hello youtube this is richard fertig
founder of short-term rental secrets
.com and Airbnb super huh hello hello
youtube this is richard founder of
short-term rental secrets.com and
Airbnb super host I just got back from a
magnificent vacation in one of my
favorite spots in the world which is st.
Bart you can see the tan you can see the
hair it's a little bit crazy but that's
just how I feel and I wanted to get
right into the studio and just give you
a review about my experience at the
villa in st. Bart but before I get
started let me just clarify this wasn't
an Airbnb or VRBO is a very well-known
network of villa rental agencies on the
island of st. Barths and the one that I
have always used is called whim Co I
highly recommend them very professional
they have great access to tremendous
villas and a great infrastructure and as
I go ahead and talk about the entire
process from start to finish this is
what we can all aspire to right like
we're not going to be wim Co we're not
going to have this network of villas
we're gonna have our own properties in
our own portfolio but in terms of the
check-in the communication the
hospitality we can learn from the best
and so that's the point of this video so
the first thing I want to talk about is
the booking process and this is
something that I think wim co could do
better and we as hosts can do better and
I'll personalize it I've identified that
I can do this better myself and what it
is is we assume that everybody knows
exactly where they want to stay so for
instance people that are looking in New
York City at my Soho property I assume
they want to be in Soho but that's a big
assumption and it's not correct they may
not have any idea what Soho is or what
it's close to or why you would choose
Soho versus say Midtown and same thing
with wim Cohen st. Barts
they didn't tell me where the villa was
very
well the photos weren't very great I had
to choose based on what I thought was
you know the best examples and I did
just fine only because I've been there
so many times that I know it very well
but we as hosts should not make any
assumptions people that have never been
there you need to tell them why he chose
the neighborhood why you live there and
there's no good or bad it's just the
transparency the second thing to
consider the check-in process and here
wim Coe absolutely nailed it they had a
personal concierge by the name of Pascal
meet us at the airport he handed a
freezing cold Evian waters which is just
so nice and welcome friendly hospitable
smiling upbeat I mean it was just a
great way to you know get to the
vacation spot and then he literally
drove us to the villa walked us through
showed us all the different amenities
and it was just spectacular so a plus on
the check-in the third thing to talk
about is communication and this is a
challenge that I think many hosts and I
know I faced personally insofar as I
speak English as my native language and
you know same parts of a French country
so therefore they speak French and so
there's a little bit of a challenge
going back and forth between the agent
and French and myself in English and
they have broken English and I've broken
French so we as hosters need to
recognize that when somebody's coming
from another part of the world their
English isn't perfect and we need to
sort of dumb down our response to give
them the critical information without a
lot of extraneous things that you know
might confuse for me same fortune that
Fred and West Indian aesthetic is just
so perfect it's its minimalist it's
modern its laid-back its efficient it's
just really really simple and yet it
just works it's like elegant in its own
simplicity and one of the really cool
things about living in st. Barts is that
they have a lot of indoor outdoor space
and you'll be looking at some of this
footage but it's remarkable I mean the
views are spectacular you're in your
living room there are no walls there are
no windows and so you're in the living
room and you're overlooking the ocean is
just unbelievable so from a design
effective I think it's spectacular so in
this particular case Lim Kok Silva
absolutely played it in addition to
giving us the fresh Evian waters as soon
as we landed at the airport which is
really welcomed we went to the villa and
we opened the villa fridge and there's a
little handwritten note there was a
couple of sodas and beer and bottle of
champagne and just you know a nice
welcome note that was fantastic and
here's the thing we talked about this in
one of the other videos they surprised
us and that really blew our mind so the
first warning I got dressed I was
heading out I was going to go to the
bakery to get some French pastries which
is just a great breakfast and as I
opened the door I had difficulty opening
it it was because hide on the outside
was a little welcome basket with the New
York Times digest fresh bakery goods and
a little note saying we hope you had a
great first night and enjoy breakfast on
us now that little element of surprise
was just exactly what we talked about in
the other video it just blew our mind
and we're just like wow this is
incredible they're so nice and so
friendly and so you know hospitality
focused it was amazing and it cost just
a couple of bucks like literally - the
other thing that I want to point out
with that and it gets me thinking part
of the reason I stay at all these
different places is because I try and
get best practices and ideas and
suggestions you know that New York Times
digest and printed out format is
available to anybody who wants to
subscribe it's not particularly
expensive but it's a really nice thing
for somebody who's going to just have a
cup of coffee or a little bit of
breakfast and want to just flip through
some local news so something I'm
contemplating and I just throw it out
there for everybody's benefit actually I
like to think about what makes this
particular place unique right so have
somebody we're scrolling down let's say
air B&B why pick this place and this
place for me is all about the view it's
one of the best views I've ever seen in
my life that's where all the activities
are the boats coming and going there's
airplanes coming and going and it's just
the most beautiful view as I'm sure you
can see and
for me as a guy who likes that view that
would be my thumbnail I'm going to go
and stay there because of that Moo and
it's just over the top it's a plus it's
just spectacular
when you did get to de Villa and Pascal
was showing us around I noticed there
was a few things that I learned over the
course of my stay that I wish he had
pointed out for instance when it's pitch
black it was impossible to go through
the landscaped up to where the car was
parked and there was actually a light
but it was outside of the house and I
never thought to look outside I was
playing with all the lights inside and I
couldn't find it if you look at some of
our other videos we talked about
labeling lights that would have been
really helpful also so little things
like that I knew that there was cleaning
service and while that was amazing
nobody told me what days of the week or
what time so when the cleaning team
showed up it was always a surprise
sometimes welcome sometimes not welcome
similarly the pool got serviced we
didn't know what day or at what time but
again it can be an invasion of privacy
if you're not expecting anybody and then
finally I found as I was trying to
connect my iPad to the Internet that
there was no card with where the Wi-Fi
password was and it was some French word
and while it might have been really
memorable if you were French or whatever
to me I couldn't remember what it was
and if you have ever looked at your
iPhone you know it's all asterisks when
you click on the Wi-Fi so I was sitting
here trying to figure it out and I was
looking for a car and I couldn't really
find it and I was trying to you know
make this thing happen I went over to
the router I found it and I turned it
over and sure enough there was the
password but maybe a nice white label on
the top so I didn't have to like turn it
over and have difficulty reading it
would have been helpful again really
really nitpicky stuff but as we try to
be the best host and the most hospitable
and be super hosts each one of these
things just shows that you're paying
attention and you're thinking like a
guest and not as a host
so in closing I'm going to grade this
experience an egg it could easily be an
A+ with just a few tweaks and attention
to the guest experience but the location
the villa the island everything about it
was fantastic and because I was
comfortable and I'd been there before I
was able to you know navigate and figure
it all out but I think just a couple of
minor tweaks and this would be an A+
experience so I hope you found this
video interesting please like it leave
feedback comments questions whatever as
I travel we're going to be doing more of
these and the reason is because I pick
up little tidbits and I want to share
them with everybody because what we're
trying to do here is elevate everybody's
game be better hosts put more money in
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Wednesday Friday until then happy
hosting and thanks so much for your
insight