Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Reviews Are Your Currency – Here's Why Most Hosts Get It Wrong

Transcript

Reviews Are Your Currency – Here's Why Most Hosts Get It Wrong · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Most hosts think 5 star reviews come down to the property.
• 0:04
  They don't because guests don't remember the square footage.
• 0:08
  They remember how you made them feel and the difference between
• 0:12
  a four-star stay and a five star experience.
• 0:15
  It's usually the small things that most hosts overlook.
• 0:19
  In this episode of House Planet Bite Size powered by House
• 0:23
  Fully, I'm joined by Susie Turnbull, the author of five
• 0:26
  Star hosting Made Simple. She's going to share 5 key
• 0:30
  learnings from the book that will help you deliver better
• 0:33
  guest experiences and more consistent 5 star reviews.
• 0:37
  Let's get straight into it. Susie, thank you for joining us
• 0:43
  on host Planet Bite Size. Let's start here.
• 0:46
  First of all, tell us a bit about your background and what
• 0:49
  inspired you to write 5 Star Hosting Made Simple.
• 0:52
  Hi James, thank you so much for inviting me onto the show today.
• 0:56
  I really appreciate that. It's lovely to see you.
• 0:59
  So let me just give you a little bit of a background about where
• 1:04
  I started my hosting journey because that will tell you why I
• 1:07
  wrote the book. So I we lived in Panama in
• 1:11
  Central America, that place with the canal that goes from the
• 1:14
  Caribbean to the Pacific for just over 20 years.
• 1:19
  And we bought a beautiful beach house in a brand new resort that
• 1:25
  was just opening when we arrived there.
• 1:29
  And we used it Macy's as our own family house for weekends and
• 1:37
  holidays. But when our children went to
• 1:40
  university and school in England in 2016, we decided that we
• 1:46
  weren't going to be using the house all the time.
• 1:48
  And wouldn't it be an interesting idea to step into
• 1:52
  the world of short term rentals and actually rented out on a
• 1:57
  part time basis? And at that time in 2016, as you
• 2:00
  probably know, remember and many people will who were listening,
• 2:05
  Airbnb was really coming into its own and expanding around the
• 2:09
  world and not just in the United States.
• 2:12
  So we put it on Airbnb and we rented it out on an ad hoc basis
• 2:19
  really just to put our toe in the water.
• 2:21
  It's like, how is this, how does this work?
• 2:24
  You know, how, how do we do this?
• 2:26
  We had no idea. I looked everywhere for
• 2:29
  information about how to do it. I did not find any.
• 2:33
  But so we just had to go from our own experiences.
• 2:36
  And we'd had a lot of experience of staying in other people's
• 2:39
  rentals of, you know, staying in hotels, all that kind of like
• 2:45
  guest experience where you, you know, there were things you see
• 2:48
  you love and things you don't love so much.
• 2:51
  So we put all that into it. We did most of it ourselves when
• 2:55
  we did the, when we were doing the ad hoc rentals.
• 3:01
  And it wasn't until after the pandemic that we decided that we
• 3:06
  should take this much more seriously and turn it into a
• 3:09
  proper business. And that was the exciting bit
• 3:11
  about it, really. We actually moved to the house
• 3:15
  during the pandemic because we didn't want to be in the city of
• 3:18
  Panama and we, it was just much nicer being out there with our
• 3:22
  own pool and all of that kind of stuff.
• 3:23
  I mean, what a great place to be during the pandemic.
• 3:26
  I know I so we, we lived there. We saw everything from, if you
• 3:32
  like, the guest perspective, which I thought was very
• 3:35
  interesting. We saw the most amazing wildlife
• 3:38
  we'd never really seen before because we hadn't spent enough
• 3:40
  time there to see it. So we saw turtles laying their
• 3:44
  eggs on the beach and the Hatch things going out to the sea when
• 3:48
  they hatch. It was just incredible.
• 3:50
  It was something else. So we morphed into after the
• 3:54
  pandemic, we morphed into renting full time.
• 3:57
  We had to make some changes. I called it kicking it up a
• 4:02
  notch. We had to hire a team to help
• 4:06
  us. We had a cleaner, one cleaner,
• 4:09
  but we had to hire a property. So we had a manager who managed
• 4:14
  the property. He bought in his cleaning staff.
• 4:17
  I trained all of them, the the girls as well as as our our
• 4:23
  manager, but I managed everything else.
• 4:26
  I mean, they managed the property, the turnovers, the
• 4:29
  changeovers, but I managed everything else, the bookings,
• 4:34
  the OTA, the communications, the finance, the marketing,
• 4:38
  everything. And I was fine with that because
• 4:41
  I wanted to have the hands on experience of doing this.
• 4:44
  So I and I had to learn from the ground up what it was I had to
• 4:48
  do. At that time, there were not as
• 4:53
  many opportunities to use systems that there are today.
• 4:59
  And it was only after a year and a bit that I started to use a
• 5:05
  property management system. When I decided to expand the
• 5:10
  business opportunity more by using other platforms, doing my
• 5:14
  own direct booking website, going on to another of the OTAs.
• 5:19
  At that point, I absolutely had to have a system to to help me.
• 5:24
  So, yeah, so but in 2023, just to skip forward a little bit,
• 5:30
  2023, at the end of 2023, we decided that we wanted to move
• 5:33
  back to Europe to be closer to our family.
• 5:36
  And, you know, it's a long way to pandemic.
• 5:40
  It's a long flight. I can we tell you a long trip.
• 5:43
  And So what we did was we put the property on the market and
• 5:48
  within six months, we'd sold the property.
• 5:51
  And the people that who were buying the property just just
• 5:54
  were just desperate to know, well, how do you do this?
• 5:57
  How do you run a business like this?
• 5:59
  Where do you start? You know, how what systems and
• 6:02
  what do you have to put in place to do it?
• 6:04
  And it got me thinking. It got me thinking, you know,
• 6:07
  right back to where I started. There wasn't anything that told
• 6:10
  me how to do it. I couldn't point them to a book
• 6:12
  and say to them, go buy this book, this will tell you how to
• 6:15
  do it. So that's where I got the idea
• 6:19
  to actually write the book. And, and, and there we are.
• 6:24
  I mean, it took me about 18 months to write it because we
• 6:27
  were moving country again for the fifth time.
• 6:30
  We were, yeah, we had a lot of things to organise.
• 6:33
  So I didn't work on it full time, not until really the last
• 6:37
  6 to 8 months of last year where I really was working very hard
• 6:41
  on it. And the at the end it's, it's,
• 6:45
  it's 453 pages of really a lot of information about how you do
• 6:49
  this. So, so that's really the
• 6:52
  journey. Amazing.
• 6:54
  OK then, so Five Star Hosting Made Simple.
• 6:57
  You've got five key learnings from the book that you'd like to
• 7:01
  share during this episode, so take it away with the first one.
• 7:05
  So James, I think the first key learning from the book really
• 7:11
  and something which runs through as a thread to the book is
• 7:14
  really about hospitality itself. I mean, we're in the business of
• 7:17
  hospitality and if you're an independent host particularly,
• 7:22
  yes, it is a business, but yes, you have to, to understand that
• 7:26
  you really have to look after your, your guests like they were
• 7:30
  VIPs. I mean, they are VIPs, they're
• 7:33
  staying in your property. They want, they've paid to have
• 7:36
  an amazing experience and you have to give them an amazing
• 7:39
  experience. So I think that's one of the key
• 7:43
  things. You know, you've got to do
• 7:45
  everything really, really well, from the comfort and the quality
• 7:50
  of everything you do to how friendly you are, how nice you
• 7:57
  are to people, how much you want to help people because they, you
• 8:01
  know, some people will want a lot of help and some people
• 8:04
  won't. You know, some people are quite
• 8:07
  happy just to get on with it and do what they have to do and not
• 8:11
  be really in touch with you. Doesn't stop you from saying,
• 8:15
  hey, how are you? How are things going?
• 8:17
  Is there anything I can help you with?
• 8:19
  So I think the hospitality is, is the key really.
• 8:22
  It's one of the key things in the book.
• 8:23
  It always goes back to hospitality.
• 8:26
  Definitely it is, it is so important.
• 8:28
  It's a people business, right? And I think if you're if you're
• 8:31
  running short term rentals, it helps if you like people.
• 8:35
  You have to like people. I think that's one of the first
• 8:37
  things is you is a love of people and enjoying people and,
• 8:41
  and I love people. I enjoy people.
• 8:43
  So it was a natural for me. I think it's some people, it's a
• 8:46
  natural for them. I think it's in their, it's in
• 8:49
  their kind of genes that they, they, that that's just who they
• 8:52
  are and other people are. Maybe it's not.
• 8:55
  They're not really necessarily. It's not their thing, you know?
• 8:58
  And you have to be honest with yourself and understand who you
• 9:01
  are and whether this is a really good fit for you.
• 9:04
  Definitely, very, very true. OK then, Susie, so what's key
• 9:07
  learning #2? Right.
• 9:09
  Well, I think that #2 is that you, even if you start your
• 9:15
  business, as we did, as many, many hosts do, just sticking
• 9:20
  your toe in the water and doing it, It's a bit of a hobby and a
• 9:22
  bit of a way to get some extra income.
• 9:26
  You, if you, if you are serious about your business, you've got
• 9:29
  to take your business seriously and treat it as a proper
• 9:31
  business. You've got to have the systems
• 9:34
  in place that you've got to have processes.
• 9:37
  You've got to have all those things which you would normally
• 9:41
  have in any any other business. You you have to suddenly do a
• 9:45
  switch of your mindset mindset going from, Oh, well, you may
• 9:49
  have got some people coming this weekend to right, We've got some
• 9:52
  new guests coming. Let's make sure we've got this
• 9:54
  on the schedule. And you, you schedule in all the
• 9:57
  things that you need to do to make sure that you prepare the
• 10:01
  property properly for this guests and you look after this
• 10:03
  guests. And you know that that's
• 10:07
  absolutely key is to make sure that you run it like a business.
• 10:13
  And the, the, the, the, the best thing about that or to think
• 10:16
  about that is that you need to run it to think of it as being
• 10:20
  profitable. There's no point in running a
• 10:22
  business, any business unless you're making a profit, because
• 10:26
  there is no point in getting out of bed in the morning unless
• 10:28
  you're making a profit in from my perspective, I, I think
• 10:32
  that's, that's absolutely key. And and that's unfortunately, I
• 10:36
  do understand that a lot of people just just run their
• 10:41
  particularly independent hosts. I'm not talking about property
• 10:43
  managers here. I'm talking about independent
• 10:45
  hosts are not able to, to really think of, of that in, in that
• 10:51
  professional way to, to run their, their property as a
• 10:56
  business. It's, it's hard for them to, to,
• 10:57
  to switch their mindset in that way.
• 11:00
  So that's, I think it's very important.
• 11:03
  Yeah, it really is. And, and systems and processes
• 11:06
  are really integral these days in order to make the journey as
• 11:11
  seamless as possible from a hosting point of view, but also
• 11:14
  from a guest point of view. And there's a lot of tech out
• 11:16
  there to help you. And going back to the making a
• 11:19
  profit point of view, you've got to know your numbers.
• 11:22
  And I think you're right. I think there are a lot of hosts
• 11:25
  out there who don't really know their numbers.
• 11:28
  They think, oh, OK, that rate is about right for my property.
• 11:32
  But is it, you know, look at all your costs, look at your
• 11:36
  occupancy. Are you going to be making a
• 11:39
  profit? Because if you're not, then
• 11:41
  maybe you're wasting your time a little bit.
• 11:43
  Knowing your numbers is is so important.
• 11:46
  Absolutely. And the other other point to
• 11:47
  that is that you've got to do your competitive analysis
• 11:50
  because you've got to understand who am I up against that that is
• 11:54
  absolutely key in knowing where you pitch your your pricing for
• 11:58
  your property. So yeah, super important to have
• 12:02
  that mindset and that mentality. If you're going to take your
• 12:05
  business, if you're going to take your your hosting, your
• 12:08
  independent hosting to the next level, you've got to know that
• 12:11
  you're running it as a business and the proper business.
• 12:13
  You really do OK then, Susie? So key learning #3.
• 12:17
  So #3 is really to do with the five star experience.
• 12:22
  Everything has come down to five stars, which so basically means
• 12:29
  that whether you're whatever you do in life, whether you're
• 12:33
  particularly buying stuff online and most of us buy stuff online
• 12:36
  these days, is you have to give a review at the end of it.
• 12:42
  Is it good? Is it bad?
• 12:43
  Is it give it five stars? Does it fit?
• 12:45
  Does it not fit? And then in the short term
• 12:49
  rental world, you're, you've got probably 2 systems now VRBO and
• 12:56
  AB and booking.com are on the number system, one to 10 of
• 13:02
  rating. But Airbnb is the kind of
• 13:05
  defining one which is still on the, on the star system.
• 13:10
  And the, the, the stars are really, unfortunately, I hate to
• 13:15
  say it because I know there's a lot of controversy in the, in
• 13:18
  the business about this at the moment.
• 13:20
  And discussion is that those, those five stars can mean that
• 13:24
  they can make or break your business, unfortunately.
• 13:27
  So you've always got to be aiming for five stars you want
• 13:32
  in absolutely everything you do. It's the sort of currency of
• 13:36
  your business. If you like, I, I don't know how
• 13:38
  else to really frame that, but it, it's the currency of your
• 13:42
  business because it affects your, your rating where you sit
• 13:49
  on the, on, on an OTA platform. It affects the price that you
• 13:54
  can charge and how, and it affects the way the people
• 14:00
  respond to you, whether they're going to actually book your
• 14:02
  property or not. So yeah, it's it's very
• 14:07
  important that one of the key things is the five star rating
• 14:12
  and, and to to just mention that as in the book, what I've tried
• 14:17
  to do in the book is to flag the areas that people need to pay
• 14:23
  specific attention to where they will be rated.
• 14:28
  So you need to understand what it is that you are going to be
• 14:31
  rated on. And I have written a whole part
• 14:36
  about that in the book. What you are rated on with this
• 14:38
  communication, accuracy, location, price and value,
• 14:43
  comfort, amenities, all those things are super important.
• 14:49
  So I flagged those in the book by putting little stars on each
• 14:53
  of the chapters where that is they need to pay particular
• 14:58
  attention just so that it's like, ah Ding, as a reminder
• 15:02
  that that's what they have to do.
• 15:03
  It's a reviews business, no doubt about that.
• 15:07
  All right then, quick pause. This series is powered by
• 15:09
  Hostfully. If you want to run a more
• 15:11
  professional short term rental business, Housefully gives you
• 15:14
  everything in one place, from property management software to
• 15:18
  digital guidebooks that enhance your guest experience.
• 15:21
  If you're watching on YouTube, simply scan the QR code on
• 15:24
  screen to find out more. And don't forget, Host Planet
• 15:27
  listeners benefit from 2 special offers, $500 off onboarding for
• 15:31
  the property management software, and 30% of digital
• 15:34
  guidebooks for life. There's also a link in the show
• 15:37
  notes to book a demo with Frank Bosey, who's a big friend of our
• 15:41
  show. All right, back to it, Susie,
• 15:43
  what's tip #4? So Tinman 4 is the, the systems
• 15:48
  we we touched on that little bit earlier on.
• 15:51
  There are so many amazing systems out there now.
• 15:54
  There is no excuse whatsoever to not use them and this that
• 16:00
  they're improving all the time. I mean, you'll, you'll know that
• 16:03
  too, James, from, from your own experience and with the, with
• 16:07
  the ones that you're using, the one that you just advertised on,
• 16:12
  on this, on this show. So I think that people need to
• 16:16
  understand that they need to one of the key things, the key ones
• 16:20
  is a property management system. And if you are on, particularly
• 16:24
  if you're on more than one OTA or, and, or you have your own
• 16:29
  direct booking website, which we, we all should should have
• 16:33
  really that you need a property management system and it will
• 16:38
  give you so many advantages and do so much for you and just be
• 16:43
  running in the background and help you run your business.
• 16:47
  And they are, there are so many systems which are from very, you
• 16:53
  know, very well priced, I'm not going to say cheap, but very
• 16:57
  well priced systems to, to more expensive systems.
• 17:02
  And they all, they're not all made equal.
• 17:05
  They do different things. If you are thinking about using
• 17:10
  one, you certainly have to do homework.
• 17:12
  You certainly have to look into it.
• 17:14
  And, and it's relative to what your own position is, your own
• 17:19
  situation is whether you have one property or 4 properties,
• 17:23
  whether you have a very competitive market that you're
• 17:27
  in. That is going to determine a lot
• 17:29
  of things too, whether you are up at the upper end of the scale
• 17:35
  an upscale property or whether you are, you know, in the very
• 17:39
  basic area of the market. You may not feel you need that.
• 17:44
  That's a particular point, but it certainly should be
• 17:46
  considered. The dynamic pricing platforms
• 17:52
  are also something which people really need to look into and
• 17:55
  consider because, but again, particularly if you're in a
• 17:59
  competitive market, because they are, they're changing all the
• 18:03
  time. They're getting more amazing
• 18:08
  tools, incredible tools all the time.
• 18:10
  And they are, they're definitely worth considering.
• 18:15
  And there are many other tools out there which I'm not going to
• 18:17
  go into because there's just too many to think of.
• 18:20
  But depending on your own situation and what your
• 18:22
  situation is, you, you have to have systems and that will help
• 18:27
  you run your business really well.
• 18:28
  I didn't have that when I, when I first got into the business.
• 18:32
  I only started going onto APMS after I added another OTA and I
• 18:38
  put on my, did my own website and that's when I went to and,
• 18:44
  and it, it changed my life. It really did so.
• 18:49
  Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of tech out there.
• 18:51
  And yeah, property management software is really important.
• 18:54
  Actually, just before I chatted to you, I was interviewing a
• 18:58
  founder of a PMS company and he was telling me that his vision
• 19:02
  is that APMSA, good PMS, should help you as a property manager
• 19:06
  to increase your revenue. You know, they'll build a direct
• 19:09
  booking website for you. It will help you integrate with
• 19:12
  all sorts of different tech. So yeah, definitely do your
• 19:14
  research. As Susie says, do the demos and
• 19:17
  find out which one suits you best.
• 19:20
  All right then, Susie. So what's the key?
• 19:22
  Learning #5. I think the last one, and it's,
• 19:26
  it does occupy quite a big chunk of the book because it, it's a
• 19:30
  very important area, which is marketing and it's how you
• 19:34
  position yourself and your product, how you present
• 19:38
  yourself and your product. My, my background is actually in
• 19:42
  marketing. I spent most of my life in
• 19:44
  marketing. So this is dear to my heart.
• 19:47
  And I've really tried to do in the book make it the marketing
• 19:52
  to explain marketing and what you need to do in your, in your
• 19:55
  property business and your, your short term rental business as
• 19:58
  simply as possible. Because it's, it's jargon that a
• 20:01
  lot of people really struggle with.
• 20:04
  And I can really understand that.
• 20:05
  So I've tried to really make it very very simple.
• 20:09
  But it's, it's so important because without marketing, no
• 20:14
  one's going to know anything about you and who you are.
• 20:17
  And, and you've got to, to do things like branding.
• 20:21
  You've got to brand your own property.
• 20:24
  I think it's super important to stand out.
• 20:28
  You've got to, to make sure that you have amazing photography.
• 20:32
  You've got to have that's done professionally, not using your
• 20:36
  iPhone or your or your or your whatever phone you've you've got
• 20:41
  to do like good copy and title descriptions and copy that goes
• 20:46
  into your descriptions. All of these things have to be
• 20:50
  done really, really well. And, you know, beyond that,
• 20:55
  there's lots of other marketing things that you need to do, but
• 20:59
  you know, these are some of the key things.
• 21:01
  And I think that marketing is super important.
• 21:03
  So there is a big chunk of that in the in the in the book.
• 21:09
  Definitely couldn't agree more. Just before you go then, Susie,
• 21:13
  just tell people where they can get the book and I think you've
• 21:15
  also got a a freebie to give away as well.
• 21:18
  Right. Well, the book is available on
• 21:19
  Amazon. It's available as a printed
• 21:22
  book, which is good because it's a business book, really.
• 21:26
  So it's great as a business book to have it's printed.
• 21:30
  It's also available as an ebook on Amazon, on Google Play and on
• 21:36
  Apple Books as well. If you want to go to my website,
• 21:41
  its5starhostingmadesimple.com and you can buy it from my
• 21:46
  website as well in either format.
• 21:51
  So that's that's that. And then me, I'm Susie at 5 Star
• 21:55
  Hosting madesimple.com. Very good, and I think you said
• 22:00
  you had a freebie to give away too.
• 22:01
  No, I thought it might be quite useful to, to have a freebie for
• 22:07
  people to, to help them on their way a bit because a big chunk,
• 22:11
  well, not a big chunk, but a part of the book is about the,
• 22:14
  some business tools that I developed, which are in the
• 22:17
  marketing section, which is the host Genius Tools is what I've
• 22:22
  called them. It's what I've kind of branded
• 22:23
  them if you like, and they are tools which will help you with
• 22:30
  your marketing, help you get through this really heavy
• 22:34
  subject. 1 of the tools is actually not just a marketing
• 22:38
  tool but one that you should be using anyway.
• 22:40
  And you can use it when you go and stay in places, which is
• 22:43
  called a guest review analyzer. And if you grab all your reviews
• 22:49
  for your own property and throw them into this, paste them into
• 22:53
  this analyzer tool, you will get the results about your property.
• 22:59
  It will tell you what the guest sentiment is.
• 23:01
  It will tell you what the guests like, what they didn't like,
• 23:05
  where you need to improve your offering, what's missing.
• 23:11
  It will give you an amazing amount of information in, in in
• 23:15
  a structured format that will tell you how you can do things
• 23:20
  better and what to do better. So and that's a free tool.
• 23:24
  And I, I often use it, James, actually a bit sneakily.
• 23:27
  And I use it when I'm going to stay in places and I grab their
• 23:31
  reviews and I throw that into my my analyzer and OK, yeah, that's
• 23:35
  good. That sounds great.
• 23:37
  Or no, I think I better get this place a miss.
• 23:39
  So I think it's it's quite fun. One of my clients that I work
• 23:43
  with on consultancy, he calls it the spying tool, so you can use
• 23:49
  it to spy on your competitors as well.
• 23:51
  Very good. OK.
• 23:52
  And we'll put all those details and links in the show notes.
• 23:56
  Susie, it's been a real pleasure.
• 23:57
  Thank you for joining us on host Planet Bite Size.
• 24:00
  Thank you very much, James. Lovely to see you.
• 24:02
  Thank you for having me on. Appreciate it.
• 24:06
  All right, let's make this practical.
• 24:08
  What's the last thing a guest mentioned in your review?
• 24:12
  Was it cleanliness, communication, or a small detail
• 24:16
  you added? Drop it in the comments.
• 24:18
  I'd love to see what's standing out.
• 24:21
  Five Star Hosting isn't complicated, but it does require
• 24:24
  intention. Get the experience right and the
• 24:27
  reviews and bookings will follow.
• 24:29
  If this episode helped you, hit, like and subscribe for more
• 24:32
  insights to help you build a smarter, more profitable short
• 24:36
  term rental business. Huge thanks to House Fully for
• 24:39
  sponsoring the series. Scan the QR code on screen if
• 24:42
  you'd like to find out more and grab one of those special
• 24:45
  offers. This is House Planet Bite Size
• 24:47
  powered by House Fully. Thanks for watching and happy
• 24:50
  hosting.