The Hosting Masterclass
 

10. A pot of gold.

Well, as we all know, at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold and here’s yours: a section full of downloads for you to use forevermore. Be sure to download them, though, as you only have 15 weeks inside this classroom and I want you to always have these items for your use. Make a folder on your desktop and tuck them away there, easy to find and at the ready.

As always, there is a feedback section on the other side of this list so if you come across any gold of your own to toss into our short term holiday rental pot of tools and tricks, please toss it in the pile!

Time to pilfer and stash away all the little acorns you can. Download each as you go by clicking on the underlined sections. Easy!

 
 

10. Your downloadables.

  1. Your Workbook In case you’d like a fresh copy for your future properties.

  2. Housekeeping Manual and Contract — Download mine and then adjust and amend to make it yours.

  3. House Manual for Guests — I don’t recommend making this very fancy or expensive. Keep it as a cheap and easy printed situation because you will update it almost weekly as you move through troubleshooting. There really isn’t much point to spend heaps of money on some fancy printing just yet. Stick it on a lovely wooden clipboard, hung beautifully and it’s an easy, lovely way to display your guide with love.

  4. Location Shoot Contract — Use this for any brands or businesses you work with where your property is used as a location. Make sure you are always organised and covered beforehand.

  5. Kitchen Cupboard and Pantry List — These are my staples, but I know you may need more so I have included some extras you may or may not want.

  6. Bathroom Items List — What I use at ‘Captains Rest’ and what I think your should be sure to have, and what extras you may want to have.

  7. Cleaning Cupboard List — Same as above. This is my tested time and time again list, plus some extras you may want to include.

  8. How to Make a Bed — I’m sure you’ll want this one. This is the link, click it, then copy the URL into somewhere safe, so you’ll always have access to it to show your housekeeping team so you can streamline everything ‘bedtime’ related. There is also a download button on the page so you can also save it to your computer or cloud if need be.

  9. Guest Scheduled Communication — If you would like to automate the communication that is sent to your guests - and when, you can see what I use here. Feel free to modify the script to suit your property, and learn how to set up scheduled communication in Airbnb here, or if you are using another platform, in Smartbnb here.

10. Stay social.

Don’t forget to keep us in the loop. It’s after you leave here that great things begin to happen and, if you tag us - ‘@thehostingmasterclass’ and use our hashtag ‘#thehostingmasterclass’ - we can share your success with our community and help cheer you on.


To promote your property by ‘interested guests’ by ‘location’ the correct hashtags are below. My recommendation would to be to use all 3, just on posts you are really proud of, not all of them.

All
’#thehostingmasterclass’

Australia
’#thmtas #thmvic #thmnsw #thmqld #thmsa #thmwa #thmnt

Global
#thmaustralia #thmnewzealand #thmengland #thmfrance etc. (so #thm plus country name)

We also have a graduate only community forum which is key to your continued support both by us and the community around you. You can join by navigating to the forum here, and you will need to pop your email and a new password in to join. Give us a day or so to approve your membership, and check in a few times a week!

10. Your Obligations.

Besides doing so well for yourself, and helping the people you love around you doing the same, we ask that all our students including you take the Non Disclosure Agreement you have all signed at the start of this class as a condition of sign up seriously. The world has taken notice of how well all our students are doing, and our community tells me they are constantly approached by blogs, podcast, other training organisations for interviews about “how” they do what they do. We ask that you do not disclose any of the material in this class, but off course! Celebrate your success and your own methods you have developed.

An example might be that you are asked to come on as a guest to a podcast, share your journey hosting, share what you love about it — share your style and your plans for what’s next, but keep what you’ve learned here to yourself.

We support you & we are super proud!

 
 

10. Apps & resources.

  1. Airbnb — use this link for an Airbnb gift voucher. Use it now and have a go at popping your listing online (no need to go “live” until you are ready!), or refer back here when needed.

  2. Properly — This really is a fantastic app. It allows you to photograph your property and record visual instructions for your housekeeper.

  3. RNI Films - One of my top filter apps for IPhone. I especially love using the grain and dust.

  4. VSCO Camera - Another great app if your looking for a more polished end result.

  5. Airdna — Great tool with enough free resources to do your pricing homework.

  6. Smartbnb — Incredible guest automation tools, I love this app!

  7. TouchStays — Another excellent app, its an online House Manual, amazing for those with larger or more complex homes you and pop in instructions for how to use or operate various bits and bobs. Highly recommend!

 
 

10. Making extra profit.

  1. Photo & Location Shoots — You can charge for this (In Australia it’s around $1500 p/d plus your nightly rate if they are also staying). For smaller brands sometimes you can trade for their products, for example linen bedding for a bedding photo shoot.

  2. Elopements and Weddings — Elopements are starting to become very popular, and a very big part of mine, and other students who have a character property’s, business. How I do it, is have the couple book via your hosting platform so they have the check- in details, and send them an additional charge for an event fee. I charge $1500 AUD extra per elopement and let them have up to 5 extra people on the property. You can also have the couple sign a contract at this point (I email it through), stating any insurance conditions, the people allowed on the property, and specifics like no candles, noise levels, etc.

  3. Honesty Bars - Check your laws, but it’s fairly easy in most parts of the world to have an honesty bar. Pay by the bottle usually with payments made direct into your account. This works well for remote areas where guests find it hard to leave to stock up on drinks.

  4. Products - If you are a maker, collector, artist, handy worker, why not have your wares in the home, and directions to look on your website (hello Squarespace!) for photos and purchase information.


10. Ask an expert.

I keep the world’s best close to me for my projects and my grads. I know you can do it all now, but if you feel like you need it, or just want it, visit our shop to buy the once-off services you need from the consultants I use.

 
 

Q. Hi Sarah, This is fantastic thank you. We have a river, a lake and dams on our property. Do we need any insurance for guests?

For any insurance questions, please ring ‘Airbnb’ AND a private insurer. I am insured with both, because I am pretty risk adverse. I would advice you guys to be overinsured and over prepared.

Q.Hi Sarah, re your ‘House Manual’, do you send a copy to your guests before they arrive?

Sort of! I have it copied and pasted into Airbnb, so guests can look through it in their ‘Trips’ section before they arrive. The aim here is as little contact with the guests as possible. When you have 100’s coming through a year you want everything automated, so there really is no need for any contact. You can also pop ‘check-in’ instructions with step by step photos into Airbnb for guests as well, which is so useful. Please ring Airbnb if you have any trouble doing both of these things. I’d say out of the 100’s of guests I get through a year I only get questions or contact from a small handful of them, which is good for me, and believe me, is also appreciated by guests. No guest ever wants contact with you, really!

Q. Hi Sarah, I am unsure when you say an honesty bar and they pay through you account, do you mean through your Airbnb account (can you pay for extras on this?) or transfer money through a separate bank account?

Oh, I mean my business account — so I give them my bank details. That way the income can be recorded for tax purposes so it is all above board earnings and legal wise!

Q. Hi Sarah Great wrap up - thanks. Am excited about finalising plans for ‘The Bakery’ this week. Just looking at your Airbnb listing and I see for a 2-night weekend stay ($900) that the service fee is $138.36. The Airbnb website says their service charge is 3% which would be $27, so what is this fee for and where is that number from?

Please ring ‘Airbnb’ for your breakdown, but this would also be for my cleaning. The service fee is their cut and the cleaning charge. But again, this type of thing changes regularly on all the platforms, so best ring the company you’re looking to use.

Q. Hi Sarah, I'm really interested in seeing how else our accommodation can earn extra income. I was very interested to see that you allow weddings and elopements. How does this work, other than allowing extra people onto the property? Do you offer anything other than the accommodation? Do they get anything extra for the additional $1500, or is it just for the use of the venue and the guests pay for and organise everything else themselves? Thank you!

Hi! Yes, it is essentially just a location fee. I charge the additional $1500 for elopements and for photoshoots, as, using your property as a location for photos and events is a service which needs to be paid for. Think about this. If someone was to hire a studio, all the props, etc, that would be a large fee, likewise for a wedding or for an elopement. Hiring your property should not be a cheap way for them to dodge these fees. It is an industry standard, despite the location type. Does that make sense?


Hey, have a want for any other resources for this page, or have a resource you’d love to share with our community? Let me know in the form below!