[00:00:00] I personally don't want to say I'm not going to use this because I feel like that's like, kind of like me saying I'm not. I don't need a website in 1996. If it's 1996 and I'm saying, what websites are stupid, I don't need one.
[00:00:12] Look what happened there, you know, so I'm diving in on it. I'm all in on it. I like it.
[00:00:18] I've also learned when it's not doing what I want it to and how to teach it to do what I want it to.
[00:00:27] Everyone is talking about AI As a matter of fact, your friends are. Are sick of hearing you talk about AI so that's what we're talking about today. We're doing an AI update on today's episode of Short Term Rental Management.
[00:00:48] Okay? So I've thought long and hard about this and I've decided not to do.
[00:00:53] Well, I may, but I'm not going to do much screen share today. I'm not going to open with screen share because, you know, for a few reasons, it's difficult to screen share AI live because a lot of times it takes forever.
[00:01:05] And also there's a very good chance I'd be showing you things that you don't really need to see, like addresses and things like that. So I'm just not going to share screen too much today, but I am going to go over lots of things. Okay?
[00:01:21] For one thing, AI is, you know, it's. It's cool, but it's complicated. And if you're not ready for it, that's okay. Go at your own pace. You know, if listening to a pot. This podcast is as sophisticated as you're ready to be right now, you know, you're probably not ready for AI. So that being said, it's pretty simple in the grand scheme of things. And it is, in my opinion, kind of the new version of the Internet, the new version of Google. And I don't want. I personally don't want to say I'm not going to use this because I feel like that's like kind of like me saying, I'm not. I don't need a website in 1996. If it's 1996 and I'm saying, what websites are stupid, I don't need one.
[00:02:11] Look what happened there, you know, so I'm diving in on it. I'm all in on it. I like it.
[00:02:17] I've also learned when it's not doing what I want it to and how to teach it to do what I want it to.
[00:02:24] Okay? So keep all of that in mind.
[00:02:30] I will also say as far as systems, processes and products, you can directly API Claude, Chat GPT and Grok to.
[00:02:44] In. In our space, the two most important ones are going to be your management software. Most a lot of people using Hospitable you can use, you can integrate with that API mcp, it's called and Price Labs.
[00:02:58] Most people that are listening to this podcast are probably using Price Labs. So you definitely want to MCP your AI into your Price, which is actually an anthropic term. It stands for model context Protocol.
[00:03:15] You know, from my level of intelligence, it's almost the same thing as API. It's a similar thing. Right.
[00:03:22] So anyway, you, if you're Talking websites like Airbnb.com, vRBO, Air DNA, Airbnb, Terno Touch Day for your guidebook or whatever, you know, whatever it may be, you generally cannot connect those directly with an MCP API. You are going to use a Chrome extension on Claude for that. And again, this is where I'll go ahead and make recommendations on which AI to use.
[00:03:49] ChatGPT is very simple, user friendly. I do use it all the time. I am not using it for my rentals and my management company because I felt that it didn't do that great of a job. It didn't quite understand what I was trying to say. It also does not have the Chrome extension that Claude has. So Claude is the superior AI for property managers, in my opinion.
[00:04:12] I still use ChatGPT every day.
[00:04:15] I still have a high level chat GPT subscription. I also have a high level teams subscription for Claude so that my team members can see what I'm doing, I can see what they're doing, we can collaborate. It's very cool.
[00:04:28] So if you don't have a team, then you don't need that. You can just get the Pro membership and you know, get as much usage as you think you're going to need. You can upgrade when needed. But the cool thing is, is that you can directly, you can have Claude pull up airbnb.com, vrbo.com, airdna and connect those with the Chrome extension so that Claude can take over your Chrome window and do things for you and pull data from Price Labs and from air DNA, etc.
[00:04:59] Now, of course, with Price Labs, that was a bad example because it can pull it with the API mcp.
[00:05:07] Okay.
[00:05:10] And this could theoretically come in handy for somebody who's brand new and shopping for a house. You could Connect your Claude to Air DNA, Air Bittics, Price Labs, Marketplace, dashboards, all that stuff on a chrome extension. And you can ask Claude, please go over to the chrome extension and pull data on 123 Main street and tell me kind of a roundabout guesstimate as to what you think the gross income will be on this house.
[00:05:34] You can do that?
[00:05:37] Matter of fact, I really want to do it right now on the screen, but it would be time consuming. Maybe I'll, I'll give it a try in the background. Okay, so I actually hit pause and set this up. I found a house for sale down the street from where I am right now in the neighborhood where I own a couple of houses. And I said, well, I'll read it to you. I asked Claude, I said, can you, I gave it the realtor.com link for the house and I said, can you pull Chrome Extension and Air DNA, AirBNX and Price Labs market dashboards. And tell me a roundabout guesstimate as to how much you think this property will gross per year in gross rental income for short term rental and VRBO, Airbnb, et cetera. And the address is 59 Conscious Way, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, 32459. I've also sent you the realtor.com link. So it's taking over on the chrome extension right now and it's going to give me its roundabout guesstimates as to the gross income of this home. I spelled aerobatics wrong and Air DNA wrong.
[00:06:36] Let me correct that and I'm gonna let that run in the background and see if and what it comes up with, if anything.
[00:06:44] Again, definitely not always like the greatest stuff of all time here, guys, but it is pretty cool and I'm curious to see what it comes back with. Now, good news is on this one, I own the house literally across the street from this house and I know what it grosses. So I can, I can tell pretty easily if it's accurate or not. Now, you're not going to have that luxury if you're brand new and don't know anything about anything. And also, just so you're aware, the short term shop does not talk numbers. We generally don't like to talk numbers at all because numbers are very personal. You need to make your own decision as to how much you think the house can make. And again, that's a big part of it. A big part of it is how much can you make with this house? It's not how much can this house make? It's the other way around. How much can I make with this house.
[00:07:34] Got me.
[00:07:37] All right, now let's get back to management.
[00:07:40] So some ways that I've been using it that are good and some that are not great, like for instance, I'm finding that chatgpt in general, it's not really getting it done when it comes to the management of the properties.
[00:07:57] Doesn't really understand what I'm asking it and you know, I already mentioned that, but Claude's doing a better job in my opinion.
[00:08:04] And again, I have the Chrome extension so it can take over my air DNA and my Airbnb if needed.
[00:08:11] So that's my opinion is that Claude's the better option. I have not tried Grok and some things worth noting is when I first started using it, I was very interested in what it would pull as far as numbers and nightly rates and things like that. And I have noticed very quickly that it's struggling with that. I'm noticing at least as the recording of this podcast in the fall of 26, it wants me to raise my rates. And you do need to understand that nationwide occupancy is much lower than what I'm used to.
[00:08:43] I pay attention. I'm a small potatoes owner operator. You know, I'm got a big operation for a regular guy. But in the grand scheme of property management companies, I'm tiny and nationwide occupancy for a short term rental is going to be like 41% for the whole country for the whole year.
[00:09:05] And I run my properties, you know, I definitely like to be close to double that, right? At double that.
[00:09:12] So a lot of times it's telling me, you know, I've noticed some observations I've made. A lot of times it's telling me to raise my rates, like to pretty ridiculous rates sometimes and that's a great way to not get as many bookings. And I like high gross income and rear ends in the seats. Low, low price per night equals high gross income.
[00:09:32] So I am finding in general it's just, you know, it's not getting it done as far as numbers are concerned.
[00:09:38] Price per night, you know, occupancy percentages, minimum night stays, things like that.
[00:09:47] Now that being said, I did ask it, what is a good minimum low bottom dollar, like twos? I literally said the more words you can give it, the better.
[00:09:58] Tuesday night in January, rock bottom price. Can you give me a list of those prices for all of my properties on management software and let me evaluate them? So that is one thing I did and it did come back with numbers that I liked and I Said, okay, great, these numbers are pretty good. Can you use these on the price labs MCP and put these as the minimum price on each of my properties? And it will do that, it will change your minimum price for you pretty easily because again, it's mcp.
[00:10:29] Sometimes when you get the chrome extension involved, meaning it's not hospitable or price labs, it can get a little more complicated and you got to pay attention and it's time consuming.
[00:10:39] So keep that in mind. Speaking of numbers, speaking of chrome extension, I did just get the numbers back on that house. I asked it to give me what it thinks that the revenue is going to be and it's nowhere near. It's not right. It's terrible.
[00:10:52] Air DNA $82,000 a year at 38% occupied. No, no, again, I own the house across the street. I don't have it in front of me right now. I'm not even going to give you real numbers, but I would say I'm running it at least 65, 75 occupied on mine across the street, probably 65 for the year.
[00:11:11] 85 plus in the summertime.
[00:11:15] Air DNA. And this is a four bedroom. This is a four bedroom, four and a half bath house. I literally have the exact same house right around the corner.
[00:11:24] This is, this house is listed at just under a million dollars and it's a beautiful 38 with a community pool and a beautiful beach right down the street.
[00:11:37] Public Beach, Air DNA 82,000. Aerobitics 116,000. That's pretty. That's getting closer at the 50th percentile. So that's something you need to understand. It's pulling 50th percentile. I'm not, I'm not me, I'm not mediocre.
[00:11:50] I'm just not.
[00:11:53] Price Labs 64,000 a year, nowhere near.
[00:11:57] I would say if I had to put a number on this one, based on my experience and the fact that I own two houses in this same neighborhood, I would say you could get every bit of 120 out of this thing. 110 to 100, maybe even 150 if you really kill yourself.
[00:12:11] We're getting into a deeper conversation there. If you do 150 on this thing, you're going to end up hating your life. You know, you're going to be like, oh, this is too much work. And next thing you know you're bombing it the next year after that because you worked too hard, burned yourself out.
[00:12:26] But again, it's not, how much can this house make? It's how much can I make with this house? And on this particular house, I'd say 125 is very reasonable. And this thing's coming back with pretty ridiculous numbers. And it says my guesstimate. This is from Claude. My guesstimate based on the information I pulled is roughly 85,000 to 115,000 per year gross.
[00:12:44] Call it 95 to 100 as a year one point estimate with room to grow air. Braddock's showed 22% year over year revenue growth in this pocket.
[00:12:55] One flag. None of this checks whether blah blah, blah, blah blah. Permits short term rentals. Doesn't know if you can rent it for short term rental. That's a pretty good caveat there. Which you can, I already know that but so you can ask chat GPT to pull from multiple data places and pull it, pull it together, a report and it gave me, it did it, it gave me a document that I can download here and really just drive myself nuts with. But again, proving my point, at least in my opinion so far with the knowledge that I have and the work I'm doing.
[00:13:28] Sometimes it's not all that great at numbers.
[00:13:31] It's just doing the best it can. Now if you're an average person that's never going to look at this thing and doesn't know how to flush the toilet and doesn't know how to change a flapper and own a house and work on things, these numbers are probably decent, you know, for regular property management property, this is maybe what you're looking for. That's not how we do things here at short term rental management. So you got to keep that in mind.
[00:13:53] All right, let me give you some more examples of some things I am using it for that did work. For instance, I did have IT run my VRBO ad campaigns for me. So what I did was I gave it the link, the Expedia link to set up the ad campaigns for VRBO advertisements where you can pay per night to have your property featured at the top of the list basically. And I decided to go with $5 for short for small houses, one to two bedrooms, $5 a night and $13 a night because a VRBO rep told a buddy of mine and he told me and that $13 stuck in my head. So I did that on three plus bedrooms and I had it do that for me with the chrome extension on the Expedia website. And it was difficult and it took us a couple hours of going back and forth. For instance, it got hung up on my payment methods and I at the Time I was busy. I was doing a lot of things, and it just kept saying, you only have one payment method. We don't know how to. We can't do different payment methods per property, which was what we need to do. And it was because each payment method had a nickname. We set that up in there, I guess, when we set this thing up a few weeks back.
[00:15:00] And the. The nickname was like the nickname of the property, and it was having trouble with that. And so the only one it would recognize is one of them had the nickname of the name of the street. So I said, okay, let me go in here and change all these nicknames to the street names. And then I said, here, I think I fixed your problem. You were having trouble with these nicknames, and you couldn't tell that we had multiple payment methods. Now they all match the street name. And then sure enough, it went back in there and fixed that. So that's a good example of what you have to do with this AI to get it to work. Now we end up saving that as what Claude calls a skill, and you can refer back to it later.
[00:15:34] Now that I got all that figured out, and it set up my ad campaigns on. On Expedia, which I'm not saying you should run ad campaigns. That's not what today's podcast is about. Okay, I'm not saying that now. You can if you want to, but that's not what we're talking about. But it did do it for me with a lot of going back and forth. But now, in the future, in two weeks, if I decide to change the $5 per night to $6 per night, I can just tell Claude, please pull up that skill, change it from $5 to $6, and it's going to do that for me with the chrome extension on Expedia.
[00:16:09] Then I had to go to my management software, which happens to be Hospitable, and I had it set me up a community, because on vrbo, you can only do a management or community fee on Hospitable. So I had it set up. Me set me up a community fee for that dollar figure per night per booking. So. So I'm basically charging this fee back to the guest so that I can be featured at the top for an extra few bucks, but the guest has to pay an extra few bucks to make up for it. So I break even, but my property's featured. And now, again, I'm not telling you to do that. What? I am. The podcast for today, you could do that. The podcast for today is that I asked AI to do that for me, Claude specifically. And it did do that for me on Hospitable. Furthermore, it was easier on Hospitable because on Hospitable it's API mcp.
[00:16:58] It didn't need to use the Chrome extension, which I think it may have used the Chrome extension anyway, because there are certain things you can't change with the mcp.
[00:17:08] For instance, you can't change custom seasonal profiles with the MCP on Price Labs, which I find to be very annoying.
[00:17:15] I have been told they're working on that.
[00:17:19] Okay, but it's not out yet.
[00:17:24] Anyway, what else have I used that worked well? I've changed my VRBO headlines. I had it. I had it pull suggested headlines from Price Labs Listing Optimizer. It's hard to remember all these damn names, isn't it, and say, you know, send me a list of new headlines for all my properties for approval. And it sent me the headlines and we approved them and we got it changed them for me.
[00:17:50] You could set that up as a skill and do that once a month. Brand new headlines once a month based on the season, you know, same with the descriptions again. It was a lot of back and forth and it did make mistakes. But I sat there and I worked with it. It's like an employee. You got to train it.
[00:18:06] It's time.
[00:18:13] What else have I done?
[00:18:15] Let me give you a couple more examples.
[00:18:19] I've set up a skill so every morning I just say, hey, Claude, did anything happen last night?
[00:18:24] And I have Claude for team, so my team members can do the same thing when they come into the office in the morning.
[00:18:31] And it'll say, you know, I haven't pulled any issues, any complaints, compliments, any of that sort of stuff. Give me a. Basically a rundown of what happened at all the properties since we closed yesterday.
[00:18:42] And also it'll. It'll also give me the battery levels on the deadbolts.
[00:18:48] So if we have any issue with a deadbolt battery, we can make sure that gets changed right away.
[00:18:54] Now you need a system there anyway. Now you got me going in the weeds again. You should be changing deadbolt batteries the first every month. That's. That's your system.
[00:19:02] Because your cleaner can't see deadbolt battery levels.
[00:19:05] I mean, they can if you give them certain permissions and things like that on your management software, but that's a lot of work. And, and your cleaner doesn't want your management software. They've got 30 other cleaners. I mean, other, other management softwares. They got to deal with, you know, so really the best way to do it is first turn of every month at every property, swap the damn deadbolt batteries. Then you don't have to think about it, you know, But I have a skill set up on Claude and did anything happen last night? It'll say, everything was quiet, everybody's happy, you need to leave a review response to this person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It'll even do that for you. You know, you can say, oh yeah, go ahead and leave this review response for me. And then, and if it says this guest needs this, that and the other, you can say, please give me your recommended response to that guest and send it for me now. I'm still using Host Buddy for that. I, in most cases don't need to respond to guests in the morning or ever really, because we are using Host Buddy, at least for after hours, which has its own AI, which we set up, which took months to set up. I have many videos on that as well.
[00:20:18] And, and Host Buddy's doing that for me in the background. I don't really need to ask Claude to send messages, but sometimes, you know, if you got some weird situation where they're trying to add a person or whatever it is, and you can have Claude draft a response to that and it will even send them the, you know, you got to train it and sit there with it, make sure it does it right. But it'll say, yeah, here's your.
[00:20:40] We're going to alter your reservation to 12 people instead of 11.
[00:20:44] You know, so anyway, this is coming on very quickly, it's coming very fast and it's really, really cool.
[00:20:53] It does have lots of mistakes and flaws, but for the most part, the, the most important thing to learn right now is that Claude is, is working for me. I haven't tried Grok. You can connect Claude directly to both Hospitable and Price Labs. Now I realize not everybody's using Hospitable, so check your management software to see if it has this.
[00:21:12] One thing to note is some softwares are trying to do their own AI thing. I do think that's a mistake at this point because I would rather use the, you know, kind of the third party, all encompassing AI, which is Claude in my case.
[00:21:28] But I saw another thing like, what was it? Rank Breeze came out with this in an email this morning. They have their own AI now and it's like, why do I need that? Why can't I just connect Claude to the Chrome extension on Rank Breeze? I'd rather do that than use your own stupid AI, which is some version of Claude anyway, you know. So anyway, that's where we're at with it. September at the recording of this podcast, September of 2026. AI is coming a long way. It's going move. It's moving very fast.
[00:21:55] We are discussing it a lot on short term Shop Plus, I'm Luke Karl, the greatest landlord of all time. You can find
[email protected] theshortermshop.com and I love you, I do. I appreciate you for being here. Please leave me five stars on Spotify, by the way, sooner than later.
[00:22:16] Spotify and may even already have it, but probably not somewhere right around now.
[00:22:21] Spot. My Spotify podcast will have video as well, so be on the lookout for that. And please leave me five stars on Spotify. AI is rapidly changing. There's lots of exciting stuff going on, but again, a lot of wormholes too. It's very time consuming in some cases. And so if, you know, if you're my age, you know, or older, you might be sitting there like, damn, this is so slow. First of all, and I am, I do feel sometimes that I'm just sitting there, like, is this thing just trying to get me to spend more time on the Internet?
[00:22:56] Is this thing just getting me giving me one more subscription to pay for?
[00:23:01] You know, there are times where I'm like, oh my God, this thing is a waste of my time. But if you sit there and it's again, it's like an employee.
[00:23:10] You have to nurture it, give it what it needs and it will do what you'd say if you do it right and if you get the right one, the one that works best for you, you know, so. So there you have it. I love you. Don't overthink it.
