{"id":4121,"date":"2022-10-27T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T08:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2022-10-27T08:30:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T08:30:15","slug":"why-hosts-are-backing-away-from-travel-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/27\/why-hosts-are-backing-away-from-travel-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Hosts Are Backing Away from Travel Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Most people stumble into short-term rental investing<\/strong><\/a>. At some point, they realize a long-term rental, mother-in-law suite, or family cabin could become a revenue-generating, <\/strong>passive income<\/strong><\/a> machine<\/strong>. So what do they do? They go online to all the big travel sites, upload their listing, and start hosting. After a few months or years, they buy another short-term rental, and now, they\u2019ve got multiple properties across a few different sites. The reviews are flowing, and the revenue with it. But one day, it stops<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This happened to Rob<\/strong> when his listing got locked<\/strong>\u2014halting his revenue. Without much of a way to repair this, Rob started thinking of how he could host with autonomy <\/strong>and reduce the risk <\/strong>as his portfolio grew. Sooner or later, Rob and today\u2019s guest, Mark Simpson<\/strong>, started talking. Mark, an expert in hospitality<\/strong>, knew that something like this would happen. It\u2019s why Mark has been helping hosts build their own booking sites <\/strong>over at Boostly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a short-term rental expert<\/strong>, Mark helps hosts build an income stream that can\u2019t be paused<\/strong>, limited, or removed. Instead, he and his team give hosts everything they need to get more bookings, pay fewer fees, and keep guests coming back for more. And, as the short-term rental space grows at lightspeed, Mark argues that hosts should start building out these <\/strong>direct booking sites<\/strong><\/a> now before it\u2019s too late.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast, show 680.<\/p>\n

Mark:
If you are a host or a property management company that is looking to grow and scale, and if you are more than 90% reliant on one channel for your revenue coming in, you\u2019re playing a very dicey, dangerous game, because all it takes is for your account to get hacked, your listing to get locked down, or a couple of crappy reviews, or a total algorithm change by Airbnb where suddenly, you\u2019re on page one, and the next day, you\u2019re on page five or six where nobody looks. So, it\u2019s really important that we flip that around, and we look to get everybody to a 65% direct, and then at 35% relying on third-parties AKA OTAs.<\/p>\n

David:
Hello, everyone. I\u2019m your host, David Greene of the BiggerPockets Podcast here today with my lovely co-host, Robert Abasolo. In today\u2019s show, we\u2019re going to be interviewing Mark Simpson, owner of Boostly and UK Resident, who has some fantastic advice for us on how to book your short-term rentals without using the online travel agencies, Airbnb, Vrbo, and their ilk. Rob, first off, how are you today? And second, what do you think about the show?<\/p>\n

Rob:
First of all, my hat\u2019s off to you because you really went all in on that and we did it all in one take. Most of the time, we would do that five times, but you nailed it first time. So today\u2019s episode is really great, man. I\u2019m super excited. We even get to hear me dabble a little bit with my accent repertoire, and we get into the art of hosting and the idea of getting into direct bookings and when you should possibly consider making your own direct booking website over just staying on all the typical OTAs, online travel agencies out there. So, I\u2019m excited to jump into it because I think if you listen to today\u2019s episode and you\u2019re a short-term rental host, it might crack your brain a little bit and you might think, okay, maybe I should try something else, maybe I should diversify a little bit.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, if we\u2019re just being honest, this is a very relevant topic in the short-term rental space. And so much of real estate investing is starting to become dominated by the short-term rental space. This is what everybody\u2019s talking about. This is where the highest returns are. In a lot of ways, this is the future of real estate investing is you got to do more than just buy a property, set it and forget it. You got to learn how to host something, create an experience, and outshine your competition. And in today\u2019s show, Mark gives us some examples of how to do just that. Mark actually came from a background of hospitality. He grew up with people in his house as they ran a bed and breakfast, and his mind was formed and forged in the fires of hospitality. And he gives us some tremendous advice for what you could do to make your place stand out.
And frankly, I think if you\u2019re going to try to be in this space in the future, you have to know how to do it without relying on Airbnb or Vrbo. Rob, you could probably speak to this better than anyone, but it\u2019s getting harder and harder to stand out on those sites. Airbnb recently just redid their whole algorithm. And people\u2019s entire business models were shaken as they\u2019re trying to now scramble and figure out, how do I make my place unique? How do I make it different? How do I make it clichy sort of so that it can stand out with Airbnb? What\u2019s your experience been like since they switched things up?<\/p>\n

Rob:
You know what? It\u2019s still the same thing, right? We\u2019re still booking and everything, but there\u2019s a game to it, right? All algorithms out there, whether it\u2019s YouTube or Airbnb, there\u2019s a game that you got to play and you got to play by their rules. So, [inaudible 00:03:20]. You know what? I think that\u2019s a good segue, David, into today\u2019s quick, quick, quick tip. Pretty good, pretty good. I like the combo here. So today\u2019s quick tip is really going to be to diversify where you\u2019re listing your short-term rentals. I know as hosts, a lot of the times, our go-to is going to be Airbnb, but it\u2019s really smart to consider putting your different units and homes on other websites, Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and even considering going direct, right? Direct booking website where people can directly book from you and you can cut out the middleman and be the customer service.
You can be the person that\u2019s dictating all the fees. You can be the person that\u2019s providing that one-on-one experience with your guests. I think that this is very important and relevant today because I\u2019ve just seen a lot of people getting locked out of their different accounts on several OTAs. And when that happens, it can be a really big, stressful moment for you and your business. But if you diversify and you have your short-term rental listed on different websites, if one of those websites crashes or it goes down or locks you out, you still can get booked on all the other different websites out there. So, diversify as you move into your short term rental journey.<\/p>\n

David:
Absolutely. I love it. And this is sort of cutting edge information that we\u2019re sharing with you here at BiggerPockets because we love you. And with that, let\u2019s bring in today\u2019s featured guest, [inaudible 00:04:37], Mark Simpson. So Mark, welcome to the BiggerPockets podcast. How are you today?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Amazing. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me. Nice to speak to you two today.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. First off, I want to compliment you on your hair and your beard. You\u2019ve inspired me. I may copy it. It looks incredible on you.<\/p>\n

Mark:
I went to the barber shop today and said, \u201cCan I have the David?\u201d And he just said, \u201cI know what you mean, the David Greene.\u201d And he just went-<\/p>\n

Rob:
He said, say no more, fam.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Say no more.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s when you know that you have made it. First off, you\u2019re known by one name, right? Madonna, Fabio, J-Lo. When you\u2019re known by one name, you know you\u2019re famous. Now Mark, I understand that you and Rob have a previously established relationship, so I\u2019m a bit of the third wheel here. Can you tell our audience how you two know each other?<\/p>\n

Mark:
I mean, I can go first, Rob, if you like. I\u2019ve been a massive fan of Rob\u2019s channel for about, I\u2019d say, the last year and a half. I\u2019ve been really digging into it and I would just [inaudible 00:05:34]. Every now and again, when something comes up on Instagram, I slide in the DMs and just saying, hey, massive fan, [inaudible 00:05:41]. As our relationship grew and he started to actually look at the messages because he gets so many, I said, \u201cHey, let\u2019s have a chat about direct bookings sometimes.\u201d And every single time I\u2019ve seen videos this year in 2022 of BiggerPockets, and any time Rob talks about direct bookings, I\u2019ve slowly seen him get a bit more gentler towards it. And I like to feel like my influence in the DMs has been a little part of that to where now, we\u2019re doing little bits together behind the scenes and super excited.
But I do actually have an Instagram story about you, David. I actually sent you a message about a couple of months ago and it was just as I feel like me and Rob are starting to chat and I said, oh, because you followed me on Instagram. And I was like, oh, no way. Mr. David Greene has followed me, so I sent a little message back saying, \u201cHey, massive fan. Thank you very much for the follow.\u201d And then you send back a reply, which is kind of like, \u201cHey.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOh, he must be busy.\u201d It\u2019s a very short shot message, and sent a couple of more messages back and forth. And then all of a sudden, you sent me a message back and you started talking about crypto. This has taken a turn. So before I knew it, I was giving over my Bitcoin wallet and the rest is history. But it turns out, it wasn\u2019t you [inaudible 00:06:51]. It turns out I was chatting to a David Greene impersonator.<\/p>\n

Rob:
And now, Mark lives under a bridge.<\/p>\n

Mark:
And now, I\u2019d have to sell everything.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. And yet, Instagram still just won\u2019t give me the freaking blue check mark. It\u2019s like, how many people have to get ripped off from this? I\u2019ve tried about 25 times.<\/p>\n

Mark:
[inaudible 00:07:09]. Here we are.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, I\u2019m sorry about that, Mark. Hopefully, you didn\u2019t spend any money.<\/p>\n

Mark:
I\u2019m good.<\/p>\n

Rob:
No, I think he was just kidding. Yeah, but I did, I\u2019ve sent you several Bitcoin, David. And I like that return please. So yeah, I got locked out of Airbnb not too long ago for a very short amount of time. I think it was for less than a week. But that\u2019s a big deal for Airbnb hosts, short-term rental hosts altogether. I\u2019ve been seeing more stories like this pop up. My students have been locked out. And yeah, Mark, he\u2019s been very tenacious, I guess, on Instagram. And we were chatting back and forth. And then all of a sudden, I got locked out and I was like, wait a minute. I know a guy. I know a guy that is all about direct booking so that this never happens again. So it all came together and culminated into a beautiful, beautiful relationship. And fast forward to today, he was speaking to my students not too long ago and actually delivered a Chipotle burrito to me in the middle of the presentation and he instructed the Uber Eats eater specifically to interrupt my Zoom presentation when the burrito got here. So, I had a burrito on camera not too long ago. And that\u2019s our relationship.<\/p>\n

David:
You really are, Rob, like the personification of a millennial in so many ways. The shirt you\u2019re wearing right now, your very eccentric hairstyle, your obsession with Chipotle for 80% of your dietary needs, you\u2019ve got that millennial [inaudible 00:08:32]. You\u2019ve got it down really, really good. But Mark, I don\u2019t know you and I want to know a little bit more about you, so tell us. I\u2019m fascinated. Other than where do you live and where does that accent come from, how did you get started in real estate? What is your story, your origin story of how you ended up getting your first house?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. So I\u2019ve pretty much been born into hospitality pretty much. I grew up on a 200-acre farm in the middle of nowhere in the United Kingdom. As you can tell, this accent is over the pond. So I\u2019m from the UK, grew up on a farm. And in the 90s, my parents turned a 200-acre farm and they converted a ban and put a bed and breakfast on it, and then they converted another ban and put some holiday cottages. And this is before the time of social media, this is before the time of Airbnb and all that good stuff. And they literally relied on very old school methods to advertise their business. It was word of mouth and it was magazine advertisements and newspaper advertisements. And I just grew up in a world where I was so used to strangers being in our house, being in my kitchen, all 24\/7, 7 days a week.
And I grew up serving breakfasts and doing all of the things before school. And then eventually as I grew older, I had an opportunity to move away from the farm and do soccer coaching and spent pretty much my 20s traveling around America, coaching soccer, an amazing time, then eventually moved back to the UK, and that\u2019s when I came back into the business. It was me and my wife and my eldest. We moved back into the family business in 2011. And by this point, [inaudible 00:10:05] for 25 years, but we\u2019re still doing everything pen and paper. And my job was to get it online. Being a millennial, my parents looked at me like, well, you\u2019ve been on the internet once, you should know how to do this. And that\u2019s literally what we did. We grew that offline word of mouth and put it online and utilized online reviews.
We utilized Facebook and social media to grow the business, as well as the online travel agents. In the UK, Booking.com is probably the biggest, was the biggest. And Airbnb has slowly been playing catch up over the years. But we built up a business where we didn\u2019t rely on Airbnb. We focused on our direct bookings and we grew that. Yeah, and then fast forward to 2016, I started to go to hospitality meetups in our area, in the area of Scalby, United Kingdom and started to chat to other hosts, other hosts that were either one property in or 5 or 10 properties in. And the big annoyance there was they were having to rely on Booking.com and the whatnots for their bookings. And that\u2019s when I started doing Boostly. That\u2019s when I started helping hosts figure out how they can generate their own bookings and not have to rely on Airbnb or Booking.com.<\/p>\n

David:
It sounds like you\u2019re out there doing God\u2019s work, and I want to thank you for that. So, Rob actually called me the other night in a complete panic as he often does, 2:00 o\u2019clock in the morning and freaking out. And he told me a story about a guess we had at our Scottsdale property that wasn\u2019t happy. Actually, he wasn\u2019t in a panic at all, it was one of those like, if I had hair, I would be pulling it out of my head. I have another person asking for a discount over nothing. And apparently, this guest had actually pulled a gun on our cleaners and then had the audacity to turn around and ask us for a discount. And Rob was like, \u201cAnd you know what? I had to freaking give it to them.\u201d Because you get in this position with Airbnb where you\u2019re being held hostage. And if you don\u2019t give this person what they want, they threaten you with a bad review. You end up playing this really just disastrous game of chicken with the guests where Airbnb has to figure this problem out because sometimes, you\u2019re a normal person.
I\u2019ve never even thought of asking for a discount. If I go to an Airbnb and they run out of toilet paper, I just go buy more. I don\u2019t think about threatening the person with a bad review if they don\u2019t give me what I want or hand-delivering toilet paper, but I\u2019m finding out many people do. And it sounds like it\u2019s turning in some ways into Craigslist where you\u2019re offering a bicycle for $200 and someone offers you 75 bucks. It\u2019s like a bidding war. It turns into an auction. So I wanted to ask you, Rob, not just with our house, but with your experience on Airbnb in general, how big of a problem is the threats of bad reviews and hurting your standings with getting bookings? And how important is a direct booking system like what Mark is talking about to the operator\u2019s chances of success?<\/p>\n

Rob:
I have always considered Airbnb walking on a tightrope of sorts where it\u2019s just a game of balance. It is a hospitality business, and so in some regards, I do feel like Airbnb, which I use anonymously with just any OTA, OTA stands for online travel agency, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll use that term several times today, but in any platform, whether it\u2019s Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, there is some push and pull here with customer service and the checks and balances of the different securities that they offer to their hosts and everything like that. And it does force me to stay very hospitable, keep up the hospitality aspect of my business. I\u2019m happy to do that. But there is a very interesting moment where a guest might damage something, they might leave you damages anywhere from 50 to 500 bucks. Usually, anything that\u2019s under $50, I\u2019m not really going to charge a guest back for, but over $50, it starts getting hairy, right?
And it\u2019s like 51 bucks, I don\u2019t know, am I really going to charge a guest for that? $75, as hosts, we get very scared to charge that back to the guest even though it\u2019s within our right to do it because the moment you send a guest a message and say, hey, you stained our rug, it\u2019s going to be 75 bucks to get it spot cleaned or whatever, then now, they have a tainted experience at your place. They\u2019ll be like, oh, come on, it was an accident or whatever. It was just a wine glass. You really want to charge me for that? And so, you get into this mindset where you ask yourself, is charging a guest $50 worth a four-star review? And if you\u2019re just starting out your Airbnb business or your Airbnb listing, it\u2019s not worth it because if you have five five-star reviews and then one four-star review, guess what? Your ranking just went down to a 4.7 or a 4.75 all because a guest, and it was their fault, broke something in your house and you charge them for it and it forced them to think of all the negative things that happened during their stay when it would\u2019ve just been a five-star stay otherwise.
So, this is a huge pain point for Airbnb hosts, and that\u2019s just on small things, right? But then you get into other situations, like the Scottsdale guest that you were talking about, David, where they smoked a bunch of pot in the house and it smells like pot in there right now. And that can affect future bookings and that can leave a bad experience for other people. We got to charge these people 500 bucks, whatever, to fumigate it, do the ozone treatment and all that stuff. And now, we know that they\u2019re probably not going to leave us a five-star review. So, it\u2019s a whole thing, right? It\u2019s like the customer service aspect of Airbnb. It\u2019s a hospitality business, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s still a business and you still do have to make money. So yeah, when you\u2019re at the mercy of the checks and balances of OTAs, it makes it tough to be profitable in certain situations, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

David:
So here\u2019s my understanding of how OTAs have of evolved over the years, Mark, and I want to get your professional opinion on if I\u2019m accurate. At first, people put a house on Vrbo, Airbnb. It booked like hot cakes you almost couldn\u2019t miss in the short-term rental space. Everyone was crushing it. The money started to move in that direction, the market got really hot. It became hard to get cash flow of any kind if you weren\u2019t doing short-term rentals, and so more and more people got into this space. Now, it\u2019s become somewhat saturated. In some areas, you\u2019re okay, but in others, you\u2019re competing with other people over these guests, and it\u2019s pushing the prices down to the point it\u2019s almost not making sense.
And now, you\u2019re at a point where the tenant has the leverage and the relationship. There, they get to choose which properties they want to book. They get to ask for discounts if they come. They break the rules, you\u2019re afraid to say anything because you don\u2019t want a bad review. The owners of these properties not only do they have to deal with problems of neighbors, problems of the possible city changing regulations, the evil landlord clause that sort of reigns over the industry right now, and the tenants having power. You seem like you\u2019ve figured out a way around that. Just don\u2019t go through those means where you don\u2019t have the leverage. First off, am I accurate with my understanding of the evolution of the industry? And then second, what is Boostly now doing to try to fix this?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. No, you\u2019re 100% spot on. And for a lot of people, and especially a lot of people who are coming into the industry right now, believe it or not, there was a time in this industry that was before Airbnb, before OTAs, before instant book. I mean 2015, you go onto any of these online travel agents and it was request a book. Even like early days, Airbnb, there was no instant book. The only reason that they bought that in was to compete with Booking.com, which is the Booking Holdings Group and Vrbo, which was HomeAway, which is the Expedia group, which owns Expedia and all that jazz. And with instant book coming in and with commission being a big thing because back in the day as well, to be on a listing site, you paid an annual subscription fee, but then people started to come along like Booking.com, et cetera and say, hey, don\u2019t pay as any annual subscription fee, just pay as a commission if a booking comes in.
And for a first time host, it\u2019s like, wow, this is amazing. For marketing and for advertising, if it doesn\u2019t work, I don\u2019t have to pay any money. And we are in an industry, [inaudible 00:18:11] hospitality, short-term rentals, midterm rentals, whatever you want to call it, all of this is hospitality as Rob alluded to. And in this hospitality industry, we are in the industry of making memories. So it\u2019s not like when you buy [inaudible 00:18:23] from Amazon, it\u2019s just a one-off purchase, that\u2019s fine. We are in an industry where people literally come and stay with you and they will remember it for years. They will talk about it with their family, with their friends, et cetera. And because of that, it is so in demand. You both now can look at your calendar and you\u2019ll just know there\u2019s dates in that calendar for all your properties that you could book three or four times over depending on the time of the year.
And because it is so in demand, it is so easy to get bookings. And Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo [inaudible 00:18:52] spent billions making sure that they\u2019re in the right product placement. So again, when you first start and you\u2019ve got that one property and you\u2019ve got all those plates that are spinning, everything that you have to know to do, when it comes to marketing, you can just take a couple of pictures on your phone, you can upload it to a website, Airbnb, and be pretty much be guaranteed to get bookings. And because it is so easy, you then become over complacent and lazy and over reliant on one platform. So it becomes a problem when, for example, you get a bad review from a guest or a guest complains to Airbnb and they side with the guest or for whatever reason, your listing gets taken down.
And it\u2019s happening more and more and more now. And if you are a host or a property management company that is looking to grow and scale, and if you are more of a 90% reliant on one channel for your revenue coming in, you\u2019re playing a very dicey, dangerous game because all it takes is for your account to get hacked, you\u2019re listening to get locked down, or a couple of crappy reviews, or a total algorithm change by Airbnb where suddenly, you\u2019re on page one and the next day, you\u2019re on page five or six where nobody looks. So, it\u2019s really important that we flip that around and we look to get everybody to a 65% direct and then at 35% relying on third-parties a AKA OTAs.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. I do you want to add to that list because you were saying all it takes is a hack or this or that. It also takes things that are not even actual [inaudible 00:20:20]. Okay, let me articulate this correctly. We had a bedbug scare in one of our properties three or four months ago, maybe five months ago. And the guest sent over a photo of a bug. And we sent that over to our pest control. People were like, oh my gosh, is it a bed bug? And they\u2019re like, we don\u2019t think so, but we\u2019ll go check. So they go and they report that to Airbnb, obviously. I mean, I don\u2019t necessarily blame them for that, but Airbnb immediately locked that listing, they deactivated the listing, and then we got the pest control people to come out. And then the pest control people were like, oh, actually, it\u2019s not bedbugs, it\u2019s a thing called bat bugs, easy to treat. They found all the different places to plug the home.
All that type of stuff, we had it resolved in a day or two. But even with that, we had to submit a report that basically vowed that we didn\u2019t have bedbugs and we had to do all this stuff. And that account could not be booked or that listing could not be booked for six weeks. And that was a property that we had with an investor. So we\u2019re over here scrambling, trying to make it happen as much as possible. Luckily, it did end up getting resolved. We\u2019d been booking like hotcakes otherwise and we still are making a lot of money on that property. But for people that are just starting out, if that\u2019s your first experience with a short-term rental, that can really taint the rest of your journey, right? And so luckily, I\u2019ve done this a while now, so I\u2019m able to stay calm whenever there\u2019s a bedbug scare or whenever a guest pulls a gun out on our cleaner, all that kind of stuff.
It doesn\u2019t phase me quite as much, but it is interesting to hear you say that, Mark, because really at the end of the day, using different OTAs, like Airbnb and Vrbo, it gives the guests all the leverage. They have all the leverage to basically do whatever they want. There\u2019s some good and some bad, right? With short-term rentals in general like Airbnb, they\u2019re going to bring the marketing, they\u2019re going to bring you the guests. You don\u2019t have to go and market your listing. But certainly now as I\u2019ve done this for five, six years, I\u2019m definitely starting to feel this stat of 65% direct bookings that you referenced there because yeah, it does make sense to bring it all in-house at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. And I feel like it all boils down to when you are so reliant on Airbnb for your bookings, you literally have a boss at that point, and you are literally building your house and your business on somebody else\u2019s land because they can turn around at any point and change the rules. Or like you said, if a guest book\u2019s through there and they complain to Airbnb, they are going to always side with the guest over the host. It doesn\u2019t matter what you\u2019ve got, systems and things in place. It just happens more often than not. And it\u2019s scary to see. Now, if a guest book\u2019s direct with you and you\u2019ve got your systems and structures in place, which is what we will talk about, then that situation with the bedbug, you would\u2019ve had direct communication with the guests, right there and then, you could have sorted it on your terms, on your rules, and you\u2019re not then having to have that little niggling doubt in your head that there\u2019s going to be somebody looking over you making all of the calls and the decisions and you\u2019re worried about it.
And the best example I can give on this and one that I feel that any host that\u2019s been around since 2019 will be able to relate to is that in March 2020 when the world went a little bit upside down and all of these regulations and rules were starting to put in place, Airbnb in the middle of March just sent a notification out to all guests and all hosts at the same time, so no word of warning to hosts, so at the same point, everybody woke up with a notification saying that obviously with everything that\u2019s going on in the world, any guest can cancel their stay free of charge, it doesn\u2019t matter what the policy is. Now, that ended up ending so many management companies and host businesses because they just couldn\u2019t survive it because straight away, guests went and canceled. There\u2019s no one in to host.
Now the kickback that I get when I talk about that story is, well, just because a guest booked direct doesn\u2019t mean they didn\u2019t cancel. Yeah, sure. But what we did at our family business is in March, we were able to have the phone number and the email address of every guest that booked of us direct. All we did was we literally called them. We\u2019re real vulnerable and just said, hey, everything that\u2019s going on in the world, obviously, you\u2019ve got this booking coming up with us. Obviously, you can\u2019t make it. But instead of canceling it, let\u2019s change it. So, we adopted a change, not cancel approach. And we were able to save five figures in reservations and just move it to later on in a year or next year and we\u2019re able to help get us through that part. Guests and hosts that relied solely on Airbnb weren\u2019t so lucky. They literally had no way of communicating with the guests because Airbnb don\u2019t share email addresses, they don\u2019t like you communicating with the guests. Those that were reliant solely on one platform didn\u2019t make it out the other end.
And this is why it\u2019s really important that we actually now start to turn this around. And this is why I\u2019m trying to help 1 million hosts cut down over reliance on the OTAs because if we can do so, if we can do this, we will get a foot at the table at these OTAs. At the moment, all of these Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, they look at hosts as just a number. They just look a number [inaudible 00:25:19] their massive stock list. We are not partners as they keep saying, partners [inaudible 00:25:24]. We have to get aware of them. And at the moment, they don\u2019t think that hosts as an Airbnb hosts want to do their own direct bookings. I\u2019m a stubborn [inaudible 00:25:36] and I want to show them that we can do this. It is simple to do this. And my whole thing is about going old school to go new school. So what old school tactic can we do to drive in bookings and revenue?<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. So knowing what you know here, obviously, that the hosts are a number and everything like that, is there a dystopian outlook for using one or two major listing websites?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. So very recently, Skiff, which is a big industry publication, put out a graph and it showed the reliance on where the bookings are going on these platforms, and they took the top five. And out the top five was the free standout, so Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. And in 2017, Airbnb had 15% of the market. So 2017, about five years ago, they had 15% of the market. The wave that the graph is going, the prediction is by 2025, so only a couple of years away, they\u2019ll have 60% of the market. Airbnb are not only playing catch up, they\u2019re going to dominate this industry in terms of where the bookings are coming from. My belief and my opinion is that Airbnb want to become the Amazon of the short-term rental industry.
And if they get to that point, there\u2019s nothing from stopping them from turning around to hosts all on their platform and saying, you know what, Dave, Rob? We feel like this relationship isn\u2019t accurate, isn\u2019t fair. You only pay us, say, 14% commission at the present moment in time. Let\u2019s bump that up to 20. Let\u2019s bump that up to 25, 30, 40, 50%. Amazon, they take up to 66% commission for everything that is sold on that platform. That is crazy. And there\u2019s nothing from stopping from Airbnb doing something similar. And they\u2019re making all of the rules tighter, tighter, tighter. And at the moment, we\u2019re lucky. At the moment, we still\u2026 Some hosts only pay 3% commission. If you\u2019re a pro host, you actually have to pay a little bit more if you\u2019re connected up to a property management software, but we\u2019re going to talk about it soon. You\u2019re going to pay a little bit more.
But the worry is that this industry becomes so reliant on Airbnb that they can dictate the rules at any point. And when that happens, and it\u2019s bad enough now, if that happens in the future, then more and more hosts are going to be going out of business or having to pay deep, deep commission costs for something that is simple that we can stop now by starting to think about marketing ourselves, marketing our own businesses, which is what every other industry needs to do. We do website design at Boostly. There\u2019s no listing site that I can go and put Boostly websites on and generate revenue. I have to brand myself. I have to go on podcasts and do all of the social media things. Short-term rental hosts have to start doing that now if we don\u2019t want to go down that route of being very reliant on Airbnb.<\/p>\n

Rob:
100%. I mean you\u2019re talking about marketing your listing, right? If you want to market your listing out to the masses, I know that you have to have a ideal audience or demographic or avatar in mind. And I\u2019ve heard you say that most people don\u2019t know their potential guest avatar. So, do you think you could just really briefly explain what this means and why would not knowing your avatar be impacting your bookings?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah, it\u2019s a great point and it\u2019s a great question. And when you say avatar, I guarantee [inaudible 00:28:44] so many listening to this or watching this will be like, what is even an avatar? And the most simplest way to put it in terms of hospitality short-term rentals is that the ideal guest that you want to walk through the door. And when you really nail down who that avatar, who the ideal guest is, it makes everything so much easier because at the end of the day, you haven\u2019t got an Etsy store, you haven\u2019t got an Amazon store, you haven\u2019t got unlimited downloads. There\u2019s only a certain amount of heads that you can fit on beds. There\u2019s only a certain amount of inventory that you have.
And the biggest problem that I see in this industry with the millions of hosts that are out there is that we\u2019re trying to appeal to everybody. When you appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody. And another cliche phrase, \u201cThe riches are in the niches.\u201d So if you can really figure out, number one, who is your ideal guest? So, who is the type of guest that is coming to my location, Scottsdale, wherever it may be? Who is the type of people that are coming to here? Is it all leisure? Is it a mixture of business and leisure? Is it families? Is it solo people? Is it digital nomads? Whoever it may be. So, you figure out who that is. So, who\u2019s coming to the area?
And then what you do is you look at your property and it\u2019s like, okay, so what is my property good for? And then, has it got a pool, has it got a real good bed to bath ratio, has it got private parking, really good wifi? And then what you\u2019ll then do is you go, okay, so this is who\u2019s coming to the area, this is what my property\u2019s good for. Now, what can I do with my property to really speak to my niche? And as a prime example, a person that I was speaking to, she had a couple of properties on the coast, some amazing seaside properties. You could see the beach sea, see the sea literally from the window. And the location where she was at was well-known for surf. And she was trying to decide on who her avatar was.
And the property, the way it was laid out, it was repelling who her ideal guest was because that was ideal for surfers to come away for a surf break, but she was doing the exact opposite. So a little couple of tweaks. So for example, by stipulating in the listing on a marketing, on a social media literally how close the property was to the beach by putting in some surf racks, private parking, all of that stuff, she was able to really focus and niche down on her avatar and her ideal guests. And with that, the people that walked through her door were the ideal people. They literally, as soon as they landed in the door, it was like an instant five-star review because it matched everything what that guest wanted and needed, so you didn\u2019t have people rocking up and pulling guns on cleaners and all that stuff.<\/p>\n

David:
I love that. So here\u2019s what I like about it, as a real estate investor, we don\u2019t have to think about the avatar of who\u2019s going to be staying at our house. It\u2019s someone who needs a place to live. Maybe I might think, what kind of job does this person have, so what kind of rent can they afford? That\u2019s about as far as it goes. But as a host of a hospitality asset, you do need to be thinking about that. So, what are some of the mistakes that you see people making, Mark, that are real estate investors approaching it with the real estate investor mindset that don\u2019t understand that they\u2019re actually becoming a hospitality host?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Well, this is the main thing is that everybody comes to it and they sort of take off the hospitality hat. I don\u2019t mind. I don\u2019t care where you\u2019ve come from or what niche or [inaudible 00:31:54] you\u2019re coming into. As soon as you have strangers coming to stay in your property, you\u2019re in my world of hospitality. So, you always have to think hospitable first. Hospitality is the main part of it. And if you can, always think about making sure that that guest has got the most amazing stay in your property, then you\u2019ll win time and time again. There\u2019s a saying that I came up when I created The Book Direct Playbook, which is the book that I put out this year that the tagline was, \u201cThere\u2019s a story behind every booking.\u201d
And I don\u2019t care if a guest is staying with you for work or for leisure or for a family stay, but there\u2019s a story behind the booking. It\u2019s up to you as a host or it\u2019s up for you as your team to make sure that you can uncover what that story is and how can you make that stay memorable because if you can make that stay memorable, what it means is that you will not have to market your business. Your guests will become super fans and they will market your business for you. The referral networks, the comeback ability, all of that is there for years to come. But the first thing you\u2019ve got to do is you\u2019ve got to take off that real estate hat, take off the numbers hat, take off the Airbnb hat, and just put on that hospitality hat for a second and just think, okay, what can I do to make sure that I can make my guest stay as best as possible?<\/p>\n

Rob:
That\u2019s super fair. I always say this, and I think I was telling you this too, David, because you just bought 15 short-term rentals in two hours. I don\u2019t know. It took you a month. But either way, you were talking about the idea of getting a property manager and I was like, well first, I honestly think to anybody that buys 15 properties or that\u2019s really getting into this, that you should really be in the weeds of your business for a little bit. If you want to go the property manager route, that\u2019s totally fine, do that. But give yourself 2, 3, 4 weeks out of minimum to just understand how guests communicate, how they communicate specifically about your property, what are the common questions that come up about your property.
Because I have a lot of different Airbnb listings, and the common questions that I get for each listing are wildly different. You never really know, right? And people ask you things and you\u2019re like, wow, okay, there\u2019s something not clear about my property or there\u2019s something super appealing about my property, and you find out your guest avatar, kind of to your point, Mark. But either way, for me, I like people being entrenched in the nuts and bolts of their businesses before they hand it off just because if you learn how to drive up the hospitality and how to be a good host, then you know how to manage a property manager. That\u2019s always been my stance.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, let me just say, I would not recommend anyone else do what I did. 15 short-term rentals at one time has turned out to be a very taxing endeavor that I don\u2019t think was very wise to get into. I do that often.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Mentally taxing, not financially taxing. That should probably help you out [inaudible 00:34:41].<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m getting at. I had somebody who was helping manage my portfolio that I had to let go because they couldn\u2019t keep up with the strain of all that goes into this, plus a lot of them had rehabs. It\u2019s a very challenging time for me right now trying to keep up with all of this stuff that\u2019s going on. So I think you\u2019re right, it would be much better to have taken this at one or two at a time. So, I don\u2019t want anyone to hear this and think that they should go copy. What I did there, it\u2019s been a little bit crazy. And I actually was thinking, Mark, maybe I\u2019d hire you as a consultant to see what could be done to get some of this stuff off the ground a little bit quicker.
But you do make a very good point there, Rob, that you want to understand the asset class that you are getting into. Mark, I think our audience would really benefit from any specific examples like the one you gave of the surfer home where someone approached it thinking just like an investor, like oh, on a spreadsheet, this is what it should bring in and this is my occupancy, and it\u2019s all science, there\u2019s no art. And then you seeing, hey, here\u2019s some tweaks somebody made on the art side. They added surf racks, they advertised it, it was very close to the beach that it actually impacted the numbers that the property brought in.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. Well, there\u2019s another great story as well. And when we talk about of hospitality and how you can really make sure that your business will thrive on the other end, we had a lady that was part of the Boostly community and she had a lakeside property, and this is what I\u2019m talking about, like old school market and how it can really help your business. She had a person book at her lakeside property. And they booked direct. And on the note it said, \u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to come and stay at your lakeside property. Little Timmy\u2019s 9th birthday. He\u2019s wanting to learn how to fish.\u201d And what the host did is\u2026 What most people would do, and the most problematic thing that people would do is they would just look at that note and go, oh, that\u2019s nice, little Timmy\u2019s birthday. Well, that\u2019s fantastic. But what this lady did was on the day of arrival, she went to the fish and bait and tackle shop and she bought a fish and rod and just a couple of other things, like some bait tackle, et cetera, and went 5 to 10 minutes out of her way. So, she did a meet and greet with the family.
And before the family arrived, she put the little gift with a little card on the dock just as the people parking up and going up to the property. The family arrives and they see that note and they opened it and it go, \u201cDear Timmy, have an amazing 9th birthday. Here\u2019s a little gift from us, the property manager, just to get you on your way in your fishing journey.\u201d And instantly, that was a little tweak that they had made to their business, a little gift that cost no more than 30, $40, and it impacted massively because what happened was that guest instantly pictures Instagram, social media, so they had the social proof right there. And then when they went home, they were talking about it to their friends and the family members. And then it was that same guest repeat book for the next five years, brought their friends with them and told all of their coworkers, et cetera. So, a little gift like that, a little shift, a little look at the property, a little, okay, what can I do to make this guest experience even better, and it resulted in thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of direct bookings. And it\u2019s all because of one little tweak that they made.
And that\u2019s just one little example. I think one thing that every host should be doing right now, everybody that has got a short-term rental business, whether it\u2019s one property, five properties or 10 properties or more, you should all be looking right now and just look at the property, look at the area and go, well, what can I do to make sure that I can make sure that the ideal guest that I want to walk through this door make sure that it\u2019s as easy as bookable as possible and making it stand out. One of the easiest things you can do right now is to get a little floor plan, a little cartoon floor plan drawn. You can get someone on [inaudible 00:38:34] cost about 20, $30. And what it does is it lays out your property instantly from an Airbnb listing or a Vrbo listing or even a social media because there\u2019s so many people that book with you first time without properly knowing the layout of your property. So, little tweaks like that you can do that will really make sure that your property stands out really will help gain those heads in beds.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. So Mark, we covered the idea of what hosts are neglecting as they move from real estate into the hospitality side of things. We\u2019ve also covered why relying on one platform is bad. I mean, I think one of the big reasons there obviously is guests have a lot of leverage. And if you have all your eggs in one basket and you get shut down or hacked or whatever, your business is effectively over until you\u2019re able to restore your account. So for people that are going into the direct booking option, and even to clarify this for people at home that may not know what we mean, we mean if you were to buy a domain like robuilthomes.com, I should have brought that before I said this, but robuiltholmes.com, and you can go and actually book your stay through my personal website and I\u2019m the one that controls basically all the customer service and everything like that. For people that are going that route and just for people that are still even using OTAs, do you feel that hosts are neglecting the security and the guest screening that comes along with guests that are booking stays at their home? And what are some tips here for people that are still booking on those sites and even through a direct booking website?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. This is definitely something that is a big pain point. And so many people are saying a guest has booked and they\u2019ve shown up with X amount of people. It started really during the lockdowns where, especially over here in the UK, all of the nightclubs were closed. You couldn\u2019t really go on a proper night out. So, what was happening was people were booking a stay, they were booking a stay in their town or their city. They say, yep, two people are turning up. And then before you know it, there\u2019s 16 people and there\u2019s a party going on in your short-term rental business. So, there\u2019s a big problem with security and guest screening. Luckily now, compared to when I first got started in 2011 properly in short-term rentals, there\u2019s so many providers and software and service tools that are available to short-term rental hosts, people who\u2019ve 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 properties that wasn\u2019t there before.
So, one of the best things that everybody can be doing is looking to getting guest screening software set up as soon as possible. There\u2019s one over here in the UK that is a worldwide brand that\u2019s called Superhog, S-U-P-E-R-H-O-G, that\u2019s a really good one. And what it basically does when a guest books, what happens is they get a little notification, they have to verify who they say they are, so as that guest screening element. And when it comes to it, even if a guest books via a platform or if they book direct, you\u2019ve got to make sure that you are protecting your investment at the end of the day. And a lot of people talk about making sure that you\u2019ve got exterior cameras set up. Obviously, don\u2019t do the interior cameras, that\u2019s gets you into a lot of trouble, but the exterior cameras, making sure you\u2019ve got relevant guest screening. But again, it\u2019s still something that so many people don\u2019t do, and it\u2019s those guests that don\u2019t put those simple blueprint in place, the foundations in place to have a very successful short-term rental business are ones that you see that come onto Reddit, that come into the Facebook groups and complain about X, Y or Zed [inaudible 00:41:58].<\/p>\n

David:
All right. That\u2019s a great point, Mark. I like that you highlighted guests screening. And protecting your investing is another part of the hospitality business that you don\u2019t have to think about with typical real estate investing. When it comes to what hosts are putting on their profile, what are some things that are commonly missed?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. So, one of the big things that I show hosts how to do is how you can take someone from an OTA into a direct booking. And one of the best ways and the best places to start is your listing, literally your profile on Airbnb. And everybody has the ability to make your listing on Airbnb look super professional but at the same time showcasing your business and your brand. And so what it will end up doing is it\u2019ll take a guest from Airbnb to a Google Search where hopefully they will then click on your direct booking website. So one of the main things that people can do is go onto your Airbnb listing right now and you\u2019ve got your first six pictures, which are obviously your most important pictures, we call them your hero images or your unique selling pictures, and what you can do on there is you can watermark them with your business and your brand.
So say that you\u2019ve got the Rob House and the David House, but the overall brand is, let\u2019s just say, the Mark business brand. Then what you can do is on these individual listings, you can put your logo of your business on there, so instantly to the user because as a user, as a generation of people that are using these, we skim read at best. So you\u2019re looking at the images and instantly, every single one of them is watermarked, so the user knows that, okay, so this is a proper business. This isn\u2019t somebody who is just listing a house for a hobby, this is somebody that\u2019s properly doing this as a business. And then the next hack that you can do is in your profile, so everybody on Airbnb, and this is really cool, you don\u2019t get this on Vrbo and you don\u2019t get this on Booking.com, but everybody on Airbnb has a profile and you\u2019d be amazed at how many people when the guest is going through. So your future potential guest is going through the booking process. They actually go and check out your profile and you can actually put a little bio in. This is one of the most undertapped resources that I see on the platform from host that we do marketing reviews for is you\u2019ve got that first little bit of the bio.
And the first line in particular, you can introduce yourself as, hey, my name is Mark, I\u2019m part of Boostlybnb, please check out our online reviews. They\u2019re really good. Now, we\u2019re not directly saying on our Airbnb profile to go check out boostly.co.uk. We\u2019re not directing people to a domain because Airbnb will obviously shut that down. But what we\u2019re saying is we\u2019re introducing ourselves as being a business, being ourselves as a property management company or just a professional business on Airbnb, but to go and check out our online reviews, they\u2019re rather good. So instantly, what happens there is that the guests will see that, they\u2019ll go to Google, they\u2019ll type in your business name in the location where you\u2019re at, and obviously then, your website will pop up, any social media that you have, and obviously your Google business listing. So, those are two things that everybody can do right now. It\u2019ll take a couple of minutes, but it instantly will separate you from everybody else. When everyone\u2019s zigging, you got to zag in this industry. And so, that\u2019s one of the two core things that every Airbnb host should be doing.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. Oh man, as an educator in this space, it does kill me whenever someone has a listing that they\u2019ll ask for feedback on it, for example, and be like, what do you think? And then they have one sentence for the whole entire listing and then photos that were taken on a cell phone and I\u2019m like, dude, you got to spend an hour just writing what this place is a writeup about it, and then spend like 250 to 500 bucks on professional photos. And if you do that, you\u2019ll increase your booking significantly. So in the vein of you got to zig when others zag, a lot of people in this space think beds and heads, that\u2019s all I really need, right? To have a successful Airbnb business is just putting as many people I can into a house. What are your thoughts there?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. No, you\u2019re right. And this is more than just a heads on beds game. It really is about the guest experience. And now more than ever, your guests that are staying in your property, they\u2019re looking at the amenities as much as it is for a real good pillow and a real good comfy bed to sleep on. So for example, one of the most important things that Airbnb is going to be focusing on in 2023, and this is based on all of the searches that they get and all of the data that they have is WiFi. Your WiFi speed is going to be crucial, even more so the\u2026 It\u2019s only a matter of time before in the filter of your Airbnb listing will a future potential guest be able to filter the internet speed, depending on what property you show. So right now, you can go into your property, you can open up your Airbnb app, and you can do a speed test, and you can submit that speed test to Airbnb and they\u2019ll say if it\u2019s poor, good or excellent.
So if you have really good WiFi, you should be definitely tapping into that and taking full advantage of it because again, it just makes your property stand out so much more. And not only just talk about it on Airbnb and your listing sites, but talk about it on social, talk about it on your website as well, talk about that because the digital nomad or the slomad, which is going to be a new phrase in 2023, this is going to get even more popular. Brian Chesky even said in an interview that he believes that it\u2019s only a matter of time before 50% of the US workforce is working from home or working from a short-term rental property, so amenities is massive. Also as well, the other massive thing is the kitchen. Go into the utensils that you provide, whether it\u2019s an air fryer or whatever it may be, a decent coffee machine, a decent coffee bar. Make sure that you put in a little bit of time and an extra bit of budget into the amenities as much as it is that real comfy pillow and that real comfy bed.<\/p>\n

Rob:
100% agree. I think probably over the years, the number one, I won\u2019t say complaint, but I guess feedback that people give me, and it\u2019s less now because I\u2019ve addressed it, but it\u2019s usually people that are like, hey, love your place, would love for your kitchen to have been stocked a little bit more. And so now, when I\u2019m teaching people how to do this, someone was like, look, just go to TJ Maxx, I don\u2019t know if you guys have TJ Maxx over there, but like Ross Michaels, wherever, some of these more bargain places, they have a whole section that\u2019s just kitchen stuff, like can openers and wine openers, all that kind of stuff. And just spend like 100 bucks on all the little knickknacks and the lemon squeezers and all that kind of stuff because people are always super excited when it\u2019s there and really bummed when it\u2019s not.
And even to that point, these days, when a guest says, hey, do you have this item in the kitchen? I\u2019m usually the first person to say, hey, I don\u2019t, but tell you what, go buy it. I\u2019m sure I could use it in the listing and I\u2019ll reimburse you for it. And people are always like, oh my God, that\u2019s amazing. Most of the time, they don\u2019t, but I\u2019m always willing to, right? If it\u2019s like a $10 lemon squeeze or whatever [inaudible 00:48:39], other guests will probably use it. So, I think that the kitchen is so important these days because a lot of people tend to book Airbnb so that they can actually cook there.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. And also as well with the coffee bar, if you go and do something a little bit unique by getting local coffee beans and whatnot, it instantly makes your property Instagrammable. And the more you can make your property Instagrammable, the more that your guests will take a picture and they\u2019ll upload it to their socials because the number one time when your guests are taking pictures is when they\u2019re on holiday, is when they can show off to their friends back home that they\u2019re on vacation, staycation, workation. So the more that you can make your property Instagrammable and they can tag you in, then that\u2019s how you get that social media word of mouth and that virality just thriving.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. So effectively, let\u2019s juice up the amenities, right? Let\u2019s make sure that the kitchen is great, that the internet is fast. I\u2019m curious, is there any tactical advice there on increasing internet speeds? Is it a special router, like a mesh system or anything like that or is it just going with the fastest package that your internet provider provides?<\/p>\n

Mark:
It all depends on what you have available. So at the end of the day, you could put all of the little cool mesh things and all that jazz, but if you\u2019ve only got a certain amount of speed coming into your house, then you\u2019re screwed. Luckily, now, it doesn\u2019t matter where you are in the world [inaudible 00:49:50] solutions, these satellite solutions are making more people, rural or wherever, you\u2019ve got more options available. But it\u2019s only going to come a matter of time where having WiFi and having quick WiFi, especially for the Gen Z generation, and people think Gen Zs like teenagers, Gen Z now in 2022 is 25. These are people that are going to be paying money to stay at your properties, so you\u2019ve got to make sure that a generation that are literally born with one of these cell phones literally in their hand 24\/7, you\u2019ve got to make sure that you\u2019ve got WiFi and you\u2019ve got good WiFi. Don\u2019t just have like, say, I\u2019ve got WiFi and it\u2019s like two megabytes speed. It\u2019s got to be decent. It\u2019s got to be double digits.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah, for sure. I\u2019ve got a couple of listings that don\u2019t have WiFi and we make it as well-known as possible and it\u2019s like, hey, it does not have WiFi. And then sure enough, they check in and they\u2019re like, what\u2019s the password? I don\u2019t see it. I\u2019m like, I told you there\u2019s no WiFi. We would offer it if we could, but that\u2019s something I\u2019m always happy to spend 100 bucks a month on simply because it\u2019s super important.<\/p>\n

David:
Okay. I have to ask you, Rob, is the location not offer WiFi, is that why you don\u2019t have it?<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah, it\u2019s too secluded. We can\u2019t even get HughesNet out there, which is like eight megabytes per second.<\/p>\n

David:
Wow. So, there\u2019s just it\u2019s not internet. Well, what about the thing Elon Musk is doing? What\u2019s that going to be called?<\/p>\n

Rob:
Starlink. There\u2019s a wait list for that everywhere. I mean, it is possible. Finally, one of the properties, my Gatlinburg property, I got the email from Starlink to set it up and I was like, oh, it actually happened, but it\u2019s not always readily available.<\/p>\n

David:
Do you think that Starlink will change all the emails that old people use that have SBCGlobal.net as their email domain name? Are they all going to change [inaudible 00:51:23]?<\/p>\n

Rob:
Are you sweating over there because you still have the SBCGlobal.net and your Hotmail, [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>?<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s right, Rob. I\u2019ve got a Hotmail account. It\u2019s back when email was created. So Mark, we\u2019ve talked about having a great experience, amenities, everything that leads up to this moment, but there\u2019s comes a time where a guest leaves, right? And that\u2019s the end of the stay. So, what aren\u2019t hosts doing to follow up with their guests? And do you feel like this is a crucial aspect for marketing your business in the future to those guests?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Yeah. And this is where you can get those juicy direct bookings so easy and simple. And this is the cool thing is that it doesn\u2019t cost any money. Literally, it takes a couple of minutes of your time, but you just got to reach out to your guests. We are very lucky that Airbnb, for example, they give you the phone number. They don\u2019t give you the email address, but they give you the phone number of the guest. And this is where\u2026 For a lot of people, it may be a little uncomfortable, but it\u2019s all about becoming comfortable, about feeling uncomfortable. Pick up your phone, call your guest just when they check out. If it\u2019s not you, if you are super busy, get a member of your team to do it and just say, hey Rob, I really appreciate you supporting our local business and coming to stay with us. Can I just ask why did you book with us?
Ask a lot of who, where, why, when questions. What did you do when you were here? Why did you go into that X, Y and Zed? And then at the end of the conversation, if it\u2019s going well, just say, hey Rob, we really appreciate you. We really loved you as a guest. Thank you very much for that five-star review, hint, hint. By the way, do you know anyone? So, really important four words that so many people don\u2019t use, but it will be everything in your business in terms of marketing and getting more bookings is, do you know anyone? So do you know anyone who\u2019s coming to the area? Do you know anyone who\u2019s coming here for work? It\u2019s a really good one to ask anybody who\u2019s stayed for a business day. Do you know anyone that needs to come to X, Y, or Zed?
And at that moment, that person will say a couple of things. Number one, no or yes, or maybe I\u2019m not sure. So if they say no, just say, listen, no worries. By the way, if you ever do know anybody who needs a place to stay, please bear us in mind, recommend us. And if they book, we\u2019ll give you a X in return, like Amazon vouchers or whatever it may be, bottle of beer, burrito, whatever floats your bought. But in the other time, if they say yes and say, actually, I do [inaudible 00:53:38] friend David who\u2019s coming to town, then say, brilliant, do you mind sharing his contact information or setting up a group chat on Messenger or whatever it may be, on email? And if they book and they mention you, then I\u2019m more than happy to give you a X in return. X could be $50 Amazon voucher or whatever it may be.
Because when you ask that question and you want somebody to do something, you\u2019ve got to dangle the carrot. By dangling the carrot, they\u2019re more likely to take action. And that\u2019s the most crucial thing. But if you do that consistently, if you can do that for, say, of every five guests that check out, if you can call one out of five, I guarantee that what will start to happen is you will build up a pool of referrals. And if you can do that successfully, like I said at the start, you\u2019ll never have to properly market, pay money for Google ads, Facebook ads, again, because you\u2019ll have a referral network of your guests who will be your super fans who will just keep referring you and referring you to their friends, family and coworkers for months and years to come. And I know it works because that\u2019s exactly what we did. Our business, The Grainary [inaudible 00:54:33], the farm stay business.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Yeah. This is a really great approach in my mind simply because screening is such a big deal, right? And so if you have a guest that comes, you\u2019ve screened them, they\u2019re staying with you, let\u2019s say, through Airbnb and they leave your place in decent condition, then we can probably make the assumption. Obviously, you don\u2019t want to always assume, but if you reach out to them and they book through your direct booking website for a second time the next year, they\u2019re probably going to leave your place in good condition again. And then if they\u2019re referring you to all their different friends in the network, then again, good people tend to know good people and hopefully, you build up this referral network of people that treat your house pretty well, right? So it alleviates the concern of having strangers in your house.<\/p>\n

Mark:
So 93% of purchases are made on the back of social proof. So if it\u2019s you as a friend, is Rob recommending David? And [inaudible 00:55:26] David is much more likely to book, then if it\u2019s just me straight messaging David saying, hey, come and stay at our place. You know what I mean? So with that social proof, it\u2019s everything. So yeah, it goes a long way.<\/p>\n

Rob:
For sure. Yeah. I mean, even on my end, I\u2019m looking at the social proof, like guests that are trying to book my place. And if they have no reviews, I\u2019m definitely going to be a little bit more apprehensive about accepting that booking over someone that has 25-star reviews on Airbnb. And then if I see someone that has a 4.5 as a guest, I\u2019m always like, well, why is that? I\u2019ll go in and I\u2019ll read all the reviews. And if most of the reviews are good, usually, it\u2019s nine good reviews and one so-so review, then I go forward with that because it\u2019s nice to know the proof, the reviews of the people that are staying at your place and vice versa. People that are staying at your place probably want to know, right? And so that\u2019s why you say in your listing, hey, go read our online reviews, and then they can read about it and then feel assured there.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. So, we\u2019re going to move on to the next segment of our show. It is going to be a modified version of the Deal Deep Dive called the Direct Deep Dive. Mark, in this segment of the show, Rob and I are going to take turns asking you questions about your direct booking system. Question number one, where can you set up a direct booking? Is there a specific portal to use?<\/p>\n

Mark:
So, the main important thing that you need is a property management software, otherwise known as a PMS. The unfortunate thing is there is 1,400 plus property management software tools. The good news is that there\u2019s about 10 to 12 top ones, and those are the ones let\u2019s focus on. You may have heard of a couple of them, Guesty, Hostaway, Hostfully, et cetera. If you want a blog post about this, I literally don\u2019t want them on Boostly. So boosly.co.uk\/PMS, that is where you get started because when you\u2019ve got a property management software tool, it helps you create everything that you need to put in place to build a direct booking business. So the guest screening that we spoke about, it will link into that. If you want to be on more than one platform, for example, Booking.com, Vrbo and an Airbnb, it\u2019s all programmed via the PMS and it all directly speaks to it. And the best thing is you can then create a Stripe account to take direct payments and you can also create your own direct booking website. So, this is the most important thing to get started with is getting a property management software tool.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Question number two, how do you build out the communication with the potential customer?<\/p>\n

Mark:
My old school favorite is picking up the phone and giving them a call. And I like to do it at the end of this day but also the start of the booking process as well. So when a reservation comes in, the best thing to do to not have any cancellations, to make sure that there\u2019s no miscommunication, pick up the phone, give them a call, have a chat with them, figure out why they\u2019re booked, what can you do to make that stay even better. That\u2019s one of the best things that everybody can be looking to do, take in this old school in a new school world.<\/p>\n

David:
Awesome. All right. If somebody wants to do this, what does it cost to set up a direct booking website?<\/p>\n

Mark:
So, the cool thing is as you are getting started in this game, so let\u2019s just say one property, it\u2019s actually free. You can go to so many free providers to have a direct booking website or just with anything in the world. As you level up your business, you need to level up your tech stack. And as you get to maybe three, four or five properties, then you\u2019ll have to pay a little bit of money to actually do so. There\u2019s many providers out there. There\u2019s many ones that do it. Boostly obviously, the elephant in a room, we offer a service that we can help with that. Just got to boostly.co.uk.
But you can start off by anywhere, sort of a couple of 100 bucks. And then the more you grow, let\u2019s say, you get past 10 properties and 15 properties, then you want to look for a pro solution where guests can book directly on your site. You can have things like live chat, retargeting and all those cool stuff, and that\u2019s going to cost you a couple of grand. But when you get to that level of 10 plus properties, the money that you will spend on a website hails insignificant with what you\u2019d be paying to commission cost, to Airbnb and all these other online searches. So, the best thing to do at that moment in time, invest the money as you level up your business and you\u2019ll be set for years to come.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Awesome. Question number four, how do you measure your success? Are there any KPIs or key performance indicators for measuring success in this world?<\/p>\n

Mark:
The best one for me, and not only do I look at this, but investors or potential buyers of your short-term rental business will be looking at a very high ratio of direct bookings coming into your business. So if you are looking to sell your business and say you are 90% reliant on one platform for your industry, for your reservations coming in, they won\u2019t look at you as well as if you\u2019ve got 65% direct and then 35% reliant on other people. The way that I like to describe this is you got to look at Airbnb as your banker. Now, the banker basically is when I was\u2026 I\u2019m a happily married man now, but when I was single and I would go on a night out, I would be basically looking to take a lady home to do some horizontal dancing with at some point during the evening, but as the night go on, it got to 2:00 o\u2019clock in the morning, I would always have my banker on hand that I could call if I wanted to do so. And this is exactly how we need to look at Airbnb, they need to be your banker. So Airbnb is your banker, direct bookings is the one that you marry. And so, this is the main thing that what you need to do to measure your success. 65% direct, 35% OTA.<\/p>\n

David:
Is banker like backup plan, like you got one in the bank?<\/p>\n

Mark:
That\u2019s the bank, that\u2019s the backup plan, that\u2019s the to 2:00 AM call. And it worked both ways. I was the banker, but this is where you got to look at Airbnb. Airbnb need to be your banker. You go and marry the direct bookings.<\/p>\n

David:
There\u2019s a lot of business principles that work that same way. You\u2019ve got the home run pitch you\u2019re looking for and then you\u2019ve got, well, if I don\u2019t get what I want, here\u2019s my backup plan, at least I can get on base. And so, I think that\u2019s very wise and also very funny analogy. All right, last question of the direct booking deep dive. Let\u2019s say you want to convert an OTA, like an Airbnb or a Vrbo listing into a direct booking, what can you do?<\/p>\n

Mark:
So, the two things that we spoke about are very handy in a reactive way, but a proactive way could be when a booking comes in. So the premise is that you\u2019ve already knocked off number one where you\u2019ve got your PMS portal. So when a booking comes in from Airbnb or Vrbo or Booking.com, if your PMS is set up right, an email notification will go out to the guest. And a real proactive way of converting an OTA booking into a direct booking is in that email template, you basically say to the guest, and this is something you can set up once and you can set and forget, and the terminology used should to go, hey Rob, thank you very much for your booking a stay at Boostlybnb. Just to confirm, the date of arrival is the 1st of December. You\u2019re checking out on the 4th. Please make sure you read the rest of this email because your check-in information is really important.
And the way it should go is if you have booked of us directly, I email, phone call or website, your check-in time is 1:00 PM. If you have booked via an OTA, i.e. Airbnb, VRBO or Booking.com, your check in time is 5:00 PM. So what you are doing right there, psychologically, you are punishing somebody from booking via a third-party, and they will see that and they will go, well, hang on a second. If I had booked direct, my check-in time is one, but because I\u2019ve booked via Airbnb, the check-in time is 5:00 PM. The next line of text is important. But if you want to amend anything about your stay, here\u2019s my personal cell phone number and email. Call me at any point and we can rectify that for you. We would do this for our emails that went out to everybody. And we had about a 60 to 70% success rate of them calling us. And they would go, Hey Mark, I\u2019ve got your email about the check-in time. If I\u2019d have booked direct, I would\u2019ve obviously got an earlier check-in at 1:00 o\u2019clock.
And the main thing to realize here is that when somebody comes and stays with you, they\u2019re going to be traveling from a couple of hours, flying in maybe, maybe it\u2019s for an event or maybe it\u2019s for X, Y or Zed, and they don\u2019t want to be hanging around before they can check-in with you. So, they\u2019re much more likely to take action and book of you direct. So the conversation would go, can I flip it to a direct book and how do I do that? And it\u2019s super simple. This is where you just take over with a little bit of nose and you say, yep, sure thing, Rob, no problem. So all I need, just for security reasons, can you just confirm what your email address is? Again, you don\u2019t get that email from the OTA, so you get the email. Just say, can you just confirm your card details? Brilliant. And you\u2019ve got everything that you need. And just say, just do me a favor, can you just open up the Airbnb app or the Booking.com app? Can you cancel that stay for me because I can\u2019t do it for you. Fantastic.
As soon as you\u2019ve done that, I will bucket you in and you\u2019ll get a confirmation directly for us and you\u2019ll get that new check-in time. And it works in so many levels because number one, the major kickback I get to that, people say, well, hang on a second, you are canceling an Airbnb listing. Why would you do that? I\u2019m not canceling the reservation. The guest is canceling it. One in three OTA reservations results in a cancellation. So because it\u2019s them doing it and not you doing it, it doesn\u2019t flag up on any radar, on any OTAs, and it\u2019s totally within the Ts and Cs as well. And by doing that, again, you\u2019ve basically canceled an OTA reservation, you\u2019ve got a direct one in the bag and [inaudible 01:04:37] we had about 60 to 70% success rate on that just from having one little email template that went out after a booking.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. Thank you for that, Mark. That is going to move us into the last segment of our show. This is the world famous-<\/p>\n

Speaker 4:
Famous four.<\/p>\n

David:
In this segment of the show, Rob and I ask every guest the same four questions and we will fire them off at you. Question number one, Mark, what is your favorite real estate book?<\/p>\n

Mark:
So I\u2019m going to keep it Bigger Pockets, Avery Carl, Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth, love the book. And I\u2019ve got to know Avery quite well. And yeah, I think that\u2019s a really good one for everybody in real estate we\u2019re looking to get into short-term rentals.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Cool. Number two, favorite business book.<\/p>\n

Mark:
I\u2019ve always got it at hand, I\u2019ve got it with me now, it\u2019s Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris. And I\u2019m a massive Tim Ferris fanboy. I\u2019ve been listening to him and watching him since 2016. That book is amazing because it took 200 of his best episodes, all of his interviews with his guests. There we go, David, it\u2019s right there. And he put it into a book. It is a huge book and it\u2019s one that you don\u2019t have to read it from page one to page 500 or whatever it is. You can just dip into different chapters as you go. And as far as business, it\u2019s got a section on health, it\u2019s got a section on wealth. And it\u2019s, by far, the one that I always come back to is Tools of Titans.<\/p>\n

Rob:
All right. I thought you were going to say Who Not How since you\u2026 Fun story here, Mark mailed me a copy of Who Not How with a note that said, \u201cThis book is going to change your life, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark:
Funny you mentioned that because there\u2019s so many books that you could give. And I remember when you interviewed Alex Hormozi, his answer was, \u201cIt depends on where you are in your journey.\u201d Now, me personally, right now, I\u2019m on a massive hiring spree, and Who Not How is top of mind, Clockwork, Who Not Ho and [inaudible 01:06:27]. I sent it to Rob because there was a lot of things that he said that resonated, but the one that I always come back to is Tools of Titans. A massive fan. And I feel it doesn\u2019t matter where you are in your journey, Tools of Titans is one that you can come to at loads of different stages.<\/p>\n

Rob:
All right. I\u2019ve got that noted. I have a notepad here. Whenever guests say their books that they recommend, I always write down the ones that sound intriguing for the day that I possibly read a book again. I\u2019m still working through Burr right now, but honestly, this is going to be my year. I\u2019m going to get two books in.<\/p>\n

David:
I do the same thing with interesting hairstyles that I see guests come in and the odds of me actually acting on that are about the same as Rob reading a book.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Oh, that\u2019s probably accurate, that\u2019s probably accurate. Three, when you\u2019re not busy creating direct booking websites and just totally shaken up the short-term rental world, Mark, what are some of your favorite hobbies?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Well, at the moment, it\u2019s sleep. Like I mentioned at the start, I just had a baby girl three weeks ago, so whenever I can have sleep, that\u2019s a big part. And the other thing is my basic, my main passion is soccer, football, Liverpool Football Club. I\u2019m actually going to go after this episode and watch them probably lose tonight, which is a shame because they have very good soccer team. But yeah, let\u2019s say Liverpool. And if we\u2019ve got any Liverpool fans watching, please send me a message on Instagram. Come and say hi at boostlyuk. And yeah, that\u2019s my big passion is Liverpool and creating children, it looks like<\/p>\n

David:
You don\u2019t sound like you are from Liverpool. Are you from that area?<\/p>\n

Mark:
I am not from that area. It\u2019s the other area of the Pennines. But my granddad got me onto Liverpool when he was alive, my first ever game my granddad took me to, me and my cousin. He was a big fan back in the day. And I will never ever forget that experience. But I\u2019ve had it ever since the age of 10 or 11. But yeah, good scout knowledge there, David.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, which part of the UK are you from? I\u2019ve been trying this whole time to peg it. It sounds like you\u2019ve got a British accent with a hint of Irish that just keeps showing up and I can\u2019t place it.<\/p>\n

Mark:
So, I\u2019m a little bit of a rogue. Because I\u2019ve traveled so much, America and Australia and everywhere, I\u2019ve sort of lost my proper accent. But I\u2019m one of these chameleons where if I hang around somebody for so long, I will just tap into their accent. So if I go and stay in Liverpool for a week, I\u2019ll come out sounding like I\u2019m from Liverpool. If I hang around in Australia [inaudible 01:08:53]. So basically, yeah.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s how I sound with this cold. That sounds like I\u2019m from Liverpool there. They\u2019ve got that Middle Eastern [inaudible 01:09:02] with everything they\u2019re saying. So here, I want to do this before I ask you the next question. Rob, speak in your English accent and Mark, you\u2019re going to tell us where Rob\u2019s accent would be placed if he lived in the UK.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Not really my bag.<\/p>\n

Mark:
See, the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Russell Brand gets [inaudible 01:09:22] has a surfing accident and then Paul Rudd\u2019s character goes and comes over and goes, \u201cYou sound like you are from London.\u201d That is basically.<\/p>\n

Rob:
So I\u2019m Paul Rudd in that.<\/p>\n

Mark:
You are Paul Rudd in that [inaudible 01:09:31].<\/p>\n

David:
You sound like someone trying to sound like they\u2019re from London, that\u2019s what he\u2019s telling you.<\/p>\n

Rob:
Not really.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. Now, we\u2019re going to do mine, Mark. It\u2019s not going to be necessarily British, but it will be from somewhere in the UK. If you had to say what do you think I\u2019m talking from, what does this accent sound like, Mark?<\/p>\n

Mark:
That\u2019s two hours north of me. That\u2019s good old Scotland.<\/p>\n

David:
Aye, that\u2019s right. [inaudible 01:09:55] from Glasgow. They\u2019ve spoken like this my entire life.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Good, good.<\/p>\n

David:
As a little kid, I thought everybody\u2019s grandparent sounded like they were Scottish. I just thought that\u2019s like a grandparent thing. I didn\u2019t know that that was my grandparent. So the first time I met someone else\u2019s grandparents and they didn\u2019t sound that way, my five year old brain was like, what? Why do they sound like your mom and your dad? They\u2019re supposed to sound different. That\u2019s how I thought that it worked. All right. Next question. In your opinion, Mark, [inaudible 01:10:21] pun worked together pretty well [inaudible 01:10:23]. I didn\u2019t even expect that pun to have a pun. It\u2019s a pun within a pun. It\u2019s punception happening on the podcast. In your opinion, Mark, what sets apart successful investors from those who give up, fail or never get started?<\/p>\n

Mark:
Procrastination is the killer of all good ideas, plans and businesses. And somebody once said to me when I first got going in this is the key to success is imperfect action applied at speed. So, I always stand by that. Just [inaudible 01:10:49] perfect, just go and get it done.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s beautiful. Strikingly similar to Rob\u2019s dancing style.<\/p>\n

Rob:
That\u2019s true. I\u2019m more of a vertical dancer. I\u2019m still mastering the chop chop slide.<\/p>\n

Mark:
Well, I\u2019m a horizontal dancer. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve got four kids.<\/p>\n

David:
And what was the strategy, the imperfect action done, what was it?<\/p>\n

Mark:
So imperfect action applied at speed is key to success.<\/p>\n

David:
Yes, that describes Rob perfectly. All right, Rob.<\/p>\n

Rob:
That\u2019s right. Hey, don\u2019t trample on my\u2026 This is my question. This is the one question I get all podcasts, Dave. Number five, that\u2019s actually more of a statement, Mark, tell us where people can find out more about you on the internet.<\/p>\n

Mark:
So one place only. Just head over to Amazon and go grab this, Book Direct Playbook, go grab that copy please. And in there is my Instagram where you can come and find me on Instagram. Thank you very much, chaps. Much appreciated.<\/p>\n

Rob:
That\u2019s right. We got it.<\/p>\n

Mark:
[inaudible 01:11:36] freeway. There we go. Lovely. Really appreciate [inaudible 01:11:39].<\/p>\n

Rob:
It\u2019s on my goals to read this as my second book.<\/p>\n

David:
You are one of the 100 books competing to be the second book that Rob has ever read. We will see how the book Hunger Games works out in Rob\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

Mark:
[inaudible 01:11:50].<\/p>\n

David:
May the odds ever begin your favor. All right. Before we get out of here, Rob, where can people find out more about you?<\/p>\n

Rob:
Oh, you can find me on Neil YouTube where I put it all out there. I put everything, my emotions, my trauma, my successes, my victories, my how to win playbook. And yeah, soon enough, you\u2019ll probably see Mark on the channel too. So you can find me on Instagram over at robuilt. And then if you want to see me dance and do funny little trends on TikTok, you can find me at robuilto with an O. What about you David?<\/p>\n

David:
You could find me at davidgreene24 on just about all social media and then on YouTube at David Greene Real Estate. I\u2019ve also been going live on YouTube on Friday night, so join us there. I\u2019m going to start bringing in guests. Maybe Mark himself will join us, one, to answer all your questions about OTAs and avoiding corporate travel, crazy lunacy that we\u2019re starting to see within those industries. And if you would be so kind, please go to your favorite podcast app, be it Stitcher, Spotify, Apple Music, whatever that\u2019s called now, Apple Podcast, and leave us a review. Those help a ton. We want to get the message out there that Bigger podcast is preaching to more people. We want to get more people exposed to messages like Mark\u2019s and Rob\u2019s and the other BP influencers. So please, if you would go leave us a review, we would love you for it, as well as following us on our YouTube channel, which is growing as well. This has been a fantastic show, Rob. I want to give you any last words before we get out of here.<\/p>\n

Rob:
HI just want to say, you called me an influencer, that\u2019s the nicest thing you\u2019ve ever said to me. I really appreciate it.<\/p>\n

David:
You\u2019re such a millennial that that would be the best compliment anyone could ever give you.<\/p>\n

Rob:
I hope so. I don\u2019t know. It depends on who you talk to.<\/p>\n

David:
You are the millennial.<\/p>\n

Rob:
That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

David:
Are you old enough to remember that movie, Weird Science, where those nerds create this really hot girl in a lab and they fall in love with her?<\/p>\n

Rob:
What year was that? I mean, I\u2019m a 80s baby. I was born in \u201989.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, it\u2019s this movie where these two really nerdy guys create a woman in a lab and she\u2019s beautiful and then she falls in love with them, I think. Well that\u2019s like Rob. If two people created a millennial, it would be him. He is the personification of how that looks. Well, Mark, I want to appreciate you for being here. And Rob, thank you for recommending Mark for the podcast. This was fantastic show, full of very practical, tactical advice that we don\u2019t always get. So I want to thank you for that, Mark and I will let you get out of here. This is David Greene for Rob imperfect action [inaudible 01:14:15] Abasolo. [inaudible 01:14:17].<\/p>\n

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Most people stumble into short-term rental investing. At some point, they realize a long-term rental, mother-in-law suite, or family cabin could become a revenue-generating, passive income machine. So what do they do? They go online to all the big travel sites, upload their listing, and start hosting. After a few months or years, they buy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/REP_680_WEB.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4123,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions\/4123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}