Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Stop Saying No To Pets!

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Stop Saying No To Pets! · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Host Planet Bite Size, the podcast brought
• 0:03
  to you by Host Planet and Housefully.
• 0:05
  My name is James Farley, the founder of Host Planet, and our
• 0:08
  goal is to share everything you need to know about buying and
• 0:11
  managing short term rentals. Today's guest is Chris Rule from
• 0:15
  Turn Out and he's got 5 reasons why every host should be
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  allowing pets at their property. OK, real talk now for all you
• 0:22
  hosts out there, you know that moment when your guest messages
• 0:26
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  works. Less stress, more bookings
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  sorted with Housefully. Chris, welcome to House Planet
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  Buy Size. Thank you so much for joining
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  us. You've got 5 reasons why hosts
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  should be allowing pets at their vacation rental.
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  So take it away with reason number one.
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  Yeah. Obviously, I think the first
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  thing is you get a larger guest pool, right?
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  So the opportunity to, you know, open up your, your, your place
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  to, to a larger population of, of folks who who have pets,
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  right? So allowing pets, I think can,
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  you know, open up your rental to 70% of guests who actually own a
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  pet, at least in the, in the statistics that we have.
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  So it's a much wider pool of potential guests.
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  Another area is sort of incremental revenue, right?
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  You can actually charge more money.
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  So guests are willing to pay a little bit extra for, you know,
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  the cleaning fees or, you know, pet amenities, things along
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  those lines. So you can actually leverage
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  this as a potential revenue opportunity for you, revenue
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  lover opportunity for you. I think the the third one is, is
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  just loyalty, right? You know, guests who know that
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  they have a place that they can bring their pets and know that
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  you are a pet friendly place and that have other friends or
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  family that also have pets. They're going to talk about
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  that, right? And say I had I had this
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  fantastic property that I went to or short term rental I went
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  to that has, you know, a great pet experience.
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  And so, you know, repeat business and having those folks
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  come back, especially if some of the other competitors in the
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  area aren't allowing pets are going to continue to come back
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  to you if that pet is important to them.
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  I think the other the the 4th 1 is longer stays, right?
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  So, you know, I know that I am a pet owner and sometimes when I
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  go and travel, so we're going to travel out of country, I have to
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  find lodging for those dogs or or those pets, right.
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  And so that's additional incremental cost on my end.
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  And so I, I take that into consideration in terms of the
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  length of stay that I'm going to have, because I may have to back
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  that down knowing that I have every single night incurring
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  lodging charges for that pet or for a sitter to come in or
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  something along those lines. And so may be able to actually
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  increase the length of stay by allowing that person the, the,
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  the understanding that they can stay longer with that pet and
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  have that person, that pet with them and not have to, to incur
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  those extra costs. And I think the the last piece
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  is kind of an interesting one, right, which is, you know, if
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  you are a pet owner, you tend to be a little more responsible in
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  the world, right? And so you, you know, you have
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  this responsibility of having pets.
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  You're probably not this major, you know, going to come in and
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  destroy a short term rental place or have a giant party with
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  your dog there as well. So you may be able to actually
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  attract some of these more responsible guests who care and
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  know, you know, Hey, my, my, my pet is important to me, but it's
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  also important that my pet also is, is, you know, taking care of
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  the place that that we're staying in as well.
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  And so I'm going to be maybe a little more responsible of a, of
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  a, of a guest for you when you come in.
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  So yeah, those are the five that I think are the top of our, our,
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  our, our, our list. Excellent.
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  I love those. Yeah.
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  So #1 the larger guest pool, more revenue, of course, owner
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  loyalty, potentially longer stays and hopefully very
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  responsible pet owners. Yeah, I like the analogy there
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  that they're probably not going to be hosting a party if if the
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  dog or the cat has come along with them.
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  And I guess as well, with vacation rentals versus hotels,
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  this is 1 area where vacation rentals can really stand
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  outright because a lot of hotels, they're not taking pets.
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  Yeah, I agree. And, and I think, you know, a
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  lot of hotels, even if you do, I, I used to work in hospitality
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  business and, and, you know, we, I would work in hotels who did
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  actually have pet policies and you have to sign all of these
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  things and there'd be deposits. And I know that that can be the,
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  the, the case at, at some of these short term rentals as
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  well. But I certainly know that the
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  staff would look completely different upon people who had
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  pet stays, you know, your house cleaners coming in and not
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  knowing if the pets in the room or what that's going to look
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  like. And, and so I know we, while we
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  had those opportunities and had that service, it was definitely
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  not something that we tended to advertise a lot.
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  It was sort of more of the, I guess we'll deal with it type of
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  thing in the hotel world than it was, hey, this is something
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  we're going to embrace and actually encourage to try to
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  drive more business. And in terms of revenue, pet
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  owners expect to pay a little bit extra because as you say
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  there the alternative is going into kennels or a cattery or
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  something which can be really pricey, very pricey.
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  I mean, we're, we're going on a, a AA10 day, you know, out in, in
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  Mexico in, in two weeks from now.
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  And it's going to cost us for our two dogs at least 12 to
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  $1500 to, to board them for those that time, right.
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  And so, you know, we bake that into obviously the budgets, but
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  you know, that's the, that's the, you know, the line that
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  people are trying is like, hey, I am, I'm happy to pay an extra,
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  you know, 6, seven, $800, you know, or, or $100 a night to
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  bring my pet because I get to have them, I get to make sure
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  that they're taken care of. I mean, I'm going to have a
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  stranger taking care of my pet. And I actually couldn't
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  potentially save money, which is a very interesting thing knowing
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  that you're as a as a host, you're potentially making more
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  money. And I've spoken to a lot of
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  property managers around the world or a lot of property
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  management companies and they will always say if you want to
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  stand out, you've got to allow pets.
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  So if you want to stand out on the OTAs, if you want to make a
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  bit more revenue, if this is a great way to do it by allowing
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  pets. However, it's it's not all fun
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  fairs and lollipops with with pets.
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  There can be downsides as well. So where does kind of a solution
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  like Turno come in when it comes to supporting owners in relation
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  to dealing with pets? Yeah, I mean, I think this is,
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  this is sort of what we do really well, right, which is
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  taking care of, of, of cleaning and, and, and maintenance side
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  of things, right? So, you know, obviously there's
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  going to need to be a deeper clean that happens, right?
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  There's odors, there's more hair, there's potentially other
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  messes that can happen inside of a rental because of this, right.
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  So that's the downside of, of, of allowing pets.
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  We believe that you could make up for a lot of that within, you
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  know, pet fees and revenue that you can get extra.
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  But you know, solutions like Turno, right?
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  We, they're these short term rental OTAs as well as property
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  management systems. They're very good at tracking
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  whether or not a pet is going in with the stay.
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  And Turno now takes all of that data and sends it straight to
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  your cleaner. So your cleaner now knows, was
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  there a pet that was there previous and or is there a pet
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  coming in? So we can either help with an
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  additional deep clean. The cleaner can potentially
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  charge more. They know what they're
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  expecting. They can stay there a little
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  longer, plan for that, bring different materials.
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  And then on the other side of it, they can also set up for
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  that pet, right? Make that experience really,
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  really awesome and bring the dog bowls out and you know, maybe
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  the pet amenity or something that you have in your in your
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  storage closet. So like those are the types of
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  things that Turno can do to help make sure that this experience
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  is not one that is super detrimental, but but one that's
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  actually very positive on the on the back end, knowing that
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  potentially there's, you know, opportunity for a deeper clean
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  needed and that turtle cleaners are are they were clamoring for,
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  for, for this feature that we released earlier this year.
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  And it's been, it's been an an amazing addition to our our
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  offering. Now, if you are traveling with
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  pets, and obviously this is something that you've done a few
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  times before, how can a host go the extra mile to ensure that
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  you're a really happy guest and a happy 4 legged friend as well?
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  Yeah, you know, I think I think most again going to sort of that
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  that reason #5 right, Responsible pet owners, right?
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  We obviously come, especially when we drive up to the
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  mountains in Colorado and bring our pets, become very prepared
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  with their kennels and their bowls and all of these extra
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  things. But it is always an amazing
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  touch. I remember going up to an Airbnb
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  two years ago and there was the person had left out dog bowls
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  and already filled one up with water.
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  Knowing that, you know, maybe you have your own food and all
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  of those different things, but like already filled one up with
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  water. Just, I think it showed that the
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  property itself and the owner and the people who were, who
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  were cleaning and setting up and the management were embracing of
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  our pet. And it wasn't AI didn't have to
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  feel guilty to bring my pet there and like have to make sure
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  that they, you know, we, we tiptoed lightly around things
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  that they were embracing of this opportunity and, and really
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  saying, Hey, look, we, we care about you as well as your entire
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  sort of extended family of, of, of kids as well as pets.
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  And does that extend to rules as well?
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  Like within a rental, is it better to not have too many
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  rules and I guess trust the owner of the pet that they're
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  going to be responsible? Yeah, I mean, you know that
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  there's always going to be the, you know, the the corner cases,
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  right? People who are not responsible.
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  I mean, it's the same thing with with the person who rents your
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  house and has a is irresponsible with partying and, and, and
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  leaves the place in a complete disaster, right.
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  There's always that risk with a with a pet owner as well.
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  But I think for the most part, trusting that these people are
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  here to have a vacation and have a good time and that they are
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  going to take care of your property and that they are going
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  to, you know, let you know if there's any problem or that they
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  do are a responsible pet owner in that.
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  In that case, I think trusting and, and not having as many
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  rules is, is really important. At the same time, you know, I, I
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  fully expect that if there was some damage done by a pet of
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  mine, that I would be responsible.
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  And so I think it's OK to draw the lines of what's, you know,
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  what's reasonable and what you're, you know, you're
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  responsible for is as your pet and, and make sure that the the
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  guests know that. But yeah, that goes for
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  anything, right? You know, if you if you damage
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  the door, you're responsible for it.
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  It's the same thing if you damage a couch cushion because
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  your your pet had an accident, you're responsible for it.
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  A. 100%, yeah. Now I'm, I'm part of many short
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  term rental communities where I live and the number one question
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  I get asked by fellow hosts is do you know any good cleaners?
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  So with that in mind, tell us about Turno.
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  Tell us about the platform and where people can find out more
• 12:28
  information. Yeah, absolutely.
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  I mean, I think that the, so I'm a, I'm a pretty new addition to
• 12:35
  the team. I've joined Turno about 6 1/2
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  months ago. And I think the, the thing that
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  I've been so impressed with is just the power and quality of
• 12:46
  our, of our cleaner network. And I think it's this really
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  kind of interesting reciprocal kind of marketplace that we
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  have, which is cleaners are trying to impress host so that
• 12:56
  they can get long term work. It's not the same as sort of
• 12:59
  your Uber driver where we just send some random cleaner every
• 13:02
  single time these, these cleaners are trying to find long
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  term connections and we're encouraging those long term
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  connections. And in the off opportunity
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  we've, we've, we've tracked this data.
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  It's been one of the, the more fun things I've done coming in,
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  you know, 19, I think it's like 99.98% of all cleans that happen
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  on Turno happened without any escalation or any issue, right?
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  We don't, we don't hear about them.
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  They just, they, they're just great, right?
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  High quality, you know, the cleaners show up on time, they
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  have the information they need and they do that.
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  They do the job really, really well.
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  However, in that .02%, right? I mean, we do 10s of thousands
• 13:44
  of cleanings on a monthly basis. And that very tiny fraction,
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  that's where our Turno guarantee, which we just
• 13:50
  launched earlier this year comes in, where we will go out.
• 13:54
  We will ensure if there's a no show or poor call quality, we'll
• 13:57
  go out and we will tap our network.
• 13:58
  We'll we'll, you know, utilize our own levers of, of, of
• 14:01
  expanding searches and, and make sure we get people, the quality
• 14:05
  cleaners to make sure that ultimately that clean gets done
• 14:07
  before the guest gets there. And that happens again, a very
• 14:10
  small fraction of the time. And in those cases, if the
• 14:15
  cleaners more expensive or whatever will take care of that,
• 14:17
  that difference will also help you with a, you know, credit for
• 14:21
  your next cleaning. Because we know that those are
• 14:23
  sort of the issues. But that's where our support
• 14:25
  team who's 24/7 just jumps in and, and really handles the
• 14:29
  situation of like, hey, you know, I don't know if my cleaner
• 14:32
  is going to show up multiple stories of like our team jumping
• 14:36
  into action and getting a cleaner there within an hour.
• 14:39
  Is, is, is exactly what Turno is all about.
• 14:43
  And and and the true power what what our our systems can do so.
• 14:47
  If you need a cleaner, people check themoutitsturno.com.
• 14:52
  And yeah, that that guarantee is really important.
• 14:55
  As hosts, we've all experienced that horrible phone call where
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  somebody says, I've just got into your house, it hasn't been
• 15:04
  cleaned. It is a nightmare to deal with
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  it. So yeah, this is this is one way
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  of potentially avoiding that. Chris, thank you so much for
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  joining us on House Planet Bite Size and talking to us all about
• 15:15
  cleaning and pets. Awesome.
• 15:18
  Thank you so much, James. Appreciate.
• 15:19
  You having me? Great to chat to Chris Rule
• 15:20
  there from Turno about pets, one of the most hotly debated topics
• 15:25
  in our industry. All right, that's it for today's
• 15:28
  episode. Remember, this series is
• 15:30
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  That's it for today's episode. Until next time, happy hosting.