Booked Solid Podcast

Organically building your social media following with Candice from Boho A-Frame

On this episode, we have Candice from Boho A-frame. She’s a short-term rental host with a unique a-frame along the California coast. She walks through how she’s grown her social media following and why, even though she has 95% occupancy before direct bookings, she still invests heavily in marketing her own bookings. Podcast Summary In our conversation with Candice, we delved into the intricacies of working with influencers, cultivating a robust social media presence, and fostering direct bookings. A crucial point emphasized was the importance of thorough vetting when selecting influencers. Beyond just follower count, it’s imperative to scrutinize factors like engagement rates, follower demographics, and their track record in driving bookings for other hosts. Furthermore, we explored the diverse array of platforms available for property marketing, spanning Instagram, Pinterest, and even Facebook groups. The key lies in understanding the guest’s journey and strategically positioning oneself where they are most likely to discover the property. Leveraging opportunities such as getting reposted by travel accounts, networking locally, and investing in high-quality visuals emerged as effective strategies for organic audience growth. Direct bookings emerged as a cornerstone of sustainable hosting, offering independence from OTA reliance. Establishing a personalized website and booking engine is essential for this endeavor. However, beyond the transactional aspect, our discussion underscored the significance of delivering exceptional guest experiences. From thoughtful amenities to curated local recommendations, going the extra mile is pivotal in fostering guest loyalty. Finally, the conversation highlighted the value of experimentation and continual learning, urging hosts to remain open-minded and receptive to evolving marketing tactics within the dynamic landscape of hospitality. Essential Highlights Here are a few key takeaways from the podcast episode with Candice about working with influencers, growing a social media following, and pursuing direct bookings: The main takeaway is to take a multi-pronged approach to marketing, carefully vet influencer partnerships for ROI, and prioritize direct bookings while delivering an exceptional guest experience. An open, learning mindset is key. Follow Candice on instagram @boho_aframe Transcription Another thing I do to vet influencers is I always go to their page and I look at the posts they’ve shared and I see who they’ve worked with and I go to that person’s  social media page or it’s a hotel. I’ll find who the email, whatever.  I’ll be like, hi, I’m looking at working with this person. Would you mind letting me know what your experience was working with them? Did it bring you bookings? I specifically asked, did it bring you because  so often the answer is.  Um, not really bookings. We did get more views and we did, um, get a lot of followers from it, but we didn’t really get very many bookings. And so for me, if I’m paying an influencer trading, whatever you guys have come to an agreement on, if I’m paying them, say, I don’t know, a thousand dollars to work with them and I don’t get a single booking from that, what did I gain? You know? So it’s like, cool. Okay. I got followers, but that doesn’t make me money. At the end of the day, followers don’t make me money. Bookings make me money.  Back  to direct booking simplified. We break down the tactics and strategies to win in direct bookings. On today’s show, we have Candice from Boho A Frame. She has an A Frame cabin in Big Sur, California, not a place that you’ll typically find an A Frame, but she has done extremely well. She’s built up a social following and has locked in really high occupancy rates. On today’s show, she’ll break down how she’s built her social media following using different platforms, how she works with influencers and why direct booking is so important to her. So let’s bring her in. Hey, Candice.  Hello.   Welcome. Welcome to the show.  Thank you for having me.  Yeah, it was good. It was good to meet you. I think I found you because I think Either I followed you or you followed me, uh, and I started to see all the content that you were producing. I was like, I need to have this person on the show.  Nice.  Before we get too deep into it. Do you mind giving folks a idea of kind of who you are?  Yeah. I’m Candice. I run a short term rental on the central coast of California. Um, I have a background in science. I got my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and I worked in emergency medicine for quite a while and got injured in that realm and it like diverted me and I got to start hosting, which was like my passion. I loved traveling to a bunch of, Vacation rentals. My husband and I would try and do like three countries a year back then. We don’t anymore with kids, but, uh,  but yeah, so it was like, I didn’t like choose this path, but I ended up here and I really like it. And it, it was a cool transition to something that I was passionate about in my personal life. And now I get to facilitate guest having experiences like the ones that I used to enjoy when I traveled. So that’s been fun.  Nice. And you have one of the, my favorite structures in of all, which is like the a frame, um,  my wife and I, we, we want to, we go to Tahoe every so often, every so, every so often, maybe like every one out of 20 houses, it’s an a frame with. It’s not very common over there. I  have to send you a few Tahoe rentals that I love that are,  yep. Oh my God. I would love to stay. I would love to stay at more a frames. Um,  um, actually what, like, what is it like? To own a short term rental in California.   Yeah, I mean, it’s got its pros and cons. I’m sure like any place, uh, the area I’m located is definitely,

Booked Solid Podcast

Building unique stays and growing your community with Zoey Berghoff

On this episode we have Zoey Berghoff. She’s most known for creating unique stays. She started her portfolio with a yurt and is now working on a 1950’s cabin restoration. She walks us through her journey and learnings on how to approach unique stays and new land development. She also touches on how she’s built a community of folks who want to book directly. Podcast Summary Zoey’s discussion on unique stays and portfolio building was truly captivating, emphasizing several essential points. She highlighted the significance of embracing opportunities and facing the unknown with courage, as her unexpected venture into short-term rentals demonstrated. Zoey emphasized the need for adaptability in entrepreneurship, showcasing how being open to unexpected paths can lead to success. Moreover, Zoey stressed the importance of transparency in sharing the journey of property management, including its challenges and triumphs. By showcasing the real journey, flaws and all, property owners can foster a sense of community and intrigue among potential guests, ultimately enhancing the appeal of their unique accommodations. Zoey also underscored the significance of safeguarding one’s interests through thorough rental agreements and careful screening processes for direct bookings, especially when bypassing intermediary platforms. Furthermore, Zoey emphasized the value of prioritizing quality over quantity when it comes to property management. By focusing on creating memorable guest experiences that inspire positive word-of-mouth, property owners can cultivate a loyal clientele base. Zoey also advised considering long-term strategies, such as potentially selling the unique stay portfolio as a business in the future. Lastly, she encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs not to wait for perfect conditions to begin their journey, assuring that with proper balance, building a business alongside family life is achievable, even amidst imperfections. Zoey’s passion for this niche market was evident throughout the discussion, offering inspiration for continued success in creating distinctive and inviting accommodations. Essential Highlights A few key takeaways on Zoey’s fascinating discussion on unique stays and building portfolios Follow Zoey on instagram @zoeyberghoff Transcription I think having the mindset of like don’t be afraid of the unknown I think when you step into the unknown and you’re not sure what’s next that’s when like all of the opportunities really come forward because you’re not so dead on this one thing has to happen    welcome back to direct booking simplified where we break down the tactics and strategies to win direct bookings on today’s show we have Zoey Berghoff she has a portfolio of unique properties that she’s built herself she’s done everything from land development to new builds and now she’s working in a cabin on today’s show she’ll break down how she’s grown her portfolio of unique stays and how she thinks about direct bookings by growing your network and your community so let’s bring her in Hey Zoey   Hello thank you for having me  yes I’m so excited let’s get into it  awesome yeah we um really dive into unique stays with our own portfolio and those who we help build their own portfolio so I’m here to chat all the things unique stays  yes um so we started actually five years ago with our short term rental journey um we actually started by accident I like to say our first property was a yurt and you know we were in the middle of a pandemic we weren’t sure how it was going to go and it just blew us out of the water with what it was performing in the first month or two and from there that actually pivoted our whole entire strategy  so we  six months later turned a long term rental into a short term rental and that property was making 25 000 a year and in the first year it made about 120 000 and that was like  this is crazy like there’s something there’s more to unpack here so that really um like I said pivoted everything in terms of our goals our long term vision for short term rentals and real estate um and our most recent project in the last 12 months has been renovating a 19th century Forties historic log cabin that was built to out of Aspen and relocated in the twenties slash forties we don’t really have a precise timeframe on that um so everything we’ve done has been builds custom builds glamping and extreme renovations so we like to pick all the hard routes first I guess  Yeah so it was actually raw land that my husband had found and really wanted to build in the mar building and renovating i  to purchase than buying t which for a lot of areas But given where we are  t we’re around he found ra  Build on it so the first thing that went up was the yurt and that is like a 800 square foot dome um we put it on a deck and it’s only rented in the summer it’s only seasonal it can be winterized but I will not host people in the winter on it I just think it’s like negative reviews time and time again if I were to do that um so that was the first project and that was about 40 000 in terms of an investment um and in the first Six months of hosting and made 30 000 so we almost made our entire investment back in the first six months if we went a whole year I’m sure we would have made about 40 but we only do six months or so um and then on that same land um phase two was the single family home that was also built on the property so we’re huge in unique stays but also land tacking which is multiple streams of income on one property um maximizing your revenue and only having You know one set of expenses maybe  nope  it was spilled so the land was literally dirt it was raw land that we purchased so we brought all utilities into the property so well septic

Product Updates

Product Update – Custom Pages

Our direct booking site serves more than just converting browsers to bookers. As a host, you may want to advertise your cohosting services or provide your guests with more information about the area. To help hosts build a website that represents what they offer and why guests (or even other property owners) may want to choose them, we have introduced Custom Pages.  Now, hosts can add additional pages to their website with the content they want. Our templates will ensure that these pages look beautiful and fit the theme. Furthermore, if you switch themes, these blocks will be updated to accommodate the new theme, so there is no need to rebuild your page. We have included two common block types to start with and will continue to add more to this library based on feedback from our hosts.  This update is now available to all users and templates. For assistance go to this help article. We are excited about this new opportunity for hosts to express themselves using these pages, and we can’t wait to see the block library grow. Thank you for the active community and the continual feedback that allowed us to bring on new features like Custom Pages. 🙏

Partnertship

CraftedStays Partners with Hospitable to Simplify Direct Bookings

Hospitable and CraftedStays have partnered together to empower hosts to capture more direct bookings and increase revenues. CraftedStays’ mission is to simplify direct bookings – making it easy for all hosts to conquer direct bookings. We have partnered with Hospitable, one of the highest-rated vacation rental software providers, to enable direct bookings for short-term-rental hosts. With hospitable you can answer 90% of guest messages with AI-powered automated messaging, sync your calendar across direct, Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, to avoid double bookings and missed cleans, and you have up to $5M damage protection with Direct Premium. When paired with CraftedStays’ direct booking platform, hosts can offer an elegant direct booking experience that leads to more direct bookings. Through this partnership, Hospitable and CraftedStays users can now create a stunning direct booking site that converts in just 15 minutes. This efficient process, coupled with the seamless syncing of your Hospitable listings, empowers you to manage your listings with simplicity and ease.   The integration is now live. CraftedStays users can now connect their Hospitable account to the CraftedStays dashboard by going to the settings page. Users will have the ability to map or import their listings. About Hospitable:Hospitable’s mission is to gift hosts their time back. Hospitable’s vacation rental software saves you time on hosting: automate 90% of guest messages, sync calendars across all platforms, streamline cleaning team reminders, and more. About CraftedStays:CraftedStays is on a mission to simplify direct bookings – giving hosts the tools to be successful at direct bookings. With beautiful templates, easy-to-use dashboard, PMS integrations, and conversion tools, CraftedStays makes it easy to be successful at direct bookings. 

Booked Solid Podcast

Designing and data goes hand-in-hand with Janice Pollard

On this week’s episode we have Janice Pollard. She comes from 20 years of marketing and advertising background and she stresses the importance of good design and branding to get more direct bookings. She walks through how she works with her clients, data that she’s gathered on expectations about guests and how this isn’t just a fundamental of direct bookings but overall guest experience. Podcast Summary In the world of short-term rental businesses, understanding the underlying motivation – the “why” – and knowing your ideal guest avatar are paramount. This comprehension serves as the compass for decisions spanning branding, design, amenities, messaging, and beyond. Utilizing the “5 W’s” framework – who, what, when, where, why, and how – helps hosts align their offerings with guest expectations. Additionally, relying on data and insights rather than subjective opinions is emphasized, enabling informed choices based on factors like competitor analysis, market trends, and guest preferences. Starting small and building incrementally is advocated as a prudent approach when embarking on new ventures within the short-term rental sphere. Cultivating a supportive community aids in both learning and accountability. Transitioning towards direct bookings is highlighted as advantageous, affording hosts greater control over the guest experience and access to invaluable first-party data not provided by Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Furthermore, attention to detail in areas such as color psychology and branding can subtly influence consumer decisions, underscoring the importance of thoughtful curation in these elements. Finally, the discussion touches upon the benefits of having a dedicated booking website, which allows for enhanced optimization for conversion and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) compared to generic website builder tools. The dialogue encapsulates a wealth of practical insights, spanning from leveraging data for informed decision-making to refining brand positioning and enhancing guest experiences. Janice’s expertise in marketing and advertising enriches the conversation, offering valuable perspectives on strategy and execution within the short-term rental industry. Essential Highlights Here are a few key takeaways from the conversation: The episode covered a lot of useful ground in terms of utilizing data, defining your brand positioning, designing a great guest experience, and strategically moving toward more direct bookings over time. Janice brought an insightful perspective from her background in marketing/advertising. Follow Janice on instagram @marshmallowhill Transcription The avatar is important but I feel like it really  comes down to who they are, meaning their family type or their are they a couple  or do they have kids and if so  what are the ages of the kids? After that, you don’t really need to know all the psychographics and the demographics. They don’t really know need to know how much they make. There’s that whole marketing side. What really matters is what are their expectations   hey folks, welcome back to direct booking simplified, where we break down the tactics and strategies to win in direct bookings. Today we have Janice Pollard. She spent 20 years in marketing and advertising and is now a short term rental designer. Today we’re going to walk through how she designed spaces with our clients to drive more direct  So let’s bring her in. Hey Janice. Hi Gil, how are you?  I’m good. I’m good. I’m feeling really good now. I was terrible. Over the weekend. I feel like I’ve gotten sick three times in the last, in the last two weeks. Yeah. I don’t know what it was. I actually, I do know what it is. It is kids. It’s young kids. Yeah. Oh gosh. That’s awful. When you’re, you know, you have so much to do as entrepreneur and you have to keep moving forward. Oh gosh. So you’re, you’re on the, on the up and up now.  I am on the up and up and up. Um, you may, I may go on mute every so often to, to, to, to get out a good cough. Um, but I feel  10 times better than I did like last Sunday, this past Sunday. Gosh, that’s a long one too. Usually I’m sick for about three days, but.   It’s, it’s less so the sickness was like only like two days, but like. It’s that lingering cough that I just can’t get rid of. Yeah.  Oh,  yeah.  Well, you’re forgiven. If you have to cough, go cough. We’ll be, we’ll be here.  Yeah.   Thank you. I appreciate that.  So how you been?   I’m doing great. I’m, uh, in Michigan and the spring has sprung. So people are coming out of the woodwork and it’s just, there’s this feeling in the air that Summer is around the corner and I don’t know if you are in touch with pro football, but the NFL draft is downtown Detroit. So that was very exciting. We watched it last night. Um, and  whole city, there’s I think 275, 000 people downtown in. Wow. It was really awesome. So,  yeah, it’s just, we’re hitting this like really awesome time of year that, you know, when you live in a winter state where there is like legitimately storm, snow, ice, it makes it all the much more worth it when you see buds coming out and birds singing and it’s just really lovely. You’re coming out of hiding now.  Yeah. Yeah.  This, this is, um, this is a period of time where we’re many of the, our properties are coming out of our low seasonality side of things. Um, so like I’m really looking forward to, um, the summer months, but like, gosh, it’s been the occupancy has been a lot, it’s been a little bit slower this year. Um, but yeah, I’m, I’m looking for things to pick up. So I look forward to that.  Well, you have what remind me the two in Gatlinburg and one in Branson. Yeah.  Yeah, that’s right. Okay. Yeah. And so those are like super family friendly like no one’s traveling right now Like folks are enjoying their local town. They’re trying to get their graduation all those things So I think Memorial Day is when like our

CraftedStays Blog Posts

CraftedStays joins Google for Startups Cloud Program

CraftedStays has been admitted to Google for Startups Cloud Program to bring reliable Direct Booking to more hosts. As part of this partnership, CraftedStays has access to engineering teams inside Google, training programs to Google’s suite of solutions, and access to Google’s reliable cloud infrastructure.  CraftedStays will be working with the Google team to explore how generative AI can be leveraged in the short-term-rental space to improve the guest experience and provide hosts with better tools to run their better business. CraftedStays has rebuilt its entire infrastructure on Google Cloud to ensure hosts have reliable uptime for their sites. All users are on CraftedStays new infrastructure and benefit from its new performance standards. Be on the lookout for new developments as CraftedStays and Google Cloud work together to bring more solutions to short-term-rental hosts. 

Booked Solid Podcast

Leveraging your niche to win more direct bookings with Mark Mancini

On this episode we have Mark Mancini. He’s the host of VRBO Outstanding youtube channel and has several courses that helps hosts become amazing hosts. He shares his knowledge of hosting for 13 years and how he’s able to fill up the majority of his calendar with direct booking by leveraging your niche and marketing your site. Podcast Summary Mark emphasizes the pivotal role of technology and strategic marketing in optimizing rental property management. He advises implementing a Property Management System (PMS) like OwnerRez from the outset to automate tasks and enhance efficiency as your rental business expands. Integrating such systems streamlines operations and facilitates scalability, laying a robust foundation for growth. Another crucial aspect highlighted by Mark is the branding of rental properties. Instead of opting for generic names, he advocates for crafting unique, brandable identities that can be leveraged for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes. This branding strategy enhances visibility and distinguishes properties in a competitive market, bolstering their appeal to potential guests. Moreover, Mark underscores the importance of targeting specific guest niches and tailoring amenities and marketing efforts accordingly. By identifying and catering to niche markets such as anglers or luxury travelers, property owners can optimize guest satisfaction and attract lucrative bookings. Offering unique amenities and experiences further sets properties apart, positioning them as desirable destinations. Additionally, Mark suggests staying ahead of emerging trends, such as the rising popularity of electric vehicles, by installing amenities like EV chargers to gain a competitive edge. Overall, his advice underscores the fusion of technology-driven efficiency, targeted marketing, and niche specialization as key strategies for success in the rental property industry. Essential Highlights Here are a few key points from Mark’s podcast episode: The main thrust is leveraging technology and targeted marketing to drive direct bookings, while specializing your property’s offerings to attract your ideal, lucrative guest niche. Follow Mark on instagram YouTube and VRBO Transcription You want to exploit your niche, right? With some homes like for instance, if you’re on the waterway, you might have a home that’s specific to anglers, right? So you have a boat dock, maybe you have a fish cleaning station, you’ve got water electric, they could plug their boat into and wash their boat off, right? And you want to go and gravitate and market towards that market. Hey folks, welcome back to Direct Booking Simplified, where we break down the strategies and tactics to win in direct bookings. On today’s show, we have Mark Mancini. He’s a host of the VRBO Outstanding YouTube channel. He has several courses of his own and has been a host for 13 years. Today he’s going to walk us through some of the tactics that he uses to win direct bookings. So let’s bring him in. Hey, Mark, welcome to the show. Hi Gil. Thanks for having me. It’s it’s good to see you I’ve been following your your YouTube channel for for a little while now even in my early days before I got my my first acquisition There so what’s what’s new with you now? So right now we I have a little sabbatical. This weekend, I’m going back down to one of my rentals. We have a wedding this weekend. I’m flying down, flying back, and then I get a date of myself and then we’re driving down to spend two weeks down on the keys at our vacation rental, so we’re using it for recreational purposes at the end of the month. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Before we get too deep, do you, do you want to give a, a listener’s a sense of who you are and what you do? My name is Mark Mancini. I’ve been in vacation rentals for over 13 years now. Entering my 13th year, I started off in the Myrtle beach area. I’ve since transitioned to the Florida Keys. Cause that’s where we plan to retire to. And I want to be somewhat close to where my vacation rentals are. Got a deep business background in it. Mostly I had a, an it company in Atlanta that I had for 15 years. I sold to publicly traded company. And one of the key things I learned, Gil you can’t run a company and grow it. And sell it to a NASDAQ traded company, unless you’ve got software that controls and runs your business. And that was something I did early on. And so when it came to vacation rentals, I did the exact same thing. Yeah. So how did that influence your, your vacation rentals? So you have to have. Some kind of unified tool. You don’t want to have disjointed pieces of information where you’re, you’re manually docu signing an RA, you’re manually doing security deposits, and you’re manually updating listings on different channels in all different places. You know, you want to have everything really ideally in one place. So if you update your pictures, if you need to change your calendar anything you do update your RA, you’re doing it, everything in one place. And it goes to every different aspect. And that’s what we did when I was a managed services provider. We had one piece of software that. I could remote into clients machines. I could push out the updates to antivirus. I could push out Windows updates defragment their computer, do a ticket right in one panel of the screen. And that’s what you know, a property management system allows you to do. And that’s why it’s so important when you do direct bookings. Got it. Got it. So you’re, you’re, you’re big on, on, on having a PMS. Early on in, in your, in your hosting journey. Yeah. I always tell people the best time to get a PNN PMS is when you want to start your business. I started with one property with my PMS. I’ve expanded now to two. Don’t really see a need to go anymore. Only because the two properties I have are

Booked Solid Podcast

Win in Direct Bookings by Going Niche with Adam and Deavon Peterson

On this episode we have Adam and Deavon Peterson, a couple that plays on each other’s strenghts. They own over 100 long-term-rental doors and 4 short-term-rentals. They went against the grain and purchased in non-mainstream vacation destinations and found a niche that has allowed them to outperform their investor peers. They walk us through their philosophy that lead them to major direct booking wins by serving a short-term-rental market that does not fit airbnb’s demographic. Podcast Summary Adam and Deavon have achieved success in the short-term rental business by leveraging Adam’s established fishing charter venture and targeting properties in areas renowned for fishing and outdoor activities. Their strategy revolves around catering specifically to anglers and outdoor enthusiasts, enabling them to drive direct bookings through focused marketing efforts. Key tactics include active participation in relevant Facebook groups, collaboration with local businesses such as other fishing charters, and hosting influencers and YouTubers at their properties to amplify their reach. Central to their success is the advice to pursue one’s passion and embrace it fully, rather than conforming to predetermined paths that may not align with one’s skills and interests. Adam encourages self-belief and perseverance in the face of challenges, emphasizing the importance of resilience. Deavon underscores the significance of supporting a partner’s aspirations, even when the route to success isn’t immediately clear. Their partnership thrives on the synergy between Adam’s visionary approach and Deavon’s practical implementation skills, illustrating how complementary mindsets can lead to success. In summary, Adam and Deavon have distinguished themselves by capitalizing on their expertise and passion for fishing and the outdoors, rather than attempting to compete directly in saturated vacation markets. Their unique approach has enabled them to carve out a niche and achieve notable success in the short-term rental industry, demonstrating the power of focusing on what one knows and loves. Essential Highlights Here are a few key takeaways from this podcast episode: Follow Adam and Deavon on instagram @southernparadisevacation Transcription We’ve even started marketing a lot on the different fishing groups on Facebook. We’ll send out our, through our direct booking website. We’re able to share that on a lot of different Facebook groups that maybe it doesn’t look as good coming from an Airbnb/VRBO sharing, but if you’re able to share it through a direct booking website and you put it out there and you say, hey, you know, here’s a way to reach me, you can book directly right here on our site. It also allows them to ask questions and, you know, Hey, if you’re on here, it says you might know a little bit more about parking and a little bit more about what we’re trying to do. And it started just popping off immediately,  to where, it’s been steady. Our occupancy is over 80 percent in our off season, which is typically 30 to 40%.  Welcome back to direct booking simplified. We break down the strategies and tactics to win in direct bookings. On today’s episode, we have Adam and Devon, their long term rental investors that turned short term rental. They currently have more than a hundred long term rentals and four short term rentals and starting to migrate their portfolio into more short term rentals. They went away from investing in mainstream markets and now has outpaced their peers. They leverage their passion in fishing to double their occupancies. Today, the walk us through how they think about investing into short term rentals and how they’re able to get more direct bookings. So let’s bring them in.  Hey, A am Hey, Deavon. Hey, how’s it going? I’m, I’m doing well. How are you going? How are you guys?  Great. Good We’re good. What’s what’s been up with you folks?  Well, we are on a spring break with our little kiddos right now. So busier than usual running everybody here and there. And we just spent the weekend at one of our short term rentals enjoying, you know, enjoying all our hard work. So that was fun. Yeah. Did you guys have any Easter egg hunts and such? We did. We did. And we’re in South Louisiana. So we had the obligatory crawfish boil. I don’t think anybody else does, but I don’t think we have that in the city. We don’t have a top of the Easter egg on.  Nice. Nice.  That’s okay though.  I love it I love it. Um, to kind of kick us off. Um, do you mind giving folks a brief introduction to both of yourselves?  So Adam Peterson, we are, or I am a real estate investor.  I left my W two job after 15 years, um, about two years ago. Um, I started investing in long term real estate, um, about 10 years ago. Um, we had built up to about a hundred doors, 150 doors, and then decided, but we started getting into the, um, started getting into short term rentals and we started, we really liked that space better. Um, so we started to almost trade up our long term rentals and a few short term rentals. Um, started with one, we’re up to four, uh, currently that we’re operating and working on, um, converting another, uh, long term rental that we’ve already owned into a short term rental, as well as another, um, short term rental that will go along with our fishing company, which we’ll talk more about in a little bit, but, um, so we’re working on five and six right now to, uh, get us moving. So it’s full time trying to move a hundred percent into short term real estate, along with, uh, a charter fishing operation.  And I’m Deavon, I’m his wife. Uh, I still work full time as a nurse practitioner. Um, but I do most of our management for the short term rentals. I take care of more of the, like, email messaging.  All of the more finite details out of his word, the dreamer, the big picture person, I kind of

Partnertship

CraftedStays partners with Hostaway to Simplify Direct Bookings

Hostaway and CraftedStays have partnered together to empower hosts to capture more direct bookings and increase revenues. CraftedStays’ mission is to simplify direct bookings – making it easy for all hosts to conquer direct bookings. We have partnered with Hostaway, a leading all-in-one PMS provider for short-term-rentals to enable direct bookings. With phenominal customer service, partnerships with major booking channels, and all-in-one tools for hosts, Hostaway has everything hosts need to automate their vacation rental business. When paired with CraftedStays’ direct booking platform hosts are able to offer an elegant direct booking experience that leads to more direct bookings. With this partnership, Hostaway and CraftedStays users will be able to build a beautiful direct booking site that converts in as quick as 15-minutes. Additionally, your direct booking site will be synced with your Hostaway listings – whenever you make a change in Hostaway, your changes will update on all OTAs and your direct booking site seamlessly, making it simple to manage your listings.   The integration is now live. CraftedStays users can now connect their Hostaway account in the CraftedStays dashboard by going to the settings page. Users will have the ability to map or import their listings. About Hostaway:Hostaway is an All-in-One vacation rental software solution for growing property managers. We provide tools to automate and simplify marketing, sales, communication, operations, reporting and accounting. Our software is different from every other PMS and Channel Manager, because it is flexible and grows with your business. It’s customizable and we provide an amazing team that helps you set it up and cheer you along your path to success. About CraftedStays: CraftedStays is on a mission to simplify direct bookings – giving hosts the tools to be successful at direct bookings. With beautiful templates, easy-to-use dashboard, PMS integrations, and conversion tools, CraftedStays makes it easy to be successful at direct bookings. 

Booked Solid Podcast

Get more direct bookings by unleveling your quality and consistency with Chris Petzy

In this episode, we have Chris Petzy. He’s a seasoned operator with over 80 doors and is a coach at STR Secrets. He walks us through his operational framework of Technology, People, and Processes that lead him to consistent direct bookings. Podcast Summary Chris underscores the significance of technology, processes, and personnel as the foundation for delivering consistent 5-star guest experiences that encourage direct rebookings. His tech arsenal includes platforms like Guesty, Pricelabs, Stayfi, GoSTR, and Breezeway, each serving a specific function in managing various aspects of the business. Central to his approach is the establishment of robust processes and documentation to train team members effectively and uphold standards across properties. Utilizing tools such as checklists, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and regular communications, Chris ensures consistency is ingrained within the organization. A key focal point for Chris is assembling a team of “A players” who embody the company’s vision, which he deems as the most critical factor in success. By emphasizing strong leadership, clear processes, and an inspiring vision, he attracts and nurtures top talent within his organization. In terms of direct bookings, Chris employs post-stay email/SMS journeys and monthly email campaigns that highlight seasonal offerings, promotions, and new properties to keep guests engaged. He places great importance on tracking leading indicators such as website traffic, follower growth, and top-performing content to optimize strategies for direct booking growth, reflecting his data-driven operational approach. Chris’s operations background underscores his commitment to being data-driven and understanding the key performance indicators (KPIs) behind guest experience and direct booking performance. The overarching theme of his insights revolves around integrating operations and guest experience seamlessly into the business, establishing them as systematic components that foster consistency and drive repeat bookings. Essential Highlights Here are a few key points from Chris’s insights on operations, direct bookings, and guest experience: The overarching theme is making operations and guest experience an embedded, systematized part of the business to foster consistency and repeat bookings. Follow Chris on instagram @chris_petzy Transcription It all has to do with operations. So we didn’t really touch on this earlier, but if you talk to people in the mastermind, they, they kind of see me as the, the ops guy. Um, and that’s actually my group coaching call is operations and scale. That’s where my niche is. That’s where my focus is in this business.  And to do that really well, I always say you need three things. You need great technology. You need great process and you need great people. The people being the most important part, but if you put those three things together and then monitor that, have good, the quality control in place,  that’s going to be what creates that consistent experience for. Uh, your guests, your clients, et cetera.  Hey folks, welcome back to direct booking simplified. We break down the tactics and strategies to win more direct bookings. On today’s show, we have Chris Petsy. He operates over 80 doors and is a coach at STR secrets and is an operational beast. Today. He’s going to walk us through his operational framework of technology, people in process to win more direct bookings. So let’s bring him in. Hey, Chris. Welcome to the show.  Hey, thanks for having me, man.  Yeah. Um, I’m, I’m glad to have you on. Uh, I’ve been referred to you by a couple of folks from, uh, from your cohort address, your secrets cohort. Um, so I’m, I’m glad to have you on,  um, to kind of kick us off. Can you give a brief intro on who you are and what you do?  Yeah. I’m the co owner of Seacoast Summit. And we operate a couple of brands, Seacoast vacation rentals and summit vacation rentals in the New Hampshire mass coastline, as well as the New Hampshire and Vermont mountains, lakes and mountains. And we were founded by my business partner actually in 2019. And over that five year run, we partnered two years in  and we went from about 10 listings when we first started to, we’re going to be over 80 by next week. Whoa. Is that mainly co hosting nowadays or are you still acquiring?  Yeah, I got started by acquiring. So I have nine doors myself. My business partner has seven. So I think one of the cool things about our model is we’re not just co host. We get it from the investor side of the house. And,  uh, but the rest are, are co host deals. And we do have one,  I guess, like a part hotel. So that’s an 11 unit in Hampton beach. So we have a little bit of that experience to operating a hotel style  accommodation.  Yeah. I bet.  I bet you, given that you’re a host yourself, it makes it a lot easier to have conversations to other hosts on taking over because they trust you on your own properties.  And you’re able to kind of empathize back to them about Really? Like, how do you make mortgage? How do you actually get good revenues back in return?   Yeah. Is this relatable, right? So like we, as, as investors, we have goals for our properties, whether that’s profit or, you know, maintenance free and all the systems and things that we do for our own businesses we do for our clients. And so it’s in perfect harmony and alignment. The business that we, you know, execute on for our personal properties. It also happens for our clients as well. So it’s a benefit for everybody.  Got it. Yeah. That makes sense. You’re also, um, you’re also a coach as well too. Is that right? Yeah. So a  couple, almost two and a half years ago now, I, I had joined short term rental secrets, the mastermind by Mike Shogren when I first got started. So as soon as I bought the property, I was like, I want to just have all the answers. So who’s got that blueprint? And Mike did. .So

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