Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Building a Short-Term Rental Business in Michigan

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Building a Short-Term Rental Business in Michigan · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Host 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
• 0:22
  experiences. If you're serious about growing
• 0:25
  your STR business, you're in the right place.
• 0:28
  We've also developed an e-book feature, the stories of every
• 0:31
  manager in this series, and you can download it for free.
• 0:34
  Head to host Planet dot Club to find out more.
• 0:38
  In today's episode, we're chatting to Brendan McNeil from
• 0:40
  Michigan. Stand by for a deep dive into
• 0:43
  how a dad of four runs seven rentals, the challenges of Co
• 0:47
  hosting, and outstanding guest communication.
• 0:55
  This special series is brought to you by Hostplanet and
• 0:58
  Hospitable, the smart AI powered property management software
• 1:02
  trusted by hosts worldwide. With Hospitable, you can
• 1:06
  automate guest messaging, sync calendars across platforms and
• 1:10
  manage your rentals with ease, all from one powerful, easy to
• 1:14
  use platform. If you're keen to run your short
• 1:16
  term rental on autopilot, try Hospitable today.
• 1:20
  Visit hospitable.com/hostplanet to see how the platform can save
• 1:25
  you time, reduce stress, and maximize your earnings.
• 1:29
  Brendan, thank you for being part of the House Planet
• 1:31
  Playbook. Let's start with you.
• 1:33
  What's the name of your company, Where are you located, and how
• 1:37
  many rentals do you manage? Awesome.
• 1:39
  Well, yeah, thanks for having me.
• 1:40
  I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah.
• 1:43
  So the name of my company is know my stays and OMI stays and
• 1:48
  we're located in Michigan. So know my is kind of short for
• 1:50
  Northern Michigan. So a little bit of play on words
• 1:53
  there. Yeah.
• 1:55
  And you know, as a, as a true Michigander, you know, the nice
• 1:58
  thing about us is we get, we have a little map that we carry
• 2:00
  around with us. You know, I don't know if you're
• 2:02
  familiar, but this is like the map of Michigan.
• 2:04
  So I'm, I'm located like right up here and our, our rentals are
• 2:07
  kind of all in that area. So I have, I own two of my own
• 2:12
  properties and then I help manage five additional ones.
• 2:16
  So that's, you know, I guess managing on an ongoing basis
• 2:19
  approximately 7 units at this point.
• 2:22
  Superb. And how did you get involved in
• 2:25
  short term rentals? Yeah, I, you know, several years
• 2:29
  ago was kind of, you know, we had our first child, I guess
• 2:33
  eight years ago. And when that happened, you
• 2:35
  know, it kind of got me thinking about a lot of things in my
• 2:37
  life. And one of those was like
• 2:39
  finances and how do I, how do I want to create a better life for
• 2:44
  not only myself and our family, but my wife, but also like the
• 2:48
  additional kids that we're going to have.
• 2:49
  You know, my first daughter came.
• 2:51
  And so at that time I looked at real estate and I was like,
• 2:56
  that's, that seems to be the path that people build wealth
• 3:01
  and just a way to do that. And so I kind of went down the
• 3:03
  path of real estate And I always thought long term rentals, this
• 3:06
  is what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a tenant and,
• 3:09
  and it's going to be a long term rental thing.
• 3:12
  And I bought the books and I was like, man, like this, it seemed
• 3:16
  like a lot of work for not a lot of reward from a again, strictly
• 3:19
  financial position, which is where I was coming from at the
• 3:22
  time. And and then I came across, I
• 3:26
  think it was Avery Carl's book about like short term rentals
• 3:29
  and kind of got into that. And I was like, man, there is
• 3:31
  more opportunity and in the real estate realm than the than the
• 3:34
  long term rental game. So, so I started going down that
• 3:39
  rabbit trail. I was like, man, there's a lot
• 3:41
  of opportunity here, you know, not only from a financial, you
• 3:44
  know, but for just creating a business.
• 3:46
  And I felt like I didn't see the business piece of it with, with
• 3:51
  the long term rental. So, so I kind of went down that
• 3:53
  rabbit trail, you know, kind of teetered and sat on my hands
• 3:57
  probably too long, but I, I, I pulled the trigger.
• 4:02
  I was like, OK, we're going to do this and kind of like
• 4:03
  committed, we're going to do short term rental.
• 4:05
  So it kind of just happened since, you know, I, I, I like
• 4:10
  the idea of creating good experiences and like helping
• 4:13
  people and like, I didn't think I could get that with the long
• 4:16
  term rental. So, so all of those factors, it
• 4:18
  just kind of allowed me to, it just kind of seemed like a good
• 4:22
  fit I guess to to start jumping into the short term rental
• 4:25
  world. So I imagine you started with
• 4:28
  your own property and then you've you've built up and
• 4:30
  scaled to managing others. So just tell us about the
• 4:33
  journey. Yeah, Yeah.
• 4:35
  So we bought our first property actually just last January.
• 4:40
  So we're still pretty newbies. I would say overall it's just A1
• 4:44
  bed, 1 bath condo over in Traverse City, MI and really
• 4:49
  good tourism spot in in Northern Michigan.
• 4:52
  But yeah, we we started there and we kind of got it all set
• 4:56
  up. We did, we did everything
• 4:57
  ourselves, but the furniture together did all that stuff and
• 5:00
  kind of hit the ground running and had a really good, you know,
• 5:03
  really first good first summer. That's the busiest time for our
• 5:05
  area. There's a lot of lakes and it's
• 5:07
  like really close to lake MI, which is a really big draw.
• 5:10
  So, and you know, it just went, it just went really well.
• 5:12
  You know, obviously there were hiccups along the way, but from
• 5:15
  from an overall, when you look back, it was good and I was
• 5:17
  like, OK, this is something that we're interested in.
• 5:20
  So, you know, I kind of was tossing around the idea of Co
• 5:24
  hosting. I kind of come across that
• 5:26
  concept through that process of research in short term rentals
• 5:29
  and, and through, you know, starting my own.
• 5:33
  And so I was like, yeah, let's let's maybe start this.
• 5:35
  I didn't really know where to begin.
• 5:37
  And then I saw one of the Facebook groups.
• 5:40
  I'm part of many of the Facebook groups out there that are
• 5:42
  related short term rentals. And there was someone I just
• 5:46
  might have even been in a com. I don't know.
• 5:47
  I, I don't think it was a coincidence that I came across
• 5:51
  this comment. Someone was like, Hey, I'm just
• 5:54
  opening my first short term rental in Gaylord, which is the
• 5:56
  city I live in, and I'm looking for someone to help me out.
• 6:00
  And I just like didn't have anything set up.
• 6:03
  I was just like, I don't know what I'm doing.
• 6:04
  And I just responded and I was just like, hey, I would be happy
• 6:07
  to do that. I'd love to talk to you and kind
• 6:09
  of see what we can do. And, and after talking with her,
• 6:13
  you know, she was like my first Co hosting client.
• 6:15
  I think that's, that's really where it all started.
• 6:17
  And she's been great. And you know, I still work with
• 6:20
  her a year later at this point. And it kind of got me going and,
• 6:23
  and kind of helped me build that rapport of being able to be a
• 6:27
  host, not only for myself, but for someone else as well.
• 6:30
  So, so anyway, and then couple months later, we got our next
• 6:34
  property at the end of November, I believe.
• 6:38
  And then we've just kind of gradually picked up a couple
• 6:40
  other people here along the way and you know, have a couple more
• 6:44
  on the pipeline. And that's just kind of how it's
• 6:45
  been all very natural. I haven't done a whole lot of
• 6:48
  other stuff just as people I see needs, I reach out and we
• 6:52
  connect or even through kind of the Co host network that Airbnb
• 6:56
  has, I've had a few people reach out that way too.
• 7:00
  So, so yeah, so that's kind of where we are today.
• 7:03
  And it's been, it's been great because I, I work full time
• 7:06
  outside of this too. And so being able to kind of
• 7:10
  grow a little bit more naturally, a little bit more
• 7:12
  slow as it's kind of fits our our lifestyle at this point.
• 7:16
  So. How much research did you do
• 7:19
  going into that first property and looking back now?
• 7:23
  What are the things that maybe you wish you'd done a little bit
• 7:26
  differently? Yeah, there was.
• 7:28
  I, so I'm a, I'm ACPA by trade and I kind of fit that mold of a
• 7:33
  little bit risk averse, kind of like, I don't know, very
• 7:37
  analytical, methodical, kind of want to know everything before
• 7:41
  jumping into something. So I probably did too much
• 7:46
  research on the front end of like, I need everything to be
• 7:50
  perfectly lined up and I need to know exactly how everything is
• 7:53
  before I jump into it. And I'd say that's probably
• 7:57
  like, looking back, I'd say that would be one of the things that
• 7:59
  I would change. I think sometimes you kind of
• 8:01
  got to jump in and learn by doing and not like you can only
• 8:05
  know so much and plan for so much.
• 8:09
  Like things change constantly. So I wish I would have, I wish I
• 8:14
  would have jumped in a little bit sooner.
• 8:18
  But yeah, I mean, it was probably, like I said, it was.
• 8:21
  So my daughter's 88 years, I started looking at real estate
• 8:24
  and I got my first property just last year.
• 8:28
  So seven years of kind of like looking at the idea and tossing
• 8:31
  around the idea. You know, once I land on short
• 8:34
  term rentals, it was maybe a year or two, but it was just one
• 8:38
  of those things that, yeah, I mean, I just, I wanted to make
• 8:41
  sure I knew all the systems, all the technology I would need.
• 8:44
  You know, how, how do I address guests?
• 8:47
  Do I do long distance? Can I do, I do locally?
• 8:50
  You know, like all of those things, I felt like I needed all
• 8:52
  the answers right away. And that's just not true.
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  I, I, I should have just pulled the trigger sooner and done it.
• 8:58
  And even just the, the financial piece of how am I going to get a
• 9:02
  down payment? How am I going to pay for
• 9:03
  furniture, all that kind of stuff?
• 9:04
  Like I, I think I, I limited myself on it all has to be me
• 9:09
  and it all has to be cash with, you know, I have to build this
• 9:13
  up. And, and, and I didn't like
• 9:14
  think about partnerships or I didn't think about, you know,
• 9:17
  other things that I, that I wish I would have kind of going into.
• 9:21
  And I've kind of had a mindset shift, I would say, in the last
• 9:25
  two years, which is the catalyst of what got me to the first
• 9:28
  property. If people talk to you and say I
• 9:33
  want to emulate what you've done, I've got a full time job,
• 9:36
  but I want to get involved in short term rentals as well, what
• 9:39
  would your top tips be to those people?
• 9:42
  Oh, that's a good question. I would say start slow.
• 9:48
  Like I said, I think building with the one and something
• 9:50
  that's it's super manageable. Like I said, a one bed, 1 bath,
• 9:54
  it seems very doable. It wasn't this massive mansion
• 9:59
  that, you know, have tons of tons of amenities, a hot tub,
• 10:03
  but swimming pool of this of that.
• 10:05
  Like it's just, I think just getting the ball rolling, kind
• 10:08
  of getting your feet wet to kind of work out those processes.
• 10:12
  I think was one of the the best things that could have happened
• 10:15
  to me because then because there were times that I failed, the
• 10:16
  processes failed at the time and like cleaners weren't scheduled
• 10:20
  correctly. And it kind of like allowed me.
• 10:21
  And it's, it's A1 bed, 1 bath. So like it's easier for someone
• 10:25
  to come in last minute to, to quickly turn over, you know,
• 10:28
  when those little things. And it's part of an HOA, which I
• 10:31
  know some people like don't like, but it's very short term,
• 10:35
  short term rental friendly. So like, so like there's not a
• 10:38
  lot of extra things that I needed to do.
• 10:40
  Like I didn't have to coordinate lawn care or snow plowed snow is
• 10:44
  huge in the area. So like all of that stuff it
• 10:47
  working full time, it was nice to just being able to not have
• 10:51
  to worry about some of those things and then as you feel more
• 10:55
  comfortable then kind of growing a little bit more naturally.
• 10:58
  So but yeah, I mean, being willing to put in the work as
• 11:02
  well. I mean, just that tip because,
• 11:04
  you know, there are several late nights I think I would go, you
• 11:08
  know, getting the property set up.
• 11:09
  I'm I'm a Family Guy. I have 4 kids now and I when we,
• 11:14
  when we had our first condo last year, our our fourth was just
• 11:18
  born like a month or two before that.
• 11:20
  And so wanted to be home for my wife to help support and do
• 11:23
  those things that I needed to do as a dad.
• 11:25
  So I would drive an hour starting at like 9:00 PM and not
• 11:29
  get home till like 2:00 AM and then wake up for work the next
• 11:32
  day. So like you have to be willing
• 11:34
  to put in the work as well. And it was a grind for a short
• 11:37
  period, but but it's well worth it.
• 11:40
  And again, it's, it's, that was a short time to just get it up
• 11:44
  and running. So, so those would probably be
• 11:46
  the the two things is start small, be willing to put in the
• 11:49
  work and and then grow a little bit more naturally and not try
• 11:53
  to try to do too much too quickly.
• 11:56
  Tell us about Michigan then what are the main challenges and
• 12:00
  opportunities of your location? Yeah, so, so I'm in northern
• 12:06
  Michigan, which, you know, being from the area, one of the things
• 12:10
  that I I like about Michigan is growing up.
• 12:13
  So I grew up kind of on the South side of Michigan.
• 12:16
  So Michigan is very populated kind of on the West side,
• 12:20
  Southwest side you have Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Holland, like
• 12:24
  it's a very populated area. And then on the east side S you
• 12:27
  have like Detroit and the surrounding area there, which is
• 12:30
  also very populated. And then once you get to a
• 12:32
  certain point up north, it's less populated, but people from
• 12:36
  downstate have always, I mean, even before Airbnb and short
• 12:41
  term rental, the way it's blown up would always go up to their
• 12:43
  lake house or their cabin up north.
• 12:46
  And so it's always kind of been like this like a market like
• 12:51
  there have, there's a mom and pop shops that aren't listed on
• 12:54
  there that people go to every year because they just, it's,
• 12:56
  it's beautiful. A lot of lakes, a lot of forest,
• 12:59
  a lot of nature related things. Traverse City is probably the
• 13:02
  biggest city up north, which is becoming a little bit bigger of
• 13:05
  a of a city than it, you know, it was historically.
• 13:08
  So that's becoming more like a Grand Rapids, but it also still
• 13:12
  has like a lot of beaches and things.
• 13:13
  So it kind of has that both. So so that's really the draw to
• 13:17
  the northern Michigan is people during the summers especially
• 13:20
  just Flack up, love to be on the lake, love to be in nature, that
• 13:23
  sort of stuff. So, so from an opportunity
• 13:26
  standpoint, I just really love that, you know, this is stood
• 13:31
  the test of time. First of all, like before
• 13:34
  Airbnb, it wasn't something that boomed during COVID and not sure
• 13:37
  it's going to, you know, last afterwards.
• 13:40
  It's always been something that people want to come up and
• 13:42
  escape on the water up north. And really because it has been
• 13:48
  like kind of has that history, there's a lot of, you know,
• 13:51
  older operators that haven't necessarily caught up to some of
• 13:54
  the Airbnb, you know, standards at this point or the short term
• 13:59
  rental standards of having excellent properties.
• 14:03
  So I think there's a lot of opportunity in that regard to,
• 14:05
  you know, to create an experience of property that
• 14:08
  stands out from the rest. So, so that is one of the things
• 14:12
  that I, I really like about it. And then I think some of the
• 14:16
  challenges though, you know, we are in a, we are in a small
• 14:19
  town. So like I live in a town of 6000
• 14:21
  people and one of our rentals is in this town finding, you know,
• 14:26
  the support, like, you know, adequate cleaners and adequate
• 14:30
  handyman and some of those things.
• 14:32
  It's probably one of the harder things to do.
• 14:35
  And again, trying to get them on board with your processes.
• 14:37
  You know, they've, you know, you'll find people that are been
• 14:40
  doing it for 15 years and they've always done it the
• 14:43
  certain way. It's shoot me a text.
• 14:46
  I need you to update this Excel spreadsheet.
• 14:47
  I need you to do this. And it's like, well, can I just
• 14:50
  automatically send you a text through my property management
• 14:53
  software, You know, like it's like trying to like pull teeth
• 14:56
  sometimes on, on getting people up to snuff.
• 14:59
  But thankfully, you know, we're kind of we, we found the people
• 15:02
  we need at this point. But, but that's one of the, I
• 15:05
  think the main challenges. And I will say the other
• 15:08
  challenge is just the seasonality.
• 15:09
  So our condo in Traverse City definitely is way slower in the
• 15:15
  winter. There's not a lot of winter
• 15:16
  activities. There are some in other areas,
• 15:19
  so like where my I have a lake house, a four bedroom lake house
• 15:22
  and Gaylord, like I said, there's like snowmobile and
• 15:25
  there's small ski. There's skiing in Michigan,
• 15:29
  which you know, after living in Colorado for a couple years,
• 15:32
  it's not quite the same, but but it is, it is skiing.
• 15:36
  And so there is some of that in some of the areas of northern
• 15:39
  Michigan as well. But but it definitely dies down
• 15:42
  a lot in the winter. So trying to navigate that,
• 15:44
  whether using midterm rentals or things like that is one of the
• 15:48
  things that that I think is challenging.
• 15:51
  Finding great cleaners is a challenge, I think.
• 15:54
  Wherever you are in the world, what are your top tips for
• 15:59
  delivering an outstanding guest experience?
• 16:03
  Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things is, is communication
• 16:09
  and I think on a couple different fronts, I think over
• 16:12
  communicating on the front end to be able to set clear
• 16:15
  expectations. You know, we have a lake house
• 16:18
  that's a little bit older, has a little bit of it has some some
• 16:25
  unique things, funny things about it that like it has a
• 16:27
  boiler heating system which just makes funny noises or things
• 16:31
  like that. And so being really upfront and
• 16:33
  clear to guests like hey, this is what you can expect.
• 16:35
  You know, it's not going to really impact you that much.
• 16:37
  It's really small, but it's you know, you set all those clear
• 16:40
  expectations. We have it in our listings.
• 16:42
  We have it in part of our, our communications that we send
• 16:46
  like, hey, just so you know, there's a few unique things
• 16:48
  about this that I just want you to, to be aware of.
• 16:50
  It's not going to impact your stay that much.
• 16:52
  But if they know it and then they hear the sound, the, the,
• 16:57
  the water going through the boiler system, then it's not a
• 16:59
  surprise. And it, and it just allows them
• 17:01
  to be like, oh, he, he, he mentioned that that's not a big
• 17:04
  deal. So I think over communicating
• 17:06
  those things really helps. It has really been helpful for
• 17:12
  us and I've noticed that in reviews that we get that's a
• 17:17
  common thread of like, Hey, he over, you know, he communicated
• 17:19
  a bunch of stuff to us ahead of time and and I think that that
• 17:22
  helps the experience. And then on the back end, I
• 17:26
  think being responsive and being available.
• 17:28
  So, you know, I really pride myself on on being able to
• 17:33
  respond quickly to guest messages.
• 17:35
  Like that's really, I've really prided myself to be available
• 17:38
  and being, being quick to respond.
• 17:42
  And, and again, that's something that a lot of guests have
• 17:45
  acknowledged in, in our reviews and things.
• 17:47
  So, so communication I think is just, they just kind of want to
• 17:51
  be heard. They want to, you know, they
• 17:53
  want to be have a good experience and they want to know
• 17:55
  what to expect. And so if you can communicate
• 17:57
  those things appropriately, I think that's, that's a huge part
• 18:01
  of the battle of creating a good experience.
• 18:04
  But and then I think, you know, kind of on even on a smaller
• 18:09
  scale, just being quick to solve problems.
• 18:10
  Like if there's there's an example we had, they couldn't
• 18:15
  find the remote to the TV and it was just like, oh, I'm so sorry,
• 18:18
  let me just Instacart your remote.
• 18:20
  And within an hour they got, they got a remote and it was
• 18:23
  like they were just blown away just by that small little act,
• 18:27
  which cost me maybe 30 bucks to, to all, you know, all in to do
• 18:31
  when it was just like it was quick, it was fast solved the
• 18:35
  problem and they loved it. So, you know, sometimes, you
• 18:38
  know, I, I think we, we myself try to create everything and
• 18:43
  make everything like perfect ahead of time.
• 18:45
  So there's no issues. And obviously that's the goal,
• 18:47
  but I don't know if I've had a stay that's been perfect.
• 18:50
  Like that's just like they're every guest has different
• 18:53
  things. So I think like being willing
• 18:56
  and able to just like respond to their problems or to their
• 18:59
  questions quickly. Like it gives you the I see it
• 19:02
  more as an opportunity. It gives you an opportunity to
• 19:04
  respond quickly and to create that experience that maybe they
• 19:08
  wouldn't have if everything was, you know, if they don't make any
• 19:11
  comments during this day. But I like being able to to
• 19:14
  solve a problem for them and then it leaves them in a good
• 19:17
  experience. So, so yeah, that'd probably be
• 19:21
  probably the biggest things that I would say.
• 19:23
  Some of our properties leave little gift bags or whatever,
• 19:26
  but you know, I honestly nobody has commented on any of that
• 19:30
  stuff. It's mostly the communication.
• 19:32
  So from my experience at least, that's that's been huge.
• 19:36
  Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And also you're you're Co
• 19:39
  hosting as well. So talk to us about Co hosting,
• 19:43
  how that works for you and how you keep the people that you're
• 19:46
  working with happy. You know what, what are they
• 19:49
  looking for? I imagine it's quite a range.
• 19:50
  You know, some people want somebody who's basically going
• 19:52
  to do everything, and other people just want a bit of
• 19:54
  support. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:57
  And you know, I'm, I'm small enough right now that I feel
• 20:00
  like I'm still I, I'm still willing to be flexible with
• 20:04
  different owners on how I operate.
• 20:05
  And because I have so many different people.
• 20:07
  So I think I'm still trying to learn to like set the exact
• 20:11
  like, how do I want everyone going forward to look like this?
• 20:15
  But yeah, I mean, right now I have one owner that is.
• 20:20
  Like you just said, very hands off, like I barely hear from
• 20:23
  him. I, I act very much like the
• 20:26
  owner of the property in many respects.
• 20:28
  And that works for him. And that's great.
• 20:32
  And it's, it's easy enough for me because I treat it just like
• 20:34
  my own property. I would and, and, and kind of go
• 20:37
  from there. And then another, there's
• 20:41
  another person that she's a little bit more hands on.
• 20:43
  She, she, her family has a cottage like right around the
• 20:47
  corner. Like they're one of those
• 20:48
  Michigan people that came up north every, every summer and,
• 20:52
  and they still do. And so she's around the
• 20:55
  property. So she'll come like restock and
• 20:57
  do some of those things. And you know, we're, we're just
• 21:00
  in constant communication via text.
• 21:01
  If if she's going to be in the area and wants to stop by and do
• 21:05
  whatever she needs to do. But yeah, so, so yeah, so that's
• 21:09
  how. But most of it is, it is truly
• 21:11
  like a Co hosting arrangement where I do bill them, you know,
• 21:15
  from a financial perspective operation operationally like
• 21:18
  kind of at the end of the month for for my services.
• 21:21
  I am not like handling the funds for them.
• 21:23
  I'm not like I said, I don't have internal cleaners.
• 21:26
  It's a kind of a one man shop right now.
• 21:30
  But yeah, maybe someday down the road that that will change.
• 21:33
  But that's just kind of how we operate.
• 21:35
  There was one opportunity that came up where that this owner
• 21:42
  wanted to, to maintain more control than I have for most of
• 21:46
  my other properties. Most of them I, I am like doing
• 21:48
  guest communication, managing the schedule, those kind of back
• 21:51
  end things are things that I do for all of our properties.
• 21:54
  And there was 1 owner that came in that wanted to to do more of
• 21:57
  that. I was just going to be kind of
• 21:58
  like feet on the ground if something came up and that ended
• 22:02
  up not working out. And that's one of those things
• 22:04
  that I think I have my systems in place for a lot of those
• 22:10
  things. And then I was trying to fit
• 22:12
  this person, this owner into. I wanted the I didn't want the
• 22:16
  opportunity to go away like I I but I was trying to fit them in
• 22:20
  to a system that just it didn't it wasn't compatible.
• 22:23
  I it was totally separate. Things fell I I failed at times
• 22:27
  and we have sense separated and it just didn't work out.
• 22:30
  But so there are things that I'm learning along the way that
• 22:33
  like, hey, I have things in place and I won't accept another
• 22:37
  Co host opportunity like that because it just doesn't fit with
• 22:40
  that. And so I like I said, I'm
• 22:42
  constantly developing what that looks like.
• 22:44
  And sometimes it comes through failure that that's that's,
• 22:49
  that's being developed. What do you love most about
• 22:53
  hosting? I love being able to provide.
• 23:00
  It's really good experiences to guess.
• 23:02
  So I I look at what they're spending and I'm like, man,
• 23:07
  these people are spending a lot of money at properties that I
• 23:09
  own or manage and I just really want them to have a good time.
• 23:13
  And like I love it when I get a review that says like, hey, this
• 23:17
  place was amazing. This the host was super
• 23:19
  responsive, was super like that. Just I love that.
• 23:22
  Like that to me is like, that's what I do it for is like that
• 23:25
  piece. I just love being able to have
• 23:28
  guests come and experience what we are trying to offer them and
• 23:33
  just love it. I mean, that's, so that's,
• 23:35
  that's what I love about it. OK.
• 23:37
  Then, Brendan, we've got a few more quick fire questions now.
• 23:41
  Which PMS do you use? Hospitable.
• 23:45
  Which dynamic pricing tool do you use?
• 23:48
  Price Labs. Which piece of tech couldn't you
• 23:52
  live without? If we're talking like physical
• 23:57
  tech, like hardware, like my phone, because that just like
• 24:00
  has everything to the hospital between the hospital app, like I
• 24:04
  said, Instacart, I live and die by by if someone needs something
• 24:07
  right away, like I texting everything is on my phone.
• 24:11
  Like I, which sometimes my wife hates, but I keeps the business
• 24:15
  operating and yeah, that's that's what I use the most.
• 24:19
  Ideally pets, yes or no? Yes.
• 24:25
  Ideally hot tub, Yes or no? Yes.
• 24:30
  Ideally self check in or a personal welcome.
• 24:35
  Self check in. Telephone call or an AI
• 24:39
  response? From a quantity perspective,
• 24:44
  most of my responses are AI. There are instances when a
• 24:49
  telephone is better and needed, yes.
• 24:54
  And what's been your most memorable hosting moment so far?
• 25:00
  I, so the way my mind works, I, I tend to dwell on the negative
• 25:04
  and I'm really trying to change that mindset mindset.
• 25:07
  But one of them is a negative is the most memorable.
• 25:11
  There was a time last summer where we had some sort of mix up
• 25:15
  on the, on the cleaning schedule.
• 25:19
  And so I had to drop what I was doing on a Saturday and I had to
• 25:22
  go clean the property myself, which I found out I am not good
• 25:26
  at. So I, I did the cleaning.
• 25:31
  I focused on the areas that I really thought I needed to
• 25:33
  because I was already short on time.
• 25:35
  It wasn't like I found out first thing in the morning and I had
• 25:38
  time to plan. It was just like no go and I had
• 25:40
  to go clean. And so I did clean what I needed
• 25:45
  to clean well, or so I thought. The guests come in, they kind
• 25:48
  of, you know, I check in with them after they get in and all
• 25:53
  that stuff and they say, oh, everything's fine, everything's
• 25:54
  good. And then come to the last day of
• 25:58
  the stay, I get a really long message from the the guest
• 26:01
  saying that things were not so good and kind of created a punch
• 26:05
  list of, you know, primarily cleaning related things that
• 26:10
  were not good. And I was like, bummer.
• 26:14
  And I knew and I just like was expecting.
• 26:16
  I was like, well, here I hit all five stars up to this point,
• 26:20
  everything was great and I was expecting, you know, here's the
• 26:25
  first not five star. And come to find out, they
• 26:31
  actually gave me a five star, which was really odd.
• 26:34
  But that that's the crazy part is they actually wrote a
• 26:38
  handwritten note in the property for the next guests that also
• 26:44
  listed out all the problems. And so that one was that one was
• 26:48
  a tough pill to swallow because we didn't find it until that one
• 26:51
  guest had stayed in between and then we found it after that.
• 26:54
  So, so anyway, it was a really weird situation that they would,
• 26:58
  you know, I was thankful that they gave the five star, but it
• 27:00
  was crazy that there were so many issues and handwritten
• 27:04
  notes with a bunch of things that were wrong.
• 27:07
  So it yeah, that's definitely my most memorable.
• 27:09
  I still have the the letter be the handwritten letter.
• 27:12
  It's kind of a momento. They're like, OK, this can't
• 27:15
  happen again, so OK. Well, so long as it's not framed
• 27:18
  in your office or something. Right, right.
• 27:20
  No, not like that. But I think, don't worry, I
• 27:23
  think we've all been there on a Saturday when you get the call
• 27:26
  from the guests and say, hi, I've just checked in, it hasn't
• 27:29
  been cleaned. It happened to me, I think a
• 27:32
  year ago. I was like, thankfully I was
• 27:34
  very close by to the property, Yeah.
• 27:36
  And I could just pop round and kind of sort things out.
• 27:40
  But but yeah, it's it's the nightmare call that we we all
• 27:44
  dread as. All right then, Brendan.
• 27:48
  So a question to finish then. Ultimate goal for your STR
• 27:52
  business. Yeah, I think mine has less to
• 27:56
  do with dollars and cents really.
• 27:59
  It's really just I'm trying to create multi generational
• 28:03
  legacy, you know, like that's big picture.
• 28:05
  It's more about a life goal and the short term rental is one of
• 28:09
  those means to which to to do that.
• 28:12
  So, you know, something that our kids can some, you know, as they
• 28:16
  get a little older, grow into and help and help operate and
• 28:20
  kind of do that sort of stuff and then financially be able to
• 28:22
  set us up to be able to create that multi generational legacy
• 28:26
  that we that we hope. So we're going to kind of just
• 28:29
  keep going on the grind and keep picking up properties as they
• 28:31
  come up. And as the opportunity comes up
• 28:33
  and as Co hosting opportunities come up, as long as it's a good
• 28:36
  fit, we're going to keep growing that and hopefully leave our
• 28:39
  normal W2 job and and again create this this legacy.
• 28:44
  So. I think that's a great goal,
• 28:47
  Brendan. It's been a real pleasure.
• 28:49
  Thank you for being part of the Host Planet Playbook.
• 28:52
  Awesome. Thank you so much for the
• 28:53
  opportunity. All right, that's it for today's
• 28:55
  episode. My thanks to Brendan for sharing
• 28:58
  his journey and for being part of the Host Planet playbook.
• 29:02
  Remember, this series is brought to you in partnership with
• 29:04
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• 29:08
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• 29:49
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• 29:52
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