hi everyone this is Richard with short
term rental secrets com doing a little
bit of market research and taking a look
at a company called onefinestay which
has a very interesting business model
they were actually just bought out by a
hotel group that really understands sort
of the relevancy and the importance and
specifically the growth opportunities in
renting out apartments and homes and so
on and so Accor ACCOR Hotels bought
out one fine stay specifically because
they view the short-term rental market
as an accessory and or competition or in
their case they're embracing it and they
tend to focus on the higher end but I
think we can always learn and study sort
of like the best of breed and see what's
working on the higher end and take some
of that same learning and lessons and
apply it to what it is that we're doing
so here I am on the one fine stay site
i visited it before you can see they
have half a dozen cities that they're
currently located in London Los Angeles
Paris Miami Rome in New York since i'm
most familiar with New York we're going
to take a look at some of these listings
here and it's a slightly different
layout than Airbnb and vrbo although the
navigation is nice and clean and very
similar to Airbnb I'm going to try and
pick a place that is reasonably priced
so that its most relevant to the average
user and so like this place here in
Brooklyn for 345 dollars a night looks
like it's a reasonable representation of
a average Airbnb home in the area and
the first thing I'm going to do is click
on the photos they actually use a
professional photographer and that's
what you want to study if you're taking
a look at your listing and want to
increase the quality of your photography
what better place to look than a listing
of a similar property with a
professional photographer so a couple
things I want to highlight here you can
see how clean it is somebody's gone
through and actually made sure that
everything is clean and neat and orderly
and only because I no one finds day I'll
point out that this towel here and the
fruit and this water glass over here and
the book
that's open that's what's called staging
that's intentional that's not by
accident and so if you photographed your
place there might be stuff you know
laying around and sort of like forgotten
about and that would show up in the
photos in this particular case I know
for a fact the photographer's the
professional photographers at one finds
day will come in their cleaning crew
will come in and they will clean
everything up they'll put things away
and then they'll intentionally make the
space look a little lived in like this
throw off the corner of the couch here
that's not an accident that's by design
they probably move that throw half a
dozen times and took a look at it to
make sure it looks great but the point
is when you look at this home shot the
first shot it's nice and bright it's
clean it's neat it's orderly it's
inviting I indicated in other videos
that you want to you want to label what
each photo is because somebody looking
at your listing has no idea I mean in
this case it's the kitchen it's pretty
obvious but it's really hard to
understand which is bedroom 1 versus
bedroom 2 versus bedroom 3 or in
bathrooms especially if they have
similar tile and lay out there might be
totally different bathrooms but if
you're not labeling the image you
wouldn't know that you're looking at the
second bathroom with a guest bathroom of
the third bathroom or whatever so take a
moment and go ahead and label what it is
and then highlight things that you think
are particular interest so let's just
scroll through this listing and I'll
give you an idea of what else catches my
eye here again you can see that the bed
is very cleanly made everything is done
by design and intent there's no loose
you know scrap stuff on the dresser
there's no clothing anywhere they've
turned this light on to highlight this
little artistic dinosaur or whatever
again it just shows to somebody looking
at this that it's very clean and
well-maintained now they've highlighted
it a little bit more let's just keep
going it's to still the master bedroom
and the only way i know that is because
it's labeled and they've also indicated
the size of the bed which i think is
really helpful when you take a photo in
the bathroom in particular and there's
usually a mirror you want to do yourself
a favor and
the outside of the image you don't want
to capture yourself shooting the photo
in the mirror because that becomes a
distraction you want to capture the
photo of the bathroom and the mirror
with you not being in it you may have to
move around you may have to try a few
different angles you might have to get
creative you might even have to use a
tripod whatever it is look how clean and
beautiful this bathroom looks and it
would be completely different if there
was you know some strangers standing
there with a beard and you know
disheveled hair like my own anyway try
and do your best to get out of the
mirror and out of the frame here's
another bedroom and you can see it's a
second bedroom and again the size of the
bed another point that I want to show
you the same throw you'll see it on the
chair here and then on the very next
photo you see this chair with the same
throw that's a visual cue to people to
identify that you're in the same bedroom
it may be subtle they may not even
realize it but intellectually your mind
says off I recognize that I'm in the
same room here and this is actually
important the outside terrace you can
see they put a coffee mug and magazine
or a book and this is what I've talked
about in prior videos like sell the
dream right like without the coffee mug
and without the book somebody might say
oh gee I would never use this space or
it's going to be winter or whatever but
just by putting a little bit of staging
and thought an effort into it a book and
a mug all of a sudden is like oh wow
that'd be a great place to have
breakfast I like this place more than
the other one that doesn't have the
outdoor so just think about how people
are going to interpret your photo and
the imagery and sell the dream let's
keep going and this I think one fine
state does really well I've encouraged
followers of mine to do this and I do
this in all my listings I go around and
I take photos of the neighborhood of the
block of the street of the neighbors of
whatever again to tell a story so this
looks really inviting to me I mean I
probably if I rented this home I'd want
to go to Campbell cheese and grocery and
be like these folks sitting outside and
have a conversation here's another
little aroma bakery it looks cute here's
another grub and drinks and I get the
sense that it's like pretty hip and cool
and so the point is they're telling a
story through these photos it has
thing to do with the property itself
that now it's about the the neighborhood
in the environment that you're going to
be spending some time in and I think
that that's really cool and awesome i
encourage anybody who is following them
short-term rentals to think again about
the story that you're weaving right like
you're telling a story what do you want
to include what do you want to exclude
you never want to lie or exaggerate show
it as it is you know in this particular
case this looks pretty hip and cool
there's all sorts of graffiti here but
rather than shy away from it they've
actually done a really nice job of
making the image look really clean and
sharp and presentable and you know
there's a certain segment of the
population that are going to be drawn to
wanting to get grub and drinks at this
place with the graffiti and that's what
you want right you want to attract your
try to set God and says people that like
you and want to be with you and so on
are the people that are going to give
you the highest reviews they're going to
book with you a second time or tell a
story to their friends or their
neighbors or family and you're going to
build your business so I hope this has
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