The number one thing you can do to increase your Airbnb bookings
In episode 20 of The Richer Geek, I invited Nicole Herman to share her expertise with us on how to decorate and outfit a short term rental. Nicole has over 12 years experience in hospitality design and is now bringing that expertise to people who work fulltime but want to create more income with short term rentals.
Nicole started helping short term rental owners when she realized that when she would go away that only 25% of the time she would stay in an airbnb. This was because as she was looking for a place to stay, she noticed that a lot of the places were not up to standards and with her experience and expertise she knew she would be able to help investors create their own tiny hotel boutique. This is how the Social Home was born.
Top 5 Reasons To Work With Social Home or Other Designers
A designer really can help you stand out from your competition. You want to be booked over your competition down the road. As Airbnb and short term rentals grow in popularity, there is more and more competition
We can really help you determine your target demographic. Not everyone is renting Airbnb as a vacation rental. And not everybody is the millennial group. You do have families, you have those millennials, but then there are over 700,000 companies right now that use Airbnb, for work and travel. Maybe you would rather cater to that market, and is your Airbnb or property situated to cater to that market?
One of the main reasons is time constraints. Time is our most precious asset these days. So if you're an investor whose time is better spent elsewhere and you have a full time job, such as an IT sector a designer can really take a load off your plate. It's our world, we're continually reading industry magazines, we're looking at new products, and we can pull that design together quicker, faster, and much better. And the quicker you pull your design together, the quicker you are to execution, the quicker you are to market,and the quicker you are to making a profit.
Professional experience. They see and work with all types of situations.
Help increase your revenue. The more well designed spaces are, bookings are about 20% higher and their listings were about 20% higher than your average.
What Kind Of Capabilities Can Companies Like The Social Home Provide?
Anything and all things design, concept through installation concept. Coming up with a big picture for you. Because we are very visual, people think of us not only as short term rental designers, but as short term rental consultants. We have access to graphic designers, photographers,and can help you with contractors. We're really experts at creating the whole picture. Hospitality is our language. We can help you determine your demographic, which helps inform your overall design concept. We can help you with furnishings selection, and then putting those into a customized floor plan. And then if needed, those finished selections, paint, tile, all of that. And then down to procurement, which is just a fancy term for purchasing and then installation. So we're they're really right from the beginning all the way to the end.
How Can People From Around The World Receive Help?
On our website, we have under our shopping book section something called RE Design Services. Right now it says furnishings only, but really reach out to us if you need finish selections. If you book you'll be given a survey that will ask you about your property. What type of space is it. You'll be responsible for taking the photographs, giving dimensions, and then I'll put everything together on my end and send it off. We'll work back and forth.
How To Incorporate Budget Into The Design Process
We're experts at knowing where to spend your money, where you can cut costs. We understand that an Airbnb is a business, and it's an investment. It's not somewhere where you're going to be living every single day. So we can really help you from the very beginning, create that budget, and then where can you cut costs and really help you achieve your long term goals. We understand that not everybody has high budgets, and typically we never get those clients anyway. So we find creative ways to work within your budget.
How Long Is The Process?
It’s a couple hours of your time and my time. If it's something like an E design where you only need your furniture selected. That can around, once we receive your questionnaire back in as little as one to two weeks. Then you can either take it from there and do the purchasing. And it depends on the lead times of those furniture. Then full renovation can take anywhere from a couple months, four to six months, up to a year or more.
To hear more, check out episode #20 here.