Last updated on August 26th, 2022
Welcome back to another episode of Into The Airbnb, where we talk with Airbnb hosts about their short-term rental experience.
Our guest for today is Kristin LeQuier, based in Alto, Georgia. She manages two listings, the independent lodge in her home’s basement and a camper in her backyard. In this episode, Kristin will share with us about her journey and Airbnb, useful insights about her market and her personal experience renting part of her house where she lives with her children.
This episode is sponsored by Airbtics, the only one analytics dashboard for short-term rental investors and managers, where you can find precise Airbnb data such as occupancy rate, revenue, average daily rate and so on. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!
Into The Airbnb S2 EP 17: Family friendly lodge and RV camper on Airbnb 85-90% OR during high season in Alto, Georgia
You can also listen to this Into The Airbnb Podcast Episode on Otter.
Delia:
So can you tell us how did you get started on Airbnb?
Kritin LeQuier:
Sure, absolutely. About five years ago, I became a single mom, so I needed to find a way to support my children. I had been a stay at home mom for about 20 years and still had children at home. So for me going out and getting a traditional job was not very convenient. And I had some friends that ran an Airbnb and told me all about it and how successful it was. I thought, “wow, if they can do that, I can do it” and so I just worked towards getting a portion of my house ready to list on Airbnb.
Delia:
At first, how was your experience renting that portion of your house?
Kritin LeQuier:
It was far better than I expected. Almost immediately, I had bookings and they were pretty consistent.
Delia:
How did you decided to move that part of your house that you have to the basement because you told me your currently listing your basement as a listing?
Yes. Our basement was already, I don’t want to say perfect for an Airbnb, but it had its own bedroom. It’s a finished basement with three sets of French doors that open to the outside, there’s a terrace level, it had a full bedroom, a full bathroom, a kitchenette, fireplace. So really all I had to do was add in a few more kitchen amenities, so that it could be completely separate from our house, close off the door leading to our house and just get it in shape for oh, I also added some bunk beds down there too, so it’s more family friendly. But that was about it because the space was already fairly well set up and functional to use as an Airbnb.
Delia:
That’s a great way to start! And about the camper because you told me you’re also using a camper that is out in your yard, how did you acquire that? And how did it came to you that you could do that?
Kritin LeQuier:
Well, during the quarantine time, it seemed that a lot of people were travelling to and drawn to unique destinations. So it seems like travelling to stay and campers just seemed to became very popular. I think maybe people were veering away from the crowds and from traditional hotels. Oh tree houses, that was another one! So when I thought about what might work here at my home, the camper scenario, again just seemed to be the best fit after doing my research. I already had the ability to hook up the electric and the water and the sewer for it on my property. So I purchased the camper, I actually purchased it off, I think might have been listed on Facebook marketplace and I purchased it off of there and brought it home and set it up to use as an Airbnb.
Delia:
Both of your listing seems to attract the same demographic of people, for example, maybe more families, more couples?
Kritin LeQuier:
Actually, they don’t, they attract different demographics. So the Airbnb that is in my actual home, that is in my basement, tends to attract more families because it is set up to accommodate up to six guests. So I get a lot of families that have two, three, sometimes even four children with them. That’s not to say that I don’t get four adults or, you know, a couple of couples staying in there. But in general, it attracts more large families. Also, I have children and so there is a playground and a trampoline on my property. There’s walking trails, hiking trails, a creek and so all of that I think appeals to families. The camper, on the other hand is quite small, I only have it set up to accommodate two guests. So I tend, obviously, I get a lot of couples, I have also gotten a lot of travelling nurses that have chose to come stay there, probably because it’s a fairly inexpensive choice and something again, a little bit different than staying in a traditional hotel.
Delia:
And which one do you find is attracting the best type of guests? Do you encounter any nightmare guest or hard to manage guest in any of your listings?
Kritin LeQuier:
I have attracted a couple of, I guess you’d call them a nightmare guest, but I really have been quite blessed and not had a horrible, horrible experience, I would say probably the worst or most challenging experiences that I’ve had were guests that chose to smoke inside. I mean, there really isn’t anything lot you can do about it until they leave, you walk in, it smells like smoke and, you know, usually they have denied that they smoked there, even if you find the remnants of them smoking. So basically, I just tried to be prepared for every situation. I have an ozone machine, which I’ll run in the units to quickly get out any smoke smell. I have a HEPA filter machine that I can run to get out any allergens that might be in the units. I have three or more complete sets of all of my linens at all times in case I walk in and the towels or the linens have been ruined. So just be prepared, you know is how I’ve dealt with it.
Delia:
Yeah, that’s good. So you told me that you didn’t have really any trouble guests at all, right?
Kritin LeQuier:
Well, I mean, I would say the ones that went in and were smoking, that’s a problem because it creates a lot of extra work to get the smoke smell out of a unit in four hours.
Delia:
Yeah. You’ve been really blessed to be honest, if you didn’t get any trouble guest. Oh, and that leads me to also asking, how is the competition? How is the market in the area you’re currently hosting right now? It was Altos, Georgia, right?
Kritin LeQuier:
It is in Alto, Georgia and I would say if you looked in Alto, there probably is not too much competition. However, we are just one small town in Northeast Georgia and the town of Helen, Georgia is a little German town and in itself is a destination town. So there is a lot of competition in Helen and in the Northeast Georgia mountain area. That said, because I’m not directly in Helen, I can charge less and hopefully, you know, attract and be more affordable to a wider variety of guests.
Delia:
Right! So you’re close enough to Helen for your guests to come to your listings and also go to Helen, if that’s the city they want to visit, right?
Kritin LeQuier:
Yes, ma’am. So the majority of my guests that are here to visit the area, generally come to visit Helen to go hiking, they like to come up to visit apple orchards in the fall. We just in March had the Georgia Mountain Wine Festival. So there are a lot of wineries in our area and you can tour around and visit those with kind of a passport during the month of March. So I’m within 30 minutes of most of the popular things to do around here and definitely within an hour of anything. So it’s sort of a central location for people to stay.
Delia:
Oh, that’s really good and really convenient! So in the area of hosting, like there in Alto and also around Helen town, how is the average occupancy rate like or the seasonality? Sorry, how is the seasonality like that?
Kritin LeQuier:
Well, the high season is definitely in the summer. Definitely the month of July is the highest season. Although looking back through my listings, this January was also a very high occupancy rate and I guess you’d say high season? And I can’t really tell you, I don’t know because after that, nationwide, it seemed to drop off for everyone. I think the high gas prices had an effect on Airbnb listings nationwide, over the last month or two, but during my high season, I would say that my occupancy rate is between 85 and 90% booked between both my listings. In the low season, probably around 60 to 65% booked.
Delia:
Those are really good numbers to be honest.
Kritin LeQuier:
Thank you!
Delia:
Okay. So do you by any chance in like, for example, the low seasons, decide to extend the length of your stays, for example, accept someone who would like to stay a whole month?
Kritin LeQuier:
Oh, yes! I mean, I generally accept longer stays anytime of the year. The way that I have chosen to make my low season profitable is by lowering my rate, my nightly rate or keeping my rate at what it is and then offering a discount. On Airbnb, if you offer a 10 to 20% discount, then there are perks that go along with that, depending on the amount of your discount. So for instance, if you offered a 20% discount or more, that has the most perks, they will promote your particular business the most. It’ll be the highest up on their page, it gets sent out in email listings, they put little notations and markers on your introduction page to catch people’s attention. So between those two options I tend to stay pretty well booked.
Delia:
And aside of choosing to do some discounts throughout the year, what is your pricing strategy?
Kritin LeQuier:
When I started out, I did research, I looked at comparable listings in my area and I chose to start out at the lower end of my area to attract guests. Then once I achieved super host status and had consistent guests, I chose to raise my rates, so I just incrementally raised them $5 or $10. I do notice that my weekends are almost always booked and so I can keep my weekend rates $10 or $15 more per night than my weekday rates all the time. But then, like I said, if I noticed, bookings are dropping off, we’re slow, I’ll just lower my rates again. But I do tend to stay on the lower end of the listings for my area.
Delia:
Okay, sounds good and have you tried by any chance using some dynamic pricing solution or even Airbnb smart pricing?
Kritin LeQuier:
I do use Airbnb smart pricing. However, I set my lowest and my highest rate because their low rates can be unprofitable and their high rates would definitely priced me out of this market here. It would just be above everything else. So it has limits that you can set on the low end and on the high end and I do set those limits. Then again, if I see that it’s a holiday or a weekend and I feel as if they’re smart pricing is not reflective of the date that time of year, then I just override it.
Delia:
I see and how has been your experience so far with the smart pricing? Do you think it’s a good tool? Because I’ve heard from many other hosts, that they don’t like smart pricing at all, even setting the lowest price and highest price, they would simply choose not to use it.
Kritin LeQuier:
Yeah, I’ve heard the same thing, but I haven’t had that problem at all. So for instance, if I know that, you know, on the low end, I want my pricing to be $85 and on the weekends I want it to be, you know, $105. Then that’s just what I set it on on smart pricing and Airbnb does it for me. I don’t have to go through and set each it every day. I don’t worry about it.
Delia:
That’s good. It’s good to hear that you have a good experience with it.
Kritin LeQuier:
Yeah, it’s worked for me.
Delia:
Now, I would like to make you some kind of personal questions if you don’t mind sharing about how has been, like personally, how you felt your experience renting your own space as someone who has children currently living there?
Kritin LeQuier:
Yes. So at first I was very, very concerned because being a single mom with children in the home, you wonder, you know, who is going to bein your house and how is that going to work out, but again, we have been really blessed with fantastic guests. We do live in a very rural area and so I think the guests that come here know that that’s what to expect. Everyone has been very kind, many of the ones that actually stay in my home have children and just to clarify when I say that I am renting out my the basement in my home, that is their entire space. We do not have contact with those guests unless they’re outside. If they’re outside, you know, on the lawn playing, hanging out, whatever, then we might see them out there or if they contact me and need something than I am, you know, I’m right above them, I’m happy to go down and bring more towels or show them how something works or whatever it is that they might need assistance with. But otherwise, it’s been great. There have been no unkind guests or any issues that I have felt, with my children being unsafe or anything. Yeah, we’ve been very blessed.
Delia:
That’s great to hear! And how have you addressed this situation with your children? You know, you always have to, since they live in the same house with you, you might have to tell them “okay, I’m renting the house”, you know, setting some rules, explain them something?
Kritin LeQuier:
Yes. Yes, so it’s a love/hate relationship. So we do have rules and I don’t have any very, very, very small children in the home. So they all understand currently, my youngest is nine, and our main rule is they are never ever ever to enter either of the Airbnbs under any circumstances. So if a guest asked them to come in, if they have children, they’re playing with the children, the children say, “come on, come on in play with us”, my younger children know they are not allowed in there under any circumstance at all. So that’s one rule. Then our other rule is, for the one that’s in the basement, when we have guests down there, do not, you know, stomp, bounce a ball, rollerblade any of the above over the living room because that is not something that our Airbnb guests want to hear. They don’t always appreciate that, but I remind them that this is how we have chosen to pay our bills and earn an income and it affords me the ability to be there for them and be flexible for us to do all sorts of things. I do have older children as well. My older children have even had the opportunity to help me clean the units and learn how to take care of them and when they do that, I pay them for it just like I would pay anybody else. It also helps them to have ownership in our home and our business.
Delia:
Yeah, I agree. That’s, that’s really brilliant. That’s great! So thank you for sharing that with us. I’d like to ask you lastly, what have been your top challenges while running Airbnb?
Kritin LeQuier:
Top challenges? Well, I think that my top challenge is probably happening right now and that is learning the taxes. So learning the ins and outs of how to do my business taxes for the government. So I think for me, that’s the most difficult.
Delia:
I see! Actually I have one last question that would be, are there any tips that you’d like to share for other Airbnb hosts? Maybe hosts that are also listing their house that are around your area?
Kritin LeQuier:
Let’s see. I would say two of my biggest tips would be clean your space immaculately, so that you would be willing to eat off of any surface. Even you know underneath the bed where there might be dust bunnies, just clean every little nook and cranny because a lot of guests really appreciate an immaculate clean space and also always try to accommodate or say yes, so for instance, even if it is a rule that you absolutely do not allow like someone sent you a message and says, “hey, can we bring our really great dog with us?” and now, you know, you might have a no pet policy. So your answer, instead of just a no, might be something as you know, “I’m so sorry, but due to allergies (or whatever your reasoning is for not having pets, other pets on our property, safety reasons, whatever it is) we don’t allow dogs, however, here’s a list of boarding facilities that are within five minutes of our home”, you know, that might be a suitable alternative. So I always try to accommodate my guests requests, even if it’s not, in the exact way that they might be asking.
Delia:
Yeah, those are really great advices. So that would be it for today. Thank you for your time and thank you for your tips!
Kritin LeQuier:
Thank you!
Delia:
Thank you for sharing a lot about your own personal experience with us.
Kritin LeQuier:
My pleasure!
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