[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.
[00:00:15] Welcome to short term rental management. I love you. It is great to be here, great to be alive, great to be living in these crazy times, and great to be involved in the wonderful world of rental real estate which has changed my life. I'm long here, Luke Karl, the Viking of vacation rentals and I want to mention that we do have short term shop plus launching like as we speak. I don't know when this podcast is coming out, but short term shop plus is probably out and available by now. We would love for you to sign up for that. It is an all inclusive, one stop shop presented to you by the short term shop for everything you need to know about getting your property up and running in the world of vacation homes from anywhere in the world. You'll also have early access to the world famous management Monday for the very first time. This is being offered to the general public, not just short term shop clients.
[00:01:14] Very first time meant for management Monday now will, of course, always be free for short term shop clients management Monday, that is, but it is now part of short term shop plus. All right, enough with the pitch. Today we're going to talk about being on vacation from the guest perspective and the fact that it is, was, will, and always can be stressful as hell after a word from this week's sponsor, which is probably short term shop plus. But you never know.
[00:01:48] This episode is brought to you by short term shop plus.
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[00:02:08] Sts plus is open to the public and offered for the first time at a tremendous value.
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[email protected] that's sdsplus.com dot all right, so here is the thing that we have to remember, and this is actually brought on by a real life experience that just happened to me. We got the family together. We had a little get together for the fam.
[00:02:45] You know, usually there's one person in the family that kind of spearheads these type of things, and time goes by. These people, people get old.
[00:02:53] They may even no longer be around anymore, which is so sad. And somebody new has to take that over. Anyway, I have found an interest in getting the family together, the whole damn thing. Both sides, you know, let's all get together and be one big giant ball of stress. And that's exactly what it is. It is awesome. It's an amazing time. It's an amazing experience.
[00:03:15] But it can be very special. Stressful and special. You get brothers that haven't seen each other in three years and they want to get drunk and fist fight. You got grandma crying in the corner because the grandkids aren't around enough. You got a the other grandma in the other corner doing this and that. I have one grandma that might listen to this podcast. So, you know, I'm making all this stuff up. This is not real life stuff here, but you gotta cut your guests a little slack and put yourself in their shoes. A lot of times you're like, they're, you know, you're sending them messages in their pocket. They've never even experienced that before. You know, not everybody travels as much or is as worldly as your typical short term rental host.
[00:03:58] You have to remember, we are fairly affluent people here. We've had the resources and the know how to save up enough money to go buy an extra house.
[00:04:10] Hello. Congratulations. That just puts you in a bucket with like the top 1% in the world.
[00:04:16] Okay, so the people that are renting your house probably can't really comprehend such thing. They just think we're rich. Air quote, we're rich people.
[00:04:29] I could just stop payment on this vacation on my Amex. This person wouldn't even notice because they're so rich.
[00:04:37] I think there's a lot of people, you know, you're dealing with a lot of personalities before. I've said it again. I've said it a hundred times. I'm saying it again. If you've ever bartendered or waited tables, you set yourself up to know how to do this business.
[00:04:49] And quite frankly, to do any business. I think everybody should bartend for at least a year. And I don't mean playing around as a freshman in college, I mean out of college, bartending while you're, you know, maybe at night while you got working, your first day job. And you're really hustling.
[00:05:06] It's extremely valuable skill.
[00:05:10] Don't do it like me, though. I did it for like 14 years. You need to get the hell out of there.
[00:05:15] I'm lucky I'm still alive with the stuff I've been through in that business. But anyway, I digress. These folks are stressed out. You're in their pocket, you're asking them questions. How's everything going? Well, their brother just threw a punch and their other cousin was over here puking in the corner and he's trying to clean that up so he doesn't get a bad review on his end. And the whole family spent more money than they wanted to at dinner last night and half the family didn't have any fun. And there's a two people out of the ten people that are complaining about your house because they didn't have any expectations set and they didn't look at the guidebook, which is not necessarily your fault, but it is going on.
[00:05:55] Okay? So I don't know that there's a system or a technique or a strategy here because we love strategies in short term rental. We do. We love strategies. Everybody loves a strategy. I don't know that there is a strategy here other than just sympathy and empathy and understanding and making sure that you're sweet and awesome and sensitive all the time. Here's a perfect example. I saw some random Facebook group where this guy was complaining and this is, we're going to get way off into a tangent, a rabbit hole here, but this guy was a random, like a local, the group was about a local area, you know, and this guy was on there complaining about he went to dollar general and the lady working at cash register was on her phone texting the whole time. And these kids don't like to work anymore.
[00:06:42] Nobody works post Covid, which is let's be real. And yes, I have a lot of gray hair now, but let's be real. It is like that a little bit. You know, it's not like it used to be. People don't, aren't as hungry to work, work hard, answer the phone, be, be, you know, nice to you as they used to be. And again, maybe it's because I'm in my forties now, mid forties.
[00:07:05] And maybe I'm just getting older because I remember all the old people saying stuff like that when I was younger.
[00:07:11] But it definitely seems like there's a bit of a shift there with COVID you know, post post pandemic.
[00:07:17] But I'm also, let's play devil's advocate. Same thing with that one. You know, I'm like, how do you know she didn't just find out she's pregnant and she's like freaking out and texting her husband or her boyfriend and or texting the doctor, you know, how do you know her dad didn't just die? Now, there's a pretty good chance that it's true. She's just being lazy on the job. Maybe and I think it was a she. I hate to even give a gender to it, but I'm pretty sure he mentioned it was a she. And I'm like, well, you don't know, man. You don't know what that person is going through. And I'm preaching to the choir here. You know, this is something, honestly, short term, Reynolds made me a better person to make me understand stuff like this, which also, by the way, came from a book. I traditionally have been a bit of an asshole. Not gonna lie. I don't even like to use that word anymore. I have kids, but, you know, not to, you know, give an excuse here or anything, but I was kicking and screaming for a lot of years. I was in a situation I didn't like to be in in life, and I was working my way into a situation that I wanted to be in. And now I'm here, and it's awesome.
[00:08:21] Did you ever slow down and think that you're an asshole because you don't have what you want in life?
[00:08:26] I got a book for that. Don't be a dick. Love that book. Changed my life. I have actually have a thing, a piece of art up here that says that above my desk to remind myself daily, because it is something, you know, it's almost like being an alcoholic, which, you know, I'm not gonna get into that subject, but I am sobereous. I am a reformed asshole.
[00:08:50] Some would argue that I still am.
[00:08:53] Probably particularly my wife, which I very, very much aware of being nice to her at all times because that's what matters. But read that book, Mark. Is it Mark Borg.
[00:09:07] Don't be a dick. The title is kind of a turn off, I think, for a lot of people, and it has very few. Nobody really talks about this book. It has very few reviews.
[00:09:17] Doesn't even have that. Greater reviews.
[00:09:20] But I got to tell you, it was wonderful. I loved it. I did. I recommend that book every chance I get. It's written by a doctor. Change yourself. Change the world. Don't be a dick. Highly recommend it. I'm even if you're not a dick, which is not. Again, I think he probably missed titled that book. I think it was a turn off for a lot of people because it is a very abrasive name. And I'm sorry for all the language today. If you're in the car with the kids, I apologize. Language disclaimer today on the short term rental management show, this episode of the short term management show is brought to you by short term rental, long term wealth. This is the book in the STR space. Written by my lovely wife, Avery Carle. It has hundreds of reviews on Amazon, and it will teach you literally everything you need to know about STR, short term rental, long term wealth, the book, wherever books are sold.
[00:10:14] But my point is, you don't know what that lady at the, at the dollar general is going through. You don't know what your guests are going through. Maybe they're just throwing a bunch of heat at you because everybody in their party's being a jerk. They haven't gotten together in 15 years, and there's tension and stress.
[00:10:34] Some people are overextended financially.
[00:10:37] Some people are not used to the fact that somebody in their, their group of family has changed in some way, and they're having trouble with that. Who knows?
[00:10:50] Maybe there's new grandchildren involved. Maybe there's babies involved. Let's be real, man. And when there's little kids, there's stress.
[00:10:57] It's wonderful. It is a wonderful stress.
[00:11:01] Cherish every second of it. But the stress can be high. The sleep is low, you know? So we just got to keep this mind with our guest. It is. It's the sleeper. Sleeper, meaning, for those of you that don't know what a sleeper is in the car world, that's when you have a car that is dressed up as, like, let's say you have a 69 Camaro with no badges, or maybe you have an old 350 badge on it. Wouldn't be a 350 and 69, but you get my point. Like, it's badged lower than what's actually under the hood. What's under the hood is this big monster Chevy big block with a blower and whatever else.
[00:11:44] Edelbrock fueling carburetor. And, you know, I used to know all this fun stuff, but.
[00:11:51] But the car looks like it won't be that fast. Like, the car says, 327 on the side, and it's got a 455 under the hood, which wouldn't happen because that's a Buick engine and a Chevy engine. But anyway, you get my point, and that's kind of a sleeper syndrome of our guests, is that we don't know where their stress level is, and they may very well take that out on us. And just. I just want to take the time to remind you today on short term rental management and that I love you. And it is worth mentioning that there's a very good chance your guests are running at a super high stress level. And we forget about that. We think all the stress is on us to get that house right. The cleaners complaining. The last guest stayed late. We just got a bad review. My boss is being a jerk. All I want to do is buy another house and I don't have another down payment yet.
[00:12:44] Why am I still working my day job? You know, we have all our own stress over here, so don't bring that to your vacation house. These people saved up. It's a huge deal for their family. That's the number one thing here at short term rental management that I always want everybody to remember.
[00:12:58] And there is an underlying level of stress for every single human that is sleeping in one of your houses right now. So cut them some slack, all right? I already gave you a book suggestion. Don't be a dick.
[00:13:11] Mark B. Borg, junior Doctor Mark Borg.
[00:13:17] And next time you get together with your family, I want you to look around, see who's stressed out, see what's going on there. Why is everybody so stressed? You're going to be stressed 1 minute you're going to cool off and it's going to pass down to the next guy. He's going to get stressed and then he's going to cool off and, you know, so just part of the gig. And it all goes back to being nice and being hospitable to our guests. I love you. It's short term rental management with the Viking of vacation Reynolds. My new nickname, my buddy Jim gave me that nickname, so thank you very much. Don't overthink it.
