Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Inside Cosmic Vacations: How Ryan Moyer Built a Disney-Themed Rental Business

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Inside Cosmic Vacations: How Ryan Moyer Built a Disney-Themed Rental Business · 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 property managers to
0:09
uncover what really drives success in the vacation rental
0:13
industry. You'll hear their stories, learn
0:15
the key lessons they've picked up along the way, and discover
0:18
the game changing tech they use to deliver 5 star guest
0:21
experiences. If you're serious about growing
0:24
your STR business, you're in the right place.
0:27
We've also developed an e-book featuring the story stories of
0:30
every manager in this series, and you can download it for free
0:34
at the House Planet dot Club to find out more.
0:37
In today's episode, we're chatting to Ryan Moyer from
0:39
Cosmic Vacations, which manages rentals in Florida and Utah.
0:44
Stand by for a deep dive into Disney themed properties, the
0:48
importance of cleaning protocols, and how direct
0:51
marketing can supercharge your brand.
0:58
This special series is brought to you by Hostplanet and
1:01
Hospitable, the smart AI powered property management software
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trusted by hosts worldwide. With Hospitable, you can
1:08
automate guest messaging, sync calendars across platforms and
1:12
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
1:18
term rental on autopilot, try Hospitable today.
1:21
Visit hospitable.com/houseplanet.
1:24
See how the platform can save you time, reduce stress, and
1:27
maximize. Ryan, thank you for being part
1:30
of the House Planet Playbook. Let's start with you.
1:33
What's the name of your company? Where are you located and how
1:36
many rentals do you manage? Hey, yeah, thanks.
1:39
Thanks for having me. My company is Cosmic Vacations
1:45
and I manage about 20 properties across Florida and Utah,
1:50
primarily in the Disney area in Florida.
1:54
And then we've also got a few in Southern Utah.
1:57
And we're just, we just launched our services in Salt Lake City.
2:01
So we just onboarded our first there.
2:03
But our big kind of niche is the the Disney themed properties in
2:10
Orlando, all themed out with Disney stuff, arcades, theaters,
2:13
that kind of thing. That's where the bulk of our
2:15
properties are currently, but we've we've got quite a few in
2:19
Utah as well. Sounds amazing and we will get
2:22
on to talking about the Disney themes.
2:25
So tell us, how did you get started in the world of short
2:28
term rentals? Yeah, so I started as an
2:30
investor myself. I bought 2 properties, one in
2:35
Southern Utah and one near Disney World.
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I grew up in Gainesville just outside of Disney, so spent a
2:41
lot of time in, in Disney and you know, my wife and I, we just
2:47
kind of want to get involved there.
2:49
It looked real like a real good place to get into and real fun
2:52
to doing all the kind of theming stuff.
2:54
So we bought the one in southern Utah, the one in Disney and then
2:57
the the Disney 1:00. We we went to work at it.
3:00
It's a, a nine bedroom house with a pool and stuff there and
3:04
one of the resorts with like a water park and stuff. 2 Beans
3:06
gate is the resort and we built an arcade.
3:11
We closed in the garage, built a real nice arcade, like
3:13
commercial quality games and that kind of stuff.
3:15
We we built, we commissioned someone to build like we had
3:20
this oversized room. So we built like a three quarter
3:22
size TIE fighter from Star Wars and a three quarter size X wing
3:26
and they kind of pointed each other and they're actually beds.
3:29
They sleep like 8 people and there's like LED lights that
3:33
kind of shoot at each other and stuff.
3:35
So we went, we had, we had a real, real good time with it.
3:38
And so we had our two and somebody, my realtor who sold it
3:44
to me actually came to me and said, Hey, we've got someone
3:48
looking to buy, you know, one of these themed properties and they
3:50
were interested in acquiring yours off market.
3:53
Would you hear them out? And I said, sure.
3:55
So they came to me with, they asked for my revenue numbers
4:00
and, and I gave them those and they, they said, whoa, those
4:03
are, you know, we're doing the same thing here and your numbers
4:05
are, are quite a bit higher than ours.
4:08
You know, would you consider managing one of our properties?
4:12
Because we ended up deciding not to sell ours.
4:15
So I said sure. And from there the realtor got
4:17
wind of it. So he's been, he started sending
4:19
me clients. We also had a, a couple of
4:23
guests, 2 friends that stayed with us three times and they
4:27
decided to buy their own and they had such a good experience,
4:30
they had us manage theirs after they bought them.
4:32
So I kind of fell into it and now it's turning to do a thing
4:35
where I've, I've left my day job.
4:37
This is all I do. You know, we're up to about 20
4:40
properties. That's kind of all been
4:41
organically just, you know, referrals and whatnot.
4:44
But I'm just now kind of starting to to put myself out
4:47
there a little more and and actually start going after some
4:50
more properties as we grow. So the guys who were interested
4:54
in buying your property, why was yours performing significantly
4:58
better than theirs? Yeah.
5:01
So I think it was a few things. Number one, I always have taken
5:07
very heavy hospitality approach. So you know, very good reviews,
5:11
a lot of repeat guests, that kind of thing.
5:13
I always also try to stay kind of ahead of the market.
5:19
You know, I think that's why I enjoy doing this so much.
5:22
And, and why I've I've had such good luck with it is I used to
5:26
be a software engineer and that was the kind of thing where like
5:28
I went to work, I did my, you know, programming and then when
5:31
I was off the clock, like I didn't think about programming
5:34
again until I came back into work the next day.
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But the short term rental space, it's kind of like my whole life.
5:39
Like when I have free time, I'm, I'm in Facebook groups reading
5:42
about short term rentals and techniques to get more bookings
5:44
and listening to podcasts like this one and that kind of stuff.
5:48
So I think I've done a really good job of staying ahead of the
5:51
market in terms of trends, marketing trends, pricing
5:55
trends. So like kind of coming out of
5:57
COVID, you know, kind of caught wind of early that, you know,
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you couldn't really couldn't set your prices high enough Back
6:03
then when we had, you know, low supply, high demand.
6:06
And, you know, people who were getting booked up really early
6:08
were under pricing. And there was kind of a strategy
6:10
of, you know, being one of the last ones to book because then
6:13
you can kind of set your rates and people didn't have a choice.
6:15
And then that kind of shifted as the supply demand balance
6:18
shifted in the opposite direction.
6:20
And all the people who had been trained to do that, you know, as
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they started, you know, watching YouTube videos and stuff on, on
6:27
raising your prices and being one of the last ones to get
6:29
booked as the market shifted, people stuck with that for too
6:33
long. And then they got caught with
6:37
their property not booked, you know, last minute because they
6:40
were holding their prices high too long.
6:41
And we kind of got out in front of that where, you know, we
6:44
would look, you know, a summer ahead and, and maybe decrease
6:47
our prices a little at a time where everybody was increasing
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them. So instead of booking at 5:50 a
6:52
night, maybe we booked at 525 a night, got everything filled up.
6:55
And then, you know, once people, once people started seeing more
6:59
of that trend, you know, those properties that were unbooked
7:02
last minute, they're race to the bottom and pricing, you know,
7:04
152 hundred a night. So by giving a little on the
7:07
front end, you know, we were able to get out ahead of that
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trend and it's kind of the trends are changing again.
7:13
So staying ahead of it. I do a lot of additional stuff
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in marketing to e-mail marketing, Facebook ads, that
7:20
kind of stuff beyond just listing on Airbnb.
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But I think back then a big part of it was just really hammering
7:26
the hospitality side of things and creating great experience
7:29
for guests. I want to talk to you as well
7:31
about setting up your rental, particularly the the Disney
7:34
themed rentals, because this is something that I've thought
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about. If I was to set up a rental
7:39
tomorrow, I'd love to do something that is very themed
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and clearly aimed at a certain section of of target guests.
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So when you were setting it up, what were the key things that
7:50
went into that process and how well did you have to know your
7:53
target guest best in order to make it a success?
7:55
Yeah. So I think at the time I set it
7:58
up, you you didn't have to know them that well.
8:00
Now you definitely do. And fortunately I took the
8:02
approach of assuming I did because that's why our property
8:05
that we own there has stayed, you know, near the top of that
8:08
market for as long as it has. Because back when I did it, it
8:12
was still kind of new. And just if you just themed it
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like you were one of 100 that were themed and you know, it
8:19
would book up, but now there are thousands.
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So you've really got to got to know the market.
8:24
You can't kind of skimp on it. You do a great job.
8:27
It's really got to be stuff that resonates with people.
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It's actually funny. This is a great example.
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We on finishing up some of the stuff.
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We did a lot of it ourselves, but one of the rooms we were
8:37
having someone help us set up because we were remote not there
8:42
at that point at the end of the setup.
8:44
And you know, she was trying to I want to do a Princess room.
8:47
She was trying to like tastefully do a Princess room.
8:50
What my wife kept saying we need to we don't want to overdo it.
8:52
We don't want this room to throw up Princess.
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And and I said, no, I want this room to throw up Princess.
8:58
Like we need it to be pink. You know, we need Disney
9:01
princesses. We got to have a carriage in
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there. So really just going over the
9:07
top of it. And then the other thing that I
9:09
think is important there that I think a lot of people miss on is
9:13
it's not just decorations, it's it's things to do, like theming
9:18
that is things to do. So the arcade, that kind of
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thing. But a lot of people do like a
9:23
nice mural or something that looks good, but people don't see
9:27
themselves in it. I like to do kind of
9:29
experiences. I want people to, to have an
9:31
experience at Airbnb. So that's why we did the Star
9:34
Wars room, You know, we put a slide in, we put a bridge
9:37
between them so that people could run back and forth.
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There's a little hidden Star Wars arcade game in there where
9:42
you can like, sit in the cockpit and play an arcade game.
9:45
So I think that's a big part of it too, is it's, it's not just
9:48
the way it looks. It's, it's incorporating, you
9:51
know, things to do in there where parents can see
9:52
themselves. Oh, after a long day at Disney,
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I'm going to sit in front of the TV and the kids will be able to
9:57
go play with this. And you know, I'll get a break.
10:01
How much does the theming help your marketing efforts and also
10:06
how does it help in terms of getting repeat bookers and and
10:09
potentially direct bookers as well?
10:12
Yeah, it's, it's crucial to that.
10:15
Like I mentioned, I do a lot beyond just Airbnb and, and
10:18
that's a huge part of it. We have some houses that are
10:21
just regular houses and we can market them, you know, to some
10:25
extent. But really, you know, the ones
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we're really able to push for direct bookings are the, the
10:31
themed ones because, you know, that's very easy to, to market
10:35
and to create content for and, and that kind of stuff.
10:39
So I would say it's it's extremely important.
10:42
In terms of delivering a great guest experience, then what are
10:46
your top tips? Yeah #1 is, is just be
10:52
responsive. You know, I've hired a few
10:56
employees now, but our, our goal is always to reply to people
10:58
right away because naturally, you know, in this business, you
11:02
know, houses, houses have issues.
11:04
Things are going to happen. You know, dryers are going to
11:08
stop working. The ice maker's going to stop
11:09
working. You know, in Florida, sometimes
11:12
the air conditioner stops working, which you can imagine,
11:15
But as long as people see that you're there available, doing
11:19
your best to fix it. I, I think, you know, that goes
11:24
a long ways just knowing that you're, you're there for them
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and you're giving them your all, even if it's not something that
11:29
can be taken care of right away. So I think that's by far number
11:34
one is just being responsive to guests #2 I would say is, is,
11:41
you know, putting on the guest experience side of things the
11:45
most effort into like training your cleaners.
11:49
Cuz that's again, like a number one thing with short term
11:52
rentals that you'll hear any bad reviews start with the place
11:56
wasn't clean enough. So that's focus #1 priority
12:00
number one is, you know, train those cleaners to to have
12:04
everything down to a science. That's, that's a huge effort at
12:08
the beginning, but it's the one that'll save you the most
12:11
headaches in the long run. Create the greatest experience
12:14
of this for your guests. And then I guess the other thing
12:16
that I try to do is create some kind of value for the guests
12:22
beyond just like the property, because when Airbnb had it
12:27
started, you know, everybody, I, I don't know everybody else's
12:30
experience. One of my first experiences was
12:32
in Europe and it was very like personal there.
12:35
It was in Tuscany, you know, you met the host in person and they,
12:38
they told you the nice best wineries and go here for dinner
12:41
and all this kind of stuff. And Airbnb today isn't really
12:44
like that anymore. You know, it's, it's self check
12:47
in, you know, typically and stuff, which is how we operate
12:50
too. You know, we're not there
12:51
opening the door for people, but you can still create that value.
12:54
And I think a good way to do that is to create, you know,
12:59
local guides, video guides if possible, so they see or seeing
13:03
your face where you can send them, you know, send them some
13:08
content before they come. Disney is a very easy one for
13:11
us. You know, we're able to, we
13:12
create a guide on how to use Disney's fast, fast system, how
13:15
to system and, you know, some sample itineraries and stuff
13:20
like that where they feel like they're getting something, some
13:22
kind of local knowledge. And I think that helps us avoid
13:25
cancellations too, because I think that's a big thing on
13:27
Airbnb right now. They're, they've changed their,
13:30
you know, cancellation policy. You know, it's going to be Max
13:33
30 days, it looks like coming up here soon and really kind of
13:37
already was, you know, just to compete in the algorithm.
13:40
It was hard to with a strict cancellation.
13:42
So you know, you have these guests, especially as air B BS
13:46
got more saturated that we'll book a property ahead and then
13:49
35 days out they'll look and see that a lot of places are still
13:52
available and have dropped their prices.
13:54
So how do you avoid them price shopping and just finding
13:58
another really nice place that's dropped their price by 50%
14:02
because they're not booked. And I think this kind of thing
14:05
creates that relationship with the guest where they're not
14:09
going to go look for another place.
14:11
I also, you know, I like to send them, you know, personalized
14:15
videos, you know, if it's a good booking after they book, you
14:17
know, introducing myself using their name so they know that
14:21
it's not just pre recorded, that kind of thing.
14:24
Yeah, I think showing your face is is so important and a lot of
14:28
hosts and property managers don't really do that.
14:30
And I'm also glad that you mentioned cleaning because I've
14:33
asked for the top tips from a lot of people now as part of
14:35
this series. And not that many people have
14:36
mentioned cleaning, but it really is something that you've
14:39
you've got to get right in terms of keeping Co hosts and owners
14:45
happy. What are your top tips in this
14:47
area? Yeah, it's, I, I mean, I really
14:51
think it's the same. It's being available to them and
14:55
being, you know, forthright about giving updates and that
15:00
kind of stuff because again, issues are going to happen.
15:03
And I think where you run into issues, I'm naturally kind of an
15:07
introvert. So kind of that was one of the
15:10
things I learned when I started managing for others, you know,
15:12
because it's different than doing it for yourself.
15:15
There are things you assume that an owner's going to know are
15:18
implicitly part of short term rentals that they may not
15:22
because they, they are not as educated in the, in the field.
15:25
A lot of times, you know, that's why they're hiring you.
15:28
So, so you know, we have in Orlando, the, all these houses
15:33
are in these resorts where there's a big community pool and
15:37
water park area. So towels go missing all the
15:39
time, right? Guests take them to the water
15:42
park and they lose them there or leave them there.
15:45
And so when I was running it by properties, you know, that was
15:47
just I, I, I just wrote that off as a cost of doing business.
15:50
But you know, I found with owners, you know, when towels
15:55
start disappearing and we need to replace them, you know,
15:58
that's something we need to be proactive about letting them
16:00
know about so they don't just suddenly see on their statement
16:02
like, why are, why do we buy towels, that kind of thing.
16:06
And again, of course, with, with major issues.
16:07
So again, that was me having to kind of come out of my shell a
16:11
little bit to be more proactive about keeping in touch with
16:15
them, you know, at least monthly and, and not just being, you
16:20
know, that them not just feeling like, you know, they're a name
16:23
on a page where they get a statement and whatever, you
16:25
know, we're, we're calling them and creating that personal
16:28
relationship with the owners, just like we do with the guests.
16:31
Let's focus on kind of kissing me then and your rentals that
16:34
are in Florida. What are the main challenges and
16:38
opportunities of this location? Yeah, challenge the, the main
16:43
challenge by far is saturation. I think a lot of people are
16:46
seeing that across a lot of markets, but I think Kissimmee
16:49
is kind of like the poster child for that.
16:51
I think it was early in that and also, you know, just at the
16:55
highest level of that. That's both, you know, people
16:57
will talk about saturation in terms of the number of
16:59
properties, which we've definitely seen too, because,
17:02
you know, there's plenty of land in Orlando, so they'll throw up
17:05
these resorts, you know, with thousands of houses to meet
17:08
rising demand. But the other thing that I don't
17:11
see people talk about it much is quality saturation.
17:15
And that comes in a lot of forms.
17:16
I would say base level Airbnb, you know, that means, you know,
17:20
five years ago, you know, we had, if you put up professional
17:24
photos, dynamic pricing software, you know, had a good
17:28
listing, good reviews, you know, you were top of the market just
17:32
with that stuff. But there are a lot, the hosts
17:35
are a lot better now. They're a lot more small
17:37
boutique hosts like myself that have come in and kind of, you
17:40
know, replaced a lot of the big property management companies
17:42
that were, you know, creating a poor experience.
17:45
So everybody, you know, most people are doing dynamic pricing
17:49
and, and professional photos and stuff now.
17:51
So you don't stand out as much. And then in Orlando
17:54
specifically, kind of like I mentioned earlier, the theming
17:57
has just continued to get more prevalent and also taken to a
18:01
higher and higher level. The example I like to use is my
18:05
house, I would say it was like 99th percentile house five years
18:08
ago, and it's maybe like an 80th percentile house now just
18:10
because people have come and, you know, levelled up the
18:13
amenities. Oh, you know, you have an
18:14
arcade. We're building AVR room.
18:16
Oh, you have AVR room. We're going to put a bowling
18:18
alley in ours. So that's why I find the, the
18:23
off platform marketing to be so important because Airbnb has
18:26
just gotten so saturated. You know, if somebody sees a
18:29
house like mine or some of our clients that were themed a few
18:32
years ago, you know, they may look at it and say, oh, that's,
18:35
you know, if they see it in a vacuum, they would say, Oh yeah,
18:37
that's that's worth $600 a night.
18:40
But the problem is then they go on Airbnb and there's so many of
18:43
them that it's driven prices down.
18:45
And so now they see these houses that they think are worth $600 a
18:48
night, but some of them are listed for $200 a night because
18:51
there's so many of them and people are just trying to get
18:53
booked. So of course they're going to
18:55
book for $200 a night. But if you can capture them
18:58
before they go to Airbnb on your direct booking website and you
19:03
know they don't know there's an alternative for half the price
19:06
that's similar, then you know that then you can charge those
19:09
those higher, higher rates still.
19:12
And in terms of why Cosmic Vacations stands out, what are
19:16
your unique selling points? Yeah, I mean, I think that's,
19:21
that's a big part of it is, is like that off platform
19:25
marketing. We do e-mail marketing.
19:26
We have, you know, when guests check out, we, we, we have them
19:31
opt in if they want to opt into, you know, an e-mail campaign
19:35
for, you know, future discounts, which most do.
19:37
Then we're, we send them follow up emails throughout the year.
19:42
We're not salesy with it. That's kind of my stick, I guess
19:45
is it's just helpful, you know, 95% of them, you know, and then
19:50
we'll maybe include a link back to the place, you know, Hey,
19:53
Disney changed the Fastpass system.
19:54
Here's how it works now. Hey, we added a massage chair to
19:57
the, the master bedroom. Hey the the the Clubhouse water
20:05
park hours are longer now just. Trying to give them, you know,
20:08
advice. Here's some things you missed.
20:10
Like in our southern Utah properties, a lot of people come
20:12
from the national parks. So we'll send them an e-mail
20:15
talking about all the other stuff outside the national
20:17
parks. That really is amazing that most
20:19
people kind of overlook sometimes.
20:22
So that and the Facebook ads we get a lot of, you know, we've
20:25
been building our direct booking percentages a lot quickly.
20:31
And then it's kind of like I mentioned before, the, the
20:33
staying out ahead of the market trends.
20:34
I think you know where I'm just obsessed with short term
20:37
rentals. So we're a lot of times able to
20:39
to front run those things and not get stuck using last year's
20:43
like pricing trends this year and stuff as often.
20:48
What's been your biggest lesson learned since you started
20:51
hosting? Well, yeah, I would say just
20:58
getting especially on the management and Co hosting side
21:01
is the most important thing I think is that contract and
21:05
getting everything in writing. Kind of like I mentioned
21:08
earlier, there are things that you assume as a seasoned short
21:12
term rental host are implicit with short term rentals that an
21:16
owner may not know about. So putting that all in writing,
21:19
like, hey, we, you know, if something happens and it's, you
21:23
know, usually we'll work with the owner to set an amount where
21:25
if it's under this amount, we can just take care of it.
21:27
We don't need their need to wait on their approval because a big
21:32
part of creating guest experience is fixing things
21:35
quickly. So, you know, if, if somebody
21:38
has an issue at 10:00 at night, we want to get it fixed right
21:40
then for them. So we need to have the ability
21:43
to, to go in and take care of it right away, send them what they
21:46
need or, or repair what needs to be repaired.
21:50
And I think early on I ran into some issues where, you know,
21:53
some owners were like, oh, I didn't, you know, I didn't know
21:56
you were going to do that. I, I didn't OK that.
22:00
And so getting in writing that, you know, we need to have that
22:03
flexibility to, to act on the owner's behalf, right?
22:06
Because this is what's going to affect reviews, which is going
22:09
to affect their revenue. And, and just getting all that
22:13
in, in writing ahead of time, being very, very upfront and,
22:17
and having that all in a just buttoned and sealed contract.
22:22
What do you love most about hosting?
22:27
Yeah, I'll, I'll give a, I'll give a somewhat selfish response
22:30
here. And I think, I think probably
22:32
what a lot of people say is I just love seeing happy people
22:35
and stuff, which I do, of course, like I love when guests
22:38
have great experiences and want to come back and, you know, when
22:43
we make someone's vacation great.
22:44
But for me personally, it's the freedom of it.
22:49
I have a, a 10 year old and an 8 year old.
22:52
You know, I left my, my day job and this is, you know, hosting
22:56
is a ton of work. Like it's way more work.
22:58
I work more hours than I did at my, my, my W2 job, but I can do
23:04
it whenever I want for the most part.
23:07
So I can, you know, I just today, Monday, just took my son
23:11
to, you know, flag football day camp and, and what not, you
23:14
know, coaching his, his flag football team and just being
23:17
able to be there for the kids whenever, you know, I can work
23:21
on, especially summer breakdown when the kids are out, I can, I
23:24
can work on Saturday and you know, not work, you know, take
23:27
some time on Wednesday when things aren't as crowded to take
23:29
the kids to theme park and, and that kind of stuff.
23:32
So it's definitely for me the the personal freedom.
23:35
Yeah, the flexibility, yeah, fantastic.
23:38
OK then, Ryan, we've got a few more quick fire questions now.
23:42
Which PMS do you use? Hospitable.
23:45
Yeah. Been with them since they were
23:47
smart. B&B love what they're doing
23:50
there if I've never tried anything else because I've
23:53
always been happy with it. Superb.
23:57
Which dynamic pricing tool do you use?
23:59
Price Labs. OK, which piece of tech couldn't
24:04
you live without? Hospitable.
24:07
Yeah. You know, it's so easy to do
24:09
when when I hire new people to get them.
24:11
It's just intuitive. So it's easy to get people into
24:13
that. And yeah, I would say that.
24:17
Yeah, we're showing a run through of it the other day.
24:19
And the user experience compared to a lot of other PMSS is, is is
24:23
really strong. And I think as well they, they
24:26
talk about running your rentals on autopilot and I guess that's,
24:30
that's something you've you found, right?
24:33
Yeah, yeah, their AI stuff's pretty, pretty impressive.
24:37
And you know the reason I started with them.
24:39
I looked at other ones like owner res and stuff when I got
24:42
started up, but I liked Hospital because it was so intuitive and
24:46
easy to jump into. And it was a lot less powerful
24:48
back then. It was more of like a messaging
24:50
platform. And they've really grown.
24:52
I think, you know, they're API partners now with Airbnb and I
24:56
think they're working on Verbos, but also with booking.com.
25:00
That's new, which we've, we've started launching our properties
25:02
more and more on booking.com because again, we're trying to,
25:05
you know, reduce reliance on Airbnb with it being so
25:08
saturated, like find bookings elsewhere.
25:11
But I like that they've grown in that front while still
25:12
maintaining kind of the easy jump in intuitive, you know,
25:17
user interface. Yeah, Yeah, well with your
25:20
guests coming over from Europe, some of them, you'll definitely
25:22
get some some bookings from from booking.com.
25:26
OK then. So, ideal world pets, yes or no?
25:30
I mean, it's really dependent are Southern Utah properties,
25:35
it's a very dog friendly town we're in.
25:37
So pets there. Definitely.
25:39
I like to offer pets whenever you can.
25:40
You know, you're just expanding your market.
25:42
But I understand, you know, in Disney when you've got, you
25:44
know, someone, if a pet scratches up a couch that once,
25:47
that's one thing. If a pet scratches up a $20,000
25:50
X wing, that's another. So it's it's very dependent, but
25:55
I would say yes when you can, but there are definitely
25:57
circumstances where you know it's not feasible.
26:01
Hot tubs yes or no? Yeah, I mean, some markets like
26:06
Gatlinburg, it's it's necessary. I think it's always, always
26:10
worth the, the cost of maintaining it and acquiring it.
26:15
It's a my, my wife, you know, that's like the only filter she
26:18
uses on Airbnb, which she searches is does it have a hot
26:21
tub? Because it's vacation.
26:23
You want to lounge in the hot tub?
26:25
Self check in or personal welcome.
26:28
We're all self check in personal welcome is it's cool, but it's
26:32
not it's not scalable. And you know, that's a different
26:36
kind of hosting. I think that's someone who kind
26:38
of lives on property and they have a place.
26:40
They just want to make a little extra money on the side.
26:43
But you know, kind of what Airbnb modern is, you know,
26:48
we're we're all self check in and then kind of like I
26:50
mentioned earlier, it's trying to provide that personal
26:52
relationship in other ways. Telephone call or AI response?
27:01
So do you mean like like the guest has a question or
27:05
something like that? Yes.
27:08
Yeah, I mean, it's true. I prefer telephone call.
27:10
It's so much easier to convey tone and that kind of stuff.
27:14
It's tricky now because Airbnb is so, you know, hardcore about
27:18
keeping everything on the platform so everything's logged.
27:22
But especially if there's there's an issue, you know,
27:24
we'll try to put a little something in the, the chat.
27:27
But, you know, I feel like talking to people, especially,
27:32
you know, I've hired a guest communications manager who's
27:34
just amazing friendly person. And, you know, if the air
27:38
conditioner's out, you know, talking to her and it just calms
27:43
guests a lot more than than, you know, a message that says, hey,
27:47
you know, we're sending someone out to work on it.
27:49
And what's your most memorable hosting moment?
27:54
Yeah, that would be kind of probably my Southern Utah
27:57
property. It was first year doing it and
27:59
you know, the 1st guest I think is going to be it for a lot of
28:02
people because it's a real nerve wracking.
28:04
You're like what did I not think of what's going to happen?
28:07
But this was, we have, you know, property on like 5 acres and
28:12
they were, they were eloping. So they asked, you know, if they
28:16
could do a ceremony at our property.
28:18
And, you know, I was fine with it.
28:20
It's out, out in the rural Utah. And yeah, they had a a small
28:26
group there. They were, you know, we helped
28:29
them arrange things because it's a small town.
28:32
So there there wasn't like a florist.
28:33
So we helped them find flowers and all that kind of stuff.
28:36
And, and just like how grateful they were, you know, they still
28:41
contact us sometimes, you know, they send us all these pictures,
28:44
you know, they're like, here's all our wedding photos if you
28:46
want to use them on social media or whatever.
28:47
But I would say, you know, for whatever reason, that one just
28:51
resonated with me. We had a little garden Outback
28:53
that I was kind of worried about how it would work as a short
28:57
term rental. It was just like a little bed
28:59
that had some like Rosemary and stuff.
29:00
And they asked if they could kind of use that in their
29:02
decorations and stuff. And I let them and and they had,
29:07
yeah, I don't know, that one just sat with me really well,
29:09
always it just kind of was right early on in the day.
29:12
So just having that really like early in my career of that.
29:15
So it was just really started things off on the right foot for
29:18
me, I guess, and gave me that encouragement to, hey, keep
29:21
going because you hear all these horror stories and stuff, you
29:23
know, online. So that started, you know,
29:26
things off on the right foot for me.
29:29
Shout out time then. Is there somebody in the STR
29:32
industry who's helped you and you'd like to give a shout out
29:34
to? So is this like, are you
29:38
thinking like a smaller like individual person or like, you
29:42
know, a more known figure that kind?
29:46
Of followed, it can be anybody you like, anybody who's helped
29:49
you. OK.
29:51
I'd say there's a bill. Faith is a short term rental
29:57
influencer and he focuses a lot on marketing, which I think has
30:02
really helped me separate. My brand is kind of following
30:07
his lead on that, taking short term rentals beyond just Airbnb
30:12
into e-mail marketing and Facebook ads and that kind of
30:14
stuff. And one of the things I've, you
30:17
know, admired about him is a lot of short term rental
30:21
influencers, I feel like are just people who kind of got in
30:24
at the right time before, you know, their people started 2016,
30:28
1718. So they had really cheap
30:29
mortgages and then kind of everything blew up coming out of
30:32
COVID. So they really rolled with that
30:34
and made a lot of money. And the houses still do well
30:36
because they're so affordable. But I noticed a lot of short
30:39
term rental like influence and stuff, they don't buy houses
30:43
anymore and they haven't since, you know, 2021 because the
30:46
numbers are a lot harder to make work now.
30:48
And I think that's kind of the difference with Bill, why I
30:51
still follow him is because he's still buying every year one or
30:54
two houses and and making money on him and and finding ways to
30:57
do that even now when the markets become a lot more
31:01
saturated and whatnot. So yeah, I would say, I would
31:05
say that. Great shout out for Bill there.
31:08
Final question then, Ryan, ultimate goal for your business?
31:13
Yeah, it's I, I want to grow probably 50 plus properties and,
31:21
and just, you know, more time with the family.
31:25
You know, my wife's part time now I've left my W2.
31:28
So we're doing pretty good on that front, but there's still a
31:31
lot of stress that goes with it. So you know, we've grown to
31:33
about 5 people. I'm interviewing 2 more.
31:36
So, you know, just creating that that time for the family while
31:41
still being able to, you know, provide a good experience for
31:45
our owners and and guests. Super proper lifestyle business.
31:50
Great to chat to you Ryan. Thank you for sharing your story
31:53
and for being part of the Host Planet Playbook.
31:56
Yeah, it's great. Appreciate having me on.
31:58
All right, that's it for today's episode.
31:59
My thanks to Ryan for sharing his journey and for being part
32:02
of the House Planet playbook. Remember, this series is brought
32:05
to you in partnership with Hospitable, the all in
32:13
Hospitable automates your guest messaging, syncs your calendars
32:16
across platforms, handles team tasks and so much more so you
32:20
can focus on delivering a top notch guest experience or just
32:23
get some of your time back. And here's the good news.
32:26
Hostplanet Playbook listeners get an exclusive 14 day free
32:30
trial plus 25% off for the first three months.
32:33
Head to hospitable.com/houseplanet to
32:37
claim your offer and start running your rentals on
32:40
autopilot. For more free education for
32:42
vacation rental house, head to Houseplanet dot Club where you
32:45
can sign up for our newsletter. Listen to our podcast and
32:49
download our suite of ebooks. Until next time, happy hosting.