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- [00:00]
A
A group of out of town developers tried to box today's guest out of her own desert backyard, buying up the land around her Joshua Tree property to put up McMansion vacation rentals on every acre in sight. The pressure forced her into a high stakes bet she never planned to make. Turn 1 Short term rental into something that could actually compete with the operators flooding the market.
- [00:27]
B
And five months later, that same property is in the top 1% of all Airbnbs in that market on the platform. And every single guest review is a perfect five stars. Erin Robinson is going to break down exactly how she pulled it off. The renovation decisions, the amenity stack, the listening playbook that any rookie can use, no matter what.
- [00:48]
A
This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Kerr.
- [00:51]
B
And I'm Tony J. Robinson. Let's give a big warm welcome to my long life lost cousin, Aaron Robinson. Aaron, thank you for joining us today.
- [00:58]
C
Thank you for having me. I'm always honored to be a part of anything that a Robinson is doing. So thanks for having me.
- [01:05]
A
So, Aaron, before we get into any of the real estate stuff, let's start at the beginning of your, you know, long lost cousinship with Tony here. Who was Aaron Robinson before real estate? What kind of work were you doing and how did life look different before short term rentals even crossed your mind?
- [01:25]
C
Yeah, well, I found Tony and his Lovely Wife on YouTube because I'm also a Robinson and the real estate Robinsons was such a great name and I was like, oh, I have to figure out who these people are. And lo and behold, they were teaching me so much about how to prepare for our Airbnb journey, which I was completely a novice in and never done it before. So I think Tony and I just reached out, I reached out to him via Instagram and we just got on a call to chat. I don't even know what we chatted about. It's been a while, but they're still such a great resource for us. I always try to stay in the loop of whatever Tony is saying because I've learned so much from him in this whole real estate Airbnb journey. Oh, and also I was a content creator. So YouTube was is where I go not only for my job, but also for my research. So I've been a content creator for over a decade. I helped build a brand called Clever and it did really, really well. I've been able to travel the world and work with brands and create amazing content and I feel really lucky to have been at creator first and be able to document Our Airbnb renovation, and now my Airbnb hosting journey on socials. So it is a fun mix of both my real estate investment journey and my content creator journey.
- [02:45]
B
And, Aaron, I didn't know that you've been creating content for that long. I mean, 10 years. I mean, you're one of maybe the more mature content creators that are on the platform, because I feel like so many folks kind of come in, especially post Covid. But what, you know, what was it that made you even consider real estate investing as a path forward for you? Like, why not just continue to kind of double down on what you were doing as a content creator? Like. Like, why branch into. Into real estate at all?
- [03:08]
C
Yeah, I still do both, and I felt like there was room in my life to do both, and especially creating content around the home and work with partners that, you know, I had always wanted to work with. Like, I've worked with LG and Redwood Outdoo Doors, you know, and Smart Wings, which is a great motorized blind company. And so I felt like there was an opportunity to continue doing what I was doing while I was renovating the house. But we weren't really looking for a real estate investment property when we started. The Airbnb journey started out of a. A moment of kind of sadness in our life. We had gone through a pretty difficult fertility journey. My husband and I, we'd spent a ton of money and spent so much time, and it was so heartbreaking and years of going on and on and never feeling like at the end of it, we would ever be able to have children. And so after our second major loss, I just looked at my husband. I was like, I need a new project where I'm going to spend all of my time and all of my money, where at the end of it, I have something to show for it that I love. And so it was really this almost therapy journey to take on the property as, like, my passion project. And it really did help heal me in a lot of ways. And so my husband was hesitant at first. We did have a good chunk of savings set aside, and he's like, are you sure you want to do this? This is. You've never done this before. You're about two and a half hours away from the house. We don't know anyone up there. How are you going to do it? Are you sure you want to do it? And I just was in such a desperate mental place. I was like, I'll do anything else. You know, I need to take a break. And so it really started in that Mindset, which I don't know if that's everyone's starting line, but it really did evolve into a huge love for both of us. My husband and I, we also are co investors with my husband's parents, so we have partners. But it became this lovely, wonderful, healing home journey for us, which sometimes renovating a house does not end that way. For us, it did.
- [05:13]
A
Tony, you have to take the next question because I don't know how to pronounce that name and people annihilate me on online.
- [05:20]
C
Okay, sorry.
- [05:21]
A
I wrote a note for you, but you must not have seen it.
- [05:23]
B
I didn't see.
- [05:25]
A
Is it yucca? Yucca.
- [05:26]
C
Yucca.
- [05:27]
B
Yucca.
- [05:27]
A
Yucca. See, I was gonna say yucca.
- [05:29]
B
So, yeah. So, Aaron, how did you end up planting your flag in Yucca Valley, which is the city, like right next to Joshua Tree national park, specifically? Like, I think when most rookies hear desert short term rentals, they think risk and seasonality. Like, what made this the market? It was the right choice for you?
- [05:45]
C
Well, I blame you because you have properties there and you're like, it's so great here, though. I, like I mentioned, it's about two and a half hours outside of L. A, it's also a place when you live in L. A, it's noisy, it's chaotic, there's traffic, there's, you know, crazy neighbors that are yelling all the time. You don't really get a peace, peaceable life. And so my husband and I wanted a place that we could also go and enjoy and take a deep breath and reset ourselves. And if, I don't know if you've ever been up there, Ashley, but it's such a beautiful, serene place and we got really lucky. And I would recommend this to anyone right now who is looking to purchase an Airbnb. We found a property that has the most amazing views. Tony, you guys are going to have to come visit. It is like where we are. There really aren't a ton of homes. We're at the end of a long dirt road. You can barely see my neighbor's house from one window. But the rest of the home is fully unobstructed views. And so it was just a magical location, which I think in this very cluttered market, you really need to start picking properties that when you step outside, there is an experience waiting for people. So much so that what you do in your house almost really doesn't matter. It's what people experience when they step outside of your house. So, and so when we saw it, we knew immediately I Actually saw it gone on Redfin one day and within three hours I was already at the property and I was the second person to view it. And so by the time I got home, the people who were the first to view it had already put in an offer. So we were a backup offer on the property because I couldn't get home in time to fill out the paperwork. So I knew it was a high end demand property just because of where it was located.
- [07:40]
A
Now during this high density time trying to get this property, what ended up happening that you went from the backup to getting it under contract?
- [07:49]
C
Yeah, you know, I don't. I think it was sheer luck because the other couple really, really wanted it. I don't know why they backed out. I'm very happy that they did. So we ended up getting the property. We had been a backup on another property that we lost prior to this home. And that one really hurt because it also was an amazing viewed property. It was just unre. So I thought, oh, we're gonna, we're gonna lose it again. But we got really, really lucky and for whatever reason, the couple who wanted to buy it decided to opt out. So we got it.
- [08:23]
A
Now, how long did you have this property and how long was it operating as a short term rental before you find out that developers are basically surrounding you?
- [08:33]
C
So when we bought the property, it was operating as a short term rental from the previous owner. I mean, it was not a great short term rental and I wouldn't really have paid even the prices he was charging to stay there. It was not qu to my standards. So I knew I was going to have a big renovation project on my hands. But we had started renovating the house, so we hadn't had it on the market for too long. Actually, no, we didn't have it on market at all for renting. We just started renovations and I came out to monitor my contractors one day and I saw this sign, for sale sign. And I'm thinking, well, there's not much back here what could be for sale out here. And I went online and saw that we're think of our property as like a quadrant. We're in the lower left hand quadrant. The other three quadrants all around us were being sold together. And there was one of them that had plans already designs in place to build another. I say McMansion. It looks like a big black box, which, you know, they're very popular in the desert and I don't mind them. But when your entire house is oriented with giant picture windows to face a giant black Box. It really starts to feel freak you out. And other parcels on the property were cleared. I don't know if you know much about the Joshua Tree Yucca Valley area, but Joshua trees are a protected species and you have to get permits to remove them, and it's very expensive. And so all of three of these properties were pretty cleared and available for other homes to be built. So we knew that this was not going to be a good thing if we didn't buy this land. Unfortunately, all of our money was supposed to be going towards our renovation and not towards buying land like Monopoly. We weren't quite at that place in our portfolio yet. But I called my family, I called my husband. We all panicked. I was like, you know what? We don't have an option. You know, in land. You can't get a mortgage on land. Right. So you have to have cash for that. And so we all just agreed we would put an offer. We, you know, we'd. It was around Christmas. It was awful timing. My. My husband's parents were also building a condo in Cabo at the. So we were just like, let's just do it. We'll just not get Christmas presents this year, everyone. And we were a backup offer. And I was so bummed.
- [10:55]
B
Or you were a backup offer again on the land?
- [10:57]
C
Yeah. That's like the story of my life. I think with property, maybe it's a good thing. It's a. It's a blessing. But we were backup offer, so we just kind of like gave it to God. We're like, you know, if it's meant to be, it'll come back around. And one day I was walking in Home Depot getting project or materials for a project at our Yucca Valley house, and my Realtor called. She goes, are you sitting down? And I'm like, oh, no, I'm actually in the cleaning aisle at Home Depot. What's going on? She's. Well, you guys got your offer accepted. The original investors backed out because they wanted a bigger house. So we got the land, and now the land is preserved. There is no McMansion on it, thank goodness. And it really does give us a peace of mind that we can really fully invest in our home and. And feel like the value of the views is going to be there.
- [11:52]
B
So how big now, Aaron, is the entire, like, parcel with the one that you initially purchased plus the. The second?
- [11:59]
C
Yeah, the first parcel was about an acre and a half. And then with all of it included, we have 10 acres now.
- [12:06]
B
Wow, that's fantastic. That's like a really Private retreat. And even that in and of itself is a big selling point for folks who are coming from la, from San Francisco, from San Diego, and that they want a little bit of quiet from the hustle and bustle of those cities. Being able to sell them on 10 acres, I mean, man, that's a big selling point.
- [12:21]
C
Our guests can, can obviously explore and hike. It's a very terrainy 10 acres as well. There's some boulder areas and lots of places you can hike. We do have a lot of dirt bike riders out there. It's their favorite place to ride. So it is a amazing parcel, 10 acres.
- [12:41]
A
Now, did you need to pivot at all to kind of make your deal make sense now with this basically an added expense of acquiring this property, was there now like any more pressure to get the renovation done sooner or to, you know, find ways to increase your nightly rate just to justify adding on this extra parcel?
- [13:01]
C
Yeah. So transparently we have plans in the future to really turn that property into something a little bit more, more of like a venue style space. So for us it was like a hold. We were going to hold on this for probably 5, 10 years. So we knew what we were going to do with it. And then we took a lot longer to renovate the house because we ran out of funds that we had to almost extend our renovation time by a lot because we had spent so much money of our cash buying the property and that was a risk that we were willing to take for the value add of having that would be. So it did, it did slow us down in getting the property on the market. And we did think that we'd have to now really lean into the luxury angle of our property and raise our prices a little bit.
- [13:57]
A
Well, Aaron, we're going to take a quick break, but so far we've learned that you made a decision and now the real work has come started on getting this property renovated and up and running. You weren't the contractor, you weren't the designer, you weren't an experienced investor at the time, but you were a content creator with a vision and a budget and a property that had to perform fast. So we're going to find out how Aaron pulled off a top 1% renovation. Coming up right after a quick word from today's show sponsors.
- [14:32]
D
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- [16:57]
A
So Erin owns the property the developers are offered back, but now she has a renovation she's never, never tackled before and a short term rental market full of operators who've been doing this for years. So let's get into how Aaron actually built it. So Aaron, the day that you walked into that property knowing it had to perform as a short term rental and not just a beautiful home, what was the first thing that you knew you had to change and had to renovate
- [17:26]
C
on this property is Everything an acceptable answer. You know, at first, because I'd never done this before, I walked through the house, I was like, you know, we could just add a few things, paint the walls, we could put some new flooring in. And then before I know it, I've got new windows, a full kitchen remodel, two full bathroom remodels. I'm in there skim coating walls myself because I didn't have $12,000 to pay someone to do it. I was like, oh my gosh, what? But once you start doing something and it looks good, everything else starts to look bad around it. And so I always recommend, if you have an Airbnb and you're going to do some renovations, just give yourself a little cushion, because I guarantee you that you're going to get in there, it's going to look great, and then you're really going to want to do something else.
- [18:15]
B
Aaron, how did you decide what to renovate versus what to keep? Because there's, you know, there's a, there's a thin line there, especially when we're working with like a fixed budget of making sure, like, okay, well, how do we make sure we kind of execute on things that are most important. So how did you guys, you know, like, what would your decision making process to say leave it as is, or, or we probably need to replace this?
- [18:35]
C
Honestly, Tony, we, we, we did everything for the most part. I mean, we, we thought we were going to leave some things like our kitchen cabinets. I thought I was going to DIY and kind of paint them and, and they were oak and they were painting pretty. But when the contractor started redoing the floors, I realized the bottom of the cabinets were damaged and I really wanted new countertops. And I knew that if I was going to new countertops, I was probably going to damage them more. So it just became this decision of, look, we want to really elevate this property from top to bottom. If we piecemealed it, there are going to be aspects. It was a 1985 home. There were going to be aspects that felt like an oversight. So we just made the commitment that, you know, we're just going to do this to the, to the best of our ability in every way, and we would definitely get the return in the long run. But we also wanted to renovate it in a way that we would enjoy it and that we would want to go spend our family vacations there. And so it's unlike a lot of other real estate investors who are just trying to obviously make profits off their property. We. This is our vacation home. This is where we go for birthdays and holidays and time off. We don't really travel very much anymore. And we wanted the mattresses to be amazing. We wanted to make sure that we had a microwave, that we had a kettle, that we had everything that we personally wanted. So I wish I could say that we were strategic, but we just did it all. We just ripped it all out and built it. It built it the way that we wanted it to be.
- [20:13]
A
Was there anything that maybe you thought you wanted in the property as to, like, you know, I went to one of Tony's short term rental conferences before, and, you know, everyone's chanting, hot tub,
- [20:23]
C
hot tub, hot tub.
- [20:24]
A
And that was like a hot amenity you had to have in these certain markets or else you're. You're not even going to get a booking. So, like, was there anything going into this that you thought, I'm gonna have? And then, you know, after you got into it, maybe it wasn't in the budget anymore or you actually figured out, like, a different amenity would be worth it.
- [20:41]
C
Yeah. So in order to be competitive, I went on Airbnb and I checked all the boxes of a place that I would want to rent if I wanted to have the ultimate desert getaway. So I checked the pool, which is kind of rare in the desert. I checked hot tub, of course. I checked sauna. I checked outdoor shower. I checked fire pit, everything that I wanted. And I also checked gym or some sort of workout room. When I did that, there were only, like, 10 properties that I would be competing against if I provided all of those amenities. And so I researched all of those 10 properties to see kind of how they were doing it and how I could maybe do ours a little bit better, more efficiently. My biggest regret is we did not turn our garage into a gym. I wish we had, because our mindset was, let's get it on the market, let's start making some money, and then we'll come back and then renovate. Wait, this is part two. Once you start making money on a property, it is so hard to shut it down, to go back in and spend more money to do something else. So I did make that call. I do regret that even though it would have cost us probably another 15 grand to do that and we really didn't have the money, I wish I would have just bit the bullet and done it, because now that it's up and running, I don't think I'll ever do it again.
- [22:02]
B
Well, on that note, right, like, what's something that maybe went wrong or that you got wrong during this renovation, because obviously we know it wasn't all. All clean. Right. So, like, maybe what cost you money, time, or sleep that you do differently if you could start this renovation again tomorrow?
- [22:17]
C
Yeah. There are two things. The first one is hiring more vetted contractors. Tony, I'm sure you remember back, you know, kind of post Covid contractors in the high desert were really difficult to find, and they were booking two, three years out. So there really wasn't enough supply for the demand, demand. So I end up having to kind of piecemeal my contracting team. And because of that, I didn't do the proper vetting. And, you know, I didn't know what I didn't know, but there were some things in our showers that had to be ripped out and redone because they were done incorrectly. So I'd always recommend vetting, vetting, vetting, Vetting your contractors because you don't want to mess around with water leaks or electrical issues. The second thing is I might do less amenities because what I did not realize, everybody's preaching like, do all of the amenities because that's what people want. And it's true. But there's a caveat, and the caveat is amenities that don't have a ton of maintenance. And that piece of that advice was missing for me. And I bought this. Amazing. Why I partnered with Redwood Outdoors. They have the most amazing saunas. If anybody's in the market for a sauna, even for their personal life, I highly recommend them. But with this beautiful cedar sauna, and, you know, in the desert, that UV light just destroys wood. So every almost six months now, I have to pay someone to come out and sand it and reseal it with oil, which is another, you know, $1500, $2000 every time that happens. And so, you know, yes, it's a great amenity. Yes, I add cost to our bookings, but there is a max that you can really add to the cost per night. And you really have to weigh, is this a cool amenity? That's amazing. With. Is it how much time and energy and. And cost is it going to cost me in keeping this up? And, you know, guests complain if it's not perfect. I had a guest message me and say, hey, inside your sauna, the seat there was like a little splinter, and I got it in my butt. I'm like, that's a terrible thing. Thank you for not leaving that in the public reviews. I will make sure I have somebody come out and sand it. It's just, you know, when you have amenities that are high maintenance, you really do have to account for the time and money that you have to spend to keep it going.
- [24:40]
A
Now what about for a rookie listener who's maybe renovating a $200,000 cabin in a different market, but it's not a luxury build in the desert? What's actually transferable from your renovation, your playbook that maybe you would recommend that they should do or what their process should be? What's the principle and not necessarily the price tag? What are the things they, the standards that they should be doing?
- [25:06]
C
Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in this market it is so competitive right now. I feel like if you're going to do a renovation, you do need to invest in three to five luxury items at your property. It doesn't have to all be luxury. I'm a big believer in high low. I've got Amazon curtains, I've got Amazon rugs. But you do need to pick and choose places that are your show off standout moments. For instance, I think a lot of investors or short term rental hosts are going to be mad about this. I hate memory foam mattresses. I know they're a very popular item. They're really inexpensive and some people do like like them. But when you sleep on a luxury spring mattress, there is just something special about that. And we did invest a lot of money in our mattresses. Now they're wrapped three or four times. You know, we've got good insurance so God forbid anything ever happens, we'd be able to replace them. But I can't tell you how often I get text messages from guests who left who are sleeping in their own bed and they're like, wait, this is not going to cut it. After sleeping your bed, where do you buy the mattress? People ask. Our bedding, our duvet comforters on both of our beds are cost, I think around $450 each. They're not cheap, they're more expensive than the comforter on my own bed. But I get tons of people requesting those. You can also affiliate link the those items as well and make a commission off of it. But if you'll read my reviews, the people will say they slept so well. And it is this one thing. When you're on vacation, you want to get rest, right? You've traveled, you're on a plane, you, you're sleeping in a new bed for the first time. It really needs to be makes a huge impact. So while my dishes I bought on sale from Kirkland's for like a dollar fifty cents a plate. My bed is amazing. And so you just have to pick and choose a few things. I also would recommend people install something in their home that feels unique. So when people come and stay there, they. They're like, oh, I don't have this in my house. So for us, that was heated floors in our bathrooms, not a super expensive add on if you're already doing a bathroom renovation. And the square footage is pretty small in our bathroom. So it wasn't something that was going to really break our budget. But it is something that I get mentioned in our reviews. I get mentioned in my DMS about it just because when you go walk on a warm, toasty floor, especially if you're doing a cabin in the woods somewhere, it just changes you somehow. You could even install something post renovation like a heated towel rack that just has just like a little je ne sais quoi that makes your property stand out. And when people leave, they remember it. So my advice is you don't have to do luxury all over the place, but I would pick a handful of things that really make your guest feel like they're staying in a luxury place.
- [28:12]
A
The. The Easter Bunny actually brought me one of those to keep my towels. And I just, I cannot go back now. I cannot. Like, we don't have one at our lake house now. And we went and gotten stayed there. I'm like, this is awful. I'm freezing. Whereas I needed warm towel.
- [28:29]
B
You guys are teaching me something new. I don't think I've ever had a warm towel.
- [28:33]
A
Don't do it, because then you'll never be able to go back.
- [28:37]
B
What are these cold towels that I'm dealing with? Well, Aaron, I mean, a great property is just a beautiful empty house, but Erin's in the top 1% of all Airbnb just after five months, fully booked, five stars across the board. So I'm curious, like, how does anyone actually find it? So, up next, we're going to talk about the booking engine she's built after the renovation.
- [28:56]
D
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- [31:49]
A
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- [34:13]
B
All right, so the property's done. The photos look incredible. But now the real test is can people actually book it? And Aaron, you know, before we even talk about like what happened, you you invest all of this capital into the property, then the additional capital to buy the land, then the additional capital to do the renovation. Do you remember that night when you actually hit hit publish, and, like, how are you feeling? Because I can imagine there's maybe a lot of tension about, like, is it actually going to work? So maybe just take us back to that day. Like, what were you thinking?
- [34:41]
C
I don't want to go back there. That's such a scary day. I was like, oh, my gosh. When you have renovated a property for two or three years, you're kind of quasi living there, right? So you. You get really emotionally attached to your property. And I was really struggling with the idea of having strangers sleep in my home. And it was. And I'm like, Erin, that is not the right mindset. This is a vacation property. We're going to make money off this. You have to get rid of that thought. But it really did haunt me for a long time. So putting publish, because you know you're opening your home up to strangers, you hope that they treat your home as delicately and amazingly as you do. So I hit publish, and I panicked, mostly because I was worried about the operations of. We have a pretty hearty contract. My husband's an attorney, so we have a really strong rental agreement, and we require guests to sign that. We mentioned that in our listing. We also require guests to send us a photo id. So the logistics of coordinating that was also very stressful for me. It's very easy. I don't know why I was so panicked about it, but it was really, really. And I also launched the property over basically the holidays, so mid November. So we had our second guest check in on Thanksgiving Day while we were traveling in Texas, which also sent me into a panic because they couldn't figure out how to work the hot tub, because our hot tub is managed via an iPad. And so, you know, I'm troubleshooting with the guests on Thanksgiving Day. It ended up being amazing and not a big deal at all, but I was truly panicked. But I will say, after about guest 6, I started to really be very comfortable with it. So if you're nervous, just give it six guests, and then you'll finally start to feel at peace about it.
- [36:27]
A
So, Erin, being In the top 1% of all Airbnb is. Is an amazing accomplishment. And what does that actually look like in your numbers right now? Do you see a big difference in your occupancy, your average daily rate, your gross revenue, with having that kind of badge on your profile?
- [36:45]
C
Yeah, you know, I do think that. So we're. We're more almost fully booked for the next three months. We've had multiple $10,000 plus months already. I don't know if if that badge helps me or not. I'm so new to Airbnb, you guys can probably speak to it more than I can, but we have been really booked. And one thing that I did that I was a little scared to do, that I would. I don't know if I should recommend it because it's kind of. I feel like it's a hack for me. But I went from having a two night minimum to having a three night minimum and I thought for sure that would decrease my bookings and it would push me down on the algorithm. And I don't think I've ever been busier since I made that change. I get a lot of guests who are coming from out of town with the two night minimum. You get a lot of guests who are local who are just going to come book the two days of the weekend. But if you say, look, I'm only going to take a three night minimum or a four night minimum, then you're really going to get those people who are already coming out to want to stay for a week or more. So I find my occupancy is greater because I did that and that was a scary change. That has really paid off for us.
- [37:51]
B
Yeah. I think one thing I'd add to that, Aaron, is that part of the reason you're probably able to command that longer minimum night stay is because you have a really, really strong product. And for the person who's listening, who wants to replicate that, you've got to make sure that you've got as strong of a product as Aaron does. Because if you're like a, a bottom 25% type listing, you probably need a lot of one night stays, honestly, to try and keep your calendar filled. Right. But if you've got a strong product, that's what allows you to not only charge higher daily rates, but also command longer minimum night stays.
- [38:23]
C
That's a good point. And also when we were putting all of these crazy amenities into the property, I did have this goal of I want people who stay here to never want to leave. We have 3 million visitors a year who come to the national park, which is amazing. And I love that people love to hike and go there, but I wanted people to when they checked in our home. And it actually has happened a lot of times. Some guests are like, we didn't even leave the whole time. I want them to feel like it's an all inclusive resort home. So when you do offer that many amenities, people want to stay for longer days to enjoy all of the amenities. So that is a good point. If you, if you want to, to increase your minimum booking, you do have to have a home that offers a lot.
- [39:06]
A
Now, Aaron, you also have a 200,000 plus follower audience on Instagram. And. But before your audience, what did you do at the listing level that any rookie could copy before even sharing it with your, you know, audience on Instagram?
- [39:24]
C
I did a lot of market research on who my competitors and I hate saying that cause I actually am friends with some of our competitors, but who our competitors were in the market. I was reading kind of their captions and trying to figure out like why they were so popular and what they were doing, you know, to, to get all of these amazing guests. And I just kind of put that in my own version. You know, I use them a lot as inspiration. I actually haven't touched my copy very much. It's probably something I should do because I'm pretty sure there are some things in there I'd like to tweak now that I've had guests come and stay and give feedback and have questions. But you know, I, I actually put it on Airbnb for a few months before I ever actually opened up my calendar. Just because I wanted to, to toy around with tech copy. Like, what do I really want to promote? What do I want to not promote, you know, in terms of amenities that maybe, maybe they were great amenities, but I weren't. They caused me some issues like it might be something I take out eventually. So I really played around with copy. But in terms of growing the following through my own personal following, I'm not, not quite sure it translates just yet. I did build a few thousand followers on our Instagram. On our home Instagram page is at the Juniper Yucca Valley if anybody wants to go follow it. But I feel like I got a lot of followers there who are looking for potential homes to book and not really my own personal following coming because my following is all over the country and a lot of them, they've bookmarked it that one, they want to come in the future, but I haven't. I don't think I've had a follower stay with us just yet. I'm actually nervous because they know me so intimately and personally. If a follower stays, I'm going to be extra nervous because they've seen my journey and I just, I want to give them the best experience imaginable. So I, I hope nobody stays for a while until I can fully get my feet underneath me.
- [41:27]
B
I mean, but, but Aaron, you've got, you know, basically all perfect five star reviews and, and you know, that doesn't happen by accident. So what, what's the system that you've built around guest experience from, you know, the second they book until the second they actually check out of your property? Like, like what does that experience look like and what are you doing to maintain those perfect five star reviews?
- [41:45]
C
I'm gonna tell you something that a lot of Airbnb gurus may not tell you. Everybody's like, automate your systems. You know, you can put in all these messages that you don't have to pay attention to and it just sends. I think that is not my approach. I know it works for some people, but when you're starting out and you're learning your property and you're learning what your guest needs and wants, you really shouldn't be automating anything. You should be very attentive. It will take at least in my pov, six months or a year in order to really understand what messaging works, where your issues are. I am on my phone constantly. I am babysitting my listing constantly. Whether it is, you know, a holiday or a vacation, I'm always on it and I'm jumping within maybe four or five minutes. If a guest responds, I have my notifications on. You know, it panics me if I'm going to be on an airplane for a couple of hours because I may not be able to respond right away. So I wish I could say I have some like secret sauce, but it's really babysitting the guest and not bugging them. I don't chime in and, you know, bug them every day, but I just want to be available to them. I also worked in hospitality for a really long time, the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, and it was owned by Thompson Hotels and hospitality was something that I just learned in that job. And so I'm, I'm just geared and oriented to want to curate an experience where people have a good time. So it's easy for me to be on and ready to help in any way possible at all times.
- [43:20]
A
Aaron, I was ready to be like, I completely disagree. Like, I love the automation. I never message a guest. They do it way better than I do. The AI like responding to it. I love it. But you made such a valid point. The reason my AI responds so good is because I have about five years of messages that have gone on where it was me or my co host or my cleaner to actually train the AI how to answer things. So that I think is such a Big difference. If this is the first time when you're first listing a property, it really probably is so valuable to respond yourself to actually. And then the AI can go in and you know, it can be trained after you've already had those, those messages. So that is a really great point that maybe starting off, off with automated messaging is really not the best way to start your property.
- [44:16]
C
And I'm teaching myself about my own property through this journey too. And I think being present and really thinking through what the guest is telling me, how do I make that better in the future? Who do I need to call to coordinate to, to add some value to that? It really teaches me and trains me as a rookie to be able to bob and weave here in the beginning. I do think there's a world in which I could automate it in the future, at least some parts of it. I'm a little bit of a microman manager, so I don't know if I'd ever give the power over to AI fully. But while I'm learning, I'm in it, in it to win it.
- [44:51]
B
There's a study, I can't remember who ran the study, but I saw this data point somewhere where there's like an inverse relationship between the number of listings that, that a person or a company manages and their review score. So basically, the more listings you start to take on, the lower your actual review score across those listings becomes. And I think part of that is exactly what you said. It's what you're doing does work if you've got one listing and you can really put a lot of care and attention. But that's why when you look at like the evolves or the vacas of the world that have, you know, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,000 listings in a lot of markets, they are sometimes the worst, you know, when it comes to review scores, because it is very, very hard to operationalize a very curated experience at scale. So there's something to be said about being able to find like your sweet spot, like, hey, where is that sweet spot where I feel like I can continue to give this level of experience and catering to the guests in that way. So I guess maybe my last question for you, Aaron, is as you think about the future, are there now multiple juniper houses and maybe different markets? Like, what's the goal for you guys as you think about the next phase of your investing journey?
- [46:01]
C
So our investment journey is probably going to not be Airbnb's. Exactly. I think Airbnbs are great and we love, we've loved having this property. But like you mentioned, scaling is you do stop, start to lose a little bit of that human touch. And I think that's part of why I love it so much. And so I think for us, like I mentioned, we're gonna probably venture into some venue spaces is our next endeavor. And, you know, if it's, it's something my husband, I love businesses. We, we've built businesses, we run businesses for us, you know, Airbnb, while it is a good business for some, it is a challenging business right now. And so we really are looking for real estate in, in different ways where we can make a better roi. And so I think this might be one of our few Airbnbs, although I'm not opposed to doing a few in some of my favorite favorite places in the US So that it's a personal, selfish reason to do them. But I, I think that for us, this is just phase one of a larger goal and a larger real estate investment journey for us.
- [47:13]
A
Well, Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today on Real Estate Rookie. Can you tell us where people can reach out to you and find out more information about your journey?
- [47:21]
C
Yeah. Anybody is welcome to come stay with us at our Yucca Valley place. It's a very special, amazing private getaway in Yucca Valley. You can follow us on Instagram at the Juniper Yucca Valley, and you can follow me if you want on Instagram. I do a lot of lifestyle food content on my own personal channel. It's at AaronRobinson.
- [47:45]
A
Well, Aaron, thanks so much again for coming on and sharing your tips for hosting one of the top 1% Airbnb in your market and for sharing your journey with our rookie listeners. I'm Ashley, he's Tony. And we'll see you guys on the next episode.
- [48:00]
B
Hey, rookies, if you're watching this, we want you to apply to be a guest on the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. That's right. Ashley and I are looking for amazing stories just like yours to be a part of our Real Estate Rookie Podcast. Now, look, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have done thousands of deals. Even if you've done one deal, your story could help inspire the next listener
- [48:19]
A
as a rookie investor. Especially if you just got your first deal. It is all fresh in your minds and you are the best person to tell your story, give your experience on how you got it done to help someone else get their first deal.
- [48:31]
B
So head over to biggerpockets.com guest if you want to be a part of our show again. That's biggerpockets.com guest and we'd love to have you on.
- [48:40]
C
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