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250. Hosting Hotline: How To Hire Inspectors For Your Airbnb · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Sarah: Hello, welcome to another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:03
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 0:05
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:06
  Sarah: And this is the--
• 0:08
  Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
• 0:09
  Sarah: We've got a great question today about inspectors.
• 0:13
  Questions: Hi, Sarah and Annette.
• 0:14
  My name is Greer.
• 0:16
  I'm from Gregory Hill Homes, on Instagram.
• 0:19
  We are a short-term rental owner operator in Rhode Island.
• 0:24
  I absolutely love you guys, love listening to you, and have gotten so many great
• 0:29
  insights from you guys for this industry.
• 0:32
  My question is about hiring.
• 0:35
  I'm looking to hire inspectors to help with the cleaning process and
• 0:39
  get some work off of my plate so I can focus on growing my business.
• 0:44
  Um, I know that you guys have experience with that, so I was just wondering how you
• 0:49
  went about hiring them for the first time.
• 0:51
  Looking into it, it looks like I won't be able to hire them as
• 0:55
  independent contractors, but employees.
• 0:58
  So just wondering how you went about that, how you pay them.
• 1:02
  Do you do it hourly or per turnover, um, if every house is the same, etc?
• 1:07
  So any help and insight would be very helpful.
• 1:10
  Thank you.
• 1:13
  Sarah: All right.
• 1:14
  We have so much to say about this.
• 1:16
  Annette, do you want to get us started?
• 1:18
  Annette: Well, first I want to thank Greer because number one, she's an amazing host.
• 1:23
  Please check out her spaces in Rhode Island at Gregory Hill Homes.
• 1:29
  She's actually been a STR Share Sunday.
• 1:32
  So we thank you for being a loyal listener and contributor,
• 1:36
  and let's talk about this.
• 1:38
  Everyone, if you don't have an inspector, you might be the
• 1:41
  inspector, but let's get an inspector.
• 1:44
  Let's start really quick, Sarah.
• 1:45
  Let's just give a rundown of what an inspector does.
• 1:48
  Sarah: I love that.
• 1:49
  Yes, so an inspector is someone who helps you trust but verify the work of
• 1:56
  the cleaning team and lends an extra layer of support to the cleaning team.
• 2:03
  So on our team, our inspector comes, if they can, prior to the clean, and
• 2:09
  they do a little pre-clean checklist that can include filling all the
• 2:13
  soaps, bringing out a new sponge.
• 2:15
  If they can--
• 2:15
  Annette: Starting laundry.
• 2:17
  Sarah: Starting laundry.
• 2:18
  Yes.
• 2:18
  So those sorts of things.
• 2:19
  They let the cleaning team come and do their thing, and they come
• 2:22
  back in, they lint roll everything.
• 2:25
  They stage the curtains.
• 2:26
  We, of course, check all of the safety elements.
• 2:28
  They run their hands across the counter.
• 2:31
  So it really is just a [Inaudible] but verify.
• 2:33
  But also in our company, we treat them as just an extra layer for
• 2:39
  the cleaning team to lean on.
• 2:40
  Annette: All right, so now that we know who the inspector is, Greer, the first
• 2:44
  thing we want to tell you is, and this is for all listeners, this person definitely
• 2:48
  needs to have a high attention to detail.
• 2:52
  They are the detailer.
• 2:54
  Some people call them the detailer in their company.
• 2:56
  So that's number one when you are hiring.
• 2:59
  Number two, this is something, um, you do want to make sure in you're
• 3:03
  in alignment with this person.
• 3:05
  I know Greer you had mentioned not being able to hire an independent contractor.
• 3:10
  Need a little more info there, but listeners also, some people hire them as a
• 3:13
  1099, which is an independent contractor.
• 3:15
  Some people hire them as a W-2.
• 3:17
  Of course, this is something that you're going to want to look very
• 3:19
  specifically in your state, exactly how your business is set up, and
• 3:24
  what you're asking this person to do.
• 3:26
  But we want to encourage you, you're going to find the right person, but set up first
• 3:31
  before you even go on the hunt for this person, what is that job description?
• 3:35
  What are you going to want them to do?
• 3:36
  And Greer, it sounds like your business is growing, and, um, this is an
• 3:40
  opportunity that is that person just going to be an inspector or are you
• 3:43
  going to have them do some other things?
• 3:44
  But Sarah, let's talk about what she was asking of, the payment.
• 3:48
  What type of compensation?
• 3:50
  Is this a per turn?
• 3:51
  Is it by the hour?
• 3:53
  Are they driving a far away?
• 3:54
  Are they going to be able to do multiple places?
• 3:57
  Sarah: Here's the tricky part.
• 3:58
  In my experience, it can vary greatly whether or not you have
• 4:02
  a very small company, business.
• 4:05
  You have one property, two properties.
• 4:07
  I understand the pains there of how do you get someone to take ownership of the
• 4:11
  inspector position for you while you may only have two, three turnovers a week?
• 4:17
  So if that is you, put yourself in the potential inspector's
• 4:22
  shoes, in the detailers shoes.
• 4:24
  What's going to make it worth it to them to take ownership and pride
• 4:29
  into making sure every single one of your spaces is guest ready?
• 4:33
  In my opinion, that might be more of a per piece compensation.
• 4:39
  What is it going to be worth it for them to get a bed, go to your
• 4:42
  property, spend some time there?
• 4:43
  How many bedrooms?
• 4:44
  How many baths?
• 4:45
  Are they doing stuff on the outside?
• 4:46
  Are they checking the elements?
• 4:49
  Hopefully you're getting a professional to do the pool and the hot tub and things
• 4:52
  like that, but they might just make sure everything's locked up and ready for the
• 4:54
  guest and safety elements are in place.
• 4:58
  So think about that really deeply.
• 5:00
  It may not be, well, they're only there for an hour and a half.
• 5:02
  Well, sure, but if they're only turning over the property once or
• 5:04
  twice a week, it may not be worth it to them on that hourly rate.
• 5:08
  AD MARKER
• 5:08
  Annette: And some ways to get really creative, you may have an opportunity,
• 5:13
  I have in the past had my turnover person also be the inspector.
• 5:21
  And that was number one, because I really trusted this person.
• 5:26
  They had the time to be able to turn the place, take a break, and then
• 5:31
  go back into the property with an inspector's view, um, and know that
• 5:35
  they were doing a separate job the next time that they went through the house.
• 5:40
  And so I also just want to say, what does your turnover team look like right now?
• 5:43
  Is that a one or two-person team?
• 5:44
  Is there a way that you can maybe compensate them to do a secondary?
• 5:49
  And say, this is not the clean, this is a second portion of
• 5:53
  the work that's contracted.
• 5:54
  That's a place that I would maybe look at, Greer, just because you said you couldn't
• 5:58
  do the independent contractor thing.
• 6:00
  I don't know what type of company you're using for your turnovers.
• 6:04
  First, go to them, and maybe they even know someone.
• 6:06
  Um, Sarah and I were just thinking there's a plethora of places to
• 6:09
  look online, inside your network, see what other people are doing.
• 6:13
  But this is definitely a place you are going to have to get creative, and you
• 6:19
  are going to have to iterate most likely.
• 6:21
  And the awesome part is you can continue to layer on more things.
• 6:24
  So just really need to make sure that person's in alignment.
• 6:26
  I would also see what your budget can handle.
• 6:29
  Sarah: If you are a larger company out there loving this information or
• 6:33
  this conversation about inspectors, you can pay by the hour if you can
• 6:37
  offer your inspectors a larger shift.
• 6:40
  So for us right now, our inspectors start around 9:00, 9:30 in the morning, and
• 6:44
  they usually work until 4:30, 5 o'clock in the evening, depending on how busy our
• 6:49
  day is, how many back to backs we have.
• 6:52
  And then we have a couple inspectors, that way every day is covered in our business.
• 6:59
  That's how we work.
• 6:59
  I know other companies that have-- really large companies might have
• 7:02
  every inspector or property detailer has a section of homes or an area of
• 7:07
  homes that they take ownership of.
• 7:08
  So there's a lot of ways to structure this.
• 7:10
  There really is no one-size-fits-all.
• 7:12
  But I also want to give a shout out to one of our podcast sponsors, Breezeway.
• 7:17
  They help you dial in this inspector role.
• 7:20
  So whether you take Annette's advice and maybe see if the cleaning company
• 7:24
  has someone else, they can offer you to come and be the inspector or
• 7:26
  maybe the cleaner is the inspector.
• 7:28
  If they have two different checklists, I always share with my team that
• 7:32
  these checklists are our little mini contracts for every turn.
• 7:36
  If you check that box on our Breezeway app, that means you've done that task.
• 7:40
  And you want to make sure that your inspector checklist is obviously very
• 7:43
  different from the cleaners checklist.
• 7:44
  They're looking for different things.
• 7:46
  They're doing different tasks.
• 7:48
  So Annette, anything else that you can think of we can offer Greer?
• 7:51
  Annette: I'm excited for you, and I just really want you to dig in and be
• 7:54
  creative because I'm sure if you start to have these conversations, there's
• 7:58
  more things that you could probably take off of your plate that the inspector
• 8:03
  might gladly add on to their plate.
• 8:06
  For example, do you need someone helping you shop for consumables?
• 8:12
  Do you need someone, um, helping you with social media?
• 8:16
  Do you need someone doing guest outreach?
• 8:18
  So there's just some other things I encourage you, if you have to get creative
• 8:22
  and it's going to be an investment, and you want to make sure that investment
• 8:25
  you're making in human capital, which is so important that, uh, just get
• 8:29
  creative with it, we're excited.
• 8:30
  Check back in with us.
• 8:31
  Let us know how it goes.
• 8:33
  Sarah: With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 8:35
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 8:37
  Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 8:38
  Sarah: We'll talk to you next time.