Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Never Miss Trash Day Again – STR Tips from CanMonkey

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Never Miss Trash Day Again – STR Tips from CanMonkey · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and. Welcome to House Planet Bite
• 0:02
  Size, the podcast brought to you.
• 0:03
  By host planet. And Host Philly.
• 0:06
  My name is James Farley, the founder of Host Planet.
• 0:08
  And our goal. Is to share everything you need
• 0:10
  to know. About.
• 0:11
  Buying and managing short term rentals.
• 0:13
  Today's guest is Alex Shapiro from Cammonkey and he's got 5
• 0:17
  tips to share about garbage management.
• 0:20
  OK, real talk now for all you hosts out there, you know that
• 0:23
  moment when your guest messages you again with hey, what's the
• 0:27
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• 1:44
  Alex, thank you for joining. US on house.
• 1:46
  Planet bite size. You've.
• 1:48
  Got 5 garbage management. Tips for STR hosts?
• 1:52
  So take it away with tip number. One all right tip #1 is to stick
• 1:57
  to the local trash schedule. As easy as that sounds, always
• 2:00
  know your neighborhood's trash and recycling pick up days.
• 2:02
  Missing trash day can cause overflowing smells, pest issues,
• 2:06
  and even bad guest reviews. So if you're managing vacation
• 2:08
  rental, just know your local trash schedule.
• 2:12
  It is so important and you know what, I dropped my son off at
• 2:16
  his preschool this morning and my 2 rentals are right next to
• 2:20
  it. And afterwards I walked straight
• 2:22
  round and I put the trash out. And I was thinking of you
• 2:26
  actually in your company. I thought, you know what I could
• 2:28
  do with a company that did this for me because at the back of
• 2:30
  one of my rentals, they're right at the back and I have to kind
• 2:33
  of drag the bins out. And it is a bit of a pain.
• 2:37
  But yeah, knowing your schedule is, is so, so important.
• 2:41
  Don't forget, because the last thing you want is overflowing
• 2:43
  bins at the back. Your, your neighbors and your
• 2:46
  guests will will not Thank you. All right then, Alex, so tip #2.
• 2:52
  Tip #2 is label your bins clearly.
• 2:55
  Especially with short term rentals or vacation rentals, you
• 2:59
  know putting your cans to the curb or taking them back, it can
• 3:02
  get mixed up with other neighbors.
• 3:03
  So just having them labeled, maybe spray painted the address
• 3:07
  numbers on them or maybe having a sticker that maybe is your
• 3:10
  brand or something along those lines is can go a long way.
• 3:15
  Yeah, really good point. And here in the UK at the moment
• 3:19
  with my properties, there's there's three bins.
• 3:21
  So there's the general one, which is the Gray color plastic
• 3:25
  and glass, which is blue, and the brown one which is for
• 3:28
  cardboard. And confusingly in this country,
• 3:31
  different regions have different color bins for for different
• 3:34
  things. So knowing exactly what to put
• 3:37
  in which bin is important. And of course you need your
• 3:40
  number on. So people know that it's that
• 3:42
  that it's your property as well. All right then, let's tip #3. #3
• 3:48
  would be would be to invest in extra cans.
• 3:52
  Typically properties get one trash, one recycling can, and if
• 3:55
  you are a short term rental, you're having more than the
• 3:58
  typical two to four people there.
• 4:01
  So what I would recommend is having two trash cans or as many
• 4:05
  as you can have. It's better to have more and not
• 4:07
  need them than to not have enough and then need them and
• 4:10
  then having trash all over around the cans because there's
• 4:13
  not enough space for them. Yeah, really good point, I guess
• 4:17
  to you. Do you advise people just to buy
• 4:18
  extra and maybe like keep them in the garage or keep them in
• 4:21
  storage or something? So each city we're in so many
• 4:25
  different cities around the country.
• 4:26
  So each city has their own little idiosyncrasies.
• 4:28
  So if you're in a city that allows you or using a company
• 4:32
  that allows you to buy an extra trash can, which some of them
• 4:35
  have that either the city or service provider buy an extra
• 4:38
  trash can, whether it's $100 or 75, have them now service it for
• 4:43
  you. We have had clients go to the
• 4:45
  local Home Depot or local store, get one of those trash cans for
• 4:50
  extra use, which is a great idea at first, but then they fill it
• 4:54
  up. If the city or whoever's
• 4:56
  providing the removal of the trash won't take that.
• 4:59
  Well, now you're just left with a trash can that's full of trash
• 5:03
  and now you have to call 1800 Junk or local junk removal
• 5:06
  company to come and remove that for you.
• 5:07
  So ideally, if you can go to a your service provider and say,
• 5:11
  hey, I got one can right now, can I get two or three if they
• 5:15
  allow. You just have a big family, you
• 5:16
  know, don't lie, but maybe tell a little bit of a story.
• 5:19
  I'm a big fan that's coming in. I'd love to have more than the
• 5:22
  one trash can. From what I've seen, I have some
• 5:25
  clients have 6 trash cans. So each city is different, but
• 5:29
  get as many as you can. If your property is in that
• 5:32
  realm of sleeping, 12 to 16 or 8 to 12 people don't have one
• 5:36
  trash can. Yeah, definitely, if you've got
• 5:39
  a huge property, I was just thinking that, I mean, we, we
• 5:41
  fill our bins and there's, you know, five of us living here.
• 5:45
  And yeah, if it's it's a bigger property with a lot more people,
• 5:47
  it's going to going to need extra trash space, no doubt
• 5:50
  about it. All right then, Alex said tip
• 5:52
  #4. #4 kind of just goes, I kind of said it last one, but #4
• 5:56
  would be have a local, have a local jumper middle company on
• 6:00
  your speed dial, have a local company that you can call for
• 6:03
  those instances where maybe trash comes on Sunday, it's
• 6:07
  Sunday, sorry, trash comes on Thursday, it's Sunday.
• 6:10
  You have guests checking out, you have new guests checking in
• 6:12
  tomorrow, you have all this excess trash from the last
• 6:15
  guest. Having used a local jungle mill
• 6:17
  company that maybe you build a rapport with, tell them that you
• 6:19
  have a business. Tell them you have two to three
• 6:21
  rentals that you might call. Can you get some kind of
• 6:23
  discount with them? Having someone like that in the
• 6:26
  back pocket would be amazing because for those issues that
• 6:29
  come up, you have someone they can call.
• 6:31
  They you know, you're not just some random person off the
• 6:34
  street. You have some kind of rapport
• 6:36
  and they'll go there in a timely manner and pick up your trash
• 6:39
  for you. Yeah, a couple of these are just
• 6:41
  about being prepared, right? You know, having those contacts
• 6:44
  available, having the extra bin space, and if you do your
• 6:47
  research and you're really diligent host, having those
• 6:51
  things like you say, having the guy on speed dial is just going
• 6:53
  to help you provide that brilliant guest experience,
• 6:56
  right? Exactly.
• 6:58
  So tip #5 then, Alex? Tip #5 would be in this kind of
• 7:03
  just plays into everything now would be to consider a can of
• 7:05
  curb service. If you're in an area that has a
• 7:07
  company that offers a can of curb service or they'll do it
• 7:10
  for you, that'd be ideal. That way you can just load that
• 7:15
  on to someone else, don't have to worry about it.
• 7:18
  Ideally they have a junk removal company as well and that's two
• 7:22
  birds one stone. So again, you don't have to have
• 7:25
  a rolodex of different people out there, but those are hard to
• 7:29
  come. Some people use the local
• 7:30
  neighbor kid next door, some use a local junk removal company or
• 7:34
  local cleaners or whatever it is.
• 7:35
  If you can find a a company that can help you, that could be
• 7:38
  ideal as well. And outsourcing that weekly
• 7:41
  tedious task to someone else. Definitely so, and a can to curb
• 7:46
  service a little bit like can monkey, of course.
• 7:49
  So tell us about your company. How does it work first of all?
• 7:54
  Yes, exactly. So it was a great Segway Can
• 7:56
  Monkey was the first can to curb service provider here in the
• 8:00
  United States. Essentially, we automate trash
• 8:02
  day. We take the trash recycling cans
• 8:04
  from the property to the curb evening before the city picks
• 8:08
  them up. Then the following day, once the
• 8:09
  city empties out the cans, we come back to the property, take
• 8:12
  them back to the original location.
• 8:14
  We incorporated our own technology and our own
• 8:16
  application. So now we have a client
• 8:18
  dashboard that we provide to our clients.
• 8:20
  We call it trash parency. We can't hide anything from you.
• 8:23
  So every single service history of every week of every can at
• 8:25
  the curb or back or whatever it is, is all in your client
• 8:28
  dashboard. You have proof.
• 8:30
  We live in this world, especially in the vacation
• 8:32
  rental industry where some guests are looking to get some
• 8:34
  freebies and some guests like to complain.
• 8:36
  And it's what we've found. And maybe because we're just in
• 8:38
  this world that a lot of it is trash cans, you know, if you go
• 8:41
  to a property and the trash cans are at the curb when they
• 8:43
  shouldn't be or they're not at the curb when they should be, or
• 8:46
  it's easy to complain. It's easy to complain when you
• 8:49
  have no room for your trash or you see other people's trash
• 8:51
  that wasn't yours. It's just an easy thing.
• 8:53
  So what we do now is provide this technology or tech enabled
• 8:57
  service that for one of the oldest or you know, oldest
• 9:01
  services of taking the trash cans to the curb.
• 9:03
  So we provide this whole ServiceNow where you just sign
• 9:06
  up your property, add it on to our routes, and we take it to
• 9:09
  the curb and back every week for you like clockwork.
• 9:13
  It's superb. And this is all about being a
• 9:16
  good neighbor and and how important is it to be a good
• 9:20
  neighbor when when you're running an STR?
• 9:22
  It's huge. I mean, it could either make or
• 9:24
  break your business. You know, if you have a neighbor
• 9:26
  that's next to your Airbnb or short term rental that is a
• 9:29
  advocate for you that maybe calls you when some guests are
• 9:32
  not, that's something good for your business.
• 9:34
  If you have a neighbor next to you that's pissed off, you know
• 9:37
  they're going to try to do everything they can to hurt your
• 9:39
  business. You know, maybe you live in an
• 9:41
  HOA or there's different trash ordinances in your city and they
• 9:45
  know your trash cans out past when it should be.
• 9:47
  They will call and cattle on you because it's going to hurt you.
• 9:50
  3 strikes in some of these areas where you have your licenses for
• 9:53
  having a short term rental, you get 3 strikes and those could be
• 9:56
  all trash. You lost your asset.
• 9:58
  Now that is making you, you know, passive income.
• 10:01
  So again, like just having some of these things in play.
• 10:03
  And I have some clients where they even pay for the can of
• 10:06
  curve service for their client, for the neighbor.
• 10:08
  You know, they're like, hey, I'm going to pay for your, we'll
• 10:10
  take care of your cans. Sorry about our issues, whatever
• 10:12
  it is, whatever they can do to be a good neighbor because they
• 10:16
  do understand that their property is not just a private
• 10:19
  rental. They do know that it's now a
• 10:20
  public and especially they have pools or have, you know, an
• 10:24
  inviting area. It's going to be an area where
• 10:27
  people or guests come and are maybe not loud, you know on
• 10:31
  purpose, but just and natural. You're having a good time with
• 10:34
  family and friends at a vacation rental.
• 10:38
  It's just going to happen. So if you do have good standings
• 10:40
  with your neighbors, I think you can only behoove you and your
• 10:43
  business and even your guests as well.
• 10:45
  You don't want a neighbor ruining their experience, which
• 10:47
  then returns what's bad on you as well. 100%, yeah, absolutely.
• 10:53
  So tell us then Alex, where is can Monkey operating right now
• 10:57
  and how much does the service cost?
• 10:59
  We are currently in 31 states in the United States, over 650
• 11:04
  cities. Almost every major urban area
• 11:09
  that has short term rentals we are in right now with a route
• 11:12
  operating. We're doing over 60,000 stops a
• 11:16
  month, currently over 1500 routes a week just running all
• 11:21
  around the country. Our service has different
• 11:23
  packages. We have quarterly pay options or
• 11:25
  monthly pay options, but as low as $39.00 a month, and it could
• 11:30
  be as high as, you know, 75. If you have a property with six
• 11:33
  trash cans and a long driveway or whatever it is, but still do
• 11:38
  you have a property like that? You're probably renting it out
• 11:41
  for four or $500 a night, having, you know, big parties.
• 11:45
  And so to have a service that you can now outsource this
• 11:48
  weekly TV's task to take the trash cans to curb and bag,
• 11:51
  making sure that the trash is always taken care of.
• 11:53
  If there is overflowing trash, you have a company that can
• 11:55
  remove it for you. Like having someone like that in
• 11:58
  your business is a is huge and a lot of property managers don't
• 12:02
  have that. They do.
• 12:03
  It's a maintenance guy or a cleaner or the, or the, the
• 12:07
  guests themself. And if none of them do it, then
• 12:09
  they're kind of stuck holding the bag.
• 12:12
  And that's where we come in play and just say that we want to be
• 12:14
  a stakeholder in your business and all we're going to do is
• 12:17
  handle the trash recycling cans and that's where the partnership
• 12:20
  really meshes. Fantastic.
• 12:22
  And I've got to ask you, how did you start the business?
• 12:24
  Why did you start the business? It was an accident.
• 12:27
  You know, it was one of those things my business partner
• 12:29
  started Force in Scottsdale, AZ, This one little city, he, his
• 12:33
  neighbors didn't like doing it. He didn't like doing it.
• 12:36
  He asked his son to do it. His son wouldn't do it.
• 12:38
  He'd get a fine from HOA. He's like, there has to be a
• 12:41
  company out there doing this. He Googled it, couldn't find
• 12:44
  one. And this is in 2017.
• 12:46
  So we're in the era of, you know, the do it for me apps, the
• 12:49
  Uber, the Instacarts. There wasn't anything out there.
• 12:52
  So he's like, no, I'm going to start my own first year going
• 12:55
  after homeowners. And the Scottsdale area didn't
• 12:58
  really grow as fast as he thought it was going to.
• 13:00
  And my background was entitled in escrow in real estate here in
• 13:03
  the Phoenix area in Arizona. And I had some clients that were
• 13:07
  converting from their long term rentals in that these STRS.
• 13:10
  And that was the first time I've ever heard STR short term rental
• 13:13
  Airbnb. And that was in 2018.
• 13:15
  And I was like, holy shit, I know someone that can take your
• 13:18
  trash can to the curb, but they're saying how much of that
• 13:20
  was an issue? And that was the light bulb.
• 13:22
  And that was where I, you know, kind of joined Canmonkey as an
• 13:26
  investor at 1st and said, Hey, I think you're on to something and
• 13:29
  that it was just a side hustle. The pandemic happened.
• 13:32
  I lost my job in corporate America, had nothing really
• 13:35
  going on during the pandemic. I was like, look, I got this
• 13:37
  side hustle that's taken trash cans, the curb and people are
• 13:40
  signing up in the midst of this pandemic because Scottsdale
• 13:42
  actually stayed open. A lot of States and cities
• 13:45
  closed down and Arizona was kind of doing the opposite.
• 13:48
  And that's where I kind of learned that Scottsdale's a
• 13:50
  short term rental Mecca that a lot of property managers were
• 13:53
  here. A lot of people were coming
• 13:55
  here. I lived here my, you know, 30
• 13:56
  years. So I knew people were coming
• 13:58
  here, but I didn't realize that this whole industry of vacation
• 14:01
  rentals were right here. And so we started growing in the
• 14:05
  during the pandemic in 2020. And one client, Turnkey, who got
• 14:08
  bought out by Picasa became a client of ours.
• 14:12
  And I think after two years, we had about 150 properties and in
• 14:15
  one day they gave US 75. And we're like, holy crap, this
• 14:19
  is a new business. We didn't know you guys even
• 14:21
  existed. Like, well, hey, can you help us
• 14:23
  in Park City? And can you help us in Austin?
• 14:25
  Like you have more like, yeah, we have thousands.
• 14:27
  And there's like, and that was like, our world just kept
• 14:30
  getting bigger and bigger. So it's like the the ignorance
• 14:34
  is bliss. You know, if you ask me now,
• 14:37
  would I do this again? No, like it was, it's so hard
• 14:41
  and I think anyone can say that about any business, but it was
• 14:43
  just so many different moving parts.
• 14:44
  I had no idea until we uncovered that.
• 14:47
  Like I'm not a tech guy, I'm not a logistics guy.
• 14:50
  I'm not even like I was selling title insurance and like real
• 14:54
  estate like that. I knew, I knew that I didn't
• 14:55
  know this world. So again, now I feel like I know
• 14:59
  a lot. And now, you know, we've
• 15:01
  overcome all those hurdles and it's been amazing, but it's
• 15:04
  really been ignorance is bliss. And so I had no idea that there
• 15:07
  was a need for trash. I had no idea that the three
• 15:09
  main issues were parking, noise and trash.
• 15:12
  Like that was not a thought process.
• 15:14
  So again, I think it was as ignorance as bliss and just kind
• 15:18
  of stumbling into it and just doing it and evolving.
• 15:22
  And now I see companies all around the country doing what we
• 15:25
  do. And it's really cool that we've
• 15:27
  inspired so many people to say, look, this easy concept, I can
• 15:30
  do it myself. It's easy, but at scale it's
• 15:34
  very hard of different moving parts.
• 15:36
  We are a logistical technology company now.
• 15:38
  It's like routes all over again. If you told me that it's five
• 15:41
  years ago, I'd say I can't do that.
• 15:44
  That's not me. So again, I'm glad that I didn't
• 15:48
  know what I know now. But knowing what I know now, I
• 15:52
  don't think I would do it again because it's it's difficult in a
• 15:55
  good way. Yeah, in a good way.
• 15:58
  Yeah, it takes over your life in a good way.
• 16:00
  Yeah. I know all about that.
• 16:02
  Lovely. That's fantastic.
• 16:03
  And what's the website address? Where can people find out more?
• 16:07
  Canmonkey.com, CANMON key.com is their website.
• 16:12
  Check it out. It's pretty straightforward.
• 16:13
  It shows the different packages on there, the markets that we're
• 16:16
  in, the services that we provide, we offer on demand,
• 16:19
  trash removal, can cleaning as well.
• 16:21
  And then our can to curb service.
• 16:24
  Yeah, check us out. I'd love to help if there's any
• 16:26
  questions, if we're not in your area, we can give you some other
• 16:29
  tips, remove some other introductions, the people that
• 16:30
  we know in the area that can help you if we're not there or,
• 16:34
  or or see maybe we can get in your market with your help or or
• 16:38
  whatnot. So we're always growing.
• 16:40
  We've grown to six new markets in the last three weeks just
• 16:44
  from people finding us on, you know, Google searches and saying
• 16:48
  I need this, can you help me? And it's yeah.
• 16:51
  And so it's really cool. It's like the seven-year night,
• 16:54
  you know, night of night of overnight success, the
• 16:57
  seven-year overnight success where it's finally coming
• 17:01
  together, but it's been 7 years of grinding.
• 17:05
  Yeah, super fantastic. Yep.
• 17:07
  Check out can Monkey everybody. Alex, it's been a real pleasure.
• 17:11
  Thanks for sharing your tips and for appearing on House Planet
• 17:14
  Bite Size. Thanks, James.
• 17:15
  Appreciate it. Great to chat to Alex Shapiro
• 17:17
  there from. Canmonkey about garbage
• 17:19
  management. Remember to label your bins
• 17:22
  properly and stick rigidly to the collection schedule.
• 17:26
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
• 17:27
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