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464 Hosting Hotline

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 and this is the Hosting Hotline. 

Sarah Karakaian: If get your hosting questions answered here on the hosting hotline, just go to hosting hotline.com, ask your question, and we’re gonna answer it right here on the podcast every Tuesday. That’s hosting hotline.com. And today we’ve got fun one from Joanna. She’s a little firecracker.

Hosting Hotline Caller: Hey, you guys, you are the best, and by the way, being able to record a message and send it to you. Also amazing. Um, thank you for all your YouTube videos and you’re just super clear everything you’re saying clear. I, I wish I could say that about a lot of, um, people. But anyway, my question is, I have a zero design sense.

Well, I mean, I can walk in and say, oh, this is beautiful, but I, I’m horrible. Like if I try, I don’t know, hodgepodge, my brain just is not working in that way. And so, we got a property. [00:02:00] I just wanna know, do we. Use like, uh, interior designer, or do we use like one of those, staging companies that maybe sell the furniture?

Or like, how do we get it furnished so that it’s not insane looking? And then also second question, do you guys, I think I saw on one of your YouTube videos like, were you property managed? But I’m like, wait, maybe you don’t do that because I feel like you have a lot of properties yourselves and you do all these podcasts, or I mean these YouTube videos, but um, or can you recommend.

Someone that does manage them the way you guys do like that just basically thinks of everything. Alright, thank you so much. Alright, bye.

Sarah Karakaian: Joanna, thank you so much for calling in and for all of the energy. 

Annette Grant: And the compliments. compliments, we’ll receive those. Yes. Thank you. 

Sarah Karakaian: I love that she’s asking this question because gone are the days of being able to be hodgepodgy or super simple with short-term rentals being thoughtful.

I’m not saying we have to be, [00:03:00] I guess the opposite simple is. Complex, and it doesn’t have to be complex, but it does to be thoughtful, Joanna, and already invested so much money in the real estate. Sometimes people can feel the pinch financially, and this is kind of where they start pulling back and skimping and it’s like, oh my gosh, you’re so close to the finish line.

Make sure that you do a holistic job, especially when it design, because that is what’s going to attract your renters and your and your guests and help decide. Your rate and the revenue that could potentially bring into your property.

Annette Grant: When I got my first property. Joanna, I am much like you of, I know when I see good design, but I cannot create. The masterpieces. And so I knew that was important for me to invest in. And I at the time, ’cause this is quite some time ago, I had a friend that was, um, I knew she could design, she wasn’t specifically an interior designer, but I [00:04:00] always loved the spaces that she put together.

I knew she went to art school, so she had some basic, basic skills. And so I did ask her. To help me design my first property. So that was me going out to my own network folks that I knew that could potentially, that had the talent that could help me. However, fast forward, there are actually businesses, companies that specialize in short term rental design now, and they know how it directly impacts your return on investment.

Like I knew that. It would, but I didn’t have the, I didn’t know the math at the time, but lucky for you, there are now designers that specialize in short-term rental design.

Sarah Karakaian: Yes. So, Joanna, we are gonna recommend that you do a. Exploratory call with somerled and their website somerleddesigns.com.

Why [00:05:00] we like them is not only are they real estate investors themselves, one of the founders has a. Has experience marketing and the other one has experience in interior design. So I just love that they’re bringing all these facets that matter to getting short-term rental convert online into, you know, from lookers to bookers your 

Annette Grant: And they are investors themselves in short-term rentals. So that’s a, a secondary thing there. Um, once you have a call with them, I know you also. in your question stagers, so I I will little caution there. Stagers, if they’re staging for sale, Sarah, and I’ve known this because we’ve worked with a lot of stagers over time, they, you have to make sure that whoever you hire. Has short-term rental experience because someone staging a home for sale is very different than someone staging a home for overnight guests. And so we don’t want you to invest in someone [00:06:00] that hasn’t designed for a short-term rental and then falls short, and then you’re spending more money, for maybe some areas that they didn’t shop for or didn’t design, quote unquote design for. So beware.

Sarah Karakaian: yeah, the stagers are, they’re not gonna, their expertise may not, there might stagers now, right. Like shaking fists at they have two different areas of their business. And that’s completely fair. It’s been a long time since short term rentals went from being something that maybe not as, uh, common of a service that stagers could offer to now where it might be. But, remember, Joanna, your property is gonna get commercial use, so you wanna make sure that you are investing. In the bed frame, in the mattress, in the in the sheets. Get qual, get a quality, quality bed. Do not skimp on that. Get a quality sofa. Make sure that all of the amenities that you put in the shower and in the kitchen are also not skimped on because these are the foundational items that a guest really pays for and why they’re choosing to stay with you [00:07:00] versus potentially a hotel. And so those sorts of things are also going to get used a lot. And so you wanna make sure it, it upholds to all that use when, and I want you to reach out to somerled and get a consultation call with them. But I do think that you should also interview another designer or

Annette Grant: Yeah. Locally. We don’t know where you’re located, but go old school, go Google put in short term rental design your city. Um, interior designer. Your city see, If you put in short term rental design, though, hopefully in your city, someone pops up and that’s person, they’re paying attention. They have the search engine optimization on their website. But absolutely, you know, take a look at their work, book, those consultations. This is the work that needs to be done. We’re so pumped for you because this will impact your bottom line. And the next question that you asked

Sarah Karakaian: before you get into that one, just one more thing on the, on the design front is, Joanna. 

If, if And I’m just gonna be a voice for the [00:08:00] designers. If you get a little sticker shock, just remember that you, they have an entire team really doing, hopefully research on not just making it look good, but paying attention to the aspects of the rental that, are going to convert for you over time.

They’re really helping you set up business. Okay? And so you’re gonna get a return on that design investment. And if you are hiring the right person, they’re gonna put your money in the right places. And for that, they should be compensated. Appropriately. So if you’re sticker shocked at first, just give yourself a day or two to really think about it, dissect it, and remember that you can always go back to them and say, Hey, I really wanna invest highly in the bedding, the sofa, the kitchen of bath, and maybe like one or two walls so that when I have photos, they’re really gonna pop online and stick out. But where can we save a little bit on this invoice, on this estimate, so that I can, I want to work with you, but I’ve gotta stay within this, you know, within this budget. 

Annette Grant: And TFE Pro tip, please check [00:09:00] out  Minoan. Because when you are purchasing these things, if you know you could take advantage of the savings there. So I would also loop in Minoan when you’re doing, um, your, actual ordering and then your question about property management. Woo, this is right. Uh, just as important as the design. again, I would go to in your market search for, short term rental property manager, co-host, I would, this one where you are gonna want to interview several p roperty managers, if that’s what you’re looking for. You could, we are, we are huge advocates for self-hosting, so we believe you can do this yourself. We encourage you to, because this will leave more money in the bottom line for you. So that’s our first thing too. you haven’t, we have a hosting handbook. you wanna grab that, we’ll put the link in the show notes. Definitely a great place for any new host to start, whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring someone, but [00:10:00] you’re gonna wanna interview that person. You’re gonna wanna interview homeowners that work with them too. That’s a, that’s a whole other loaded question there. But you definitely wanna make sure that you’re working with short-term rental specific property manager and they understand. The biggest thing, not only how they’re gonna care for your property, how they’re gonna care for the guests, but also you wanna ask them about their revenue management strategy,

Sarah Karakaian: Revenue management strategy, preventative maintenance strategy, what are their inspections like post guest checkout, because guest to guest, you sure property is being reset when comes safety. So yes, do your due diligence there, Joanna. I don’t know where you’re located, but you let us know, you can reach out to hi@thanksvisiting.com. Yeah, we might know someone that could help you in that area. 

Annette Grant: Yeah, let know where you’re located. 

Sarah Karakaian: But Joanna, keep us posted. I wanna see pictures when this thing goes live. Again, email us. hi@thanksforvisiting.com. We are invested now and thanks for calling into the hosting hotline. Again, if you [00:11:00] all wanna get your questions answered here in the hosting hotline, hostinghotline.com, ask question, we’ll answer it here, the podcast every Tuesday. Y’all love tuning in and so be a part of the conversation. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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

Sarah Karakaian: Thanks For Visiting.