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Maureen Bruggeman Podcast | Otter.ai

Maureen Bruggeman Podcast

Jae Seok An19min

Delia

00:02

Welcome back to another episode of Into The Airbnb, where we chat with Airbnb hosts about their short-term rental experience. Today's guest is Maureen Bruggeman, a super host based in Selden, Kansas; she owns and manages a small studio, which she built in a compact portion of a big barn. In this episode, she'll tell us about her experience and journey as a host of the only Airbnb listing in town, some numbers and demographic insights of her area and how the market behaves through different seasons. This episode is sponsored by Airbtics, short-term rental analytics for high returning comprehensive data for insights, ideas and inspiration. Go to app.airbtics.com to find precise Airbnb data such as occupancy rate, revenue, average daily rate and so on. So, without further ado, let's get into it! Can you please tell us how did you get started on Airbnb and short-term rentals?

Maureen Bruggeman

01:17

When we bought our farm, I think it was in 2013, there was an old barn here and we were going to restore the barn, but it costs more to do that than to put on a new shop. So we put up a new shop and at the time, we had a hired hand, so we built living quarters for him inside the shop. Then he decided he wanted to go more over the road stuff, so he left us which was fine, you know, he left it was good. So then it sat for a little bit and we rented it long-term to somebody who was working on some wind turbines. Then it sat for a while and then I offered it to the Sheriff Department as a place for domestic violence situations where people come hide out or whatever, I just wanted it to be used. They never used it in a whole year, so then I decided, "well, what the heck, let's try Airbnb".

Delia

02:12

Okay and how did you discover Airbnb? How did you decide to try it out?

Maureen Bruggeman

02:17

Actually, our higher hand told us about it because he uses Airbnb a lot when he travels places.

Delia

02:25

Okay, you started renting this old barn, is that?

Maureen Bruggeman

02:32

We don't have it in the barn, we've leveled the barn and built a brand new building in the place.

Delia

02:38

A brand new building, is it inside the barn, in the barn?

Maureen Bruggeman

02:43

The living quarters is on the east side of the building and then we got a shop that goes down the middle of it and then the barn is on the west side of the building. So there's a shop in between the animals and the LQ and the Airbnb.

Delia

02:58

Oh, I see now. What year did you started Airbnb with that building?

Maureen Bruggeman

03:04

It will be two years in July, I believe, so 2020.

Delia

03:08

So July 2020?

Maureen Bruggeman

03:08

Right.

Delia

03:08

In the middle of the pandemic and how was your experience starting to rent, you know, with the current situation at that time?

Maureen Bruggeman

03:19

To be honest, we went into thinking that, you know, we'll go ahead and list it in July because we figured that mostly we would get hunters because this is a big place where people would come hunt and immediately it started getting booked by travelers who were just traveling through. So it went really well actually, we were just so surprised.

Delia

03:41

Also, there were many travelers still around your area around that time?

Maureen Bruggeman

03:46

We live right on a major highway and people travel a lot, but mostly it's truckers. But yeah, there's nothing really around here for people. There's no sightseeing anything here. So I'm surprised people stop.

Delia

04:02

So they just stop to stay like night and then continue their road?

Maureen Bruggeman

04:08

Right. Now I did have one lady come stay a whole week just because she wanted to get out of the big city and get away for a while. In fact, that was cool.

Delia

04:08

Okay, that's cool. So since the very beginning, it has been short-term rentals? You do one night minimums and things like that?

Maureen Bruggeman

04:27

Correct.

Delia

04:28

Okay, that's great. So you told me there is a barn, so I assume there's animals. Do you also offer like an experience with those for people who might stay longer?

Maureen Bruggeman

04:41

We tell them if they want to meet because we do have one very friendly cow that you can pet. If they want to meet it they have to let us know and we will, we won't let them in the pasture, but we'll bring her up to the fence, so they can pet her because liability, when they go in the pasture, could be outrageous. And same with the chickens. I mean, I've had some that really wanted to hold the chickens so, yeah, okay.

Delia

05:07

And do they just request it or you also offer it as an Airbnb experience?

Maureen Bruggeman

05:12

I don't offer it. They see them and they asked about them and then yeah, I'll let them.

Delia

05:17

Okay, so around there in Selden, Kansas, are there many Airbnbs or short-term rentals in general?

Maureen Bruggeman

05:25

There's getting to be more. I was the first one in Selden and now, there's a gentleman redoing an old Victorian house in Selden. I think he's thinking about Airbnbing it. But his nephew, bought another house in Selden. He actually lives in Colorado and he comes out here for, we have a big Fourth of July fireworks, huge and he's part of that and so they're out here part-time. So he thinks he's going to Airbnb his house while he's not there. So.

Delia

05:55

So by now, how many would you say are there?

Maureen Bruggeman

05:59

Right now, I'm the only one, but probably by the end of the year, there might be three.

Delia

06:04

You're the only one Airbnb there.

Maureen Bruggeman

06:06

In Selden, yes, there's one about eight miles away.

Delia

06:10

So you told me you mostly get travelers and...

Maureen Bruggeman

06:14

And hunters.

Delia

06:16

Travelers and hunters. So is there any seasonality really, for you?

Maureen Bruggeman

06:22

Yeah, I'm really busy from like September through the first of February because it is hunting season and I do offer some pretty good amenities for hunters. We've got a hanging game gambrel, so if they shoot a deer, they can bring it into the shop and clean it and cut it up and package it if they want or keep it out or whatever they want to do. Same with peasants. We've got a place where they can clean them and then we've got, you know, warm water and whatnot in the shop. And they're not putting it down my sink in the oil in my Airbnb and they're not, you know, the one guy says, "oh, I've cleaned the deer in a hotel bathtub before". Let's not do that. So I just have the amenities for them to be able to do that. So.

Delia

07:11

Okay, it's great that you offer those amenities. Do you think about getting those just along the way when you started doing Airbnb? Or did you already have it before for personal use?

Maureen Bruggeman

07:22

Not the gambrel. I mean, we did have the sink in the shop for cleaning birds because we do have regular pheasant hunters that come out once a year. So yeah, the gambrel was something else and it's been used a lot. It's okay.

Delia

07:37

Okay, that's great then! And can you tell me, how much would be your occupancy rate during, you know, these high seasons?

Maureen Bruggeman

07:47

I generally try to keep it about the same. It's about $85 at night.

Delia

07:52

And you get booked during all the month?

Maureen Bruggeman

07:58

I get booked frequently, yes, as much as I want to. A lot of times, I'll go in and block off dates because I know I'm working and I don't want to have to deal with turnover a room or whatever. Or when my mom was going through cancer treatments, I would be taking her to and from Hays, which is like a two hour and 50 mile round trip, something like that. So, you know, on those days, I would rock things off, so I didn't have to worry about people. Our community is only 200 people, so finding somebody who come and clean to my standards.

Delia

08:30

Yes, that's right! Okay, so for the days you have opened your monthly book during the high season and during the low season, how would you say it's the occupancy rate?

Maureen Bruggeman

08:42

Probably once or twice a week.

Delia

08:44

And you get the calendar open during all the months if you don't have, you know, anything to do?

Maureen Bruggeman

08:50

Right. Yes, yes.

Delia

08:52

That's great. So you talked about cleaning, you just do it yourself. Right?

Maureen Bruggeman

08:56

Correct.

Delia

08:57

Okay, so is it, you know, a hard work, is it a big place or is it easy to read for you?

Maureen Bruggeman

09:04

It's 15 by 15 foot square and then it got an attached nine by eight bathroom or something like, I can't remember the size of it, so it's fairly small, but I wash everything. I wash the beds all the way down to the mattress cover, I wash the curtains, I wash the shower curtains, I wash the rugs, I wash everything, every turnover, you know and then I have an ozone machine that I run to kill off any germs. Then I run an air scrubber and then I, you know, wipe everything down with microbiome just to be safe because, you know, COVID.

Delia

09:37

Cleaning, even cleaning the curtains in between stays.

Maureen Bruggeman

09:40

Yes, I clean all everything because you don't know what people touch.

Delia

09:44

That's right. I agree with that. So you told me about your average daily rate being $85, you keep that during all year?

Maureen Bruggeman

09:54

Pretty much yeah.

Delia

09:55

Okay, so, in the past years, can you give me like, an estimate of your annual revenue?

Maureen Bruggeman

10:03

I could not. I just let my accountant deal with all of that stuff because money is just like, it goes in the account and my husband deals with it. So.

Delia

10:13

Okay, so can we do a quick calculation just to keep it?

Maureen Bruggeman

10:18

A weekly calculation is probably, let's see about two nights, 180 because they take their taxes and whatnot out. 180 a week, I would guess.

Delia

10:31

180 per week. I'll do the calculation later to get the monthly minimum.

Maureen Bruggeman

10:36

I don't have a pen here. I would try to do it for you.

Delia

10:40

So $180 x 4 weeks would be 720 per month, would you say is it okay?

Maureen Bruggeman

10:50

Roughly. Yeah, yeah.

Delia

10:52

Okay and x 12 months... 8000 a year?

Delia

10:58

Roughly, yeah, roughly.

Delia

11:00

It's still a good number, really good number.

Maureen Bruggeman

11:03

We do it as a part time thing, yes because I don't want to be that busy. So it's mostly because I don't want the space to deteriorate because when you don't use a space, like a house or whatever, it goes downhill fast. Our long-term goal is with this space, when we get too old and we don't want to do the mowing and we don't want to have to fix things or whatever, feed the cows, we will let a young man or woman stay here for free in exchange for that. That's your long-term plan.

Delia

11:36

Okay, so you're not planning on continuing with the Airbnb business?

Maureen Bruggeman

11:42

No, not forever. I mean, probably until we retire, which is another 10-15 years.

Delia

11:48

And during this time, are you planning on doing something more with Airbnb adding, you know, some more locations, doing some renovations? Anything you have planned for this Airbnb business, part time business you have?

Maureen Bruggeman

12:05

No at the moment because we live in a small community and if there's going to be two other ones, I don't want to have that much competition around here, you know?

Delia

12:16

Yeah, I fully understand. So for now, you're pretty good. It's like passive income, right? You don't use it or rely on the money to do anything, right?

Maureen Bruggeman

12:26

No, I use it to upgrade things here in the LQ. Like, I bought a towel warmer and I bought robes. I'm just trying to make it more high end and good value for your dollar, you know?

Delia

12:39

Yes, that's right. That's right. Okay, yeah, that's great to hear! And usually, like most kinds of guests you get, would you say it is like travelers or hunters?

Maureen Bruggeman

12:51

I would say 50/50.

Delia

12:53

50/50 okay. So you try to keep it really friendly to the both audiences, right?

Maureen Bruggeman

12:59

Right.

Delia

13:00

Okay, that's great. So another thing I would like to ask you is, how do you figure out pricing or how did you figure it out like at the start?

Maureen Bruggeman

13:10

I looked at what a hotel room costs in our hotel, we do have a hotel here in Selden, but it's a very old hotel and it's usually booked up because of all the regular people who come through like, last year, I think, somebody went through one of her walls and took out two of her hotel rooms, but she's backed up in business. But she doesn't like to be very busy either because she also runs a cafe right there. She does give rooms to people who can't afford it. I mean, I know that one time there was a lady that was walking by, a lady that I worked with salsa, which is clear out in the country and they picked her up and brought her into town and Gloria put her in one of the rooms. Then I took her to Oakley I believe because she wanted to go there because she knew somebody, anyhow, so we all work as a community to help each other out and to help others who need our help and I've let people stay here for free also. People traveling through that had have hard times. So.

Delia

14:18

Yeah, I can really understand. That's very kind of you and that's very kind of your community as well.

Maureen Bruggeman

14:23

We've got a great community.

Delia

14:24

That's great! And do people have, you know, if someone gets to visit you, you know, in their way to their destination, what do they have to do in the city? Is there any cafe or anyplace they can visit?

Maureen Bruggeman

14:41

Our little town has a cafe and then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we got a bar and it has nicer food, you know. Our community has everything, for a town as small as we are, we got a chiropractor, we got a doctor that comes in for two or three days a week, we got a body shop, we got two construction workers, we got the biggest Lumberyard around, we got a furniture store, we got a grocery store, got a gym, a library, a walking trail, just all kinds of things. So it's a really cute little community.

Delia

15:17

Is everything close to your listing?

Maureen Bruggeman

15:20

It's about a mile away. I live about a mile out of town, right on the highway, though.

Delia

15:24

Okay, so not too far away. And you told me previously about, you have a big Fourth of July event, right?

Maureen Bruggeman

15:32

Oh, man, yes. Our little town of 200 grossed about 5000 to 6000 people. We got rocket scientists and NASA engineers that have developed a ignition system specifically for our firework show, they come out and they set it up and they put, then they set it off and it's just amazing.

Delia

15:57

Oh my God, that's great! And do you usually get really busy around that time?

Maureen Bruggeman

16:02

I do. Yes.

Delia

16:04

Okay. Do you raise your daily rate?

Maureen Bruggeman

16:07

No.

Delia

16:07

You just keep it the same?

Maureen Bruggeman

16:09

Yeah. Well, the people that are coming in, that are renting the room are usually people that are helping with the fireworks. So, you know, because the other people that come into town, it's just from communities around because we got like a town 20 miles north of us, there's a town 20 miles south of us and a bigger town about 30 miles west of us. So we have a lot of people that come in.

Delia

16:36

Okay and all those people that come in are from surrounding areas?

Maureen Bruggeman

16:41

Most of the time, yes, unless they're visiting other people.

Delia

16:44

I completely understand. So big Fourth of July event, I get it. Okay, great.

Maureen Bruggeman

16:51

Huge, huge!

Delia

16:53

What do they have there? Just like the fireworks or is there activities?

Maureen Bruggeman

16:57

No, they got, it's like an all day event. They've got a dunk tank. They've got kids for games, they've got cornfood tournament. They used to have chicken poop bingo and I provided the chickens for it. But they haven't had that since the COVID thing. The Girl Scouts were huge in our area and they do so much.

Delia

17:21

Okay, I see. So that's the big event of your area. That's great! So can you tell me, where there any particular challenges or a challenging time during, you know, all these periods you have as a host?

Maureen Bruggeman

17:39

It's been pretty easy I think, so I don't know. My most complicated guest was immunocompromised, her son was, so she had me strip everything cloth out of the Airbnb.

Delia

17:56

Yeah, you have a pretty good experience. So are there any tips that you would like to give for future Airbnb hosts, current Airbnb host regarding I don't know, maybe your Airbnb experience?

Maureen Bruggeman

18:13

The very specific about what they could potentially encounter at your place. Like we're a farm stay, so you know, there's critters, there's bugs, we've had foxs in our yard, coyotes in our yard, snakes in our yard. I put all of that in the listing, so people cannot go back to Airbnb and say, "they didn't tell me this. I want a refund", you know, cuz I've heard horror stories where people get everything refunded because they saw a little bug. You know, bugs are everywhere.

Delia

18:48

Yeah, that's right.

Maureen Bruggeman

18:50

Things will go better if you can relax about things.

Delia

18:53

Yeah, those are great tips. Thank you for that! And the last thing I'd like to ask, you know, that you talked about snakes and foxes around there, people don't have trouble with that, right?

Maureen Bruggeman

19:04

They haven't yet. Nope.

Delia

19:06

Okay. So it's not a casual thing that they're going to go out and encounter them and be really scared or anything?

Maureen Bruggeman

19:13

No, no, no. I mean, last night there was critters in the yard and the only way I knew that is because I could smell it this morning. You know, critters come through, it's just part of life. So yeah.

Delia

19:23

Yeah, I totally get it. So yeah, that would be it for today. Thank you a lot for your time and for your tips!

Delia

19:30

You're very welcome!

Delia

19:33

Thanks for listening to Into The Airbnb, for 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.

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