THJ Ep37 How to Build a Community of Hosts

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Listen & Subscribe via iTunes Vacation Rental Success Summit

Hello Hosts! Before I start today’s show, I want you ALL to know that yours truly will soon be visiting San Antonio, Texas! Yes, I'll be in the lone star state. I've been invited to speak at the Vacation Rental Success Summit, which takes place May 19th through the 20th. If you live in from San Antonio or will be visiting the San Antonio area on those dates, I do hope you can make the time to stop by... It's gonna be lots of fun and very informative.

If you visit my page, you can get discounted tickets for the conference.... Just go to thehostingjourney.com/VRSS. The Vacation Rental Success Summit is the premier vacation rental conference – where you learn to take your vacation rental from best-kept secret to household name.

Also, a little nail bitter for those who are thinking of going.... I might be doing a little gathering on Friday night May 18th... Stay tuned in to the show or just go to The Hosting Journey for more information. I hope to see you all there. Remember, that’s thehostingjourney.com slash VRSS for more information and for a $200 discount on your ticket. That’s just a little extra for you, my dear listeners.

Reach Out to Me

On today’s episode, I have Michael Mckay and he is an Airbnb host in my neighboring state of New Jersey. Yes, I'm aware that I tend to have more guests on the podcast who are hosts from the U.S. It's not by design.

Trust me, I ́d love to showcase hosts from around the globe. So, if you're in Europe, Asia, the Americas or down under or over, anywhere really on our planet.... I invite YOU to reach out!

Let’s connect, chat, and who knows... maybe YOU, TOO, will be my next guest on the podcast. My criteria? Simple. Provide value to the community. See? Easy peasy. Provide value

Michael McKay's Community

Now, back to the show and today's guest, Michael Mckay. He started hosting about 4 years ago. And like many hosts, he was using the Airbnb extra funds to finance a vacation... In doing this little Airbnb experiment, he realized that he didn’t have to live with 5 (yes dear hosts 5) roommates to help with his living expenses.

Four years later, Michael manages over 18 Airbnb properties in New Jersey and California. Yes, we have a true hosting visionary with us today.

Michael will be sharing a wealth of knowledge with us today... Two big tips he will share with us? The first: Photos. It’s all about our photos, hosts... Remember, a picture is worth a 1000 words... Especially when your guests don’t read your descriptions. A photo will book your space faster than a beautiful poetic description... Though, I do believe in simple captions...

Another simple tip? If you haven’t had bookings which means no reviews... lower your price... Discounted prices will usually bring traffic and bookings that will lead to reviews...

Of course, it's about getting and maintaining those 5-star reviews... You can always check out my episode THJ 16: How to Master Your Guests Reviews: the Positive and Negative It will help guide you to getting consistent 5-star reviews...

Anyway, as you might know, hosting can be a lonely career, and you know your family and friends get exhausted listening to your hosting stories about your guests. You find them hilarious and interesting... They find them tedious, if mildly amusing... You need a tribe. A tribe that gets it!

Michael wanted to connect with other hosts in person, so he created a meetup group. Soon enough, he was able to get sponsors to pay for space.

Michael speaks about how he grew the meetup and the structure of the meeting.

Today's show is full of great information, so I ́m glad you're here to get the scoop...How to Build a Community of Hosts in your City with Michael McMkay.

Michael, thank you for sharing your experience and how to build that perfect hosting community because as you all know... we all need that Tribe to get our support... That's what The Hosting Journey is all about...

If you want to reach Michael, you can contact him via his website stayd.com.That’s STAYD.com And, my dear hosts, you can view his apartments and his co-host Noah at thehostingjourney.com slash 37.

There is nothing like creating a community. Whether in person or social media sites like Instagram or Facebook, we need community. This is what we have in my Faceboo...