Ep 26: Vrbo/Airbnb Rentals: The Ultimate Guide To Marketing and Creating an Amazing Guest Experience With Shelly Kane

Today we have the one and only Shelly Kane, and I'm super excited to have her on again.

The last time we had her on, episode number five, she shared her story and how she got started in real estate investing. Today, we want to talk about the magic that she creates when it comes to managing for the experience of it on her short term rental properties with her husband, Robert Grand.

Now these two have been doing short term rentals for a long time, and one of the properties that Robert and Shelly have is fantastic. It's been staged for the experience of it.

So we're going to dive deep with Shelly about managing the experience for guests.

We'll talk about the photos, the staging, handling bookings, and, most imortantly, marketing!

Then we will talk about the strategies around getting great reviews, and how to avoid anything lower than a five star.

Because at the end of the day, that review is truly what allows you to maximize the profit on your property. For Robert and Shelly, it's how they went from charging $150 a night to $400 a night!

So buckle up, if you currently have a short-term rental, or are considering investing in a short-term rental, today's episode is the only guide-book you need!

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Full Transcript

Tim Murphy 0:00

And we're back for another episode of the value driven investor Podcast. Today we have the one and only Shelly Kane, and I'm super excited to have her on again. Because the last time we had her on, it was episode number five, where she told us about her story and how she got started in real estate investing. But today, we're going to have her on because we want to talk about the magic that she creates, when it comes to managing for the experience of it on her short term rental properties with Bob Grande. Now these two have been doing short term rentals for a long time. And if you guys have listened to some of our other podcast episodes recently about short term rentals, you'll know one of the properties that Bob has and Shelley have, that they're doing short term rental on now, that property is fantastic. It's been staged for the experience of it. But today, we're gonna go deeper, we're gonna go deeper with Shelley, because there's so much more that goes into managing for the experience of it. When it comes to short term rentals. It's not just the photos, it's not just the staging, there is the marketing. There is are the bookings, how you take the bookings, how you how you treat the potential guests, there is the actual experience, there's having you know, books and what to do in the neighborhood and all these different things. And then there's, it all comes down to all everything that you work hard for comes down to that review. Because at the end of the day, that review is truly what allows you to maximize the profit on your property. Because if you have a bunch of amazing reviews, like Robert and Shelly have on their properties, then what you do is you go from $150 A Night to $400 a night. And on some of their more expensive properties they're getting I think Bob said $4,000, or something, or what was that crazy number of hours that you got on your house? I

Bob Grand 1:50

mean, the place that we just recently actually just sold, I think we're getting anywhere between 750 I'd say 600 to probably 1200 up to 1500 on like crazy peak times. That's a big night. A night a night. Yeah. So

Tim Murphy 2:05

like, you know, and I just want everybody to know, I mean, these guys have been doing this for a while. So to get these crazy results, you know, you have to really focus you have to dial things in. And that's what today is all about is how do I dial this in, so I can get similar results, like Robert and Shelly have. So today, what we're gonna focus on is four key factors. Now they're bigger, broader factors, but we're going to break them down and number one is going to be marketing. Number two is going to be the booking. Number three is going to be the actual guest experience. And then number four is how do you take all of that and get the awesome reviews. So today, Robert is going to be leading. And then Shelly is going to be really diving deep into all the different things that she does to just make the magic happen. So guys, I'm excited. And let's get going. Grando

Bob Grand 2:52

sounds great. Hey, Shelly. Thanks for coming on today. Appreciate it. It's weird, we're like right next to each other. Separate. But yeah, so anyways, but yeah, I mean, just starting to deep dive in here and just kind of think about it you know, it's marketing I think for an Airbnb is very similar to marketing in residential real estate, right? Like I tell people, all of your marketing is done before the home even hits the market. You know, like people think that agents and other people go out there, put it in MLS and and then do 250 Point marketing plan afterwards, which really means nothing. Because all the works done before when how you make the house look and feel is the key. And I think that's probably you know, the best thing you know, for marketing that Shelly and I can talk about and we'll talk quickly about that just to give people a reminder of that experience that they need to create going Don't you think Shelley?

Shelly Kane 3:45

Absolutely Yeah, most definitely. I mean I think actually yeah, relating that to you know, residential property putting on our MLS is actually very appropriate it all starts with the description that they're going to read or write on that Airbnb VRBO platform you know, you have to make sure to hit all of the you know, points of the house to make sure that they're interested you know, make sure that it's three bedrooms two baths, you know that each room has a king size you know bed in each room that each bedroom has a TV inside that you know we have every single cooking utensil for them for their you know experience so yeah, it's it's making sure that that that detailed list you know, in that description actually hits all of those points. And then of course, adding all those photos just like in our MLS, you know, platform where you want to make sure to touch on all of those things, you know, showing those keen bags showing the TV is showing the beautifully staged Tom. So yes, I totally agree with you.

Bob Grand 4:56

Cool and yeah, so the one of the things that I noticed, like, you know, You always title things like interesting ways you know, like university at this one's the university area bungalow, the Moxie Harris house when I typed 2920 Harris street into Google, if you know it pulls up you know the previous property listings but also pulls up the Airbnb of it. And it comes in you know, the title is university area bungalow you know, the Moxie Harris house. Tell me a little bit about that. Why why is that important?

Shelly Kane 5:27

Yeah, that is a marketing thing. Right? So it's, it's, you want that guest to really feel like it's, it's an experience when they book a hotel, they know the name of the hotel, why not name your Airbnb as well. That's, I think it's really important to actually name a house so that they can, you know, feel connected to it just like they feel connected to, you know, a hotel, you know, back in the day when they used to book hotels. Now, a lot of people do book Airbnb is right. So having that name recognition is really important to me. And,

Bob Grand 6:06

yeah, sorry, good. Oh, yeah. No. And

Shelly Kane 6:09

so, you know, one of those things, you know, that I like to do is also include, you know, the university bungalow, right is because I want them to make sure that they understand it is right, you know, what area it's in, because it's actually very important for this particular house, for bookings to be able to let them know that they are really close in to the University of area because we do get a ton of people wanting to come visit their their kids, you know, at the University of Oregon. So that was really important to me to include that within the title

Tim Murphy 6:47

as well. So it's almost like you're blowing a whistle, right, Shelly? Like you're kind of blowing that whistle like, hey, university people come over here. We're catering to you.

Bob Grand 6:56

So Exactly. Yeah. And then the Moxie, you know, so Moxie was part of the name of your business. So now you've branded that and the previous Airbnb listing we had, it had Moxie into his, the Moxie Spyglass house. Right. So like, so that's part of that branding, also, that I see. And then I think, you know, as you know, we bring a future Airbnb is online, when people start seeing that if they can't get it, they stayed at the Moxie Harris house, but then they make the connection in their brain, they see another listing that says, Moxie, whatever, they're gonna know that you're going to provide the same experience, because one of the things I noticed with our Harris house, is we get a lot of repeat traffic, a lot of repeat customers, though, something that he we're gonna be able to like, well, we don't have this one. But we can get you into this one. And they know they're probably going to get relatively same experience. It's like staying at a Marriott you know, or, you know, some other high end, you know, a Crumpton hotel, or crip, den, or whatever you call those things. But you know, kind of the same concept. So, the other thing that I wanted to touch on, that was really important to you is just a super host status, which I don't really know a lot about that. But in the marketing world, and then the Airbnb world, there's some significance there in the super, super host. Status. What does that do? And how does that help promote the listing and all that type of stuff?

Shelly Kane 8:13

Yeah, so basically, a super host is one that responds within 24 hours, you have to, in order to keep the super host status, you have to, you know, make sure that you're responding to every single guest within a timely manner. I actually, as soon as I receive that message, I try to respond back as soon as possible. As soon as I possibly can obviously, like, right now, on a podcast, if I were, if I were to receive a message, as soon as I'm done with this call, I guess I'm on it, like, because it's so important to respond immediately to all of these people. They're excited about it, and I want I want them to continue that excitement, especially by by, you know, responding immediately. So that's one of the the things that you have to do to become a super host. And then the other is just keeping, you know, a five star review, you know, getting those reviews and keeping those up. I think it you can actually have 4.5 and above something like that. But you know, we have, I think overall and we've had so many fours. Yeah, it's 498. Yeah. So it's almost still a five star hotel or a five star review. Over the course of what five years,

Tim Murphy 9:29

how many reviews do you have? Because I think that's relative to the situation. Like it's not like you only have five reviews.

Bob Grand 9:34

Yeah, yeah, no, this one has 50 on just Airbnb. I don't know how many we we actually book a lot on the verbo I'd say we were booking a lot more on VRBO right now than we are in Airbnb, which is interesting. So

Shelly Kane 9:47

yeah, and I don't actually know how many are on Burbo Well,

Tim Murphy 9:52

I knew you had a lot of 50 It's just like, you know, if you have 50 reviews and you're at a 4.98 You're definitely doing something right.

Bob Grand 9:58

Let's see Look on Furbo here,

Tim Murphy 10:01

surely the only thing I was gonna ask you to is on the marketing, I think you you really downplay a couple different things when I looked at your marketing number one, I think you definitely tell a story about the property. And I think that starts with the name is that you nailed it with a name. And it's like you almost like attach the person. It's like the houses its own self. It's a person, it's a being like, you know, the University House. And then the Moxie thing is super cool, because now you're building a brand, because you guys have multiple different rental properties. So that's cool. But I think what you, you sell yourself a little short on the story that you tell. And that story starts with your write up, I think you do a really nice job on your write up, and it like almost attaches the person to the house. Because it's not just like a, you know, it's got three beds by bass, it's like you have like, an emotional right up there a little bit more. And then the other thing is that I think you really sell yourself short on because you're so humble, is that they're your pictures, like most people like I can tell that either you took the pictures or you guided the photographer through the pictures because like you have pictures of like martini glasses, you have pictures of like the skull, you have like pictures of like, these little setups, which are super cool. They're like, they're like such they're like mood setups, and that you don't see that I mean, I've rented plenty of Airbnb is, but most people don't do that. It's just like kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, outdoors, indoors, and it's just boring. And they're usually not like really professional photos. Go into that a little bit. Because I think like that is a huge tip that really sets you apart from everything that is in the market that you compete against. Yeah, so

Shelly Kane 11:35

that's a really good point. Yeah, you're right, you know, photos are so important. And, you know, and just getting the attention, you know, to detail as to what I did put, you know, all those details within the house. So of course, I want them to see that I do have not only martini glasses, but margarita glasses and wine glasses, and I have all the glasses for them to be able to experience a really great time. And, you know, we have the trees that are all led up. There's just like these little jungle trees that just kind of create the ambience and feeling of the home. So yeah, it was really important to me to make sure that that photographer got those detailed shots of just the different aspects of the home for them to be able to know kind of what they're experiencing and what they're going to get when they are renting the Moxie Harris house. Yeah.

Bob Grand 12:31

Yeah, I love that. That's so true. When you do get that feeling. I mean, every time I go home there, I love that house and like get to hang out there. Like for the one week that I stay there, every once in a while. It's fun. So, but yeah, it is definitely an interesting thing to think about. But I was trying to think of anything else in the marketing realm that you'd have to think about, is there anything else you want to add to that about marketing, anything else that you'd do to set it apart?

Shelly Kane 12:59

I think just photos have really great write up showing those attention to detail shots. And you know, making sure that that's in the description is really key. And just, you know, making sure that what you say and that actually translates, you know, to what they're going to experience. Because trigger points so many Airbnb is when you actually go into the house, you're like, oh, this doesn't want it, they made it to, to, you know, say or feel like, you know, in the photos or in the description. And, you know, we get a lot of of our guests who say, Wow, this house is even better. Like as soon as they walk into the house, they absolutely love it. And they're like, this is even better than the write up or this. You know, the photos. Yeah. And they immediately text me I get so many texts immediately. Wow, this house is beautiful. Thank you so much for allowing us to stay here. So just making sure that your description and your photos either match. And maybe that's sometimes when I do downplay it a little bit, because I want them to just be walking and be like, Wow, this is amazing.

Tim Murphy 14:08

Well, and that all comes down to the review, right? Like you're this is all a process like this is psychological and you're playing the game. And it's like you're under promising and over delivering but you're under promise is still better than what most people are even promising. And then you're showing consistency, which is like okay, she said it and then she did it. Well, that's awesome. But now she over delivered like, How can I not give an amazing review? That's part of the whole experience. Right?

Shelly Kane 14:34

Totally. Absolutely. And you know, the other thing is, you know, just housekeeping kind of plays into the marketing I guess, because housekeeping really is one of those key factors that can really make or break your entire Airbnb. I I had an amazing relationship with our head housekeeper, our housekeeping team. She and I Just go through the house, I actually walked through the house almost every time after she is done cleaning, just to make sure because sometimes it takes two sets of eyes, you know, to make sure that you haven't missed anything. I remember one walking through, she's super thorough. One time she, you know, left a towel just sitting up on the fridge in and she does, she does everything from the tops of the fridge inside, you know, everywhere, every single time, I lost my Airbnb every single time to just look shiny, sparkly, like super clean. It's really important to me for those guests to be able to experience a clean house. So I think that's the other part of the marketing piece that a lot of people I guess, miss that, you know, housekeeping is is very key

Tim Murphy 15:48

on the bookings Grando when you if you think now's the time, but let's move on. Because I think that's another key thing, we got to talk about

Bob Grand 15:55

the booking aspect, too. I mean, like, when you when you're booking you obviously you said responding quickly, you know, is probably the biggest thing, and I actually was thinking about that. It's just like, it's a lead, right? I mean, it's kind of, yeah, I guess rough to say in the sales world. But it's essentially like a leads coming in, and how you handle that lead is key, you know, and, and our investment side of our real estate company, we take that lead, and we want to get on it as fast as possible. Because we know if we can get in the door, look at a house, we're probably gonna be the first one to make an offer. And the first person that they know, like and trust, they're going to do the same thing with our brokerage side. You know, as soon as somebody calls and wants to list, if you call them back quickly, you're probably going to get the listing because they typically will call to people, you know, and so, so in Airbnb and VRBO, short term rentals, I mean, that obviously plays a pretty big factor, you know, so from what I'm hearing from you, which I didn't even really think about that and make that connection till right now.

Shelly Kane 16:51

Yeah, absolutely, you know, there's a couple of different ways for people to be able to book, you can put it on instant book, where immediately they just book automatically, or you can actually review every single booking and then accept them as they come in. I actually prefer Instant Booking. And I think a lot of guests really appreciate the Instant Booking rather than have to wait for, you know, an owner to approve. So I feel like we do get a little bit more bookings just because we do have that feature. But you're right, like, as soon as that that you know, guest books that house, I just want to immediately welcome them say thank you for booking and just, you know, start started off right, so that they know that we're excited for them to come stay at the Moxie Harris house.

Bob Grand 17:40

Right? You know, and that's a really good point. So that you're making right there. During the the booking part, which we're going to touch again on the experience part because you add a personal aspect to it. And it will get harder as we add more and more but maintaining that personal connection, because what you see with a lot of Airbnb is, is there's no personal connection there. And then you get an email, you know, it says this, and then they start bombarding you with email after email after email with stuff. And we've tried a little bit of that automation and stuff, and I'm sure we'll go back to a layer of it, you know, in the future, to kind of help with some of the just the operational side of things. But I think that like anything, people want to do business with people who they know like and trust and people want to probably rent properties from people who they know like and trust and feel there's a personal connection there. Which is one of the things that I think during that booking process which we can real booking right into the experience again you do a really good job

Shelly Kane 18:37

with so yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, there's an app that we use it's called Touch stay. So as soon as you know someone books I'm able to send over the app to them pretty immediately and it just goes over you know, just items about the house you know, description of the house again, it shows it tells them all about the check in what they can expect for check in just area details you know, local restaurants you know to get them excited about their state not only at the house but here locally What is there to do I even put in information about like if you arrive early in the house you know, you can't check in you know, obviously we have rules that they can't check until four and I but I'd let them know like hey, if you're here early, I will try my best to get you to be able to check in early like there's no better you know thing than when you're heading into town and you get a check into your hotel early right I want the same thing for the Airbnb. So you know as soon as that house is ready for cleaning like my my housekeeping team, they will text me and say it's ready and then I immediately pass that information on Hey, you're the house is ready. Feel free to check in anytime. You know even if it's a noon, like go enjoy the house like it's we're getting The same rate, why not have them check in early and enjoy a little bit more of their experience? Right? You know, so that touched the app, it does, you know, it touches on all this, just hey, if you are here early, let me know, I'll try to get you in early, I'll do the best that I can I touch on, you know, what there is to do around, you know, around our house, you know, in case the house isn't ready, maybe they want to just go for a walk, and there's a park right across the street, there's walking trails, running trails, I even put in local, you know, where they can go to grab food, because a lot of people go do a Costco run, or they go Do you know, just to a grocery store, you know, shopper really quick so that they have, you know, those basic amenities with them. So they can just go do that before they actually check in. So I include all that information within this app. And then it also does tell the story about who we are, who Robert and I are, and it touches on, you know, why we started this Airbnb and what it means to us and, and how we feel when we're on vacation. And we want them to experience all of those things, too. And if there's anything at all, any questions, any anything, feel free to text me at any time. And I'm happy to guide them and direct them in whichever way.

Tim Murphy 21:26

Yeah, I think that's huge.

Bob Grand 21:28

Yeah, that is huge. Because I mean, again, your background is Hospitality Management, right in hospitality. So you understand that aspect of it. And what happens when you go to a really nice hotel, being the person they take care of you and make sure this is everything's handled. And so you're essentially doing that, and, you know, the local area, so well. And I actually was just thinking when you're saying that, you know, you have competition out there your competition in the short term rental world is the actual the big platforms, Priceline Expedia, in the Eugene area, they own a lot of properties. And it was shocking to city council one night when they're looking at, like, how many properties are owned. And then they're, they're like, a lot of Merck, corporate owned by like, these big companies. And they were like, they own that many properties, like in our area. And so that's your competition, right? But they can't provide that local experience. It's like big real estate companies can't provide that agent on the ground experience, they want to think they can they want to tell you they can, they can add all that weird, you know, technology to it. But it doesn't replace that personal connection. I think that's probably the key here, you know, because you just took it from the booking, you know, when they book you're talking to him, and then you know, when they're checking in, you're prepping them, you're going through that whole process. And that's all the experience, you know, so they know, when they walk in the door, they're already so happy that you just made their transition walking right in that house. He very easy. So even if they probably had something bad happen in the house, the experience was so great. Just getting in the door. Like, it's probably really hard to get a bad review, wouldn't you think?

Shelly Kane 23:00

Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, it comes down to even you know, with within the list of restaurants, you know, that I that I say, I let them know, I put little notes in there, like, tell Liz from Oregon wine lab, we say hello to everything, like, just, you know, just make sure like, you know, they, you know, won the master mixologist. 2018, or 2019, or whatever, you know, make sure to get, you know, this cocktail from him or, you know, sorry, put in these fun little notes that people are, they then respond later to me and they're like, I went and I said, Liz is amazing, you know, and Nate's drink was phenomenal. Thank you so much for those recommendations, because it's those little things that we know about our city, that they would have no idea and so they it makes it just feel that more special to them. That something you know, somebody like that we took the time to like, recommend these small little things. To us. It's small, but to them it made maybe they're a whole day for them. Like they had so much fun at you know, this experience because, you know, we as a host recommended it to them.

Tim Murphy 24:11

Well, and I think that nails like managing for the experience of it Shelley like that, that right there. That little story that you told is? That's what you do when you make magic right there? I mean, because I know that I'm not great at those little things, but you are because you just that's how you look at everything. It's probably because you know, you've we're wedding planner, and that's just how your mind works. You're so detailed around the emotion of it. Yeah, guys, that's that's where the money is made. That's why Shelley gets prices that nobody else can get because of those little details and how she makes people feel. And that's just so cool. That story is priceless right there. Yeah. Can I ask one question too, I want to go back to the Instant Booking feature because if I'm in the audience, I'm going okay, so I'm just gonna instantly let them Look, what if? What if, like, is there any risk to that as far as the guest that's going to be in my property? And how can I hedge that risk as far as like getting someone I don't want?

Shelly Kane 25:11

Yeah, so that just comes down to making sure that all of when you do put your policies and procedures, you know, that you're very clear, like, I let them I let all of our guests know, like, we don't allow pets in the house. And, and the reason why, you know, some people are like, you know, they get frustrated because we don't allow or, you know, they could get frustrated, but I make sure that they they understand, like, Roberts actually allergic to dogs and cat hair. So we don't allow pets into the house. And they respect that when you say, you know, oh, okay, an owner is actually allergic to pet hair. They understand, like, why this is a no pet house, right? Yeah, but you see it in a way that, like I say, we love dogs and cats, but unfortunately, at this house, it's it, you know, so we see it in a positive way. And, you know, just making sure that they understand, like, we don't allow events to happen at our property, because we want to make sure to respect our closest neighbors, we don't want to have any noise problems with our neighbors, right. So we just want to we let them know, immediately, you know, no events are to happen at this house. And again, we say it in a really nice way, we'd love events. But unfortunately, this house, we want to respect our nearest neighbors, those types of things. So you know, it's really important in that booking process, that those instant Booker's know all of your policies and procedures, so that you can have instant bookings, because they already know upfront that you can't put

Tim Murphy 26:48

in all your upfront marketing that they'll see before they would actually do an instant book. That's huge. That

Bob Grand 26:55

covers it. Yeah, so

Shelly Kane 26:56

those are the problem, you know, those are usually the problems like, you know, pets do come in, and they do have a little bit more wear and tear on your house. And, you know, parties, obviously, they are the things that really disrupt you know, neighbors, or even the house, you know, just making sure to respect you know, the house, so I just say it all up front. And so I don't feel, you know, like Instant Booking is is, you know, crazy, anything like that, firstly, thank you. Yeah, just because I do say all the policies and procedures,

Bob Grand 27:31

I think, though to like, I mean, we're not opposed to people, you know, having friends over and being around the, you know, the whole backyard fire pit and having a barbecue or something like that, you know, but you know, it's, it's one of those things where you just, you just don't want that party scene going on, right? Like arranger is not happening at the house, like, it's immediate cause for termination, if we find it happening, we're going over there and shutting it down, and they're all leaving that second, you know, it's like, that's how it's got to go. Because you just can't, you know, get those types of wax against you with the city, local governments, you want to be respectful of your neighbors. And that's part of that experience, I suppose. I think upfront priming, you know, and I think that we've had multiple times where people would say, Hey, we're gonna have, you know, potentially, like a small graduation party, you know, over the house during the day, because then we're gonna go to graduation, and we're gonna have some friends and family over. Is that okay? We're like, Yeah, of course. That's okay. You know, it's like, but you know, it 10 o'clock at night? It's not okay. You know? So everybody sleeping in the neighborhood. So, yeah, yeah.

Tim Murphy 28:30

Cool. So let's get into the experience a little bit more. I think we kind of nailed the the booking piece, but like the experience so now they're in the house, like you said, Shall you nail down a couple different things where it's like, they come in, you have this, this app touch stay app, which I think is super cool. A lot of the Airbnb s or vacation rental by owners, they have books, most people put like a big cumbersome book is the does the app replace that book? As far as what I need to know? And how I can have a better experience?

Shelly Kane 29:01

It does? Yeah, it completely covers anything that you'd want to say in that book. I think books, you know, I have a book too, that covers everything, you know, so it actually it's a printout of the touch state app, right? So it covers every single item that I have the PDF of it. So I have the book just for people who like to open books and read through, you know, because there are different types of learners or readers or you know, so of course, we hit on both. But yeah, we do have the book in there as well, but it's exactly the PDF of the Okay,

Tim Murphy 29:35

well, I want to go into a little bit more because I think you nailed like the, those are little things that you do that I think a lot of people do differently. And I'm guessing and I'm gonna throw a couple things out of here just to get your brain going. But I'm guessing that when I come into the house, it probably smells amazing. I'm gonna say that when I come into the bathroom, the towels the towels are super fluffy and you didn't buy cheap crusty towels that I'm going to be using and I know someone else use they're like they probably feel just amazing. And this is just because I know Shelley, and then like, and then I'm probably guessing that like, you're when I want to go and get spices because I'm going to cook up a steak on your awesome grill that's outside that I'm not like, oh, man, they don't have anything like I forgot to go to the store. I'm guessing you have some of those, like, go into detail, Shelley because this is where you blow people's minds. And like, wherever the real magic happens, and I just know you, like go into some of that stuff of like, where you really set the stage and like people are just like, they just have that little moment where it's like, oh, look at they have it God, Why can't every place have this?

Shelly Kane 30:37

Yeah, so I mean, in event planning those what you just said, smell, see, you know, sights, hearing, you know, all of those things. So the five senses, that is what sets your event apart from any other event is making sure that you touch on all five senses. I did the same thing, what you're just saying in all of our homes. So as soon as they open that door, there is actually a sense of it, they do smell it's called it's a system a scent system called center. And I actually we learned this when we were on the Big Island and we were we were going through a Hilton actually we were just there visiting for the day we were actually staying at an Airbnb but we visited for the day because they had these amazing water slides and stuff. But but the smell like as soon as i i walked into their lobby area I was like, what is that? Like? Our entire family was like, Oh, it smells so good. So I immediately like me being in from the hospitality world I needed to know exactly what that scent was because I wanted it and I wanted to recreate that scent in our Airbnb. So I went up to the front desk and I understood like they went and researched it all for me and I came back and they had all the information but yeah, it's it's called center and you can actually pipe in whatever sense it is that you want through the system throughout your house. And no joke like I get probably I don't know at least 25% of our guests they want to know where they get that where they can get the system so that they can recreate the smell into their house like we get so many inquiries like what is this what you know how much is it all of the things so I always pass along information but yeah cent is the the first thing and then of course site like just looking around making sure that everything looks amazing having twinkle lights or you know kind of in the in the corner making sure that all the heights are just perfectly aligned and making sure that you know all of the the leather with the wood and the you know, the masculine and feminine all is amazing. And then of course touch you know everybody wants to come in and touch everything. Right just making sure that everything is is great. You know, we have you know some fun things like card games and board games and all of these fun extra little details just to make sure that the experience for them goes beyond even we don't even say that we have this but we have the Nintendo Switch you know for kids in one of the bedrooms. That is also a surprise like oh my gosh, they even have this you know for the kids you know in case they want to you know go hang out or whatever. We have a TV in the backyard you know that they're not even expecting you know that there's it's a whole experience in our backyard. So it's just um, you know, making sure that you are paying attention to all of those five senses and then you know, integrating them throughout the house. And you're right of course like spices are important in cooking like I love. I love good food. So I have every spice in there. We do get tons of reviews that say that our amenities are more yeah it's it's we're fully stocked and I make sure like if the olive oil is down, I make sure to go get an extra olive oil just to make sure because cooking is really important when you're you no at an Airbnb because they I do expect they're going to cook that's one of

Tim Murphy 34:16

the reasons that's one of the reasons why people do Airbnb because they want to cook they want to host they want to entertain

Shelly Kane 34:22

yes absolutely. For sure. We even have this little ice machine that makes like the perfect crunchy like amazing ice for them to hear to make these amazing cocktails if they want to make you know those those cocktails so yeah, I mean we we do go maybe above and beyond we have juicing machines we have you know blood we have all the things that that a lot of standard Airbnbs don't have garlic, press it you know just all the things because I want to make sure that a chef can come in and cook an amazing meal if they if they want to, you know so

Tim Murphy 35:00

Yeah. You know, that makes such a difference. Because, again, you're doing everything to get that review. And then to get that repeat client who will pay? Because once they've experienced it, oh, I just want you to know, yeah, we're our rates went up another 50 bucks, I don't care, like I want to stay there, it doesn't matter. Like, I know what I'm getting now. And it's worth it was I got a deal before and now it's worth what it's worth like, I don't care and that's

Shelly Kane 35:26

that's huge and you know you've been to those Airbnb is where you're like, oh my gosh there's not even a wine cork and or you know a wine skirt, or you can't find whatever it is that you need. And it's so frustrating because you're like, I rented this house, because, you know, we wanted to cook some meals here. And we wanted to gather here in this house, rather than a small little hotel room that doesn't have all of those things. So yeah, I think it's really important to just make sure to have, you know, all of the does, you know, find things and a kitchen for sure.

Bob Grand 36:01

Yeah, that's why I say like, you know, if you want to get started in real estate, investing in Airbnb is a great way to go. You're not, it can allow you to leave your job, you're still picking up another job, you know, but if you can do it, right, you have your you have a lot more time freedom, right, so then it works out a lot better for you. So it's definitely very interesting because his active income, you know, you have to work for it. But when you're when you're saying like, you know, just the amenities and stuff like that, you know, we stay at like Marriott Hotels, because we like the pillows, right? So we like the bedding. And so we're at a Marriott Hotel the other day, we're like, we started researching online how to get those pillows in our house. Right? So then we just recently where's your pillows? Yeah, because I was like I like because I like I'm very picky about the type of pillow I have this next. I'm always like hurting in some sort of a way cuz I kill myself all the time. But it's like, I sleep really good there. I'm like, Why sleep really amazing here. So we just ordered our first sets of that. And I go, I think we just replace all the pillows with these Marriot pillows, you know. And like we found, I lifted up the bed, looked at the mattress, looked at the pillow tags, everything to see where it was all at. And then went online and started finding it found the company. And then of course, that company says they have a whole section on their website. Which hotel are you staying at? Do you love the pillows there? Here it is, this is the pillow that's in that hotel. So we're like, okay, let's test it and see if they're the same pillows. And they're good. We just got them. And I'm like, I love these pillows. You know, and you're like, it's yeah, it's you know, and that's part of that experience, you know, if we keep adding that and doing that, and she builds a brand around it, you know, the Moxie brand for all of our short term vacation rentals in this area. I think it's just gonna be just an exceptional experience for anybody. And they're just gonna keep coming back and booking and seeing that name and wanting to book again. So that's cool. It's an experience. Well, let's move

Tim Murphy 37:44

on. And let's move on to the reviews. I think we're giving people lots of really good ideas here. Let's move on to the reviews because I think I don't want to miss out on the reviews. And we're sitting at about 35 minutes here. When you do everything, everything that you do comes down to getting this review. Like I want both of you guys to summarize, like how important is this review, which I think most people don't really understand the true importance and how valuable these reviews are. Everybody gets it like a review matters. But like these reviews have made you guys a lot of money and have allowed you to increase your nightly rental rates exponentially. I mean, it's crazy from 150 bucks in that property up to $400 a night. That's huge. So talk about that. How do you get it? What's your strategy? How do you do in any way? Are you able to get like if you're like, gosh, you know, Robert, I really want to get a review about the pergola and the TV, do you ask questions? Or is there any way for you to get reviews? Because obviously you don't want everybody to give you the same review? Oh, I loved the pillows like if that's all they said, then they would be you'd be missing out on reviews about other awesome things about the property. How do you how do you guys do that? Just give me the rundown on that.

Bob Grand 39:00

From what I can see what Shelly like so say if we've done an update to the property, we might not tell somebody that the updates been done like a lot of people didn't know that backyard pergola with the TV was set up, and then we started getting reviews on it, you know, so then people start seeing that, but I think that's probably the best strategy. You know, thinking like that is just maybe leaving out a few things, you know, already making it great, but then knowing you know that there's some things that they're going to see in like, if you show up and you didn't realize there's even really a backyard for a while we didn't have even really backyard photos up because we're still kind of in progress with parts of it. And then you know, we did it there's a couple of photos but they're not even completely up to date as to how it looks right now. And now you see it you see the people like that's what they tend to kind of gravitate towards for review and, and it's the things that they didn't know that was in the property. And I think as you add those things, that's probably the way to do it. But Shelley's probably the expert, you know, but that's my thought.

Shelly Kane 39:57

Yeah, so, you know, I don't know it's said that my mic was muted.

Tim Murphy 40:02

I'm only doing that because there's a little interference because you guys are in the same room. So I'm just kind of swapping the mute on and off just to get less interference.

Shelly Kane 40:10

Yeah, so you know, one of the things that I do that I put on the touch state app, at the very end, you know that we love reviews to please review us. But I do go further than just that. I actually say, if you can't give us a five star review, I would love to personally know why. Or, you know, if you if they could, personally, if they could let me know ahead of time, what it is why they couldn't give us a five star review, because I want to know, if there's a way for me to be able to help them immediately, even while they're still there. So like, they have this information in front of them while they're sitting there. And if they do encounter any type of problem, you know, it's inevitable that somebody is going to have some type of problem. I don't know, maybe the internet went down, or maybe I know something's gonna happen. But I want to know, like, what it is, so that I can make sure to go above and beyond to get that five star review by the time that they checked out.

Tim Murphy 41:16

So surely, do you do that? Like are you at so you're almost setting up the review process, like, right on the app before, right when they come in so that like you can keep asking for that review while they're in the property and earn the review. So it's almost as if they feel obligated to give you a review.

Shelly Kane 41:34

I mean, yeah, I feel like, review is earned, right. And if we don't earn that review, if we truly don't, and if something does mess up, and we're not on top of it and fixing it, then yeah, that's why people get three star reviews, two star reviews, because they really messed up. And they didn't even try to go above and beyond to fix whatever problem you know, our guests had. So you know, that's, that's why I say in the in the touch the app, as soon as they get that, they already know that, you know, that I that we love reviews, and we'd love to have their review at the end. And if there's anything during the stay that goes wrong, you know, to please contact me and I'll immediately you know, be on it. And and, you know, if if for some reason, we can't earn that five star review, I'd love to know why. You know what it what was it so that we can then fix that for future guests too, because that's the main thing, like I want a five star review every time. I don't want anything lower

Bob Grand 42:36

ticket point, because we actually got to like, remember, we got to review that was not so premium. A while ago,

Shelly Kane 42:44

it was a four star, and we hated it.

Bob Grand 42:47

But it was dealing with the bed, we're going through like swapping mattresses and stuff. And this mattress and the person like said it was too hard or this and that didn't like it, like we end up pulling it, you know, and then we're gonna err on it or something different because we're like, we don't want that to be the new review, you know. So it's like, but I think what you're saying is like, understanding that they're going to hopefully reach out to you, if you but even if you can't correct it for them during that stay. It's correcting it for the future you don't have to do and that's part of optimization, right? And you're just going through and being like tweaking things like Well, we tried this, this mattress wasn't that good. We got to get it go put it somewhere else and swap it out. So we don't have that review problem anymore. And now like I think the review after that was like the mattress was amazing or something the bed was amazing. So I remember that we had kind of a bad review. We're kind of bombed and then we got the next one after we swapped the mattress then like a few days few people later it was like the bed is amazing. comfortable bed ever. Yeah, it was like late. So this like it offsets that bad review. Right? Like they see that older one it says this, but then the next person saying this beds amazing. So that kind of negates the other one, right. So that's kind of, I think, a really important thing, because then they'll obviously they'd be like, well, maybe it was bad then but it can't be bad. Now, you know, because beds are important to me, they're probably important to a lot of people. So if you read that, I'd be like, Oh, don't think I'm booking here, you know,

Tim Murphy 44:08

Shelley on your thing I was gonna ask you about is that when you get your reviews? Do you get your reviews? Do you want them to give you the review on the Airbnb or the VRBO? Or do you want them to give you the review on your touch stay app? And then you put it on there? Like how do you want to capture that review? And do you specifically tell them how you want them? Or where do you want them to give the review? Because the other thing is is like a lot of times I'll see at some of these Airbnb is like a book and then people write the review in a book in the house and I'm like, What a waste. Like you're killing yourself here. Talk about that strategy of how you capture or you want to capture that review.

Shelly Kane 44:45

Yeah, so on Airbnb and VRBO platforms, you actually have to leave the review on there. The the guest does so I can't do anything about whatever it is that they ultimately want to say about the house or the experience. Um, so but we do, we actually do have one of those because some people do like to write or, you know, just a fun little, I actually asked them to write a note about what their favorite thing was about the house or their stay in a little book that does sit inside the house, but, you know, they also will review, you know, on the platform. But one last thing that I do want to add to the whole review processes that, you know, really listening to what our guests have to say is, is key in order to make sure that your views and the future continue to become, you know, to be a five star. I remember one, one review, you know, she actually had a laundry list of items. For me, she still gave me a five star review, but she did she, she texted me and she said, you know, listen, these, she said, I still want to give you a five star review, because I we loved everything from the time that we walked in the, to the time that we walked out, but these are the things that could improve your guest experience. And it was even things that I didn't even think about that she brought to my attention. Like in the one of the bathrooms, we had two hooks, for towels, you know, to put up their towels, right? And two hooks, in my opinion is usually sufficient, right for a bathroom. But she was like, you know, there's two bedrooms, you're expecting potentially four guests to be able to use this one, one bathroom. So you need to have at minimum four hooks and you know, the bathroom. Right? So being able to fix that immediately. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. I didn't even consider that or didn't even think about that. You know, or just, you know, shade, you know, certain shades like your the shades that you bought, have too much light coming through. And it's disturbing, you know, disturbing me when I sleep, those types of things. Pay attention to those things that now we have like these blackout shades that people can use or not use, you know, if they want. So just making sure that you really hear them, and then follow through with whatever it was that they said. Just improve the property and prove everything ever each each time.

Bob Grand 47:09

Yeah, I love that. That's awesome. Really good.

Tim Murphy 47:12

Yeah, that's awesome. You guys have anything else to like any tips or tricks or anything around the the review, just because I know, it's so important.

Shelly Kane 47:22

Um, we we sometimes, you know, we leave a gift, you know, a bottle of wine chocolates. At one point, we were doing smores you know, because we do have a fire pit so they could enjoy some s'mores. So I think a gift is really important too. Because if some something does happen during their stay, they're a little bit more forgiving. Because you know, you've you've already given you know, all of this time and attention to make sure that everything was hopefully really great or perfect. And then you've also given given a gift and then say the Wi Fi does, you know go out and it's not something that you can't even control. They're a little bit more forgiving. You know, when they do review you. So I think a welcome gift is really important. Yeah,

Bob Grand 48:12

that's cool. So true. So true. Wow, guys, this

Tim Murphy 48:15

is I just, I mean, if you're gonna seriously if you're out there, and you're listening to this podcast, and you're seriously thinking about doing short term rentals. You know, this is just the tip of the iceberg of Shelley's and Roberts tricks to how they are able to manage for the experience of it. But I can definitely tell you that if you just implement a couple of the different things they talked about, you will get more amazing reviews, you will have people that will come back on a regular basis. And the price at which you rent your place out will go up over the course of time. Shelly thanks again, I was you know, it's hard to get you on because you're so busy. You and Robert have so much going on. So I do appreciate your time getting on and and sharing all your your magic.

Shelly Kane 49:00

My pleasure. Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Robert. Yeah,

Bob Grand 49:03

yeah, man.

Transcribed By: Digital Legend Media
www.DigitalLegendMedia.com