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463. Ola Giwa

Introduction and Listener Feature

Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] [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: 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 strshare.com.

That’s strshare.com, entering all the information about your short-term rental so that we can celebrate you here on the podcast and on our Instagram account each and every Sunday.

Annette, who are we bragging about this week?

Highlighting @thesnoozelane

Annette Grant: This week we are sharing @thesnoozelane, and that is spelled S-N-O-O-Z-E at the snooze lane.

And our wonderful guest today is the host of these nine stunning rentals in Houston, Texas. And the one thing I want everybody to take note of, head over to their Instagram bio and the highlight section is so [00:02:00] well done. Number one, it’s press. If you have not been in some sort of article in your town, this is my encouragement.

They don’t come to you, you gotta reach out. So reach out, write the article for them or tell them why they should interview you. But check out that first one. It’s where they’ve been in the press. It’s also really good. It’s SEO search engine optimization. If you have a direct, uh, booking website, then it goes from press to about us.

So telling the story, then some behind the scenes, setting up properties so it shows them the work that you’ve put in, uh, recommendations and then tours. And so I think it’s just such a good potential guest experience. Like, let’s, let’s put some, uh, street cred out there, some other public, some publications, some press who we are.

Watch us, set us up. Where are you gonna go? What are you gonna do? And here’s some tours. So well done on knocking out those highlights in your account.

Sarah Karakaian: All right. You [00:03:00] ready?

Annette Grant: Let’s do it

Sarah Karakaian: because we’re gonna talk more about Ola.

Interview with Ola: Beginnings and Challenges

Sarah Karakaian: Yes. In today’s episode, all the things Ola. So Ola is the owner and host of Snooze Lane, which I just think that is the cutest company name ever, and I can’t wait for you to hear how she came up with that name.

It’s very cute. We’ve known Ola for over a year now, and we have helped her through some highs and lows. I mean, she’s helped herself, but we’ve been there along for the ride. She is inside of our hosting Business Mastery, but Ola is, her story is unconventional. And I think it’s gonna be really inspirational for anyone out there.

I mean, from being in an industry that took you years and years of schooling to walk away from and to try short-term rentals. I mean, we’ve got that in this story. We’ve got in the story of, uh, being shut down because an HOA was like, Nope. Can’t do this anymore. We’ve got the story of, of the city being like, Nope, can’t.

I mean, Ola has just [00:04:00] persevered time and time again

Annette Grant: and her wanting to just throw in the towel.

Sarah Karakaian: Well, yeah. So let’s see how it ends.

Ola, welcome to the show. I am so excited to dig in with you, tell your story, share your ups and downs. ’cause we’ve hung out with you for a while now.

Ola’s Journey into Airbnb

Sarah Karakaian: So before we dig into all the things, talk to us about what you were doing before you started hosting.

Ola Giwa: Before I started hosting? Mm-hmm. So IU Well, thank you so much for having me.

I was just coming. Oh, we are so excited. Have that Friday. Yes. This is like a dream come true. I was listening to you guys since 2019. Yes. And now I’m on the show. So this is exciting. Wow.

Sarah Karakaian: I love knowing. I didn’t know that. Mm-hmm.

Ola Giwa: Yes. So, um, prior to hosting, I, I had just finished a flip, uh, in, when I was living in, in Ohio with my husband and I had gone into a lot, uh, I had joined an organization for like, real estate investors and I was just like, I’m [00:05:00] only coming here for long term, get my mailbox check and all that.

And some lady at the meeting was like, oh, I converted my, my tenant moved out and I converted it to Airbnb. And I was like, what is Airbnb? You know? So, so she was like, oh, every time someone checks out we clean and this. And I was like, oh no, I do not want to do Airbnb. I don’t care what it is. I don’t want it.

But I saw a lady, um. An an older lady, I saw paint on her hands and I’m like, what? You are painting something? And she was like, yes. And Alexia like, you know, very strong woman. I like, you know, I look up to that and I’m like, can I join you and paint? So I joined her and I was painting her house and renovating her house.

And then it happens that her tenant had moved out and she wanted to change her, her unit into an Airbnb, her home. So I was helping her and that was my first, you know, um, introduction to Airbnb. And she went to [00:06:00] Spain one time and made me co-host.

First Hosting Experience and Lessons Learned

Ola Giwa: And, and I, from that started listening to your podcast, but I still wasn’t, you know, interested in Airbnb.

I was just helping Jennifer. So, anyways, so when I was in Ohio, I, I flipped my home. I, I put it up for, for rent and. So I used to be a chemical engineer, so I was in Ohio as a chemical engineer, working as a chemical engineer. And I just thought when I move back to Houston, I’m going to either do two things, Airbnb or do some kind of um, um.

Uh, what’s it called? Like a residence? Something with the residents, like group homes, something like that. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know what I would decide. I, I decided on Airbnb pretty much when I got to Houston, when I moved back to Houston. And so I was a chemical engineer and then I left the, I left.

I didn’t enjoy it, even though I went to school for that and I left, um, engineering. I was just trying to figure out what I want to do. I worked with a realtor for a while. I [00:07:00] realized I don’t want to be a realtor, but then, and that’s how I started getting into Airbnb, just because I saw a lady with a paint on her hands.

Annette Grant: Oh my gosh, we need to meet this, this woman. And so, wait, did you help her just paint for free?

Ola Giwa: Yes.

Annette Grant: Do you know that painting is like, whew. It’s the hardest. It’s like the, it, it’s the, it’s the thing that everybody thinks is the easiest. But it really is the hardest. It’s like roofing and painting is like so laborious and very, very difficult.

Ola Giwa: Guess when we were painting a kitchen floor? It was crazy.

Annette Grant: Oh, interesting.

Ola Giwa: Yeah, it was ridiculous. And she had like a design, she was doing really, really nice, amazing things and I was, she was very, so I think that was, she’s very, she’s the reason why I did this because I just saw how, you know, passionate she is and how, and for some reason, bio osmosis, I just got that.

Yeah. You know, so,

Annette Grant: but Ola, you are having, I wanna, like, this is a big transition. Mm-hmm. A there’s a cross country move. There’s [00:08:00] leaving a career that you had invested. I don’t even wanna know how much time, let alone money. This is a huge gamble. What was the gamble? What was the why behind the gamble?

Navigating Setbacks and Finding Support

Annette Grant: And did you start to map out financially what was gonna happen?

You know, what you needed to happen to be able to replace the, um, chemical engineering salary?

Ola Giwa: Well, with the chemical engineering, I, so I went to school for it. It was one of the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Like, I, I lost a lot of friends because they got weeded out of the classes and Right. So I had this ample like, you know, like expectations.

And then when I got into chemical engineering, it was like, I was only have, I thought I was gonna be doing like, engineering things, but I was, I found myself dealing with like older men and women, you know, managing them. And it’s more like putting out fires. It wasn’t, it wasn’t, I wasn’t learning a lot. I wasn’t, I wasn’t stimulated and I was, my [00:09:00] creativity wasn’t, you know, and it was just flat.

And I was, and the moment I realized it was not for me, it was when I was talking to one of the engineers in the team and he was like, oh, I have been here for 20 years, and I could, so I could see the passion in his face. He was so excited. And I was like, oh no. I do not wanna be you. I I don’t, I don’t wanna be here for 20 years.

I, I’m not as excited as you are. So, and that was when I realized this was not for me. So regardless of anything, I wasn’t going to do chemical engineering anymore. However, my, having a mom who has been in real estate back home in my home country, Nigeria, being around real estate investors, I just dabbled into real estate to just see what it is.

I just happened to just find out about Airbnb. Just, I wasn’t looking for it. It, it found me if I would say,

Sarah Karakaian: yeah, honestly, I feel like that’s a lot of stories where Airbnb or short-term rentals find the host. Okay. So at what point [00:10:00] was it, did your passion change for short-term rentals? Or was it that, listen, I’ve already helped Jennifer.

I helped her co-host and. I, I already know it a little bit. Let’s just get into that. What was that decision to, to take that next step and start hosting your own properties? That

Ola Giwa: that was, that is, there was no one moment, but I do know that it happened gradually starting by helping her set up. Yeah.

And having it up like we went buying things together.

So we did that one property together. We did the next property together, and just starting seeing it from start to finish was very exciting. And then I think the aha moment was when she went to Spain. I helped co-host and I don’t know what it was, maybe because I have a host in me, I’m a host of the most tests.

I’m still, Wendy had slang, but, but I think, um, that was the moment helping, it was two weeks and just [00:11:00] checking up on them the next morning and just being, you know, like conservative to them. Like, are you feeling okay? And they were amazing. Her guests were amazing. And the all the stories you hear was like, not it.

And also, to be honest, I know you guys didn’t, you guys didn’t expect it. You guys were one of also like my friends then like, you know how podcasts like a one way friendship, like just listening to you.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, for sure. Yes.

Ola Giwa: And then just laughing and so I was listening to you while driving to Jennifer’s Place and see how you guys cared about hospitality.

So it was more, I thought Airbnb was some, another branch of real estate investing like wholesaling or flipping. And I was just focused on long-term, you know, rent. And I wasn’t interested in all of that. And when I saw that it was not real estate, it was more than that. And I enjoyed like hosting people. I think that was where if I had not co-host for that two weeks when she was in Spain, I don’t think I would’ve ever done it. ‘Cause i, I wouldn’t have understand [00:12:00] how it feels to be a host.

Annette Grant: And it’s cool you had, I mean, again, you almost had this internship. Yeah. You know, you got to test the waters without having to make the financial investment with knowing, Hey, I, and I’m kind of the same thought as you. Like I can do anything for two weeks.

Let’s give it a try. But I love that you were the intern, little did you know it was an internship, but you were testing the waters to see mm-hmm. If you can make it happen. And I wanna highlight right now for everyone, Ola, share how you got into hosting though, because Sarah and I really don’t touch on this very much on our show.

So explain to us. Your first property, how you got it and when you, when you launched it.

Ola Giwa: So when I went to Houston, I, I also was looking for like a community and I was looking for the next opportunity. So I had done real, uh, real estate investing in Ohio. So I reached out to a DMD one, um, a realtor and asked if I can intern and work for him.

So I was working for him as a commercial, um, director, like helping him with like his [00:13:00] commercial deals. And one of his listing in one nice area in Houston came up for rent. And I went to go pick up the keys and I’m like, Ooh, this looks nice. This in a nice neighborhood. Maybe I can, you know. Applied for, for rent here and do rental arbitrage.

So I hit my boss up and he was like, don’t worry, I, I got you. And then he, he, first of all, he didn’t say, I got you. He was like, are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this? Like, this is a huge risk. You’re gonna pay for the first month rent, last month rent, and all of that. And I was like, I think I want to do this.

I, I, you know, I’ve, I’ve tested the water. I think this is a good side hustle for me. And then he reached out to the landlord on my behalf and I got the, the property and I listed the, the property. That’s how I got into my first Airbnb.

Sarah Karakaian: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. It’s a commercial property?

Ola Giwa: No, it’s not. It was a residential.

So he does commercial and, and residential.

Sarah Karakaian: Oh. I was like, that’s a whole other component. Okay. Okay. Yeah. No. So

Ola Giwa: I [00:14:00] was working in the re commercial, but he needed help with the, to pick up the keys for reside in a residential property. Got it.

Sarah Karakaian: Wow. And so you just saw it and like something in your head just.

Ola Giwa: Yes.

Sarah Karakaian: Flipped. And you were like, this could be an opportunity for me to do my own. Yes. And how long, between that moment and helping Jennifer, like how long of a time, time span was that?

Ola Giwa: Ooh, I wanna say like a year and a half.

Annette Grant: Okay. Yeah. So some time had, and

Sarah Karakaian: so it was still in your, it was bubbling up in your soul, this whole like hosting thing.

You’re like, you were still thinking about it. Okay. So he says yes. And then you are doing classic rental arbitrage where you paid all the rents and then you also have to furnish the place. Yes. And what was going on in your head? Were you like, I got this. Were you nervous? Scared.

Ola Giwa: Scared? I was scared. Okay.

Yes. I was so scared because. You know, Jennifer, when I met Jennifer, it wasn’t her first. It wasn’t her second. She had done it, so it she’s, she was, she was, she didn’t go, I didn’t see her through the beginning of it, you know?

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah.

Ola Giwa: So this was new to me, and this is a new [00:15:00] city. I didn’t understand this, you know, Houston market and the, the big investment, the first month, rent, second, uh, last month, rent, security deposit, the furnishing.

It was, yeah, it was a big thing that I haven’t done before. So yes, I was extremely scared, and when I put it up and set it up, crickets, you know, I started panicking, you know, I didn’t have, and then I think at that point I stopped. I, I, I was still listening to Thanks for Visiting, but not as like. Um, regular.

So I started listening to it again and just seeing what’s going on. Yeah, it was a lot.

Expanding the Business and Overcoming Obstacles

Annette Grant: And I remember, um, because you are one of our Hosting Business Mastery members mm-hmm. I remember the first few calls, I could feel it in your voice. You had it, it was, Hey, I have risked, I have a huge risk here. I need to figure this out.

Because you were bringing your listing, you were bringing your photos, you’re like, what do I need? What do I need to do here? So I wanna talk about that you [00:16:00] are in our paid membership. You have like, have a huge financial investment in this property. What made you decide to invest in yourself after you’d made this huge investment in renting the property?

Ola Giwa: So I was renting that property and then I got shut down by the HOA. So I had to, yeah, I had to take all my friend, and that was like months after. But, uh, before then another, the, the other landlord that I’m with right now. Was, I had a property on there on the market that he couldn’t rent out. And then I was just bragging, not bragging, but I was proud of my Airbnb and I was like, oh, look at the Airbnb I’m doing.

It’s doing well I think. And then he was like, do you want my property? I was like, sure. I didn’t have any money, but I figured it out, you know, credit card here and there. So I had the second property when I got shut down with the first one. So now I had the second property and the only property for a while.

And then my landlord built multiple units after with [00:17:00] the promise to give it to me as to add to my portfolio. So I went from one to seven.

Sarah Karakaian: I remember this. Yes.

Ola Giwa: So I was terrified. The same feeling I had in the first, in the first happened again. ’cause now this is like I created and I remember you said you created competition in your ’cause.

They were all in the same. Lot, you know, you create a competition like, so everything, and I had calls from other, like Airbnb gurus and they were like, oh, we did the market research. It looks like your property can only make 30,000 a year. All of it. Like, so we can’t take you on as a, as a client or we can’t take you as a consultant.

Like it turned me down in the middle of me fixing my property. He said, my business is not gonna make any money. So I was freaking out. And then I remember Sarah and Annette. So like, I wanted you guys to be like, I wanted to talk to you, I wanted you to be like a my coach or something. But I never, I, I, I think when I was listening to you, you guys didn’t have the HBM then.

Mm-hmm. [00:18:00] At this point. So I, so I reached out to your, your website and Colleen answered and was like, she was so, if not for Colleen, she, I was in my property and she was on a phone call and she was telling me that this is what you need. Like you need guidance. This is a lot. Like she understood where I was.

She could tell, I could feel that, she could tell that I was stressed and I was nervous. And so it took me another two, three months before I took on Colleen’s offer and joined. But that was like after I already set up and I was doing, I think I was doing okay, but I knew I was, something was lacking. I wasn’t being a proper business.

I wasn’t doing, there’s some, I was winging it.

Yeah. And i, and I thought, this could not last. I need a guidance. I need a community. And that’s why I joined.

Sarah Karakaian: Okay. I, I feel like people are wondering, ’cause I am.

Dealing with HOA Issues and Moving Forward

Sarah Karakaian: When the HOA shut you down on the first property, what did you do with all that furniture? Did you bring it over to the new.

To the,

Ola Giwa: what’d you do? The, the other, [00:19:00] the first fur, the first, the second unit was already running. Okay. Then I thought I was on, I thought I was on top of the world. I thought I was expanding at that point, and then they shut me down. What did I do with the furnishing? First of all, I tried to go on furnish finders.

That didn’t work out. I went on Craigslist to find a long-term tenant so I don’t have to break the lease. Right. That, yeah. So I did Facebook. I did a lot of things. I got a, I got a, a lady, I think she was going through cancer treatment. I could stay for like, I think a month. So that bought me time to figure out what to do before I could like, okay, sell the furnishing.

So I think I sold the furnishing, I threw some away, or I think I dash, i, i, i, I let it go or something. But it was for scrap. Like did, I was just like selling it to people.

Annette Grant: Did the own, did the landlord that you signed that agreement with. Were they unaware that you could, that they couldn’t do short-term rentals in their HOA, like, there’s kind of a disconnect there, right?

Yes. Like someone wasn’t [00:20:00] giving full transparency.

Ola Giwa: I never thought about, I think he was an out-of-state landlord and he didn’t really care about like reading into all the things or anything.

Annette Grant: Yeah. He, no, that’s a, that’s a pro tip. That’s a pro tip right there because, and I’m not only with arbitrages. This is if you wanna purchase a property, you might think that whoever the previous homeowner is like, oh yeah, you can short term rent.

They probably haven’t read the bylaws ever.

Sarah Karakaian: They’re realtors that do that.

Annette Grant: Yeah, same. Yeah. So this is a cautionary tale to everyone. Please have, and, and I think you could do this with chat GPT, at least the first run push, put the contract in and say, does this say anything about short-term rental under 30 day stays?

Have your attorney look at it. But this is something that we have heard happens. Time and time again where, like Sarah said, the realtor, the landlord, the person su for sale by owner, they give their word, but guess what? Their like word doesn’t matter when there’s a, a document there. Yes. Oh, wow.

Ola Giwa: [00:21:00] And they tried to suing. I think they sent like a bill. Yeah, it was, they were threatening a lot, you know, and I didn’t, you know,

Annette Grant: this, one of the reason you were, you, you had no malicious intent. You didn’t know at the time, you weren’t going against it. But that is a cautionary taral threat. Anyone Yes, I agree. Um, signing, signing a document in their name with, with the intentions to short term rent

Ola Giwa: also, and also to not lie to the landlord.

Mm-hmm. Because if I had lied that, you know, that would’ve been a whole thing other, right. Exactly. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Karakaian: Exactly. And I remember Ola tell, and please be honest if I’m remembering in correctly, but I remember being honest with you when you joined HBM, we’re like, listen, Annette and I don’t really teach, you know, quote unquote arbitrage.

’cause we feel it’s kind of like the acquisition part honestly isn’t. Yes. Like the. There’s some small nuances there, but it’s then once the people get the property, that’s kind of what we believe is a gap in our industry. People teaching people how to run the property, um, profitably and all that kind of good stuff.

But we did share with you that we thought arbitrage and as you were already [00:22:00] experiencing, so we were giving you a little bit of tough love. I remember, uh, ’cause we we’re like, like, yeah, arbitrage is tough because you have all, you actually have a lot of investment upfront, like you said, first month’s rent, last month’s rent, all that furniture, and then,

Annette Grant: and you’re not building equity alongside.

Sarah Karakaian: So you did something I wanna skip ahead because we know now that you did something that you kind of changed the relationship a little bit with the new landlord that you work with. Can you touch on that story? So start with, okay, you have this new landlord he built, you got one property with him. He built another property, he wanted, built it and gave ’em to you.

What’s going on now with that relationship?

Ola Giwa: So he had. He had had two more properties, um, and he wanted to give it to me. And I was being honest. I’m like, I’m barely, you know, this is, this really, I have a lot of debt from like the upfront cost. I can barely take in any, this would be a disservice to me to go get another debt.

And you know, the only way I can do this is if [00:23:00] we partner up and you pay for the furnishing. And I don’t have to do any first month rent or anything. And. Honestly, I was willing not to take it. It was not like I was, I was, I was like bluffing or anything. I was serious, you know? ’cause I didn’t want that, you know?

And I wanted to touch on what you said before, before I move on to that, is I remember coming to HBM just random, I dunno, I think it was like a rough day. And I was like, you guy, it was like a very vulnerable moment for me, honestly. And I’m glad I did it because everybody was on the line and I was like, when is it?

When is it? I remember this. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Karakaian: I remember this convo. Okay.

Ola Giwa: It was recurring. Yeah. When it was a good time to quit. And I didn’t expect, I was looking for a number like, ’cause I didn’t know if I was doing good or I was not doing good. And the response was amazing. Like Cori was like, first of all, your expectation is too, your expectation is too high.

You know, you just started this. Give yourself some grace, you know? And everybody in the chat sometimes. In our meetings is [00:24:00] it’s like a overload. ’cause now you’re listening to the message and then there’s a lot of other chat going on. Everybody in the chat was like, you’re, you’re making payroll, you are making you, you’re making rent.

It sounds like you’re doing great. You know? Mm-hmm. And even if you’re not, this is way too early. Don’t give up yet. That’s, you know, so it was really encouraging and I really, that moment was a very low moment for me. And if I didn’t have you guys, I don’t know where I would be right now. You know? So say that.

Annette Grant: Well, and that’s where we gave, but that’s when we gave the suggestion Yes. Of Ola said, is it time for me to quit? And we were like, wait. And again, this is for everybody. It was like, why don’t we go back to the landlord and maybe renegotiate because you had been an, an awesome partner, an awesome tenant. Um.

Why you hadn’t talked to them yet? Because mm-hmm.

Sharing Personal Stories and Overcoming Challenges

Annette Grant: And that’s where I shared my story of my relationship with my, um, I mean, the person that I had partnerships with and I, I first started, um, and that was because I didn’t wanna, I couldn’t [00:25:00] take on the risk, or I didn’t wanna take in, I didn’t even think about arbitrage, honestly.

I didn’t know it was a thing, but that’s where I wanna open up to everybody. If you are in that hard spot and you think quitting is the only option. Get, get down to work and like think about what are some other options here to pivot. And that’s exactly what you did.

Ola Giwa: Yes, that’s exactly what I did.

Building Strong Partnerships

Ola Giwa: And honestly, being open and upfront with him, he also wants me to succeed because he is making money.

He doesn’t wanna lose the awesome tenant. We don’t have any issues. We’ve been together for, what, four, almost five years now. Mm-hmm. He wants me, I didn’t think about it that way until y’all, you know, pointed it out. He also wants me to succeed. How would I not go under? He had helped in a lot of ways. He had helped, I didn’t wanna say, but he is helped like give me like a month free to pay off some debt.

Mm-hmm. He is gone as far as that.

Landlord Collaboration and Support

Ola Giwa: And the new relationship that we have with the two unit is he paid for all the furnishing, he paid for everything. And not only, I mean this makes me want to cry. He also joined me in setting up [00:26:00] just to be in. Yeah, just to be on on time. Like he cleaned the garage boxes empty. Cut all the boxes and flatten it. Like, I’m like, I’m, I’m still like why is he here. But he did all that and checked up on me when the guest checked in on Saturday and said, did they have any complaints?

Annette Grant: Because now he’s your partner. And so he’s got more skin in the game now and that’s why he’s pitching in.

The Importance of Community and Advocacy

Annette Grant: And I also wanna share that I love that because this is an opportunity, there are so many landlords out there, truly. I mean, actually Sarah and I just got a call, um, on our hosting hotline from someone that’s interested in us, like arbitraging his issues. It’s like they’re interested, they’re nervous.

That’s why the, the, um, the um. The owner, the developer partnered with me. He was interested in it, but he didn’t have time. He didn’t know what the market was like. And he was like, if someone else will do the work, I’m, I wanna come along for the ride and learn. And he was learning. And that’s where I think, you know, you think you, you wanna cry that he’s helping you, but you’re helping him just as much too.

Um, by a, [00:27:00] I know you said, hey, maybe a free month’s rent, but he didn’t have any turnover in those units for four or five years, and that’s a big cost for mm-hmm. Um, whether it’s painting, carpet, cleaning, getting new, getting new tenants, paying someone to help him get those new tenants. So I do wanna shift like your mindset too, if you really have been an amazing partner to him, and that’s why he, he’s not giving you anything. He’s making smart business decisions.

Sarah Karakaian: He’s a smart kid for his, for himself. Yeah. You both are, you both are really smart. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So how’s it been going? It’s a great partnership. How’s that?

Ola Giwa: It’s a great partnership. Yeah. He’s, he’s like, he’s like a father to me. He’s, yeah, we are, you know?

Yeah. It’s been great. I’m, I’m happier now. Excited. And every single day, every time, no matter how busy I was, so busy the past two weeks, I still try to make our calls because, you know, it’s invaluable to me. You know, I learned something while on the, like, it’s a new unit, it’s a new, um, sector for me, like [00:28:00] bigger units, you know, I used to, I was on the call trying to learn like, what do I need?

Because you think in, in everybody’s eyes, oh, you’ve made it, you have seven units. You’re big, you’re making half a million. What, whatever it is. Like, you, you, you’re there, but. I’m still learning, I still learned two, two days ago from Sarah and about parent child listing. We’re still, you know, so that is what I have to like implement now and I’m still, I’m still a student and I appreciate that, you know, that’s the best decision I’ve ever made last year.

Annette Grant: Yeah. And, and what Ola is referring to is we have, um, weekly calls, group coaching calls, and that’s what she’s saying. Even with her busy schedule, even with launching new properties, she makes sure to show up because she can just be listening to us. She doesn’t have to be sitting there on camera. Um, but she’s still engaged in making sure that’s something important on her calendar to, to show up for.

Sarah Karakaian: And I will say that’s, and that’s something that we really admire about you, Ola. ’cause yes, there is an investment to join our mastery because we believe and we know it ’cause we invest in ourselves too, that the [00:29:00] transformation is in the transaction. You usually value. More when you put money on the line than when you consume a free podcast or a free YouTube video.

Right? That stuff gets you maybe motivated or an idea or two. But the thing about you, Ola, is that you not only invested the money to join us, and then you’ve continued that as a VIP member. But Ola, you show up so often and you’re in the Facebook group, uh, giving advice and receiving, asking for it as well.

And yeah, and you’ve been at this for quite some time now and your experience, but I just love how you’re still very, you’re always a student and you’re very vulnerable and you’re always asking questions and you’re just the, uh, an inspiration for, and not just in our industry, but this goes for any entrepreneur out there that you’re really never done learning.

And even from, you know, uh, people who are newer, sometimes I learn from people who just started, I’m like, I never thought about. Mm-hmm. It like that because I’m so close to it. I’ve always done it this way. So I’m always [00:30:00] very. Um, careful to ask, like, I do it this way, but what do you guys do? Because I’ve been doing it this way for so long, and I think that helps the group too, and we’re all just sharing different ideas about it.

Navigating Regulations and Ordinances

Sarah Karakaian: So I wanna pivot to your advocacy efforts and to what you’ve been doing in Houston. Talk to us about what’s been going on in Houston with regulations, with short-term rentals and how you decided to get

Ola Giwa: involved. Houston, I’ve been enjoying for a while now. We’ve been having a good time with no regulation, nothing.

And they started it around last year and they started, um, the whole Airbnb ban. But it’s not a ban. It’s kind of like regulations. ’cause we’ve had a lot of like, um, partying and like human trafficking and the, a lot of the, um, neighbors have been complaining. So I got a, I got a message, well, I saw it. I got a DM with a reel of one of the Airbnb hosts saying, oh, [00:31:00] they’re about to like, vote on an ordinance, you know?

Um. We need to like show up. Most host, we don’t have like an organization or anything. Most um, Airbnb hosts are very busy. They don’t, they’re not, you know, involved. But these neighbors have the time they go and complain ’cause they’re the ones hurt. We need to also show the good side of Airbnb. So I joined, I went to the city hall to, you know, to listen the next time.

So they keep doing these meetings to like re revisit. At the time I first started, there was no ordinance. We just talks and there were lots of mis misinformation. You, we could, we were just rolling our eyes lots and lots of misinformation, you know, and then I went again and when they had the ordinance, they had strict, unrealistic rules, you know, and then we were fighting them, nitpicking them.

You can’t, you can’t request for us to give, uh, $1 million insurance or different, different things that they were, they were, you know, so we were. We were, [00:32:00] um, like at like giving our feedback, not the word attack, but we’re giving our feedback on. And, and I spoke, you know, once in a while also, and give my feedback and say, we are, you know, I told them during the hurricane berry, I hosted a lot of guests that lost, you know, lost power and I didn’t even hike my price like the hotels were doing, you know?

Mm-hmm. A lot of my friends didn’t hike their price like the hotels we’re doing. We are good. We care about the, we’re not like a corporate thing. We are people, we’re houstonians that care about, you know, our community. So we just going there to highlight and showing up. In the beginning, the side of the, the complainers are more than Airbnb hos, you know, but little by little we started showing up and talking to each other.

And then one day I got a text from a, an Airbnb, um, gentleman, and he was like, do you have multiunit? I said, yes, I have duplexes. And it was like, well, they just put an amendment at the ordinance that only 25% of your multiunit can be used for SDR. That was [00:33:00] like a curve ball because it was never in the communication for over the years that we’ve been talking.

It was never, it was just an amendment. And he was like, we need to go to the city all today and talk about it. We, I’m looking for people where everybody, there’s nobody like, can you join? So it was just like three of us or or so showed up there. I cleared my calendar, went there, drove there. I was scared.

My world was like turning. I thought, I thought it was over, you know, and I was still working on these new units, you know, I’m here. I even saw the landlord and we’re talking about the new units. I didn’t even tell him. Yeah. I just like said, oh, I have a meeting at two. And then I ran to the, um, the city hall and.

Put my name down and went there and told them like, it feels like you’re attacking. It feels, I don’t know, maybe you intend to do, but it feels like you’re constantly attacking us. We’re doing good work here. We care about our services. We cater to cancer patients. ’cause we’re close to the MD Anderson, um, cancer care.

We cater to people that are, like, I had [00:34:00] guests stayed for me for four months. They, they lost their house for fire. They needed a place with their, for their dog and their kids. We cater to all these people that they cannot get that in hotels. I haven’t catered to like people that moved to Houston and they kept getting denied from tenants, from landlords, I’m sorry, from landlords because of their credit.

And every time he’s hopping around with his kids staying in my property because he couldn’t get approved, like we cater to people like this. And it seems like you’re trying to like, shut us down because why would you put this amendment from nowhere that I can. Only out of my seven, I can only operate one.

I just tell me to just go, I’m outta business. And when I said that they, I was shocked. They, they took down the amendment. They not only took out the amendment, they reassured me that they’re not trying to attack us. They know that we are good guests. They highlighted that we know you are good host. I mean you, we, we have good hosts that we’re trying to just solve these bad actors.

Right. And I was just trying to tell them that moving forward, you should remember [00:35:00] us when you’re thinking about things like this. You know, and I even had someone come to me after and say, I understand how you feel. We’re try, you know, and they actually asked for help. They were asking for questions. And honestly, this, I did this.

To be honest, I’m not even joking. I did this because I remember Sarah and Annette casually mentioning how when Columbus was trying to do their own regulation that you guys showed up. I didn’t, prior to this experience, I didn’t know that our voice mattered. Mm-hmm. I didn’t know I can say something and can directly.

Change the course, but knowing that you have done it before made me go, you know what, lemme just try it. And to, I was, to my surprise, they took out the amendment so there’s no 25% rule anymore. You know? So it, it really changed. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a pivot. It’s a, what’s it called? Inflection point in my life right now.

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Karakaian: Are you okay, Ola, if I share the link to your reel? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. Um, everyone, I’m gonna put a link to a reel that Ola made and it, it has a clip of her at [00:36:00] City Council speaking. And it’s, it’s really inspiring because there are so many hosts that do show up because we are in this for all the right reasons and.

That was a big reason why Annette and I started. Thanks for visiting. ’cause we had bad, bad actors here in Columbus. I mean, I think in every industry there are going to be people who are in business for the wrong reasons. And but you have to be louder than them. You gotta be louder. We gotta speak up, we gotta be louder.

We have to be able to say, I don’t like that. You know what I mean? We have to be able to kind of, um, uh, repel the people who don’t like what we have to say because we, you know, we, Annette and I don’t preach passive or easy or things like that because it is hard work and it is requires resiliency. No one wants to hear that.

Well, people do. People like you a lot. They wanna hear of it. Yeah.

Annette Grant: Yeah. So for you, Ola, besides that day, I do remember that day of when it’s time to quit, uh, what, what else has been just like an aha moment for you in this whole, that’s [00:37:00] really like, switch the trajectory for you though? Something else that you’ve, um, that wasn’t that like deep, the, let’s not go to the depths.

Let’s like, what’s a high where you were like, wait a sec, besides city council, like something that you were like, wait, I’m onto something here. This is, this is where I’m gonna keep going.

Ola Giwa: Ooh, there’s so much. Well, well my favorite, well, there’s two. Can I say two? Yeah.

Implementing Effective Hosting Strategies

Ola Giwa: One, one of my favorite was every time for the past three years, guests were like, can I check in for free?

Can I check in early? Can I check out late? And I’m as a, as a good guest of mine, as a good host, I’m always like, sure, sure. I just wanna care. I just want you to be happy. I just want you to like, you know, I just want you to like. Like me. Like me, yeah. Get five stars. Yeah. I don’t wanna disappoint you. I’m a recovering people pleaser, but that’s not, I just want you to be happy and love, you know, be comfortable.

Because I understand when I travel too, so I’m always giving them for free. And I think we are having one conversation, one in one of our meetings and you are like, you need to charge. And one thing about you guys is you are like, I’m gonna check up on you. Did you start charging, [00:38:00] put a one in the chat if you’ve ch if you started charging

Annette Grant: And you did though.

And you gave the results talk. Tell the audience The next month. Yeah, the next

Ola Giwa: month I told my assistant and I told like, we need to start charging. I don’t care. Just try it. I got the tip about the 50% of the nightly book and to our surprise, everybody was like, sure, sure. I thought it was a lot of money, but it was everybody.

We made like a thousand the next month on, you know, on just ask, just asking for money.

Sarah Karakaian: And to be fair, like I wanna like everyone listening. It’s not like if someone’s a check in like 30 minutes earlier, an hour early, like we’re still hospitable over here, but when people really ask to check in hours,

Annette Grant: I get in at noon and you’re like, well, I got. It’s got same day turns, we got things happening.

Sarah Karakaian: Right, right. It’s, and we were, we were coaching OLA or, or um, uh, gap nights too, or adjacent nights or something on YouTube channels. Like I think you meet adjacent nights, either one adjacent or gap nights selling if you have a, a night before that is available and offering it to them.

We told [00:39:00] Ola like, you gotta, like, this is a great way that they’ve already booked with you and so we didn’t have to increase our occupancy or our ADR like, or the price that you charged that night. You just have to add more value to that guest stay. And they’re, like you said, they’re have, ’cause have, have you experienced any negative feedback from that or has it been, has it been good?

Ola Giwa: Oh, it, it’s been like 99% positive and sometimes they don’t everyone had one person say, oh, that’s a lot. Even Vegas doesn’t do that. And then I had to explain and educate them that we have to block the night prior. We’re actually doing you a favor by block. ’cause we could make. Double of that, you know?

Mm-hmm. And then he, his response was positive. He was like, I understand, you know, now I get it. You understand? So that was the only time we had to push back. Yeah. But usually we always get people pay for it.

Annette Grant: So this is something that you have continued on and the compound effect of this, I cannot wait till the end of the year so we can see.

Yeah. Because this is the difference maker. These things are going to, I know. Be major to your bottom line. What’s the number? You [00:40:00] had two. What’s the second one?

Ola Giwa: The num, the second one was, I didn’t know there’s a habit. I didn’t even know what revenue management was or anything. And I think someone asked, asked a question about, um, using like Airbnb promotions.

And I think Wendy just casually just said, oh, I, it didn’t work for me. Or I use rule sets. And I’m like, what is rule set? And then she shared her screen and showed us exactly what she does. And I tried it that night. Woke up the next morning with a lot of notifications. My place was getting booked. Rule sets are like a key.

I wake up every Monday and do the rule sets for, for my empty weekends and my empty nights, and I have a system now whereby, ’cause my booking window is 10.

Annette Grant: Oh, talk about the booking window.

Sarah Karakaian: Love it. Okay. You know what it is? I like it.

Ola Giwa: If my booking window is 10 days and I don’t have any booking, I know that I’m in a, you know, so I do the rule sets and it is been working.

That has been like my bread and [00:41:00] butter. Like I love that my occupancy is so high because of that. And I’m not in the, my 80, I’m not in the cheap, you know, I’m in the 75th percentile and I’m still in like in the 70 to 80% occupancy.

Annette Grant: Woo. Okay. I just love that everything that you just went over from early check-in, late checkout gap nights to booking window, your percentage, your percentile in the market, that is what we talk about inside HBM, and those are the numbers.

That move the needle. Those are the things that move the needle for hosts. And this matters if it is, um, your own property that you host. If you are hosting, uh, you know, hundreds of miles away, if you have one property, if you have five properties, if you have 10 properties, this is the stuff that you have to know that it takes the work, like you said, every Monday, right.

You’re, you’re doing this. Yes. And it’s about the systems. And that’s another thing that we’re [00:42:00] really passionate about inside our membership, is making sure that you set up the systems so that you can stay on top of this and know these because all the numbers that you just said also are changing frequently.

Yes, correct. And so you’ve got to stay correct. That’s where we wanna be really open and honest too. A lot of people want to just, you know, set it and forget it. But even something called rule sets, you’re like, oh, it’s a rule. I never have to change it. Right? Like it’s just gonna stay. There’s things that have to always dynamically be changing.

You have to be working on it. And I love, like Ola always comes to calls like, can somebody roast, she wants people to roast her listing because she knows when as she like updates her listings, she can, um. You know, she needs a fresh set of eyes to see.

Sarah Karakaian: And Coach Wendy, what she busy coach Wendy. Coach Wendy loves to roast a listing.

Ola Giwa: I love, I love, I love the roasting.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, but you know what that means? Your ego, you have like no ego. No. And that’s the thing that is tough for hosts. Mm I And I get it. You invest so much money, so much money and time into setting up your property and your listing and you think it’s the bees knees, and then someone, a potential guest or someone who’s just [00:43:00] not as close to it, is like, hmm, those pictures have a yellow tint to them.

Or like, why is that the one that you’re like trying to hook me with? It is not good. You have to be like, great, what does what? And that’s what, that’s kind of the attitude. You not kind of, that is the attitude that you have when it comes to, you just wanna do what’s going to work and move the needle. And that is what is so great about you.

What is next, Ola?

Future Goals and Continuous Improvement

Sarah Karakaian: What’s next on your agenda? What’s this? What is 2025 gonna bring to you?

Ola Giwa: I’m trying to, first of all, ’cause I, it sounds like I’m a very good student and I do everything you say. That’s not true. I, I, I don’t even do up to half ’cause I have, I haven’t even started with the email marketing. I haven’t started with like, I haven’t done half of what you get.

You got and I’m already like, you know, profiting so I know I can squeeze the juice and get more. I know there’s two more juice in the orange. Yeah. So I’m, so 2025 is the intensity and doing actually what you tell us to do, you know, like with the, um, the, what’s it called? The damage waiver? Mm-hmm. I keep putting two in the chat when you

ask for

Ola Giwa: the one.

Annette Grant: Hey, you’re honest and [00:44:00] I wanna, I do wanna share this part of your story, Ola. ’cause I think it’s very important. You are a mom. I mean, you were like basically, you know, giving birth when you joined us, you know, like, so I wanna share with everybody that all hosts are busy hosts. So if you feel like you’re out there alone, maybe raising kids or working full time.

I mean, Ola has two kids, like right when we hopped on, she’s like, okay, one’s at school, one’s at nap time. I can do this. So it is possible. You can squeeze. That’s what’s great about hosting though, these little tweaks that you need to do. The stuff that moves the needles, that needles, I think I’m supposed to just say one needle, but you can do it in little, um, compartments of time.

Concentrated, um, compartments of time. We had somebody that, we had, Sarah and I had a, um, roadmap call with somebody last. She’s a doctor and she was in her car during her shift, you know, making it happen. And so I just wanna share that you’re very busy too, but you can continually be working like small tweaks.

’cause some of the stuff that you [00:45:00] just talked about, you can do it once and once you’ve done it, it it’s easier to, to

Sarah Karakaian: loop in. I’m gonna patch you on the back too, because. There is a, there’s so much you can do in business, you know, like you can be perfecting your email marketing for years and years. I mean, there are people on marketing teams and companies, that’s all they do is just emails.

So it is fair to you that you’re gonna master your rule sets you’re gonna master. Right. Made the biggest impact. Yeah. And that, you know, then you’re gonna make sure you have a system for it. Make sure that system working well and you’re

Annette Grant: gonna fight for your right to

Sarah Karakaian: host for first your ’cause. Don’t wanna lose the business job.

Yeah. It takes time to build an empire and that’s what, no one wants to hear it, but it’s true. And so, and you gotta keep showing up. You gotta keep learning. You gotta not have an

Annette Grant: ego. It’s a lot. So we’re gonna do email marketing. We’re gonna do Yes. In-house damage waiver program.

Yes.

Annette Grant: You. Have your direct booking site.

Yeah. So I know we’re gonna continue to work on that. And the emails will help there. And I mean, before, those are things too. If you’re listening, if you’re not [00:46:00] familiar with booking window, if you’re not familiar with a damage wave, in-house damage waiver program, um, the what percentile you are in the market, that is what we teach.

That’s the stuff that you’ll become familiar with. And plus you get to hang out with rock stars like

Ola Ola,

Annette Grant: because you can’t see her right now. But she has the most amazing smile, big smile that you cannot help, but just, you know, she’s like a array of sunshine when she smiles. And she is someone that is just constantly improving.

So she’s pushing everybody to get better.

Branding and Final Thoughts

Sarah Karakaian: Why don’t you share with everyone how they can reach out to you, Ola, but as you do that, can you share how you came up with your, your brand? And your name. I love it.

Ola Giwa: I was in the hospital. I think I just had my C-section, and I was like trying different, I was trying different names.

I just know that I wanted my, um, my guest to feel, to sleep and forget and just hit the snooze button. So, so I called it the snooze lane.

Sarah Karakaian: I, I love it. It’s so [00:47:00] playful. I’ve never, I’ve yet to come across. I’m sure there are, but I’ve yet to come across a company that has the word snooze in it. Like I, it’s just, it’s great.

It’s casual, it’s just snooze, but mm-hmm. But ho but hospitable, you know what I mean? Like, well, the white noise machine called Snooze. Do you know that? I don’t know that there’s a white noise.

Ola Giwa: There’s a Reakfast company too. Yeah, there’s a white noise

Annette Grant: machine called Snooze, but it’s SNOS, I believe. Or it’s, or it’s SO.

Ut as, yeah, it’s like, it’s a play on. It’s not like, and Olas is actually snooze lane, like the,

Sarah Karakaian: so tell

Annette Grant: correct pronunciation or spelling pitch

Sarah Karakaian: your pitch, your company pitch, a direct booking site. Tell us where to go when we’re coming to Houston. Okay?

Ola Giwa: So when you’re coming to Houston, if you want a five star hotel, but homey experience, so check out www.snoozelane.com and we have, we have the best.

I love it in Houston. Dare I say,

Sarah Karakaian: you dare say yes. So good. Ola, thank you so much for sharing your story and your time and your struggles and your [00:48:00] wins. I know you’re gonna help so many hosts out there conquer that next hill that is inevitably in front of them. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian. I’m

Annette Grant: Annette Grant, and together we are Thanks for Vistiing