Get Paid For Your Pad | Airbnb Hosting | Vacation Rentals | Apartment Sharing

Jot down your top three travel experiences. What made your stay so special? If you are looking for inspiration to create a unique Airbnb, considering what you appreciated most about those spaces is a good place to start.Nadia Rodriguez is a property appraiser and successful Airbnb Superhost with an upscale listing on the beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Today, she joins me to discuss where she goes for the design inspiration that makes her Airbnb stand out.Nadia describes her design aesthetic, explaining how her taste aligns with that of hotelier Liz Lambert and how she was inspired by a recent visit to Hotel San José in Austin. Listen in for Nadia’s insight on taking the guest’s sensory experience into consideration and get inspired to create a unique Airbnb of your own!Topics CoveredHow the infrastructure has improved in Puerto RicoContinue to rebuild after Hurricane MariaSignificant improvement in streets, electricNadia’s advice on where to find design inspirationFind aesthetic you enjoyFollow designers on

87% of consumers prefer to work with businesses that align with their values. So, how can we create a social impact as Airbnb hosts? How do we attract guests by doing good?Lynn Thurston is the founder and principal at Watersound Management, a firm dedicated to helping business owners develop social impact initiatives. With 20-plus years of experience as a social impact professional, Lynn often speaks on the topics of strategic planning and marketing, presenting at the VRMA International Conference, among many other venues.Today, Lynn joins me to share what it means to make a social impact and discuss the benefit of making social responsibility a part of your STR business model. Listen in on Lynn’s ideas for demonstrating social responsibility as an Airbnb host and learn her three-step approach to identifying opportunities to create a social impact in your community—AND attract guests to your Airbnb!Topics CoveredLynn’s insight on the definition of social impactRelated to broad social issues (e.g.: poverty, ed

Artists and creatives need space to work their magic, and a unique Airbnb can offer the perfect backdrop for a photo or film shoot, a podcast recording, or even a pop-up art show. But it can be costly to rent a listing overnight, especially if you only need the space for an hour or two. So, how can STR hosts collaborate with local creative entrepreneurs to make the most of the space available AND support the arts in their community?Sid Kosatsky is the founder and CEO of HostOften, a vacation rental property management firm based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Today, he joins me to discuss his new venture, CollabOften, a partnership with local artists and creative entrepreneurs. Sid shares the process he has developed to allow photographers, podcasters and filmmakers to use his units for free in the slow season and between guests.Sid also explains the value he gets from the collaboration, describing how local creatives have become brand ambassadors for HostOften. Listen in to understand how Sid manages the risk invo

One of the most challenging aspects of growing a short-term rental property management business is managing host relationships. How do you decide which property owners to work with? How do you build trust with hosts early on? What is the best way to onboard new clients so that they understand your process?Zac Rushton is the co-owner and Host Relations Specialist at Great Dwellings, a DC-based property management company that helps homeowners maximize their Airbnb and short-term vacation rentals. In his role, Zac has grown the Great Dwellings portfolio from 20 to 80 listings in less than 12 months! Today, he joins me to discuss how he keeps property owners happy, sharing the Great Dwellings onboarding process and addressing how the team builds trust with new clients.Zac explains the Great Dwellings client selection process, describing how he attracts leads through SEO optimization and what standards a property (and its owner) must meet to be a part of the portfolio. Listen in for Zac’s insight on the func

We know that special events afford Airbnb hosts the opportunity to make extra money on the platform. But how do you decide how much to charge for your listing? When do guests start making reservations for events like the Super Bowl or SXSW? Are there ways you might earn additional revenue by offering add-on services?Tyler Olson is the founder and CEO of Away Agents, a unique property management startup out of Minneapolis that specializes in short-term vacation rentals. Tyler’s team provides homeowners with the tools to optimize their listings and bring out the best in every property. Today, Tyler joins me to discuss the origin of the company and explain how he maximized profits during the Super Bowl to earn an impressive $50K!Tyler addresses how he determines pricing for special events and shares the additional services he offered Super Bowl guests to bring in additional revenue. Listen in to understand Tyler’s process of finding landlords who allow short-term rentals and get advice around capitalizing on spe

How do you go from managing a single vacation rental to 50? Alma Bair got her start renting out her family’s luxury villa in Puerto Rico. Before long, neighbors in Dorado Beach asked her to take on their properties, and the business grew organically by word of mouth from there. So, what challenges has she faced in scaling up? How does she market and manage her listings remotely? And how is she working to customize the guest experience?Alma is the founder and Chief Joy Officer at Paradise Villas & Vacations, a short-term rental management company based in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Today, she joins me to explain how her own vacation in Puerto Rico 16 years ago grew into a vacation rental management business. She shares the challenges she has faced in scaling up, from finding a sufficient reservation management system to working with owners who cancel bookings.Alma also discusses her goal to be less dependent on third-party platforms for marketing her business and her luck in finding an outstanding hospitality pr

There are any number of forums and online groups for short-term rental hosts. But Airbnb operators who manage 25-plus listings don’t seem to have a community where they can share the unique challenges of scaling and managing a vacation rental business with multiple units. Enter STR Legends Live Mastermind Retreat, an epic live event planned for this summer in Puerto Rico.A master at organizing live and online events, Eric Moeller is the host of the Airbnb Mastery Summit, a platform where he interviews top experts in short-term rentals and real estate from around the world, and the creator of Cohost Mastery. In addition, he serves as the founder and CEO of Homtel, a luxury, short-term rental leasing and hosting company out of California. Eric also happens to be helping me cohost the upcoming STR Legends Live Mastermind June 27 through July 1, 2019.Today, Eric and I explain why we organized STR Legends Live, describing the need for a community of established operators focused on scaling a professional short-ter

Airbnb is a momentum game. The more bookings you get, the more users see your listing in search results. Build a solid reputation, and you become one of the top Airbnbs in your city. But in order to get those initial bookings and build that momentum, you have to make it as easy as possible for guests to book your Airbnb!My friend, Simon Lewis, lists his home in Cape Town, South Africa, and it’s a beautiful space in an ideal location. Unfortunately, his bookings have declined in recent months. Today on the podcast, we’re taking a look at his listing to find out why.First, Simon describes the features of his Airbnb, explaining what makes it special and how it’s managed currently. We debate the pros and cons of allowing one-night stays, and Simon explains why he’s hesitant to set his listing to Instant Book and relax his cancellation policy. We also discuss simple ways to improve your position in search results, like changing the order of your photos and maintaining your calendar. Listen in for our plan to impro

Today I chat with Kevin Mah, founder of Rankbreeze. Kevin is an Airbnb SEO specialist and he did a study to find out how Airbnb personalization affects search results. Airbnb's search algorithm takes into account the user's unique profile when calculating which listings to show. Factors include historic data such as what listings the user has clicked on in the past and historic bookings. Here are some takeaways from the study Kevin performed. 1. The longer a user spends viewing a listing, the more likely Airbnb is to show that listing again. This suggests that it's beneficial to have a large number of photos and a wordy description to increase the time that potential guests spend viewing your listing.  2. The personalization effect is smaller for listings that typically rank on the first page. In other words, no matter the user profile, certain listings are always shown by Airbnb. Listings that rank on lower pages have more variability. This confirms the importance of getting to

In today's episode I discuss news updates in short term rental land with Margot Schmorak, CEO of Hostfully. Items discussed: Skift Forum Europe: Airbnb Is Doubling Down on ExperiencesThe Airbnb Invasion of BarcelonaAirbnb Leads $160 Million Investment Into Hospitality Startup LyricAirbnb improves security deposit featureSTR Legends Live See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today I chat with John Oden, superhost with properties in Nashville and Florida. John hosts his properties with his wife Ellen under the brand Stay in the South. He's a firm believer in offering his guests the best hospitality possible by creating outstanding guest experiences. Here's how he does it.We really focus on building a great guest experience, and we do so by making sure we absolutely nail the basics. Cleanliness is #1 - we are fanatical and impress that upon our housekeepers, who are wonderful. Getting our technology right - the fastest WiFi we can get in every property. We have just gone through a round of HD-TV updates where we have a HD-TV with cable and WiFi in every living room and each bedroom. The last two homes we updated, we went with 4K TVs.Coffee! Guests love it - we have a Keurig coffee system in each property and are also adding a secondary drip coffee maker in each property for those who prefer it.Lighting - we use LED lighting everywhere, inside and out. Almost eliminates bulb changin

Today I chat with my good friend Jesse Krieger, who helped me publish Get Paid For Your Pad in 2014. Jesse has since grown his publishing business and has published over 50 books. But the topic for today is how Jesse rents out his primary residence in Las Vegas on Airbnb when he is out of town.Jesse has branded his listing as "The Publishing Palace" and makes the listing stand out by having a primary photo that shows his backyard during a wedding party.He also has given his home a lot of character by having themed rooms each with its own mural (created by former podcast guest Annie Kim, see podcast episode 245, How to Integrate Art in Your Airbnb)Jesse also shares how he almost missed a flight after his neighbour pranked him into thinking his guests were throwing a massive party at his house.Enjoy!Connect with JesseEmail: jesse@jessekrieger.comAirbnb Listing: The Publishing PalaceWebsite: Lifestyle Entrepreneurs PressConnect with JasperEmail: jasper@getpaidforyourpad.comTwitter: 

It's that time of the year again, the deadline for filing US taxes is April 15th. Reason enough to invite Miguel Centeno on the show to explain what Airbnb hosts need to know when filing their taxes and how they can avoid paying the IRS too much of course.In addition to taxes, we also talk about investment insights that Miguel has gained over the years by filing the taxes of thousands of Airbnb hosts all over the US. One observation he has made is that a lot of his rural clients are outperforming those located in the big (sub)urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles.Miguel has also personally joined the Airbnb tribe as he has invested in a beach front property in Baja California. We discuss the purchase process, the approach to renovating the property and the performance that Miguel is expecting.Last but not least, Miguel is offering listeners a $50 discount on tax filings. Go to https://sharedeconomycpa.com/gpfyp/to take advantage of this offer or simply mention that you've listened to this podcast.

Today's guest is Jeremy Mays, CMO and co-founder of GuestBook. He and his team have recently released an eBook called "108 Tips, Tricks, Ideas & Techniques For Property Managers." (Download a free copy here).I have read the entire book and selected my favourite tips from every category and discuss these with Jeremy.HospitalityLeave hand-written thank you notes at the propertiesSmell – Vanilla is a great smell. Wall plug ins. Candles and various air fresheners.Scaling your businessMeet with Investor Organizations: A major portion of the local vacation rental inventory may be owned by a group of investors. Find out more info about these groups and market to them as it might equate to multiple units, not just one here or there.Develop a presentation that you give to all prospective clients: Develop a great “pitch deck” that talks about the many reasons why owners should pick your company over others.Team Building & ManagementALWAYS show your staff how much you appreciate them: Your team is on t

Airbnb acquires Hotel Tonight See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Detailed report on how this Airbnb in Cali is doing See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Illegal hotel business sued by NYC, Airbnb focusses on China & India See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today I talk to Alexander Limpert, CEO and founder of GuestReady, one of the leading property management companies for short term rentals.Alexander used his experience working for Food Panda to start GuestReady. His vision was to create a system that would allow him to scale the business quickly. As part of this vision he built in-house software to manage the units, which was crucial to his success.Alexander plans to make this software available to other property managers in the future to help them expand their business.Topics include:* Why Alexander started Guest Ready* Why he chose to start in multiple locations in different continents* The biggest challenges he faced building the business* How he scaled from 0 to a 1000 listings in less than three years* How he has managed to achieve close to five star ratings across all his listingsConnect with AlexanderEmail: alexander.limpert@guestready.comWebsite: www.guestready.comConnect with JasperEmail: jasper@getpaidforyourpad.comTwitter: @GetP

How to make money renting out RVs See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In today´s episode I talk with Blake, Airbnb host in Melbourne. He appeared on the podcast in October, when we talked about the Airbnb plus application process. Blake has two listings in Melboune, one regular Airbnb listing and one Airbnb Plus listing. We chat about how Airbnb plus listings differ from regular ones. Blake has a lot less control over what´s being displayed in his plus listing.The description is almost entirely composed by Airbnb. The order of the photos that are being displayed is also determined by Airbnb. Not by actual employees, but by an algorithm.As a result, the cover photos for each of the spaces in his listing, such as the bedrooms, the kitchen and the living room, are not the best pictures to show. The way that Airbnb selects the order of the photos seems to be completely random.There´s also no place to add captions, instead Blake can only select a few characteristics of what´s being showed in the photo.Check out Blake´s Airbnb Plus listing Connect with JasperEmail: jas