Download the full transcript PDF.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] Have you joined us yet for our host masterclass? If you haven’t, what in the world are you waiting for? Coming out, Annette and myself on Tuesday, February 21st at 1 PM Eastern time. We want to invite you to this host masterclass that includes a live Q&A. We’ll be covering the three big/giant mistakes that were holding us back. One of them being not knowing our cost per reservation. Knowing that number now puts us at a huge advantage now that Airbnb released its display total price feature. 

Now we rock out a seven-figure hosting business and we’re buying more real estate. During this class, we’ll give you all the details too of our Hosting Business Mastery membership. We will invite you to join our community of hosts inside our private Facebook group, our live coaching calls, and expose you to networking with other rockstar short-term rental hosts and owners. 

We dive deeper into all the subjects we go over here on the podcast, plus so much more. Again, join us on Tuesday, February 21st at 1 PM Eastern time. Head to www.hostmasterclass.com to sign up. Again that’s hostmasterclass.com to sign up. The link will be in the show notes and we’ll see you there. 

You’re 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: [00:01:27] 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: [00:01:40] 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: [00:01:51] 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.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:15] Hello there. Thanks for calling the– 

Both Sarah and Annette: [00:02:17] Hosting hotline.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:18] My name is Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: [00:02:20] I’m Annette Grant, and together we are–

Both Sarah and Annette: [00:02:22] Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:23] Guys, what do you think of the hosting hotline?

Annette Grant: [00:02:25] We’re doing it.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:26] Good job, Annette.

Annette Grant: [00:02:27] All right. Thank you.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:28] Stroke of genius. All right. Where is the hosting hotline? You can go to thanksforvisiting.me. In the upper right-hand corner, there’s a big red button that says Ask TFV. Ask a question about the short-term rental industry, about business, about design, anything related to short-term rentals. And we’ll answer it here in the pod. And today we’ve got a question about cancellations.

Question: [00:02:46] Hi, my name is Christine from Southwest Michigan. My question is about cancellation policies. We’re trying to choose a cancellation policy through Airbnb and wondered, does our listing visibility get affected by the cancellation policy that we choose? Thank you.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:01] Solid question, Christine.

Annette Grant: [00:03:03] Yeah, great question and way to think ahead.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:06] Yeah. All right. So we actually just talked about this inside of Hosting Business Mastery. Coach Wendy posted a question and I love the way she phrased it, too. I’m going to give her some accolades here. She goes, “I’ve been feeling like we’ve been getting a lot of cancellations.” But instead of then just like panicking chicken, the sky is falling, whatever, she counted how many cancellations she’s been getting over the past six weeks. And indeed it was very high. 

And so she looked at when guests were canceling and her booking window. And I’m saying all this because it depends on your market. Why does it depend on your market? Because when Wendy digged in further and she went to PriceLabs, which is our preferred dynamic pricing software that we use in our business and Wendy uses in her business– one of our coaches. Yes, we’ll have a link on show notes.

Annette Grant: [00:03:54] Tell and we say you.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:55] Yes, please do it. They are truly a wonderful team. But she looked and noticed that most of her competition had a stricter cancellation policy than she currently had. I am saying this because Airbnb has always said that they would favor listings that are the most competitive and highest value for travelers. 

Oftentimes, depending on your market with the most flexible cancellation policy, they’re going to give you some love because it’s most flexible for the guest. But in Wendy’s market, the bar is set at a certain place, the strict cancellation policy in her case, most of her competition’s there. So it’s okay for Wendy to set her cancellation policy so she can be amongst the listings that are most like hers.

Annette Grant: [00:04:36] And we’ll give visibility. Wendy is in the Scottsdale, Phenix area. And so most of you probably know it’s a hotbed of bachelorette parties, bachelor parties, golf trips. And those people are planning ahead. They’re larger groups planning ahead. And when you have a larger group, sometimes they will secure multiple houses so they have the dates and then they’ll decide as a group which one fits within their budget. 

So again, it is really important to know your market, know the type of traveler that is attracted to your home. Obviously, if it’s a one-bedroom versus a five or six-bedroom, there’s going to have a different plan and the time frame in which people are planning their trips out.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:18] And you have to compare apples with apples. So like in our market, really, you have to be as flexible as possible. That being said, if you’re a property that has some really awesome amenity and you are leaps and bounds, you offer more than your competition does, you’re able to go a little more strict on your cancellation policy.

Annette Grant: [00:05:35] I also want to offer you this, Christine. This is what’s so amazing about being the owner of your property and your own business. You can test things. You can A B test. Maybe there’s different times of the season in your area that maybe the winter– I think you said you’re in Michigan. I don’t know if that’s where your property is, but maybe your high season’s in the summer and you have a stricter cancellation policy during the summer because it’s harder to get those days booked because people are planning ahead. 

But in the winter you’re like, You know what? I want to try to increase my revenue. Maybe a lower different cancellation policy would help. So I do encourage you, these are things that you can test. Again, data over drama. Like Sarah just said, do some research there. Obviously, PriceLabs, you can review that, what the competition’s cancellation policy’s in your area. So really encourage you to do the market research, test it and–

Sarah Karakaian: [00:06:23] Not just test it. But when you say test it, you have to write down what you find and record it so you can go back and look at that so you have something to compare it to. That’s another thing too, is like if you test it and go off a feeling, in Wendy’s case, her feelings were correct. But there are so many times you and I will dig into a hot seat call instead of Hosting Business Mastery and it’s actually not as, I mean, it’s in a loving way, dramatic as some of our members feel about something.

Annette Grant: [00:06:49] Right. But excellent question. And again, we don’t know if you’ve already been hosting or it’s something that you’re thinking about, but very important because put yourself in your guest shoes, but obviously know your numbers and how that’s going to impact you.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:07:01] Yes, with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: [00:07:04] I’m Annette Grant, and together we are–

Both Sarah and Annette: [00:07:05] Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:07:06] We’ll 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.