Latest / Hospitable Hosts / Building a Resilient Short-Term Rental Business with Hospitable Hosts
Transcript
- Miles: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Hospitable Hosts Podcast. My name is Miles. I'm from the marketing team here at Hospitable. And today we have a very special guest, an investor and customer of Hospitables. Eli is going to talk about his journey in hosting and his experience using Hospitables MCB, connecting more channels, and also checking out our new insurance services. So if you enjoyed today's episode, please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Okay, hello Eli. Thank you so much for joining us today. Eli: Thank you for having me. Miles: Sweet. so Eli, obviously I know you as a customer of Hospitable. I think we've met in person once or twice at an event or two, but maybe our listeners don't know who you are. So could you start with a bit of an introduction of yourself? Eli: Yes. So my name is Eli Stoughton. I have three short term rentals in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. I go under the brand Lahaina Studio because they're studio short term rentals. a little bit about my backstory. I'm originally a lawyer by training and how I sort of got into short term rentals was I when I was a lawyer I lived in Chicago and then in Singapore. And when I was living in Chicago and I was about to move, I had my apartment there, which is a very lovely apartment with a view of Lake Michigan, and I knew I was going to be doing bunch of traveling over the summer and I thought, well, it's such a shame that this place is going to be vacant. And I thought, why not make some money off of it as well? So I put it up on Airbnb and I was very pleased by how relatively speaking smooth and easygoing it was and it was a good way to earn some money. And so I always had an eye on, you know, maybe I'm looking at a an exit plan, something to do, investments in the future. And sort of once I got to a certain financial threshold, I I decided to make the jump. And the so I've been doing this for about eight years. Twenty eighteen is when I got my four first short term rental in Lahaina. I've also previously owned short term rentals in Joshua Tree, California and in Stowe, Vermont. So I have a little bit of experience in different kinds of markets as well. Miles: Nice, super interesting. And obviously, you know, I I started with intro of you being a customer of ours, but I I think Eli: Mm-hmm. Miles: that's kind of a understatement because you're you're not just a customer, you're a regular on our town halls, in our community. what would you say that's kind of kept you engaged and kind of, you know, giving back to the community and being an active Eli: Mm-hmm. Miles: member? Eli: Yeah, that's a great question. So the major caveat is that five years ago Hospitable unveiled the opportunity for customers to invest in the company. And so I was probably one of the first or second individuals to invest in the company. So being an investor in Hospitable has given me a little bit more buy-in in terms of staying involved in the community. And I think in the past very recently, you know, in the past year or so, the community, the online community, when we when we speak of that, we mean the community.hospitable.com website has grown and become a really great way to have, you know, people who are verified customers you know authenticated with their account, be able to share a lot of their expertise and answer questions. And I think it's it's really one of the best places to go if you're having questions about hospitable or short term rentals in general, or your account. And it doesn't require actual account access, like a support member who works for Hospitable t in order to help you with something. Because you you'll oftentimes get people such as myself and other similar people who will answer questions pretty thoroughly and relatively quickly as well. So it's it's really a great resource that I think everybody should check out. Miles: Yeah, awesome. And yeah, we're so grateful of for you contributing and and helping answer people's questions. And yeah, hopefully it sounds like it, but hopefully you're getting a lot of value out of that too. Eli: Yes, absolutely. Miles: Cool. so kind of going back to your hosting journey and kind of the lessons you've learned and maybe some of the lessons that you're sharing in that community, what are some of the big biggest lessons you've learned over like the last eight years of hosting? Eli: Well, I I I should you know also be very clear. my properties are are in a place which had one of the most devastating wildfires in US history three years ago. Actually this week. and so while our property was still standing, we were closed down for two years and many other properties, you know, obviously obviously burnt down and won't be open for quite a while. and so a lot of my lessons are involving insurance, about involving having sufficient reserves for your carrying costs, lessons, you know, re regarding yeah, b b insurance, carrying costs, those are s those are sort of the the main ones and and having a a plan of what to do when when something terrible like that happens. Another another thing that that I would say is that a lot of people in the industry are quite keen on doing the the lowest down payment mortgage that you could possibly do. and so when if you're if you're doing stuff like that, there there could be negative impacts where where your blow up risk is just tremendous. So I've learned a lot personally about about insurance in the past few years. I I basically had a retail policy that has, you know, you're allowed to do short term rentals on it, but it's not essentially built to to run a business through. And it's actually one of the things I'm exploring. this week I was talking to to some of your colleagues who work on the Hospitables subsidiary subsidiary company align insurance, about possibly getting getting better insurance for me there. So I would I would say my my lessons are are more around towards preservation of of capital and making sure that you're well insured. Because at the end of the day, if it's gonna cost you a bit more money every year, it's probably better than having a huge blow up risk and be on the hook for that. Miles: Yeah, definitely. Couldn't agree more with short term rental specific insurance and not just relying Eli: Mm-hmm. Miles: on kind of yeah, the insurance that you got if it's your house that, you know, when you bought that house kind of thing, it's it's not necessarily going to cover you the same way. Eli: Right. Miles: Cool. and so obviously at the start as well, you've talked about, you know, beginning on Airbnb. Eli: Mm-hmm. Miles: I think I've got it right in saying that you've now expanded to Booking.com and Verbo. you know, what made you make that decision to expand the number of channels? Eli: So I think it's incredibly important for people not to be dependent on just one platform. And Airbnb is wonderful, but at the end of the day, they're running their own business. And if you've been following the company over the past several years, you'll note that four years ago they made this huge push into categories. And then two years ago it was icons. And so the focus was all on inspiration led sort of travel. They were really doubling down on what made them unique and what they viewed as the sorts of properties that Booking.com or Verbo wouldn't. have on their platform. And when any time that something like that happens, you have you as a host, you might have your property, you know, maybe deprioritized on the homepage. your listings they might go up or they might go down, depending on what they do. And and we've seen recently, a year ago they essentially shifted away from that sort of model and now they're leaning into experiences and services. And this year it's boutique hotels. So whenever you're Completely dependent on one platform. One little change in their algorithm or their focus could impact you tremendously. I know this over the past year there's been a lot of talk of the host only fee. and I th I honestly think it's gotten a much more of a bad rap than it actually deserves. For the most part, it's simply shifting the the burden of who actually pays that fee from from the guest to the host. there are some small, small issues. Like I know for my properties because Airbnb doesn't remit taxes on on my behalf or for anybody in Maui, they they weren't paying Airbnb wasn't paying occupancy taxes on the guest service fee, but now I have to pay it on the host service fee. so th there's a small increase of the tax burden for me, but for anybody who had properties where Airbnb was actually remitting taxes on their behalf, the difference is is is minimal. It got a bad rap. But that but who's to say that they couldn't raise the host only fee to be twenty percent if they wanted their take rate. They they have tremendous power Because they have done a great job of aggregating so much demand. but you really want to not be completely dependent on them. And the best time to do that is now, because if some change is going to happen a year or two from now from now, and that might negatively impact you, you want to have your properties up on the other OTAs, verbo and booking.com, and you want to have a direct website as well. And you want to have it operating for a while. So you have at least a few positive reviews there. So So that you're ready in case something happens. Yeah. Miles: Nice, yeah. And I think a lot of people have hesitation around booking dot com and verbo because of like complications with it or perhaps just because it's a different UI from Airbnb and what they're used to. Eli: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Miles: what's your experience been of kind of you know transferring and getting started on? Eli: I you know, I I I I think people are right to have the to to feel that it is complicated because it is tremendously complicated. Every different setting might be referred to in a different way. It might be in a different place. having to manage your photos in in multiple different places i is complicated. How they deal with taxes and regulation varies by OTA. but the good news is is that that's what hospitable is for, is to obfuscate all of that complexity. And make it so that you can go to one place, upload all your photos and go to all of the OTAs and your direct website, that you can make description changes and then that that it will apply to all of the websites as well. and so as time goes on, the percentage of all that complexity that is obfuscated by Hospitable goes up. And it's you know, it's sort of like a never ending battle of of work to be done. But but that's why that's why you have software like hospitable to do that. And it's never been a better time to to take advantage of that software because with the new Verbo partner integration, things I think are going much smoother. and with the Hospitable Essentials plan, which is the free plan, there there's there's no reason not to give it a try. So if if somebody has been sitting on the sidelines being okay, I'm saying to themselves, I just want to be a single Airbnb only host, not have any software connected Now's a really great time to actually jump in and see what what you can do. Miles: Nice, awesome. Yeah, and with those booking.com and verbo bookings that you are getting, do you see kind of major differences in the type of guests that come through as well? You know, are you attracting a different audience or do you feel like it's just a way to kind of you know differentiate some of the risk, I guess, of making sure that you're spread on different channels? Eli: It's undoubtedly both, because you're going to get people who simply wouldn't go to Airbnb for whatever reason. and I I think the type of types of travelers that you'll see have to do with what kind of company e each of those OTAs is and and and where their strength is. Verbo is just a much older company. They were founded in nineteen ninety five, and so the kinds of guests who will book with Virbo tend to be on the older end because they have habits of maybe only going to traditional vacation rental markets, you know, like a beach market and a ski market. they're not booking, you know, two-night stays in Paris on Verbo as much, right? And Booking.com is mostly for me so far. I've seen Europeans and European Americans who, you know, who just moved to America from Europe. So because Booking.com is is a huge company, but they are incredibly strong in Europe, where primarily for hotels, of course, they're they're they're just incredibly strong. And they have so many different subsidiaries. They, you know, they're they're they're a hundred fifty billion dollar company with twenty five thousand employees. So you're gonna see a lot of people from Europe coming through booking dot com. so yeah, you you do you do notice a difference, but for me, most of the people still come through Airbnb. Airbnb skews a little bit l younger than than Verbo, but th but those are the main differences between the types of travelers. Miles: Cool, awesome. And so I guess do you have just like one tip for anyone that's about to get started with Booking Not Call or Verber? Eli: yeah, well th this is actually front of mine. It's been something the community has been discussing. some folks have have realized how little you know, sort of damage protection they might have on all of the OTAs. I know Airbnb has they have a really good perception because of the the marketing behind air cover. in practice it might work out well for you, it might not. Airbnb also does some guest screening and verification, but they they're very explicit about not doing guest verification and background checks on every single guest. So I'm sure they're using some AI in the background to figure out which guests are are are higher risk or where they actually have to do the verification. But Virgo and Booking.com essentially do almost nothing for that. And in fact it was just yesterday on on the town hall where I believe it's security deposits are now available for for the new verbo connection. So if you Miles: Right. Eli: if you are going into Verbo and Booking dot com shortly, I think you should take stock of what your risk is. It you know, obviously a if it depends on what kind of property you have. Like I have studio condos in West Maui and I usually get couples as guests and they might skew a little bit older than other markets. And because it's for most people, it's a fly to market, there's not that much risk of someone just taking some of your stuff or anything like that, right? Miles: Yeah. Eli: And it's only a 500 square foot of condo. So so there's only so much damage that can be done. That's gonna look very different than if you have a five bedroom house in a mountain town or a beach town where that's very easy for people to drive to. so you I think hosts should really consider what their properties are like, what how much risk there is there, and then look into what you want to do with damage protection, Insurance, security deposits, guest verification, all that sort of stuff. Because there are plenty of solutions. Hospitable has their own solutions and then there are also integration partners that that offer that as well. So so I would I would say look into that and don't just catch yourself off guard by assuming that you're covered for things that you might not be. Miles: Nice, love it. so let's switch it up a little bit to talk about AI rather than talk about channels. so you are one of the early adopters of Hospitables MCP integration, and I wanna put it on you to try and explain in simple terms what MCP is and what it does. Eli: Okay. All right. Well, I I actually I was a little behind the curve, but it wasn't my fault. I months ago, Hospitable announced the MCP and I thought, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna I hadn't paid for ChatGPT or Claude up until then, and I said, All right, I'm gonna get a paid Claude account to do this. And as soon as I paid for it, they banned my account. And that was obviously an overzealous like abuse detector, but three weeks later they opened it back up and so I've been using it ever since. But I I'm just I think we're all just scratching the service and I'm certainly just scratching the surface. But to try to explain it into terms that for people who maybe aren't super familiar with AI is well, I'll I'll I'll go back and say in in in technology broadly, there's sort of been this debate it whether AI will be used within the the sort of apps and services that we already use, or whether you'll use it through like a chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude. And I think invariably the answer is both. And so I think we're seeing that at Hospitable, where you have AI infused in actu the actual hospitable product for support, for guest messaging, for all sorts of things. And then you have what the MCP essentially does is gives Claude or ChatGPT or or another AI service the ability to sort of pull all of this very valuable data from your hospitable account to do things and make conclusions. and so one of the things that you can do that I did the other day. is you open up Claude or Claude Cowork, give them access via the hospitable MCP to your hospitable data, and just ask like, hey, are there are there five what are the five best recommendations you have for me in terms of you know perfecting things in my short term rental business? And it'll go through and look and and find things that no human ever would be able to to find because it's just ingesting so much data very quickly and it's able to look at the differences. I I th one thing I'm very excited about is the possibility of doing sort of A B testing, testing different strategies because I have three condos that are essentially the same, right? And so that gives me the opportunity to say, like, okay, what if I changed this cancellation policy or had a different pricing strategy and so I could run certain strategies and then have Claude sort of keep tabs on it and ask them, How did that do? Which one performed better? that's one of the things I'm really excited about. And in the hospitable community there is the hospitable MCP library where all different hospitable customers have shared the things that they've created. So so we're j we're just getting started. It's it's pretty exciting. Miles: Nice, I love it. So it sounds like you're really just starting to scratch the surface, but do you think that, you know, for you that's gonna really impact how you you know, operate your business on the day to day eventually? Eli: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I I I think that all of these AI solutions, including the internal hospitable ones and all of these different point solution companies that are out there, are going to improve drastically and there's going to be a lot of competition. And we'll see w what happens when and and and who's able to accomplish what as quickly as they can. But I I I'm excited about any ability to sort of hand off anything that needs to be done to AI. Like I I I want to be able to if I have like a a plumbing issue or there's a small leak, I want whatever AI I'm using to be able to talk to the guest and figure out is this like a a huge problem? Like we need to shut the water off i in in the condo immediately and call the emergency plumber? Or is it just like a small thing that that all you know, we just have to make like one minor tweak. And eventually I want I want someone to be able to have a AI agent to call the plumber and wait on hold and and receive a call back. So I I think there are tremendous opportunities there to to capture so much value here. Miles: Nice. And for anyone that's kind of feeling maybe overwhelmed by this whole MCP thing, what would your recommend recommendation be, sorry, for like what's the first thing they should do to try and give it a go and see if it's for them? Eli: yeah. I I would just just I would say probably I'm on the twenty dollar a month Claude account. I would say probably get that. You're you're gonna make use out of it both with your business and I think you can also make use out of it in your personal life. and yeah, like I said, just just go ask them, do you have any recommendations for my account? The they'll come up with something, right? And you know, you can push back and have a conversation and be like, do you really think I need to do that? or or maybe there's something that that Claude wasn't taking into account that you will but you you go back and forth and have a conversation. with Claude about it and and you'll be able to find changes that you can make to your account. You could even upload the photos that you have and say, you know, which photos do you think are better? Am I doing something wrong? Should I should I go and take more ph different photos? yeah, you you you'll you'll be able to to to get some stuff even if you have very little knowledge about any sort of coding or anything like that. It's it's relatively simple. the clawed interface to just start typing and asking questions. Miles: Nice, awesome. I love it. so you've obviously talked about kind of, you know, using the community and kind of you know getting advice and and giving back from the community, you know, adding more channels to help you grow, making more use of AI. What are your kind of goals for the you know, the year ahead or or the rest of the year I should say and and next year for your business? Eli: that's good one. So I I'm at the point with my business where I'm not going to be acquiring or selling any properties in in the time being. over the past eight years, in most years I've either acquired a property or sold a property. and I I've s sort of done with dealing with insurance and wildfire lawsuit stuff, which took a lot of my time time as well. But Basically, we're at the point where we've gotten the amount of time that I need to spend in a given week on the business to a a pr a pretty low amount compared to what it used to be. w when I started eight years ago, the the scheduled messaging of Hospitable was sort of the the primary d draw. And that was great at the time, but there was still so much communication that needed to be done. There was there was a lot there was just a lot more work. And now we've gotten to the point where If I see a message come in, I can get with the hospitables just suggest with AI response. I can g I c it's just tap a button and then I'm good to go, basically. So continuing to get the amount of time spent on the business to be very minimal, I think is certainly one of one of my main goals to get everything as as automated as possible. Miles: Nice. I love it. Well, I think you're using the right software for that, so that's great. Eli: Absolutely. Miles: Awesome. Eli, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your journey. Appreciate it. Eli: Of course, thank you for having me. Miles: Thank you very much for listening to today's episode with Eli. If you enjoyed our episode today, please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and listen now for our next episode coming soon.