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Transcript

270. Hosting Hotline: Don’t Skimp On Your Space! Tips for Large Airbnb Groups · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Hello.
• 0:00
  Welcome back for another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:02
  I am Annette Grant.
• 0:03
  And together we're--
• 0:04
  Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:05
  And this is the--
• 0:06
  Hosting Hotline.
• 0:07
  All right.
• 0:08
  We're going to talk about large short-term rentals.
• 0:11
  Hi, my name is Suzanne, and I am building a luxury short-term rental with six
• 0:17
  bedrooms that has room for 16 people.
• 0:21
  As I'm designing the space, I was wondering your feedback in terms of
• 0:27
  the living and dining room spaces being able to fit all of those 16
• 0:32
  people and how I should size furniture and dining room tables and chairs.
• 0:39
  I love that Suzanne's asking that question.
• 0:42
  Yeah, because she needs to.
• 0:43
  We've been to places where you're like-- I mean, it sleeps four
• 0:45
  people, and there's not enough places for us to sit or have a meal.
• 0:49
  For sure.
• 0:51
  We were just chatting with Jeff Brown from Intellihost.
• 0:56
  If you haven't checked out Intellihost yet, we'll put a link in the show notes.
• 1:00
  But he was chatting about how, um, it's very important if you are
• 1:06
  sleeping that many people, that the main gathering area is something that
• 1:11
  guests are really looking for when they are looking to book your property.
• 1:16
  So think about it.
• 1:17
  Yes, the 16 guests are going to need some place to sleep, but the
• 1:20
  whole rest of the day, they're going to be enjoying the home.
• 1:25
  So where are they going to do this?
• 1:27
  And it sounds like you're building the home, so you can
• 1:29
  get ahead of all of these things.
• 1:31
  But I mean, there needs to be enough room for every single
• 1:35
  person to enjoy a meal sitting.
• 1:40
  Not in other spaces of the home, but together.
• 1:43
  And then also being able to gather in one area to enjoy each other's company.
• 1:49
  And again, that is also, maybe depending on the exterior too, what
• 1:54
  you're going to do with the property.
• 1:56
  So design-wise, Sarah, what are some ideas that we can give her?
• 1:59
  Yeah, I have a lot of personal experience like managing a large home that sleeps a
• 2:06
  lot of people, and here's what I learned.
• 2:08
  For the living space, you definitely want to be able to sit 16 people.
• 2:12
  They want to hang out together.
• 2:13
  This is why they're looking at your short-term rental.
• 2:15
  So if you're going to advertise that many people, they want to
• 2:17
  be able to enjoy time together.
• 2:19
  I've found that doing large, U-shaped sectionals--
• 2:24
  Yeah.
• 2:24
  I was going to say multiple sectionals.
• 2:24
  Don't waste time on space between the chairs.
• 2:28
  That space between two chairs is a place someone could have sat.
• 2:31
  So we did the U-shaped sectional and then a nice, um, end table on either end.
• 2:38
  You can do a sofa table behind the sofa as well as a coffee
• 2:41
  table between the sectional.
• 2:43
  For dining, same thing.
• 2:46
  And this goes to all hosts.
• 2:47
  I don't care how big your place is, this is the biggest miss when people design
• 2:52
  short-term rentals, who have no experience with short-term rentals, running
• 2:55
  them, not enough chairs for everyone you sleep, not enough plates, dishes,
• 2:59
  silverware, and coffee cups, wine glasses.
• 3:03
  Again, they're coming to hang out with you.
• 3:04
  Make sure they can enjoy their time together.
• 3:06
  AD BREAK
• 3:07
  And hot tip, I would put in multiple dishwashers.
• 3:10
  If you are, uh, getting ahead of this and have the luxury to be able to lay out
• 3:17
  some things, that's one thing, is being able to maybe put in two dishwashers.
• 3:21
  I would think about--
• 3:22
  Two fridges.
• 3:23
  Yeah.
• 3:23
  I was going to say if you can't put two in the kitchen, if there's an
• 3:27
  alternate, maybe a pantry or somewhere else in the home that you could
• 3:31
  put another refrigerator for them.
• 3:33
  And also, I'm going to put it out there, if you could, install some ice maker.
• 3:38
  That's a huge issue for large groups of people.
• 3:42
  So, uh, Susan, hopefully, this helps you and some other hosts, but really
• 3:47
  do some space planning here and figure out how you can have all those people
• 3:51
  sitting comfortably in all of the areas.
• 3:54
  But great question.
• 3:55
  And good luck with this.
• 3:57
  Send us some pics once it's all designed.
• 3:58
  I want to give Susan a couple of other pointers.
• 4:00
  You didn't mention how many bathrooms you have.
• 4:02
  I know you asked for kitchen and living room, but if you have three bathrooms,
• 4:07
  four bathrooms and there're going to be people who need to get right at the
• 4:09
  same time, create some vanity spaces in your bedroom where people can sit in
• 4:14
  front of a mirror or stand in front of a mirror and blow dry their hair, etc.
• 4:19
  Also make sure your exterior hangout spaces are ready for all 16 people.
• 4:25
  So if you've got a fire pit, hot tub, picnic tables, make sure everyone
• 4:29
  can enjoy their time together.
• 4:31
  And then last tip is when people are searching for these larger homes, those
• 4:35
  hero images, Jeff Brown shared with us, from Intellihost, that the hero images
• 4:40
  that do best with these types of homes are the ones where you showcase this sitting
• 4:44
  area, the hangout area, where all the people are going to hang out because that
• 4:47
  is what they're most concerned about.
• 4:49
  Where can they gather?
• 4:51
  So with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 4:54
  I'm Annette Grant.
• 4:54
  And together we're--
• 4:55
  Thanks for Visiting.
• 4:56
  Talk to you next time.