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STRA Episode 5: How Not To Stay Glued to Your Phone On Vacation

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İçerik John Williams and The Short Term Rental Authority tarafından sağlanmıştır. Bölümler, grafikler ve podcast açıklamaları dahil tüm podcast içeriği doğrudan John Williams and The Short Term Rental Authority veya podcast platform ortağı tarafından yüklenir ve sağlanır. Birinin telif hakkıyla korunan çalışmanızı izniniz olmadan kullandığını düşünüyorsanız burada https://tr.player.fm/legal özetlenen süreci takip edebilirsiniz.

Episode4: How Not To Stay Glued to Your Phone On Vacation

[00:00:00]

Welcome back to the podcast. And you will notice that we are. Not in our regular location. We are not, we are on vacation. We are on vacation at the lake and I got lake hair and I don't care so is that even rhymes?

Right? We're a beautiful lake lore, North Carolina. Oh, it is gorgeous. Yes, I, this is our first time here. It's it's a great place to come. Just plugged to them. Love lake lure. We're actually staying in. Short term rental short term rental, of course, that we booked off of VRBO. Yeah. This one came through VRBO and in the background here, so we can't show you the house, but we're sitting out back and you might see some wildlife.

So this morning we saw some. I got to see some deer. You saw some deer. I wasn't up yet. Some mama deer and a baby deer. Yeah. And then later on we were, it was kind of comical actually, cuz we were inside and Wendy he's like, I think these are peacock. There's peacocks out here. And I was like, they were, they were, I don't think there are peacock, but so we came out and they were wild turkeys still.

Cool. Yeah. They were still cool. Still, still wildlife. Right. And then we have to be conscientious in this part of the country because there are black bear. So if you put your trash out, right, and it's not in a container that a bearer can't get into. You might get bears. Yeah, yeah. Can have a visitor at night.

Yeah. So you might see some wildlife if is we do have a video version of the podcast, by the way, if you're listening to this on the audio, please come and check us out on YouTube. And you can see what we're talking about. But yeah, it's a special place of, and we've been out on the lake all day.

Ugh. So nice swimming and floating and tubing and doing all those great. And that's what we wanted to talk about today. Yeah. Like how do you do that? Right, right. When you have all of these units and we've got people checking in today and we've got people checking out today and we've got potential problems that come up and I, one of those [00:02:00] wanna say, that's one of those things that, well it's happened to us in the past where we've gone on vacation.

And while it's great to say. I can run everything for my phone. Well, yeah, you can, but you really don't want to, when you're on vacation, do you? No, no, no. Do not. do you really wanna be glued to your phone? I haven't even looked at my, I don't even know where my phone is. Right. And it's, and it's glorious, but I, I remember that it's happened to us before where oh, yes, for sure.

Every time it buzzes, you're like, oh my God. Oh my God. I hope it's nothing bad. Did something happen? Right. Right. And it's how do you get to the point where. It's not so much an issue and you can actually go on vacation and actually enjoy it and enjoy it. Yes. Right. And not be glued to that phone. So that, that's what we wanted to kind of bring you today because it was very timely since we are on vacation.

And there you go. So, so by the time you get done with this video what we hope you will have gotten out of it is exactly how to do. From our perspective and how we've been able to achieve that and how we coach other people to do the same thing so that when you go on vacation, you're truly on vacation.

Mm it's. Glorious. Glorious. Yes. And I'm gonna drink my drink. It's cuz you can. Yes. . So what was the first thing we had kind of had three topics that we wanted to go over. Right? So, yeah, so there were, there were three things that we felt like were, were the most important things that we have in place that that allow us to, to do things like that.

And the very first one was team members. Right. They're somebody else is doing the things, right. That's that's true. It's not us. Right. so team members is one the, the how to do the things, the, how, how the team members do the things yeah. Processes, right? How do you, what do they do? And some of those are automated too.

They are. And then there's a lot of automation in that piece. Yeah. And we can talk about [00:04:00] that. And then the systems, how, what tools do we use? That allow the people to do the jobs, to do the things. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Those were, those were the three main things that allow us to be out here in the right.

Mountains of North Carolina where frankly cell cell phone service is spotted. It is, yes, we do have wifi. Yes. At, at the short term rental here. Yes. That's not bad. Yeah. We were gonna do this at the lake, but then we thought, well, you know, there's, I'm not sure there's really. Good wifi down there. That's not what happened.

She's lying to you. That is not what happened. I just didn't feel like dragging all the stuff down. That's what happened. That's really, that's the truth. We got down to the beach. That's so true. And we were floating around and we were like, you know what? We can always do this when we get back to the house.

So we'll do the podcast when we get back. Okay. That's true. But it would've been a great shot. Maybe, maybe we'll do some more of so gorgeous, short videos or something on just so gorgeous where you can actually see the lake. Cause it really is a beautiful area. That's really is. That's an idea we should do.

So let's talk about the team members that we, that we use. And you were talking about, the team members are really broken down into two different categories. They are. Yeah. So you've got the, the boots on the ground type people. and then you've got the virtual people, right? Yes. So let's talk about the boots on the ground type people.

So we've got the, the two boots on the ground. People are, of course the cleaners mm-hmm and then we also have the person called an operations specialist. That's the, that's the technical definition. Right. But we call them our runner and the runner also does quality control for us. Right. So let's talk. The, the cleaners and the, the operations specialists.

Mm-hmm yeah. So the cleaners is the one that's obvious [00:06:00] because you have to clean every time something turns and it, Amy. Yeah. Every time there's a turnover you have to clean. Right. And I think one of the, the things that we see people do a lot is they put a lot on their cleaners. Yeah. They make their cleaners do the linen, do the laundry in the.

Yeah. And, and that can be a thing if you were. So I, that was one of my things that I was like, you should not, if at all possible be having your cleaners do laundry for a number of reasons. One of those is it takes longer. It does. And number two, you're cleaning it in a not commercial environment. And what I mean by that is the, the residential.

You know, washers and dryers that we have, don't clean as well as say, outsourcing that to a commercial linen service that has access to the types of one, they can do more loads at a time. That's true. So it actually ends up being more efficient and two, they have access to the types of cleaning products that you don't necessarily as a consumer mm-hmm because they, they wash and bleach with.

Commercial grade washing and commercial grade bleach that regular people like us, we don't have access to those types of things. Right. And some of that has to do with the temperature that it's that's washed at and not to mention that they have machines that fold it. Oh man. And like genies. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a higher quality, if you will type of laundry.

And it helps you with your consistency and your qu quality control quite a bit. And not to mention now your cleaners are freed up to be able to do more turns in a day. Mm-hmm and that's, that's one of those things that I think's particularly important when you start scaling, because it does take a that's an hour.

Yeah. How long does it take you to do laundry? Oh, two hours [00:08:00] to wash and dry mm-hmm but at least two hours. Okay. So that's two hours of time and I know you have that five hour block. But they also have to clean. So how many turns can they actually do in a day? And so if you have a place that's fine, but if you have 10 of them or 20 of them, that starts becoming an issue and it becomes more of a efficiency thing.

If nothing else. Not to mention the quality to out start outsourcing that. Well, you know, another really good reason that we do that is to also have another set of eyes on the linens because it is the, the cleaners. If, if they go to the cleaners and, and the, and there's a, a stain on them, then the cleaners will the, the laundry mat.

Commercial grade laundry mat. When you say go to the cleaners, you meant the linen service, the linen service that's when they go to the linen service, then the, there there's a set of eyes on that on that stain there, the, they look for those things, right? And then once they get to, you know, back to the, to the cleaners and the cleaners are putting 'em on the bed, that's another.

Set of eyes on the, on the on the linens too. And that goes for towels too, right? Yeah. So that goes back to single point of failure yeah. On anything and on, on anything, not only the job that they're doing, but the that's another set of eyes on quality control. Yeah. Mm-hmm well, I think that's a really good point.

Yep. Yeah. So that is, that is one of the things that we do. So. So now you've introduced cleaners, cleaners clean. I got one more thing I wanna say about that. Okay. Go for it. So, and here's a little nugget for you. Ooh. We get four sets of linens for every unit that we have and for every bed and for every bathroom.

So I'm talking about. . If you've got a one [00:10:00] bedroom place, then you need four sets of sheets, four sets of pillow cases, and four sets we use duvet covers, right? Cuz they're a lot cheaper to, to clean the comforters among other reasons. And then we have four sets of, of towels that we have per bathroom and there's two sets.

Towels in the, in the bathroom. So that's like, I mean, it's a lot of linens. It is, there's a lot, a lot of linens and we do that because there's one set on the bed. There's one set in the closet. That is for guest use only because we all know that people are leaky. People are leaky, right? Hashtag people are leaky, hashtag people are leaky.

Yeah. And, and, you know, sometimes stuff happens, right. Especially when he serve children. Yeah. That is one of our clients. So it's really great. It's a really great guest experience when the baby wets the bed and there's an extra set of linens in the closet. So, well, that's one on, on the bed. Okay. One on the bed, one in the closet for guest use.

Only one of them is dirty at the laundry mat. And one of them is for oops. Somebody ripped or ripped our sheets or, or it stained or, or used our sheets to stuff in the vent, in the bathroom. So they could smoke. Oh, that's never happened. Oh no. That's never happened to us. Or it's a holiday. Or it's a holiday and the laundry mats closed mm-hmm

Yes, but anyway, that that's a little, no good that I want that I wanted to, to drop in there for you. Okay. Yeah. Extra, extra nuggets. Yeah. When you drop. So we got the cleaners, we got the laundry mat. And so the other boots on the ground is, is what we call the runner mm-hmm or the operations specialist, if you will.

Yeah. That's the, and that's our person that goes to the unit when somebody needs to go to the unit that doesn't involve turnover. So it's the, the [00:12:00] wifi doesn't work and I don't know how to reset the modem. Somebody has to go. It's the we don't have enough toilet paper. Can you bring, please bring some more it's the, you know, whatever it is that that happens all the time that somebody needs to go for some reason that doesn't involve cleaning and that ends up being a runner now in our houses, because we've mentioned in the past, we have single family houses.

But we also have apartments. Now, those run differently in the single family houses, the process tends to be that the runner goes to every checkout mm-hmm . So not only are do the cleaners come, but the runners coming and that person is actually bringing the clean linens they're taking the dirty linens away.

They're also doing inventory. And that person may be the person that's doing quality control for you as well to say, did the cleaners do everything that they were supposed to do when they came mm-hmm because that's we have enough cups. Do we have enough plates? Yeah. Well that's that's some of them get broken that's beyond cleaning.

Yeah. Right. So it's also the other things, like you're supposed to have 12 plates, right. But there's only 10 because the last people broke two of them and didn't tell you, no, that never happens. It came across the channel today. We didn't have to deal with it, but we see everything that's happening. The blinds were, were torn up at one of the places, right.

And the quality control person actually found that the cleaners didn't miss they, I guess they missed it. They didn't say anything about it. Mm-hmm but quality control tent came and found it. Yeah. It's nice to, so again, it's that redundancy and having that other set of eyes mm-hmm yeah. In addition to the cleaners clean, the runner runs.

Yep. Right. And the, the linen service does linens. Right. And so we have this separation of powers, if you will. And they all overlap each other and they do overlap. Right. So, because, you know, cause you did say that it's an additional set of eyes, more eyes on it, the better. So the, on the cleaning checklist and we do have a cleaning checklist and we'll talk about [00:14:00] this in just a second, but there are things that are on the cleaning checklist that are also on the operations specialist checklist too, because.

Those are really important things that a lot of people miss. Right? So that's quality control. You're talking about the cleaners coming clean and of, well, I shouldn't say of course, but if you don't, they should have a checklist and a very detailed one that goes beyond clean the living room. Or clean the bathroom, right?

Well, obviously, right, but you need very specific instructions, right? So every room has 10 to 20 different things that you actually need to do. Yep. Like dust the ceiling fan. Yep. Do the blinds. This is exactly how many towels go on the rack. Yep. And that kind of thing. And then the quality control person is actually coming behind them with that exact same list to.

Did this get done? Did this get done right? Did, did this get done? And then that becomes a very objective way to provide feedback, right? If something didn't get done did not get done right. Or you know, they just missed it for whatever reason. It's, it's very, we like objective versus subjective. Right? So we'd rather have someone say, Hey, item six on the list in the bathroom.

Wasn't completed rather than you didn't clean. Well, right. because that's a very vague thing to say. Right. And frankly, if, if it's not on our list and a cleaner, doesn't do it. That's our problem. That's our problem. Mm-hmm . Yeah. Okay. So it's, it's imperative that we have detailed lists and you know, that that is something, then we have quality control go through that list.

That is something that we've had to refine over the years. Yeah. And you would, our checklist, our cleaning checklist did not start out that way. Yeah. It, it was not comprehensive, but. That's what had to happen was every time something happened you know, a guest found something, then, then we put it on the cleaning [00:16:00] checklist and then we told our cleaners and another thing.

And here's another nugget for you. You have to train your cleaners. Oh yeah. You cannot get somebody from. Turnover B, B or properly or wherever they came from and expect them to know how to clean your place, your place, your place, because it is your place. And first of all, it's your responsibility to have a checklist.

Because if you don't have a checklist, then they don't know exactly what to do. Yeah. And it's their responsibility to follow it. Yes. It is their responsibility. That's an agreement. And then it's our responsibility to make sure that was done. Yes. But it's not fair to them. It isn't, it is not, they did not do something and it wasn't on your checklist.

That's on you. Yes. And we always that what's on us. Always. It's train our cleaners. To the first three times they clean for us. We have the quality control person go behind them. Yes. And all they always say, you know, this section six. B B , you know, was, they didn't put a, a hand towel on the hand towel ring in the downstairs bathroom mm-hmm or whatever.

Right. And then they take a picture of it and that gets sent to the cleaner. And then the cleaner, you know, either has to go back and, and fix it. Or do better next time do better next time, right? Yeah. But if it is your responsibility as an operator to number one, have a checklist and number two to train the cleaner.

To clean exactly the way that you want them to clean. Yeah. And then quality call becomes accountability. Yeah. Accountability. You need to build, build accountability. Must. And again, it's one of those it's, there's no single point of failure, right? You must. So I think that's important. Yeah. Well, how do the, let's talk about this next?[00:18:00]

How does the, how does it work when the quality control person, for example, found the blinds? That were messed up in, in one of the houses. So I think you're moving to the other. Yeah, I'm moving to the, okay. Cause we said there were two, we talked a lot about the boots on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about the virtual now.

Mm-hmm so, so now that we've talked about the cleaners and the operation specialist and the quality control and the laundrymat now, how does that information get fixed? Right. What do they do with that information? Yeah, hopefully. Texting you? No, no, they're not texting me. they're not. They used to cause that wouldn't, that wouldn't mess up your vacation.

They used to text me. Yeah. But that doesn't happen anymore. What happens now is. The, they, we use a, a, a process, right. And, and a system that we'll talk about that in just a second. I don't know if we're gonna get to that, but go for it though. The, a virtual assistant or the operations or the the customer experience specialist.

Yeah. I don't like calling them virtual assistant. I don't, everybody does, but they're not, that's really something that it's really customer service. It's a, it's a job customer service. It's it's customer service. It just so happens that that job does not have a physical location. Right. So she doesn't have to, this person doesn't have to be there.

Right. So you're really not looking for virtual assistance. No, no. You're because virtual assistance is something else. It is. It's like, okay, I have tasks need done. Yeah. And I have a virtual assistant that helps you. That's not what, this is so much more than that. This is remote work. Yes. It's somebody that works remotely because those jobs don't need to be on site.

Right. So they're well, here's a bunch of things that don't need to be on site, responding to a guest through the. Responding to a guest via text, taking a phone call from a guest, for example contacting a maintenance person to go fix those blinds that the [00:20:00] quality control found or the cleaners found.

Right? There's, there's lots of things that do not involve. I have to be physically there. Well, they're more of like the middle man, right? They're they're actually the glue that holds this business together. Yeah. And that's the person you don't wanna be? I think a lot of people that's what they're, I don't wanna be that person anymore.

I dunno if I said this in the beginning, but it was like, okay, I can work anyway, cuz anywhere cuz I can do it off my phone. , but you've just given yourself a role in the business. Yeah. Now you're working in your business, your customer experience on your business is what you actually are. Yeah. You've created that job for yourself.

So you need to put somebody else in that job. Yeah. And the whole point is they don't have to be on the ground. And I know somebody's out there saying, well, I can't afford that. Oh yeah. That comes back. I know somebody out there is saying that. Yeah. And let me tell you, you can't afford not to have this person that's correct.

Because guess who. Guess who checks the cameras when guests check in and, and finds out if there are extra guests that check in that aren't stated on the reservation or they bring a pet and they're not supposed to. Yes, yes. And guess what we charge for that. Yeah. So, and now she's just paid for herself.

Yeah. So the, your customer experience team ends up being. ends up paying for themselves. Really? They do. They really do. They really do. They really, we thought that too, from the things that we did, they find we did, and it's not only the fine side. It's not only, Hey, you brought a pet and you weren't supposed to, and now you owe us 200 bucks.

There is that, but there's also the, okay. Somebody reported the blinds needed to be fixed or what happened the other day that would've been a bigger deal. Like. The water was off. Oh yeah, that's right at one of the apartments. That's right. The, the water didn't work in one of the, in one of the apartments bathrooms.

Mm-hmm and that's one of those things that, Hey, we're on vacation. We might not catch it. And then nobody called maintenance and then your [00:22:00] guest shows up and now they have a bad experience and they leave you a bad view. And how much did that cost you? Oh, over. Oh, my, you just did a big one. So it's not only those hard costs, but it's those soft costs that you feel like aren't really cost, but they are.

Yeah. That, that hurt you over the long run. Where if you just had somebody there to respond, you could have headed that off before. Oh, I got another one issue. Yeah, go for it. What if the air conditioner stops working? yeah, that, that happens here in the south a lot, all the time or heat, or if you, if it's the winter time.

Right. And there's nobody to check the temperature cuz we have, that's one of our processes yeah. System for this and a process for this. Right? The, the temperature inside the unit is comparable or, or is comfortable depending on the temperature, you know, outside. Right. So it's summertime, right? And it's really hot outside, especially here in the south.

And the temperature inside needs to be about, I don't know, 70, 68, 70 degrees is normal for, for this time of year, but it's sometimes it's 90, 95 degrees outside. And if the temperature inside is like 85 degrees, you know, that's a. And something's going on with the, the H V a C that you should probably get somebody to come check out before the next guest checks in at four o'clock.

Right. And, and you, the worst thing you can have happen is the guest shows up and they're the one tells telling you that there's a problem with the unit mm-hmm . And that's one of those things that your cleaners may have missed. Yeah. Just because, yeah, it did not happen until they left. Oh, that's interesting.

So once, once a day and before check in one of our procedures, and [00:24:00] this is part of the systems that we have, because we can do that. We can see the thermostats remotely. Does the inside temperature match what the thermostat is set to. Yep. So if the thermostat in the summer is set to 72 degrees Fahrenheit and the actual inside temperature is 85, problem, problem is probably happening.

Yep. Right. Or it could be, just be the opposite that the last guest said it to 80. Or turned it off completely or turned it off completely, which happened to us recently. It did like who does that? And then the guests show up and, and it's hot in there and they're like, why didn't you? Right. Why is the air not on?

Right. And we can, because of the systems and processes we've got in place. We can turn that on remotely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we have to talk about, I think we've dropped enough nuggets on that one. I think we've talked. I think, I think we've talked. We may have to continue this. We may have to do a part two.

We may have to do a part two. We may even have to do a part three. Yeah. So what were the next two that we were gonna cover and what? So we did the, the team members first and then we have the systems. No, then we have the processes and then we have the system still. Right. So I don't think we kind of touched on some of them a little bit, but we could, we've got so much more to talk about there.

Okay. So maybe we should break this into three. Oh, that's good idea. So we've talked this, we've talked about the team members that you need and why it's so important to have them, because remember, this is a team sport. And, and again, you're building a business here. Yep. Yeah. And you don't wanna have to work in.

Yeah. Especially when you're on vacation and that a whole reason that you're building a business, it really is. So it can, that it can allow you to go on vacation like this. I mean this, all this time and investment and money that you put into your short term rentals, don't become a slave to them. And go, and it's very apparent when you're here at lake lure and you're just trying to swim.

Right. And you're, you're thinking, ah, I gotta go into, into shore and see my phones ring and have right that's horrible lake care and not care. Hey lake here and not care. That might be the top, the title of this episode. I'm not sure [00:26:00] I got lake here and I don't care. I got lake here and I don't care but we do hope that you found a lot of value.

In this episode, we dropped a lot of nuggets and we dropped a lot of information on you. And if you did find value on it, like, and subscribe. to the channel and stay tuned because we will be doing a, a part two, because we've got so much more to talk about this. And I think that this topic is, is though the whole reason that people start a short term rental or any business.

to begin with. Yeah. It's time. Freedom. Yes. It's freedom of time. It's freedom of time. And that's, that's really what this episode was about is how to start getting that time back. Yes. How to start getting that freedom back. Yep. Again, check us out on YouTube. I don't know if anybody saw bear back there please.

Behind us. I hope not. Cuz that means there won't be a part too. Probably but, but but I don't think, I don't think. No, probably not until tonight. Yeah. They, they tend to come out tonight and we've got a fire pit and we're gonna have some s'mores tonight. We are, and we're not gonna worry about the kids are gonna burn their marshmallows.

Like they always do. Yeah. They like 'em burn, but we're not gonna have to worry about guests that are. Mm complaining and nobody's responding to them or they may complain, but it won't be us that has to deal with it. Yes. And it will get done in a timing manner. Yeah. And mm-hmm, that's right. All those good things.

So stay tuned for the next exciting episode of part two. And we will talk about more systems and processes and we'll get really nitty gritty here because I, I think that a lot of people. Say, yeah, go, go, go set up these systems and, and set up these processes, but nobody really tells you how. Yeah. And that's why we have the course too.

So that's true. That's one. Would you have course if you're interested in that? Oh yes, the course has it all. But definitely like a follow [00:28:00] and we'll see you next time.

We'll do the next onto the next.

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Manage episode 337836626 series 3070499
İçerik John Williams and The Short Term Rental Authority tarafından sağlanmıştır. Bölümler, grafikler ve podcast açıklamaları dahil tüm podcast içeriği doğrudan John Williams and The Short Term Rental Authority veya podcast platform ortağı tarafından yüklenir ve sağlanır. Birinin telif hakkıyla korunan çalışmanızı izniniz olmadan kullandığını düşünüyorsanız burada https://tr.player.fm/legal özetlenen süreci takip edebilirsiniz.

Episode4: How Not To Stay Glued to Your Phone On Vacation

[00:00:00]

Welcome back to the podcast. And you will notice that we are. Not in our regular location. We are not, we are on vacation. We are on vacation at the lake and I got lake hair and I don't care so is that even rhymes?

Right? We're a beautiful lake lore, North Carolina. Oh, it is gorgeous. Yes, I, this is our first time here. It's it's a great place to come. Just plugged to them. Love lake lure. We're actually staying in. Short term rental short term rental, of course, that we booked off of VRBO. Yeah. This one came through VRBO and in the background here, so we can't show you the house, but we're sitting out back and you might see some wildlife.

So this morning we saw some. I got to see some deer. You saw some deer. I wasn't up yet. Some mama deer and a baby deer. Yeah. And then later on we were, it was kind of comical actually, cuz we were inside and Wendy he's like, I think these are peacock. There's peacocks out here. And I was like, they were, they were, I don't think there are peacock, but so we came out and they were wild turkeys still.

Cool. Yeah. They were still cool. Still, still wildlife. Right. And then we have to be conscientious in this part of the country because there are black bear. So if you put your trash out, right, and it's not in a container that a bearer can't get into. You might get bears. Yeah, yeah. Can have a visitor at night.

Yeah. So you might see some wildlife if is we do have a video version of the podcast, by the way, if you're listening to this on the audio, please come and check us out on YouTube. And you can see what we're talking about. But yeah, it's a special place of, and we've been out on the lake all day.

Ugh. So nice swimming and floating and tubing and doing all those great. And that's what we wanted to talk about today. Yeah. Like how do you do that? Right, right. When you have all of these units and we've got people checking in today and we've got people checking out today and we've got potential problems that come up and I, one of those [00:02:00] wanna say, that's one of those things that, well it's happened to us in the past where we've gone on vacation.

And while it's great to say. I can run everything for my phone. Well, yeah, you can, but you really don't want to, when you're on vacation, do you? No, no, no. Do not. do you really wanna be glued to your phone? I haven't even looked at my, I don't even know where my phone is. Right. And it's, and it's glorious, but I, I remember that it's happened to us before where oh, yes, for sure.

Every time it buzzes, you're like, oh my God. Oh my God. I hope it's nothing bad. Did something happen? Right. Right. And it's how do you get to the point where. It's not so much an issue and you can actually go on vacation and actually enjoy it and enjoy it. Yes. Right. And not be glued to that phone. So that, that's what we wanted to kind of bring you today because it was very timely since we are on vacation.

And there you go. So, so by the time you get done with this video what we hope you will have gotten out of it is exactly how to do. From our perspective and how we've been able to achieve that and how we coach other people to do the same thing so that when you go on vacation, you're truly on vacation.

Mm it's. Glorious. Glorious. Yes. And I'm gonna drink my drink. It's cuz you can. Yes. . So what was the first thing we had kind of had three topics that we wanted to go over. Right? So, yeah, so there were, there were three things that we felt like were, were the most important things that we have in place that that allow us to, to do things like that.

And the very first one was team members. Right. They're somebody else is doing the things, right. That's that's true. It's not us. Right. so team members is one the, the how to do the things, the, how, how the team members do the things yeah. Processes, right? How do you, what do they do? And some of those are automated too.

They are. And then there's a lot of automation in that piece. Yeah. And we can talk about [00:04:00] that. And then the systems, how, what tools do we use? That allow the people to do the jobs, to do the things. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Those were, those were the three main things that allow us to be out here in the right.

Mountains of North Carolina where frankly cell cell phone service is spotted. It is, yes, we do have wifi. Yes. At, at the short term rental here. Yes. That's not bad. Yeah. We were gonna do this at the lake, but then we thought, well, you know, there's, I'm not sure there's really. Good wifi down there. That's not what happened.

She's lying to you. That is not what happened. I just didn't feel like dragging all the stuff down. That's what happened. That's really, that's the truth. We got down to the beach. That's so true. And we were floating around and we were like, you know what? We can always do this when we get back to the house.

So we'll do the podcast when we get back. Okay. That's true. But it would've been a great shot. Maybe, maybe we'll do some more of so gorgeous, short videos or something on just so gorgeous where you can actually see the lake. Cause it really is a beautiful area. That's really is. That's an idea we should do.

So let's talk about the team members that we, that we use. And you were talking about, the team members are really broken down into two different categories. They are. Yeah. So you've got the, the boots on the ground type people. and then you've got the virtual people, right? Yes. So let's talk about the boots on the ground type people.

So we've got the, the two boots on the ground. People are, of course the cleaners mm-hmm and then we also have the person called an operations specialist. That's the, that's the technical definition. Right. But we call them our runner and the runner also does quality control for us. Right. So let's talk. The, the cleaners and the, the operations specialists.

Mm-hmm yeah. So the cleaners is the one that's obvious [00:06:00] because you have to clean every time something turns and it, Amy. Yeah. Every time there's a turnover you have to clean. Right. And I think one of the, the things that we see people do a lot is they put a lot on their cleaners. Yeah. They make their cleaners do the linen, do the laundry in the.

Yeah. And, and that can be a thing if you were. So I, that was one of my things that I was like, you should not, if at all possible be having your cleaners do laundry for a number of reasons. One of those is it takes longer. It does. And number two, you're cleaning it in a not commercial environment. And what I mean by that is the, the residential.

You know, washers and dryers that we have, don't clean as well as say, outsourcing that to a commercial linen service that has access to the types of one, they can do more loads at a time. That's true. So it actually ends up being more efficient and two, they have access to the types of cleaning products that you don't necessarily as a consumer mm-hmm because they, they wash and bleach with.

Commercial grade washing and commercial grade bleach that regular people like us, we don't have access to those types of things. Right. And some of that has to do with the temperature that it's that's washed at and not to mention that they have machines that fold it. Oh man. And like genies. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a higher quality, if you will type of laundry.

And it helps you with your consistency and your qu quality control quite a bit. And not to mention now your cleaners are freed up to be able to do more turns in a day. Mm-hmm and that's, that's one of those things that I think's particularly important when you start scaling, because it does take a that's an hour.

Yeah. How long does it take you to do laundry? Oh, two hours [00:08:00] to wash and dry mm-hmm but at least two hours. Okay. So that's two hours of time and I know you have that five hour block. But they also have to clean. So how many turns can they actually do in a day? And so if you have a place that's fine, but if you have 10 of them or 20 of them, that starts becoming an issue and it becomes more of a efficiency thing.

If nothing else. Not to mention the quality to out start outsourcing that. Well, you know, another really good reason that we do that is to also have another set of eyes on the linens because it is the, the cleaners. If, if they go to the cleaners and, and the, and there's a, a stain on them, then the cleaners will the, the laundry mat.

Commercial grade laundry mat. When you say go to the cleaners, you meant the linen service, the linen service that's when they go to the linen service, then the, there there's a set of eyes on that on that stain there, the, they look for those things, right? And then once they get to, you know, back to the, to the cleaners and the cleaners are putting 'em on the bed, that's another.

Set of eyes on the, on the on the linens too. And that goes for towels too, right? Yeah. So that goes back to single point of failure yeah. On anything and on, on anything, not only the job that they're doing, but the that's another set of eyes on quality control. Yeah. Mm-hmm well, I think that's a really good point.

Yep. Yeah. So that is, that is one of the things that we do. So. So now you've introduced cleaners, cleaners clean. I got one more thing I wanna say about that. Okay. Go for it. So, and here's a little nugget for you. Ooh. We get four sets of linens for every unit that we have and for every bed and for every bathroom.

So I'm talking about. . If you've got a one [00:10:00] bedroom place, then you need four sets of sheets, four sets of pillow cases, and four sets we use duvet covers, right? Cuz they're a lot cheaper to, to clean the comforters among other reasons. And then we have four sets of, of towels that we have per bathroom and there's two sets.

Towels in the, in the bathroom. So that's like, I mean, it's a lot of linens. It is, there's a lot, a lot of linens and we do that because there's one set on the bed. There's one set in the closet. That is for guest use only because we all know that people are leaky. People are leaky, right? Hashtag people are leaky, hashtag people are leaky.

Yeah. And, and, you know, sometimes stuff happens, right. Especially when he serve children. Yeah. That is one of our clients. So it's really great. It's a really great guest experience when the baby wets the bed and there's an extra set of linens in the closet. So, well, that's one on, on the bed. Okay. One on the bed, one in the closet for guest use.

Only one of them is dirty at the laundry mat. And one of them is for oops. Somebody ripped or ripped our sheets or, or it stained or, or used our sheets to stuff in the vent, in the bathroom. So they could smoke. Oh, that's never happened. Oh no. That's never happened to us. Or it's a holiday. Or it's a holiday and the laundry mats closed mm-hmm

Yes, but anyway, that that's a little, no good that I want that I wanted to, to drop in there for you. Okay. Yeah. Extra, extra nuggets. Yeah. When you drop. So we got the cleaners, we got the laundry mat. And so the other boots on the ground is, is what we call the runner mm-hmm or the operations specialist, if you will.

Yeah. That's the, and that's our person that goes to the unit when somebody needs to go to the unit that doesn't involve turnover. So it's the, the [00:12:00] wifi doesn't work and I don't know how to reset the modem. Somebody has to go. It's the we don't have enough toilet paper. Can you bring, please bring some more it's the, you know, whatever it is that that happens all the time that somebody needs to go for some reason that doesn't involve cleaning and that ends up being a runner now in our houses, because we've mentioned in the past, we have single family houses.

But we also have apartments. Now, those run differently in the single family houses, the process tends to be that the runner goes to every checkout mm-hmm . So not only are do the cleaners come, but the runners coming and that person is actually bringing the clean linens they're taking the dirty linens away.

They're also doing inventory. And that person may be the person that's doing quality control for you as well to say, did the cleaners do everything that they were supposed to do when they came mm-hmm because that's we have enough cups. Do we have enough plates? Yeah. Well that's that's some of them get broken that's beyond cleaning.

Yeah. Right. So it's also the other things, like you're supposed to have 12 plates, right. But there's only 10 because the last people broke two of them and didn't tell you, no, that never happens. It came across the channel today. We didn't have to deal with it, but we see everything that's happening. The blinds were, were torn up at one of the places, right.

And the quality control person actually found that the cleaners didn't miss they, I guess they missed it. They didn't say anything about it. Mm-hmm but quality control tent came and found it. Yeah. It's nice to, so again, it's that redundancy and having that other set of eyes mm-hmm yeah. In addition to the cleaners clean, the runner runs.

Yep. Right. And the, the linen service does linens. Right. And so we have this separation of powers, if you will. And they all overlap each other and they do overlap. Right. So, because, you know, cause you did say that it's an additional set of eyes, more eyes on it, the better. So the, on the cleaning checklist and we do have a cleaning checklist and we'll talk about [00:14:00] this in just a second, but there are things that are on the cleaning checklist that are also on the operations specialist checklist too, because.

Those are really important things that a lot of people miss. Right? So that's quality control. You're talking about the cleaners coming clean and of, well, I shouldn't say of course, but if you don't, they should have a checklist and a very detailed one that goes beyond clean the living room. Or clean the bathroom, right?

Well, obviously, right, but you need very specific instructions, right? So every room has 10 to 20 different things that you actually need to do. Yep. Like dust the ceiling fan. Yep. Do the blinds. This is exactly how many towels go on the rack. Yep. And that kind of thing. And then the quality control person is actually coming behind them with that exact same list to.

Did this get done? Did this get done right? Did, did this get done? And then that becomes a very objective way to provide feedback, right? If something didn't get done did not get done right. Or you know, they just missed it for whatever reason. It's, it's very, we like objective versus subjective. Right? So we'd rather have someone say, Hey, item six on the list in the bathroom.

Wasn't completed rather than you didn't clean. Well, right. because that's a very vague thing to say. Right. And frankly, if, if it's not on our list and a cleaner, doesn't do it. That's our problem. That's our problem. Mm-hmm . Yeah. Okay. So it's, it's imperative that we have detailed lists and you know, that that is something, then we have quality control go through that list.

That is something that we've had to refine over the years. Yeah. And you would, our checklist, our cleaning checklist did not start out that way. Yeah. It, it was not comprehensive, but. That's what had to happen was every time something happened you know, a guest found something, then, then we put it on the cleaning [00:16:00] checklist and then we told our cleaners and another thing.

And here's another nugget for you. You have to train your cleaners. Oh yeah. You cannot get somebody from. Turnover B, B or properly or wherever they came from and expect them to know how to clean your place, your place, your place, because it is your place. And first of all, it's your responsibility to have a checklist.

Because if you don't have a checklist, then they don't know exactly what to do. Yeah. And it's their responsibility to follow it. Yes. It is their responsibility. That's an agreement. And then it's our responsibility to make sure that was done. Yes. But it's not fair to them. It isn't, it is not, they did not do something and it wasn't on your checklist.

That's on you. Yes. And we always that what's on us. Always. It's train our cleaners. To the first three times they clean for us. We have the quality control person go behind them. Yes. And all they always say, you know, this section six. B B , you know, was, they didn't put a, a hand towel on the hand towel ring in the downstairs bathroom mm-hmm or whatever.

Right. And then they take a picture of it and that gets sent to the cleaner. And then the cleaner, you know, either has to go back and, and fix it. Or do better next time do better next time, right? Yeah. But if it is your responsibility as an operator to number one, have a checklist and number two to train the cleaner.

To clean exactly the way that you want them to clean. Yeah. And then quality call becomes accountability. Yeah. Accountability. You need to build, build accountability. Must. And again, it's one of those it's, there's no single point of failure, right? You must. So I think that's important. Yeah. Well, how do the, let's talk about this next?[00:18:00]

How does the, how does it work when the quality control person, for example, found the blinds? That were messed up in, in one of the houses. So I think you're moving to the other. Yeah, I'm moving to the, okay. Cause we said there were two, we talked a lot about the boots on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about the virtual now.

Mm-hmm so, so now that we've talked about the cleaners and the operation specialist and the quality control and the laundrymat now, how does that information get fixed? Right. What do they do with that information? Yeah, hopefully. Texting you? No, no, they're not texting me. they're not. They used to cause that wouldn't, that wouldn't mess up your vacation.

They used to text me. Yeah. But that doesn't happen anymore. What happens now is. The, they, we use a, a, a process, right. And, and a system that we'll talk about that in just a second. I don't know if we're gonna get to that, but go for it though. The, a virtual assistant or the operations or the the customer experience specialist.

Yeah. I don't like calling them virtual assistant. I don't, everybody does, but they're not, that's really something that it's really customer service. It's a, it's a job customer service. It's it's customer service. It just so happens that that job does not have a physical location. Right. So she doesn't have to, this person doesn't have to be there.

Right. So you're really not looking for virtual assistance. No, no. You're because virtual assistance is something else. It is. It's like, okay, I have tasks need done. Yeah. And I have a virtual assistant that helps you. That's not what, this is so much more than that. This is remote work. Yes. It's somebody that works remotely because those jobs don't need to be on site.

Right. So they're well, here's a bunch of things that don't need to be on site, responding to a guest through the. Responding to a guest via text, taking a phone call from a guest, for example contacting a maintenance person to go fix those blinds that the [00:20:00] quality control found or the cleaners found.

Right? There's, there's lots of things that do not involve. I have to be physically there. Well, they're more of like the middle man, right? They're they're actually the glue that holds this business together. Yeah. And that's the person you don't wanna be? I think a lot of people that's what they're, I don't wanna be that person anymore.

I dunno if I said this in the beginning, but it was like, okay, I can work anyway, cuz anywhere cuz I can do it off my phone. , but you've just given yourself a role in the business. Yeah. Now you're working in your business, your customer experience on your business is what you actually are. Yeah. You've created that job for yourself.

So you need to put somebody else in that job. Yeah. And the whole point is they don't have to be on the ground. And I know somebody's out there saying, well, I can't afford that. Oh yeah. That comes back. I know somebody out there is saying that. Yeah. And let me tell you, you can't afford not to have this person that's correct.

Because guess who. Guess who checks the cameras when guests check in and, and finds out if there are extra guests that check in that aren't stated on the reservation or they bring a pet and they're not supposed to. Yes, yes. And guess what we charge for that. Yeah. So, and now she's just paid for herself.

Yeah. So the, your customer experience team ends up being. ends up paying for themselves. Really? They do. They really do. They really do. They really, we thought that too, from the things that we did, they find we did, and it's not only the fine side. It's not only, Hey, you brought a pet and you weren't supposed to, and now you owe us 200 bucks.

There is that, but there's also the, okay. Somebody reported the blinds needed to be fixed or what happened the other day that would've been a bigger deal. Like. The water was off. Oh yeah, that's right at one of the apartments. That's right. The, the water didn't work in one of the, in one of the apartments bathrooms.

Mm-hmm and that's one of those things that, Hey, we're on vacation. We might not catch it. And then nobody called maintenance and then your [00:22:00] guest shows up and now they have a bad experience and they leave you a bad view. And how much did that cost you? Oh, over. Oh, my, you just did a big one. So it's not only those hard costs, but it's those soft costs that you feel like aren't really cost, but they are.

Yeah. That, that hurt you over the long run. Where if you just had somebody there to respond, you could have headed that off before. Oh, I got another one issue. Yeah, go for it. What if the air conditioner stops working? yeah, that, that happens here in the south a lot, all the time or heat, or if you, if it's the winter time.

Right. And there's nobody to check the temperature cuz we have, that's one of our processes yeah. System for this and a process for this. Right? The, the temperature inside the unit is comparable or, or is comfortable depending on the temperature, you know, outside. Right. So it's summertime, right? And it's really hot outside, especially here in the south.

And the temperature inside needs to be about, I don't know, 70, 68, 70 degrees is normal for, for this time of year, but it's sometimes it's 90, 95 degrees outside. And if the temperature inside is like 85 degrees, you know, that's a. And something's going on with the, the H V a C that you should probably get somebody to come check out before the next guest checks in at four o'clock.

Right. And, and you, the worst thing you can have happen is the guest shows up and they're the one tells telling you that there's a problem with the unit mm-hmm . And that's one of those things that your cleaners may have missed. Yeah. Just because, yeah, it did not happen until they left. Oh, that's interesting.

So once, once a day and before check in one of our procedures, and [00:24:00] this is part of the systems that we have, because we can do that. We can see the thermostats remotely. Does the inside temperature match what the thermostat is set to. Yep. So if the thermostat in the summer is set to 72 degrees Fahrenheit and the actual inside temperature is 85, problem, problem is probably happening.

Yep. Right. Or it could be, just be the opposite that the last guest said it to 80. Or turned it off completely or turned it off completely, which happened to us recently. It did like who does that? And then the guests show up and, and it's hot in there and they're like, why didn't you? Right. Why is the air not on?

Right. And we can, because of the systems and processes we've got in place. We can turn that on remotely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we have to talk about, I think we've dropped enough nuggets on that one. I think we've talked. I think, I think we've talked. We may have to continue this. We may have to do a part two.

We may have to do a part two. We may even have to do a part three. Yeah. So what were the next two that we were gonna cover and what? So we did the, the team members first and then we have the systems. No, then we have the processes and then we have the system still. Right. So I don't think we kind of touched on some of them a little bit, but we could, we've got so much more to talk about there.

Okay. So maybe we should break this into three. Oh, that's good idea. So we've talked this, we've talked about the team members that you need and why it's so important to have them, because remember, this is a team sport. And, and again, you're building a business here. Yep. Yeah. And you don't wanna have to work in.

Yeah. Especially when you're on vacation and that a whole reason that you're building a business, it really is. So it can, that it can allow you to go on vacation like this. I mean this, all this time and investment and money that you put into your short term rentals, don't become a slave to them. And go, and it's very apparent when you're here at lake lure and you're just trying to swim.

Right. And you're, you're thinking, ah, I gotta go into, into shore and see my phones ring and have right that's horrible lake care and not care. Hey lake here and not care. That might be the top, the title of this episode. I'm not sure [00:26:00] I got lake here and I don't care. I got lake here and I don't care but we do hope that you found a lot of value.

In this episode, we dropped a lot of nuggets and we dropped a lot of information on you. And if you did find value on it, like, and subscribe. to the channel and stay tuned because we will be doing a, a part two, because we've got so much more to talk about this. And I think that this topic is, is though the whole reason that people start a short term rental or any business.

to begin with. Yeah. It's time. Freedom. Yes. It's freedom of time. It's freedom of time. And that's, that's really what this episode was about is how to start getting that time back. Yes. How to start getting that freedom back. Yep. Again, check us out on YouTube. I don't know if anybody saw bear back there please.

Behind us. I hope not. Cuz that means there won't be a part too. Probably but, but but I don't think, I don't think. No, probably not until tonight. Yeah. They, they tend to come out tonight and we've got a fire pit and we're gonna have some s'mores tonight. We are, and we're not gonna worry about the kids are gonna burn their marshmallows.

Like they always do. Yeah. They like 'em burn, but we're not gonna have to worry about guests that are. Mm complaining and nobody's responding to them or they may complain, but it won't be us that has to deal with it. Yes. And it will get done in a timing manner. Yeah. And mm-hmm, that's right. All those good things.

So stay tuned for the next exciting episode of part two. And we will talk about more systems and processes and we'll get really nitty gritty here because I, I think that a lot of people. Say, yeah, go, go, go set up these systems and, and set up these processes, but nobody really tells you how. Yeah. And that's why we have the course too.

So that's true. That's one. Would you have course if you're interested in that? Oh yes, the course has it all. But definitely like a follow [00:28:00] and we'll see you next time.

We'll do the next onto the next.

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