Jon Bell:                              00:00                    In this video, we’re talking about our current updates within our business.

Julian Sage:                       00:05                    Vacation rental machine helps hosts just like you learn how to start, grow and scale your short term rental business. The show’s all about creating systems that help you automate your business, give any more time and money freedom. If you’re ready to start living the vacation rental life, then subscribe to this podcast today, come and join us on our Facebook group, the host nation where we’ll be talking about starting automating and scaling a short term rental business now onto the show.

Jon Bell:                              00:32                    All right, welcome back, host nation. We’re talking about the continued situation of COVID-19 and how it’s affecting us hosts, Julian and myself. In this episode we’re going to just give you guys a clue in on what’s going on with our personal businesses. Of course, this is affecting everyone within the community, but some of us are kind of coming out on top in this whole thing. Some of us are still kind of struggling and we just want to give you guys an update on what we’re doing. So Julian, are you still feeling the effects of COVID-19?

Julian Sage:                       01:06                    Jon this show, and I want to thank everybody first. I sent out an email last week talking about really just kinda feeling burnt out. I think some of you, even in some of the previous videos, you’re just like, Julian, it looks like you need to get some sleep. So it looks like you’re feeling a bit. And really, you know, I’m not the big time operator here. I’m building up cohostitthis management company. So for me what I was feeling more so was for our investors, the people that we’re going to be working with, Jon and I to find them these units find them these rental arbitrage units and building that management company. Myself, I operate my basement unit and that was paying for my mortgage up until recently.

Julian Sage:                       01:50                    And then I also have another property that I’m managing for them. As far as those two properties, I mean, my bookings have been wiped. Luckily, I still do have my W2 job. I’m still active in the military, so I’m doing okay. It’s more about the feeling of everything was going forward, everything was moving really quick and we’re seeing a lot of good success and our investors were expecting things. And then just to be like put a stop on the brakes, I felt that more just emotionally rather than just like my business being impacted. I felt it more just for the community as a whole for all the hosts that were reaching out and saying how this whole situation is going to put them under people that are needing to sell their businesses and reaching out and asking for support. I really kind of felt more mpacted for the whole, but I know for you Jon, you know you have a lot of properties and I was even feeling for you because you have over 24 rental arbitrage properties. A lot of people during this time were saying rental arbitrage is dead.

Julian Sage:                       03:00                    We just made a video talking about is rental arbitrage dead a few times, and then you’re also managing properties for a good amount of investors as well. So for you, how are you being impacted by this business and what are you doing during this time?

Jon Bell:                              03:07                    All right, so first let me talk about my rental arbitrage properties. So I have been able to squeak by this month just squeak. I have to put a little sum in to make sure everything is floated right. But I squeaked by doing our start of our high season. So I am really still kind of thinking, Hey, the next three months, my calendar would normally be 60% for right now to date for the next month. And it’s not that right now I’ve accepted longer reservations, which has been great, but at the same time, they’re still not at the amounts that I’m used to. They’re really just helping me click along. Now, of course, I just applied for the SBA assistance and all of that stuff. When that comes through, then I’ll need to use that along with the reservations that I do have to see how that kind of sets me up for the rest of the next few months.

Jon Bell:                              04:13                    But still I’m feeling like, Hey, we had to pivot. The pivot was good. The pivot is helping things still go along, and I know that if I continue on with this pivot, I really could thrive because it’s teaching me a lot of differences and how to manipulate the business and fees and at marketing and all of that stuff to still be relevant. Right. I mean, at the end of this, you want to just make it till the end. Me personally, I would like to make it to the end with my current unit count for my personal portfolio. All right. Let’s talk about some of my cohosted properties with some of my investors and because they are investors and they are flipped to me technically was their strategy. Now they’re looking to say, Hey, right now the real estate market is still hot.

Jon Bell:                              05:10                    So they want to capitalize on what they can get on a sale of the same home that I was just listing for them. So they have told me, Hey, I don’t need you to book this place. I’m going to list it and I’m going to be showing it for the next two weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s kinda easy for them to go ahead and just pop and list it because why? It’s already furnished. There’s already professional photos, There’s easy access for people to get in and get out. So yes, they might be able to sell it and sell it with the furnishings inside of the place. So it is a good thing for them and they have that option. As I’m thinking of going longer term with my personal portfolio, they are thinking of going an exit to a sale, which would still be their exit in general.

Jon Bell:                              05:57                    Same as me taking my stuff to long term. So technically everybody is really looking at ways to maximize, still doing this whole thing and however that maximize has achieved, people are exploring whatever that might be. Of course going down in my cohosted units is not something that I’m excited about, but because of the person that I’m actually working with, again, they are investors, they buy homes all the time, they flip homes all the time. So I know, Hey, I’m just going to get fresh inventory and I’m going to get that new badge. When things pop back up. I’m also still going to make the revenue and setting the place up for them. So it’s not a bad thing.

Julian Sage:                       06:41                    We’re going to be releasing some videos that we included for our VRM formula members. This is something that we’re including in our program, the VRM formula program and these are some of the pivots that Jon has been including in his own business that’s allowed him to stay afloat. Again, people are asking us because we are still, we still have this program. We’re still in the short term rental space and they’re reaching out and they’re saying, is this still a profitable business? Is this still something that I can do? And the short answer for that is that yes, this is something that will be sustainable. It’s just how are we going to be pivoting our business. And that’s something that we’re doing currently. Right now I’m even reaching out to a lot of corporate housing companies and trying to get them onto the show to talk about what is their business like, what does that entail?

Julian Sage:                       07:27                    How are they getting their corporate clients? Because like Jon said, one of the pivots is getting in longer term clients, getting in these longer term stays. Business travelers are looking for that. That’s one of the pivots that we are looking for moving forward. So if you want more information on the VRM formula program, if you’d like to join our biweekly live streams where we talk with the members in that group people that have purchased the program, I’ll include a link in the description or you can go to vacationrentalmachine.com for more information on that as well.

Jon Bell:                              07:57                    One final thing, just to add in, I still am getting inquiries. So people are still out there. They’re still looking for places to stay. Airbnb did come out with a thing that says, Hey, you can elect to support the traveling nurses and such. There are people that are coming in and you can still charge a fee. I would say that, Hey, everybody just goes and just clicks that button. It says, yes, you’ll accept these people. I did see some comments somewhere for some people that said, Hey, they don’t want people that are potentially at risk or have COVID-19 to stay at their place. I feel like at this point, we all have a good instruction on cleaning practices and stuff like that to remedy any type of things that might be left. And Airbnb has also put out more information about, Hey, maybe you shouldn’t allow people to stay for two days after these people check out as another precaution.

Jon Bell:                              08:55                    I feel like if you’re saying no to these people, you’re losing out on funds. I mean you’re, you’re losing out on bookings that could be pretty lengthy, right? I got doctors that are staying with me until July, so again, this is something that I would never have seen just because I would’ve been booked up here and there, here and there, here and there, and I’d rely on those five day bookings, but now I’m getting those month requests and then I’m getting those conversions, two direct bookings after that. In some cases, my direct booking is really just a few hundred dollars cheaper than it would have been with my discounted price on Airbnb. So people are still looking, make sure you’re not turning them down. Make sure you elevate your practices to include this proper stuff that you need to include to make sure that you’re not spreading this thing from one person to the next.

Julian Sage:                       09:50                    So question the day, where are you in your business? How is this impacting you personally? Leave it in the comment section down below.

Julian Sage:                       10:01                    And until next time, host nation. Keep on hosting. If you’d like Jon and I to answer your guys’s questions and be sure to go to the host nation Facebook group and use hashtag #askVRM. Hope you hosts found value in this episode. If you did, please go on over to iTunes and leave us a review as that would greatly support the show. If you’d like to connect with Jon, the community, and I, then go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation. Talk to you hosts in the next episode.

Julian Sage:                       10:25                    Keep on hosting.