Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Airbnb host Kaila Thomson. Kaila and her husband Matt have a house just five minutes from the Portland, Oregon airport in the up-and-coming Montavilla neighborhood. They host two rooms above Matt’s “Ivy League Recording” music studio. Matt is a musician and sound engineer. They have owned their house for five years. Before they started hosting, they had roommates in order to make ends meet, but were tired of it and wanted to get their lives back. They had some friends who had been hosts for a while and told them a lot about Airbnb. When Kaila and Matt got married, they honeymooned in Europe and chose Airbnb listings in every city. They saved money and loved the experience of staying in unique places and meeting their hosts. At each stop they talked to their hosts and asked them what they liked about hosting. Kaila and Matt loved how each place was different, meeting the people, and thought “we could totally do that. We could charge a little more, improve our house, and meet interesting people (and they treat our house a lot nicer).” They visited London, Prague, Munich, Slovenia, and Venice. They got to experience different arrangements: sharing space with hosts, sharing space with guests, and having their own separate space. Now, when they travel, they go to Airbnb first. They have now been married for two years and are at their 1-year mark with hosting. Kaila is 31 years old and says many of her guests are their same ages or a little younger, maybe mid-20s, but they also have older guests. Debi told Kaila she likes to interview people of different ages and is glad to see younger people hosting. Their listing says “Above a Recording Studio”. It might dissuade some people but others really like it and ask if they’ll hear music, and she tells them “you might!” They did have one unfortunate situation where the guest didn’t read the listing that described the music and operating hours of the studio. They get a lot of people from Seattle because it is so close, but also people from all over the world. Kaila likes to talk with the guests to see why they chose Portland and she and Debi agreed that it’s a destination now. Deb mentioned their proximity to the airport and Kaila said they do have a lot of people just staying for a night before they travel on. They used to have both rooms listed for minimum stays of one night but it was too much work, as they have been doing their own cleaning, so now they list one room as a 2-night minimum and one room as a 1-night minimum. Kaila just hired a housekeeper to help out. Both she and her husband work full time in addition to hosting Airbnb and it is a struggle. Her housekeeper is part of their neighborhood, just five blocks away. Deb talked with Kaila about the housekeeper being there possibly every day, and Kaila said they have the arrival and departure times set as 12-2 so if the other guests are there, they know that there might be housekeeping going on during that time. She has multiple sets of linens so her housekeeper doesn’t have to do the laundry. They talked about beds, furnishings, painting the rooms, and house rules: No loud noise after 10, clean up after yourself, turn lights off. With simple rules, they haven’t had any real issues. Debi wondered about walkable restaurants and it turns out Stark Street is an up and coming area with lots of nice restaurants and pubs including one with 19 rotating taps. The Academy Theater only costs $4. The #20 bus goes straight downtown, takes 15-20 minutes and works well for travelers without cars. Kaila includes menus from all the local restaurants in the room. She works downtown herself, and takes the #20 to Olympia Provisions, Oregon’s first USDA-approved salumeria, established in 2009, where she works in accounting. Her managers are OK with her taking an occasional Airbnb call during work, which allows her to be reachable when necessary. Matt works from home with his recording studio, and helps a lot with cleaning and is very involved overall. They have had guests watch movies with them, eat meals with them, and Deb asked Kaila for a story about a great guest experience. Kaila told Debi about Jenny and her husband from London, on their honeymoon, visiting before moving to Vancouver, BC. They connected nicely even though they were all sick and sitting around the living room! They talked late into the evening and became friends. Another couple from California stayed two weeks and became friends. They’ve also had some people stay who they wouldn’t want to stay again, noting this is the nice thing about hosting, is you don’t have to ever have to see them again. Debi and Kaila talked about Facebook, other outreach to past guests, and occupancy rates. The “Blue Room” only had three days last month un-booked. The “Green Room” is a little less busy but she still gets lots of requests. Deb asked her about Instantbook. Kaila said that because Matt isn’t always home and she works during the day, they would just rather not use that part of the platform. Their Airbnb activity helps them meet their mortgage every month and they plan on continuing hosting. One future question is what they will do once they decide to start a family. Deb and Kaila discussed Kaila’s favorite Airbnb on their Europe trip, which was the one in Prague, and the nice extras that the host did at that location. At home, Kaila leaves some snack bars and bottled water for guests, but said that sometimes guests don’t communicate with their hosts when they’d like something. Kaila encourages those listeners who are guests to make sure they read the whole listings and communicate with their hosts, and to look at Airbnb more as a community than a corporation. She says she finds so much information and support on the Airbnb forum. She feels very supported by Airbnb - the couple of times she felt uncomfortable, like about a person putting in repeated reservation requests for dates not available and she called Airbnb and they took care of it. She has had to turn down a couple of people due to feeling somewhat unsafe about them. She normally is fine with anyone who has the verifications and some reviews and answers her basic questions. So she doesn’t use instant book for just this reason. Overall, Kaila gave Debi a very positive feeling about her hosting experience. You can see Kaila and Matt's listings at http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6304219  and http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6317136

This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with soon-to-be Airbnb Host Ashley Kern, as they go over Ashley’s plans and final touches.  Be sure to see the pix at the end of these notes. Ashley and her husband James own the “No Hope No Fear” Tattoo Art Studio in SE Portland.  In a city with over a hundred studios, James is a widely recognized tattoo artist with 22 years of experience.  James also teaches at international conventions and hosts visiting artists.  The teaching aspect has allowed the two of them to travel all over the world and they look forward to using Airbnb more often as travelers.  This has made Ashley want to host other people too, and their home/business which is zoned mixed-use residential gives them the opportunity to include an Airbnb listing. Debi and Ashley walk through the home, built in 1922 in a Craftsman style, and Debi found the combined home/business to be very attractive and definitely looks residential.  The final project Ashley wants to finish before hosting is the outside patio.  Her dad is helping out and was painting the back porch the day Debi visited.  Ashley explains the requirements in her zoning of having to be at least 50% residential, so they can’t expand the tattoo business any farther, but are allowed to do short term rental and chose that path. There are dozens of nearby restaurants but no hotels.  There are many other Airbnb offerings in the popular area.  Their potential guest market includes not only tourists wanting to visit Portland but also clients from other cities, coming to get tattoos, and visiting artists. Debi and Ashley talk about the house potential to be kid-friendly, and business-ready.  "Business-ready" is an Airbnb term for listings that request the designation and have no pets, have high-speed internet and a working space/surface, and allow 24-hour access to the space for the guest. Debi explains this in detail in her introduction to the episode. After walking through the home, Debi encourages Ashley to open soon.  They talk about locks and the insecurity of using a lock-box type access that uses a key; the key can be copied.  Debi recommended that they consider using eRentallocks or Resort Locks or similar electronic locks that make it so easy to change the code between guests that there is no excuse to not do so. As they toured the house, Debi was wowed by Ashley and James’ photos on the walls of beautiful northwest scenes, all taken by cell phone cameras and printed by Costco!  Ashley has scheduled for an Airbnb photographer to come through the space to take photographs for her listing, and she and Debi talk about staging. James Kern Tattoo Art Studio:  http://www.nohopenofeartattoo.com/ Costo photo production:   Costcophotocenter.com Electronic locks:  http://www.erentallock.com/ More electronic locks:  http://resortlock.com/

Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com talks with Michael Burke and Caitlin White, as a follow up to last week’s episode “Hear the Wind Give Voice to the Trees”.  Michael and Caitlin have twice been guests at Alan and Dabney’s Airbnb listing: Summit Prairie, and this year they got engaged there! In this episode, Michael and Caitlin offer us the guests’ experience.  From how Caitlin first found the listing, luckily finding an opening, and then in detail what it’s like to stay there.   And why they found it so compelling not only to return, but for Michael to choose it as a place to propose. As hosts, it’s always valuable to hear what the guests think about things and you will hear a couple of fun contrasts, taken from our talk last week with Alan and Dabney. So listen in as Debi toasts the newly engaged couple - (and yes, Caitlin, of course Michael asked your dad!) **Debi also started a new Facebook group.  She intends to use this group as a place where hosts who listen to this podcast can interact.  This group provides a great way for all listeners, whether hosts or guests, to interact. Join Debi’s Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1718050635079172/ Alan and Dabney’s listing is: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3405072

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Airbnb superhosts Alan Colley and Dabney Tompkins, self-described “City Slickers” who none the less, live on a very remote 160 acres.  In a house, but it's on a 40-foot high lookout tower. Alan and Dabney lived in Portland in a condo and rented it out on Airbnb while they went backpacking or touring. But they never met their guests. Now they live in the super-remote, rural Oregon and realize that there were the same number of people on their street in Portland as are in their entire rural area; but they knew few people on their Portland street and know everyone in their current surrounds. They were on a ferry to Victoria when they saw a book on renting fire towers, bought the book, and hilariously tried to reserve one in Tiller, Oregon for the next weekend. After the lady answering the phone had a friendly laugh about the non-availability, she gave them a consolation prize of a rental tower in Pickett Butte. They loved it. They loved it so much that they bought property, which only comes in 160-acre lots. Then they had a tower built to closely resemble the original Forest Service fire watch towers. But theirs doesn’t have the fire sighting equipment and they had a great laugh when Debi asked them if they were firefighters. Initially going to Tiller for weekends, they at one point realized they really would love to live there full time. They leased out their PDX condo for a year, and some months later realized it wouldn’t be long enough and made arrangements to stay longer. That was three years ago. Alan and Dabney said that they never realized how much they would appreciate the experience of meeting their guests, and that has transformed their lives. Their first season, they posted their “Off the Ground and 40-Feet Up” listing on Airbnb and had their first booking in an hour. The season filled in two weeks. With so much demand, Dabney relates the “mistake” of trying to accommodate people who couldn’t get in, especially returning guests who they wanted to be able to come back. He started “penciling people in” and found the logistics to be overwhelming. The second season filled in three hours. He leaves some dates open in 2018 so that people can contact him on the Airbnb platform, otherwise there is no way for them to contact him with all the dates closed. He and Alan have the funny experience of being so popular that they get kicked off of the platform every three weeks or so from having to decline so many reservation requests. Debi discussed prices with them – why not increase them if demand is so strong. You will hear a very meaningful response that has to do with the people they want to meet. OK, well everyone has to go to the bathroom, so Debi wanted to know what her options would be. First off, there are 66 steps up, so that would be 66 steps down, which you might not want to do in the middle of the night. Good news – there are other options. Want to propose? It turns out this is a pretty popular place to do that, with four or five couples making it official during their stay. Including our very own Michael Burke and Caitlin White but that will wait for another episode :) There is more:   camping events with catered food for 40 people, with music from local talent. Important outreach to their community to try to include others in the tourism economy.  If you listen through to the end you will hear Alan share with Debi that the wind gives voice to the trees. And that every tree has a different voice.  Remind you of people?   Alan and Dabney’s listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3405072 Great video made by Zillow: http://www.zillow.com/blog/life-in-a-fire-lookout-182162/ And a beautiful video made by Alan Colley and his son as a fundraiser for Portland's Open Meadows School: https://youtu.be/SRkQRVd-jkU