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

[00:00:04] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are– 

[00:00:06] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:07] Sarah: Let’s kick this show off like we do every week, and that is sharing one of you, our loyal listeners, who’s using our hashtag, #STRShareSunday. We’ll share you on Instagram on Sunday. We’ll also share you here on the podcast and make sure all the other hosts out there give you some love. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

[00:00:22] Annette: Today, we are sharing @thechalaframe. Get it, get it? Chal-A-Frame.

[00:00:29] Sarah: Chal A for A-frame.

[00:00:31] Annette: Yes. So the Chal-A-Frame, so it’s T-H-E-C-H-A-L-A-F-R-A-M-E. And it’s just so cute. It’s in Stratton, Vermont. And what I want to point out is it’s just beautiful. It’s very well branded. It’s a vibe. You can tell right when you go to the Instagram. I know the feel that I’m going to get when I walk in. The vibe that I’m going to get when I’m there. You can see the natural sunlight coming in, but you can also see in the winter, it’s snowy.

[00:01:03] It’s cold, but this is the place that you want to be. They’ve done a really good job of infusing photos, and videos, and reel. The one thing I want to say that they have that I haven’t seen at all in any short-term rental, they have a vintage Kohler trough-style three-bay utility sink. I think they found it at the dump, but I’m going to tell you, this thing is amazing.

[00:01:31] It has three faucets, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I haven’t seen that anywhere before. Well done. I need to hear more of the story on that. But the outdoor area is great. I don’t know. Fall’s coming. Winter’s coming. I just want to go hang out there. So well done. Check them out. And they did a really good job of telling the story as they were building the property also. Love it. We want to come visit. Check it out.

[00:02:00] Sarah: We have amazing hosts out there.

[00:02:02] Annette: I know. And that’s segue to this episode, is this episode is going to be a shout-out to our preferred partners that have partnered with us, not only in our conference but just in general, and have been solid, solid partners of TFV.

[00:02:21] And as much as we love highlighting all of the short-term rentals out there, we want to take this episode to highlight the amazing partners. Uh, something when Sarah and I got started in hosting, we never thought we would be friends and partners with these amazing brands.

[00:02:38] Sarah: But also, I want to give the listener some insight here. And I thought that this episode would be really important because a question we get a lot is, Sarah, Annette, who do you use in your hosting business to help you scale, to help you level up, to help you win back more of your time? And so yes, these people are partners of us, but also, we pay for their services. 

[00:02:58] So these are brands and solutions that we have incorporated into our hosting business, and we wanted to make sure you knew about who they are. And so we will give you some behind the scenes stories about how we met some of their CEOs and their team members, why we have them in our business, why we think they’d be good for you depending on where you are at in your business.

[00:03:20] Annette: And I want to make a note here that this is an episode if you are just getting started, if you have one property, if you have two properties, if you have five properties, if you have 200 properties. That’s what I love about these partners. Most of them are should be your partner with your first property. And so that’s what’s exciting too. And we’re going to walk through each of them.

[00:03:43] And thing that I want you to know is, listen to this episode, take mental notes. They might not be all something that you want to participate or sign up for today, but they might be in the future. So just keep an open mind of where you are, where you want your business to go and to grow. And these are trusted partners of ours.

[00:04:02] Sarah: First up, can we talk about the day that we met the CEO of HostGPO? I want to tell a story of how. I am never on LinkedIn, although I should be. Annette is more so. So if you’re on LinkedIn you’re trying to connect with Thanks for Visiting, Annette’s going to be girl. 

[00:04:14] Annette: That where I hang out. 

[00:04:15] Sarah: Yeah. I don’t. I don’t even know how or why I was on there, but the CEO of HostGPO slid into my LinkedIn DMs, and I couldn’t help thinking about how much he looked like my husband because he really does. Jeff Iloulian looks like Nick Karakaian. And he mentioned how he has a group of hosts in a Facebook group or something, and they all told him to reach out to Thanks for Visiting, which of course, flattery gets you everywhere. 

[00:04:42] And he asked if we could meet for a Zoom call. And he explained the pain point he was trying to solve. I was sold. Annette can tell you, I am sometimes like, we don’t need more friends. We have plenty of friends. Let’s just stay focused. But this guy stopped me in my tracks. And he is the CEO of HostGPO, which is a group purchasing organization. And what they do is leverage the power of a large community to get better pricing on things that us individuals– 

[00:05:12] Annette: That matter to hosts.

[00:05:14] Sarah: Yeah, as individuals would just have to pay retail for. So instead of it being one host, no, there are thousands and thousands of hosts. Jeff is bringing them all together so we can go to these brands and say, hey, there are thousands of us. We deserve wholesale pricing.

[00:05:28] Annette: Exactly. So let’s give some examples really quick. One thing, we don’t just want to make this episode about our partners, but also how we met them and became partners. What Sarah just said, literally was a message on LinkedIn. So if there is someone that you want to work with, someone that you want to partner with, someone that you want to stay at your short-term rental, you got to reach out. 

[00:05:49] Sarah: You never know.

[00:05:50] Annette: Cold calling. I’m aging myself there, but cold calling is real. You’ve got to make that first connection, and then the fortunes and the follow-up. But one thing I specifically remember from that conversation was a heated debate about triple sheeting. We are anti-triple sheeting. Jeff might’ve been pro triple sheeting, but however, Jeff had a very different business.

[00:06:11] Sarah: There are a lot of people pro triple sheeting.

[00:06:13] Annette: Yeah, a lot. 

[00:06:14] Sarah: Listen, if you stand for everything, you fall for nothing. So I’ve decided to stand for no triple sheeting, but yeah. So that was fun.

[00:06:21] Annette: He made a very good case for it.

[00:06:23] Sarah: But that’s the cool thing about Jeff, is that he has been a host. And not that hosting one property doesn’t give you the experience you need, but he hosts tons and tons of properties in LA, some of the high-end short-term rentals that you can think of to celebrities. And so Jeff just gets us. And so that’s really nice. And so we actually got to sit down with Jeff at one of our hosting business mastery member property in Topanga, California.

[00:06:50] Annette: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:51] Sarah: And it was the most beautiful setting for dinner.

[00:06:53] Annette: Yeah. Actually, you should give her a follow. Her name is Katie Levitt, and it’s Levinaia Estates. Did I say Leviana? We’ll make sure to link to it. I feel like I said it a little improperly. 

[00:07:06] Sarah: Levinaia.

[00:07:06] Annette: Levinaia. That’s it. Levinaia Estates. I can say it’s been the most amazing spot. So you’re going to want to book it.

[00:07:12] Sarah: So let us share with you HostGPO. So if you sign up for HostGPO, the savings you get on things like hospitality-grade linens and services like Ace Hardware or Staples, who has the most amazing toilet paper deals that you can find, you will do yourself a favor by joining HostGPO.

[00:07:33] And knowing that we have a lot of Hosting Business Mastery members who are employees of HostGPO, it has just become this place where hosts can make some more money and help other hosts. And they don’t just help save on purchasing things. They also have been known to look at all the things that you purchase and find you better deals, find you better ways to shop so you can save money. So it’s not this transactional thing. They really want to be a part of your purchasing daily practice.

[00:08:03] Annette: Daily, weekly, monthly. They want to be an integral part of your entire–

[00:08:07] Sarah: They want to save you money overall and not just get you to buy that toilet paper in bulk, but also look at your whole business. So especially if you’re out there and you’re a co-host, you want to be a co-host, maybe reach out to HostGPO and say, hey, I want to tell my clients that not only can I help them get discounts on things and have that be a marketing point of view for their potential owners that they want to partner with, but also, as I start buying more consumables, can you make sure I’m getting the best deal and whatnot? Because HostGPO can help you do that. So that’s HostGPO.

[00:08:36] Annette: I have to give one shout-out also. I know we gave Katie Levitt, but I will also have to give a shout-out to the other co-founder of HostGPO, Michael. He is absolutely fabulous. One of the most amazing humans. And so I had to give him some love there because he’s brilliant. He is brilliant. And he’s been a backbone of bringing the success.

[00:08:59] All right. Let’s do another trusted partner. I have a story here about Hostfully. I remember being at the Airbnb Open, I think it was 2016, and Margo, the CEO, founder, of that company was just in the sea of thousands and thousands of hosts. Talking about her guidebook, that was the main thing I think she was trying to get out at that point in time.

[00:09:23] And I just remember I hadn’t even, I don’t know, maybe it was a month, 30 days, 60 days into listing, and so I was listening to her, and like, I probably need that. I don’t even know what I’m doing. But I just remember that she was out there. She was in the middle of the sea of hosts, just evangelizing why you need a guidebook, why you need a digital guidebook, how you can help everyone.

[00:09:45] And then come full circle, I have a friend who runs another startup, and we were talking at a Vrbo event, actually live, when we met Justin Ford, but he was telling me, hey, you really should meet Margo of Hostfully. And he connected us, and it wasn’t until years later that I made the connection that, wait, you were the woman in the sea of people at Airbnb Open trying to help us with digital guidebooks. And now it’s a whole property management software. So Sarah, let’s go in on, we interviewed Margo. Was that even before we were using Hostfully?

[00:10:21] Sarah: No, that was right when I decided that we were going to use Hostfully as our property management software. Because listeners, I was right there with you back in the day, pre-COVID, trying to figure out what property management software we were going to use because there were so many out there. And so I had the spreadsheets, and I was on all the websites. Compare all the software.

[00:10:38] And I was like, this is great here, but this is great there. And so I’m here to tell you, post that whole experience, that there is not one software that is the Holy Grail. There is not. Because we are all hosts. We’re all snowflakes. Our houses are snowflakes. Our businesses are snowflakes. So therefore, you’re going to have to figure out which software you enjoy the most, and then you’re going to hack it to make it work for you in your business. I’m just going to be brutally honest.

[00:11:04] Annette: Stick with it.

[00:11:05] Sarah: And stick with it because switching software is also very expensive. I liked Hostfully because it had really good and strong API connections with all the other software that actually we’re going to talk about today. Plus, their customer service is amazing. Plus, Margo was amazing and a female founder. So those things matter to me. There’s a lot of options out there. And so I want to know that the people behind the software are good people.

[00:11:28] And I can tell you that we’ve been using Hostfully for years now, and I had to make it work for us in our business. But now that I have, it is just a really lovely foundation for our whole hosting business. It’s so good to know. And her co-founder, too, is fantastic. The whole team is great and have been great partners of ours, both for Thanks for Visiting and in our hosting business. So Hostfully’s got the guidebooks, property management software. Really good team behind them, and good ethics, and all that good stuff.

[00:11:58] Annette: All right. We probably should have a whole episode. Actually, we have multiple episodes. Let’s talk about Breezeway. Breezeway started, again, at a live, in-person meeting with just this community of hosts, anybody that has a business associated with hosting. Breezeway, I actually met Justin Ford at that same Vrbo conference.

[00:12:21] And I’m going to let you know, I didn’t know anything about egress. I didn’t know anything about interconnected smoke alarms, fire extinguishers. He has single-handedly helped me up level my whole entire safety identity, but also has been the most interviewed guest on our show because it’s how important that’s supportive. 

[00:12:41] Sarah: And maybe the most–

[00:12:43] Annette: Absolutely. But let’s talk about not only Justin and the safety certification and the safety that Breezeway offers, but then a whole other side of Breezeway that we didn’t even know about until we met Justin.

[00:12:56] Sarah: So if Hostfully helps you get those bookings and leverage all your pricing and all that stuff, Breezeway helps you run the day-to-day. And actually, I introduced it to one of my now good friends, Ingrid, who has a very impressive short-term rental business here in Columbus. But I introduced Breezeway to her years ago, and she still gives me random hugs out of nowhere. 

[00:13:19] And she’s just like, thank you for telling me about Breezeway because it has given me my life back. Because as hosts, yes, you have to live in the moment, in the day-to-day, but if you’re not thinking next week, two weeks from now, next month, a quarter, your home is going to consume you, your hosting business will consume you. And so Breezeway helps you remember the things that are easy to forget when you’re wearing all those hats that you do as a host.

[00:13:43] Annette: But let’s explain what Breezeway is, though, for the people that don’t–

[00:13:47] Sarah: Property care, property operations.

[00:13:49] Annette: So helping you manage your cleaning, all of your tasks, all of your maintenance. The best part is everything that we’re talking about right now can be accessible from your phone and from your whole entire team. And I think Breezeway is a great fact that you can basically be on the run and know, when was the last time that air filter was cleaned? Is my cleaning team at that property? Did they check in? Did they just take a picture of the hot tub lock being on?

[00:14:16] Sarah: Anytime my team and I are like, oh my gosh, we need to make sure that we’re on top of these Keurig filters and changing them, make it a Breezeway task. And you can make it repeat. So every 30, 60, 90 days, whatever cadence you want, you just put in there once, then forever, you are reminded of those things that you don’t want to forget so that your guests have the most amazing experience. Yeah. I could definitely have a whole episode about Breezeway.

[00:14:40] Annette: Yeah. And we have Breezeway safety we have to do.

[00:14:42] Sarah: We have. Yeah. And so again, all the information about these partners are in today’s show notes, but truly, Breezeway is an operations person’s dream.

[00:14:52] Annette: Let’s do it. All right. Oh, man. Next, let’s go to Rent Responsibly. So Rent Responsibly is an organization, and we’re just going to tell you right now, go to rentresponsibly.org, sign up for their email list. You need to get involved. It’s exactly what it says. We are all about hosting responsibly, and this is about getting involved in your local community.

[00:15:18] It matters. Everyone knows that Sarah and I met, if you don’t know, at a city council meeting. Showing up matters. Linking arms with other hosts in your area matters. And we can tell you, again, Alexa and Dave–

[00:15:33] Sarah: The best.

[00:15:34] Annette: Sarah and I have traveled to Fort Worth several times this past year, and we have made it a point to spend the day with one of the co-founders, Dave Krauss. He is absolutely amazing. He has a very storied short-term rental career. Such a cool story. I think it might be on their podcast. Uh, we loved it.

[00:15:51] The last time we were there, he talked about how he got to go and meet Brian Chesky. He was one of the like top 10 super hosts in the world. He had a whole entire day. He took his father-in-law who was his cleaner at the time. But follow rentresponsibly.org because they are always keeping you up to date on what’s going on, not only in your location but also areas all around the country. And it’s important that we become involved. And I’m telling you, the leadership there is second to none. And we want to make sure that you’re signing up there.

[00:16:25] Sarah: Because it’s up to us as hosts to make sure that– this is with any industry. It’s not just with short-term rentals. If you feel like we’re singled out in terms of regulations, and licensing, and all that, we’re not. It happens in a lot of industries, and that is why it is important that we stay up to date on what’s going on in our local municipalities, in our local government to make sure that they know that us hosts are involved, are responsible, and we’re here to make our communities better. And so Rent Responsibly arms us with those tools, so we can show up prepared, talking like we know what we’re talking about. I want to talk about Minoan next.

[00:17:04] Annette: All right, let’s do it. Let’s talk about Sage, one of their team members, who we also met at a conference. She was determined for us to meet. I cannot say enough about her determination and tenacity to connect with us and make sure that we knew about Minoan.

[00:17:20] Sarah: So Minoan is great. It offers discounts not just to hosts but designers and co-hosts, anyone in the hosting industry who wants to make their rentals better. It has a free membership and unlocks, essentially, host discounts and all the things that we’re going to buy anyway. So from furniture to cleaning products, to consumables, they are– and what I love about Minoan, not the most, but is how they’ve connected with our Hosting Business Mastery members and just hosts in general and have interwoven themselves into–

[00:18:02] Annette: The community.

[00:18:03] Sarah: The community of hosting so they can better understand our pain points, what we need, come out with new ways so that shopping is easier, getting our– what they’re really big on right now and what you and I really appreciate is, listen, setting up that rental the first time, yes, that is probably one of the biggest mountains to climb.

[00:18:19] Annette: Hurdles. Yeah.

[00:18:20] Sarah: But I can tell you, once you’re in operations, you don’t want to be running to the store to replace consumables, to replenish those items like toilet paper and cleaning products. So Minoan wants to let you know that they’re there for those things too. They can help you stay on top of your supply closet and make sure you’re not running low on things. So you always have what you need when you go to grab it during your turnovers.

[00:18:44] Annette: All right. Let’s parlay into NoiseAware.

[00:18:49] Sarah: NoiseAware. I’ve told the story many times, but should we tell it one more time?

[00:18:54] Annette: One more time. It’s not if, it’s when.

[00:18:56] Sarah: It’s when. And so NoiseAware is a privacy safe noise monitoring in your rentals. And you think that you need it to tell your guests, hey, hush down. You may not realize it, but you’re getting pretty noisy. I used it the opposite way, where I was managing a short-term rental ina small condo building, and the owner upstairs, it’s a condo, was complaining that the unit below, the one that was managing, was always noisy. I remember telling Annette, I just went over there and no one is making–

[00:19:26] Annette: One person working from home or out and about, and he’s complaining.

[00:19:30] Sarah: Yes. And the city once emailed me and said, listen, we get so many complaints. We’re going to have to shut you down.

[00:19:35] Annette: I want you to hear that, listeners, that this was an issue that could have shut down an entire short-term rental business, that unit, for that homeowner, for Sarah.

[00:19:45] Sarah: And it’s even more frustrating when you know that you’ve got all your checks and balances. So what I did was I never thought I would need a NoiseAware monitor for a one bedroom condo, but I sure did. I was like, you know what? Let’s put NoiseAware in there, and then I’m going to show the city that there’s no problem.

[00:20:00] I’m going to have the data speak for itself. And that’s exactly what we did. We showed the city the data from the noise monitor, and there was no data. It was a flat line. And that was it. I never heard from them again.

[00:20:14] Annette: No pun intended, but it hushed that. That hushed that neighbor. But check out NoiseAware. There are many different ways that it can work for you. But again, it’s not if, it’s when, so get ahead of it now and install. All right. 

[00:20:27] Sarah: Let’s talk about PriceLabs.

[00:20:28] Annette: Let’s do it. 

[00:20:29] Sarah: They are who we use for our dynamic pricing. And I think of all the software that I adopted over the years, Annette, to help our business be better, this was the one that most–

[00:20:41] Annette: You had resistance.

[00:20:42] Sarah: Not even resistance. I was just nervous. It was very data heavy, a lot of graphs, a lot of numbers I had to plug in, and I was like, I don’t want to get this wrong. But my gosh, they have a bank of tutorials and a customer service situation where you can write in, chat in, and they will help you do all the things. And tell the story about when we sat down for breakfast with one of our members, Mike Hicks, and his wife, their resistance to PriceLabs, and what happened.

[00:21:16] Annette: Oh yeah. I can say this isn’t the only story, but essentially, we’ve convinced them, finally, to install it, and then resistance. Wait, the booking stopped. What’s going on? We would have never charged this. We think that PriceLabs is completely out of their minds. PriceLabs, it’s AI. They’re not like us humans that want to go with our guts. 

[00:21:37] And literally, in a 24 to 48 hour time period, I’d say more 48 hours once the algorithm got set in they were booking nights three, four, five, six months out for rates that they had never in their wildest dreams even imagined putting out even into the world. And they were getting these bookings, and two night minimums. They were taking the advice of PriceLabs and putting it into works. And here’s the deal.

[00:22:07] Again, it’s an art and a science. You’re going to have to work with it. You can’t just set it and forget it, but if you can work alongside something like PriceLabs, it is going to be a game changer for your business. I also have, um, a specific one from Tanya Rooney, an amazing member in our membership.

[00:22:23] She was charging 180 to $250 a night for weekends in her area, and then there was an event coming to town, and PriceLabs alerted her to that, and it pushed it up to 650 a night. Yes. You heard that. From 250 to 650. She finally was like, okay, I’m going to trust PriceLabs and what they give us.

[00:22:43] She booked it. No problem. 650 a night. And that weekend moving forward, for the rest of that short-term rental, she’s going to continue to charge that. So this is something like, do not delay. This is another tool that you want to install today. And also, any of these tools that we’re giving you, their customer service is amazing.

[00:23:01] So reach out to them, talk to them, show them how you want to use it in your business. But PriceLabs is definitely a game changer. And I can tell you this, what we love also, Richie, one of the founders of PriceLabs, they founded this years ago in Chicago. They were listing their property, and it came from this understanding that hotels were using dynamic pricing. 

[00:23:23] And it was like, wait, why aren’t short-term rentals using dynamic pricing? I think they were in business school at the time. They saw the necessity of, wait, why is my property just a 100 bucks a night, Monday through Thursday, and then 150? It just seemed off to them. And so they researched it, and they developed this tool. And so just like a lot of these other companies, they were hosts, they saw the need for this, and they have been full speed ahead with PriceLabs since.

[00:23:51] Sarah: I want to talk about Avery Carl and what a rock star she is.

[00:23:53] Annette: Oh yeah. Let’s do it. Short Term Shop.

[00:23:55] Sarah: Short term shop. A lot of you probably know who Avery is, she is a fantastic short-term rental educator. If you don’t know who she is, find out who she is. She wrote a book on building long-term wealth through short-term rentals, but she has the Short Term Shop, which is she is brokered by EXP, and she has brokerages in the hottest vacation rental markets.

[00:24:19] And not only is she a short-term rental and long-term rental investor herself, but she has stopped at nothing to arm her agents with everything they need to know to make sure that if you want to invest in a vacation rental, she can help you find them, make sure the numbers work, and get you into a profitable short-term rental.

[00:24:39] And not only that, but once you buy it, she’ll make sure that you understand what it takes to operate it so that you can get to those numbers that she talked about before you end up purchasing it. So the Short Term Shop is a really trusted service if you just need an agent who understands short-term rentals.

[00:24:57] Annette: You guys can’t see it right now, but I’m smiling because this next company that we’re going to talk about is StayFi. And the founder of StayFi, Arthur Colker, is completely an amazing human. And he is doing something for the short-term rental industry that I think we all need to send him a huge, huge thank you for.

[00:25:19] He’s using his brilliance to help us retain those email addresses from those guests that are staying in our property. And the key differentiator I want everybody to know with StayFi is you’re not only getting the guest, the person that’s booking the property, but you have an opportunity to get all of the emails of every guest that is staying in your property.

[00:25:45] Sarah: And it really makes you not just look like a professional, but it professionalizes your rental and the experience. Just think when you go to a coffee shop or hotel, you sit down, you get online, and you see that business’s splash page where it asks you, hey, can I invite you to come back with a discount? Can I market to you? And you say, yes. And you get online. Same thing for us hosts. It’s a really great way to build up that email list, which is the most valuable thing about your short-term rental business. That’s a whole other episode in itself.

[00:26:12] Annette: It’s branded Wi-Fi. It collects your guest data, and then that will hopefully, in turn, increase your direct booking and your customer loyalty. Fun little story here. This won’t happen today, but this was years ago when we started using StayFi. Sarah and I were at a short-term rental getting it set up.

[00:26:29] I’m sure most listeners can understand this. It’s 9 or 10 o’clock. You’re checking the boxes and your final things. We’re trying to set up Wi-Fi. We are literally calling Arthur trying to get this set up. And again, this is way back in the day when he was the sole employee, the sole founder, and he was helping us set this up.

[00:26:48] Um, and we are forever grateful for him. We’re like, is he seriously taking this call of these two women that are completely at the wits end because they want to get this property live and they’re trying to get the splash page and the Wi-Fi set up? But hewas there for us that night. His team will be there for you now because this team has grown. I’m actually on their website right now, and they have a chat open. Got any questions? We’re happy to help. This is something. Please, also, investigate this. Look at this for your future if you don’t have it yet already.

[00:27:23] Sarah: Boostly. Mark, he has been one of the most loud voices when it comes to the importance of direct booking. And I don’t know if he knew how to time that or what, but he timed it perfectly, where we’re all talking about not putting all of our eggs in one basket with Airbnb and really thinking about your hosting business as a standalone business and having Airbnb just be a tool in that tool belt. 

[00:27:53] So Mark wrote the book on direct booking quite literally, and that’s a sole focus, which I also really appreciate. His goal is he’s got a whole little, what do you call those things that measure your success? But he’s got this thing that shows all the people who use the Boostly software, how much they’re making in direct bookings, um, every year. And he’s really just making that his focus to get hosts to do that.

[00:28:18] Annette: His mission. And backstory on Mark too. That mission, his passion came from his family owning a short-term rental, a bed and breakfast, and it was time for them– they were thinking about the next steps, the next phase for that business. And they realized that their book of business was highly important to the sale of that family property. 

[00:28:42] And so Mark made it his mission to help with the direct bookings on that property. And then once he solved that problem for his family, he realized, if his mom and dad were having this problem, there was probably a lot of other hosts out there that were also. So he made that his mission to check them out.

[00:28:59] Sarah: Yeah, if you want to grow your direct bookings, you want to focus on that, check out Boostly.

[00:29:03] Annette: Yeah. You can at least get the book today. All right. Who’s up next?

[00:29:08] Sarah: Let’s talk about cleaning. I will also tell you guys this, is that next year, I want to talk about cleaning a whole lot more because I don’t know how we don’t talk about it more, because it is a part of our lives.

[00:29:18] Annette: We talk about it every day. 

[00:29:20] Sarah: I know. But need to bring it to the podcast.

[00:29:21] Annette: We’ll talk about it to everybody else.

[00:29:23] Sarah: But truly, the amount of hacks that are out there, the things that you have to be concerned about because our guests more and more have special requests and needs to make their stay as comfortable as possible– there are people who cannot handle bleach. They cannot handle a lot of these toxins in our properties, but what do you use then? Because you’re like, but I want it to be clean and sanitized. So I want to talk about ETI Solutions.

[00:29:44] Annette: Sean Kemper. Another family business. Amazing human. And Sean Kemper is someone, like Justin Ford, who brought safety to the forefront for me. Sean has brought the science of cleaning to the forefront for me. Commercial cleaning, which we’re doing right now. We’re charging for overnight stays. 

[00:30:06] We are doing commercial cleaning, and Sean has completely opened my eyes to the science, the chemicals that are used, why certain chemicals are used, why and where and how, and that part, when other people– again, safety is in cleaning also. That has been something through his education that has been completely eye opening. And not only educating yourself, but educating your team that is going to be using the cleaning supplies that are in your property.

[00:30:36] Sarah: Here’s a little hack that Sean shared with us at our first live event last year in Vegas, was, has a guest ever complained they’re walking around their short-term rental and their socks are black?

[00:30:48] Annette: That’s happened to me.

[00:30:49] Sarah: We call it blackfoot. But you’re like, wait a minute. I know that my cleaners mopped. I am the cleaner. I’ve mopped it. But he shared with us, some of those chemicals just layer on top of each other, and they actually aren’t getting your floors clean. They’re just caking them in these chemicals. And so that is why if your guests are still complaining or you know you just cleaned the floor and your socks are still getting black– and from a man who literally sells cleaning products, when he tells you that all you need sometimes is just hot water to get your floor back to ground zero and get rid of that blackfoot– we tried this in some of our rentals where we just took– we have one of those steamer mops and didn’t put any– just a steamer mop.

[00:31:31] And the mop was clear, white. Nothing came up on it. So if you are ever struggling with your floors or have that issue, especially those dark wood floors can get like that– but anyway, if you reach out to Sean at ETI Solutions, he will also work with you to figure out what materials you have in your rentals and what solutions you’ll need. And they’re all environmentally conscious materials too. So they should be really guest-friendly.

[00:31:58] Annette: Okay. We’ve been talking a lot about spending money. Let’s talk about who we use to log in every single day to look at the money coming in, the money coming out.

[00:32:10] Sarah: We need to talk about this.

[00:32:12] Annette: Sarah and I did a really big project last year, and I’m not going to lie, it was intense, but it has been worth it.

[00:32:18] Sarah: It was the worst project ever.

[00:32:20] Annette: We switched. We now use Relay. You’ve probably heard us talk about them before. They are an online money management. They are backed by Thread Bank. But let me tell you, if you went to my history on my computer, it’s what I log into the most. I’m our CFO. And I cannot tell you the clarity that it’s brought to our business. We can see everything with one login. It is so seamless to transfer funds, to pay contractors, to pay our team, to transfer money to ourselves for payroll, whatever that might be. 

[00:33:02] I have to say this. I’ve had a lot of online interactions with our money, and it needs to be aesthetically pleasing to me. It helps me. And I just know that when I log in, I know exactly where we are with every single account immediately. And I’m excited to grow with them because we use Profit First, and it is– whether you use Profit First or not, the thing with Relay is all the accounts are free. Just yesterday, I looked at an old account. It charged me 15 bucks for nothing. I did the math. Over the course of the year, I’m like, why am I paying for this business account–

[00:33:38] Sarah: To hold my money and to leverage my money.

[00:33:40] Annette: To do nothing. So the accounts are free. You can set up as many as you want. I can issue debit cards immediately online. Just the ease of it. It is the future. So I encourage you to take a look at Relay. If you have questions about how we use it, please reach out. But they are a great partner.

[00:34:01] Let me tell you my favorite thing about this money management platform, is that I didn’t have to go to the bank to open my accounts. I didn’t have to sign a bunch of paperwork. That part of it, for me, I am like, why do I have to walk into a bank? It infuriates me. You can probably hear it. Don’t get me wrong. I do have a local bank because sometimes you do need them, but it is a few times a year. And when I’m doing banking every single day, I want it to be as seamless and as easy for us as possible.

[00:34:33] Sarah: Let’s talk about borrowing money. 

[00:34:35] Annette: Yeah. You got to get those deposits in there.

[00:34:38] Sarah: Let’s talk about LFG Lending. They are local to Columbus, Ohio. They are women owned, and they are a wonderful solution for all of you short-term rental investors out there.

[00:34:52] Annette: Investors.

[00:34:53] Sarah: Yes. To getting a DSCR loan or any creative way to get money to get your deal done. Liz from LFG Lending is an investor herself, both short-term and long-term. She gets us. She’s a broker, so she has connections with lenders from all over the US, and she can make sure that she matches the right lender with your deal to make sure that it is win-win for all parties involved. 

[00:35:22] So I know for a lot of you out there, sometimes you’re like, I’m an amazing host. I know this property would be great, but I don’t have the money. If you go to LFG Lending, we will have a link in the show notes, her team will hop on the phone with you and look at the numbers with you.

[00:35:37] If it’s a great deal, they’re going to help you get it done because it will not only behoove them, but it’ll behoove their lenders, and it’ll hopefully get you to that next phase in your investment career as well. So can’t say enough about the transparency of LFG Lending, their knowledge, and who they can connect you with to make sure that if it’s a good deal, you get it done

[00:35:59] Annette: Once you get the deal done, you’re going to need insurance. We’ve done a bunch of work really recently. We’ve been partners with them for a long time, but really getting deeper into insurance. There’s been so much out there this past year about AirCover and how they’re making it easier to make sure that you can use it.

[00:36:19] And listen, AirCover is not insurance. And we just did a live with proper insurance, and this was the best thing that they said about AirCover. They were like, when it’s AirCover “a million dollars,” where is the policy with your name and address on it? It does not exist, correct? And so Proper was like, you need a policy with your name and the address of the property that the insurance company is insuring.

[00:36:47] And that really– because I was like, how do we tell people the difference between an insurance and AirCover? And that was his thing. Can you go to your filing cabinet, or can you go to Google Drive and send me an email with your policy, with your name on it if it’s AirCover?

[00:37:03] Sarah: No, because AirCover has the word air in it, Airbnb. And so therefore, AirCover is always going to protect Airbnb’s best interests. I’m not saying they’re not going to throw you some bones And Proper insurance said that Airbnb has covered millions of dollars in coverage. But sometimes those cases, that was just a tip of the iceberg in terms of what money was being thrown around in those cases.

[00:37:27] Annette: We’re going to say this. You’re going to get a quote from short-term rental-specific insurance, and you’re going to have that moment where you’re going to compare it to–

[00:37:40] Sarah: Homeowners.

[00:37:41] Annette: Your homeowner’s insurance.

[00:37:42] Sarah: It’s different.

[00:37:43] Annette: This is a commercial policy. I’m going to get a little bit fired up about it because you are running a business. A way that you use your home as a primary residence is very different than a business that you are operating for profit. It’s an income-producing asset. And so I just challenge you to look at that when you see the amount that’s in alignment with the coverage that they are giving you on that property.

[00:38:13] So think about things, think about bed bugs, think about loss of income. I also want to encourage you, before you buy that next property, see if it can actually be covered. I know there’s been awful things that have happened, will continue to happen with hurricanes, with fires, and there are some areas that will not be covered anymore. 

[00:38:36] So I just want to make sure that you do that due diligence ahead of time, but Proper is short-term rental-specific. Again, like any of them, please reach out. They will go through and take a look at your current policy. They can give you a quote on a new policy. Again, run, don’t walk to them. This is a good time of year too to shop that for what’s coming up. You’re looking at your next year. I would definitely reach out to them today and make sure that you are properly, no pun intended, insured.

[00:39:05] Sarah: And they’ll help you compare. So if you’ve got another off from the table, at least take it to them, and they’ll help you compare like what you get for theirs because they’re always the first one to say that they are the most expensive in the industry. So just be prepared for that. But that’s who we use. 

[00:39:18] Know Your Guest. Superhog. Let’s talk about another question we get, is how do you confidently offer direct bookings if you don’t have Airbnb protecting you? First of all, Airbnb is not protection. They may not step in and help you when you get the wrong guest in your property. So you should not be afraid to start direct bookings and bring more power and control into your business. 

[00:39:43] And Superhog is a great way to verify your guests. They are who they say they are. The background check involved. And they have some other options too when it comes to damage waivers if you don’t want to handle those in-house and you want help with handling damage at your property. They have a really great program for that as well.

[00:40:03] So that is who we use when it comes to the guest verification process for our short-term rentals. And every guest who stays with us goes through that process. And that way, we just know. And it’s also a really great way to leverage our co-hosting business to say to our owners, we use this software, we use Superhog, to make sure the guests that come and stay in your homes are verified and they are who they say they are.

[00:40:28] Annette: Verified. I like that. STR Insights, Kenny Bedwell.

[00:40:31] Sarah: Okay. This might be my favorite.

[00:40:33] Annette: You better be careful saying favorites. I’m not saying any favorites.

[00:40:37] Sarah: Yeah. I just love Kenny, and I love STR Insights,

[00:40:40] Annette: So Kenny–

[00:40:41] Sarah: Solves a lot of problems. 

[00:40:43] Annette: I have to say, again, we met Kenny at a live event, and man, he was a go-getter. He literally had just launched his business. He had a piece of cardboard in front of his booth, like STR insights launched live. And I’m like, what’s this guy– and he got on stage, and there were mic drops. I was like, this guy was just making it happen today. 

[00:41:10] STR Insights, again, link in the show notes. Go check them out. Kenny and his team will support you in that next property that you’re going to buy so you can make the most informed decision. And not just an informed decision, but he is a data guy. He has a storied career in data analytics. He is going to crush it for you. 

[00:41:34] And again, along the lines of all these things, you got to pay to play. Scared money don’t make money. You got to invest. You’re going to have to invest in Kenny’s software. But listen, you are buying an asset, and it is worth it. There’s a couple of different levels with Kenny and with STR Insights that you can participate in.

[00:41:54] But I will tell you, there’s a lot of software out there that will give you general analytics of, let’s say, you say a zip code with a certain amount of rooms and a certain amount of bed, bath count, but they are not comparing apples to apples. And you could put in some stats where your house is miles, almost towns away from this one that they are giving you analytics on. 

[00:42:18] So I just encourage you, use everything that’s out there, but take a look at this. He drills down. And Kenny will help you drill down of like, waterfront, or is a hot tub going to help? And heck, you might think that five-bedroom, four-bath is the bee’s knees and what’s going to bring in the most revenue. It might be a two-bedroom, two-bath, because he can also help you pinpoint what that area is missing, what people are searching for.

[00:42:43] Sarah: Yeah. And if you don’t know where to invest, Kenny can tell you, oh, if you’re open and you want highest cash-on-cash return you can possibly get, he will tell you what markets are creating that right now. Um, and the levels in which you can work with STR Insights vary. So you could be a DIYer with their software. You could have them find you some good deals and underwrite with their software. You could have full service, have STR find the property for you, do the underwriting, and also connect you with the agent, and they’d be like, here you go. Just go buy this. It’s exactly what you want. So highly encourage you to go to STR Insights, learn more about them.

[00:43:21] Annette: Book a call.

[00:43:22] Sarah: Actually, I’ve got a call with him on Wednesday because we’ve got some land that I want to know the best way to use it. And so Annette and I will absolutely be–

[00:43:29] Annette: Our first call, for sure.

[00:43:30] Sarah: Yeah, we will be customers of STR Insights. So yeah. All right. So let’s talk about Savvy realtors.

[00:43:36] Annette: Mm-hmm.

[00:43:37] Sarah: So we Savvy STR Agents, female-led STR agents, investors themselves–

[00:43:45] Annette: Short-term rental investors, yeah.

[00:43:47] Sarah: Short-term rental investors themselves in various markets across the United States. And these women will connect you with properties that meet your needs when it comes to– so we just talked about Kenny helping you dial in where. These ladies will help take it down.

[00:44:02] Annette: Once you know it, they can help you after you’ve located where you want to take the deal down.

[00:44:07] Sarah: And that’s the one thing that Robert Kiyosaki always said on his podcast and in his books. And other mentors of mine are like, when it comes to your CPA, and your attorney, and your real estate agent, when you’re buying real estate, you want to work with professionals who are investors themselves because they get you. They get what numbers you need to run.

[00:44:26] They understand what your pain points are. They know what the questions will be after you close. And so Savvy STR Agents will help you ask the questions that you didn’t think to ask and just connect all those dots for you. Their onboarding process on their website takes less than 15 minutes. They’ll connect with you, and they’ll make sure that you get partnered up with the right property. So they’re another great resource there.

[00:44:52] Annette: All right. CanMonkey.

[00:44:55] Sarah: We didn’t talk about CanMonkey, did we?

[00:44:57] Annette: Uh-uh.

[00:44:58] Sarah: Oh, yay.

[00:44:59] Annette: Alex Shapiro.

[00:45:00] Sarah: You’re always just talking about CanMonkey and how much you love it.

[00:45:03] Annette: I know. Uh, here’s the deal. We can be honest because this isn’t a pain point for us, but they would be the first person that we call. And Alex Shapiro from CanMonkey had us from hello. He is passionate, passionate–

[00:45:18] Sarah: About garbage.

[00:45:19] Annette: About waste. I’m going to call it waste management. But listen, if you listen to our friends at Rent Responsibly, it is parking, noise, and trash. Those are the three things that your neighbors are going to complain about. We’ve already got you taken care of with NoiseAware. Let’s knock out number two, which, no pun intended, is waste management and the trash with CanMonkey. They are a trash-to-curb subscription, on-demand scheduling for your rubbish removal.

[00:45:52] Sarah: And we don’t use them, but some of our coaches and members in Hosting Business Mastery–

[00:45:55] Annette: It’s because this isn’t a pain point for us yet.

[00:45:58] Sarah: Right. But they use them, and they are giant fans. And our members don’t mess around when it comes to who they spend their money with. And then of course, we’ve met Alex because every single person, every single business we’re highlighting here, we’ve met their founder. I think they’re the founder, honestly, if not their number one, but I think their founders. And so, yeah, he is focused on solving this pain point. 

[00:46:21] Annette: To me, it’s like Uber or DoorDash for your trash. It is, uh, a shared economy team member. They get a route on their phone, they pull your trash can out, they bring it back after it has been disposed of. And the one thing I love, I follow Alex on LinkedIn, and he’s always showing before and after pictures of like, hey, wouldn’t this be nice to just get a picture of your trash being brought back in.

[00:46:46] I know that for a lot of people, your homeowner’s association or you just don’t live anywhere near your property, and maybe your cleaner or inspector isn’t there the day that your trash needs to be removed. They completely take care of this. I think it’s, on average– I’m going to put a price. Don’t quote me when you call, but it’s around $49 a month. 

[00:47:05] This is something that the mental mortgage is just a space in your brain that it takes. I know I don’t where like, hey, there was just a holiday. What’s trash day? When do I need to do this? Let them take care of it for you. Especially if you have multiple properties. We already have so many things to manage, but they are taking care of a big problem for a lot of hosts.

[00:47:27] And like we say, too, if we can minimize the impact that short-term rentals have on the neighborhood and community, this is a huge one. One of the reasons we met with Alex originally, if you don’t know this, uh, short-term rental hosts, that your trash cans can be a source of huge issues, not just you taking them in and out, but people can see if you’re not home.

[00:47:51] They can see if you’re leaving those out for days on end. We had a member, there was actually some illegal activity happening with her trash cans because she would just leave them out there in perpetuity. So people knew that the property, there wasn’t someone coming and going. So it’s also a safety precaution for you.

[00:48:07] So check out CanMonkey. They are growing. They are in several, several states. But if they aren’t in your state yet, just reach out to them, you will be on their wait list, and they are coming to your town soon.

[00:48:17] Sarah: Folio. Female founder wanting to solve the pain points of communicating with our guests once and for all in a way that feels hospitable but will also answer every question they have before they can answer it.

[00:48:35] Folio is a digital guidebook that will help you drive repeat bookings because before the guest even checks out, you have an opportunity to have them book with you again if you’re a vacation rental. Come back next year. If you’re a business traveler, let us be your home away from home. Proactively answering guests’ questions.

[00:48:54] So again, everything they need is right there. They look on their phone screen, it’s like check-in, right there. How to work the TV, right there. Maybe your biggest pain point is how to work the hot tub at the fireplace. It’s right there. And the cool thing is they don’t need to download an app. It’s the openness.

[00:49:09] Annette: That’s the biggest thing. Yes.

[00:49:10] Sarah: t’s huge. It’s just a link. So if you only communicate with your guests via the Airbnb messaging, if you want to communicate them with your email, it doesn’t matter because it’s just a link that you can share. And when they go to answer your question, say absolutely everything we find here in the guidebook.

[00:49:25] So there’s no scrolling through long messages. Where can I find where Annette told me about this part of the check-in process? Again, just go back to my Folio guidebook, and that answer will be there for you. But it gives your guests the most authentic experience during their stay by personalizing every touchpoint. And the founder is just a rock star.

[00:49:45] Annette: And here’s the deal. I’m on their site right now, and I love this. You can create your stylish guidebook in under 10 minutes and then save hours answering repeat questions. So I want to highlight something. I know we’re all short on time, but you can get this up and running and hopefully save you a ton of time in the future.

[00:50:03] And then last but not least, we have Wheelhouse. It’s also a dynamic pricing software, and Andrew Kitchell is also an amazing founder. I wish we could find it. I think it’s on YouTube somewhere where Brian Chesky actually spent the night.

[00:50:18] Sarah: He did.

[00:50:19] Annette: Went to him because he is an old old-school, short-term rental host. And again, he just knows that this is a pain point for hosts, that we don’t have time to go through and change our pricing every single day. They are keeping track of what’s going on in the area, how you can stay up to date, and make sure that you are pricing your property properly.

[00:50:42] Sarah: The interface of Wheelhouse is beautiful. It definitely has that user experience that you crave, especially when you’re tackling something as seemingly daunting as dynamic pricing or revenue management. You can feel like it’s this thing that you can’t tackle. And so at least when you log in, it’s beautiful and easy to navigate. So I love its interface. And again, they’re using data to help us make better decisions as an art and a science. We still have to get it in there. We still have to massage it. But Andrew is the real deal, built by a host for us hosts, and knows what he is doing.

[00:51:16] Annette: I love this too. With Wheelhouse, you can either choose a percentage of revenue or a flat rate. So you have some options there.

[00:51:22] Sarah: Let’s talk about Hospitable. I used Hospitable when I first got started.

[00:51:28] Annette: Formally known as?

[00:51:30] Both Annette & Sarah: Smartbnb.

[00:51:31] Sarah: I was like, what was it formerly known as?

[00:51:33] Annette: Yeah. So some people, if they haven’t transferred over to Hospitable, they’ve been in the game for a long time. 

[00:51:41] Sarah: Let’s talk about if you need a beautiful interface, using Hospitable is super, super easy. And they’ve just come out with a whole slew of improvements to their platform. So they really can serve as your direct booking platform. And I know our coach Wendy absolutely loves Hospitable and swears by Hospitable for her business down in Scottsdale.

[00:52:04] Annette: And again, this is one of those things. We want you to research it. Take a look at it. There are multiple platforms out there, but Hospitable is a great, great place for so many hosts to start. Like Sarah said, um, this is an original text to hack, um, from back in the day. And with everyone that we’re mentioning today, they are all continuing to evolve, improve their platform, and, um, Hospitable is one of them that just keeps up in the game.

[00:52:37] Sarah: I remember, and I know it is still very much their most loved feature, is their next level messaging automation.

[00:52:46] Annette: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:47] Sarah: And it helps you communicate with your guests even when you’re not fully present because it uses your tone of voice, and it helps get the– I always say this, and you know that I say this, that a guest, if they go to reach for it in your rental, it should be there. Same when it comes to communication. Before they even have to ask it, you should provide that information. But the moment they ask it, the quicker you can get back to them, and Hospitable has really developed a lovely, smart software that helps you be there for your guest even when you’re not.

[00:53:20] Annette: Automate your messaging.

[00:53:20] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:53:21] Annette: Automate the messaging, but make it feel very personable.

[00:53:25] Sarah: Very hospitable.

[00:53:26] Annette: Oh, there you go. To just wrap up this episode, hosts, I know we just rapid fire gave you so many potential partners. Here’s the deal. Slow and steady. Print out the show notes. Maybe go one by one. I want to encourage you, once you hit the links to almost all of these, um, partners, they have free demos. They have pre-trials. They have customer service teams that are dedicated. They want hosts to be as successful as possible. So I just want you to remember that when you’re researching them and potentially bringing them into your portfolio of your tech stack.

[00:54:08] Sarah and I, like I said, we know almost all of the founders, if not very important team members on their team. Every team member that we’ve interacted with all of these businesses have been lovely, but don’t be overwhelmed. Don’t get analysis paralysis either. Test some things. Try them out,

[00:54:26] Sarah: Ask them questions. Put their customer service to the test. Tell them Thanks for Visiting sent you and in a way that tells them, we were told by Sarah and Annette that you will answer the questions I have. I will ask you the tough questions. Why you, not them? What is the pricing? What is the best you can do for me? 

[00:54:42] Just remember that you are interviewing their solutions and if it’s the best fit for your business. These are the best solutions for our business, and that’s why we want to introduce them to you. Plus, they’re backed by amazing humans. But there are a lot of options out there. As we were going through all of them, is one of them solved a problem that you’re having right now, a challenge you’re having? I encourage you to reach out to the customer service.

[00:55:07] Annette: That’s the last thing to mention too. I see a lot of hosts that stack tech stack really rapidly. I’m going to offer to implement one of these things at a time. Unless you have a team that can help you do it, listen, this might take you two, three years to get through this list of things. And you might not ever need some of them at all, but I want to let you know, don’t feel pressure by that. 

[00:55:35] Research one. See if there’s a fit for you. Research the second. But please, most of them do come with a price tag, and we also want to be very price sensitive to your bottom line. Go slow. Slow and steady wins the race. And I just want to offer that up because I’ve seen a lot of hosts listen to a lot of advice, and they see a lot of things out there, and they stack it all on, and then they just get overwhelmed, and then they don’t utilize any of it. And also, you’re allowed to cancel things if you don’t use them or don’t like them. I want to let you know that too.

[00:56:06] Sarah: Yeah, this is not an episode for you to go and sign up for a bunch of things you don’t need. No, no, no. This is to solve a challenge that you’re having. And like Annette said, one at a time. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:56:16] Annette: I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:56:18] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:56:19] Sarah: Talk to you next time.