Helping Hosts Together: The Abundant Host Interviews LearnAirbnb

Of the many things that Jim Breese (co-founder of LearnAirbnb) and I agree on wholeheartedly, probably the most significant is this:

As hosts, we are in the hospitality industry, not the rental industry.

Just like in many other areas of the new economy—coworking spaces are a prime example—it’s not just about the space.

As hosts, our #1 job is not to provide a bed to sleep in, but to provide an experience. An experience filled with comfort, kindness, luxury—with humanness. We provide an expansive palette for the creation of our guest’s definition of leisure, vacation, business or play—on their terms.

Based in east Los Angeles, Jim has worked with hundreds of hosts over the past 18 months, running LearnAirbnb as a passion project and creating profitable strategies for optimizing Airbnb rental businesses.

In this fireside chat between LearnAirbnb and The Abundant Host, we talk about how to attract your ideal guests, how sites like ours can play a vital role in this new economy, and why it’s important to not overthink hosting (and what you should be thinking about instead).

Get 5 Stars in Communication & Arrival—Even When You Never Meet Your Guests

If you travel a lot, use a lockbox for your guest’s entry/exit, or otherwise are not able to meet your guests in person—how do you create a connection with them?

How do you make sure they feel confident, safe and satisfied—satisfied enough to write you a raving review filled with 5-stars across the board (particularly in Communication and Arrival)?

In this post, I’ll show you some easy ways to do just that.

Presenting… My New eBook, “Cleaning Up”!

We’re now three days out from the public launch of my new book, Cleaning Up: How to Work With a Turnover Assistant to Uplevel Your Profit, Freedom and Success Hosting on Airbnb. The intro pre-order tier has now ended; those of you who ordered early and got the discount will receive the book early, today!

Today, I’m so excited to reveal the full title to you and the cover design.

It was designed by Tony Bacigalupo, who is a whiz at Photoshop and funneled my exacting demands into poetry in pixels. :)

The Abundant Host Goes to Paris! Clink Glasses With Me at the Airbnb Open

One of my core focuses right now is to bring you more community through The Abundant Host. I want us to be able to brainstorm together, to learn from and help each other—so I’m taking actions in Fall 2015 with this in mind.

And on this front, today I have some exciting news for you…

I’ve been invited to the Airbnb Open 2015 in Paris (Nov. 11-14)! I’ll be there, milling about, taking notes for you from all the best workshops and enjoying myself thoroughly. :)

In addition to being at the conference, I’m hosting a special event just for The Abundant Host community.

The 15 Crucial Things Not to Forget When You Live in the Home You Airbnb

If you live in your home and you’re leaving it up to you to do the cleaning and turnover before your guest arrives and before you head out of town (which you may decide to do whether or not you have a turnover assistant to help you when you’re not around, to save money or for other reasons), here are some things to remember.

Guest Perspective: Stocking Useless Kitchenware and Lame Art at Your Airbnb? Yes, Your Guests Notice

Fellow hosts, I hate to be the one to tell you:

If you think you leave your dullest knives, cheapest pots and most uncomfortable couches at your Airbnb (while you reside somewhere else with all the upgrades) and we won’t notice—you’re wrong. We will.

This kind of place is slightly different from the place that is sparse and one-dimensional. Instead of giving the feeling of sterility, it gives you a feeling of… confusion, and mild-to-major frustration.

How to Find Your Ideal Houseturnover Assistant (Sneak Peek Into My New Book!)

Hi everyone! I’ve been super happy writing this book for you on finding, hiring, training, managing and keeping your super awesome houseturnover assistant.

Your success, freedom and profitability through Airbnb is directly affected by the quality of work your houseturnover assistant does.

Since I’m doing a promotion right now where the first 25 people who buy my book will get it for $8.99, I wanted to bullet-point just one of five hefty sections in the book so you know what you’re getting!