This is Richard fertig with short-term rental secrets.com today we're going to
walk through some of the things that you need in your short-term rental whether
it be on Airbnb or any of the other sites to make your guests feel at home
and comfortable and safe so the first things that are important to have in
your home are really required by law and it's a safety thing so you should really
limit your liability things like smoke detectors carbon monoxide detectors a
fire extinguisher that's placed in an obvious location as well as a first-aid
kit in case somebody cuts themselves or has an emergency you want to make these
things readily available just so that people feel comfortable the final thing
I would recommend is a safety contact card include the name and address of the
local hospital as well as your contact information and maybe even a backup so
now we're going to talk about the bare necessities that you must have in your
home in order to rent it out and after this section we're going to actually
talk about some of the value-added amenities that I think will
differentiate your listing from others so of course you have to have a bed and
a bathroom and the cleaner the better you need to have temperature control
thermostatic control for people to turn on heat and air conditioning to their
desired level and finally you need Wi-Fi the faster the better
try not to save money on the Wi-Fi make that a competitive advantage I recommend
the highest quality linens you can possibly afford more you spend on the
bedding the more people are going to appreciate it and they will in fact
recognize it nothing grosses people out more than a dirty bathroom so make it
spotless and then stock it with really nice high-end soap conditioner shampoo
and the life because just like when you go to a nice hotel and you see these
little products you think more highly of your experience that's what you want to
do in terms of hospitality in your own home make sure you spend as much money
as you possibly can afford on the towels get hand towels face towels bath mats
what I actually do a little trick that I do is I get my towels custom embroidered
with the name of my property doesn't cost very much it's a couple of dollars
but getting the name engraved on the towels is just a really high-end touch
when we talk about the armoire or the closet if you can afford to go out and
get some nice wood hangers and some dress hangers and some skirt hangers you
also need a coffee maker and here's a little expert tip make sure that you get
a metal cone drip filter or have enough
paper filters so that your guests never have a problem with making coffee
finally I think it's a great idea to have cable TV it costs a lot of money
but I think that sporting events in particular are really important to a lot
of guests let's talk about some special things that you can do that are really
easy and not that expensive that will make your guests feel really welcome and
almost as if they're in their own home one of the things that I love is smart
television technology the prices have really come down it's not very expensive
this allows guests to check in on their own netflix account Hulu HBO GO another
thing that I really like to do has include a washer and a dryer and make
sure that you put the detergent and the dryer sheets out that way they can keep
clean and fresh we all know that you have a million devices when you travel
and running extension cords and moving furniture is a pain in the butt I use
bricks wherever possible and I put multiple of them they include USB ports
that way a million devices can be charged perpetually people are using
their technology the way they want and recharging them is easy and efficient we
do a 24-hour check-in you can either use smart technology which we'll be
reviewing later or even just a dumb lockbox where you give them a code and
they can get the key out you're not up all night waiting for them and they're
able to get in on their own schedule the final expert tip is something that
we're actually going to review in a future episode I recommend using a Sonos
Bluetooth speaker system allowing your guests to use their iPhone or smartphone
technology to listen to their again their own Pandora or Rhapsody account
again one of the key things in making somebody feel at home is to give them
all the tools that they would have at home if you found this video helpful and
I hope you did please subscribe to our YouTube channel short term rental
secrets comm for additional content thanks so much for your time and your
interest and happy hosting