It's a Flawed System

[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] Short Term Rental Management. I love you. It's a flawed system. It's a flawed system. [00:00:26] Vacations happen when people aren't working. [00:00:32] It's a flaw. [00:00:33] Weekends, holidays, that's when people are traveling. Which means that we as operators have to give up our weekends and holidays to a certain extent and most certainly our cleaner include our cleaning crews have to give up their weekends. And a lot of times there are holidays. Now I'm not saying that you should make your cleaning crew work on a holiday. I would never do that. Of course we block it so they can't check in or check out on major holidays, but still usually within two days, maybe three days of a major Easter or Christmas, a cleaner is cleaning a house. [00:01:14] Christmas Day is when we're dealing with guests that are asking lots of questions. Obviously there's lots of ways to get ahead of that and plan for that. [00:01:27] And we do talk about that very often here at Short Term Rental Management. I think the best way to do that is to set the expectation. We always send our guests a message not only right after they've booked for major holidays, but when the a week before the major holiday gets there and the day before major holiday gets there. Here's our business hours during this major holiday as so so our crew can enjoy their holiday with their family. [00:01:58] Now, are all guests going to be understanding of that? No, most will. [00:02:03] And the goal, really the goal for that situation is to make it so that the guests check in on a certain day and check out on a certain day. You may even make it so that guests have to book certain days for the major, major, major holidays like Fourth of July, which is coming up. [00:02:20] Christmas. If you want these dates, it has to be these dates or more than these dates. You know, like Tuesday to Sunday would be ideal, depending on what day of the week the major holiday falls on, which this year, every major holiday is falling on a Friday. [00:02:38] That way they can get in the home. You're going to have these, these, these vacation people, by the way. They're very high maintenance in general. They're, they're a certain type of traveler that likes to, you know, you know, a lot of times they don't get out of the house much except for the major holiday that is their vacation. And their expectations are absolutely through the roof. We've talked about this many times. But if you can get them to check in on a Tuesday, you can get it out of their system, you know, fix everything that their expectations weren't met, you know, and all that sort of stuff before you can send your crew home to their families or you, or if you're doing it by yourself. [00:03:17] But it is absolutely a flawed system. And again, I think this goes back to setting expectations. [00:03:23] It's basically becoming part two in a series here with my podcast recently, which was full service or not full service. It's very similar conversation. And again, we've had the business hours conversation a million times here at Short Term Rental Management. And I personally, again, I think it's, it's a good thing to do to have business hours and let them know. [00:03:51] And you have the AI set up after hours and the AI says, hey, we're actually closed right now, so verify this information when the, the office opens. But here's this, that and the other. [00:04:06] And again, I've got a four part series on AI. You can find that on our YouTube channel as well. Short term shop YouTube. There's an AI playlist on there where you can find out all about that and how to set that up. [00:04:18] And of course, we'd be happy to teach you about that at short term shop. [00:04:22] sts+.com we're hiring realtors. [00:04:27] This show is brought to you by the Short Term Shop. [00:04:31] Join our exciting team in the best vacation markets in America. [00:04:37] We're currently hiring agents in Gulf Shores, the Poconos and Outer Banks. [00:04:45] Email us at careers the shorttermshop.com that's careers the shorttermshop.com. [00:04:55] but I do think it's very important to just set expectations because it is a flawed system. [00:05:04] And I, and I also want to point that out to you folks that are new. Like, I don't want you to get into this whole overnight rental thing. Realize first of all, I see way too many people that get into this not realizing what they're doing is landlording. Because that's exactly what it is in my opinion. If you're going to listen to the way I do things here at Short Term Rental Management, this is landlording. [00:05:25] And there's a lot of folks out there that think they invented something with this Airbnb thing. And I'm not saying Airbnb. I'm talking about people that put their house on Airbnb and they think they invented something. But really you're just landlord. It's just a different way of doing it slightly. It's still just a damn house that you're renting to somebody. [00:05:42] You know what I mean? [00:05:45] And if you've Got a day job and you're getting into this airbnb thing to change your life, which it will and can change my life. [00:05:55] But you do need to understand that to a certain extent, you're giving up some of your weekend. [00:06:02] Now, hopefully you enjoy it and you like helping people because that's the gig. [00:06:13] But it's going on on the weekends and the holidays and, and things like that. It's a flaw. It's. [00:06:19] It's part of the business. And I need you to understand that. That's my point today, is that you need to understand what you're getting yourself into. People travel on weekends and holidays. [00:06:31] You are in the business. [00:06:37] Of providing things to these people that are traveling on weekends and holidays. [00:06:44] And the next time you get upset about your. With, you know, with your cleaner about something, you need to understand that she gives up or he her weekends and holidays. [00:06:57] Matter of fact, I remember I was at an emergency vet. My dog, he's almost 14, but a couple years ago, we almost lost him. And it was a horrible situation in and out of the emergency vet several times. And this emergency vet, I don't know if they're all like this, but they were not super eager to help. But they had us that's neither here nor there. They had a sign on the wall that said, because I think they're used to dealing with people that are pissed off. I mean, these, these people are late night weekends, holidays, their dog is in bad, bad shape if they're going to this place. [00:07:32] And they had a sign that said, if you are negative in any way, you will be asked to leave. Our staff gives up their weekends and holidays to help you. Please be nice. [00:07:44] And that stuck in my brain. [00:07:47] And I thought, man, I'd really love to put that sign in my rentals, but I would get my head ripped off for doing so, You know, and it's, it's that. That place that I'm talking about. There's a very good chance your dog's not making it out of there alive or your pet, because there's only one reason why you're there. And things are not good. [00:08:13] Now, my dog, he did pull out of it. It's been two and a half years ago now. He was in horrible, horrible shape. And now he's almost 14. [00:08:24] It's still ornery as hell. [00:08:26] But anyway, it really stuck in my head. I'm like, man, can you imagine if I put that sign in one of my rentals? Because we give up our nights and weekends to a certain extent, nobody would care. Nobody cares. [00:08:42] This is my vacation, damn it, and I deserve for it to be fantastic. So I'm not trying to scare you off today. [00:08:51] Obviously we can put systems in place to make sure that everybody gets what they need, and we can automate things and we can AI things, etc, but I'm just trying to paint a little bit of a picture here, really, what you're getting yourself into, so that maybe that you'll say, oh, you know what? [00:09:11] I knew what I was getting myself into. [00:09:13] I like this because that is my goal. I do want you to like this and enjoy it. [00:09:19] So I figure I'm doing my job here of setting the expectation up front with you, letting you know that to a certain extent, the weekends and the holidays are going to be, you know, spent doing some stuff. [00:09:38] That way, if you know it going into it, you will not be as annoyed and want to sell the Damn House after 11 holiday season. [00:09:48] Okay, I want you to say, you know what, Luke, I listened to your podcast. I knew what I. What I was getting myself into, and I'm ready for Christmas. Let's do this. [00:09:58] That's the goal. [00:10:00] Because again, it's a flawed system. [00:10:05] We are working when everybody else is not working. [00:10:12] Obviously, people travel and work, work, travel and things like that. I get that. But I live in a vacation town. My vacation town is on fire right now. My tiny little sleepy beach town is right now completely filled with drunk people. [00:10:27] And I'm happy to have them here. Yes, it's a different vibe when they're here. It's a completely different town when they're here. And. And you get to about the middle of June and you got to get the hell out. You got to go. I mean, it's, you know, it's like, man, I really like the beach. I got to be hitting the beach because it's hot and beautiful outside, but these people are crazy. I gotta get going. I'm actually going to Wyoming this summer because I love it out there, taking my kids. [00:10:51] Well, we're going to Pigeon Forge, going to Dollywood, and then the plan, as of right now, anyways, to fly from Pigeon Forge to Denver and then go take my kids trout fishing in Wyoming for the weekend. [00:11:04] That's just one of many trips we're doing this summer. We like to maximize the summer because we're. We only have so much time with these children before. [00:11:12] Well, we don't know before what. You know, hopefully they have wonderful lives and like to stay somewhere somewhat near their parents, but they probably won't. And that means I'll have to go to them, and that's fine. But you know, I only have so many summers with my babies, and this will be my seventh and fifth summer with my children. And I'm going to take advantage of every. [00:11:33] Every single second of it. [00:11:39] So that's all there is to it. Man. I love you and I want you to know what you're getting yourself into. [00:11:44] Customer service ass kissing. This is really not a whole lot different than bartending. [00:11:51] It's not. Everybody thinks it's some sort of rocket science here or something like that, but it's not. It's really. It's like a. It's like a slightly higher level. Uber. [00:12:02] Very similar. [00:12:03] You got strangers that are sleeping in this thing and you gotta get them what they need. And it's. It's a lot like 10 and bar. [00:12:12] And guess what happens when you 10 bar? You make the most money on nights and weekends and holidays, you know? [00:12:21] So anyway, I love you. [00:12:23] Don't overthink it.