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[00:00:05] Sarah: Hello listeners. Welcome back for the great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:08] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we’re–

[00:00:10] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:10] Sarah: And this is the–

[00:00:11] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline. 

[00:00:12] Sarah: If you know you’re part of the Hosting Hotline, all you got to do is go to hostinghotline.com. You ask us your question, which your fellow hosts are going to thank you for that because what seems very specific to you and your business is really very general.

[00:00:25] So you can help hosts from all over the world. And if we don’t have the answer– well, today we have an answer. But if we can make the response to the question that much more rich, we’ll reach out to our network of friends and experts and have them record a response to really make the answers to your question as robust as we can.

[00:00:44] Annette: Like we did today.

[00:00:45] Sarah: Yeah. We got a question from Zach. Let’s listen to the question real quick first.

[00:00:49] Questions: Hey, Sarah and Annette. This is Zach. I was wondering how you guys are collecting data, specifically emails from your guests that are staying in your Airbnbs, and then what kind of things are you doing to follow up with them to invite them back?

[00:01:07] Sarah: Zach, the dog dad. I love it. Okay, so 

[00:01:13] in transparency, StayFi is a podcast sponsor of ours, but we handpick all of our sponsors because we use them and love the technology. And Zach, the answer to your question is StayFi. So we asked Arthur, the CEO to respond to Zach’s question, and then we’ll give it some more color.

[00:01:33] But we just want you listeners to know the partners that we connect with for the podcast, sponsorships and the tools we use, we’ve gotten to know the CEOs. We’ve gotten to know the team members, and we really love what they stand for and who they are. And so we want you to meet Arthur because he built StayFi from the ground up, and he is a really lovely person. So we wanted to get his feedback to his Zach question, then we’ll color it in with what we do specifically.

[00:01:56] Arthur: Hey, Zach. This is Arthur Colker, the CEO of StayFi. Sarah, Annette, actually use our product, StayFi, to both collect emails from all of their guests as well as market to them after they stay with them. The way StayFi works is just like what you’ve experienced at a coffee shop, or hotel, or airport, where every single guest, whether it’s the booker or one of their friends and family, has to log onto the Wi-Fi through what we call a splash page.

[00:02:25] It’s very simple. The guest joins the Wi-Fi. They get a branded splash page with your information on it, and they have to enter in their email and phone number to gain access to the internet. That way, you collect emails not just from the booker, but everyone staying in your short-term rental. 

[00:02:40] Then within StayFi, we have the email and text marketing tools you need to follow up effectively with guests, most commonly using an automation so that you can trigger an email to every single guest when they sign on to the Wi-Fi with all the information about your property as well as advantages to why they should book directly with you for their next day. Hope that enters your question, Zach, and thank you so much.

[00:03:05] Sarah: Thanks, Arthur. 

[00:03:07] Annette: And we’ve all done it. We all know how to use it. We’ve all been to a coffee shop. We’ve all been to the airport and had to do that same exact exercise. So that’s what we love about it. That splash page can be specific to your location. Zach, so you could use a photo, like your hero image and then have it pop up.

[00:03:28] They’re checked into your place, so they’re familiar with it. And it’s something familiar to the guest, and it’s the safest way to collect that information. I know a lot of people maybe try to connect with the person that just books the rental, or maybe they’ll have an old school notebook, but that works.

[00:03:44] But the best thing is anybody that’s logging onto that Wi-Fi, you’re going to get their information. So it’s a really quick way to compound your email list. So if you have two guests, you got two instead of one. If you have four, it’s four instead of one, and then on and on and on. And so that’s really the power of it, is being able to collect the email from everyone that is logging onto the Wi-Fi at your property.

[00:04:07] Sarah: And don’t worry. They can opt out. So we’re not forcing marketing on them. There’s a box they have to click that gives you permission to email them. 

[00:04:16] Annette: Mm-hmm. 

[00:04:18] Sarah: When I’m at the airport, I make sure to unclick that box. Do not send me things because I don’t want it. But I might want something from my favorite coffee shop. I might want them to invite me back when doing–

[00:04:26] Annette: Your favorite short-term rental?

[00:04:28] Sarah: Yes. Actually thinking about going one right now. So it’s ethical. The guest is getting only what they want to get. And I do like the tips that Arthur gave thereof, if we’re going to reach out to our guests, which when you decide to do this, decide, and then be consistent.

[00:04:47] So maybe start out, listeners, and Zach, with one email a month. Start really small. So if that’s one email a month, that’s 12 emails a year, which I think we can increase with time. But let’s say there’s just 12 emails. What content do your guests want to receive each month from you that they’ll actually find value in other than you just telling them like, hey, we’ve got vacancy. Maybe you are in an urban market or a more rural market, and there is something that might entice them to make a trip to where you’re at.

[00:05:18] Annette: Or you’re in Columbus, Ohio, and the Buckeyes are playing. 

[00:05:20] Sarah: Right.

[00:05:21] Annette: They’ve got all the home games. We want to let them know about them.

[00:05:24] Sarah: Or it’s their birthday. And so you maybe don’t even offer them a discount code or anything. You’re just simply saying, happy birthday. Or hey, a year ago, you stayed with us, and you told us you love this about your stay. We really hope you’re enjoying your family reunion this year. It can really be just you being thoughtful about them as well.

[00:05:40] And also, when Arthur was talking about the automations, the thing that you can automate also is once that person gives you your email, you can actually send the house rules. You can communicate with them immediately, which you should communicate with them after they’re giving you the information to their email inbox, which is really sacred.

[00:05:57] So there’s some stuff that you can do immediately right then during their stay to make sure that you’re welcoming them to your property, and then welcoming them to your newsletter, to communicate with them more. But when you go to StayFi, when you’re checking them out, those automations, they’re going to help you with that. They’re all built out already. 

[00:06:17] Annette: Yes. So just do one step at a time. But I’m telling you, Sarah and I, when we go back to biggest mistakes– we’re laughing because we’ll want to cry if we don’t laugh at ourselves. But we could have tens of thousands of emails by now, and we were just putting our place up on Airbnb and letting them do the work. And we could have been communicating with, like I said, tens of thousands of guests from all over the world. That wasn’t on our radar, and it is now. So it’s just baby steps, get it done. 

[00:06:54] But we are here to let you know it’s really valuable to have that access to be able to email your guest and let them know that you want to have them come back. Or if it’s not them, do you know someone that is going to be coming to the area soon? So check out StayFi, and thanks Zach for calling in and asking the question.

[00:07:10] Sarah: Yeah, if you go to stayfi.com/tfv, StayFi will know that we sent you, which helps us with the podcast. So thank you for doing that if you’re going to explore it. But also, the reason I like StayFi too is because we joined years ago. They didn’t have all the capabilities they have now, so you don’t have to decide on who is going to send your emails for you. You may not know this, but you can’t just email your guests from your Gmail account.

[00:07:35] You really need to use an email provider to send those emails out. And so StayFi has all of that within their platform. So it’s really robust. And if you join them through stayfi.com/tfv, you’ll get your first three months free. So you can try it out too, and you can cancel any time. So you might as well try it out.

[00:07:53] If you’re a co-host, this makes your company, or your future company, or the growth of your company, so much more valuable to your owners too. When you’re connecting with them and you’re telling them the services you provide, you can share with them that you have marketing efforts that include marketing to every guest who stays in your entire portfolio.

[00:08:13] An then you’ll share all of the places they can come back and stay again. So this makes your co-host company also most more valuable. I wanted to share that with you because that’s really where a lot of value came for me too. Not just to my own properties, but to the owners that we represent.

[00:08:27] So with that, again, we love StayFi. You can also, like Annette said, you can ask them to leave their information for you, but you do have to be careful with how you store it, how you reach out to them. 

[00:08:37] Annette: Compliance issues.

[00:08:38] Sarah: Yes. But the reason why this is so valuable– we can’t just say it’s valuable– is because. your short-term rental is your business. And so if you are thinking about getting contact information for your guests, if you store that, and if you grow your list, now it’s not just your property that’s valuable. It’s that email list that’s incredibly valuable if you ever want to sell your business. 

[00:08:59] So I want you to think about that too. You may never want to sell it, but who knows? You never know where you’re going to be. And worst-case scenario, you have a lovely list of people to reach back out to and invite to come back and stay with you. Annette, anything else I missed there?

[00:09:12] Annette: I think that’s good.

[00:09:13] Sarah: Okay. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:09:15] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we’re–

[00:09:17] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting. 

[00:09:18] Sarah: We’ll talk to you next time.