my way.
So, like, I don’t know if you remember when you came to the house, there was those little baggies of the shampoo and conditioner and the soap and the shower or whatever in each bathroom. And the way that you fold the toilet paper and just different things like that. I actually had a custom flag made, I have all these. Anyways, sometimes I’ll even get gifts for our renters at a soap store. I took you guys out where she makes everything amazing.
So I wanted to do more than just the basic amenities that are listed on Airbnb. I wanted to go above and beyond, and so I had to work it out with our cleaning crew and the inspector too, and how to do this whole optimize cleaning closet so they could just pull it off quickly and everything like that. So that was also stuff that I had to work out with them. That has also made, I think, a huge difference. Like the little details, if my people know that I cared about the little details of their visit, then they know that if there was something that was amiss, it’s not the norm.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:35:24] Right. Because how you do anything is how you do everything.
Annette Grant: [00:35:27] So obviously they’re getting paid for the cleaning and then they have a per reservation management fee and then obviously an additional fee for any of the bookings that they bring in for you.
Veronica Romney: [00:35:40] They’ll get their fat percentage if they give me the booking but they haven’t to this point.
Annette Grant: [00:35:46] That incentive for them. Can you give us a rundown of have there been that oh snap moment where that payment that you make to them per reservation has paid off extreme dividends? Is it helping having some boots on the ground there?
Veronica Romney: [00:36:02] I think for us, that absolutely has paid off and the property pays for itself and then some. We’ve done extensive renovations on the new backsplash, new deck, new hot tub. A ton of new stuff. And it’s all been paid for by the property, which has been fantastic. So there’s not question like we can afford having this boutique property management company come help us. I think for me and my husband, it’s honestly the peace of mind, it’s like the MasterCard commercial is priceless.
And so for me, not having to deal with a loose board on the stairs, like, oh my gosh, there’s a loose board on the stairs, like, heaven help us. If anything, if anybody gets hurt. It’s a beach property again, or if the washer’s not working or if the air conditioning is not cooling or just stuff like that, We don’t deal with any of it.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:36:52] Why I was so excited to have you on, Veronica, is for many things. You’re freaking brilliant. But also it’s that thing that we also talked about at our live event where we were talking about loans from banks. And if one bank says no, second Bank says no, keep asking because someone is most likely going to say yes. And I think that’s what you’ve done for property management. It didn’t fit. It didn’t fit. It didn’t fit. Ooh, this fits. And you’re also willing to work with me.
So while these companies have their contracts and their rules and how they usually do things, if they want the business, they will work with you. And that usually means they’re willing to have a relationship with you, which makes you happy. Obviously, there’s something in it for them too, it can be this win-win thing.
Veronica Romney: [00:37:35] I don’t know. It would be interesting if you got their perspective if you interviewed them next, like working with the Romneys. But in some ways, I would like to think that maybe we model for them what could be different, because again, we’re a younger couple who is accustomed to the Ubers of the world and the Airbnbs of the world and the Netflix of the world, and we’re more of that millennial generation that expects a lot for little.
But again, we’re the one providing that experience. And if you come from the island, like a traditional property management company, they don’t allow for example, this is basic stuff. If a family leaves brand-new popsicles in the freezer, leave it for them. No, no, no. Property management companies, traditional property management companies go, “Everything has to be out. Nothing can be left in the property itself.”
So everything needs to be out. They don’t provide you anything. They don’t give you linens. It’s just like it’s a house. It’s stripped of all things.
These people are spending about $7,000 to $8,000 a week to be at the property to make lifelong memories, and you’re not going to give them a sand bucket or whatever. I don’t even know. So I think for us to come in and show them the little things that we want to do, whether it’s like custom labeled soaps or a custom flag with my kids as a cartoon Pirates or whatever, I just think it shows that you can still make an insane amount of money and still care for it as if it was your own.
And I think that’s been our motto as a couple. We want other families to enjoy the property. We obviously still want to make money from the property, but we want to feel like we are the only ones that rent it ourselves.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:39:17] Yeah, well, with 14,000 new homes coming to the Airbnb platform every month and that was a stat I think last year or something, at some point Airbnb as a culture is going to change the way people expect to show up to a property. And if companies aren’t willing to at least ebb and flow a little bit, that’s going to be on them in terms of how that affects their business. And I know change is really hard, especially when it works so well for so long. But change is the only constant thing, is what they say?
Veronica Romney: [00:39:46] Yeah, and thankfully we found people that are open to that change and they’re not going to just like die on the vine by not being innovative. And we are very, very fortunate to have them. It gives me a lot of peace of mind and I feel like in some ways they help us navigate some of the unknowns that we’re not aware of. Now that I have you two and my life, I’m like, “Well, now I need to get a white fire extinguisher because before it was esthetically unpleasing, so now I’ll get a white one.”
But just different things like that. I’m just appreciative for you guys and appreciative for people who are helping us, the bright-eyed and bushy tail and ambitious humans that have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into. I have a lot more confidence. In fact, I have so much more confidence in the Airbnb system and short-term rental system that I’m like, now I’m getting more aggressive. Again, now that ages, am like, “Let’s go. How many more can we get?”
Annette Grant: [00:40:35] Yes, for sure. Love it. All right. Well, we were floored by Veronica’s story when Sarah and I met her because we’re like, oh, my gosh, she’s exactly like probably majority of our listeners, but we really just could not get over her creativity and like, how can I make this work for me, for my family, for the property management.
So this is where we want to encourage all of our listeners, be creative with it. Maybe it’s a co-host. You are not going to do this on your own. You heard us talk in the beginning, that is what Veronica does, she builds teams. And for you to think that you are going to host a property by yourself, you are sorely mistaken. You can try it.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:19] You’ll get burn out, try that much.
Annette Grant: [00:41:20] You can try it, but you are going to get burnt out. I want to circle back really quick to the cannolis story because I want to show people that don’t take no for an answer. Our host on this lovely island had been really just championing this amazing dessert that we were going to have. But it is the wintertime at the beach, so places are closing early. We go to get cannolis. They are freaking. The door is locked.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:45] The whole beach really was like–
Annette Grant: [00:41:47] The beach was kind of trying–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:48] You can come during office hours. You may but not be here.
Annette Grant: [00:41:51] You might be able to read it. But Veronica had told us we are getting these. What was the name of the place? Because I do want to give them a shout-out. I ended up eating that.
Veronica Romney: [00:41:59] Santorinis.
Annette Grant: [00:42:00] Santorini. But the doors were locked. But no people. I saw them in there. The lights were on.
Veronica Romney: [00:42:06] They were at the bar. The waiters were at the bar.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:42:09] They were at the bar, they were having their shift drink.
Annette Grant: [00:42:09] So we’re in the car and everyone’s like, oh, it’s closed. I’m like, “No, it’s not.” And then what happens, Veronica?
Veronica Romney: [00:42:15] Oh, my gosh, I die for you. Okay. So number one, me and Annette get out of the car and you go up to the glass front door and she’s like, “Kick ding, ding, so you can’t ignore us. We see you.” So they open the door. And by the way, they were supposed to close at, what? 9:00 and it’s 8:50. So technically we had 10 minutes on the clock. We were just finishing up early because nobody was there.
So we knock on the door and we’re like, hey, we’re not here to have dinner. We really just want some cannolis. And again, they’re super kind people, family-run business and they’re like, “Yeah, come on in.” So counted the people in the car. We’re going to have X amount of whatever, six, seven cannolis. So they go to the back and you have to fill the cannolis. So that the little thing doesn’t get all soggy by having them pre-filled. So they’re filling cannolis. They come out and they’re like, oh, we don’t have the eighth cannoli that we’ve already–
Annette Grant: [00:43:06] Already we’ve paid for eight cannolis, by the way.
Veronica Romney: [00:43:08] Yeah, we have seven shells. So you can either have tiramisu, cheesecake, whatever. And Annette goes, “Actually we’ll just have all three of those. That’s perfect.” And I’m like, I think they were giving us options to substitute. “No, no, no.” Annette is like, “I’ll just take all of them. That’s great. Thank you so much.” And they just looked at us and they shook their head like, okay.
Annette Grant: [00:43:27] I was talking to the owner and I’m like, he said it’s fine. And he was like, “You said it’s fine.” And I was like, “Yep, that’s right, ladies.”
Veronica Romney: [00:43:32] We have the little [inaudible] a little shiftys like, “Yeah, I think it’s fine.” So they go back out and so we leave with seven cannolis and like three more desserts.
Annette Grant: [00:43:41] And they worked good.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:43:42] And then we dined there, Annette and I. And of course, we continue to support them with our dollar bills.
Annette Grant: [00:43:49] See, I went back.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:43:51] Yeah, you did.
Annette Grant: [00:43:51] And the owner was there again and I asked him for his– yeah, he noticed us. We noticed him and it was like that was hospitality. I ordered it. I paid for it. You can’t just replace it. You got to go above–
Veronica Romney: [00:44:02] Above and beyond. We help them. You taught them how to go above and beyond.
Annette Grant: [00:44:05] There you go.
Veronica Romney: [00:44:05] You definitely did.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:44:06] That’s what we do here at the Thanks for Visiting. We were pushy at times, but we mean well.
Annette Grant: [00:44:10] Also, I just want to say, I freaking love all of your marketing analogies on the show today. I think that really shows your expertise. So why don’t you let people know where they can not only find you but your property if they want to follow along on your journey after the show?
Veronica Romney: [00:44:27] Okay, so my beloved beach house is at south city side in North Carolina. You can find it on seaglasslookout.com, and that’s a four-bedroom, three-bathroom right on the beach, front row or no row, baby. And then for me and what I do in architecting dream teams for entrepreneurs you can find everything about me at veronicaromney.com.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:44:48] No, and for real if you are building a large scale and you want to build a large-scale property management company, I know Veronica could help you because that is hospitality. I’ve worked in restaurants and hotels, it is hard to find a team that is solid and I just know you would be that missing link for a lot of us out there who just need good people who believe in the business as much as we do. So definitely don’t discount checking out Veronica for that stuff too. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:45:17] I am Annette Grant, and together we are–
Both Sarah & Annette: [00:45:19] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:45:20] Talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast. Head on over to the show notes for additional information about today’s episode. And please hit that subscribe button and leave us a review. Awesome reviews help us bring you awesome content. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to hanging out with you next week.
