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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 am 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.

[00:00:08] Sarah: If you’ve got a hosting question– no question is a dumb question. We want to hear it. Please go to hostinghotline.com. All you have to do is from your phone or from your computer is record your question. Don’t worry. There’s no video involved. And we will answer it here in the podcast, just like we’re going to answer this one.

[00:00:28] Question: Hello, my name is Katie from Georgia, and we’re about to start our first short-term rental. I’ve been listening to you all for a year and a half in preparation. My question right now is how important is it to have drawers in the bedrooms? I currently don’t have drawers. Don’t really want to add them because I like the look and the space that not having them provides.

[00:00:57] There are big closets in both bedrooms where I have put luggage racks, and there are shelves and places to hang clothes. So I’m thinking I don’t usually use the drawers when I’m traveling, and I like to be able to put all of my stuff out of the way. So I’ve created that space in both bedrooms where guests can put their luggage on luggage racks in the closets, and then there are also shelves and places to hang. So just wondering if you all think that having drawers is an absolute must. Thanks so much.

[00:01:38] Sarah: S of all, that accent, Katie.

[00:01:42] Annette: Have a southern drawl for a day.

[00:01:44] Sarah: It’s so cute. I love it. Thank you for calling in. Thank you for asking this question. It is an important question.

[00:01:52] Annette: Sarah, will you please, before we dig in, can you tell your HGTV story about closets?

[00:01:57] Sarah: Actually, there was a long time, probably until today where I would have hidden from this situation. Okay, everyone. In 2015, my husband and I did an HGTV show, not just one episode. We did a show, eight episodes, and it was one of those competition shows. And–

[00:02:14] Annette: And a short-term rental, and a vacation rental.

[00:02:18] Sarah: Yes. And a short-term rental, and a vacation rental on Gulf Shores. And this was a couple of years after we started our first short-term rental in New York. So as you guys know, I thought I knew all the things. And I was also moonlighting as a professional organizer. And when I say moonlighting, I was figuring out–

[00:02:32] Annette: Living in New York and the organizing is where this closet issue came in.

[00:02:35] Sarah: I was figuring out who I was post Broadway Sarah. I did not know who I was, and I loved organizing. So I was doing that. We had our first short-term rental. I was doing that. I got myself on HGTV show. What the heck? Anyway, the first challenge was the primary bedroom. And there were two closets in there, and I probably had just helped, I don’t know, a dozen clients redesign their closets in New York, and you guys, I knew everything.

[00:02:57] I knew the space between the top rack and the bottom rack. I knew drawer. I knew the dimensions of all the things. I had a little cheat sheet. I was obsessed. And so when this challenge came, I was like, oh, Nick, we’re going to outfit these closets. We’re going to win this challenge. It’s going to be amazing.

[00:03:12] Well, I sure did buy all the things to organize out the closet, outfit it with top hang, bottom hang. There was drawers built in. I painted it. It was a whole thing. And Nicole Curtis, who was one of the judges who loved us, actually, she gave us a lot of really great compliments, but she was like, this is a vacation rental. No one is unpacking. No one cares about your organized closet. And it was a waste of money. And you know what? At that time, she was definitely not wrong.

[00:03:39] Annette: Did you cry?

[00:03:40] Sarah: Yes. You guys, you can watch the show for $1 on Apple, I think. No, seriously.

[00:03:45] Annette: Why have I not bought it? I think I just don’t want to see you cry that much.

[00:03:48] Sarah: Every episode I cry over something really dumb because I really cared. I didn’t care about winning the show. Every time I did something wrong, I hated myself.

[00:03:57] But actually, we just recorded an episode with a guest, one of our Thursday episodes, and he actually mentioned this about how these days, everyone, because post COVID and work from anywhere and all the different ways that we travel and move about these days, I will stand on that hill and stand on my– what’s it called when you stand in a box and you declare things? What’s it called? I don’t know.

[00:04:27] Annette: Soapbox.

[00:04:28] Sarah: My soapbox. And say that even though it’s a vacation rental as its first best use scenario, that the next one could be a longer-term or a midterm rental. And even if you’re on the shores of the Gulf Shore, or if you’re in a cab in the middle of the woods, or you’re in downtown Columbus, Ohio, I really do think there is a marketplace for experiential stays for the longer term.

[00:04:52] And so maybe I shouldn’t have spent the amount of money I spent on those closets in 2015, but I do think that there is something to be said about having, not even an exit strategy, but having that plan B for longer stays. And I don’t know what Katie’s marketplace is, and I don’t know who her ideal guest is, but in the off chance 30-day stays or longer or midterm rentals are on your shoulder or off seasons you want to have longer stays, I do think having drawers is going to be important for you, Katie, but you don’t need to do it right now. You don’t need to do it before you open the door.

[00:05:25] Annette: And they can be inexpensive.

[00:05:26] Sarah: Yes, they can be inexpensive for sure.

[00:05:28] Annette: I have a chest of drawers inside my closet because, Katie, I heard your concern. You like the aesthetic of the room. You like the spacing in your room. So you can get a small chest of drawers and put it inside your closet really inexpensively. And the one thing I want to say about this, I know a lot of people, and I do it after a certain amount of nights, but think about hotels. Most of them have at least one or two drawers because there are people that like to unpack their suitcases completely.

[00:05:57] And so that is where drawers do come in handy if people want to put their unmentionables in there, other things. So I can share that if you still want to keep this aesthetic, the spacing, something inexpensive, put a chest of drawers inside because you noted that you have big closets.

[00:06:13] And the other thing for everybody out there, what I’ve been noticing when I’ve been staying in a lot of places recently is there is not enough hangers for all of my hanging clothes. There’s two or three hangers.

[00:06:23] Sarah: Or hooks.

[00:06:24] Annette: Yeah. So if you are offering these big closets, they are an inexpensive investment too to make sure that if there’s two people staying and they have a multitude of clothes that they have enough hangers to be able to hang it up. But I think, like Sarah said, you don’t need to do it right now. But I do think having a chest of drawers inside the closet for those midterm stays for the people that like to unpack when they’re coming to stay, it is a nice to have for sure.

[00:06:50] Sarah: Here’s some of the creative ways that you can add drawers to your space. They could be, and I actually just did this in a duplex, your nightstands. And make sure the nightstands have three drawers to them. And you will probably find recordings of me where I say, don’t have drawers because you don’t have to inspect them.

[00:07:04] But again, the way we’re traveling and how long people are staying, it continues to blow my mind in both vacation and urban markets. So it could be your nightstands or under beds in New York. We would always do those drawers that they’re on casters and you can pull them out and people can fold their clothes and put them under the bed.

[00:07:23] So if your bed is high enough, you could do it there. I also have tiny little spaces here in Columbus, and we don’t have enough room in the bedroom for dresser drawers. So I use my TV console. I just put a dresser there instead. So you like anchor your TV, but then there’s drawers. It’s in the living room, but still, it’s a place where guests can fold and put away their clothes, not even just clothes.

[00:07:47] Sometimes, if they’re staying for long, maybe they have their beach towels with them. Anything else, they want to have it away and not out and all over the place. That’s another really cool place that you could put them. Katie, [Inaudible] your listing once it goes live.

[00:07:58] Annette: Yeah. We’re excited for you. Thanks for listening. And if you want your question answered, like Sarah said at the beginning, please go to hostinghotline.com. We can’t wait to hear your voice and answer your question.

[00:08:08] Sarah: With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:08:10] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:08:12] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:08:13] Sarah: Talk to you next time.