STRSS 02 – Traveling the world as an Airbnb digital nomad w/ Kate Birtch

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Traveling the world as an Airbnb digital nomad w/ Kate Birtch

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to travel all around the world, stay at Airbnb’s, and find opportunities to invest in the local area?

In this short term rental success story, I speak with Kate Birtch, who over the course of 6 years has purchased and managed 6 vacation rental properties ranging from Hawaii, Vietnam, Texas, and Cape Town South Africa.

Kate, who runs a successful short term rental insurance startup called Property Protect, has been able to travel and find opportunities in foreign countries to Airbnb.

Kate is an opportunist who likes to identify herself as a digital nomad. She is a big believer that anyone who is interested in investing in vacation rentals overseas should do it as she has also found success in foreign short term rental management.

Video Transcript

00:00:00

A lot of hosts, you know, take off and they do well and they add one property and the second and the fourth and the sixth, and then you’re in this, you know, swing of things and you don’t know how you can get out or how you can, you know, scale things down. So you have a life again, because you feel like that this is your full-time job

 

00:00:17

Episode, two of Airbnb success stories. Welcome back to Airbnb success stories. I’m your host, Julian Miata. This is a show where I talked to hosts about their journeys and starting and growing a short-term rental business. My goal is that you’ll be able to walk away with practical information that will help you become a better host and learn how to scale your business. Since we are new podcast reviews would greatly help us grow. So please go on over to iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, wherever you’re actively listening. And please leave us an honest review and we’ll feature it on the next step. Sowed, whether it’s positive or constructive today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kate Birtch, who runs a Short Term property protection company called property protect and has been on the Airbnb platform for six years. Kate identifies herself as a digital nomad. She’s been able to travel the world and do work remotely.

 

00:01:04

Thanks to her short term rentals. Kate is an experienced Airbnb vet and his own and managed properties all over the globe, including Hawaii, Vietnam, Texas, and Cape town, South Africa. If you’d like to see my notes for today’s episode, then going over to Airbnb ss.com backslash. Or if you like my show notes for every episode sent directly to your inbox, then going over to Airbnb S s.com backslash show notes to subscribe with all that being said on this week’s conversation. So welcome everybody to Airbnb success stories today. I have Kate Birtch previously was Kate young of, but you’re gonna have, am I saying that correctly?

 

00:01:43

Yeah. Okay.

 

00:01:43

Perfect. All right. Okay. Then she recently just got married. So congratulations, Kate, Kate, would you mind letting the audience know a little bit about who you are and what inspired you to get into short-term rentals?

 

00:01:56

Sure. So I have a background as a marketer. I’ve been a host for about six years now, primarily with listings in Hawaii. I originally rented a house from a landlord in Hawaii and he allowed us to rent out that house. And so that afforded me to travel. And from that, I was able to save up enough money to buy my first property, second property, third property, some of them in the states, some of them overseas. And so I have a few rentals that I run myself personally still. And I’m also the founder of property protect, which is an automated damage insurance policy that we offer for hosts or property managers. It’s a $5 flat rate per night policy that will protect you from any sort of guests damage with that.

 

00:02:52

Wow, that’s really interesting. So what, what came first did the, you said that the Airbnb started and then that caused you to want get into the property protects the, the insurance business, which I imagine is very complicated in itself, but what, what kind of inspired you to get into the insurance for, for Airbnb specifically?

 

00:03:13

Well, I, I had my first guest damage case after four years of hosting, you know, four years of bliss and, you know, phone notifications of new reservations coming in, you know, at things couldn’t be better. I ended up having a guest come into my Austin House for south by Southwest, which is a big music and tech conference in Austin, Texas. And he booked at the last minute at the peak rates. And he ended up peeing on my couch, which was really unfortunate. I think he just liked the party a little too much. And with that, you know, I went through the booking platform and I, you know, took pictures, documented, everything, submitted the information that went back and forth with them for two weeks. And I didn’t really get anywhere with, with their internal staff. And so I, they ended up closing my case and that really kind of let me down because I felt like, you know, I’m putting my house out there, I’m opening it up to all these different guests. I’m also profiting they’re profiting. But when the time came to have some sort of protection and coverage, they kind of weren’t there. So I read through all the terms and conditions, and I realized that there wasn’t really a solution out there for hosts and managers like myself to protect their property. And so with a marketing background and a little bit of tech hacking, we were able to develop the platform. And so now we offer a $5 flat rate damage policy for

 

00:04:46

I’d like, I’d like to talk a little bit about that because I know that Airbnb has that $1 million insurance policy and they also, you know, it’s hit or miss with the claims. So why, you know, why Frank being on your couch, how did he get away with that this time? You know, that that’d be pretty disappointing if you spend a lot of money on that or any, if anybody peed on my couch, I’d be, I’d be pretty, pretty upset, but how come, how come I didn’t go through that, that time that you believe,

 

00:05:17

You know, I think as the booking platforms grow and they just get bigger, you know, you have different inconsistencies with the customer service when you call in as a host. And you know, it’s not to say one’s better than the other, but when you got down to the bottom of, you know, submitting documentation, and this is what happened, and I even had Frank admit to the damage, you know, he said, I’m so sorry, what do I owe you? It comes down to who the merchant of record is for the transaction of your deposit. And it turns out that was a lot of the booking platforms. They’re actually the merchant of record. And with that, that means that they control the flow of the money coming in and going out. So even if, you know, I have Frank admit to the damage, the booking platform said, you know, no, we don’t think this we’re going to have to, you know, reimburse for this. And so they basically closed the claim. So that kind of left me high and dry. And so the reason why I founded property protect was to always have another layer there just in case, you know, because it’s a little difficult when the booking platforms represent both the host and the guests at the same time. So I just wanted to make sure that we offered something where hosts have peace of mind,

 

00:06:30

Right. You know, being, being, being a real estate agent myself, you know, there’s that, there’s that term called dual agency where, you know, you can’t really, you can’t really have a side when you’re representing, you know, both sides. So you really want to find someone, you know, you want to get into that agency agreement. So like my clients, they would want to get into a buyer’s agency agreement with me or a selling selling agreement because I can, I can confidently represent them. But when you start getting into that dual representation, like Airbnb represents the hosts, but it also represents the guests. And you know, that there’s that ambiguous lines. So what are some ways that, that, you know, having that experience that you do with the insurance, what, what are some ways that hosts can protect themselves in, in case of Frank comes and pees on their, on their couch?

 

00:07:21

You know, one of the easiest things that hosts or managers can do is simply write, check out instructions. And I can’t stress that enough. Not very many hosts actually use those. And all it is, is a list of simple tasks that you send the day before to your guests the day before they check out and asks them, you know, please put all the trash in the trash, can, you know, very simple things, please, you know, strip the beds of the linens or put all the towels on top of the washer or, you know, very, just simple, but something small that holds the guests accountable. I found that I’ve had very minimal damage with, you know, all of my units and I have units all over the world where if we ask that of the guests, it still kind of keeps them on the hook a little bit saying, you know, you can’t just walk out of my house and leave it at a disaster.

 

00:08:12

So I think that is one tip. I think also, you know, going with your gut feeling, if you have a really bad feeling about a guest, it’s not worth the money and the headache, we just had a customer recently that said, oh, I should have listened to my gut. And I thought I said the same thing about Frank when he came into my, but I think also one last thing that people could do is, you know, employ different types of security measures, where they have got equipment, like a ring, you know, video camera or noise. Awares like a noise party detecting device. So using those types of measures, just to kind of have some sort of checks and balances in place with guests, most of the guests are great, you know, 95, 90 7% of the time, you’re going to have wonderful people, but you just have those things in place for the one or two characters that come through every now and then.

 

00:09:06

Okay. And in the case that you do get a Frank, how could you prevent, how could you, when a claim against, you know, through Airbnb to be able to get that couch, like if you could go back and you could re recreate that scenario, how, how would you been able to have come ahead or would you have been able to,

 

 

00:09:26

Yeah, I don’t believe that there’s a hundred percent guarantee way. And even though they, they state that they have a guarantee program, it’s not because it’s not guaranteed. They have, you know, the jurisdiction to say yes or no, whether they want to reimburse for any damage or theft at the end of the day. So things that I would recommend doing to give you a higher probability of being reimbursed would be to make sure you document and open a claim right away. And if you notice any damage or theft second would be to get some sort of guests acknowledgement, documented in the app or on a text message. I would refrain from phone calls because you can’t have that documented. And then third just have persistence with following up with the booking platform, whether it’s Airbnb or HomeAway, VRVO booking.com and just stay on their customer service.

 

01:10:23

Because I think when I went through my claim, I probably called them close to 50 times over the course of two weeks. So just, you know, being persistent and, and, you know, some things are just the cost of doing business, you know, where you have a woman that takes her makeup off with your white towel and you’re just angry. Cause it ruined your towel. Those are things that kind of come with, you know, being in the hospitality business that you just have to kind of shut off and say, okay, well for every 20 guests, I get one bad one. And you know, just the more that you can set your expectations like that, the less, you know, heartfelt that’s going to be when that unfortunate event comes up. Okay.

 

01:11:03

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for all those awesome tips. What was, what was the most challenging part of starting your Airbnb, your, your Airbnb, and becoming a host?

 

01:11:14

When I started about six years ago, I was getting tons and tons of inquiries and one of the things that was challenging, but I also learned right away was how to automate guest responses and figuring out how to have a tailored approach to those guests. Because in the beginning they were coming to Hawaii, they were very excited. They wanted to, you know, find out where all of these tips and recommendations to, you know, see who I like a local where, and so figuring out a way where I wasn’t losing my mind with a couple of different listings and saying the same thing over and over and over again, but making it feel personalized to them where they feel special because they’re also spending a lot of money with you. And you know, it’s not, you know, you’re not being inconvenienced by, you know, sent, taking two minutes to respond to one of their questions. So really trying to figure out how to automate your processes, whether it’s with your housekeeper and sharing the Google calendar with them. So they know when to come and go, whether it’s, you know, setting a check-in guide to your guests and then check out guide. But all of those types of little tweaks that you can do in your process just to make your life a little bit easier.

 

01:12:29

Are there any key things that you’ve kind of put into your, your house, your house, a manual that has kind of helped because you, you want to create that authentic. You want to create that experience for the person, like you said, people are going to Hawaii because they’re on vacation. They want to have a beautiful time. And last thing that they want is some, some hosts that’s not communicating with them or just saying, you know, just, you know, Google, Google, where, where to go eat. Like you want to create that experience. So what have you done to be able to create a more personal experience while also saving yourself time by automating it?

 

01:13:02

One of the things that I did in the beginning was I actually stayed in another Airbnb in my market. And I looked at what that host was doing. And then I figured, okay, if I’m a guest in a new place, what would I want? I would want rental car information. I want to know what taxis, I want to know places to eat. I want to know, like off the beaten path places, if I want to explore or the high touristy areas. And so I put together like live like a local and Hawaii portion of my check-in guide. And it gives them, you know, tips on different restaurants or different hikes or different beaches to go to that a normal tourist coming from a hotel would never, ever have exposure to. And we also kind of, we, we get a lot of people on their honeymoon or on anniversaries or family trips. So we try to tailor the check-in process for them a little bit differently and more special. If it’s a honeymoon, you know, we’ll ask if they want champagne and Mac nut chocolates or flowers, it’s an anniversary we ask if they want a beach somewhere to get photography done. So really trying to tailor to what, why they’re visiting and, and if there’s anything that we can do to help make that a little bit more special.

 

01:14:12

I, I want to stay at one of your places, Kate, just be like, yeah, can you get me a bottle of ship paid? And let me know where you can get some, some Instagram photo people for us. Yeah,

 

01:14:24

Absolutely.

 

01:14:27

Are there any specific things that you do to set your properties apart?

 

01:14:33

You know, it’s, it’s a lot more competitive nowadays than it was six years ago. We just try to be as responsive as possible. And I know that’s a very simple thing, but at the end of the day, if somebody’s got a question and they’re on vacation, they don’t want to wait an hour or two hours or the next day to get an answer. And so I think with us, we’ve got like a hundred percent response rate in terms of what does the guests need kind of like the w hotel. And, and I don’t want to come off like a hotel or compare us to that level of service, but it’s kind of like, what do you need? How can we help your stay? You know, be the best it can be. And so I think with that, we get a lot of good feedback from guests. Like we were, you know, Kate’s team was super responsive. I’ve also over the years employed another kind of concierge type assistant into my guests days. So they’re the first point of contact. And even though I’m still very involved with seeing all the messages and, you know, Chi-Ming them with certain comments and messages as well, they are, their sole job is just to be there for the guests.

 

01:15:41

So concierge you’re, you’re employing virtual assistance.

 

01:15:45

We don’t have a virtual assistant for that. We actually have somebody on the ground, but I do use a virtual assistant for guests communications before and after their stay, just to follow up with them, see if there’s anything that they need, you know, beforehand when they get there. And then afterwards, just following up to make sure their stay went well. And if, you know, asking them if they wouldn’t mind giving us a review

 

01:16:08

Now, virtual assistance. Typically when I think of, of having virtual assistants, you know, I, I think it’s maybe someone that’s kind of scaled up and they have like hundreds and hundreds, but you have four. So where, when did you kind of realize that it’s like, okay, I need a virtual assistant to be able to help relieve some of the pressure from, from your other duties.

 

01:16:31

Sure. When we started to acquire properties in other countries and time zones played a big issue, that’s when we decided like, Hey, we don’t want to be woken up in the middle of the night anymore to respond to a guest, but the guest also deserves a quick response. So trying to facilitate time zone coverage was, was a big reason why we, we brought on a virtual assistant, you know, a lot of hosts, you know, take off and they do well and they add one property and the second and the fourth and the sixth, and then you’re in this, you know, swing of things and, and you don’t know how you can get out or how you can, you know, scale things down. So you have a life again, because you feel like that this is your full-time job. I don’t for a lot of people. It is. And for some, they’re still, you know, hobby kind of hosts. So, you know, figuring out processes and figuring out how you can streamline things or delegate specific communications was key for us to still be able to have family time, you know, on the weekends, without our guests suffering or having, you know, any sort of communication gaps.

 

01:17:36

And, and how, how did you go about finding your, your VA?

 

01:17:40

So I actually have a friend in the real estate business. His name is Frank Salice, and he actually has a VA training business where he trains up VA’s specifically for real estate. A lot of them are focused on, on regular real estate transactions, but he also has some that are familiar with short-term vacation rentals. And I hired one of his people. And what he does is kind of grooms them, you know, with different apps and software that they’re familiar with, brings them over to you, stays on board for 30 days. And then after 30 days, they were kind of yours. You take them to run with their, your employee and he can still pop in and assist, you know, however you need. But the woman that we hired from his program is fantastic. And she’s been working with us for over a year now, I think.

 

01:18:36

Okay. So that that’s, that’s, it’s, it’s not just someone that can disappear one day. This is kind of like someone that almost like it’s an employee, like they they’ve worked with you, they know your properties and, but they’re also working for other people.

 

01:18:49

It just depends on how much, like you need them. I had mine start on a part-time basis in the beginning, but now she’s full-time so it just depends. How many properties do you have? What are your needs? Are you wanting to, you know, start to ramp up direct bookings as well? And so you need lots of social media exposure and coverage and content that you’re pushing out, or are you just managing platform bookings, you know, or do you have a channel manager and you want to make sure you’re maximizing occupancies. That just kind of depends on your goals.

 

01:19:18

Okay. And what I thought was pretty interesting was you said that you have a concierge, someone that’s on the ground in that area. Can you, you mind explaining a little bit about that, how that has been able to better assist you and how, how you’ve been able to train them and work with them to be able to help your guests?

 

01:19:35

Sure. So we hired a company called IRC in Hawaii and they’re actually a family run business and they have, they take care of our housekeeping and maintenance. So they’re kind of added into Airbnb as a cohost, and they’re able to see all the guests communications, they message the guests and introduce themselves, you know, the day that check-in and give their phone number. And if they need, if the guests need anything, they call the concierge directly, you know, unkept in the loop. If there’s any thing that’s significant. Like last month, I think we had a fridgerator just die from being old. And, you know, they went, picked up the new refrigerator, coordinated with the guests to deliver it went out. And actually we part repurchased all the food that was in the refrigerator for the guests. And, you know, the guests was happy after that. And so those are types of things that make my life as an owner investor a lot easier, you know, as we’re, we scale up with more properties over time

 

02:20:37

Now, is this IRC as, are they the same as like a property management company? Or are they, do they take the same rate, which is, I think around like 20% or is it a little bit more because it’s a concierge personal a business.

 

02:20:53

We have like a, a tiered scale with them where we have like a cleaning rate. We have a concierge rate, they do have like a full hands-on property manager as well, but I’m still kind of hands-on, you know, involved with the guests. So we haven’t scaled that to that level yet, but it’s not the typical like soup to nuts owners absentee. And there’s a flat percentage. We don’t do that yet, but that is a possibility for other owners, you know, they were interested.

 

02:21:20

And do you, do you utilize property management styles throughout, because you said that you also have a property in Cape town, South Africa.

 

02:21:29

Yeah. That one, we actually have family there, so it’s a little bit easier to manage. We just do it ourselves there as well. I did have a property in Vietnam where I hired staff on the ground and they manage the housekeeper and we had like a receptionist as well. So I did have a point person there, but for most of our properties right now, we’re just kind of doing it as an owner. And then with some small assistance from some team members that we hire

 

02:21:59

Now, I think that’s really interesting about UK, because I think most of the people that are in the Airbnb space are more localized. They’re more in CONUS in the, in the U S how, how is it running Airbnb businesses overseas and how, you know, how did, how do you find these boots on the ground? Like in Vietnam, I know that you you’ve traveled and you’ve, you’ve met these people, but let’s say, you know, my myself, like I want to start an Airbnb in Thailand. How, how do you go about doing that?

 

02:22:30

Sure. You should totally do it. And it’s possible. First of all, you know, you can actually start to get involved just by joining some of the host groups on Facebook. I know that you guys have a host group. There’s some country-specific host groups. I actually had a friend of a friend who ended up being the manager of my place in Vietnam, but she was also very involved with the Airbnb host group of Vietnam. And Denang specifically. And so with that, if you wanted to get started, I think one good step would be to join the Airbnb host group and say, Hey, I’m, you know, I’m foreign investor. I want to look at owning or renting a property overseas. And I’m looking for a co-host or manager. And most of the time, the moderators of that group or the group members would be really open to talking with you, sharing their stories, giving you like localized markets, specific information that you need.

 

02:23:27

And, you know, you kind of go from there, but I would highly suggest hiring somebody in the market because there’s all sorts of things that you have no familiar familiarity with, you know, in terms of taxes or permitting, you know, guests check-in check-out procedures, like it’s different in Vietnam, where we have to take a picture of every passport of every guest that checks into our place because we’re held liable for it by the government, if something were to happen to that guest. So you definitely want to have that person that has that local Intel working with you and on your team.

 

02:24:01

So you don’t, you don’t suggest going into any foreign country alone and trying to set up an Airbnb. You suggest partnering with local investors in that area.

 

02:24:11

I would at first, just so you don’t make an expensive mistake, you can go in, but you just want to make sure, you know, like currency exchange rates, how does the banking work? You know, what happens if you can’t get a guest out of your property and you need to evict them, you know, you really want to have somebody that kinda knows all those ins and outs that, you know, with what happens with an unforeseen experience rather than like, this is going to be a home run. Everybody else around me has a hundred percent occupancy. I would plan more on the kind of cautious side in a foreign market, especially because, you know, it’s a lot of money sometimes that you put into these properties to get them up and going. You just wouldn’t want to lose that. So,

 

02:24:55

And I’m sure that we could have a full conversation about the, the intricacies of, of dealing with like the liabilities and the, you know, the, the, the taxes and, you know, the claims and stuff like that with, with countries overseas, I’d be, I’d, I’d love to maybe get you on for another episode, just talking about foreign countries in the future, if you’d be okay with that, but let’s, let’s go back to you starting and kind of growing your business. What was the most challenging part of growing and scaling your Airbnb business up to up to four properties? I believe that you had at one point or six yet at one point,

 

02:25:32

Well, we had six at one point and we sold two. The most challenging was finding new capital. I think I would have grown even faster. There were other ways for me to acquire new properties. And I think, you know, as the home sharing and, you know, gig economy kind of expands, you know, the mortgage industry will evolve, but at the time, over the last couple of years, it’s been really hard to find money to, to buy and acquire new properties. I think now there’s a company called host financial. Now that actually lends to people that are wanting to acquire a short-term vacation rental. And so I would definitely check them out. I’m actually going to try them out myself with a new project in a couple of months here. But I think just being able to find capital or finding opportunities like landlords that would allow you to rent, it’s definitely not impossible, but I think six years ago it was a lot more challenging than it was today. And now, you know, the market’s seeing the kind of income and revenues that investors are getting from Airbnb. And so they’re creating products that will accommodate us as hosts and real estate investors.

 

02:26:49

And so when, when raising capital was, was an issue for you, are you, so you’re not doing the rental arbitrage thing, you’re, you’re purchasing these properties and investing equity into them,

 

02:27:00

Correct? Yeah. Okay.

 

02:27:03

And what, what would you do differently if you had to start from scratch

 

02:27:10

One property? Right now, we have a challenging situation because when we purchased the property in the governing documents of the condo building, it stated that hotel use was allowed and condos, I thought were the end all be all. There’s no landscaping, there’s no pool costs. You know, there’s no liability, you know, for guests a lot of the time in terms of like, if they were to drown in a pool. And now looking back, I’m a little hesitant about condos because we’re in a situation where we’re in a lawsuit now with the condo association wanting to change the terms of our governing docs, which I think we’re going to fare well with it, just because we purchased the property when it was, we were allowed to short term rental, but I would definitely say check on zoning. If you’re purchasing a property, check on the legality of the regulations in the market that you’re in, you don’t want to be in a market.

 

02:28:07

That’s a struggle where people are anti short-term rental. It was just, it brings your whole vibe down and really kind of wears on you over time. So look for places that are short-term rental friendly, and if they’re not, then also be a participant in the local public policy or mobilization teams on how to push for, you know, fair short-term rental markets and policy. I think that some of the challenges we have with the Hawaii units are, you know, just the same as other places like San Diego and LA and Paris and New York as these booking platforms get larger. Those policies that, you know, could be changed over time. So just make sure that, you know, the market that you’re going into and do your research on if short term rentals are going to be allowed for a while, cause you don’t want to buy a couple hundred thousand dollars property and then have that change. You know, when you’re banking on that recurring revenue to come in every month to pay the mortgage,

 

02:29:08

Right. And the, and that’s, that’s the really scary thing that a lot of people are getting into Airbnb and they don’t even really consider that, is that, is that the, the zoning and the regulations, because not only is it, you know, state, state specific your, your, your Airbnb rules, but they’re the county they’re county specific. So even within the state, there can be multiple counties that have different rules and, and, you know, different hotel industries and different people in that area might be more, you know, against Airbnb. And then it gets even worse when you get, get down to the condos and hos cause they can just do whatever they want. So I think think the, the bottom line is stay away from condos and hos because they, they, they can, they can change on a dime.

 

02:29:54

Yeah. If you can. I mean, if you can’t, there’s still plenty of buildings out there that are, you know, short-term rental friendly and I would definitely invest in those, in a heartbeat. You know, we have one that’s, the short-term rental friendly, the other one was, and now it’s, you know, up in the air where it’s trying to change. And, but you know, the houses that I’ve owned in the past week never had problems with it because, you know, we investigated with the regulation and everything was fine. And, you know, those were the easy, easy listings to have.

 

03:30:22

Are there any tools that you use to manage your, your properties that have made your life easier?

 

03:30:28

Yeah, actually views guests book. I’ve been, I’m an early adopter of them since they were in the beginning. That’s helped to automate guests communications. They’re a fantastic tool that kind of just, it’s almost robotic where it’s like your guests, you know, arrival dates coming up a few days before it sends out my, my check-in guide to them. It sends out the checkout details to them and it’s just a fantastic tool. So that is definitely a software I would look into Reelio is a new, how do I describe it? It’s a new short-term rental only MLS marketplace. And what that means is these are properties that do, they’re not on the MLS, they’re off market, but they actually have all the financials listed. So if you’re looking for new short-term rentals, you can see what the cash on cash rate is. You can see what the average weekly rate is that they’re receiving for, you know, on an Airbnb. They can see the taxes everything’s kind of dashboard view. So that’s really helped me look at new markets to see, you know, well, maybe I want to go buy a property in Florida or somewhere in Alabama on the coast. It’s given me a quick snapshot way to, to analyze the properties rather than go through Craigslist or go through the MLS and then try to work up the numbers on my own

 

03:31:59

When, when you’re looking for a new property, whether it be overseas or locally, w w what’s the, what’s the typically the first thing that you do are you, are you checking the, the financials? Are you looking at the zoning rules,

 

03:32:14

All of that. If it’s an existing short-term rental property, I’ll typically take a look at what their gross income and then expenses are a lot of owners don’t factor in, you know, extra supplies, maintenance, you know, wear and tear, you know, carpets. If you have carpets anywhere, you gotta replace that, you know, constantly because you’re just going to have a volume of people coming in and out of your home, if it’s overseas, you know, looking into permitting, licensing costs, currency exchange is even a big one. You know, if, if you’re managing it from the U S and it’s overseas, you’d be surprised how much a $15 bank wire or currency exchange, transaction fee costs over time. So those are all different things to take a look at.

 

03:33:03

Okay. And is there any product that you couldn’t live without in your rentals that has saved you time and money

 

03:33:12

Product that you mean like a software application?

 

03:33:16

Well, not software, like, is there like a specific, like, like a towel or like some people say smart locks? Is there anything that, that you have that is, that you really can’t have not having your units now?

 

03:33:30

Yeah, absolutely. So there’s a few, one would be the Schlage Camelot, keyless entry deadbolt that is on every single one of our units. I can actually remotely update it to if I need to. Second, we installed the nest thermostat and a few of our units because some guests would leave for the day with the windows open and leave the temperature turned down to the, you know, 60 or 66 degrees when it’s a hundred outside, I could also remotely change that or lock it. So it helps with the utility bills that they don’t have to pay for sometimes. And also, I would say I’ve started to use Amazon and Walmart both to do supply reorders on a regular basis. And that has created such a big efficiency for our house cleaning crew, where, you know, we kind of know how often we go through toilet paper and paper towels, you know, dish or laundry detergent, pods. And so just having that on auto reorder has helped quite a bit as well.

 

03:34:41

Yeah. That that’s, that’s really, yeah. I, I, myself got the schlocky Kmart keyless door entry thing. So I think we can put an end to the big debate on what’s the best smart lock because everybody, it seems like that’s always, Hey, what’s, what’s the best smart lock. What’s the best smart luck.

 

03:34:57

Yeah. I try to wifi one and I just don’t want to guess to ever be locked out if the wifi goes out. So that worried me. And so I just wanted something that was the battery operated. It’s part of our maintenance schedule that every year all the batteries get replaced and remotes and the, the sh the front door lock, anything else in the house. That’s battery operated. So

 

03:35:20

Awesome. Yeah. Those are great tools to help automate the process and help make it easier. Is there anything that you do that has helped your guests leave positive reviews

 

03:35:31

Asking for him? I think that’s one of the biggest things as a host that a lot of people are afraid to do. You know, they were worried that like, they’re going to come off too pushy. And, and honestly, you’re the guests chose your place based on reviews. So asking them to leave a review, shouldn’t be, you know, a hard thing. I know it puts us in a, in a bad place as a host, if the guest leaves the house messy or damaged. And that’s kinda why we created our products. We actually don’t deal with guests at all at property protect for any damage, because we know that we’re all in the business of reviews. And if, you know, you’re kind of caught in between a rock and a hard place with the guests that left a mess, you know, it challenges your review, but I think just asking them for the review, we also put a picture frame and all of our, in all of our properties that ask them, you know, to leave a review and we’ll give them a combat code, which is kind of a re a discount code to, to return for another visit that would give them 15% off.

 

03:36:31

So that’s kind of a small incentive for them as well.

 

03:36:35

Okay. That’s, that’s a, that’s a pretty unique, I haven’t heard of that one giving, putting a little picture frame. Some, some people like put plaques and stuff like that throughout their house to let the guests know because people don’t read the house manual, but to remind them with the little picture frame, like, Hey, you know, give us if you could give us an honest review and we’ll, we’ll, we’ll discount you at the next purchase. And that way they might be able to do also do a direct booking, which, which could also save them money as well. And what, what, what is one piece of advice you could give to someone who is trying to start an Airbnb business

 

03:37:06

Find a mentor? I kind of hacked it on my own because it was, Airbnb was probably about three years old when I got started about six years ago, seven years, maybe four years ago. But I would say, find a mentor, take a look at your market that you’re familiar with, make sure that you’re also kind of a good neighborly host. You know, there are hosts out there that kind of make others look bad because they they’re looking at this as a quick, you know, form of income. And they don’t really care if their guests are causing a disturbance in the market. So don’t be that host, you know, you can learn a lot from other property managers that have been doing this a long time, too. So just kind of act as a sponge and see how much information you can glean from other people.

 

03:37:55

I’m sure you guys offer a wealth of information in your Facebook group as well, but I’m joining a Facebook group and finding somebody that’s, that’s gone through, you know, different properties, different types of guests, luxury, or, you know, $99 a night, and just figure out where you fit in that type of hosting style and run with it. It’s fun. You know, it’s a great business and you can make a lot of money and, you know, builds a lot of assets over time. So it’s one of those few types of, of jobs that you can take on and have a lot of fun with. So go for it.

 

03:38:32

Just go forward. Just, just do it. Is there, is there one house rule that has, that you’ve had in your house manual that has saved you before?

 

03:38:42

Yes, we’ve revised it over the years, but it’s the no smoking, no parties house rule. And it’s in capital letters on all of our listings. It’s in the house. We actually send out no smoking stickers to all of our customers that property protect smoke is one of those things where you can’t really show tangible damage. And so as an owner, it’s takes a lot to get that out of your home, especially if you do same day turnovers. And so that is big and bold. And it says if you were caught smoking, you know, where you are able to recover the full deposit amount, because if, if it’s really bad and you’ve got a party full of people smoking in your house, you know, you’re going to have to cancel future bookings, get a deodorizer and have like an extreme cleaning. And that’s a lot of money.

 

03:39:35

So, and that’s something that’s hard to prove. So definitely the no smoking rule. I think the other rule too is just quiet hours. One of the things that you want to maintain as being a good neighbor, you don’t want your neighbors to start to get antsy that you’re having, you know, short-term rental guests in your property, especially if it’s an, a neighbor like a housing neighborhood. So just having your guests abide by the quiet hours roll to you, can’t have enough rules. I I’d definitely say that. So I would definitely make sure that you’re thorough with the house rules in your listing. Okay.

 

04:40:13

Okay. And, and what, what do you see the future of Airbnb going? Like where do you, where do you see short-term rentals and these, these platforms that, that provide the service going towards?

 

04:40:25

I think continuing on, I think that, you know, travelers like to have a variety of options. You know, when I was traveling around Southeast Asia, I would stay in a lot of homestays and guest houses. I didn’t want to stay in a big hotel. I wanted to have a local experience, and I don’t think that hotels could ever provide that. So I think that there is a place in the market for us, and I wouldn’t get detoured by a lot of the media regulation stories. And, you know, San Diego is a perfect example where they, they ban short-term rentals. Then a few weeks later, they retracted the band and now they’re revising the policy. And so I would say, it’s definitely going to keep going. I think that you should do something to set yourself apart because we’re going to get to a point of saturation.

 

04:41:11

I believe within markets where you’re going to be competing against price, and that’s never a good thing. So always make sure that you are up on your game with, you know, making sure your place looks great. If you don’t have tons of money to furnish it, you know, and deck it out with lots of high-end furnishings, at least have, you know, a better customer service or it’s the cleanest, you know, condo in that area, or, you know, do something special, like give them a takeaway soap or chocolate or something. Little, that’s not going to cost you very much, but I think that the market’s going to continue to expand. And as Airbnb prepares for an IPO, you know, we’ve already seen booking.com HomeAway, VRVO start to, you know, take their user experience and their platform or their angle towards marketing vacation rentals. Google’s starting to market towards vacation rentals as well. So I think just making sure that you’re also not reliant on one booking platform would also be helpful. You know, I’m starting to look into how we can get positioning on Google with our listings and get more direct booking. So I would definitely, you know, take a look at that and, and don’t put all your eggs into one basket with one booking platform.

 

04:42:25

Yeah, I think, I think that’s, that’s something that a lot of, a lot of the people are kind of stressing now is like, you know, like, like YouTube, YouTube is one platform for, for you to that that, you know, provides content, but YouTube can change YouTube changes all the time. And some, you know, some people build their whole lives around this single platform and then YouTube goes and changes its, its its AdSense or its algorithms and, and you’re completely out of luck. And, and that, you know, Airbnb is the same thing. It’s a platform for people to be able to list their properties. It doesn’t mean that that’s the only way to list your properties. There’s other, you know, direct booking and BRBO, but it’s just one platform to do that. I, I just, I just want to thank you so much, Kate, for, for taking time out of your, out of your busy schedule, to be able to share this knowledge, you have such a wealth of wisdom and experience just having been on the platform for so long and being a digital nomad and traveling and getting into the, the insurance for short-term rentals.

 

04:43:25

I think you are a very, very knowledgeable person and I’d love to be able to get you on the show to be able to explain about your process of traveling and purchasing short-term rental properties overseas. Because I think that that’s an untapped market, you know, I think there’s a lot more interest in it now because you know, right now that Airbnb is, I wouldn’t say it’s becoming saturated in the U S but there’s a lot more interest than there was when you first started. So people are starting to look elsewhere. So I would love to get your input and your experience in a, in a future episode, if you’d be okay with that.

 

04:44:02

Absolutely thank you for having me today. And I would love and be honored to be on the show again. I’d really appreciate that. And it’s fun just to talk with other hosts and owners, you know, about their experience and what they’ve done. So I learn as I go as well.

 

04:44:17

I’d love to, I’d like to just make a couple little plugs. Is, is anybody in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area? We just started a meetup group for hosts to be able to get together. So being in the tri-state, you know, there’s, there’s lots of regulations for each area. So if you’re local and you want to come and meet and talk hosting or short-term rentals, then definitely check us out on meetup.com. Also the Facebook group, of course you not just ours, but all the Facebook groups for Airbnb is a great way to get plugged in. But is there any way that people can reach you Kate, if anybody has any questions or, or more, more information?

 

04:44:54

Absolutely. You can reach me at Kate K a T E at my property, protect.com. If you’re interested in our damage insurance policies or just want to talk about hosting, I talk to hosts all the time and happy to give, you know, real life experience from, you know, what makes my life easier as a host or just giving them little tips and tricks to make things, you know, a little bit more streamlined. I’m happy to chat with anybody or go grab coffee. I’m going to be in between San Francisco and Tulsa, Oklahoma this year. So it will be an interesting evolution to our rental portfolio as well.

 

04:45:33

Okay, awesome. And I’ll include again, I’ll include Kate’s information and everything in the show notes. If you want the, the show notes for this episode, everything will be on the, on the website, Airbnb ss.com. But thank you so much, Kate again until next time guys keep on hosting and talk to you later. Hope you host benefited from the show like any exceptional hosts. We all strive for five star reviews. So please go on over to iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, YouTube, wherever you’re frequently listening to the show and leave us an honest review. Let us know what we’re doing, right, or how we can improve, because that’s what we want to do. We want to become better hosts. I want to become a better podcast host and a better Airbnb hosts. Talk to you guys in the next episode. Peace out.

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