hello youtube this is richard founder of short-term rental secrets.com and Airbnb
super host today I'm super excited to be reviewing one of our subscribers
listings they've reached out to us and asked us to check it out and so I haven't
seen this before but I just pulled it up and it's the relax and enjoy the views
of the Hill Country and the thumbnail is gorgeous and the fireplace is gorgeous
and the wine glass I mean I can't wait to see what this is I'm drawn to come
here I don't even know where Spring Branch Texas is but I want to go check
it out and I want to hang out in that pool and by that fireplace and watch
that sunset so first thing I have to say Randall this is beautiful really really
pretty and a great thumbnail and I love the relax and enjoy the views of Hill
Country it's a really descriptive title so to remind you we're going to talk
about the title the photos and the story that they tell in the order that they're
shown the thumbnail the description and then also the reviews so let's get right
to it relax and enjoy the views of Hill Country I mean you're telling me what it
is that I want to hear that's exactly what I want to do if I want to come to
Hill Country I want to relax and I want to enjoy the views so I think that
that's a perfect description the thumbnail is really spot-on and I just
want to learn a little bit more so let's go ahead and do just that the way that I
think most users of Airbnb do which is starting with the photos
okay cool so I just took a quick tour the photos are fantastic some are better
than others and I think that things that I want to point out here are going to be
useful to people whether you have a home or an apartment or just a room to share
and it really just comes down to thinking about who your guests are and
how they're going to use your place so clearly Randall's done a really nice
job of recognizing that he's got an unbelievable backyard with this fire pit
and this pool and the views and so he's highlighting that he's playing to his
advantage but you might have a different advantage and you just want to think
about how you use your place why you live there and it might be proximity to
the subway it might be proximity to the Convention Center I don't know why you
live where you do but you know why and so think about what that isn't
highlighted Randall clearly has a very good idea of why he bought his place and
he's doing a really nice job of showing it here he's using the captions
intelligently as well hill country sunsets by the fire the next image is
the pool so this is obviously the same shot going the other way and even though
the pool is lovely in this hot tub with the waterfall is gorgeous he's right to
focus on the views in the Vista because that's just spectacular and while this
looks really nice and the landscaping looks great and the house is beautiful
and so on it's just not nearly as captivating as those views right like
the views are amazing and he's right back at it here pool views imagine just
sitting in that pool and looking at that this is a nice aerial shot you can see
that the grounds are well-kept you can see that he's got you know glassware out
he's trying to show that people can use it and you know one thing that I'd point
out is while this is some sort of desert scape you can see that it's all you know
lush and green and maintained and somebody takes care of this and it's not
sloppy like this exact same home maintained by the wrong person you might
see empty beer bottles you might see some trash you might see some magazines
that are crumpled now if you're doing it intentionally and you're staging it then
that's great and I can add artistic value but if you just didn't clean it up
then people can sort of tell that too this is
another beautiful shot at night the colors are great the resolution the
image quality is great again it's really nice and clean and you've got the lights
on and the fire going so it's clear to me that you thought about when you
wanted to take this photo and you took a great photo and that's something that we
can all do okay here's the address and again you can see some sort of desert
scape very dry arid cactus but very well-maintained
I see no weeds and you know I think Randall's right to put the photos of the
backyard in the pool and all that first because while this home is beautiful and
clearly well-maintained and newly built and so on the real Wow
is what you see once you're inside and so this is a great photo but this
shouldn't be the thumbnail and I think Randall did that well here I might
elaborate a little bit more on the caption here and say private home and a
secluded Drive or you know no neighbors or whatever whatever it is more than
just front here's the inside again you can see it's clearly staged there's a
nice magazine and a coaster and a throw remote just clean and nice and I think
is a very nice photo looks like it's taken at about the height that you'd be
sitting at which is best practice as we've talked about so I think that this
is a really nice inviting photo and it says upstairs living I think it could be
improved a little bit more here's the kitchen I'm seeing if there's anything
that catches my eye and no it's just really nice and clean I might put a call
I might set the table and have you know like an eat-in kitchen sort of
description to show people like great place to bring the kids for breakfast or
something like that and set that table paint the dream just like you did in
this next photo with the wine right like clearly you and your family sit there
and enjoy the wine and the views think about who might be sitting at the
kitchen eating kitchen counter and how they might enjoy that
but this is very nice dining with country Hills views bedroom with queen
bed I mean it's evident that you've used a
lot of thought and energy and decorating it it's bright and it's colorful and I
love the way I can see the other bedroom here that sort of shows you know how
much privacy you have and how colorful it is and bright so I think this is a
really nice photo same thing clearly a lot of attention to detail and also the
decorating and it looks lovely bedroom with two twin XL beds
okay this bathroom it looks really nice and well maintained and all the towels
are folded and there's soap so this is just really great photography and I
think we should all be inspired this is a beautiful shot I really like this shot
I love the way that there's coffee and juice and it's just suggesting that I
might come out here for breakfast coffee on the balcony and the views are
magnificent and there's couches there's more coffee back here
you know Randall I really think you're doing a great job and commend you I
think we can all learn from from this really high-quality listing here's a
pool table you notice how the pool table is being utilized if balls are all
racked all of the pool cues are in the right place there's wine and everything
it so you know it's evident that Randall really cares a lot about its property
and it's also evident that he really cares about his listing because he's
taken the time to show it in the best light I bet you on any given weekend
there's a lot of foot traffic in here and shoes piled by the door and wet
towels and things like that and none of that's evidence so these things don't
happen by accident they happen by planning and by caring and by staging
the place and I think that it's evident that Randall is doing great work and we
can all do this right even if we don't have a pool table to showcase we do have
a space we can take pride in it we can make sure it's photographing well and we
can double check our work if it's not you know up to par we'll do it again so
this is the same shot okay this is kind of cool I might highlight this even
before and maybe a different angle but this is
pretty unique how this garage door opens up so it's like indoor/outdoor living
you don't highlight that in the caption but I think that's really cool I have a
space where I live currently that has a similar sort of like opening to the
outside and I love that indoor outdoor component so think about what angle you
might capture that better the grandness of the room the grandness of the vista
with that rolled up is just spectacular now here interestingly you have the same
shot twice so go ahead and take one of them out you don't need it twice I think
that's just a mistake this is really lovely
again I'm not seeing anything that catches my eyes these floats here a
little bit of a distraction but it's so minor there's a nice grill covered back
patio go ahead and take a seat I mean this is just a really lovely home and a
great listing I think you're right to highlight all of the backyard activity
that's where everyone's going to be when the weather permits and when they don't
permit they're going to be in the indoor garage playing pool and you do beautiful
work with the night scape and the lights and so on
I think this grill time being the second to last photo you might be missing an
opportunity to put that earlier because most people that are coming here with
the family if the weather's nice and our outdoor by the pool they may be doing a
lot of cooking and relaxing and so I might put that a little bit forward if I
had to make a suggestion and hill-country evenings ok well listen I
mean you want to come shoot my place and great work really it's very very nice I
think we can all learn from it take inspiration from it so kudos so now
we're on the thumbnail and this is it I mean there's a few shots that you have
that are similar to this but this one works I wouldn't change a thing it's
fantastic it draws me in the sunset is perfect the fireplace roaring is great
the wine glasses you staged it so I couldn't think of a better thumbnail you
nail congratulations okay cool so let's turn
to the description and once again Randall you've taken a really thorough
approach to this I think that your storytelling is really nice that high on
a cliff above the Guadalupe River it's a private guesthouse with sweeping vistas
it's your hill country getaway one thing that this immediately brings to my mind
is this is a private guesthouse well where is the main house you know talk to
me a little bit about that and you do talk about it further down in the
interaction with guests section it's separate very private house off the main
home I never bother the guests but I'm always available I think that I would
tie this in up front a little bit more your own private guest house you know a
hundred yards 500 yards a five-minute walk and I would also make the
interaction with the guests more positive the I never bother the guests
comes from a point of negativity right like you're going to be a bother you
want it to be a positive and so say while I am conveniently accessible I
also allow you to have your privacy or something where it's like it's great
that he's close by but he's not going to come by and I know what you mean by I
never bother but one thing that I've learned in writing copy and in marketing
things is you don't want to talk about things from a negative perspective
because even though you dispel it later they may never get past that hurdle so I
think it's important to talk about this private guest house up here and
acknowledge that there's a main house and what that means but the sweeping
vistas is great taking the views is great custom pool and spa I love it
in the middle of nowhere and near everything is very nice close to local
shopping guest house is located on two and a half acres in a very safe and high
community remember what I said that that photo that said front could be
elaborated on this is your place on that photo talk about super private two and a
half acres safe quiet that's what the kind of thing that you should be
thinking about in the caption there in my
in this is all great guest access other things to note 35 minutes away
accommodates five extra people no charge you might want to consider changing that
I charge for extra people there's more wear and tear there's more towels
there's more cleaning it you know it just takes longer I think your cleaning
fee is very reasonable given the size of the home but if that works for you then
that's fine I think your security deposit is too low clearly somebody
could do a lot more than 250 dollars of damage in your home so I would encourage
you to increase that to 500 or so and I've said in other videos and I'll
repeat it again I'm not a huge fan of the weekly discount or the monthly
discounting 50% off a month in my opinion that's too high you know if you
want it to go into a long-term 12 months leave then that's what you should do
with this property if you want to go short-term and you want to maximize your
income then you should maximize your income and not give away half your money
and it's okay to have vacancy right part of the beauty of a short-term rental is
that we charge more per night giving people flexibility and the flip side of
that is as hosts we have to be ok with some vacancy if you have total vacancy
then you have a pricing issue but you shouldn't be shooting for short-term
rentals and long term people staying at a discount like that's not in my opinion
the right way to think about this so I'd revisit those two discounts I like you
know trying to dissuade people that are the wrong fit I like that a lot you know
code enforce quiet neighborhood I might make that enfold no parties and I might
look that up higher right like you're talking about food scraps that's not
really that important not nearly as important as the code enforced
neighborhood quiet hours so I would rejigger all of this a little bit to
make sure that you're getting only the right guest there anybody can make a
mistake with a food scrap that wouldn't be intentional but a partier could ruin
your entire neighborhood and your you know community and so on so you want to
put that up forward in my opinion so here's something I find really curious I
mean it's a beautiful home the listing photos are
unbelievable the thumbnail is unbelievable the pricing is very
reasonable the description is great and yet randal only has three reviews all of
them are five-star across-the-board so that's fantastic
you're off to a great start but what I find curious is you've been doing this
from February through it's now June so you've been doing this for months and
you only had three rentals so there's something amiss here and to try and
check that out a little bit I went into the calendar and I can see in June you
know you're blocked either that or you're rented I'm not
sure in July there's only one day of availability so I don't know if you
block the entire month of July or again if you're fully booked and then in
August you show some vacancy so clearly you're available then in September it's
wide open my gut tells me Randall that you're using this home yourself and
you're blocking the calendar now you probably live in the main house so maybe
you're blocking this for your guests and your family and so on just speculation
if that's the case then the three reviews make sense but let's just go to
the average short-term rental host is probably looking to maximize their
income maybe even pay their mortgage and they're not blocking off the dates if
you only have three reviews and you've been doing this for five or six months
then there's some questions and some of those questions could be location is
this a desirable place for people to come visit I have yet to find a place
that's not desirable so that's probably not it it might be the price if there's
a lot of competition in and around the Guadalupe River and they all have those
commanding vistas and you know you're overpriced
that might be something to consider or it could just be that it's seasonal you
know maybe you have it blocked off because in the summer it's 110 degrees
and nobody goes there and it's really you know some place that people come in
the winter I'm just making that up hypothetically so only you will know
what's happening in your specific home and in your community but these are
questions to ask anybody doing a short-term rental if you're not getting
three reviews in the first call it month 45 days it tells you that there's
something that can be improved in fact we just had somebody that we welcome to
our Facebook grupe just today and they got two
listings overnight they listed in an urban area and within the first 24 hours
they had their first two bookings and now they're like oh I'm so excited to be
part of this group I want to learn as much as I possibly can because there's
people coming in and staying so three reviews over five or six months I find
curious and you know Randall maybe you could come join us on the Facebook group
and tell us all why you've only had three reviews and what it's seasonal and
by doing that it'll help us all learn and get the closure on the story but
also you may find that there's an issue and some of our other community members
have solutions or maybe they live in the same sort of seasonal place and what
they do is they slash the price by 50% or I don't know but the point is likely
somebody on the Facebook group page has faced similar situation as yours and we
can all learn from one another so I'd encourage you to check that out okay
cool so look I think this is a really great listing I think Randall has done a
ton of things really really well I find it inspiring and educational I want to
come visit and I do have a question and Randall if you could join the Facebook
group and tell us you know give us some closure that'd be awesome and for those
of you that liked this video and found it helpful please go ahead and like the
video leave comments and feedback here and for a more detailed discussion about
this listing and any other videos or solutions or questions that you have
join our Facebook group we'd love to see you over there for more you know
interactive two-way dialogue and please if you haven't subscribed to the channel
do so it would really mean a lot to me out speciated very much and our absence
I hope you enjoyed this happy wholesome