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.

If you wanna get your hosting hotline answered. Here on the podcast, all you have to do is go to hostinghotline.com, ask your question, we'll answer it on the podcast. But today, as Annette just said before we pressed record.

Yeah. This is not just another episode. This is you said, welcome back to another episode.

I, I you everyone, I tried to make this just another episode, and Annette stopped like two weeks now we've been pausing this or episode because we, it was not monumental enough in terms of how we celebrated this episode. You may not notice or maybe you did, but it is our 500th episode.

5 0 0.

We've done let's it sink in. We've done five, 500 podcast episodes.

Wild. And we have helped. Hundreds of hosts have called in. We have been just pouring everything we can into the show because we want to help you professionalize your business, make more money and grow your portfolio based on your individual why. And it has been an honor to continue to bring the shows out because we would not cont, we would not have gotten this far had we not known that you are there listening to us each and every week.

And thank you for being there.

Yeah.

And being an audience for us and putting so much of what we share into action and then telling us how well it's working in your business 'cause that makes it worthwhile. It this, I actually love that the fifth 500th episode is happening on Tuesday, Annette, because we created the hosting hotline to help hosts with real questions, with as, as real time support as we can give them. Where you call in, you ask your real question, then we answer it here on the podcast because you crave practical, actionable guidance. This industry is fun. It is a bit wild. It's fast and ever changing.

It's fast and ever changing.

And it is one of the most rewarding industries out there. Especially in hospitality. And I've worked, I feel like in all of them, this one is the one that has kept me on my toes the most.

For sure. And we wanna, today we're gonna go over some things, um, we wanna share, and we're gonna go through right now just some bullet points of things that we want you to be paying attention to and things that we've done past episodes about, but these really are the things that. Most hosts, when you can lock in and work on these things, they are going to take you to the next level. So one of, when we're gonna kind of go through popularity too, of things that have been really popular and also people we've gotten feedback for feedback on. But I'm telling you, if you, if we say something that you haven't worked on yourself, this is a call to action to you to start working on these things. So number one, parent child listings. Okay. Um, oh wait, that's parent child ownership dynamics.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. So look, both of these, I'm gonna knock two out with one parent child listing. If you don't know what that is, we have YouTube videos, we have podcast about it. It will make you more money, especially in the slow season.

Another topic we discuss are family ownership dynamics. We've, Annette and I have shared with you. The actual contracts and agreements we've put in place with our own family dynamics or friend dynamic ownership relationships and partnership that we've encountered over the years. I, it gets a bad rap.

It gets a bad rap, and we are here to praise it.

And it bothers me. I'm not saying things can't go awry or we haven't had to have tough conversations. I'm not here to sugarcoat it, but it does get a bad rap and that's unfair.

Yep. And we wanna share that again. You do have to keep the worst case scenario in mind. You do, but set it up ahead of time.

Was that just like a, a, a nod to me Annette?

Kind of.

Thank you.

This one. Pricing your properties strategically across all seasons. If you do not have a pricing strategy, honestly right at the end of this podcast, you've got to get that dialed in very next thing no matter what.

Boosting visibility when bookings are slow. So we've talked about that a lot. And honestly, what Annette and I encourage you to do is to, yes, get strategic in your slow season, but make sure that you are making as much money as possible when the money is good, when the money is flowing. In that high season, we see so many hosts leaving money in the table because during that optimal time, y'all aren't optimized and we want nothing more for, for, for you then to make the money that you should, when your seasons are high.

And the visibility it is on you. Yes. It is not the responsibility of. An OTA. It's not a responsibility of maybe a marketing person that you've hired. You have to take extreme ownership of that. One of the favorite things that we just wanna continue to just drive home is what to ask your bookkeeper and accountant to get that financial clarity. And if you do not have a bookkeeper or accountant, again, this is your call to action. You need to do that today. Today.

How about hiring your first team member and moving beyond, quote unquote, doing it all yourself? Ooh, I love when hoes hit this point. It truly is my favorite. I was just talking with because of this is the 500th episode. Annette is very good at celebrating milestones in our business because I am very good at, it's never, I'm never satisfied. It's never enough. And so it's like, yeah, 500, whatever, like we should have that. Yeah, of course it's par for the course. But Annette is really good at slowing down and celebrating these milestones 'cause, because otherwise. Why are you even doing it? It's just become so hard day after day. And we were talking about inviting team members onto your, into your business, and that is a milestone.

A huge milestone.

Of finally being ready to share what you're building and take it to that next level. And it is, it can be challenging, it can be scary, but it doesn't have to be.

And I think everyone also wants to go like too far down the road. A first team member could be someone helping you paint the house before you even open someone helping you design the house. It could be someone that is helping you with maintenance at your house, of course, a cleaner, a turnover pro for your house, and then moving beyond that and having someone maybe helping you with guest messaging. But I'm telling you, a team member doesn't always need to be a W2 team member. It can just be someone that is helping you, that you're not doing it all yourself. So please don't discount all of the team members that you help. And the one thing I love to share with everyone is that when you hire someone to help you, that is releasing so many other things than just that task off your list, you are helping someone else with their income. You're helping someone else fulfill needs in their own home. So don't be selfish in this act, please think about all of the ripples that that makes. Once you have people helping you with your, and it doesn't even have to be your property. It could, you could be hiring someone to help you, your personal home, so that way you can focus on your portfolio.

The best tech to use when professionalizing your business. Ooh, the tech, and going through the, I like to call it the Airbnb boom of 2020 through 2022. So much tech came out and you should have seen me at the conferences. Annette can attest to this. I would get grumpy going up to all these booths popping up.

I think you're just straight up mad.

Mad because they don't know my, they don't know my life. It's like you are creating a solution for some, for a problem that doesn't exist, number one. Or they were sharing with me that tech that they had created. It could solve a problem, but not in the way it needs to be solved.

Or you're like, there's already 20 other pieces of tech that do that same thing.

Correct.

So what makes you special?

Right? And so I understand all of us needing some clarity with all the tech out there and what is worth it and what is it. And we've loved being able to guide you in that. About growing your email list to own your guest communication. Every other industry, this is probably one of the, the top conversations that happen, but for us, it's like a special episode or it's a, are they ready for this? It's very interesting in our industry how we, this is secondary or tertiary to getting up on Airbnb, and I'm telling you all in other industries, that is backwards. It's backwards to grow your email list after you've already opened up your business because it is a unstable place to be. If you aren't able to own your leads and you're not able to own your client list and be able to resell to them to re-offer your place to them. But it's okay. We're here to help bridge that gap.

And we share that is our, one of our biggest mistakes when Sarah and I both got started was not collecting. Emails from our guests. When I say we could have tens of thousands, it's actually pains me if you could see through the mic right now, I'm closing my eyes because I have to take a deep breath to say it because. It was a huge, huge miss. We would have a decade's worth of,

It's okay. Guests move on.

Right. But we were sharing that with you because we don't want you to make the same mistakes that we have. And you can, you can, today is the best day to start.

Ooh. Setting up systems that turn chaos into consistency. Systems save everyone. They really do. Whether you wanna scale or not having a system in place. Any of you who feel chaotic in your business right now, it's fixable, it's solvable. I'm not saying it's easy, but a system will help you. And we love talking about building those.

Yep. And so this is just some of the stuff that we've gone over multiple times on our show. And truly, if you have, I'm just gonna share right now, if you have a show idea that you want to send to us or you know, potentially a guest that we haven't had on the show. This is an invitation right now. Please let us know. It's hi@thanksforvisiting.com, and we would love to know how we can support you or go to hostinghotline.com and please share with us either your question, who you want us to have on the show or dare I say why you should be on the show.

Oh, we love having hosts on the show and not enough of you are putting yourselves out there and honing in. This is the important part 'cause you can't just, you can't just say, I wanna be on the show. And we've gotten those requests too, but we really respect all of your time. And when you tune into the show, that means you are dedicating this time to tuning in and hearing what we have to say or what we have to bring to you. And so when people come to us with ideas, we take that very seriously and we do not say yes to everyone. So if you're out there and we've said, Hey, that's interesting. How is this different from either A, how's this different from any other host that we, or any other content we've already on the show or we have hosts, or people reach out to us who tell us all of their podcasts they've been on and now they wanna be on Thanks for Visiting. And it's like. Well, we can't share the same content that you shared at every other podcast.

Right.

This has to be unique and interesting and mind blowing information for our listeners. So what else you got? You know? So put yourself out there if you wanna be on a show, whether it's ours or someone else's, but really think about what sets you apart and what you unique proposition do you have to add to our industry where you can help thousands of other hosts, and that's what we wanna talk about.

Yeah. And if you haven't. I've done a STR share yet too. This is a call to action. Oh yeah. We give a lot of opportunity to share your properties and so we wanna thank everyone that has ever used the hashtag they've ever went to our site to, to let us share your property. That's what the show is about also is sharing your space. Uh, that was an original tagline by the way. For all of you share your space, live your dream.

I blush every time she says it 'cause it's so corny.

That was gonna be the, uh, this is a little fun fact. The show is going to be called The Art of Hosting. The tagline was going to be "Share your space. Live Your Dream."

This is before I was involved.

Yeah, it was way before you were involved. You would've shot that down. It's okay. So good. But the one thing that we want that has evolved over time with the show, and we started this way, but it's becoming more and more clear as, uh, as we grow, as you grow, as the industry grows, that. We are here to professionalize hosting, to professionalize your business. Okay?

And that doesn't mean sucking out the fun. It does not mean turning us all into this corporate robot.

At all.

I don't want that to be the message.

No.

But everyone, I say this in a way that is with every ounce of love I have for you and our guests and our properties in my heart, that if we don't professionalize. If you think it's hard now. When you don't have systems in place, when you aren't taking extreme responsibility over your success and not blaming outside sources that you cannot control, then your hosting career is going to be short-lived. And we know that's not what you want 'cause you keep coming back for more.

Mm-hmm. Right. And listen, hosting is not just having a property. It's about building your systems, creating strategy, and getting support. Professional hosts do not go at it alone. They see clarity and community.

Professionals don't go at it alone, any industry.

We have, I think we've talked about it very often, of the amount of A, professionals that are on our team, and these are fractional professionals from our CFO to our attorney, to our accountant, to our insurance rep. These are the top of their game and as we sought them out our businesses have upleveled and so we wanna share with you, um, again, throughout all of the episodes, throughout all of our teaching, throughout all of our workshops, throughout all of our boot camps, we have really been brought to, it's been brought to our attention what you need as hosts. It is becoming very, very clear that you need more support, you need more mentorship, you need accountability, and we have created something for that. It's strategic host and it is about taking these questions and really diving deep with you, helping you not only answer those, but then scale your businesses.

So, i'm gonna, I'm gonna put you on the mic.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm here for it.

So you just kind of like slid that out.

Mm-hmm.

We've had for a while an opportunity to work with us off the podcast or off the YouTube channel, and that's been our Hosting Business Mastery Group Coaching Group, correct? And now we're offering Strategic Host. And how is that different?

It provides deeper coaching. One-on-one support with strategic guides that, or you're gonna, we're gonna help you on your pricing. We have just literally, when I say we have seen hundreds, close to thousands now of hosts that are under pricing their properties and for no reason at all, we need, you need to be paying attention to your financials and you need support with that. You need accountability because it is getting, still getting pushed to, uh, to the back burner of, of your insane to-do list daily. We want to help you with your tech and really sort out what do you need and what do you not need. We see this, you have tech bloat and you're not using it, and we've gotta make sure that you're using the proper tech at the proper time with your property. We wanna help you build your team. Give you that marketing support and so much more. Okay, so this goes beyond one off, one off answers. We are gonna deliver you a full roadmap and structured support. This is gonna combine not only Sarah and myself, our expert coaching, but we have a lineup of other expert coaches. We have proven systems, and the part that we will never, ever be able to put any sort of value on is the community of other professional hosts that are growing together. So, you know. Everything in this hotline is probably giving you those moments of clarity, that moment of support, that moment of mentorship or accountability. But now this is going to be available every day, all year long to you.

And we've made it so that strategic host is, we're calling it a sprint, because we thought for so long, if we can support these hosts for six months to a year, that's what they would want. Or that is where all the magic would, where, where it would happen. But what we're finding is hosts want to fast track their business. And this is everyone listening. This is not some, like, this is not an advertisement right now for Strategic Coast. We are truly telling you. What our hosts, who've been in our group coaching, what our podcast listeners, what our YouTubers and what our Instagrammers have been saying to us on the other side of an email or a DM or in a review, a case study, a call, because we've tried to say, well, listen, what is, what is specific to you, what may feel specific to you, could actually help other people. So we thought group coaching and in group coaching is incredibly powerful and that's not going anywhere.

And we're still gonna have that, right?

Yeah. That's not going anywhere. But that crave that, that craving for accountability and one-on-one support. We can't ignore it anymore, especially in the, in the day of AI becoming front and center. It's so interesting that hosts are like, listen, I've fallen down this ChatGPT Rabbit Hole. I'm, I'm seeing it, but I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what's real and what's not. I don't know what will work and what and what won't. We've been there and we can help you. So we've created this new offer. Strategic Host, which offers that accountability, mentorship, and support that y'all have been asking for, and we are so excited to share it with you on this Milestone podcast episode of 500.

We again, just want to thank you for. Your support through all the 500 episodes. Listen, if you have listened to all of them, whew, I do want you to email hi@thanksforvisiting.com and let us know. I might have to send you a little care package if you've actually listened. Don't lie. I need to know if you've actually listened to all 500. If you're Sarah's husband. I know you have. Thank you, Nick. Um, we again, anyone that's called in, we, um, appreciate you. Please keep calling in, asking us a question. But again, professionalizing is the key to long-term hosting. That's who we want. Listening to the show. That's who we want taking action on the show.

Because professionals, you make your property safer and they're, that's a nod to Justin Ford are most repeat guest on this podcast because safety, if we don't have safety, then we don't have a business. So that needs to be at the, the top of our, of what we need to do every day as professional hosts. Professional hosts, you understand your profit and loss statement and you understand what you're taking home. And that's not saying that money is the most important thing, but money is energy and we understand how it's flowing in and flowing out. That is how we serve our guests. That is how we best serve our communities. That is best how we support our families and professional hosts know that. So, if you're interested in Strategic Host, we'll put a link in the show notes if now is not the right time. We're gonna continue to show up for you here on the podcast. Here is from 500 to a thousand and beyond.

Wow.

How about that?

I like it.

Are you ready for that now? Did that scare you a little bit?

No, I got excited about it. Let's go. Or you can and or

you can hang out with us on our YouTube channel every single week. That's been really fun.

And I have one last ask. If you have not left us a review, please. We would love for you to leave us a review. It helps us, it helps our entire industry because when people are looking for education, when they're looking for support in their business, it will help them find us and it'll help all of us up level the industry. So we haven't asked there of, if you haven't left us a review, we would love for you to do that.

And tell you what. 'cause you're all hosts and you know how important reviews are, don't you? You all know.

Talk about energy.

Yes.

If you leave five star reviews, I'm telling you it's gonna, the energy will come back of your guests leaving you those five star reviews.

Leave us a review. In that review. Tell us your most significant takeaway from listening to podcast and tell us how we can reach out to you. Whether it's your Instagram handle or, or that's probably the best way to do it. Your Instagram handle if you can. What we'll do is we will, after this episode, we'll skim through the reviews that came through after this episode, and we'll be sure to not only share what you have to say with our community and our audience via our email list and our Instagram, but we'll take the best ones and we'll send you a little something special.

Awesome. Love it.

Wow, Annette, well done.

Thank you. Thanks for showing up 500 times.

Hey, I'm here for you. I sometimes we show up, I show up in a closet my bedroom.

On the road.

Sometimes it's on the road.

We get it done.

We get it done every single week. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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