Delia:

So can you tell me how did you get started with your co-hosting services?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Sure. So I started working with an agency here in my country, the agency was working for a Canadian company, it was quite a big company with 100 listings, mainly in Toronto, a few of them in Montreal, and then as well as spreaded in the US, in LA and Miami. And after I worked with them for about three years, decided I wanted to do it on my own. So I started freelancing and get clients, get hosts, so I can help them with co-hosting of their listings.

Delia:

And you told me previously that you’re currently located in Bolivia, right?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Yes, I’m located in Bolivia and I perform this service from here.

Delia:

Yes, that’s right. And you offer your services for listings located all over the US, right?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Yes, correct. Right now, I’m helping with listings located in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Miami, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and LA.

Delia:

And what are those services that you offer as a remote co-host?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Anything that can be done remotely, we can do it. Started freelancing on my own and then now I have a team, I have three people helping me. So we do everything that can be done remotely, we can do it. Our service is tailor made for the needs that every host is requiring because every house is completely different, their processes are different, so they have different needs in their business. So we offer a tailor made service we do, the only thing that we don’t do is pricing because the hosts are local to their listing, so they know much better the market and they know how to feel the market, how to feel the difference between supply and demand and they do a better job regarding pricing. So anything else that can be done remotely we can do it.

Delia:

So for example, you do the messaging with the guest, right?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Right. We do messaging, we respond to inquiries, try to keep the occupancy at the maximum possible, schedule cleanings, get to repairs if needed, manage the calendars and set up the auto messages if needed. Many hosts work with PMS with property management software’s like Guesty, so we can set that up as well. Yeah, among many other tasks.

Delia:

Okay, and can you tell me a little bit more about your customers? For example, you told me that there are some hosts that are local to their listing, so am I right to assume that most of your clients are local hosts that can deal with some things for example, checking and maybe also the pricing as you told me, but they don’t have much time to do like messaging, scheduling and everything else you get to do, right?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Right. So my clients are actually professional hosts. They don’t host one or two listings and a client that has less properties that I have, has 10. So between 10 and 50 to 60 properties where we can help them. So yeah, they don’t usually deal with the operational side of the things, they don’t like do the check ins, they don’t meet the guests, they only manage their portfolio, they focus on growing and we focus on everything that can be operational of all the operational tasks that can be done remotely, we help them with that. And they also have a team on the ground to help with repairs, to drop off supplies if needed, to restocking. So yes, my clients are actually growing companies and we help them to grow even more, and get more properties in their respective markets.

Delia:

Oh, that’s super interesting! And can you tell me a little bit more about your clients? For example, do they usually guide you through what would they like service to be made? Like you said, the tailor made service or do they usually just like you do your thing? Like they set up, you know, these are my 10 listings, I want you to do whatever you want to do with this, you just tell me what you’re going to do and I’ll prove it. Is it like that or do they usually guide you with what you’re going to do?

Gabriel Aramayo:

They gave me a lot. The good thing is that we know the basics because of the experience that we have on Airbnb and short-term rentals in general. So they don’t need to teach me how Airbnb works, how to navigate and that industry because it can be, specifically Airbnb can be very sided with the guests and many hosts have complaints about that. So we are very careful on how to navigate the Airbnb industry, and then not getting in trouble with them. So they don’t need to teach me that they only teach us their processes. They have different processes. They have different ways of escalating issues, of handling repairs and things like that. They tell me they get me on their processes, but the basics, the fundamentals on how Airbnb works and short-term rentals in general, we already know that. So that’s a good thing about this, that we already know the basics.

Delia:

I understand. And now that you’ve commented about Airbnb siding with the guests, do you usually also deal with the problems that they have with guests?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Yes, we deal with Airbnb in behalf of the owner, as a co-host with a co-hosting account. From time to time we encounter a difficult guest who just complains, and then maybe it’s more focused on getting a refund or getting a discount on their state than the actual experience that we’re providing. So no matter what they are going to complain. I think that many experienced hosts already experienced this kind of things, and these type of guests. So yes, we also deal with Airbnb in behalf of the hosts and then try to just come up with the best possible resolution for us.

Delia:

And can I ask which are the most like common types of problems you deal with? I imagine that there can be maybe some damage into property in that case, do you also deal with that? Or in that case, the host deals with that?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Okay, so yes, we had cases where the cleaning team arrives and they say “Hey, the place smells like marijuana or smells like cigarette and we need to take action”, we have on our rules and almost all of our clients have these on their rules that we need to find a guest if they smoke, so the first thing is to collect evidence of course we coordinate with the cleaning team, with the people that’s on site to gather all the photos as much evidence as possible and we first contact the guest and we deal with Airbnb, we escalate the issue to Airbnb if that’s required, but yes, we also can help with that.
Delia:

I see, that’s very helpful then. And what about the reviews if for example after good staying, maybe you didn’t have much contact with the guest, they leave a bad review. Do you also deal with that?

Gabriel Aramayo:

Yes, we deal with the reviews mainly if everything goes smoothly and we get a five star reviews, we make a nice response to the review, we respond to the review politically but if we had a review that we believe it’s unfair we tried to dispute it. We know the terms of Airbnb on how to handle the reviews, what’s allowed on the Airbnb side and what’s not, so we just try to find reasons to get a review removed as per the Airbnb Terms of Service and yes, we also help with that as well.

Delia:

So can you please tell me how you got started on Airbnb and short-term rentals?

Jessica Lane Harris:

So we got started on Airbnb in May of last year 2021. And we only did it seasonally last year, May, June, July, August and then the week of Thanksgiving as we have a waterfront property on the lake.

Delia:

And now are you going for full short-term rentals all year?

Jessica Lane Harris:

We are.

Delia:

Okay, that’s great. And how did you decided to get started on Airbnb? Like, why did you decided to do it?

Jessica Lane Harris:

So like I said, we live on the lake, on a waterfront with a private dock and our neighbors rent their home out. And so when we finally met them and found out how much money they were making a night, it was very intriguing. Also, we like to camp a lot. We are currently living in our travel trailer camper right now, on some land that we bought because we made so much money on Airbnb last year. The price of camping fees was relatively high and we were able to purchase land and lieu staying at a campground. So when we found out how much they were making, realize how much we traveled and how much I was paying and pet sitting fees for somebody to just stay at our house on the lake and pay them to watch our dog and realize that we could take our dog with us and people could pay us to stay at our house. It just made sense, so we gave it a shot. Our very first guests, we did not go through Airbnb, we did not have an Airbnb setup at that point. We had a friend of a friend that wanted to see what it was like and we just said look, we’ll give you a steep discount on what we would typically charge if you could just give us feedback and it was very, very helpful. It was the best way to get started because there was a lot less stress on getting a bad review or the fear of a negative response or forgetting things which we did. We learned a lot we forgot to unlock the screen door to the front door keypad. So we had to let them in our garage on the very first day which was mortifying and had we not had the Wi-Fi access to the garage, I don’t know how they would have gotten, so less than learn very first right out the gate. It was embarrassing but humbling.

Delia:

But it was like a good experience to learn and to not like get these bad experience through Airbnb and also get like a very first other view and everything. So it’s a really good way to start. So when you started definitely on Airbnb, everything was already set up and how was your experience with those first Airbnb guests?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Okay, so our very first Airbnb guests were probably our worst ones we’ve ever had. We made it very clear that it was a dog only pet friendly, but dogs only no cats. My son and I are highly allergic to cats. And we also advertise that we have a ring camera on our front door and on our private dock in the backyard. And upon their entrance we saw one of the guests stand in front of the camera and got a quick peek of them carrying in a cat carrier for one cat and then another person sneak in another cat in their arms. So and then a litter box followed that but again, they were very sneaky on standing in front of the camera, they knew what they were doing. So we immediately caught Airbnb. We were ready to quit, we were ready to just cancel all the other reservations that we were just mortified that somebody would do this because remember this place is our private residence that we were renting out while we were camping. So we call it Airbnb and they were incredibly responsive and that’s really where they won our trust and I won’t ever use another platform because it was handled so quickly. They called right away, I went on to the platforms on Facebook gave my situation and everybody their response was overwhelming. “Get them out of there, get them out of there, call Airbnb have them vacate the premises”. And you know, round and round, they were supposed to stay there for 12 days. So it was a hearty amount of money that we would be losing. And they eventually called us and we had a conversation but not until she talked to Airbnb first. And then Airbnb called us back and said, “They’re willing to, you know, can you please give them 24 more hours? They’re gonna find somewhere to put the cat’s”, did we believe that? I don’t know. They rented our boat from us, which we ran out through another third party for insurance purposes. So it forced us to go to the house the next day to give them the keys to the boat and that was our opportunity to kind of browse through the house, they wanted to prove that the cats had, indeed vacated the premises and that they gave them to a friend that live locally. Did the cat stay there the whole time? We will never know I’m gonna go on good faith that they did. The house was not destroyed. But it was handled so quickly and so professionally and it kept us out of it. Airbnb managed it very, very well, I thought.

Delia:

Oh, but those people did evacuate your house, or did they just stay there and give the cat?

Jessica Lane Harris:

They stay there. They kind of you know, cried us, there was no hotels available. It was on a busy weekend, they had a lot of guests, they had a you know, their brother flying in from Puerto Rico or something. And you know, this was their last big family vacation before the son got deployed. I mean, it was this very long, drawn out things. So really, Airbnb said, it’s up to you, you know, you’ve not been transferred the money, so you will lose all of it. But the one night stay that they were there, or you can proceed and handle it on your own. So because we felt like we toured the house, there was no damages made, they promised that the cats were out. I think the worst part was in hindsight, was that we were so new that we didn’t know to leave a poor review.

Delia:

Oh, I get it. So you didn’t leave that bad review? So they wouldn’t give it to you back, right?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Right, because we didn’t know that they can’t see your review until, you know, they’re both private, right? Until both been published. So our fear was getting a bad review first out the gate. So it was a very short review and they were you know, they said a lot of nice things and that’s kind of all we asked them. We said, you know, we really will let you stay, but we really want you to honor what we are doing for you and reflect that in your review for us.

Delia:

And they did?

Jessica Lane Harris:

They did.

Delia:

Okay, okay, that’s good. So your very first guest was like the kind of a bad experience.

Jessica Lane Harris:

It was a nightmare and then after that, it was so easy. We’ve had such wonderful guests. So I’m glad that, I’m glad that we did and I’m glad that we learned right out the gate how to really revise our rules. I was really grateful that I had taken the time on the house rules to really detail that cats are not allowed and that not have that in there Airbnb would not have had a leg to stand on. And so they said “Look, it says in her house rules, dogs only, no cats allowed”. A lot of people wouldn’t think to do that, right? We collected a pet fee, not a dog fee. So it saved us.

Delia:

So now what type of prevention do you take, so other guests don’t do like the same thing, if this ever were to happen again, what would be the steps that you’d like to follow?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Since we stay locally now, we would probably ask to come over and to verify that there’s only dogs. I also request for an image of the dog, we are dog people, I don’t want puppies I don’t want older dogs, I want dogs that are crate trained because we request them not to have them sleep in the beds or go into the back bedrooms and to be mindful of how often they’re sitting on the couches and such, so just trained animals. So I asked for pictures now of the dogs so that and when they check in, it’s all on the ring, right? And a lot of people I don’t think really read through that there is a ring camera there. So watching that just first 30 seconds of them checking in and seeing the family at the door figuring out the keypad, that’s all we have to do and I’ve never seen any problems since then. Our neighbors are also very attentive so that if we do have more than two or three vehicles in the driveway again we have the ring to verify that or to peek in it on ourselves but we try to give them privacy and I don’t want, I’m not going to spend my whole day watching our guests but if there does look like there’s a party that our neighbors will usually contact us.

Delia:

And so aside of that one first guest, you didn’t have any other troubles with with other guests?

Jessica Lane Harris:

No. The only other problem, we did have a family, a probably a very wealthy family from New York that, I understand like their title thing is probably a little bit different than ours. They wanted a concierge service for their groceries. So we just did, you know, Instacart and had it delivered, but they wanted it put in the refrigerator. They gave us a very detailed order and then they complained, probably two days later, that the refrigerators smell. And so they wanted us to go over and check why the refrigerator smell and clearly it was the broccoli. And we tried our best to put an extra baking soda in there to absorb whatever smell, but we don’t leave groceries in the refrigerator and it had been there a few days before they even arrived per their request. So I think that would probably be the only other awkward thing. The only real damage that we had was a little break in the in the wall from a hanging thing in my son’s room that rips the drywall off, it was probably three or four inches. Again, not enough for us to file any claims with Airbnb, I feel like it’s kind of for the amount of money that we make and for the little damages that we incur, that wasn’t something that we felt was worthwhile to request any kind of refund or leave a bad review, I wish that they would have told us but they’re actually one of our returning guests too and they stay for a long time. And they’ll be coming again this August and you know, we kind of just cross our fingers and hope that there isn’t any damage is done. And now that we have some good reviews and 14, no 5-star ratings, I’m not afraid to say something this time in a review.

Delia:

Okay, that’s great. So it’s great that you have really, really good guests. And now that we know that you accept dogs, how has been your experience with that so far?

Jessica Lane Harris:

It’s a really good. I would say though, the one thing that if again, we’re still kind of new, I wish that we didn’t accept certain breeds just because the dog hair is so long, and it flies in the air, so you find it on light fixtures, you find it on top of the stove, you find it and in areas that, we have very short haired dogs, that we weren’t prepared for that. So the extra cleaning, it’s a lot, but we’ve never had any pet smells, any kind of damages, any messes. People are usually pretty good about picking up after themselves. We leave a whole trash can with bags and a little scooper for them. And it’s in our house manual that is requested as part of their checkout procedures to clean up after their dogs. It is nice that Airbnb allows the guests to pay for the pets through the booking process now, but I have found that it’s 50/50. Most people don’t know how to do that, so I have to walk them through how to go back on to collect that extra fee and I feel like it’s kind of a pain and confusing for the guests. So if they don’t get it, then we collected on our end on Venmo. And I wish everything was streamlined. So I think I liked the concept, but guests are not prepared to do that right now.

Delia:

Yeah, I get it and how do they interact with that? Do they usually accept the fact that they have to pay an extra fee for the dogs and proceed okay with that?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Yeah, they do, there’s never a problem. Oftentimes, we’ve had people add a dog very late in the game, maybe like a couple of days before they’re going to stay, so I can’t imagine why you would do that. Again, we have dogs, so I would imagine that you have boarding setup for the animal or you would have requested the dog to stay upon booking because that is one of our perks is that we, you know, a lot of lakefront homes do not allow pets and we have a fully fenced in yard too. So that’s another benefit that people are looking for that you don’t find often out here.

Delia:

Okay, so it’s pretty unique. And what about, do you offer any particular amenities for the dogs?

Jessica Lane Harris:

We do. We do. So I always leave a little gift for the dog as well, a little of you know, dog treats. I also remember the dog’s names, right? Like I ask what’s the dog’s name is so that I put a little note for the dog on the bag. I know it sounds stupid, but if your pet people, especially if these people don’t have children, that is their kid and it is nice that people can remember the pet’s name it’s in the messaging, it’s not that hard to look through and so I put a sticky note on the doggie bag. We do have two crates two custom made for large dog crates that again are for our own dogs and we also leave them fresh water and the food bowl when they arrive as well. We also leave the extra water bowls on the porches and that kind of stuff.

Delia:

Okay, yeah, that’s amazing! And would you recommend for other people, you know, with the kind of listing that you have like lakefront, would you encourage them to accept pets or do you think it’s a work that not everyone is up to do with short-term rentals?

Jessica Lane Harris:

I would recommend it only if you are charging a certain amount per night. I have a girl friend that owns two Airbnbs and manages three others and a lot of hers are charging, you know, they’re the $150 and under a night so she gets a lot of one night stays and just a hodgepodge of people and they are pet friendly but they’re not as exclusive and I feel like when you get guests that are spending, our average night rate is $526, when you’re getting guests that are spending that kind of money and a $200 pet fee, we also require a four night minimum, I think you just get a different type of clientele and they don’t want bad reviews. And again, we really stress that this is our home, that we are so excited and blessed to open up to them, but please treat it as though it was their own. And you don’t get a lot of that when you stay at other Airbnbs. We’ve stayed in all kinds of yurts and domes and different types of glamping styles and real eclectic visits. And if there’s no house manual half the time and there’s definitely not a drive to keep the place clean and to treat it with respect and we really drive that home.

Delia:

So would you say that the main thing that drives good guests to your listing is, you know, pricing, location and all of the amenities you offer?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Yes. And we offer I mean, we open up our whole house except for our garage. So and we leave dishwashing tabs, extra paper towels, toilet paper. We even leave because it is our primary residence, we leave all of our spices, our cooking oils, you know, Ziploc bags, foil, you name it, we have it. We even have, you know, a whole hospitality kit in the linen closet, a extra toothbrushes or toothpaste or aspirin or band aids. We make it there’s nothing that you could miss coming to the house. It’s all right there.

Delia:

Yeah, and also aside of that I took a look to your listing and you also for many interesting things like a game shed, and a firepit and also boat rentals, right? Can you tell us a little bit more about like the real important amenities you offer?

Jessica Lane Harris:

Yeah, because we offer the game shed, I think it really encourages more families and a lot of the families with little kids love it. It was just utility shed that had a little window unit that we put in, put a big flat screen in there and since our kids are camping there, they’re not needing their games. So we leave like our Nintendo Wii and a PlayStation and they also have a little mini fridge in there with all sorts of board games. My kids are 14 and 11, so I have years of books saved up, we leave all but the kids books so they can read, there’s hammocks outside the game shed for them to hang out on. The boat rental, we learned through some of the neighbors and we didn’t really know how to do the boat rental because we didn’t want to do it through Airbnb, but we also didn’t want to use our own insurance as that’s a huge liability. So our insurance company, I think it’s Boat US, required us to use a third party vendor, so we use boat setter and it’s also been a great company to work with. So we send the guests the link, and it’s got the whole manual on how to register and how to apply for the boat and we charge $350 a day, we probably make $290 out of that every day. So they take a good chunk, but they have their own third party insurance policy for the dates and times that they rent the boat out. We do an inspection a walkthrough when we drop the boat off, count the mileage, the gas, we do, you know, show them where the life jackets are and then we also inspect it at the end. So we did have, one of our first guests again that rented the boat, shipped to the motor, they had gone over a shoal and part of the propeller chipped. They were very upfront about it and very apologetic, said that they would pay whatever, which of course they would have to, so we reported it to boat center and within 24 hours, we got a refund of probably $300. We took it to a boat maintenance plays down the lake and it was handled very quickly. So that was also a good experience. Only problem we’ve ever had on the boat, again, knock on wood, I feel like I shouldn’t be saying these things because we still have a busy season ahead, but the game shed is a real attractive thing and the parents love it because it is within the fenced in backyard, the kids can kind of get out of their hair. We have a walkie talkie that we keep inside and a walkie talkie in the game shed so that the parents can communicate to the kids. We did that for our own children and parents really liked that too.

Delia:

So can you tell me how did you get started in Airbnb or in short-term rentals?

Laurie Barwick:

Yes, so I kind of came to it, probably a little bit less usual than some. It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to summarize it. We have a property in Salisbury, North Carolina that’s on 130 acres with a historic farmhouse. And it was my parents home and my father passed away, and then my mother got ill. And we were trying as a family to think of ways to keep the property in the family because it was very important to us, but also be able to take care of my mom properly. And so we started trying to figure out what were ways to support the farm and pay the bills. So I came up with the idea, this is about 6-7 years ago, I came up with the idea of a wedding venue. So we started a wedding venue, I knew nothing. I was a speech pathologist and I’ve kind of put that to the side and started researching and learning all about weddings and venues and how they run. And within two years of that we were up and running and paying all the bills, so that was pretty great that it worked so well. But in addition to that all my brides would always say, “Can we please rent the house and stay in it for our wedding with our bridal party or our family?”, so I was like, “Yeah, we could do that”. So I just said to make it easy, I’m going to list it on Airbnb and VRBO to take some of the work out of it on me. So taxes are out and everything’s taken care of. And I listed it and I opened a few extra dates just out of curiosity and all of a sudden we started booking every day that opened and I could not believe it because I was like “Who’s coming to Salisbury, North Carolina and wants this big house?”. My husband, I also have a cottage on the property that we, it’s historic cottage, we had moved on to the property and renovated years ago, 20 years ago. So we started opening that up as well and that doesn’t rent as well because it’s not as big a house, but it rents as well. So we have been very successful and we no longer really doing weddings. We may do one every now and then, but now our bread and butter is the Airbnb, which has been wonderful.

Delia:

Oh I see now, that’s a very interesting story! And by any chance, when you open up the Airbnb, like profile, where you catering to those people who wanted to do both the wedding begging and also stay in your place?

Laurie Barwick:

That’s kind of how it started. But then as I opened more dates other than my wedding dates on the calendar, I would get bookings for other things. People come into town for family reunion, someone wanting a big house so they could have a big family, multigenerational reunion and be all in one place. Then we have a really nice wedding venue down the road, so I had called them and spoken to them and said “We’re doing a lot of Airbnb now and know that if your people can’t stay at your place, please let them know we’re here”, so we host a lot of their people. And they’re are having weddings of that venue, they’ll come and stay at ours. And a lot of times they’ll do like a rehearsal dinner at ours, you know and then have the wedding at the other venue. So that’s worked out really well to just try and make context in town to tell people what we’re doing.

Delia:

Okay, I see about that. And I previously interview people in North Carolina that was like starting an Airbnb, but he also got requests to do big gatherings or weddings even in his like backyard. Do you also get that kind of requests for gatherings and all of that stuff?

Laurie Barwick:

We absolutely do and so what generally happens with that is I’ve just talked to my people because this is a historic house, it’s a family home, so it’s pretty special to us. So we’re kind of careful about all that. But we do charge an event fee and I usually just talk to them about what they have in mind and then we work it out from there. But yeah, we do allow them, we do that, what type of events and how big and that type of thing.

Delia:

I understand now. And can you tell me a little bit about the market you’re currently in, is it like popular with Airbnb, short-term rentals, any kind of rentals, really?

Laurie Barwick:

There are some in our area. It’s not a huge, it’s a small town in North Carolina with about 30,000 people. But it’s very close to Charlotte, which is a big city and Winston Salem, and Greensboro. We’re kind of right in the middle of all that. And our town hosts some pretty neat things. We have a drink culture one that’s very, very popular. It’s a soft drink, and they do a big festival every year for that there. It’s a historic town, so there’s a lot of historic things that happened there. And so we do get draws from that. We also have a couple of colleges in town, so we also have those drawls. But like I said, it can be anything from a girls weekend to a family reunion to Gosh, it’s just been a little bit of everything, it’s been pretty interesting. It’s not been one thing or another. It’s been a multitude of different types of renters. I’ve even had a renter that found us on Airbnb because he likes to try new places, from Pittsburgh of all places, which is very far away and he’s coming again this summer, this will be his second time and he just loved it so much. His family came for a week and they just thought it was the greatest thing. We have an inground pool, so it’s it’s a beautiful property. It’s really spacious and lovely. So they now this will be their second year. I’ve got people that are coming back on their third and fourth visits. So we do have a good bit of repeat business, which is been very nice as well.

Delia:

Oh and why do you think that’s happening to your listing?

Laurie Barwick:

I think because I think we are a little bit less usual than some because you’re coming you’re getting 130 acres to walk around on, you’ve got an in ground pool, you’ve got in the fall beautiful leaves, beautiful land, fireplace in the house, that wood burning, big kitchen, really nice to cook in, lots of space. So I think it’s just appeals to people and it’s just a little bit different. It’s not the beach, it’s not the mountains, it’s like a little farm vacation, but it’s not a working farm, it’s just land, but it’s very pretty. And I think people just enjoy the peace and quiet and being with their people.

Delia:

Okay, that’s really nice! And you told me previously that you get every kind of guest, so if I were to ask you what typical demographic of guests you get, you won’t be able to tell, right?

Laurie Barwick:

Not really, I would say it’s bigger, the house sleeps 10, so it’s usually families or multi generational families or friends, groups of friends that are tend to be a little older, usually, you know, 30 and above, like women who are gotten babies and husbands and want to go away for a weekend, a long weekend and just be together. So it’s a little bit of everything. It really is.

Delia:

I see, so you have hosted every every kind of guest. And have you got any particular like problems or challenges with any guest so far?

Laurie Barwick:

We have had one and I’m very happy to say in six years only one and that was just a very unfortunate event. It was a guy that I had talked to extensively, and I was allowing him to have a moving up party for a group of children and parents during COVID because school wasn’t in and they wanted the kids to have some type of party. We talked extensively. It’s a long story, but they weren’t going to really stay in the house overnight, they just wanted to use it but still pay for overnight and I made some exceptions for him after many, many conversations and it stormed that day, they sent all the children home and the grownups promptly texted every friend they knew and had a giant party in my house, unbeknownst to me until the next day, and they did about $5,000 with damage to the property. Yeah, not to the house per se, I mean some things like stuffed up toilets and that kind of thing, but it’s mostly outdoor, they drove cars on my lawn and you know broke landscape lights and ran over a pipe that drain the well. But Airbnb, I will say we were very prompt and we got our evidence to Airbnb right away. I called them immediately as soon as we knew what happened, took pictures, did everything properly and Airbnb, I think reimbursed us within four days for all but about $150. So we were pretty pleased with that.

Delia:

You deal with that directly through Airbnb?

Laurie Barwick:

I did. Yes. Through their resolution center.

Delia:

Okay, so that help you a lot, right? You didn’t have any kind of inconvenience with the Airbnb team?

Laurie Barwick:

No, not at all. They were actually very helpful. I mean, they are pretty thorough about what they want from you as far as receipts and pictures and proof. But I can’t blame them for that because you can’t just reimburse people for just what they say you have to show them what it was. So I thought they were really reasonable and very helpful to me.

Delia:

How did they feel with the guest? Do you have no idea if they by any chance canceled him?

Laurie Barwick:

I feel that blocked him. I don’t know, but I feel sure they blocked him. I can’t imagine for a second that, you know, they’ve let him stay on the platform at least and I certainly gave him a review that wasn’t five stars.

Delia:

Yeah, I get it. I completely get it. And when that happened to you, how did you feel? Did you feel like you might have to leave Airbnb like, it was really emotionally, did it break you?

Laurie Barwick:

It didn’t break me, it was just really, really disappointing, especially because I’ve had so many conversations with this guest and had been so explicit in what we allowed and didn’t allow. So that was very disheartening. Yeah, it stung for a little while, but it made me a better host because of that a little bit harder, when I have a feeling maybe something maybe lurking in the request, so I tend to bet a little bit harder, you know, I have a caretaker that goes to the property quite often because of the pool. So he’s always on the lookout as well, he doesn’t invade property, he stays away from them. He just goes and treats the bowl and cleans it. But you know, it’s nice to have eyes on the property occasionally, but ever all, I would say it has not changed my perspective because I think bad things happen and luckily, it’s, knock on wood, that’s hopefully going to be our worst story.

Delia:

What do you feel that you learn from this experience?

Laurie Barwick:

Just like I said, to be a little more careful about the questions you ask to groups wanting to come in and use the property and making it very clear to them, they’re not allowed to have a big party and you know, all those things, and that there will be consequences, like fines. So I’m just more explicit now. I think my house rules are more organized and straightforward, so they’re easy to understand. Just things like that.

Delia:

Yeah, I completely get it. So that’s the lesson you learned from that. I think you were doing like really great when it comes to your Airbnb, just like this things can happen like you just said, right?

Laurie Barwick:

Right. We can’t control everything in this industry. So I just chalked it up to experience and I’m a kind of a fast learner. If something happens, I’ve learned from that and I move on. I don’t dwell. So I kind of just keep going.

Delia:

Okay, yeah, that’s pretty good for the industry you’re in because sometimes you hear stories about Airbnb hosts that went through the same thing as you but were like completely destroyed, didn’t want to make Airbnb again in their lives. And I completely get it from their side as well, you know, but there are things like you can’t help in this business.

Laurie Barwick:

Right, really. Exactly.

Delia:

Well, now I’d like to move on towards the numbers you’re making if you don’t mind sharing that with us. Would you mind sharing about how much is your monthly and annual revenue since you’ve been already doing that for a whole year or more, right?

Laurie Barwick:

Six years.

Delia:

Six years now? That’s great. Can you tell me a little bit about the revenue you’ve been perceiving through Airbnb?

Laurie Barwick:

Yeah, I think monthly, it depends on the month. So our high season is generally April through October. And then pretty quiet usually, we a lot of times we rent the house out over Thanksgiving to a family like an extended family. Sometimes we’ll rent after Christmas, but not often. And then it’s pretty quiet again until April, we’ll have a few here and there. And then once we get into May-June, we start getting back to back bookings pretty much through August and then we’ll get several in September and several in October. Monthly, it depends, but I will tell you our gross revenue last year was $65K, so we were pretty pleased with that and that’s just one house. So the cottage rent separately from the main house and it is significantly less because we rent it a good bit less.

Delia:

Do you know why do you rent it a little bit less? It’s just people not looking for that kind of small place?

Laurie Barwick:

I think the appeal to in our house is having that big house with lots of space to spread out in and the cottage is wonderful, but it’s more of a small house. And it’s one-bathroom, it’s charming and pretty, but it’s not on the big expanse of land, sitting up on a hill like the other house. What happens a lot of times people will rent the main house and have more family or friends and then will rent the cottage as well. So that’s when we tend to rent more when a really bigger group wants to have both houses.

Delia:

And how many people do the cottage sleeps?

Laurie Barwick:

It sleeps eight and the main house sleeps ten. But the cottage is just, it’s very quiet and sweet with one bathroom.

Delia:

So can you tell us how did you get started on Airbnb and short-term rentals?

Wendy Anne:

Actually, it’s a long story but I relocated to Nashville and I originally when I was looking at houses the whole reason I decided to move to Nashville is the house that I was looking at to rent as an Airbnb to come for vacation just made me decide that if and when and where I ever moved, I would find a house that had the availability to be able to also have an Airbnb in it. And so I bought my house here in Nashville, specifically because it had space available to be part of my house but separate. So it has a separate entrance, separate patio, separate bath, and it’s blocked off from the rest of the house.

Delia:

Is it a big area or it’s just like the guest room?

Wendy Anne:

It’s like a hotel room. It’s got a queen size bed, a full size bed, mini fridge, microwave, coffee pot, tea kettle, bathroom and then I have a screened in patio with a table and four chairs out there, off street parking right on a park.

Delia:

I see and since the very beginning you told me that you bought your property and you were already thinking of doing Airbnb. Did you launch it immediately?

Wendy Anne:

No, I bought the house in November and it was garbage, the whole entire house top to bottom. The whole house was an Airbnb before I purchased it but so they rented out the whole thing and so now I live in three quarters of it and the other quarter is the Airbnb. So I bought the house in November, I spent six months working on the whole house, getting the Airbnb ready, also getting furniture, painting, updating door handles, air vents, you name it changing out the window treatments. So about six months after I bought the house, November to maybe late April. So I had my first guest late April the following year.

Delia:

Late April 2016 or 2015?

Wendy Anne:

That would be 2018.

Delia: 

2018, I see now. And how has been your experience so far? I know, it’s like a separate place, but it’s still really near you like, the place you live in? How has been your experience with that?

Wendy Anne:

I would say overall, it’s been awesome. I think like I’m on this page, Airbnb super host and people who are distant owners who just kind of do it solely for the money and are not involved in the house. They seem to have a lot more issues with guest then when people are coming directly into your home. So overall it’s been really good. I mean, I’ve had a couple of people puke on my sheets and things like that, but I live in Nashville, so it’s kind of to be expected. But I mean, my last guest, I absolutely loved like I was sad when they left because they were just so wonderful. So it’s been a good experience.

Delia:

Oh, that’s great! And what’s the typical demographic of guests you get?

Wendy Anne:

Oh gosh, I get a big mix because it’s Nashville. So my last guest was a mother, father daughter trio and she had just graduated her four years of college. So they came here for, it’s called CMA fest, which is Big Country Music Festival here, so I get lots of kind of like that. I get a lot of people come here for events like weddings, so they like that I have the patio that their guests and family and friends can come and hang out. I’m also pretty lenient about that. a lot of Airbnb host don’t allow, like non-registered guest on to the property and I just figure if people are coming to visit people, I want them to feel comfortable enough here to bring their friends and family here as well. So and then I get you know, like this weekend, I have three young guys coming, who I’m sure just gonna drink all weekend because that’s another thing that you do in Nashville is drink all weekend.

Delia:

And how do you find that works so far? The fact that you allow other people in the rental, like visits and all this stuff?

Wendy Anne:

When they want to bring people here to me, it says that they like where they are, and that they feel comfortable here enough to have guests come and visit them here, so that doesn’t bother me one bit, like I kind of find it a little flattering. So I live in, my house is a big box, a two story box, same exact, you know, on the top as it is on the bottom, the bottom is cut in half and they have half at the bottom, so they have a quarter. And you know, they’re like, “Oh, but we won’t make a lot of noise” and I tell them “Make as much noise as you want, I don’t care. You’re on vacation, you don’t need to worry about me, I bring you into my home and I just want you all to be comfortable. The only thing I ask is if you’re going to make a lot of noise that you do it inside if it’s late, because I don’t want you to bother my neighbors”. Where I live in Nashville if you get four complaints from your neighbors, you lose your permit. It’s very heavily regulated here. So but I love to hear people having fun, I like to hear them laughing, I have a Bluetooth speaker down there so they can stream their own music and when they’re doing all those things, and I also have a barn door that I can lock them out of the rest of my house. But I have two dogs and if they want to hang out with my dogs, I leave the barn door open so my dogs can go down and visit with them. I’ve never really had a guest where I felt like I had to lock it because I didn’t trust them to not come into my house, you know, are not keen on the dogs or anything like that, I always lock it. But I feel like if they’re going to trust me with their stuff then I need to trust them with mine and I keep it pretty flexible, pretty cozy like I do it because I like it, you know, the money is good, but I don’t particularly need the money to survive. So, you know, the day that it becomes not great for me as a host personally I’ll stop doing it.

Delia:

I understand and how do you screen your guests so they are like good quality guests?

Wendy Anne:

I don’t. I’ve got the way that I do it is that I have, I don’t have the instant book or you can’t instant book with me unless you have government issue ID, reviews, verified identity, email and phone number, so you have to have all those things, plus have reviews you can instant book with me. If you don’t, you have to send me a request. If somebody like doesn’t have their identity verified, I tell them I need you to go back through Airbnb to verify your identity with the government issued ID and then I can accept your reservation. You know, that’s the only way that I screen them. I’ve had one person, I don’t allow local guest, I had one person message me who I saw was local. So I messaged her back and I just said “Hey, I see your local, I typically don’t allow locals. Can you tell me more about the reason of your stay?” and she said “You don’t allow locals? That’s really mean. You don’t even know people circumstances” and I messaged her back and I was like “Well, you’re exactly right which is exactly why I’m asking you what is the nature of your stay?”. And I was just like you know, I’m not sure we’re going to be a good fit. Best of luck finding a place while you get your floors redone whatever because like I just felt like if you’re coming at me and telling me that I mean before I ever even get out of the gate when all I’m doing is asking because it says right on my listing “No locals. Love y’all, no locals”. So I was given her the benefit of the doubt, even just by asking her, you know, why do you want to stay here? And she said, I was mean and I was like, “Okay, I’ll just follow through with that and tell you, I’m not going to accept your reservation request”. But so, you know, that’s only happened maybe two times, I’ve only gotten two bad reviews, you know. So like, my guest before last was mad because I came out and greeted her. She said, it made her feel like it wasn’t private and I’m like, “You’re in my house lady. Like, I’ve greet all my guests. For four years, I’ve greeted all my guests. You’re the first one to complain”. She complained a lot more than that, but some people you just can’t make happy, but it upset me because I was like, gosh, I try so hard, you know, to make this a good experience for my guest and she just was like, “And this was wrong and that was wrong” and I was like, Oh, my God, you know. Two reviews out of a bunch, I’m not gonna sweat it too terribly bad.

Delia:

Yeah, but also no big complaints. Like just greeting? I don’t know what’s wrong with that maybe the people who visit your page are going to read that and say, “What? It doesn’t make sense”, right? So.

Wendy Anne:

Yeah, I’m like, if you want privacy, don’t stay in somebody else’s home. Like if it’s going to upset you that the owner of the home and your host comes out and greet you and welcomes you and tells you, “Hey, do you all have plans?” and you don’t know what you’re doing, and I make suggestions and that’s upsetting to you, then really just go stay at a hotel, you know. Like, and also staying here in Nashville, is one of the most expensive hotel markets in the country and so if you get a hotel room downtown, it is $500 night for the Holiday Inn. If you stay at my house, it’s $155 a night. I’m eight minutes from downtown, you have off street parking, you have your own patio, set up just like a hotel room. It’s better because, you know, you can jump in an Uber and get there and save a lot of money in a really comfortable space. So.

Delia:

Yeah, the price difference is really big, 500 versus just 150. And now that you talked about the price, are there other Airbnbs near your location with similar pricing?

Wendy Anne:

Yes.

Delia:

Okay, so all the Airbnb market is way lower than the hotel market there.

Wendy Anne:

Yeah, there are a lot of Airbnbs in Nashville. But yeah, I try to stay pretty competitive. I stay higher than like the suggested price through Airbnb. I don’t want the bargain shoppers. I want people that, you know, are willing to pay a little bit more, but I have all 100% cotton linens, cotton sheets, cotton quilts, 100%, quiet towels, you know, I supply everything for them. And I just don’t want the bargain shoppers.

Delia:

Yeah, I understand about that. And can you tell me a little bit more about the financing story of your house? I understand that you bought it for yourself. But were you planning to cover any costs? For example, the mortgage with your Airbnb business?

Wendy Anne:

Yeah, the Airbnb pays my mortgage. When I bought the house, I put quite a bit of money down because my house in South Carolina was almost paid off. And yeah, it pays my mortgage every month, nine months a year. I pretty much shut it down in the winter because it’s pretty slow and frankly, I’d rather have no body than somebody just one weekend in November, one weekend in December, like I’d rather just not be that concerned about it. But nine months out of the year, it pays my mortgage. So I have a three night minimum, so I’m guaranteed a certain amount of money every time I get a booking and then I also book off the days kind of in between. So if somebody is checking out on Sunday, I block off Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, just to give me, we share the washer and dryer, so it gives me time to get my laundry done without being in their space, you know, that I don’t have to tiptoe around upstairs. Like it just gives me a little bit of a mental break from having somebody in my house every single weekend.

Delia:

Oh, so you mostly do weekend stays?

Wendy Anne:

Yeah, unless people book for longer. But like I said, if it’s booked for the weekend, I’ll block off a couple of days after just to give me a break, and then, you know, so yeah. So mostly weekends unless like my last guest stay for a week.

Delia:

Okay, so is that the longer you accept, the week? Or do you accept longer stays?

Wendy Anne:

Oh no, I’ve had two guests stay in May. And I’ll take whatever, except for short stays. It’s just not worth it for me. So, you know, some people, their main thing is, “what is my occupancy rate?”, like, it’s super important for them to have, you know, 90% occupancy because they run it as a business. For me, it’s like, I run it as a business/hobby, that makes me money and I don’t want it to fully compromise my quality of life too, which is why I block off that time in between.

Delia:

Can you tell me a little bit of how did you get started in Airbnb?

Robert Montana:

Sure. So I’m a emergency medicine physician in the United States and I was for a long time doing global disaster relief around the world and I didn’t have a home. I didn’t even rent a home, I just lived out of a bag really for years and then I bought a small condo in a mountain town in the state of Colorado in Telluride and because I was still traveling quite a bit, I thought I can maybe pay half my mortgage payments by renting on Airbnb, which I’d used as a guest. And to my surprise, I was able to pay all my mortgage and all my costs and actually make a little profit and still enjoy the second home, which was really my first home. And then a few years later, as I settled down in Dallas, Texas, where I’m originally from and I bought a quadplex, a four plex building with four one-bedroom apartments, and I lived in one and I rented the other three on Airbnb and I also rented mine when I was traveling. And then I bought a home with a guest house, I rent that out and so it sort of grew from there.

Delia:

Okay, I see, you also told me before that you don’t only use Airbnb as a host, but also as a guest and that inspired you to create JauntDirect, can you tell us a little bit more about your page?

Robert Montana:

Sure. So I’ve used specifically Airbnb quite a bit traveling for work, I travel for work as a doctor and also for, you know, vacation and fun, I’ve priced at over 100 Airbnbs over the years. And I created a website that’s a free short-term rental and vacation rental marketplace called JauntDirect.com and basically, it’s a pretty simple concept, where you try to consolidate and aggregate hosts platforms that they are using for bookings. So as you know, many hosts are on multiple platforms, maybe they’re on Airbnb, VRBO, booking.com are probably the three big ones and then the more savvy host or co-host knows that having a direct website is way to go too. And so basically, our site is simple, we just aggregate all those platforms in one place. So as a host, if you come to our site and put up your listing, your property, you can add all the different platforms that you’re on, say Airbnb, VRBO, and your direct website. And then the guest then has more information and is educated and empowered about the book direct movement, and hopefully will go towards the direct booking site. But what’s nice about it is instead of being just a direct booking website, we have the third parties like Airbnb, VRBO because in my view, there are some guests that are brand loyal and they like being on Airbnb or VRBO because of the customer service or maybe they feel it’s better security or maybe they’re just lazy and they know their credit card is already on file and so what’s nice about JauntDirect is yes, the host can try to steer the guest to book direct with a lower rate, but if the guest is brand loyal to say Airbnb, that options there too, so you’re not missing out on guests that are loyal to third party platforms, but giving the option of direct booking. So basically, it’s, I think a lot of guests are still naive or ignorant on the fact that they can save up to 20% with a direct booking and so this way, just shorter shows them. And what’s nice about our site for hosts is it’s easy to upload your listings, you can copy and paste basically from Airbnb or VRBO, your existing information, so you don’t have to sit there and make a big effort in terms of the photos and description. And then what’s also nice is we do not do actual any booking on our sites, all the booking is done on the platforms that you already have, or your direct site, so that means in a sense, it’s one less channel to juggle, you don’t have to be dealing with things. We also have on purpose, no communication between hosts and guests on our site, we rather the guests communicate on the platforms that the host is on. So we’re just basically trying to allow guests to compare and contrast the rates for the same property in the same dates, which is something new.

Delia:

You told me like a little bit about communication, that you don’t allow on-site communication, but I think you do allow for them to build contact information on the description, right?

Robert Montana:

No, so the way it works is when you as a host make a property profile on JauntDirect, you put all the information you want in terms of the listing, there’s obviously no address shown because that’s a safety concern. But what we do is you can put your iCal links in, so we have an up-to-date calendar, so the guests know if it’s available or not when they’re searching. And then we have basically hyperlinks, so they can go click on Airbnb link and go to Airbnb, VRBO, Direct website. So if a guest wants to communicate with the hosts, they would hyperlink to one of those sites and then use that site communication tool because many hosts are already juggling with property management software, different inboxes and different messages and we thought this would just be easier, to make it something simple. So basically, we’re a marketing tool, we’re not a communications tool or a booking platform.

Delia:

A marketing tool that was about right. Can you tell me a little bit about how can a host register in this? And if it’s free for them?

Robert Montana:

Sure. That’s a good question. So yes, it’s free for hosts and it’s free for guests. And for a host to register, all they do is create a username and password and then they can start uploading their listings. They can do it manually, which is, you know, pretty cumbersome and long, but they could go in and fill out all the different fields and photos like they did on Airbnb VRBO, but what we also have which 99% of our hosts use, is we have a mechanism where you just copy and paste the URL of your Airbnb or VRBO listing, and we go in and basically copy it and paste it in for you, so about 98% of the work is done automatically in less than a minute. And then what we ask is that the the host go one step further and put in the iCal links, so the dates of availability are up to date.

Delia:

Okay, so they can see like the calendar there when they click on the listing. Okay, that’s good! And can you tell us like for now in the current stage of the platform, how does it work? What can they see? What can they not see on the platform? Basically like a walkthrough.

Robert Montana:

Sure. So when a guest comes to our site, there’s a simple search bar, like any search bar, and you put in the city and the dates, and then what will happen on your phone or on the laptop is you will have a split screen. For instance, on the laptop, you’ll have a split screen, but on the right you’ll have a map and then with the little icons of the listings in the location, and then on the left will be a vertical list of thumbnails, little pictures and descriptions of each listing and what are the top three. They might have more than three platforms but we have room physically to put three on there and then once a guest selects one of those, it just like Airbnb or VRBO, it goes into more details. It has all the photos, it has the description, and then it has the calendar. And then what we have is the average rate for each platform, say it’s $100 on Airbnb, $150 on VRBO and the direct site is maybe $80, it’ll show that and then you can hyperlink to any of those platforms. Currently, we don’t have the details with the cleaning fee or the service fee, or the taxes, but our development team is working on that and we should have that in the next few weeks. and I believe a huge plus and a major improvement on our site because what you really want to as a guest is to be able to compare the final grand total, after everything’s included to see really how much it is because as you know on Airbnb even, it’s not that transparent and so you hit the Book button. And we’d like for transparency not only because just make sense from an ethical standpoint, but it’s also an easier way for guests to compare the different total rates or price among the platforms. And also, what’s even more important is the guests will see that service fee, how high it is and how they don’t have that on direct. So I think educates and hopefully empowers guests to do more of the book direct movement because as many know that are listening to this, a lot of people have a direct website, but the website becomes really only a website for guests that are returning guests. But what we’d like to do is start getting guests that have never been at their properties to be booking direct and one way to do that is to help with marketing because as most people know, Google is a vast ocean and someone small Direct website would be adrift, floating and it’s very unlikely that organically a guest is going to find it when they search on Google.

Delia:

So I’ve heard you many times mentioned the book direct movement, so that would be like the focus of the webpage, right? To encourage guests to book the listing via direct booking site, right?

Robert Montana:

Correct. Yes, that’s why it’s called JauntDirect. Jaunt in English means a short trip, direct as in direct booking and directly going to the platform, so we put it together as JauntDirect. But what’s interesting about our site, there’s one or two sites out there that have search engines or marketplaces for direct sites, but they don’t include the third party sites like Airbnb, VRBO, we are a hybrid and we believe that’s the best for hosts because there are some guests, even if they’re educated and understand, they could save a lot of money booking direct, they’re brand loyal to say Airbnb, or maybe they like that fact their credit cards on file, and they don’t want to give out their credit card to a smaller direct site or maybe they’ve had problems in the past with a listing when they were in the Airbnb, and the customer service really helped them find another listing. So we are pushing and promoting the book direct and movement, but at the same time, we’re not leaving out those who want to stay with third party sites like Airbnb.

Delia:

So can you tell me how did you get started on Airbnb or short-term rentals?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yeah, so I started my junior year of college, it was kind of, my college experience kind of got like messed up due to the pandemic. So it kind of got split in half and I was kind of just looking for ways to make money at the time, I was taking a stock course, I was learning more about the stock market, how to invest and how to day trade. And then one of my close friends from my marketing class actually messaged me and was like, “hey, like, check this course out” and so it’s an BNB simplified course with Justin Richardson. And I’m the type of person who likes to get things started right away. So she sent that to me, I think the first of February we got started forming and see and all that. Relatively, like quickly, probably like the night after maybe the day after that, but it was like I jumped right in, I took all the notes. I did the course in like a night, I did an all nighter, took all my notes, reviewed my notes in the morning, and just jumped straight into action.

Delia:

And how was the experience getting started like that?

Jaylen Cromwell: 

I was taking a stock course and I kind of did, I had the same approach with the stock course where it was like, you know, I didn’t waste time paper trading with like fake money, I jumped in with real money. So as far as like the experience, it was an interesting experience, because it was a new form of investing for me. But I just knew I was hungry and I knew I could find a way.

Delia:

And can you tell me a little bit you started like right in, how was your investing process? Did you decide to buy a property? You’ve started subleasing? How did you start it?

Jaylen Cromwell:

So we went the rental arbitrage route and we found a complex that accepted corporate leases at the time, we had just started our business. So we didn’t have as far as like a sheet of business statements or bank statements. So I actually signed the lease in my name and then my business was also a part of that and they knew like it’s a new business. So they allowed me to not only use my name, but also like in parentheses around it, also have my business name as well.

Delia:

Okay, can you explain us a little bit more about how did you use your business name to get this rental?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yeah. So normally, when you’re approaching complexes about running your business through one of their units, usually, if you’re going to apply for the apartment complex via a corporate lease, they would want to as far as financial statements go, they would want you to at least have some type of bank history, but because we were so new, when we started, we didn’t have that. But as far as being able to speak to them and let them know, “hey, you know, we’re just getting started in the business and we’re just trying to find a place to, you know, set up shop. Is it okay if I sign the lease personally, and then also include my business name as well?”. But it’s really just a simple conversation. I don’t think it takes any sort of swindling or anything like that, but really just having an honest conversation with these people.

Delia:

So they agree right away with that?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yep.

Delia:

That’s great. And how was your experience with rental arbitrage then? How long did you keep this listing?

Jaylen Cromwell:

So I kept that listing for six months and it was very interesting. It was definitely a good test property to get my feet wet in the in the business and experience what it was actually like, versus just seeing somebody else talk about what they’ve done. But to go out and actualize, well, this class is taught as a concept, but to go out and actualize it, it was exciting, you know, in college, I have a property that I don’t even stay at, but that brings in money, so it was cool. But I would say, as far as the complex went, there were a lot of things that I didn’t recognize when I stayed there. When I was in the middle of furnishing and stuff like that. I stayed there for almost a week, trying to furnish everything and have everything taken care of and I felt very safe and I felt very comfortable in that complex. But it was like the moment I left, I don’t know if they started moving people around us, but or if they changed workers, but maintenance was always a trouble, our washer and dryer would always break down and we’d always submit requests, and it’d be like the same issue over and over again. Our neighbors were really disruptive and it didn’t provide an environment that felt safe for our guests. We had a lot of people who would show up and be like, “hey, the neighbors are really loud and, you know, there’s smells coming from their apartment and, you know, I just don’t feel safe having my kids here”. So there’s that and then as far as the upkeep of the grounds, you know, I have my cleaner cleaning off the entire level that we’re on because, you know, people aren’t taking out their trash when they’re supposed to and they’re missing that valet trash that comes around every night, which is Sunday through Thursday. So they’re missing those days and when they miss those days, you have an abundance of trash on there. So I’m having to unpin my cleaner extra to take care of their trash, sweep everything up. So it looks like a presentable space before you even walk into the place.

Delia:

And is that the reason why you decided to leave that rental?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yeah, it definitely is because it came to a point where we were getting bookings, but it started to negatively reflect on our account. So like a lot of people would make complaints via reviews and comments. But a lot of their complaints had to do what was going on around the unit versus what was going on inside the unit. So to anybody who’s. you know, taking these courses, when they say like location is key and distressing location, location, location, like it’s bigger than just “oh, how far are you away from NRG? How far are you from Toyota Center?” No, it’s who’s in this complex? Who are your neighbors? Who’s running this complex? And are they taking heed to your request as a tenant?

Delia:

That’s right. Sometimes you hear some guests complaining with these things that have nothing to do with your rental, but yeah, the location is very important. Sometimes we pick the right location and, you know, the complaints are going to keep coming.

Jaylen Cromwell:

Oh, yeah, like it would happen so often. It kind of got sickening at one point where I would be, I’d be looking at my camera as my guests are getting ready to come in. They’re like, “Hey, we’re here” I’m like, alright, great, send them over their code so they can unlock the door. And I remember sitting in my driveway, because I went to school in Washington, DC. I remember sitting in my driveway one evening, and I was watching the ring camera as my guest came up the stairs. I’m like, “Yes, you know, we’re checked in, we’re ready to go”, I watched this person get to the top of the steps look left, look right, look down and I immediately got a message from Airbnb, before they even got the chance to unlock the door, they said, “We are not staying here because the grounds just look terrible. We don’t feel safe”. So we had a couple of instances where that actually happened.

Delia:

And like when you were staying at that place that one week, did you feel safe, did you recognize any of these troubles that your guests were having?

Jaylen Cromwell:

I did feel safe, but also at the time there weren’t neighbors on either side of us. There was one family that lived all the way at the end. But as far as the units directly to my left, and to my right of my unit, there is nobody there.

Delia:

So you’re going to start again soon. You haven’t started again with Airbnb, right?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yes.

Delia:

And this time, are you going for buying a property or are you going for rental arbitrage again?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Rental arbitrage again, but this time, we’ve decided to go through a private landlord, mainly because we just have a little bit more control of the area ad we don’t necessarily have to rely on whatever agency is controlling the complex to take care of certain things, where if something needs to be fixed, we can be the one to fix it. If landscaping needs to be done, we can make that request, you know what I mean? Versus a company wide thing where there’s a company running a complex, and they’ve got 100 other tenants to attend to and it may not always feel like you’re always top of the list especially, is a huge difference when you’re trying to run a business versus these are tenants who are traditional tenants and who live here.

Delia:

Okay, I understand and can you tell me what was the process to select the area and also the complex where you’re going to be doing Airbnb?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Yeah, so as far as the process goes, I just started looking at places on Zillow and I adjusted my filters. So between Zillow and apartments.com really adjusted my filter. So I really wanted a two bedroom, anywhere between two bedroom and up and two bathrooms and up and we also put for rent by owners. And that kind of narrowed down the search and made things a little bit easier. And as far as where we want it to be, we want it to be close to Midtown, in the Montrose area, and we were able to find the perfect property that it’s appealing to the eye. It’s one of those properties where if you’re scrolling on Airbnb, the cover photo will catch your eye because it’s lovely, bright colors, it’s a different kind of architecture, when it comes to in comparison to like apartment complexes. Apartment complexes, you know what you’re gonna get, you’re gonna get the SkyRise buildings are like five different floors, pool somewhere in the center area. But this place is a little bit different, you know, we’ve got a nice sized balcony that overlooks the street. On the backside of it, you can see the city line downtown.

Delia:

And what are the other unique like amenities or unique things that you’re going to offer at this new listing?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Right. So as far as like the amenities go, we’re still working on that, we’re actually thinking about putting a fitness center in the garage area. But that kind of allows us like the freedom to do something like that, because it’s a house not necessarily an apartment complex that already has these amenities built into the complex. But we can make spaces for that, where we can even have an outdoor fitness center on our patio, or you know what I mean? And but as far as like special perks and stuff, because we’re a new listing, we’re looking to entice people, so we’re giving our first three guests, three in home massages for one hour. We also have access to a Personal chef, and event coordinator, somebody if you’re coming to have a girls night, you know, guys night, baby shower, graduation, gets together or just for the family. Like we have somebody who can curate that event for you. In addition to that, we have two different types of massage therapists, we have a female and a male massage therapist based on our guests preference. And then also, we also provide a list of places and date night ideas, so we have brunch places, we have lunch places, dinner places and then we also have places within the area for date night ideas. So we make those suggestions to our guests as well. And then later in the future after we booked a couple of guests and we begin to see some more revenue, we’re actually going to put a hot tub on the back patio.

Delia:

Oh, that sounds actually nice. So you decided to go a little bit high end for this property, right?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Absolutely. It’s one of those properties where you look at it, and you just assume it has the work. So for us as business owners, we want to give the consumer exactly what they’re looking for.

Delia:

And what inspired you to pick this type of listing for your future listings?

Jaylen Cromwell:

I think, for me, as far as why we chose this one, it had a lot to do with what’s going to catch the eye of the person when they’re on the platform, what’s going to catch the eye of somebody or the guests. This one, it was really the color and the architecture that set itself apart from other homes, that set itself apart from other homes in the area and then also other listings on the platform.

Delia:

Really unique.

Jaylen Cromwell:

Exactly. It caught my eye and as somebody who uses Airbnb often when I travel, I actually really thought I was like this is a place that I would want to stay at. Just based off of the look. Yes.

Delia:

That’s great to look at, you know, your listing with the guest eyes, that’s a really good thing to do. And can you tell me a little bit about the investment you’re doing right now with this listing?

Jaylen Cromwell:

Our projected investment is anywhere between, it’s about 3,000 to 6,000 because I’m including the security deposit and first month’s rent. But take those things out, our investment total investment so far, is about 2,500 a little bit upwards of 2,500 mainly because we have a lot of the staple, like furnishing pieces like the couch and the beds and the dressers, we had all of that stuff in storage from our previous unit, so that took out a bulk of those costs. And as far as projections go, in the first quarter, we’re looking to make upwards of 7,000 for the quarter, based on how we priced. So we’re looking to at least at the very least break even in the first quarter.

Delia:

That’s great. And you talked about how you’re going to price right now, I would like to know if you have any particular pricing strategy that you’re thinking of?

Jaylen Cromwell:

So for us, our pricing strategy is very simple. At a base, we know that it takes $160 on a 20 day calendar month, if we use 20 days as a staple, in 20 days, can we make our money back for the month, it takes $160 a night for us to do that. So with that being said, we’ve added 50% markup.

Delia:

How was your first experience doing that allowing, you know, strangers in your house?

Tracey Lott:

Well, I think the way Airbnb has it set up, it makes it very easy for anyone who wants to give it a try because you can literally set up a listing and have it available to rent for a week, you can block all other times around it and that way, if you don’t like it, you know you’ve only to press maybe getting one, you know, booking and you don’t have to worry about future bookings, so that’s what I did. I actually thought, “well, you know what, we’ll open it up for a weekend”. And in fact, I thought no one was going to want to come stay in Roswell, Georgia, I was just kind of thinking, no one’s gonna want to book this. And within 24 hours, I had my first booking and it was from a couple that was coming from the Netherlands and they were actually going to South America from here, and they wanted to stop off in Georgia and see the Georgia mountains and I’ve loved hosting them. In fact, when I host Europeans, I host them a little bit differently than I host Americans just because I’ve gone to Europe a bunch. So you know, I kind of do treat it as more of a B&B offering, you know, fruit and stuff in the morning for them. I really found that I enjoy being a hostess, I love entertaining, so I kind of fits in and then having that experience as a director of marketing and department industry also really lends itself to being good and enjoying doing Airbnb.

Delia:

Did you discover that you like hosting just when you started Airbnb? Or did you know already that it was something that you would like to do in the future when you weren’t doing Airbnb?

Tracey Lott:

I didn’t know that I would like it. I mean, I know that I love entertaining and I’m a good entertainer. I didn’t know that, I thought I might not like having people in my home, but because I have my own private side, it made it still, you know, more private. And so I have some guests would actually come that I would never see during their entire stay and then there’s some guests that love doing Airbnb and they let me know that they want to meet me while they’re here. So I enjoy both sides of the coin, actually.

Delia:

And while you were renting, like your own house, was there any time that you had any particular guest bother you?

Tracey Lott:

Yes, on a couple of occasions, and I will definitely preface this by saying out of everyone that I’ve hosted and I’ve been doing this for over five years, I would say only about 3% of the people that I’ve hosted are people that, you know, it was like bye bye and you know, hope you never book again. But, you know, the majority of them are great, the bad experiences that I’ve had have really been people who, you know, don’t tell the truth. They’re planning on bringing more people than they say, and they’re trying to have a get together or party. And I’ve learned from those experiences and I shut them down very quickly. When I opened the Chattanooga Airbnb already had some experience where that was concerned. So you know, I do have a ring doorbell, ring driveway camera so that I can monitor the people who are entering and you know, I don’t have time to sit around and watch them and what they’re doing or anything. I have no interest in that but it’s for, you know, their protection and my protection and for my neighbors around me as well because I care about, you know, being a good host and not letting people throw parties and damage my home. So I also have noise aware that I had set up in Chattanooga as well, so that I could monitor noise levels since I could not be there physically and I was an hour and a half away.

Delia:

Yeah, I see I understand the use of cameras and noise detectors, you know, in those cases. There are some hosts that exaggerate a little bit with that, with the camera thing, but what you were doing and what you’re doing now, it’s completely understandable. Why did you decided to leave the house? Okay, so the one you have now, the three listings in one unit, is that your old house where you used to live in?

Tracey Lott:

Well, when I started renovating the Chattanooga house, I actually lived in Chattanooga during that time. So while I was living in Chattanooga, I actually rented out the whole house and then once COVID hit and I came back to Roswell, I started running that one whole home and then I went back to running this one, where I just rent the upstairs in the basement area, the two separate areas to my personal space.

Delia:

So you don’t live in that house anymore?

Tracey Lott:

I live in the Roswell house currently, but I did not live in it for probably about two years that I was Airbnbing because I was in Chattanooga.

Delia:

Oh, and you’re currently doing Airbnb in the one you live in?

Tracey Lott:

Yeah.

Delia:

Okay, I understand that. So you told me that you hit the market on Chattanooga on March 2020, how was your experience during the pandemic?

Tracey Lott:

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, someone had already rented the Airbnb prior to COVID actually hitting because of the situation there. I bought in a city that you have to be permitted to do Airbnb and I did that on purpose because I didn’t want to risk buying a house somewhere and then them create rules that say the you know, they’re outlawing it all together because, you know, that was kind of a risky investment for me to do because I took that money out of my own home and refinanced it and took my cash out refinance and used it to buy this other house and it was an as is house which means you have to pay cash for those. You cannot get loans on houses that have no plumbing, no electrical, they’re like boarded up houses. Yes, this house had no kitchen, no bathrooms, like it needed new roof, new electrical, new plumbing, new everything. Once I got a working bathroom, I basically moved up there and lived in the renovation and did part of the work myself and, you know, hired out people to do, you know, some of the specialty work. So during that time, you know, I’ve rented this house in Rossville as an entire home at times. And then at times, I’ve rented out different parts of it. So at some point, I might have someone renting out of the seven listings in my home, I might have like three different groups here at one time. So some people buy entire homes, and they do different listings on each bedroom and that’s kind of what I was doing here.

Delia:

Okay, so when you bought the property on Chattanooga, it had to be completely renovated, so you have to pay cash to the owner of the property or to an entity?

Tracey Lott:

It was to the owner of the property.

Delia:

Okay, it’s like the regular paperwork to buy a house, or does it have any difference?

Tracey Lott:

Yes, it’s just a regular closing just like you would normally and also, it’s hard to get loans under $100,000. So in addition to the fact that you have to pay cash for as houses because banks won’t loan on houses that don’t have kitchens and bathrooms in them. It’s also difficult to get a loan. So I wanted to actually get a loan on the house to help with the renovation costs, but I found it to be a little difficult because banks don’t want to loan less than $100,000 typically.

Delia:

How much money were you requesting to the bank?

Tracey Lott:

I wanted an additional 80 to help out with the renovation costs. So what ended up happening was in trying to get that loan, I put it on Airbnb, and literally I just cloned my Roswell listing, there are a few pictures up thinking that, you know, I’m just going to show them I have an on Airbnb and then somebody booked it and so I had to like pack up and like, get out so because they were checking in on March 8, so from that point on because COVID hit there was just really no point like, trying to go back up there and finish the upstairs, I just locked it off and then rented the downstairs only. So literally for the last couple of years, I did month long stays in the Chattanooga house where they only got the downstairs and it consistently stayed rented. So that’s definitely one thing, you know, people who are thinking about doing Airbnb and they live in an area where Airbnb is being outlawed. You can do Airbnb if you rent for more than 30 days and a lot of times that’s more advantageous than having a long-term renter because of the fear of like what long-term renters can do to your home and the eviction process and so forth.

Delia:

So you’re doing strictly long-term rentals there in Chattanooga, right?

Tracey Lott:

Yes. And they were all booked through Airbnb.

Delia:

Okay, and how was your experience with that?

Tracey Lott:

I really liked it, actually, you know, there’s a possibility that had I not sold the house, I probably would have just continued doing that, because it allowed me to, you know, fully be hands on. And whenever I had people check out, I would look there personally, and stay in the home for like a week, cleaning it and getting it ready for the next guest and I also considered it my vacation home, so I wanted to be able to spend time there as well. So I really enjoyed those times that I got to go up there and I did all the terms myself, I never even ended up hiring a cleaner because I wasn’t doing those short-terms that I thought I would, you know, need to do.

Delia:

And did you find it to be like more comfortable than doing short-term rentals?

Tracey Lott:

I like doing both. Because it’s an hour and a half away, you know, it certainly made it easier for me because to manage it being short-term, I would have needed to have, you know, someone that I hired up there to clean for me and that’s what I do here. I like to hire, you know, a college student and train them and then they’re my like, full-time cleaner. Here in Roswell, you know, I’ve had like two or three that I’ve bounced around between, depending on what their schedules are and I was planning on doing the same in Chattanooga, but it ended up not being needed because I found that even on doing the monthly rentals in the times that you would have like sat vacant, you know, on a short-term rental, I really brought in, you know, a nice amount every month. On that house, I was bringing in around 3,000 after expenses.

Delia:

For long-term rentals?

Tracey Lott:

Yes.

Delia:

And how much are you doing for short-term?

Tracey Lott:

Short-term here in Roswell? I always average since 2017. I’d mentioned that there because you ask about where there slow times, there aren’t really slow times here at all. I mostly get people here for sports, business travelers or people here to visit their families, those are really the top three and weddings, weddings would be the other big one. I would say if it’s cyclical it’s because of weddings. And for whatever reason May through September are the top grossing month. Every year I’d make around four grand a month for May to September and three grand a month, the rest of the year. So I stayed pretty consistent.

Delia:

And is it like less work than the long-term rentals and you’re getting kind of the same amount of money.

Tracey Lott:

Yeah, I’m pretty much yeah. Now do I think that I could have netted about 5,000 to 6,000 a month on the Chattanooga house? Sure. Yeah, I do because it slept 10 people and you know, on weekends, you know, I could have charged over 300 a night. And in fact, here in Roswell, I rent the whole upstairs and you know, I’ve just had two or three people recently over the weekend rent the whole upstairs and I mean, I can make $600 over a weekend just for renting my whole entire upstairs. In some ways, I was sitting there thinking, “hey, you know, if I really wanted to sit back and have a relaxing, you know, time with Airbnb, I don’t like put that listing up and just rent it on the weekends, make my $600 and, you know, be done with it”. $2,400 a month just for renting it on the weekends, that’s not bad money. It’s a great way for other people who might think this is something they want to do, but they don’t want to commit to it as fully.

Delia:

So can you please tell me how did you get started with Airbnb or short term-rentals?

Uriel Ramirez:

So I started Airbnb because social media book, there is this mentorship program that I came about, so I signed up for that mentorship and that was for short-term rentals. So it’s through coaching and coaching and I told my friend who is also my business partner that you should check it out. And so since we took that coaching program, we have the tools to build up. This was in November of last year towards Thanksgiving week that we started the coaching program and so that helped us a lot because in that coaching program, we were able to be educated and also to network with other people who are wanting to do Airbnb or short-term rentals. And the Coach actually, he’s around my age, he’s like, early 30s, now you guys know my age. But the coach, he started in 2018 and he retired in four years. So he retired his wife from being a nurse and just doing a short-term rental. So we wanted to go with someone that already had the results that we wanted and so that’s why we took this coaching program.

Delia:

And would you recommend for first time Airbnb host or people who are planning on doing short-term rentals or Airbnb, to also attend to these coaching programs to educate themselves at first?

Uriel Ramirez:

I highly do and I know it might be like intimidation because of the price. But you need to have someone that already you’re looking for the results for already because it’s gonna save you time, headaches and mistakes, costly mistakes, because here they don’t just educate us, they’re not just giving us resources, but they also give us advice when it comes to legal terminology as well. So that way you don’t get basically sued, you have a way to back everything up because everything that we run an Airbnb and short-term rentals, they want to make sure that it’s legal as well because I know there’s people out there that don’t follow the rules interceding and they get shut down and that will be a costly mistake for not seeing the city ordinances and if someone reports you then you have to shut your Airbnb business just because of that reason.

Delia:

So it’s not only like mentorship, but they also guide you and help you in case you need it as well, right?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah, correct. So they have people there that connect us with, they already helps with our coach, with the legal matters. So they don’t, since they went through it already, since they have already up to this moment 16 Airbnb properties already and also they know that everything has to go in order, you know, everything to be legal.

Delia:

That’s right. And can you tell me a little bit about, you know, not the hosting experience, but the purchasing experience so far, like in your state? Not sure but I think in the state of California, I think short-term rentals is not allowed or is it in your area?

Uriel Ramirez:

You know, it’s the price in that in California since you know, Airbnb, the founders of Airbnb are from the Bay Area, you know, and so you would think, like, well, it’d be we wouldn’t have like, you know, easy to however many people’s there are some parts that is hotspots and there are some parts that is not for the same reason that there’s strict regulations for short-term rentals. But we’re able to network and you know, to see the spot, of course, in the span that I have the Airbnb, which is our first Airbnb property, which is in Downtown Sacramento, we chose that based on the platforms that they give us, like different software’s like I don’t know if you guys heard of Mashvisor AirDNA and also using Zillow, you know, a little bit of everything to do comes and that’s what we choose on Downtown Sacramento. One of the things that people are scared of and I think it’s a healthy and we have learned this and we have seen this through other people, it’s okay to have your property where there’s other competitors, all you have to do is to be more competitive than they are and to put a spot basically getting the location they love, for example, like our listing is a luxury condo in Downtown Sacramento. So there’s another luxury condo there nearby, so we’re gonna offer something that they don’t offer, you know, maybe a better price, maybe better amenities as well. So we tried to make sure that we’re competitive as well.

Delia:

Yes, because you’re in a competitive area, of course, you have to be competitive. So to analyze your investment, you used all of those tools and also did you, like, choose that area for any other particular reason?

Uriel Ramirez:

We chose that area also because not just for the cons that we saw, though, they know that even though we haven’t even watched, but we know that the cons were looking really good was profits and also, because it’s closer to where I live, you know, I still have my regular job, my 9am to 5pm job and also my business partner has her job and she lives in the Bay Area, so we wanted to start with the first Airbnb to be close to us. So I live like an hour or 40 minutes away from Sacramento and also my business partner too. So that way, you know, we chose that one first because we didn’t want it to choose somewhere way far further in case we needed to do something. So this is just kind of like the learning experience. I know most people maybe that your interview may have a lot of experience in their pockets and well season hosts, but we’re starting I want you guys to hear me from being from already here developing this business, you know, first to do all this research, get educated, before launching, you know, so that way you have a successful launch. And talking about a successful launch, you know, I barely started, we barely started the last week before the Memorial weekend, in May and when we launched it, we have so many inquiries to book that weekend that we were like, wow, like, I can’t believe this, that we already have so many increase then. So now, ever since we launched it, we have not been able to stop the bookings because we’re sold  for two months already of reservations for the summer. So it’s all basically the way you trust the mentorship, if you follow the person who already has the results you’re looking for, then everything else when you launch is gonna be successful and will fall into its place.

Delia:

What do you think made your launching successful?

Uriel Ramirez:

We didn’t launch it because there’s a lot of factors. But the number one thing is simple to follow the person who has already went through it, you know, to save you time, save you also the crunch because one of the things that helps us is making sure that Airbnb business or short-term rentals does not become your second job. Your time like my time and your time, has a price that’s worth a lot. So one of the things that we noticed that this kind of business model, there’s other business opportunities like we have a co-host that we met in Facebook that does all our communications as well and she also helped us to get our yes for first property because we don’t own the condo, we do a sublease, which we pay the owner their mortgage every month and so able to use this business model. So I’m not the owner of the condo, we’re just subleasers of the condo to do short-term rentals. But all that for us to come to that point, we needed to have someone to help us to finance that property. That’s when we found our co-host and she did everything virtually, found the property, called the property manager and able to do a contract, able to do our business. So we found someone that already knew what we wanted.

Delia:

I see now. And now that you mentioned about subleasing, can you tell me a little bit of, you told me that this co-host that you work with, contacted the landlord and convinced him and do you have any idea of what pitch did she use to convince this landlord?

Uriel Ramirez:

We met through because she’s also part of the mentorship program that we have. So she already have the same mindset, the same terminology on what we need to do because in this mentorship, we are able to learn about all the common objections that landlords will have, for example, if you say Airbnb, they’re gonna get scared when you say Airbnb, they’re gonna think party people, they’re gonna be thinking, “Oh, no, they’re gonna destroy my property”, “Oh no, they’re not gonna probably pay my mortgage” or “What’s gonna happen”. That’s where we get to learn about many different things that are able to calm the fears and able to bring an answer to the objections of landlords. So we have scripts also that our coach provides us to vote to know what to say for those kinds of objections. So that’s the thing that she did for us, you know, we’re able to find out what were the concerns and fears and the objections of the landlord and making sure that they know that we are able to settle for any pricing issues. I know one of the common issues with being like mean and noise. So one of the things that we have learned in this mentorship is able to have a noise detector device coming new, that tracks not just a noise detection, but also the temperature in your property and also lets you know, if it’s humid and that actually has helped us in launching to making sure that there’s not so much of a crowd because also dictates if it’s overcrowding in your property because, you know, it’s illegal to have cameras inside the property, since it will be the restrict on that. So be able to put a noise detecting device that helps us to document all that in case something gets out of control. And the number one, another thing too to have is a ring camera or even a security camera outside the property so that we document how many people are coming through the property as well, making sure what they say is exactly, you know, what are you’re seeing in the camera as well.

Delia:

Yeah, so basically, these problems have a very, like obvious solution that I understand kind of why landlords don’t want to agree to subleasing for Airbnb sometimes, so it’s really good that you train yourself. You train with others to teach these landlords and for them to agree to do the subleasing because at the end, it’s something that also benefits them, right?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah, correct. And also the subleasing, that’s the business strategy that I use because you get a more profit. My business partner who, no my other person, who is a co-host, she doesn’t, she’s not part of the subleasing strategies, she’s part of the co-hosting strategy. So she doesn’t have to put anything down to invest because she’s the one that is going to find the city ordinances, also contact the property managers and then able to get paid until she gets an approval or gets from the landlord. So that’s what she does and also able to pay her to be a co-host. And Airbnb, was such percentage, as well, so she does all the communication. So something that I have learned through this experience, the co-host will be the person who has time to do other stuff. Like I mentioned previously, I may have my business, but I didn’t have the time. We were feeling like this was like a second job for us and we didn’t want it to feel like this kind of business was going to be a second job. We wanted it to feel like we’re not working in the job, but we’re working on the business.

Delia:

So by you saying that, I assume that since the very beginning, you were thinking about doing subleasing or rental arbitrage, like that’s the normal term, right?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah. So this will be our first one and we’re thinking of to get a second one, but this time being owners of the property. That’s another business concept too, to be able to do your Airbnb business by owning your own property as well. But working with that business model concept or short-term rental.

Delia:

And can you tell us a little bit about the benefits of starting with this business model, with rental arbitrage?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah, so like, for example, if you’re able to own your own property, there’s so many ways that you can invest by having your own property, not just because it’s your own property, but through the Airbnb business of short-term rentals. From that you’re able to pay your mortgage and then on top of that get profit, you know. Whereas right now that we’re doing subleasing, we don’t own the property, we’re paying the landlord their mortgage, they’re happy for that, you know, they’re happy that we’re able to also increase their appreciation value after property because we do remodeling, we do, you know, also in the property. So that when you know, we’re ready for business and so that’s gonna make the landlord happy. We’re not benefiting because benefiting in the surplus in strategy, the landlord, so that’s why they’re hapoy, it’s increasing the value of the property so that way, if they want to sell it, they’re gonna get a huge equity out of their property.

Delia:

Yeah, that’s right! And how does this business model benefits you as an Airbnb host?

Uriel Ramirez:

So for me, for this subleasing strategy, we get the profit after paying the co-host, paying also taxes, you know, and also no owning the property. You know, we don’t have to pay for other stuff that landlords have to pay, like, you know, city taxes and everything else, so it helps us that way. So even though we have a contract for a year, you know, it’s secure to say that we’re going to have business for one year and able to renew it again, that’s we were hoping that only the landlord, will give us after knowing how well we did that, after one year, we’re able to get it again for another year. But after during that time level to have build up our portfolio and able to convince other landlords to let us to rent it for that kind of business model maybe in some other areas because our second location will be either in the Bay area or South Lake Tahoe, as well.

Delia:

Oh, so you’re planning to continue with the subleasing model, right?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah, we want to follow the footsteps of our coach because our coach, it has many properties in Southern California. So we want to do what he does. Like he also does the same thing, he does a subleasing strategy and he’s also the owner of two homes and he also does investments as well.

Delia:

Okay, that’s really amazing! And can you tell us how do you deal with the neighbors thing? You know, sometimes neighbors, for you, like in a condo, and for other people in apartments have issues with people doing Airbnb. Do you have that issue currently?

Uriel Ramirez:

No, we don’t have that issue currently since we really started. And we still like the people, you know, making sure that we, that them, you know, with their IDs, making sure that they are who they are and try to review, you know, like any previous reviews that they made on the guest too. Recently, like, right now we have a guest that came from Armenia, she stayed in our Airbnb since yesterday and gonna stay all the way up to July. So they are host, they’ve Airbnb house in Armenia. So they have property, so it doesn’t like oh, so they understand the business model, too. In the Western neighbors, I mean, we noticed that they’re like, you know, which you should notify them that what you’re doing and that you have if there’s any issues that they could give you a call.

Delia:

Yeah, that’s right. And they all agree with it? With business model you’re currently working there in the condo?

Uriel Ramirez:

Yeah. So we let the business property manager and also the other managers that they have and the condo because they have an HOA, you know, HOAs have a strict rules. So kind of telling them that yeah, we definitely want to make sure that the people who come in or not, you know, are not going to be problematic and that we’re going to check their background before they come and stay in the property.

Delia:

That makes a lot of sense.

Uriel Ramirez:

And that’s one of the ways to calm the fears of all the people who are no leadership committee at that building, so that will take a rest assured that, yeah, we’re not just letting in just lightly people, we’re making sure that we check the backgrounds and anything.