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278. Hosting Hotline: Parent-Child Listing Strategies For Your Airbnb, Bathroom Edition · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Hello.
• 0:00
  Welcome back for another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:03
  I'm Annette Grant.
• 0:04
  And together we are--
• 0:05
  Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:06
  And this is the--
• 0:07
  Hosting Hotline.
• 0:09
  We are going to listen and answer a question that was submitted
• 0:13
  by one of you amazing listeners.
• 0:14
  Before we do that, again, TFV Con is right around the corner.
• 0:19
  We have secured the most amazing lineup of speakers who are going to be bringing
• 0:25
  so much education to us to really empower the rest of 2023 into next year.
• 0:30
  We're talking SEO.
• 0:31
  We're talking raising capital.
• 0:33
  We're talking unique builds, co-hosting.
• 0:36
  What else Annette?
• 0:36
  I mean, so much.
• 0:38
  We're hanging out and getting--
• 0:39
  AllAnnette wants to do is party with you guys.
• 0:43
  It's Hosting Hotline hangouts.
• 0:45
  You're going buy a VIP ticket while they last.
• 0:46
  We're very limited on those, but we have a VIP-only party on Monday night.
• 0:50
  A lot of special VIP upgrades should you decide to treat yourself.
• 0:55
  Come hang out.
• 0:55
  Let's do this.
• 0:56
  All right.
• 0:56
  With that, let's talk about parent-child listings.
• 1:00
  Hi, Sarah.
• 1:00
  Hi, Annette.
• 1:01
  This is Carolyn Stewart from Rochester, New Hampshire.
• 1:04
  My husband and I, we want to pursue the parent-child strategy
• 1:08
  you've been talking about.
• 1:09
  Question for you.
• 1:10
  We've got a four-bedroom, two-bath.
• 1:12
  One of those baths is a full bath.
• 1:14
  The other bath is a three-quarter-bath.
• 1:16
  Three of the bedrooms has one queen bed in it, and the other
• 1:20
  bedroom has a bunk bed set in it.
• 1:23
  So we're trying to figure out which bedrooms would be in the child?
• 1:28
  And which bathroom.
• 1:29
  Do we lock off the three-quarter-bath and just have people use the full bed if we're
• 1:34
  going to do a two-bedroom child unit?
• 1:37
  So we're just wondering what your suggestions are because
• 1:41
  we're not quite sure where to put those locks, on which bedrooms.
• 1:45
  So that's it.
• 1:47
  I thank you so much for any advice you can give us.
• 1:50
  When we played this the first, time I asked Annette, I was
• 1:52
  like-- I had her write it down.
• 1:54
  I was like, what is this math?
• 1:55
  We were doing room math.
• 1:57
  First suggestion, and this is not only for this caller, but for all
• 2:02
  callers, there is true value in the amount of bathrooms for your guests.
• 2:11
  My advice here is, let's leave all of the bathrooms open.
• 2:16
  Uh, and again, that's my advice for everyone, especially if
• 2:18
  there's just two bathrooms.
• 2:19
  I think, um, even if you have two bedrooms, two bathrooms is amazing.
• 2:23
  Sometimes even just one bedroom, people like having two
• 2:26
  bathrooms, me being one of them.
• 2:28
  Second that.
• 2:28
  Yeah, so that is something.
• 2:30
  Let's just get that out.
• 2:31
  I think make all of the bathrooms available on every reservation.
• 2:35
  And also I think it's just nice.
• 2:37
  With doing parent-child, you do have to put in some additional locks.
• 2:41
  You don't have to put any additional locks on your bathrooms and cause any
• 2:45
  friction or just aesthetics on those.
• 2:48
  So first and foremost, I would keep all the bathrooms open to everyone.
• 2:53
  Yeah.
• 2:54
  And it could also depend on, this is for everyone too, the layout of your home.
• 2:59
  For sure.
• 3:00
  When you're doing parent-child, Annette says leave all the bathrooms
• 3:03
  open, but maybe there's a primary-- there's an en suite off of a primary
• 3:07
  bedroom that you do want to lock off and not offer for your smaller option.
• 3:11
  Or maybe your parent-child is, hey, we have all these bedrooms and
• 3:17
  bathrooms on the main floor, and there's a whole basement with a hangout
• 3:21
  space and a bedroom, but maybe that basement, that's part of your parent
• 3:24
  option, and just the first floor.
• 3:26
  So layout could have a big--
• 3:28
  Yes.
• 3:29
  I agree with that.
• 3:30
  Could help you decide that.
• 3:31
  But it sounds like layout isn't a problem here in terms of what
• 3:34
  is allowed or not allowed, so I'm going to agree with Annette.
• 3:36
  I think having two bathrooms would be great.
• 3:41
  And again, I don't know the layout.
• 3:43
  I also don't know you market.
• 3:44
  So one thing you could do is-- the whole point of parent child
• 3:47
  is to diversify your one property.
• 3:50
  And if a traveler and a friend, maybe they aren't going to consider a four-bedroom,
• 3:55
  but they would consider a two bedroom.
• 3:56
  So in our market, the two-bedroom opened up a world of possibilities
• 4:00
  for some of our larger homes.
• 4:02
  So look at that too.
• 4:04
  Where do you want to fall in terms of competition?
• 4:06
  Maybe for your market, three bedrooms is very different than four or five,
• 4:10
  or maybe just a one-bedroom option and the way it's laid out is killer too.
• 4:14
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:14
  So you have to--
• 4:15
  Yeah, you could do a two-bedroom, a three-bedroom, and a four-bedroom.
• 4:18
  This is not helping her.
• 4:19
  Yeah, it is.
• 4:20
  I think it is.
• 4:21
  I think it's totally helping her.
• 4:22
  I'm going to live in my world if it's helpful.
• 4:23
  AD BREAK
• 4:24
  Also, you just got to get started.
• 4:26
  So getting that out there as parent-child, because I think one of your concerns
• 4:30
  too is, hey, do I offer up the room with the bunk beds, or is it better
• 4:35
  to offer up the room with the queens?
• 4:36
  One thing is, and you'll see, once you start doing the parent-child,
• 4:39
  people might have questions about it.
• 4:40
  And so you can always answer those afterwards, but I think just
• 4:44
  starting to see what the demand is.
• 4:45
  But I would get started most likely maybe with the queen bed.
• 4:50
  I don't know.
• 4:52
  All the queen beds?
• 4:53
  All the queens?
• 4:54
  Again, it goes down to what market is she in.
• 4:56
  Are three people going to travel and it might be nice for each friend to have--
• 4:59
  yes, someone has to get on the top bunk.
• 5:01
  Or it's very child-friendly, and so the bunk beds are a no brainer.
• 5:05
  I will say this too though, I know, listeners, what you might be thinking
• 5:09
  too, is if you do the lock on your bedroom door, not all bedrooms have
• 5:12
  deadbolts, and so sometimes you have to bore a new hole in the door.
• 5:16
  And so it feels like a permanent decision, but depending on the lock
• 5:22
  and the handle, maybe you do something a little less expensive, a little
• 5:25
  less permanent, and you get one of those locks that it is the doorknob.
• 5:29
  Just make sure you have a backup in terms of safety if that thing closes.
• 5:34
  A lot of lot will have what will have a key component as well.
• 5:38
  Maybe you just put a key in a lockbox and hang in from the doorknob for now while
• 5:41
  you decide, because I do understand that.
• 5:44
  You will see in our show notes my favorite--
• 5:46
  Right.
• 5:47
  They're goingtotell them.
• 5:47
  Parent-child listing door, and we do bore a whole other hole into the door.
• 5:53
  Anyway.
• 5:55
  I'll take this back too, though.
• 5:56
  How do you spell bore?
• 5:57
  B-O-R-E, I think.
• 5:58
  Okay.
• 5:58
  There are smart locks or mechanical locks that do have the handle
• 6:02
  and the keypad all in one too.
• 6:04
  So there are options out there for you.
• 6:08
  And just make sure all the bathrooms open.
• 6:11
  Keep the parent-child bathrooms open.
• 6:14
  But we're excited for you.
• 6:15
  Let us know how it goes.
• 6:16
  And this is probably one of our most popular topics.
• 6:21
  And I never thought in a million years it would be.
• 6:23
  But I love it because that means that hosts are getting creative.
• 6:26
  They're looking for that way to use their space creatively.
• 6:32
  And my last tip there is, check out the competition in your area too.
• 6:37
  When you're looking at the bed layout, the bedroom layout, take
• 6:42
  a peek at your competition and see what's going on there too.
• 6:45
  If it's two bedrooms or three bedrooms, what else pops up when someone's
• 6:49
  looking in your area for those--
• 6:50
  You want tomeet what is not being met if you can, for sure.
• 6:55
  All right.
• 6:56
  Good luck.
• 6:56
  Also think about your strategy for pricing.
• 6:58
  That's the most important thing about this.
• 6:59
  It's diversifying.
• 7:01
  So you stretch the times of week and stuff that your property is available.
• 7:06
  So yes, decide on bedroom, bathrooms, and which ones, but also make sure
• 7:09
  you're spending time figuring out your pricing and availability.
• 7:12
  When will the two-bedroom be available?
• 7:14
  When will the four-bedroom be available?
• 7:16
  We have a whole episode on this.
• 7:17
  We'll put it in the show notes if you want more of a deep dive on this topic.
• 7:21
  With that, I'm Sarah Karakaian.
• 7:22
  I'm Annette Grant.
• 7:23
  And together we are--
• 7:24
  Thanks for Visiting.
• 7:24
  We'll talk to you next time.