[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 Cashflow. Carl here to talk about rental real estate, rental income, vacation rentals. Awesome places for people to have vacations with their family and create memories, cash flow and rental real estate. And today we're going to talk about reviews. Reviews, reviews. They are hot topic. And are they too important? Are we putting too much stock in these reviews? On today's show after a word from this week's sponsor.
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[00:01:21] So the answer is yes. Yes. You are too worried about these stupid reviews. Okay. As a guy that's been doing this for a long time, I'm here to tell you the review is not that big a deal. All right? I see a lot of folks and we get these very common on the Internet where people say, oh my goodness, I have to give them money for this. That because they're going to leave me a bad review.
[00:01:46] I got to do this because they're going to leave me a bad review. Oh my goodness. And yes, the reviews are everything. Okay. But don't take it too far. It's like Steve Miller says, take the money and run. Right now, you got to offer an amazing product. And I will say, if you're new, right? If you're new, you've got to work harder. You got to try harder. You got to be kissing rear ends. Do what it takes. I'd say the first year or so, you really got to go over the top because when you're new, nobody has any reason to believe that you're any good at this. And then they're not going to book you or they'll be skeptical. So they want a deal and they deserve a deal. If you're brand spanking new, you need to be giving a deal to get people to book your property because they have no idea that your house is not a horror movie waiting to happen. There's nobody that's told them otherwise. So when you're new, first year, yes, the reviews are more important. But don't let them drive you nuts. Don't go over the top with it because guests can do that. Don't let them be so needy that you feel like you're responding to them every ten minutes. I remember back in the day I used to do that stuff, and maybe that's how I got to where I am now, where I don't have to. I'm able to breathe in a little breathing room, maybe, but looking back on it, I wish I would have breathed more in the early days. I feel like I was too givey. I was too. Again, I'm making up words over here, but too available. Quite frankly, giving them more than they even wanted or needed a lot of times now, my management style has changed a bit over the years, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've got great reviews now. I don't have to try so hard, but they don't even. It's like I get better reviews now, giving them the space, than back when I was choking them, giving them too much so you can be overbearing with the information, shoving it down their throat that you are so good at this that how dare they not give you a five star review. I try so hard and I'm guilty of it. I do the same thing.
[00:03:47] You get a little sentimental with them and say, oh, my family would appreciate it if you gave us a great review. But don't take it too far. I don't think we need to be exchanging cash for reviews. First of all, it's reverse extortion. You need to be careful with that. You could probably get in trouble for it if you do it wrong.
[00:04:01] Now, do we give refunds? Do we give cash when we are guilty? Absolutely. It's a fine line between giving them cash for a good review and giving them cash because their trip wasn't perfect. Now, those could be the same thing, but what I'm referring to is the person on the Internet that says, oh, my goodness, they didn't like my refrigerator. Should I give them $50?
[00:04:22] I'm making a ridiculous scenario. I didn't actually hear that. But you see stuff like that and you're just sitting there like, what? No. Now, is a good review worth $50? Absolutely. Because reviews are great cash on cash return, and you got a lot of folks that are out there complaining about the platforms, and I'd rather get off platform so I don't have to deal with reviews. Well, guess what? You start building up that off platform business, next thing you know, you're dealing with Google reviews. So not really a good reason to get out of the platforms because you're going to end up with reviews, you know, over time. The smoking, kick ass reviews, that's where the money comes from. I do believe that's why I get booked before everybody else. I've got a great product, got a fantastic product. I've got good prices, and I've got more reviews than just about everybody in all of my markets. Because I was an early adopter, I jumped in before anybody else. And again, I encourage you to chill, breathe a little bit, and realize that three or four years down the road, all this crazy stuff that's driving you nuts will, quite frankly, not be as big a deal. May just even go away because you've got all these reviews.
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[00:05:57] It's a lot of fun. Stressions.com so do I have an example? Why would I give somebody $50? The hot tub was broken.
[00:06:09] Now we're getting in the weeds there because the hot tub is not generally broken. Usually what that is is they pushed a bunch of buttons and put it in sleep mode. So you need a sleep mode system, a standard operating procedure for when the guest says your hot tub doesn't work. What I do is I put it in my guidebook. If the hot tub is not working, here's why. 99% of the time it's because somebody put it in economy mode or sleep mode because they were drunk, pushed a bunch of buttons because they wanted to get it nice and hot to impress their lady friend, and boom, sleep mode. So my point there is you don't just jump right to offer them $100 because the hot tub wasn't working. It was probably their fault. And these are things you will learn as time goes by. As a good landlord, if you're going to stay in it for five or six years, you're going to have to fix that hot tub system. If you've got a hot tub that is not working regularly, you get a new one. Right?
[00:07:01] If you're refunding guests on a regular basis because your hot tub is broken, you're basically spending money on a busted hot tub, is what you're doing. Once you spend money on a new hot tub, that's a better use of money in my opinion. Right? What else? The television wasn't working. That's not my fault. To me, that's like, dude, just figure it out. I get it. If I go to the Hilton, they're going to send somebody up to figure it out for me. That's one of the downsides of not having a front desk here in a vacation house, right? I can't think of any good examples off the top of my head, but if it was my fault, I'll give them some dough. I have no problem giving money when necessary, and quite frankly, I have no problem giving money to help boost along a decent little review. But don't just jump for it. Just, oh, my goodness. Here's my point. Don't be paranoid about it. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. That's one of the biggest problems with the platforms. They've got these hosts running scared. I'm not scared. I got a kick ass product that people want to sleep in, take the money and run Steve Miller. But again, I'm confident that my product is better than everybody else. So if you're not confident, then get in there and tweak and fix and get it going. All right, so it is. Again, fine line. Should I give cash or should I just not even respond? At the end of the day, the answer is, what is going to get you the better review? But don't live in fear. Do not live in fear that they're going to hit you with three stars. You're going to get a three star review. It's just going to happen. Okay? So if you're brand new and you're worried about the three star, or you just got a three star, welcome to the club. You're a landlord now. If you don't want to deal with reviews, go buy a long term rental. Go buy a duplex in a metro area. Rent it out. You won't get reviews. There's no reviews, but there's evictions and there's people moving out after a year and $4,000 to paint it and clean it up again, that's real life. That's why we get into vacation rentals. Well, that and because we love going on vacation. We love vacation towns. I live in a vacation town. I love every second of it. I love my long terms, don't get me wrong. But if you're worried about the reviews, go buy a duplex. Bye bye, reviews, but a whole nother set of problems. So don't let them drive you nuts with it. Don't let them hold it over your head, but at the same time, don't be afraid to give them some dough. And quite frankly, if you've got a disgruntled guest, throw them $50, smooth it over, maybe put a cell on your spreadsheet for refunds and just track it and then compare it to the next year. Because as time goes by, all that stuff gets easier. Everything gets easier. I've been doing this now for I've been on Airbnb since 2011, been hosting since 2015. Seems like just yesterday it's been about eight years. I'm the longest running Airbnb in the Smoky mountains, and I'm here to tell you, as time goes by, it gets so much easier. So don't be afraid to give them $50 when needed, $100, whatever it is, $25. But also, do not live in fear of the bad review. Take your punches. You'll rise above it. No big deal. Happy renting short term rental management don't overthink it's.
