Hello. Welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting.

And this is the Hosting Hotline. You wanna get your hosting hotline answers, questions, answers, questions, questions answered on the hosting hotline. Then all you need to do is go to hostinghotline.com, ask your question, and we'll answer it here on the podcast, or you can become involved in our YouTube channel. Like today's commenter did. Her handle is @kaysummers. So, Kay, if you're listening, we got your comment on our YouTube video.

Um, and thanks for subscribing. Kay.

Yeah. Thank you for subscribing. Let's read Kay's comment. She said, I subscribe to your channel and I actually love your content. And then she puts in all caps. But when you made the comment about how you can't believe how someone, you, how some don't have professional photos, I was taken aback a bit because natural, good quality photos can be taken without a professional and can actually have the guests say and feel the connections to the photos. We haven't gotten a professional photo shoot for our listing yet, and every one of our guests have said the property looks exactly like the photos. I think sometimes in all caps, the professional photo shoot of the property can be at the cost that doesn't need to be had. That $300 to $500 could be better spent on an uncomfortable bed or better sheets for the property. And then she, uh, closes it out with, thank you for listening. And we actually just had this conversation with our community, with our membership and, um, one of our incredible longtime members brought up also getting some constructive feedback on her listing from someone who wouldn't be her avatar, right? That guest who would be attracted to her property. And we were dissecting that feedback with her 'cause it was obviously, she's like, I don't think I even need to pay attention to this feedback because this person wouldn't stay at my property. And I'm, I'm gonna bring this together here in a moment and it's what I want all of you to understand is when you get a review that isn't maybe all positive. When you get feedback that is constructive from someone who maybe you don't think understands you or your brand or your positioning, it is still important marketing for you to take in and digest. Just like this comment here from Kay and how she doesn't, she was really taken aback by our very confident stance that all hosts should have professional photography showcasing their listing online. And I could, we, Annette and I could very easily sit here and which we probably still will do, and share that we still stand strongly on our comment that we believe you all should invest in professional photography. And making a Blake in statement like that is bold. Right? And we, Annette and I are very aware of the words that we use, especially Miss Annette Grant is, uh, but so we don't say that lightly, but I just think it's a really great teachable moment. And as a reminder for Annette and myself too 'cause if you don't think we get constructive feedback from our listeners.

Daily

Uhhuh and from our members and from people on our email list, we do. And we don't just cast aside the ones that feel like outliers. You still need to pay attention to the outliers. And what are they saying about your offer. And to our member, I wanna share this with you 'cause I thought this was really important to our member who was getting feedback on her listing from someone who would never wanna stay at her property. They're just not aligned. I was telling her, I was like, you can use the words that they were saying in your listing to repel the people that would never stay and now will even more attract. Is that correct? English? Probably not. That will even attract more the people who are aligned with your property. For example, we were talking about a tub, right? How like people love staying in her listing 'cause her tub is beautiful and, um, the way she positions it and offers it, it's, it is great for both families and, uh, um. My husband loves taking a bath. Like he loves it that moment of like taking a bath after a long day. And so she was saying the, the person was saying, look, I, I wouldn't, you know, I don't look at listings who that offer tubs and so I don't know that you should put so much emphasis on it. And I was like, we can use that in your listing to repel people who don't care about tubs and to attract people who love a tub. Like, Hey, if you don't love tubs our listing's for you, but if you. Love unwinding. After a long day of hiking or going to that business meeting, then you know you can take a look at all of our bath salts and all the things that we offer. Repelling and attracting people in your marketing is important. We not only wanna attract the right people, but we also, we do want to repel the people who aren't aligned. I'm not saying Kay is not aligned, but there is some stuff that we share that, uh, Kay was all in on 'cause she, she likes most of our content, but this kind of took her aback and this is where you can have a really good conversation with people in your world and have a healthy debate. And I think she has a point, Annette, when she says that sometimes a professional photo shoot of the property can be at the cost that doesn't need to be had. And I say, yes, I agree. If that photo shoot is overselling the property.

Right. We're, I love what she says. The property looks exactly like the photos.

Mm-hmm.

I do know there are people getting professional photos with angles, colors, filters, AI, that are so overselling the property. So when we say get professional photos, it is not to oversell.

That's right.

Your property. And it is also not to get professional photos. One time of all the furniture and then never having the photographer come back after, you know, your couch is tired. And I'm talking to myself right now too, like we need to do some of that refreshing looks like the professional photos and maybe Kay is attracting her type of client without the professional photos. It looks exactly like the photos. So she might be pulling in people that specifically look for maybe not the higher mm-hmm. End photos. 'cause I like, look, I wanna get. Exactly what I'm looking for. So that might be one of her things to attract that client. But we will stand on the professional photo soapbox, if you will, or not even soapbox. That's how we're gonna run our businesses. We would not, I, I tell Sarah all the time, like I never had the thought of not doing one night stays like that was just like. I couldn't even imagine that you wouldn't do that. Where we have to talk to hosts every day. Who can't imagine offering them? When I started hosting, I couldn't imagine not having, like, that was the first box in my checklist of going live was getting a professional photographer coming out. Just the world that I came from. I came from fashion, like, you don't, you have to get professional photos taken and I'm so before like user generated content was, was a thing. So, that to me is like step one of your business is how you're going to put yourself out there. So it is interesting, just like different views of business and what things are non-negotiables were that aren't, that aren't even important to other people. So I think it's also the way that you're gonna run, like the ethos of your business too. So, we are agreeing with this host that your, your photos should look like what the guest is going to get. But I'm gonna flip it. She hasn't done the professional photos. She hasn't made that investment. She has no idea what is on the flip side of that investment.

We don't know how much money we're leaving on the table.

Mm-hmm. Where people aren't even looking.

Right. When we don't experiment, when we don't try different things now and this, you know, poor Kay you know. Okay. You're just, this is just a really great conversation, obviously.

No, we appreciate you.

You can stand rooted in your position and that's why we love sharing our position on YouTube. And then having people allowed to comment and have a conversation with us. We, we love that. But it is 'cause we hosts ask us all the time, especially when we help, um, our, our, our private community with pricing. And they say, well, this has always worked. And it's like, well, what if we did this one tweak? Yeah, you could lose that weekend because we hit that ceiling, but we'll never know what that ceiling is unless you try it. And that's the thing with business is that you've heard this before everyone, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. But with risk comes the downside of not winning that experiment.

And I'm just, I'm gonna put this right here. We as hosts, we need to professionalize this entire industry and if it is a small investment in our photos. You know, hotels would not go online without professional photos. We need to uplevel that. If you wanna be a professional host, if you do not wanna be a professional host, if you wanna be a hobby host or a side hustle host, then maybe you can get away with that. But the way that we want to interact with guests is as a professional hosting business, okay? And I wanna offer this you guys, when you are hiring someone to take these photos. You are pouring into another small business in your area. You're voting with your dollars, you're voting for another small business, and I know that's going to come back to you. So I also just want to,

this ecosystem in our industry.

Yes.

No, and we're not saying invest back in that ecosystem, um, flippantly or without thought, but I'll say this, the word professional. I think by, you know, definition, it's, it's a certain amount of hours that you, that you do something and you become professional at it. You become an expert at it. And so it is, that's a big statement that taking photos with our iPhone when we don't have even there are professional photographers who can use the iPhone 'cause they know how to work it. They know what the lighting needs to be like. And so are we saying that the only opportunity for a guest to choose us. We're going to put on the shoulders of ourselves who don't have hours and hours of practice really capturing emotionally a space that how much that space cost us to invest and to even have it. And all the furniture you put in it. And Kay mentions, you know, that, uh, that money could be used instead on an uncomfortable bed or better sheets. And we're not saying this or that.

It's either or, right?

It is If you are going to become a host. Be responsible for someone's life. And I do not say that lightly. Am I wrong, Annette?

No, no.

Someone's in a home, and a home can be a very dangerous place, can it not? And so we need to make sure that safety and that comfort are, are not things that you can either decide to do or not decide to do. Like we're, we're literally selling a good night's sleep. So safety, comfortable sheets, a comfortable bed. Then if you're an invest in all that, to work with someone who spent hours on how to emotionally capture the right person to book that place and stay with you, and then how many stays can be booked on that one time fee.

This is these, the conversion rates with the pro photography, it's proven.

It is proven.

This is proven across our industry. You're gonna get more clicks, you're gonna get more bookings and at higher rates. That is, that is proven. The other thing I wanna say, Sarah and I are actually. Just yesterday had our own photo shoot and I can tell you what there would be no, we hired a photographer to do some pictures for us, person for, for our business. We would not be able to have gotten those shots.

No.

And here's, here's the other,

We could try, couldn't we?

Here's the other thing that happens. The confidence that you will get in the way that you are presenting your property. It's undeniable. When you know you have invested the time, the energy, the money into that professional, you will uplevel your hosting business immediately. It proves to yourself, it proves to your business partners, it proves to your guests, it proves to that small business owner. You are taking your business to the next level and I, we just know from being literally, we just checked our email and got some of the shots and they are incredible. Incredible. And it's not just the result of that. It is that, it is the confidence it. The feeling that Sarah and I have of that professionalism that is gonna help, that is going to trickle down into all the other things. And that is the one thing, and I wanna, I wish I could like come through the microphone and explaining this to all of you. When you start to uplevel and professionalize your hosting business, you are going to see the results everywhere. It will permeate in your profit. In your team members, in your relationships, in your guests, and that is where I think we all miss the mark on trying to maybe live in lack and instead of abundance. And it really does flip a switch and you have to do it for yourself to understand it, but it will be a game changer for you.

So to summarize. If you yourself have dabbled in photography and you know you're good at it, that can be obviously your contribution. I can, I guess I can admit Annette, if we're gonna be very clear that I haven't always hired an interior designer, right. To design my rentals for sure, because I feel like I am good at it. But it could be argued that if I got a professional, I don't what money I'm missing out on.

Absolute no. This is a time for us to all look in the mirror and seriously go through, go to your market. Just do some of the work. Look at your photos, look at your design, look at your pricing. We all need to uplevel and we're, again, we are coaching ourselves right now. That's actually why we love doing this show because yes, we, we do it for all of you, but we also just do it as a constant reminder to ourselves. But please, if you do not have professional photos, get them done. It will be a game changer for you. And then you can uplevel that again. We don't want to, we don't wanna dupe the guest.

No.

That is not what we're saying at all.

No, fishbowls.

We want this to be, we want this to be true to life.

Yes.

Okay. So please, please, please do not do that. That's not what we're saying at all. But you owe it to your property, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your future guests, you owe it to the small business owner and the ecosystem of short-term rentals as a whole.

And of all the things that you invest in for your short-term rental, that photography investment, usually. That ROI is giant. And I challenge anyone out there who is like, mm, ladies, I dunno that I agree. I, okay, we're business owners, so take it from us. We've been in this for a while. We've done our own testing, you test. But you have the test season to season so that you can, like, you have as much, uh, you know, maybe your high season to your high season with photos that aren't professional, that were taken by you and in good lighting, you think that's pretty good, versus an investment with a photographer who's a professional. And compare the numbers year over year.

Yep. And again, hopefully a professional pho, having a professional photographer comes in. Coming in is really one, two, maybe three night stays.

Yeah, for sure.

And again, you have to have a sales and marketing budget and I want you to look at that and see if you've been spending in it. And if you haven't, this is the first step.

Alright, thank you so much for the comments.

Keep 'em coming. Keep 'em coming. Keep 'em coming.

'Cause it, it's just a good. Listen, I encourage all of you to encourage comments and feedback from all people on your own business and your listing, and when you get feedback that kind of stops in the tracks, and maybe immediately you kind of wanna be defensive. Take that in, write it down, and see how you can use it to actually help your business, whether that's using those words to repel that person so you can attract the other people. For example, we used this example yesterday. There are a lot of podcasts out there about short-term rentals. Annette and I really lean into the work that it takes and how seriously you should take being a short-term rental host. There are other podcasts out there that really want you to see how easy it can be and how you can put VAs in place and then you, you know, have it be this like passive income.

Yeah. My favorite comment, you just need a cleaner and a remote lock and then you just like making millions.

And you know what? People probably have, we've seen these people do it, not, not. At this expense of safety. Mm-hmm. And key.

And they're not in business anymore.

And they're not in business. But what I can tell you though is that you are all probably listening most likely because you like the fact that Annette and I talk about the work involved and that it's not passive. It's quite active, but it can be very rewarding. Right? And there are people who want that passive story and they're not gonna, so I'm just telling you like you can use that feedback that you get to improve your marketing and to really lean into who you are and your differentiator in the market. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for visiting.