Hosting Your Home - Airbnb Host Stories

Soon after Taylor Scheftstrom began working for Airbnb she recognized a need for reaching out to Airbnb hosts in the Portland area.  Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com talks with her about working at Airbnb and Taylor’s efforts to build personal relationships between hosts and Airbnb staff. Taylor grew up in southern Oregon in a tiny town of Rogue River.  She was a sports girl, especially horses, and was interested in travel from when she was young.  She traveled to Italy in high school, and at U of O studied photography and political science.  And she took several - in her words - “hair brained” trips including one walk across England in a summer of endless rain. They were broke so had bought tourist cartoon maps instead of the real maps, got lost over and over, and eventually all their equipment got destroyed by rain. But she still wanted to travel! After college, she lived in Turkey for 3 months, and then moved back to Portland.  There, a friend who was already working at the new Portland Airbnb office en

Please join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com, as she visits with Airbnb Superhost Kym Cumbo and tours the "Slater House" in Portland, Oregon. Kym and her husband Fred live at the “Slater House” in Ladd’s Addition in Portland, Oregon.  Fred has lived there for 26 years and Kym for 7.  Kym began listing on Airbnb in 2012 and has really done her homework as far as advertising and learning how to be a great host. The style of house is known as an “American Foursquare” and was featured in This Old House magazine when they did a story on Ladd’s Addition.  You can read about this house style and the unique Ladd’s Addition neighborhood by following links at the end of the show notes. Kym loves to teach, and turns this love into small businesses, including teaching people how to host on Airbnb, coaching on the topic of divorce resiliency, Reiki, Laughter Yoga, SoulCollage, and a class called “Bring Your Joy Out to Play”.  These activities add nicely to her passion for hosting, often overlapping with guests’ inter

This week, Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com coaches Ann Sigler, a Portland area Uber driver and imminent Airbnb host.  Ann has lived in her house for 36 years, just retired from Intel, and wants to try her hand at hosting.  Debi is helping her get started.  Ann would like to begin hosting in September, 2016. You may wonder where Debi finds people to interview, and there isn’t any one, single way.  Debi met Ann when Debi requested an Uber driver for a ride home from the Portland Airbnb office where she was having a meeting, and Ann picked her up.  They got talking, and it eventually evolved into this interview. Ann does not yet have a listing for you to check out, so here are a couple of pics of her house: As Ann walked Deb through the house, Deb talked to her about furnishing options, and about parents traveling with kids who don’t necessarily need a large bed.  Ann told Debi about water damage to the bathroom.  The damage includes some mold and the insurance will cover part of her situation but not al

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Airbnb host Kaila Thomson. Kaila and her husband Matt have a house just five minutes from the Portland, Oregon airport in the up-and-coming Montavilla neighborhood. They host two rooms above Matt’s “Ivy League Recording” music studio. Matt is a musician and sound engineer. They have owned their house for five years. Before they started hosting, they had roommates in order to make ends meet, but were tired of it and wanted to get their lives back. They had some friends who had been hosts for a while and told them a lot about Airbnb. When Kaila and Matt got married, they honeymooned in Europe and chose Airbnb listings in every city. They saved money and loved the experience of staying in unique places and meeting their hosts. At each stop they talked to their hosts and asked them what they liked about hosting. Kaila and Matt loved how each place was different, meeting the people, and thought “we could totally do that. We could charge a little more, impr

This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with soon-to-be Airbnb Host Ashley Kern, as they go over Ashley’s plans and final touches.  Be sure to see the pix at the end of these notes. Ashley and her husband James own the “No Hope No Fear” Tattoo Art Studio in SE Portland.  In a city with over a hundred studios, James is a widely recognized tattoo artist with 22 years of experience.  James also teaches at international conventions and hosts visiting artists.  The teaching aspect has allowed the two of them to travel all over the world and they look forward to using Airbnb more often as travelers.  This has made Ashley want to host other people too, and their home/business which is zoned mixed-use residential gives them the opportunity to include an Airbnb listing. Debi and Ashley walk through the home, built in 1922 in a Craftsman style, and Debi found the combined home/business to be very attractive and definitely looks residential.  The final project Ashley wants to finish before hosting is the ou

Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com talks with Michael Burke and Caitlin White, as a follow up to last week’s episode “Hear the Wind Give Voice to the Trees”.  Michael and Caitlin have twice been guests at Alan and Dabney’s Airbnb listing: Summit Prairie, and this year they got engaged there! In this episode, Michael and Caitlin offer us the guests’ experience.  From how Caitlin first found the listing, luckily finding an opening, and then in detail what it’s like to stay there.   And why they found it so compelling not only to return, but for Michael to choose it as a place to propose. As hosts, it’s always valuable to hear what the guests think about things and you will hear a couple of fun contrasts, taken from our talk last week with Alan and Dabney. So listen in as Debi toasts the newly engaged couple - (and yes, Caitlin, of course Michael asked your dad!) **Debi also started a new Facebook group.  She intends to use this group as a place where hosts who listen to this podcast can interact.  This group

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Airbnb superhosts Alan Colley and Dabney Tompkins, self-described “City Slickers” who none the less, live on a very remote 160 acres.  In a house, but it's on a 40-foot high lookout tower. Alan and Dabney lived in Portland in a condo and rented it out on Airbnb while they went backpacking or touring. But they never met their guests. Now they live in the super-remote, rural Oregon and realize that there were the same number of people on their street in Portland as are in their entire rural area; but they knew few people on their Portland street and know everyone in their current surrounds. They were on a ferry to Victoria when they saw a book on renting fire towers, bought the book, and hilariously tried to reserve one in Tiller, Oregon for the next weekend. After the lady answering the phone had a friendly laugh about the non-availability, she gave them a consolation prize of a rental tower in Pickett Butte. They loved it. They loved it so much that they bought p

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews two veteran housekeepers who take care of Debi’s three Airbnb vacation rentals on the Oregon coast.  Bonnie (left) and Billie (right, with  Makenzie) bring their wits and humor as they discuss what makes a good guest, funny situations that come up like having to help pack up some guests who were forgetting to leave, and of course the hard challenges of housekeeping. This is a different job altogether than house cleaning for full-time residents.  Some Airbnb hosts already use professional cleaners, and some no doubt think about using them for turnovers or intermittently.  Even if the space is different than the coastal properties discussed here, the critical requirements of housekeepers are the same: Reliability of meeting your guest schedule, and Feeling co-ownership in achieving great guest experiences Debi’s beach rentals are hours away, so in that case, a third critical requirement is initiative.  She is completely reliant on Billie and Bonnie to not only cl

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com leads a panel discussion about money matters with Airbnb hosts from Portland. This episode was requested by Marcus, one of Debi’s listeners, who wanted to know about the financial aspect of hosting. The discussion covers initial setup costs, gross income, taxes, expenses, how much time is involved, and what difference the income has made in each person’s life. This is a longer episode than most but allows you to hear several viewpoints. Each person on the panel has Airbnb’s top “Superhost” designation of quality and volume of guest activity.  So the numbers on this show won’t match up with an overall average of all hosts but the concepts are the same.  Another topic discussed is occupancy rate.  It varies a lot among the panelists.  Many factors are involved: location, type of listing, allowing single night stays Y/N, using instant book Y/N, number and quality of reviews, how high the company's secret search algorithm shows your listing, how many nights the owner blocks off

Apples to Applesauce! You may THINK you’re busy, but there is busy, then there is really busy! This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Katrina Eastberg about her rental in southeast Portland and her nonprofit “Apples to Applesauce”.  Katrina is not only an Airbnb Superhost, but also: founded and runs a nonprofit “Apples to Applesauce” to reduce hunger in Oregon plans to start a company “Universal Green Design” which will help people with attractive, non-clinical architectural accommodation designs for disabled owners and guests knits and sells the knitting products on the web operates an event planning business with her husband, Tom creates and sells flower arrangements for weddings remodeled her home, with Tom and – we lost track of at least one more job! Listen as Katrina tells Debi what it’s like to live in a perpetually-being-remodeled home while renting a space on Airbnb.  A very rewarding part of this episode is learning about Katrina’s non-profit that is doing a lot for kids in need

Making Life-Long Friends Join Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com as she interviews Jill Palamountain and Michael McCarron about their Portland Airbnb.  Jill and Michael have hosted people from all over the world in the short year that they have been operating. They share their space, and it's definitely a big commitment step up from the hosts who have separate spaces for their guests. But Jill and Michael compare their experience to a really positive class in world geography and culture.  Some of their guests have become friends and have even been invited to Thanksgiving dinner. There is lots to learn in this episode! Check  out Jill's listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4810197 And Debi mentioned a "Walkability Score" for your neighborhood:  https://www.walkscore.com

Walk Your Airbnb Talk! Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews Portland Airbnb Superhost Kathy Peterman, who has amazingly compressed 5 months of trash into this tiny bottle!  Listen as Kathy explains how she came to walk the Camino in Spain and how she integrated the simplicity she felt on that journey into her life and her rental space.  Check out Kathy’s “veg-friendly” listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3478576 and her blog at https://mybestyear.me

No, it’s not a new song!  Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com and Airbnb Superhost Nancy Scott visit at Nancy’s home on a tree farm in West Linn, Oregon.  When families stay there with kids, the kids are up early feeding the chickens. You can tell that Nancy is an optimist when she tells us about both joys and difficulties she has experienced but sums it up as “100% positive” ! And she doesn’t keep her rental open ALL the time - you’d never know it, but Nancy has 13 grandkids.  She holds two “Grandma Camps” every year for them and had up to 9 little campers!  “Camp Little Wolf” is over the summer and “Camp Little Elf” is at Christmas time.  They are two day, one night gatherings of all the cousins three and older who can make it for a fun time of crafts, games, hikes, fun food and roasting marshmallows. Check out Nancy's listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1594464

Download this episodeDebi of HostingYourHome.com and her husband Rob talk about how they met, how they got started with vacation rentals, and Debi's podcast about Airbnb stories. To see the Hertert's properties: http://www.oregonshearwater.com

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews Portland Airbnb Superhosts Charity and Maylene Kuahiwinui (koo-ah-hee-vee-new-ee) and learns how they have built a small business of supporting other hosts.   These two energetic and fun women share their story of how they got into Airbnb hosting, bought a suitable home, then perceived and filled a market niche for supporting other hosts who don't have the time or knowledge to manage their own listings.  Their entrepreneurial drive and individual professional skills in HR and IT have served them well as their business now supports a number of hosts with a variety of services.  You can check out their business at http://www.Turnkeyed.com

In this heartwarming interview, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with April Brenneman, mother of five and Airbnb host with a tree house! April tells Debi about her youngest son becoming ill and wishing for a house in the trees.  The community response and the effect on Josh are uplifting, and now, years later the tree house is helping the family in a new and important way. April shared a beautiful YouTube video of the tree house story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbemVJgo6Yg You can see April's listing for House in the Trees at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5642410 and the "large comfy room in SW Portland " is at  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1094328  

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Emily Andrews, a photographer in Beaverton, Oregon.  Emily has hosted some fascinating guests in her unusual Airbnb accommodations, including a 1-day old baby!  Listen through to the very end to see what was so darn fun! To see Emily's listings: Tiny House: www.airbnb.com/rooms/11227628 Photography Studio: www.airbnb.com/rooms/10791897 The Cottage: www.airbnb.com/rooms/7158944 Listings Emily manages: Hoffman Woods: www.airbnb.com/rooms/10810725 Beaverton Home: www.airbnb.com/rooms/11678823 Charming Farm House: www.airbnb.com/rooms/11722042

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews Airbnb Superhost Carole Wiles in Portland, Oregon. Carole tells about her move from California and her search for a home in Portland that would be suitable for including an Airbnb apartment.  Carole has traveled extensively herself, and values the concept of affordable accommodations to allow these cultural experiences to others.   To see Carole's "Suite Dreams" studio listing go the shownotes for this episode.