Today I had the honor of speaking with Charles McPike. Charles is a Forex trader and host, based out of Hollydale California area who operates 2 units that he’s acquired using rental arbitrage.
In this episode, Charles shares his experience of turning his life around through the power of positive affirmations by reprogramming his brain to think more positively, his fears and failures of starting a new business, and many practical tips to starting on the right foot.
Video Transcript
00:00:00
Just three words. I am unstoppable. It really does something for the psyche where things where, you know, you would be triggered before. It’s something that I don’t even, you know, allow to affect me. Now,
00:00:15
Episode number 23 of Short Term mental success stories, podcast. Welcome back to short term rental success stories. I’m your host, Julian Sage. This is a show where I talk to hosts about their journeys and starting and growing the short-term rental business. My goal is that you’ll be able to walk away with practical information. That’ll help you become a better host and learn how to scale your business if you haven’t done so already going over to a Facebook group, the host nation to connect with the community and other professional hosts that have been featured on the show. So we had a new review coming on iTunes. This is five stars from Peter and Julia Plourde. They said I’ve been listening to a bunch of podcasts on real estate, investing YouTube videos on short term rentals, et cetera, nothing compares to this one. It gives you real life stories of success with actionable items.
00:00:57
You can incorporate whether you’ve been doing short term rentals for awhile, or just getting started. Thank you for bringing this to the market and wish you much success. Thank you so much, Peter and Julia, I really appreciate the review and that really just really makes my day. It really is so nice to be able to see the feedback from you guys from in the host nation and the reviews. It really does mean a lot to me when you guys take the time out to leave these reviews, because it takes a lot of time to be able to edit this for both the shows Vacation Rental Machine and this one for editing, for finding the guests, to releasing the show notes, going back and listening to it two, three times, just trying to constantly improve and make the show readily available for you all. So it really does mean a lot when you just take the time to be able to leave a review, lets me know that all this effort is, is being well received.
00:01:46
Our, we did get a one star review that I wanted to know how they didn’t leave any feedback. So I really would appreciate that if you did, if there is something that you don’t like about the show, then please let me know, send me a message. Or if there’s anything that I can do to turn a one-star review into a five-star just please reach out to me if there’s anything that I can improve, anything that I’m not including. I definitely wants to aim for five stars. So I’m just leaving a one-star without any, any information as to what I’m not doing right then it doesn’t really help me. I don’t know how I can improve. So if you do find value in the show, please go on over to iTunes. Let me know what it is that you do enjoy. And if there’s anything that you don’t enjoy, please send me a message.
00:02:33
And if I can turn and maybe a negative experience or something that maybe you think is a four star, three star into a five-star definitely let me know. So I can constantly make the show better today. I had the honor of speaking with Charles McPike. Charles is a Forex trader and host based out of Holly bale, California, who operates two units that he’s acquired using rental arbitrage. In this episode, Charles shares his experience of turning his life around through the power of positive affirmations by reprogramming his brain, to think more positively his fears and failures of starting a new short-term rental business and lots of practical tips on starting off on the right foot. If you like my show notes for this episode, go to Short Term Sage dot com backslash STR two three, or if you’d like my show notes sent directly to your inbox every week, then go to Short Term Sage dot com backslash shown him with all that being said onto this week’s conversation. Welcome back host today. I have the special honor of speaking with Charles McPike. Please let the audience know a little bit more about who you are and what inspired you to get into short-term rentals.
00:03:33
Absolutely. First and foremost, Julian, thank you for inviting me to the show. It’s always good to see fellow entrepreneurs and especially those that get on a platform such as this to kind of spread the word and help other individuals out. When I first started kind of short-term rentals, there weren’t too many podcasts or anything out there, so it is much appreciated. How did I get my start in short-term rentals? Well, I’m an entrepreneur by heart. I’ve always, always just kind of look for, look for, look for books for the next best thing. I guess you can say, I wouldn’t even say the next best thing, something that kind of fits me and fits my mold. As we were discussing previously, I trade four X, so many, many moons back, I’d say probably 2015. I got my start in trading in Forex. My first trade mentor, I guess you could say got me into affirmations.
00:04:40
And affirmations was really something that was key to me that allowed me to kind of bridge those kind of gaps and take away that negative self-talk that we all face as an entrepreneur. You know, how are we going to do that? Where are you going to get the money from for that? You know, you can’t do that. Look, you’re talking about starting a, a business. All of these, these things do come up. I think I mentioned that I do have a home studio. So what I did is my, what I did with my affirmations is I started to record those also. I learned about things like brain and train. So I started to put my audio affirmations behind binaural beats. And once I started doing that, I was able to really take my affirmations to the next level. And they, they really just allowed me to reprogram my subconscious you figure.
00:05:38
I was fighting 35 plus years of programming. And when I say programming, that’s just normal TV listening to the radio. And you just be surprised. That is, that is what you take in is what you get out. And through that programming, it was something that was very detrimental to, to me blossoming as a, as an entrepreneur. But once I started to program and listen to my own things, things such as I make abundant amounts of money through multiple streams of income and just programming my subconscious, I would say after probably two or three months of programming, I was just turned on. Everything got better for me. I was actually essentially almost a new person, like things were just taking off for me. Within the first three months I had my first property. I also buy and sell raw land. My Forex trading had gotten tremendously better and I was looking for my next entrepreneurial deal.
00:06:45
Now living in California, the cost, if you will, as a, is a lot higher, I didn’t have that 20 or 30% to put down on a single family, a duplex or, or a quad for that matter. So my entry into short-term rentals was rental arbitrage. And I did take a couple classes Udemy, which I’ll give some credit to, they have cheap classes. So I purchased a, a small cheap course on short-term rentals, which was just kind of a, just kind of like putting your toes Intuit. It was some, some good information, but not as thorough as I would have liked. I also ran across a gentleman by the name of Jay Massey, who has a cashflow series. He had a more in depth system of short term rental. So I am one of his students and his system was pretty much front to back and studying his system. It really gave me all of the key things that I needed to, to really get involved and just kind of take this business by the horns and, and, and really run with it. So that was kind of, that’s my intro of how I got into short-term rentals.
00:08:07
You know, I, I think it’s always so interesting. Everybody has such a different story of how they get started into the Short Term mental space. And, you know, I, I understand that that feeling of, you know, being an entrepreneur and you’re trying these different things, trying to find a path, trying to find these different ways of being able to, you know, have like that, that, that strength to be able to just do something and then run with it and with something like Forex and, you know, even, even short-term rentals, you know, one of the things that I always preach on this show and, you know, one of the, our core missions is to help new hosts to overcome the challenges and fears of starting a short-term rental business. And that’s something that, that, like you said, we spend so much of our lives, you know, believing these, these false beliefs, you know, saying like, you know, it’s only meant for the people like, you know, J Massey or it’s only meant for the people, like, you know, all these, all these, you know, people that are online and, you know, showing themselves that they have all the success and, you know, we convince ourselves that w you know, that’s them and I’m not like that.
00:09:12
So it’s, you know, when you’re, when you’re, you know, but I, what I think is so beautiful is that you’ve, you’ve overcome that those years of, of, you know, self-talk, you know, that, that negative, that negative self-talk, and that, that, that belief system through these, these affirmations, and, and then from that, you’ve been able to run with that. And now you’ve been able to increase your, your Forex profitability, and you’ve been able to open up a couple listings. Now, now you have two listings that you are using rental arbitrage, and, you know, like you said, California, it’s an expensive place. And a lot of people say, oh, it’s too expensive for me to start. Well, instead of just saying, you know, I’m, you know, I’m not going to be able to quit my job, or I’m not going to be able to make money off of this. So I should just do something else. You know, you said, you know, well, I, I am going to be profitable. I am going to find a way to overcome that. How, how soon after you started doing the positive affirmations, did you kind of start seeing the results?
01:10:12
I would say probably three months of programming. And what I essentially would do is when I would wake up in the morning, I would listen to my affirmations for probably 15 minutes when I would exercise or when I would do my walks. I would also listen to my affirmations if I was sitting down and I was meditating, I was listening to my affirmations and before I would go to bed at night, I would also listen to my affirmations. I literally cut out, I would say probably 95% television. When I was in my vehicle driving. I would no longer listen to just the commercial radio. I would listen to motivational speakers, and it’s always good to find, find some motivational speakers who, who really talk to you, that, that, that you can really get a sense of, of, you know, Hey, I understand where they came from and where they’ve gone.
01:11:11
And the struggles that they’ve been through that was really instrumental. In addition to the affirmations for just turning me around. It was like the affirmations originally put me back at a baseline and the motivational speakers just took it to the next level for me. And before I knew it, I was going to every real estate meetup from almost literally almost from San Diego to LA, like, I was just going to everyone and I would go in there and everyone, just, everyone just kind of wanted, they, they, they, they got like, Hey, who is this guy? He’s going somewhere. I was always in there with a smile. Hey, how are you? What do you do? How did you get involved in that? And I found so many different ways and niches in real estate. It’s, it’s, it’s crazy. But the key thing about it was also is people noticed me in there and they said, Hey, you know, this guy, he’s just, he’s just really super positive.
01:12:15
And, you know, I can tell he’s going places. And they wanted to get involved with me and say, Hey, w w you know, this is what I do. You know, what do you do? Or, you know, just, it just opened me up to so many possibilities. And it was almost like I wasn’t even doing it because it was once you reprogram your subconscious, everything else is just kind of secondary, you know, throughout our day, we’re actually, they say by three to 5% conscious. So that would mean throughout your day on a subconscious level, your 95 to 97%, your subconscious is really running the show. So if you can tap into that subconscious and really reprogram that to what you want in your life, the, the, the type of person you want to be, the type of people you want to be involved in, it, it really just takes over and just pulls you along this ride. I mean, I, I, I couldn’t believe it. Things just kind of took off for me, and that was no doubt due to the reprogramming and due to the motivational speakers that I would listen to, as well as, you know, cutting down that TV, additionally, reading more and listening to the motivational speakers that was just instrumental and spring boarding me to that next level.
01:13:48
W w what would you say were some of your biggest fears in starting a short-term rental business before, you know, before you started incorporating the affirmations?
01:14:01
Well, I would say, well before, actually, before I was doing the affirmations, before I knew I was going to get into a short-term rentals, this was around the cusp of the time when short-term rentals were just starting, but there was no real training out there, or people hadn’t developed their, their systems yet, but just like short-term rentals or any other business that you’re, you know, you’re going to get into the negative. Self-talk, you know, it was pretty much going to be the same, you know, where am I going to get the money for that? You know, how, you know, you can’t do that. You’re, you’re going to go out and you’re going to talk to a land owner, and you’re going to get them to rent you their property with the full understanding that you’re going to turn around and rent it out for much more profit, you know, that’s, that’s something, why don’t they do that? You know, that’s something, once you tell them your game plan, they’re going to say, oh, no, and just take your game plan. And, and they’re gonna run with it. It’s the, the crab in the barrel mentality, the, you know, how are you just, you know, how are you going to do that? Just, just the negative self-talk that, that goes into trading to any entrepreneurial endeavor, you know, that you look to get into, whether it’s public speaking, short-term rental or, or for acts that I mentioned.
01:15:26
Are there any types of affirmations that maybe you do specifically to be able to overcome those obstacles? Like, you know, with Forex, you’re not talking to people you’re not interacting, you’re, you know, you’re not dealing with customers, you know, with short term rentals, there’s a whole, another whole new gambit, you know, the hospitality industry that you have to do. Are there any affirmations or things that you’ve been able to incorporate to be able to handle these types of situations or these types of, you know, maybe confrontation?
01:15:54
Well, yeah, I have one and it’s a simple one and just three words I am unstoppable. And just those three words, just reprogramming those three words over and over. It, it, it really does something for the psyche where things where, you know, you would be triggered before. It’s something that I don’t even, you know, allow to affect me now that I am unstoppable. It’s just something that kind of like your own self motivator. It really gets me going and things that would have triggered me before, Hey, I have an emergency down at the unit. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I’m able now via that affirmation to slow things up now, and there’s a certain wisdom that comes with it to say, Hey, you know, what is this emergency? Is it actually an emergency? How was it affecting the guest?
01:16:58
Is it something that we really need to jump on now? Or is it something where, you know, we just need to communicate with the guests to, you know, maybe bring them down and let them know, Hey, I have a full breadth and, and knowledge of what’s going on, and it will be handled as soon as possible. So I would say definitely that affirmation alone has been instrumental in just kind of bringing a certain wisdom of uncompromised, a, a positivity to it. And that, that say that one has been instrumental in dealing with, with situations that arise with short term rental.
01:17:40
Well, what would you say is the most challenging part of starting your short-term rental business?
01:17:46
The most challenging part? Well, one of the most challenging things can be your capital because even through rental arbitrage, you’re still going to need a certain level of capital to get going. But once, once that’s taken care of, I would say that the key thing that I found about for short-term rentals for me is customer service. You really need to have customer service. You really need to be customer oriented. Yeah. You know, some people get in and they see the dollar signs and Hey, I can make this amount of money, but you really have to be customer service based. And you have to like dealing with people. This is a hospitality business. One of the key things that, that I found out through kind of how you were saying, how, when you first got started through, through my very first guest. So my very first guest was a two-week guest. He was coming in.
01:18:57
Oh. And it, it kind of leads this, this kind of all ties in together. So coming in this, get first guests coming in, I had him booked for two weeks and just starting off, you know, there’s a lot of things coming at you, you want to really make sure you have all your T’s crossed and your I’s dotted. And one of the things that I set up a little late was the internet. So the internet was going to be set up, I think, a week into his stay. So, first thing once I found that out, I contacted him. I said, Hey, you know what, I’m having a little issue setting up the internet. They’re actually going to be setting it up a week into your stay. And he said, oh, well, you know, unfortunately I do need this for the job. So, you know, I’m going to unfortunately have to unbook and find a different place.
01:19:48
So I said, Hey, you know what, I, I totally understand. This is somewhere where I dropped the ball and overlooked it. Now, do I just kind of let that play out and just maybe block those days coming up until when I get the internet going, of course not, I am unstoppable. So first thing I did is I contacted the, the cable and I said, Hey, you know what? I actually have a guest coming in on this day. Is there any way I can move up the installation date of the internet? Oh, well, sir, I’m sorry. We actually have a block on setting up any, any appointments. And up until this coming weekend, I thought that was kind of odd. I had never heard of that before. So Hey, you know what, thank you very much for your time. Always, always be customer service oriented on both sides, because if you get an agent on the other side, excuse an agent on the other side, that’s that can really help you out.
02:20:52
You don’t want to go in and just, you know, Hey, I need this set up now and just have the wrong attitude. So always carry the right attitude, whether it’s dealing with a customer of mine or I’m the customer dealing with, you know, the cable company, gas company, whatever the case may be. So I politely thanked her and disconnected with her. And I called right back and I got another agent. This agent mentioned nothing of the block on resetting the appointment times. And she was able to get me set up two days prior to when the guests was coming. So I immediately contacted the guests back, Hey, you know what? We are going to have the internet up. By the time you arrive here, I was able to reschedule that. He said fine. He hadn’t found another booking at this stage. And he rebooked with me.
02:21:38
So I saved the day on that one. So my first guest he’s in there for two weeks after I think, I think it was three or four days. Once he was in the unit, I went ahead and messaged him and said, Hey, you know what? Just checking in. How’s the unit, how was your stay been? How have things been going? And he sends me a picture and says, Hey, the, the other morning I found a mouse in the toilet. And he said it was dead. And he literally had that picture of it. So I said, oh my God. You know, I said, my sincere apologies for that. Now in the background, I’m kind of panicking. He seems relaxed. You know, he’s, he, he’s a producer, he’s from Australia, but I’m thinking any other guests, this might’ve been detrimental, you know, detrimental to the state. Oh my God, Hey, I found a mouse.
02:22:40
And, you know, I want out of here, you know, there goes the five-star review and you know, I’m calling Airbnb, I want a different place. Whatever the case may be. This also goes to another point, I’m part of a couple of different Facebook groups of short term rental operators. So I kind of reached out to them and said, Hey, what do you guys think this is what just happened? You know? And so I got a range of different viewpoints to kind of stand behind. So what I decided to end up doing since he had, you know, he said, he took the mouse out of the toilet and he just took it and put it in the trash, no issue for him. I went ahead and put together a care package. So later that evening I was down there, same day with a care package. I believe I put like a twenty-five dollar gift card to Amazon in there.
02:23:38
I had like a six pack of local craft beers in there. What else? And just kind of like snacks, just a lot of snacks, nuts, potato chips, and the whole nine. And just got that down there to the next, that same day. I sincerely apologize to him. He kinda seemed okay, said, Hey, no worries. You know, it didn’t really bother me too much. And I ended up getting a five star review out of it. So customer service is, is key. That was one of my biggest and first lessons, customer services key. And I’ve been able to keep that customer service throughout. And I have, I’ve been Superhost since my, since my first qualification came up and I’ve been able to kill five star reviews since, and just being that customer service, touching base with them, you know, Hey, is everything okay? Especially if you’re have a long-term guests or if a guest reached out to you for whatever, just always be there, always respond within that within that hour. And I was able to turn my first guests around and that kind of was the balance for, Hey, this is either going to go awry in the very beginning and I’m just going to stumble going forward. Or I was able to turn it around and yeah, just kill five star reviews every, since
02:25:11
That’s powerful. And I never, I never had anybody share on the show yet about like a, like a little customer care package. Like when, when something goes wrong, a lot of people think the first thing that you have to do is start refunding money and, you know, given, given them their money back and it’s not, you know, I feel like that might be the easy way out, you know, thinking that just refunding their money is going to make everything right. All right. But you could have easily refunded his money. And then he, you know, maybe he’s like, okay, well, I’m going to leave a bad, you know, a poor view now, but because you have that customer that, you know, that customer oriented mindset, you’re able to turn a negative situation into something that was positive. Maybe they thought that you were really going above and beyond now. So now you deserve that, that, you know, that five star quality, even if there was a mouse in your toilet, you know, and what, what, what do you, what do you do to set your units apart?
02:26:05
Oh, I’m glad you asked that. So when you look on Airbnb, that’s the main platform that I’m using now. Anyone could be using any other platform, but you know, I’ve looked at the other platforms as well. And, you know, w w what do you see a comfy queen bed, comfy king 4k TV near downtown, near convention center, near wherever, as far as the titles, it’s just kind of a repeat. Everything seems like it’s just a repeat of everything. So, you know, as a customer, what are they doing? They’re essentially just going by the pictures now. So one thing that I’ve been tossing around in my, my mind and thinking, Hey, with my next units, what can I really do to set myself apart? So what I decided to do with my second unit is to get into themes. So through my research, I settled on two separate themes.
02:27:08
One theme would be a coffee theme, and another theme would be a beer theme. Now, also with that, you may see, I’ve seen some people who have kind of played with a theme where maybe they have maybe an accent wall, or I’ve seen like maybe a New York theme where maybe they had a picture of a picture of New York. But as far as the remainder of the unit, nothing really beckons New York or Madagascar or whatever, the kind of theme that they’re going for. So what I wanted to do is actually get into a theme and really flush that out. So with my next unit that I just got up and running, I decided to go with a actual beer theme. So in my unit, what I did for this one is I did a full wall mural. And on this wall mural, I have like two beers in it.
02:28:09
And it’s kind of like a, a nice orange warm, inviting mural that I have on the wall. Next to that, I have a lot of different chotchkies and things around, within the kitchen, right above the sink. I have a kind of like a, a bar picture, but it’s a really, really nice when it’s kind of orange and kind of orange colors and like really inviting as well. But the key thing that I have to really flush out this beer theme is that as a guest of my place, you receive a, there’s a custom beer draft that I have. And it’s a unit that holds roughly kind of like a mini kegerator that holds 64 ounces. And it’s, it’ll be from local brewers from California all the way from San Diego on up the coast. Sometimes there are brewers that are abroad. So as you come in as a guest, you’ll already this already be part of the unit, and I have these different kind of glasses where they can enjoy it, whether it’s a pub style glass, a regular mug, or, you know, I have to lip these nice tulip beer glasses. So I figured I could really kind of flush out this theme and take it more than, Hey, there’s, there’s just a picture on the wall of, of beer. So you actually received a beer with this unit and everything else, you know, is, is the standard. You know, I got the 4k TVs, the front room TV one in the bedroom, of course, the design, everything you would expect in a nice Airbnb, but really flushing out and bringing a full fledged, what I would consider a full fledge theme to the table.
03:30:10
So, so with a, with a beer theme or coffee theme, he said to did a little, did a little bit of research into that, or w what are you looking for specifically when you are trying to pick a theme
03:30:20
Popularity, popularity? So I kind of did a, kind of a, a survey of different, different people throughout that I know as, as short term rental operators, coffee, and then just kind of gauge like, you know, what’s kind of big in society right now, what are we doing? What, what are your big sailors? Coffee is obviously huge. I was really leaning towards the coffee, but beer is really big as well. And there are a lot more breweries popping up these days and especially in the area of where I operate. So it was kind of between the two, I think on my next unit, I will go with a copy theme. And even with that coffee theme, one of the differentiators, as opposed to maybe just having some, like a picture on the wall of coffee, or, you know, maybe a pillow or something with coffee on it is I was going to have obviously a Coreg machine there, a coffee machine, but I also was going to have a cappuccino machine, just something that would take it a step up for actual true coffee lovers, you know, that wanted to maybe experience something that they don’t have at home or something that you really wouldn’t find in a hotel setting.
03:31:40
W one of the things that, that, you know, I, I love the idea. Like I would definitely rent out a place that was going to give me a free beer. That, that, that is really cool. One of the things that, that I would be concerned with though that I don’t, I don’t know if you’ve already done the research into this. It’d be like, what the legality around that, like, is that something that is allowed, like, would you only be able to wrench to people that are 21 and up because you’re not selling the beard is free, so you don’t technically need like a vendor’s license. Are there any like complications or anything that you’ve found along the space that other people have kind of been able to work with?
03:32:20
Correct. So, yeah, so obviously in the listing, you know, I do list, you know, all parties do need to be 21 and older it’s it’s, I just kind of went a step further with it. It’s really no different from, you know, say the vendors that say, Hey, like this is designated honeymoon suite, you’ll receive a bottle of wine, this rental. So it’s kind of, you know, kind of taking it a step there, legality wise, I guess it does kind of follow me, but I do mention in the listing and the, the current bookings that I have already, I do have to maybe bet a little bit further.
03:32:59
So yeah, that, those are kind of the aspects, you know, that I have looked into. I haven’t had a conversation with those at Airbnb yet, but I have noticed there are, I’m not the first actually to do this. So doing my research on Airbnb, there are a couple of units that have been set up for some time that actually offer a free beer as well. And then you have, like I said, you know, the occasional person that may kind of say, Hey, we have a honeymoon suite and, you know, we offer a bottle of wine.
03:33:31
Is there any, any product that you couldn’t live without in your, your rentals that has saved you time and money?
03:33:40
Wow. August lock is, is key. I really like August lock that’s. Yeah, that’s really been instrumental. And I, I guess, you know, kind of live and learn. One of the key things I’ve found out is, you know, having a lockbox because I thought, Hey, whatever could go wrong with August lag. So initially I didn’t have a key down there and I got a call one afternoon where the guy had unfortunately lack the bottom lock. So th so this, my particular unit has the August lock, and then it has a bottom lock. So he regrettably, you know, unfortunately lack the bottom lock and took off. So I didn’t have a key down there initially at the unit. So it was kind of a call in the middle of the afternoon, and I had to drop everything I was doing to get down there and unlock it, but just a short little message that I put now on the door, please do not lack bottom lock and all was saved.
03:34:34
And now that I have a lockbox down there, that issue was taken care of. So it’s a little bit of kind of, of learning and growing, but I really like August lot. And let’s see what else is instrumental. As far as security systems, I do use Arlo, which is a pretty easy and, and, and functioning system. Luckily I haven’t had any issues where there’s been like, kind of a partying thing, or the noise volume has gone to a certain level where I’d have to check the camera. So that really hasn’t been an issue for me, but I would say, yeah, I guess I have to give praise to August lack and just the genius of it. And being able to see and know, you know, Hey, when the customers or clients have, you know, gained access to the unit and know they’ve arrived. And yeah, I would say that’s probably my key, biggest technology thing.
03:35:35
Okay. And is there anything that you do that has helped your guests leave positive reviews?
03:35:40
I would say that customer service again, customer service, and I get a lot of points for cleanliness. Yeah. Just, just always make sure you’re, if you’re not doing the cleaning yourself, then make sure that you have a vetted cleaning staff, and that’s just kind of a cleaning staff that you can grow with. And that really knows the ins and outs of your particular unit. Every unit is going to be a little bit different, especially for my units. My units are in older buildings. I’m like two blocks away from the beach. So a lot of the buildings kind of in the area are older. So just kind of having a cleaning staff, that’s familiar with your units. As I said before, I got a lot of points for just being cleanliness and being responsive. Hey, if I had a question, Charles was kind of Johnny on the spot, he answered my questions right away. Just, just kind of being there and letting them know like, Hey, the unit is, is yours for this amount of time that you’re going to be there, but if you have any questions or need to reach out to me, just a phone call or a message away. And I’d say just that the fact that my customers and I’ve actually had repeat customers, that the fact that they know that is, is key and bringing them back and spreading the word on your, on your units.
03:37:05
And is there one house rule that has saved you before?
03:37:10
Well, I have it. Now I can tell you, I can tell you the, the two biggest things that happened to me, where I have kind of my own personal rules now is last minute guests with no reviews. I received a call from Airbnb and they said, Hey, we have a gentleman who, unfortunately, his, something went awry with his booking. So he needs another place. I had an opening at the time and I just kind of like, kind of blindly went into it because I had gotten a call from Airbnb. So, Hey, you know what? Yeah, I’ll step up. I’m a, Superhost, I’ll help you guys out. And this guy didn’t have any reviews. And I think he was there for four, four days. And I think he smoked every day. Like we went in there and the place was just a mess. And the, the smoke was like ingrained.
03:38:11
So the cleaning was the cleaning took wear. Whereas, whereas usually the cleaning takes probably hour, hour and a half. If that, I think we were down there cleaning for a good, like two and a half, three hours. This also leads to one key thing that, that you should get. If you ever have an issue with whether it’s smoking or maybe someone cooks something, or there’s a particular smell in your unit, I would suggest getting a, what they call a ozone generator. This is a device where like, say, if there’s fire damage, this is a device where you can bring it in and just let it go. And it will remove the smell of fire damage. So it is a very powerful device. It’s called an ozone generator and you actually have to leave the premises while you have it running. But I would say that is a key piece of equipment that has been very instrumental when dealing with issues like that.
03:39:12
But now I have it in my rules, if there’s a last minute booking and they don’t have any reviews, then I’m just, I’m just going to pass on them. I’ve found that it’s, it’s, it’s just not worth it just because they’re, they’re not vetted. You know, there’s no reviews on them and nine times, well, for myself, what I found out is nine times out of 10, it’s going to be someone who just do just didn’t respect the unit, you know, and they would just kind of a, a fly by night guests, so to speak. So that’s kind of been my big takeaway in relation to that.
03:39:50
And what, what would you do differently if you had to start from
03:39:52
Scratch? What would I do differently if I had to start from scratch? That is a very good question. Well, I would, I think I would definitely even with, especially if you’re starting off from scratch, even the best laid plans, there’s a lot on the table. You may overlook some things as soon as you get the keys to your unit, whether you purchased it, or whether you’re using rental arbitrage, calling get your service to set up, do that initially call and get your services set up and then make sure you have a full shopping list of, of what you’re going to need for the unit, whether you’re using a, a designer, ask that designer, everything that they’re bringing to the table and what you need to bring to the table and the fully clear and, and transparent in that and make sure that you go over things three times, four times, five times as many times as it takes, because you’re going to overlook something.
04:41:07
This is a business that’s actually really simple. All of your, all of your input and push is going to be 90% is going to be in the very beginning. But once you have your units set up, you know, I may go months without having anything to do. You know, there’s just small guest communications here, and then you may have a, to put out and it’s kind of a, all hands on deck. But other than those, you know, short term rental is it’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s an amazing business. I mean, real estate alone, a slow motion. This is a way to kind of catapult that and, you know, get greater returns. But even in that regard, it’s a business that kind of runs itself. And I love it. I mean, it’s, there’s just so many things that I, I, I didn’t know, getting into this business that I would like the customer service aspect and just meeting different people.
04:42:09
I’ve hosted people who were on their honeymoon. So that was amazing being a part of that people from overseas that have, you know, come to the United States for the first time, that was just kind of amazing. You meet all these different, amazing people and get to interact with them. And you find out once you kind of lift that veil, everyone’s just people, they’re just people like you, they’re, they’re traveling, they’re, they’re out to have a good time. And, you know, they kind of want someone that’s going to have their back. If things go awry and that’s, that’s been an amazing blessing for me to be able to provide that customer service to them.
04:42:54
Yeah. It is a very customer service oriented business. And I love, I love what you said. You know, there, there, you have so many things that are going on as soon as, you know, once you get that, that lease set up or once, you know, you’re about to get your property listed, you know, there, there’s such a handful of things, and it’s so easy to look, you know, to miss something, you know, a lot of times once you get that, that lease, they already have the services kind of going for you. And so you might just move in there, not really thinking too much about it. And then all of a sudden, once your guest is in there, all the services stop, and you’re just like, oh crap. I forgot to, you know, I forgot to set that up because, you know, you’re just more worried about, you know, the pictures and getting a decorated and doing all that. So I think that’s a really good one, another really good one though, to replace your air filter that that’s something that often goes overlooked as well.
04:43:42
One other small caveat I can give to someone just starting out, make sure that you, whether you have your business EIN or whether you’re going to be doing it under your, under yourself, just starting out, there is a portion in if you’re utilizing Airbnb, I’m uncertain about the other platforms where you do need to go in and you need to enter that EIN number, or you either need to enter your social. Because what happens is there’s a threshold, I think of six months where if that information is not in there, Airbnb will hold up your funds because they need that information. So they just kind of hold up the funds for the government. So there’s been many an operator who failed to put that in there. And after like six months, they’re like, Hey, what happens my money? And they’re like, well, Hey, you never inputted this information. So that’s just a small caveat and key thing for new operators to look out for and make sure they enter that information.
04:44:42
Definitely one of the, one of the many things that people people need to to do once they get that once they get their, their property listed. But again, thank you so much. Charlotte has been such a pleasure. You’ve just shared so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much positivity. It is really, it is a great pleasure to be able to listen to someone who is taking those affirmations and running with it. And you are doing awesome. I wish you the best of luck. Hope you become a full-time entrepreneur within the, the new year, as you said, and I look forward to seeing your progress and until next time host nation keep on hosting.
04:45:17
I hope he hosts benefit from the show. If you found value, please go on over to iTunes, leave us a review and let us know what you enjoy about the show. If you’d like to talk to hosts that have been featured in these episodes, as well as the community go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation, talk to your hosts and the next step. So keep on hosting.
