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

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

Let's start this episode like we do each and every week, and it's featuring one of you our incredible listeners who is heading on over to strshare.com. Sharing everything you can about your short-term rental so we can celebrate you here on the podcast. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

This week we are sharing @shirehomeco. And Shire is spelled S-H-I-R-E. And what I wanna do, and I'm gonna start doing this on our STR shares, because STR share is a.com, I wanna start sharing these professional hosts websites and I wanna celebrate sharehomeco.com because this year, after hosting hundreds of guests for over six years, they created their own direct booking site.

Yay.

So they've been hosting. For six years and around year five, they're like, okay, we are committed. We are going from side hustle hosts. You know, we wanna be full-time professional hosts. And what I love is that they, this year, created their direct booking site. And I wanna share, I went to shirehomeco.com and within three minutes I felt so connected to these hosts. I knew their story. I knew about their properties, and I know I knew that, um, McKayla, who was one of the owners, she, I, I read her blogs, two of her blogs, and that's how I found out about her launching her direct booking site. And secondly, the other thing that she did that I wanna share that I think is just awesome is through that blog. I know so many of us are talking about like, how can people find us? How can we connect with, with people, this is how it's done. And what the next thing I wanna share that McKayla and her friends did is they are started, they started a social community in their town. They talk about how it's harder as an adult to make friends, and here's the deal. They went ahead. And they, um, here's a quote from her blog. If you want to create community, do it. Don't overthink it. Paralysis by analysis is real. If you wanna so in and in her blog, go check it out. They started a club in their town and you better believe, I'm sure she is there, sharing her direct booking site with the 70 people that showed up to her event to create community. So please check out Shire Home Co for so much inspiration, mostly for how to take your. Business to the next level with your own direct booking site. And then how she is creating community has her blog there and other, so people can find out about her, her services, and her amazing home.

And let's continue the conversation of professionalizing your business, Annette, and talk about, we get in a lot of emails and dms about do I need a PMS? There are so many. Sarah, Annette, which one should I pick?

What? What is a P? What?

What is a PMS? People talk about it and I don't really understand what it is.

What's this? Another acronym here in this wonderful world of STRs,

STR short-term rentals, property management system, or software, depending on who you ask, but it's a way for you to manage your property. With automations with multi-channels. When I say channels, it's a great way for you to list your property, both from a direct booking standpoint, on Airbnb, on vrbo, on booking.com. There are so many OTAs. There's another acronym for you online travel agencies out there that partner with property management systems where you can connect to your calendar in your PMS and make sure that you don't get double bookings. And it's really great to see a diverse calendar of bookings, obviously leaning heavier with your direct bookings, but that is the freedom that a PMS allows you to tap into.

And you might be thinking right now, am I ready for a PMS and we are going to say, if hosting is no longer a hobby, no longer a side hustle to you and it is becoming your a business for you, which it should always have been, but you might be leaning more into it now that you're like, you've seen the success of the hobby, the side hustle, and you wanna become a professional host, you want this to be a real business, you will need a PMS and we wanna let you know. It's like also during this episode, we want to offer to you. To think about, not where you are now, but where you are headed. So we don't want you to just kind of like disconnect and think this, this isn't for you. This episode is for you. If you have any inkling of wanting to grow your one property or into some additional properties.

If you're on our email list, which if you're not, you need to get on it. 'Cause because we send out emails every Thursday and what it really is, is a behind the scenes peak at what's going on in our lives, both business and personal, and how it can help you, or, Hey, we just did this. It didn't work out. Don't do it. But one thing I asked everyone on the thanks visiting email list, it was either last week or two weeks ago, but it was, if Airbnb didn't exist, if it wasn't so easy to get your first booking, would you still host? 'Cause if you think about it, Annette. If you and I wanted to start a cleaning company or you wanted to start a laundromat or

We haven't we wanted to start,

that's why I'm giving these examples. Or We wanted to start a,

our, yes. Our first plan of attack would be to get our digital real estate stake.

It would be to get a website,

stake, our claim on the worldwide web.

And with hosts because of any hosts who has gone into short term rentals. I would say 2010 and beyond, it's, it's not the first thought. And it's just. Special to our Indus industry, and I think we're seeing it start to be a disservice to our industry.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And so with all these changes that are coming with Airbnb updates, with the payment processing updates and the, uh, unable to connect with our guests outside of the Airbnb platform, all those changes that Airbnb has announced and rolled out this year, it really should be a wake up call to all of you that if you are putting all of your eggs in that Airbnb basket, and you were an incredible host. We see it happen all the time, and there you get delisted for a week, two weeks, three weeks, your listing gets completely removed because of something a guest claimed happen. Even though it was a misunderstanding or that wasn't your, uh, intention, whatever it is, it's just a scary place to be. So what can A PMS do for hosting it? Like what, what are all the things it can serve?

I mean, the first and foremost is it can. Help you manage your direct bookings, right? So that is the first thing I wanna lead with there. And a lot of the PMSs, they do have, um, plug and play white label, whichever you want to call them, websites so they can more done, done alongside you, done for you, uh, services there. But it can help you streamline your operations, prevent mistakes like double bookings, missed guest messages. You can have that unified inbox there, can give you your precious time back to work on your business, not in your business. And also it has, it can become that piece of software that is the hub of your business. And the best part is being able to, as you grow, have that hub prepared for any of your future team members.

I wanna dive into what you said. The first thing is, I wanna make sure anyone who doesn't quite understand what that means, we map it out black and white. So a lot.

What was the first thing I said?

A lot of the times when you wanna build a website, you might think you have to hire a designer.

Oh, please, everyone, actually, yes, please do not think this is a lot of money. Actually, before we dig into the episode two, I don't want you to think financially that you might not be ready for this either. These are low cost. These can be very affordable no matter where you are in the world, no matter where you are on your hosting business journey.

So you can, you can hire a designer if you want to. Honestly, that's what I did. Because I am a special human being.

Well, and times were different than too, had there been some AI around and some different things.

Yeah.

And some different You might have.

Thanks, Annette.

You might,

I appreciate that.

You might've done, you might've made different decisions.

I love my website.

No, I'm for, I'm, I'm not saying you don't,

but, but I did hire someone to build it out costume special. We have people who are running multimillion dollar hosting companies on templates. What is a template? It's a, it's a website layout that already exists and you kind of just drag, drag and drop photos and text into different areas of the site. Okay. And then what you do, and it's very easy to do, to do, don't let this overwhelm you. You take a piece of code and you drop it into a specific area of your website builder, and it's kind of like your, it's not kind of like it is your PMSs calendar, and this is what hooks up that direct booking capability to your website. Or what Annette mentioned, this is the third option, is when you get a PMS, some of them have their own website in a box. Again, it's a template, but it's a template specifically built by that PMS that you can tap into as part of your subscription with that PMS. And so you don't have to have someone build it or buy a template online. It's kind of all happens in it's very, very, very easy. I guess is what I wanna say. Does that make sense?

Yep.

And you think I'm being super clear there?

Yep.

Because some people might not understand what a white labeled website means, and that's what it is.

Well, and that's, and I wanna offer to everyone. You don't have to have a website before you go and purchase or subscribe to a PMS. 'Cause sometimes I think people might think you need to have that in order to, like, in order to have one.

Next up is, we see this happen a lot too, where you go out and you decide on a PMS maybe a friend of yours or you saw it in some Facebook group or you saw an ad, saw an ad, you, us about it.

You heard us talk about some

Yeah. And you're in there and you're like, I don't like it. I don't wanna try something else. And you PMS hop. And let me tell you, there are no perfect PMSs. Mm-hmm. Annette and our, our, my job, this is what we do now, day in and day out is help hosts through different challenges in their businesses. And so we are in a variety of PMS systems pretty much every day. And they all have challenges. Maybe it's not even a challenge, it's just the way your brain thinks, the way your hand moves, where you want that button to be. Yeah.

The user experience.

Yeah. It might not work with your brain. And so you're ready to throw in the towel. And so what I wanna share with you is don't overcomplicate the decision process. And then once you decide. Just stay committed.

Stick with it, stay committed. Because I see hosts, uh, I think they're buffering by going from PMS to PMS because there's another one that's gonna like help them improve their business. I want you to stay committed once you've chosen a PMS and just dig in. And that will give you a lot of freedom too, like of course, interview. But once you've chosen one, go for it. Don't get analysis paralysis. Let's go lean in and make sure that. You have some of these, we're gonna, we're gonna go through a checklist here of what you should be considering though as you're choosing.

What I did, and you probably have chat GPT help you do is I got a little spreadsheet and I had a column of all the questions I wanted to ask or find on different property management website sales pages, and that column of points that I wanted to make sure they had, I would then, I would say at least three to four property management companies, ask them these questions. Get the answer. Write it down, because you're not gonna get everything you want in one PMS. I can also tell you that too. You're gonna have to make some sacrifices. You're gonna have to see what is, what is truly the most important thing to move you from A to B. Okay, so here are some of things that we think you should ask yourself and ask these property management companies. When you get them, get on sales calls too. Yes. See their website, they'll, a lot of them have their own chart saying what makes them different from their competitors, but get those salespeople on a call and you grill 'em. You ask 'em questions, right? First one, Annette, I think is, you said this earlier, don't think about where you are today. Think about where you want to go. You have one pro, you have one property today, but you are really committed to having five in the next three years. Or, or you wanna start a co-hosting company in the next year. Tell the sales rep this and ask them. Can I go from this to this? Will you, will you be able to grow with me?

Will you grow with me? We want you to be very aware of your budget ahead of time. That way you, again, in your research ahead of time, you might see if something fits for you or not. How much time you wanna, we wanna ask how much time is gonna be invested in setting it up and maintaining it. And please be advised you are going to have to spend some time. Even if you have an onboarding specialist, even if it's going to be easy, just like anything, you are gonna have to dig in and learn it. Uh, you might wanna, you do, definitely wanna ask about the website if they have that, uh, branded, direct booking website available for you. And then if, are you gonna be managing multiple properties across multiple markets? Just asking them how those play together. And if you are already using tools in your business. Let's say you are using a smart lock. Maybe you're using StayFi, maybe you're using accounting software, maybe anything that you're already using tech-wise in your business. Ask if there is compatibility with that PMS with what you are currently using.

Yes. What else can you think of? What other questions do you want to know about this company? Maybe it is. What is your customer service like? If I, when I, when I have questions? 'cause you will, is it send an email? Wait a couple days? Is it live chat with a human or a bot? Can I get on a call? Do you have coaches or coaches Hour? Office hours with the team. How? How can I get help? As I'm navigating the,

if I need it

right as I'm navigating the system.

Yeah. And again, understanding those features too. Hey, if my accountant needs to get in and access reports, if I do have another team member and, and again, that's working in the budget, like how does property count impact budget? How does team member count impact your budget? And then also, uh, is there an actual onboarding fee in addition to, um, monthly fees? So make sure that you understand that. And here are some, we're gonna give you some core features that you should pay attention to. You do want to have these, we believe these are foundational.

Channel management. You wanna be able to be on different channels or online travel agencies. That's Airbnb, vrbo, booking.com. What and what other OTAs do they offer in their marketplace?

Yeah, you should be pleasantly surprised at how many channels are opened up to you via a PMS. You wanna make sure your calendar syncing can take place. So you're avoiding, and any sort of double bookings, you wanna have a unified inbox. So that means one place for all the guest communication. Doesn't matter where that guest is booking the reservation. Do you have the capability of automated messaging? Do you could ask them about the direct booking capabilities? What exactly do they offer to you? And then just a little deep dive into what does their payout tracking look like? What does their reporting look like? Let like pull up the hood a little bit on once you're locked and loaded and using it, what kind of reports? What kind of data can you extract from it?

And you may not use all these features day one, but to know that they have them, you're gonna want them as you become a little PMS baddie, in your first couple weeks being on the software, you're gonna wanna add on making your life easier. And so think about all those things that you and you hear your other host friends talk about. And hey, if this episode is like inspiring you to get on a few calls, I would also ask other people, Hey, I've got this list of things I wanna ask these PMS companies, what else would you ask? If you were gonna hop on with, on a sales call with someone, you know, tap into your community and really make these calls worthwhile because you can change PMSs down the line, but it is a giant project and you don't wanna be working. You wanna be spending your time building your direct booking.

Yeah.

List, your email list.

Here are features. Once you have those core foundational features taken care of, here are some that you will wanna think of, um, as you advance in your career. If you start scaling more properties, I mentioned it earlier, but that multi-user permissions, you wanna know, can my team members login can may, you know, does it link to again, any of the other, um, your accountant? Maybe you have virtual assistants, maybe you're cleaner, who c who can log in? What are the options for you to do, um, maybe custom fees or add-ons. And of course, we need to be, we, we need to be aware here with Airbnb how we will make these things happen. But the capability to upsell for your early check-in pets, et cetera. See how they are using currently and in the future, what the, uh, built-in AI capabilities are inside of the PMS. And this one is huge. And you might ask your current accountant about this, but what are those integrated accounting tools that are there, will it help you with track your revenue, your expenses, keep up with hopefully just an incredible amount of payouts that are happening? And then I'm gonna let Sarah talk about the last two things we have.

We wanna make sure that the API connection and integrations, they offer that they are a well-respected partner in our space. Okay? So maybe if you're gonna be interviewing a newer PMS to the marketplace, ask them what is their relationship with, with Airbnb, with vrbo, with other tools that will help you run your business. Because if they aren't a preferred partner with these online travel agencies, that connection to those calendars might not be as strong and we don't want anything holding you back. So APIs and integration. And then if you wanna be a co-host or if you are a co-host, how can you involve your owners in that experience? Do they have owners login? Can they see their calendar? Do they offer owner reporting? What does it look like? All that good stuff.

And one of the things I really do want you to take into consideration as you're doing the, you know, decision making process. Please be mindful of your own user experience. We hear from a lot of different hosts, just the, the way that the PMS, the, when they log in, the way it looks, the way it interacts with them. You know, some systems, I'm just, uh, parallel here is some things are more Microsoft versus Mac. So just know thyself and if you, the user experience is not, um, pleasing to you from the beginning, and there's something that maybe just. Feels better to you? I would lean into that because I know there are certain, I'm just gonna say it. There are certain banks that I use, there are certain programs that I use that I just love the way that they're set up. And I, I find myself doing the work in those places over the other places that I don't like to log into or I don't like the user interface and what's going on there. So really be mindful of, um, of the user experience.

One of the final tips I have for you is if you are getting ready to add a PMS to your life. Give yourself enough time to onboard. Maybe they give you an onboarding schedule. Like, Hey, you'll meet with your onboarding specialist for the first three weeks, and then, then you can do X, Y, Z, and we'll be there to support you. Okay? Double that for yourself. Give yourself time to sit there and, and, and poke around. Give yourself time to try out a new feature. Give yourself time to hop into, maybe they've got communities for their, for their PMS users, things of that nature. We don't give ourselves enough time to really understand the tech that we invest in, and that is our fault. Right? Yeah. That is, that is not the tech's fault. That is because you are expecting it to just work on day one, and that's not how it works. You really have to give yourself time, give yourself grace, ask them how will you support me beyond the onboarding process? Because you're investing in this, you are a professional host. Ask the questions, raise your hand, step up to the plate, try things out, get things wrong. Fix it, do it again.

Mm-hmm. And Sarah saying, you know, things might break. Fix it. Do it again. Please be open to that. There might not A, I do believe the PMSs are always working on improving themselves always. They're always listening to the users.

Yes.

They're always bringing out new features. So if you wanna see something that isn't there, please let them know. 'cause they do, they have giant database of like what features. A host, you know, a host wants. So make sure that you're voicing that. But secondarily, think a little outside the box and you might have to create, quote unquote, a workaround for yourself. Um, so that's where you would wanna talk to your. To you. Maybe if you have a team, maybe chat GPT and say, Hey, my property management software doesn't do this exact thing. How can I do a, I, I don't like to word use the word hack, but like, how can you make it work for you instead of just throwing up your hands in there? There are workarounds. We have to, you know, we have to figure that stuff out and be nimble. So please make sure that A, you let them know, but then find a solution for yourself until the PMS does.

And if you take nothing else from this, there is no perfect PMS. So. Get on to calls, talk to them, ask questions. Track your interviews, see what has what, where, and when. Don't get analysis paralysis like our STR share did, and make the decision. Take that next step in your business because choosing one that fits your needs and your future needs is gonna get you closer to the business that you want to build. And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

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