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

[00:00:03] Annette: I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–

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

[00:00:06] Sarah: And this is the–

[00:00:07] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.

[00:00:09] Sarah: We are going to listen and answer a question that was submitted by one of you amazing listeners. Before we do that, again, TFV Con is right around the corner. We have secured the most amazing lineup of speakers who are going to be bringing so much education to us to really empower the rest of 2023 into next year. We’re talking SEO. We’re talking raising capital. We’re talking unique builds, co-hosting. What else Annette? I mean, so much. 

[00:00:38] Annette: We’re hanging out and getting–

[00:00:39] Sarah: All Annette wants to do is party with you guys. 

[00:00:43] Annette: It’s Hosting Hotline hangouts. 

[00:00:45] Sarah: You’re going buy a VIP ticket while they last. We’re very limited on those, but we have a VIP-only party on Monday night. A lot of special VIP upgrades should you decide to treat yourself. 

[00:00:55] Annette: Come hang out. Let’s do this. 

[00:00:56] Sarah: All right. With that, let’s talk about parent-child listings. 

[00:01:00] Annette: Hi, Sarah. Hi, Annette. This is Carolyn Stewart from Rochester, New Hampshire. My husband and I, we want to pursue the parent-child strategy you’ve been talking about. Question for you. We’ve got a four-bedroom, two-bath. One of those baths is a full bath. The other bath is a three-quarter-bath. Three of the bedrooms has one queen bed in it, and the other bedroom has a bunk bed set in it. So we’re trying to figure out which bedrooms would be in the child? And which bathroom.

[00:01:29] Questions: Do we lock off the three-quarter-bath and just have people use the full bed if we’re going to do a two-bedroom child unit? So we’re just wondering what your suggestions are because we’re not quite sure where to put those locks, on which bedrooms. So that’s it. I thank you so much for any advice you can give us. 

[00:01:50] Sarah: When we played this the first, time I asked Annette, I was like– I had her write it down. I was like, what is this math? 

[00:01:55] Annette: We were doing room math. First suggestion, and this is not only for this caller, but for all callers, there is true value in the amount of bathrooms for your guests. My advice here is, let’s leave all of the bathrooms open. Uh, and again, that’s my advice for everyone, especially if there’s just two bathrooms. I think, um, even if you have two bedrooms, two bathrooms is amazing. Sometimes even just one bedroom, people like having two bathrooms, me being one of them.

[00:02:28] Sarah: Second that. 

[00:02:28] Annette: Yeah, so that is something. Let’s just get that out. I think make all of the bathrooms available on every reservation. And also I think it’s just nice. With doing parent-child, you do have to put in some additional locks. You don’t have to put any additional locks on your bathrooms and cause any friction or just aesthetics on those. So first and foremost, I would keep all the bathrooms open to everyone.

[00:02:53] Sarah: Yeah. And it could also depend on, this is for everyone too, the layout of your home. 

[00:02:59] Annette: For sure. 

[00:03:00] Sarah: When you’re doing parent-child, Annette says leave all the bathrooms open, but maybe there’s a primary– there’s an en suite off of a primary bedroom that you do want to lock off and not offer for your smaller option. Or maybe your parent-child is, hey, we have all these bedrooms and bathrooms on the main floor, and there’s a whole basement with a hangout space and a bedroom, but maybe that basement, that’s part of your parent option, and just the first floor. So layout could have a big– 

[00:03:28] Annette: Yes. I agree with that. 

[00:03:30] Sarah: Could help you decide that. But it sounds like layout isn’t a problem here in terms of what is allowed or not allowed, so I’m going to agree with Annette. I think having two bathrooms would be great. And again, I don’t know the layout. I also don’t know you market. So one thing you could do is– the whole point of parent child is to diversify your one property. And if a traveler and a friend, maybe they aren’t going to consider a four-bedroom, but they would consider a two bedroom. 

[00:03:56] So in our market, the two-bedroom opened up a world of possibilities for some of our larger homes. So look at that too. Where do you want to fall in terms of competition? Maybe for your market, three bedrooms is very different than four or five, or maybe just a one-bedroom option and the way it’s laid out is killer too. 

[00:04:14] Annette: Mm-hmm. 

[00:04:14] Sarah: So you have to–

[00:04:15] Annette: Yeah, you could do a two-bedroom, a three-bedroom, and a four-bedroom.

[00:04:18] Sarah: This is not helping her. 

[00:04:19] Annette: Yeah, it is. I think it is. I think it’s totally helping her. I’m going to live in my world if it’s helpful. Also, you just got to get started. So getting that out there as parent-child, because I think one of your concerns too is, hey, do I offer up the room with the bunk beds, or is it better to offer up the room with the queens? One thing is, and you’ll see, once you start doing the parent-child, people might have questions about it. And so you can always answer those afterwards, but I think just starting to see what the demand is. But I would get started most likely maybe with the queen bed. I don’t know. All the queen beds? All the queens? 

[00:04:54] Sarah: Again, it goes down to what market is she in. Are three people going to travel and it might be nice for each friend to have– yes, someone has to get on the top bunk. Or it’s very child-friendly, and so the bunk beds are a no brainer. I will say this too though, I know, listeners, what you might be thinking too, is if you do the lock on your bedroom door, not all bedrooms have deadbolts, and so sometimes you have to bore a new hole in the door. 

[00:05:16] And so it feels like a permanent decision, but depending on the lock and the handle, maybe you do something a little less expensive, a little less permanent, and you get one of those locks that it is the doorknob. Just make sure you have a backup in terms of safety if that thing closes. A lot of lot will have what will have a key component as well. Maybe you just put a key in a lockbox and hang in from the doorknob for now while you decide, because I do understand that. You will see in our show notes my favorite– 

[00:05:46] Annette: Right. They’re going to tell them. 

[00:05:47] Sarah: Parent-child listing door, and we do bore a whole other hole into the door. Anyway. I’ll take this back too, though. 

[00:05:56] Annette: How do you spell bore? 

[00:05:57] Sarah: B-O-R-E, I think. 

[00:05:58] Annette: Okay. 

[00:05:58] Sarah: There are smart locks or mechanical locks that do have the handle and the keypad all in one too. So there are options out there for you. 

[00:06:08] Annette: And just make sure all the bathrooms open. Keep the parent-child bathrooms open. But we’re excited for you. Let us know how it goes. And this is probably one of our most popular topics.

[00:06:21] Sarah: And I never thought in a million years it would be. 

[00:06:23] Annette: But I love it because that means that hosts are getting creative. They’re looking for that way to use their space creatively. And my last tip there is, check out the competition in your area too. When you’re looking at the bed layout, the bedroom layout, take a peek at your competition and see what’s going on there too. If it’s two bedrooms or three bedrooms, what else pops up when someone’s looking in your area for those–

[00:06:50] Sarah: You want to meet what is not being met if you can, for sure.

[00:06:55] Annette: All right. 

[00:06:56] Sarah: Good luck. Also think about your strategy for pricing. That’s the most important thing about this. It’s diversifying. So you stretch the times of week and stuff that your property is available. So yes, decide on bedroom, bathrooms, and which ones, but also make sure you’re spending time figuring out your pricing and availability. When will the two-bedroom be available? When will the four-bedroom be available? We have a whole episode on this. We’ll put it in the show notes if you want more of a deep dive on this topic. With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian. 

[00:07:22] Annette: I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:07:24] Sarah: Thanks for Visiting. We’ll talk to you next time.