THJ Ep37 How to Build a Community of Hosts

04/25/18 • 36 min

Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links . if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Commissions come at no additional cost to you.

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...

Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links . if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Commissions come at no additional cost to you.

Listen & Subscribe via iTunes Vacation Rental Success Summit

Reach Out to Me

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

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

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...

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.

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...

Previous Episode

THJ 36: The Sharing Economy is Here to Stay… Embrace It

The Sharing Economy is here to stay...embrace it: A conversation with Lee A. Thomas, Jr. Lee is a financier by profession and an activist by choice. Topics vary from new home sharing laws, which affect your cities to new Airbnb rules, which impact your listing. We also discuss how to unite as a hosting community to ensure our voices are heard and to keep lawmakers in check and much more.

The post THJ 36: The Sharing Economy is Here to Stay... Embrace It appeared first on The Hosting Journey.

Next Episode

THJ Ep38: Hitting a One Year Mark

Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links . if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Commissions come at no additional cost to you.

Listen & Subscribe via iTunes It was a Crazy Idea:

This podcast started off as a crazy idea... You know how it is. You start brainstorming, and before you know it your crazy podcast idea celebrates its first year on air! What? Oh, yea. The Hosting Journey Podcast is Hitting The 1 year Mark.

I used to do a monthly live webinar... Did you all know that? Oh yeah, I have a Youtube channel with my webinars with guests and solo shows to prove it... I still do them on occasion. It’s a great tool to have at your disposal...

Anyway, during my very first live webinar (yes, LIVE webinar), I was asked a question by one of the attendees that really threw me for a loop... The question was, “How do you tell your guests that your Airbnb is ‘clothing optional?’” Yes, you heard the question correctly. This host has an Airbnb listing with a “clothing optional” as part of its rules... I was floored. I mean, I had to laugh, but there it was...and LIVE! No editing and I had to answer...

What a way to test the waters! Of course, I answered the question with what I still think is the best way to handle anything. I said, “Be transparent and clear in your descriptions, and remind the guests again once they’re confirmed.” Lord knows you don't want a group of nuns booked and then, SURPRISE! No, no. You want honesty, clarity, and transparency. And no clothing, if that is how you rock it..

Needless to say, Kent, the “clothing optional” host and I, became good hosting friends. He’s truly a fantastic host in Florida. And whenever he comes to NY he visits me. You can still view all of those webinars on Youtube... Enjoy...but go after the show!

I’m hoping to create a few more videos this year, but NO promises... Right now, I’m developing some new courses for you all. Plus, I’m speaking at a few conferences like the Vacation Rental Success Summit in San Antonio. So, we’ll see...but I am considering it.

Anywho, I digress... I was doing these monthly live webinars, and then, I wondered... I pondered... I thought... Podcast... Hmmm.

A Podcast would probably reach a larger audience... Then, I reasoned, a podcast would probably be much easier... Oh, silly me.

I do think a podcast has further reach just because it’s at the listener’s disposal whenever they want to hear it... and you can be anywhere, doing anything...

Chuck, my co-writer, and I, too, though... Girl, just press that record button and do it. Record, upload Bam, I have a podcast. How hard can that be? Isn’t it great when one is so innocent and naive? My dear hosts.

Like a Dog Chasing Her Tail...

It turns out, for me, it’s pretty hard... I tried to just pick up that mic and wing it... That didn’t quite pan out the way we expected...

I run in circles like a dog chasing her tail. I lost track of what I was saying...

Then we tried having bullet points... Chuck would throw in these fancy, ivy league words that I just couldn’t pronounce... I’d be like, “I can’t pronounce that!” And he’d say, “Of course you can!” No! Yes! Then the paper throwing would commence... Again, not pretty.

You should see the list of words that are not usable... Nice words, too... Very pretty.. Just not usable... at least for ME...

Anyway, it was a mess... You couldn’t tell from hearing those first few episodes, thanks to my dear friend and professional audio engineer, Joe Casalino, but trust me, those first episodes were trial and error my dear hosts.. They would take hours to record... Hours! And hours for Joe to fix and make me sound all pretty.

A Solution

So, you know what we did? We created scripts! Yes, scripts.

We now write every single word down. If it’s a solo show, it’s all scripted.. Oh yeah. Easy peasy? Ah, I don’t think so.

I write the idea of what I want to say or convey..... Then it goes to Chuck, who makes my words a lot funnier and better.. I just tell him, “Make it clever-er!” It’s a joke we have on my trying to pronounce “cleverer”... I hope I pronounced it right? He still tries to sneak in some fancy, high falutin words but those just get added to “the list.”

And then it goes to Marieke, our copy editor, to make sure we keep our English proper... Just in case the Queen tunes in... We might not be high falutin, but we are proper.

It can get testy... You know creatives... Chuck sometimes is, “Marieke changed a joke with her Queen's English. The meaning changes when you change that word!”. And Chuck rejects her edits. And then I have to be “The Good Wife...” Luckily, Marieke in...