Category: Podcast

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.