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

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

And let's start this episode like we do each and every week. And that is sharing one of you our incredible listeners, who heads on over to strshare.com, shares everything they can about their short-term rentals. So we can celebrate you here on the podcast and on our Instagram account each and every Sunday. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

This week we are sharing at Edenwood NC. Again, that's @edenwoodnc, EDEN, wood nc. And she just so happens to be our amazing guest on the show, but I want to highlight a few things in her account. Number one, Catherine has and her husband have two properties, but on the same piece of land. And I love, they're both unique, but they've combined it into just one Instagram handle. So they've done a really great job of having two independent properties, but, um, making sure to highlight both of them in their feed. The other thing I want to give a shout out here, she has a lot. Her pictures are awesome. She has a lot of reels and a lot of carousels, so check that out. And she has some unique features and you're gonna hear about them on the show, but she does a really wonderful job of highlighting two of them, which is her loft that has a bathtub, that's just the bathtub. I think she sets 150 gallons and you'll see it throughout her feed and it is a showstopper. And then also her wood fired hot tub. So each property kinda has this like very unique, um, bath bathing, you know, water experience. And so I think, uh, she just does a really good job of sh of showing that on her, her Instagram also. But give them a follow today please as a thank you for her time for the show. And then, um, check out her Instagram. 'cause it really is, she's done a great job and there's a lot of moments here where she has guest and you'll kind of see how it feels like, I'm gonna say more like magazine moments where she has people enjoying the space and she's using those, um, using those throughout her feet. Well done.

Alright, and we're gonna talk more about Catherine. So Catherine Morris is the owner and operator of Edenwood North Carolina Properties. She's got the barn. And the tree house, and I love the simplicity of those names. And Catherine is a Superhost, and now she's been ho- hosting full-time for over three years. So you'll hear in our conversation, she, this is what she does full-time. She cleans them, she inspects them when something goes awry she's the, the general contractor piecing together whoever needs to come together to, to fix the things. Her,

plus her husband,

her husband helps her with the, with the hot tubs. And so she talks about that, but she left corporate America to do hosting full time. So I know there's a lot of you out there interested in that. And she even was kind of ashamed that she cleans and it's like, I'm not ashamed, but she's like, I'm breaking the rules. And it's like, no, like you, you know that that was part of the plan and you enjoy doing that and it's, and it's part of your full-time job. We applaud that. And so Catherine is really an incredible host and she had to navigate the, uh, intricacies of operating short-term rental in the aftermath of a natural disaster. And so that's what today's episode is, is mostly about is Catherine navigating, uh, Helene and impacting her community when it wasn't, they're not used to getting these sorts of hurricanes and these sorts of storms, and so she really didn't have a buttoned up system in place. So now she's put one in place and she's sharing with all of you, everything she's learned now on the other side of Hurricane Helene and how we can all better prepare ourselves for unprecedented storms and just being prepared for something that we might not see coming. Catherine, let's get into it. Tell us, well tell us how you got into hosting 'cause you have an interesting story there, how you pivoted and then take us into the fateful day when everything kind of was uprooted, if you will.

Great. Well thanks for having me. And I'll start with how I became a host. Uh, really it was a pandemic pivot where once I got into, uh, late 2020. Realized that actually I would go back and say mid 2020 realized that some of the implications that we were seeing, especially with my son who, uh, was in elementary school at the time, but the implications was schools closing down and all the learning loss. I was still working corporately at the time. And so I was on Zoom 24/7 it felt like, and trying to keep the wheels turning with my job. And also all of school was online and I knew that it was not going to cut it for the long haul. And also that there was gonna have to be some significant intervention on my part to help with the recovery, uh, that that was going to be necessary for everyone. And all of us had people and loved ones that we were surrounded by at the time that needed a lot of help. And so. We live, uh, outside of Asheville, North Carolina, uh, in the lovely mountains. And my husband said, Hey, let's look into doing a vacation rental. And I, we had talked about it in the past about doing one in our basement, and I was adamant that I was not going to have people in my basement. And so we began looking at property, uh, to hopefully pivot me out of the workplace so that I could be more present. And we ended up finding six acres on the very mountain on which we live and acquired it from an estate before it went on the market. Um, a property that we had run by, walked by for many, many years. And uh, that was kind of hidden behind, uh, a large amount of fencing. And so we acquired that property and began the work of building two unique short-term vacation rentals, uh, in late 2020. And then opened the first in 2021, almost a year later, and then the second and spring of 2022.

When you say unique. What does unique, and I love it too, you're not just gonna do one. Why not just do two?

Exactly. So when I say unique, uh, they are both custom build and designed and each have features that, uh, that I guess maybe it's not unique to short-term rentals, but certainly to our area. So our, one of our properties called the Barnett Edenwood has a loft with 150 gallon tub that is completely, uh, perched in the loft. And the whole loft is dedicated to that tub. So not an extra bedroom but a tub. And then our tree house, we have, uh, it faces Mount Pisca and has, uh, a cedar wood-fired hot tub, but both were custom designed and built specifically to be short-term rentals. So they are not single family homes.

Love that. And then you said you've walk and run by it, so how close is it to your primary residence?

So we can't see the properties.

Okay.

Which was intentional. I didn't want to constantly be worrying about guests or guests worrying about the property owner being close by. So that was intentional on our part. But I can walk to the properties and be there within about a six minute walk, or I can drive there and be there pretty quickly so.

And you, you shared with us too before we hit record that you're. All involved. Right. You're cleaning, you're inspecting, you're messaging guests, it is your job. Correct. For both properties. Can you talk to our listeners about that experience? 'cause uh, we'll, we'll be candid that, uh, Catherine Kaman was like, I don't follow your rules and I do all the cleaning myself. And we wanted to be really clear, like, no. Like if that is the plan, if that is part of the plan for you to get paid to clean the cleaning fee and, and your messaging guests and it is your full-time gig, we love that. Absolutely. So how has that been going? How has that pivot been going for you from working corporate?

Well, that's a great question. A my body is more tired than it ever was. Uh, I don't wear high heels sometimes. I really miss the fun clothes I got to wear. Now, I'm, I'm heavily invested in athleisure and comfortable shoes. Um, and I have two closets full of clothes that I rarely wear anymore. Still can't part with them, but it's been interesting. So essentially we do have some things that we outsource, uh, but those are not the guest, uh, centric heavy tasks that guests will experience. So I chose to keep the cleaning and the property readiness and guest communication, those things that are very high touch for the guest. I chose to keep those in-house. And we only have two. And that's intentional. Uh, I'm not wanting to scale. So that's part of, if we were wanting to scale, then that would be a totally different story. We could do it.

See, love that too. Here's my question. Do you do back to back same day, turns on both properties?

Yes.

Woo. Yes. And is it just you?

It is just me with the help of my husband who has a full-time job that he will clean the hot tub and the fire pit.

Holy smokes. Yeah. So that's a lot of, so if you. On a day where you have Yeah. Back to backs. Both have to be turned. What, what? Take us through, like how many hours of work that is, are you there Right when the guest checks out? Just getting after it.

For the most part with maybe a 15 to 30 minute margin right there. But it's, it's really, it's about a four and a half hour. Just hardcore cleaning job between the two.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, and I do suffer from a little bit of perfectionism from my former life as an accountant, so that does make it more challenging. But we are, we are heavy on the cleaning side.

Before we dig into to the, the real meat of the episode here, I do wanna know what is your one secret tip for hosts out there that do clean that, like, once you figured it out, you felt like you unlocked the secret to cleaning back to backs in the same day?

Well, I had to purchase Roombas for both properties.

Okay. I love that.

Do you let, do you let that run while you're cleaning?

Yes, yes. I let it run while I'm cleaning. And also, huge fan of the bona.

There we go.

And so those are, those were the two things, but the Roomba was essential because it could not be carrying around a vacuum and doing a whole separate process. But I'm a real stickler about baseboards.

Same girl.

Gosh, I wanna see dust or debris on a baseboard.

No.

And so that's part of the four and a half hours and like our tree house, which is you have to walk down a three minute trail through the woods, and there's a lot of, and obviously the wood-fired hot tub and the fire pits. And so there's a lot of debris that folks are gonna track in and out as a result. So those baseboards are cleaned every single time.

Geez. Wait,

I have one more selfish question. Maybe, maybe, maybe two, but definitely one. Annette and I are going to purchase wood, uh, fired hot tubs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do you like them? Do you recommend them? What, what? Give us the 411.

Okay. So I, I've only had one other host reach out and ask me this question and I was honest because I believe in helping our community.

Yes.

So if I. Didn't have my husband, who has somewhat of a flexible schedule and can work his schedule mostly around cleaning out the hot tub. Uh, I couldn't do it. So one of the things about a wood-fired hot tub that not only do you have the hot tub that you have to take care of itself, you have the woodburing stove that heats up the hot tub. That stove has to be cleaned out after about two uses because the fire won't continue to burn efficiently.

Mm-hmm.

And so that is a lot of heavy duty work and it is truly dirty work like, soot ash, and then the smoke stack has to be cleaned out fairly regularly. And then also we specifically, my husband does a lot of work to set guests up for success. So sometimes in the dead of winter, and especially if you don't have back to back guests usage, if the hot tub is at 60 degrees, that's gonna be about four and a half to five hours to heat it up. And so what we do is we set up the, the, the kindling and we get the, the stove ready for the guests to start the fire, which starting a fire is different from feeding a fire. And then of course, it's sourcing all the wood and certain wood burns better than others and more efficiently. So you can see it's a lot of details and guests love it. They come for that experience. They have to be dedicated to the experience. And so we're very transparent, but it is not easy to maintain.

Yeah. I mean, have you ever maintained a regular hot tub?

No.

So yeah, I think they're, it's, it's just like, choose your heart.

Different beast. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like choose your heart.

Um, interesting. I, I like that perspective because I'm always, another thing about accountants is that we're like worst case scenario people. So in my worst case scenario, I'm like, oh my gosh, if something happened to my husband, like, that thing is gonna have to be converted to electric. No more wood burning.

Like, because, but it would come with its own source of issues too.

That's interesting. And I, I haven't thought about that.

Absolutely. And I, I'm going for, you're like, guess that they come for that experience. I'm like, I wonder how many people will come for that experience, but then just not participate in the experience once they see

it does happen. Mm-hmm. Or some folks. They don't realize, like you can't just throw a log on the fire and it's gonna heat up. You have to continue feeding it about every 30 minutes.

Yeah.

So it's really like what I would call a stay and play experience. Like you can, you can multitask, you can be cooking over our woodfired, uh, or woodfire. Uh, the, the fire pit, the brio fire pit, sorry, this was the 4:45 AM waking up, worrying about all the different things going on at the properties. But you can, you can cook your dinner over the fire. You can read in the hammock. You can do different things while you're heating up the hot tub, but you're gonna have to stay there. Yeah. And do it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And sometimes folks don't realize that even though we, we send a video, we communicate.

Right.

Like it's gonna take time. So yeah. So we'll find the fire has started, but. We can tell that it, there wasn't,

they, they got tired of waiting for it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

So, yeah. So we do a lot to help our guests be successful and I've definitely gone up at the property at 10:30 at night to kind of help get a fire going and yeah. So it's, we do a lot,

Yeah.

To, to help our guests be successful at it.

I I I love that you're calling it our guest success.

I love that though. It's true.

Because, because it is true.

They wanna have that because people will come for a rustic experience. I'm one of these people and it sounds great and romantic and all those things. And then you get there and you see much work is involved and you're like,

There's a, there's a learning curve.

What I could just sit inside and read too, and that could be nice. Alright, Catherine. Yeah. Let's get to the meat of this conversation though.

Yep.

So talk to us about that fateful time where something happened at your property that you were not expecting. Take us through everything that happened. A to Z.

Okay, great. Well, I'm happy to be here. I wanted to share with our, your guests, or excuse me, your community, um, of hosts and about our experience of hosting guests, uh, leading up to, uh, Helene, which was a combination of a hurricane, tropical storm and flood that hit the mountains of Western North Carolina in late September of last year. And, uh, wanted to share our experience. And I thought that, um, it would be a good opportunity to help other hosts prepare and just have a category for what happens when a natural disaster hits hits your area. I initially thought in the mountains that we were pretty safe and secure from most natural disasters, though, uh, obviously Helene proved me otherwise. Um, and just hearing whether, whether or not you wanna talk about cause or effect, but certainly weather type events are increasing in normalcy in the states, and so I felt it would be important to share our experience, um, about Helene and the natural disaster that happened in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

So when, and obviously you live there too. Yes. So when you started to hear about it, because we chatted about it before we got started, you know, there are obviously so many places that encounter natural disasters each and every year, but you felt that you were a little bit insulated from, like re say a, a hurricane, flooding, this type of, um, natural disaster when the chatter started happening that this might be coming your way. Obviously as a resident and a host, what were the first initial h thoughts that you and your husband, did you have guests? What, what was even the protocol? What were, what were the thoughts going through your head?

Yeah, so. Late September, uh, September and October are typically our best months of the entire year. And so we were looking to have a record October and we're fully booked pretty much all of September and October. And so we had guests at the properties, um, and we were fully booked in the weeks following Helene. And really, I, I know it might be surprising you, everybody will probably recognize I have a bit of a Southern accent or maybe more than a bit depending on where you're from, but we will. Pretty regularly when we have a snowstorm where it's gonna be maybe three to five inches with really cold temperatures following our area, will actually declare a state of emergency. Because in, in a mountainous area where roads don't receive a lot of sun and some are more rural than others, it's, it's really common. So that's always been my benchmark in dealing with guests in a snowstorm is, hey, like if our area's declared a state of emergency, then you have the opportunity to cancel penalty free. Because I don't wanna be hosting or have, and sometimes people will say, hey, we've got four wheel drive. We're from the Midwest, we're used to driving and this we're coming anyway. Um. But because we live on the mountain too, we have a pretty good understanding of what safety looks like at our properties as well as for our own selves. So, but a state of emergency is my initial bar. Also in 2004, uh, it was Hurricane Ivan came through these mountains and we weren't living here at the time, but we were in Atlanta. And remember the impact of Hurricane Ivan on this area, there was similar though less catastrophic flooding and wind damage. So most of us were predicting something similar to that, not, what we had with Helene. So I was anticipating power outages and some wind damage, but not the catastrophic impacts we had with loss of infrastructure. So leading up, as soon as we started hearing the reports, I was reaching out to guests that were both staying with us as well as those that were gonna be checking in that Friday. Because I had guests that were scheduled to check in the Friday that the storm, uh, after the storm came through on the 27th. And so I was communicating to them, Hey, like we've got a declared state of emergency. We're anticipating some power loss, potential wind damage. When there's a declared state of emergency, you can cancel. And so I was communicating with guests. I did have one guest chose to check out a day early and said, sure, that's great. Another guest who was in the tree house chose to stay, and they were actually local, and one of them was a forester.

Mm-hmm.

So they were looking around saying, this forest is healthy. It's not gonna be, I know that sounds crazy, but like, we're in the mountains of Western North Carolina. And so they were like, this forest looks healthy. I, I think we will stay. And again, knowing, not anticipating how catastrophic is going to be, I, I let them stay. And then, um. As the storm came through, which we had had a bunch of rain leading up to Helene. So really that whole week we had a ton of rain. But when the storm came through in the wee hours of the morning on September 27th, that's when a lot of the damage began to happen. And then as soon as, and we lost property or we lost power that morning, I, it was around maybe 5:00 AM on Friday morning. But as soon as the, the tropical storm, the hurricane passed, I was headed up walking up to the properties to survey damage and to check on the guests. Uh, and it became very clear that there was. Not going to be away off the mountain for quite some time because there were trees down on every major road on and off our mountain.

So do you beforehand, uh, 'cause Sarah and I are actually thinking about this for our, um, for our property of having like emergency like kits of water. So before that did were for your family, were you going to the grocery store?

Yes.

Were you getting bottled water? Were you preparing that way?

Yes.

And do you have extras for, did you at the time have extras for your guests? And I don't know if that's changed since the storm to kind of have a, like a emergency kit like that of food and water?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we actually have lived on this mountain since 2010. And the longest power outage we ever had was a little bit more than 24 hours. So, and that include ice storms, snow storms, so we never owned a generator because the cost benefit of having one when we've only lost power for more than 24 hours. So we did not anticipate though, we, I did go to the store and buy gallons of water and jugs of water and have some bottled water, just anticipating, oh yeah, we may be without power for 24, 48 hours. And, um, so I'll get that both for us and our guests. Um, so our precedent even in the past was that we had never lost power for very long.

So your, your home is fine. And then are you texting with the guest, the forester that's staying there, or how is that interaction and they're keeping you up to date on what's going on, but they have no, they have no power.

Right. And they, they didn't wake up till later, but that was my first concern, um, was making sure that they were okay. And also I was, I was prepared to make coffee. I know that sounds crazy, but like guests need coffee when they wake up. So I was, I was prepared, I had prepared meals, um, or at least bought some things for meals that I could do, uh, in a loss of power at our own house that I could also take up to the guests. So I had a soup recipe prepared and I had instant coffee and all those things. So I was trying to get food up to the guest and coffee, and the guest was supposed to check out that day. Obviously we could not get off the mountain. So the guests that was supposed to check out on Friday, uh, wasn't able to leave until that Sunday. So I was providing water and coffee and, um, they had a lot of food and since we had fire pits that you could cook over, they actually were pretty self-sufficient. 'cause they had been there for a few days, but I still provided what I could and I was really taking care of them while I was taking care of my own family.

Right. And but no power in your property or on, on that one?

Yes.

And at this point in time, there's like no way to get off the mountain. You're trying to figure out and, and you're, are you communicating with the next round Oh yes. Of guests?

Yes.

Like, how is that, because I know it's impacting the entire city. I mean, some people

Yeah.

Uh, obviously we could go through on for hours of what was going on throughout. So what, what started happening, you forecasting? Is the mountain gonna get cleared? Do are people even gonna come here? Were people actually reaching out to you proactively seeing what was going on? I'm sure there were a lot of guests already starting to reach out if they were looking at the news and seeing what's going on.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question because I was focused on, first the immediate guests that were gonna check in that Friday. And because it was a weekend, it was Friday through Sunday, most of them. Mm-hmm. So those were my first priorities, and honestly, because of the loss of power and just the, just the immediate sort of trying to deal with that, a lot of the news that people were seeing outside of Western North Carolina, we weren't necessarily seeing. Um, and so it took a while. I think even it, it, I can't remember when I posted like, oh yeah, like, I think we'll be open in a couple of days. And that was just based on. There are down trees and on our mountain, and it's gonna take some time to clean up. It really was hard for those of us that were in the actual, living in the na, actual disaster area to see the news and really understand the full devastation, um, that was going on. So seeing like the devastation in the Chimney Rock area or in the Marshall area, Swannanoa area, that took a while for those of us, at least from my perspective, to fully comprehend because we were so busy trying to deal with our own stuff. And I do wanna say like, I feel like I'm coming here in a position of just pure, purely blessed because there was major catastrophic loss of life and homes and businesses. And I just had the minor inconvenience of loss of power and water. Mm-hmm. And, and so I just recognized so many people and likely very many hosts in our area had it a lot, lot worse and a lot harder. And some of them still likely haven't been able to reopen. 'cause there's just a few parts of Western North Carolina that are still trying to recover and get reopened. So I'm coming at this from a much of a position of like, man, we were really blessed. Uh, it, it took a while for, for it to sink in to. For me that it was going to not just be days, but it was going to be weeks. And so then at a certain point I realized, hey, like I'm gonna have to not just communicate with guests in the immediate kind of next few days. Like I've gotta start communicating with guests like that are booked really throughout the month. And so that was a significant turn.

And were you, 'cause we've always, I'll, I'll just be honest, this, nothing like this has happened to us. So we always ask the guests, you know, if there's an issue, like we want them to cancel 'cause we don't want, yeah. Like to be canceling all these guests. How are you handling mass cancellations? Were you asking them to cancel? Did you reach out to Airbnb? Were they all, first of all, were they all Airbnb guests? Are they all basically booking via the OTAs?

Yeah, that's, so this was a significant lesson learned for us. Right now we are a hundred percent Airbnb, uh, bookings.

Okay.

And. Really looking towards moving to having direct. That's our next step though, right now, a hundred percent Airbnb. And on the 27th, which is the day the storm came through, Airbnb at a certain point messaged hosts and said, we are going to allow all guests to cancel penalty free for your booking and bookings in the area through October 15th. So they selected, I'm not sure how they determined that date, but they selected a date that was over two weeks out.

Okay.

So, so that happened automatically, and I'm assuming our guests got that message as well. So this was one of the, the challenges is and also somewhat of a help in the sense that a Airbnb selected a date. So I had a benchmark to say, Airbnb has selected this date of October 15th, so anybody can cancel now. We actually were able to reopen on October 10th and did have guests that had previously canceled through those dates. And so having that date that was selected did end up going beyond when we could have actually hosted guests. So, um, some may view that as detrimental that we had some cancellations that we actually could have hosted, but that was the date Airbnb selected, so we had to honor that. I will say it was much easier when the guest reached out to Airbnb and said, I've received this message. I want to cancel, because then Airbnb would call me and say, this guest has canceled. If a guest reached out to me and said, I see I can cancel. I want to cancel, then I had to reach out to Airbnb specifically and say, we're in the disaster area. This guest wants to cancel, they're allowed to cancel pen- penalty free. Can you cancel on my behalf? Because if I canceled it, I still would've been penalized.

Mm-hmm.

And so it was almost like, as a host, Airbnb didn't really have a flag over my name saying they can cancel penalty free. So it was an actual added extra step I had to go through during a really stressful time. Um, but yeah, so that was going on. Uh, Airbnb was allowing guests to cancel through a certain date and also at the same time there, and this will get into this likely in a little bit, but our, our government authority issued a do not travel order. Uh, the first one I saw was on September 27th, which was, consider all roads closed. Non-essential travel is, is not permitted. And uh, so it was a do not travel advisory by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. And that continued on for our area, I believe it was finally lifted for Henderson County, which is our county, uh, on October 8th.

Wow. And were you a part of Catherine? Were you a part of any, like, let's say, host Facebook groups, uh, during this time? Or are you friends with any other host that had guests that were stranded or trapped or, uh, also kind of similar situation than your guests? Were you communicating with any other hosts during this time?

So on, so we live on the mountain where our properties are. We can't see them. But, um, actually in our small neighborhood, there are two other vacation rentals just on our street. And so, um, our neighbors actually own one of them. And then, um, another mountain neighbor's daughter owns the other. So I was actually around guess of the other two properties and everybody was in the same boat. Everybody was stranded. Um. And the first priority for all of us that had guests, which I think the majority of short term rental hosts had guests like during Helene, because, um, it was such a peak, peak time. Peak, yeah. Our first priority was getting people off the mountain and just getting guests so they could, 'cause there were major roadways closed and so people couldn't even necessarily that, that Friday they couldn't even get out of town to the airport. Mm-hmm. Um, so that was really our first priority. And outside of that, I'm not, um, active on Facebook. I, I follow your work really closely, but I'm not, um, I'm not active within a host community.

Sure.

So yeah, that was, it was just winging it in a lot of ways.

Yeah. No, but banding, yeah. You're kind of just like taking the next, the next day. When you had this, uh, obviously you had some lost income during this time. Is this something that you reached out to your short-term rental insurance about? For lost income? How did you and your husband, um, obviously the property sounds like was fine. Um, were there any, um, after effects that you have that, of you having to fix the property at all? And then did you get any sort of lost income help from your insurance company?

So we ultimately, we did have damage though. None of the damage was physical to either our property, the barn or the tree house. So we didn't have a tree fall on a property. Uh, there was minor damage that was fairly easy to repair. The major damage on our property was just down trees, downed limbs. We have some fencing. We had broken fencing. We have string lights that line, the three minute trail down to the tree house. Trees fell on those string lights. So we had, we had damage though physical damage to the actual properties that would've prevented a guest from safely staying. Not that type of damage, but we had a, we had about two weeks of cleanup on our six acres that was necessary to both safely host guests as well as beautify the property. Uh, your listeners and something I've learned from the short term, uh, rental community leading up to opening was you've gotta have business loss coverage. And so those of us that have that know how important it is because vacation rental income, like for me, it's my full-time job. So that loss of two weeks of peak rental income I knew was going to be significant. And so not only were we not able to reopen due to damage that we needed to clean up, we also didn't have the infrastructure and there was a do not travel, uh, authority order. Uh, I thought, well, if anytime that my business loss coverage is going to come into play, surely it's in during one of the worst natural disasters in history. And due to a series of circumstances, we have two properties and we had two different insurers. So that was a unique experience because, um, not many people provide short term vacation rental insurance, and we had, each of our properties was insured by a different insurer. So I got to experience what it was like from a customer service perspective, uh, to, to compare. And also, um, we obviously had two very different experiences. And one, um, so when we were applying for coverage, it really was mainly for business loss coverage. We had some minor damage that would've been covered, like to a septic cover, a door, a screen door. Uh, but mostly the significant loss was the loss of that two weeks of income of canceled reservations. And one insurer covered us under business loss with, uh, no problem, and the other denied our claim.

Ah, oh no. Interesting. So, and

To keep it as simple as possible for your listeners, because it is. It is complex, uh, under the civil authority, which is what we filed under, which was, uh, a civil magistrate order is saying, do not travel. Mm-hmm. And so even if we had been able to reopen sooner, there was an authority out there saying, essential travel only is advised through October 8th for Henderson County. So to open before then would've actually been going against a civil authority. And also not very caring for our community because really we needed the a- authorities dealing with, you know, helping in some really pretty catastrophic situations. So the best I can describe why we were denied by this particular insurer was that the civil Authority part of our policy said that. You could only claim a loss if the Civil authority prohibited access to your property due to a covered loss. And because the civil authority said don't travel because of flooding, wind damage, lack of resources, like there was a whole bunch of things listed because flooding was included in that. And we did not have flood insurance because we live at 2,600 feet on the top of a mountain. Um, it was denied.

Gosh. They find every reason

that is, that's ruff.

Okay. So Catherine, so then now on the other side of it, did you change insurers? Are you sticking with it?

Yeah, we changed insurers.

Okay. Yeah. Did you go with the same insurance company that covered the other property and why did you do, did two different just to like, see?

So the, uh, that that particular insurer had actually, so we, we live in the mountains and in the fall of 2023, we had a period of significant drought and there was a wildfire on the other side of our county. So it was, we could smell the smoke, but you couldn't see it. But because there had been a wildfire in our county, that particular insurer dropped one of the two of our properties.

Okay.

So even though we had not had a wildfire risk and um, at our particular property, they chose to drop the property that was embedded more in the woods. So now I look at, look upon that as a blessing that we were actually dropped because the insurer that picked up our other property actually was the one that paid out our business loss coverage.

Oh, whoa.

Are they a lot more expensive than the one that dropped you? No

cheaper?

What?

Yeah, and I went through, I went through line by line when I had to switch and it was essentially the same policy.

Um, wow.

So it, it was honestly very surprising and I'm actually, I'm not gonna share publicly the insurer that

Fair enough.

Did not provide the business loss coverage. I just don't believe in public disparagement. Mm-hmm. Um, if your listeners want to reach out to me personally, I'll share that. Mm-hmm. But I, this is a, a small community, but it was really surprising and I also learned in the process. So I went to the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center, which if your area ever has a declared disaster, like they open up these disaster recovery centers and I went and waited in line for multiple hours trying to deal with a claim. And through that they have other vendors and people there to help sources. Mm-hmm. And so I actually talked to our North Carolina Department of Insurance. They were there. And I said, Hey, like I'm, I'm really fearing I'm gonna get my claim denied. And the gentleman said, look, your department of insurance is there to regulate the insurers, so you need to reach out to them if they have, if you have a denial of your claim. So I did. And in that process I learned that actually the short term rental, vacation rental policies that we all have, it's actually surplus insurance and it's not regulated by a state insurer.

Ooh.

So when you need to get the help of a claim denial, in our situation, like the only thing that the North Carolina Department of Insurance could do was send a letter to the insurer stating our complaint, but there was really no recourse. So that's just another, another thing that I thought was interesting that our department of insurance, this is what we all have as surplus, so it's not going to be regulated by.

I have a question for you, Catherine, knowing that your past life as an accountant, having the experience you just had and knowing that it could be like one little detail about something that someone said of an authority to have the insurance company deny you, are you restructuring your revenue in such a way that you have a little bit of a safety net? Did you already have that? Did you, have you changed any of your revenue allocations to, to help with a future disaster so that you can, like, not self-insure, but just have some sort of safety net?

Well, I, I, we were in the fortunate position where we did have a safety net. Um, actually a couple years ago I started following what they call the profit first method. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. In terms of how we pay ourselves, and also to make sure that what we're retaining in the business is, um, is significant to cover, to cover losses. Um, so, so, yeah, and we're also debt free on our properties, so that is something that,

okay, let's pause there. Let's pause there.

Know again, as so i'll say too,

Catherine, this is another role debt. This is a little debt free crumb. She's laying out there.

Well, I'll say that as, as a business graduate and a former accounting major, it's not something, having healthy debt is still, I think, a very good thing. Um, and having healthy debt to invest and reinvest in your business actually is a good thing. Um, I'm also like one of the most risk averse people on the planet to a halt.

Oh, so good. So, hey, the debt free during this, during this time was probably a game changers.

Yes. So that was, that was a weight that I did not have. Um,

again, let's pause though. See, we all do like, you, you, before you came on and said, I'm breaking the rules, and then you said there's healthy debt. Listen, this is where everybody needs to like. Quiet the noise and what is best for you, and if no debt and doing the own cleaning, if that is your like, place where you feel most confident and the way that you wanna live. That is, you get it. Catherine, you do you Catherine, that is like, if someone else is, has higher risk and they wanna have a team and they wanna like leverage it all, like that's where it's just like, hey, like we're all just trying to do the best we can. But I like when people are doing the best for what they actually want, not what, you know, everyone else is chatting about. Another question really quick before, before we start to wrap up here. Catherine has this impacted though future guests? Are people like deter, like maybe not coming to the area because they're like, Hey, it's not back up to speed. The infrastructure isn't there. What has the guest messaging and and outreach been like? Or there people wanting to just come stay to help the recovery. What has that after, um, Helene, what has that been like for you and, and hosting?

Well, I will say that all the things that you all teach your community, uh, the things that are important, like returning guests and having, having systems in place and, um, a branded effort and, and guest communication and customer service, all those things played a, a critical role during the immediate aftermath of the storm and continue to do so in terms of recovery. So, um, as I mentioned earlier, not only did I have to start communicating with guests that were coming within two weeks, but also I was reaching out to guests that had booked in December. Mm-hmm. Just to say, Hey, like. We are reopening also, I, I feel like we are a part of a tourist ecosystem in Western North Carolina. And so what is not necessarily evident to everyone that doesn't live in Western North Carolina is that, um, we live in Hendersonville. Hendersonville is a big agritourism, um, hub in the fall. We're, um, big Apple country. So if you love a honey crisp apple, you come to Hendersonville in, in August, September, October. And, uh, so the, the agritourism business was desperately needing to reopen. Um, because October is the biggest month. And so I, we felt. We needed to play a part. And of that reopening, we want our properties to be a hub that attracts people to our area and then feeds the local economy. And so that's the way we brand and view ourselves as we're a destination in of itself. But there's so many other wonderful things to explore. And also we were really fortunate to have quite a few returning guests booked for the end of October. And they were so gracious and wonderful. Um, they weren't as concerned with are there gonna be down trees, you know, on the sides of the roads. And, um, just that that returning guest population was critical as we were trying to get back on our feet and to say, Hey, like we're still open. Our property looks the same. Um. Restaurants are reopening. Our, our local orchards are reopening and everyone's doing their best to reopen and be present during a really critical time for our economy. Uh, recovery has been a little bit slower than we all had hoped. There's just, um, when, when you make national news, there are impacts and oftentimes folks may not understand that what happened in one part of Western North Carolina maybe didn't necessarily happen in the exact exact same way, 45 to 50 minutes away. And so we're still viewed as one community. And I recognize that's just a challenge that this whole area is working really hard to overcome. So you see a lot of the local tourism boards and authorities doing be part of the comeback, uh, advertising and really asking and, and saying like, we're open, we're, we're in the active effort of recovery. And, um. We, we need guests here, um, to as, as a part of the recovery.

So in summary, Catherine, having gone through it now, at least, you know, one time with two properties, what would you share with the listeners who are wanting to prepare, they're wanting to do their best, what are some things you would advise them to do ahead of time and to prepare? What sort of systems should they put in place?

I would say make sure that you can cover about a two weeks closure. Just have that nest egg because. That the arbitrary, well, I can't say it was arbitrary. I'm sure Airbnb had an intent with how they selected that October 15th date, but that was a little bit more than two weeks after the disaster. So if, if you have, and I don't know what the experience was for other OTAs, I, I can't speak to that, but for us, that it would be, make sure you can cover two weeks with a loss of income at a minimum.

And I wanna circle back to peak season. 'cause two weeks can is if, you know your numbers, two weeks is very different at different times of the year. And so for you it was peak, peak season. Yes. So the highest income two weeks of your year.

Yeah.

And, um, compounded if you have multiple properties, um, in the same area of like two weeks, peak season, all your properties too. I'm just thinking of so many of our friends,

Yes.

in, in this industry that, if all of their properties were impacted for that long during peak season, it really is, um, devastating for sure. Yeah, it was, it was a, a pretty significant loss. Mm-hmm. Um, for, for just a, a two week closure. And then there has been the, the ongoing impact. So initially when, when we were looking at it, we thought, okay, probably through the end of March could be. Pretty tough. And April has typically been a really good month for us, but up until last week, April was looking worse than February for us. So now I don't know if some of that was related to the wedding industry that may have been impacted. Um, just, and of course I've seen some other things. Obviously there's different things going on economically and um, that as well. So it's hard to tell. But the, we will see, I think the big test for us will see what does October look like compared to what we were projecting last year to be. Um, so what does a peak month look like? But we were down revenue wise, the first three months of the year, um, almost 18%. Wow. And so that it, so just being prepared that there's a longer term impact and, um. I'm sure that there's probably data out there related to other natural disasters, but this one being sort of a record breaker and, uh, being considered one of the worst in US history, it's certainly been interesting to navigate it. So to help out your Western North Carolina community, can you tell our, our listeners where they could connect with you, where they could go to book and, and help? Not only, um, just the, the entire, um, uh, area out.

Yeah. So I would say. Anyone should come visit and stay in the area. And whether that's, uh, in a family vacation rental or one that hosts solo and couples like we do come visit our area, stay, um, go out to eat frequent shops. Our local businesses are especially in need. Um, it's a trickle down effect. So if we're down almost 18%, some of the, the stores and the restaurants I heard at one point were more like 30%.

Oh gosh. Mm-hmm.

So, uh, so our area, wherever you visit, um, our area needs you and I'm happy to point you, um, to, to great different parts of Western North Carolina, including Hendersonville, where we are. You can message me and connect with me on Instagram, um, @edenwoodnc or you can, um, visit our website, which is uh edenwoodnc.com

Awesome.

We'll put all of that information in the show notes. We hope you get a flurry of interest, Catherine 'cause you are such a great host doing such a good work. Talking to you before we hit the record button. This woman is detail oriented when it comes to her cleans and her guest readiness, and we are here for every aspect of it.

I wanna see those clean baseboards. Oh, girl. Sounds like we can, we can eat off. We're gonna, we're gonna come to Western North Carolina. We're gonna go pick apples and we're gonna set those apples on your baseboards because they are clean enough to eat off of.

Yes.

Love to have. Y'all. Y'all. Yes. You're awesome. Thanks for the work that you do. You're an inspiration. Um, and when, when somehow I stumbled across you on Instagram and I, uh, followed you all immediately because I could tell that you had a great energy and we're doing really great work. So thank you.

Well, and I wanna, I wanna congratulate not Yes, congratulate you. And, and, and thank you. And share with everyone listening that Catherine saw a gap in our content. And she's like, I think I have something that I can add to it and share with the host. So we welcome all of you hosts out there. If there is something you faced, if there is a unique situation that other hosts can learn from, that is what the Thanks for Visiting podcast is for. So Catherine, thank you for reaching out to us. It's always so we work very hard to bring content in, but when hosts say they wanna bring a certain topic in, we are here for it. So thanks for doing that. It's really helpful. We can't do this without the listeners helping us create this world. And um, I just know that you're gonna help so many of the hosts. So, Catherine, thank you so much. And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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

Talk to you next time.