Air BnB Super Hosts: How Sarah & Annette created a business out of a completely new industry

One of the things that I try to stress on this podcast is the fact that there are opportunities everywhere. As new technologies emerge, entire new industries are born and those industries sprout tons of new jobs and business ideas. My guests today have been taking advantage of just that. 

After Airbnb started gaining in popularity, Annette Grant and Sarah Karakaian each saw an opportunity to leverage the platform into a short-term rental business. And they each did it in their own unique way--Annette teamed up with a business partner who invested in the properties while Annette runs the business and Sarah and her husband started by renting out their own properties on Airbnb.  

And it was on this mission to share their spaces and live their dreams that Annette and Sarah met at a City Council meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where they were fighting for their right to host these short-term rentals responsibly and legally. 

Since then, they knew they would have to find a way to elevate their voice and share what it means to be a host with heart so that having a short-term rental in a community was an asset, not a nuisance. 

Aside from managing 20+ properties, Sarah and Annette host a popular podcast all about the short-term rental industry called Thanks for Visiting. 

Before their Airbnb endeavours, Annette helped build two businesses from the ground up into multi-million dollar businesses. Her expertise ranges from service-based to e-commerce.

And Sarah spent 14 years in New York City as a musical theatre performer before she hung up her character shoes, packed up her life with her husband, Nick, and 12 lb. cockapoo and moved to the midwest. Inspired by their opportunity to be involved in 8 episodes of an HGTV show, Sarah and Nick knew that working in and around homes was their calling! They flip, stage, and invest in homes with stories all around Columbus, OH.