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248. Hosting Hotline: Parent-Child Listings for Neighboring Properties · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Sarah: Hello, everyone.
• 0:00
  Welcome back for another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:03
  Annette: I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 0:05
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:06
  Sarah: And this is the--
• 0:07
  Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
• 0:08
  Sarah: And today we have Alonna with a parent-child listing question.
• 0:13
  Questions: Hey, Annette and Sarah.
• 0:14
  This is Alonna Diamond from Blu Sky Villa.
• 0:18
  As you know, I'm your biggest fan.
• 0:21
  So we are about to launch our first rental property right near Delray Beach,
• 0:27
  Florida, technically in Boynton Beach.
• 0:30
  And our next door neighbor who has the exact same layout and amenities as we do
• 0:37
  is thinking about Airbnb-ing his property too, and would like me to manage it.
• 0:43
  So I know that I could set up a parent-child listing and
• 0:48
  market it as a six bedroom.
• 0:50
  Each of our houses have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
• 0:55
  But I'm wondering what you think about that as a marketing strategy.
• 0:59
  I looked up on my pricing software and it looks like there's only two
• 1:03
  other comps that have six bedrooms.
• 1:07
  Um, one of them is in right on the Intercoastal, so
• 1:11
  it's in a better location.
• 1:13
  But I'm wondering what you think about as marketing the two homes as six
• 1:19
  bedrooms for the larger groups coming in.
• 1:21
  And without many comps, how do I price myself for that?
• 1:25
  Thanks.
• 1:27
  Sarah: Alonna, solid question
• 1:29
  Annette: Alonna joined us at one of our Q&As, and I wish we
• 1:34
  had the exact quote, Alonna.
• 1:35
  Maybe you can leave a review on our podcast.
• 1:38
  I think you already have though.
• 1:39
  She said she was inhaling our podcast like pizza or--
• 1:44
  Sarah: Oh, I remember that.
• 1:45
  Annette: She said something like it was nourishing her or she was
• 1:48
  binging it more than she binges pizza.
• 1:49
  Something about pizza.
• 1:51
  And I love pizza.
• 1:52
  And I loved everything that Alonna said about that.
• 1:54
  So you can compare us to food in any way, shape, or form.
• 1:59
  This is interesting though.
• 2:00
  Sounds like a great opportunity for you, number one.
• 2:02
  Congrats on that.
• 2:04
  And let's get into it, Sarah.
• 2:06
  Sarah: First of all, if you are new to the podcast, or new to Annette
• 2:08
  and myself, or new to parent-child listing, we do have content around that.
• 2:13
  You could look at podcast episode number 232, and we'll also link our
• 2:19
  YouTube video that's different from the podcast episode on this content as well.
• 2:23
  So we're not going to go too far into all the different things that
• 2:26
  would go into making this a success.
• 2:28
  But in theory, all it is is you are taking one listing and you are either breaking
• 2:34
  it down into maybe a smaller listing.
• 2:36
  So if you have a large home, you sell it as a four-bed, two bath, or you
• 2:40
  could sell it as a two-bed, one bath.
• 2:42
  And then you can do lots of different creative things with that.
• 2:45
  And it's okay to do this because you are offering different
• 2:48
  products to potential guests.
• 2:50
  And what you do is you connect the calendars on it.
• 2:53
  So if it books as one, it would automatically block it down
• 2:56
  your calendar as the other one.
• 2:57
  This is interesting because as Alonna is taking-- I'm assuming they're attached.
• 3:02
  Are they town homes, do you think, Annette?
• 3:04
  Annette: Yes.
• 3:05
  I'm thinking they're connected.
• 3:07
  Sarah: Let's make some assumptions here since we don't have all the details.
• 3:11
  But what Alonna wants to do, she wants to take two town homes, it
• 3:13
  sounds like, and offer them as one.
• 3:16
  Annette, you brought up a good point of making sure the whole
• 3:20
  lock situation irons out.
• 3:21
  What you could do, Alonna, if you have a software like Point Central
• 3:27
  or-- I don't use remote lock, but that might work too, where you can
• 3:30
  create the same code for both homes.
• 3:33
  Annette: And you'll just have to make sure you're extremely clear with the guests
• 3:39
  that it's not like an adjoining room at a hotel where you could have a pass through.
• 3:44
  It sounds like-- I'm sure you don't share any doors with your neighbor,
• 3:48
  um, but maybe you're super close.
• 3:50
  But that is one thing you're just going to have to be really clear on.
• 3:54
  However, I could see this being super desirable for people to be next door.
• 4:00
  Let's say it's two families traveling together, or the same family, but it's
• 4:05
  the parents and the kids or the in-laws.
• 4:08
  It would just be really nice, I think, for everyone to have their own space.
• 4:11
  I think the key for you is just you're going to have to be very
• 4:13
  clear in the parent listing that, um, they're not connected at.
• 4:18
  all.
• 4:18
  Sarah: As far as pricing goes, and you not having any competitors,
• 4:22
  that could be a good thing.
• 4:24
  And you are going to have to do some AB testing.
• 4:27
  What you can do is keep your eye on that listing that includes both town homes
• 4:31
  and whether you're using an OTA or a property management software, you could
• 4:36
  keep your eye on those click rates.
• 4:38
  See how potential guests are viewing this space.
• 4:42
  Are they bouncing off of it very quickly?
• 4:44
  Are you getting inquiries?
• 4:46
  And then you can assess that.
• 4:47
  Look, maybe the pricing's too high if they're looking and not booking.
• 4:50
  You can also reach out to guests and ask them, hey, you reached out.
• 4:53
  You didn't end up booking with us.
• 4:54
  There's nothing wrong with asking a guest why they chose something different.
• 4:58
  And just making sure that you make copious notes.
• 5:00
  It sounds like you have a pricing software, which most of them have a
• 5:02
  place for you to leave notes about different things that you're testing.
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  And so you can make those notes and understand why you've either
• 5:09
  lowered it or made it higher.
• 5:12
  And you want to be strategic too.
• 5:13
  Annette, you brought up a good point of, Alonna, maybe even creating
• 5:17
  some competition for herself.
• 5:19
  That may or may not be the case depending on seasonality, and
• 5:24
  maybe this is just available on the weekends versus during the weekdays.
• 5:26
  It's just the two town homes.
• 5:28
  Maybe she makes the two listings so juicy that people do book the
• 5:33
  whole thing and makes it worth your while to do it that way.
• 5:36
  But any other thoughts on that front, Annette?
• 5:39
  Annette: Yeah.
• 5:39
  Back to the Intercoastal property.
• 5:42
  If you said that one is more desirable, then maybe that is your hedge.
• 5:46
  Sarah: Mm-hmm.
• 5:47
  That's a good point.
• 5:48
  Annette: You had your bets there of like, maybe I can have
• 5:50
  really competitive pricing.
• 5:52
  It might not be the Intercoastal, but, um, you could service the guests
• 5:56
  that still want to be near the beach and beat them out on the price.
• 6:00
  Sarah: And then I guess I have lots of other questions for you
• 6:02
  too, Alonna, of your neighbor.
• 6:04
  What are his goals?
• 6:06
  If you've already figured all that?
• 6:07
  Is it only dependent on you being able to list it with your property?
• 6:12
  You want to iron out some of the details there, but we've had great success with
• 6:16
  getting creative with property packaging.
• 6:19
  We'll call it parent-child listing, but clarity and tracking.
• 6:24
  Annette: Alonna, if this is your first one, I would just say
• 6:26
  slow and steady wins the race.
• 6:28
  I would most likely get your listing up and running.
• 6:31
  Get that 30, 60, 90 days under your belt first before bringing on the next
• 6:36
  pro-- again, how aggressive you are.
• 6:39
  I don't know how much time you have.
• 6:40
  There's a lot of variables, but I want to make sure that you're really
• 6:44
  taking care of your first property and getting it off on a good foot there.
• 6:47
  Sarah: If you want us to answer your question here on the show, you
• 6:50
  can head to thanksforvisiting.me.
• 6:52
  In the upper right-hand corner is a red button, says, "Ask TFV".
• 6:55
  If it's short-term rental business related in any way, shape, or form,
• 6:59
  and we think the rest of our listeners and viewers will like it, we'll go
• 7:02
  ahead and answer it on the show.
• 7:05
  But with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 7:06
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 7:08
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 7:09
  Sarah: We'll talk to you next time.