Welcome back to another episode of Into The Airbnb, where we talk with Airbnb hosts about their short term rental experience. Today's guest is Annie Sloan based in Oakland, California, who is an experienced Airbnb host, co-founder and CEO of the host cope in this episode, Annie will tell us more about her company and also share her experience doing short term rentals. So, without further ado, let's get into it. So can you tell me how did you get started on Airbnb?
Yes, I can. So I am one of the super OG Airbnb users. And even prior to Airbnb, I used Craigslist to rent out my apartment in San Francisco. I have always been a very much geared towards short term rental and I've used it from the start. I used it to travel around the world from my apartment in San Francisco.
Oh, so you were doing short term rentals even before Airbnb?
Yes, via Craigslist.
Wow, that's impressive. At what point did you get change to Airbnb?
You know, I think that so Airbnb started in, I think 2007, right? So I started using Airbnb, I don't even know about right away and I think maybe not many people did it because it was mostly in New York. On my Airbnb profile, I have my first date in 2009.
I see and you told me you are currently managing over 10 listings?
Yeah, I run a company called "The Host Co." and what we do at The Host Co. is we make Airbnb shoppable. So we help host sell anything in their rental, or pre arrival items, like, you know, "stock my fridge", "decorate for a birthday party", etcetera. So I am an Airbnb host, myself, I have a number of units. My co founder, his name is Michael Hubbard, he runs times a real estate, which is a large real estate company and property management company. So he also runs quite a few Airbnb ease. But on top of that, on our Host Co. channels, including our Instagram and our blog, we have across that about 14,000 hosts in our community.
That's great. Can you tell us about how did you started your company with your partner?
Yes. So as hosts, I think every host knows this. Guests are always asking for the same things, right? Where do I get food? Hey, I forgot sunblock. Do you have money? Do you have any phone chargers? Can I get a late checkout?, etc. So we decided, hey, guests are always asking for the same things. Let's build a technical platform, that host can easily sign up on and sell all of the things that those guests are specifically asking for and do it in a way that everything is automated. So means way less work for the host and more money per booking.
That's good and that was great idea also. Can I ask how do you deliver the items to the guests?
Yeah, so for our platform hosts sell anything they want to sell. So they can sell the snacks in the fridge, they can sell anything they want to sell. We make recommendations for hosts pretty much weekly items that guests often ask for, and the guests can get those items, or sorry, the host get those items sometimes off of Amazon as a general thing. And what most most hosts do is they will buy a bunch of items and they will put them in and out of the way space like a stock closet and do a stock kind of every three months. And the really cool thing is that your guest doesn't get the location of that item until after they've checked out. So on their instructions, they'll say great, those items are in the garage or those items are in the kitchen on the top shelf. So it's a theft prevention measure as well as a way for hosts to just stock once and forget about it.
Yeah, I understand now, that's great. I'll like to ask you more about your Airbnb host experience. So in the areas you're currently hosting, which are them, sorry?
Most of our rentals are in Southern California in the Joshua Tree, high desert areas. Some are in Northern California or Central Oregon. California as well.
Oh, I see and in those areas, how is the seasonal living like?
Well, the great thing is where we are in the high desert, seasonality, you know, you have some ups and downs, but we're right by a National Park that people want to visit all year round, so that's the great part. You know, something surprising about Joshua Tree is it does get cold in the winter, it snows, right? But it is just as beautiful in the snow as it is in spring, fall and summer. So we have a bit of a dip like most people, you know, March, April, when people are working hard, kids are in school. But then once we get back into the summer, we basically it goes all the way back around until February of the following year.
I see. In the high season versus the lowest season, how is your average occupancy like?
Oh, gosh, because it's all Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree is one of those locations that is booked all the time. So I would say it's about 65%.
In the high seasons, or throughout the year?
Throughout the year, I would say except for maybe March and April, although this year, I think that my specific place and Joshua Tree that I'm thinking of, I think it had three days without occupants in March. Another one of our locations, in February, had 13 bookings. And February is the shortest month, right? So some people were checking in and checking out. It's a very hot location right now.
Oh, I see. So it was crazy for February, I see. For the listings you manage on your own, what is your pricing strategy?
You know, that is a very good question. I work with my property managers to often come up with that pricing strategy. I do sometimes consult, AirDNA for pricing strategy. I think they're a really fantastic resource. Then another key strategy is just looking around at other rentals, I've found for our rentals and the type of rentals we have, that we're not trying to compete by pricing, but by amenities, it's a much better way because people are willing to pay more for a nicer place.
How does your revenue change when you use like the different pricing levels? How did it change when you use AirDNA? How does change when you use your property management company help?
I would say property manager is the best as particularly if they're an experienced property manager, they know what to do, right? They know that when you're starting out a place that you're going to price it lower, because you want more reviews, and you want them faster. But as you grow and look at the market, particularly if they are managing other rentals in that same market, they're gonna have a much clearer idea. I definitely would not turn to Airbnb, or any of the other platforms to set that pricing for you.
Okay, yeah, that's great. So in all your years being a short term rental manager, what have been your top challenges?
Well, I would say my currently upsells. So the top challenges for me are definitely my company, because we were just trying to figure out how we could make more money via upsells. Because the rental income is great, but once your guests check in, it's a sunk cost, right? They crank up the AC, they break the wineglasses. So by using host code stores, now we can say okay, if you want to late checkout here, it's $50, right? So we're able to take our time and make money off of it and that previously was our biggest challenge was we are spending a good deal of time on this place that is not directly resulting in revenue, right? All of the emails, all of the messaging, how to really minimise that and make everything much more streamlined and much more passive has been by far the biggest challenge this time.
I see and what about your challenges as an Airbnb host?
Kind of the same thing, is how do we do this in less time? Because when hosting, there's so much as you I'm sure know, back and forth with guests. You know, like, oh, how do I turn this on? Oh, is this broken? No, it's not broken. Here are the instructions. They don't read the instructions, they call back and they say it's still broken, right? Hey, where's this? Where do I get food? You know, the relationship doesn't stop when the guest checks in and that has been like, oh my gosh, this is so time consuming to answer all these questions, right? And these questions are not resulting in any sort of different payment structure. So I can, you know, I can talk to a guest six times a day throughout the entire five days day. And that's not, you know, that's like "I'm getting nothing out of that" would probably be the hardest thing. And just making sure that everything can get done in the allotted amount of time and that guests stay happy has been the hardest part because one interaction like one text you don't get back to for four hours could be result in a negative review, right? So keeping guests happy has been probably the, and also keeping a smile on your face, right? The whole time has been up there in terms of challenges.
I understand and does your company try to ease that part for your hosts?
Yes, yeah. What we do is we just set up, it's essentially anticipating guests needs and setting ways for them to fulfil that needs without me having to be involved at all. Here's some really common examples. Hey, you know, we have a rental in Death Valley like, hey, I forgot sunblock and I'm in Death Valley, the nearest store is 30 miles away. If you have sunblock, even if it's for sale, right? In that space, your guests love you. They're like "oh, yes, thank you so much". Phone chargers are another big one. Everyone forgets their phone charger, right? And everyone needs to buy a new one. Or another thing is like Advil and Gatorade. You know, the morning after a wedding, I've certainly been there and said, I would pay $50 for Advil and Gatorade and if you provide that for your guests, they are so happy. They're literally like "hey, you saved my life in this Airbnb".
Oh, my! So that really results in more happy guests.
Yeah, much, I mean, I find that and I don't know about you, but people are gonna give you often a five star review no matter what. Unless you mess up or you don't respond or something like that. But to differentiate it with like super glowing reviews, that's really the goal.
Yes, I agree completely. Any tips you'd like to share for future Airbnb hosts or people who are already running Airbnb or short term rentals?
I think my tip, you know, on The Host Co, we do tonnes of tips almost every day about hosting. We do like Airbnb hacks and when you're getting started, I think the biggest thing is, you know, you should expect that you're gonna make money, more money from your equity, and not as much, you're sure you're gonna make cash incoming. But often you're gonna want to put that cash right back into the property to improve it. So I would look at it as a much longer term play for wealth creation, then a cash generator.
Yeah, I agree with that completely. Anything else you'd like to share regarding your company? Like how is your dynamic? Can you briefly explain how it works? Your story?
Yes. So you can go to thehost.co and sign up there. That's how it works and it is technology that is very easy to, it takes two minutes for hosts to sign up. It is free for hosts always and host consensually sell anything that they want to sell, hosts are selling everything from decorate for a birthday party before I get there, add fresh flowers, stock my pantry to in home items to things like I'm gonna leave out a Polaroid camera and sell the film, right? So there's a lot of great ways to use it and we seek the creativity of hosts getting on board every single day, which is just thrilling. And it's just an amazing community to be a part of, of people trying to really leave the traditional workspace and get into this. So thank you so much for your time and it was great to meet you.
Yeah, thank you so much for your time as well. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to into the Airbnb. We're looking for hosts and other people in the short term rental industry to interview if you have what we need and would like to share your experience in this podcast, please send us an email. All the info is at the end of the description.
