Latest / Hospitable Hosts / Long-Term Vision for Short-Term Rentals
Transcript
- Miles - Hospitable: Okay, hello, Christopher. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform. And if you're interested in trying out hospitable automation for yourself with a two week free trial, you can do so at hospitable.com. Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast with me, your host, Miles Hobson, Head of Marketing here at Hospitable. Today I am speaking with a Seattle host, Christopher John, all about his experience of starting out with short-term rentals, his experience with Hospitable and how he prepared for the FIFA World Cup coming to Seattle. As always, if you enjoyed today's episode, please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. And if you're not already a Hospitable user, Christopher John: Alright. Hey, Miles. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Miles - Hospitable: No worries. Cool. So Christopher, we're obviously here to hear your story and we'd love to kind of start at the beginning. How did you first get into short-term rentals? How did you kind of make that leap into deciding that you were going to get a short-term rental? Christopher John: Well, I think all of us have experienced them now for several years and whatnot. The evolution of Airbnb and whatnot. But for our journey, it was a little different. We're real estate agents by trade, and then we do a lot of investing, have long-term rentals and have done flips in the past. And with long-term rentals, it just kind of seems like unless you're Miles - Hospitable: Yeah. you can sign up for a free trial on our website and get started with our new no subscription cost essentials plan. Head to hospitable.com to find out more. Christopher John: Purchasing the property outright and putting a lot of money down or all of it down ⁓ The risk of that is just not In your best interest anymore if you have a more carrying a mortgage the rules regulations I guess not with tenants nowadays. It's it's pretty risky. So we've had some issues in the past which made us decide to to look at other things and staying at Airbnbs and then talking to people about the type of cash flow that it can create was very interesting. So looked at that for I'd say a couple years before deciding to do it. yeah, divested of all of our other investments and decided to pull the trigger and go for it. Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Nice, awesome. And yeah, when you went for that first property, maybe talk me through the kind of property that it was. And did you have to do a lot of kind of design or innovation to kind of make it a bit more short term rentally? Or was it kind of, you know, already kind of set up for a short term rental? Christopher John: Bye. It was a short-term rental. We purchased it from a gentleman who had like a, I guess they had some kind of investment group in Taiwan or China and they had 122 units up and down the West coast of the United States. So it was already operating, which was nice for us to be able to investigate the financials and see what they were doing. But they kind of ran it and I see this quite frequently. from from sub operators is it's just about jamming beds in a space. So he had, I want to say in a studio, a 450 foot, you know, studio, he had, I want to say three beds, two day beds, queen bed, and there was like, nothing else. So we purchased that from him. And again, we were looking for someplace because I've talked to other people who own short-term rentals and their traffic is very seasonal. And we didn't want to do that. We wanted to have a place that actually had the opportunity to be full capacity year round. we focused in on the downtown Seattle area or Seattle in general. You've got a lot of people that are traveling in for work. You've got, you know, it's a international destination and whatnot. So. Miles - Hospitable: I see it. Christopher John: That's what we did with that. And there's not a lot of places that you can do that in downtown. You've got the city regulations, which are very strict. And then on top of that, have a lot of HOAs that restrict that. So finding the property took some time. I think we were looking for about a year, a little over a year before we found it. And then at the same time, being comfortable with, you know, that. place and who runs it, making sure that they've got all their financials and things because you're dependent on them being well run. So finding that and then we kind of just settled on this building, which is one of the last ⁓ historic brick buildings downtown. It's adjacent to the Amazon campus, the spheres and everything. So we knew people would be coming there because everybody loves Amazon. Miles - Hospitable: What? Christopher John: We picked that up and then we decided there are heavy renovation on it, ⁓ upgrade everything. And one of the things we really wanted to create was ⁓ as part of the destination was if you came and stayed with us, like you're going to live like a local. We've, we've lived downtown Seattle and experienced everything that it has for many years. I've lived down there since 1995. So kind of wanted to pass that along to anybody else. You kind of wanted to experience that. Miles - Hospitable: Nice. Christopher John: at the same time be able to see what the evolution of the city from, you know, this building and this space to, you know, Jeff Bezos big towers and things like that. So we thought it would be a cool little, little thing. Miles - Hospitable: Nice. Yeah, half expecting you to say that everyone gets a free Amazon Prime subscription or something as well, part of every day. Christopher John: Well, we've got, we have everything in there is Amazon Alexa, all smart light bulbs. So everything pings into that. And if you want to order something, it'll show up right at your door. Yeah, it's kind of cool. We like it. Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Nice, that's awesome. I love it. Cool. Yeah. And so what point in the short-term rental journey were you like, kind of, yeah, this is working, this is great, this is exactly what we were looking for? Christopher John: I think everybody will have kind of that same moment as once your calendar starts filling up. Like, because in the beginning, you've got nothing, then you might get a couple of spotty here and there because you're trying to figure out pricing and your calendar. There's just a lot. You can get ready. Like we were very prepared for the property itself, renovations, things like that, but we had no idea with. managing multiple channels, how to put the listing up, what that looks like, and just interacting with guests. So once you kind of get all that figured out, and I would say the biggest part is the pricing, ⁓ and then you start seeing your calendar fill up. That's when you know it's working for sure. Miles - Hospitable: Yeah, and it sounds like you have your calendar kind of filled up for the rest of summer already for 2026. Christopher John: Yep, we filled up and now we're starting to fill out the fall dates. think we've got September, October and November starting to fill up. We go, I leave it open for 12 months. So anybody wanting to lock that thing in early can go ahead and then our dynamic pricing handles. If you're gonna... take those dates, you're gonna pay a little bit of a premium to do that. But I do know a lot of my neighbors and other hosts that I know don't, they kind of lock that down for, I think one of my neighbors only allows four months at a time, which that would make me nervous. I like knowing that we have something coming down the pipeline. Miles - Hospitable: course. Go Seattle, it makes sense. Good stuff. And then, so I guess obviously this summer as well, being in Seattle, you guys are hosting the World Cup, certainly some of the games you want to host cities. How do you think that's impacted the bookings you're seeing? Obviously you're fully booked up. Are you seeing any kind of difference in how quickly that got booked up, or maybe the price that you're charging? Christopher John: Mm-hmm. Yeah, Seattle's like pretty much a summer destiny for people. And then we have cruise ships that run during the summer. So you see a lot of that and I heard a lot of that from other hosts. So you've got kind of a premium dates, you know, May through August. But for the World Cup, and we've been hearing about this for for years now, which is another reason we decided to get into it. We thought if we could capture part of this, it'd be great. So I had done a lot of research, read what other people were expecting, kind of attended some of these online forums and things like that, just to see what people were saying. I had no clue. But once we knew our dates of when they'd be, I immediately went in there and blocked all that off. Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Yeah. Hmm. Christopher John: Not knowing what I was doing or anything. I just knew that I didn't want to give those dates up to anybody, you know, without knowing. So then doing a lot, a lot of other research, um, do a lot with AI running scenarios through that kind of thing. Pricing structure, stuff like that. Um, once they released the dates were told, you know, what games would be in Seattle and what dates. Miles - Hospitable: Yeah. Hmm. Christopher John: Then I actually jumped on a little chat with one of the hospitable support reps to learn how to figure out how to build one of these ⁓ rules around the dates. And so we built a rule that spanned, I think it's the 15th, June 15th through July 6th, that spanned that whole time. And what we did was... Miles - Hospitable: Yeah. Christopher John: set a two day minimum and then we did a 30 % markup. So already on top of that seasonal markup. And as soon as they announced that we released those dates, and I would probably say by Friday of that week, the next week, ⁓ half of our dates were booked. So at that point I was like, ⁓ no, did I go too low with 30 %? Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Yeah. small. Christopher John: So I changed the rule to 40 % and we filled up the rest of the dates. ⁓ Yeah. So it's just trial and error, you know, and now that I think back to it, I probably should have blocked out a week before and a week after to kind of have that shoulder, but I don't know, you know, it was our first, first time doing this. So let them learn. Yeah. Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. ⁓ okay. Hmm Yeah, yeah, lot of waves, right? You can't really know if you didn't go down that path. Christopher John: And there's some people that snuck in there that booked those dates that have, aren't doing anything with World Cup. They're going on an Alaska cruise or something and they just wanted those dates. So, you know, it is what it is, but it's nice to learn that kind of stuff because we do have a lot of events, concerts, sporting games, you know, things like that to, know, that'll probably be pretty handy down the road. Miles - Hospitable: Nice, great. Well, it sounds like your pricing strategy has really evolved over time. Kind of wondering how you, I guess, approach guest experience and making sure that guests have a great time at your property. sounds like a lot of things are automated in the home, which is always really handy versus having to find light switches and just get Alexa to do it if you're in a new property. What else are you doing there for guest experience to make sure that guests have a great stay from booking inquiry right through to their review? Christopher John: I mean, your biggest thing that I was told from our, we had an Airbnb Superhost Mentor when we started, which is a great resource I think everybody should take advantage of when starting down this road. ⁓ Their advice was find a good housekeeper and make sure you keep them and pay them well, because I think that goes a long way. Our whole experience again is trying to live like a local. Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Christopher John: what you see in the pictures is exactly what you're going to find when you get there. ⁓ it's not staged for the photos and then you come in and there's different furniture. You're essentially living in our house, like it is. And so making it like that, ⁓ comfortable, super clean as depicted in the listing. And we get a lot of feedback in our reviews about that, that people appreciate that. Cause I feel like Miles - Hospitable: Mm. Christopher John: I've experienced that myself with Airbnbs. I'll show up and it's not like what I saw or, you know, even with frequent turnovers like we have, it's hard keeping it in shape, but it's what people are expecting. It's what people are spending the money for. So really trying to give them that. And ⁓ I guess what we kind of learned through it was just... Less is more like giving everybody enough to be comfortable and enjoy the space, but not to the point where it's just jam packed with oodles of stuff like closets full of extra blankets and things like that. just got there. looking for this experience. They're not looking to be at home. They've kind of escaped that for a little while. So try to make it as I guess like magazine like as possible. yeah, we've got a lot of feedback from Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Christopher John: from folks that, you know, that's what they've experienced and they appreciate it. Miles - Hospitable: Nice, great. And yeah, it sounds like a lot of positive experiences along the way. Christopher John: Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah, definitely. And some not so great ones, but you can't make everybody happy. You know, it's, we're a hundred and I think we're a hundred and four years old this year, our building. And so it's not going to live like a modern building. It's going to have some creeks and noises and things like that. And, you know, some people just aren't ready for that. They don't even know what a radiator is when it comes to heating something that they make a lot of, they make a lot of noise when they get hot. Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm from the UK, so I know. In terms of, I guess, maybe ⁓ negative reviews ⁓ or mistakes made along the way, I'm sure it's not been all sunshine and roses. So has there been any kind of major mistakes or lessons learned along the way where if you're going back to day one, that you wouldn't be doing again if you could do it Christopher John: Hahaha! I mean, you have to approach it. I mean, this is a, you're a host. You have to approach it as like, everybody's going to be different. not to be, don't want to get upset. You know, you just have to be very forthcoming in the beginning, I guess, through your house rules and things like that, what the expectation is. ⁓ And we didn't get like horrible reviews. just, you know, when you're first starting out and you get that one four after all fives. And it drops you down. it's like, it's good, right? It's gut wrenching. ⁓ but you know, you live and learn and then you just kind of have to explain to people like your rules just kind of, or how you set it up, I guess, in your listing by letting people, know, this is a hundred year old building. It's going to have some noises. There are, there's no elevators. You have to take a flight of steps kind of thing. And just little things you can do to set people up for success. not so much, I guess, get upset with them. And then the nice thing is, again, going back to my super host mentor, like learning not to have colored linens and towels, like everything's white because you're going to bleach it. We had some guests that decided in the middle of winter, they wanted to spray tan. So they spray tan themselves and everything turned orange. You know, it happens, but it's just what you're going to do when you're inviting people into your home. So you have to kind of bulletproof what you're doing. And like I said, going back to before, less is more, think. Give them just enough to be comfortable and have a great experience, but not enough to like wreck stuff. ⁓ it's, it's a, it's definitely a better way to go. Miles - Hospitable: Nice. And I have this in my notes, but I didn't actually double check with you. But ⁓ I believe you're launching a second property soon. Is that right? Christopher John: Yeah, I think what we're planning or the original plan was to divest of long-term rentals and get into short-term rentals and ultimately like how have them Situated all around the country all around the world if possible So that we get to take advantage of them both my partner and I are from islands I'm from Hawaii originally and she's from Fiji so being able to have places around that we can go home and and visit But when we're not there they're Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Christopher John: generating income and working for themselves is the dream. So we're working on that now trying to find the next one. We were actually just looking yesterday at a couple properties, but I think coming from an investment mind, I look at stuff a lot longer than maybe most people just to make sure that it's gonna pay off in the end because I've just seen too many people jump in and not all of a sudden they're not. Either they don't have their pricing right or they overpaid for the property. now there's a lot of people selling short-term rentals right now. They're all kind of getting out of it. So it's, it's evolving into this. I think it's refining itself. Actually it's changing from that. How many beds can I slam into a room to really nice curated stays for people, which is nice, but that's kind of flooding the market with all these sales of properties, are. Good for us to look for, but not necessarily. Now we're learning why they maybe weren't the best ones for those folks kind of thing. Miles - Hospitable: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, just one final question. I guess you've told us a lot and the lessons you've learned along the way. What's maybe like the one thing that you'd pass on to someone that's kind of just thinking about that first short term rental property, just starting to think about getting started? Like what's the one piece of advice that you would pass on? Christopher John: Yeah. Well, this will be a big plug for you guys because having no experience out the gate, not knowing, I didn't even know what a Miles - Hospitable: That's great. I love it. Christopher John: So once we got to that point, ⁓ yeah, taking some time to investigate what's out there for helping you manage this. Not software, you know, technology to help manage you do all of this stuff is that's the game changer. I think that's going to really help you succeed or fail in this business. have friends that do this. and they still manage everything manually and they're pulling their hair out. They're just kind of frustrated. having and doing that homework to see what actually works. So we waited until we had the listing like perfect. But now I guess if I could go back, I would make the listing, but not make it live and then maybe test it with these things just so I understood because You're going to climb this hill to make the property perfect. And then you're going to think that you're just going straight into being a, you know, a host. And there's this whole other hill of technology that you have no idea about. You know, smart locks and dynamic pricing and your calendar. I mean, we got the property ready and then we had all these hiccups with kind of getting it. Situated with the technology and I wish I would have known a little bit more there ⁓ Because it would have made the I guess the launch a little more smooth Wasn't too bad. But again, it was cool to see it and then also like with hospitable the support is awesome, like I can't doesn't matter you ask a question and It might be two in the morning. Somebody will respond to you letting you know and then Miles - Hospitable: Hmm. Christopher John: They're very good about it. Like they're not just going to tell you in an email, they're going to link an article and, you know, go to this type of stuff. And so, yeah, it's been invaluable for, for making our stuff a success for sure. Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Nice, that's great. Those friends that aren't using any software yet, you've got to get them to dip their toe in the water. The essentials plan, no cost, on, it's a way to start. Christopher John: I gave them my direct link and I think they signed up a week ago or something like that. Yeah, because you don't know what you don't know. And so they see our success we're having and they're wondering why they're not having the same success. it's just like, is the reason why you didn't really need to get this. Because I was always panicking in the beginning because the horror story I always heard about was the double booking. Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Christopher John: the big double booking. so if I'm trying, but at the same time, you're really the only way to really make it, I guess, super successful is you're going to have to be on multiple channels and to try to do that by hand or whatnot. Or I was here, people have these really elaborate pricing things they that they use. it's just like pricing changes by the minute. Miles - Hospitable: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Christopher John: you know, depending on what's going on. And if, like, if you're not sitting in front of a computer 24 seven, I don't know how you would match your, your competition or at least in the game. So yeah, I would probably say that was a big game changer once, you know, getting set up with, with you guys as the channel manager and then getting everything kind of going out of there and making sure I'm making changes there and not on the channels. ⁓ Miles - Hospitable: Mm-hmm. Christopher John: And then the dynamic pricing, would say, was the number one thing. And now you guys have added all these additional features that I haven't even gotten into yet. I'm kind of scared to touch it because it looks like it kind of gets, you can get down into the minutia of things. it's working for us now. I'm scared to touch it. ⁓ Miles - Hospitable: Yeah. Fair enough. Great. Well, it's been a pleasure chatting with you, Christopher. Thank you so much for sharing. Christopher John: ⁓ as well. I look forward to checking out the podcast.