Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / The Short-Term Rental Strategy That Will Actually Work in 2026

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The Short-Term Rental Strategy That Will Actually Work in 2026 · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Welcome to the House Planet Playbook, your go to guide for
• 0:03
  mastering short term rentals. In this special series we're
• 0:06
  sitting. Down with. 30 of the world's top
• 0:08
  property managers. To uncover what?
• 0:10
  Really drives success. In the vacation.
• 0:13
  Rental industry. You'll hear their.
• 0:14
  Stories learn the key lessons they've picked up along the way
• 0:17
  and discover the. Game changing tech they use.
• 0:20
  To deliver 5 star guest experiences.
• 0:23
  If you're serious about growing your STR business, you're in the
• 0:27
  right place. We've also developed an e-book
• 0:29
  featuring the stories of every manager in this series.
• 0:32
  And you can. Download it for free.
• 0:34
  Head to House Planet dot Club to find out more.
• 0:37
  In today's episode, we're chatting to Greg Lepone from
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  Stingray Villas in Cozumel, Mexico.
• 0:43
  Stand by for a deep dive into social media, SEO, and always
• 0:47
  welcoming your guests. Face to face.
• 0:55
  This special series is brought to you by Host Planet and
• 0:57
  Hospitable, the smart AI powered property management software
• 1:01
  trusted by hosts worldwide. With Hospitable, you can
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  automate guest messaging, sync calendars across platforms and
• 1:09
  manage your rentals with ease, all from one powerful, easy to
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  use platform. If you're keen to run your short
• 1:15
  term rental on autopilot, try Hospitable today.
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  Visit hospitable.com/house Planet to see how the platform
• 1:23
  can. Save you time.
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  Reduce stress and maximize your earnings.
• 1:27
  Greg, thank you for being part of the House Planet Playbook.
• 1:30
  Let's start with you. What's the name of your company?
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  Where are you located and how many rentals do you manage?
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  We are Stingray Villa on the island of Cozumel in Mexico and
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  we built this location in 2019 and we made four rentals on our
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  property. Fantastic.
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  So tell us, how did you get involved in short term rentals?
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  In 2011, my wife and I kept coming to the island of Cozumel
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  and we never wanted to leave. We did not want to go back to
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  the United States and be cold. And we stumbled on our first
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  property, which had two rentals. And we just said, OK, it was a
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  it was a fire sale. And so let's just get it.
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  And that's what started that was the cat hitting the the computer
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  in their jumps. That was our first venture into
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  short term rentals. And at that time we said, hey,
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  what does it take to get the short term rentals?
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  We were just totally oblivious here on the island.
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  There were only 200 Airbnb listings at that time.
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  Now there's close to 3000, so, but we also increased our size
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  too. But you know, that was part of
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  the journey. So what did you do before, What
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  did you do in the States and what did you do before the world
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  of short term rentals? I was my first career I was the
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  United States Naval Officer and my second career I was in
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  restaurants. And what did you take from those
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  professions into running short term rentals?
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  Don't have employees. It's do every, you know, do as
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  much as you can yourself. I, I know it, it, that all has
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  to deal with size. But luckily, you know, we built
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  our properties on our property. So it, you know, the commute to
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  work is just through a door, you know, into another area.
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  So it was very easy for us to do all the work and, you know, make
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  sure everything goes right and never have employee problems.
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  Sounds like a good plan to me. So tell us, how do your rentals
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  stand out in your location? Well, luckily we got involved
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  with a gentleman named Mark Simpson in the middle of COVID
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  and, you know, he was real big pushing.
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  You need to have a brand and you need to advertise that brand on
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  social media because we were really not doing that before.
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  And another big thing is with every customer you get, make
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  sure you capture their e-mail address and try to keep in touch
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  with them on a regular basis too.
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  So those were two big things we implemented in COVID that made
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  us stronger going into COVID, coming out of COVID then going
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  in. So tell us about building the
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  brand and what you've done in terms of social media and your
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  website, because I was looking through your submission and you
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  mentioned you've created a lot of blog posts and massively
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  increased your web traffic. So just talk to us about that
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  journey and the tactics that you've implemented to grow your
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  following. Part of social media is it takes
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  time to implement and you know, if you're going to, you know, be
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  posting on every single social media platform, well, you'll
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  spend most of your day just doing that.
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  So we had to look for a social media manager and now we're with
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  Zoho Social and that allows us to post to 11 different social
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  media platforms at the same time, which, you know, really,
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  really, you know, allows you to cut, you know, your workload
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  down by doing that. Tell us about your location,
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  what's unique about it, and what are the type of guests that
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  you're catering for every day? Well, we're, we're definitely a
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  tourist location. You know the type of guess what
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  we shoot for our, our main client would be people in their
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  50s and 60s that are scuba divers without children.
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  So we we cater to couples only. And then does that kind of feed
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  into all the content that you put online?
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  Are you constantly trying to go after that target guest and then
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  how do you do that? Is it great photography?
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  What do you do on on social media to get after?
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  Those yeah, it's great. It's great photography.
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  I mean that that's the key in, in showing them, you know, if
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  it, if you're doing this, you're showing them what they're
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  missing, you know, from their last vacation.
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  We definitely do not push the hard sell.
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  I mean, it's you know that, you know, every now and then, like
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  once or twice a month, we, we we put in a guest review that we we
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  just received. But we, we don't hard sell
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  anybody. We, we want people that you
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  know, that the stay looking at our social media as a follower.
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  What are your? Top tips for delivering an
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  outstanding guest experience. Well, you, you know, most guests
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  will leave their friends a better review than a perfect
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  stranger. So you want to have the
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  connection. We greet all our guests
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  personally. We don't have lock boxes or a
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  key code a matter of fact that, you know, an automatic door on
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  our gate opener, which failed here in this salt climate.
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  So, so we provide keys to get in.
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  So we meet all our guests personally and we show them the
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  property and we, you know, try to joke around with them so they
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  feel like, you know, they met somebody and, and we're their
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  friend. Talk to me about your your blog
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  post that you create, because I saw that you've you've gone from
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  hardly, you know, a few 100 visitors per month on your
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  website to thousands and thousands of visitors a month on
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  your website. That was a.
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  Big thing we were. We were with another program
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  before they shut down called Vacation Soup.
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  And the Joan, the gentleman who was running that, you know, was
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  really, you know, he says blog posts are your advertising.
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  There's something that will stay up forever, doesn't cost you
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  anything. You have time to write them.
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  And you want Google to see your website as you're the expert of
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  Cozumel. So we have 194 blogs right now.
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  And of course, the top 25 are the ones people review.
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  I mean, it'll go back to over and over again.
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  But, you know, when you search anything about Cozumel, whether
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  it's restaurants or scooter rentals or seaweed or jellyfish,
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  we come up #1 But you know that that's changing, too, with AI.
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  But at least in a lot of AI responses, you know, it says
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  Stingray, Villa says, you know, I mean, we are.
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  We are. Our blogs are still feeding the
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  AIS. Yeah, but not as much as they
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  used to. So basically when whenever
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  somebody is searching about your location, they're probably going
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  to find one of your blog posts because you've written about
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  just about every kind of search, whether it's whether it's the
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  food, whether it's restaurants, whether it's, you know,
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  Stingrays or the fish or whatever.
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  Yeah, it's. Exactly.
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  And and I always scan the the in Facebook.
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  What is the newest question people are asking?
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  Like I found out about four years ago, they were asking
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  where's the best Jeep rental? Even though they can't go off
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  road, they want to, you know, rent a Jeep.
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  So I wrote a blog and the top five Jeep rentals in Cozumel and
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  then I I saw where people were asking where should I rent a
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  bicycle? So we wrote a blog on that too.
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  And our blogs are coming up #1 when they search for that
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  question on Google. It's great for the traffic, but
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  also you're helping people and if they're then looking at where
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  to book, they're maybe going to come back to you guys because
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  you've helped them, you've provided them with with useful
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  advice. Exactly, you're, you're exactly
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  right. And you know, it, it of the
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  people that are looking for a place to stay, you know, yeah,
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  we're getting 10,000 views per month.
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  And instead of 100 views per month, I, I say it's a
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  percentage of people also looking for a place to stay.
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  And you know, let's say it's 10%.
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  So 10% of 10,000 uses 1000 chances of getting those folks
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  booked. So what makes your?
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  Brand stand out in your location well.
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  You know, Stingray Villa, I mean that that's the name Stingray
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  Villa. And you know, we push that we're
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  the number one mini resort in Cozumel.
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  And you know, when you search for things like Villa vacation
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  rental resorts, you know, we're coming up in the listings.
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  And because we're using a name, you know, that brand you know is
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  in, you know the the top five whenever you search for these
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  things. What are the main challenges and
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  opportunities in your location? Well, the main challenges is the
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  amount of folks thinking, you know, they can make a lot of
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  money hopping into this at this stage of the game.
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  I told you earlier that just the Airbnb platform alone went from
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  200 to almost 3000. Now that's a lot of competition
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  on an island, you know? And you know, unfortunately, you
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  know, I think that's it. We're totally saturated.
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  So you have to stay, you know, with with pictures that are that
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  are professional, you know, updating your listings, you
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  know, on a regular basis or you're just going to be lost in
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  the dust. You know, I mean, there's a lot
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  of people, you know, putting their stuff on Airbnb, but
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  there's also a lot of people now selling their places realizing,
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  you know, they're not making a profit.
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  What do you love most about hosting?
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  But meeting folks from the British Isles, I would say is,
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  is, is a blast. You guys seem to be the happiest
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  folks in the world because you're coming from an area
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  that's very cloudy and, and when you get the Cozumel, it's like
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  your whole world has opened up with sunshine.
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  It's, it's just amazing. And you guys are the birth
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  place, you know, of vacation rentals.
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  I mean, there's more bed and breakfast and guest house in the
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  British Isles than anywhere else in the world.
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  What's? Been your biggest lesson learned
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  since you started Short term rentals?
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  You know, don't let the bad guest you know be in your mind
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  forever. Unfortunately, you know, .01% of
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  guests will be bad, but and and you remember the bad experiences
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  vividly and you don't remember the good experiences, you know
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  they they kind of get blocked out.
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  So try to, you know, emphasize the good guess whenever
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  possible. OK.
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  Then, Greg, we've got a few quick fire questions to get
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  through now. So which PMS do you use?
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  Bench 24. Which dynamic pricing tool do
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  you use? I use wheelhouse free and then
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  in beds 24 I can set up where a last minute booking, you know,
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  10 days out, it's cheaper that that's, that's so I use these so
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  I don't have to pay for a dynamic pricing tool to do that.
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  It's I can do it free through Beds 24.
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  Which piece of tech couldn't you live without?
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  Zoho social, the social media, but also, you know, beds 24 if
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  you don't have that connection when a booking comes in on
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  Airbnb and closing it out on BRBO and your direct site, it
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  would be a nightmare trying trying to keep up with that
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  manually. And you'd have multiple double
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  bookings. And it's it's nice to have Apms
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  where you can send out as many or as few messages to guess on
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  all platforms. Excellent.
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  Ideally allowing pets. Yes or no?
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  We do not because there's so many folks that have allergies.
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  Ideally hot tubs, yes or no? Oh, it's hot enough here in
• 15:19
  Cosmo. You don't want to be any hotter.
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  You mentioned this one before. Self check in or personal
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  welcome. Personal welcomes or if you want
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  good reviews are the most important.
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  Telephone call or AI response? I don't use it AI response nor
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  do we use telephone. We we text so folks can text us
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  or what's up us. And that's how we because you
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  see, we're struggling right now with this, you know, video chat,
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  telephone calls are just as troublesome, but texting seems
• 15:58
  to be better. What's your most?
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  Memorable hosting moment. We had a party for our top 4
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  guests that were here at the same time and we brought in a
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  singer and we made margaritas and we brought in our friends.
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  It was really, really a good experience for everybody
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  involved. OK then so.
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  We've now got to the stage where we've.
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  Got a few shout outs. So is there an individual in the
• 16:24
  short term rental industry who's helped you that you'd perhaps
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  like to give a shout out to? Yeah, but Mark Simpson was
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  instrumental with Boost Lee and pushing us to start social
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  media, to start emailing our previous guests and to really,
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  you know, help me redo my website myself to make it more
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  bookable. Final question then, Greg,
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  ultimate goal for your STR business.
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  Just to stay, stay competitive in this market, you know, with
• 17:00
  more and more competition always coming up, you know, it's, it's,
• 17:05
  it's a battle. Greg, thank you for joining us
• 17:08
  and thank you for being part of the Host Planet Playbook.
• 17:11
  No problem. You have a great day.
• 17:14
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
• 17:15
  My thanks to Greg for. Sharing his journey.
• 17:17
  And for being part of the House Planet playbook, remember this
• 17:21
  series is brought to you in partnership with Hospitable, the
• 17:24
  all in One property management software.
• 17:26
  Designed to save. You time and help your business
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  messaging, syncs your calendars across platforms, handles team
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  tasks and so much more so you can.
• 17:37
  Focus on delivering. A top notch guest experience or
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  just get. Some.
• 17:42
  Of your time. Back and here's.
• 17:43
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  For more free education for vacation rental hosts, head to
• 18:02
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  download our suite of ebooks. Until next time.
• 18:10
  Happy hosting.