The PMS That Does It All: Eviivo on the Boostly Spotlight with James King

[00:00:00] Liam: Welcome to the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that give hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence. So you can go out there and get yourselves. Lots of direct bookings. Today we are joined by Jamie King. He's the senior marketing manager for a eviivo in the US and Canada.

[00:00:18] Liam: He's had over 20 years experience in the STR. Space and now he works for one of the leading PMSs. And we're gonna dive into how it can help you as a host and what is coming next for eviivo. I'm really excited about today's episode because it's a PMS that I've used. And, um, yeah, I'm, I'm, let's dive in. So, welcome along, Jamie.

[00:00:39] Liam: Thank you for joining us.

[00:00:40] James: Liam, always a pleasure. Thank you for, uh, including me and thinking of me and also having me on this podcast, so I'm excited to be a part of it.

[00:00:48] Liam: For those who haven't heard of a eviivo before, what, what is it a eviivo and who is it that you help the most?

[00:00:55] James: Yeah, great. Quick question and, and very happy.

[00:00:57] James: So a eviivo is an all-in-one property management platform. So ideally what we're looking to do is we're, we're designed for. From those that are independent hosts of accommodations for those that are enterprise vocational managers. And of course, what I, what I, what drew me to eviivo when I joined is the fact that it's not that we're just doing short-term rentals, we're also doing boutique hotels, independent hotels, bed and breakfast.

[00:01:23] James: Um, our goal is to help you. As the owner operator, as a vocational manager is to save time. Uh, we need to try to help you simplify your operations. We want you to grow your bookings and of course, we wanna do it through having a very tight automation 'cause that's the key in this process. And then also helping you with your integrations to make your day-to-day operations much more efficient and of course much more robust when it comes to revenue generation.

[00:01:49] Liam: Nice. And I mean, I'm based in the UK and I've known eviivo for many years, but I know some of our US listeners, which 50% of our audience is now based in the us. I know that they're more aware of E eviivo across there, and that's really been growing. I've been talking to Steve Cox, the UK director and sure, he says it's really grown across there.

[00:02:08] Liam: So what's different about the market over there versus like the UK and Europe and what's driving kind of the people flock into, uh, eviivo.

[00:02:18] James: I love it. I love that question 'cause I love to tell a story, right? One of the things I love about Evi eviivo is, first of all, let's just look at our countries. Western Europe, you're thousands of years old, right?

[00:02:30] James: United States will be 250 years old next year, 250 years old. So, but we're incredibly diverse. You know, as I was in London recently, I was thinking, I wonder how big the scale is of United States states. To Western Europe, Europe, the biggest west, the biggest country in in Western Europe. The little history lesson for those listening, you dunno what we're gonna get today, right?

[00:02:51] James: Is the, the country of France. Mm-hmm. That is e that, that, that equates to the landmass of the state of Texas. So put that in perspective. So what's amazing for us is when I say we're diverse in the United States, we're new. We're, we're, we're, we have all this land, we have all these different people, we have all these different nationalities, which Europe has as well.

[00:03:12] James: But what we're doing is we're seeing an opportunity to have a full large vocational management company on one block and three blocks down the road. You have five to seven smaller property managers or host or people that are doing it on their own. And so it's a very, it's very unique because. We're competing with when it comes to short-term accommodations.

[00:03:33] James: In the United States, you're competing against bed and breakfast. You're competing against RVs and campgrounds. You're competing against those, those branded hotels. But what we're really focused on is driving that adoption. How do you keep those guests coming to you? How do you keep those guests saying, you know what, even though I have Marriott rewards.

[00:03:53] James: I wanna stay with Liam and Jamie's vacation rentals in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. So what we're trying to do is to make it more scalability for you. I give you more scalability, give you those automated tools. We want you to be able to work with those fewer tools so that you don't feel like it's a, a nuisance.

[00:04:11] James: You don't feel like it's a, it's a work overload of too many different tools, but we wanna create a less manual working area. So we're doing that by diversifying. And that's what eviivo is, is so for me, so cool being somebody who's been in this industry. A lot of times when you work with certain PMS companies, they're, they're really kind of focused in one vertical, one, one short term vertical, and eviivo kind of gives you that hybrid model of being able to work with, Hey, I got five cabins, I got an rv, and I also have a little tiny house.

[00:04:43] James: I have two rooms available. I need a software that can be able to handle that. You don't see a lot of that, or in Western Europe, you know, but what you do see is a lot of that is, I got all this land because United States is so big, going back to my little map model and then also saying, look, I can put these different types of accommodations.

[00:05:02] James: I can use one software, I can simplify, make it less manual. And here I am with a unique, obviously, value opportunity, trying to get Europeans to come over and stay in American properties.

[00:05:14] Liam: It's very cool. I haven't thought of how different it is, but you're absolutely right. I mean, we don't have like RV parks and motel type setups isn't as common across here in in Europe as as it is in the us and I speak to so many hosts who have come to.

[00:05:29] Liam: Loosely and they ask questions. And it really makes me understand that they do have a diverse portfolio, like you say, where they might have a duplex where you know they need a parent child listing, uh, you know, software that will allow them to do that or they may need, um. Like you say, those various different types of property and it, I, I'm always quite shocked at how many hosts have a place up in the mountains and then also a place like say on Myrtle Beach and then one in Midwest America.

[00:05:57] Liam: Right. And you know, like, it's, it's so varied, the, um, the kind of different places. So it is very cool to hear that a eviivos taken that into a stride. And from a personal standpoint, I know how much a eviivo. I've, I've had firsthand experience of how much they reinvest in the product and actually, um, they're constantly looking to push forward.

[00:06:17] Liam: They don't rest on their laurels, which is very cool. So. One of the things which is most important, like we've said, is the varied different units. But another thing which is really important for our listeners is direct bookings is, is what we're all about. So how does a PMS, like E eviivo help them to rely less on people like Airbnb who's just raised their commission price yet again?

[00:06:38] Liam: How does eviivo help them to get more direct bookings?

[00:06:42] James: Yeah, and it's very important because, you know, it's, we're kind of at a war right now, right? You know, especially in this, in the United States, it's, it's. Every time you're using, obviously, and I'm not, I'm not bad mouthing the OTAs, but it's always a little piece of that revenue pie is coming out, right?

[00:06:57] James: Every type of different tech you add to your tech stack. So direct bookings. You know, right now, as I, I, I keep seeing a resurgence in it, but direct booking should be effortless. It should be a very simple process. You wanna have your integrated payment features, you wanna be able to have a mobile friendly booking.

[00:07:14] James: We all know if you're, if you're. You're using direct bookings, you're probably focused on multi different levels of your company, and so you can't always wear the same hat every day. You can't go in and just be that owner operator that's gonna meet the guests when they come into the front desk if you choose, happen to have them come in, or maybe you direct to, you know, direct to house bookings in that regard.

[00:07:34] James: But you wanna be able to have. Be able to manage your tools. You wanna be able to manage your rates, you wanna be able to manage your availability, and you don't wanna do it in real time. And that's the power of direct bookings is being able to have those tools with, with, with a PMS, with a provider that can give you those features that say, today I'm our maintenance.

[00:07:56] James: Today I am fixing unit number seven. It's got a bad. Refrigerator. Dang, I, I'm missing three reservations that have come in that I should have picked up the phone because I was bit over trying to carry a refrigerator out the back door of unit number seven. So. What I love about when it comes to direct book is it's usually those owner operators or those hosts that really are saying, I need a solution so I can maximize my revenue.

[00:08:22] James: I can basically own the relationship and build that brand loyalty, right? Because that's what you are. You're a brand, and the idea is that if you're gonna book direct, how do you keep those guests in your booking funnel and when they're there. How do you get them to rebook? The biggest win when it comes to, to owner, operator and host is the ability for you to be able to say, Hey, Liam stayed with me.

[00:08:44] James: He and his family had so many memories. He's already booked the same apartment, our same unit a year in advance. When he comes back, that's the win, right? That's what you want. And as Liam and his family are leaving, gimme that review. Right. That's imperative. You want to be able to have that positive experience so you yourself can market it and then you can be able to go out and say, okay, in three years I've grown, I've scaled, I've added, I've basically been able to acquire new, uh, homes that are in my management program.

[00:09:14] James: I. Maybe I should start leveraging some OTAs when it makes more sense, right? So I'm all about basically divers just diversifying your rental program. But when we're talking about, you know, direct bookings, make it as effortless as possible. Make it as important to the guest journey, the guest booking aspect of it.

[00:09:32] James: And then when you're ready to tackle, uh, more of a distribution platform, bring the OTAs in that point.

[00:09:38] Liam: That's very cool. I love that you're talking our language. I mean, it is all about creating that brand, getting people to buy into your brand and then coming back ultimately and, and grabbing their direct contact details, which is super important.

[00:09:51] Liam: So with so many tools, and, and you touched on this within your answer just there, there's lot of softwares. Taking kind of a piece of the pie. There's, there's obviously PMs slash channel managers, there's dynamic pricing messaging apps. Um, where does a eviivo fit into all this? And what does a host actually need?

[00:10:08] Liam: Uh, do they need those other tools alongside it, or is it standalone? Talk us through that.

[00:10:13] James: Yeah, so a eviivo, it, it, it's great a eviivo iss the company name, but what are really the, the, the proof in the pudding, right? So using an American term there for those on both sides is it's a eviivo, is a eviivo suite. And a eviivo suite is designed, or basically is, is manufactured to be the core hub of the brains behind your every day.

[00:10:34] James: Usage, right? So what it does, what eviivo Suite does is it helps you manage your bookings. It helps you manage your channels, helps you manage your communications, reporting rate changes, rate manipulation, and it puts it all in one place. So it's basically all rest on the back end. So you as a host, you as a property manager, has the ability to say.

[00:10:55] James: I don't need to go anywhere else. Now, let's just say, let's play devil's advocate. You're out, you're working and you're saying, you know, I have these amazing smart locks. I'm working with Vendor X, vendor B, and I have these amazing, you know, prop tech in my house. What's important is you gotta be able to have that integration in place.

[00:11:12] James: You gotta be seamlessly be able to work with smart locks or accounting software, or maybe you're looking at pricing tools. So eviivo Suite gives you that ability and that flexibility to say you don't have, if you have a great relationship. And you want to stay. There's, it's just an integration and eviivo suite, and more and more likely than not, since we've been around for almost 20 years, has those integrations in place that allows for that seamless, obviously, relationship to stay.

[00:11:38] James: And then it all rests in the backend on your eviivo Suite dashboard and where you manage your day-to-day operations.

[00:11:45] Liam: It's cool. And one thing, again, from being a, a user of, uh, eviivo. And I don't know, I, I dunno if you're allowed to say this. Is, is marketing working for, for Aviva? Certainly what I always felt is because it was more originally a European type software and bookend.com started or, or really is mm-hmm.

[00:12:04] Liam: Dominant in, in Europe. I always found that the connection between the two, uh, was very good. Whereas some of the other tech, which started elsewhere. It is been catching up, uh, and that side of things. So it's, um, it's something which I've spotted and, uh, you know, just an observation I wanted to share.

[00:12:22] James: Yeah, and it's, and you're very right.

[00:12:24] James: I mean, obviously one of the core feature sets for is as, as, as your listeners grow or they make a decision to start dipping their toes into the world of, of OTAs and, and, and distribution and platforms. Um. It can be clunky with some of the other companies out there. And as you alluded to, and you said it, 'cause I'm just gonna reinforce what you said, you know, that is one area that we do obviously pride ourselves in is a, is a simple, basically set it and forget it.

[00:12:50] James: Right? And it, and that's something I think we'll maybe touch base later in this conversation, but you wanna make minimal effort. You, you don't want to have a lot of resistance if you wanna turn on. booking.com. It should be a simple toggle where you basically turn it on. It's a two-way sink of information.

[00:13:07] James: It's all being pushed out, and the information comes in, it's pushed in, and it's all resides in Veviivo suite. You gotta have those integrations in place. It's gonna make your life a lot like Hecker. 'cause what we're trying to avoid is those double bookings, right? Somebody calls Liam, you're the pro, you're the host.

[00:13:22] James: I call you. You book me down on a piece of paper and write it down. Then somebody else looks online, finds the same unit, books it. There's no synchronization. Now you got both of us standing there mad saying which one gets the room. We don't want that to happen.

[00:13:36] Liam: No, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. So I want to pull from your experience of, uh, short term rentals in general, that 20 years experience.

[00:13:44] Liam: What are some of the biggest kind of tech slipups you see or missed chances from hosts, either from your experience with eviivo or from your experience in the STR world?

[00:13:55] James: Yeah, there's really, you know, in my opinion, that's a great, I love this question. There's, there's really two big ones I think that resonate and we, I kind of just framed the first one where you're not syn synchronizing your inventory across all your different distribution channels, right?

[00:14:09] James: If we're gonna do book, book direct, and you're purely doing book direct. This. This isn't a really big problem, but as people join the industry and then they talk to peers, and the peers say, well, are you, are you using Airbnb? Are you using VRBL? Are you using Expedia? And they're like, okay, yeah, I should sign up and do that.

[00:14:26] James: Well, they sign up, but then they forget. Is that integration in place. So what that happens is that it's not a solid booking strategy, right? You gotta kind of educate yourself and ease yourself into those waters. The other part about it is you're not, you're under utilizing automation, right? So basically.

[00:14:43] James: Automation is designed for you, the host for you, the owner operator for you, the product manager. Let's put auto messaging in place. You know, let's, let's start. You know, I, AI is everywhere and AI is actually, those that embrace it love it. Those who are afraid of it are missing out. Right? And, and I'm not gonna tell you go either or, but I think you should slowly start incorporating if you have auto messaging.

[00:15:07] James: You're asleep, you can't always answer the phone. You put some AI on onto it. You get a, basically an unified, a unified inbox that can do simple answers as you're asleep. When you wake up, you look at the transcripts and then you can reach out to that customer directly, right? So a lot of people, a lot of different owner operators, host.

[00:15:26] James: Underutilized under utilizing automation. That goes for invoicing, that goes for dynamic pricing. You know, what we're trying to do with, with, with eviivo and eviivo Suite is we're trying to save you hours of each week, right there. Everybody gets into this business. Hey, you're really good at organization.

[00:15:44] James: You should manage my property in Florida. Okay, I'll do some QuickBooks. I can do this. Now everybody wants you to manage your property in Florida. QuickBooks isn't gonna be robust enough to be able to handle that. So how do you start automating? How do you start taking some of these different tools and working with these different companies to help you be able to capture that so you don't miss out on those reservations are those simple inquiries on how you can become better and grow and scale.

[00:16:11] Liam: I get that. I a hundred percent get that. And one of the things that I sometimes a bit guilty of on, on the show is I, I ask questions from my point of view, but I wanna ask a question for somebody who's perhaps a little bit newer to hosting or is getting their first PMS and, and, you know, perhaps they've just signed up to eviivo or, uh, they've just got their first short term rental.

[00:16:33] Liam: What would you say should be the first thing they should nail down, either from your experience, e eviivo, or your experience in STR?

[00:16:41] James: You know it's the guest journey, right? That's what you gotta nail down. You gotta think about how this guest journey plays out from the time that they're online looking at your website.

[00:16:52] James: To the point of where they decide to make that booking decision. To the point of the lead up, the ramp up time to when they arrive, when they're on site. And of course then the whole post, obviously checkout, it's a cycle, right? We talked a little bit about it earlier, but ideally what you wanna do is keep 'em in that booking cycle.

[00:17:10] James: So the target, the goal, everybody, I challenge that I talk to that are eviivo customers. Is, what are you doing? What? What are you doing that allows you to make those guests become repeat guests? We all love the guests that come and come and go, but we want those guests to go back and say, boy, I was with Liam.

[00:17:28] James: We were Myrtle Beach. What an amazing host, right? He e Every touch point of that process mattered to Liam. He made us feel special. We have an amazing, we had amazing memories of our time with him. I'm gonna invite my friends De Andersons. I'm gonna tell the book book from Liam and we're gonna go there for spring break next year.

[00:17:49] James: Right? So paying, paying attention to detail, to touch points from basically the communications and the booking cycle process to the way that you work with the incoming guest on payments, depending on what your, you know, percentage, how much they have to put in. All that matters to an to a prospective guest.

[00:18:09] James: Capitalize it, make it unique. Provide a unique experience. 'cause of that ge, if that booking journey and that guest journey is, is, is, is happy and everybody loves it and we get it, there are things that happen that are no control. Refrigerators break, cable goes out, right? Storms knock out power. I've been there.

[00:18:27] James: I travel a lot. I stay in vacation rentals all the time. But if you have a great host that's, that's hands-on and is there, it makes that experience less, less, less likely, be unmemorable to become very vulnerable.

[00:18:39] Liam: There's a quote which says that people forget what you said and what you did, but they remember how you made them feel.

[00:18:45] Liam: And I think that's so true to, to, uh, you know, add a quote to your point that it's just important for us as hosts to remember that each person you're staying is having their own unique experience. And how they feel about that experience is actually the biggest factor in getting the five star review.

[00:19:03] Liam: Absolutely. One of the things which we always recommend doing is to either get a, uh, you know, somebody to almost mystery shop your guest journey, or go and stay, book your place. You know, like go and go on the journey and see what emails you get and when, and I've done this in the early days, especially on the OTAs, just to see if my automations are coming out at the right time.

[00:19:25] Liam: You can. Book your own place or you know, get somebody to book it, but then get the emails forwarded to your, either way just to test it all out. It's is super important and I completely agree on, uh, the customer journey is, is king. So you've got a lot of integrations that eviivo work with. Is there any particular combos that work really well?

[00:19:46] Liam: For a eviivo users at the moment, or any softwares, uh, that you'd, that you've seen that people are enjoying? And the reason I ask this, I know often AI is mentioned at this stage, but it can be anything at all that OTA integrations or, uh, even something within the a eviivo suite.

[00:20:06] James: And I apologize for that. The sun's coming right in my face, so I know the lighting might be a little off.

[00:20:10] James: It's not because I'm trying to like make my face glow like some album will Phil Collins,

[00:20:14] Liam: but we just thought it was like you've got the, uh, divine, divine spirit, like from what you're saying.

[00:20:21] James: Yeah. So and so I apologize to the audience, but it's what I say, not what I look like, but at the end of the day, what the, the biggest dynamic pricing is absolutely.

[00:20:32] James: Is absolutely huge right now. Mm-hmm. And, and the reason that it is, is that because, you know, you gotta have, you got sister company, you got, you know, partners of like, like price labs, really edit it. We're looking to be able to work together to help maximize revenues. That's what's important, right? For you.

[00:20:48] James: What keeps you in business? How do you maximize every single dollar that comes in from a guest that is renting one of your properties, whatever that property may be, right? So we want to make sure that when you are working with. A company like Price Labs, that's usually dynamic pricing. You want to be able to control those manual updates.

[00:21:07] James: You wanna be able to make that simplified, right? We want you to make, make sure that if you're working, and we're gonna talk about this I think later, but you wanna be able to control that. Rate management. Controlling rate, manage it so that hey, you know, this is a busy weekend. We got a big, we got a big concert in town.

[00:21:24] James: We wanna make sure that we're looking at, you know, Hey, how do we make sure we get more revenue for these? We, we, people will pay this because they're looking at supply and demand. It's a very simple process. It's been around a long time, but what we're also looking to do for you is say, look, you know. eviivo Suite's great Price Labs is, is great.

[00:21:43] James: They, they, they're, they're married together. We're gonna maximize, obviously the, the, our ac our occupancy rate. We're gonna look at our ADRs, we're gonna look at our, you know, and we're gonna be able to say, what is the best decision that we can make. So that we can have high occupancy and also make a little bit more money on this seasonality or, or, or periods of timeframes when we have these, this, this high demand of, of occupancy people come in and look for it, um, that also goes for payment.

[00:22:11] James: That, I mean, that also goes for, you know, smart lock multi-property reporting. It also is, you know, driving, you know, the goal is to drive bigger gains for, for the auto operators at this point.

[00:22:22] Liam: A hundred percent. Anything that makes it either easier to manage or drives revenue. I mean, as a host, my ears prick up.

[00:22:28] Liam: So it's, it's very good. And one thing that I've gotta ask, uh, without giving, you know, the stuff away that you can't give away, what is new? What's coming along? What are you excited about?

[00:22:38] James: Yeah, I think the big one for me, and one I'm, most products, I'm actually working on a campaign right now, is, is our, is our award-winning eviivo mobile app.

[00:22:45] James: Um, I absolutely, everybody has an app, right? But. Some apps have are almost static, right? It's, oh, we got an app we can kinda show you. But what I love about it is it gives you everything that you need to run your day to day at a glance, right? You can check your available inventory, you can do instant notifications, whether that be from bookings that are coming in that show up in the app to managing payments.

[00:23:09] James: To guest messaging, which is always important. Um, you can have that in a real time. Notifications, a real time dashboard, and it goes, links into our AI powered inbox, which I think is very cool to talk about because what that does is it's pulling from your direct messages. So whether that's an email inquiry, whether that's a source like an OTA, if you aren't dipping your foot in the OTA channel of distribution.

[00:23:37] James: Anytime, anywhere. Auto replies, auto reviews, booking, pre approval pools, all that can be handled through that unified inbox through the eviivo mobile app, which is absolutely fantastic.

[00:23:49] Liam: It sounds really good. And I know again, from past experience that eviivo only does things properly. You know, like they won't just do it to tick a box.

[00:23:57] Liam: If they've got an app, then it's being done properly. I know there are, and we won't name any names, but there's softwares out there who will just tick a box just to tick the box. Whereas you want it to work. It can't just say that it does it and, and that's the key thing, isn't it? So. We've obviously covered quite a lot of ground on this, uh, bite-size, uh, podcast.

[00:24:18] Liam: But what I'd love to leave the listeners with is if there was just one thing you wanted the listeners to know about eviivo, what would that be? And then can you share how people can come and sign up or find out more about? Sure.

[00:24:34] James: Yeah. And it's, and I love that and it's a good way to kind of wrap up this conversation.

[00:24:38] James: What, when it comes to. This industry, when it comes to short term, when it comes to vacation rentals, when it comes to owner operators, a host there, there's so much out there and, and anybody that's out there that, that, you know, goes to different events, you, you may become overwhelmed and think, you know, wow, there's, there's so many different vendors.

[00:24:58] James: There's so many different tech. There's so many different people tell me, I need this, I need this and I need this. And what I always advise every time I have, I'm on a panel or I'm, I'm speaking, is keep it simple. The simple is profound. The right tech honestly should make your life easier, not harder.

[00:25:15] James: Right. You don't have to go all in with Alltech. You can piecemeal that kind of together and find out where your deficiencies are and how you can meet those, those kind of little rough patches in your, in your, your day to day operations. Focus on efficiency, automation, and guest experience. Ideally, keep your guest experience top of the list because if your guests aren't having a good experience, they're not coming.

[00:25:38] James: If they're not coming. You don't have a business, you're not getting anybody into your houses. So growth will naturally will follow if as long as you just kind of keep it simple. So I, uh, I tell my teams the simplest, profound, keep it simple.

[00:25:52] Liam: I love that. I love that. And, and how can we find out more?

[00:25:54] James: Absolutely. So you can go to eviivo.com, E-V-I-I-V o.com, um, and we can connect there. Or on LinkedIn we have our own eviivo LinkedIn page. I'm on LinkedIn as well. Um, or as what my big thing coming up here in the United States. We're getting ready for our industry event season. That means I'll be at probably nine events between now September and uh December.

[00:26:19] James: Look for eviivo. I'll be more likely to be there as well.

[00:26:21] Liam: Very cool. I'm sure people come and reach out and go and check out if you are driving and you're listening to this when it's safe to do so. There'll be a link in the show notes you can click on, and that'll take you straight over there. Well, thank you so much, Jamie, for this to, to see us out with the very last thing.

[00:26:36] Liam: We like to have a personal mantra or any kind of life lesson just to see us out. What would you say yours is?

[00:26:44] James: Yeah, mine, mine is, you know, I, I, I kind of, um, I want to keep it simple, but there is one thing. For all those listening and all those that do attend an industry event or go to, um, you know, maybe a, um, a meet and greet or any type of thing where you're talking to industry professionals, people that proclaim to have knowledge.

[00:27:02] James: I challenge all of you listening. Find one takeaway one, just one topic, implement it. Ensure dayday operations and be dedicated to it for one, for one year. And ideally if, if you really follow that, that, that one idea. Hit me up in a year, reach out to me in a year. Tell me what that was and how that changed your business.

[00:27:25] James: If you go into that mindset and, and be, you know, 'cause you always gotta be curious. You gotta be curious to be able to grow. And if you can go on that and take that one topic. I don't need five, I don't need three. Just one. One good one. Put in your day-to-day follow up with Liam or myself in a year. Tell us what that was and how it changed and how it changed your business.

[00:27:44] Liam: Very cool. Thank you so much, Jamie, for today. It's been a real delight and thank you too for listening to this on the Boly podcast, the place where we discuss direct booking software and anything hospitality. If you want to continue this conversation, you can check out, uh, the hospitality community on Facebook.

[00:28:00] Liam: You can just type that into groups and you can come and join us for free. We can talk more about this podcast or any other hospitality topic that you'd like to as a free community. Everybody's welcome. Thanks very much. We'll see you on the next one. Bye.

[00:00:23] Mark: What I realized yesterday is, um, it's sometimes you take a little bit to get going with the questions in the zoom, so please don't be shy. There's no silly questions. This is such an important topic because again, so many people struggle when it comes to building a business that is truly one that they feel like can be run like clockwork.

[00:00:44] Mark: And I've gone through the presentation and it is unbelievably good. I'm so glad that we're able to put this to the world. So Hailey, thank you very much. Um, yeah. So I'm gonna pass the, the floor over to your good self. Before we do, can everybody please let me know where you are tuning in from around the world?

[00:00:59] Mark: We've had Saudi Arabia, we've had Dom, Dominican Republic, we've had obviously the us, the uk. I'm looking for those. Lovely. We had Kenya. So worldwide audience. Wow. Worldwide audience. Rob's in Florida. Hey Rob. Uh, Anne's in southwest Scotland. Matt's in Michigan. We've got New York, North Carolina, Dallas. Um, somebody's also dropping in their website domains.

[00:01:25] Mark: I love that. All right, Ms. Haley, Marie Anderson, the Florida is yours. Thank you for doing this. Um, I'll let you go.

[00:01:33] Hailie: Well, thanks for having me. I'm so excited. It's the last day, so hopefully everyone is still feeling motivated and excited. Um, but yeah, I have a lot of slides to get through, so we're just gonna start, and if you have questions, don't be shy.

[00:01:47] Hailie: There's no such thing as a dumb question. I will answer all of them. Um, so yeah, let's get started. Um, today I'm gonna be covering how I built a five star business, fully remote. Um, so for those of you who maybe have never seen me before, there's probably three big things. You're wondering, who am I? Why am I up here?

[00:02:07] Hailie: Why did Mark ask me to do this? Um, and what are you going to learn and what can you expect? Um, next slide.

[00:02:17] Mark: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:18] Hailie: So also I don't have control over the slide guys, so don't mind if there's a little lag. We're still getting the flow together, but this is who I am. I'm Haley. I am 22 years old. I have been doing Airbnb arbitrage for a little over two years.

[00:02:35] Hailie: So I rent all of my properties. I don't own any of my properties. And I started at 19 in high school and from then I have scaled to 58 properties, fully remote. I basically am a digital nomad. The last four weeks I've been traveling, I've been home for like two days in the last four weeks, so this is completely remote.

[00:02:58] Hailie: I am not physically required to be anywhere except where my laptop or where my phone is. And with these slides, I'm gonna teach you to do the same thing. Um, life before short-term rentals definitely did not look like what it looks like now. I've always had some sort of like entrepreneurial spirit, I like to say, but I've worked at Target.

[00:03:20] Hailie: I was a leasing agent. I started a yard card sign business and the peak of COVID, I've done drop shipping UGC agencies. I've done it all, but nothing has stuck quite like arbitrage has for me. Um, and yeah, it's completely changed my life. So what to expect, there's gonna be three big things that I'm gonna cover, um, and these slides.

[00:03:47] Hailie: First is how we're going to automate. Second is how to delegate, and third is how to scale with all three of these. I mean, you have, you have to do all three to be able to scale successfully. And scaling can be really, really good or really, really bad if you don't do the first two steps. So I'm gonna make sure that we cover both of those so you can scale successfully.

[00:04:11] Hailie: Okay. This is a little question I have for you guys. If any of you in here do Airbnb already, and you already have units, I'm curious, do you operate locally or do you operate remotely? You can put this in the chat and obviously I can't see the chat, but I will let you

[00:04:28] Mark: know. I will let you know. Yeah, so, uh, we, we've got a nice mix of locally and remote.

[00:04:33] Mark: I would say it's about 50%, 50 50 right now.

[00:04:37] Hailie: Okay. All right. That's good to know. Hopefully if you are operating locally currently and you want to, you know, branch out and grow and operate remotely by the end of this, I guarantee you, you will. And if you are operating remotely. I guarantee you probably will learn something new as well.

[00:04:54] Hailie: So this is, this is perfect. I will ask again at the end of the slides.

[00:05:01] Hailie: Yeah. So I don't live where I host and I think that's the whole entire point of creating a business. I was very adamant on the fact I didn't wanna create myself another terrible job that I hated. Um, so with this job, obviously it's still a job, but I don't have to be tied down to a specific area. This is me in Italy living my best life, and I have traveled, like, I think I'm up to like 20 different countries.

[00:05:26] Hailie: I'm never home really. And that's just like what I enjoy. If I wanna be home, I can be, but this is fully remote and I think that's the beautiful thing about this. Next thing I wanna talk about is CEO versus operator mindset. I think this is something that I've been kind of, I have struggled with in the past before everyone preaches.

[00:05:48] Hailie: Oh, I'm a CEO, oh, I'm a business owner. But there was a lot of times where I caught myself being more of an operator than a CEO. And I think this is a universal kind of thing where you start doing these little things and you're sitting there and you're like, what am I doing? This is taking up so much of my time.

[00:06:05] Hailie: I'm being more of an operator in the day-to-day things than managing and scaling and growing. And I think it's good to recognize when you're being an operator and when you should really be a CEO and kind of pivoting from that operator role to a CEO role has completely changed the growth and scale of my company.

[00:06:24] Hailie: Um, and it's still things I, I have to recognize now. Sometimes I'll catch myself doing things. I'm like, okay, this can be delegated or this can be automated. And recognizing that is just the first step. And the problem with doing it all yourself, which a lot of us probably either do it all ourselves now or have done it before, are three really big things.

[00:06:45] Hailie: Obviously the first one being burnout. You are just one person is quite impossible to do everything on your own. Um, micromanaging, literally you're gonna catch yourself doing micromanagement for forever and no one wants to do that. And also limited scalability, since it is just you, there is no way in the world you can reach these big goals that are greater than you alone.

[00:07:08] Hailie: You need a team. And the second you recognize that, hey, hiring a team or delegating and automating is not a reflection of my inability to do something, it's simply the fact that to reach those new levels, you need a team. Every single big company has teams, and if you want to grow, you need a team. So recognizing that is huge.

[00:07:33] Hailie: Yeah, so the solution to doing that is to build a remote team to scale. Um, my team is a hundred percent remote. I have team members in the Philippines. I have team members in the States. Um, I'm all over the place, but we're all remote and we run a seven figure business every single day for the last two and a half years.

[00:07:53] Hailie: All right, so this is a little reflection and if any of you maybe have pen and paper or you have your phone out, I highly recommend maybe taking a screenshot of this and doing this later. Um, but I think doing time audits are really, really important. Um, I do these not only for myself, but I also do this with my team as well.

[00:08:13] Hailie: Um, so there's a couple of things in a time audit that I recommend you do. The first one is to track your time With this, I recommend setting a timer for like, say an hour, 60 minutes. Set your timer and within that hour, start working. Start working on whatever you're working on. And after you're done working for that 60 minutes or whatever you choose, categorize every single thing that you did within those 60 minutes.

[00:08:40] Hailie: So say you spent 20 minutes doing guest communications, you spent 20 minutes managing the cleaners. Whatever it is, categorize it that way you can easily see which ones are your biggest time wasters, and by time wasters, I mean if you spent 40 minutes within this one hour doing guest communications, that is a red flag that okay, you can delegate this out for cheaper than what it would cost you per your hour.

[00:09:08] Hailie: Um, and then from there it makes it really easy to see what you can delegate and then you can delegate it to someone else and remove it from your workflow. So you could do this for yourself and you can also do this for your team, but I highly recommend everyone to do a time audit. It makes seeing what you can outsource a lot easier than just trying to come up with it on your own.

[00:09:28] Mark: I've just asked the question in the Zoom chat. Um. And I'll ask it now so we can all start to type this in again, we've got nearly a hundred people watching, which is amazing. So the question is, are you currently doing this? Are you, so this what, what Haley's put in front of you. Are you currently tracking your, your time?

[00:09:43] Mark: Are you able to identify where these time wasters are? Yes. Uh, we've got sometimes new idea doing this. No, but I guess I should be, so this is good. This is really good.

[00:09:53] Hailie: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, and like I said, I do this myself too. So everything in here I do myself and I just, I've recognized it's helpful.

[00:10:01] Hailie: Um, and it's always good to continue doing. Just because I've done it once does not mean there's gonna be new time wasters in my business. As I continue to grow and delegate things, there's always gonna be new time wasters that I can then outsource again. Great. Great, great. All right. Yeah, this is a little question too.

[00:10:21] Hailie: I have a couple of these, so I'm sorry, but it's good to get your brain working, and I kind of want you to reflect n words as I go through these slides. But what is your number one time waster? Um, it might be easier after you do the time audit, but usually you have an end cling of like what it could be.

[00:10:36] Hailie: Um, so it's good to just think about what you probably are wasting the most time doing.

[00:10:42] Mark: Hmm. So this is, uh, we've got pricing alignments by, uh, by hard a, uh, pricing alignments. We've got lots of other ones coming in. I feel like the, the number one for me at the present moment in time is, uh, going over transcriptions.

[00:10:56] Mark: Uh, I, I have, uh, lots of people doing calls on a daily basis, and my biggest time waste is going through transcriptions. But, uh, cli client reports, customer communications, updating pricing, you name it, it's all there.

[00:11:08] Hailie: Yeah. Yeah. And they're all, they're all very value. Like, they're all very real and they all, they all can be.

[00:11:15] Hailie: Delegated or automated in some way to make it take up less of your time so that you can go spend time doing something else, which is the whole goal. All right, so some of the most popular that I hear on a regular basis are a couple of those that you mentioned. Um, and I think these are the four easiest ones to outsource from the jump.

[00:11:37] Hailie: Um, so you have guest communications, cleaning coordination, pricing optimization, and maintenance request. These are the four ones that are the simplest to outsource or automate delegate. And also the most common guest communications and cleaning by themselves take up like the majority of my time, my team's time in the beginning.

[00:12:01] Hailie: Um, but now I obviously have systems and people who do it for me, but they're so easily. Outsourced from the jump that you shouldn't be wasting your time doing them. So these are the four most common ones. But obviously as you grow and scale, there'll be new ones as well.

[00:12:15] Mark: It's uh, so funny, the four that you've put down here on the slides are literally the ones that people have put in the chat.

[00:12:21] Mark: Yeah. So it's like, it's like you forced shadowed what was coming, which is brilliant.

[00:12:25] Hailie: Yeah. Alright. All right. So next, which I love talking about this, this is so fun, but I'm gonna cover three really big things. So how to hire, how to train and how to retain. It's one thing to hire a VA or a team member, it's another thing to train them, but the biggest thing is retain them and keeping them on your team long term.

[00:12:47] Hailie: All of my VAs and team members have been with me for probably over a year. I think there's a couple newer ones, obviously as we grow, but most of them have been with me for over a year, some a little longer than that. And that all, there's value in retaining your team. You never wanna hire someone and have them leave.

[00:13:05] Hailie: Three days later there, there's a whole process and I'm gonna cover all three of these.

[00:13:11] Mark: Here we go.

[00:13:14] Hailie: Okay, so there is four major roles. In the beginning that I highly think that everyone should outsource. They're the easiest to hire. So first one being is your virtual assistants. I currently have a team of six virtual assistants that run every single aspect of my business on a day-to-day.

[00:13:34] Hailie: I barely am in there for any time. All I do is just be there for support if they need anything. Now, these VAs can do whatever you want them to do, whatever you feel you need support in, but mine do everything. So a couple of those things could be your guest communications. They can do your dynamic pricing, they can do your cleaner management.

[00:13:54] Hailie: They can even do your direct booking management and any of the day-to-day operating task within the company. That is the probably biggest role in my company is my team of virtual assistants followed along my cleaning team. Those two are like. Support each other like this, like glue. Um, so your cleaning teams are responsible for ma maintaining those five star turnovers.

[00:14:16] Hailie: Um, you need a cleaning team. You need a good cleaning team, and you need to be able to rely on them. Um, the next role is your handymen and your runners. So typically these can also be hired within your cleaning teams at times. Um, so if your cleaner is like a wife and she has a husband, many times I have the husband become the handyman for me, and it's just a dream team.

[00:14:39] Hailie: Um, so your handyman will be responsible for fixing anything that the maintenance on the property may not be responsible for. And then you also have those runners if you're like, Hey, 'cause again, we're remote. Hey, this happened and I need some support. Can you run to the store and go grab batteries for me?

[00:14:55] Hailie: Or whatever it may be. If you need a runner, you have the option to have one. Or there's also amazing things like DoorDash or multiple times I've ordered batteries on DoorDash. Um. We have a lot of tech these days, so some of these things are not needed, but it's good to have the option.

[00:15:13] Mark: I've got some really good questions, so I just wanna throw at you while we're going through this and I think it's really topical to this.

[00:15:18] Mark: So the first one is, um, do you have virtual assistants that are around the clock 24 7? How does that work?

[00:15:26] Hailie: Yes. So I have a team of six and there is someone always working. So the first shift starts at 10:00 AM they work till six, and then the next shift starts at six and they go all the way through the night until 9:00 AM So there's an hour gap between nine and 10 where no one is technically working.

[00:15:46] Hailie: Um, but I'm always up at that time. So. Rarely ever anything happens, thank God. Mm-hmm. But yes, there's someone always on the clock, even on the weekends as well.

[00:15:55] Mark: Amazing. And here's a question for the Zoom and for everybody that is participating, how many of you have got a husband and wife team or a partner team with made up of cleaners and handymen?

[00:16:06] Mark: I feel like this is a worldwide thing. I can't think of, uh, anybody that I've come across who, who hasn't got this somewhere in their network. I feel like it's a phenomenon. The husband and wife combination is a, is a thing. Uh, Darren is Daryl's saying me. Uh, there's a couple of nos. There's a couple of, yep.

[00:16:24] Mark: I think it's like, it's like the, it's like the PMS question. You know, you ask this question, uh, and you'll get 10 different answers. I feel like with this, it's like the same thing with the husband and wife combination. Phenomenal. Yes. Um, another thing as well that I've noticed on there is when it comes to, to pricing, so do you outsource your pricing to a VA or do you have a a, a separate setup for that one?

[00:16:48] Hailie: So I have, I, my VAs do the daily price drops, but in terms of like more strategic things, I have someone completely else who does that and like my revenue management and all of that. Um, but my VAs drop the price every single day. So every single morning when they clock on at 10:00 AM the same message I get every day.

[00:17:06] Hailie: And if I don't get it, I panic. 'cause I'm like, oh my God. Like, are they okay? Like sometimes they're, you know, 10 minutes earlier, one day the text comes in at 10 0 1 and I'm like freaking out. Mm-hmm. Like, oh my God, are they okay? Um, but it's. Good morning and then it's followed by, we have X vacant units.

[00:17:24] Hailie: These are the price I set them to, and then gradually throughout the day, so during lunch, they'll send me an updated pricing and vacancy number. And then as the day goes on, they're in charge of dropping it to make sure, ideally we reach a hundred percent occupancy every single day. And then in terms of the weekly, monthly, all those more strategic pricing strategies, I do that.

[00:17:45] Hailie: And I also have someone else separate from my VAs who help me with that.

[00:17:49] Mark: Nice. And a, a, a really good question. So how many properties do you have at this present moment in time?

[00:17:55] Hailie: 58.

[00:17:56] Mark: And so you've got six VAs for 58 properties. How do you balance it in terms of, okay, I'm gonna take on X amount of properties, oh, I think I need to hire somebody else.

[00:18:07] Mark: How do you work out that formula? Or is it just a case of another formula that you work with in your mind? In the business?

[00:18:14] Hailie: It's more so just being insanely vocal with my team that like, hey, they know I'm actively scaling and they know what they're capable of without sacrificing the quality of their work.

[00:18:25] Hailie: So I make sure it's a very safe space for them. I talk to them every single day. We have live calls every single Friday where it's just open. Is everyone happy? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Do you need support anywhere? What can I change to make it better for you? Is there something I'm missing? And then that's kind of how I gauge when we need to bring someone new on.

[00:18:44] Hailie: Obviously if I were to come in and, you know, sign a 35 unit deal, which in the works I am obviously probably going to need to hire another va, but I'm gonna leave that up to me and my team to kind of discuss and say, Hey, are you capable of taking on 35 more units? Um, and with systems and SOPs, adding more units necessarily isn't more work.

[00:19:07] Hailie: When your systems are so good. So most of the time I can keep the same amount of VAs when I add properties, but obviously there's a threshold. Um, so I'm just very open with them.

[00:19:17] Mark: And do you have a VA who is in charge of the VAs? Do you have one person who is like the senior or at the moment in time, is your team small enough where you are that person right now?

[00:19:28] Hailie: Nope. So I have one head VA and then I have five. They're still all qualified to do basically everything, but the head VA has just a tad bit more control and experience, so she kind of manages the VAs as well. And then if there's any issues within the team, they go to her and then I'm kind of the last resort and they're like, Hey Hailey, like so sorry to bother you, but we're kind of confused on this.

[00:19:54] Hailie: Like they come to me as the last resort because the head VA is basically me.

[00:19:59] Mark: I like that. I like that. And you were potentially about to double your portfolio with one big deal.

[00:20:05] Hailie: Yeah. Yep. Fingers

[00:20:07] Mark: crossed. And, and everybody, 22, 22 years old. I dunno what you were doing at 22 years old. Everybody, but I couldn't, didn't know my ass for my elbow at 22.

[00:20:15] Mark: So look at you. Go. Which is amazing. So well done. Ass from Elbow is a very British term. I'll, I'll teach it one day what it means. Yeah. Fan. Fantastic. You're doing amazing, right? Really, I, I love the next question because we're foreshadowing the next slide, which is amazing. Which is are where to hire the peoples.

[00:20:34] Mark: How do you hire, where do you hire the people? So back to you, Haley. Fantastic.

[00:20:39] Hailie: Thank you. Yeah. So it's one thing to know who you need to hire, but it's another thing to know where to find these people. Um, so I wanna talk about virtual assistants first. You'll hear me talk a lot about virtual assistants, but I mean, they are, they run my whole business for me.

[00:20:54] Hailie: So it's very important to talk about online jobs.ph. I. Literally, this is my favorite software ever. Um, it's basically a bunch of VAs. They all live overseas. Most of them live in the Philippines. Um, they have very, very cheap rates and they work insanely, insanely hard. And with the time difference it makes hiring them to work 24 7 on the clock.

[00:21:18] Hailie: Very, very easy. Um, 'cause there's always, there's always a shift available. Another thing, a lot of these VAs on here actually have experience working at these OTAs. So a lot of them have worked at Airbnb, they've worked at VRBO and that is very, very valuable. My head VA was tier. I think three at Airbnb for like five years.

[00:21:39] Hailie: With that comes a lot of backend knowledge that she actually taught me, like, Hey, this is how Airbnb does reviews. This is how Airbnb boost your listing. All this is very important information. And a lot of them on there have experience doing that. They also have really great English, so if you need them to do any of your outreach, whether it's cold calling or emailing, they can speak on the phone very, very well.

[00:22:02] Hailie: Um, and those are all very important things to note when you are hiring these virtual assistants. My team does all of my outreach. They do all of my day-to-day managing, so I need them to be qualified to do all of these things. Um, the next thing is your cleaning teams. You can use Turno to find them.

[00:22:18] Hailie: Turno is, I'm pretty sure global right now. Um, so they have cleaners in basically. All over the world. And they're also pre-vetted, so they have reviews. Um, so you can see, you know, how they've worked with other people in the past and also they're vetted to clean Airbnbs. Cleaning a house and cleaning an Airbnb are two separate things.

[00:22:38] Hailie: Yes, they both need to be cleaned, but there's a lot of things that go into cleaning an Airbnb that may necessarily not go into cleaning a house. So making sure that your cleaning team knows. Or has experience cleaning Airbnbs is crucial and Turno kind of helps you vet through those a little bit easier.

[00:22:55] Hailie: And then also a handyman and runners. So I did put two options here because again, there is places to find them, but usually you can double down within your cleaning team to find these. But Thumbtack is literally love it. I love it for staging units remotely. If I'm not in town, I have built fully remote teams through Thumbtack to completely stage properties for me across the world.

[00:23:19] Hailie: Like go to the storage unit, pick up the boxes, bring 'em to the properties, open them, build all the furniture, take the trash out, stage it all through Thumbtack. So if you need handyman, you need people to mount your TVs. You know, maybe one day there's a hole in the wall, you hire someone on Thumbtack, they go fix it.

[00:23:37] Hailie: Um, and then also runners. Local Facebook groups are like tried and true. If you have a property in Nashville, go on Facebook and type in Nashville, Airbnb, Nashville, Airbnb cleaners. There is so much value in connecting with the local community and if there's always cleaners in these Airbnb groups, and they're also kind of vetted as well because if it's in a group full of host, the likelihood of finding a good cleaner whose repute in that community is really, really easy.

[00:24:06] Hailie: So those are the four big places you can find all of those roles.

[00:24:14] Hailie: Next, I'm gonna touch on onboarding and training your VAs. Again, it's one thing to hire them, but this is where the magic happens. You get to build your own VA to basically take your, the goal is to take your brain and put it into someone else's head and try to replicate you as close as possible. Um, it is really important to note that the first couple of weeks, most likely is a training period to learn your business.

[00:24:40] Hailie: Just because they've been a VA or a co-host or whatever on someone else's company, it is still different than your own company. So it's very important to be graceful during this time and be supportive because the better you train them, the less of a headache they're gonna be for you. Um, and that's really, really crucial.

[00:24:59] Hailie: So with that comes training. I highly, highly, highly recommend you film everything that you do from the jump. If you are uploading new listings on Airbnb or a different OTA, film yourself doing it, you can use Loom and just talk through how you do it because you basically are creating your own training material for forever, so you don't have to backtrack and redo it.

[00:25:24] Hailie: Um, so I use Loom for my filming videos, and then I just upload them into a Google Drive and I give my VAs access, and that is the virtual, um, visual training material. And then outside of the visual ones, I also have SOPs, which are written to make sure everything is seamless and everyone is working the same.

[00:25:44] Mark: Um, what I will say, this is probably one of the most important lessons that I wish that I learned 10 years ago, starting brucely because there will come a certain point in time if you are gonna grow your business and scale it and potentially have investors or potential buyers knock on your door. The first thing that they, I want to see will see is your data center.

[00:26:05] Mark: And that data center will mean nothing to a lot of people, but it will mean a lot for anybody who's gone through this process. And a large part of a data center is seeing how you do things within your business. We had to at Ley last year when we were potentially gonna go through an acquisition that we in turn turned down, but we had to create this in three weeks.

[00:26:24] Mark: It was a nightmare. Um, because they wanted to know everything. And I was cursing every single day, every single hour, every single minute that I had to do this. I was saying, I wish I'd had done this sooner. So if you aren't and you are new, or even if you're not new and you're not, start doing it. And the cool thing about Loom, use loom.com is that you can create now with AI and Loom SOPs within minutes.

[00:26:50] Mark: Uh, it is unbelievably quick. And again, you do your loom, you take your transcript, put it into chat, GPT say, Hey, turn this into an SOP, boom, you've got it. So really, really, really good tip that

[00:27:03] Hailie: Yes, and that's a good thing too. You talked about like selling or anything like that? Yeah. Like you can't expect.

[00:27:09] Hailie: To have someone come and purchase your company if they don't know how it's ran. Um, so it needs to be replicatable for not only your team members, but also those bigger things like, yeah, you might sell one day. How are they gonna take it over? Having SOPs is just non-negotiable. All right. These next couple of slides are gonna be pretty brief, but I do, I'm a very visual learner, so I wanted to include these for you guys as well.

[00:27:34] Hailie: I'm gonna cover some of my training material that I have for my team. This is real screenshots from everything that I provide my team. Um, I use Asana. It's my favorite. There's also notion, there's a bunch of them. monday.com. You can pick which one you like. I like notion. Or sorry, Asana. So these are some of my training materials.

[00:27:54] Hailie: Um, I have AM checklist, PM checklist, daily checklist, all of that. The first one being is their AM workflow. So as you can tell here, every single morning when they clock on at 10:00 AM um, this is the checklist they go through. There's obviously a bunch of different things, but they come in, they click it, that it's done, and that's it.

[00:28:14] Hailie: It notifies me as soon as they finish a task. Um, and this just keeps them on track because you do the same thing every day. They might get a little comfortable or they might forget to check something. So having this is really helpful to keep them on track as well. And also notify me that, hey, they are doing everything and we're not letting anything fall through the cracks.

[00:28:36] Hailie: The next one is the PM workflow, which again, basically the same thing except this is for the PM shift. So there's a little bit of different criteria here, but they do the same thing, exact thing they clock on, they check it, and then it just notifies me that they've done everything that they need to do.

[00:28:51] Mark: I do like seeing this direct bookings, little, little checklist.

[00:28:54] Mark: That's the Oh, speaking to my heart. Alright, guest workflow.

[00:29:01] Hailie: Guest workflow. So this is basically everything from when a reservation is booked to when they check out of their stay. So as soon as they're uploaded into this reservation, confirmed, they automatically move through the workflow themselves. Um, so we touch on everything of when the reservation is booked, um, if any fees need to be collected.

[00:29:20] Hailie: So they do early check-in, late checkout, if they completed their truvia application, if it was approved, if it was denied, if they were doing any in-person check-ins. Everything is covered. And again, this just makes sure nothing falls through the cracks. It seems, um, redundant sometimes, but I'm telling you, if you don't have these systems, you're gonna miss things.

[00:29:42] Hailie: You're gonna leave $35 early check-ins on the table and that adds up, especially at volume.

[00:29:51] Hailie: I love talking about this one. So this is verbiage. So again, it's one thing to have these VAs, but it's a completely other thing to train them on how to run your business and how to basically be you. That is the whole point of this, of having a team, is to have them become versions of you. Um, and with that I had to train my VAs that, hey, I am a 22-year-old girl.

[00:30:15] Hailie: Okay? And I maybe am not the most professional texting person ever, and it's okay to throw in a little emoji in there sometimes. Like it's fun, it's lighthearted match my vibe because when these people book regard, like my profile on Airbnb is me. So they see a picture of me that I have a description of me and it's very me.

[00:30:36] Hailie: You know, it's fun, it's young, it's obviously still professional, but I wanted that verbiage to be replicated by my team to keep that experience seamless. So training them to talk like me is also crucial as well.

[00:30:51] Mark: I love this because yeah, at the end of the day, if your team basically try and turn you into a robot, then the guest is gonna be like, hang on a second.

[00:30:59] Mark: This is not our 22-year-old girl from America talks. Why are they saying, dear sir? Dear sir, madam. So I love it how you've got, uh, this is Jazzy, one of your property managers here from CMHB and B. Thank you so much for the follow through. I love all of that. I love the verbiage. I like that.

[00:31:16] Hailie: Alright, awesome.

[00:31:17] Hailie: Yeah. FAQs. Next is FAQs. So again, all of these. Material is to basically eliminate the friction between them coming to me for things. I want them to be as solo and confident as possible, so I have to give them as much information as possible. This FAQ sheet has literally everything on it. It has every single unit, every single complex, the emergency maintenance number, our virtual guidebooks, any parking information, amenity information, gym information, whatever they could possibly need on any single property is most likely listed here.

[00:31:55] Hailie: And obviously there's things that come up sometimes and I just add another column, but having all of this makes them having to come to me and be like, Hailey, what's the maintenance number? They know exactly where to find it for all 58 properties.

[00:32:11] Hailie: Next is your claims. Um, so again, I track everything. Even if you have a guest come in and they break your couch and you file a claim when you have 58 properties, okay? The last thing my team is probably thinking of is that claim on the broken two lamps. Okay. Let's be honest. There's a lot of things that happen in a day, especially with that many properties that sometimes it can get lost in translation.

[00:32:35] Hailie: So we track everything, every claim we track, when we ha, when we submit the claim, when the claim has been received, if we need to follow up with the email thread, if it was closed, how much we got paid out, all of that. We track everything.

[00:32:51] Hailie: We also track our bad reviews, which we don't give very many, but the ones that I do get, I do track them. Um, and I always try to get them REM removed if it's like valid to have removed. So I always will message the guest, submit the dispute, wait on the guest to respond, wait on Airbnb, and then kind of wait on if it was approved or if it was denied to either keep up or have removed tracking.

[00:33:13] Hailie: This is crucial. And also tracking, making sure that we're responding to all of our reviews. I actually don't think I talked, uh, have a slide about this, but my VAs also respond to all of my reviews, good and bad. I think it's important to respond to all of them. And they are in, they are in charge of going through every single review and saying, okay, we have a new one star review.

[00:33:35] Hailie: This will go on the bad reviews, um, page. They'll funnel through all of that, and then they'll also go through and respond to all of the reviews. So all the good ones, all the bad ones. I always respond to all of them, but my VAs do that.

[00:33:48] Mark: We are officially 25 slides in. Can we all just please show Hailey some love in the chat?

[00:33:53] Mark: Um, I tell you what they've got, a lot of people are impressed. Maddy says you're a superstar. Antonella says you're amazing. Anne says, what a girl. So yeah. Really, really well done. There's a lot of love. There's a lot of love. There's a lot of love. Yes. Uh, but we've had one person say, make this into a two hour presentation.

[00:34:12] Mark: Listen, we've gotta be very, very respectful of Hailey's time. But don't worry, if you wanna find out more about hay, I'm sure on later on we'll give you domains and places to go to because this is, yeah, this is gold. And Matt, did Matt just put, how did you get like this so young? So I feel like that's like a, a Stephen Bartlett di of a CEO podcast.

[00:34:31] Mark: I feel like that's like your, uh, your podcast act that you'll be able to tell this story one day. But um, yes. Phenomenal. Well, so we're halfway through. Um, feel free to take a drink 'cause you've done a lot of talking, which is phenomenal. Um. Again, keep your questions coming because uh, I will go through 'em and we will go through 'em at the end.

[00:34:50] Mark: Um, but yeah. Amazing stuff.

[00:34:52] Hailie: Alright. Yay. Let, let's crack 'em. I have, everyone's enjoying it.

[00:34:56] Mark: Amazing. Okay, so Restock tracker.

[00:34:59] Hailie: All right. So, as you guys could tell, this is different than Asana. So just like I was talking about time audits and how I continue to do them, I realized that these sheets were not as efficient as Asana.

[00:35:13] Hailie: So I'm currently in the process of changing all of these old Excel sheets to Asana. So those newer ones you saw in Asana, this is a, a real transition I'm doing actively. Um, so yeah, it just touches on the point that you need to continue to do it even as you scale. I realized that this was not as efficient for me or my team, so now I'm making it better.

[00:35:33] Hailie: Um, but I do have a restock tracker. This is actually an Asana now, it's just not fully complete, but it's gonna be the same thing, just. Formatted better, but we track everything. So when we order new restock, if the cleaner orders paper towels, we track when it was purchased, when it was shipped, when it was received, and also the status of if they have received it or the delivery date is pending or it got pushed back.

[00:35:56] Hailie: Just because overstock, uh, or restock can be kind of hard to track. And if you are just constantly order thi ordering things through your cleaners, not saying your cleaners are stealing anything from you, but sometimes it can poses a red flag of like, I just ordered 10 boxes of toilet paper. Why is it gone?

[00:36:16] Hailie: And you can kind of go through and be like, okay, I haven't hosted that many people. The toilet paper should still be there. So it's good to have and also keep track of your expenses and all of that.

[00:36:27] Hailie: Next is my communications. So I communicate with my VA team and my cleaner teams, everyone through Discord. I know Discord has like a gamer connotation to it, but it's just like Slack. I'm sure a lot of you're familiar with Slack. Um, but it's just Discord. It's a different software. Um, and I kind of color coded that picture on the left, everything that you can see.

[00:36:50] Hailie: So all the different color blocks are per complex or per property. So I have the same channels for every single complex. Um, so a couple of them are check-ins, so it would be. X complex check-in, um, cleaning, cleaning photos, and restock. Um, so I have all these channels with all of my team members. I also have a main chat, which is with me and all of my VAs.

[00:37:14] Hailie: Every single VA is in that chat. And then all of these other separate channels are private per complex and per cleaning team. So my VAs are in all these channels and they manage my cleaners, they manage the check-ins, they manage all of that. But we have all the same, uh, channels for every single property.

[00:37:31] Hailie: And then we also have a VA checklist. I kind of just wanted to include this as well. Um, this is something that I have them do where at the end of their shift, they just drop a little message on any big thing or anything that they did during their shift that they wanna leave to carry over for the next va.

[00:37:47] Hailie: This is just like a little debrief of how their day went. But then in Asana, I can really go through and track. But if I just open up my phone, it's good to see this.

[00:37:57] Mark: Here's a question. Obviously I, I can assume that you do a lot of work on your phone. Yes. Uh, when you open your phone up, what's the first app that you go to?

[00:38:08] Hailie: Um, probably. I don't know. It depends. Probably Discord, but it's just, I have my students in there as well. So like I have students in Discord. I have my cleaning team in Discord, and if it's not Discord, it's Instagram.

[00:38:25] Mark: Okay.

[00:38:29] Hailie: So, you know, they're pretty, it depends on the day. Depends on the day.

[00:38:33] Mark: Oh yeah. That did make me laugh. All right. Uh, no, I do love a discard. I mean, when I first looked at it, you're right, it was just full of crypto and NFTs and uh, and gamers. But the more that I've got to use it, I do love it. And if I could convince the Boosty people to move out Facebook groups, then I would go to Discord.

[00:38:50] Mark: That would be the place. But I've tried it before and it failed miserably. So we're stuck in Facebook groups forever. They're not, they're not budging. They're not budging. But I do love that. Okay. Next one. Task management.

[00:39:00] Hailie: Task management. So like I said, I use Asana now. I'm currently in the process of transitioning from the Google Excel sheets.

[00:39:07] Hailie: Always trying to be better, but again, there's plenty of task management softwares. I use this for myself. I have separate channels. That's just for me. I have to-do list. I have my daily workflows, everything like that. If I have meeting days, I have a meeting workflow. If I have conferences, conference workflows, I have the same systems for myself as well, not just for the business and also for my team members.

[00:39:30] Hailie: I use Asana. There's so many different ones. Try them, see which one you like. But I definitely think and recommend you get one.

[00:39:37] Mark: And just for everybody who is wondering, Asana is not a PMS. We're gonna talk about PMS in a little bit, but Asana is task management, not your property management software.

[00:39:47] Hailie: Yes. So it's one thing to, you know, have them track their work, but really they can technically go through and just press, you know, they did it, but how am I really tracking how they've done it?

[00:40:00] Hailie: Performance trackers, I use Time Doctor, this is an extension that they can download on their laptop, and basically what it does is it tracks everything. So it will randomly take screenshots of their screen when they're on the clock, and it also will track their idle time. So, you know, if they haven't touched their mouse in four hours and their shift is six hours, it's like.

[00:40:22] Hailie: I know something happened within those four hours time, doctor will notify me and track all of this. So every single, um, day most likely I go in and I just kind of briefly overview now, have I gotten a little comfortable with my team? Yes. Should I probably tracking this more? Yes. But unless I feel like things aren't really getting done, it doesn't really spark me to go do it.

[00:40:46] Hailie: 'cause I have been working with, with them so long. But in the beginning I was very heavy on this, especially during the training process because I hired a couple VAs and this happened two times. Someone, I caught them doing their math homework on the clock. So it's like, okay, you're on the clock. You could do your math homework, just not on the clock.

[00:41:06] Hailie: Like, I have all these obligations for you to do and you're doing your math homework. I would not have been able to catch that at least as early as time doctor did. Um, so little things like that, it's important. Um, and it's good to just track as well for yourself.

[00:41:21] Mark: I can relate to that. I've had people playing video games while clocking in and stuff and yeah, you know, it's hard.

[00:41:27] Mark: It's hard with these remote teams. It's hard. Yes, it is hard. But I do like that this is a really good tool just for everybody who hires remotely if you've not come across it. Uh, really, really good. And what I do as well is I've got an executive assistant who is amazing ane she's phenomenal at keeping everybody to track.

[00:41:44] Mark: 'cause we've got 32 members of team behind the scenes. Uh, so couple in time, doctor with ane we keep a a a a very strict ship so there's no more video games on math. So work during work time,

[00:41:57] Hailie: no more video games.

[00:41:59] Mark: Yeah.

[00:42:00] Hailie: And also too, another thing I just wanna quickly touch on is that obviously I could probably doing be doing more in terms of going back through and really tracking to make sure, which a little comfortable with that, I guess, which I can admit.

[00:42:14] Hailie: But the fact that they even have to go in and turn it on, they're more. Subconsciously going to make sure they do better because they know that you have the ability to go track it. Um, so every once in a while I'll hop in there and be like, oh, love how you did this. Even if like, I just watched that one little part to make them know that like, hey, I do go through and I do look and I am watching.

[00:42:35] Hailie: Um, so it's, it's good to have. Um, but yeah. Anyways, moving on. The next thing is daily communications and weekly meetings. Like I said, I spend very little time actually inside the business. I couldn't tell you the name of any of the guests I'm hosting right now, unless they cause problems, then I'm aware.

[00:42:53] Hailie: So knock on wood, no problems. Today it is also only 10 44, so it's still early. Um, but being very open with my team and communicating with them. Has completely changed the dynamic of the business. They know that if they need anything, I am there. I'm always, always have my phone. Always have my phone. I'm basically always on the clock.

[00:43:16] Hailie: But they know that if they need anything, it's a safe space to ask me. If they're confused on how to do something, they can ask me. I'm never gonna be upset with them. If they messed up and they're like, Hey, I accidentally did this. Could you help me? I'm always there. So communicating with them daily through text and discord every single day, and then again every single Friday.

[00:43:36] Hailie: The picture on the right, um, is our weekly team calls. So every single Friday, every single va, the weekday VAs hop in the week end VAs hop on and I also hop in there and it's just the weekday team communicating with the weekend team and letting them know if there's anything that needs to be carried over.

[00:43:55] Hailie: And then also I'm in there being like, Hey, is everyone good proud of you guys this week? We had a killer week. Being just there and letting them know that they're supported has gone so, so, so far.

[00:44:07] Mark: I love that.

[00:44:09] Hailie: And with them feeling supported, they are then empowered to make decisions without you, which is the biggest thing.

[00:44:16] Hailie: They don't have confidence unless they feel like they are supported. And obviously with that confidence, it takes time to build. So having good training, making sure you as a leader, show up for them, all of this will empower them to be able to do things and be like, you know what? I did that right. Haley would be proud and Haley would accept this.

[00:44:36] Hailie: This is right. They need to feel supported to go do these things on their own.

[00:44:44] Hailie: Payment. So since my VAs are international, my cleaning teams are the only ones that like are in the States 'cause they physically need to be there. But everyone else is international. I use Pay Ear, a Global Payment Solution. There's a lot of other ones, but I've been using Pay Ear for ever since I started and it's super, super great and that just makes paying my team overseas really simple.

[00:45:07] Mark: Yeah, there's others like wise.com, et cetera, but payee is a good one. Payee is least one. All this is where we're coming to the one where everybody will want to be knowing. We've had lots of questions about, hey, which, which pm MS is Haley using over here? So we're gonna dig into this. Assume

[00:45:21] Hailie: Yes. So it's a combination.

[00:45:24] Hailie: The only way you can have a remote business is with two things, teams and tech. So all of this before was about my teams, but with my teams is directly partnered with my tech stack. So we're going to break down everything that I use in my tech stack.

[00:45:41] Mark: And, uh, here's what I would like everybody to do before we crack on with the tech stack.

[00:45:46] Mark: Can you please everybody just go and follow ha Marie on Instagram. So it's H-A-I-L-I-E-M-A-A-R-I-E, which when we first got going, everybody tried to spell your name. Everybody failed miserably. Uh, so I'm, I'm, uh, I'm doing it. So what I want for you to do, go and take a picture now of the screen. Okay? Go and take a picture and go upload to Instagram and go and upload a story tag in Hailey Marie, and just say, thank you so much for this training today.

[00:46:19] Mark: Just go and show a little bit of love on Instagram. And if you're thinking, well, I don't really know Instagram. Well, we taught you that on Monday. We taught you how to do the Insta on on Monday. So go and take a screenshot, take a picture. Go onto to Instagram later on. Tag in Hailey and say, thank you so much for this training, and show some love, because this has been phenomenal.

[00:46:37] Mark: Now let's go and stick in with the, with this tech stack.

[00:46:42] Hailie: I love the little affirmational moments in here. I need it to keep going. Um, all right, so we're gonna talk about my automation formula. This is some juicy stuff. Definitely take a picture, make sure whatever screenshot you use, make sure I look decent.

[00:46:57] Hailie: Okay. If I look bad, take a new one. Um, all right, so first thing is my PMS. This basically centralizes everything. I don't know how people operate without a PMS and I use host away. I recently just transitioned to them. I have used all of the big players, all of the small players. Switching. A PMS is never fun.

[00:47:19] Hailie: I don't recommend it for anyone. Um, but I think I finally found one that I can grow with to those bigger scales that I plan to. Um, and basically, if you're not familiar with the PMS, it's a property management software. It centralizes literally everything. So when I first started Airbnb, I had no clue how people were.

[00:47:38] Hailie: Listing on Airbnb, vbo booking.com at the same time, and not like I thought they had to log into VRBO and booking.com every single day to respond to different messages, but really with A PMS that centralizes everything. So instead of logging into all these different softwares, you have one calendar. This one calendar has all of your bookings.

[00:47:59] Hailie: If you have a booking with Airbnb for four days, and then the next booking is with VRBO, it's all on one calendar. All of your messages are centralized, all of your cleaning is centralized, everything is in one place, and it makes listing on these other OTAs, which is very important to get more visibility, a lot easier.

[00:48:17] Hailie: That's the backbone, the heart and center. And then with that, you can then integrate with all these other softwares as well. I use, um, price Labs for my dynamic pricing strategies. It is, I again had no clue. I thought people just like randomly came up with what they price their properties, and some people do do that, but they're leaving a lot of money and probably occupancy on the table.

[00:48:39] Hailie: So with dynamic pricing softwares, price lab specifically, it basically tells me what I should be pricing my properties at and every single market, every single day. That number changes for very specific data driven reasons. Also, if there's things going on in the local area, there's a huge concert coming.

[00:48:59] Hailie: Sometimes I log in and I'm like, what is going on this weekend? Why? It's like $200 more than normal. They track all of that to make sure that you are pricing your property correctly, you get the most money and the highest occupancy rate. Outside of that is my cleaning team. I talked about this earlier. I use Turno.

[00:49:18] Hailie: You can hire, you can train, and you can also, um, basically have their calendar synced with yours. So it updates in real time. So if someone extends their checkout and they're no longer checking out today, the cleaner will automatically get a notification that, hey, they don't need to clean that property anymore.

[00:49:36] Hailie: Um, the odds of you catching that in real time in terms of a software catching it, not very likely. Um, and also you can have checklist internal, so they can't move forward without taking a picture of the trashcan, or they can't move forward without taking a picture of the bed. This also helps if there's any claims that need to happen.

[00:49:56] Hailie: If a guest checks in and says, Hey, you know, the bathroom is disgusting, and they send you a picture, you have a picture of your cleaners who just cleaned it. Showing how it looks before the guest checked in. So also, if you need to file a claim with Airbnb, that makes it super simple. Outside of that is my guest verification and protection.

[00:50:15] Hailie: This is a newly integrated software that I use, but honestly there is a lot of gray area, um, and fine lines where these OTAs say that they verify their guest Airbnb specifically. Like, oh, identity verified. If you read the fine print, it basically says, Hey, we asked for their ID and. That's it. Like they're not doing any sort of vetting whatsoever.

[00:50:39] Hailie: I have had so many horror stories that could have been prevented if I had just done background checks and things like that on my own. So I now use truvia. I have every single guest Id front, back and selfie with it, and they only get the code to the property after they submit their form. So truvia is integrated through hostway.

[00:50:58] Hailie: All of these are basically, it's just another automated message. I don't even notice that it goes out. It gets sent out before they check in, prompting them to fill out their form. They submit a picture of the back of their id, front selfie with it, and then truly then goes off and does their own verification and protection.

[00:51:15] Hailie: You can add damage waivers, um, you can add all of that kind of stuff through Truvia. And if I ever need a guest id, I have access to it through truvia. Next is my virtual guidebooks. As someone who primarily has properties in apartment complexes, one of the biggest struggles. Especially in the beginning was the check-in processes.

[00:51:37] Hailie: I don't know about you guys, but going to like a friend's Airbnb and on the way there I'm stressed out. I'm like, where do I park? Where's the elevator? Do I walk in through the leasing office? Is there a back door that I walk in? I am panicking, so you have to think. I'm hosting, I have 58 properties. I'm hosting people, basically new people every day or every other day.

[00:51:58] Hailie: That is a lot of room for confusion. So with touch day, I am able to upload videos, which is my favorite thing. You can upload photos for your check-in process through Airbnb, but videos has been a game changer for me. Anytime I'm there, if I'm there staging the properties, I'll take the videos myself. I'll go to the parking garage and walk exactly from their parking spot to the elevator door.

[00:52:24] Hailie: Then I have all this content. I will edit it, so I'll make it quicker. I'll add captions because sometimes people maybe are deaf and they can't hear. So I include captions on the screen and I upload this all into my touch day guidebook. So again, it's just another automated message that goes out. They click it and they can watch everything they need to do.

[00:52:43] Hailie: I also walk from the elevator to every single unit. If you're on the ninth floor, I literally will walk from the elevator to the ninth floor. Time consuming. But literally, I've had so many reviews highlighting the check-in process simply for the fact that there's videos. Also bestie ai. This is new AI messaging that I am using.

[00:53:05] Hailie: So one of my, during one of my time audits with my team, I realized that in the beginning I was spending most of my time doing guest communications. So I outsourced it to my VAs. Now, two years later, my VAs are extremely qualified to do a lot of high level things. And honestly, a time waster for them was guest communications.

[00:53:25] Hailie: So there's now ai, which is amazing, where I've been able to eliminate that from my VA's workflow. And now it's not a hundred percent reliant on these AI messaging, but it takes up about like. It saves them about 50%. There's about 50% of messages that go out through bestie AI without my team having to send them.

[00:53:46] Hailie: And that's 50% of their time that they get back as well that I can then have them go do more important things. So there's a bunch of like win back automations, um, direct booking automations. So many things you can do with bestie ai. And this is a newer one for me as well. But as they kind of grow and add things, I've been able to delegate more and more to relying on them.

[00:54:08] Hailie: Um, and then outside of that, these two things I guess aren't really tech, but they're crucial to have a good bookkeeper, a good CPAI used True Books. I met him at Host Con in, where was this? Houston I think.

[00:54:22] Mark: Yeah,

[00:54:22] Hailie: Houston. He's amazing. Yeah, he's amazing. He has experience in short term rentals in Airbnb. So like that was a big issue I was running into, I was hiring like Mon Paw to do my taxes and I, when I got the bill, I was like.

[00:54:37] Hailie: I have to pay all that. So he's helped me save a lot of money and learn like a lot of like legal loopholes on how to pay less money in taxes. Um. So just find someone, even if it's not them who knows about the industry, I think is crucial. Um, and also you wanna make sure your bookkeeping is good from the jump.

[00:54:57] Hailie: You don't wanna screw yourself come time, taxes come around, trust me. Um, and then discord where I do all of my communications, this is the whole, every single thing is covered here. Everything,

[00:55:08] Mark: uh, this is fantastic. And as you can imagine, there are, there are questions, but obviously everybody's got to understand when, when you're choosing a tech, it's not that Haley's tech stack is like the blanket tech stack that you should all.

[00:55:24] Mark: Right. Obviously these work for Haley, but most importantly her team in so many different ways. You could easily substitute Host Away for Hospitable, or for Guesty, or for Hostfully or for the loads of other PMSs. You can substitute dynamic pricing with price Labs to wheelhouse cleaning, turnout to breeze away, guest verification, Tru Vita, and then AI messaging.

[00:55:46] Mark: I know Sam Dun, that bestie so well, but there's, there's so many of us that are out there, and obviously now hospitable. Do AI and Hospi do ai. What is really important with this is that everything that Haley brings into her business, as you can tell from how er Haley is with every other single vertical within a business, it has to fit the flow and more importantly, has to work with the team.

[00:56:10] Mark: Um, and that is really, really, really important. So everybody's saying, what about X? What about, yeah, y So that's truly, truly, truly Im important. One thing that's really good that's come up. Um, and I am a massive fan of Truvia, which used to be super hug. The whole guest verification thing is so important.

[00:56:30] Mark: Have you, how do you get around or how does you or your team get around it when a guest comes to you and says, Hey, I don't want to give my id, do you? We don't host them. There you go. See, that's the question. You don't host them. And at the end of the day, if your guest, if you are a type of person who is gonna say, I don't want to give my id, then why do you think that person doesn't want to be giving up their id?

[00:56:51] Mark: That's the question you should be asking yourself.

[00:56:54] Hailie: Yeah. It's very, very simple. And also I've noticed too, operating from a non scarcity mindset, just because this person inquired and was gonna book, I'm very confident that if they don't meet my requirements, I'm gonna get booked anyways. Whether it's with them, it's most likely gonna be with a higher qualified lead anyways.

[00:57:12] Hailie: So once you take that scarcity out, you know, your systems and operations work, you know, getting op a hundred percent occupancy, every day is gonna happen. It eliminates you. Lowering your standards just because someone doesn't wanna send you their id. I know if I go somewhere and someone asks, I'm like, sure, I know I'm not gonna do anything.

[00:57:29] Hailie: Here's my ID like. I don't care.

[00:57:32] Mark: Yeah, a hundred percent. So here's why I throw a question to everybody in the audience who is watching. Obviously we've got PMS dynamic pricing, clean and guest verification, virtual guidebook, I messaging, bookkeeping, discord. What are you using? What is your tech stack? 'cause again, uh, this is a really cool topic to have and it's the tech stack is very, very important.

[00:57:49] Mark: Um, I am so jealous of everybody right now with the tech stack that you all have available to you, because when I came back into the family business in 2011, we had nothing. We had a pen, we had paper, we had Tip X, we had a raises. So we had nothing online. We had no PMS, we had no dime pricing. When we came to doing our pricing, we just literally put our price up by a pound every year.

[00:58:10] Mark: We were awful at it. And so now that the tech and the, the stack that you all have is unbelievable and I'm, I'm so excited for all of you. So love that. And there's loads of different ones, um, coming through. Right. Let's go to the next one 'cause we've got about five or six more slides to, to go.

[00:58:28] Hailie: All right.

[00:58:28] Hailie: So like I've mentioned before, with tech and teams, I've been able to build this amazing empire. And without both of them I would not be here. And also I've done this scaled so quickly within two years without the guest experience being sacrificed. Last year I did 1.4 million only on Airbnb, not considering direct bookings or any OTA.

[00:58:51] Hailie: Um, this year I'm expected to do over 3 million just on Airbnb at this 58 properties. If I sign these 35 more, and it's still only May, hopefully I'm like 5 million. I don't know. Let's keep it going.

[00:59:07] Mark: Amazing.

[00:59:07] Hailie: And also with five star reviews, I've ho last year I hosted over 11,000 nights, 92% overall occupancy with over 2,400 reviews.

[00:59:18] Hailie: Obviously it's 4.87, okay? Not five stars. But you can't win them all. So I take that as five stars. It's close enough. Um. And yeah, it's pretty incredible.

[00:59:29] Mark: Yes. That is very incredible seeing that you've got over 2000 reviews, so well done.

[00:59:34] Hailie: Thank you. All right. And then just to kind of wrap it up, um, I'm gonna talk about some bulletproof SOPs that can allow you to completely remove yourself.

[00:59:44] Hailie: I've talked on them a little bit, but I'm just gonna reiterate it again. Um, to close things off here,

[00:59:52] Hailie: without SOPs, adding more properties means adding more work. I talked about this a little bit earlier, but so this 35 unit deal, I might close or I am gonna close. If I add on these new properties, I have the full blown confidence that I'm not gonna be insanely stressed out during this next month because I just onboarded 35 new properties.

[01:00:16] Hailie: I'm like at ease because everything has a system. Everything is seamless. It's not necessarily more work or more stress, it's just you implement it again, you rinse and you repeat. And with SOPs, you and your team can scale without adding that stress. Obviously when you add on 35 units, it's gonna be a little bit busier, but it's not necessarily more stressful.

[01:00:40] Hailie: It's just redoing the same thing they've done the whole other two years. And there is literally SOPs for everything. Um, you can create them with your Loom recordings, put 'em in chat, GBT, you can create them yourself, whatever it is. Having SOPs is crucial. There's guest communication, SOPs, cleaning SOPs, guest check-in, checkout, SOPs, pricing, SOPs, you name it.

[01:01:07] Hailie: Every single aspect of your business can have an SOP and I think it should have an SOP. Um. It. It's just you need it. Okay. If I reiterate anything, you need SOPs.

[01:01:19] Mark: I think that's a slide. SOPs, you just need it. Yes. Okay. Yes,

[01:01:21] Hailie: you need it. That's it. And also another important thing with these SOPs, not only is it good to have and you know reassuring to have, but it makes training new team members literally so simple.

[01:01:33] Hailie: My VAs are actually the one who train all of my new employees. So if I were to sign a seventh VA today, hire one, my head VA or someone below her would then train them with those SOPs and those virtual videos in the Google Drive.

[01:01:47] Mark: There's a really good question, come in and I was gonna ask this. What does so P mean

[01:01:51] Hailie: Systems of operations.

[01:01:54] Mark: There you go. Systems of operations. Guests should have a seamless experience.

[01:02:01] Hailie: Yep. So they should have a seamless experience no matter what property they stay in. If they stay in Nashville, Tennessee, and they stay in a property in Austin, Texas, all hosted by me, their experience should be five stars no matter what they, they're communications with.

[01:02:18] Hailie: My VAs should be the same whether they're talking to Becky or they're talking to Tiffany, it should be the same because they're all following the same exact thing.

[01:02:30] Hailie: And yeah, basically the secret method, automate, delegate, and scale that has been able to get me to where I am today. Um, and on this next slide, I also included some pictures just to show you kind of what I've been up to recently. I did two months completely backpacking. I went to Southeast Asia. I went to Europe, literally all with my laptop and my phone.

[01:02:52] Hailie: And this was last year in March. So I only had 48 properties. But I was in Japan, I was in, uh, Thailand, I was in Greece, fully remote, literally fully remote. Um, and I was still running my business exactly like I am today. So. If you guys wanna connect with me, this is my little popple. I just discovered this not that long ago.

[01:03:16] Hailie: All of my information is on there. My socials, think my email. Um, anything you need to connect with me is there. And if you want to message me, if you have questions, I'm an open book. Um, so just shoot me a message and I'll be more than happy to help

[01:03:32] Mark: A thing that deserves one of these

[01:03:39] Mark: well done. Can everybody please show Hailey Marie all the love in the world? Tap that love heart emoji button. If you're watching on the socials. Drop some thank yous in here. There's a lot of people asking about. Courses and help me, help me. Help me, obviously if you scan that popple and I'll put the links in the WhatsApp later, it'll take you to, uh, Haley's landing page and I'm sure there'll be more information about how you can potentially work with, 'cause you obviously use Discord a lot, and obviously you've got coaching clients in there as as well.

[01:04:10] Mark: How many people at the moment are you currently helping with, with their business? Would you say Haley, just top of your head?

[01:04:16] Hailie: I have, I checked yesterday. I have 857 students all on different levels. So I have complete beginners. And then I also have people who are trying to scale and optimize. So they already have properties.

[01:04:29] Hailie: Maybe they have 20, maybe they have 30. Um, so yeah, I help everyone. It's beginner friendly, expert friendly. There's room for me to help all of you.

[01:04:38] Mark: Uh, and obviously in there there was a burning question. So obviously you do the arbitrage model, which for a lot of people it could be known as subleasing or rent to rent.

[01:04:45] Mark: Basically, you find a homeowner, you go to said homeowner and say, Hey, I'm gonna take this property off your hands. Uh, one of the questions is, how do you find new homeowners? So in 2025, I assume people just give you deals, but you know what, what's one of the core things that you are teaching people when you're saying, someone says, Haley, how do I get in front of a new owner?

[01:05:07] Hailie: It's really a volume. It's a numbers game. Um, a lot of people will come into the business thinking, oh. And I mean, social media makes it seem this way. It's super easy, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You join in in two weeks, you can have a property, which you could, but are you actually doing what it's required within those two weeks to get there?

[01:05:26] Hailie: Probably not. It's a numbers game. So if you're coming in doing 20 outreach messages a day, you are just gonna make yourself very, very unlucky. If you come in and you do a hundred outreach messages a day, you're just increasing your chances of getting lucky and getting a yes. So it's really just a volume.

[01:05:43] Hailie: You need to outperform your competition. You need to call more people than your friends are calling.

[01:05:48] Mark: Mm. And obviously, because now you're getting a bit of a name for yourself and and whatnot, you've becoming the go-to that we talk about a lot. Are you getting op other opportunities, for example, management, co-hosting, investments, et cetera?

[01:06:01] Hailie: Yeah, it's been really. Imposter syndrome I mentioned earlier, it's been weird. Like I, I feel like I'm getting more and more opportunities every day and I, I owe that to like the brand and social media that I've built online. But yeah, I'm getting people who are like, Hey, we have 800 units and we hate our traditional PM company.

[01:06:23] Hailie: Can you help me? Um, so yeah, it's definitely, and I think too, there's a lot of these older people who have been operating in the industry for a really long time are so used to just hiring huge known property management companies who aren't even fulfilling. Like the guest experience is terrible, their systems are terrible, they're not happy.

[01:06:42] Hailie: So now they're coming to people like me who are kind of more on. The newer side because the industry is always changing, um, and adapting. And I think they're kind of realizing like, dang, these property management companies aren't really doing enough. Um, and now they're coming to people like me to help them, you know, make more money and get more units.

[01:07:02] Mark: Amazing. Hailey, thank you so much for that. Obviously, please, everybody go and take a picture and hopefully you have been taking pictures. Go onto Instagram, go open your stories tag in Hailey Marie so she can see all the love later on when she's, uh, on the phone. 'cause obviously, as Hailey said, after Discord, Instagram's, Instagram's the next, the next best place that you, you're gonna find her.

[01:07:24] Mark: I can vouch for Haley's social media skills. I do love, uh, checking in and seeing the stories and, and seeing that, that is amazing. And obviously active on TikTok as as, as well. But yeah, just, just remember as Haley's talking 22. Unbelievable. Right. 22 years old. Uh, it is amazing to see and listen, it is an absolute for me.

[01:07:47] Mark: Like I say, the reason why I put this bootcamp on is that I wanted to showcase new voices, new speakers, new talent, and between yourself and Emily and Fede yesterday, I feel like we just hit a home run here. Uh, so thank you so much for, for, for being part of it.

[01:08:02] Hailie: Yes. Thank you for considering me and allowing me to do this.

[01:08:06] Hailie: I look up to you, obviously in the industry as well, and I appreciate you giving me the chance to share my knowledge and yeah. I'm so happy I'm, it's 10:00 AM and I'm like, all right, I'm ready to go. I'm feeling inspired.

[01:08:19] Mark: You're about to go check in with your team, you know? Yeah. The discords gonna be flying, so.

[01:08:24] Mark: Awesome. So for everybody asking Yes, this has been recorded. Yes. Yesterday's was recorded. Yes. Mondays was recorded. It is all in the Facebook group, and it will be there for seven days. Seven days. You've got the rest of this week to go and check it out. This time next week, it'll disappear, uh, because we've gotta get ready for our next bootcamp.

[01:08:42] Mark: The next bootcamp I'm gonna be running is the end of June. I'm gonna get dates announced soon, and we are going to focus solely on the MTR strategy, the 30 day stapler strategy. I've lined up three amazing speakers, Ruben, Kenya, Dr. Rachel Gainsborough, Ryan Luke. We're gonna focus just on that strategy in the next bootcamp.

[01:09:03] Mark: We're gonna get it in before the summer holidays, before the summer gets going crazy. Uh, so it gets you all set up for the shoulder season, as we call it over here. But again, thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you very much, Hailey. I love it. We're gonna finish the broadcast. Have a great day everybody.