[00:00:02] This is Short Term Rental Management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl.
[00:00:16] Luke. Carl. Short Term Rental Management.
[00:00:21] Life is good.
[00:00:22] Talking about renting single family homes on an overnight basis. What we're doing here and today I want to talk about.
[00:00:31] This one's going to be a little bit to noobs, but also a nice refresher for folks that have been doing this a long time.
[00:00:40] When the guests tell you something is broken, it's broken, it's broken, it's broken, it's broken. We hear this a lot so I'm going to jump straight to the point. When somebody tells you it's broken, we're going to assume user error every single time.
[00:01:04] The hard part is breaking it to them that they are the problem and the item is not actually broken.
[00:01:12] So we assume user error and then we work backwards to find out whether it's an actual problem with the, with the item.
[00:01:22] Perfect example. Had a guest check in and the message said, my son in law says your air conditioner is not working because your condensate drain is probably clogged.
[00:01:34] So we immediately looked into it, we assumed user error and in this case it looked like we were right.
[00:01:41] Thermostat's functioning properly. Temperature is holding where it's supposed to most of the time. When you got a condensate drain clogged, you either got one, one or two of two things.
[00:01:56] Water all over the floor, water coming from the ceiling. They said this was on the first floor H vac on a two story house. So it would have been all over the floor.
[00:02:03] Or thermostat goes dark and shuts the unit down so that it doesn't leak all over the floor because your float switch is working properly.
[00:02:12] So you're telling me the H Vac isn't working but it's showing the correct temperature and the thermostat's working and you haven't said anything about water being all over the floor. I, I'm going to assume user error. You see, these are the systems and processes we have to be able to come to these conclusions based on, honestly, based on your experience.
[00:02:33] You need to have enough knowledge and experience with an H Vac to know how it works to come to these conclusions or you need a property manager, need to know how a house works and you will learn this stuff. You don't need to know right now.
[00:02:48] But I will say that if the message comes in about the H Vac being messed up, you know, really you should be more leaning towards somewhere along the lines of watching some YouTubes on how H vacs work than saying, oh my God, this sucks. I need somebody to handle this because I'm too busy.
[00:03:06] If you're the I'm too busy person, then you need a property manager. And I'm sure, I'm sorry, but short term rental management, the greatest podcast of all time, is probably not going to help you. I can't motivate you into learning how an H Vac works. Good news is you're here, so I assume that you care.
[00:03:23] And if you're new and you don't know how an H Vac works and that condensate, drains, clog and get full of junk and they need to be blown out, et cetera, then we just learn these things.
[00:03:35] Which, by the way, it's probably about time I have another H Vac guy on the program. It's been years, so one of my very first guests was, was an H Vac guy. I'd love to have another H Vac guy, girl or guy on the program if anybody's interested.
[00:03:49]
[email protected] Are you looking for a change?
[00:03:57] Well, the short term shop is hiring realtors.
[00:04:01] If you live in or want to move to one of the best vacation markets in the United States, we want you to join the team.
[00:04:13] We are a small family owned business, but we are one of the biggest real estate teams in the world.
[00:04:19] We are looking for new team members.
[00:04:23] Please contact us at theshortermshop.com careers theshortermshop.com Careers Anyway, when the message comes in, don't panic, don't go to Facebook and post a bunch of the sky is falling stuff. Oh my God, this house is such a pain in my ass. I'm never going to make any money. The H Vac's broken, the roof is leaking. Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. So much negativity on this stupid Facebook, man. I'm. I'm to the point where I can't even hardly handle it anymore, you know? But.
[00:05:05] Don't jump to the worst case scenario.
[00:05:10] I'm preaching to the choir. I do this myself sometimes. Every now and then you're like busy and it's your, your daughter something or other and your son something and this and that and the other and you're doing a hundred different things and then a crappy message comes in. Usually in my phone, it's a text because my office, you know, whoever's managing the office at that day or whatever needs to get my attention and I'm not paying attention to the messages and the slack and the whatever. So I get a text that says, luke, we need something over here at this one. And I'm like, oh, crap.
[00:05:42] But I will say, you know, I've been doing this long enough. Most of the time I just roll my eyes.
[00:05:48] Now, obviously the big difference in short term and long term is that in short term, they're only there for three or four days and it needs to be fixed and functional and rocking and rolling.
[00:06:00] We can't really wait until Monday with a vacation house, unfortunately. You know, got to provide a great day for these folks to create memories and go home and say they had a great time.
[00:06:11] So when the message comes in.
[00:06:17] And by the way, I use Hospitable. How about those little red AI deals next to the message on Hospitable?
[00:06:24] It is that just not perfectly formulated to give you a panic attack every time you see one of those damn red triangles.
[00:06:33] We need your attention. Oh, my God, the house is burning down. That's what it looks like. You know what I mean? And then how about you make. Can I make it go away? I don't think I can. I haven't looked into it, to be honest with you. Be. Sometimes I'll go back in there and see these red whatever that rectangles that say, you know, guest said the plumber that the toilets. Something, something.
[00:06:56] Anyway, if you don't use Hospitable, they basically put a red flag next to the reservation because the AI noticed in the messages that the guest was saying something was wrong, which is nice. I actually like having it, but it's. It takes a minute to get used to because you're like, oh, crap.
[00:07:15] Now I have AI telling me what's wrong with my house. Not just a guest, you know, so. But we're always going to assume user error every single time. And I will also say I'm not here to really get into SOPs today, but the. One of the very most common ones is going to be your television.
[00:07:38] You know, the Roku gets unhooked from the wifi or whatever, the remote's not working. That's very common. So common. And most of the time that means that they moved one remote from one room to the other room and then things just got messed up over, you know, the course of their stay. And then usually it's the next guest. Obviously you want your cleaner to hopefully check on that, but they can't always get to it.
[00:08:01] And a lot of times it's the next guest that finds it. The remote's not working properly. This is a phone call for me. I hate to tell you. I know we're busy people. We're trying to get out there and hustle and make millions and buy more real estate and be, you know, baller shot caller.
[00:08:19] But to me, if the remote's not working, I. I'm just. I'm so sorry. I have not been able to find a way to fix that issue other than making a phone call to the guest and walking them through it.
[00:08:35] Sure, you could send them a YouTube video from Roku's YouTube. There's plenty of those. And they would be. They would fix the problem, but the guest is not going to care. They're going to be like, YouTube. What is this?
[00:08:48] They, you know, they're starting to kick themselves that they didn't re. They didn't get a hotel because the hotel is going to have a front desk where they can send up John John with his plumber crack and fix your remote control.
[00:09:07] Way more detail than we needed on that one, I suppose, but you get the idea.
[00:09:12] So, roku, television remote, etc. Etc. That's a phone call for me. And I'll be honest with you, a lot of times if you just call them, they will figure it out on. On their own while you're on the phone with them and you're like, wait a minute, I didn't even do anything. But they fixed it, so who cares? Foreign it's working.
[00:09:34] That's all that matters.
[00:09:40] Now, the downside of making the phone calls, you've broken the third wall. You've become a real person. Now you're tangible. You can fix their problems for them. You're not just some wealthy person that owns a home and have people doing it for you.
[00:09:59] So that for me, I got. First of all, I've been doing this way too long.
[00:10:04] I can't be that point of contact. I feel like, you know, whoever's name is on the profile on Airbnb.
[00:10:14] I don't know. I don't hate to sound like a jackass here, but I feel like I've gotten to the point where somebody else needs to be calling. That's not the name on the profile. And even if you're faking it, because sometimes I do fake it, you know, that's not a bad little trick. I used to fake it, you know, quite a bit like Kramer says. Right. Sometimes you're just tired. But anyway.
[00:10:40] Anyway, where was I? Oh, hey, I'm calling on behalf of whoever's name is on the profile. Let's Just say my profile name is Luke. It's my name, right? So, hey, hey. I'm calling on behalf of Luke. My name is Peter and I've been made aware that you may have an issue with your remote control. How can I help you today? I really do. I. I know it sounds crazy, but I do feel like the psychology behind that is going to help you. Oh, my goodness. This guy that owns this house, he's got people working for him. This is the real deal.
[00:11:12] It's not some mom and pop, they want a mom and pop vibe.
[00:11:19] But I do feel that it can be a bit unprofessional if you're presenting yourself as the owner and operator in some cases, which is another trick I do actually on my. On my management software. If you had a co host, you can usually choose who you're sending messages from.
[00:11:46] I don't like to send messages from the actual host in most cases.
[00:11:53] I just feel it gives a better perception of professionalism when you have multiple users on your dashboard, even if it's just your wife as a co host.
[00:12:05] You know, they get this like, oh, let me talk to Luke.
[00:12:09] Let me speak to your manager.
[00:12:12] Well, I'm sorry, you know, Luke's not available. He's too busy crushing the world.
[00:12:17] But I can help you. How can I help you? It just seems, you know, I don't know, it's way in the weeds, obviously, what we're talking about now. But back to the actual point of the show, which is user error. We always want to assume that the functions of the home are working properly until they're not.
[00:12:38] Leaks in the sink, you know, all these things that you hear about on a regular basis.
[00:12:45] Don't panic.
[00:12:48] Most of the time, things are functioning properly. We just need to diagnose and get to the bottom of it. And then we need the proper people to go over there and fix.
[00:13:03] And that's hard to do without scale as well. If you've got 40 houses, you've got guys that are working for you all the time, girls and working for you all the time.
[00:13:10] Shoot them a text, boom, they go, fix it.
[00:13:13] But if you only got one house, that can be kind of hard.
[00:13:18] Not really looking into getting into the maintenance side of things today. Although that's a great topic for another conversation. That'd be a great topic for somebody to come on and have with me.
[00:13:28] Maybe you're a handyman or something.
[00:13:31] Maybe you just like to talk about real estate.
[email protected] Love to have you.
[00:13:41] So as messages come in don't panic, Assume user error, stay cool, and you know, work backwards into yes, it is actually broken, whatever the item is. And then hopefully you can talk them off the ledge and get it fixed when they check out.
[00:14:01] There are very few things you need to worry about, to be honest with you, in a home other than a fire.
[00:14:06] And I know that because I've had fires and they're horrible. I don't even like saying that word. Knocking on wood. There's a fire. I'm looking at a candle with a flame right now and I'm like, oh my God, these fires are horrible. But if it's not on fire, it's not that big a deal. Assume user error, work backwards into the issue and find out, okay, maybe it is broken. Maybe we need to get somebody over there. Hopefully the guest is cool with this. Do doing that when they check out or on Monday.
[00:14:34] And isn't it funny that this stuff always happens on a Saturday night?
[00:14:45] Now keep in mind, it really is not that ironic. The most desirable time for people to be in your rental home in a vacation town is Saturday night.
[00:14:59] So it does kind of make sense. The law of averages or whatever the hell law says that shit's probably going to break on a Saturday night.
[00:15:09] Pardon my language. I hate that maybe you're listening with your children in the car. I do want this to be a children safe environment here at Short term rental Management.
[00:15:18] I love you. Don't overthink it.
