Get Paid For Your Pad | Airbnb Hosting | Vacation Rentals | STR Revenue Management EP193: How to Become an Airbnb Entrepreneur
Oct 2, 2017
29:12
If you’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but you’re looking for a low-risk way to start small, Airbnb might be the answer. The vacation rental ecosystem is ripe with opportunity, and there is no better way to learn the skills necessary for running your own business than… well, running your own business.
Sid Kosatsky started simply, freelancing to help a small boutique hotel in the Dominican Republic set up their Airbnb listings. Hiring cleaners for his own Airbnb listing in the Halifax region of Nova Scotia led to Soapy Cleaning, a company created to find additional work for his team! From there, he established HostOften, a full-service Airbnb property management company.
Today, Sid’s team includes a team of seven employees, five of whom are full-time, and he has systems in place that allow him to do the work of growing the business. On the podcast, he shares his advice for aspiring Airbnb entrepreneurs, the technology he uses to save 15 hours a week, and how he built his talented team. Listen in and find out if Airbnb is the entryway to entrepreneurship you have been looking for!
Topics Covered
Sid’s Airbnb story
•Listed room in house last summer (Dartmouth)
•Relocated to Truro in May, started renting entire home
•Stress around hosting from far away
•Interviewing cleaners, considering property management company
•Inspired by entrepreneurial podcasts to start his own businesses
•Started as freelancer, helping international clients create Airbnb listings
•Expanded to HostOften property management
•Hired cleaners for HostOften, then created Soapy Cleaning
•Automated systems have allowed him to do both
•Advertised for clients, employees on Kijiji
Sid’s advice to aspiring Airbnb entrepreneurs
•Do it!
•Airbnb provides quick and easy entry
•Reinvest Airbnb earnings to build business
The entrepreneurial skills Sid learned from Airbnb
•Hospitality
•Real estate
•Hiring
•Managing employees, contractors
•Scheduling
•Customer relations, guest management
•Finances, paying taxes
The software Sid used to create systems
•Google sheets (log cleaner, client hours) didn’t work well
•Moved to QuickBooks for payroll
•TSheets App integrates with QuickBooks (time sheets)
•Automation saves Sid 10-15 hours/week
The responsibilities Sid has outsourced to other employees
•Stopped cleaning, check-ins right away
•Full-time VA took over scheduling, reviews, guest communication and coordination of maintenance
•Lead cleaner has become ops manager (hires, manages new cleaners)
Sid’s role in the business
•Website maintenance
•Procuring new clients
•Scripts, systems
•Hire, train employees
How Sid built his cleaning team
•Scanned Kajiji for cleaners, part-timers
•Conducted interviews (20% didn’t show)
•Cleaned with prospects, assessed their work
•Fosters culture of fun to attract good employees
•Has three core full-time cleaners
The importance of ‘taking yourself out of the equation’
•Frees up time to grow business, focus on big picture
The scale of Sid’s current business
•Manages three listings
•Wooing five new clients
•In talks with landlords, developers
•Three full-time, two part-time cleaners
•Full-time virtual assistant
•Freelancer optimizing SEO for website
How Sid found his VA
•Has used Fiverr, Upwork in past
•Discovered new company (Cara Helps)
•Service hires, trains in your software
Sid’s current profits
•Airbnb listing income of $5K/month
Sid Kosatsky started simply, freelancing to help a small boutique hotel in the Dominican Republic set up their Airbnb listings. Hiring cleaners for his own Airbnb listing in the Halifax region of Nova Scotia led to Soapy Cleaning, a company created to find additional work for his team! From there, he established HostOften, a full-service Airbnb property management company.
Today, Sid’s team includes a team of seven employees, five of whom are full-time, and he has systems in place that allow him to do the work of growing the business. On the podcast, he shares his advice for aspiring Airbnb entrepreneurs, the technology he uses to save 15 hours a week, and how he built his talented team. Listen in and find out if Airbnb is the entryway to entrepreneurship you have been looking for!
Topics Covered
Sid’s Airbnb story
•Listed room in house last summer (Dartmouth)
•Relocated to Truro in May, started renting entire home
•Stress around hosting from far away
•Interviewing cleaners, considering property management company
•Inspired by entrepreneurial podcasts to start his own businesses
•Started as freelancer, helping international clients create Airbnb listings
•Expanded to HostOften property management
•Hired cleaners for HostOften, then created Soapy Cleaning
•Automated systems have allowed him to do both
•Advertised for clients, employees on Kijiji
Sid’s advice to aspiring Airbnb entrepreneurs
•Do it!
•Airbnb provides quick and easy entry
•Reinvest Airbnb earnings to build business
The entrepreneurial skills Sid learned from Airbnb
•Hospitality
•Real estate
•Hiring
•Managing employees, contractors
•Scheduling
•Customer relations, guest management
•Finances, paying taxes
The software Sid used to create systems
•Google sheets (log cleaner, client hours) didn’t work well
•Moved to QuickBooks for payroll
•TSheets App integrates with QuickBooks (time sheets)
•Automation saves Sid 10-15 hours/week
The responsibilities Sid has outsourced to other employees
•Stopped cleaning, check-ins right away
•Full-time VA took over scheduling, reviews, guest communication and coordination of maintenance
•Lead cleaner has become ops manager (hires, manages new cleaners)
Sid’s role in the business
•Website maintenance
•Procuring new clients
•Scripts, systems
•Hire, train employees
How Sid built his cleaning team
•Scanned Kajiji for cleaners, part-timers
•Conducted interviews (20% didn’t show)
•Cleaned with prospects, assessed their work
•Fosters culture of fun to attract good employees
•Has three core full-time cleaners
The importance of ‘taking yourself out of the equation’
•Frees up time to grow business, focus on big picture
The scale of Sid’s current business
•Manages three listings
•Wooing five new clients
•In talks with landlords, developers
•Three full-time, two part-time cleaners
•Full-time virtual assistant
•Freelancer optimizing SEO for website
How Sid found his VA
•Has used Fiverr, Upwork in past
•Discovered new company (Cara Helps)
•Service hires, trains in your software
Sid’s current profits
•Airbnb listing income of $5K/month
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