What if you could travel for free? Without tax that is. Well, you likely can. I stayed at the most remote Airbnb I’ve ever stayed at in my life. I literally could barely get to it. After putting the jeep in 4x4 and dredging up and down muddy roads with deep crater-like holes we finally made it. Not without, however, two gracious Colombian gentlemen helping to push us up a hill while I had the throttle to the floor and mud shot all over their ponchos. It’s hard to imagine a moment of peace after such an arrival. But it was peaceful. Staring out at the beautiful mountains where the clouds rolled by like waves in the sky. The rain spattered in from time to time but there was no noise to be washed out. Just the sound of nature and a crisp breeze.Of course, as an investor in the short-term rental space, having accommodated over 20,000 guests in my properties, my mind started churning. I couldn’t help but think about the future success (or failure) of this property. Was the arrival just too treacherous? Was this property just too remote? We’ll break down the pros and cons of remote listings this week and wrap up with just how cool it is to explore the world and travel tax-free! This week's topics: Remote properties Pros and cons of operating remote properties Expectations Are you eligible for a tax write-off for travel? Is it possible you could use travel expenses to offset your ordinary income? Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!
I’ve been investing for over 12 years and have not been particularly biased to any one type of real estate to invest in. I started my career as a commercial real estate broker working exclusively with investors and different real estate investment options. The small team I worked with completed over 2 billion (with a B) in real estate transactions including everything from shopping centers, to warehouses, to apartment buildings. There are many, many different niches of real estate niches to invest in and within each “sector” of real estate lies even more sub-niches. Short-term rentals are just one sub-niche of the residential housing sector. You may say… hey Tim… short-term rentals are part of the hospitality sector! And you would be right if you were referring to just STRs used for vacations! But the fact is, people are living in short-term rentals now and they have become a mid-term option for many people.So which type of real estate is the best to invest in? Short answer; it depends. It depends on your risk profile and your experience. It’s also helpful to be able to compare and contrast the various options. So this week we’re going to make things simple and break down the risks and opportunities of just one of these niches (and my favorite as our listeners already know) and talk about investing in short-term rentals. This week we will have a rapid-fire list of the risks and opportunities as I see them with short-term rentals. Let’s discuss: Recap from 8 days with some of the smartest investors I know STR strengths and weaknesses Subtle opportunities (you probably haven’t thought of) The future outlook for the industry (and economy) What I’m doing in the current environment Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!
It’s hard to tell at first. Something seems a little fishy but not enough to lead you to believe that someone is out to fool you. Not from the start anyway. These days there aren’t many areas of life that haven’t been infiltrated by someone or something trying to take advantage where they can and ultimately take things that don’t belong to them. Scams happen with Airbnbs and short-term rentals as well. And there isn’t just one way they’re doing it. An important thing to take note of is that scammers are smart and always adapt. Just recently, for example, a scam at the start of 2022 affected 587 individuals and tallied up to a whopping $2.7 million in lost money. $2.7M lost with just one fraudulent scheme! So we need to be careful. As scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to fool people around the globe and with the rise in demand for rentals, this industry is now more prone than ever to fraud.It’s crucial that we watch out for any potential risks to avoid becoming vulnerable to scams, even to those already staying with us. This is an important topic, so this week, we’ll talk about Warning signs to look out for Most Common STR scams OTA ways of protecting us (and who does it the best) General tips for preventing scams Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!
If you have had an STR for a while I’m sure you had some unexpected cleaning due to guests smoking in your listing or pets damaging your property. Not only is it frustrating when our properties aren’t treated with care but having to deal with the process to get reimbursed can be equally frustrating! And sometimes we just don’t have the time to file a complaint before our next guest checks in and we lose the possibility. Airbnb has had its “Host Guarantee” for many years but just last November, Airbnb dropped it and introduced AirCover - the “top-to-bottom” protection for Hosts. AirCover is a branded type of coverage that consists of Host Damage Protection and Host Liability Insurance. It actually covers a lot of stuff behind this simple name and is just one more reason to explore short-term rentals as an investment option. Once you hear more about it, you may think, “Is this too good to be true?” Well, it is true, but is it good?! This week I will share with you all you need to know about AirCover and how it helps us manage our short-term rentals in case of damage to property caused by guests. We will talk about: Host Damage Protection Host Liability Insurance Key takeaways Tips on how to make Airbnb damage claim Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!
Compared to the hotel industry, the short-term rental industry is still just a small share of the pie. Although it is growing! And not just growing but merging with the hotel industry. The hotel industry is taking note of the STR industry and vice versa. But at the end of the day, the hotel industry is still a giant and the travel industry’s leader. Some hotel chains have tens of thousands of rooms and so they have access to incredible data. Data on the return of work travel, data on the average length of stay and average price, and perhaps most interestingly, data on the future outlook of the travel industry as a whole!This week I want to share some insights I learned from a conference I recently attended with some of the biggest players in the industry. I think you will find what they had to say to be quite exciting :) A quick review on: The great “merger” Is business travel returning? What areas are most ripe for investment? Industry expert’s opinion on a potential “recession” Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! P.S. I'm excited to share that we've just locked in our dates for our next live event in Memphis! It takes place August 19-21 (Friday-Sunday). So if you're interested in learning the ins-and-outs to successfully acquiring your first STR or the tools you'll need to scale your STR empire to the moon, come join us! More info here P.P.S. Did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here
Whether you sold your house, decided not to rent your home any longer, are doing a major renovation, or dropped the ball and got some bad initial reviews with your short-term rental, you might want to consider deleting it. This week, we will talk about how to delete your Airbnb listing (not your entire account!) and what other different Airbnb alternatives are worth pursuing before making that final and irreversible decision. I have removed quite a few listings myself over the years and so this week I’ll share with you my experiences and some facts on: Why you might delete your listing Before and after considerations How to delete your Airbnb listing Airbnb Alternatives you might want to consider Can Airbnb deactivate my listing? Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!
There are times when a man’s best friend gets promoted to its highest calling, as a crucial companion for members of the community. As a service animal. Today, a lot of people rely on them to help assist with disabilities. This higher calling however brings about a new set of rules you need to know in regards to your short-term rentals. By law, we have to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate service animals. But what about emotional support animals? (ESAs)How do you really know the difference between a service animal, an ESA, and a pet? And how do they exactly fit in our short-term rentals? It gets tricky. So, this week we’re busting all the common myths about service animals and vacation rentals. We will discuss: What’s a “Service Animal” What’s an “Emotional Support Animal” (ESA) What’s the difference??? Can you deny them? The questions you can ask Airbnb and Vrbo policies Can you charge pet fees? Here is a link to Airbnb’s policiesAre you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! P.s. did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here
Have you considered putting out the welcome mat for the furry, four-legged travelers of the world? Well, there’s a pretty substantial market for pet-friendly vacation rentals. Study shows that more than half of pet owners bring their furry friends along on vacations and this is becoming the trend. According to Airbnb, the most popular amenities right now include wifi, free parking, and..a pet-friendly space! There is also growing evidence that pet-friendly properties are more lucrative than their non-pet neighbors. For starters, pet owners tend to stay longer in one location, meaning higher occupancy rates for your property, which also means maximizing the potential for earning in your listing. The question of whether or not to allow pets, however, is not an easy one. Many short-term rental owners have split opinions on the subject. If you are wondering if maybe offering pet-friendly properties isn’t a bad idea, after all, there are some simple ways and ideas to accommodate man’s best friend and protect our properties at the same time. This week, we’ll discuss: Pros and cons Expectations to include in house rules Pet-proof your rental (Furnishing for your pets) Pet fees and cleaning fees How to request money for accidental damage to property? Longer-term stays (people don’t leave their pets at home forever) Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! P.s. did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here
Why is it that we can have two identical properties right next to each other but one waaay outperforms the other? Just a small change in occupancy or our average daily rate has a big impact on our bottom line so we need to ensure our short-term rentals are advertised in the best way possible. Monitoring our properties against themselves or monitoring their performance, however, can be a bit confusing. There are so many changes we can make to our listings on Airbnb or wherever we have them listed but how do we know if they are actually going to make a difference? In short, we need to measure them. What doesn’t get measured can be managed, as the common saying goes. So this week we’re going to talk about three ways you can measure the performance of your short-term rentals after making a change to see if they are performing better! And if you have more than one property already make sure to tune in to the bonus tip (#4) that might make things a bit easier for you :)This week: Listing performance insights Conversion rates Page views An easily exportable report with data you need Comparing one property to another Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! P.s. did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here
I know the hesitation. You’re staring at your Airbnb listing wondering… is this the right title? Is this the best title? Did I charge the right cleaning fee? Should I change my photos and descriptions? Am I missing something? Because we rely so heavily on listings sites like Airbnb and VRBO to advertise our properties for rent as short-term rentals, it's important that we do what they want when it comes to our online listing setup. It’s only right that we do what they ask, isn’t it? Would your property be staying booked so easily without them? Hopefully! But for many of us, that’s not the case, after all, they do spend $100s of millions on advertising on our behalf :) And so when I say “do what they ask” I'm actually referring to machines. Yes, machines. I can say with 100% certainty that on the other side of our computer screen there is not a human being reviewing our listings; it is a machine. A machine looking for certain data that it can plug into its algorithms to let Airbnb know that the listing is in fact a good one or a bad one less deserving of lucrative reservations. So how do we make these search algorithms (machines) happy to ensure that our listings are viewed by as many people as possible? That’s what we’ll uncover this week in a quick episode breaking down the top five. Doing what they ask Completing the listing sections (correctly) Safety features A few pointers in regards to photos Keeping up on our listing (Monitor) Superhost metrics: (VRBO “premier host”) Refer back to some of the prior episodes mentioned this week: Episode 118 (listing titles) Episode 70 (Must have photos) and Episode 91 (what NOT to do with your photos) Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended) You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! P.s. did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here