The conversation revolves around the launch of a new podcast called "Str Street Talk Show," where 5 friends discuss all things related to short-term rentals like Airbnb. They introduce themselves, discuss news updates from Airbnb's May release, highlight a listing in the top 1%, share listener Q&A, and talk about their experiences as super host ambassadors. The participants share insights on Airbnb experiences in Japan, the hospitality of hosts, and the diverse food experiences they had during their travels. The podcast aims to provide valuable information and tips for hosts in the short-term rental industry.
hello St Str Street talk show season 1 episode 1 if you love the show hit subscribe hit the like and smash that notification Bell so you never miss an
episode what's the purpose of this Str str3et talk uh podcast you might ask well it's five five friends uh meeting up uh to over coffee to talk about All Things New in the world of short-term rentals Airbnb vbo whatever you want to call it uh we're here to talk about our issues we all hosts ourselves we're all super hosts some of us are in the top 1% or 5% of uh hosts in the world uh not me uh I might be close but um uh so today we're going to talk we'll just have a bit of an introduction this is season one episode one we're having a bit of an introduction to ourselves and um we're going to talk we've got a little bit of a structure so we're going to talk about some news and we're going to let's just refer to the agenda shall we we're going to uh have a look at some news round up uh this week airnb put out their May one uh release so we're going to have a look at that going to have a look at a listing that's in the top 1% of um listings on Airbnb worldwide which is pretty Mega um it's an average kind of listing but it's in the top 1% so I think we can all uh learn from that we've got segment four is our listener Q&A section and we're going to have a look at uh the five of us are what's called super host ambassadors for Airbnb and we get asked all sorts of interesting questions and we're going to have a look at our favorite question each from the week and uh segment five before we wrap up we're going to have a look at tips tricks and uh news items as well that weren't covered in other segments and then we'll close I'm throwing now to uh Felicity Stevens welcome Felicity hey Mark thanks for having me here I'm really excited to be part of this launch and share some words of wisdom with uh some fellow hosts from around the world thanks for having me all right and you're coming in from Wellington New Zealand is that right I'm coming in from Wellington New Zealand but I am a host in Sydney Australia all right and and felicities at the local library um meridi coming in from Mark how are you how are you Mark I'm down here in hob tmania where I um but you know we've known each other for ages and um I host onbb amazing so Jordan where are you today I am on the sunny coast today I'm so anyone about me I amost it yep I'm the author of the book ready said host it The Ultimate Guide to setting up your short rental I've been hosting for about nine years I at Australia I own four of my own airbnbs on both the Sunshine Coast and in central Queensland I got properties of co-host throughout Australia all it's all different size property so each property will come with its own benefits challenges different things different markets which always keeps me busy and I host
on.com amazing Sue is sponsored by the nbm the world's best provider and if you want to know anything more about Sue just look down below in the comments and we put links to sue working on our stream Starling because they're working the street it's shocking shocking oh Starling yes Jeff G filling in for bis Johnson this morning yeah they keep promising anyway call speaking from the traditional lands of the D one also known as Regional goldfields in Victoria where this morning it is a Chile four degrees four degrees we keep that won't be long to begin with how about we um get talking about our May One release oh wasn't it good did anyone at 5 o' for the or two o'clock or whatever time it was I come up in no it was fantastic you know my most favorite part is the new category called icons now icons was slipped in we weren't told about icons beforehand Mark you forgot to tell people that's often we get invited to test drive the uh the early releases before they come out to the public and the icons category was not there for the test drive but icons is you can stay at the Barbie house you can stay at the X-Men mansion you can say at the MU uh you can stay at oh the Ferrari Museum go Ferrari Museum yeah what what about the up house the house up that has the balloons it takes it away I mean amazing my balloons had Flo up and that' be it I'd be gone yeah You' Totally Miss out I want to stay at the X-Men house the X-Men house looks really good but I think that's in um New York so they're not all at the same spot now now listeners where all you at this okay so this is probably really going to suck but um I'm just going to say for all of us I'm going to put in in the background I'm going to put in links to the X-Men house we'll put in links Down Below in the Youtube video um how to find the X-Men house and uh so carry on Jeff if you your if you log out your account log back in you see the 30 minute video yeah and that video that video is pretty cool because Brian chesy takes everyone through the background and how they develop the ideas and just so much of the detail that's gone into making all those listings it's phenomenal if you haven't seen it go and look at it it puts a whole new slant on why they've done it it's exciting it's pretty incredible I think yeah I think the amazing thing about it is is that anyone can actually create their property into an iconic house if you want to you just need to see what it is and what you have to do to change and you will become an iconic property the the X-Men house in New York really is just one of many lookalike properties that probably sits out on the Hampton's Peninsula um in the state and all that done is really customize the house on the interior um the up house is a little bit different admittedly the owner of the up house actually physically built it um to be like that um but you know I think one of the things we've been looking at for a long time ourselves is acquiring a castle up in Queensland um and turning it into the Rapunzel Castle and we can have costumes I'll be sh do I have to my we get a for that make costumes beautiful
costumes what about the new inbox that's my all your messages in one you know like you can see hosting traveling support the whole lot when it works properly which is most of the time but um I really love that because you don't have to worry about toggling all over the place and um you know you can get to see all your messages don't you like that one it's really really useful actually um you know for me for me I would have liked uh one small change to that functionality um affect everybody I just have to stop you there Jeff branes I can see is on the line right now so just you're talking directly to the top okay so just could you could you go back to saying what extra feature you want because I'm sure he's listening oh I'd like in um the top bar of the messages to have a separate bar to have a separate one just for Ambassador so you've got hosting you've got traveling you've got support I'd like an extra one called Ambassador which is adly is only specific to a very few number of us around the world who do that for job for it's not gonna happen is it but it's probably not going to happen because it is only function that is utilized by what I think it's utiliz by about less than a thousand of us worldwide well there's like 40 in Australia yeah and you know what I found out in Japan there was only five ambassadors in the whole of Japan that's interesting yeah how many listings are there in Japan I'm not really sure but there's there's quite a few like you know they've got a reasonably big market and they they don't have any problems about hosting because the Japanese government is very Pro short-term rentals at the moment so it's a good place to host I've got to say my trip to Japan was fantastic I had the best time we met the nicest hosts we did the best Airbnb experiences totally got to know so much more about the areas that we were saying in we went to the fish markets I would never have known what the fish markets were really like in all their history if we hadn't done that ebnb experience the guy was phenomenal and Hospitality was incredible I can understand why people are flocking to Japan it is an incredible country and the people are amazing beautiful people aren't they I mean shy at first but all you have to do is start talking and and smiling and say a couple of words in Japanese and and they're in you know they're so sweet the food mer it is phenomenal we were there for 10 days we had a different style of food every night it was amazing I came home and I feel like my cooking is so boring I need to do a job course yes well I'm gonna start making okom every once a week I think because we did that cooking class oh we did the guoa cooking class that was fantastic and we all agreed it was one of the best highlights of the whole trip that all of us just sitting around a table in someone's home in the middle of Tokyo learning how to make y it was and was this ANB experience it was an Airbnb experience it was it was incredible which I think there was a new addition for Airbnb experiences in the M1 update am I right the sorry I was listening to Tamila last night and she mentioned oh yeah like um I'm really happy there's something about experiences did I well look I hope it's coming because I know for myself it's you know when I into my when I checked into my ABNB in Tokyo and I was looking at what we were going to do the first thing I wanted to do was a tour so I just jumped on the app and found a couple of ABNB tours and that's what we did it was brilliant and I think it's there's so much that we can do to help promote what it's actually like when you stay in our cities or our towns because we're the locals but we can't do it all so that's why these experience brilliant because they can take someone on a snotling trip or they can take someone and show them how to make gooses or I think um I think the experiences are what make going to a country you know like I went to Japan went to Tokyo we went on a tour and it was wonderful we went to to Mount Fuji we went to Hiroshima we went to MIMA we went to all those places but you didn't really see the real Japan until you stayed in a Japanese person's home you sat on the floor around a low table with 10 other people and chatted um mind you in very broken English but we we made ourselves known you know you took your shoes off and did the whole Japanese thing you know it was incredible my host took me to pray at The Shrine and then to get dressed in a kimono and you know I mean we chatted with my kimono teachers about them becoming visitors to Tasmania I think um you know you have to experience it I think if you if you don't know much about a country stay in a room not an apartment on Airbnb or whatever platform but stay in a room because that way you actually get to meet your host and interact with them even if you only do it a couple of nights that you learn so much about the country just for our uh many many cast of millions uh viewers uh merth back from uh to back from oaka this week am I right we're recording this on Friday the 3D of May Okay so brush off the boat and Away amazing all right well and can you mark I've got one thing I'd love to add one thing I'm really stoked about with the uh new launch is we know the guest favorites button has come out but what's happened with the latest update is there is now a new Trophy and I'm so stoked because I got it y um so that's me I am a guest favorite and I've got the gold Laurel Roots I reckon we need to have a party I think we need a big too party to celebrate because to me that looks like the Greek LA and I know famous of parties and I know we all like parties so I think party next time and parties so that's fantastic for not allowing party we get a party online party in the just online all right a virtual party a virtual party I love it all right any other got i' got all my properties actually guess over it so happy about that two of them have made trophies which is amazing because what I find with m is mine I've got pet friendly properties and one of them is extremely unique and not you know and I'm competing with you know Sunshine Coast properties and there's some amazing Sunshine h properties and mine is just this little two-bedroom one and half bathroom bu friendly property and still makes top 5% so I'm already stoked with that so I'll add that my little list things too pet friendly provider accommodation extraordinary well done so we have amazing um Mark I was just gonna say what is also interesting about what Sue saying is I think others on the call probably have got this as well is because we've been hosting for so long and we got to know our guests you sometimes see them going through those different stages of life and I know for me we we have had um guests who've come out to stay with us in Sydney because their daughter or son is living there and then they might come out the following year because they might have a boyfriend and then they might come out the following year because there's an engagement party and then they come out the following year because there's a wedding and then they come out because there a baby and it's really lovely to see people over the years who come and do that and it's it's really nice part of their life and they love oh now you want to know where the playgrounds are I've had and things like that like all of a sudden a previous guest will just pop up and go hi Sue I just want to introduce you to the new they send me photos and um photos of human new human babies Fair babies grand babies um yeah it is lovely to be really like family to some of these people and they refer to it as their beach home sometimes go oh we love that beach house that we don't pay the rent on I love I love my beach house in the Sunshine House too sou
so can don't mean to be flipping but can we can we move on to um the next thing that was on the agenda the May release the interactive earnings chart has all my hosts are saying they love it yeah it's really good actually it's much better improved on what we've had in the past um much easier to see I like how it lists what You' are coming up I like how it misss what you've been paid yeah I like how it shows what your potential earnings are for the month that you got booked in so far I like how you can compare against prior months you know and I think that really gives you a really good understanding of when your high and low seasons are visually um and you can try to work out maybe what youve to do to adjust that coming up and what about the other one the the other the other thing that was on there was the um guided photo capture has anybody that yep so I used mine um really easy to use um it then actually makes suggestions on how to improve it and if you click okay it actually just goes ahead and does it for you so hopefully we'll get hosts uh guests coming with uh actual photos of themselves instead of well that's it it will it will not accept a photo of a cartoon character or a dog or a cat or your couch or your house it will only accept a picture of a human now ad mly you could actually take a picture of another person and it wouldn't know the difference that's probably a little bit of a flaw um but it will stop those ridiculous ones where we have you know Luke Skywalker wanting to book into our house that has happen to me yeah I've got
a yeah we got a cactus oh that's the profile Pho yeah all right and a cartoon cactus that I think I'm liking the uh group um features I'm not sure where that that that is but so many times a lot of my houses are four five six bedrooms and so I I think that that's going to have real um you know couples booking in um I was saying to us last night that uh they can't quite share the payment arrangements at this point I I think that if Brian is listening in Brian I probably would say a way that Felicity and Sue and I can you know pay a thirds will probably be um fairly useful but maybe maybe we'll see that can I ask why I invited
hello I think you're busy that remember on Virgin I can come anytime yeah yeah I got chairman land yeah I like the group sharing as well because we travel a lot with um uh to real estate investment um conferences and different things all the time and three couple or four couple one property and who's getting there first the chat and da and sharing checking information exactly what's the Wii password again what disappointing about that function so one thing I was disappointed about that function that I would have liked to have seen I would like it to be mandatory where a guest books for more than one person for the guest who actually have to enter the names and email contacts or all of the other guests now currently that's an optional right so when you're booking as a guest like when I take my own family away and I take five of us with the kids I get the option of entering that information or you can still ignore that and you only have me as the contact I think it'd be great for host and I think it would give host a lot more Comfort um because I had a question on this just this morning from someone if they knew the names and the contact details for everybody who was coming to say well everybody over 60 or over
80 one of the things I thought was interesting with this grp booking is that only the person who books the property can leave the review however when we go review the guests that review goes on to the account of everyone in there so it's a great opportunity for someone who's new to hosting new to being a guest on Airbnb who might have been you know brought along on a trip to um actually get their first review to then confident to go on and look again so I think I think that's great yeah yeah yeah yeah I think that's best part of it because um you know the the other guests get involved in the whole process learn a bit more about it so that maybe they'll become Airbnb guests properly themselves in the future yeah like when you see a new um you take a booking request from their BNB for X number of years with no reviews I I'll ask them say oh I've seen you been with Airbnb for five years however you don't have any reviews is there an issue sometimes it's because but a lot of the time we'll say oh my sister nor books or we nor book on my husband's account or we nor book on my wife's account or whatever so these guys have actually traveled a lots and I know don't take guests without reviews I do I mean I in BNB and teach them to be good guests but yeah I think
that Segways into a really good question that's probably not it's probably going off agenda and for everybody who's listening we WR Mark psycho and we all a agenda but what about taking guests that have no reviews it comes up so often as question should we or shouldn't we my personal view I everyone is a good guest and prove it otherwise if I if I get a request from with no reviews or that has never been a guest before um I will um have a chat with him and I'll ask him what where why they're coming and um how come they've never had a review before and things like that and usually you strike up a rapport with somebody and it's fine you know it's really just the unknown why a lot of hosts won't take people with no reviews so communication Mark sorry I always I will always insist that that every guest had to be our government ID otherwise you know I will take them they've got govern ID verified but uh even if it's their first visit like that's fine that's just my did I cut you off soon I always REM them as well in a nice way and say you know I'm happy to take you first time guess um and then in a subtle way sort of say oh um travel becomes easier once you get your first review you know because I say look I've notic you review configuration grp usual things and then I said you know travel becomes easier once you get your first review we hope you go on to fantastic and then I say make sure that you put the app in your phone you rece em from so I'll even say like this now you'll receive mobile email from Airbnb all the information will be under trips in your on your PC app um download the app onto your phone this is where we'll communicate we'll send a message you know X number of days on the day of Che whatever your thing is so and then you know say just please reach out if you have any questions so I do remind them that they are going to get a review from me as well I think that that helps as well but I sort of teach them how and they're all just quick replies I don't this out you know there's a quick reply that's I'm accepting first time booking you know accepting first time traveler bang dang done you know sort of thing so I think education really but the father us I think are wise enough that if we get an inquiry for tonight from the first time visitor who lives in the next suburb um what what alarm oh that's a red flag that's a red flag that's that's ficity having a party I think yeah it's my toga party I'm so excited that I'm favorite come and join me well speaking of
guest do put talk Flags in a whole thing we could go for days on can I bring up another topic that's pretty hot on airbn at the moment and that's the verification of location um now I'm having quite a few hosts having issues with verification of location and um they're all going oh I can't do it it won't um change and I've found that that uh there's cases where people need to um go into their Google Maps type their address move the PIN to where they actually
are um and um it may take a day or two for for it to stick but it should help them redo their verification because a lot of people are having the same issue have you guys noticed anything about this don't know what we're talking about we will put an article in the links down below about this Airbnb verification issue and we'll even we'll probably Meredith I think we should do a separate little video uh showing how to set up your your ver to do your verification so yeah because you until June we haven't until June 9 to do it I'm doing mine so so I'll tell you next week how it went well maybe maybe the other problem is maybe what we can do is screen record you Jeff yeah oh yeah I'll put the camera on yeah we could we could screen and record you and publish it to the world we'll put you a private address we'll put it what if he can't do it yeah what it doesn't well Brian is watching guys Brian is watching he's our number one guest a number one viewer he'll be watching and he will see the bugs in real life the the other problem is for remote host I host see I've got a lot of hosts who host in tzy but live in Melbourne or Sydney and they can't actually be there and take the the verification photographs o ah but there are some way around there and there's a few different listed in the in the uh what the article you posted there's a few different ways that host can get around doing that to get that set up so yeah State how can they take the verification photo uh Mark Mark have you got the article open I think they talk about how you can get other people to go down and take the photos is that correct coost can do it so you can always yeah that's it but if they don't have a but there's nothing I Das asking me to do it no mine appears on I have I'll show you my screen um I think the important thing that everyone has to know is that um don't ignore it okay if you haven't done it by June 9 they are going take your listing off okay let's see if this works I I haven't got on the app I hav got mine anywhere I haven't been asked to do it that's because you've already been verified Sue mine was verified and yes all mine verified search is spam you should find a verification notification because mine was in spam I do okay because you've been around for a while and you've had good guests they verified your location um and some people his private my private room my hous my houses are fine it's my private room listing that need to be reverified and actually you were verified I know I've been verified M been verified so you can't see it because I can't work out how to take my background screen off um but when you go onto your dashboard the very first thing you will see um is a note under welcome back listing verification needed required by 9 June 2024 click here to start the verification process so you cannot miss the note yeah the that we get out understand in our area people tend to just ignore these things don't ignore it I think Airbnb serious they will remove your listing if you don't do it there is that big problem that if you're in Sydney or melbour and you got a listing you've got take the photo well I guess that's a deductible flight um so you know
it's you can actually say it mer yeah we give mer address we'll put Meredith's address in the links below just ring her up she's always available no problem now meridith been P for up to four people in her property downstairs and she's so Brian and Joe are fine and maybe Sue and flick could go and have a little Reunion yeah well we I I've got an A so so I can bring my ear and just you know good I think one of the interesting things about this verification process is the why and why do we have to do this and I think it's tell us why well we do need to verify the number of B that's right so important it's so important I don't know about you but I got caught out traveling to the states and I looked at Airbnb looked great the guy seemed fantastic the place look really good and what happened is um I won't say exactly where it is but I uh my husband and I traveling got the train got the bus got off the bus we thought we were walking to the right spot no not there there was no house there was no house and we were like ah right okay might go back to Starbucks and call ABNB we went back to Starbucks called ABNB I got a b a problem I've got this booking and uh it doesn't seem to be in the same location anyway we got hold of the um host and what the host had done I don't know how they did it but they did it they set up their listing dropped it into one area of town but an actual fact listing was on the other side of town and the interesting thing was I had chosen that listing because of that location because I wanted to be able to walk to the conference I had to pay for an Uber and it was I don't know $25 each way in the Uber like I'll BL that I want to be able to just roll out a bed and walk over um but yeah and that's location and can I just say um our last Hotel say in Japan was in Osaka where we stayed for three four nights in a umum hotel called you metah holic and the hotel itself was lovely we arrived at night the next day we went walking looking at what was in our neighborhood and found some really interesting things in our neighborhood uh and had them confirmed by our taxi driver that yes we were in the love Hotel district did you just say you Mar did you just say you stayed in a hotel yes unfort the booking did you say Hotel I stayed in a hotel but I did stay in Airbnb I did stay in a hotel and uh you know it was a nice hotel but it was in the love Hotel district
oh I think and I think that's one of the things is manyal invited is that so you is that got something to do with those ads where you can pick the bedtime is that how it works um yeah well anytime where you can book your hotel by the hour is uh an interesting Hotel they Chang the li no I have to say that the hotel we were in wasn't a love hotel but the one next door was oh good yeah yeah so we tried to go in there to eat because we thought it was a restaurant seeing as we couldn't read Japanese letters but they wouldn't let us in um for some reason sorry any french letters while you're over there not so you know you know going back to this experience that I had where I went to my mbnb that I booked and it wasn't there the car was lovely the place was lovely when we got there to me it was a bit disappointing so I understand why some of my friends and they say oh I'm not sure if I want to stay on abmv um they bit disappointed they've had a disappointing experience so I think that's why it's so important that we all get our places verified and if we know people are doing encourage them to get their places verified and understand it is so important because if you're not verified and a guest turns up and they have not such right experience then they may not come back to the so it's really important we all do out bit I think it's one of the best moves that has made to are they are they doing June yeah so 7 million yeah you might also slow your first start before you get that first review sometimes that first booking can take a little bit of time because guests or experienced guests to bought something without reviews nowadays because they're not sure if it's real like I've bought property where I was the first guest because I can read you could read it you could see that like this this girl really I went rebook it a couple months later and to become super host it was really exciting actually and I said oh your superhost now and also first gift um but I co-host a property that was was brand new this week I actually had B it has reviews now this is one of its first bookings I think is coming in next week or the week after and he actually said he only booked it my Prof otherwise he was he would have because it's beautiful it's in prison City and it's absolutely beautiful so it could look too good to be true so he actually said I'm looking this I want to find if it's legit but knowing that you're there as a super host I can see your and I said yeah go ahead and read my profile you can see multiple reviews multiple properties and all that sort of stuff so um he felt secure that way otherwise he may not have booked it it was just the host he wouldn't have believed that it was real so getting them verified we um is going to be
because they're gonna go and save out places too but I think we'll find verifications here to stay and we asked to do it every couple of years I mean the reality is the platform is now so big um ebnb needs to have host rever verify in order to work out what's fraudulent and what's not you know over 7 million properties exist on this platform it's the largest platform of its typee in the world our next closest competitor is booking.com which only has 2.2 million properties on it globally probably HS uh yeah that's right are hotels that's exactly right oh in other news vbo has just introduced a sday listing ban for host to cancel the strictest ban of any platform host on do any of you host on vbo
yeah need need a booking I need a booking first to be able to cancel on there I don't I won't lose my on V I just think it's um really uh interesting because airb a strict cancellation policy for a while and um what's going on there Felicity and and now um the other platforms are coming in with even stricter policies so I think that's pretty interesting and something interesting is happening back there in Sydney actually these are my folks really great story and this is why I love being Airbnb host okay let's moisty Mom and Dad drum roll people hey um after this we are gonna move on and we are going to look at a verified host and by the way we will put down in the messages below Links of Sue's uh property in uh Brisbane which could be too good to be true and all of our properties there'll be a link to all of our profiles and things like that below so anyone that wants to see that um ladies and gentlemen we are waiting for the guests what what Wasa who don't want to Beed okay hey how are
you what's it like M and Dad what's it like having a superstar daughter have we we haven't got one does she charge you when she when you stay at her place no have you ever had a party because I can recommend if you're ever in the North Shore of of Sydney and you want to have a party yeah I think mommy came to big party last year yeah about 100 100 people there my my invitation must still be in the mail yeah I'll don't go I want to know about your book collection no no that might take forever you want to move on this is this is one of the really neat thing about being an ABNB host I can host in Sydney and with my folks dad's not doing so well I can come backwards and forwards and travel and if I was in a regular job working for someone else how do I go and explain actually that's not doing so great I'm going over tomorrow this way I pack a few bags I talk to my housekeeper I run with my husband and kids guys have got to step up I need to travel and I can do that because I'm a host how do how do you parents like it when you H you know strangers into their house well my uncle and Aunt is staying at the so I actually got kicked out last night so I'm around place so yeah yeah yeah it's okay all right well we're going to move on we're going to Spotlight we'll move on to segment two uh and that is our listing critique and and which is a combination also of segment three which is our SP host Spotlight and we're going to have a look at a listing that's in the top 1% of worldwide listings folks hold your breath strap on here we go and I was looking at this one this morning this is Catherine so was I I love CCH very sustainable host she's a very sustainable host a lot of her ventur is all upcycled and repurpose she's a legend this is Catherine okay so what do you notice here people there's no photo to her a Catherine how can you be and not have a photo to her I don't have a photo to her I hate the bloody things and all my stuff is repurposed Sor just saying as well but oh wear here okay but she does have captions which is very very good feature but mean I think the thing that's remarkable about this listing is that it's so unremarkable but yet it's it's in the top 1% worldwide of Airbnb listings so Katherine must be doing uh lots of
the that's why she's what me about this listing when look at this morning was the pictures don't inspire me they don't jump out right so what I find amazing about it is if I was looking in the dashboard when you do your search would I actually have stopped on this property to book and the answer is no her hero Shot for Me of the louing with the red couch wasn't enough stop go back go back something like that I I love the bar door I would stop for that right because I think that is a far more interesting hero shot yeah that first of all because to be stylish look at that bed comfy you know neat clean um if I'm looking for a room it's got everything going for they're not professionally taken are photos no go back to the bathroom shop I like that picture I go back yeah that awful clear out the really seriously that's awful um but looks like something yeah now as another hero shot the next photo you've got that is great love that it's it's so when you're looking at your hero shop I suppose what I'm looking for is something that is interesting that says okay let me click here to see what's behind this aoto um
that's not bad to me you know to me this looks like a really nice neat clean well-maintained oh I like that look at that that should be up front to me yeah I think the important thing here is that the photos obviously don't make this a 1% no but but she's she's got it she is a 1ent she's a 1% host that means that she is an amazing host otherwise she wouldn't get that profy so totally totally because like you look at the the back end of all of these photos looks really good it's really interesting it's the front end photos that are St me look I mean she's got an average rating 4.94 that's not bad 400 but you see it's interesting isn't it what would do it for you and what would get you interested see on the if you go back to that front shot where you see the mixture of shots there I look at that and I can see solar and it's someone who's always trying to support sustainable travel and where do you say if you go back to there mix you can see the solar which is so important shows they're taking steps to reduce their emissions and that is really important to me so if I saw that that would stand out to me from another house that didn't have it but that's me that's me well we have a a shot with solar panels as well because I think that's really important and a lot of people want to know that you're you know doing your bit for the environment um and being a sustainable host but um the cover shot could have been so much better that cover shot there as Jeff said that red couch is a winner why not focus on the couch yeah more so than those chairs at the moment this photo focuses you on those chairs and the TV whereas I think you could reposition that furniture to make it more interesting focusing on the red couch yeah I I wonder where um she keeps her L&B
pillows hang I love my Airbnb pillows they're
awesome who knows does anyone know the history of the Airbnb Airbnb you don't have
either this is the original Airbnb logo wow so Brian thanks very much we were really stoked when you uh when you took our feedback on board and we saw you and with the with the cushions brilliant Christmas present this is your way Jeff Hearing in front of you Jeff yeah I know but but the history to the pillows everyone is that Brian's mother made him the original pillows right at the very start of ebnb oh she can so so what happened was it wasn't until we all saw them on the couch in Brian's Lou room in a meeting that universally I think around the world over a thousand of us said where do you get the pillows from now Paul Brian can't ask his mom to make a thousand pillows I mean that would be a little bit like you know slave labor of the elderly but um there you go that's the that's the history to theill the pillows booked inir pillows were so I thought you has to be a community leader and it's actually Louise in town so I booked it properly last week or this week pillow
must I will catch you all next time and I was my opinion on that listing I got so many things that I would say about that to be polite and just leave the conversation okay see you bye bye so we're getting uh to we we're at 10:30 now are we um well we're making our way through and uh this is season one episode one of the S Str Street Talk uh podcast and okay we're learning as we go so um I guess the thing we were talking about uh Katherine's listing I mean I'm I'm proud to know her I'm proud to know someone that's in the top 1% but I think uh what's I think what's encouraging for all of us is if C if Katherine can do it with uh an ordinary and no offense to Katherine but an ordinary looking property she's just extraordinarily good at doing the cleanliness the accuracy the check-ins she obviously looks after her guests and maybe that is the secret I think definitely it definitely is the secret it's it's it's superhost be a superhost and actually be a superhost really actually mean it like care about your guests that's what hosting is all about not just you know Chuck this in Chuck that in Oh They'll be okay we have to care about our guests every single one that comes and that's what get you that top 1% yeah um her rates like it's it's you know it's very good value for something that's in the top 1 percent so I mean she's getting it's very good value uh I'm just looking at what she charges and whether the for cleanliness whether there's even whether there even is a cleaning charge she does offer a weekly discount so that's good um it doesn't seem to be a cleaning charge at all I think a lot of us have gotten rid of our cleaning charges now because we don't don't feel that that's the right way to go yeah it's I look I know I went to book a property um in sento down here uh for five nights and you know it was a large house right so the the booking fee was 14,000 but they wanted to charge a $1,400 cleaning fee come on get real I'm not paying $1,400 for cleaning when I've already paid you 14,000 to stay there for five nights I mean it's ridiculous say Jeff when did you make your first billion very I think it's very interesting Jeff having my um uncle and aunt and chatting with them about what we do and how we do it and my uncle poed up and said oh he was a bit fed up with using BNB because he said there just all these fees he said he just wants to look at a place find the price and book it and know that that's a 0 price and he said we'll go in I'll look at a place it's $200 a night but then when I go to the checkout oh there's a cleaning fee and then there's all the other fees and he said it's ridiculous suddenly you know I thought I had my budget sorted but I don't because of all but he obviously hasn't been on there for a long time because that hasn't been like that for a while now well there are still get shown a total price well there are still so many people I think who charge cleaning fees so yes yes when when you look when you look you get you see the total price now you don't see just the basic good point very good point I hadn't remembered that mer thank you for that I'm going to go back to him and talk about that over lunch with him um another good thing I think with Katherine's profile well Catherine's listing is Katherine's profile um this is something that they did talk about in the M1 uh update or certainly the version that we saw our sneak peek was that they're trying to encourage as many hosts to update their profile and if you look at Katherine's profile you'd have absolutely no quals about booking with her would you no no I mean this is almost perfect she's a retired firefighter uh we know about her she speaks English and like as you get into it um how how are our own profiles does anyone feel confident to put profile up I'll share mine with you I got it up at the moment hang on now how do I how do I share Mar there's a there's a button called present oh yeah I think you have to stop presenting because on that button it tells me that you're still pres okay let me present so okay what is that well oh I see we don't want to that tab do we we want we're professionals here uh ladies and gentlemen we really know what we're doing have to go yeah yes we late you need to go now okay it's been great it's been great having you on board Meredith and uh for those that can stay uh fantastic uh for those that want to be in contact with you Meredith to about all sorts of posting things we'll put all your contact details down below yep no problem I'm happy to answer any any questions people have we'll even put your referral link okay see you guys see you next week bye bye Mary bye Mark and Jeff I think I'm gonna have to leave you because um my folks have gone for lunch and they're um where are you flick so go but this has been fantastic I can't wait to tune in next week and see what we talk about and um I'll see you all next week are you hang around for a little bit longer Jeff I okay if you like well what thanks for joining us ficity okay I'll see you guys later bye bye right now we get to talk what about Sue's internet connection I mean can't can we take up a collection or get we'll petition albow to get some decent NBN up on the Sunshine Coast come on they just need to walk out like you and I have get starlink guys starlink best internet ever no gu complaints about internet at my place in the we love Elon yeah we do love El yes um okay well maybe we can't look at your uh host profile but that's something we we'll revisit next week and we'll get all of our technical things under control um do you want to have just have a look at my mentee question of the week and I'll I'll pop that up on the screen Jeff it's in your notes I got a I got a message from one of my mes uh we'll just call mm that that was this person I won't say if it's a man or a woman it does it's not relevant um my property is not suitable for pets and young children am I allowed by law to refuse children uh from staying at this property now Jeff you and I are both lawyers so um tell me about the anti-discrimination act and whether we can um the answer would be no um I've got a property one my my smaller property is openly advertised for couples but the reality is I cannot stop well firstly you cannot stop a couple from bringing an infant an infant is anyone under the age of two um and frankly pets are pretty much the same these days I mean the problem with the pets law is that any man in whose dog can claim it's a support animal and they don't to provide you with any evidence of that whatsoever right so you know you can try to discourage them from your listing but if somebody's going to check in with their five children you have no basis on which to evict them from your property yeah um I mean I think this lady if I could if I could be frank uh she said to me uh the property is not suitable for children I was thinking well I was thinking to myself that's interesting how did it get passed through Council as even though it's unsuitable for children is it the furniture is it does she have a lot of ornaments or something well um it's an it's an apartment uh I won't say where it is it's an apartment that um there could be shift workers in the apartment block and um maybe um maybe the apartment is fine but um it may be near the water as well right maybe I think you can read between the lines it be it would be hard to to imagine that somewhere is not S I mean I've had some mentees have said we don't want children because they'll break things my responses take them away yeah I I I mentioned to the person uh maybe she should just turn instant booking off that was my recommendation can you think of any other that that's a good way because everything come through as an inquiry and in an inquiry you can then openly say look I really don't think our property is suitable for children okay the my Stonehouse which you can see in the picture behind me is three stories and the reality is it has stairs and it's not that suitable if you're over 80 and you find it difficult to do stairs you know you're better off knowing that this is not the house for you yeah okay so so I think you can deal with that I think you can manage that situation but I think I don't think you can openly say in your listing um children and pets not permitted that that will fall fail of the discrimination legislation have you got anything from your week that you'd like to to share with us yeah the big no no this week and it came through at 5: a. this morning uh one of my uh hosts sent me a not saying they were getting their first booking yay well done here was the problem the photos they had used in their listing were not actually their photos they had just picked a selection of random photos of rooms that looked really really good and the host wanted to know is this a problem hell yeah when that guest turns up and finds out that they're not staying at your property they're going to bring Airbnb they're going to complain they're going to get a refund and the host will be lucky if Airbnb it allows them to stay on the platform so uh my uh my suggestion is make sure your listing is honest make sure your photos are up to date accurate and accurate these are all things that will get you into Big Trouble in the new world yeah so I'm I'm absolutely 100% sure that uh Katherine's uh accuracy well she's got 4.9 she should have to be five for for accuracy yeah okay well I think we've covered quite a lot um listeners thanks for bearing with us uh this is season one episode one of the street talk St Str Street Talk uh show with Mark and Jeff and Felicity Meredith and Sue thanks for we want you to know that Felicity Meredith and Sue bailed out early yes and we thank Brian for sticking with us right to the end
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