Hosting Your Home - Airbnb host stories

Synta Keeling is an Airbnb superhost and lawyer living in Washington DC. Debi interviewed her two days after the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.  Synta was previously interviewed in 2016 by the NPR podcast "Hidden Brain" for an #AirbnbWhileBlack episode that dealt with bias with Airbnb hosts and guests. Synta lives in the Capitol View neighborhood which is almost completely African-American. She is a black Filipino woman herself and has a lot of insight into fear that many people feel. Synta explains that she bought her house and was facing a stigma of living on the poor side of the Anacostia river in  Washington, DC.  She couldn't find a roommate.  Some friends recommended Airbnb, with guests being from out of town who didn't have the built in stigma about her neighborhood.  Synta describes DC as majority-minority.  People would tell her that no tourists would want to be in her neighborhood because of its location. When Airbnb started to grow, hosts began to make a lot of money and more hosts wanted to join.  She sometimes hosted foreign guests who arrived with bias.  Most were wonderful, kind, and polite, but sometimes there were unfortunate incidents. One of Synta's guests was a young man from Europe.  He was headed to somewhere in the south for a semester.  He was very opinionated about Americans, just off the get go, complaining and asking about American flags, guns, etc. Synta is a lawyer, so she is able to have educated discussions on an academic basis.  Her guest didn't like her answer, a long discussion about the complicated cultural aspects of the US.  She always suggests that her guests take the Metro because it's faster than the bus, but this particular guest took the bus instead.  When he got home he looked like a ghost.  He said at one point the last of the white passengers had left the bus and it was all black except for him.  He was scared and alarmed that he might get hurt. He slowly realized they are just sitting there, they are not going to hurt me. By the time he got back to Synta's place he was clearly struggling with these feelings. As a host of color, encounters like this are inevitable.  She emphasized that it's no one's job to teach us about bias and what to do, but she says if you take advantage of teachable moments, it can last a lifetime.  It comes up all the time when you're hosting.  For some people it's crushing to realize that they could fit into a racist mold. Synta's Facebook group often addresses racist reviews and she often helps hosts deal with them.  One those Facebook friends got a review that  complained about a guy hanging around the yard.  It turns out that the guy "hanging around" was the host's husband, doing landscaping in their yard. The guest just hadn't met him yet.   Another host had a couple of young women guests from France.  Synta says its normally hard to get police to come out to their area, but the cops will do all kinds of things for Airbnb guests.  The two women were trying to get directions to the hosts' address and asked a cop.  He said "you do not want to be in that area at all".  The cop gave them a ride there.  And then the host had to deal with the guests feelings, being there at night, hearing what the cop said.  It turned out ok but the host offered to refund their money. The guests stayed but it was a rocky start. The difference between hosting and a hotel, Synta explains, is that your home is very personal. You need to step back and think about what might impact the guest.  She makes sure people know where she lives, no restaurants nearby, all the potential problems so guests can make accurate decisions.  Debi added  that some hosts state on their listings what a guest will and won't like about their listings.  Synta also uses Airbnb as a guest traveler.  She hates to read dense listings and suggests if you look at some hotel listings, they are less dense.  Use captions on the images!  Synta said 3-4 years ago the US government liberalized rules for Chinese nationals.  All of the sudden, there was a giant tourism boom.  Coming from a part of the world that is homogeneous compared with the US, it's made more difficult that their exposure to black people is just from movies, mostly bad.  When guests arrive and see the host is black, there are cultural issues or opportunities.  And that's what hosting allows us to address. Debi and Synta discussed the Capitol insurrection, which happened on January 6, 2021, just two days before their interview.  She said that it's been crazy.  She's been to the Capitol building a lot says  and said the Capitol police do not play around.  She found it terrifying when there were three people in the line of succession in the building and for hours no one knew their status.  Synta hadn't been hosting because of Covid, but also there was a lot of back and forth in the host community about not hosting because this particular rally was going to happen.  There was a lot of traffic about hotels not taking reservations, so they made Airbnb reservations. Debi added that Airbnb cancelled a lot of reservations. Synta said that because DC isn't a state, you can't bring the national guard, you have to wait for the federal government to act.  She lives 2 miles from the Armory, which was mobilizing.  Debi asked  Synta about #AirbnbWhileBlack, and her interview with the NPR podcast Hidden Brain.   They began by messaging her about discrimination against guests, but Synta brought up  discrimination against hosts.   They picked up on this and came to her kitchen for an interview.  Synta told the story about a young woman Quirtina Crittenden  who wanted to travel on Airbnb but was getting rejected.  At her friends' suggestions, she changed her picture (she's black) and shortened her name to her nickname Tina, and suffered no more rejections.  She tweeted out this experience with the hashtag  #AirbnbWhileBlack that went viral.    Synta told Debi about her own picture on her profile, and then about her brother's.  He's a host too, but appears more African American.  Synta is part Philipino.  She had a photo taken with the two of them together, like a family photo, to reduce the unfortunate reality of adverse impact to his bookings.   At the end of their interview, Debi asked how she could be a better host, to be more aware of things I could do better.  Synta advised her: "when you get a booking, and you have a feeling, a gut reaction to decline, particularly if they are under-represented, ask yourself objective questions, whether you would react the same way if the guest is white.  And if you screen your guests, be sure to ask everyone the same questions." LINKS: Synta Keeling's Airbnb listing Synta on Twitter and Instagram is @myneckofDC NPR Hidden Brain podcast on bias, with Synta Keeling Other interviews in the Hosting Your Home Under-represented host series: K Rhea C L Reed Anthony Gannt I want to give a shout-out to Feedspot, for inclusion  in their article titled: Top 15 Airbnb Podcasts Thank you to Carla Chicarro of Lodgify for mentioning me in the post,  29 Women Who Are Making Waves in The Vacation Rental Industry Thank you all so much for the recognition and the attention!  It makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile with this podcast, and with Host2Host.  Debi    

Anthony Gantt and the birth of At Ease Rentals:  Anthony is a smart Marine Corps officer  who saw an opportunity and jumped on it. He was changing duty stations (in military terms, “PCS” or permanent change of station) and when he turned in his reimbursement request, it was denied.  Why? He had stayed in an Airbnb instead of a hotel.  Anthony had made several PCSs before and never had a reimbursement be denied, and this really burned him up.  So he began the process of getting the rules changed.  We hope you will find this interview along with interviews with   Kevin Rhea and CL Reed to be educational.  He began the paperbound process of changing government regulations and had a breakthrough.  After a surprising meeting with some government travel officials, he notified the military that he was going to work on a platform that would be an OTA (online travel agency, like Airbnb) for the military.  This platform would be one that meets all the various rules for military and civilian government travel.  It would allow federal travelers to stay in short term rentals if they so choose.  And the other side of the platform works by inviting vacation rental managers and individual STR hosts to list on the platform.  The result is his platform At Ease Rentals. Debi asked him about new hosts on his platform, and about safe travel.  Anthony says that bookings are difficult for travelers of color.  Hosts would often reply that the dates were not available. Frustrating. And looking out of place in a given neighborhood, for example.  But of all the cities he’s traveled to, he finds Orlando to be the model for a good vacation rental experience.  He feels that it’s not so much about safe travel as just having to deal with prejudicial bias. Debi asked if Anthony knows about Airbnb’s changes such as not showing the picture until the reservation is made. She also made the point that it seems like no other OTAs besides Airbnb seem to address the issues of discrimination and bias, and while Airbnb hasn’t cracked the code altogether, they at least make earnest attempts to solve the problem.   Anthony spoke about his four daughters, teaching them to be proud and that the only thing that can bring us down is divisiveness.  Anthony made the point that diversity just adds higher returns on the investments. From his standpoint, Anthony sees us as Americans first, like I’m American, African descent. American, Italian descent etc.  He doesn’t really like the term like Black American.  American first. What can I do to be a contributing member of society? We need to be the beacon and the role model for the rest of the world.   Debi asked, how can we make guests feel more comfortable?  Anthony's response:  You can’t fix stupid. If I told you no green eyed person could stay in this house on the lake, you’d be upset.  It’s like that. Everyone wants the same thing and be able to book a place without worrying about anything. Debi  brought up Krhea’s comment that it’s weird when people say they “don’t see color”.  Anthony said it would be like “I don’t see women.  I see everyone as a man”.  We just want to go to a booking platform and book.   Debi mentioned her picture on her listing websites that says “all are welcome here, no matter your…..”  Anthony recommends to look at stock photo site PEXEL. Stock photos of everyone. His point is, use these pix of diverse people with your listing, which is a GREAT idea.  Anthony  just got goosebumps.  Wanting to reach different travelers, he went to groups on Instagram - black people travel a lot. Anthony talks about spouses of military being 95% women; he looked at their Pinterest and came to a realization of how to market: PINTERIST! Anthony talks about how hard he’s working on the company, and said he’s acting like it's one of the 20 hour deployments he knew of from previous military assignments, to work on At Ease while he's a full time marine. Deb asked about the meaning of “walking when black”. His answer was that you have different concerns depending on the situation, like if you're in a mall, high end store, there are eyes that automatically come to you about shoplifting. Traveling while black, you can’t wear sweatshirt and hoodie, and at work while black, is it ok to let hair naturally grow out or is is non professional or not serious.  He went to a golf thing, one of the guys had an NBA mask, but none of them are basketball athletes, one of the ladies asked if they were from the NBA, even though most were not exactly athletic anymore... Talking to his kids:  Anthony  tells them to be aware of what's going on.  If it’s negative, figure out how to get out of the situation.  The one thing that can protect you is education. You have to be aware of the situations you’re in.  Strive to be an American first, who happens to look like that. LINKS: https://www.facebook.com/ATEASERentals/ At Ease Rentals

C L Reed is one of the many hosts of color and an entrepreneur who has expanded from her first room rental to now hosting her own 3 properties and co-hosting several other Airbnbs.  She shares with Debi how she initially got started via her daughter's prodding.  C L discovered that her home was exactly in the right spot for skydivers, and she has hosted skydivers from all over the world.  She found her niche and works it with professional skill! C L expanded into Facebook, which is how Debi and C L met.  See the Links at the end of the show notes to join her Facebook groups.  She also published a book: "Short term rental success stories from the edge", also at the end of the show notes. CL offers that as a Black host, she has not experienced overt prejudice.  Her photo is on her Airbnb profile and she believes that if a guest has any issues with her race, they would self-filter and simply not choose her listing.  When it comes to traveling, CL pointed out how vulnerable a woman traveling alone can be, and that women of any color must be diligent about their safety.  She gives several examples.  Add to that being of a minority race, the discussion expands into recognizing a basic inherent fear that Black people live with, of which White people are unaware.  We appreciate her woman's perspective which brings additional depth to the conversation. Hear another Hosts of Color interview, this one with Kevin Rhea. LINKS: www.asuitecbnbs.com (951) 599-8123  (PST) California, USA Social Media: Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/ASUITEC/   Pages:        https://www.facebook.com/groups/InlandEmpireSTR https://www.facebook.com/groups/PSSTVRCOMMUNITYNETWORK  https://www.facebook.com/groups/strhomesharehosts Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/asuitecbnbs Twitter:        https://twitter.com/aSuiteCollab Tumblr:        https://tumblr.com/asuitecollaboration Amazon:       Author, CL Reed – Short Term Rental Success Stories From The Edge To Book A Suite Collaboration's Short Term Rental Listings: www.asuitec-bnbs.com www.ps-iluvubnb.com www.airbnb.com/h/ps-memories

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome interviews Kevin Rhea ("Krhea") of Portland, Oregon, a fellow member of Host2Host. Debi reached out to Krhea because he is one of the few hosts of color in the Portland area, and he is kind, candid, and willing to teach. Debi is starting this series on Hosts of Color to further her own and her listeners' understanding of the issues involved. Krhea  claims title to being the proud father to a wonderful daughter, lucky husband to an incredible entrepreneur wife, cyclist and founder of Portland Velo Cycling Club, photographer, real estate investor and 20+yr resident of Portland, OR. Krhea says his wife is an impassioned traveler who has used Airbnb and VRBO a lot.  In his previous career of performance shoe designer, Krhea traveled over 200,000 miles a year but always used hotels. A couple of years ago he and his wife visited a Seattle Airbnb and had a great experience.  She had been encouraging Krhea for some time to consider having an Airbnb in their home, and with some "negotiating" after the Seattle trip, they remodeled their basement and began hosting on Airbnb. They instantly had bookings in the Portland west hills. Krhea describes his experiences with guests and  Airbnb.  As a host, he had no problems at all with any of his guests.  Part of that might be that he made a point of having a picture of himself and his (white) wife on the listing so that guests could decide if they accepted that or not. He made a point of shaking everyone's hand when they arrived. He had nothing but great guests and connections with them as a host.  But he gives us a tiny glimpse of what it feels like to be a black man traveling. As a traveler, he describes having car trouble and traffic, and having to call their host along the way to explain their late arrival.  But despite the phone updates, upon arrival at midnight, he found himself unable to knock on their host's door, solely because of his color. Even though they had perfect guests, Krhea and his wife stopped hosting.  Why?  Several blatantly racial incidents were reported in the press that made them wonder whether Airbnb was doing enough to protect under-represented guests from these situations.  His reaction was to withdraw altogether from the platform. Although Debi and Krhea didn't discuss the specifics, some high profile examples include a neighbor calling the police when a black traveler showed up at the Airbnb next door;  A host canceling a reservation with "One word says it all:  Asian"; and a research study  that found a complete difference when various last names were used in reservation requests. Airbnb has tried for years to eliminate discrimination but it is hugely complex. Most hosts would likely be truthful in saying they are not racist, or feel racists.  We may view our hospitality as being excellent, but is it enough to just feel like we are being welcoming?   How many hosts have any idea of what goes through their guest's head when the guest has had a lifetime of bad experiences? We hope that this series "hosts of color" can be an opening for some hosts. The goal of the Hosts of Color podcast series is to help teach those hosts who are receptive, and possibly to reach some hosts who don't yet understand.  Debi recognizes her own limited understanding of the universe of racial issues and is using these interviews to learn for herself. LINKS: Color of Change:  This is the largest online racial justice organization in the country.  Airbnb's "Project Lighthouse" is trying to eliminate discrimination, working with multiple groups such as Color of Change, AACP and others. Host2Host is the Oregon-based non-profit trade association "for hosts, by hosts". Hosting Your Home is the website for the podcast about hosting with Airbnb.  

The pandemic and short term rentals in Oregon. In mid March, 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic began impacting short term rental reservations in Oregon.  Airbnb saw its global reservations drop like a rock. For three months, the pandemic has basically eliminated the STR market.  Debi and Rob Hertert of Hosting Your Home use this episode to talk about how the pandemic is affecting them personally and other hosts they know. Debi and Rob are very concerned about the small towns on the Oregon coast.  The  towns are desperate for money but cannot sacrifice the health of their citizens.  Visitors can partially mitigate this conflict by spending most of their time at the vacation rental or outdoors.  They can wear masks and distance themselves when patronizing businesses. When hosts look at their Airbnb income reports, they look at graphs that have mostly dropped to zero.  Those who depend on the hosting income are in a very difficult position.  The more debt on the home(s) the worse the problem. And in the pandemic environment, the home sharing type of listing sadly disadvantages hosts who share space within their home; neither party is likely to want to share the same space. Debi mentions Host2Host, the nonprofit trade association that serves the host community in Oregon. Host2Host now uses Zoom for weekly "virtual coffees" and for monthly educational meetup webinars. The myriad of financial victims is spelled out in countless other articles but Debi mentions here the groups known as "DMOs", or Direct Marketing Organizations.  These include Travel Portland and Travel Oregon among others.  They are (were) funded by a tourism tax that is levied in addition to occupancy taxes.  So the far reaching travel marketing that brings tourists to Portland and Oregon isn't happening at anything like the previous levels.  Portland uses the STR occupancy taxes to fund affordable housing. That has also dropped to near zero for the past three months. It all seems like too much.  But - as Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO, said recently on an outreach call,  people love to travel.  They are reluctant to travel right now, but they will travel again.  It will definitely come back if hosts - and Airbnb - can survive beyond the downturn. Just before we recorded this podcast episode, the civil unrest beginning with Minneapolis flamed into being and is cause for all of us in the hospitality industry to improve lives, lessen burdens, and share opportunities.  Debi is going to try her best to learn more and share through Hosting Your Home. Links: Host2Host.org  is the Oregon-based nonprofit trade association serving STR hosts. Membership is open to anyone. You can hear about how it was created:  Host2Host is About to be Born! Airbnb's new cleaning protocol is a big change for STRs. Airbnb has over the years worked on inclusion. Their latest effort is  "Project Lighthouse"

We had an AWESOME photo shoot in Portland, Oregon directed by FabStayz founder Robert Geller, featuring airline flight attendant Danny Lee Cabrero as drag queen “Liquor Mini”, named after the little booze bottles on planes. It could not have been more fun! Robert was working on a publicity campaign for FabStayz and wanted it to be fun and attention getting. It worked! Danny visited 10 locations dressed in flight attendant drag, and photographer Carlos Camarena caught it all. The greater Portland area, with its supportive trade organization Host2Host, is the principal launch city for FabStayz. The PR campaign is soon to be released! Some highlights of the day: Michelle Boyle’s Tiny House Village in Sherwood, where Danny was definitely larger than life. Nectar, a friendly marijuana dispensary Blue Star Donut shop in Multnomah Village, where Danny’s blue dress was a color match and the donuts were delicious Danny doesn’t drink but still made a splash at the Sasquatch Brew Pub in Hillsdale Olympia Provisions Melty & Meaty food truck at Pioneer Courthouse Square Travel Portland’s Visitors Center Powell’s City of Books - the largest independent bookstore in the World! Sunset was at the eTukride at the end of the Tillikum bridge FabStayz’ mission is serving LGBTQ travelers by connecting them with hosts whom Robert terms “Fab Allies” All hosts list on his platform with the specific understanding of acceptance for all and fostering welcoming inclusive accommodations. FabStayz travelers know ahead of time that they do not need to explain or justify or do anything but enjoy being on vacation. When Debi asked Robert and Danny if they’ve ever been discriminated against during travels, Robert gave a nuanced answer that is helpful to understanding the issue. He also mentioned the site “Destination Pride” that gives travelers an acceptance measure of a city they are considering visiting. As FabStayz continues to evolve Watch for the addition of bed & breakfasts, inns and properties such amenities of spas and wedding facilities. Poised for continued growth FabStayz has been featured in over 40 articles, blog posts, tv podcast appearance. Not to be missed is the FabStayz demo video starring drag flight attendants Danny aka Liquor Mini and Esme Russell filmed on location at Tampa International Airport. Totally campy and so much fun! The demo video features launch destination: greater Portland, Oregon.  You can also read about FabStayz press coverage. Making your listing more inclusive: Robert invites listeners to look at his listing and consider “stealing” his first few lines that include his pronouns (just tells prospective guests that you are aware of pronouns as an important issue) and include an image of a poster or welcome mat with accepting language. He correctly notes that most guests don’t read everything in our listings, so put it in as a picture! Robert and Danny met each other through a “chance” discussion that Robert had with his hairdresser, and everything just clicked. In addition to Danny’s work as a flight attendant, in his fun but important side gig as “Liquor Mini”, he has helped raise over $500,000 for the Wings Foundation to support flight attendants in need. He is now also the Resort Director for Vacaya, an international LGBTQ travel agency that leases entire cruise ships and resorts. In that job Danny gets to show the world the charismatic leader he really is! List of all links mentioned in the podcast: FabStayz LGBTQ listing site FabStayz 2019 podcast episode with Hosting Your Home Host2Host, the Portland-centric STR non-profit trade association Danny Lee Cabrero’s FaceBook page Portland Photographer Carlos Camarena’s podcast episode with Hosting Your Home Tiny House Village Nectar dispensary Blue Star Donuts in Multnomah Village Sasquatch Brew Pub in Hillsdale Olympia Provisions food truck Travel Portland visitors center Powell’s City of Books Robert’s personal listing showing example of inclusive language eTuk Tours Destination Pride, the LGTBQ international rating guide Wings Foundation Vacaya, the LGTBQ travel extravaganza provider

What company comes to an author’s mind after writing bestsellers about Starbucks, Zappos, Mercedes and Ritz-Carlton?  Airbnb! Joseph Michelli became highly interested in the company and authored a book "The Airbnb Way".  Joseph identifies the ways in which Airbnb engages with customers and builds brand loyalty.  He includes both the view from inside the company and the view from the individual hosts who provide hospitality to millions of travelers each year. “The Airbnb Way” is a unique publication that is overdue - few businesses have been as disruptive as Airbnb and much of their positive impact has been under-reported. Debi Hertert met Joseph virtually in 2018 as Joseph began work on his book.  She introduced him to many highly experienced Airbnb hosts, some of whom are included in “The Airbnb Way”.  Joseph reciprocated a year later, when the book was finished, by coming to Portland as the featured speaker at the Host2Host event “HostFest 2019”. In addition to being an author, Joseph is a TEDx speaker.  A hundred hosts got to enjoy his presentation, and you can get a sense of his thoughtful voice in this podcast interview that took place the day before the event.  Host2Host is a non-profit trade association based in Portland, Oregon.  It serves the short-term rental hosting community with a goal of speaking with one voice for the community of hosts. Several hosts who are mentioned in the book also appear in HostingYourHome podcasts.   One of these is April Brenneman  who is featured in one of the very first episodes of the HostingYourHome podcast, "Josh's House in the Trees" You can check out the links below, including one for a trip giveaway to San Francisco that is good through December 16, 2019 Joseph’s business website:  www.josephmichelli.com Book contest through December 16, 2019:  This is a trip giveaway to San Francisco, no purchase necessary, at https://www.airbnbway.com Host2Host "The Voice of the Host" short-term rental website:  Host2Host.org      

Short Term Rental (STR) advocacy Short Term Rental (STR) advocacy is difficult and time-consuming. But if you want STR regulation that is informed and fair, you need to work.  It's very easy for local government to spring into an over-regulated model, being saturated with negative news, so be proactive!  There is no single regulatory model that works for every municipality or jurisdiction, nor is there a single model that all STR hosts will embrace.  A city like Lake Oswego is completely different than a vacation destination resort area. The "Social Model" In his work in STR advocacy, Mark distinguishes between what he calls "social model" listings and "business model" listings.  He used this language to help commissioners understand:   He explained it as the difference between having the owner living in the home, earning money to offset taxes and maintenance, versus the owner being absent and expecting high returns.  Lake Oswego opposition to STRs had two big concerns.  First was the impact on long-term housing, and the potential for loud parties.  Mark was frank about not wanting to live next door to a house that had loud parties all the time.  He is also mindful that STRs, unchecked, can create financial incentives that would adversely impact long-term housing.  He told the City they could mitigate both of these problems  through his proposed requirement of having the owner live in the home. The written word is important The City planning bureau surveyed the entire City for their thoughts about short-term rentals. Surprisingly, a little over 50% of the responses were positive.  Mark notes the even higher approval from those who have used Airbnb in their travels.  I see this as a good sign.  It shows that as more people use the Airbnb model of travel, they become less fearful of it in their home towns. All in all, the success Mark had in Lake Oswego, a wealthy and probably somewhat conservative city, shows that advocacy can work in what might seem like an unlikely place.  One of the most important tips Mark brought up for STR advocacy is the need to be able to clearly communicate your ideas in writing.  When he met with City officials he also left them with a document that explained his rationale and concerns. We will definitely follow his example and add this simple reinforcement when we meet with City officials. See the actual regulations at www.lakeoswego.city/short-term-rentals Mark is also a business coach and professional EOS implementer.  You can contact him at Mark@CoachRockwell.com      

Debi Hertert of the Hosting Your Home podcast talks with FabStayz LGBTQ Listing Site founder Robert Geller, about his exciting, new STR platform. Robert has 10 years of experience with his gay travel company "Outings and Adventures".  Through his personal Airbnb hosting experience and Airbnb travel, he saw a real need for a travel platform that would be respectful and safe specifically for LGBTQ travelers.  He's inviting hosts to register, with the agreement that those hosts will be allies of LGBTQ travelers and make them feel welcome.  Robert listed some impressive statistics for the volume of LGBTQ travel that are included below in the show notes. Robert expects the platform to be fully launched by June, 2019 in time for Gay Pride and the large amount of travel that goes with it.  Hosts are invited to register at FabStayz.com during the beta version. FabStayz has a process for incorporating  Airbnb listings into the FabStayz platform.  Hosts pay a subscription price to FabStayz to be listed and attract bookings.   2:00 -  6:00  Robert talks about his gay travel company startup that followed a corporate job layoff in 2008.  He started the company “Outings and Adventures” initially to offer activities for the LGBTQ community outside of a bar.  They did paddle boarding, kayaking, tree climbing, sushi cooking etc. It morphed into the travel company and now they do things like a riverboat bike tour on the Moselle river!.  He is also an Airbnb superhost and traveler.  With “air quotes”, Robert said the first “adventure” wasn’t very adventuresome.  It was attending the very first showing of the movie Sex in the City. He could only get 10 tickets, but those first 9 email addresses have grown into a travel company with 8,000 email addresses and 10,000 Facebook likes. 6:00 - 20:00 What was the origin of FabStayz? His experiences as a gay Airbnb host showed him the need for a hosting/traveling environment that is safe for both parties. His description of these experiences are compelling.  He saw an opportunity to elevate the experience of the guest and host for LGBTQ travel. He knows that many LGBTQ travelers wait with anxiety to learn how the host might respond to an exploratory email such as “my partner and I”...waiting and wondering and worrying. Robert doesn’t want this to be the way it is.  FabStayz is an LGBTQ brand, not a gay brand. Often a gay brand is hyper-sexualized, and FabStayz is not. Imagery, language etc on the platform speaks to everyone in the community, fun and uplifting. FabStayz is aligning with visitor bureaus and the LGBTQ chambers of commerce all over the country and are being well received. 20:00 - 25:00 An “Ally”  is defined on the FabStayz website as a person who helps this cause.  Debi mentions that crossing cultural gaps is difficult. Not everyone knows what to say or how to reach out.  She asked about an educational component. Robert also points out that this is an opportunity for hosts to differentiate themselves to market to this community.  He stated that LGBTQ travel accounts for $200 billion spent per year, 77% of the LGBTQ community have valid passports; and often travel to a Pride event outside their home community and stay an average of 4 days. 25:00 - 29:30 So how does FabStayz actually work?  Robert describes how in beta, people can go to FabStayz.com and register there.  The site hasn’t even launched yet but has support from the LGBTQ community of every ethnicity.  Every "acronym" and ethnicity is represented on his staff, helping making decisions.  What happens when you register? You are asked which platforms you are listed on, with Airbnb being the preferred platform to begin with. They discussed the possibility of direct bookings, as well as VRBO.    29:30 -32:00  When are you going to launch?  Robert feels like they are just weeks away.  Beta 2 is even more beautiful than Beta 1. For sure, Robert wants his FabStayz LGBTQ listing site to be fully launched by June, 2019 which is Pride month.  It will be a great story to share around the world! LINKS: www.FabStayz.com  

Debi Hertert talks with her friend and colleague Tyann Marcink about how Tyann got started in the vacation rental hospitality business, and the many hats that Tyann wears.  The two spoke in October, 2018 when Tyann participated in the Host2Host Vendor Fair in Portland, Oregon.  So listeners will find a wealth of information about vacation rentals, coming from a person who has now spent 10 years in the business and who teaches it in  bootcamp workshops.  Tyann is also the Community Ambassador for  the TouchStay Digital Guidebook product for short-term rentals.  Right after this interview, Tyann Marcink spoke at the international Vacation Rental Management Association on the Guest Experience, because it's a passion for her and she knows what she's talking about!   1:45 Welcome Tyann!  – She talks about being from a large midwest family and says she began writing a historical romance novel about the family moving from Germany in 1860. One of her brothers just moved into the 1872 rock house built in Missouri – he’s the 6th generation of their family to live in the house! How she got started, and how she copes 4:30 Tyann's hosting story starts in Branson, Missouri. Her aunt and uncle bought a small, 4BR house there to rent out, and did pretty well. Her parents saw the opportunity! They bought several houses there over a few years, selling their commercial real estate property to solely invest in vacation rentals. Tyann signed a contract to have a house built. She had her listing up with floor plans and photos from a model home. And four months (plus one newborn) later, the day it closed they had their first guest! It’s definitely a family affair: she and her family own 16 vacation rental houses and are building more. 8:30 Debi and Tyann talk about how Tyann manages her houses with all the other things she has going on in her life. The housekeeping business that she hires is the key, critical element because she lives a couple of hours away. She talks about the company, what they do, and answers Debi’s question about what it costs. She makes a special point of recognizing and remembering them. One of her housekeepers even makes sure the TV modes are set correctly. She sends him brownies. Vetting guests,  security deposits, putting things in perspective 12:30 Vetting guests, security deposits, guest pictures.  She may surprise you, but she has years of experience. 15:00 The rare guests who didn’t work out…Tyann’s electronic lock sends her notifications of when the door is opened, and that helped trigger some alarm bells in her head, so she gave a heads up to her housekeeping company.  Cigarette and marijuana smoke inside the house, among other things. 20:00 So what happened when Tyann reported the cleaning costs to Airbnb?  Debi knows that Airbnb is increasingly supporting the guest, versus the host, even in some egregious situations. But Tyann still says that in 10 years, she’s only had to bill guests cards for damage twice, and the marijuana people. Because of this experience, she stopped taking same-day bookings, which is often an alarm for vacation rentals. Tools of the trade 22:30 Using a Reservation Management System. Tyann avoids using Instant Book on more than one site to avoid double bookings. The Reservation Management System does update every 30 minutes. And she wishes she had used a system even way back when she had only a couple of properties – the system has automated emails that are personalized. There are many good companies providing these systems, with different prices. Tyann uses “Owner Reservations”. She recommends looking closely them to choose the best fit. This varies from a Channel Management System, which pushes out the rates to the various channels such as VRBO, Airbnb etc. These software systems do cost money, but she is a busy mom and business person and values her time. 29:00 So how does Tyann hold it all together? She manages 5 houses, is a professional photographer, has three teenagers, co-teaches the “VR Mastered” bootcamps, and is the Community Ambassador for TouchStay Digital Guidebook, a UK-based company that is now including community information in it's guidebooks. Tyann told Debi that in the case of The Little Elephant company, her line of room décor, she created the painted designs and taught a person how to do the painting, and that person now runs the little business for her. She and Alanna Schroeder of The Distinguished Guest have held three VR Mastered bootcamps. The sessions are 5 days long, only 25 people allowed, and it’s an intense 5 days of hospitality, newsletters, Facebook ads, Social Media, photography. Their participants have varied in experience from none to 10 years. Everyone learns at these camps. TouchStay Digital Guidebook 35:00 TouchStay – Tyann went through the history of the product and described the company as super ethical, and has a great Digital Welcome Book. It’s completely web-based, don’t have to download an app. And after it’s set up, the guests love it and the host can easily print it out and bind it to keep in the rental space. Troubleshooting tips for the TV, coffee maker, good restaurants etc all go into the guidebook. 40:45 Ask for help when you need it! Form a team, don’t expect perfection, value the team. People remember how you make them feel, even if they don’t remember what you said.  Tyann spoke at the International Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) in Las Vegas in October, 2018, a week after this interview with Debi, along with Heather Bayer (Cottage Blogger), and Andy McNulty (Touchstay). The topic was the Guest Experience. The presentation was based on Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages, and practical ways to include all five when interacting with your guests. See the links at the end of the show notes if you want to see what your love languages are. LINKS:   Tyann's links: Love language quiz: tyannmarcink.com/love tyannmarcink.com bransonfamilyretreats.com missourihaus.com bookthebankhaus.com nattymedia.com littleelephantcompany.com loveofthegameart.com Other links from the interview: Andy McNulty, TouchStay Digital Guidebook:  touchstay.com VR Mastered bootcamp workshops: vrmastered.com Host2Host Portland Oregon:  host2host.org Owner Reservations ("Owner Res") reservation management system: https://www.ownerreservations.com/ Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA): vrma.com Heather Bayer, the Cottage Blogger: cottageblogger.com Alanna Schroeder, The Distinguished Guest: thedistinguishedguest.com     

Download Episode! Airbnb Hosts love what we do - the hospitality, meeting travelers, interacting with happy people, and showing off our places.  There are problems, ranging from rude guests, messes, animals, noise etc.  But physical safety isn't a common part of the experience. This episode addresses two incidents around the same time in Portland involving guns.  No one was physically hurt, but this is a good lesson about people who don't see guns as part of their world, and people who don't see the world without guns.   0:00 – 4:00 Introduction and discussion about the upcoming Host2Host.org Vendor Fair in Portland, October 20, 2018. 4:00-8:40 Dan Cohen has been a host for 2 years in the Laurelhurst neighborhood in Portland and instantly found he liked hosting.  Dan has two listings that are short-term rentals. He enjoys the communications with travelers and providing hospitality.  Wife Jacki, with Dan cater to people who are visiting children and grandchildren as well as those visiting Portland. They mostly get couples or single people. Dan is a co-host, helping out friends who want to be involved in short-term hosting but who don’t want to do the work. He takes care of 7 listings, managing the advertising and most of the cleaning. [At the time of the interview, Airbnb still had a specific co-hosting option.] 08:40 – 13:00 Dan finds a gun. Dan describes the situation he encountered while cleaning after a guest checked out. He and Jackie went in on a Saturday morning with their 6-year old daughter. After an hour or so, he noticed that something had been left on the nightstand. It turned out to be a gun in a holster. He has little experience with guns but wanted to disarm it. His daughter was still in the room on the couch. He removed the magazine and thought he’d disarmed it but didn’t know for sure. He went onto the Portland Area Facebook Site and posted a picture and asked for advice. He received instant response. Most responses said to contact the police. The guest who checked out was a woman and was a good guest (other than the gun) so he didn’t want to call and turn her in, but was just really concerned. After he called the police, he got an email from the guest saying that she’d left behind her gun. 13:00-17:00 Dan’s guest emails him about the gun: “I need to let you know that the nightstand by the bed contains my Celtic 32 pistol that I travel with for protection. It is loaded, with one in the chamber, it has no safety, so please be careful…I’m very sorry about this, we are almost home … I don’t think you can ship it, so I will need to come back and pick it up from you… I just remembered now or I would have called you earlier …if you can please keep it somewhere safe and I can arrange to pick it up next weekend, I would be grateful.” At this point, Dan began feeling angry because of her nonchalance. The police were on their way, and when the officer came in, he pulled back the sliding piece at the top and a bullet flew out. It was loaded even without the magazine. The officer seemed a little confused about what to do, and told Dan that he could either give the gun back to the owner or the police could do it. The officer then called the guest and spoke with her directly, and then took the gun and left, saying that the guest would come and pick it up from the police. 17:00-22:00 Dan emails his Airbnb guest. Debi and Dan discussed the response he got from the Portland Area Airbnb Host Facebook group. He was very impressed. Most were supportive, some argued for guns in support of the guest, but he began to feel more and more upset. He realized how dangerous the situation was. “Kathy – we are more upset and angry than you can imagine. We are not “inconvenienced”. We return forgotten items to our guests all the time. It’s part of our job. Yesterday morning, we all went into the studio together, Jacki and I and our 6-year old daughter. We were there an hour before I found your loaded gun. 24 hours later and I am still shaking. What if my daughter had found it? What if we were a statistic right now? Me dead, my wife dead, my daughter dead. Any combination of those things could have happened because of a scared, irresponsible, truly unforgivable gun owner who left a loaded gun behind with no safety, a bullet in the chamber, in reach of a child. Before you apologize for our inconvenience, please consider what you actually did. The risk you put us in, and the fear and dread we still feel…thank you for reading this, and I hope this wakes you up…. “I’m terribly sorry, it was irresponsible and I have never done that before. I am so glad to know you are all safe and definitely wanted you to know the second I had remembered. It definitely has been on my mind that not everyone has a comfort level with guns. My dad is a police officer and so my comfort level with them is different. I understand your side, and again I am terribly sorry.” 22:00-25:30 Dan’s recommendations: Debi and Dan continued discussing his feelings about this, and what he might do differently. He said the guest was an older woman, a real estate agent who might go into unsafe areas, lots of reasons to justify having the gun but no excuse to forget it where she did. He recommended that if anyone experiences this, they should not touch the gun if possible, call the police right away, and should ahead of time put it in their house rules disallowing weapons. Debi asked if it might make us less safe in some way? Dan still wants to put a house rule of no guns. And he thanked Debi for her work on Host2Host.org. 25:30-29:00 Another incident - Tamara Goldsmith: Debi wraps it up with Dan, but says that there was another incident about the same time, and begins a new interview, talking with Tamara Goldsmith, a Portland host and shop owner. Tamara renovated a church about 8 years ago to be her home, and converted part of the back to be an ADU in 2014. She and a friend wanted a big, odd place to renovate, and she and Debi discussed Tamara’s Airbnb, how far back off the street and quiet it is. She has one bedroom and can accommodate 4 people maximum. She has met lots and lots of travelers. 29:00-38:30 The cleaner had a gun pulled on her. Just a week after Dan's incident, she got a text from her housekeeper who said her employee got a gun pulled on her. It was a chaotic, confusing time and she tried to get back with her but couldn’t get through – she offered what support she could over text, but pieced together that her employee claimed she had a gun pulled on her and was not coming back. Tamara went over to the apartment, the guest was a young woman with her husband and sister and baby. It was the sister who pulled the gun and explained that the cleaner walked in on them. Tamara asked if they were aware it was 2 hours past checkout time, the guest wrongly thought they were checking out the next day, and Tamara showed them proof they were to check out today. Tamara said she’d help them pack up, the house was a wreck and the guest launched into the story in a defensive manner and that it wasn’t unusual in Texas for people to carry guns. Tamara tried to listen to both sides, and wrote to Airbnb the next day saying that the guest or guests’ sister should have a flag on their account for these actions. Airbnb responded with the policy “express permission must be stated before ever bringing a firearm into another person’s home”. The guest was out within an hour after helping them pack up. The Airbnb employee also recommended that Tamara also add “no weapons” in her house rules. Also Airbnb recommended the cleaners need to knock on the door loudly and announce loudly “Housekeeping”. Airbnb ended up terminating the guest’s account, and the guest contacted Tamara to ask if she could intervene. Tamara did think Airbnb's response was stronger than needed, as it was her sister’s actions, but it was Airbnb’s call. Tamara also told Debi that all of her cleaners are African Americans and told her that when you see a gun, you run. It really was humbling to Tamara.  Debi mentioned that Airbnb recently sponsored Implicit Bias training for Host2Host, but this goes so much beyond that. 38:30-43:36 What to do differently? Tamara now reminds guests that their checkout is in the next morning. She sends a note the night before and says hope you have had a great visit, and about checkout at 10:00. She also has housekeeping knock loudly and announce they are housekeeping, and addressing it in her house rules. Debi discussed the cultural differences between Portland and other areas that have more guns. Tamara also expressed her appreciation for the Portland Area Airbnb Host Facebook group for the discussions there when she needed support. 43:36 Debi’s final comments, including reading Airbnb’s rules about weapons. LINKS: Tamara's Airbnb listing:  https://abnb.me/EVmg/uzxl8Ba10N Tamara's shop:  http://reduxpdx.com Dan's listings and his co-host listings: The Studio: https://abnb.me/EVmg/xve1WOxkeK The Laurel: https://abnb.me/EVmg/WUpoPOc3iK The Laurelhurst: https://abnb.me/EVmg/VOR9Ncv3iK Co-Hosting The artFlat: https://abnb.me/EVmg/h1coTYf3iK The Oasis: https://abnb.me/EVmg/z20EzXj3iK The Nest: https://abnb.me/EVmg/1TVAfxm3iK The Daydream: https://abnb.me/EVmg/Tj2hKFo3iK

Download Episode! Kati and Brian Greene are two long-time travelers who produced an eBook of interviews with vacation rental industry “thinkers and do’ers”. Now, they have created a structured video course, teaching smart phone photography to vacation rental owners. There are good reasons to use professional photographers, but there are also good reasons to learn to take our own pictures to manage property updates and pictures of surrounding neighborhoods. Those pictures have to be good enough to blend in with the other professional pictures on our listings. And, it turns out, they can! 0-3:30 Debi describes how she met Kati and Brian, through a book interview. 3:30 – 9:00 The two are living in New Zealand but also Italy and France – they try to find longer term vacation rentals to base out of. They called themselves Superguests before Airbnb did, and are really into the guest experience. Their company, “overlooked2overbooked.com” provides photography training so that hosts can learn to do their own photography using cell phones. During their years of travel, they found that something like half of the sites they’ve considered staying in lacked good quality pictures. Sometimes they’d book a place on another continent and really wanted to see the photo quality match the quality offered in the written description. 9:00 – 12:45 Discussion of why hosts would want to learn these photography skills, in addition to using professional photography. Kati says is more about the photographer than the high-end camera tool. 12:45 – 16:45 Kati and Brian’s Course: Kati describes the content of the 3-hour video course, broken up in three parts. First is getting to know your phone camera, lighting, all the technical stuff, then walking through an Airbnb looking over Kati’s shoulder, then editing the pictures, selecting the right photos and how to sequence them. The videos are mostly 4-5 minutes, with the longest being 10 minutes. The course is $197. They have a second level, which includes phone consulting prior to the shoot, and Kati will edit up to 20 pictures because she knows that a lot of people might be uncertain about editing. 16:45 – 18:00 Brian discusses the value of learning these photography skills. One example is that you can also take good neighborhood photos, something you don’t usually get from your professional photographer, because it takes too much time. 18:00 Kati & Brian’s Book: They interviewed 28 people who they feel are resources in the industry – an hour of Skype interview boiled down after editing to 5 or 6 pages, which are the best 2 or 3 minutes of the hour. They plan on doing a podcast that will utilize the original full interviews. They interviewed Matt Landau, Heather Bayer, Wheelhouse, Andrew McConnell, Logify, Party Squasher, Erica Muller, and many others including lots of Airbnb experts. They asked a set of questions focused towards a hypothetical new owner. They didn’t want it to just be a list of companies. The book is being offered free on their website. 23:30 Brian noted that 70% of people don’t entertain the thought of hiring a professional photographer. But whether you use a pro or not, there is a value of learning to do this yourself, being true to your rental offering with pictures that are realistic and good quality. Most of the modern smart phones, whether iPhone or not are fine for taking solid pictures. They originally thought the course would focus on the actual details of the photograph, but have evolved to teaching about the emotional appeal of the pictures. In her wrapup, Debi laughs about not intending to do an info-mercial but found the course to be really useful and recommends it. (Debi has no financial connection with Kati and Brian) LINKS http://overlooked2overbooked.com/ And remember to check their free e-Book offer on the website

Download Episode! Kim Boaz is the owner of Back to Basics Bookkeeping in Portland, Oregon.  Debi Hertert from the podcast “Hosting Your Home” talks with Kim in this short, upbeat interview.  Many short-term rental owners who use Airbnb, VRBO, or their own website don’t consider their businesses to be large enough to warrant professional bookkeeping or CPA support.  Listeners who frequent Facebook groups such as the Portland Area Airbnb Hosts know that questions constantly arise about occupancy taxes, income taxes, which IRS schedule to use, what are legitimate expenses etc.  And people try to answer them as best they can, but if you are not sure about what you’re doing, a professional bookkeeper and CPA combination might be the answer.  Kim has 20 years of bookkeeping experience, and has five short-term rental clients at the moment.  She is also a business member of Host2Host, the nonprofit association with the goal of being “By Hosts, For Hosts”.   0:00-2:00 Debi introduces Kim, and then goes into a series of questions: 2:00 Why would a host want a bookkeeper? Kim:  To be compliant with the IRS and the State; become sure of how your business operates What kind of trouble could a host get into? Kim: The most common problem is mixing business and personal income in the same account vs having a separate business account. And many people will report the gross income without including their expenses that would help them. How many Airbnb hosts do you take care of? Kim: Five hosts now.  I’ve been doing Airbnb’s for 3-4 years, and have learned as we went along.  I have also worked with CPAs who are also learning their way along.  And, I have been learning hosts’ needs. 7:00 What are some best practices? Kim:  Keep accounts separate; keep receipts (don’t throw away that paper receipt); and use some sort of record keeping software, like QuickBooks. If you’re keeping digital records instead of paper records? Kim:  There are lots of apps out there to use to scan in receipts. 9:00 What about mileage? Kim:  There is an app called “Mile IQ” that has a 14 day free trial and allows you to swipe left or right for business or personal as you begin a drive, and you get a monthly report.  Hosts can only deduct either Auto expenses or mileage; you can only report one, not both. 10:45 Cost of QuickBooks? Kim:  That has ranged a huge amount in the past five years, and currently has four different packages, from $20 - $60/month.  But as a client with a bookkeeper who has the software, you can pay wholesale by using their subscription as the base. 12:14 What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and a CPA? Kim:  A bookkeeper does the daily duties, tracks all the receipts, and enters data into accounting software.  A  CPA takes the information from the bookkeeper and prepares the tax return.  There are some bookkeepers who are also Licensed Tax Preparers, but they don’t go through the more extensive training that CPAs do. 13:15: What would it cost someone to hire a bookkeeper? Kim:  That also varies widely.  It depends on how many accounts a client has, and how many transactions each account has.  Typically, at the beginning there is a higher cost as the bookkeeper gets all the entries caught up for the year. What if you start out at the very beginning, with an Airbnb host who has just one listing? Ballpark? Kim:  Getting them set up on QuickBooks might cost $250-$350.  That would be to organize and set up, implement the Chart of Accounts etc.  Then I give clients the option of the client doing the data entry, or me doing it, or some combination.  If a host feels like cash flow is an issue, I go through baby steps with the client. 16:42 Have you dealt with any audits? Kim:  Not as far as rentals are concerned, but I have been involved in other audits. If a client gets audited, their bookkeeper can join them.  The more organized you look, for example if you have a system, the more they will leave you alone. 17:15: Any horror stories to share? Kim:  No horror stories, but I’ve seen everything!  I’ve been doing bookkeeping for 20 years.  The biggest challenges are clients who bring a giant tote of receipts and haven’t filed taxes in several years.  But I actually enjoy tackling these super-challenging problems. I work out a game plan with the client, set up the accounting software, all the steps needed to get back into compliance. 19:13 You wrote articles for the Host2Host website, correct? And do you have anything else you’d like to share? Kim:  Yes.  My biggest advice to hosts is to not be afraid to reach out to bookkeepers.  And, I created a non-profit called All Star Accounting Professionals – the association has all kinds of professional members. Hosts are welcome to reach out to me via email with questions. 20:35 Thank you!!   LINKS Kim’s articles on the Host2Host.org website (H2H.org members can read both articles, non-members just the summary):  https://host2host.org/Linked-Content Kim’s business:  www.backtobasicsbookkeeping.com Kim’s nonprofit professional association:  http://allstaraccountingprofessionals.com/

Download Episode! Matt Landau         To many hundreds of independent vacation rental owners and VR managers, Matt Landau is the guru of the vacation rental market.  He translated his remarkable experience in Panama into a valuable VR knowledge base that continues to expand within the large, virtual community that he has created.  Matt’s experience, his sense for kind and appreciative personal relations, and his drive for professionalism make him a natural leader for other VR entrepreneurs.  Matt talks with Debi about his background, creation of his VR community Inner Circle, and why he involved gang members in his vacation rental business.  It was a triumph of conversion from a severe, dangerous  humanitarian loss into a unique asset. Debi finds out how Matt found Costa Rica, Panama, New Orleans, how he got his start, what his mistakes have been.  Despite Matt’s experiences and position at the center of the Inner Circle, he is a humble, genuine person who earns people’s trust honestly. Debi Hertert encourages Matt to share some of his experience with her audience. The following show notes are a full transcript, with time markers. LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place [00:45] Debi Hertert introduces the audience to Matt Landau, his “Inner Circle”, and his YouTube TV series “A Sense of Place”. [05:00] Finding Costa Rica:  Using Matt’s Inner Circle members’ questions, Debi asked Matt about the “back story” – how’d he get started?  Matt studied economics in school – but might not have been that enamored with the major.  He chanced upon a story about a University of Richmond graduate who moved to Costa Rica and started an online travel agency, Costa Rica Vacations.  Casey happened to be in Charlotte, VA when Matt called him, and agreed to meet.  He made a 6-month job available to Matt in Costa Rica in 2006.  Casey asked Matt to write a book for Costa Rica Vacations that would be informative for guests, and not be available from any other source.  Matt traveled around Costa Rica to see the various partners that Casey worked with and was jazzed with the experience of traveling in the country, staying sometimes at vacation rentals, sometimes hotels and immediately knew he loved the vacation industry. [09:00] – Finding Panama:  Everyone he met in that first six months encouraged Matt to check out Panama – coincidentally, Casey was at that time interested in possibly opening a branch of his travel agency in Panama, so they checked it out together.  Matt started a blog “The Panama Report” which was one of the first Travel and Investment blogs for Panama, and he found a taste for the life.  On that very same visit, he found the tiny historic district of Casco Viejo: Matt: “I met two gentlemen from Holland, Paulus and Eric who were running the only accommodations in all of Casco Viejo.  It was called ‘Los Cuatro Tulipanes’ (The Four Tulips).  And it was a revolutionary experience for me.  I went into it nervous and uncertain and curious not only about the rentals but the neighborhood.  And it just blew my mind and I decided that this was a neighborhood in which I wanted to live.   Almost within the next 6 months, a series of events happened that I could have never planned but that ended up setting me up for where I am today.  It was a combination of the travel agency that Casey was opening up doing really well, and needing to place people in the evolving historic district of Casco Viejo, and Paulus and Eric determining they were going to leave Panama for some reasons that are probably worth a separate day. And they said to me ‘we are going to shut this business down unless we can sell it to one person and that's you”. Debi: you had you had not spoken to them about it? Matt:  “Not at all. I was helping them a little bit with their marketing after I had stayed. I was living in Panama in the downtown area but I just felt like it was an alignment of stars. And I found a small handful of business partners who were already involved in the neighborhood and on the real estate side of things and others were coming from the United States and we put together a little team. And next thing you know we are running a vacation rental business in Panama.  It was the only place to stay in town and if you had come to Casco Viejo between 2009 and 2013 there was nowhere to stay but with us. We just learned everything on the fly. Fantastic and there was nobody to take our place.” [13:00] Birth of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog: Debi: and then while you were there you started the vacation rental marketing blog? Matt:  “So that was a really hilarious pivot in all of this in that we learned everything on our own in very much the same way all our colleagues have. I felt like I had a really good notebook of information of stuff that worked because I keep copious notes and I structured it a little bit and made it into the form of an eBook. And it was essentially like the best ways to market your vacation rental business but I wasn't sure that vacation rentals were the right demographic to buy the eBook. So I made four.  I've actually never shared this.  I made four websites: HowToIncreaseHotelOccupancy.com; HowToIncreaseResortSales.com; Bed and BreakfastAdvertising.com and VacationRentalMarketingBlog.com.  One page on each website; the same book for sale on each website with a different title.  The same price. It was an ultimate control versus variable experiment. I pumped probably like 200 bucks worth of add words into that experiment. I was driving traffic from Google to these four sites to see which ones worked.  And one of them blew the others out of the water: Vacation Rental Marketing Blog.   I dropped all the others and I said okay I guess this means I should focus on the vacation rentals.” Debi: Holy cow! On my computer I have a file folder that says ‘The Vault’ Matt:  “Yes!  Those were the original documents; like How to Boost Occupancy. And I refer back to those fairly often to see if they’re still good or not, has the industry changed, and most of the advice was pretty solid”. Debi: Can I ask you how old you are?  (35) So you started this when you were 25 years old? Matt:  “Yeah – right out of college” I would say it's fearless but it's really what everybody in our industry does at the beginning.  It’s just winging it. Debi: Honestly, all the dominoes falling in the right place all the right people came. The universe just looked after you beautifully! Matt: “and I think that's true. A lot of people got into this business. If it wasn't an accident it was some bit of alignment of stars adversity whatever you want to call it that brought this opportunity in front of them and they ran with it.” [15:30] “The Inner Circle” Debi: So what was your thinking when you started the Inner Circle? What was your goal then, and how do you see that you might have met or not met that? Matt:  “Well, before the Inner Circle I was creating one-off Learning Materials eBooks video courses, guides, things like that and I realized that I was putting myself at a bit of a disadvantage because even if someone absolutely loved my work and purchased the book or the video course or whatever, I needed to go and create more in order to sell to them and that was like a bit of a spinning wheel. So I decided to pivot the business model instead of selling one-off learning materials to build a small fee, monthly membership Community where you would have access to all the learning materials that are created on a regular basis but also get this community element that has that's kind of proven to be so unique.” Debi: Have you been in a community like that before? (No) So you really didn't know whether or not it was going to go. Matt:  “Virtually speaking, no. But guess where I was? Physically located in a community called Casco Viejo that was developing from scratch. We were solving our own trash problems, crime problems, we were dealing with like every type of neighborhood building challenge you can imagine.  And I all the sudden start seeing all these overlaps.  Like wait a minute, this is how we do it in real life, why shouldn't that work virtually? And what we have now I think in the Inner Circle is a very tight-knit Community. People who stand for the same thing but who happen to be located everywhere throughout the world. It's a cool thing to compare real life community building and virtual community building. It's a private community, so that kind of immediately rules out anyone who's not serious. The fact that you have to pay means that you will need to be committed to learning. It's one part learning materials, eBooks, courses, workshops. One part open forum - ask questions and get answers from people who have been through it before. And the Inner Circle membership also includes real life meetups. Last year we hosted 26. And you attended one yesterday and those are a chance to bring the virtual sides of our lives down to earth and actually meet each other in person and learn. That’s the value proposition but in general it's owners and managers who are serious and who want to grow.  And it's a very small minority of the general vacation rental population but we're okay with that.” Debi: You also have grown immensely in the last few years. How many members are there now? Matt: “842 - not that anyone's counting” [ [18:45] From Gangs to Esperanza (Hope):  Debi:  Rick Oster wants to know why you started the charity with the gang members? Matt:  “Necessity. This neighborhood that I had fallen in love with had a very serious problem which was prohibiting me and others from contributing, and that was gang violence.  And we had specifically 4.5 almost five street gangs who were constantly at one another and that made walking to the grocery store in the morning a bit of a challenge.  It also made running a hospitality business a little daunting. I wasn't even comfortable with guests walking to certain areas for fear that they would get robbed. So the first, real reason that we put together the program was safety. That's the number one thing about any community. If it's not safe nothing else can happen.” Debi: And did that ever happen? Did anyone get robbed? Matt: “Yes, on a regular basis. In the early days we had a map and we would draw very clearly where it was okay to walk and where was not okay to walk.  And of course, the adventuresome traveler who doesn't like to listen to instructions would venture off the beaten path and almost like clockwork get robbed. It was never a violent crime it was almost always petty stuff. But we had plenty of gunshots. The specific impetus for Esperanza was when we lost a little neighbor of ours named Kevin, who was eight, on the block right outside Tulipanes. I would say that was the breaking point.  We realized this is something needs to be done and no one else is going to solve this problem.  I also had the wonderful guidance of another mentor whose name is also KC, who had a vision. And that was to not only demobilize these gangs but to give their members a real opportunity to participate in the community. And that was something so fascinating to me it was almost beyond my comprehension. But I knew where I could be helpful. I knew how to mobilize the neighbors, all of whom were ready to be helpful. Again, ‘Community 101’. And once the program picked up steam it was almost just this epiphany of realizing that we could take a problem and actually make it part of a solution. And that ended up benefiting everybody in the neighborhood to the point that the very same gang members that were robbing my guests in the early days were at this point offering walking tours to the same tourists and being featured in Travel, and Leisure, and GQ, adding value to the community where they were formerly taking it away. It got started out of pure necessity but picked up momentum because of hope. And I think those are probably the two little factors that start most of these revolutions that are happening in neighborhoods around the world.” [listeners/readers – please do yourselves a favor and follow the link at the end of these show notes] Debi: So where do you see yourself going now? Matt: “San Francisco…my mom is going to receive an award and my whole family is going to celebrate that with her. But what I always like to say is that I know I'm not exactly sure where this is all going but I do know that I'm doing it with the right people. 23:30 New Orleans: Debi: And you're in your next phase, you’ve sold Los Tulipanos and you’re now living in New Orleans.  You’re renting so you're not quite settled Matt:  “Home base will be New Orleans and people ask why I chose New Orleans.  One, because I like the idea of spending some time in the States after almost 12 years living in Panama. Two, I wanted warm weather. I'm big on that. I’ve spent plenty of cold winter months in New Jersey. And, I wanted to be central to where most of my travel and my colleagues are located which is North America. And in some cases South America and perhaps most importantly I wanted to be somewhere with character. Which New Orleans has. That's my home base for the moment and I'll keep going back there in between my trips and I'll begin you know writing my address on Decatur Street on forms and things like that. I have a license plate. So I guess that qualifies as a home for the moment but I'm not sure where I'm going. I do know that I'm doing it with a lot of people that I admire.” [24:30] A Sense of Place Internet TV Show: Debi: Well in your phase includes the TV show or, would you call it a TV show? Matt: “Jessica Mosel just said it's an Internet TV show. It's a travel show that features vacation rentals.” Debi: And you got your blog still and you got your podcast that you say you’re reviving and the Inner Circle. So do you have to have plans for the Inner Circle?  I mean what I'm seeing you do is kind of pull all of this together into kind of one overarching support activity. Matt:  “The inner circle is certainly critical to my livelihood because it's where I generate dollars like that's my salary income. The other stuff tends to be a way to ultimately get someone to join the Inner Circle even though maybe only a small percentage of the people actually will.  But there's a general direction through the podcast through the blog through the show after most of the events that I like to support like this one where we are right now, the Vacation Rental Success Summit. To get my brand out there and my brand is primarily education and empowering these owners and managers with all the right tools and resources to do their own great work. And I believe that that kind of positive energy that style of help don't sell marketing will ultimately trickle back so we are indeed looking to grow the Inner Circle but slowly and surely and I think that's a nice recipe. You’re very much of a founding member there and people think I exaggerate but I consider all of my inner circle colleagues very much my mentors and my friends and we all bring to this community something so different from our former lives. And they were all looking to improve and grow.” 27:00 So what about Airbnb?   Debi: It’s just so charming to watch you grow! I remember not too long ago you were like really down on Airbnb, you didn't think Airbnb was ever going to make it or be a presence in this industry. What do you think now? Matt:  “They most certainly are I'll tell you that much if you close your ears off to reality you don't grow one bit that's for sure. That's a survival tactic!” Debi: So you’ve now stayed in Airbnb’s? (Many) Okay and so what do you think? Matt: “I think Airbnb is probably the most important thing to happen to this industry. I say this industry because they are very much synonymous with what we do. The gentleman in the lobby of this hotel asked ‘are you here for the Airbnb thing?’ (Oh dear) Of course I didn't correct him, I know exactly what he was talking about and that represents the general public.  Airbnb is synonymous with short-term rentals. I think that that kind of awareness is incredible.  I mean you could not have asked for a better explosion in this movement. That being said, I think with that comes a whole lot of responsibilities that Airbnb is still trying to figure out. And I also constantly go back to this question what is best for the greater vacation rental industry. And sometimes it will frustrate an independent owner because they don't think that we’re actually including them personally, but it also goes for Airbnb.  And when decisions are made that impact the greater industry, one bad apple in an Airbnb could affect a greater population. And I think there are plenty of challenges that come with that role in the community. It's changed a whole lot of people's lives. I think there's a huge gamut of players in the Airbnb ecosystem there's people that are as professional as any of the other vacation rental owners and managers we have here. I stayed in an Airbnb in Amsterdam two weeks ago that was one of the worst hospitality experiences of my life and it was 500 bucks a night. So I think again not unlike the greater industry, plenty of room for improvement but what you can't ignore is the scope of their role in all of this. And people like you, who just adopted the role of community leader and with the help of Airbnb, very much using it almost to get on the shoulders of giants in a way. I think that's a pretty amazing thing.  And really fun watching you go through that process. And I will just add this: I have also got to watch everyone in our community grow too. This is a relatively new industry only been around for 10 or 15 years. Some of us for more but the majority of us have started within that time. And I've had the pleasure of watching them become incredible vacation rental professionals just in the past five ten years. I think that's a really cool thing about our industry we've all got to watch one another grow and evolve and those of us that are still here doing something right.” Debi: And you know the home share [hosts] that I connect with, a lot of them don't really feel like they're part of the vacation rental industry.  They think ‘I'm just retired sharing this room.’  [They often deliver great hospitality, but] they don't really identify with the industry aspect. Matt: “I'm pretty sure they will because I believe the moment you're accepting someone's hard-earned dollars that could otherwise be spent at a local hotel, you’re accepting that you are entering the hospitality industry.  And if you don't, recognize that you're leaving open a lot of room for issues.  This place I stayed in Amsterdam it was a two-bedroom place. We had three people staying there, two people in one bedroom and me in the other and there was only two towels. There was hair in the bathroom and we weren't allowed to check in until 7 in the evening. It was not a lovely experience by any means and I knew that this person didn't necessarily do it as a business more so as a hobby. For that reason I get it. But I do think that if the greater industry again is to involve, every single stakeholder needs to understand that this is indeed a Hospitality business. If you feel like doing someone a favor or doing a little side gig do it on the side don't call yourself a professional vacation rental host, because you’re not. 31:30 Have you ever failed? Matt:  “Oh yeah I feel pretty much every day.” Debi: What is the is one of your biggest failures? Matt: I think I made a pretty sincere failure when I started and I entered with a partner who I was very much simply friends with at the time. We went to the same University. And we had our roles and responsibilities; I was more in charge of the marketing and the sales and branding. He was more in charge of the accounting and the operations side of the business but we never actually clarified it. We never actually wrote it out. Which seemed just like a silly formality”. Debi:  It sounds like a marriage. Matt:  “It was.  And we got divorced. If I had done that all over again I probably would have established roles and responsibilities up front. As well as a timeline just so that the communication was crystal clear. And it wasn't that one another's character or values or anything was being compromised but it became a relationship that wasn't working. In hindsight, I don't think necessarily it could have saved it or made it any different but it would have made it certainly clear and we would have had one less variable to worry about. So now when I go into any kind of partnership, I decide to be very upfront about who's doing what and sometimes it feels weird like even if it's a super close friend or someone at work with for many years. It feels strange to sit down and say you're responsible for this and that's so many hours and if you go over this hours you responsible for this.” Debi: And that's what makes you a good leader too because you know where your boundaries are. Matt:  “And I've seen plenty of spouses and couples in this industry learn this one too. And I'm not married nor am I engaged, don't even have a girlfriend but I hear that relationships are best when there's great communication.” 33:50 “Help, don’t sell” Debi:  Okay, I have a question for you here.  It’s from Terry from the Inner Circle. Where does your penchant come from to help people where you're nurturing nature comes from by continually putting people in a position to succeed? Which you do over and over well. He's a sweetheart. Matt: “He is a sweetheart” Debi: But you do help people. The whole ‘help don't sell’, recognizing people in their success mode, where does that come from? Matt:  “Probably the general generosity comes from my parents. My dad is probably the most generous person that I know. He never ever looks out for himself always someone else first. But I also think it's the path of least resistance when it comes to business. ‘Help, don’t sell’ and generosity in your marketing when it comes to business is the path of least resistance. And it's the most enjoyable path because no longer are you going against anything, trying to break down anything, trying to win over somebody. Rather it's a very passive style you're putting out there helpful things. Most of us have this helpful information within us already so it's merely the act of documenting it and distributing it. And being incredibly open about all of that and just giving it away. What ends up happening is it becomes almost addictive because you've got this momentum about your work and the most grateful people or the people who resonate with that bubble up to the top. And they say ‘you know like that I think I'd like to align myself with this business’. And that goes for all of our business vacation rentals. It is a great example, if you're giving away tons of helpful information about your area and not really caring whether or not the person takes it and runs off and does it on their own at your competitors vacation rentals on the street or not. It's less stress. It’s just like feel free to take this and run if what I'm saying resonates I'd love to speak with you further. It's just more lovely and I think that that common denominator of generosity of giving instead of trying to take. Like they say, all of philanthropy gives you back much more in spades.” 36:30 Vacation rental owners/managers as leaders:  Debi: Thank you so much for doing this with me. Is there anything else that you’d like people to know about you, about your business? Matt:  “Thanks for having me! But I know for a fact that I went through this process the exact same way that all of us have. And I may have been fortunate to stumble into a neighborhood that happened to be evolving, and I happened to have the opportunity again to find vacation rentals in a country that was exploding and these are all convenient factors. But at the end of the day the people who make up this vacation rental movement are all leaders. And I think recognizing that I try to remind people that all the time. The fact that you are very much a Pioneer in this industry, you represent the very cutting-edge, you are the Trailblazers of what has happened in the history here recognizing that and taking on that leader role that you so deserve. And that sometimes means helping others, sometimes means stepping up and taking risks. Whatever that means to you I think we all have it inside of us. I was very humbled just to be sitting here with you sharing my story. I feel a little bit awkward, because you could be interviewing one of the 250 people out there [at the VRSS conference] they all inside of them have a very similar Journey. I think the magic right now is about recognizing that. We have a number of Inner Circle members who are presenting at this conference, hosting panels, who are sharing their wisdom. I even if you go home and you're sharing your advice with other local competitors I think that is something that is truly special and I think it's what makes vacation rentals different from everything else.” Debi: Thank you Matt Landau. Matt: “Thank you Debi Hertert!” LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place    

Download Episode! Mark Sheel is a Google Android developer and Airbnb host in Colorado.  He has long used Meetup.com to organize his large developer group in Denver, and leveraged that experience to create a 500-member   Colorado Airbnb Hosts Meetup. Debi and Mark have been exchanging info and tips for the past couple of years.  Colorado is an exceedingly desirable tourist destination, so it’s no wonder that there is a high interest in Mark’s group in Denver.  This discussion can provide listeners with some ideas of how they might organize groups in their own areas.  The show notes cover much of the conversation.  Airbnb, if you’re reading, Mark wants you to listen to the very end (57:30) or check the show notes to learn Mark’s pet peeve about your calendar software! Links are included at the end of the show notes. 0:00 Debi updates us about Host2Host the Oregon trade association by hosts, for hosts. 3:00 Debi talks about how she and Mark met, and introduces Mark. 4:30 How Mark got started renting on Airbnb and progressed to own two ski condos that he rents out, plus occasional rental of his home in Denver. 13:22 Mark talks about his real profession as a Google Android developer and creating a 600-person meetup group in Denver.  He then goes into starting the Airbnb Meetup group.  He remembers being at the Airbnb Open in San Francisco in 2014.   He was presenting at another conference with Android work, and took advantage of being there.  He said he was blown away with the hospitality of Airbnb and its employees.  So the next year, he attended the Paris Airbnb open and had such a great time there, he realized you couldn’t  explain to people who weren’t there just how fabulous it was.  He traded snowboarding tips with a host from the Middle East, who in turn shared camel riding tips with Mark! 16:50 On his way back home from Paris, Mark found himself a little melancholy over the prospect of not having any more contact with other Airbnb hosts for an entire year until the next Open, so he decided to create a local group.  So – this begs the same question that happened to Debi the year before:  how to reach other hosts when the Airbnb platform blocks it?  This was November 2015.  He was the only attendee at his first Meetup, and the next month he had three.  Now they have over 500 members.  He did have a stroke of luck, in that just then, Airbnb had scheduled a marketing event to recruit more hosts but a blizzard prevented the Airbnb employees from getting to Denver.  Airbnb somehow found Mark and asked him if he’d take over MC’ing the event at a bar they had already rented, and of course he said “Yes”!  Airbnb sent out emails to existing hosts and invited them to come to the bar to meet with Mark and the first drink would be on Airbnb.  Ever since, they’ve had good attendance.  Mark sends out a monthly newsletter with pretty good info about local and even international info. 20:00  Debi asked Mark what his membership requirements are, and he told her that anyone can join, and now he’s getting people to join from outside of Denver,  probably for access to the newsletter and info in it.  He does not have a Facebook account.  He said that he finds leading the Airbnb Meetup to be so easy compared to his Google Meetups, because they can just talk.  He just finds a venue, tells people they can have one free drink, and then the attendees can just mingle and talk.  They do have some curated events and have had some very good speakers, covering taxes, legislation, bedbug-sniffing dogs, etc. 22:00 The site Denver.gov/STR is the repository for Denver short-term rental rules.  Basically, you can only do short-term rental of your house if it’s your primary residence.  You have to be licensed and include the permit number in your listing.  Each host has to collect occupancy tax and two other taxes.  All the hosts there are not opposed to the tax, but they want the City and Airbnb to work out tax collection to be done by Airbnb, so the hosts don’t have to do it.  Denver also allows the host to rent their entire house, part time.  Mark talked about a small part of Denver called Glendale that doesn’t currently have rules about short term rentals. 27:30 Debi asked Mark about an interview in the New York Times that he appeared in.  Mark was contacted by Katie Benner, a reporter for the Times who at the time lived in San Francisco covering Apple and startups in Silicon Valley.  She reached out to Mark in part because of the Colorado Airbnb Hosts Meetup Group.  He laughs about having several hours of interviews with Katie that was reduced to only three sentences in the final article.  During the interview, Mark encouraged Katie to contact Jill Bishop, another Denver host who has lots of great stories and was involved back in 2008 when Denver played an important role for Airbnb.  That was the same time as the Democratic National Convention.  Ultimately, Jill ended up hosting Katie at her home and there ended up being a great article in the Sunday New York Times. Mark knew the article was going to be printed on June 17, 2017 on Father’s Day and tells a cute story about the article and his dad. 32:00 Debi asked if Airbnb gave Mark any recognition over it and he said just some individual employees that he knows did reach out to him.  He said Airbnb supports him when they need something, but not so much in a financial way and he doesn’t really need anything from them.  He thinks that Airbnb’s “Host Clubs” sort of compete with other groups like his and he’s happy that his Meetup pays for itself.  He finds the hardest thing is to find the venues – he knows that the best thing is to have a regular meeting day, like the first Monday of the month, but that just doesn’t work for his travel schedule.  He tries to schedule them 6 weeks ahead. 36:30 So now he uses the same venue, Blake Street Vault, which he began using with his Google group, and the venue likes that he brings in 30 or 40 people on a slow Monday or Tuesday, and all of them have at least one drink (which the sponsors pay for) and a lot of them have food.  Their latest sponsor is “Noise Aware” which makes a product that monitors noise level, without invading guest privacy.  He reached out to this vendor through their website. Sponsors: Mark tries to add photos to each Meetup for interest [ed note: the photographs are private to the meetup, for members’ privacy].  He has a process to onboard new sponsors, where his group tries out the product first, and if they approve of it, they invite the sponsor to give a talk that’s 80% hosting advice and maybe a slide or two at the end that is about their product.  Noise Aware got back to Mark immediately and is now one of their newest sponsors.  Other sponsors include Slice, a Home Sharing insurance company;  Wheelhouse, a dynamic pricing company; Notion, a Denver-based startup making home sensors; LockState, a Denver-based smart lock company;  and Properly, the San Francisco-based company that produces software for managing operations such as cleaning. He really feels strongly about helping the sponsor’s businesses because the hosts end up having better tools. Debi wondered if the sponsors are able to get feedback from hosts – Mark has a private Slack group of 50 members and uses that group to validate products and has provided useful feedback to the vendors.  Slice has been a great vendor and was one of their first sponsors.   They have had some products that didn’t work out.  They don’t use Facebook. 44:00 What does Mark get out of the Meetup?  He describes the level of support and warm feelings that come out of the group.  He says their primary engagement of hosts is at the Meetup face-to-face meetings, and then outside of the in-person meetings there is a limited amount of discussion on Meetup, but 90% of the online conversations are on Slack.  He said there is a constant influx of new members.  He is really excited at how well Denver is growing and thriving.  He considers himself mostly as a matchmaker at the meetings and tries to direct the person to the expert that he knows will have the answer. 49:30 The two begin talking about expanding the Meetup into other areas outside of Denver.  He’s mindful of his time commitment, and can’t put a lot more time into it.  He gives a good rundown of how much time the Meetups take each month, and notes that he really enjoys that time spent. He knows there will be a payback eventually in the form of an answer or help when he might have a critical issue that he doesn’t know how to solve. 53:30 What is Mark passionate about in the Airbnb space?  Airbnb Opens! He recommends everyone attend if another Open is in our future.  He’s also passionate about smart homes.  In his properties he has Google Nest thermostats, Google Home devices (some of his properties use those to turn the lights on and off, music etc).  He uses smart locks and set them to the last four digits of the guest cell number.  He uses Nexia as his lock provider, and the underlying lock is Schlage.  (and he writes his own software for setting the codes).  He uses Nest video cameras for his driveways and feels that these cameras have been very helpful in assisting good guest compliance with some house rules. 57:30 What Mark finds most annoying about Airbnb software?  #1 Pet Peeve:  in the calendar, if he has a five-day minimum stay rule, and if there are two days between stays, in the host view, it shows those days as available; but they’re not available, by rule.  He wants the calendar to show the host the days that are not available if they are not available by rule – and then he wants to be able to easily convert them to be available without going through an elaborate configuration. 59:30 Debi wraps up the conversation. LINKS: Sponsors: Noiseaware:  https://noiseaware.io Lockstate:  https://www.remotelock.com/ Wheelhouse:  https://www.usewheelhouse.com/ Slice Insurance:  https://www.slice.is/ Proper Insurance:  https://www.proper.insure/ Mark's Listings, Meetup info, and NY Times article: vailspot.com airbnb.com/rooms/805030 (vail original) airbnb.com/rooms/14155149 (vail new) airbnb.com/rooms/9512789 (denver) meetup.com/colorado-airbnb-hosts meetup.com/gdg-denver  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/technology/airbnbs-hosts-professional-hotels.html

Here is a fun, short talk from just Debi, about the new Host2Host association.  It is a natural outgrowth of the Portland, Oregon community of hosts and the result of three years of community building through the 41 monthly Meetups Debi has organized, and the great success of the Portland Area Hosts Facebook group.  Debi mentions in her talk that Portland has been told by Airbnb that we have the highest per-capita ratio of Superhosts in the world.  It certainly could be that our community, which tries harder to support than compete, is better for all the communication and has learned to be even better hosts. Moving to a non-profit trade association allows us to afford a website and some other recurring costs, and do an even better job serving the educational and business connection needs of our community. A complete transcript is below, followed by some web links.  If they don't show in your podcast show notes, please go to hostingyourhome.com and read them there! Transcript  [0:34] Welcome to Hosting Your Home, this is Debi. Thanks for being here. Our podcasts are usually about hosting experiences.  I love to interview local hosts (and host from all over the world) about their experiences and to help tell their stories. This week is a little different.   This week you've just got me.  I want to tell you about our new nonprofit organization called Host2Host.  [1:04] You may know a little bit about me; I'm going to tell you a little bit more so that you’ll get the full scope of what we're doing here. My background:   my husband and I have some vacation rentals on the Oregon coast, which I have been managing since 2009, as an ‘accidental’ vacation rental manager.  I didn't know what I was doing and was very hungry for information and connection. I found Matt Landau’s Vacation Rental Marketing Group, and learned a lot from the Inner Circle there.  At some point (I believe it's 2014) Airbnb came to Portland [and Portland began allowing short term rentals as a permitted activity, for the first time]; I had already been renting on Airbnb  since 2010, so I was pretty familiar with the platform and their rental philosophy. After the wonderful exposure with Matt’s group and the Inner Circle, I wanted to connect more with our local hosts.  As a result, I created a Meetup Group [through Meetup.com]  This was in 2014 and the Meetup group has since flourished. 300 members at the date of this podcast.  At some point we decided to create a Portland Area Host Facebook group, and that group has just gone gangbusters, with 910 members at this date]  [2:40] I have always wanted to have a little conference here in Portland and after I started the podcast, I was interviewing some of our local hosts, I started asking them questions like:  “What do you think?  Do you think we could have a conference here? Do you think the people would like it? Do you think that we have the skills and the wisdom here to be able to share who we are and what we do?   Before I knew it, we were organizing a fantastic conference that happened in April 2017.  We were blessed with about 15 core committee organizers who have become fixtures in all of our development after the conference. The public response was overwhelmingly positive with around 140 attendees.  We had educational breakout sessions and some fantastic speakers, keynotes and vendor support.  It was just really, really, really fabulous.  After the conference that it was obvious to us that our community wanted more. We started talking about how we could deliver, and if we could deliver.  We reorganized the Host2Host Conference to support a Host2Host nonprofit membership group. [trade association]  [3:56]  Next month on February 12, 2018 we're going to be rolling out our full offering of Host2Host support services and membership to our local community and to the world at large.  I want to tell you a little bit about what we have planned for that:  We will have will have the education piece.  You know that's really important to me, that's what I do and that's what I love.  We will continue with having conferences and vendor fairs, classes, and meetups. Since 2014, we have hosted 41 monthly meetups!  We will be having workshops.  Our membership consists of  people who have come to this business from all kinds of backgrounds.  We've got professional photographers and lawyers and event planners. You name it, we've got it all. It's very cool to see these people coming forward to share what they know and help us organize into a group that helps to support our community.    Our “Members Only” section will offer a variety of informational articles, such as:  The importance of Photography  Why Hire a Bookkeeper.  Service Animals.  Anatomy of a Lawsuit (oh my goodness!) and  Insurance   There are going to be many, many, more as we continue on.  We will be we will be adding more as we grow, expanding in areas that I'm sure I can't foresee.  [5:32] You also may have heard that in Portland we have had some issues with our city government.  You also probably know if you're an Airbnb host or a host on any platform that there are advocacy issues everywhere in the world right now.  Part of our energy is focused on advocacy, our own permitting process, politics and policy.  In fact just yesterday I was invited to a meeting at City Hall with policy makers.  It was was a fabulous experience!   We want our local government to hear us as a group. We don't need somebody else speaking for us; we want to do our own speaking and be heard and seen for who we are which is, as you know: Members of the community; taxpayers; supporters of local businesses and neighborhoods. There is a there's a lot of work that can be done around that.   [6:42] We also will have a Business Directory so that we can gather support from our local businesses and from Global businesses.  Businesses are invited to include a special offer for members.   I anticipate that not only will we have businesses that come to us because they sell to us but there will also be businesses coming to us, because of what we can offer them. We direct our guests with recommendations to our local businesses.  Membership is going to go live next month with a Grand Reveal gala. We will be having that catered and we’ll have what we're calling fondly the VOTH Hour (Voice Of The Host) featuring a few short inspirational stories from hosts.  Following our VOTH hour, a panel discussion will offer information about the organization and we’ll have Questions and Answers.  The Portland Host Community is the focus for the face-to-face kinds of activities that we have.  We expect that we will have people from all over the world interested in the online part of what we will be offering and we're purposely keeping our subscription rates ridiculously low.  [8:15]  I thought we should be charging more but honestly we really want to cover expenses. None of us are being paid, we are 100% volunteers, but we have a few expenses in hosting the website and various other things.  The host membership is $50 a year. Small businesses with one to five employees will be $75 a year and The larger businesses over 5 employees is $195 a year.  I don't know of any other other membership group that has such low cost and we want to make it available to everyone. We feel that the education of what we do is what makes our industry better and better and better.  I can tell you that Airbnb tells me that our Portland Community per capita has the highest number of superhosts in the world.  And I think that's because of our community and the way we interact with each other.  I hope that you are interested in Host2Host.org and that you will check us out.  Our website will go live February 12th and we would be happy to accept your membership.  [9:51] If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.    I'm available and I respond. You'll find the show notes as always at HostingYourHome.com. Leave me a message, ask a question, make a comment, offer your skills.  Any of the above!  Our next podcast will be back to our normal interview style. Take care, and have a great week!   Oops I forgot a couple of things! Our website Host2Host.org -  on and after February 12, 2018. You will get an “under construction” note if you go now. https://www.facebook.com/host2host/   [11:15] Website:  Hostingyourhome.com Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/HostingYourHome/ Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostingyourhome/  Highly recommended vacation rental guru: Matt Landau:  vrmb.com  

Download Episode! Come to Italy and listen to Debi Hertert talk with Bob Garner about his beautiful, 6-apartment vacation rental in Le Marche, Italy.  Dubbed “Casal dei Fichi”,  12 years ago this building was an ancient farmhouse where the family once lived on the second floor to make use of the heat rising from the animals living on the bottom floor.  From this humble origin,  Bob and his partner Ian created a hospitality work of art.  They transformed the farmhouse into modern, spacious apartments with gorgeous views and amenities.  A swimming pool and olive grove are on the property and every evening, Bob bounds up the stairs (if you are in an upstairs apartment) and knocks on your door to check with you about your day and what you might want to do tomorrow.  There are countless villages, farms, wineries, castles, monasteries, and restaurants just waiting for you!   In this discussion between two friends and colleagues, you will hear about Matt Landau, the “guru” of the Inner Circle, a collection of like-minded entrepreneurs who own and manage vacation rentals around the world.  Matt’s group focuses on how to give the best experiences for guests, and at the same time, how to not be bound to the listing platforms. Debi mentions in her intro that Matt is filming a TV series titled “A Sense of Place”, and Casal dei Fichi is one of the stops. Debi is excited to see this when it comes out.     Bob relates to Debi the story of how he and Ian decided to change from their lives of professional work in London to managing this wonderful vacation retreat in Italy, the (understated) process of rebuilding the farmhouse, and how they interact with their guests.   You will hear some amazing numbers - like 50% plus repeat business, increasing to 70% plus this year...and summer stay requirements of 1 week minimum, Saturday to Saturday, and with many guests booking their stay for the next year, before they leave this year!     Bob doesn’t really say it, other than to note a couple of times that he and Ian live on the property,  so they can interact with guests, but these two people are SO charismatic and social, that half of the stay feels like getting to hang out with them.  We’re not surprised that they have so much repeat business, they engage so fully with their guests that all become friends.   It was a truly memorable experience, and being there for a week was so relaxing and allowed us to visit so many different places in Italy.  Early during the week, Bob suggested we visit a local winery.  And that we take an empty (5 liter?) bottle and have them fill it up.  Which we did, and had wine for the whole week for $8 Euro. !  We also went to a fabulous restaurant with them and several other of their guests, and then went with just the four of us to their favorite restaurant on the coast.  Wow.  That was great seafood and a great view.  We felt so welcomed and integrated to their living, as Debi says in the interview, it was very intimate.   “Giving Back” often comes up with these stories of hospitality.  Bob and Ian introduced us to Treedom, a company that facilitates donations to plant trees, which you will hear about in the interview. The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the thoughtful way that Bob has worked it out with guests and restaurants is an example for all of us to study.  Debi goes on to say that all hosts can find something similar to do, and it helps the planet, makes the hosts and guest feel good, and may even help business. [editor’s note:  We LOVED our stay with Bob and Ian and if we weren’t off to Florence with Bob, we would have been even more sad! LINKS: Casal dei Fichi website:  www.casaldeifichi.com Trailer for Matt Landau's "A Sense of Place" series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T94C0EU4xx8 Link to Matt's Inner Circle:  www.vrmb.com  

[0:45] In September, 2017, Debi and Rob visited Italy: Debi wanted to attend the Vacation Rental World Summit conference in Florence, and it was hard to convince Rob to join her. They visited Rome, the province of Le Marche, then Florence, Siena, and Pistoia. They mostly used Airbnb listings, as they typically do while traveling.  Sara’s house in Civitanova, Le Marche, was one of the five. They spent one night there, on the Adriatic coast, and met Sara Anselmi, an architect and Airbnb host.  As often happens, there was a sweet connection, this time with Sara and her husband Luca.  The four (five including Sara’s rescue dog) shared a delicious lunch.  They ate at a restaurant favored by Sara because the chef, named “Italia”, makes the food just like Sara’s mother did.  They met as strangers and left as friends. **This interview took place in Civitanova, Le Marche, Italy.  Sara and Luca live in Rome, and also have an apartment in Tuscany, which comes up in the interview.  Sara refers to her Civitanova house just as "La Marche", and when she says "here", she is referring to the house in Civitanova. [3:22] Debi and Sara talk about how Sara got started hosting.  Debi was staying in the house Sara grew up in.  Sara bought a house just a couple of doors away, planning on living there and helping out with her parents, but her parents both passed away.  Sara moved to Rome and five years ago began renting out the home she grew up in, on Airbnb.  She maintains an office in the house and uses it for family and her own visiting, so prefers to rent it out short-term. [5:28] Sara’s second property is in Tuscany, and this one is really interesting!  How would you like to remodel and take care of an apartment built in the year 1200?  Sara talks about the various dilemmas they face with maintenance and them living in Rome and le Marche. She rents the Tuscany property as a single apartment, but the Civitanova property has two separate room listings.  She talks about how she realizes that people would prefer to have an entire apartment for the privacy, and that all the guests at the Tuscany apartment are from outside Italy. [10:05] L'Eroica (meaning ‘the heroic”) is the name of a bike race held on the first Sunday of October, bringing all kinds of vintage bicycle lovers to Italy, and it is a wine and food fest as well.  It was started in the ‘90s to save the crushed gravel roads from being paved.  This event takes over the village where Sara and Luca’s apartment is located and the ride goes right by the house.  Sara was clearly wishing that she could be in Tuscany to personally host her guests and realizes that she just can’t be there. [11:35] Debi pursued the question of long-distance hosting, which Sara does at both rentals.  They talked about the rather difficult situation Sara has worked through in Civitanova with Roberto, her long-term renter who lives in the top part of the house.  Having lost his job, divorced, and two children, he couldn’t pay his rent, so Sara has been teaching him how to do the house cleaning and the Meet & Greet of the guests, in exchange for sharing income from the rentals. It’s their form of co-hosting.   She very honestly describes the many difficulties she has encountered.  Debi said she admired how Sara has been trying to make this work on Roberto’s behalf.  She maintains contact with the local social services and tries to improve his situation. [15:22] Back to Tuscany… there, Sara has been able to find a person who speaks five languages, lives 5 minutes from the property, and offers catering service!  They don’t make enough income to pay off the debt from fixing the roof, but she feels motivated to buy some nice things for the apartment and keep the place very nice. Debi and Rob really want to visit this Tuscany apartment sometime!  If you listen carefully, you will hear Sara mention going to the apartment 2-3 times a year, including going for the “Palio” that takes place in nearby Siena.  [The Palio admittedly has nothing to do with Airbnb, but it is an insane horse race that takes place twice a year.  The neighborhood whose rider wins gains great status until the next race]. [17:40] Debi and Sara talked about platforms, including Booking.com.  Even though Sara gets more reservations from Booking.com, she finds Airbnb the easiest, mainly because guests coming from Booking.com are addicted to hotels, expect more services, and don’t understand the concept of home space versus hotel space.  Debi really liked the home, having two beds, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a beautiful outside garden with table and chairs. [20:40] “Italy in One Region” – is the phrase Sara and others use to describe the province of Le Marche (pronounced Lay Mar’kay) – skiing, mountains, hillsides, ocean.  Debi also recounts their hilarious adventure the day before when she and Rob missed a bus transfer and Sara helped translate with the bus drivers by phone. She was in Rome at the time. [25:30] Lunch! Debi wrapped up the interview with a story about lunch with Sara and her husband Luca, and one more (mis)adventure she and Rob had the next day... [editor's fun note (this would be Rob)]:  My parents met in WWII.  They were both assigned to the US Army's 70th General Hospital in Pistoia, Italy, which is about 20 miles from Florence.  When we had lunch with Sara and Luca, we learned that the Americans had shelled the town of Civitanova and then occupied it.  Sara's parents were unhurt, but had to move up to the attic while the Americans used the main house.  The good thing was that the Americans had food, and shared it with her parents. LINKS: Sara's Tuscany house, Palagio Her bed and breakfast in Civitanova Vacation Rental World Summit: www.vacationrentalworldsummit.com

Every short-term rental needs a guest guidebook.  But what used to be a dog-eared, 3-ring binder can now become a spectacular, highly useful web-based product, accessible on a phone.  David Jacoby, Airbnb Superhost and co-founder of Hostfully, traveled to Portland to meet with Debi Hertert and "Home Share PDX" Meetup group to talk about his product.  Before the Meetup, Debi interviewed David for the Hosting Your Home podcast. [0:01:34] Debi asked how David got started with Hostfully, and it turns out that Before Children, he and his wife went on a year-long, around the world journey, staying in 27 countries and 37 homes.  It was 2010, so Airbnb had barely started, and none of their stays was in an actual Airbnb.  Much of their trip was done via the couch surfing site.  Deb asked if those were really couches… [0:05:39] After the trip, David and his wife moved to San Francisco and bought a single-family home and remodeled it for a mother-in-law apartment for their family.  They started renting the space out when his parents weren’t visiting, and have hosted 200 guests in 4 years. He found that it was his personal experiences of hosting that led him to realize the pain of being in constant communication with guest after guest and answering all their questions that they had before arriving as well as their separate, unique set of questions while they're actually staying with him.  But he also realized the pleasure of being on the flip side like hearing from them that they went to his favorite local coffee shop or his favorite brunch spot. “Sure, they went to Fisherman's Wharf and they went to Alcatraz but it was staying in my neighborhood and going to the local places that I recommended that really is what made their stay memorable and unique”.  And he realized the lack of tools to help hosts be better hosts AFTER the reservation is made. [0:08:32] Debi asked David about Airbnb’s own guest guidebook, and about “You’re Welcome”, a similar guest guidebook product.  David had interesting comments about both, and pointed out the fact that Airbnb’s app only works for Airbnb guests – but many hosts use multiple platforms.  And he likes the “You’re Welcome” app a lot, but described differences with it and Hostfully. [0:11:15] It turned out that Debi had populated the Hostfully app, and had invited David to stay at her Airbnb while addressing the Meetup.  Of course, she sent the URL to David and he loved it.  He said it was the first time as a guest that he had received the Hostfully guidebook!  Debi describes her use of the app and it being easy to use and to edit. David went into some considerable detail about it. [0:13:32] David said Hostfully launched about a year ago and now has over 4000 guidebooks in 80 countries. He said that Hostfully offers one free guide book for each listing. [0:14:16] Debi took the opportunity to quiz David about the politics of short term rentals in San Francisco.  He went into great detail and said that the latest ordinance will likely mean that half, or over half of the current listings in San Francisco will be gone after the first of the year, enforced by an agreement with San Francisco, Airbnb, and HomeAway.  The reason for the reduction is that the City requires hosts to live in the space they list, and currently many listings are not the host’s primary residence. [0:20:48] Transient Occupancy Tax is also very much a goal.  Debi was curious about David’s involvement with the San Francisco Home Sharer’s Democratic Club.  David is on the Board and described the origins of the Club.  Debi and David talked about the very successful Vendor Show they put on in 2017.  It was well-attended and one of the Airbnb Founders even stopped by. [0:26:34] Hostfully has written up the results of a study they did on hospitality, and it is available for free by going to hostfully.com/study There are a lot of tips there that all hosts can learn from.  They surveyed over 50 rental management companies and studied the thousands of guidebooks that Hostfully supports.  It’s a very cool opportunity to see what things like average check-in times, check-out times, amenities and info other hosts are providing. [0:30:25] Debi closes the Podcast by making some recommendations to listeners:  Get the Hostfully app and fill it out; www.hostfully.com and download the hospitality study, www.hostfully.com/study David's rental listing is at www.airbnb.com/rooms/2049955  

Join Debi Hertert and Michele Fitzgerald as they talk about Michele’s vacation rental in Sedona (that is not on Airbnb).  Debi and Rob traveled to Sedona, Arizona in early 2017 to find some sun, and stayed in Michele's wonderful vacation rental home. She teaches intuitive methods, leads tours in Ireland, operates on-line businesses and manages her beautiful and successful vacation rental.  And, as you will hear in the podcast, she has big plans for next year!  Michele doesn’t use Airbnb – and explains why. (9:00) How did she get started?  She’d owned this property for a long time and it was her first home in Sedona.  She bought another house, and turned this house into a metaphysical center.  In 2005 she began an on-line training program instead of the classes in the house – she was paying the mortgage and in 2007 she converted it to a full-time vacation rental.  She had very relevant prior work experience training managers of long-term rentals. Michele has a 1-week minimum, Saturday to Saturday, and an 80-85% occupancy rate.  She has a good closing percentage, which she attributes to her sales background and that she has the opportunity to make relationships with potential guests.  She explains her process in some detail. (14:00)  As soon as the inquiry comes in, she emails people directly.  She doesn’t use an auto-responder.  All the bookings and payment goes through Michele.  Guests are told by Home Away or VRBO that they will receive a PayPal invoice from Michele.  Debi and Michele discussed the upcoming change to Home Away that had been announced that would prevent hosts from communicating with guests [ed note:  as of July, 2017 this still seems imminent but has not yet been implemented].    Michele includes a rental contract as an attachment to her PayPal invoice, and it’s part of the Home Away contract  that guests sign.  She dispensed with security deposits to simplify things, as she rarely had any issues. (22:30) Michele is moving! Far away! She will sell her main home in Sedona, but keep the rental and manage it from afar. (26:00) Tips for owners of vacation rentals: Michele strongly believes that her intentional clearing of space between sets of guests is responsible for much of her success in having pleasant stays.  She plans on training her housekeepers to do this for her when she moves. (and maybe a webinar for listeners of HostingYourHome on how to do this :) We wish Michele great fortune in her move into the next phase of her life, and appreciated our time with her.   Links: Cottage info: http://www.sedonaportal.com/senzar-lodging.htm HomeAway listing: https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p253278 My training business website: http://www.sedonaportal.com

Debi Hertert interviews Portland Superhost Evan Ross, owner of Cycle Portland.  She visited Evan at his Cycle Portland business in downtown Portland.  They first met at the 2017 Host2Host conference where Evan participated as a vendor. The two began with Evan’s hosting experience  in the popular Alberta Arts area.  He began hosting in January, 2017.  Evan does the cleaning himself – he initially thought he would see how it went by doing the cleaning himself, and so far just doesn’t find it so difficult and can fit in other work like phone calls while he cleans.  He has prior experience as a guide and finds that experience helpful in hosting. Bicycling – this is Evan’s 9th year of leading bike tours as a business.  He initially went to school in mountain guiding, whitewater rescue and other outdoor challenges.  He had traveled in several continents and when he moved to Portland he found there was no one providing tours.  Being entrepreneurial, he opened his own touring business. Their talk ended up with a discussion about Evan’s involvement in Portland’s transportation committees, his thoughts about the housing shortage, and the impact of the local Bike Share program “BikeTown”.  It’s very clear that Evan stays involved in trying to help Portland deal with contemporary issues. One of our podcast goals is to help hosts connect with their local small businesses. People like Evan who do both roles can really help make this goal happen. Check out these links: Cycle Portland:  https://www.portlandbicycletours.com Evan's Airbnb listing:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16255848

In this episode, Debi Hertert talks with Alanna Schroeder of “The Distinguished Guest”, a vendor at the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon.   Alanna started as a commercial real estate agent, then wanted to have another baby, so started renting out her house in Lake Tahoe.  She recognized a need for a source of higher-end products for vacation rentals and started a business.  She spent a lot of time sourcing products, finding those that looked good and are good.  Alanna tries to source from large providers, so the same products will be available a year from now. She ended up getting so busy with her Distinguished Guest business that she put the Lake Tahoe property on long-term rental, and now has a place in Hawaii on short term rental including Airbnb.   She has some clients that stay multiple weeks, even up to three months. Debi asked Alanna about her third business, “VR Mastered”.  It’s something that Alanna is doing with Tyanne Marcink and Beth Carson of Vacation Rental Travel Magazine.  VR Mastered is basically a boot camp to teach people how to get on social media of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter to market their properties.  Also helping people edit their listings on the main platforms.  She found that most of the people in her first group were not familiar with social media and were excited to learn the techniques. Check out these links! Alanna's premier vacation rental supply company: https://www.thedistinguishedguest.com/ Her vacation rental "Bootcamp": http://www.vrmastered.com/ And Alanna's Hawaii vacation rental:  http://princevillevacationrental.com/    

Download Episode! Prior to the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome interviewed Andrew Kitchell of Wheelhouse.  Wheelhouse provides a pricing service for short-term rentals.  They analyze the pricing of the local home-sharing listings, local hotels, and current events.  Those three components affect pricing of accommodations, and Wheelhouse uses data scientists to make highly informed pricing decisions. The current product allows a high degree of personalization by the host, as Andrew discusses during the interview.  Debi is a user of Wheelhouse and is highly interested in how it works. Here are some points that came out in the interview.  Listen all the way through, for Andrew’s special offer! Andrew talks about how Wheelhouse started. His home was in the first 100 homes that listed on Airbnb.  He co- founded the company after one of the principals attended a Y Combinator Accelerator meeting and heard about “Airbed and breakfast”; and now they have grow to about 23 people. They analyze the home space, like Airbnb, Expedia, and Trip Advisor; the hotel space; and the event space. They then analyze your particular listing and how it has performed in the past compared with other nearby homes Allow customers to customize how they want to handle special situations, like orphan nights, weekends, etc – the newest platform allows personalization on the part of the host. Debi mentioned the emotionality of setting your pricing. You don’t want to give it away, but at the same time you don’t want to set it too high.  It sounds like Wheelhouse is giving the host a lot of control. Wheelhouse does recognize that setting prices can be emotional and in some ways it is better to remove some of that emotionality through using the software. But if you want to manage weekends, seasonality, etc., you can now do that.  Wheelhouse really recognizes that there are many nuances to setting prices that hosts want. Debi asked about her Gull House rental at Seal Rock, Oregon. It’s in the path of the eclipse, a once in a lifetime event.  Debi wants to be in the middle, not too low but not too high.  For now, she has just blocked it out.  The Wheelhouse pricing for that month shows the eclipse time as an elevated price, but whe wondered if that set the price for the whole month?  Andrew replied that the eclipse is sort of an “extreme” event; with cases like that, the impact should be limited to the days for that event. That’s the challenge for the pricing engine, and it should be appropriate.  But also, Wheelhouse allows the user to set specific rates for certain nights.  It recognizes that they are not perfect, and that the host might pick up on something that Wheelhouse software hasn’t found. Debi asked about special configurations, like max nightly price etc. She asked about Home Away and Trip Advisor and Airbnb; at this time, they show up as separate listings on the Wheelhouse dashboard. In the next few weeks, if you work with Guesty, or Booking Sync, you will be able to link to Wheelhouse. How does Wheelhouse differ from other dynamic pricing? Investment in pricing science:  they have four data scientists on the team, three are PhDs.  They feel like they will be able to do the best predictions.  Part two is the control they give the hosts, offering last minute discounts, seasonality and other customizations.  He has a lot of respect for other pricing companies, like Everbooked, but thinks they have produced a well-differentiated product. Debi asked about Airbnb’s smart pricing. Andrew said he isn’t sure of the long term role for Airbnb (or any other “marketplace” provider)  in producing best pricing.  He says they are a great team, have great scientists, but as they are the marketplace, they may not be the best in setting prices.  He thinks pricing can be done best by third parties. Debi asked about cost. Wheelhouse charges about 1 percent of “managed revenue”, and says that they return closer to high 20’s percentage; and that they have never lost a paying customer (!).  They also do not charge hosts for nights that the hosts end up setting their own rates. Debi asked then, how easy is it to cancel? She had an experience using a different company that entered prices into the calendar way into the future and had a hard time deleting it.  Andrew said that hosts have full control. Andrew discusses a special offer in which new users can get 10 free bookings!     Check out the following links: https://www.usewheelhouse.com/ https://www.usewheelhouse.com/ personalize https://blog.usewheelhouse.com/ https://www.usewheelhouse.com/demo

Listen in as Nolan Mondrow, founder and CEO of LockState is interviewed by Debi Hertert of Hosting Your Home.  LockState offers electronic locks for Airbnb hosts, and in a beautiful illustration of responding to hosts’ needs, the codes for the locks are produced automatically within the Airbnb platform.  The host does not need to change the codes for each guest. The product is integrated with Airbnb (and VRBO) and is called “RemoteLock”. LockState also offers a lock that does not rely on having an internet connection at the house, yet still allows owners to remotely set unique codes for each guest stay using what Nolan calls an algorithmic method.  That product is called “ResortLock”.  It doesn’t have the direct integration with Airbnb but does have some different benefits. Nolan says he grew up in Denver, spent years in Japan and other places, and returned to Denver.  He and his wife bought a house there and then bought a ski condo in Keystone.  Without intending to rent it out, much less make a business of it, they eventually started renting it on VRBO and Airbnb and it is super busy. Nolan loves interacting with his guests, and the side benefit of giving him a personal connection with how well his lock products are working for hosts and guests. He shares a very funny story about how he ended up in the lock business, beginning with a shipping container full of safes from China that needed a home.  He began LockState in Denver and now has over 20 employees and the company is growing rapidly, distributing their products worldwide. LockState not only attended the Host2Host conference that Debi and friends put on in Portland in April, 2017 but sponsored it.  Nolan and his company are clearly aligned with the hosting community and they use that alignment to identify and solve problems that hosts need help with.   Check out LockState’s website at www.lockstate.com

Debi Hertert interviews Rod Fitts from AVROA, in her series of Host2Host 2017 Vendor interviews.  AVROA stands for "Association of Vacation Rental Operators and Affiliates".  Rod began this company in 2008, when the recession wiped out his education business and he needed to reinvent himself.  The model of AVROA is to provide a free listing platform to members, so that owners can inexpensively gain exposure outside of shade cast by the large listing platforms.  You will hear Rod's obvious enthusiasm for his association and mission. Visit AVROA's website at www.avroa.org

Join Debi Hertert for her interview with Portland's Becky Knecht (pronouned "connect"), owner of TBH Clean, specializing in Airbnb-style homes.  Becky's company slogan is "Your Mess is Our Mission!"  Debi is working her way through interviews with hopefully all of the vendors who are attending the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland on April 22, 2017. Becky cleans for Debi and several other local hosts.  She is so dependable that she hasn't ever missed a single clean for Debi, something Debi brings up in their interview.  Becky says "The condition of your property is the first impression for your guests.  TBH Clean takes pride in partnering with hosts to help maintain a clean space and make sure it's welcoming for guests, with all the small touches.  We grow by helping you grow, and are committed to make sure that every detail is to your satisfaction.  TBH Clean is ready to make Portland shine!"     You can find Becky's company info at www.facebook.com/tbhclean  

Airbnb host Debi Hertert of the HostingYourHome podcast interviews Carlos Rafael Camarena, a Portland, Oregon photographer who specializes in architectural photography and is expanding to add Airbnb and other short term rentals. Carlos is a professional photographer with a background in portraiture and real estate photography. In early 2015 he seized an opportunity to create images for and serve commercial architecture and interior design firms in Portland, which became a footing to make the move from Central California with his wife in late 2015.  Debi and Carlos met two years ago and when the Host2Host conference came into being, Debi remembered Carlos and asked him to participate.  He not only agreed to speak, but is doing photography for the day as well, and throwing in an amazing prize for a lucky participant. You can see images from the two Airbnb/VRBO homes he mentions in the interview: go to http://www.carlosrafael.photo/sellwoodairbnb  and http://www.carlosrafael.photo/p883172008 To see examples of his architectural photography, go to www.carlosrafaelphoto.com

Join Debi from HostingYourHome.com as she interviews many of the vendors who will attend the upcoming Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon.  Vendor support is critical for Airbnb hosts who want to provide the best accommodations and hospitality for their guests. Insurance is a critical issue and not always understood by hosts.  But it does not have to be difficult, as we learn from Geoff Dorn.  Geoff  is an insurance agent with Country Financial in Portland and has been serving families and small business owners for ten years. He uses his experience to help his clients choose the right insurance solution to cover their Airbnb exposure.

No interview!  In this episode, Debi explains her dream of having a local Portland conference to support Airbnb and other hosts, and how it's come true: Host2Host 2017.  If you don't see the links to the conference in your iTunes or whatever podcast listener you use, go to HostingYourHome.com and check out the show notes.  This is a nice episode to just learn how one person's motivation to make something happen can come true, further made possible because of the tremendous contributions of time and knowledge by a dozen other local hosts who have brought this conference to life.  And Airbnb has really stepped up and helped when we have asked them to. If by any chance, you can be in Portland on April 22, 2017 this conference is inexpensive and can help you out, whether you are just thinking about hosting or are a veteran. The local conference is called 'Host2Host" and so this year, it's Host2Host 2017.  A non-profit organization was established, Host2Host.org and all proceeds from ticket sales and vendor contributions are to fund the conference.  If there is any extra income, it will go to support the following year's conference, and if Host2Host.org dissolves, Central City Concern has been designated the recipient of any remaining funds. Debi talks about her initial motivation to just connect with other hosts, and from that desire, starting the local "HomeSharePDX" Meetup.com group.  Our first meeting was right after the first Airbnb san Francisco Open, and 30 monthly meetings later, this group now has 212 host members.  The largest meeting had 85 people attending.  It greatly helps that Airbnb's North American Operational Headquarters is in Portland, because they are available to us for solving issues, doing tours, and just connecting with us to support the local hosting community. If you are not a member of Debi's HostingYourHome Facebook group, you should go to your normal Facebook, look for the "Groups" box and click it, then search for "HostingYourHome". It's a closed group, so you have to request to join and Debi will accept you.  There, you will find discussions there that augment the podcast. Registration page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/host2host-conference-tickets-31695336605 Information page:  https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=host%202%20host%3A%20a%20sharing%20event%20for%20portland%20area%20airbnb%20hosts

Please join Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome and Portland's Airbnb Superhost Shannon Hiller-Webb.   Debi discovers Shannon’s amazing involvement in hosting and curating guest experiences, and about her own local food business “Green Zebra”.  Shannon uses her connections with the local food scene, art scene and other social contacts to help guests find the right place to eat and what’s happening that night in Portland.  She has guests from all over the world and relates a great story about being an unkowing contributor to a Japanese book “The Ultimate Guidebook to Portland for Creative People.” And then found out the book was commissioned by Travel Portland, who gave her a copy.  This is an unusually long episode but absolutely worth the listen! The episode starts with a tour of her house for the first fifteen minutes or so, but even during the tour a lot of information is given such as her feelings about pricing, cleaning fees, and her use of Instant Book.  She may be the only Instant Book listing where half of the bookings are still preceded by dialog before the person books!  She has made best friends with many of her guests, and has seen her guests make similar friendships with one another. Shannon is devoted to making her guests feel both welcome and safe.  She shares stories – some poignant, some practical, and some hilarious. You will hear from Jaeger the weimereiner too!   It is so interesting to hear stories from all the different hosts who Debi interviews.  For hosts who have a private suite, their interaction with guests is likely minimal compared with the more traditional model of sharing your space in the fashion that Shannon does.  So it's great to be able to hear all the different ways that people host. LINKS: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/633385 https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/600976 Debi asked Shannon for links to the snacks they shared, because they were so good! Ancient Heritage Hannah Cheese Olympia Provisions Finocchiona Kiyokawa Family Orchards Arkansas Black Kiwi – not local

This episode is part 2 of our podcast about the 2016 Airbnb Open in Los Angeles. Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviewed several hosts there, and there is the same happy background noise that gives you a flavor of the overall vibe of the event.  This episode includes June Stoddard, Diane Sherry Case, and Myranda Love.  As in the “part 1” episode, we just ran the three short interviews one after another.  They average about 8 minutes long.  June has a great story about finding Airbnb at the right time to help her with her mortgage and two daughters’ college; Diane is an actor and directs a fun Airbnb TV series about Airbnb; and Myranda is a southerner who moved to Idaho and offers an online Airbnb training program.  She hasn’t lost her southern drawl! EPISODE TIMING AND SEQUENCE: 0:00-2:00 Debi’s intro 2:00-10:00 June Stoddard 10:00-17:00 Diane Sherry Case 17:00-28:30 Myranda Love 28:30-31:00 Debi’s wrapup June Stoddard [caption id="attachment_729" align="alignnone" width="233"] Santa Monica Superhost June Stoddard[/caption] June is a widow of 14 years and after her daughters went to college she continued living in her same house just a few blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, California. She was a little lonely in the big house by herself.  She thought about Airbnb and decided to try it, despite being initially nervous about having people stay in her house, and then wondering what her hundred-year old mother would think of her “taking in boarders”! The income supplemented her other work and helped pay for her daughters to attend college. She explains her experience as meeting the world without leaving her home. She feels like she has changed people’s lives.  She was an actress for 20 years, and has an amazing story about a connection with a couple from England that makes the world seem smaller. She was surprised to learn that in some countries people can take months of vacation and come back to the same job.  June has learned to establish boundaries and help out without hovering.  Her daughters have moved home so the Airbnb is shut down for the time being, but she has been booked solid for a year and a half, every night, and has made $3,000/month, leaving $1,000/month above and beyond her house expenses. Santa Monica requires hosts of short term rentals to live in the home, and June feels like this rule is good for the overall community. Diane Sherry Case [caption id="attachment_746" align="alignnone" width="225"] Diane Sherry Case: "House Poor"[/caption] Diane is an Airbnb host and actor who directs the TV series “House Poor” about an empty nester who is dating like crazy but doesn’t have any money so starts renting out rooms.  The fictional Airbnb host gets a bunch of wacky millennials, some of whom drive her nuts and some that she loves.  It’s on Amazon Prime, and a station called Reverie. The first four episodes were filmed in her home, all done with professional actor friends.  Diane has a five bedroom house in a beautiful neighborhood in Santa Monica, California, and rents out two rooms for guests staying at least a month.  Mostly business women now, after learning her lesson by advertising about yoga and healing and getting some wacky guests.  She tells Debi a funny story about organic flea removal!   Myranda Love [caption id="attachment_730" align="alignnone" width="225"] Myranda Love[/caption] Myranda Love is a Boise, Idaho transplant from Alabama.  She rents a house with two bedrooms and one bath.  There was a music festival happening and that prompted her to list her extra room on Airbnb.  That was successful and she has helped other people get started on Airbnb too.  She shares the kitchen and the one bathroom with guests.  She allows one-night stays and has Instant Book enabled, and has had positive experiences. Myranda gives a good tip about setting a cutoff time for Instant Book. She doesn’t use any other booking platform. She is excited about the “Airbnb Superhost School” that she has put together.  Having helped other people get going, she developed a 5-module Power Point training program to efficiently train people to be hosts.  She also has a module covering co-hosting. LINKS: June Stoddard’s listing in Santa Monica:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/801336 Diane Sherry Case's show:  "House Poor" on Amazon Prime. Diane's house listing in Santa Monica:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/668186? Myranda Love’s  superhost training program:  (we will update this later)

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she interviews three people at the 2016 Airbnb Open conference in Los Angeles.  For each of the past three years, Airbnb has held an annual conference called “The Airbnb Open”.  In 2014 it was in San Francisco, in 2015 it was in Paris, and this year it was in Los Angeles.  Debi has attended all three of these incredible, gala events.  Airbnb brings in big name performers, authors, designers, politicos, artists and speakers.  It is very exciting to attend these events and meet people from all over the world.  With all the bad press about Airbnb that we have to listen to, it is uplifting to participate in a giant communal experience of hosting and hear stories. This year, Airbnb came up with the concept of “Brain Dates”, where people could offer their experience on any subject, Airbnb would post that in the pre-registration info, and participants could sign up to meet one-on-one. Debi offered to interview people about their hosting experiences.  It was a great concept, but as with all new concepts at big events, there were hurdles.  So we made the best of it and were able to get several short interviews recorded.  There is a lot of background noise, but even that gives you a flavor of the overall vibe of the event.  One really fun experience was having the Airbnb film crew take video of one of Deb’s interviews, which was a great interview but unfortunately our audio quality was poor so we can’t use it, and we also don’t have any access to the Airbnb video of the interview. We decided to split the Open interviews into two episodes, to keep the time down.   This episode  includes Olga Eliseeva, from Russia, Justin Marks, from San Diego, and Arry Zhan, from China.  We just ran the three short interviews one after another.  Each of them is less than 8 minutes long. Olga lives in Moscow but has an Airbnb in Turkey and is in the US for the first time. Justin hosts in San Diego, and Ari hosts near Bejing in China, also on her first-ever trip to the US. The Open was filled with voices like theirs from all over the world and I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! EPISODE TIMING AND SEQUENCE: Debi’s Intro: 0:00 – 04:30 Olga (Russia): 4:30 – 12:20 Dustin (San Diego): 12:20 – 16:00 Arry (China): 16:00 – 23:00 Debi’s wrap-up: 23:00 – 25:00     Olga Eliseeva [caption id="attachment_706" align="alignnone" width="225"] Olga Eliseeva: Lives in Moscow, Hosts in Turkey[/caption] Olga lives in Moscow, Russia.  She is an Airbnb host, but not in Moscow – she has an apartment in Turkey!  She knew about Airbnb and thought she would try the experience with her apartment that can house four people. She began a few months ago and has had six sets of guests over the summer.  She has a multi-lingual friend in Turkey who does the meet-and-greet with guests. Olga sometimes gets to meet them if she is in Turkey, and she makes little bracelets and tries to leave them for her guests when she can.   Justin Marks Justin hosts in downtown (North Park) San Diego, renting out an extra room and when he is out of town, renting his own room out as well.  With this income, he was able to take over his mother’s house payments in Michigan when she became too ill to work.  He hosts all the time, and all kinds of guests, from business travelers to younger couples from all over the world.  Justin described a 70-year old guest who he connected with so closely that he felt it was like seeing himself 50 years in the future.  He feels like there are homes all over the world he would be able to stay at through these connections. Arry Zhan [caption id="attachment_705" align="alignnone" width="225"] Arry Zhan, Airbnb Host in China[/caption] Arry is a Chinese teacher on her first trip to the US.  She tells Debi about her Airbnb near Bejing and her friend who is taking care of guests while Arry is traveling.  Her guests are mostly young people.  Debi and Arry have a fun conversation about phone apps and Arry shows her an app that is an Airbnb rival, with a funny little pig icon.  This is actually a big competitor, the re-branded Ali Baba Trips app that literally means “Flying Pig” in Chinese.   Ari plans on staying in the US for a couple of months to learn better English, and hopes to trade some instruction in Chinese for an Airbnb place to stay.  At the Airbnb Open conference she met a number of hosts from Portland, and thinks she might come to Portland for a while! LINKS: Olga's listing in Turkey.  This is SO COOL to see these different languages!  https://www.airbnb.ru/users/show/54340583 Arry’s listings and profile (it is really fun to read some of her reviews and replies): https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/73956901      

Debi Hertert of Hosting Your Home talks with Todd Brandewie, owner of a whole-house rental near Dayton, Ohio.  At the time, Debi and her family were renting Todd’s house for a family reunion. Todd is a single dad and lives in his house with his four-year old son.  Several nights per month, Todd and his son move to Todd’s dad’s house, or Todd’s RV, in order to rent out his Dayton house.  When Todd got divorced and found himself unable to pay the mortgage, his mom suggested Airbnb.  That suggestion saved Todd’s house and has given him a new outlook on life.   [editor's note]: Many municipalities restrict short-term rentals of whole houses, concerned about depleting the stock of long-term rentals.  Todd's is one of many examples in which homeowners would not choose to share their space as long-term rentals, because it does not fit their family living situations. As communities try to estimate the impact that Airbnb and similar platforms have on long-term rentals, they often rely on unreliable data "scraped" from short-term rental sites, and assume that houses like Todd's would be available for long-term rental if the short-term options were legislatively removed.    It is misleading to count such houses as impacting the long term rental market. A common example is an owner who wants to have space always available for their family who come visit.  We are supportive of protecting long-term rentals through good legislation, such as requiring the owner or long-term tenant to live in the home most of the year. Regulators should become aware of these types of sensible uses and make sensible rules. SHOW NOTES: Debi introduces Todd Brandewie and his mother, who is also an Airbnb host and got Todd started.   Deb talks about how well the house is working for her family.  When he rents out his own house, Todd vacates to his dad’s, or to his camper which is at his dad’s, or travels out of town.  He does a lot of cleaning himself, but does have a housekeeper who helps, and even his friends help if necessary!  He really understands how important cleanliness is in vacation rentals. Deb asks Todd how he manages moving out of his house and back.  She tells him this is the first time she has stayed in an Airbnb of this “model” where the owner lives there but leaves when they have guests.   Todd talks about the number of nights he likes to book and it covering his mortgage and some utility bills.  When Deb asks Todd to “Tell us your story”, Todd talks about thinking people would never come to Dayton, Ohio, but realizes now that there are many reasons people travel, and tourism is only a part of it. Most of his guests are coming to see family.  The family focus led Debi to recommend listing on ClanVenture, another vacation rental platform.  Access to the Airbnb platform has allowed  Todd  to keep his house after his divorce.  He shares custody of his four-year old son. Todd told all his neighbors what was going on when he started renting.  Most of his neighbors don’t even know what Airbnb even is. He said he gets lots of guests who are new to Airbnb, with no reviews.  Deb asked if Todd is worried about anything in his house getting wrecked or taken, and Todd said he doesn’t really worry  about anything in the house. Todd described his one bad experience, which was a group of dog show people who were not respectful of his property.  Followed by asking Debi for any suggestions for  improvements.  She mentioned pillows – the need for choice.  4 per bed, two soft, two firm. They talked about mattresses, and Debi told Todd and his mom about Tuft and Needle, the mattress company that has a promotional program and a waiting list for a free mattress for Superhosts.  There was a discussion about sheets, using white for everything so can bleach, getting the little black cosmetics washcloths; Todd gets frustrated about people leaving lights on all the time, and benefits of changing out to LEDs.  He expresses his gratitude that  Airbnb has allowed him and his son to keep their home. Deb asks Todd about some memorable guests.  He joked about people leaving wine and beer, but then said several people from the Lion King cast rented his house for 28 days and invited him over for a party with the whole cast, and how fun that was. And they gave him 4 front row tickets to the show!     Links: Todd’s house: https://airbnb.com/rooms/12264444 Clanventure:  https://clanventure.com/ Tuft and Needle:  https://goo.gl/PSrHHX  

Portland, Oregon Airbnb host Nina Liebow talks with Debi Hertert of the Hosting Your Home podcast about Nina's life and how she came to hosting with Airbnb. Listen in as Nina shares her wonderful story, her Japanese connection, and her deep, heartfelt feelings about hosting. Nina hosts in the historic Irvington neighborhood in the heart of Portland. 1:20 Debi introduces Nina Liebow, who tells Debi a story - way back, in high school, Nina was at a used book store and found a book titled “Make a B&B anywhere you live”. The book was meaningful to Nina. She had grown up in difficult surroundings, and when she was old enough to be on her own, her spaces became very important to her. She lived and traveled in Asia much of her 20’s, often staying in a “Ryokan” which is a one room space, with a tatami mat on the floor – this one room would be changed in function throughout the day, from living space, to eating space, to sleeping space. It was always women who managed the Ryokans and the sense of welcoming and caring that these women provided really resonated with Nina. She felt a loss of ego that made her feel comfortable. 4:00 Nina describes how she ended up in going to Asia. It was with a jazz dance group, providing basic entertainment for hotels. She would sublet her apartment in LA for 6 months and go to Japan, come back, miss Asia and do it again throughout her 20’s. 7:00 A time came that her travel bug came to an end. She by fluke ended up in Portland, and bought a for sale by owner house. Her aunt Sharon in LA had just bought a duplex thinking that they’d both live in the duplex, but Nina bought her own house and Sharon never ended up moving to Portland. Nina began managing Sharon’s duplex, renting mostly to Japanese students. When she first moved to Portland, she found “The Portland Whitehouse B&B”. She wanted to work there so badly that she went every day for a week asking for a job and Mary, the owner finally said ok. Nina loved working there and stayed about 18 months, but had to leave when she got pregnant and wasn’t feeling well enough to work. This experience made here think once more about sometime having a B&B herself. 10:00 after having kids, and a few years later, she was asked if she would host Japanese young women in her home.  For years she did this and learned how to take care of others in her home. It wasn’t really like Airbnb, but there were some similarities. 12:30 Nina found herself divorced. She got her basement finished off and then her friend Sue told Nina about Airbnb. She minimally decorated the space and had her first booking in 3 hours. That was two and a half years ago. She loves making sure the people are ok, happy, then leaving them alone.  She speaks Japanese and has attracted some Japanese guests. 15:20 Nina’s older daughter moved out for college and said mom could rent out her room. She had a funny story about redecorating her daughter’s room. But her daughter loves it when she comes home now! Nina began renting out the room, to women only, out of a safety concern. Deb asked about her experiences with the women-only rental and Nina told her a nice story about now accepting couples and how that came about. Nina says she couldn’t really ever have a true B&B because she’s not a morning person! But she loves doing her Airbnb hosting, and likes people to be comfortable. For her the biggest feeling is that she’s traveled, has been to places that feel scary, and wants to have a place for a single woman to feel safe in someone’s home when she travels. 17:40 Deb asked about financial aspect. Nina replied that all she ever wanted was to be a homemaker, a mother, but our culture doesn’t honor that, and she married a Japanese man who did honor that. It was a very traditional lifestyle. She has over the years taught children’s dance and that has helped her economically. Nina took a break from teaching, and when the divorce happened, being able to stay in her home was so great. Airbnb has enabled her to keep her home. She describes her really nice feeling when a guest comes and expresses appreciation for the nice space, or clean room, and that our family never says that so it’s great to have this affirmation. 23:30 Deb asked Nina about how she gets Japanese guests, and she said she’s only had a few, and talked about how she got her first Japanese guest, Achiko, a very fun story. They are best friends now. Nina doesn’t really market, but thinks she should. She does show on the Airbnb listing that she speaks Japanese. 27:23 Pilates: One of the other clientele base she is trying to build on is the studio where she did her Pilates training has people come from all over the world; they have hotels listed, and Nina went to them and asked them to add her listing. So she gets Pilates guests. 29:00 Victoria: Two years ago, her divorce had just happened and she needed to get away. She had just started hosting in Portland and stayed at an Airbnb in Victoria. She took a yoga class there and was so impressed that she decided to go back and get certified as a trainer. She spent 3 months there and goes there still. She has a strong connection with it. She’s going through a phase of her life where she needs to go inward and that’s a good place for her to go. Airbnb makes so much of this possible. She told her host in Victoria that she would like to find a 3-6 month sublet up there, and bring her kitties, and the Airbnb host there said things are slow in the winter; maybe they could work things out… 32:00 "Your second cousin": A women in her 50s wanted to make a reservation with Nina, but was worried. She asked Nina about what it’s like staying at an Airbnb, describing herself as quite nervous, has never done it before, what is it like? Nina told her “well think about it like your second cousin you’ve never met. You know your family, but you’ve never met, but you know you’ll get along”. The lady warmly confirmed this analogy. 32:30 We're all people, and we're connected: In an emotional and heartfelt voice, Nina told Debi: “This is so silly, it teares me up, it’s such a big company but it comes from that premise of Brian Chesky’s theme that we’re all people and we’re connected. Airbnb really proves that there is so much more good in the world than there is bad. It brings out the best in people. And our world needs it. I think part of this is that in a tiny way, it’s a way of giving love to the world. I get to do this in a different way than with my children. I love doing this; I get to stay in my home, take care of people, and still be independent.”

Join Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Bob and Sue Low, the Portland citizens and now Airbnb Superhosts who prompted the City to change their ordinance prohibiting short term rentals. A concept:  “Age in Place” 1:40 Sue starts by telling about the remodel of their home in Lauralhurst and moving to their basement during the remodel.  After living in it for 6 months they had some friends who  knew about Airbnb and who had recommended they try it.  They did, and were excited!  It was the summer of 2012. They met some really nice people, but then their neighbor filed a complaint.  Bob then said that in September of 2012 the City gave them a Cease and Desist order regarding their short term rental.  At that point, they went about trying to get the City to change the ordinance. 6:30  They researched out the status quo and found about 1,500 listings for short term rentals on various platforms such as VRBO, Home Away, FlipKey, and Airbnb.  They decided to let the City know the magnitude of the activity, indicating that the City should somehow deal with it.  They got an appointment with Commissioner Dan Saltzman, put together a PowerPoint of the current status and showed the potential for revenue generation by the City.  It would serve home owners who needed the income to "Age in Place".  When they finished, Saltzman said it had merit and encouraged the two to talk to other Commissioners.  There had just been an election so they had to wait until the next calendar year.  They then met independently with each commissioner and their policy person, and this took around a year.  The commissioners really saw a benefit of doing this.  They also met with City officials Paul Scarlett, Susan Anderson, Sandra Wood and others, and started going to the meetings the City was holding about the new comprehensive plan and testified for including short term rentals in the comprehensive plan.  They asked other 10 people who were doing short term rentals to write to the City to tell them they were doing these rentals, why they needed this income, and wanted to be able to be licensed. Bob and Sue discovered that Austin, Texas had formed policy around short term rentals and shared that information with the City. 12:30 At that time, they also started talking to Airbnb.  They sent their action plan and PowerPoint to Airbnb, and Airbnb wanted to come to Portland to help streamline the short term rental regulations. Airbnb established a major office in Portland about that time, and Debi remembered going in spring of 2014 to City meetings, planning commission, City Commissioners.  At some point it turned over to Airbnb working directly with the City 14:30: Sue said her neighbor had gotten some other neighbors to rally against them, so they went to the local neighborhood associations, SE Uplift, and the Laurelhurst neighborhood association, and there were a number of people who also spoke in favor.  The Laurelhurst  board sent a letter to the City opposing short term rentals, but without talking with the members.  There were other meetings and the City sent someone to the meeting to see what the issues were. 16:30 A NEW ORDINANCE, INSPECTIONS, CURRENT STATUS – Sue talked about the safety inspection requirements brought up by the City.  The City did approve short term rentals but wanted to require safety inspections. Bob did a review of the public hearings including the Planning Commission meetings.  It was an interesting journey.  But within a year, they got the law changed.  Debi thanked them for getting it all started. Deb asked Bob about the current status.  What happened after the law was passed?  Bob replied that it’s pretty straightforward now.  You need to pay an application fee of $175, need an inspection to demonstrate egress and the required interconnected smoke alarms.  He said it’s pretty simple, but that he has heard that a lot of people have been concerned that the inspectors are finding other things and that has to be addressed. Bob and Sue had to put an egress window in, modify the ceiling because they were an inch too low and they couldn’t get a variance.  That cost $5,000 and $6,000 for the egress window.  During the entire time they were lobbying for short term rentals, they couldn’t rent because they were told to stop. So that was about a year.  When the inspector came, Bob met her at the door, she checked the window and smoke detectors and it only took about 20 minutes.  Debi said a lot of people are not getting licensed because of their concern that some other unpermitted work might have been done in the past and don’t feel that the inspectors will stay focused.  Bob brought up the possibility of the Fire Marshal doing these inspections. During the meetings with the City, they told the City that the taxes paid by short term rentals could pay for staff to appropriately license short term rentals.  Sue said they might go in again and meet with commissioners about the inspection process, might float concept of the Fire Marshal doing inspections. 25:10 Debi said she is personally grateful to Bob and Sue for doing this.  She thinks Portland was the first city worldwide to have a permitting process for short term rentals, or at least the first one in which Airbnb collected transient occupancy tax on behalf of the City. Sue said they were excited because after they got licensed they were asked to present at the first Airbnb Open conference in San Francisco.  They were later contacted by people from other communities across the country. Links: Quaint Garden Cottage Apartment (in their beautiful Portland home)  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/543988 More information on their historic home can be found on the Oregon Encylopedia website  https://oregonencyclopedia.org/ and search for “Brick House Beautiful”.  Their home has also been in “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine and has twice been on the cover of “Old House Journal” Oregon Coast property (near Cannon Beach):  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/885296  

Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome.com talks with Portland Airbnb host Nancy Stevens.  Debi hears a great story of Airbnb support when Nancy needed it most. 0-02:15 Introduction 02:15-06:15 A short tour:  Nancy shows Debi the view, and gives her a short tour, punctuated by a stained glass window that Nancy gave to her late partner to commemorate their favorite fly fishing spot in Idaho. 06:15-15:30 Nancy’s Story:  Nancy told Debi that she had a major health emergency and was hospitalized for two weeks and unconscious for one of those.  Her brothers knew she had Airbnb guests arriving but knew nothing about Airbnb. Her sister-in-law called Airbnb and Nancy describes her as working with almost no information and how much help Airbnb provided.  She goes on to answer Debi’s question about why she started hosting. It’s a warm reminder of the emotional value of hosting. 16:45-21:00 Discussion: Then Debi and Nancy talk about a variety of topics.  The difference between residential and hospitality cleaning; pet friendly accommodations, dust bunnies, and how friendly and nice pet owners are as guests. 21:00-25:10 Superhost topics: They also discussed Superhost status, and the difficulties that Nancy inadvertently created by trying to paste Mapquest URLs into her Airbnb communications.  Debi offers a workaround, and mentions using the filter for Superhost as a valuable way to find the potentially best Airbnb accommodations when traveling. 25:10-27:45 Pet friendly! Pet friendly also works to Nancy’s benefit, in bringing more guests and especially nice ones because they are dog owners. 27:45-30:20 Food, kitchen, house rules:  This is a short discussion of what food Nancy provides, and how she manages to have some space to herself and yet accommodate guests as much as possible. 30:20-32:20 Debi’s wrap-up:  Deb summarizes the show and clarifies the Tuft and Needle promotional program, and how you can subscribe to our podcast.  If you want to receive emails when a new show is on line, just click on the subscribe button on this website.  Or go to iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and search for  podcasts and Hosting Your Home and subscribe there.   Links: Nancy’s Airbnb link:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8611065 Tuft and Needle: https://goo.gl/D5WJ8f  

In this interview, get to know Airbnb Superhosts Alex Nigg and Tammi Sims as they talk with Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com. Alex is the creator of “Properly”, a suite of tools that allows homesharers, vacation rental owners and property managers to manage guest turnovers remotely. Properly users can send detailed visual and text checklists to their helpers, and have peace of mind that every detail of their hospitality instructions was completed just as intended.  Properly also allows the community of hosts to share their best service providers, providing opportunity to their favorite helper, as well as a trusted resource to the community.    But any of you who have listened to previous podcasts know that Debi can’t just talk about an app, she has to know about Alex and Tammi!  They put on a great workshop for our local HomeSharePDX (Meetup.com) group earlier in the day.  Before getting into the Properly app, Deb asks Alex and Tammi to tell her how they each got started hosting. [3:30]  Tammi had worked for 20 years for an NGO serving children with developmental disabilities.  She was curious about Airbnb because part of her house in Seattle was vacant whenever she was gone.  Then in 2014 her washer broke.  She thought she’d host until the washer was paid off but then got hooked.  She had hosted about 40 times and was talking with a guest on the porch before he left, and it occurred to her that she felt better about the world, having met and hosted all these lovely, good, kind people.  She thought either she had been improbably lucky, or that we have a world of really good people and maybe we’re not doomed after all! [7:05]  Alex worked for a venture capital fund in San Francisco and began hosting because of his interest in Airbnb’s economic model, plus his other interest in design – making a home function well as a home and then quickly be able to convert to function just as well for a short-term rental.  Then he got hooked too!  He told Debi a touching story about a guest who stayed with him before undergoing an experimental and risky brain surgery.  Before the surgery, family members from different places in the world came to see him at Alex’s house to reunite and wish him well.  Friendships developed. [10:45] Tammi speaks about the surprise that new hosts feel when they begin feeling the responsibility, honor and pleasure of providing a welcoming space for visiting strangers. When asked about whether they still mostly host remotely and whether they use a management company, Tammi said they travel so much that remote hosting is how they operate but that she doesn’t want to give up the email connection that she has with her guests.  She answers questions, helps them figure out where to go etc. So she doesn’t ever want to lose this connection so she doesn’t use a management company. Alex feels the same way. Debi asks them about the details of their personal listings, and links are provided at the end of these show notes. [14:20]  There was a discussion about restrictions in each city – Alex said he is out of town so much that he is considered an “absent owner” in San Francisco and is restricted to 90 days of rental per year.  He discusses the backlash of the emotional aspects of short term rentals in San Francisco. Tammi said Seattle is considering the issue now. Of course Debi had to know how they met – and it is a true Airbnb romance!  They met at a Superhost reception at the first Airbnb Open, held in San Francisco in 2014.  Alex had just started his company “Properly” and had a prototype of the app and figured a Superhost reception was exactly his target audience to show people.  They met, didn’t see or talk with one another for 7 months, then met again at another Superhost function and have been together since! [18:20] Product conception and description Alex told about being constantly interrupted at work by calls having to do with cleaning his Airbnb, and tried various manuals and lists until he finally hit upon the idea for an app that could take the guesswork out of turning over a short term rental.  The app began to evolve, and he has a funny story about one of the Airbnb founders who had started using the app and liked it, and one day called Alex in a panic to see if Alex knew of another cleaning professional who could do a turnover for his house. This is the point when Alex began working on the “Community” part of the app, which allows hosts to recommend and share cleaning professionals.  Assuming the person or company wants to be listed, they are then visible to other hosts who can arrange work with them.  It’s a great referral system.  Alex also noted the difficulties generated by hosts due to the impromptu schedules and how different it is from residential cleaning schedules. He describes the “pro or semi pro” hosts who want the Airbnb cleaned as soon as it’s vacant, typically sometime between 11 and 4, versus the more casual host who are more flexible and might wait until the following morning for cleaning.  Having the two groups helps balance out the demands on scheduling for cleaning professionals.  Debi brought up something that came up in the workshop earlier in the day, that one cleaning professional listed on the app and got 30 new jobs in 3 weeks.  Alex sees this as something of a giving back, that we hosts have benefitted from the home listing phenomenon and now the cleaning professionals (and potentially other workers) can use this app to list their services. [28:15] How the app works: Alex summarizes the Properly app as being two things:  First, it’s a housekeeping app for hosts, allowing them to manage turnovers remotely, with very good detailed lists for the cleaning professional, and allows hosts to follow along as the job is done.  Second, it has a marketplace capability that allows hosts to share their human resources in an area.  Cleaning professionals can be recommended by hosts and can then decide if they want to be on the app and potentially find jobs using it. The product is used by over 4,500 property managers and hosts, in over 50 countries, and 8 languages. Tammi gives her take on it.  One of the things she likes the most is that you can add pictures to the app so the cleaning professional knows exactly how you want things done.  Deb notes that because it’s on the phone, you can have real time interaction with the person doing the cleaning, if you want, via verification photos. [31:30]  Alex goes into the question of how cleaning professionals react to the aspect of optional picture verification, noting that cleaning short term rentals is different than residential cleaning in that the person who sees the work is not the person who is paying for the work, and is less likely to complement the cleaning professional on a job well done.  He believes that for that reason, the cleaning professionals often find the pictures rewarding because they get to show the owner that the job was done well.  Tammi says that it removes so much uncertainty for both parties when there is a new person doing the turnover. They discussed the high value of cleaning professionals in the overall guest experience. [36:00] Debi asks Tammi if she has a warm fuzzy story, and Tammi tells a great story about some young women who were really fun and had signed up for a trapeze class, and one of them eventually fell in love with one of the trapeze instructors and a great rapport was developed [37:50] Debi asks Alex and Tammi if there is anything else they’d like the audience to know.  Tammi talks about some of the values they share and how they work out their time together and travel with such a busy startup company schedule. They both love hospitality and told about putting on a massive feast three days in a row at Burning Man – they only had 5 or 6 people in their group but the others just kept coming for dinner. They love their kitchen time and brought us a jar of yummy jam they made.  We found out during the interview that they made it at 2:00 am so we nicknamed it 2am jam.   LINKS: Properly – the website:  https://www.getproperly.com/en Tammi and Alex’s Airbnb listings: ProperlySeattle: www.airbnb.com/rooms/2197168 San Francisco: www.airbnb.com/rooms/1434314 Coming soon - New Zealand: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4879541

Debi Hertert of podcast HostingYourHome.com visits with Steve Niebrand, owner of the "Hoffman Woods" Airbnb in West Linn, Oregon, a whole-house listing where large families can celebrate special times together. Debi and Steve talk about his very special house on 2 acres near Portland. He explains how he got started hosting, buying a house specifically intending to use it for Airbnb rentals. Steve has had 99% great guests but tells Debi how he came to learn how to directly communicate with guests before they arrive, regarding parties and events.  He meets and greets every group and takes that opportunity again to confirm no events or big parties. Not that Steve minds small parties :)  He frequently joins his guests and has had some fun experiences. Steve has started making and selling "Belos", which are the Airbnb symbols that mean "Belong Anywhere". We included a picture of one of the Belos below, and you can also see better pictures on his listing site.   You can check out Steve's listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10810725

This week's podcast is a special treat as Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com tours the brand-new “Hobbit Hole”, Greg Raisman’s artistic creation for an Airbnb apartment in Portland, Oregon.  Greg and Beth and their architects, builders and carpenters have been working on this project almost as long as it takes to grow a new human, and it really is their "baby”.  (One listener recently asked if we would include the recording times in the show notes for people who needed to save time and listen to just certain topics, which sounded like a good idea.  You’ll see times included below). But first, A SPECIAL REQUEST.  Rob and I are really enjoying these podcasts and hope you are as well.  It is a communication medium that is very one-way, and we really want to grow past the one-way boundary.  You can help us do that by simply going to our website, hostingyourhome.com, and request to join our Facebook group. As more listeners join the Facebook group, it enables valuable conversations, and also allows Rob and me to reach out to ask your opinions and suggestions for new episodes.  Thanks!  We love thinking of all of you as we publish each episode! [caption id="attachment_571" align="aligncenter" width="447"] Hobbit Hole, Portland, Oregon[/caption]   2:15-17:15.   DESIGN: Deb meets up with Greg and his wife Beth as Greg takes Debi into the space through a private entrance.  Creativity and sustainability are the two main themes. Greg works for the City of Portland and is very involved with street projects and active transportation.  Beth teaches at Head Start.  Let's jump in: Greg talks about excavating for the entrance and capturing the soil and clay to reuse.  The clay is similar to adobe (known as “cobb” in England).  As they took a few steps into the space, Greg described how the root system was drawn on the ceiling, then traced onto vellum so the patterns could be used on tubes of burlap. [caption id="attachment_568" align="alignleft" width="300"] Douglas Fir round is the centerpiece[/caption] [caption id="attachment_574" align="alignright" width="201"] Clay is used to round out the edges and provide structure.[/caption] The clay was sieved into slip, and straw was wetted with the slip and stuffed into the burlap tubes. The tubes were finished with a plaster made from a mixture of the clay from the yard and sand, and then oiled. The trunk framework was made using reclaimed teepee poles and all the room corners rounded out. A 4-foot Douglas Fir round forms the centerpiece. [caption id="attachment_569" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Don't freak out when you wake up![/caption] The Juniper wood was reclaimed from Central Oregon, where Juniper is being cut out as an invasive species.  Reclaimed teepee poles are used for lots of things in the space.  A branch is used for a clothes rod, and a special arched door from a burned out church separates the rooms. [caption id="attachment_573" align="alignnone" width="300"] A reclaimed door, from a burned out church[/caption] [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="300"] Just waiting for new furniture![/caption] The bathroom is unusual, more European with a shower and toilet in one space. The sliding door is shown here: [caption id="attachment_572" align="alignnone" width="201"] Beautiful door, made of juniper from Central Oregon, a sustainable choice[/caption]   17:15-20:15. Debi and Greg discuss how many it will sleep and other logistics.  There is a connecting door to the rest of their basement but will be closed off.  Talks about pricing – he had talked with Alan Colley at the last Meetup group about his thoughts on pricing.  Greg wants a very good photographer.  It is a hard place to photograph.  Even though he is a photographer himself, it takes specialized lenses because of the space. He has a reservation with Airbnb for an architectural photographer to come in after he gets furnished. 20:15-21:15 the two begin talking about next steps – City permit for short-term rental. 21:15-27:15 Greg talks about being involved in city street painting projects for 15 years – over 50 projects. He describes himself as pretty creative and also is used to doing construction projects, so this was a very good fit.  He talked about the overall cost of the remodel project. Mission – Greg really likes Portland, and speaking of their location, says most tourists who come to the City at some time probably walk by their home.  He is on design teams for the City.  He doesn’t build things but is involved in the design reviews.  He knows the City really well, including history, and really likes the thought of exposing guests to the concept of sustainable and artistic construction, influencing them, thinking they may follow suit in projects large or small themselves. Greg talks about his city job, and shares that he is happy his wife said yes to the project. 27:15-29:15 Greg talks about the expense of building materials because of the economy being so strong. Costs are 30% higher and labor is super expensive because of the economy. The recovered materials are free or inexpensive but the other materials are not. 29:15-38:15 This part is a talk about when the space will open, what they have to do before then, talking about who their market will be pricing, etc. Debi shares some thoughts on how to write up the listing, and Greg is thinking about Oct 1 to open.  Marketing to desired visitors: Greg is looking for people who love cities, creativity, and are interested in sustainability. They talked about Business Listing.  Greg wants to avoid pricing so high that people have artificial expectations. Debi suggests starting low to get some reviews, then can raise rates a little. She says she usually checks local hotels, but he doesn’t have one in his area. They also talked about a base rate and then charging more for additional people.  Debi recommended starting with just two guests and see how it goes.  Greg asked if Debi had been to other artistic Airbnb places, and Deb remembered Ashley Kern (“the tattoo lady”) in the HYH-13 episode “No Hope, No Fear”, and also recommends Alan Colley’s & Dabney Tompkins’ episode HYH-11 “Hear the wind give voice to the trees”, and April Brenneman in episode HYH-3  “Josh’s House in the Trees”. 38:15-42:15 Here, the two discussed how to manage the space, clean it, etc.  Debi feels that even though there is good management companies are there, being involved yourself has a value.  Greg is thinking he will do reservations and questions, but having someone to clean, do turnovers, and maybe meet and greet.  They talked about options for laundry, and some cost estimates for cleaning the space including or not including laundry. 42:15-46:00 Debi asks Greg if there is anything he wants listeners to know.  Greg talks about the community and working against social isolation.  He likes the kind of community that Airbnb creates.  And he is very complementary of Debi’s local Airbnb Facebook group and the level of reads of each post.  At work, he deals with customer service, very difficult customer service issues, and finds when people ask questions on the Facebook group the advice on the Facebook Group page is phenomenal.  He finds it to be super clear and effective, gentle, and non-violent communication. In wrapping up, Greg mentions a really key point that we have not heard come up before: How the Airbnb ratings on quality really motivate the hosts to communicate effectively. He looks forward to the coming experiences and what different situations will bring.   LINKS: The Hobbit Hole Airbnb Listing:  not yet listed on Airbnb but we will go back and add the listing number here when it is. UPDATE 10/3/2016:  THE HOBBIT HOLE IS ON-LINE!  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10752148 Other links: Street Art: Check out photos of Greg's and compatriots' "Street Art" projects:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/gregraisman/9002632560/in/photostream/ Living Walls (the lead natural builder):  http://www.houzz.com/pro/livingwallsplaster/living-walls-llc City Repair: http://www.cityrepair.org/ Francis Michaelson (lead natural builder with City Repair): naturalbuilding@cityrepair.org Felling Furniture Studio: www.fellingstudio.com JRA Greenbuilders (general contractor and carpenter): www.jragbc.com Communitecture (architectural firm that helped Greg with layout and drew the root system based on his creative concept:  www.communitecture.net Email debi@hostingyourhome.com  Ask to be added to the Facebook group! Any comments are welcome.    

Soon after Taylor Scheftstrom began working for Airbnb she recognized a need for reaching out to Airbnb hosts in the Portland area.  Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com talks with her about working at Airbnb and Taylor’s efforts to build personal relationships between hosts and Airbnb staff. Taylor grew up in southern Oregon in a tiny town of Rogue River.  She was a sports girl, especially horses, and was interested in travel from when she was young.  She traveled to Italy in high school, and at U of O studied photography and political science.  And she took several - in her words - “hair brained” trips including one walk across England in a summer of endless rain. They were broke so had bought tourist cartoon maps instead of the real maps, got lost over and over, and eventually all their equipment got destroyed by rain. But she still wanted to travel! After college, she lived in Turkey for 3 months, and then moved back to Portland.  There, a friend who was already working at the new Portland Airbnb office encouraged Taylor to apply.  She hired on in September, 2014 just as the office was building out and the service was growing very fast. She was recruited for the Trip Experience team.  That team takes calls from hosts who have problems or questions during on-going stays.   The answering team might be in Portland or other cities depending on the time of the call. Now, Taylor does more of the community outreach.  She recognized a need for official outreach from Airbnb office to local hosts to bridge the disconnect.  It wasn’t happening and she felt it was a need.  So she and colleagues came up with the first host dinner at Airbnb in October of 2015.  That dinner was the first time the office had officially – but personally - reached out to local hosts.  Debi recalled starting the Meetup.com group in November of 2014, on the way to SF, because she wanted to connect with other hosts who were going to the SF Open and there was no way to communicate on the Airbnb platform.  Taylor talked about how much progress has been made since then, and Debi complimented her on how great a job she has done in her outreach efforts. Debi asked Taylor if she has traveled with Airbnb, and the answer is that she loves it. Paris, all over Iceland, SF, Oregon including Allan and Dabney’s lookout tower, other fire lookout in Bend;  Washington, a B&B in Palmer Alaska, run by an older man by himself with a full breakfast every day, and British Columbia.  Debi asked her if it’s rewarding to see how well it works, and Taylor does love seeing that.  She doesn’t mention she works at Airbnb unless it comes up.  She likes hearing stories from the hosts she stays with.  She also loves the (NPR) Moth story telling event and podcast, and thought it would be cool to have Portland Airbnb hosts also tell stories.  So, she organized Host Story dinners at the Airbnb facility.  Things can be stressful for the Portland Airbnb employees because they often hear the problems people are having. So these opportunities to hear positive stories from Hosts are fun for them. Debi encouraged her, when she travels and uses Airbnb homes, to let hosts know she works for Airbnb.  Debi loves it when Airbnb employees stay with her, feeling like it is a compliment that they chose her space. Officially, Taylor is the Airbnb Portland community point of contact. She works on community events, works with Dave Mathews on mobilization efforts, and brings together Hosts and guests to join employees in citizenship efforts. And lately, she has been trying to connect hosts with local small businesses.  An example of Host outreach is Portland’s new Biketown rental system – Taylor has been contacting Hosts and organizing free informational rides where the Biketown rep comes and teaches the Hosts how they and their guests can use the system.  It is really great because Hosts don’t need to own bikes. Debi asked Taylor about job flexibility, and Taylor said if you have a good idea that you are really excited about, you can make it happen. It is a really cool part of working there.  She still works part time with the Trip Experience team.    Deb describes the office building and how cool it is – Taylor said all the rooms are employee-designed, like the “Ship Room” that this interview is taking place in. Employees came in one night and set it all up.  It is a fun-loving environment.  The building is an open plan and you can work on a different floor, lounge on a couch, use one of the meeting nooks or whatever.  There are shift schedules with people coming and going at different times, and there are many little “landing rooms”, and “listing rooms” which are based on a listing the team likes somewhere in the world and recreates it for their team meeting spot.  Taylor said they are now going to build out the 4th floor and there will be 20+ listing rooms overall.  They talked about the themed ladies rooms and how fun they are. Debi’s daughter and others are jealous of their friends who work at Airbnb, often because of the food!  Taylor is super complementary of their food program and told Debi about how hard the team works on sourcing locally and ethically.  The Food Service Team makes it a goal, not only to serve healthy and delicious food, but at the same time to economically support local agriculture and farms.  “Our Table” in Sherwood, Oregon is one cooperative they support and buy food that is ethically and locally sourced. It’s a small farm cooperative, really focused on the local community. [caption id="attachment_563" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Taylor serving at outreach event for local Hosts. Airbnb Food Service rocks! So do vegetables from Our Table![/caption] Debi asked Taylor about challenges at work.  Taylor said it’s hard because the company has grown so quickly.  The service has become so popular that you are always playing catch up.  All the team members want Hosts and guests to get it, and sometimes feel bummed if they can’t get it perfect.  They all believe in the mission (and, she notes, millions of other people do as well), so when it isn’t perfect, they often feel stressed. Debi asked Taylor about living here without a car.  How does that work for her?  Taylor said her fiancé Patrick has a car, but she bikes to work and has always hated car commuting.   Taylor said she still meets local hosts for the first time and really wants all area Hosts to know that she is interested in meeting them and building up communications.  She can’t give her email out but listeners who want to contact her can go through Debi via debi@hostingyourhome.com . Debi mentioned frustration that people have, not being able to find an email address or a phone number for Airbnb.  Taylor says it is hard to find the number on the website, because the system wants to answer phone calls for people who are really in a bind.  But she says the phone number is always on the booking so you can find it there.  And you can go to past trips, and find it.  The number is 415-800-5959.  The toll free number is 855-424-7262, (855-4-Airbnb).  And you can always just Google the Airbnb customer service number.  There is a special number for Superhosts (note that if you dial that number and are not a Superhost, you will eventually get disconnected L ) Be sure to see information about the farm cooperative “Our Table” at  http://www.ourtable.us/

Please join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com, as she visits with Airbnb Superhost Kym Cumbo and tours the "Slater House" in Portland, Oregon. Kym and her husband Fred live at the “Slater House” in Ladd’s Addition in Portland, Oregon.  Fred has lived there for 26 years and Kym for 7.  Kym began listing on Airbnb in 2012 and has really done her homework as far as advertising and learning how to be a great host. The style of house is known as an “American Foursquare” and was featured in This Old House magazine when they did a story on Ladd’s Addition.  You can read about this house style and the unique Ladd’s Addition neighborhood by following links at the end of the show notes. Kym loves to teach, and turns this love into small businesses, including teaching people how to host on Airbnb, coaching on the topic of divorce resiliency, Reiki, Laughter Yoga, SoulCollage, and a class called “Bring Your Joy Out to Play”.  These activities add nicely to her passion for hosting, often overlapping with guests’ interests. Marketing is something Kym really works on.  She makes sure prospective guests know about her varied interests and of Fred’s jazz band “Ladd’s Condition”, and says many of their guests cite these reasons for staying at the Slader House.  Kym also markets to many institutions and universities in town to encourage them to use her house when they have travelers coming to Portland.  And, unusual for an Airbnb-only host, Kym has a separate website in order to attract more visitors.  On the site she lists her coaching and other activities, and a very clear “Airbnb” link that takes interested visitors to her listing on the Airbnb site. Kym attributes much of her booking success to the personal website, and watches Google Analytics to confirm it. They also have guests from other countries.  Kym told Debi about the availability of Google Translate directly within the Airbnb platform to facilitate conversations.  And Kym also told Deb about learning a good lesson while she and Fred were traveling: you need to find a substitute host to be at your home.  They had Japanese travelers who could not read the instructions for opening the lock and had other problems, and now their son makes a point of being there when his parents are gone. Speaking to the feeling she gets from hosting, Kym says flat out that she loves it.  She feels they attract amazing guests and have made several good friends.  This is something Debi hears from so many hosts. Kym mentioned going through the City permitting process, which also requires notification of neighbors.  She said that now, four years later, every one of those neighbors has had some family or friends stay at Kym’s Airbnb!  She said that she and Fred feel like they are ambassadors for the City and can speak to the local history and politics.  And, she adds that if hosts are only looking at the money, they are missing half of the value of the experiences.  She uses Airbnb when she travels, and encourages all her friends to do the same.  In an interesting personal extension to the Sharing Economy, Kym is now trying to promote the business interests of the guests who stay with her.  This is just beginning but she would like to help them succeed too. Debi recommends some takeaways from the interview: Personal profile: Give attention to your bio.  Talk about your experience and interests. Have a website:  Not all Airbnb hosts will want to take this step, but it has definitely helped Kym gain business and allows her to market “add-on” services. Substitute host:  If you share your living space and will be out of town, find a person who can be there in your place.  This will help bridge language and cultural barriers, and also keep the peace among guests. Share what you know:  Invite guests to events, classes, and so on. COMMENTS?  QUESTIONS?  RECOMMENDATIONS?  Email debi@hostingyourhome.com ************ A tour of the house followed the formal part of this episode.  There are four bedrooms, two of which are for Airbnb and Kym is considering adding a third bedroom for rental and becoming a formal Bed and Breakfast.  That path has some serious city development fees compared to the minor fees for doing two bedrooms so she says they really have to think it out. ********** Here are some links.  Debi and Rob love live music and couldn't resist including those links :) Ladd’s Addition Neighborhood:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladd%27s_Addition Kym’s Airbnb listing:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/714112 Kym’s personal website: http://www.theslaterhousepdx.com/ One of Kym’s favorite bands (besides Fred’s), Ma Fondue:  https://www.facebook.com/mafonduepdx/ One of Kym’s favorite places to listen to music (and salsa classes twice a week), Vie de Boheme:  http://www.viedebohemepdx.com/ Fred’s band:  https://www.facebook.com/laddscondition        

This week, Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com coaches Ann Sigler, a Portland area Uber driver and imminent Airbnb host.  Ann has lived in her house for 36 years, just retired from Intel, and wants to try her hand at hosting.  Debi is helping her get started.  Ann would like to begin hosting in September, 2016. You may wonder where Debi finds people to interview, and there isn’t any one, single way.  Debi met Ann when Debi requested an Uber driver for a ride home from the Portland Airbnb office where she was having a meeting, and Ann picked her up.  They got talking, and it eventually evolved into this interview. Ann does not yet have a listing for you to check out, so here are a couple of pics of her house: As Ann walked Deb through the house, Deb talked to her about furnishing options, and about parents traveling with kids who don’t necessarily need a large bed.  Ann told Debi about water damage to the bathroom.  The damage includes some mold and the insurance will cover part of her situation but not all.  The 2nd Bedroom was nice – queen bed, blinds, and Deb talked to Ann about people wanting a place to put their suitcase and options.  Closet is cleaned out. Deb talked to her about needing bedside tables and lamps, and extension cords for charging devices etc.  This is a recommendation Debi always makes, is to have extension cords with at least three outlets on each side of every bed, and where possible, at the ends of couches.  There are so many devices to plug in now and people don’t want to have to travel with their own extension cords. Ann’s own bedroom – Deb talked with Ann about locks for not only her room but for the guests’ rooms. They walked outside, and Debi loved the flowers and pergola. They sat at the table, and Deb then summarized the accommodation options as being 2 to 4, plus Ann.  Deb suggested she just start with one bedroom and see how it goes.  She asked Ann about the timeline, with the bathroom needing repairs.  Ann is hoping for September. Ann also needs time to get her application completed for Washington County to operate a short-term rental and the two of them discussed occupancy taxes and how those are different depending on jurisdiction.  Debi has been contacted by people who operate Airbnb’s but are not aware of what occupancy taxes even are.  It’s true that there are some jurisdictions that simply have not dealt with short term rentals and occupancy taxes, in which case it definitely saves the owner a lot of money.  But hosts should perform due diligence and find out what the rules are in your area. Ann confirmed that she had just retired from Intel, a major employer in the area, with several campuses.  Ann’s location is good for guests who have reason to go to Intel and there are good bus and train connections from her house.  Ann brought up that she was an Uber driver and could drive guests.  Deb asked her about possibility of using an Intel bulletin board since she is a past employee. Deb brought up the Airbnb “Business Ready” category of Airbnb listing, in which the host has to meet certain requirements, including no pets. Ann has a cat so that nixes the category for her, but Deb still thinks she could attract business people for Intel and gave her a workaround suggesting “Near Intel/Nike” in the title of her listing. Ann told Debi about her new job as Ex Dir of Beaverton Downtown Association, part of the Main Street national organization.  This job has stipend support from Intel, which supports the connection of retirees and local non-profits. Deb went back to the discussion of insurance for Ann’s house.  When Ann called her insurance company to confirm the policy would cover short term rentals, they said no.  Even though Airbnb has their important insurance policy coverage for hosts, everyone needs their own insurance policy and many will not cover short term rentals. They also talked about hosting both men and women guests and whether Ann felt comfortable hosting both.  The kitchen will be shared with guests. The episode wraps up with Ann talking about her driving experiences with Uber and how she likes to ask people she “Ubers” about their Airbnb experiences, as hosts or guests or both.  

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Airbnb host Kaila Thomson. Kaila and her husband Matt have a house just five minutes from the Portland, Oregon airport in the up-and-coming Montavilla neighborhood. They host two rooms above Matt’s “Ivy League Recording” music studio. Matt is a musician and sound engineer. They have owned their house for five years. Before they started hosting, they had roommates in order to make ends meet, but were tired of it and wanted to get their lives back. They had some friends who had been hosts for a while and told them a lot about Airbnb. When Kaila and Matt got married, they honeymooned in Europe and chose Airbnb listings in every city. They saved money and loved the experience of staying in unique places and meeting their hosts. At each stop they talked to their hosts and asked them what they liked about hosting. Kaila and Matt loved how each place was different, meeting the people, and thought “we could totally do that. We could charge a little more, improve our house, and meet interesting people (and they treat our house a lot nicer).” They visited London, Prague, Munich, Slovenia, and Venice. They got to experience different arrangements: sharing space with hosts, sharing space with guests, and having their own separate space. Now, when they travel, they go to Airbnb first. They have now been married for two years and are at their 1-year mark with hosting. Kaila is 31 years old and says many of her guests are their same ages or a little younger, maybe mid-20s, but they also have older guests. Debi told Kaila she likes to interview people of different ages and is glad to see younger people hosting. Their listing says “Above a Recording Studio”. It might dissuade some people but others really like it and ask if they’ll hear music, and she tells them “you might!” They did have one unfortunate situation where the guest didn’t read the listing that described the music and operating hours of the studio. They get a lot of people from Seattle because it is so close, but also people from all over the world. Kaila likes to talk with the guests to see why they chose Portland and she and Debi agreed that it’s a destination now. Deb mentioned their proximity to the airport and Kaila said they do have a lot of people just staying for a night before they travel on. They used to have both rooms listed for minimum stays of one night but it was too much work, as they have been doing their own cleaning, so now they list one room as a 2-night minimum and one room as a 1-night minimum. Kaila just hired a housekeeper to help out. Both she and her husband work full time in addition to hosting Airbnb and it is a struggle. Her housekeeper is part of their neighborhood, just five blocks away. Deb talked with Kaila about the housekeeper being there possibly every day, and Kaila said they have the arrival and departure times set as 12-2 so if the other guests are there, they know that there might be housekeeping going on during that time. She has multiple sets of linens so her housekeeper doesn’t have to do the laundry. They talked about beds, furnishings, painting the rooms, and house rules: No loud noise after 10, clean up after yourself, turn lights off. With simple rules, they haven’t had any real issues. Debi wondered about walkable restaurants and it turns out Stark Street is an up and coming area with lots of nice restaurants and pubs including one with 19 rotating taps. The Academy Theater only costs $4. The #20 bus goes straight downtown, takes 15-20 minutes and works well for travelers without cars. Kaila includes menus from all the local restaurants in the room. She works downtown herself, and takes the #20 to Olympia Provisions, Oregon’s first USDA-approved salumeria, established in 2009, where she works in accounting. Her managers are OK with her taking an occasional Airbnb call during work, which allows her to be reachable when necessary. Matt works from home with his recording studio, and helps a lot with cleaning and is very involved overall. They have had guests watch movies with them, eat meals with them, and Deb asked Kaila for a story about a great guest experience. Kaila told Debi about Jenny and her husband from London, on their honeymoon, visiting before moving to Vancouver, BC. They connected nicely even though they were all sick and sitting around the living room! They talked late into the evening and became friends. Another couple from California stayed two weeks and became friends. They’ve also had some people stay who they wouldn’t want to stay again, noting this is the nice thing about hosting, is you don’t have to ever have to see them again. Debi and Kaila talked about Facebook, other outreach to past guests, and occupancy rates. The “Blue Room” only had three days last month un-booked. The “Green Room” is a little less busy but she still gets lots of requests. Deb asked her about Instantbook. Kaila said that because Matt isn’t always home and she works during the day, they would just rather not use that part of the platform. Their Airbnb activity helps them meet their mortgage every month and they plan on continuing hosting. One future question is what they will do once they decide to start a family. Deb and Kaila discussed Kaila’s favorite Airbnb on their Europe trip, which was the one in Prague, and the nice extras that the host did at that location. At home, Kaila leaves some snack bars and bottled water for guests, but said that sometimes guests don’t communicate with their hosts when they’d like something. Kaila encourages those listeners who are guests to make sure they read the whole listings and communicate with their hosts, and to look at Airbnb more as a community than a corporation. She says she finds so much information and support on the Airbnb forum. She feels very supported by Airbnb - the couple of times she felt uncomfortable, like about a person putting in repeated reservation requests for dates not available and she called Airbnb and they took care of it. She has had to turn down a couple of people due to feeling somewhat unsafe about them. She normally is fine with anyone who has the verifications and some reviews and answers her basic questions. So she doesn’t use instant book for just this reason. Overall, Kaila gave Debi a very positive feeling about her hosting experience. You can see Kaila and Matt's listings at http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6304219  and http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6317136

This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with soon-to-be Airbnb Host Ashley Kern, as they go over Ashley’s plans and final touches.  Be sure to see the pix at the end of these notes. Ashley and her husband James own the “No Hope No Fear” Tattoo Art Studio in SE Portland.  In a city with over a hundred studios, James is a widely recognized tattoo artist with 22 years of experience.  James also teaches at international conventions and hosts visiting artists.  The teaching aspect has allowed the two of them to travel all over the world and they look forward to using Airbnb more often as travelers.  This has made Ashley want to host other people too, and their home/business which is zoned mixed-use residential gives them the opportunity to include an Airbnb listing. Debi and Ashley walk through the home, built in 1922 in a Craftsman style, and Debi found the combined home/business to be very attractive and definitely looks residential.  The final project Ashley wants to finish before hosting is the outside patio.  Her dad is helping out and was painting the back porch the day Debi visited.  Ashley explains the requirements in her zoning of having to be at least 50% residential, so they can’t expand the tattoo business any farther, but are allowed to do short term rental and chose that path. There are dozens of nearby restaurants but no hotels.  There are many other Airbnb offerings in the popular area.  Their potential guest market includes not only tourists wanting to visit Portland but also clients from other cities, coming to get tattoos, and visiting artists. Debi and Ashley talk about the house potential to be kid-friendly, and business-ready.  "Business-ready" is an Airbnb term for listings that request the designation and have no pets, have high-speed internet and a working space/surface, and allow 24-hour access to the space for the guest. Debi explains this in detail in her introduction to the episode. After walking through the home, Debi encourages Ashley to open soon.  They talk about locks and the insecurity of using a lock-box type access that uses a key; the key can be copied.  Debi recommended that they consider using eRentallocks or Resort Locks or similar electronic locks that make it so easy to change the code between guests that there is no excuse to not do so. As they toured the house, Debi was wowed by Ashley and James’ photos on the walls of beautiful northwest scenes, all taken by cell phone cameras and printed by Costco!  Ashley has scheduled for an Airbnb photographer to come through the space to take photographs for her listing, and she and Debi talk about staging. James Kern Tattoo Art Studio:  http://www.nohopenofeartattoo.com/ Costo photo production:   Costcophotocenter.com Electronic locks:  http://www.erentallock.com/ More electronic locks:  http://resortlock.com/

Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com talks with Michael Burke and Caitlin White, as a follow up to last week’s episode “Hear the Wind Give Voice to the Trees”.  Michael and Caitlin have twice been guests at Alan and Dabney’s Airbnb listing: Summit Prairie, and this year they got engaged there! In this episode, Michael and Caitlin offer us the guests’ experience.  From how Caitlin first found the listing, luckily finding an opening, and then in detail what it’s like to stay there.   And why they found it so compelling not only to return, but for Michael to choose it as a place to propose. As hosts, it’s always valuable to hear what the guests think about things and you will hear a couple of fun contrasts, taken from our talk last week with Alan and Dabney. So listen in as Debi toasts the newly engaged couple - (and yes, Caitlin, of course Michael asked your dad!) **Debi also started a new Facebook group.  She intends to use this group as a place where hosts who listen to this podcast can interact.  This group provides a great way for all listeners, whether hosts or guests, to interact. Join Debi’s Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1718050635079172/ Alan and Dabney’s listing is: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3405072

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Airbnb superhosts Alan Colley and Dabney Tompkins, self-described “City Slickers” who none the less, live on a very remote 160 acres.  In a house, but it's on a 40-foot high lookout tower. Alan and Dabney lived in Portland in a condo and rented it out on Airbnb while they went backpacking or touring. But they never met their guests. Now they live in the super-remote, rural Oregon and realize that there were the same number of people on their street in Portland as are in their entire rural area; but they knew few people on their Portland street and know everyone in their current surrounds. They were on a ferry to Victoria when they saw a book on renting fire towers, bought the book, and hilariously tried to reserve one in Tiller, Oregon for the next weekend. After the lady answering the phone had a friendly laugh about the non-availability, she gave them a consolation prize of a rental tower in Pickett Butte. They loved it. They loved it so much that they bought property, which only comes in 160-acre lots. Then they had a tower built to closely resemble the original Forest Service fire watch towers. But theirs doesn’t have the fire sighting equipment and they had a great laugh when Debi asked them if they were firefighters. Initially going to Tiller for weekends, they at one point realized they really would love to live there full time. They leased out their PDX condo for a year, and some months later realized it wouldn’t be long enough and made arrangements to stay longer. That was three years ago. Alan and Dabney said that they never realized how much they would appreciate the experience of meeting their guests, and that has transformed their lives. Their first season, they posted their “Off the Ground and 40-Feet Up” listing on Airbnb and had their first booking in an hour. The season filled in two weeks. With so much demand, Dabney relates the “mistake” of trying to accommodate people who couldn’t get in, especially returning guests who they wanted to be able to come back. He started “penciling people in” and found the logistics to be overwhelming. The second season filled in three hours. He leaves some dates open in 2018 so that people can contact him on the Airbnb platform, otherwise there is no way for them to contact him with all the dates closed. He and Alan have the funny experience of being so popular that they get kicked off of the platform every three weeks or so from having to decline so many reservation requests. Debi discussed prices with them – why not increase them if demand is so strong. You will hear a very meaningful response that has to do with the people they want to meet. OK, well everyone has to go to the bathroom, so Debi wanted to know what her options would be. First off, there are 66 steps up, so that would be 66 steps down, which you might not want to do in the middle of the night. Good news – there are other options. Want to propose? It turns out this is a pretty popular place to do that, with four or five couples making it official during their stay. Including our very own Michael Burke and Caitlin White but that will wait for another episode :) There is more:   camping events with catered food for 40 people, with music from local talent. Important outreach to their community to try to include others in the tourism economy.  If you listen through to the end you will hear Alan share with Debi that the wind gives voice to the trees. And that every tree has a different voice.  Remind you of people?   Alan and Dabney’s listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3405072 Great video made by Zillow: http://www.zillow.com/blog/life-in-a-fire-lookout-182162/ And a beautiful video made by Alan Colley and his son as a fundraiser for Portland's Open Meadows School: https://youtu.be/SRkQRVd-jkU

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews two veteran housekeepers who take care of Debi’s three Airbnb vacation rentals on the Oregon coast.  Bonnie (left) and Billie (right, with  Makenzie) bring their wits and humor as they discuss what makes a good guest, funny situations that come up like having to help pack up some guests who were forgetting to leave, and of course the hard challenges of housekeeping. This is a different job altogether than house cleaning for full-time residents.  Some Airbnb hosts already use professional cleaners, and some no doubt think about using them for turnovers or intermittently.  Even if the space is different than the coastal properties discussed here, the critical requirements of housekeepers are the same: Reliability of meeting your guest schedule, and Feeling co-ownership in achieving great guest experiences Debi’s beach rentals are hours away, so in that case, a third critical requirement is initiative.  She is completely reliant on Billie and Bonnie to not only clean, but take the initiative to make sure the incoming guests have the best possible experience.  Listening to the interview will convince you that no owner could think of all the things Bonnie and Billie do, much less demand they do them. Reliability is so key that one absence without backup during a back to back turnover could turn into a crisis and 6 hours of driving plus cleaning. Retaining a great housekeeper is one of the most essential challenges for hosts.  The good news is that there is nothing different from retaining any other good employee.  But we have to keep these job satisfaction indicators in mind or suffer losing our essential support: recognition challenge freedom to assume responsibility avoiding burnout compensation, and spending enough personal connection time to build a relationship. Have fun hosting!  Keep it clean! Here are links to Debi’s Oregon coast rentals discussed on the show: Seal Rock, Oregon (Gull House):   http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16446 Lincoln City, Oregon (Shearwater House):   http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/34403 Lincoln City, Oregon (Romance of the Sea)    http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16431

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com leads a panel discussion about money matters with Airbnb hosts from Portland. This episode was requested by Marcus, one of Debi’s listeners, who wanted to know about the financial aspect of hosting. The discussion covers initial setup costs, gross income, taxes, expenses, how much time is involved, and what difference the income has made in each person’s life. This is a longer episode than most but allows you to hear several viewpoints. Each person on the panel has Airbnb’s top “Superhost” designation of quality and volume of guest activity.  So the numbers on this show won’t match up with an overall average of all hosts but the concepts are the same.  Another topic discussed is occupancy rate.  It varies a lot among the panelists.  Many factors are involved: location, type of listing, allowing single night stays Y/N, using instant book Y/N, number and quality of reviews, how high the company's secret search algorithm shows your listing, how many nights the owner blocks off for personal use or maintenance, etc. You will hear a variety of approaches for income taxes, because it’s a complicated subject, and if you are a host, should inspire you to get an accountant familiar with rental activities.  In most cities, Portland included, owners of short-term rentals  are required to pay occupancy taxes.  In Portland, Airbnb collects and pays these taxes and the owners never see or get involved with them.  It is a simple, elegant solution. Some other rental platforms, notably Home Away and  VRBO do not collect or pay these taxes.  This negligence makes a complex process for the owner, and the City, County and State doubtless lose a lot of deserved tax revenue. One of the big complaints all over the world about the "Sharing Economy" companies is that they don't facilitate the tax collection process.  And why shouldn't there be complaints?  It is simple for the company to collect and pay the taxes directly, and proper for them to take care of this obligation. Cities need to allow short-term rental activity (at least for owner-occupied homes). Owners who earn money from their rentals need to pay occupancy taxes. "Sharing" Companies need to meet their responsibilities here and make it easy for owners and municipalities. This is the first episode in the “Nuts&Bolts” series that addresses issues that come up when people rent their spaces to others.

Apples to Applesauce! You may THINK you’re busy, but there is busy, then there is really busy! This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Katrina Eastberg about her rental in southeast Portland and her nonprofit “Apples to Applesauce”.  Katrina is not only an Airbnb Superhost, but also: founded and runs a nonprofit “Apples to Applesauce” to reduce hunger in Oregon plans to start a company “Universal Green Design” which will help people with attractive, non-clinical architectural accommodation designs for disabled owners and guests knits and sells the knitting products on the web operates an event planning business with her husband, Tom creates and sells flower arrangements for weddings remodeled her home, with Tom and – we lost track of at least one more job! Listen as Katrina tells Debi what it’s like to live in a perpetually-being-remodeled home while renting a space on Airbnb.  A very rewarding part of this episode is learning about Katrina’s non-profit that is doing a lot for kids in need in Portland. Check out Katrina’s Airbnb close to Ladd’s Addition neighborhood:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2020429 If you want to register a fruit tree or farm, volunteer or donate, please go to http://www.applestoapplesauce.org And, if you are interested in the phone app for house cleaning details, go to http://www.getproperly.com  

Making Life-Long Friends Join Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com as she interviews Jill Palamountain and Michael McCarron about their Portland Airbnb.  Jill and Michael have hosted people from all over the world in the short year that they have been operating. They share their space, and it's definitely a big commitment step up from the hosts who have separate spaces for their guests. But Jill and Michael compare their experience to a really positive class in world geography and culture.  Some of their guests have become friends and have even been invited to Thanksgiving dinner. There is lots to learn in this episode! Check  out Jill's listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4810197 And Debi mentioned a "Walkability Score" for your neighborhood:  https://www.walkscore.com