I found Brian Chesky’s Airbnb Listing and tried to make a booking

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Transcript from the Episode

[00:00:00] Mark: Alright, uh, my name is Mark Simpson, giving hosts all over the world the tools, the tactics, the training, and the confidence to go and get more Derrick bookings. And today we are gonna be talking about the Airbnb Winter release, what it means for you, what it means for the platform. Uh, and most importantly, we're joined by a very special guest who has had a sneak peak at all of these new features, uh, for a little while now.

[00:00:24] So I'm very, very excited. We're gonna be announcing some really cool. But as we get started on this very special podcast episode, it's only right that we, we begin with a little freestyle wrap. This is a freestyle. I'm going off the dump.

[00:00:41] Ready for my closeup. Good looking. Let me tell you. Get more bookings. Ah, that'd be nice. Giving me tips. Chosen advice. Yeah, you're gonna get 'em hun. You're gonna sit back. Listen to Mark Simpson. Whoa. Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee Podcast. Bruce Lee. Let Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard on the teas loose leaf.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] Picking up those rhymes. Don't write it. Just do a loose leaf. If you want my respect, you'll better put direct. Mm. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes.

[00:01:13] Mr. John Hildebrand, thank you very much for joining us today on a, on a pretty big day. Thank you, uh, very much for giving up your time. Cause I can imagine it's being pretty busy, um, today. So what we're gonna be doing today, we're gonna be talking about the Airbnb winter release. Thank you to everybody that's tuning in, live with us.

[00:01:30] Uh, if you could just do as a massive favor if you are watching live, cuz all I see is a number at the moment. If you are watching live on all the. That we are tuning in from. Just put a hashtag live. Uh, and also as well in the next comment, let us know what you think of the Airbnb winter release. This is obviously gonna get turned into a, a podcast episode, uh, which you can go find at Boostly.co.uk/podcast.

[00:01:53] But right now, this is a, a live video streaming everywhere cuz today of all days there is a, a winter release that's being released. Now, my, my [00:02:00] goal obviously is to make it that when there is a, a new Airbnb release, you just go, oh, that's, That is my ultimate goal because you'll be 65% direct and then 35% others.

[00:02:10] But I know for a lot of people this actually means a lot and, but there's a lot of things to sort of dig into. And, you know, I fought who better to reach out to, to Mr. John Hilderbrand, who has had, uh, a pretty crazy month, I think it's fair to say. Uh, he's been, uh, he's been all over and everywhere. And I'll let John introduce himself properly in, in a second.

[00:02:29] Uh, and then we'll sort of dig into everything that we've done and we've even managed to find. Mr. Brian Chesky listing, which we will dig into a as well. So John, can you just take a minute please and just sort of give a super quick synopsis of, you know, um, your history into getting into short-term rentals.

[00:02:44] Um, but more importantly, what has been happening to your life since Las Vegas? Oh, man.

[00:02:50] John: Yeah, that's good. Just real quick, I think you froze on my end, but I think if anybody else sees that, I'm not sure, but on my. You're frozen. [00:03:00] Uh, what's up everybody? Super stoked to be here. Mark, you're the best. Super stoked to be here, like I said, so quick story.

[00:03:08] I've been hosting since early 2016. I was a starving traveling artist for a long time and my place would sit empty and uh, I turned to Airbnb. I had no freaking idea what I was doing. No clue. I turned it on, started booking a bunch of places, and I started traveling more and more. That ended up paying. , all of my bills, all my mortgage, my overhead, and I was like, oh, that's kind of cool.

[00:03:32] I'm like, I wonder if I can keep doing this instead of being a starving photographer the rest of my life. That was in 2016. Fast forward, my brother's in real estate in Malibu. Him and I purchased a fixer up place in Englewood next to the football stadium, turned it into a full-time vacation rental and exploded.

[00:03:52] Did that for about a year and a half. Just sold the house. Recently moved to Arizona and. Three homes, gutted 'em and brought [00:04:00] 'em up to Airbnb. One of them's a plus listing, uh, became a super host on all of 'em. So that's like a very quick story of, of my journey. And the last year have been absolutely insane for me.

[00:04:14] I've never thought I would be where I am now. Uh, I'm an official Airbnb ambassador, which got launched today. To the world, which is super exciting. I was in Vegas, gotta meet with like everyone at the trade show and kind of understand the industry a lot better. And then like the icing on the cake of everything is I went to San Francisco to the Airbnb headquarters and did a two day workshop with so many amazing employees at Airbnb, which we'll talk about more.

[00:04:43] Um, yeah, and that's my quick introduction story. I hope that

[00:04:46] Mark: was good. Very good. Very, very good. So, Very quick. Can you quick name, drop the business, you know, uh, the, you know, just sort of way like how many properties you've got, just, just sort of Hilde homes, obviously that's the one, [00:05:00] uh, you're based out of, uh, Arizona.

[00:05:01] Like, and like any sort of other things that you can share that's sort of been happening recently. I know that you've, you've been doing quite, quite a bit of work with like regulations and whatnot, like, like how, how far into it now would you say? After doing this a couple of years, how far down this, this journey are you?

[00:05:15] Would you say that you're.

[00:05:17] John: Man, I feel like I'm, so, I mean, it's 24 hours, seven days a week of, of short term rentals. Right. And now it's like fully in my d n a at this point. So like, yeah, my company, I, I branded a company. I'm really into branding and telling a story. So my company name is Hil be Holmes. My last name is Hildabrand, so it's short for Hildebrand Hildy Holmes.

[00:05:39] Uh, I have a YouTube channel where I, I teach a lot of content on YouTube. Um, yeah. And. Pretty stoked on my Boley website. I have to plug for sure. Yeah, it's been an amazing journey and like a very scary process at first and it, I don't know why I was scared, but I have no reason to be. I've gotten a six month [00:06:00] booking on Boley not too long ago.

[00:06:01] I got a three month, 45 days, so I'm all for it. Good man. Um, Yeah, super, super stoked. And then, yeah, just to talk real quick, I am super advocate on policy. I feel like all host, no matter what platform you're on, you better start speaking up and be very strong advocate in your space. I work extremely closely with rent Responsibly and then I also created a board here in Arizona where I'm based in Scottsdale.

[00:06:28] We have over like 2,600 members and we're just fighting to protect our short term rental. Yeah.

[00:06:34] Mark: Shout out to rent responsibility. That's, that's awesome. And the, the amazing work that they're doing and yeah. You know, it, it is b for me. Um, I came across your just enthusiasm, um, at some point this year, and I knew I had to reach out.

[00:06:48] And since then it's just been, it's been amazing being able to like, Work together on, on obviously the, the website and just sort of introducing you to like a few people. And now obviously you're working with, um, with an amazing team at Hostfully for the PMs behind the [00:07:00] scenes and, and, and all that cool stuff.

[00:07:01] And as well being, doing all of the things with, with Airbnb, which is why we wanted you on, because you know, there's so many people that could potentially talk about the winter release, but you've had being able to, to dig into it. Get first access to it and, and speci specifically go to the head office and, and talk to 'em.

[00:07:17] So it's cool. So this isn't gonna be an Airbnb, uh, bashing podcast. I wanna get it from angles, from both sides. I feel like, I feel like you are really good to talk about this because obviously you, you're in with Airbnb, but it's, you understand the benefits of building your own brand. Your own business and, you know, having, having that, that fail safe to fall back on as well, which is, which is epic.

[00:07:37] So what we're gonna do, um, we're gonna start off, cuz a lot of people may not have known this, but there was a video released today. So we're gonna start off, I'm gonna share my screen. Uh, both me and and John can see this. And we're just gonna very quickly watch the, uh, a little couple of segments of the the listing.

[00:07:53] We're gonna stop it and we're just gonna dig into little bits as we go, if that sounds good. Yes, sir. All right. [00:08:00]

[00:08:01] John: Locking up. Quiet

[00:08:02] Mark: please. Rolling. Rolling for one 19, take one.

[00:08:19] That's your art. Yeah. A lot of this art I did when I was in high school. So you're taking pictures of

[00:08:24] John: all your.

[00:08:26] Mark: Well, I'm taking photos of this house because I'm gonna put it on Airbnb. All right. I wanna stop it just there very, very quickly. Wanna stop it right there. Now, uh, as we could see in, in that video, Mr.

[00:08:36] Cheki is walking around his apartment, his house in, uh, in, in San Francisco. And his exact words were, Uh, I'm taking pictures cause I'm going to upload it to, to Airbnb now. I dunno, uh, if what your first impression of, uh, of that John, but for me it was very interesting that he was just walking around taking pictures on his iPhone and he wasn't, uh, a proper, [00:09:00] proper camera or a, or, or I'll get in a, like a proper photography coming around.

[00:09:04] Now, what's your view on that or your fault on that? Do you reckon that we're reading into it or do you reckon he's literally saying it is so easy to get on on this?

[00:09:13] John: Dude, that is so freaking funny that you said that because the second I saw him whip out his iPhone, I was like, oh man, he didn't even bring me out a camera.

[00:09:22] I thought for sure he would've whipped out a camera or maybe had someone there. But I think that's just us being like super into the business and knowing that like, sure, an iPhone could take like a decent photo. But you, you, you need professional photos and Airbnb has like the professional photo department and, and whatnot.

[00:09:41] So yeah. That's funny you said that. Cause I was literally the same thing. I was like, oh man, . But maybe like we're. , we're probably reading too far into it where it's like it is that easy to just take a couple of

[00:09:50] Mark: pictures and launch. So, um, talking about being how easy and whatnot, he's literally listed this today.

[00:09:57] So, uh, this is, if you look at the screen now, [00:10:00] everybody, this is the Airbnb website and this is actual Brian's property in, uh, San Francisco. And if you ever. Have heard any of the story around Airbnb and how it got started? Uh, this image right here will stand out. Obama owes, um, that's very prevalent with the story of Airbnb.

[00:10:19] Um, You can, uh, you can go and check that out if you, if you're not already, you can go and, um, ,find out more about why Obama rose means, means something. Uh, definitely in this, um, os as well, you can check out the listing is literally the pictures that he's taken now, . Now if we, uh, if we think back to it, It would be, it would pre pretty interesting if, uh, those are the actual pictures that we can see here.

[00:10:45] If those are the actual pictures that he took on his phone, because you know, you're good with a camera, John , you're very good with a camera. To me, those don't look like the . These don't look like the pictures. But he was, uh, that he was taken on a, on [00:11:00] on, on his phone, on, on that video. But again, I think we're being a bit picky there.

[00:11:03] Uh, so what I thought would be really. Because you can't, does you have a, uh, an iPhone

[00:11:07] John: that none of us have? Maybe So

[00:11:08] Mark: the light is the Leica phone or something? Maybe so, maybe so. Now I was actually thinking if I could maybe check about an inquiry, but as you can see, the man's fully booked out. . He's, he, he's, he is busy.

[00:11:23] So I thought what we'd do well, we'll send him a little message. How about this, uh, and again, this could get me into trouble. I've been told to stop talking about Airbnb as much as I do, but I thought, you know, this is a bit of fun. So let's put Hey, Brian. Love the Obama O's. Um, looking forward to coming and staying with you one day in the future.

[00:11:45] We can, uh, I'll, I'll bring you a copy in my book.

[00:11:51] There we go. Send a message. Oh, I can't, I can't send a message because I haven't chosen dates. Oh. Missed it. I'll, [00:12:00] I'll tweet him. I'll tweet him later. So anyway, right. Let's get back, uh, let's get back to the video. Um, so he was literally just talking about, uh, there's a lot of, there's a lot of faff in here, so let me just go skip a little bit forward, right.

[00:12:15] So here we go. This is Mr. Chesky taking up the, uh, the

[00:12:18] John: interview.

[00:12:19] Mark: I'm excited to show you what we've created for our 2020. Winter release

[00:12:25] John: starts, whoops. With Airbnb

[00:12:26] Mark: setup, Airbnb setup is the all new super easy way to Airbnb your home from listing your place all the way to getting your first booking.

[00:12:36] Airbnb setup is designed around a simple idea. The best way to help you do something new is will help of someone who's done it before. And we have a lot of people just like this. Our very best hosts, they're called super hosts and they're at the heart of urban Airbnb. So let me show you how this works, and this is where you come in, Mr.

[00:12:58] John Hildebrand. So can you just sort [00:13:00] of, um, obviously Brian's gonna go and show that in the video, but can you just sort of break down like what you do, um, behind the scenes for, for Airbnb? And bearing in mind this is literally what, um, Brian Cheskys doing on, on that video there.

[00:13:13] John: Yeah, real brief, uh, just to be clear, I don't work for Airbnb, so I speak pretty freely.

[00:13:19] I'm an ambassador, but Airbnb knows that about me. I, I speak insanely, freely. I tell them how I feel and vice versa. So I don't want you guys to think that like I'm fluffing it for any reason. I speak on what I like and I'm what I don't like on, on everything I talk about. So let me just get that out. I don't work for Airbnb.

[00:13:36] Um, but with that, it's called the ASCA Super Host program. My personal belief is I think it's a way to educate guests from day one or host, sorry, from day one. We all know when you know you're intimidated or you're scared, or you don't know how to set up a listing, do you need a permit? How do you do photos?

[00:13:56] Like what about a caption? There's all these things going through your brain whenever you're trying to [00:14:00] set something up, and I think it's Airbnb's way to link someone like myself who's an expert in it, and. The most common questions, cuz it's usually just like a common question issue or just some reassurance.

[00:14:13] So let's say Mark here wants to build an Airbnb profile, , you could use my link directly. Or if you go to Airbnb and you're signing up as a host, you'll see a little button that says Ask a super host. Then you and I will be connected, and then I have a backend dashboard. I can see the progress that you're making when you're building out your listing.

[00:14:37] You can ask me questions, we can jump on a Zoom call. I can review your listing. Um, it's, it's pretty cool. I think it's a, a way for them to, like I said, clean up the platform a little bit from. The very beginning stages. Does that make sense? Oh

[00:14:52] Mark: yeah. A hundred percent. And it, it makes, it makes so much sense for Airbnb to do this because just like when you're talking about [00:15:00] setting up your direct booking website, it was very easy to get overwhelmed with everything cuz there is a lot to take on board when you're sort of switching to like a direct booking business.

[00:15:08] Just imagine going back to like day one when you're just starting up full stop from your scratch. It's very overwhelming. So to have access to somebody like yourself, access to Natalie Palmer, access to Marilyn Taylor. Uh, to, to Brandi and some other people that are super host that went along to the, you know, San Francisco offices is, is, is a, is a win for them.

[00:15:28] And again, you are not working for Airbnb. You're very much like your, your own person, which is why we're wanting to get you on this, which, which is awesome. Uh, because trying to get Airbnb anywhere near this is, is ridiculously hard. And I know a few people who work at Airbnb as well, but they will not come on these podcasts, which is, which is fun.

[00:15:44] Yeah. Alright, so yeah, just to,

[00:15:46] John: to, uh, comment on a comment right. He said that somebody said its scary part is not all super hosts are experts, and I fully agree with that. A thousand percent agree. So I want to, there's a very long [00:16:00] onboarding process. I was lucky enough to be part of the pilot program. I was one of three that started the program.

[00:16:06] Um, and I got insane amounts of training. I have to go through interviews all the time. They're constantly looking at my profile, they're looking at my reviews. It. . It's not if, if I'm not meeting the standards, I could be kicked off at any point. And so just to be clear on that, it's not anybody who's just a super host.

[00:16:24] Uh, you definitely have to go through training. You definitely have to sign your life away a million different times over again. Yeah. .

[00:16:30] Mark: Yeah. And you've had, but yeah. Yeah. And, and you've had a, a crazy, like N D N A double. Triple N D N A, just so you couldn't talk about anything. And you were at headquarters a couple of weeks ago until today.

[00:16:39] So, you know, we know how seriously you take it. Right. Let's go to the next pitch. Cause the next pick he's gonna. About air cover. So we're gonna bring this in grades to air cover to give you even more protection. One of our biggest upgrades is identity verification. From the beginning we realized that to let someone into your home, you have to trust them.

[00:16:59] And to trust [00:17:00] them, you have to know who they are. So what if we could verify every single guest booking on Airbnb? Well, that's what we're gonna do. We're starting today by verifying guests in 35. This covers 90% of our reservations next spring. Every guest booking an Airbnb around the world will be verified.

[00:17:20] Now, once a guest is verified and they make a reservation, it's important it doesn't lead to a party in your home. So that's why we built reservation screening technology. This technology looks at hundreds of factors to block bookings, likely to lead to unauthorized parties. We're launching the US and Canada this fall, and we're expanding worldwide next spring.

[00:17:39] Now, in the rare. Now I just wanna very quickly stop it right here. Now, um, it's very interesting with what they're doing and obviously, uh, guest verification, et cetera, uh, which is obviously a good thing. You know, ev everybody needs to be verified. You need to know how to say that. But the one thing here about this, this next thing that they're talking about, I dunno if you picked on up as well, [00:18:00] um, but anybody that's got a large property, You are obviously going to get people making reservations and it's going to be for, you know, more than 10, 12 people.

[00:18:10] My worry. Is that what he's talking about is that he's relying on ai, he's relying on bots, and there could be a very solid booking. A friend of ours, Kyle Stanley, fearless Kyle on uh, Instagram, uh, did a live video today and he was talking exactly about the time. He's got a large property, and he knew through his own verification processes, it was a solid booking.

[00:18:33] It was never going to be a party. Now, Airbnb have had a lot of trouble with parties. It's been well, well, well, well documented. We don't need to go into that, but he was like, this is a solid booking. I wanna accept it because it's gonna be a, you know, a, a large booking, a very, very good booking. But Airbnb wouldn't allow it.

[00:18:49] Um, now, , what's your thoughts on that now? Do you have large properties? Do you have any, does has it, has it happened to you where you've said, no, this is a solid booking, but Airbnb has said no. Like, is [00:19:00] like, what's your thoughts on, on what they're just talking about? Just there and then?

[00:19:04] John: Yeah. In my, in my area to Scottsdale, Arizona, the policy and stuff has gotten so insanely strict and on large homes, it's a, it's a major concern.

[00:19:15] They're trying to pass a law where we can't have more than six occupancy. And their children, which even if you have a 15 bedroom house, you can't have more than six guests. So it's insane. But to rely on AI to screen that to me is very, very scary. Also, there's been, I have many large homes, um, that sleep 12, 15, 16 people, no problem at all.

[00:19:42] Yeah, that part makes me a, a little worried. I've never had an issue with that myself. Um, mm-hmm. , one of my properties got flagged one time during a major holiday. It was a last minute booking, but then once I looked at that guest, to be honest, they seemed a little shady. So,

[00:19:57] Mark: I too, well, it's like, it's like speaking like from [00:20:00] personal.

[00:20:00] I'm, I'm a family of six, you know, I've got four kids. Like, I would literally be on the edge of what would be deemed by the state or the council or, or the county is like a, a reasonable booking. And you know, one of the big things that has come out the last 18 months is the reconnect. So everybody that was shut inside couldn't get.

[00:20:18] Couldn't see family for Christmas, for holidays, et cetera. Last year, Airbnb were banging on about this. Vrbo, it's their main selling point was the reconnect, like reconnecting families after the big look, like the big shutdown. So to sort of go total 180 on this is, is, is, is, is, is surprising and I feel like for anybody that has got a large property, maybe you are best.

[00:20:40] I mean, obviously what we talk about so much is not just relying on one platform, getting listed on Severals, building up your direct booking engine, but it would be really wise for somebody now to create some form of listing site that would be catered more for the for the larger stays. Because I feel like with Airbnb visit an an even extra [00:21:00] barrier to entry to prevent you from actually doing any good on it if you're just planning on being on that one platform.

[00:21:06] John: Yeah, I'm, I'm really curious on that because there is Airbnb luxe, and a lot of those homes are, are big properties. You know, five bedrooms, easy, six bedrooms, eight bedrooms, uh, yeah. To rely on AI seems a little scary.

[00:21:20] Mark: Very, very much so. Now, the, the rest of that video, um, was just talking about, um, pretty much the same, same air cover is going up to 3 million.

[00:21:34] Million, 3 million from 1 million. Um, and it covers anything from arts valuables, uh, cars and boats, which I thought, which I thought was pretty funny, but throwing boats in as well. Uh, but there's 10, there's 10 updates in, in total. I dunno if you've, you've seen any more. Um, so we'll go from there. Even more.

[00:21:50] Air cover guest identify ent, the identity verification, which we've spoken about. Reservation screening technology, easier to file a claim, uh, easier to file a claim. I dunno if you've got any [00:22:00] other information on it. Now. How has, how has your experiences. This year with claims, have you had to fill many in?

[00:22:06] All you have to do is look on Facebook groups and you can see the amount of mess people are getting themselves into in this. But what, what's your thoughts currently on the process and what feedback, if any, have you given to them in terms of improving it and have they listened?

[00:22:20] John: Yeah, man. I'm scared to talk about this one because every time I talk about this one, I get like a bad guess and then I have to file a claim.

[00:22:26] it's so weird. , I swear I get jinxed, but I like, I've had to file a claim. I filed a claim one time that was like $8,500. It was my second guest. Uh, they trashed my house, smoked in it, and I, I was losing my mind. It was, I just launched the house. I spent my life savings, remodeling this place. That one was easy.

[00:22:46] It was like I filed the report. A couple months later, I had all my money, no harm, no foul. I was like, oh shit, that's easy. Uh, but I just had a guess not that long ago. That was a nightmare. We had to kick out. I had to like call [00:23:00] the cops multiple times. Like it was not a good experience whatsoever. And I just found out last couple days ago that I got denied on my claim.

[00:23:09] And I, I have no idea why I filed it. I know what I'm doing when it comes to filing. Step by step by step, and some, I have no idea why. To this day, now I'm trying to fight it and yeah, so what I've been told, I hope this is. Correct that the, they realize that it's such a disconnect and they don't tell you anything and you don't know what stage you're in.

[00:23:33] You don't know if you filed something incorrectly or, or incorrectly. There's just no feedback. So I'm told I haven't done the process, but I'm told that you can go through a step-by-step process. It's gonna be way easier. It gives you a better breakdown of how you're supposed to file what you're supposed to file, and then you can watch it in real time.

[00:23:52] You can see what stages it's in, who's looking at it. If they have questions, the customer service can write you a question right then and [00:24:00] there, figure it out. Um, so it's supposed to be. A lot more in intuitive, whatever you call it. So, yeah, we'll see. I haven't had a file claim on it yet.

[00:24:10] Mark: No. Okay. So, but, but the, basically they are listening.

[00:24:12] This is the main thing. Even if it's like not perfect, as long as it, they're listening and they're trying to act on it, because the most, the biggest problem when, when you talk about any of this is that, whether it's booker.com, vr or Airbnb, Is that there's groups out there that, you know, say these are the problems and there's been committees and things that are set up, you know, to, to, to deal with this and nothing gets done.

[00:24:34] But you know, like the people that you met at Airbnb are super passionate about it, even if it doesn't get all the way to the top. As it is with these massive, massive, massive, massive companies. Now, you know, Airbnb is a huge company. Um, at least things that's trying to get, trying to get side, which is which, which, which is a, which is a plus.

[00:24:48] Even if it's not perfect, it's a plus. Um, alright, so, uh, the other thing from like a marketing point of view for having our marketing head on is, is the categories. Now, obviously in the summer release, I believe it [00:25:00] was when the new interface was shown, there was a lot of confusion, , and now, was that a talking point?

[00:25:07] In San Francisco is, was this a talking point between other Airbnb super hosts and what has been done since? Now there's the new things that have happened in, which is view your category and new categories, like what's your opinion in what's going on with these categories? ,

[00:25:24] John: I'll probably get some hate for this one for sure, because like, I'm on the fence of, I kind of like categories.

[00:25:29] I'm not gonna lie. I'm, I'm a marketing guy, I'm a visual person. I think it's the way of the future, right? I don't know yet. I'm still trying to figure it out to be honest, but I kind of like the idea of categories. I, I, I like just click on random categories and start looking at places that I want to go book.

[00:25:46] Uh, so I know it's like 50 50 man. A lot of hosts I talk to absolutely hate the categories so bad and they think it messed everything up. Uh, but as you can see right here, there's a, one of the categories is, is called new. [00:26:00] So one of. Issues that we had when we went to San Francisco is, oh wow. Now I have to have a place that's like fits in the category and it's like over the top.

[00:26:09] It's super cool and all, all these features. What about like, you know, a property that's brand new that doesn't have all the reviews and all that stuff? So it's pretty cool that just a few weeks ago we talked about this and they added that. They added new, um, so it's supposed to be new properties. I've kind of been seeing it, I've been testing it for the last two weeks in Scottsdale.

[00:26:30] I've been seeing a lot of the new properties come. So that part's kind of cool also with categories. I'm told I haven't seen this part of it yet on, on my backend, but you will be able to see what category your house is in now. Mm-hmm. So if it's a tiny home, you will actually be able to be like, okay, my home's a tiny home, and then you will be in, you can't like tag it to get put in a category as far as I understand.

[00:26:58] Uh, but you will be able to [00:27:00] see. What category your place pops in now? Mm-hmm. . So I, I think the categories is a very work in progress, but I kind of like it, so I know people are probably gonna hit on you for that. But No,

[00:27:10] Mark: no, I mean, it's good. It's, it's good to have that, that, um, different of opinion, but also as well, I mean, you've gotta remember they're not just doing this on a whim.

[00:27:17] they're not just doing it because some guy in the, in the sort of tech team said, Hey, we should just do this. They're doing it off, yeah. Off data and, you know, and they're doing it not off millennials, they're not doing it off Gen Y, they're not doing it off boomer generation. They're doing it off the Gen Z generation because this is gonna be the future.

[00:27:37] And you know, if you, if you think about it and, and how the sort of, the trends are clicking around and being totally. Um, no restrictions and with the new massive rise in digital nomadism, um, even slow Mads, that's a massive thing that's coming up. Now. You can see kinda why they're doing it now. It will definitely annoy a lot of people because again, [00:28:00] categories is crazy.

[00:28:01] When it first came out, people will being placed in categories that were just, didn't make any sense. And, you know, if you were a, um, a certain type. Category or a certain type of tag, it would just mean that you would not get visible at all. But again, you know, totally interesting. Um, just like with anything, you gotta make sure that you know that the same advice is still prevalent and relevant.

[00:28:24] The thing that's really interesting to me is not so much this update, the pr, the, the interesting thing is what was announced a couple of days ago with the pricing, Totally. Now, how is that, I mean, did you get heads up that that was happening? How has it affected your property? Is it, what's been like the sort of general word on the Airbnb street about the, the, the pricing and, and what the, what the changes have been?

[00:28:46] So

[00:28:46] John: that, that's, uh, what you're talking about. Just to be clear, is the display pricing in showing the cleaning fee and the nightly rent booked in as one? That's correct. So that was a, [00:29:00] um, I guess. The good and bad, right? Things move fast. I've noticed that I've tried to get things changed on in a, in a company this big, it takes forever, but I guess it seems like the social media took full effect over this one.

[00:29:17] I think the viral videos all over TikTok, the news articles, the miscommunication, the disconnect from guests and overly charged insane cleaning fees, and then. I can't even begin to think this is real, but I've seen it over again where like hosts are like, you gotta mow the lawn and you gotta wash my windows, and you gotta like get me a new couch.

[00:29:39] Like the craziest chores I've ever seen in my life. I guess we're getting more and more common. So they did this in like a, a few weeks is what it looked like to me because they didn't really talk about it when we were in San Francisco. They said they were trying to figure something out, um, and it was a major problem.

[00:29:57] They were getting our feedback and they were asking [00:30:00] questions, but they didn't make it seem like they, they were. Had had a solution yet. So I think they probably just moved really fast on that

[00:30:07] Mark: one. Mm-hmm. I think from looking from a, an outside in as well is that they purchased hotel tonight because they wanted to take on, they wanted to become the Ultima ota.

[00:30:16] They wanted to become the Ultima online travel agent. They wanted to overtake booking.com, the Expedia group, et cetera. And there's a couple of things that really will stop them from doing that. And you know, only up. before the purchase of hotel tonight, they didn't have a proper two-way, um, API connection into the PMSs.

[00:30:32] It was very much a, an ico, which was very outdated. And so for me, this is like a step to them getting rid of obviously the cleaning fees. So it's a flat fee getting rid of, um, X, Y, and Z, getting rid of the service fee so the guests will no longer be paying the service fee. I think this is the next step towards maybe spring.

[00:30:54] 2000 and um, and 2023 where they get rid of their service fee. And all [00:31:00] hosts won't pay the free percent, they'll just pay a flat 14%, which is still 1% cheaper than booking.com, which is one or 2% cheaper than vrbo. And then the next step will be the, um, it will just have the same prices. Because what they wanna then do is they wanna crack this meta search, which is, which is obviously Google.

[00:31:18] And you know, everybody's gotta watch Google. And the next play that, that they make, um, I put a little prediction that my prediction is next year, 2023, what you'll next see in, in Airbnb, especially when it comes to categories. And let me just come back and share my screen for the wee second. So when you're in here, um, There'll be an option on one of these, or even if like you click on somewhere.

[00:31:39] So say I want to go somewhere in Europe and I do this, there'll be an option where you can get into like a boosted or a premium or a whatever in here, and it'll be for people who pay more commission. So the more commission you pay, , the higher you will, you will show in certain categories. I, I, I feel, I feel like that is, they'll come in the next bit where you can pay a little bit more.

[00:31:58] I put this prediction [00:32:00] out on, um, on LinkedIn and some people were messaging me back in the comments saying, Hey, it's been done before, it's been tested, da, da, da, da, da. So I dunno if it'll become like a, a, a massive rollout. Maybe they'll, they'll test it. But once they get the proper inline pricing, that will link nicely up with everything else.

[00:32:14] So there's no service charge. The service charge is still quite unique to them. Then I feel like that's, that's one of the next steps, which is, which has been a super interesting week. I think overall, the changes that have been made today aren't massively groundbreaking. I think for a host like yourself who's experienced been doing this for a while and for any other experienced host, it's not a massive biggie.

[00:32:37] Air covers had a bit of ex of a change. Um, the file claim process is go is is going to get a. You can see what category you've been placed in. Um, but for the most part, the people that really benefits is who they really want. They really want more hosts. They need more listings, which is why you are doing what you are doing, what others are doing, what what you are doing, which is helping as well to make it [00:33:00] as seamless as possible from going from, hey, a fancy list in my place on Airbnb to being listed.

[00:33:06] Cause they obviously need more demand because that's what the, um, that's what, that's what they want. So, super, super, super interesting. Um, any final thoughts? Anything that you wanna say? Any feel that, anything that you wanna pass on? Any message you wanna pass on or just any, any sort of like, will, pearls of wisdom from over there?

[00:33:25] John: I mean, I'm sure like everybody who follows, follows you are, are top tier, uh, host, right? And in a hosting community. And I, and I have so much respect for you because you're always teaching people, right? You don't ask for anything. You're teaching people and, and getting people, right? And I think like, not to be so preachy, but I think as host, and no matter what platform you're on, if you're only doing direct booking, if you're doing o.

[00:33:53] We kind of have to police ourselves like it, the industry's getting bigger and bigger. I've seen some really bad [00:34:00] hosts. I've seen some really bad guests, right? And like we have to kind of clean up our industry if we wanna protect it. I work so closely on policy and it's mind blowing to me. Some of the stories I hear and, and it's just like what people actually do that like this is insane.

[00:34:16] So it's just like, not to get too preachy. You know, I love this business. It's been so great to me. It's, it's given me so much freedom. I get to meet with so many rad people and be creative. I don't have to work at nine to five. It's like, but yeah, it's like a double-edged sword. We're getting big and we're growing, but man, we definitely gotta police ourselves.

[00:34:34] Man.

[00:34:35] Mark: I, uh, I a hundred percent agree and. Everybody who's tuning in and watching this live and on the replay listening to podcast, you had a, you had a, you had a good host. You are not the 5% of the problem. Unfortunately, about 5% of the problem is so easy to get on Airbnb. It's so easy to get visible and it's so easy and you know, there's, we're not gonna go into specifics and, and whatnot, but it is, it's, it's too easy.

[00:34:59] And, and [00:35:00] that will, that will change, you know, as, as all of this, this happens and evolves and changes will, will come, and changes will happen. But the most important thing, and this is why I got it tattooed on my arm right here, is just focus on what you can control. I literally focus on what you can control, focus on your day to day, and you'll keep becoming a better and better host.

[00:35:15] And I think the one thing that I'm sort of trying to spread to everybody is that when it comes to market in your business, You know, don't get too overwhelmed. Just, just take it step by step. It's just like doing the dishes. If you start off at the breakfast at the morning, and if you have your breakfast, have your cereal, have your bowl, you leave it in the sink, and then you have lunch and you just leave all those dishes in the sink and it comes to dinner, and you leave all those dishes in the sink before nighttime, you look at it and you go, Ugh.

[00:35:40] That's a lot to crack on with. , but if you did little bits of cleaning every day, so after breakfast you cleaned up the mug, the bowl cleaned it, put it away, lunchtime, you did the same dinnertime, you did the same. You're doing little chunks day by day, step by step, and it just makes, makes life a whole lot easier.

[00:35:54] And so if you keep doing that, keep focusing on what you can control, then you are never gonna be affected in any way, shape, [00:36:00] or form. I if, if anything, what? What this industry is trying to do is weed out the bad eggs and all for that, massively for.

[00:36:09] John: Um, alright. I can't, I can't agree with you more. Just, just to elaborate on that.

[00:36:12] Just I can't agree with you more on that. I mean, you, you said it

[00:36:15] Mark: correctly. appreciate. Oh, thank you very much my friend. All right. So we are gonna let you go. Uh, again, please, please, please go and check out, um, your YouTube channel. Go check out Instagram. I'll make sure that all the links are in the descriptions and the blog posts and all of that cool stuff.

[00:36:29] And we'll get it linked up so everybody can come and find you and make sure you do go over and say, Hey, saw you're on the Boosted podcast. Uh, awesome work. Pleasure. We'll definitely do this again, no doubt in in the future. And, and looking forward to, to meeting you as well next year, which is, which is one of my things that we gotta get done.

[00:36:44] We gotta get started on this. That's on

[00:36:46] John: the major checklist for sure.

[00:36:47] Mark: Absolutely right. I will, I will let you go. Thank you very much. Can everybody in the chat and in the comments just say thank you very much to John. It's been an absolute pleasure and before I leave, I just wanted to very, very quickly, [00:37:00] um, show you something cuz this is something very, very, very cool today.

[00:37:04] The printer sent me this, a lovely gold envelope, and on the side is a Boley golden ticket for the big Boley Bash. Now this is going to be happening in November, 2023. Now these envelopes are gonna get sent. To a lot, a lot of people. I think over 500 people at some point over the coming weeks. Uh, it's, it's over a year away, which is mad.

[00:37:33] But I wanted to get the planning and preparation done in now. Uh, so it's called the Big Boley Bash. It's gonna be on the 14th of November, 2023. It is gonna be the funnest event in this industry. That's all I'm gonna say for now. If you wanna find out more, and if you wanna make sure that you get on the message list.

[00:37:51] Go to Boostly.co.uk/messenger, Boostly.co.uk/messenger, m e s [00:38:00] s e n g e r, and the other, other, other, other big news that is coming, uh, very, very soon is there, obviously this year I released the book there at Playbook, which was a worldwide bestseller, which was amazing. Thank you so much.

[00:38:14] In a couple of weeks, In December, 2022, we've got the follow-up book called the Book Direct Blueprint. Now the book Direct blueprint is all about the systems and the structures to have in place to build a proper. An an amazingly successful diary book in business. It is a, is a multi awful book. I'm gonna be joined by Ira Mount Price Labs Touch Day Uplifting Dak Tech Tape Super Hog Mano and De Travel, and the co-host expert and Mr.

[00:38:40] Tom O'Brien, the CTO O of Boley, the, the brains behind everything. He's gonna be features and focused in a, uh, in a chapter as well. So please make sure that you go and check out Boley books dot. Uh, we're gonna do a big, big, big launch around it. We're gonna have a ton of fun around it, um, which is gonna be great.

[00:38:58] So that's some big news that's been happening on [00:39:00] our end. Um, until then, thank you so much everybody for tuning in. Thank you to John. Thank you to everybody that's watched live. Uh, this is our biggest live video for long, long time. Um, and this will obviously get turned into a podcast where you can go and find out all of those in over 500 episodes.

[00:39:15] more@bolee.co uk slash podcast, right? As we always do, I'm gonna see you out with a little. Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee led Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard on the tee Is loose leaf picking up those rhymes? Don't write it, just do it loosely.

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