[0:45] In September, 2017, Debi and Rob visited Italy: Debi wanted to attend the Vacation Rental World Summit conference in Florence, and it was hard to convince Rob to join her. They visited Rome, the province of Le Marche, then Florence, Siena, and Pistoia. They mostly used Airbnb listings, as they typically do while traveling.  Sara’s house in Civitanova, Le Marche, was one of the five. They spent one night there, on the Adriatic coast, and met Sara Anselmi, an architect and Airbnb host.  As often happens, there was a sweet connection, this time with Sara and her husband Luca.  The four (five including Sara’s rescue dog) shared a delicious lunch.  They ate at a restaurant favored by Sara because the chef, named “Italia”, makes the food just like Sara’s mother did.  They met as strangers and left as friends. **This interview took place in Civitanova, Le Marche, Italy.  Sara and Luca live in Rome, and also have an apartment in Tuscany, which comes up in the interview.  Sara refers to her Civitanova house just as "La Marche", and when she says "here", she is referring to the house in Civitanova. [3:22] Debi and Sara talk about how Sara got started hosting.  Debi was staying in the house Sara grew up in.  Sara bought a house just a couple of doors away, planning on living there and helping out with her parents, but her parents both passed away.  Sara moved to Rome and five years ago began renting out the home she grew up in, on Airbnb.  She maintains an office in the house and uses it for family and her own visiting, so prefers to rent it out short-term. [5:28] Sara’s second property is in Tuscany, and this one is really interesting!  How would you like to remodel and take care of an apartment built in the year 1200?  Sara talks about the various dilemmas they face with maintenance and them living in Rome and le Marche. She rents the Tuscany property as a single apartment, but the Civitanova property has two separate room listings.  She talks about how she realizes that people would prefer to have an entire apartment for the privacy, and that all the guests at the Tuscany apartment are from outside Italy. [10:05] L'Eroica (meaning ‘the heroic”) is the name of a bike race held on the first Sunday of October, bringing all kinds of vintage bicycle lovers to Italy, and it is a wine and food fest as well.  It was started in the ‘90s to save the crushed gravel roads from being paved.  This event takes over the village where Sara and Luca’s apartment is located and the ride goes right by the house.  Sara was clearly wishing that she could be in Tuscany to personally host her guests and realizes that she just can’t be there. [11:35] Debi pursued the question of long-distance hosting, which Sara does at both rentals.  They talked about the rather difficult situation Sara has worked through in Civitanova with Roberto, her long-term renter who lives in the top part of the house.  Having lost his job, divorced, and two children, he couldn’t pay his rent, so Sara has been teaching him how to do the house cleaning and the Meet & Greet of the guests, in exchange for sharing income from the rentals. It’s their form of co-hosting.   She very honestly describes the many difficulties she has encountered.  Debi said she admired how Sara has been trying to make this work on Roberto’s behalf.  She maintains contact with the local social services and tries to improve his situation. [15:22] Back to Tuscany… there, Sara has been able to find a person who speaks five languages, lives 5 minutes from the property, and offers catering service!  They don’t make enough income to pay off the debt from fixing the roof, but she feels motivated to buy some nice things for the apartment and keep the place very nice. Debi and Rob really want to visit this Tuscany apartment sometime!  If you listen carefully, you will hear Sara mention going to the apartment 2-3 times a year, including going for the “Palio” that takes place in nearby Siena.  [The Palio admittedly has nothing to do with Airbnb, but it is an insane horse race that takes place twice a year.  The neighborhood whose rider wins gains great status until the next race]. [17:40] Debi and Sara talked about platforms, including Booking.com.  Even though Sara gets more reservations from Booking.com, she finds Airbnb the easiest, mainly because guests coming from Booking.com are addicted to hotels, expect more services, and don’t understand the concept of home space versus hotel space.  Debi really liked the home, having two beds, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a beautiful outside garden with table and chairs. [20:40] “Italy in One Region” – is the phrase Sara and others use to describe the province of Le Marche (pronounced Lay Mar’kay) – skiing, mountains, hillsides, ocean.  Debi also recounts their hilarious adventure the day before when she and Rob missed a bus transfer and Sara helped translate with the bus drivers by phone. She was in Rome at the time. [25:30] Lunch! Debi wrapped up the interview with a story about lunch with Sara and her husband Luca, and one more (mis)adventure she and Rob had the next day... [editor's fun note (this would be Rob)]:  My parents met in WWII.  They were both assigned to the US Army's 70th General Hospital in Pistoia, Italy, which is about 20 miles from Florence.  When we had lunch with Sara and Luca, we learned that the Americans had shelled the town of Civitanova and then occupied it.  Sara's parents were unhurt, but had to move up to the attic while the Americans used the main house.  The good thing was that the Americans had food, and shared it with her parents. LINKS:

Sara's Tuscany house, Palagio

Her bed and breakfast in Civitanova Vacation Rental World Summit: www.vacationrentalworldsummit.com

Every short-term rental needs a guest guidebook.  But what used to be a dog-eared, 3-ring binder can now become a spectacular, highly useful web-based product, accessible on a phone.  David Jacoby, Airbnb Superhost and co-founder of Hostfully, traveled to Portland to meet with Debi Hertert and "Home Share PDX" Meetup group to talk about his product.  Before the Meetup, Debi interviewed David for the Hosting Your Home podcast. [0:01:34] Debi asked how David got started with Hostfully, and it turns out that Before Children, he and his wife went on a year-long, around the world journey, staying in 27 countries and 37 homes.  It was 2010, so Airbnb had barely started, and none of their stays was in an actual Airbnb.  Much of their trip was done via the couch surfing site.  Deb asked if those were really couches… [0:05:39] After the trip, David and his wife moved to San Francisco and bought a single-family home and remodeled it for a mother-in-law apartment for their family.  They started renting the space out when his parents weren’t visiting, and have hosted 200 guests in 4 years. He found that it was his personal experiences of hosting that led him to realize the pain of being in constant communication with guest after guest and answering all their questions that they had before arriving as well as their separate, unique set of questions while they're actually staying with him.  But he also realized the pleasure of being on the flip side like hearing from them that they went to his favorite local coffee shop or his favorite brunch spot. “Sure, they went to Fisherman's Wharf and they went to Alcatraz but it was staying in my neighborhood and going to the local places that I recommended that really is what made their stay memorable and unique”.  And he realized the lack of tools to help hosts be better hosts AFTER the reservation is made. [0:08:32] Debi asked David about Airbnb’s own guest guidebook, and about “You’re Welcome”, a similar guest guidebook product.  David had interesting comments about both, and pointed out the fact that Airbnb’s app only works for Airbnb guests – but many hosts use multiple platforms.  And he likes the “You’re Welcome” app a lot, but described differences with it and Hostfully. [0:11:15] It turned out that Debi had populated the Hostfully app, and had invited David to stay at her Airbnb while addressing the Meetup.  Of course, she sent the URL to David and he loved it.  He said it was the first time as a guest that he had received the Hostfully guidebook!  Debi describes her use of the app and it being easy to use and to edit. David went into some considerable detail about it. [0:13:32] David said Hostfully launched about a year ago and now has over 4000 guidebooks in 80 countries. He said that Hostfully offers one free guide book for each listing. [0:14:16] Debi took the opportunity to quiz David about the politics of short term rentals in San Francisco.  He went into great detail and said that the latest ordinance will likely mean that half, or over half of the current listings in San Francisco will be gone after the first of the year, enforced by an agreement with San Francisco, Airbnb, and HomeAway.  The reason for the reduction is that the City requires hosts to live in the space they list, and currently many listings are not the host’s primary residence. [0:20:48] Transient Occupancy Tax is also very much a goal.  Debi was curious about David’s involvement with the San Francisco Home Sharer’s Democratic Club.  David is on the Board and described the origins of the Club.  Debi and David talked about the very successful Vendor Show they put on in 2017.  It was well-attended and one of the Airbnb Founders even stopped by. [0:26:34] Hostfully has written up the results of a study they did on hospitality, and it is available for free by going to hostfully.com/study There are a lot of tips there that all hosts can learn from.  They surveyed over 50 rental management companies and studied the thousands of guidebooks that Hostfully supports.  It’s a very cool opportunity to see what things like average check-in times, check-out times, amenities and info other hosts are providing. [0:30:25] Debi closes the Podcast by making some recommendations to listeners:  Get the Hostfully app and fill it out; www.hostfully.com and download the hospitality study, www.hostfully.com/study David's rental listing is at www.airbnb.com/rooms/2049955