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The Airbnb philosophy seems to be, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” This week in the news, there are rumors of a deal with Chinese rival Trujia, as Airbnb seeks to succeed in a market where other tech giants have struggled.Jasper is joined by Hostfully VP of Strategic Partnerships, Nicole Prentice Williams, to discuss this development in China, as well as Airbnb’s new hire in the region: Head of Chinese Operations, Hong Ge. They also cover Airbnb’s surprising success in Cuba, and how Airbnb might capitalize on legal requirements for travel in that country.In Barcelona, Airbnb seems less welcome, and headlines this week outline the crackdown on unlicensed homesharing in the city. Last but not least, Jasper and Nicole talk about one place where Airbnb is beating out the competition – online! Listen and learn about the platform’s surge in traffic and how it compares to hotel brands and other metasearch sites.Topics CoveredArticle #1: Airbnb Says Cubans are Cashing in on Airbnb•Cubans have earned nearly $40M si

Women who are potential Airbnb hosts may hesitate to join the platform due to safety concerns. The homesharing site’s non-discrimination policy doesn’t allow you to accept only female guests, but there are measures you can take to attract the type of person you feel comfortable sharing your home with.Kathleen Forest is a Superhost is the DC suburb of Arlington, Virginia. Since her listing went live in February of 2017, she has had much success and accrued 42 positive reviews. Because her husband is often traveling for work and she has two sons, Kathleen had concerns about listing a room in their family home on Airbnb, but she has developed strategies to set forth clear expectations and establish boundaries with guests.Listen in as Kathleen shares the precautions she has taken to protect herself and her sons, her approach to the Instant Book feature, and her suggestions for hosts with children. Learn to design a listing that appeals to your ideal guest so that you feel comfortable and safe!Topics CoveredHow to

As the homesharing phenomenon grows, people continue to develop a variety of creative products and services that complement the work you do as an Airbnb host. A new app generates a floor plan for you through photos of your space, while another detects the number of mobile devices in use and alerts you if guests might be having a party!Jasper is on the line with Hostfully Co-Founder and President David Jacoby to discuss a number of useful sites that make life easier for the savvy Airbnb host, many of which were represented at the recent HSDC Trade Fair in San Francisco. They also cover another aspect of the sharing economy that Airbnb hosts might be interested in using to upsell their guests, peer-to-peer car sharing.In other Airbnb news, a recent report pointed to exponential growth of vacation rentals in Spain, and Airbnb made an effort to generate positive press with an announcement regarding how much guests saved by booking on the platform (rather than with hotels) over the holiday weekend. Listen in as Da

Jasper has finally reached his ambition of becoming truly homeless. Through the sale of his apartment in Amsterdam, he is embracing the life of a digital nomad and staying in Airbnb properties all over the world. His next move involves reinvesting the money earned from the sale in global assets.Today Jasper offers an update regarding his Airbnb investments, answering your questions about the process of buying property in an unfamiliar country, how he selected locations, and the challenges he has faced along the way!Topics CoveredJasper’s experience in selling his Amsterdam property•Enforcement of regulations limited Airbnb rental to 60 days•Real estate market boom•Hired broker to organize viewing days•Investor purchased within two weeks•Agreed to $450,000 asking priceHow Jasper lost his Superhost status•Intended to block dates on Airbnb after April•Dates already appeared to be blocked three months in future•Three-month window moves each day•Received booking for May (Instant Book still on)•Had to cancel, lost

Airbnb added some unusual listings that made news this week, including an ad agency that converted its office into a ‘spacious penthouse suite’ and the entire Swedish countryside. Yes, you read that right – the entire Swedish countryside.Jasper is joined by Hostfully CEO Margot Lee Schmorak to discuss those creative listings, both ad campaigns designed to draw attention to the best qualities of 1) The Swedish landscape, and 2) OH Partners (who are looking to fill Airbnb’s opening for an ad agency).They also review HomeAway’s lawsuit against the city of Chicago, discussing the potential for an alliance between Expedia and Airbnb in the fight against homesharing regulations, and an article that takes a comprehensive look at the homesharing ecosystem, outlining Airbnb’s evolution and how hotels are innovating to keep up. Listen in to learn why CNBC named Airbnb the #1 Disruptor of 2017!Topics CoveredArticle #1: It’s Been a Trip to $31 Billion, Now Airbnb Wants to Remake the Entire Travel Industry•Overview of hom

To diversify, or not to diversify, that is the question.Should you be listing on multiple platforms? Or is it better to stick with just one?Richard Fertig is the host of Short Term Rental Secrets, a YouTube channel dedicated to building a community of short-term rental hosts who learn from each other’s experience. Richard is an entrepreneur and former Wall Street Hedgefunder who signed up for Airbnb four years ago. In that time, he has generated over $500,000 in income hosting his small portfolio of real estate investments.Listen to understand the differences among Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO and Booking.com. Richard also shares his experience with listing on multiple platforms, discussing the advantages of diversifying as well as the complications that can arise. This is a must-listen for hosts who are weighing the benefits of listing on more than one vacation rental site!Topics CoveredHow Airbnb is different from HomeAway/VRBO•Superior user experience•Focus on building community•Mutual review of host/guestThe pr

Airbnb is learning the art of the deal, and the homesharing platform is all over the news this week for efforts to collaborate with local governments in Latin America, Japanese luxury resorts, and the city of San Francisco.Jasper is chatting about these partnerships with none other than Hostfully VP of Strategic Partnerships, Nicole Prentice Williams. They explore Airbnb’s proactive approach to compromise with city governments in the growing Latin American market, their deal with Japanese luxury resorts to help boost occupancy, and the $15M agreement to expand their ‘urban campus’ in San Francisco.They also cover the story of a first-time Airbnb user who was scammed by a phony listing in Amsterdam as well as the details of the registration process for hosts in San Francisco. Listen in to learn about these headlines – and Jasper’s challenging experiences as an Airbnb guest in Moscow and St. Petersburg!Topics CoveredArticle #1: Brit Tourist Scammed Out of £915 for a Holiday Getaway Advertised Through Airbnb in

As hosts, we know that Airbnb is a ‘review game,’ and the cleanliness of your space plays a big role in scoring the highly coveted five-star review. Today’s guest is prepared to share several key strategies that will help Airbnb hosts keep their vacation rental spic and span.Neel Parekh is the CEO and Founder of MaidThis, a tech-enabled turnover service for short-term rentals based in California. The company provides top-notch, reliable cleaning services for Airbnb hosts via an online scheduling system. MaidThis cleaners are experienced in the short-term rental space, and they are trained to complete an inspection and damage report as needed.Listen as Neel explains how to find reliable cleaners, train your staff, and select towels and bedding for your Airbnb. Surprise and delight your guests by meeting their expectations for an immaculate place to stay – and earn another superior review!Topics CoveredHow to find a reliable cleaning staff•Work with a professional service like MaidThis•Search on platforms like

As Airbnb hosts, we know that a well-written, conversational profile goes a long way in landing guests. But now there is science to back it up, and the research identifies specific language hosts can employ in their listings.Hostfully Marketing Specialist Glenn Carter joins Jasper to discuss the research out of Cornell and Stanford that examined predictors of host choice. They also cover several other Airbnb headlines, including yet another acquisition, the company’s partnership with Hearst to launch a travel magazine, and an opinion piece arguing that the hotel and home sharing industries actually need each other!Listen in to learn about proposed legislation in New York that could boost Airbnb rentals as well as the creative accommodations many Airbnb hosts are listing on the platform, among them a charming treehouse in Canada!Topics CoveredArticle #1: Airbnb and Hotels Need Each Other, They Just Don’t Know It Yet•Ongoing animosity between home sharing and hotel industries•Hotel industry could learn from Air

So you’ve planned a retreat for entrepreneurs and booked the Airbnb, but lack of interest forced you to cancel the event. Now it’s time to get creative and find a way to recoup the money you spent on accommodations. What if you listed the space on Airbnb yourself, and sublet it out to get your money back?Chris Reynolds is the founder of Entrepreneur House, a business accelerator that holds events worldwide with the intent of creating a community where entrepreneurs can live together for four weeks, attending goal-setting and productivity workshops as well as taking part in advisor-led seminars and one-on-one coaching sessions. Chris has taken advantage of the Airbnb platform to book accommodations for Entrepreneur House retreats in Chiang Mai, Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro, and then sublet those bookings when they weren’t being used!Today, Chris shares the objectives of Entrepreneur House as well as his advice for Airbnb hosts. Listen in to learn how he was able to negotiate with a landlord who caught him subl

One of the more frustrating aspect of international travel is cell access. Wi-Fi isn’t always available, and additional data plans can be costly. What do you do without access to maps and information? It can make for a harrowing experience in an unfamiliar place where you may or may not be able to communicate with the locals. Just ask Jasper about his trip to Moscow!David Jacoby, Co-founder and President of Hostfully, joins Jasper to discuss all of the ways that Airbnb is trying to do the right thing. To start, the company is developing a solution to the cell access problem, and their patent application made headlines this week. Airbnb is also working to make things right with regard to racial discrimination on the platform, as well as host non-compliance with regulations in the city of San Francisco.In addition to those stories, David and Jasper cover an organization that is most decidedly not concerned with doing the right thing. Listen in and learn about the misleading anti-Airbnb ad sponsored by Share Bet

Whether you’re just getting started as an Airbnb host, or you’re looking to upgrade your status and pick up a few more five-star reviews, the Laptop Landlord is here to share some killer advice that will help you find the right guests for your property and provide high quality customer service during their stay.Tyler Knutzen is an Airbnb host in Chicago who runs the Laptop Landlord website. He utilized Airbnb for the first time in 2012 as a grad student in Eugene, Oregon, during the US Olympic Trials. He realized that local hotels were overloaded, and living only seven minutes from campus made his place prime real estate. Looking to make extra money, he and his fiancé listed their home on Airbnb and hosted two sets of guests during the course of the event.After a move to Chicago, Tyler forgot about Airbnb until he started looking for a side hustle to help pay off his student loans. He tried several other things before remembering just how easy it had been to set up a listing on Airbnb. Now he sets availabilit

Conventional wisdom tells us to ‘expect the unexpected,’ and Airbnb news certainly delivered this week, most notably when a guest in Los Angeles received a surprise visit from a SWAT team!Margot Lee Shmorak, CEO and Co-founder of Hostfully, joins Jasper (our homeless host) to discuss that incident as well as the unexpected negative view of Airbnb presented by a few high-profile Democrats on the national stage in the US.They also cover the story of a couple who was pleasantly surprised by Airbnb’s new payment options as they planned their honeymoon trip, and an op-ed explaining why Airbnb’s growth in China is sluggish despite their best efforts. Listen in to understand why anything more than modest growth is unexpected in the Chinese market.Topics CoveredArticle #1: Hotel Industry Details Plans to Fight Airbnb•High-profile Democrats raised concerns about Airbnb•Questioned housing costs, racial discrimination, and consumer protection and safety w/ FTC•Accused Airbnb of evading local tax laws•First time issue ra

Is there something you’ve always wanted to try? Maybe it’s surfing, or nature photography, or even burlesque? It can be intimidating to seek out experiences like that on your own if you don’t know anyone in the scene.Airbnb Experiences is designed to give guests an opportunity to try something extraordinary – with a welcoming expert host who can’t wait to share their city with you. Cat LaCohie, otherwise known as Vixen DeVille, is an Airbnb Experience host in Los Angeles who shares the world of burlesque with guests who are curious about the art form.Today Cat shares the process of developing an experience with Airbnb, the specifics of what’s involved in her one- and three-day experiences, and the advantages the program provides to travelers. And if you’re interested in becoming a host yourself, Cat offers invaluable advice regarding how to create a unique experience. Topics CoveredThe qualities the company is looking for in Airbnb Experience hosts•Welcoming•Willingness to meet and spend time with guestsWhy

You’ve got to keep ‘em regulated.This seems to be the hotel industry’s sentiment toward Airbnb, as revealed in documents obtained by the New York Times this week.Jasper is joined by Glenn Carter, Hostfully Marketing Specialist, to chat about the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s formal plan to rein in Airbnb, as well as a new UBS report suggesting that regulations have slowed the growth of Airbnb in some of the company’s most popular markets.They also cover the lawsuit Airbnb is bringing against the city of Miami for targeting hosts who spoke at a city commission meeting, and corporate travel policies around homesharing. Listen in to find out what amenities attract business travelers and how corporations can benefit from allowing for the use of platforms like Airbnb when employees travel for work.Topics CoveredArticle #1: Inside the Hotel Industry’s Plan to Combat Airbnb•American Hotel and Lodging Association’s action plan to combat Airbnb revealed•Took credit for Federal Trade Commission’s housing cos

Everyone loves a good party… Unless of course, that party happens in your Airbnb without your knowledge or consent!We all hope that our guests will be respectful of our possessions and our space, and the vast majority of Airbnb users are good people who do just that. But every now and then a bad apple comes along, and it is a good idea to be aware of Airbnb’s resolution process and think through how you might handle a negative situation should it ever arise.Alice is an Airbnb Superhost who manages Talon Resort, a private mountain home in Tennessee, and lives there when it is not booked. After a weekend rental that was supposed to be for five people, she returned to find evidence that a keg party had taken place in her home. Worse yet, several of her possessions were missing.Listen in as Alice shares her story and offers advice regarding how to handle such difficult situations in a professional manner – and better yet, how to spot the warning signs in advance and avoid a problem altogether!Topics CoveredAlice’

Airbnb was in the headlines for the wrong reasons this week, as an Asian-American guest was stranded by a vicious host who offered race as the reason for the last-minute cancellation. Despite Airbnb’s best efforts to combat discrimination via changes to the platform, the issue continues to plague the company.Today Jasper chats with Nicole Prentice Williams, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Hostfully, about the adjustments Airbnb has made to create an unbiased environment and whether those changes go far enough. They also cover the governor’s race in California, and the big donations Airbnb employees are making to a certain candidate.Listen and learn about the currency conversion fee Airbnb guests are facing as well as the gear you need to outfit your vacation rental. Want that coveted five-star review? Provide your Airbnb guests with these amenities!Topics CoveredArticle #1: ‘One Word Says It All – Asian’: Airbnb Host Reportedly Leaves Guest Stranded Because of Her Race•Guest booked property near Big Bear, Cal

The beauty of Airbnb is the trust people place in each other, allowing strangers to stay in their homes and sharing their space – and often their lives. Comedians are in the business of studying people and learning their stories, and today’s guest was fascinated by the concept of home sharing and curious to understand why people choose to host.Jasper is chatting with Greg Schwem, a business humorist, corporate comedian, and syndicated columnist. He often travels for work, so Greg started adding an extra day to his trips and booking an Airbnb with an interesting profile. With their permission, he films a segment with each host and posts to his YouTube channel, A Comedian Walks into an Airbnb.Listen in as Greg shares his unique Airbnb experiences, including a stay on an air mattress in a Volkswagen van and a trip to Miami Beach hosted by a ‘stripper turned house flipper.’Topics CoveredHow Greg chooses an Airbnb•Interesting profile•Extraordinary location/circumstancesGreg’s unique experiences•Row house in DC•Vol

As the trend toward instant bookings continues, the Airbnb platform becomes more user-friendly for guests. But what does that mean for you as a host? The policies around cancellations can be confusing, and hosts who prefer the strict cancellation policy operate under a different set of rules.Hostfully President David Jacoby joins Jasper this week to cover the pros and cons of using Instant Book as Airbnb steers its hosts toward that option. They also chat about the recent incidence of theft in Toronto and Airbnb’s response, as well as the latest news about Airbnb’s growth – which may not be as disruptive as people think!Listen and learn about upcoming home-sharing trade shows and conferences on the west coast and the different types of insurance policies you may want to consider – if you are using platforms other than Airbnb. And if you didn’t catch Airbnb’s April Fool’s joke, David and Jasper will hook you up.Topics CoveredArticle #1: Instant Booking Becomes the Big Metric for Airbnb and Vacation Rentals•Air

Feel like escaping the ‘rat race’? Wouldn’t it be nice to build a little wealth, making as much in passive income as you do active? Today Jasper has a conversation with a guest who has accomplished this ambitious goal – with the help of a game!Mark Krupa has invested in multiple properties along the ‘tourist trail’ in Eastern Europe. He is the author of @Airbnb Coach: Maximize Your Income and Satisfaction as an Airbnb Host, and he does one-on-one coaching to help Airbnb hosts improve their listing performance.Listen and let Mark coach you up on the investing game in Eastern Europe! Learn how he chose his investments, which one is performing the best and why, and how he navigates the ever-changing regulations around short- and long-term rentals.Topics CoveredHow Mark chose the locations for his investments•Researching tourist numbers and top destinations•Visiting himselfWhy Mark chose Eastern Europe•He lives there and Americans are allowed to invest•Low down payments and mortgage rates in 2009Mark’s properties