B&B Owner Prefers Property Management Profits

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The Airbnb economy presents opportunities. A lot of people have a home or another space that could work well for short-term lodgers, but here's the key point, they don't wanna manage it. They also don't always know how to market it. We've talked about this a couple of different times from different angles. In today's featured story, this person quickly finds success with her own eco-friendly Airbnb, and then she makes a booking with a side hustle that helps others do the same.

Also, guess what? It is episode 1200, 1200 episodes. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for allowing Side Hustle School to continue, to endure, to reach a global community of amazing people who are all looking at life differently, just trying to do something for themselves in a time of great uncertainty. So I am so thankful to be able to make this program. I'm not gonna go on and on about it, but I just want you to know every day I am grateful.

So thank you so much to those who've been listening and those who have left a little review for us in Apple Podcasts, and anyone who has shared the program with your friends. It definitely helps a lot. So thank you. And today's story, Airbnb owner prefers property management profits is coming right up. Stay tuned.

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Amy Gilbert was fortunate to achieve her first Side Hustle success before she turned 30. In 2011, she opened her own B&B called The Giving Tree. And it was a hit from the beginning. One reason was her awesome hospitality and target market. She provided a full gourmet breakfast to vegan and vegetarian foodies.

All her guests received healthy green smoothies, vegan breakfast burritos and gluten-free pancakes. Hmm, I'm getting hungry just telling you the story, but we're gonna keep going. On top of that, she also offered private yoga lessons for any guests who want it. The Giving Tree was a real garden of Eden and without any snakes. All that meant that in Amy's first year of running, she was booked solid.

The constant flow of visitors was great, but it highlighted a big problem with her business model. It simply wouldn't scale. And for every person coming for a vacation, Amy had to hang out at home for her own staycation. And it wasn't really either a vacation or staycation, right? Because she was working.

To simplify, Amy scaled back on the number of guests, raised her prices and stopped offering such an elaborate breakfast. To her astonishment, the guests kept booking, both through her own website and Airbnb, where she had begun to list the property. It was then she realized it wasn't only the extras that brought guests in, it was also the vibe she'd managed to build. Amy had a knack, a knack for building a great getaway for her guests' holiday. She decided to switch destinations.

After five years running her Airbnb/AirBnB, she began offering her skills and talent to other aspiring owners. She'd teach them how to create the perfect lodging and if they wanted, manage the whole process for them. She called herself the trendy host. Instead of going all out with a new website, Amy chose to use the tools she had at her disposal. She already had a site for the Giving Tree, so she simply added a page offering her Airbnb Management Service.

She also had some business cards printed that she posted in local grocery stores and cafes. Sure enough, she soon went from guest bookings to client bookings. She received her first request from the owner of a luxury rural property in her local area. The owner's first question was, is my place a good fit in such a rural location? For Amy, it was a no-brainer.

The place was perfect for Airbnb. The property could accommodate up to 16 guests and would bring in a lot of money if listed well. She quickly made a deal with a simple arrangement. Amy would handle the listing based on her expert knowledge. Following that, she'd take care of the cleaning and turnover after each guest to make sure things were spic and span and time for the next one.

In exchange, she'd received 25% of the total revenue generated. Since this was a large property, there was a real opportunity to make real money. The first few reservations went well and both Amy and her client were extremely happy. Soon, the referrals kicked in. Over the next year, through a combination of word of mouth, that page on her website, and ads in local stores, Amy found a few more properties to manage.

With additional properties, she also expanded her services. At first, she offered to arrange cleaners for the properties and make sure it was tidy before the next guest. But she soon realized many owners wanted completely hands-off Airbnb management. So she began offering a service to handle the messaging and reservations as well. She even built a one-off service for people that might just want help giving their listing a boost, all with the goal of upselling them later, if it was a good fit.

One mistake she feels she made with those early clients is that she didn't lock them into contracts. Adding some level of formality to client relationships can be a good thing once you have some traction. For her, this resulted in losing clients without warning and then struggling to replace them. However, none of that has stopped her from continuing to grow the business. She now advertises in the local paper and even spends a little money on Google ads.

All these efforts have brought her a total of 11 Airbnb rentals that she manages, which in total have brought in over $100,000 in fees last year. Of course, there are some expenses, including commercial liability insurance and paying for a bookkeeper, but it's a high margin operation. While Amy certainly sees more property management in her future, she isn't sleeping in and missing new ideas. She plans to create products for Airbnb owners all around the world to sell online. Things like welcome packages and upscale amenities.

To go from Airbnb owner to Airbnb manager to Airbnb business tycoon is no small feat, but Amy has done it all without pressing snooze. [Music]

So in the space of just about 10 years, Airbnb has become this hospitality juggernaut with something like 150 million users in billions of dollars in revenue. And so with such a huge presence, many businesses have sprung up around Airbnb to help owners and guests make best use of the platform. So here's an example of someone who goes, as I said, from Airbnb owner to manager and now trying to think even bigger and serve people around the world these welcome packages and upscale amenities. Often when you start something, you have no idea what the final product is gonna be.

And that's why it's so important to start because Amy in this situation, the story would never become that Airbnb business tycoon if she hadn't started renting out her place in the first place. And if you don't have access to a home that you can rent out, well, there's still this Airbnb economy. What other opportunities might there be? Either for guests or owners or for anybody else who's participating in the system one way or another. So think about that, I'll leave you with that today.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1200. That is episode 1200. That's right, 1200, oh my gosh, thank you so much again. I'm not sure about the next 1200, but I look forward to bringing you the next batch of stories, questions, throwback Thursday episodes, classroom episodes, and more.

Be sure you subscribe, it is completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.