
“Trust comes from having a secure site and a seamless booking process. If your site instills confidence, guests will book without hesitation.” – Jennifer Spencer
In the latest episode of Direct Booking Simplified, we sat down with Jennifer Spencer, a seasoned host with over a decade of experience in the vacation rental industry. Jennifer owns two stunning properties: one nestled in the Canadian Rockies and another in the sunny paradise of Maui. Her journey from renting a family ski getaway to running a thriving vacation rental business offers a wealth of insights for both seasoned hosts and newcomers alike.
Summary & Highlights
A Journey from Ski Enthusiast to Business Success
Jennifer’s story began ten years ago when she purchased her first vacation rental property in the Canadian Rockies. Initially intended as a home base for her family’s ski trips, Jennifer soon realized its potential as a vacation rental. “Back then,” she shared, “Airbnb wasn’t even in my market. The primary player was VRBO, and there were no guest fees.” Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to transform the property into a six-figure revenue business.
Fast forward to 2021, Jennifer expanded her portfolio by purchasing a property in Maui. This move showcased her ability to diversify not just geographically but also seasonally, offering her guests a choice between the ski slopes and the sea.
The Turning Point: Building a Direct Booking Website
In 2017, Expedia’s acquisition of VRBO was a pivotal moment for Jennifer. Recognizing the growing control OTAs were gaining over her business, she decided to establish her own direct booking website.
“I didn’t want to be 100% reliant on a large multinational company,” she explained. “Having my own site gave me the ability to capture repeat bookings, reduce guest fees, and build direct relationships with my guests.”
This decision not only provided Jennifer with more control but also helped her retain a larger share of her revenue.
Key Strategies for Direct Booking Success
Jennifer shared several actionable strategies during the episode that have been instrumental in her direct booking success:
- Capture Guest Emails: From day one, Jennifer has been diligent about collecting guest emails. “Every guest that stays with me ends up on my email list,” she noted. This practice has allowed her to stay in touch with past guests and drive repeat bookings.
- Create a Trustworthy Website: “Trust comes from having a seamless and secure booking process,” Jennifer emphasized. She advises hosts to include reviews, professional photos, and a strong “About Us” section to build credibility.
- Leverage Social Media and Facebook Groups: Jennifer utilizes Facebook groups specific to her rental markets for last-minute availability. “It’s a quick and free way to fill dates,” she said.
- Use Dynamic Pricing and PMS Tools: Tools like PriceLabs and OwnerRez have been game-changers for Jennifer, allowing her to optimize pricing, manage orphan nights, and integrate her booking systems seamlessly.
The Importance of Taking Action
Jennifer’s advice for hosts looking to grow their direct booking strategies is simple: “Take action.” Whether it’s setting up a property management system, building a direct booking website, or sending your first marketing email, she believes progress comes from doing. “You’ll learn and grow from the process,” she encouraged.
Join the Conversation
This episode is packed with more insights, including Jennifer’s mindset on overcoming perfectionism and how she cross-markets her properties. Be sure to listen to the full episode for a deep dive into her strategies.
Want to connect with like-minded hosts and learn more direct booking strategies? Join our Direct Booking Simplified community and continue the conversation. And if you’re ready to take control of your bookings, CraftedStays can help you build a secure, guest-friendly website that reflects your unique brand. Book a demo today and see how we can help you grow your direct bookings.
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Transcription
Jennifer: Trust comes from having a secure site from having a tool in place that is seamless for them to book. And when you start to put kind of roadblocks or friction or things that make them question, they may not proceed with the booking, right? So I think a testament to your site is if people book and you have had no conversation with, like, I get that.
Jennifer: You know, someone just books off my site, my, my direct booking site. And I’m like, awesome. I don’t know necessarily. I mean, I could find out where they came from, Google analytics and things like that, but like when I initially get that, I’m like, awesome. That means my site looked trustworthy enough that they would just go ahead and make that booking without reaching out to me, without asking me any questions.
Jennifer: Right. And that’s what you want, right? You want the credibility and the authority and trustworthiness that people get from booking on an Airbnb or on Airbnb or VRBO. That’s why they’re working there, right? So if you can instill that confidence in your own site, then that’s when you’ll have a lot of success with direct bookings.
Gil: Hey folks. Welcome back to direct booking simplified. We break down the strategies and tactics to win and direct bookings on today’s show. I have Jennifer Spencer, Jennifer. Welcome to the show.
Jennifer: Thank you. So great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Gil: Yeah. Where are you calling in from right
Jennifer: Uh, I am in Calgary, Canada. Um, it’s a little bit chilly here right now. Um, so yeah, I’m, I’m located in, in, uh, Canada.
Gil: Yeah. And you’re also, you have properties also in the States, not the, not the major islands,
Jennifer: Yeah,
Gil: but the minor islands.
Jennifer: yes, well, I have exactly. Yes, that’s true. So, yeah, I own 2 vacation rental properties. 1 is in the Canadian Rockies here close to my house. It’s still 4 hour drive and the other 1 we have in Maui, we just bought in 2021 so and I have owned my Canadian property for 10 years and actually just celebrated 10 years.
Jennifer: So, like, 10 years, about 3 days ago, we got the keys to that property and it’s, uh. Totally changed my life.
Gil: Wow, what was the story behind getting that first Canadian Rockies property there?
Jennifer: Yeah. So, I mean, I’ve always been into real estate and I bought my first place when I was like, 24. It’s always been my thing. Um, but the reason we actually bought this particular property is that we are a ski family and all three of my kids were ski racing and we were coming back and forth from the mountains a lot.
Jennifer: And so we decided, okay, let’s, you know, get a, Home base in the mountains and so we bought this property and really with not the intention of having it as a vacation rental, but, you know, being the real estate enthusiast that I am, I was like, Oh, you know, maybe we can make this property work for us and maybe we could rent it out when we’re not using it, make a little bit of money.
Jennifer: And I have to remember, this is like 10 years ago, like Airbnb was not in our market. It wasn’t even really that common to rent out. Vacation rental homes, like, it was not like, I mean, I say that now, you’re like, of course, you would do that. But like, it wasn’t a thing back then. Right? Um, so, yeah, so I started renting it out and I just absolutely loved it and loved hosting guests.
Jennifer: And it ended up being super successful. I mean, it’s actually a 6 figure revenue business for me now. So, uh, we continue to rent it out. And then, like I said, we did expand, um, to Hawaii to Maui in 2021. And so I like to say we go from ski to see, you know.
Gil: Yeah, I was gonna say you have a little bit of hot, a little bit of cold.
Jennifer: Yeah, exactly. We get a little bit of both. I had a little beach and, uh, yeah, we do the ski and golf thing too. Yeah.
Gil: Nice. So what was it like in the very beginning? So you mentioned Airbnb? I think Airbnb was around 10 years back, but it was very nascent at that point. So how did you end up booking your place out?
Jennifer: Yeah. So, yes, Airbnb did exist, but it was not actually not in my Canadian market. Like, in that market, they hadn’t expanded there yet, which is, I know, kind of crazy. I don’t think it came in for a few years afterwards. So the main player back when I got started was, uh, VRBO, was known as VRBO, Verbo now.
Jennifer: Um, and actually, when I got started, there were no guest fees. There was nothing. It was just really an advertising channel. So you paid, you know, a flat rate and you put your property up there and everything was through me. There was no, you know, there was, uh, I was, you know, they just basically made the connection.
Jennifer: I was advertising my property on their site and I was, you know, which was the connection point basically. And there wasn’t a lot of involvement or engagement from the, you know, What’s now known as an OTA. So, uh, VRBO um, didn’t, wasn’t really a part of my business, but then that changed very quickly actually in 2017.
Jennifer: And, uh, which is when Expedia bought, uh, VRBO and then things really changed. And then by then Airbnb was really starting to take a lot of traction and was becoming a pretty key competitor. So. Um, when Expedia, I bring this up because when Expedia purchased, purchased VRBO, that was my signal to be like, you’re going to want to get a direct booking website because, um, you, things are changing fast and you’re going to start to probably lose control over, um, how you can host or what, you know, what you can do and taking payments and all that.
Jennifer: And so I was like, I don’t want to be 100 percent reliant on a large multinational company. That’s. You know, changing the rules all the time and stuff. And so I built my own website immediately after that announcement. So I’ve had my own website since 2017.
Gil: Wow. Um, so it sounds like in the very beginning, it was almost like what we know is like who fee or how fee it is today, where it was more like a marketplace to put your put your property online. But it was you are the one driving traffic to it. And then when Expedia purchased, the O. T. A. Really came to be where they’re starting to market more effectively towards it.
Gil: And that’s kind of when you kind of started to feel like, Oh, actually, I’m losing control. I’m I’m getting more marketing spend on there, but I’m actually starting to lose control over my business.
Jennifer: yeah, I just wasn’t sure. Right. I just didn’t really know what it was going to. I don’t think anybody did at the time. So it was just a big company was buying it and. Um, I mean, things started to change. I mean, they introduced guest fees. So immediately my property became more expensive for somebody the book.
Jennifer: And instead of that money going into my pocket, that was going into multi net, you know, into into verbose pocket. And like, don’t get me wrong. I mean, that’s now the model. Right? I mean, everybody sort of accepts that now, but back then it, it wasn’t. It wasn’t. I mean, I was just used to paying my 500 a year and, and I got bookings and I was sort of, you know, the one in charge and then, yeah, things started to change.
Jennifer: And yes, I mean, yes, we got more exposure. I mean, they obviously used some of some of that money to advertise on Google and bring traffic in and all of that. So it wasn’t all horrible. It’s just that. I just wasn’t sure what it was going to mean for my business. And because I treated this as a business, it wasn’t just a hobby for me.
Jennifer: Um, I wanted to make sure that I was putting the systems and the right things in place that allowed me to diversify and to take direct bookings or repeat bookings, uh, from from guests. So.
Gil: That’s interesting. And what were some of the, we’ll get into this a little bit deeper into the second segment of the show. But what are some of the tactics that you use kind of way back when pre Expedia? Um, and some of the things that you’re investing in now and from a, from a marketing perspective.
Jennifer: Yeah, so the very 1st, I mean, I have a marketing background, so I knew how important it was to capture emails. So I, from the very beginning captured emails. So, for 10, 10 years, I have been every single guest that has come to stay with me. I have their email, which then allowed me to remarket or retarget those guests.
Jennifer: Uh, you know, as things changed, and now, as it is today, guests pay a guest service fee to book through Vrbo or Airbnb or most of the platforms, not all of them. And so, um, you know, in order to sort of capture some of that and also to make sure that I get the guests back and they come book direct with me, then, you know, I’m okay if they find me the 1st time on 1 of the sites, but the 2nd time they come, I want to, you know, Have them book directly with me, right?
Jennifer: So, yeah, so I have emails, so I will, um, send emails and stay in touch with my guests. I send out at least 4 emails a year, um, and I did that back then too. I just, it was, you know, back then it was again, like, I wasn’t really all that sophisticated. It wasn’t using like an email service provider, which you need to now because of anti spam laws and things like that.
Jennifer: But back then, you know, was not quite. So, uh, restricted and so yeah, I would send emails out to guests and just let them know about things that were happening around the area, or my property, or if I had open dates, or if I had a special. Um, so I would, I would do that and like, so I had the website so people could find me if they wanted to book direct.
Jennifer: I was very deliberate about, um, use. I have like a, a personal website. A name for both my properties and those names are tied to my website. So that if people are looking, like, if they’re on a platform, and they see my name, they can Google my name, not my name, but the property name and they can find my website.
Jennifer: And so then, if they choose to book direct with me, they can, which means they get to book directly with me. They usually save a little bit of money when they do that. Um, and they get to have that guest experience direct through me, rather than having, you know, um, one of the platforms in between. So, yeah, those are some of the things that I did.
Jennifer: But yeah, website and capturing emails and staying in touch with my guests so that I could drive, uh, repeat stays through my existing. Guess, which is easier thing to do than to try to attract new guests. I
Gil: Yeah. Um, and definitely I’ll dive a little bit deeper into kind of your tech stack and what you do and what you use kind of behind the scenes. And even nowadays, as as as your business has matured there, but kind of backstory, you mentioned that you came from a marketing background. Um, and I also know that you do a bit of coaching right now as well, too, and consulting as well, too.
Gil: So talk to me a little bit more about first off, kind of your background and kind of how you approach that and how you’re leveraging some of your background into your business now, but also some of your consultancy stuff.
Jennifer: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, yeah, I have a marketing background sales and marketing background, a business degree straight out of university. I started working for in the consumer package goods industry. So, I started working for Pepsi actually was my 1st Pepsi and then craft foods and I’ve worked for, like, some really big, great companies, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever.
Jennifer: So, yeah, I have a marketing background sales and marketing background, a business degree straight out of university. I started working for Pepsi actually was my 1st Pepsi and then craft foods and I’ve worked for, like, some really big, great companies, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever. Uh, and the last company I was working for was, uh, just a multinational health care company.
Jennifer: And yeah, so I had a marketing background. And so, obviously, I’m very aware of, you know, all the things that you need to do from when it comes to having a website and understanding. Um, SEO and understanding email marketing, and, you know, even just your messaging and everything along along those lines. So it’s easy for me to sort of take that that skill set and apply it into the vacation rental sphere and into my own properties.
Jennifer: But then I also, you know, help other. Other hosts and owners and property managers with coaching. So, sometimes often it starts where people reach out to me, because they’re looking for help with getting a system in place, like a property management system. And so my journey with with working with someone usually starts there.
Jennifer: Although. I end up helping them with so much more because I do have such a background, not only like 10 years experience doing this, but have that marketing background. And so I can, when I start working with somebody, I can often see areas of opportunity for them. So, whether it be, they’ve got really policies that are in place that are maybe a little restrictive.
Jennifer: Maybe their photos aren’t great. Maybe their captions aren’t aren’t great. And therefore, they’re losing the ability to be found in the search rankings when it comes to listing sites, you know, feedback on website and how to feature their property, even property descriptions, you know, sometimes descriptions are, you know, A little lackluster, you know, they’ve got these great properties and then maybe they’re not really showcasing them.
Jennifer: And so, you know, what I find a lot of times, a lot of people that I, a lot of some of the hosts that I work with, I mean, often these are not hobby businesses, but these are businesses on the side of what they do for, like, for their careers, you know, the lawyers and doctors and engineers and whoever. And so this may not be their mainstay or their, you know, Um, it’s not their expertise, you know, the marketing side of of of managing your property and marketing it.
Jennifer: So, um, yeah, that’s what I end up helping people with. So I do help with system setups, but it, like I said, I also do 1 on 1 coaching and, uh, uh, hoping to move into more group coaching as well in, uh, into into 2025. Yeah.
Gil: Nice. Uh, you mentioned kind of the, the things that you help folks optimize for, um, are there things or any tools that you use to kind of close that feedback loop to know kind of how that changes and how, what the result is, um, do you, do you use any specific tools on your side to, to figure out, like, how much is it, how much of an impact is it making, or is it making a negative impact and how do you adjust from those, some of those things from like, for instance, like listing optimization or SEO and things like that stuff.
Jennifer: Yeah, so, yes, I mean, obviously, you can just do your own searches on the sites, but and I don’t actually use I know there are a couple of tools out there that I think it’s a
Gil: Prank please.
Jennifer: ranking tools. Yeah, so I don’t personally use those, but I know people who do and I know that does. I think people find those super helpful.
Jennifer: So you can actually measure. But yeah, I think like a lot of times it’s. It’s bookings,
Gil: Yep.
Jennifer: you know, that’s obviously the true measure and then you can see yourself where you’re showing up in the search results. I also use well, and then, like, I mean, I use a lot of tools in order to implement, you know, what I’m recommending.
Jennifer: So, obviously, property management software tool, I do recommend. Dynamic pricing tool, I happen to use price labs. I use as my tool and then understanding how those tools work and how they influence where you’re seeing on the listing sites, like, in terms of how pricing impacts things and and then just even revenue management in general, like. know, how you can get how you can earn more off of a single booking. Like, for example, I always recommend that you be marketing adjacent nights right before and after a booking. And so something like that, just even getting that set up within a system that allows you to automate that and earn extra revenue off of an existing booking.
Jennifer: I make a few thousand dollars off of both my properties by having those offers and having them available in a, in a property management system.
Gil: Yeah, yeah, I totally, I totally get that. And I also use, I actually use a couple of PMSs or a couple of channel managers as well too, but very, very familiar with, um, owner res. And I believe you’re, you’re pretty, you’re very well versed in, in order as what has, what has gotten you really comfortable and really leveraging owner res.
Gil: Like why, why do you trust owner res so much and why do you feel like it’s better than possibly other solutions out there?
Jennifer: Yeah, I mean, there’s lots of great solutions, right? Like, I, my biggest message to anybody getting started, or even if you’ve been at this for a while, and you just really want to start to diversify and grow your business is just get a get a property management system in place. Doesn’t matter what like, not that saying it doesn’t matter which 1 I’m just saying, like, That’s the most important step to take.
Jennifer: The reason I personally like Onares is it’s very stable. It does a lot. There’s a lot of functionality that Onares provides, and they offer it at base pricing. So it’s quite an affordable tool for everything that they offer. And so if you’re a small to mid sized. Uh, like, property owner or mid sized property management company.
Jennifer: I think it offers a lot of great, um, yeah, a lot of great features. So, you know, you get the ability to have E signatures for legal agreements. It’s a channel manager, so, you know, obviously simplifies everything around diversifying. If you’re looking to list on multiple sites, you can have everything in owner res, and then it sends everything to the sites.
Jennifer: So it allows you to streamline, saves you a ton of time, reduces errors. Um, it integrates with a lot of different tools and they’re, they’re quite open in terms of the tools that they’ll other other software providers that they’ll integrate with. You can integrate with QuickBooks, a whole bunch of, um, listing sites, and that goes beyond just sort of your, the basic ones.
Jennifer: I mean, I could go on and on and on, so just stop me going on too much, but. Um, yeah, it is quite a sophisticated tool. Um, and I will say, though, that it sometimes sometimes people find the learning curve a little bit steep when onboarding that particular tool. But, um, you know, that’s why there’s people like me to help out.
Gil: Yeah.
Jennifer: But, but, no, I mean, I think once you get through the, I mean, any tool you set up is going to have a learning curve. So once you get through that initial set up, it just really does streamline your business. It allows you the ability to. Just yeah, reduce our reduce errors and save you time. And it actually, it allows you to make more money.
Jennifer: Like, it gives you the ability to earn more money. So, for sure, I would 100 percent recommend getting a property management system in place.
Gil: Yeah. And how long have you been using owner as now?
Jennifer: Yeah, 2018. so,
Gil: almost the beginning, pretty
Jennifer: Yeah, pretty, pretty much. Yeah. So seeing lots of lots of growth with what they have to offer and I think they’ve got a lot of new things coming out in 2025 as well. So, yeah, be interesting to see.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned the kind of the orphan night or the Jason night that that to me is actually a very effective way we end up spending sending Three messages out. Um, if there’s, if there’s enough, they book far enough out, we’ll send them three messages out for different degrees of discounts based on kind of how long it is.
Gil: And you’re right, it actually ends up becoming very effective. We end up feeling a lot of nights. Um, there’s been a few months where we had one or two days left open in the month, and we were able to close out the month at 100 percent occupancy without taking another booking in there.
Jennifer: yeah. Amazing.
Gil: Yeah, so it is very, very effective.
Gil: Um, and I totally agree with you. It’s in a very reliable system. I also agree with you that it does take some time and some effort to get set up. It’s it’s the learning curve is rather steep on on that one. But if you take the time to learn it and you have kind of like the system’s mind there, it ends up working really well because you kind of know how things are connected.
Gil: You know, if you change this area, it would influence that, but just kind of like understanding the overall Yeah. Information architecture is probably the first thing to really understand. And once you get that things, I’ll make a lot more sense, but I completely agree with you. It’s, it’s a bit of a learning curve, but if you get through past all that, it’s actually a very powerful tool along with other, a lot of other PMS as well, too.
Jennifer: Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, very, very powerful tool for sure. So, um, yeah, I highly recommend owner as and I have seen and looked at a few of the other tools and I think they’re all really great. You know, they’re, it just really depends on exactly what you’re looking for. And, um, and I guess, you know, how much of an investment you want to make each month and depending also on how many properties you have.
Jennifer: So,
Gil: That’s very true. Yeah, it’s to kind of back to your point, like, Oh, R is actually very affordable. Even when you’re a single property manager, even if you only have one property, it can be pretty affordable and it scales. It scales linearly. I
Jennifer: totally. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the other thing I’d say, a lot of people will say, oh, I only have one property. I don’t need a property management system. And I used to think that too at first. And then once I onboarded it and just tested it out, and even like, because they have a 14 day trial, most of them do have some sort of a trial period.
Jennifer: I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, why didn’t I do this a long time ago? Like, just like, I was doing everything manually. I was like, writing emails. I mean, and again, this is like in 2018, and like the platforms weren’t as developed either. Like, Airbnb now has a lot more automation and so does VRBO, but again, back then they didn’t, I was extending emails manually to people and I was like, had a spreadsheet to keep track of all, like my bookings.
Jennifer: Right. I, I was like, what was it doing? Like, you know, just get it all in one system. Nice and clean. Like, I don’t even use spreadsheets anymore. Like I just, I’m
Gil: You don’t need to.
Jennifer: the You don’t need to. Yeah.
Gil: Yeah. And especially now, like a lot of the PMS is also have really good reporting. I’ll probably ask you this in just a little bit, but I find that the reporting is actually very effective because it tells you understand kind of one, the overall revenue for the year. But two, you know, What I use the reporting for is actually a look back in comparison against the last year, month by month, I’ll look at what the revenues are, what the revenue this day, same time last year, what does my future revenues look like, so it gives me a better sense of my booking windows, my occupancy rates, my ADRs, and for me being somewhat of a data nerd, it helps me understand, like, am I Am I meeting my goals?
Gil: Am I on the track to meet the same objectives as I did last year? Am I doing much better than I did last year? So I don’t have to wait until the end of the year to know like, Oh, I’m actually projected to make this much. And I think I projected my revenues on one of my properties in September. And I looked at my run rate and see how, how much better I was doing last year.
Gil: And I was down to maybe 5 percent off. From my reviews. I over actually I overshot by 5%. Uh, so I end up making more than I expected to make, um, throughout the rest of the year. So it helps you just really understand your cash flow more effectively. If you really take advantage of the reporting there.
Jennifer: yeah, no, totally. I mean, like I said, I used to have Excel spreadsheet and then I will look at the reports as well because there’s a quick year over year look and I also find what’s interesting. Like, I’ve had some years where my occupancy was lower, but I made more money. Which means I was charging more and and or being smarter with my minimums and my minimum night stays and however I took those bookings in.
Jennifer: So, to me, that’s that can be a win as well. Right? Just less wear and tear on your property and more sometimes more personal, a little bit, you know, maybe more personal use, but we still resulted in the same or better result from your previous years. Um, so, yeah, I definitely look at the data as well. I’m a bit of a data geek, probably not as much as you, but, um, I do like to have a good understanding of how my properties are performing.
Jennifer: I’ll use Price Labs as well, because they have some good data reports where they show like, they show what you booked at those dates at, price wise, on a graph, and it’s really easy to quickly see that you’re either Um, booking your place out for less or more than what you did previously. So that’s also I find quite interesting just from a trending perspective for your year.
Jennifer: Yeah,
Gil: Yeah, slight tangent on on the on the price of stuff for for any of our listeners here today, and they’re using price labs. That’s what I use as well, too. The one thing that I always advise folks is to really spend the time to understand the neighborhood tab. So, the first tab that they kind of land you on is the calendar view, where you get to see all, all your rates and you can adjust it.
Gil: And people spend a lot of time on that tab. They don’t spend, As much time or even even touch the neighborhood tab. And that’s actually where I spent most of my time. I actually very spend very little time on my, um, my calendar. Yeah.
Jennifer: do both, but yeah, yeah, the neighborhood 1 is really neat because you can actually select the competitors that you want to watch. Right? So I think you can do up to 10. so, yeah, you can really dial into the people that you’re consider you’re. Biggest competition, I guess, and you can see whether they’re booked or unbooked and what date and what rates approximately they booked at.
Jennifer: So that’s also really helps. Um, so, yeah, I use that tool as well to help me price out, uh, yeah, pricing. And like, the other thing I think is worth mentioning and it doesn’t you don’t necessarily need to have a dynamic pricing tool, but it is. Super important that you’re on your pricing. Like, it’s something I look at weekly.
Jennifer: And, um, it’s not, you know, I would never suggest, uh, seasonal pricing that you just set it and forget it and move on. Um, it’s really important to be tweaking your pricing throughout the year, even if, even if you don’t use a pricing tool and those signals are important to the, to the channels because the listing sites like to see variation in rates.
Jennifer: It doesn’t mean down all the time, just. Changes, you know, to your pricing
Gil: Yeah. And for any operator that has Just a handful of doors. I always recommend learn the tools, learn the market really, really well and try to manage pricing on your own. And use definitely use a dynamic pricing tool, whether or not that’s wheelhouse or price labs or any other ones. But If you have a couple properties and you learn to as well and you learn how to read the data, you can actually get really good at revenue management and oftentimes better than if you were to hire a revenue manager outside.
Gil: Um, if you’re scaling and you have lots of properties, it’s a lot harder to do it one by one and know every single market and that that scale doesn’t work and you’ll have to use different tactics there. But if you have the time and energy, learn how to read those graphs, learn how to. Understand your seasonality of your markets, how competitive it is.
Gil: And I think that that not only helps you tune your pricing, but it also helps you understand, are you in an area where there might be a bit more saturation than there was the previous years. And if you start to disconnect yourself too much from the pricing, you may end up losing out on whether or not you’re.
Gil: You could be doing some optimizations on your amenities or your design or anything bad that can help drive it because it’s not just purely revenue. That’s driving, driving kind of how fail you are, how, how, which occupancy is.
Jennifer: Agreed. Yeah, I know. 100%. So, yeah, I agree with everything you’re saying. Like, yeah, learn the tools, learn how they can help you. None of the tools are going to replace. You and your insight and your Intel on the market, right? So, um, you know, like, even though I use, I use a dynamic pricing tool, I use Price Labs more as sort of just my base.
Jennifer: And then, like I said, I’m in there weekly eyeballing things still. I know my market best. I mean, sometimes, I mean, in my mountain property, it really won’t book when the ski hill, when the golf course is closed and the ski hill hasn’t opened yet. That, like, doesn’t matter my pricing. It’s not going, it’s not likely going to book, but Price Labs doesn’t know that.
Jennifer: And so it’s still have a really high price there. And I’m just like, well, I mean, like, that’s not going to fly. And I only know that because I’ve been doing it for 10 years. You know, I know, um, my market, like, inside and out. So, yeah, like, it’s not blindly just let it. The tools do what they do, but and then learn what they can do and then leverage them.
Jennifer: And like you said, use the tools for the reporting the Intel and work with it so that you can maximize your occupancy and your revenue, or just achieve your goals, whatever that might be. Right? Not. Everybody wants to maximize occupancy, but, you know, whatever your goals might be. So,
Gil: Absolutely. Uh, kind of the last, the last note on the PM, the PMS side of things, what are the top X things that you look for or that, that people really benefit out of having a PMS in place?
Jennifer: well, the 1st thing would be, well, I would say, you know, Well, there’s 2. 1 is like streamlining your business and the ability to diversify and have more control. That would probably be the biggest 1 is you get more control when you have a PMS because of the number of things that a PMS tool is going to give you.
Jennifer: It’s going to give you more control over the listing sites, and I’ll explain that in a 2nd, and it will give you more control because it gives you the ability to take direct bookings and have a have a website. So the control comes for when you have a PMS, depending on, um. Where you list, but like, like, say, let’s use on a resident example, and you are what they call you.
Jennifer: You have it an API connection, which is channel management to VRBO. If you have that in place, you actually become the merchant on file instead of VRBO. So, you immediately get more control because you’re now in control of the payments. So you never have to worry that VRBO is going to refund. You know, refund a guest, say you had a dispute or there was a cancellation and whatever the situation might be, you’re the ones that you’re the only one that can issue a refund or work something out with the guest.
Jennifer: So that would be 1 example of control. Another example with control with Airbnb is that if you are. API connected with Airbnb, you get access to stricter cancellation policies. So if you have, um, you know, a larger property as an example, and you need access to, like, those 30 or 60 day cancellation policies, you’ll get something, you’ll get those.
Jennifer: And then you also have the ability to ask for rental agreements to be signed, which then helps you capture emails, emails of guests for you to be able to market to in the future. gives you it just just gives you a little bit more control in terms of setting expectations with guests and establishing that, you know, you are the owner of your property.
Jennifer: You are the owner of your business. And Airbnb is a partner that you work with. They don’t You know, they don’t own your property and they don’t, you know, like, ultimately, you’re the 1 that’s setting the house rules and things like that. So, to me, I feel like it’s also a slightly a slight differentiator in the sense of the guest’s mind in terms of that.
Jennifer: They’re dealing with you. And Airbnb, but like, not just an Airbnb, so that would be the biggest reason. And then also it allows you to streamline and centralize. So you can dive quickly, diversify on multiple listing sites through 1 through having it in owner as it’s really simple. So you’re not having to go into every single site and upload photos and descriptions and changing pricing and all of that.
Jennifer: So you can do it all from 1 spot and you can be listed in, you know, 10 different listing sites, if you wanted to, which then allows you to diversify, which also gives you more control, because you’re not fully reliant on just 1 listing site. And then the other that’s also sort of complimentary to that is that it gives you the ability to process payments, as I mentioned, and so, therefore, that ability to process payments means you can have a website and you can easily have people go to your website.
Jennifer: Check for availability and actually make a direct, you know, make an instant book off of your website. Uh, if you have a PMS tool in place to help process that now, obviously, you also need to have the website in place and there’s different ways for you to get website, a website, and there’s lots of different options.
Jennifer: Many of the property management systems will have a hosted website included. Um, it’s usually not included. It’s usually an extra premium offer, and it is. Usually quite easy and turnkey to get those going, but there’s obviously lots of other options out there, like crafted stays, um, would be a great option and or you could have, um, get a website through, like, a WordPress site or Squarespace.
Jennifer: There’s lots of other tools out there that you could quickly get a website up and running and just depending on, um, what you’re looking for. Those are all great options. Bye. Really a property management, you need a property management system in place in order to take like credit card payments, especially which most travelers today are going to want to pay by credit card.
Gil: Yeah, I 100 percent agree with you on on kind of like trying to tackle trying to go direct without a P. M. S. In place is very difficult, if not impossible. Um, you end up having a lot of manual processes, and I’ve seen this a lot on the Facebook forums where folks were like, Oh, I’m listening to Airbnb and V.
Gil: R. B. O. I have an I Cal sync between the two of them. How can I take direct bookings? I don’t have a P. M. S. And the number one recommendation from any season person will be like, Just get a PMS in place. It doesn’t matter which one, all of them should support it. But most, if not all PMSs gives you the ability to be able to run direct bookings.
Gil: Um, and a lot of them will have landing pages and they, they may not be as robust. They may not have a lot of retargeting tools or as customizable, but if you’re trying to send, uh, For instance, and you can talk a little bit more about this in a little bit, but like, if you’re sending a link to someone directly, you don’t want to send them your Airbnb link.
Gil: You want to send them your direct booking link, especially if you’re the one doing the marketing on that stuff.
Jennifer: Yeah, well, correct. I mean, you send them to Airbnb, you’re just sending them to your competition because they’re going to land on Airbnb. They might look at your property and they’re like, oh, what else is here? And off they go. And you, you know, you’re just driving traffic to Airbnbs platform or VRBOs or whoever.
Jennifer: So no, you definitely want to drive traffic to your own website. And yeah, it’s that, and then, yeah, it’s just super important.
Gil: Yeah, and I’ve seen a couple customers of ours that. Come to us and they end up trying to build a WordPress site without a PMS in place. And there’s a bunch of themes and plugins out there that allows you to like bring in your eye Cal in there. Um, and once they get further down the road and they’re like, Oh, how do I get payments?
Gil: How do I make sure that I block my calendars? How do I make sure I get the right rates? You start to understand, like. There’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes for a direct booking site that doesn’t really become apparent in the first place, because when when folks first get into direct bookings, like, Okay, how do I put my properties up on my website?
Gil: I can copy all my every B images. I can copy all my listing. And then they figure out rates and availability. How do I make sure that I’m showing the rates? How do I collect payments? How do I block my calendar? Those things start to mount up. And if you don’t have a PMS in place, you don’t have Any sorts of truth.
Gil: You don’t have any way of managing all of that.
Jennifer: that’s where you end up with a double booking, right? Because you’ll forget to block it. Funny enough, when I first started with my website, it was a WordPress site and I was using a plugin that was Not native to the, to the site. And I, it was crazy ’cause I had my information in VRBO Airbnb at some point.
Jennifer: And so then whenever I changed the price, I had to do it in each of those platforms. Then I had to remember to do it on my website and, and, and it didn’t connect, like you said, there was No I Cal link. So this was just like a widget out on its own Right. Whereas with a property management system. Whether you’re using the hosted site or whether you’re using a widget, it’s going to still talk to your central hub, your command center, which is your property management system.
Jennifer: And so everything is synced, right? So you’re, you’re never going to be at risk of a double booking because everything’s happening in real time and changing pricing. It gets changed on your site. You get a booking, it gets changed on your site, your website. So that’s really important. A hundred percent.
Jennifer: That’s, you know, why you, you really do need to have a PMS and then, and then to take credit cards. I mean, sure, yeah. You could take, I don’t know, um, like PayPal or, uh, whatever, but like, I just, it’s, you give, like people do still want to trust your site. And trust comes from having a secure site, from having a tool in place that is seamless for them to book.
Jennifer: And when you start to put kind of roadblocks or friction or things that make them question. They may not proceed with the booking. Right? So I think a testament to your site is if people book and you have had no conversation with like, I, I get that, you know, someone just books off my site, my, my direct booking site and I’m like, awesome.
Jennifer: I don’t know necessarily. I mean, I could find out where they came from Google analytics and things like that. But like, when I initially get that, I’m like, awesome. That means my site looked trustworthy enough that they would just go ahead and make that booking without reaching out to me without asking me any questions.
Jennifer: Right? Right. And that’s what you want, right? You want the credibility and the authority and trustworthiness that people get from booking on an Airbnb or on Airbnb or VRBO. That’s why they’re booking there, right? So if you can instill that confidence in your own site, then that’s when you’ll have a lot of success with direct bookings.
Gil: I 100 percent agree with you. And we even on our side on crafter stays, we’ve designed our templates to include some of those things as well, too. It’s like we always try to encourage folks to add the reviews in there. They want to add all of them, but at least make sure that you’re you have valid reviews that you’re putting onto your site.
Gil: We always encourage folks to include some sort of bio on their website as well, too. Yeah,
Jennifer: And like, and about us, it’s so important.
Gil: Yeah. And people have it. Even if you look on your Airbnb page, you still have a bio that, and you can copy the same one onto your website, but people will want to know that there’s a person on the other side, especially if it’s a smaller property management company.
Gil: It’s so important to really instill that trust. And then, like, kind of the last thing is, like, really making sure that the booking experience. Feels natural. Feels like a traditional commerce site. They’re like, we go shopping online all the time. We know what a secure checkout should feel like,
Jennifer: Exactly.
Gil: and if you make it too clunky, people were like, what’s happening kind of behind the scenes.
Jennifer: Yeah. And they’ll abandon. They’ll just be like, uh, I’m not sure. I’m not sure about this. Right?
Gil: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially don’t don’t have them call you to do the booking that you’re not getting much at all.
Jennifer: Yeah, I think that’s probably, that’s the worst, either calling you or worse, sending them to Airbnb and VRBO to make the booking.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, so kind of going back to like the marketing side, what are some of the core principles or the tactics that you find that people should really put in place if they’re really serious about, like getting started in direct bookings?
Jennifer: Yeah, well, obviously, okay, well, we talked about PMS, but you have to have a PMS in place because you need to take, be able to take direct bookings and you need to be able to, you should be capturing people’s emails. So, uh, obviously having a website super important. You absolutely need somewhere to send people, like, even even if, like, I, you know, sitting on the chairlift and somebody says, I’m staying and I’m interested in coming back.
Jennifer: Oh, well, you know, like, we have a website to send somebody to not just, like, go check my place out on Airbnb and then, you know, From a marketing perspective, I firmly believe you should stay in touch with your past guests, especially if you’re in a market where you get a lot of repeat guests. Um, so, and I know not all markets are like that, but like, definitely, I think a lot of them are and anytime somebody is looking to come back.
Jennifer: So, like I said, at least staying in touch, which means that you need an email service provider. Um, so I had talked about in the past, I just, you know, sent emails to guests, but now I use an email service provider, because you do have to give the opportunity for people to unsubscribe if they don’t want to hear from you just to be compliant with anti spam laws.
Jennifer: And so I would 100 percent recommend that, you know, staying in touch and the email service providers again, super a lot of, there’s a lot of them out there. Um, and. They’re, they’re easy to use a lot of like, drag and drop and it’s easy to send messages. It’s easy to upload emails into. You can, you can actually download your emails from your property management system and then upload them into your email service provider.
Jennifer: There’s other more sophisticated ways to get emails over, even on a, on a real time basis, like using Zapier and things like that. Um, so anyway, so stay in touch with your guests, email them and, you know, you can email them about a number of different things. It’s what’s going on in the area upgrades.
Jennifer: You’ve made to your property. Um, any, any offers that you might have, you know, anything like that and and I don’t mean, like, obviously, you don’t want to spend. Bam, your guests, but like, you know, what’s reasonable for you to stand in touch with your guests. And then the last thing I would, um, not last. I mean, there’s so many different things, but from a marketing perspective is, uh, is some sort of some form of social media.
Jennifer: And I think it’s important, you know, I. I know it can be a lot to keep an Instagram profile or Facebook profile going and, you know, constantly feeding it with content. And so I’m not saying, like, I think if you have the appetite for that, and you can do that, I think it’s great. I think that obviously, uh, is keep keeps visibility also have the trustworthiness when you have an active social media profile, but if you don’t have the ability and the cycles to do that at a minimum.
Jennifer: Um, You can be in Facebook groups and promote your property in Facebook groups. So, like, like, for example, Maui has like a vacation rentals by owner Facebook group. I think there’s like 15, 000 travelers and hosts in there. And when I have availability last minute availability, I’ll just go and make a quick little post and I will talk about my property really quickly.
Jennifer: And I’ll explain the dates and I’ll say, here’s special pricing. This is the price and I get bookings from that. They’ll dates all the time. So, and it doesn’t, it doesn’t take a lot, you know, and I just kind of do that. And now you have to make sure that it’s allowed, right? Because there are a lot of Facebook travel groups out there where they’re not like, it’s really more about promoting the area and talking about different things to do and they’re not wanting, you know, vacation rental owners to be in there, dropping their properties and trying to get bookings, but just check the rules of, of the, of the particular group.
Jennifer: And there are lots out there, and there’s often, they’re quite specific to certain areas. And that’s just another great way to market your property. Doesn’t cost you any money. And it’s really just your your time and coming up with something, you know, semi creative and short to promote your property on open dates, especially.
Gil: Yeah. Yeah. I think those are like really strong, like basics that pretty much anyone that has a short term rental can put into practice. And even on the social media side of like having an active Instagram account, we typically just schedule out all of our posts. So we’ll spend a week producing content.
Gil: And a lot of times it’s pictures that we the professional photography that we put in there. It could be things to do in certain time of the year. And we’ll schedule that out. Um, and then also reviews as well, too. So we’ll probably do like a couple couple posts a week, and we’re constantly getting new reviews in there.
Gil: Um, so we’re using that as a way to really Um, kind of build that social approved, put that out there, have like relevant content that constantly being refreshed because what you don’t want folks to do is they find your instagram page and it hasn’t been updated in two years and they wonder if you’re still, if you’re still renting, um, So if you’re gonna have social media, spend the time to just schedule out your post.
Gil: And we end up using a tool called Metricool. And I think Facebook business manager also has something as well to to schedule it out or Meta business.
Jennifer: Yep. Meta. Yep.
Gil: Yeah, so you can schedule out even on platform. The reason why we use Metricool is because it allows us to cross post on to other platforms as well, too.
Gil: And I think we’re, we’re The way that we use it. We don’t even have to pay any subscription fee. We don’t like I think if you go over four different channels, then you end up having to pay for it. But for the tools that we have, it’s actually pretty, pretty cost efficient, or if not free to use.
Jennifer: Yeah, no, 100%. And yeah, there’s lots of scheduling tools out there, but yeah, Meta is, um, like, it’s part of the tool. It’s easy to use. And I agree with you. Like, and again, you don’t have to be, there’s only so many hours in the day. Like I said, a lot of, a lot of people are running these businesses, vacation rentals, sometimes as a side hustle or hobby business or whatever that might be.
Jennifer: Um, and so. You know, like you said, keep it active. It doesn’t mean you need to post every day. But, um, and now today to, like, there’s so many great tools out there that help create content like Canva, you know, and all of the imagery and everything that you can sometimes put into place. And I always suggest in what I’ve been getting in the habit of doing.
Jennifer: Lately is just like, trying to remember to take lots of photos. Every time I’m at my property and take photos, take little videos and things like that, because all that content can be repurposed and used for social media content. So.
Gil: Yeah, and I think I think more recently I’ve been seeing a lot more lifestyle photos being used rather than just stationary photos of just the property there. So don’t forget to also take lifestyle photos. If you have your family staying there, even just showing the back, the back of their heads in the hot tub, like that actually creates a lot more, um, kind of emotion out of it, just rather than seeing a static, the static tub there.
Gil: Um, so I think you can do like small little things like that, but yeah, definitely. If you are local to your properties or you’re constantly visiting those. Use that time to really create as much content, and you don’t really need to bring a fancy camera. a lot of times even just your phone. Yeah, just your phone works really, really well.
Jennifer: Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
Gil: Yeah. You mentioned that use, uh, uh, any SPA email service provider for sending out emails. Is there a particular one that you kind of gravitate towards?
Jennifer: Yes, well, I use MailChimp right now, just because that’s when I use from the very beginning and I haven’t. You know, I, I think I would consider other ones. Um, there is a state is like. They also have an email service provider, and they are integrated with, I think, free actually, as part of owner as subscription and there’s some benefits is that.
Jennifer: As well, because when people go on to use your WiFi, you can capture more email addresses. So there’s a benefit there in terms of growing your email list, because often, you know, obviously, if you have a bigger property, it’s not just the primary guest that is showing up. There’s often other adults there.
Jennifer: And so it gives you the opportunity to capture more emails. So, but I mean, there’s again, like, there are so many great people there. Um, email service providers, I would just do research because they, some of them are free. Some of them aren’t depends on how large your list is, things like that. Um, but definitely you’re like, the 1 thing is sometimes people get confused and they think that the property management system is the same thing as the email service provider.
Jennifer: But it is an unique both, because property management system manages everything from the inquiry to someone making a booking to someone coming to stay at the property. But as soon as their stay is complete, then that’s kind of where the property management system sort of ends. And then you need a different tool, like an email service provider in order to Retarget remarket your, like, start that conversation again with your guest.
Jennifer: So, just to be clear about that, because I see that in Facebook groups all the time is how do I send my past guests an email from my, you know, from owner as it’s like, well, you can’t the tool wasn’t designed for that. And they, yeah, they don’t they don’t want the tool to be used for that either.
Gil: Yeah. And those emails don’t have opt outs or unsubscribes onto
Jennifer: That’s right.
Gil: Yeah, if you look at all the messages, I guess, sent out by the PMS is even via email their transactional emails. They’re talking about specific things that you’re either instructions for the guest receipts, confirmations, post a it’s very transactional based, which is very, very different than marketing emails there.
Jennifer: correct. Yeah. Yeah.
Gil: and marketing emails need to be on some sort of, you know, Email service provider because you need the ability to unsubscribe. You need to be able to manage that list over time. And if you get really good at it, you also use the email service provider to segment and market your
Jennifer: I was just going to say, yeah, yeah, I segment my list because I have my summer guests are there for different reasons. Golfing, hiking, biking, my, my ski, my winter guests are often there for skiing. They may not Enjoy the same activities, right? So if I’m looking to promote my summer open dates, I have a site, my list segmented by summer guests versus winter guests.
Jennifer: So yeah, again, I always say like, just get started. Don’t need to overcomplicate things when you just get going.
Gil: Do you take any precautions in place? Um, given that folks may be signing a rental agreement and they’re, they’re up, they’re giving you their email address. Do you, is there anything in your rental agreement or any other opt in things before you send them any, any marketing emails?
Jennifer: it’s a great question. So it should be in your rental agreement, because technically there isn’t really anywhere else for a guest to opt in. So, rental agreement to just acknowledge that you’ve got, you know, you’re capturing the email and that you may send future marketing emails to them. And then I also have it in my communication when they are like, uh, my checkout.
Jennifer: Uh, email is I will let them know that I will be, you know, that I’ll be staying in touch and that if they ever are not interested in hearing from me, they can always unsubscribe. So I kind of, that’s how I get around that, because technically you’re really should be getting guests to opt in, but it is difficult and sort of a bit of a gray area there too, right?
Jennifer: Because, and depending on the country, but like, in Canada, like, you have If you’ve had, like, if somebody has bought from you in a certain period of time, then you’re actually, like, allowed to still continue to, uh, because it’s like, they’ve authorized you to sort of have that transactional relationship, but you still have to give them the option.
Jennifer: To opt out, so it really just depends on anti spam law and it is a bit gray. I think when people have come and they’ve stayed with you, and you’ve had all this interaction back and forth, but it’s still not them officially saying, I want to hear from you. Right? So in the future.
Gil: Yeah, just make sure no matter what, you’re not sending them emails blindly and you’re giving them some option to opt out because this is not a scenario where they are even double opting in where in some cases people are Click on a link to opt into an email, and they have to click on another link to authorize it.
Gil: In some cases, that happens a lot in e commerce, where folks are really making sure that people really want to opt into their emails. In this case, since you’re collecting the emails via a rental agreement, you definitely should be at least giving them some some ability to opt out because not everybody wants to hear from, you know, From us ever again, they could be just staying there at one time, and they you don’t want them to be on your list.
Gil: And it also hurts you from a spam perspective. If
Jennifer: correct. Yeah,
Gil: if they don’t have the ability to opt out, and they mark you as spam, that’s even worse.
Jennifer: it is. Yeah. I mean, you can, there’s lots of things you can put into place to like, I was just thinking out loud here, but like, once they have departed, you could send them a link for them to opt in to right. You could say, do you want to hear from me? And if you do, then please opt in, opt in here. And then that way you get a, you get a, like, what I would call a clean list for the only people that are on your list are the people that have said they want to hear from you.
Jennifer: So, again, that’ll be a little more restrictive. Your list will end up being. Smaller because of that, right? Because some people might miss that when they’re departing or after they’ve left. But, um, I think, I think if you were responsible in terms of being clear that you are going to stay in touch with them that, you know, and then giving them the option to unsubscribe.
Jennifer: The key is don’t send it from just your regular email. Like, don’t just, you know, like, um, yeah, whatever your regular email and do a blind copy to, you know, 100 of your past guests. Don’t do that. So definitely get an email service provider in place and then take the necessary steps to decide how you want people to opt in and opt out of any communication future communication they’re going to get from you from a marketing perspective.
Jennifer: So, I mean, I, like, I personally have had very few people unsubscribe and my, my, um, you know, open rate is super high, like 70%. And I can also see the other thing I like about sending the advantage of, of course, also using an email service provider is you can see what links people are clicking on. So you can see what guests are interested in what, um, and then you could also, you know, even remarket to them even further if you wanted to, um, and depending on the size of your business.
Jennifer: Like, I find, like, I actually, like, I tend to kind of it. I have a lot of repeat guests, so I get to kind of know a lot of my guests as well. So, um, but anyway, and I, and I also cross market as well. So I market my ski property to those in Maui and Maui, my ski property to the people in Maui. So
Gil: Do you have under one website or do you have two separate sites for them?
Jennifer: I have 2 separate sites.
Jennifer: I, you know, this is always a big conversation around that, um, but I did it on 2 different sites, mostly because, uh, just There’s such different properties, you know, people are looking for there’s 2 different experiences, but I do cross market them. So that I, you know, I’ll have a lot of people who rent my panorama place will be interested in Maui over and we’re in Calgary, which is close to Maui.
Jennifer: Lots of people go there. So it’s that that works really well. Um, so, yeah.
Gil: That’s interesting. Awesome. All right, Jennifer, we usually end the show with two questions. One’s a mindset question, and then one’s a big kind of takeaway question. So on the mindset one first, what’s the one piece of mindset advice that you would give to someone that’s starting something completely new?
Jennifer: Yeah, well, I can relate to this because, um, the last couple of years have been lots, lots of new for me as I’ve grown this, my consulting business. Yeah, my mindset is, is that we learn and grow from doing. And so my biggest mindset advice is. To take action, and I say that because I typically in the past, and especially coming from a corporate background would have been very much of a perfectionist and you need to get everything organized and everything needs to be perfect before you can launch or before you can do this.
Jennifer: And I say now, don’t don’t do that. Don’t wait until you have everything perfectly figured out, you know, because you’re never going to have it perfectly figured out. And you just really need to establish sort of a basic framework of what you’re looking for in a bit of, you know, a plan and then get started.
Jennifer: And as you start to put the pieces into place and you start, you’ll, you’ll learn and your path actually will change and it’ll evolve, or what you thought you needed, you don’t need, or, you know, so, so I just, for me, it’s about real progress comes from taking action. And every step you take, it’s going to provide you more clarity.
Jennifer: You’re going to learn. You’re going to get more insights. And, you know, when it comes to a vacation rental business, it’s like, you’re going to get to know your guests better. You’re going to find out what what works for them. What kind of amenities really resonate. Or maybe, you know, um, in solving something, a problem that you had, you know, you learn from that experience and you document it.
Jennifer: So then the next time it happens, you know how to deal with it and stuff. So I just say, take action, you know, like, make those steps to move forward. Don’t worry about the end result and where it’s all going to go. Just start, start putting something into place, because if you don’t, you’re just going to, you’re just going to continue to do what you’ve always done.
Jennifer: And you’ll just let the, you know, maybe it seems like a big task to put to put these things into place, but just start doing it, you know, start slowly doing it piece by piece. And then by the end of it, you’ll, you’ll end up with a more successful business. You’ll have grown. You will have learned. And, uh, yeah, so that that’s my mindset for sure.
Gil: Yeah, and I think nowadays, it’s actually a lot easier to do some of the things that you just talked about, because there’s a lot more tools than there were when you first started getting into short term rentals. Like the tools were not as mature as they are now. Um, so it just lowers the barrier to entry for folks to really build out whatever they’re looking to do, even like on our side in the technology side, like starting a company now is a lot easier than starting company.
Gil: Even 10, 15 years ago, there’s a lot more tools now now available to us as founders. And that kind of like cross pollinates also to short term rentals and real estate investing as well, too.
Jennifer: totally. I would say I just add a little bit to that is that that can also hinder us because there’s so many tools and there’s so much research to be done. And so I would also say, don’t get lost in that either. Like, don’t get lost in the analysis and over analysis. That’s where it’s like, yes, do your research.
Jennifer: But then make a decision and move forward, take action, like, keep moving it because you could just again, get lost in which PMS do I do? Oh, there’s this one. And there’s that one. And I’m going to, you know, do a chart. And it’s like, no, you know, just like find somebody you trust, do a little find out what it is that, you know, write down what it is that you need and then find the tool that works best with the sort of what you’ve identified.
Jennifer: Right? And then move, take action, you know, go forward.
Gil: Yeah, yeah, even on like to tell us point there, even on like the email service provider, I think on the short term rental side, we switch email service providers, I think two or three times now to find the one that we really like the most. And the switch was not that difficult. You can export import lists and make sure that it’s clean and rebuild your templates.
Gil: It’s not, it’s not all that hard. Um, but yeah, had we not done the first one, we wouldn’t have identified, like, what is it that we’re looking for? Because a lot of times when you’re starting something new. You don’t want to know what you’re looking for. You don’t know what you’re optimizing for.
Jennifer: agreed. Yeah, no, no, totally. I mean, obviously there are some, there are some tools that you want to take your time on, right? Because unraveling some things, you know, is a little bit more difficult, but, um, nothing, nothing can not, can not be undone. I don’t know if I say that properly, but like. You can always find another solution.
Jennifer: You can always make the steps to make a change if something isn’t working for you. But like, yeah, I mean, most important is like, yeah, is that you acknowledge that you need certain tools. If if your goal is to have a more independent business, identify which tools you need and then, yeah, move forward. So.
Gil: Nice. From, uh, from an action oriented standpoint, kind of last question there. What’s the one piece of tactical advice, um, that you would give to people that you want people to put into action today?
Jennifer: Yeah, no, I mean, obviously kind of similar to my mindset, but, you know, it really is I would love your listeners to put the framework and put the tools in place that sets them up for a more independent vacation rental business. If that’s truly what they want. And so that would include getting a property management system in place and getting a direct booking website set up.
Jennifer: So that they can diversify, they can take direct bookings and ultimately be more profitable. Um, so that that would be my key takeaway from our session. And I did actually put together, I have a free guide to help people get started. It’s covers off sort of 5 proven methods to move beyond Airbnb. And I have a link for that that we can.
Jennifer: I’m hoping we can include in the show notes, but it’s at the host approach dot com forward slash break free. And, um, if you want, they can go to to my site and download that. And that just kind of wraps up everything that we’ve talked about today and get them started on taking some action on putting those things in place.
Jennifer: So, yeah, like I said, the tools are super important and I would, especially if you’re looking for an independent business, you want more control and you want to diversify off of Airbnb.
Gil: Yeah, yeah. I’ll be sure to include that into the show. So I’ll grab that link from you. Uh, Jennifer, anything else that you want to leave the guests with, um, our listeners with? Is there, uh, how can they best reach out to you? How can they possibly work with you on the consulting side? Kind of where do you want to direct them?
Jennifer: Uh, yeah, so me, my website I have is, uh, sorry, the host approach dot com and then I also have I’m on Instagram at the host approach and also on Facebook at host approach. And again, I guess we could put those into the show notes as well. But, yeah, I mean, a lot of times, most people just reach out to me through Facebook, and they send me a message and that’s that I’m available there all the time.
Jennifer: My site has a contact form as well. If you wanted to send me an email. So, And Instagram too. So any of those ways is good. If you send me a message, I will be sure to get back to you. Yeah.
Gil: Awesome. Awesome. I’ll be sure to include those notes, Jennifer. It was really good to have you on the show and kind of share what you’ve learned through hosting over the last 10 years and kind of how that has changed some parts of your business, but also some of the fundamentals that you put in place in the very early days.
Gil: It sounds like it’s still in play today and still driving a lot of direct bookings for you.
Jennifer: Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting when you say that, it’s like, yeah, it’s true. It’s not, not, not much has changed, right? Like, as the channels have changed a lot and their roles have changed when it comes to me and my direct bookings. No, it’s been pretty stable, which is why you want, you know, you want to have control over your business and have your have a website.
Jennifer: So, um, yeah, no, thank you so much. It was so great to connect with you. I really appreciate being here is great discussion. And, uh, thank you so much for having me on your show.
Gil: Awesome. Thank you, Jennifer. Bye.
Jennifer: We’ll talk soon. Bye.
Yeah.