Download the full transcript PDF.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] [00:00:30] [00:01:00] Hello, welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant and together we are, thanks for visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: And this the hosting hotline. If you want to get your hosting questions answered here on the hosting hotline, you just have to go to hosting hotline. com. And ask your question just like Chrissy is doing here today and we will get you actionable advice to implement into your business.

Sarah Karakaian: Plus

Annette Grant: you’re going to be helping thousands of other hosts. Let’s get to today’s question.

Chrissy, Hosting Hotline Caller: Hi Annette and Sarah. [00:01:30] This is Chrissy, the host of the Costelli Corner, a Scandinavian themed Airbnb in East Nashville. First, I want to thank you both for the thanks for visiting podcast.

Chrissy, Hosting Hotline Caller: You both were huge help in our first year as hosts, helping us hit milestones. Like superhero status and ranking in the top 1 in our area. So our question stems from a remodel we are doing in our Airbnb finishing this space to include a second room, which we’re outfitting with a twin bed, a trundle, and an office setup.

Chrissy, Hosting Hotline Caller: This allows us to market the property as [00:02:00] a two bedroom, one bath space, ideal for small families or workers or musicians. We’re thinking of offering the space as a flexible parent child model where the full two bedroom parent listing and a one bedroom child listing for smaller groups.

Chrissy, Hosting Hotline Caller: This way we could prioritize booking the two bedroom but still open up availability for the one bedroom option if we see fewer bookings coming in the full space. So our question is about the best way to approach this change on the Airbnb platform. Should we update our current listing to the two bedroom layout so we can [00:02:30] retain our reviews and momentum and create a brand new listing for the one bedroom option?

Chrissy, Hosting Hotline Caller: Is there a best practice for transitioning a listing like this while maximizing flexibility and maintaining a momentum to yield the best results? We’d love your advice. Thanks.

Annette Grant: If you do not know what a parent child listing is, we have a YouTube video about that. We will link it in the show notes. So make sure to check that out. And if you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, what are you doing? We create tons of content over there. And so we [00:03:00] want to make sure that you subscribe there.

Annette Grant: But if you need a tutorial and a definition of what the parent child listing is, please watch that YouTube video. But Sarah, let’s give a bite size definition. Really quick of what Chrissy’s wanting to do when she is saying parent child listing.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, we’ll just use Chrissy’s example. She’s got a one bedroom property that she is going to make into a two bedroom property.

Sarah Karakaian: So she’s got the same home, and then she wants to treat it like two different products. She wants to treat it like a one bedroom product, and then she wants to treat [00:03:30] it like a two bedroom product. And what you do, because it is the same address, but you’re offering something different to the guest, you can create a different listing, and yes, You, can do this ethically on Airbnb.

Sarah Karakaian: You just have to make sure that you are indeed offering something different and we’re not telling you to create two different listings, but offer the same thing and then you connect the two. If you are a co host or use a property management software, you will have to pay for this additional listing.

Annette Grant: And because you are casting a [00:04:00] much wider net to your potential guests. We have practiced this with taking a four bedroom to a two bedroom. People can do a two bedroom to a one, a three bedroom to a two. There are a lot of different options here. So also don’t count yourself out depending on the size of your property.

Sarah Karakaian: That’s what I was going to say to Chrissy though, is Chrissy, what I would do is I’m still excited that you are creating a two bedroom, one bath versus a one bedroom, one bath. That sounds like you are making better use of existing space. But I don’t know, [00:04:30] actually, if it would make sense for you to create a whole other listing to go from a two to a one and one to two.

Sarah Karakaian: For us, we’ve done it where we had a lot of bedrooms, like a four bedroom, and then making it available as a child listing a two bedroom because those pricing differences both from the average daily rate and the cleaning fee are vastly different. So when we were a smaller property at the two bedroom during the week, it really helped us capture more of an audience and of course, the weekends we would try to maximize that four bedroom [00:05:00] rental. But Chrissy, I don’t know your market, so I don’t know if you’ve already done the numbers here. We’re figuring out what is the buyer, what is the booking rhythm like? And you can go on Pricelabs and figure this out. Would you capture more of an audience during the week of that one bedroom versus the two bedroom on the weekend or whatever your buyer behavior is in your area?

Sarah Karakaian: Another thought I had for you, Chrissy, is Maybe it’s not the bedroom count. Maybe it’s the 30 day stay plus because I didn’t she mentioned midterm rentals that I imagine that [00:05:30] she did. She could have one listing that is strictly 30 days and one that offers shorter stays and connect those two accounts.

Sarah Karakaian: So if you do get someone who books you at the 30 day, you wouldn’t be able to do it at the at the shorter stay. Or maybe there’s a season you want to strictly be 30 day. You could. Play around with things in that way, Chrissy, but to answer your question, too, about whether you should take your existing listing, which is the two bedroom,

Annette Grant: one bedroom,

Sarah Karakaian: one bedroom.

Annette Grant: She only has one bedroom right now.

Sarah Karakaian: Well, [00:06:00] right. She has one bedroom now. She’s make better use of space and she can give two bedrooms. I would keep your listing. However, it’s been best performing now. Keep it that way.

Annette Grant: I agree with that

Sarah Karakaian: because it’s she says it’s doing well.

Sarah Karakaian: She’s tops. 5 percent 1 percent in her area. So I wouldn’t change anything there, Chrissy, especially because if people mention in the reviews something about the way the current layout is, I wouldn’t mess with that.

Annette Grant: Yep. So then two bedroom would be your new property listing.

Sarah Karakaian: Right. If you choose to do a parent child with two bedroom versus one, you can do all Chrissy, [00:06:30] you can do your two bedroom, you can do your one bedroom, you can do your mid stay, like you can do because you’re offering different things with that property and then connect them all.

Sarah Karakaian: I really hope this helps you Map out how you’re going to execute this. And when it comes to really maximizing it, if you do find that there is a big enough difference between a two and a one bedroom in your marketplace, I would get all that information.

Sarah Karakaian: We use Pricelabs. We’ll have a link to the Pricelabs in the show notes. Do that math and then you can also set parameters in Pricelabs. Well, let’s say you make more money as a two bedroom, so make it so that [00:07:00] you’re forcing people to book it as a two bedroom first and the one bedroom only comes into play once that booking window has passed.

Sarah Karakaian: You can set those rules up. Let’s pause there. That’s the gold, Chrissy. That’s the gold. If you’re too, which it should be, your two bedroom should be a larger reservation. So you, like Sarah just said, you can put parameters in that the one bedroom doesn’t become available until a certain point in time if the two bedroom doesn’t get booked.

Sarah Karakaian: So I think that’s really the goal because that’s what we did on our [00:07:30] parent child’s of hey, we want that larger reservation, but if we don’t have it, we need to know your booking window. If we don’t have it by then, then you release it down to that lower bedroom count.

Sarah Karakaian: Whereas maybe further out. It’s only two bedroom weekday weekend or maybe it’s not maybe it’s always weekdays is the one bedroom and weekends the two so you can really play with that Chrissy. There’s no right or wrong. I would just look at your market data and find out and then Chrissy.

Sarah Karakaian: You didn’t ask for this, but we’re going to offer it up anyway because this is very current for Annette and me.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:08:00] We have a townhome. That’s a two bedroom one bath. And Chrissy, for the longest time, we had a queen bed in the larger bedroom. And then you mentioned a trundle in the second bedroom. But I finally took the time, like you guys, I was so mad at myself. I told Annette, I was like, why did we wait so long?

Sarah Karakaian: I finally looked at the data after, I mean, we’ve owned this property for years and I managed it for years before we bought it from the owner. And it’s always had this trundle bed. But I looked at the data and we would make more, not only upgrading the queen bed to a king bed. But then upgrading the [00:08:30] trundle to a queen.

Annette Grant: And I think, Chrissy, it sounds like you want to put a desk in that room. That’s kind of, you’re trying to make that room versatile, but we do find that people are in search of beds more than desks. See if there’s another place that you could put that desk,

Sarah Karakaian: even a full over a trundle.

Sarah Karakaian: I was looking at the data and that seemed to perform and what I found Chrissy is that we just upgraded. We invested about 1000 when it comes to the mattress, the bed frame and the bedding and that we would be able to [00:09:00] make over 3500 extra yearly. By making this upgrade, which I’m like kicking myself because we’re over here giving all this advice out here.

Sarah Karakaian: And then when it comes to our own properties,

Annette Grant: you know, sometimes you just got to reel it back in.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah.

Sarah Karakaian: But Chrissy, so as well, I love how you’re thinking about bed count and how you’re going to maximize that, but also think about the type of accommodations you’re offering and if that affects the money you’re going to bring in to these changes that you’re making.

Sarah Karakaian: And if it’s the desk, then great, stick to [00:09:30] that. Again, we don’t know what research you’ve already done, but if it’s not in our market, it’s actually. Not or maybe you could put the desk in the room with a larger bed.

Sarah Karakaian: So the data is out there, Chrissy, we’re so excited for the changes that you are going to make. Keep us posted on the parent child, which no matter which way you decide to do it, but using your property in these different ways and really leveraging the software and creativity is the best way to squeeze all the revenue you can out of your property With that, I am Sarah Karakaian, [00:10:00] I’m Annette Grant, and together we are, Thanks for visiting. talk to you next time. [00:10:30]