Postcast
Introducing the new STR Intel Podcast!
STR Intel – Your Source For Short Term Rental & Airbnb Information, Tips & Intel
Episode 30 – February 4, 2022
Guest Screening for Short-Term and Vacation Rentals: Mitigate Risk, Maximize Revenue
Every host of a vacation or short-term rental wants to mitigate risk. Guest screening is one way to spot potential red flags, from guests who are more likely to throw wild parties, to hardcore fraudsters using properties for sex trafficking and drug smuggling. But how does guest screening work? And how can it be done fairly?
Episode 29 – January 28, 2022
How Many Booking Platforms Should Your Short-Term Rental Be On? Paul Zukauskas of Guesty
Meet Paul Zukauskas, Global Vice President of Customer Success at Guesty. Guesty is property management software for short-term and vacation rentals — an end-to-end solution, simplifying a property manager’s daily tasks: distribution across online travel agencies, automated guest messaging, collecting payments, calendar management & more.
Episode 28 – January 14, 2022
More Bookings & Happier Guests with Accessibility Tweaks in Your Vacation Rental
Dr. Rosemarie Rossetti is the author of Universal Design Toolkit and an authority on designing and retroactively fixing spaces to be more accessible and marketable. In this episode, she’ll open your eyes to details in the home that can increase your bookings and win more positive reviews.
Episode 27 – January 7, 2022
Safer Short-Term Rentals for Guests, Less Risk for Hosts
Do guests in short-term vacation rental properties get injured and sue their hosts? Yes. Should that scare you away from making money through platforms like AirBnB and VRBO? Not if you take the right approach, says Justin Ford.
Episode 26 – December 24, 2021
How Short-Term Vacation Rentals Make More Money With Dynamic Pricing
Do you host short-term vacation rentals on platforms like AirBnB and VRBO? Do you charge the same price for every night’s stay, all year? To maximize your income, you may want to rethink that approach and explore dynamic pricing.
Episode 25 – December 17, 2021
Property Owners’ Common Questions About Management of Their Short-Term Vacation Rentals
We recently tapped every team in our organization, from guest communications to housekeeping, to find out what questions property owners most commonly ask. In this episode, we address the four biggies:
– “What is dynamic pricing?”
– “Why can’t I get website links to all of the booking sites my home is advertised on?”
– “Why do I see my property published at different prices across different listing platforms?”
– “Why can’t I access my property at free will?”
Episode 24 – December 3, 2021
The Holidays & Short-Term Vacation Rental Properties: Creating an Extra-Special Stay
We’re talking holidays with Bon Hewlett, Property Care Manager & Executive Chef with Hoste. Booking short-term vacation rental properties through platforms like AirBnB & VRBO is becoming a popular way for families to spend holidays together, especially in larger homes.
Episode 23 – November 26, 2021
The Future of Guest Review Tech for Vacation Rentals + More with Koryn Okey of Breezeway
We’re joined by Koryn Okey, VP of Client Experience for Breezeway, a property care and service platform for hospitality and property management providers. Koryn formerly worked with Flipkey, a channel that helps property owners collect and display guest reviews.
Episode 22 – November 12, 2021
Short-Term Vacation Rentals Go Next-Level with Add-On Experiences
In this episode we’re joined by Bon Hewlett, executive chef with Hoste Experiences, the newest arm of Hoste’s hospitality services. With Hoste Experiences, guests of our 160 managed short-term vacation rental properties can book exceptional experiences to enhance their stay, including in-home chef-prepared meals, wine tastings, guided yoga sessions and more.
Episode 21 – November 5, 2021
Geographic Areas Where Short-Term Vacation Rentals are Likely to Succeed
Thinking of buying a property to use as a short-term vacation rental on platforms like AirBnB? Do you manage vacation rentals and want to move into a new geographic area? You can maximize your chances for success by assessing a geographic area for clues that a vacation rental will (or won’t) work there.
Episode 20 – October 29, 2021
Vacation Rental Management Association Conference 2021: What We Learned
In this episode, we unpack some of what we learned at the 2021 conference of the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) as it applies to the management of short-term vacation rental properties offered through platforms like AirBnB.
Episode 19 – October 22, 2021
Marketing Short-Term Vacation Property Rentals: A Jam-Packed Episode
Hoste’s own Jorge Zarate joins us to talk about marketing and business development for short-term vacation rental properties. We discuss marketing to guests, as well as homeowners seeking management of their properties as vacation rentals. Jorge reveals how Hoste is using its online presence for business development, and why the right property photos and descriptions are key, not just for getting bookings, but for exponential growth. You’ll learn why we call Hoste a “hospitality ecosystem” and how it’s fueling our phenomenal growth.
Episode 18 – October 15, 2021
Global Thought Leader Simon Lehmann on Short-Term Vacation Property Rentals
Simon Lehmann, one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on short-term vacation rentals, flew from Switzerland to share his insights on hosting and property management for short-term vacation rentals through platforms like AirBnB, VRBO, and HomeAway.
Episode 17 – October 1, 2021
Special In-House Experiences for Guests of Short-Term Vacation Rental Properties
Jillian Kimber has worn many hats at Hoste, working with both guests and property owners in the short-term vacation rental space. She’s the creator of the Experiences arm of our business, offering guests of our managed AirBnb properties extra-special, in-home experiences, including chef-prepared meals, wine tastings, massages, facials, and yoga, as well as guided hikes. Guests can book experiences from our website, or on tablets provided in every short-term vacation rental property we manage.
Episode 16 – September 24, 2021
Perspective on Long Term Versus Short Term Rentals
Are you the owner of long-term rental property who’s thinking of making the switch to hosting short-term vacation rentals like those booked through AirBnB and VRBO? You’ll want to listen as we chat with Craig Kallian, Hoste’s Business Development Manager. Before joining Hoste, Craig worked in long-term rental property management, so he brings a well-rounded perspective to Hoste’s world of managing vacation rentals for property owners.
Episode 15 – September 17, 2021
Boots on the Ground with Airbnb Guests — Emily Farmer & Kilian Gordon
Thinking of turning one or more of your properties into short-term rentals through Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, etc.? There’s a lot to learn, but in this episode, we offer you a powerhouse resource. Her name is Emily Farmer and she’s one of the most integral people in our short-term rental property management business. Emily has worn many hats at Hoste, but her current area of focus is the onboarding of new clients. She specializes in helping property owners like you prepare their homes to “go live” on the short-term vacation rental market and generate maximum cashflow.
Episode 14 – August 27, 2021
Maintenance & Your Airbnb or Short Term Rental
When it comes to managing a short term rental property, maintenance should be a top priority. In this episode, we share high-value intel on vacation rental property maintenance, including the three options you should consider for managing upkeep, and what tasks should be addressed on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.
Episode 13 – August 20, 2021
Navigating A Hot Airbnb Investment Market along with Pricing Strategy (that works!)
In this episode, we share updates on the short term rental property market and offer a peek into the latest improvements to our vacation rental property management services. Find out about the current trends we’re seeing in short term rental occupancy and get our two cents on navigating a hot real estate market as an investor in Airbnb or VRBO rental properties. We’ll also show you what our current pricing strategy looks like, because it’s been working like gangbusters this summer.
Episode 12 – August 13, 2021
The Importance of a Quality Tech Stack in Short Term Rental Management
What’s a “tech stack,” and why does it matter for hosting short term vacation rental properties? It’s really just a fancy buzzword for the set of technologies you use in your vacation rental business to make your job easier and achieve your goals. You don’t have to own or manage hundreds of short term rentals to benefit from the right tech.
Episode 11 – August 6, 2021
Most Asked Questions about STR and Airbnb Management
In this episode, we answer some of the most common questions we receive about hosting short term vacation rental properties on platforms like Airbnb. For example, is rental arbitrage a good model? We discuss the pros and cons. What should you consider when furnishing an Airbnb rental? What supplies should you stock in your vacation rental home for guests? We share our best advice …
Episode 10 – July 23, 2021
Horror Stories from Managing AirBNBs
Today, we have some funny and unexpected stories that we’ve encountered since starting our short term rental management company. Tune in for stories about destructive rentals, gross discoveries in the hot tub, bears in the trash, overheated units in the summertime, illegal products left on properties and more!
Episode 9 – July 16, 2021
Key Indicators to Track Your Listing's Performance
How do you determine the biggest KPI’s to track the success of your home? First and foremost, reviews on the booking platform of your choice are clear indicators of what your guests think of the home. Whether a review is positive or negative, we dig deep into what the guest actually thought of the space in their comments and then take effective action on their criticism.
Episode 8 – July 2, 2021
How To Communicate Well With Guests
As an AirBNB property manager, managing guest communication can be a real challenge. How you handle guests and how quickly you respond before a guest even arrives sets their expectations for the property. Whether you manage on property or hundreds, you need to have a protocol for what it looks like to communicate with your guests.
Episode 7 – June 25, 2021
Insurance for Short Term Rental Properties
Some Airbnb hosts have encountered bewilderment when attempting to insure their short term vacation rental properties. Insurance companies haven’t always understood how to properly protect vacation rentals or short term rentals. Does an STR need homeowner’s insurance? Landlord insurance? How is it covered?
Episode 6 – June 18, 2021
When should you use a short-term rental management company?
When we discuss working with a property owner, it’s essentially an interview on both sides. We want to make sure their property is a good fit for us, as well as us being a good fit for them. Some people may need an extremely custom fit and services that a general management company can’t manage.
Episode 5 – June 11, 2021
Managing AirBNB Guest Expectations
When it comes to AirBNB hosting, there’s an art to keeping guests happy and earning stellar reviews, and it has everything to do with managing guest expectations. Whether you’re thinking of investing in short term rentals or currently hosting an AirBNB, this episode shares valuable insights that will help you head off trouble and create a more consistently satisfying guest experience.
Episode 4 – June 4, 2021
Most Common Mistakes Made by AirBNB Hosts - Part Two
There are so many details that go into managing an AirBNB. As a first time host, you may not think of telling your guest things like, Where’s the thermostat? How do you use the fireplace? etc. You want your guest to have an easy experience in your home!
Episode 3 – May 28, 2021
What Are the Biggest Mistakes AirBNB Hosts Make?
First and foremost, people underestimate the amount of time they’ll have to spend to have a good quality product. Cleaning alone can take up huge amounts of time. Another mistake is focusing too much on occupancy, rather than on the rate. We utilize a dynamic pricing tool that helps our owners get maximum profit on their rental…tune in for more!
Episode 2 – May 21, 2021
Managing Different Types of Short-Term Rentals
We’re discussing the differences in managing different types of homes. The location, type of space, amenities, etc, can all really affect what it looks like to manage a property. For us managing 140+ homes, we have to keep information organized for guests and know what is feasible for each individual property’s turnaround.
Episode 1 – May 7, 2021
Introducing STR Intel
Join us in our first episode as we discuss short term rental management and how we’ve grown our business. We’re here to help owners, hosts, and potential investors maximize both their knowledge and their returns!
