Hello. Welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian. I'm Annette Grant,

and together we are for visiting. Thanks for Visitng, and this is the, hosting hotline.

If you wanna get your hosting questions answered here on the hosting hotline, I feel like a radio person.

Of course. That's what we're supposed to do. That's what the hosting hotline is for. It's like, Delilah. I like, duh. It was like I would cry in my car. I loved it.

Yeah, but then sometimes they're so sappy. I was like, mm.

Sarah wanna be sappy.

I'd much rather our business question hotline.

No. Dr. Ruth.

Oh my gosh. She was sassy too.

She, if, if you guys have not watched the Dr. Ruth documentary. Unbelievable.

Is it good?

Yes.

Am I gonna still like Dr. Ruth?

Yes.

Okay.

She is a powerhouse.

I love that.

It is an amazing documentary.

If you like documentaries and you don't know what to watch next. DM us on Instagram. 'cause that's a Net's favorite thing to watch.

I should have, you know what favorite thing's Friday and we should do a newsletter. I'm gonna bring out like all your favorite documentaries. I mean, I'm,

you know what's good and what's a waste of time?

True.

Let's do it.

So let's hear from Julia.

Well, before we do that, if you want your hosting questions,

I need Julia Childs. Is it childs or child? I've watched all her documentary. I think it's child. Childs no child. Julia Child.

Okay, now I'm thinking too much.

I'm, I'm pluralizing it because I've watched so many of her documentaries.

Yeah. And you're like overthinking. You're like, I don't know.

Mm-hmm.

Go to hostinghotline.com and you can ask your hosting question. No question too simple or too complex. 'cause we'll answer here.

Bring um on.

On the podcast every Tuesday and today we're gonna help out Julia.

Hi Sarah. And Annette. My name is Julia. I'm the host of an immersive Star Wars themed short-term rental in Kissimmee Florida called the X4 dash Utopia. We recently joined the collaboration platform, stay yamo, and have completed one collaboration with a content creator. While we didn't see any immediate bookings from her stay, we were happy to host her and did gain a few new followers on Instagram. We often receive collaboration requests and are unsure whether it's worthwhile to host creators in exchange for just the cleaning fee. Is this something you generally recommend? Our property is extremely unique. It feels like stepping into another world, and we believe it would be a fantastic location for shooting engaging content. While we are typically fully booked, the listing is still relatively new and we're trying to get the word out. I'm not sure how to evaluate whether an influencer is a good fit. We've had a few requests that didn't feel right and when we declined kindly and with explanation, the creators were greatly offended. If we do move forward with the collaborations, what kind of content should we be asking for? I'm very new to Instagram and honestly, feel a bit outta place navigating that space. Any advice you have would be much appreciated. Thank you so much.

Congratulations on the immersive Star Wars experience in Kissimmee. That is such a competitive market, Julia.

But you're gonna stand out.

Yeah, you're gonna stand way out.

I also want to say thank you for your vulnerability and honesty that you feel a little bit, um. I think, did you say out of place?

Yeah. Just, or it's just it wasn't someplace you felt comfortable.

Yeah. On Instagram. And you are with so many of us. I can still raise my hand there, Julia, even after being on the Gram for a very long time, Sarah can tell you she still has to twist my arm every now and then too to get on there. But let's chat about this. We can be very honest that we do not have direct, um, experience with the site that you mentioned. So I just wanna start there that we can't speak to.

You brought it up Annette, right? Because I feel like,

yeah, it was called stayamo. How do you spell ammo? A MO Wait, A-M-O-M-O.

She's gotta pull up her on her laptop. There are other, uh, platforms that connect influencers with, whether it's, you know, your PR or your short-term rental host, or you're a, I used to do this, like my husband and I used to do DIY projects and so. People like, uh, publications would wanna be connected with creators of that space.

I totally spelled it wrong. It's just S-T-A-Y-A-M-O, yamo stay yamo.

But the, the y and the stay and the Y and the yamo are connected.

It's, yeah, that was difficult for me. So we don't have an experience with it,

but we have experience with short-term rental hosts and interacting with influencers. Yes, for sure. All of it.

First thing we want to share is. This is your property. Um, I, I wanna speak to the greatly offended you are going to probably give, especially with this immersive experience and all the Star Wars fans, influencers, you're gonna have to just prep yourself for that, that you're gonna prob you, you will be saying no way more than you are going to be saying yes.

But Julia, you are avoiding or not avoiding you are. Uh, that, that is a red flag. If they are greatly offended, had you been, had you accepted their offer and worked with them, something else would've gone awry. If, if they're greatly offended, they are not professional.

Mm-hmm.

Because you are, you don't have to give the reason why that you are declining the offer or the connection. I don't know how stayamo works, but it is your right to do that. And if they're offended, letting you know they're offended, that affects their reputation and their brand. And I, I just think that you're. What is the phrase I'm trying to look for here? Where they, you are avoiding a potentially bad situation anyway, so good for you.

You said dodging a bullet,

dodging a bullet. Like is that aggressive? I don't know.

Yeah. Probably not allowed to say that,

but, but, but you are like, I just so you can rest easy knowing that truly,

Right. That is a bad fit. If someone's greatly offended if you are declining their free stay.

Right.

On your, that an asset you worked really hard for.

Absolutely. And not all partnerships are a great fit just because they're influencers and just because you have a great property. That doesn't mean the results you want are going to align with the audience they have. And so something I wanted to point out to Julia is what do you want from the content they create? And you have to know that. And if you're not sure what you want, here are some things to get your brain going. It could be bookings, but that is, it's kind of a hard sell unless they're really tight with their audience that they say, Hey, book this place. People are going to book your place. You might have to nurture them for a while, whether it's on Instagram or even more valuable on your email list, Julia, so I know you said that you are new to Instagram, maybe not that comfortable. Here's the thing, getting a few followers on Instagram. It kind of feels good and it's a little vanity metric that you, dopamine hit can tote, but unless you're getting them on your email list where you can directly communicate with them because the content that you put out on Instagram, it gets shown to your followers like. A percentage,

a fraction of your,

a fraction of the time. So the goal should be to maybe comment a word and then they DM you or to comment of something in, in the, under the caption so that you can reach out to them, get their email address, and then send them nurture emails to remind them that you exist. Right. And so the goal from the. From the influencer, it could be an immediate booking. I have worked with influencers who've had that kind of relationship with their audience, and the property was so incredible that that match was perfect and we got a few bookings, but that is rare.

It might be content,

so it could be photos, reels that yes, the post on their Instagram or their YouTube or their wherever, and then you get new eyes or they give you the reels and the photos and the videos, and then you use them on Instagram, you know, with their permission, uh, for, and sometimes it's for a certain period of time, like maybe you can use their photos in perpetuity on your website. And sometimes they'll tell you, you can have use to this use of this content for six months to a year. So you really wanna understand that and know that it could be for just brand awareness, just getting your name out there. That is valuable. Think about it when it comes to this, this is an age old, uh, analogy, but Coca-Cola is one of the biggest companies, you know, in the world and the amount of money that they still pour into their marketing just for brand awareness isn't always a call to action is because staying top of mind is really important for businesses.

Absolutely. And the last thing that we wanna leave you with is. Thinking about having a holistic marketing plan throughout the year. So I would decide ahead of time, do I wanna offer four influencer stays throughout the year? Maybe there's six, maybe more in the slower season. But if you decide ahead of time again, it becomes easier when you have to decline. Say, oh, we already had our influencer, uh, for this quarter, and we really want you to know the financial impact too, of the dates that you're giving away. You definitely wanna know your busy season. You're saying you're already pretty much booked solid. I don't even know what dates you would have to offer. So just be really, really careful with the dates that you hold for the influencer, especially during your peak season. But I would decide ahead of time, how many do you wanna host throughout the year? Obviously, if a great opportunity comes your way, you could say yes, but I would just plan ahead and maybe some of them, you know, you're gonna have to test. We do have a YouTube video that I want you to check out, and it is all about how to partner with influencers, what type of contract you should have with them, questions that you should be asking, what deliverables you are requiring of them. We go into a lot of detail there and I'd love for you to check out that video.

I can't help myself. One last piece of advice, Julia, is the influencer you work with. If the collaboration is going to be an exchange for content, so photos, reels, what have you, make sure you like their style, like the literally the color of it, like the, the collaborations they've had with other people. Does that fit with your brand?

Is there alignment?

If it's about bookings or getting email addresses, who are their followers and are they Star Wars fans? Because if they're not, if their followers are. I don't know.

Uh, like fashion, if they're a fashion influencer, right. Or makeup influencer.

And not to say that fashion and makeup, they can't like Star Wars, but the reason they show up is to promote fashion and, and, and makeup tutorials.

Yeah. Maybe they wear Princess Leia, uh, braids.

But there are influencers who are sci-fi influencers or, or just straight up, uh, Star Wars influencers. Um, they've got podcasts, they've got those pod- Those are the kind of influencers that you want to work with. If you wanna get email addresses or, or bookings for that matter.

And at the end of the day, remember it is your property.

Yes.

So you don't even have to offer them at all.

No.

So you could take a pause and say, we're not doing it, and you know, you can make that decision. So I don't want, the greatly offended is Yeah. I don't want you to feel like it's a must for you to do. You might need to get, um, your bearings a little bit more underneath you before you're, you're trying to offer too many stays to, to them.

With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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

Talk to you next time.