87: Essential Intel To Co-Host Short-Term Rentals, with Sean Parker

Joan: [00:02:05] Well, welcome Sean.

Sean: for having me. I appreciate the invite

Joan: While I've had guests who have talked about their Airbnb businesses, this is the first time that we're going to be focusing on co hosting as a side hustle.

So tell us what that is and how did end up becoming a co host.

Sean: Oh, I love that question. We got into it based on purchasing a property. We did that back in 2020, right when kind of Covid was kind of taken off, we put the offering in the spring of 2020, just up the road from where we lived.

And then it kind of built from there. So we bought that first one, enjoyed doing it. My wife and I were both working full time. So we actually had a new baby in May of that same year.

So my wife was the rock star there. She was the one bringing the baby, doing some cleans on the side while I was stuck at work.

And,

Joan: Okay.

Sean: and yeah, so we loved it. Ratings kept, kept coming in. We were, we were doing a good job based on, on that. And my [00:03:05] father in law and mother in law actually purchased the cottage right next door to it and asked if we would kind of do the same. And,

Joan: I was going

Sean: oh, sorry about that.

Joan: that's okay. I was going to ask you what gave you the idea to get involved in that in the first place. So it was them?

Sean: For the co hosting. Yes. So so we were doing the hosting ourselves. And then yeah, once they purchased that property and asked us to kind of help them with it they're honestly about 6 feet apart. So, yeah, so so that was kind of our introductory to co hosting and and having somebody to answer to.

Joan: What gave you the idea to get involved in a rental property in the first place? You're both working full time. You've got a baby on the way.

Sean: I think COVID had a lot to do with it. Just kind of like almost introduced, like the, the fragility of, of what you did, and it was just the idea of having a second income kind of made sense, just, you never knew [00:04:05] what what tomorrow held and, and if your job was still going to be there.

 We had decent jobs in the area. I was working at at a local refinery as a process operator. My wife was a full time hairdresser and we were doing, doing very well, but just. You didn't know what what the future held. So

Joan: Yeah.

Sean: myself I don't know for not being a business business major.

I always had like a, an entrepreneurial mindset. I always, my wife could attest to, I always came home with new ideas or you'd work in our shifts at work. We're 12 hours. We did, we did shift work. So you get lost in those night shifts. If you're just working the control board or working outside and. Just you get an idea in your mind, but there's no one to share it with.

So you come home and my wife would bear the brunt of, hey, I think this is this is something that's missing in our area. This is a business idea. So this is just the 1st, when we really acted on and we purchased that property. And, and yeah, the rest is history.

Joan: Great. So you've got that one [00:05:05] going and then your relatives ask you to look after theirs. How did it grow from there then? Were you focused on acquiring more properties yourself or you thought, huh, maybe this co hosting is something. So describe actually

Sean: what co-hosting is

Joan: as well.

Sean: So for us co hosting is. Is more of a property management. Once we took on that secondary property, we're still doing the same things we're doing hosting where our title just was different.

I think I have a lot of data now. We're averaging about 50 turnovers per place per year, both working full time and just, just the messaging. I think at that point, we're you're sending and receiving about like 7 to 10 messages a day.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: 2 properties. So it's just 1 of those things.

It was just enough to ruin your train of thought,

um, over the course of over the course of a day.

So, uh, well, you're both working full time. It was one of those things like, man, we got to figure something out here,

Joan: Right.

Sean: if we're going to keep, [00:06:05] keep this going as a, as a side hustle. And we actually put out an ad for just local cleaners.

Cause it was just too much for us to do. Well, our big thing was we didn't want to hinder ourselves and how many turnovers we could do, or the minimum amount of stays we wanted to act almost as a, as a hotel on wheels kind of, where guests could kind of go to either property. They knew the level of cleanliness they were getting the the response time for messages was going to be the same, no matter what, almost like you had a front desk

Joan: Yeah, you I mean,

Sean: and, uh,

Joan: ratings, right? So

Sean: exactly.

Well, that's what you, you live and die on, especially in those algorithms. As far as Airbnb and VRBO go,

Joan: Mm hmm.

Sean: so we didn't want to lose out on our on our ratings or our level of competency. So we reached out to a local cleaner and kind of explained what it was. This part of Southwestern Ontario Airbnb was still in its infancy.

Even in like late [00:07:05] 2021, early 2022 not a whole lot of competition in our area. So we explained to the cleaner kind of how it worked. And cleans could come in kind of 7 days a week. It was sporadic. You had from 10 to 4 to get them turned over. We had the, the schedule kind of set up automatically.

So, she was going to see the cleans come in. We also only had like a 1 day booking window, so they could come in last minute. And so we found somebody that was on board with that and she loved it. So she was a residential cleaner at the time and she couldn't get over the, the cleans the level of respect that the, the guests had had for the most part.

And she would walk in and out and get a good clean done. And between like 3 hours per place, like she could do a really good job. Place was turned over immaculately.

Joan: Wow.

Sean: So she asked she jokingly kind of said well, you got any more properties that you're hiding from me? [00:08:05] I kind of that was like the spark that the kind of ignited it all.

Yeah, just in discussion with people I worked with and stuff like that, whether they had a long term or midterm rentals, or maybe they were getting into the Airbnb space. I just kind of said, hey, I've got a cleaner. She's doing a good job. She wants more, more cleans in this, in this realm. And yeah, so I, I actually, not at the time, but now it's our next door neighbor.

They were the first to kind of say, hey, we have this one just up the road from where you are. We're doing it ourselves, both work full time, going to have a second kid. Would you want to look after that and and that was kind of, kind of the start of it. And then since then we went from, from June of 2022 until June of 2023, we'd hit 45 properties.

We went from three to 45 and then we're approaching 65 now. And,

Joan: But you're

Sean: and yeah,

Joan: 65 properties [00:09:05] now.

Sean: yeah. We host ours and then we co host for 52 and then we actually operate a short term rental specific cleaning company on as a realm of that too. So

Joan: Of course you do.

Sean: Yeah, so we have another 10 to 15 units depending on the year or time of year that we clean for and do some minor property maintenance for.

Yeah,

Joan: three elements to this. Now there's the original income property. There's the co hosting or really what, as you described as property management, and then you've created a cleaning company as well. Yeah.

Sean: so that's kind of kind of a branch is we're trying to build consistency because I'm sure your way to you see that you definitely have like a seasonality to the business. Yes And for

1. you're living there. Yep.

Yeah, being on the shores of Lake Huron, like, we have, like, some of the best freshwater beaches in the [00:10:05] area.

It explodes for 4 months. Like I think, I don't know if the data backs it, but Grand Bend, Ontario has a population of, like, 2200.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: But sees an influx of about 50, 000 per weekend in the summer. So, I think Grand Bend alone has 330 Airbnbs. And it's got, like I said, it's got a population 8 months of the year, just over 2000 people.

So, it's one of those things where we were very busy. We had 1100 turnovers in 2023. So, but about 850 of those came between June 1st and Labor Day weekend. It's one of those things. Yeah, we had 22, 22 to 24 cleaners at that point. And so it's a matter of trying to keep as many of those on. Sure. Throughout the off season too.

So we're just trying to build that cleaning aspect of the, of the company as well.

Joan: Are the two of you still working full [00:11:05] time?

Sean: Neither.

Joan: No. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Sean: no, we're both doing this full time now.

Um, Okay.

Joan: I jumped in April of 2023 and my wife was there thereafter. So

Right. So,

During those super busy times, then during that summer season, you're probably all hands on deck and I would imagine jump in sometimes when needed.

Sean: Oh, definitely. We were still doing, still doing cleans the odd time this summer and, and we still are now just, it's one of those things where anything you do is is I need it now, whether it's, it's own like hosts, owners, guests, like it's all, Yes. yeah, everything's on a time crunch.

So, Cause to them, like for the, from the guest perspective, this is their holiday. This is, this is a

yeah, exactly. Cause you want that and you have your hiccups here and there, but you want the time that they pretty much book. You want everything to be set [00:12:05] out. They want to know that when they leave their their Toronto home or wherever they may be coming from that they have their access code.

They know what to expect when they get their photos are on point and, and then to boot with this kind of with the property management aspect on the side and more boots on the ground, we're looking at kind of making it more like when they someone books and simple host property, they know what they're getting.

They're going to get the quality bed linen, a quality towel. The place is going to be immaculate.

Photos are going to match exactly what they what they arrive to

and the level of. Yeah, it's just it's kind of like making it I, I, I, myself, we book Airbnbs all the time or VRBOs or wherever we can.

Yeah. And we something we noticed was lacking was, if the short term rental space was going to miss, it was going to be missing on the, like the expected level [00:13:05] of quality that hotels might have. Just the fact that when they you It's easy to operate a hotel, all things considered, when you have everything in house, and so we're trying to bring that level of consistency to and short term rentals.

Joan: Right. And just to clarify, Simple Host then is the name of your company.

Sean: Yes, yes it is.

Joan: How extensive then is your involvement in the property when you're co hosting? Like what do you look after for the homeowner?

Sean: I'd say there's about three, three aspects you, we monitor as co hosts. And the first being, guest communication, and, and responses and laying out automated messages for them from booking before arrival, during stay, before checkout and after checkout. And then we do dynamic pricing that we use a pricing algorithm for, and

we also [00:14:05] monitor their calendars, so we ensure that it's up on Airbnb, VRBO, Google Vacations Booking.com if they decide to, as well as simplehost.ca.

ca.

Joan: Okay. And for the dynamic price then as availability drops, the price goes up.

Sean: Yes, yeah, for the most part. That's that's how it works, and then there is a point where it will dip as you get within, like, 6 to, 6 to 10 days out. It's still not booking,

Joan: If it's still not booked

Sean: to drive occupancy.

Joan: and that's all done by the platform

Sean: Yeah.

Joan: after you set it up. Yeah. Well,

Sean: Yeah,

Joan: goes wrong, then I don't know, a pipe bursts or if something goes wrong in the property, the guest contacts you?

Sean: Yes. And, that's kind of set up sporadically based on the owner's wishes. We do have some owners that are investors and they have, they might have boots on the ground in the area. We have a couple that just have, like, a guy that they, they trust and [00:15:05] respect and they want to use them

Joan: Okay.

Sean: a, as a property maintenance side of thing.

And then we also have others where if we're not able to have simple hosts on location. So right now we have ours in kind of Southwestern Ontario. But we do also co host for a few properties in the Muskoka lakes region and we don't actually have.

Joan: which would be like a couple hours from you.

Sean: Yeah yeah, the nearest 1 we have is about 4 hours from us. So, for properties like that, we source or outsource locals, whether it's finding local handymen or women, local electricians, plumbers HVAC techs,

Joan: Right.

Sean: and then we also source, but 2 to 3 cleaners cleaning companies in the area that we bring on to our cleaning scheduling platform and

they they see our bookings through there and that kind of gets done automatically.

Joan: Yeah. Cause I would imagine that's probably one of the biggest challenges then [00:16:05] is trying to do something long distance.

Sean: Yeah,

remote.

Joan: if you're in the area, if there's no one around to deal with something, you can jump on it right away.

Sean: Exactly. And we have the, and we have the hands in a local area, right? Like we have the, us as well as other employees and managers. And so, but that, yeah, that was the biggest learning curve we had was to, to figure it to be co hosts in other regions. But so far so good. I think you want to make sure that you're set up for success right off the get go.

And when you take on that property, you don't want to be trying to find local companies or individuals at the time of crisis. You want to

Joan: For sure.

Sean: you want to have those people in your back pocket before something happens. So that's been our biggest thing, and we actually are able to, to operate this as a, as a, remotely easier and easier the more we take on.

Joan: Sure. And as those months and years tick by too, you know, that experience builds and

Sean: exactly.

Joan: You get more efficient [00:17:05] at it as well.

Sean: Yeah.

Joan: And what are we looking at then as far as expenses that you have

Sean: I guess it depends on what you're doing for a property. If I'm just co hosting our, our dynamic pricing model, I believe is $6.99 us per month per property so there's 1 expense. To list we use host away as a preferred property management software.

Joan: Sorry. That's the platform charges you. Got it.

Yeah.

Sean: So price labs is our dynamic pricing of choice. We've tried a bunch of them. Price labs is our favorite. We do that. Yeah. $6.99 U S I believe

is what we're at right now.

Joan: This isn't something that's done automatically within the Airbnb platform, for example.

Sean: No, we've done the Airbnb smart pricing before. We just found it didn't move fast enough for us.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: Because they are a channel manager first and those are kind of the secondary components of them. So we chose price labs, which is dynamic pricing first. [00:18:05] Because our big thing that we found, In the last probably 18 months is the growth of Airbnb and short term rentals in this area. Like I said, when we started in 2020 there, I think we were probably 10 kilometers from our nearest 1, maybe 5 or 6 at least,

Joan: Wow. Yeah.

Sean: So we didn't have the competition and you could put it up on Airbnb at almost whatever price you wanted and it booked and we booked a lot. But now as competitions come in

in in a good way, it's, it's forced us to get a little more creative. And we've kind of pivoted to a more revenue based, occupancy model rather than occupancy based, based on this.

Joan: bit if you would.

Sean: So, in the beginning, it was just occupancy was so easy. We sat about 60 to 70%, which was a lot for a very seasonal based area.

Joan: Yes.

Sean: But the big thing was [00:19:05] it, we didn't really care so much about the pricing aspect of it. We were more just like, it was just, we had people flocking to it. So it didn't really matter what we had the price set at. Now, we're kind of playing a game of setting the occupancy more like a 40 to 50%. So we're not it's not driving your price down to be the lowest common denominator, right?

You're, you're okay if some places are getting booked at $100, $150 a night.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: As long as your big weekends and seasons are getting booked and that's kind of what we're after. We know that from June 1st to about the end of September are going to book.

Joan: Yes.

Okay.

Sean: can sometimes make our owners and hosts a little uneasy to not see it, to not see a book completely booked by the end of April, early May.

Joan: Right.

Sean: But you just have to assure them that it will book and, it's more letting the demand come 1st, before trying to [00:20:05] be ahead of the demand. The pricing algorithm is set up in a way where we're okay if we're not the 1st, 1 booked. If we know that we're going to get booked that week or weekend and then the algorithm will, we'll see the bookings coming in across the market.

And then we'll see some steps up in our pricing. It's just, I know, because we've had a few owners that have hosted for a few years now, and I think they were used to the 2019 2020 days, especially early COVID where people couldn't travel abroad so easily and and local airbnbs was was the vacation of choice through those lockdown days.

And they just saw so much occupancy and it, it was just a really easy side hustle.

Joan: Yes.

Sean: like anything that the market caught up to it. And it's not a set it and forget it anymore. It's a, it is a business model and

Joan: Yep.

Sean: professionals like, like us and that are, that are [00:21:05] in the market now.

And that's, this is what we do. And this is, this is what our whole business is built around. So you gotta get creative in, in your marketing tactics.

Joan: Yeah. And so using that algorithm that you just described, you just assume keep your prices a little bit higher because the revenue is going to be there.

Sean: Yeah.

Joan: rented for less number of

Sean: yeah, and yeah, and then in the off season, the ones that do stick it out through the winter, we will we'll change almost flip the model completely to occupancy base. One of the big things is just keeping warm bodies in the home, right? It's especially when you're on the property management side of things, you know, how easy with our cold temperatures here in Ontario that something going unchecked can result in the catastrophic failure in a home.

So,

Joan: Yeah. You want

Sean: Just just having people there all the times is worth its weight in gold. So.

Joan: Absolutely.

Sean: It's, it's, it's more important to get occupancy at that time of year than it is the dead of summer.

Joan: Talk to us about earnings. How are you paid by the client?[00:22:05]

Sean: So we try and keep things pretty simple. And we charge a, a 10 percent co host fee.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: And that's just on the base nightly rate. That's your base. Like, I talked to it before the guest messaging that getting it listed in all the platforms, thinking up the calendars, monitoring the pricing.

And then we also. On top of that, we'll charge per clean, just start market rates set by our cleaning staff or if it's a place up in Muskoka Lake set by the cleaners themselves,

Joan: Okay.

Sean: the separate companies. And then we also, if it's something that we can service around here, then we'll do the property management as a la carte charges for snow removal,

lawn just any, any minor fixes

Joan: Sure.

Sean: we'll also look after [00:23:05] if it's something like that we'll also look after sourcing professionals if they're in need of, like, an electrical upgrade or repair a plumbing issue.

Joan: Yep.

Sean: Heating and cooling

Joan: So you'll almost be the general in that way in sub out the actual work to

Sean: Yeah.

Yeah, and then so those are built out, on our billing platform,

Joan: Okay,

Sean: we'll, we'll invoice to the hosts or owners.

Joan: Right. So you're getting a piece of that as well then.

Sean: Yeah, and then we found that was the easiest I've discussed it with other property managers or co hosts in, in some of the southern states and that, and a lot of the going rates there are all in pricing. So it's like 25, 30, 35 percent of the total.

And then they'll look after cleans and, and just about anything,

Joan: Right.

Sean: The big thing around here, maybe because we're kind of new in this realm in this part of Ontario. Okay. We had a big pushback. I think, because there's so much variance [00:24:05] in the properties around here. We service any

pushback. The all in pricing model, so the 30 to 35%,

Joan: Okay.

Sean: They liked the, the 10% plus, billing for expenses on cleans and, and items such as those.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: Which, you know, what, as a, as an owner myself of a property, I, I understand that,

Joan: Wanting to see it

Sean: itemized like that. Yeah. So we service everything from boutique hotels in Grand Bend to, 3 and a half, 4Million dollar cottages in Port Frank's Grand Bend with

sprawling front yards and back on to, Lake Huron right to the beach. And so the, there's just no level of consistency on, what owners might need to service their property. We can, we go up to, like, 10 acres of of lawn and some of them [00:25:05] have that need cutting and and some of the places might be a 2 bedroom cottage on the lake or a 7 bedroom country property.

It's just so I understood that sense that. Okay, like, I want to know what I'm going to get charged for cleans, what lawn maintenance is going to cost, what snow maintenance is going to cost. And then we're able to be able to break down our co hosting to, a general 10%. It's going to work out for us.

It's going to cover the costs of, of listing it, on our platforms while also controlling the day to day aspects of the, the guest relationships.

Joan: Right. And that would be pretty transparent from the client standpoint as well, because they would have access to the platform and see those numbers

Sean: We like the transparency with the owners. Okay. So we allow all owners and, and, host access to obviously they have the access to the Airbnb as primary or co host, depending on how they want to be seen. [00:26:05] But we also allow them access to a host away owners account, which is our property management software that we use.

So that they can see their properties, their financials, guest communication, and that comes in really handy. A lot of our properties that we service are, family cottages. It's 1 of those things where maybe they bought it right before COVID, or they bought it during COVID. And now they're looking at it and they're like, oh the bills have gone up, taxes gone up.

Let's, let's help offset those costs and rent it out. But they might be 3, 4 hours away. So that's kind of where we come in. But it's nice because they're going to be in and out of their own cottage. So instead of having a conversation every time that they want to go to their own cottage,

Joan: Right.

Sean: they can see they have access to the calendar.

They can put in something we call an owner stay, which will still trigger a [00:27:05] clean or any sort of maintenance property inspection that might be associated with getting the next guest in there. And it just makes it easier for them.

Joan: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So there it's not like they're giving up the property. They can still use it at

Sean: Yeah.

Joan: And but,

Sean: What you'll find when you have that is, owners, it, it's, it's their second home. It's, it is their own property. So they might change things. They might forget to tell you that they've, they've changed it to a natural gas barbecue or

Joan: Uh,

Sean: they brought, in this old, this new couch or stuff like that.

And for our hosting team if they're going to be messaging guests about items, if they say, Hey, is there going to be a gas barbecue there? Or do you have a fire pit? And our host team says, no, no fire pit. It's easy for the owner to be like, oh, shoot, I didn't, I didn't relay

that.

1. Yeah, we actually added a, yeah, a natural gas fire pit or

or something like that, or a fire table there, and [00:28:05] then we can, we can update our, our listings appropriately,

pretty handy. So are most of your properties now at that 10 percent model then? 10 Yes, the the nightly rate

We have a flexible rate, just as an example, one of the boutique hotels. We, we also kind of monitor the clean, the cleanliness and the common area maintenance

Joan: Okay.

Sean: So it's not just the specific units

Joan: Right.

Sean: term rental specific units. We do oversee the, it's got a 4th deck rooftop,

rooftop patio with hot tub and and barbecues and stuff like that. And so we do like a 12 to 13 percent on that, or it's just, it's a negotiated rate for items such as that.

Joan: Right. So you've got all these other add ons

Sean: Yeah.

Joan: just the base rates. what size is your company now revenue wise?

Sean: In 2023 we saw a revenue of about, just under $600,000 [00:29:05] that was gross revenue. But in saying that we probably we didn't see our 40th 43rd property up and running until about the middle of August.

So we, we probably only had about half the properties up and running for half the year last year.

So, we're forecasting about $800-$950,000 this year, Right.

depending on the amount of turnovers and yeah, we're, we're looking at about 2100 turnovers this year

Joan: And so from that gross revenue, then expense wise, you've got the platform fees that you described. The cleaning costs have to come off of that as well. Right.

Sean: yep, cleaning costs, depending on if we service the exterior of the building or the property or not we have those expenses if we're subcontracting a company.

um, kind of

Joan: Percentage of net revenue that you're kind of hoping to hit or what your target is?[00:30:05]

Sean: Yes and no, based on kind of how we operate our, like, our, our net on the subcontracted events,

Joan: Mm hmm.

Sean: we normally aim for depending on the, the time and energy or the cost of the bill, but 10, 10 to 40 percent on those. And then obviously we have our, our 10%, our expenses on the hosting side of things are pretty low.

For the, a lot of it Jill, Jill and I still take it. We oversee a lot of the guest communication. We have a lot of it automated. We just see the one off, we just respond to the one off.

Joan: Right.

Sean: Requests

Joan: Yeah.

Sean: and yeah. So

Joan: send them, the codes and the directions and all that is

Sean: exactly. Yeah.

Joan: it's, something more unique, like you know, what's the best restaurant or what like something, right? Yeah.

Sean: And even that, like, we, we have digital guidebooks

that, uh, Yeah.

Joan: Yeah.

Sean: that yeah, that if [00:31:05] they get there, there's a, there's a QR code that they can scan and it'll show. Yeah, we, we opted for that both to save paper and supplies, but it allows us to adjust them, remotely, which instead of going and printing a new, a new pamphlet every time that a restaurant changes, or,

Joan: right. Great.

Sean: a couple of bad experiences with a restaurant and guests are like, hey, this shouldn't be included, like, it's gone downhill fast,

Joan: Yeah

Sean: we can just log on to our guidebook and, and change it instead of having to go there, change out the whole binder and,

Joan: right. Nice. I'm intentionally not asking you for figures about this specific property, because I'm thinking in terms of the listener getting involved in this as a side hustle, you know, that revenue generated from that property, it's going to depend on so many factors,

Sean: So many factors,

Joan: 4 million property versus the 100, 000 condo.

Right.

Sean: exactly.

Joan: think my, what would be more helpful is what [00:32:05] expenses perhaps have come up that most people wouldn't think of or that even surprised you.

Sean: For the most part, our expenses are offset by the, the owners, right? So. But we do have the one off, we've had like septic system backups. Those can get pretty pricey you get into like flooded basements. It depends on your whole structure. So we kind of, we just in turn take the quote that we would get from the the subcontracted company

and build our own quote, and then we're going to send that off to the owners.

Joan: Right.

Sean: If you're going to, if you're going to eat that cost and then expect a payback from the owners that would be a large expense that you might not be expecting.

Don't

Joan: want to do that.

Sean: I would not suggest doing that. As far as far as, like, if you're just talking co hosting, there's not too many.

I would say the big ones, like, we have [00:33:05] the, the property management software, which is 30 bucks per property that we list with Host Away. Like I said, we had the, we had the price labs. Depending on the property, we like to use remote locks for automating the guest code for their arrival. I'm trying to think of any others.

We do use virtual assistance to help us in off hours for guest communication.

Joan: Pays for all the basics, like toilet paper and tea and coffee.

Sean: We build that into our cleaning fee.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: We found that

that was so we built that into because. It's, it's a, it's a funny business. The co hosts are the other front and center of like to the guests,

Joan: Yes.

Sean: I always say that, like the, the company is really run by housekeepers. They're, they're like.

They're your like front [00:34:05] lines of running a business. They're going to be the ones that, that notice the deficiency first, because they're there all the time. They're going to be the ones that, you could have the $4 million lakefront home compared to the, like you said, $100,000 $200,000 little studio condo in Grand Bend.

It doesn't really matter what you offer them. Like first impressions will be the cleanliness of

Joan: Yes.

Sean: Of it I find that that kind of this rating if you took a graph of the kind of this rating to the overall rating that the guest gives your property, I bet it it coincides almost directly or

Joan: Mm.

Sean: I just find that that's that's where you're like, where are you going to get that that 5 star

Joan: Right. That's a really good point, Sean, because some people getting into this business not might pay as much [00:35:05] attention to that critical role, that cleaner. I Airbnb'd a property for a while. I was putting it up for sale and before I did that, I was running it as an Airbnb just until I was selling it. That was the intention.

And I was so thankful that on the ground, because the property was about an eight hour drive from me, the person that did the cleaning, she was absolutely amazing. Her background was and how I had met her was in the Japanese martial arts. And I remember one day going into the property and I'm like, Miriam, how do you get the floors looking so clean?

Like there's no streak on there when I do them, they don't look like that. And she said,

Sean: a,

Joan: do them Japanese style, like on my hands and knees and, and, and with the rag. And I'm like, okay. That's, that's, that's over the top. But I also had her like bake cookies, fresh cookies, fresh fruit, their local coffee, all those things, like you said, that, that cleanliness and that first [00:36:05] impression when you walk in are just so key and literally

all our ratings were five star and I

Sean: yeah,

Joan: so much of that to Miriam.

Sean: oh, it's, it's totally up to the housekeeping ability of your of your property. And that was honestly, 1 of the things we've, we've actually played around with, like contracting out cleans. We've been a company for I got incorporation for about 16, 17 months now. So we're still, we're learning every day.

But we've, we've played around with, should we be having this contracted out by a professional company and stuff like that? I, we noticed a severe decline in, the cleanliness ratings. When you have your own people and they're, they're back to the same property each and every time, or for the most part, whenever we can get into the schedule, they're going to, they're going to notice those little things that that a company or a corporation might not. And they're going to

Joan: you've got direct control over the company culture then [00:37:05] as well. And, and, and,

Sean: exactly. and you've got the right people.

Joan: incentives and, you know, however

Sean: Yeah. And if you're the,

and if you're the first person that they can contact or like their, our cleaning manager is, they're going to be able to say, hey, I, I need this, or I think we should do this or, and like, these aren't coming off of the fridge. I'm going to attempt this.

Can you bring this material to us? And, just, just stuff like that. And I think like, that's like, you can't even, you can't put a price on that. Like. And that's where, like, it, we play around with the, I know Airbnb is, is on the forefront right now trying to phase out cleaning fees, but I, my biggest fear with that is, you're not going to get the same, like, cleanliness ability or, or, or quality for those shorter stays if, if they're only going to be staying like 2, 3 nights.

Which normally was offset with the cleaning, [00:38:05] cleaning fee. It didn't seem so daunting.

Joan: Yes.

Sean: You might toss somebody in there. That's only making $18, $19 an hour. That That might not care much as, as, as the cleaners making more that have been doing it for 30 years. Or we have some that that have had their own companies and in Kitchener Waterloo or, or the GTA, and and they've been unbelievable, just little tips and tricks that they can do for both efficiencies.

Joan: Yeah.

Sean: And just general abilities when it comes to cleanliness, just things that you wouldn't know, unless you experienced it yourself.

And uh,

Joan: to, to give you a heads up on things that need to be fixed or suggestions to make it better or, or,

Sean: exactly just keeping that dialogue open and and we, we've seen a number of improvements that have come from the housekeeping side of things. So that's if I were to that'd be one of those points that I'd make to a fellow co host that, you can answer within seconds. You can provide all the automation the guest needs.[00:39:05]

You can have perfect pricing. Calendar will be synced like within seconds.

Joan: Mm

Sean: You can have perfect listing photos, all these different amenities. But if that guest arrives there and they notice marks on bedding, or the floor wasn't done right, or maybe the Dishwasher was left full of dishes, or maybe offer a spa or hot tub, and it's not

Joan: working or Yeah.

Sean: Right? So these are all those little things that if, if these aren't met, it won't matter. It won't matter your five star communication rating your your check ins 4.9. It's, you're going to, you're going to eat the overall rating because they're going to, it's just an easy sticking point. Right? And it's something that is just as humans

I think we were able to notice very easily.

Joan: I think you've already touched on this, but what's the downside of the business? What don't people talk about?

Sean: I would say when we first got [00:40:05] into it and we had our first property

Joan: Mm

Sean: it felt like a lot, but not that much because we only answered to guests, right? It was our property and we only had that group of guests that we had to answer to for their stay.

Joan: hmm.

Sean: Once you get into co hosting, you're now in a

Joan: mm.

Sean: an operational sandwich, right?

So you, yeah, so, so you've, you've kind of almost got two different parties paying you for your service. You've got the guests paying you for their stay, and then you've got the owner also expecting like a level of competency that their needs are met. And it's like, well, don't let the guest do this.

Or maybe it's like, I think we're missing a mark here. It's you, you've got two people to answer to two different, like with very, very [00:41:05] separate ideologies, but very similar, almost like it's hard to describe, but they both want the very best out of the property, but they won't want to take different routes to get there.

Joan: Right.

Sean: Owners want to get there, like efficiently economically, but they also understand that like the business runs on algorithms and that we need those five star reviews. We need those, those glowing numbers. The, the photos have to be spot on.

Joan: Yes.

You're going to have

Sean: to offer those little things just to, to ensure that the guests is like the most enjoyable stay possible

Joan: Mm hmm.

Sean: where the guest doesn't care about anything in the background.

Joan: Right. For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Sean: to be worrying about any number of items, right? They want to, they want it to be a flawless experience. And so it's, it's trying to balance both those to keep us happy because at the end of the day you need both [00:42:05] of them to be a co host.

Joan: Hmm.

Sean: You need the property 1st to list, and then you need the guests to come there to continue listing it.

Joan: What is

Sean: So,

Joan: and I think I know the answer to this, but what's more profitable, you owning the property yourself and short term rental or co hosting?

Sean: that's a good question. I would have run the numbers on it. There is something to be said about owning our own property. We're in a bit of a, an operational niche where how we're able to operate our own property while being this is our full time profession.

Joan: Right.

 It does one of the best

Sean: net revenue wise in our portfolio. It's also one of the oldest.

Um, and yeah, so it's as not, it not in, it's not the oldest. It's [00:43:05] one of the longest listed, so it's got, it's built up a huge backing and you get a lot of repeat customer like stays in the summer and off season. So that's helped, but I think we have the ability to operate it the way we want it operated.

Joan: Mm hmm.

A lot

Sean: of owners don't because they may live like you, like example, 8

Joan: Yes. Yep.

Sean: So they're kind of at the mercy of locals or companies like ours. But we don't have anybody in the background telling us that this is. We need this minimum, or this pricing minimum, or don't let somebody book

3 nights in the summer, they need to book at least 5 or it's just we're able to operate it kind of very efficiently. I,

Joan: got the ability to test out things to that you might

Sean: yeah,

Joan: to test out on somebody else's property. You can do it. You've got it as a test case.

Sean: All things considered [00:44:05] the margins would be higher as a co host than as a property owner, especially with today's housing prices, especially as we see in our geographical locations in Ontario and B.C.. We know that the pricing just skyrocketed. So mortgages are higher rates increased taxes went up. We have a lot of legislation that we have to deal with now,

um, in our area.

Joan: that. Airbnb wasn't a huge thing, even in, in, in 2020. Has there been like pushback and more regulations and, and bans coming your way?

Sean: So, just show how in its infancy it is in our area. The township that we live in and our, our rentals are, like our own rentals in, still doesn't have any short term rental bylaws or,

Joan: Okay.

Sean: Laws in place.

Joan: that yet then?

Sean: No they're coming. [00:45:05] We've actually been contacted to help assist in the drawing of the bylaws us and another company in the area and a couple of local Airbnb hosts,

Joan: Right.

Sean: As well as local residents.

We all are residents, right? We all, we all live somewhere. So for me, the whole idea of let's not put any laws in. Let's put like, we had some people say that like fellow hosts and say, Oh, I don't, I don't want any bylaws.

And to that, I kind of said, well we all live somewhere, right? And like, actually in our first Airbnb, we lived there for a few months. And we lived next to the second property, which was an Airbnb. So I, I know firsthand what it's like to live next to an Airbnb and, and have maybe guests there

that might not want to shut it down at 11 o'clock, or it might be just having having a good time out of the campfire or so you have to

understand that, [00:46:05] like,

Joan: and man, that sound carries on a quiet night, right?

Sean: such like, it's such a fine, fine line to walk to because you don't want to shut down. To me I don't I don't want to shut down business and side hustles.

I feel like the just being in the space there are a lot of good hosts out there that. Especially the ones that live where they host. They're doing such a good job of a lot of it in our municipality we have no hotels and motels in our entire municipality. So, almost the entire waterfront, barring some local conservation lands and community parks.

So there's no, there's not a whole lot of ways for outside people to enjoy our waterfront, which is like we have Grand Bend has been the top 10 for world sunsets,

Joan: Really?

Sean: deck decades now, I think in 2008,

Joan: Wow.

Sean: National Geographic, ranked at number one [00:47:05] for world sunsets.

Joan: Very cool.

Sean: like, who else is going to enjoy these, these beautiful views of the vast, like great lake,

expand like, expansive view that you get. So to us, it's like, when we bought the 1st Airbnb, we wanted people to enjoy what we get to enjoy in this region. So this is the only way that they can do that by booking a cottage on the water. And so

I think.

Joan: at the table like that, to get everybody's perspective and, you probably won't come up with a perfect solution, but to incorporate all those different opinions

Sean: Yeah,

Joan: helpful in the end.

Sean: and that's where we're reoperating Grand Bend. Like, that whole municipality came out with one in 2023. And I, I like it a lot. They have a by law enforcement group in the seasonal months based solely on short term rentals so both neighbors and guests have a number they can call if there's something arrived with [00:48:05] their rental or their neighbors rental or the guests that might be next door to them.

Joan: Okay.

Sean: They have a fee that's supposed to go towards funding the the bylaw group, and then they have just a number of items that you'd expect in a hotel. You must have like a site plan, fire escape plan, where extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors,

Joan: Right. Safety features like that.

Sean: exactly. So that's where I look at stuff like that

and I'm like, that, that makes sense for our realm as property managers and co hosts trying to offer a simple host model of a hotel experience to all guests at all of our short term rentals, that makes sense. What can we offer that is going to be with safety in mind and local residents in mind, what's the best meet in the middle?

And I found that that's one of the best we've dealt with so far.

Joan: Right. That's great. You've experienced pretty explosive growth. [00:49:05] Where are you finding clients?

Sean: That's that's a good question. It started as word of mouth. Once we got to the 1st couple, it was just a matter of there wasn't too many around us in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure a lot of Canada would look at us and be like, I'm going to use the word for moat in southwestern Ontario.

I'm going to be like, get out of here. But, as far as like, Southwestern Ontario goes, we didn't have anybody to provide this offering to us. When we got our 2nd property, and before we hired that cleaner, I did reach out to some of the bigger companies. Like bigger North American companies that kind of do property management and co hosting.

And I provided our address and I, it felt like I was laughed off the phone.

Joan: Oh man.

Sean: And it was like, yeah, we're not going out there. And so it was one of those things where I was like, if we did this, like my wife, my wife's name's Jill, Jill, if we do [00:50:05] this, like I don't know who's going to compete with us and there are some locals that have been doing it 3 Airbnb and days of just like, your local, you call up the local number and say, hey, we want to rent this place in along Lake Huron and the shores of Grand Bend

and, they're still out there and they're still doing their thing but well, we wanted to provide is almost like a like a remote co hosting experience for these owners where they could feel a part of it in as big or little a way as they see fit. So whether they we have owners that have messaging, notifications as co hosts or hosts just completely turned off.

We don't, don't bug us, just send us, send us the bill, send us the money and we're going to block off and we want to go there. And, but it was providing that kind of experience where they could look on their phone and say, oh, our place isn't booked this weekend. Let's go there. But where we find clients, [00:51:05] it started as word of mouth and it's kind of continued there.

Our big thing is I didn't I'm going to say this kind of jokingly, but we didn't want to grow too fast and explode too much that we weren't providing a service. And I still think there are barriers we're seeing right now as a young company we want to improve on and we don't want to grow too fast that we actually haven't spent any money on marketing yet.

A website and we made it very simple to just put your information in to get ahold of us and we'll reach out to you.

Joan: Right.

Sean: We didn't get too expansive there. That's where we kind of look to grow in the future and that we've kind of worked towards operating more remotely,

Joan: Okay.

Sean: just to increase the marketing aspect of the company.

But for now we've hit the 60 properties or so based on word of mouth and Google [00:52:05] searches.

Joan: Right.

Sean: that's kind of all we've done. And we haven't spent any time and energy on marketing just yet.

Joan: That's awesome. Well, what's the best way for our listeners to connect with you, Sean?

Sean: You know, one of the best ways would be at our website, www.simplehosts.ca that's hosts plural. You can find us on Instagram, our handle is simple hosts. You can search us up on Google, Facebook, all the same simple hosts, property management corp. Those are, those are the best, best avenues to find us.

And, uh, and yeah, once I do that, perfect.

Joan: in the show notes, no

Sean: Awesome.

Joan: So what's your best success tip for someone wanting to start or grow their side hustle? Since you've been doing both.

Sean: Oh, that's a, I love that question. I would say, well, it's, it's going to come as a I feel like everybody uses it, but but just start it. [00:53:05] Like I said working shift work for years there. I would, I would have those 12 hour night shifts where you just sit and stew and you come up with ideas and but you wouldn't act on them.

And this was the first time we kind of acted on something on doing something on the side and it's turned into it's no longer a side hustle. It's our full time profession and, and we're learning and. It was just one of those things that there's so many things that we wouldn't have learned had we have just sat and researched and thought about it and tried to come up with the perfect plan to launch this side hustle.

Just by starting it, we were able to to learn more than we ever could have just based on research. So I would say my biggest thing would just just start it. Just if you have the time, you have the ability. What we did. Upfront cost didn't cost us a whole lot. We were able to start it with for mere, like, tens of dollars a month to get started and, and get going [00:54:05] based on the, softwares that we use. And and yeah, that's, that's the big thing. Just get started. And and if it doesn't work it doesn't, it doesn't work and maybe move on to the next idea. But I think you're going to learn way more, just by doing and getting, getting it off the ground.

Joan: Any regrets about no longer having those 12 hour shifts?

Sean: Sometimes, you know what, there's those, there's those days where you realize that you're the person that needs to act on these decisions especially now that we have a bit of a workforce and stuff like that. And it's like, man, I, sometimes I miss those it wasn't really a nine to five, but those, those employee, that mindset of, of going to work and

leaving work when you, when you head home.

And but you know what the flexibility that's created, in, in time and balancing work life. I, I don't regret that at all.

Joan: Yeah, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well, thank you so much, [00:55:05] Sean, for sharing your insights on. Co hosting and the growth of your company. And congratulations again on that. And thank you for being today's side hustle hero.

Sean: Right on. Thank you so much for having me, Joan. I really appreciated my time on here.