From Design Firm to Direct Booking Success (Episode 461)

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461. From Design Firm to Direct Booking Success

Introduction and Listener Feature

​[00:00:00]

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

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant, and together we are Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s start this episode like we do each and every week, and then is featuring one of you our incredible listeners who are heading on over to st r share.com.

That’s ST share.com, sharing everything you can about your short-term rental so we can celebrate you here on the podcast. To our email list and to our Instagram fam every Sunday. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

Highlighting Curated Properties

Annette Grant: We are sharing at Curated Properties, underscore again, curated properties underscore, who just so happens to be our wonderful guest on the show today.

But I wanna highlight a few things from. Her account ahead of time. Number one, I’m always a sucker for someone that puts their phone number in their bio.

Sarah Karakaian: You do love a phone number

Annette Grant: because to me it just, it’s trust. Am I gonna call it? No, [00:02:00] but I see it. I know that they’re available and it’s, it’s just a huge, and if you go through like, um.

Some sales and marketing online, you’ll see that that type of, um, even on websites, things of that nature, it still instills trust. But one of the things that, um, going through Janice and her listing and, and not just her Instagram, something that I want to point out is she just isn’t sharing her property via Instagram.

She’s doing it Facebook pages. She actually has a YouTube channel, and the reason I wanna bring that up today and the STR share is that those multiple places are helping her with her search engine optimization. Uh, YouTube is owned by Google, so anytime you can, um, show up there, it’s gonna help your SEO.

And the reason I want to [00:03:00] highlight that, not just her Instagram, but the Facebook and YouTube. You are gonna learn today how that has impacted her direct bookings on her property that she just built a website for. Um. Recently you’ll hear about her, um, percentages there. And I, and, and this is so important if you wanna spend some time socially, is, um, expanding where you show up.

And I do think Facebook is a very easy lift, a low lift. And then after that, um, and, and you’ll see on her YouTube, it’s not her, it’s her just showing things around. Town that there are to do. So it’s not like you need to start some giant YouTube channel and um, do all this editing and things like that.

Check it out and you’ll see kind of how she is doing that. But kudos to Janice on making sure that her property is show meeting, she’s meeting guests where [00:04:00] they are showing up, and then she’s feeding some of the other, uh, algorithms, if you will, and her own search engine optimization, which is the most important.

All right, let’s get onto the show.

Interview with Janice: Resilience in Hosting

Annette Grant: So we are interviewing Janice, and Janice is a host. I can’t, I don’t, it’s like, I don’t wanna give too much of her story ’cause it’s so good. Annette said it best towards the end of the episode where Janice is a masterclass in resilience, resiliency. Um, and as hosts, we know that no day is the same.

And so our industry is really built for people who are resilient. And like Janice says in the episode, if you get knocked down six times, you get up seven. One of my favorite parts of the episode is Janice lives on property and she shares other aspects of her property and she is female. And she’s very focused on direct booking.

So if you are out there listening right now and you’re unsure about direct booking [00:05:00] and you feel like an Airbnb guest is more safe, I think that aspect of the interview is really interesting. She’s also gonna mention an acronym HBM throughout the episode, and that is Annette in my private. Uh, hosting Business Mastery, it’s our private group where we offer group coaching.

We offer self-guided videos, education, um, workshops, things of that nature, private Facebook group, private. And Janice has been a part of our community for over three years now. So she mentions that and I wanna make sure that you knew what that acronym stood for. But without further ado, Janice’s story is full of, uh, ups and downs, twists and turns, and I know she’s going to be a source of inspiration for you.

[00:06:00] Janice, welcome to the show. I am a little ashamed it’s taken us this long to get you on here because you are such an incredible person in our lives and your story deserves to be told. So let’s get into it.

Janice’s Background and Journey to Hosting

Annette Grant: [00:07:00] Before you started hosting, what were you doing and how did that lead to hosting your short-term rentals?

Janice Thayer: I have owned an interior architecture and design firms since 1996. My, I’m much older than you guys. And so I actually graduated in 1986. Uh, and so I’ve been an entrepreneur for a long time and I loved it.

And I, you know, honestly, I always wanted to have Airbnbs when it became a thing. ’cause I thought it would be really cool to host people. So, like you, Sarah, I came from the hospitality industry. I worked in the restaurant business for a long time at a high-end restaurant. And, um. And then with my interior architecture firm, we always took a Nordstrom approach, which I people probably don’t even think of anymore, but at the time, that’s like the highest quality care you can take for a customer.

And so, um, we had always worked that way. So I’ve just basically taken my restaurant hands-on care and reading a room and understanding people and taken that to the firm. And then with, [00:08:00] um, signature Environments, which is my design firm, we had always hit. Our goal was the top 20% of the market in whatever market we were involved in.

And that led us to great success. Um, and so I really wanted to take that approach with Airbnb’s, but I knew nothing. So it was, I was like, I wanna do this. So the where I actually all this started is. In, uh, 2020 fall of 2020 I was married and we got a divorce. We started separating and um, that was obviously extremely stressful.

I worked in his business. I had been consulting for a long time and so I had lots of clients around the country with my business and then went in house with him for seven years and then when we separated, I lost my job. So now suddenly I’m one, not sure I’ll even have a home and two have no job. And so that was a pretty exciting, traumatic time, as you can imagine, and right in the middle of Covid and I could not find a job. And um, so I thought, [00:09:00] so I finally landed something that was very out of my industry, but my, based on my consulting experience, um, which was a covid based position. And then transitioned out of that because it was just a temp job.

And I’m like, cannot find a job anywhere as I’m in a small town in southwestern Virginia. And um, you know, I’m at that age where there is el you know, I’m not old, but there is some bias toward women who are older and it’s a small community. So that was challenging. So I was like, okay, so I have all this experience as an entrepreneur and a consultant.

What do you do? So, um, so long story short, um, in the. Divorce. I actually was able to successfully negotiate for the house, which is so distinctive, especially in this market, but it generally in the south, that I thought, boy, I can monetize this thing if I can get it. And did, but then I had no job to pay the mortgage with.

So what’s somebody do when they’re in that situation? Well, of course you start a business.

Starting Curated Properties

Janice Thayer: So I started curated properties in [00:10:00] early 2022 and knew enough to do an LLC and worked on my branding immediately. But then I was like, I, I have all this background in commercial and residential design, high-end residential design.

And, um, lots of hospitality experience, but I know nothing about short-term rentals at all. I’d stayed in Airbnbs before. I can’t say anything was outstanding to even reference, but I knew, oh gosh, you have to have messaging, you have to have this, you have to have that. And I had no idea where to start. And then a local.

I had a local host come and consult with me just to tell me what was possible with my property and I actually was going to hire her and never could get her to come back and work with me. And she wanted to turn it into nurse rentals and this and that. And I was like, Hmm, that’s not where I’m going with this.

This is a high-end house. It’s gonna be a high-end rental. Um. But the upside was she introduced me to host GPO for purchasing and on host GPO you guys were too of the, an interview and I was, so, I caught the interview on [00:11:00] the, that’s how I became as affiliated with I, I’d never heard of you before. I knew I needed like that shortcut.

I needed somebody to infuse me with all the knowledge. As quickly as possible invest in that. Like I was happy to invest in it because if you can take me from nothing and jump me ahead in five years worth of knowledge, roughly, it’s totally worth it to me to invest that. And so I thought, okay, well I’ll do this for six months, the initial membership and you know, I’ll, I’ll, you know, take everything I can from the program and that’ll be great.

And here I am three years later. It’s been, honestly, if I look over my entire professional career, this has been one of the best assets I’ve ever invested in. I mean, my education, my, my commercial, you know, my interior architecture degree definitely obviously has paid for itself, but being part of your community has been so integral to me because if you think of when I started, it was in covid.

And so even in early 2022, our area was still pretty [00:12:00] limited. And so I was kind of in my own little world and when I joined and got the knowledge I was getting from HBM, I also got the, the community. So I was connecting in Zoom meetings and I was learning at the same time. And not only do the two of you have so much expertise, but then you know, there was everybody from newbies to extremely experienced people in the group and.

I didn’t feel like I could ask a stupid question, and it was, you guys were amazing and the way you set the group up was amazing. So I think for people who are starting out, and I think anybody in the industry, I mean, you have people, we have people join all the time now who’ve been in the industry for a long time.

So that’s kinda where I got going.

Annette Grant: You wanna dig in? When did you list and start getting guests and like, this is possible? This is actually

Janice Thayer: July 1st, 2022.

Sarah Karakaian: Okay. And how did it [00:13:00] go? How was, how and when did you, and because you joined, you said 2022, July 1st.

Janice Thayer: And I joined you guys I think in either, I think it might have been Feb, February or January.

January

Sarah Karakaian: 20. So you joined us before you opened? Yep. And then you, okay. And did all your training. Yes. You did. Did

Janice Thayer: every single meeting I could do. Listened to back episodes that you had recorded, like back to the very beginning on the, all the insiders, everything. Yeah. I mean, I dug into the site and then participated in the Facebook group.

And so it opened on July 1st, and the launch went really well. And, uh, so I was really pleased and got a lot of bookings. I was like, yes, and had great reviews. And so, you know, it was that that feedback loop was perfect. I was getting five star reviews and then I was able to rely on the group when I was coming across messaging glitches or, uh, other challenges, you know, even though I’d gone through all those things, when you get live and you’re in the three dimensional world, it [00:14:00] makes it different, isn’t it?

Smiling? Yes, it does. It does. You know, humans be human. And, um, that’s one of my favorite lines. You know, we, we are, we do and guests, they do as well. So yeah, it was great to be able to drop into the group and say, oh my gosh, somebody asked me this. I honestly can’t figure out how to respond to that.

Mm-hmm.

Janice Thayer: And one of the things that I was thinking about with you guys that I love is not only do you have the core training and all of the background that, that an H BMR can get, but you also teach us how to think about the why. And so you are teaching us reasoning skills in a very unique industry, which is huge because we do need to be self-reliant.

If you get a message at 10 o’clock in the night or midnight, or your AC fails at two o’clock, when your guests are checking at four o’clock, ask me how that happens. Um. But, but that’s, that’s been huge. It’s like, okay, and I have that life [00:15:00] experience from running my business. But in this instance, as opposed to architecture firm, it’s not people safety.

I mean, you’re designing to be safe. So, but that’s a pre-planned thing. This is so in the moment, and everything is literally three dimensions. Like, you know, guests potentially tripping, not having a handrail, um. Ac, breaking down an appliance, failing, those kinds of things. You know, you guys create such a framework of thinking that it was huge for me.

Living On-Site and Property Details

Sarah Karakaian: I want everyone to kind of in their mind’s eye picture what your property is and what it looks like. So can you walk us through, I’m gonna ask you a few questions, then get into it. Do you? Do you still live there? I do. And tell Map out as people can’t see this right now, so mm-hmm. Can you create an image for us of how this works?

How many properties do you have within your property? How does it work, living there, all that kind of good stuff.

Janice Thayer: So I own a [00:16:00] slightly, it’s 4,100 square foot, three stories on 1.3 acres in a rural town, historic town in southwestern Virginia. And the house, it’s on a dead end street with a cul-de-sac. It’s a high end neighborhood and it is one of the tallest hills in town.

So it’s very distinctive from the location. The second part is it’s architecturally quite distinctive in that it’s very contemporary. Um, so the main floor and the lower floor were the original house. It has a shed roof. So as you pull into the driveway, you kind of turn to the right and the garages are to the right and you see the length of the house.

The house is quite long. And then above the garage is the nest, and then the front door will be the hilltop oasis, which is going live here in the next couple weeks. And that’s the one, I think that’s gonna be the barn burn. I know. I’m excited. I should have done it a couple years ago, but I live on it. Um, and then.

A, as you at the front porch, you turn left and there’s some [00:17:00] hidden stone stairs and you walk through gardens and you transition around to the lower level, which is the Oasis and the cozy oasis a child, which we can talk about. Um, it has a 7,000 gallon COI pond. It’s a half acre. That’s specifically for the Oasis guests, and it really is a world away.

Um, it’s right in town, but it’s quiet and it’s private, and guests really respond to it.

Sarah Karakaian: Oh, your reviews are, and we’ll link to Janice’s properties in the show notes and her reviews are exceptional. So you just described three places? Mm-hmm. The, the, the Nest, the Oasis, and the Hilltop

Janice Thayer: to

Sarah Karakaian: the right. And I have the

Janice Thayer: Cozy Oasis is the child of the Oasis.

So technically four. Right. So I have been living in Hilltop. Okay. My insurance company requires me to be on site. They were very sneaky and wrote it as if it’s a bed and breakfast. Okay.

So

Janice Thayer: that’s something that has to be addressed. But when, so there, it would be uncomfortable for guests to be occupying Hilltop Oasis, the [00:18:00] main floor, if there were separate family in the Oasis because they’d be walking all over the top of them.

Um, it’s not super loud, but a little kid running around would be really obnoxious. So it, the Hilltop Oasis will override the Oasis rental. They’re rented only as a pair.

Annette Grant: Okay.

Janice Thayer: And then I’ll move up to the nest.

Annette Grant: I see. Okay. But you just started

Janice Thayer: mm-hmm. To do this property

Annette Grant: was the nest. Right. And was that when you started that one, Janice, was it already blocked off a, a, a door for the gas?

Like it, was it pretty turnkey or did you have to do some construction to, to make it what it is today?

Janice Thayer: I had to do. Some construction. So it, it is a little awkward in my mind, but guests say they don’t care. They enter through the garage and into a beautiful laundry room. Um, laundry room slash mudroom, let’s call it, which is a pantry.

That room actually conjoins the main floor kitchen, and it didn’t have a door on it before, [00:19:00] so I installed a barn door. And then I use sound blocking on the kitchen side to keep it buffered from guests. But guests are welcome to use the laundry room. And then they transition up into the nest, which had its own door.

It was the master bedroom before. It’s a thousand square foot space with a spa, bathroom, jetted, soaking tub. It’s very romantic and it has views. Down the valley, you can see the mountains off in one direction toward a Nash or a huge state park that’s very popular. And then there’s a beautiful farm that’s over the hill on the other side.

So it’s really, it’s very unique. Um, and so I always thought, you know, this is a destination town. Sarah, as you know, the barter theaters here and the Creeper Trail, which is a rails to trail. Trail is a very big south. Southern destination. And I’m lucky for that. This town had those, it’s just inadvertent that I landed here.

Uh, but I thought guests would be in the nest, use the kitchenette, which I did have to build out. I was gonna ask, I ask what was

Annette Grant: the kitchen? Okay,

Janice Thayer: yep. I converted a closet into a [00:20:00] kitchenette and then, um. And there’s nothing about this house that’s small. So the kitchen, it’s like an eight by 10, eight by 12 room.

So, um, that, that’s not a city experience. Having been from Seattle, you know, that’s not where we get there. Uh, and guests loved it. They would, so they didn’t leave. That’s the part that I was surprised by. They would have all these plans and they’d tell me later we decided and they coined it nesting. We got here and it was not, I mean, it was what we expected, but it was, the feeling was so different that we stayed in and we just chilled.

Yeah. Like we snuggled up on the sofa, we drank coffee for two hours at the dining room table and looked at the view and just talked to each other, you know? And so that’s their experience. I was like, wow, that’s pretty cool. Okay. Hadn’t anticipated that.

Sarah Karakaian: So how, how has it been like living on site, Janice? A lot of, I mean, I think obviously that’s kind of where.

Airbnb as a platform originated was sharing a space in your home. But so many of [00:21:00] us now buy property for us to not live in, in short-term rental. I know that you have to live there for your insurance, but so how has that been real talk? Um, how is it, do you ever feel like you can ever, that you can’t escape work because your quote unquote customers are always around you?

Like, what is that? You feel like you have privacy? ’cause I think there are a lot of people out there who are curious about renting out a section of their home, but they’re not sure what that experience is gonna be like.

Janice Thayer: Well. Fortunately, the house is large, so that’s a good thing. And, and the nest in particular.

Because it is up above the garage, which is offset from the main house by about eight feet. They’re all connected, but the sound, I’m able to buffer the sound pretty effectively. I’ve made some additional changes since I first opened, um, partly in preparation for doing the hilltop, but, um, it, it’s a, it’s interesting living on site a lot.

I don’t, I have it in my listing. That host resides on property and for the Oasis guests, you may hear the pitter pat of little of feet on the floor, [00:22:00] but I try to be super quiet. Um. I can live here comfortably. My boyfriend is in construction and hasn’t worn his head protection or ear protection, so he speaks more loudly, so he gets the shushes.

Um, you guys heard him walking in the other day? Sarah? You heard? I mean, it was

Annette Grant: cute.

Janice Thayer: It was, babe, I’m on a call.

Annette Grant: That’s so good.

Janice Thayer: Yeah, so it, it’s, it’s, I find it not challenging, but I also have a different mindset about it. I also. Don’t make myself present to the guests, but I have guests who, this is interesting thing too, even for other hosts, guests want to know that I am actually the owner of the property.

The host is the owner. They actually have asked me to play that at more the fact that they were renting from curated properties. Put it arms length, something that they did not like. They actually, yeah, I was surprised. I’ve had a couple say, you need to change your listing to say that [00:23:00] you are the host.

Mm-hmm. Because we think that’s a huge value that we’re renting from you. So that’s an angle. Yeah. I hadn’t thought of,

Annette Grant: I, I can agree with that. We, I can see there are a lot of people that want to know that they’re, they’re renting from an individual, not. A company or it’s not a property management company.

I mean that there are just some people that are very devoted, like, let’s just say it shop small. There’s like that shop small section of, um, guests. Then that’s why they’re booking on Airbnb Also. Janice, I wanna ask about your neighbors.

Yeah.

Annette Grant: You’re saying, you know, you’re in this call to Sac. I we’re looking at your house.

I’m sure that the neighbor’s houses are similar to yours. Did you let them know you were doing this? Did you kind of keep it under the radar? What’s happened with the neighborhood?

Janice Thayer: I talked to my neighbors and, um, because there’s a fair amount of space between each of the, the houses here. Um, not, it’s not like the country though, so [00:24:00] maybe 20 to 40 feet between the houses.

Um, interestingly, a great aunt lives next door to me on the left side of the house, which I didn’t know when we bought the house, we, we figured that out. Like randomly. So I went and talked to them because my Oasis guests actually go by their bedroom at night when they go to go down to the unit. So I obviously have quiet hours, but I have never had a complaint from them.

They have well, insulated house also. Mm-hmm. And they have never said a word about it, and I ask them to let me know if anything’s disturbing.

Okay. Um,

Janice Thayer: and then. I tend to not show my face unless a guest asks to meet me. But I also, because I maintain the property, I’m working on the weekends, I’m out working in the gardens, but I tend to work away from where the guests are.

But I have, so I’ve run into a few different guests and it’s always been great. Um, some people say, oh, I thought we would meet you while we were here, and then I was out doing something and no. So I think it’s up to, it’s, it, I’m a generally an introvert, but I love my guests [00:25:00] and, and I think. Personal connections are huge in this world, and so I, that’s been, it’s been good.

I, but people I’ve never met give me five star reviews, so it’s not that they’re being swayed by meeting me, which is interesting.

Sarah Karakaian: Nice.

Financial Planning and Challenges

Annette Grant: Let’s dig into the finances.

Janice Thayer: You

Annette Grant: did, you do, did you do some competitive analysis ahead of time? I mean, you were, it sounds like you were in a spot like, hey. I need to make some money.

I need to make this asset work for me. I need to have this earning. What type of projections did you do ahead of time? Have you met them, exceeding them? Let’s go through the financial aspect in you planning. I.

Janice Thayer: Uh, to be honest, it was, I have to do this. So I looked at other Airbnbs in town and because I wanted to know what my competition was, the rates they were, some of them were renting at were just like, like, why would you rent that low?

Clearly nobody was using, um, [00:26:00] dynamic pricing. So I did, you guys were in integral in me understanding dynamic pricing. I’d never heard of that before. And so luckily I did start off with that, I think in the first month. Nice. Two months maybe. Yeah, that was huge. That was a huge thing that you guys have blessed me with the knowledge of.

Um, I ran the finances for putting together the nest, like what were my costs to, I had to fully furnish it. There were no furnishings. Um. And then some of the things I actually owned and was able to repurpose them there and then. On the secondhand market. So I didn’t do marketplace. I wasn’t familiar with marketplace, but this is a big antiques area and I was able to find quite a few things on the antiques market that weren’t very costly.

And because of my background, I have the ability to put those things together pretty effectively. Um, so I did a lot of of second handing, which I find the quality is so much better. No offense to Wayfair, but than a Wayfair product that it’s going to hold up a lot longer. And, um, you know, I was spending 25 bucks on [00:27:00] bedside tables and, you know, 10 bucks on vintage lamps and then repurpose, you know, rewiring and re lamp reshaping them.

So from that standpoint, I looked at the price per night and had an idea of what I could do. And thankfully my father is, um, a great help to, he’s like, don’t overestimate this, you know, just mini, you know, do what you, the very minimum that you could possibly do, which was great. And um, and of course the economy was so weird then that things were pretty unproductive, un unpredictable.

You guys are in an urban market, but in a rural market, you just never know. Sure. So, um, so I had had some goals set for 2022 and I have our prime months here are pretty much may through the end of October. Um, we have leaf peeping season, which is incredibly popular. The rest of the year can be a little bit slower, and I didn’t really understand how to market to business travelers at that point.

So I wasn’t getting a [00:28:00] lot of business rentals to flesh out the other part of the year or even doing medium term rentals. So my, um, my December through the XMA was pretty slow, but that worked out. Um, shortly after I opened my 79-year-old mom fell, fell and broke her hip. And, um, the next seven months, which was of course, as I was rolling out the nest and experiencing that, she was declining really quickly and my dad was trying to take care of her.

And so my time was taken up really, um, remotely assisting all the doctor’s appointments and ambulance travels and hospital visits. And, um, so that was pretty challenging. And she passed away in late January of 2023, and I was still quiet, so it was like, I don’t, honestly, I don’t care. Yeah, we had some more legal things we had to deal with after that.

That was, you know, another thing. So for me, I guess at that point, even though I needed to make the money, life Lifeing was the priority in supporting my father was the most important thing to me because he’s always been there for me. [00:29:00] Mm-hmm. Um, and then, so in that time though, I was still finishing the renovations of the Oasis.

And then I believe it opened in September, but kind of as a cue to other hosts. While I had taken advantage of the Airbnb Nest promo, I screwed up the Oasis promo because you know how with Airbnb, you set up your messaging, but they, they feed it out to you. With the Nest, it was fed out to me while guests were booking, so I was scrambling to create the messages even though I had had the.

HBM stuff. I was scrambling to have the appropriate messages at the right time. ’cause none of that was available to me in Airbnb until I started booking, which I found that to be because I’m a planner. I found that to be very frustrating. So I was constantly fighting fires and scrambling. So I thought, I’m not gonna do this with Oasis.

I’m gonna have all this in place. I’m gonna be ready to go. Well, I went live and I killed my promo period because I was still building my, I was putting my new messaging appropriate for that rental.

Annette Grant: Explain to us what the, [00:30:00] the oasis is different from the, from the nest for the listeners.

Janice Thayer: The nest is more transitional in design.

That renovation was done by somebody else as it was white trim everywhere and wood blinds more, a little bit more southern feeling. And the oasis is part of the original house, which is much more contemporary.

Annette Grant: Okay.

Janice Thayer: That was a pretty major renovation. I had to take out old wall to wall carpeting, put in, um,

luxury vinyl tile.

Annette Grant: And this is just to short term rent it. So the nest is just to short term.

Financial Success and Opportunities

Annette Grant: The nest is obviously. Financially. Fruitful for you? Yes. You’re pleased you’re, you’re happy, pleased. Are you crushing any of the numbers that you thought there or are you just rock and steady? I’m hit. I’m hitting them. I’m hitting not perfect.

Okay. But hitting them so much that you’re like, wait a second, there’s another opportunity within this property. And had that. When you first started the Nest, did you even think, Hey, there might be another portion of the home that could be rentable, or did you have to like really reconfigure it and like, just think of that?

It was like excitement from the nest.

Renovation Challenges and Costs

Janice Thayer: I [00:31:00] found the Oasis took me longer to complete because it was a much larger actual renovation. Um, I had to install kitchenette with new cabinetry. I custom designed a d dining island. I did a lot of space planning and planning on that unit, and it took longer.

I had to enclose the interior stairwell from the main floor to the oasis and um, because it’s an open. House so you can see through the treads and you can’t have that obviously. Mm-hmm. To a private rental, install a door where there’d been no door soundproofing, all that stuff. So that was more costly. I think it cost me about $20,000 to do that renovation.

Financing the Renovation

Janice Thayer: And how did you finance it? Did

Sarah Karakaian: you leverage the home, or especially since you were, life was lifeing, so how did you do that?

Janice Thayer: The, the part-time job I had had during Covid paid very, very well, and I had stocked back all that money, so I used that cash to be able to, and I have the luxury, I’ll be honest, I had an, I had alimony because I’d been married, so I had alimony coming in, but I was trying not to rely [00:32:00] on that.

Mm-hmm. I wanted to, to keep that as a buffer, but I did pull off my savings from that position and use that and that helped me furnish it and helped me renovate it. And then, um. Then credit cards

Sarah Karakaian: be real about it. Yeah, it happens. Whatever it takes to get it done. And how has that been? So you are, how long has that been since the Oasis has been open now Two half

Janice Thayer: years.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah. So how, how has that been going? I.

Janice Thayer: So that’s been up and down. Okay. So some things that you guys were integral in really helping me with. Um, you introduced the idea, which I’d never even thought of, of taking a, you know, taking a listing down. If it’s just it, it was because I’d missed that promo period.

It did get blasted out. We’re still in that C period where people weren’t traveling together. And it was the whole floor, which is was at that 0.2 bedrooms, two bathrooms with a large central living room, which is about 500 square feet on its own. This is about 1500 square feet total. Mm-hmm. Plus it has the [00:33:00] outdoor decks and the 7,000 gallon coy pond.

And that’s really cool. You can see it from all the windows. Uh. And so that one took because I missed the promo. I think that was really unfortunate. And then it just, and then we hit the, we were in the fall because I missed the promo and we’re toward the start of our dead season, then I was in the dead season.

Um. So I utilized one of my relationships in HBM.

Direct Booking Strategies

Janice Thayer: So one thing I knew, I felt like I was too invested in Airbnb. All my eggs were in that basket. I find that scary, especially as an entrepreneur. I know you have to market yourself and that we, you know, the horror stories that we hear and we’ve talked about losing your listing, um, really were concerning to me.

So I wanted to have my own website and, uh, start it off with. A company that ended up really overselling under delivering their service, which was quite costly to me. And then I abandoned that and I got with owner Res after doing a bunch of research on property management, great systems. And so I just did, I own my [00:34:00] domain, so I wasn’t too worried about having them.

I. I don’t care if it’s on their land. Yeah, it’s my name. I got it. I’ll build another one if I have to. Um, so that’s been, that has been excellent. So that did not go live because of that unfortunate relationship with the first company. I did not go live until May of 2023 with that, but last year I had got almost 28% of my bookings were direct bookings Denniss.

And that’s in eight months.

Annette Grant: Say that again? 28%.

Janice Thayer: 8% of my bookings came through my direct booking site. In 2024. 2024. I said 2023. And it’s been huge.

Building an Online Presence

Janice Thayer: And I, so I have, um, multiple Facebook pages, which I had already set up before I found you guys. But you know, I don’t throw a lot on there, but it makes it that my SEO is better because of it, because I can throw the name into, Ooh, little

Annette Grant: pro

Janice Thayer: tip there.

Pro tip. I like that. So I. The Nest Avington. I have the Oasis Avington. I don’t have a cozy [00:35:00] Oasis. I will have a talk, not yet. And I have Curated properties page. I have a YouTube channel. So, um, and that’s in the intent is to help the business, but it’s a lot of exploration of the area, um, for guests.

Annette Grant: Love that.

Your direct bookings, Janice? Mm-hmm. If, if you had to break down the percentage, are these. Returning guests that you’ve, you know, let them know that you have a site. Are these brand new guests? What, what’s that? Uh, percentages look like a hundred

Janice Thayer: percent. First twin bookers.

Annette Grant: Really? 100%. What? First Twin bookers.

That. And so when you do you ask them, do you do a follow up survey? How did you find me? How are they finding you? I do. How are they finding

Janice Thayer: you? So, uh, the first one, which I was like, my ch my chin hit my chest. It was like a $1,500 rental. Directly? Yes. Like, yay. And it was the Oasis and which had been slower.

And so I was like, oh wow, she found Oasis. How’d she do that? And she searched best Airbnbs in Abingdon, Virginia, [00:36:00] and it came up and my website came up and she booked it. So, yeah. Yeah. So I now phenomenal. I have that in all of, if I’m doing a hashtag best Airbnb in Abingdon, Virginia. Yeah. Um. So there, you know, that’s funny.

Uh, my thought was crazy. And then another one, I, I have carefully, although you know, you guys know this is a big thing. Airbnb changing how you promote yourself in your listing. Mm-hmm. Yep. All of my listings. Are the name of each of the listings and those correlate to their Facebook pages. Nice. So there are crumbs everywhere.

So one of my other guests was a work guest and she found the Nest abingdon and she said, huh, I bet I could search that. And she did. And so she booked it, you know, from one of my slow weeks. And every single guest has found the cues or has just uniquely found it. Another one went to. Was an Airbnb, found my Instagram page.

Mm-hmm. Booked from there. Didn’t book from there, [00:37:00] but contacted me from there

Annette Grant: I think. I think this is a great time for a pause because I think so many hosts, a lot of our focus is direct booking, but it’s also the focus of guests too that, that the savvier traveler understands that. They can book direct.

There might be, um. A financial advantage there amongst other advantages to just booking direct. And I think there’s that whole book direct. There’s not only a book direct movement with its host, there’s a book direct movement with guests, and that is where there are so many influencers who are really helping us because they are getting the message out there that yes, they are on Airbnb, but these are property owners.

Just like, um, any other hotel chain that you could go directly to their website and book that. And so I’m really thankful for the influencers that are getting the book direct movement out there because [00:38:00] that’s why your guests were doing those things like, Hey, let’s go here. But you said it best that you are leaving.

Breadcrumbs, a little trail of crumbs all over the internet for your guest, but still staying compliant to the mothership, to Airbnb. And I think I really want to impress that with everybody, that there’s a way to do this. There is a way to stay on the up and up with the OTAs because we don’t want you to completely, you know, go against any of the rules which we, we know are getting, uh.

Stronger. And then with AI being able to troll all of the. Listings you really need to, these like other com hacks people were trying to do are not gonna be hacking. You’re gonna be removed. But I love the stuff that you are giving there, Janice, um, of going after it. Because I feel like we talk, Sarah and I talk to so many hosts who think direct booking is a waste of time and.

I love it because it’s, this is your personal home and you’re like, you had, you had your [00:39:00] one property and took like looked. It’s probably a lot of your entrepreneurial background too, of like really taking ownership of

Sarah Karakaian: owning the

Annette Grant: site.

Sarah Karakaian: I have a question that you just popped my head. Annette, Janice.

Trust and Safety in Direct Bookings

Sarah Karakaian: A lot of people who are afraid of booking direct, it’s because they believe.

That an Airbnb guest is more vetted and it’s safer. You live on property. Yeah. You live there, right? You’re really safety issue. Talk to me about how you’ve overcome that, that fear that for somehow a guest on Airbnb is going to be safer than someone who books directly with you.

Janice Thayer: Well, one was need first of all.

But the second part is because they had found me through Airbnb, then I knew they had been on Airbnb. Mm. Now, and I have, I think, and I’m not sure you two might be more, have more perspective on this, but because I’m a female. I tend to attract females, so I’m attracting women’s groups, um, single, single women travelers, women traveling in pairs, um, things like that.

And I think [00:40:00] there’s some, I might have men book with me too, like single men also. It’s not mutual, mutually exclusive, but I think, um. Refresh me back to the question, and I’m sorry, I lost it. Yeah, no, why

Annette Grant: you trust, because people put this trust that the guest is somehow super vetted because it came through Airbnb.

How are you trusting the guests that are come to your directly? I like

Sarah Karakaian: that mindset actually, Janice, of, well, if they found you through Airbnb, that means they’re on Airbnb. So by proxy they are an Airbnb guest, but they just decided to find you direct. So that’s interesting. I’ve actually never thought of it that way.

Janice Thayer: Yeah, and, and honestly, I’ve only had, I would say, one bad guest in the last, I’m pushing three years right now, and it was a very wealthy couple who drove a very expensive vehicle who were very entitled and snuck their dog into the nest, which is pet friendly, and it was not a service animal. Hmm. Yeah. You know, so it.

They came through Airbnb. Mm-hmm. So [00:41:00] Airbnb is not a, a, a great clearinghouse for that either. Uh, I think we, I think we are too reliant in our brains on Airbnb psychologically. And I think breaking away from that’s going to be very critical, especially with these most recent changes that they’ve made.

Airbnb has forgotten that I own my property. Mm-hmm. I do all of the legwork. I am taking on the liability and. Yes, they get a little cut of it, but they’re making it very difficult for me to do that successfully with using them as my platform. And so I think there’s gonna be a lot of hosts that start to get tired of that rub.

Um, and we gotta remember too, you know, um, going back in time, people book direct with property owners free what Centuries. Right, right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Literally centuries.

Annette Grant: Do you, um, do you.

Cleaning and Maintenance Challenges

Annette Grant: Clean your properties, Janice, or do you have, like [00:42:00] what type, do you have a team helping you at all?

Janice Thayer: That has been one of the biggest challenges with me having this business.

So I have cleaned my units many times and done all the laundry for the last two and a half years. Um, and then, um, but I have had cleaners, I’ve had some great cleaners and then I’ve had some problematic cleaners and so it is, it is one of the bigger challenges. I think as we’ve talked about a lot in the group and I hear on other Facebook, um, pages, is that problem and because I’m in a small town, I even have a smaller pool.

And because I’m in a small rural town in Appalachia, I have some other challenges related to that. Mm-hmm. But I have, they’ve all been great people.

Annette Grant: So you, that’s okay. You have the cleaners now, but it sounds like worst case scenario, Janice can get it there and get it done. Right. Okay. It’s fake. I think that’s all of us.

Worst case scenario, if you live by, you know, like, Hey, I can go in and, and, and get, get it done. Or a backup for your backup.

Value of Community and Learning

Sarah Karakaian: You said something that’s not too Janice, that, [00:43:00] um, uh, you said that you’re in other Facebook groups. So I do want to go back real quick to your, how long you’ve been with us inside of our private membership.

And we were talking before we, we pressed record about how, uh, because when you join a membership, the first six months is your first six months. And if you wanna continue on, you become a VIP and you pay $97 a month. But then you get access to everything you had access to before and you continue on. So you’re in other Facebook groups, I’m, I’m guessing they might be like the free Facebook groups, local faith Facebook groups, and maybe specific Facebook groups or certain topics in our industry.

So why. Not only is it important for you to be in our private Facebook group, but also how do you make time for yourself to show up to all of our calls and to you are always posting in our group. You give advice, you ask for advice. I mean, all these years later, talk to us about that mindset. You’re obviously now a very [00:44:00] experienced host and you’re still in there asking really good questions.

You’re always tweaking your listing. Um, so what, what’s your mindset behind that?

Janice Thayer: Well, one of the things I love about the group beyond the two of you is the Facebook page, because it is, it’s a 24 7 resource. Not that anybody’s necessarily gonna respond very quickly, but generally, there’s so many people in the group and what do we average under two 50?

Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. The thing I love about it, and I think it’s the way the two of you set it up, is that it has to stay positive and productive. And there’s some other groups that I’ve joined and there’s one that I’m still getting some things from and I actually have to, I’ve had to unfollow because those responses are so toxic.

Mm. When people are asking for help, it actually makes me nauseous. I think Tanya has commented on this too. They’re literally the, somebody is asking for assistance in this host group and the people are hateful. And in HBM it is never hateful. It’s. Always helpful. And [00:45:00] so I think because I was a newbie three years ago and asked what some more hos, experienced hosts might perceive to be stupid questions, but nobody ever treated them that way.

Um, I try to also be a good mentor. Because there’s these, you guys know when I joined you guys, I didn’t know the terminology of the industry. I didn’t know the software of the industry. I didn’t know the digital law. I didn’t know what a property management system was. I didn’t know a DR, I didn’t know all these other terms.

And you know, I, and I’ve learned all that from you guys. Literally, I’ve gone to HBM University. So, um, so I show up because you guys are, you’re so amazing at growing your, the program. And you’re constantly bringing current things into the program. And I love the workshops that you’re doing. I love the booking workshop.

I’m excited you’re doing the revenue workshop coming up. Um, and I participate in each one of those things, which fortunately are included in the membership. Mm-hmm. But even in those [00:46:00] groups with people who have really, are probably only coming from the podcast for the most part, they’re still really positive.

Hmm.

Janice Thayer: Right. And people are really coming because they’re hungry for knowledge and to be the best. And I think the two of you are amazing at floating all boats.

Sarah Karakaian: I love that. I love that we’ve created that safe space for you. But again, like. It, our group, we can create, we can curate the educators, we can, we can curate our, you know, our group coaching calls.

But the cool thing about you and, and so many HBM members is that you show up time and time again. Even if it might be a call where maybe you kind of sit and listen and you’re not participate, you still show up and it’s just like. It’s incredible and I think you have a lot to show for it. I mean, you’re still making changes with your, your, your one property, just how you’ve optimized it.

It is gorgeous. You’re showing new angles of your property. By the way, Janice, I have not seen before. I showed it to that too. I know. I’m like, what’s she, why is she holding out on us? So it’s just [00:47:00] like, you know what I mean? And, and that’s. And that’s, that’s because we’re busy AST hosts. You had a lot of things going on.

You’ve got one project, you know, creating the oasis. So you’re building that out. Now you’re trying to figure out different ways to position it. And so as business owners, especially if you’re listening right now, you have multiple properties. Think about that now. Multiply that, how much are you really digging in and optimizing your property?

And I just have to give you kudos that you never stop. And I think that shows,

Janice Thayer: thank you. I think, you know, it’s one thing to learn something and then sit there and not do anything with it. Right. Right? Yes. So taking action steps, like sometimes I’ll come, like you said, sometimes I’ll just come to the meetings and listen because there’s such great questions that get asked.

Um, I don’t think I’ve ever put in a question in advance, but clearly asked one the other day more. I’m on the spot of things that are occurring in the moment. Right. Most of my big picture things, if I need an answer, I put it in the Facebook group because I can’t wait. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, but I think, um, I think the action steps, like I’m always going to learn something.[00:48:00]

In one of those meetings. And I’m always going to learn something in the Facebook group, or I’m going to have the perspective from my business experience and consult consulting experience with other types of businesses. That does translate. Yes. Like I was joking the other day, I had my one great idea for the day.

Somebody was talking about the challenges of having hired a cleaner and then going in and seeing what it looked like afterward and how could they head this off, headed off in the future. And I said, have them bring you pictures of other units that they’ve set up. Send them before you interview them.

Hmm.

Janice Thayer: Because now you can see what they’ve done, how they’ve done a setup at somebody else’s property. If they think it looks awesome and you think it looks horrific, they’re not going to know. You don’t have to say anything. They’re just not a fit, right? Mm-hmm. Or if they’re open to training, which my current cleaner is awesome.

She’s like, I’ve never done this before. But if you show me how to do it, how you want it, I will do my best to do that. And so we’re two months in now and she’s doing really well. So I’m really pleased. So there’s that. Find somebody younger who [00:49:00] wants to learn. She has her own business, um, supporting another female-owned business.

And, um, take action steps there too to help her understand what I’m looking for. ’cause you cannot assume that.

Sarah Karakaian: No, that’s great advice, Janice. We’ve covered so much. You are crushing it. I’m so glad I, everyone needs to click on her property in the show notes because it is very impressive that the, the landscaping is Janice.

It’s so good. Is there anything we haven’t asked you that you’d like to share with our listeners that we haven’t covered?

Janice Thayer: Not about my properties, but I would say as in business. Making, if you, and I know you guys listened to Alex Muzzi. I started listening to him way after this, but this is, if you can do yourself the favor by investing what I consider to be a very small amount of money, even as a startup, to learn from people who are already experts in that business, you will take a, let’s call it a five year learning curve.

You’ll turn it into a year [00:50:00] learning curve, which means you’ll be making more money. So I have doubled every year in revenue that I’ve been open, and that’s with all these different life things.

I’m still a member. I think HBM is amazing. It, it’s, it, I value it all the time. It is. You guys are a huge resource for me. Um, but that knowledge investment has paid for itself a hundred times over. I. It’s like understanding your pricing and using Price Labs and being able to tweak price Labs effectively.

It pays for itself. You guys are my who in, you know, the how Benjamin, you’re my who? Hardy fan. Yes. Yeah, we Benjamin Hardy fan. And so

Sarah Karakaian: Well, you’re our who too, because you’re so active and you’re always trying new things. Mm-hmm. I mean, we need that to be able to then, okay, let’s go find out. Let’s go help Janice out and find out.

How to help her with this piece of content. Let’s go to this expert and ask them their opinion. I mean, having people who are, you know, doing what you are doing helps us too. So it’s this really great relationship where we can just continue to improve our industry

Annette Grant: and [00:51:00] we, we love you saying you’re doubling your revenue every year because we know there’s so many hosts out there that like, yes, one to.

One tweak. We already, like, we see, we see the calendars, we see the photos, we see the listing description. It’s like, no, like one thing can unlock a compound effect on your, not only the one prop, you know, one property, but like you, for instance, you’re sitting on. Four, you’re gonna have four listings under one roof.

And like some people, like even parent child, like that unlocking of that is really just that perspective. That can really just change, change the game for hosts. And that’s what Sarah and I wanna do. We wanna serve hosts out there that have invested so much. Time and money into these assets and just make sure that the assets are, are working for them.

We’re like your asset managers if you, if you will. So, Janice, where can our listeners find you? Where can they let [00:52:00] their friends, their family themselves, if they’re going to the theater or the Creeper trail? Uh. Book direct with you,

Janice Thayer: curated properties C com. If you wanna get in contact with me, just hit inquire and send me a message.

It comes straight to me and, um, I’d love it if people followed my curated properties on Facebook or Instagram. That would be super helpful. I also have all the other little ones, but just go for that one. Yeah.

Annette Grant: And I wanna say, um, this is one thing that I think hosting, um, you.

Resilience in Hosting

Annette Grant: Have completely, uh, you’re probably the poster host for this Janice, of no resilience.

Yeah. I think this is the thing that a lot of people don’t share about hosting. You need to be resilient. And through the episode today, there were multiple times I’m like. She is resilient and I wanna share that if anybody is hosting you are also resilient. Just because the 2:00 AM is gonna happen, the family members are gonna happen, the just [00:53:00] life will life on you.

And so Janice, I wanna say like that resiliency and not like getting knocked down and not coming back up is like what the host community is all about also. So thank you for. You guys crushing it.

Sarah Karakaian: Well done Janice.

Conclusion and Contact Information

Sarah Karakaian: I’m excited to continue our journey with you and if you are interested in learning more about the hosting business Mastery, Janice has lovingly called it HBM, we’ll put a link in the show note.

We’re actually gonna do kind of an open house next week. I believe it’s next Tuesday or Wednesday. Um, but. Either way, we’d love to have you there, uh, next Wednesday at one Eastern. So click the link in the, in the, in the show notes. It’s completely free to come check it out. Uh, with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant, and together we are Thanks for Visiting. [00:54:00]