Adding Location-Based Touches To Attract Guests

Okay, so welcome to the behind the Host podcast. On the Boostly podcast, I'm Liam Carolan and today we are joined by a host. He's based up in Glen Falls. His name is Joshua Kiplis. And today we are interviewing him about his short term rental and how he got started in short term rentals and the lessons he's learned across the way. So today, listen in for the next 20 or 30 minutes where you can pick up tips from other hosts, things that you can implement in your business to help you. So welcome along Joshua and thank you for joining me.

Well, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. In one small quick clarification, I'm actually in Brooklyn, New York. My property is up in Glens Falls, so pretty close. But I just wanted to get that out of the way. So I am doing this remotely. Glens Falls is about three hours away from Brooklyn and I just wanted to point that out.

That's cool. So we'll dive into that as well about being remote, which is cool because that's a new aspect as well. So before we get started, if you could just introduce yourself how you got into short term rental space and you know, sort of a little bit more about your property.

Yeah, sure. So my name's Josh Gitlis, as I said, and I got into short term rentals. I guess if you were going to go way back, you know, as a kid, my parents would go on, on holidays, we would stay in short term rentals or short term lots and we did that throughout the northeast us. I was, you know, raised basically in the same area that I'm living now. And you know, it was just a cool way to spend a holiday really. And you know, you have access to all these different kinds of properties and it's, it's a really unique experience. Whether you're staying in somebody's cabin on, on the lake or you know, some house in the mountains. It was really cool. So that always, that always stuck with me. And then, you know, over time, you know, of course Airbnb came up and it just, it continued to be something of interest. But then from trying to transition this into the business aspect, you know, I've been doing commercial real estate investing and I was just looking for something else and, you know, consumed a lot of real estate content and you know, Airbnb as everybody always started popping up and I said, huh, you know, this sounds pretty cool. And this is also something that I'm familiar with. And so then, you know, ultimately I just said, this is it. I'm gonna Go and do it. And then I went and I started researching where I'm gonna do it. And that's the big thing, right? And so for my first property, because this is not just my first investment property, this is also my first property. I live in New York where it's like a million and a half dollars for a one bedroom apartment. So a lot of us are still renting. So it's kind of a big deal. First property. And I wanted it to be close, you know, close enough to travel to, not something that was all that far away. And I just. Hudson river is a really popular place to both live and vacation on in New York. And it kind of starts down by the Atlantic Ocean in New York City. And then it works its way all the way up into upstate New York. And so what I did was, you know, I knew that something on the Hudson river would be a good place to, to have a short term rental. And so I literally, I literally started about 30 minutes north of New York and I just started calling every planning and zoning department at all these main cities going up. And I went one to another, to another to another. And it just like Glenswald is up there. Like I really had to work my way up because I was running into one of either two issues. One, they were banned or they were restricted on a level it just didn't make sense. Where, you know, some places short term rentals were permitted but only 90 days out of the year, or you had to live in the town as well. So there were all these restrictions that I just kept running into. And so I just kept going, one town after another. And then I might find a town where the restrictions permitted me to be there. But it was out of my budget. So I just kept going and going and going and going. And finally I hit Glenn's Falls and everything was great. So that's how I ended up going to Glenn's Falls. It was really the, the closest municipality to me that permitted short term rentals, you know, that didn't really have any restrictions. And so that's how I, I ended up there and give a little bit more about Glenn's Falls.

Yeah, certainly. So why. So you've ended up with Glens Falls for that, that first one. And it sounds that you had to be pretty determined to get there. Like there was a lot of no's along the way. So, you know, first of all, you know, accommodations for keep going. And also when you set on Glens Falls, you found out it was okay to do short term rentals there. What were some of the aspects that you considered as to whether or not it would make a good place for short term rental. As the listeners, I'll be thinking, well, you know, I've got to research a place and it sounds like the state laws, you know, is one really important aspect to look at when you find somewhere that allows it. What other things should somebody consider?

Yeah, well, there's state, there's county, and then there's also city. I'm not sure how it is overseas, but here, like those are really the three blogs you have to look at. And it's not so much state, it's more county and city that needs look at. So the, to answer your question though, the other pieces to consider are, you know, I think one, what's driving the demand there because you need to have, you need to have bodies in the house to pay the bills and make it successful. So one thing that I really like about Glens Falls is that it's centrally located to a lot of attractions upstate that a lot of people from the city go to. So there's in the wintertime there's skiing. In the summertime, there's a lot of hiking. It's very accessible to the Adirondacks, which are a mountain range up in upstate New York. It's very popular for people to go. And then also in the fall and autumn time, people like to go there to do what we call leaf peeping, which is look at the different foliage, the changing color of the leaves. Summertime also it's very close to Lake George, which is a very popular lake for recreation. So it's about 15 minutes from there. It's also about 15, 20 minutes from Saratoga Springs, which is the home of horse racing. And there is about a, it's like a six or eight week span that just wrapped up this weekend where people from all over the world come to Saratoga Springs to watch the horses race. And so there's, there's a lot of different things that are going on year round. And you know, the demand that I've seen so far is really, it's been, been really nice. I was at capacity for almost all of June, all of July, all of August. September is starting to shape up nicely. And I know it's going to be a slightly or I believe there's going to be a slower season once you get into the dead of winter. But look into other avenues to fill those times, like looking at nurses and professionals to help fill the gap there.

I mean, it sounds like you've really done your research. Did you know that before. Was this all part of the research or did you know about some of these places before you sort of set on Glens Falls?

I'll say it to mix. Like I did know about Lake George. I didn't know about Saratoga. I should know that there's also a pretty significant performing arts center up in Saratoga. So I did know about this. But you know, there is also that element of a leap of faith because you never really know in like a newish place. Like you can, you can read and study all day long, but at the end of the day, you know, you're, you're not going to know until you know you're really there and experiencing it. And so it's, it's been working out.

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Definitely experience teaches this if we need more of it. So like you say, just it sound as though you've, you've done the research, you've gone there, you kind of know it's a great place. Talk us through. How did you feel when you finally got the property? And is there anything in particular you've done to prepare it for short term rental?

Yeah, so when I finally got the property, it was kind of one of those whoa moments. It's like, okay, you know, I just signed this note for this place and you know, it's a, it's a big deal. So like there, there's the newness of homeownership, there's a newness of having purchase this for a business that I haven't gone into yet. So, you know, a little, I guess, natural concern there. But you know, to get it set up for short term rental, I really, I really took the guest perspective as best I could. And I would say that's, that's how I set it up and that's what I used as the barometer for creating the place. So what kind of. And I put myself in the guest shoes. If I were the guest, like what kind of bed would I want to be sleeping. You know, what kind of appliances would I want to have in the kitchen? Would I want to have a hot water kettle? Would I want to have a blender? Like, how many different kinds of pots and pans would I want to have? And so that's. That's. That's the approach that I took with setting it up. You know, I did put in some cameras on. On the outside, none on the inside, because that's illegal and also creepy, but.

Not a good idea on the inside.

Yeah. In fact, I don't. I don't want to see what people are doing anyway. I'm not. I'm not that interested. But I tried to take on that guest perspective and try to understand what a guest would want, and it's worked out really well because I've gotten really strong feedback from guests thus far about how well the place is equipped. So in addition to comfy beds and some of the appliances that I mentioned, for the kitchen, I got a washer and dryer. I know not everybody has that, but that's been. That's been huge. That's been really helpful. I got some what we call Adirondack chairs, which are outdoor chairs that are common in upstate New York. So I brought a little bit of that regional flavor as well into the place. And I also have some really unique artwork that has been handed down to me from my mom, who has had that, you know, for a really long time. I mean, this is. This is artwork that was created probably, like, I don't know, 60 years ago or so just by a. By. By local artists. But, you know, it adds some. Some flavor to the place, and it doesn't give it a cookie cutter type of perspective.

It sounds as though you've added in, you know, the things you've thought about the guest experience, and by adding little details like, you know, original artwork and things, which sounds like you treasure that sort of stuff, it really makes a home, doesn't it? It really helps guests to connect to the place. So that's. That's really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd say another part that was. That was really important when we put this together was to just make it unique. You know, it's not a place that's so off the wall where we have, like, bungalow swings and, like, a slide to take you from the first floor, the second floor. Like, it's nothing like that, but it's very bright. It's very colorful. It's probably not how many people would design their place, and I think that guests appreciate that. Too, you know, it's a little, it's a, it's a comfortable respite from their day to day.

Yeah, yeah. People don't want to go and stay in what they've already got. They want to go and experience something and stay in something a bit different, which is cool. And especially with all the places you research, is there anything you do around? Do you kind of provide those recommendations, those researched places for guests?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the things that, you know, as you go along the journey, you find out a lot about yourself and you find out things that you didn't know. And one of the things that I found out is that I do really love the business and what I love the most is just the guest interaction. And so I guess I just love being that like expert for guests and showing them how to have an enjoyable time. So yeah, you know, I do have a guest book that I put together which I give to the guests when they, when they register for the place. And then also there's, you know, all sorts of, whether it's beach recommendations or dining recommendations or recommendations about the arts, I'm always at the ready to give them concepts on something to do. I even proactively ask them like, hey, like while you're up here, do you need any recommendations on restaurants? You know, do you need any recommendations on like the arts? Are there any kind of like festivals or anything that you're interested in doing? Because I mean, lucky, as you mentioned that earlier, but there's, there's a lot of, a lot of interesting festivals that go on upstate. Whether it's like car shows or balloon festivals or whatever, you know, there's always something interesting going on there.

That's cool. And I mean that's one of these things which is so different with like instead of going stay in a hotel where it might be somebody on a front desk who may not care quite as much as hosts or people who are, you know, sort of invested in the business. It's one of the things where when somebody comes and stays with you, you might be the only person they know for the entire, you know, for, for miles and miles or kilometers around. You know what I mean? So you providing those recommendations is just so important. And of course I'm sure that helps you to get, you know, repeat guests and great reviews as well. There's two ways we could go. Here you are you still in full time career at the moment as well as I am.

I am, I am, yeah. And I'm happily like, I'll I'll say that pretty freely. I'm very happily doing full time career.

So there's going to be people who are listening.

A lot of people aren't. A lot of people, you know, want to get out of the rat race and all that. I'm not, I'm not one of those people.

No, no, this is, this is cool. And there'll be people listening who want to be in the position where you are now, where you've set up your property. So what's one of the things that you've learned that has most helped you along your journey? Whether it's a piece of tech or you know, a piece of knowledge that you've learned along your journey.

Most helpful thing is that I love it. I absolutely love it. That just makes everything a lot, a lot easier. If I were to narrow it down, you know, I mean just having the passion like having the passion for it, that's hands down, I would say the most all the thing as far as something a little more quantifiable, you know, I'm going to have to. And I am a tech guy. I do product management for a company called Host gpo which is in the short term rental space, which is pretty cool to be doing this full time. I should just note that Tech Man Hospitable.com has been absolutely unbelievable for what I do. So it's a rebankment system and you know, it does really, it automates the whole guest experience and it's fantastic. You know, all the way down to coming up with lock codes for my smart locks. You know, there's just a lot that I don't have to worry about. You know, it sends a message to the guests when they inquire about the property, which helps. If you're on platforms like Airbnb, vrbo, they're looking at response times and so you can automate that. You know, that's tremendous because then you're going to get those, you know, 100 response times. So you know, it does that and then when the guest registers sends a follow up there, you know, checks in with guests after they've stayed, you know, before they, they get there, sends them the key codes and everything. So like it's just a fantastic piece of software and it's, it's really helpful. I've heard from hosts who are much larger than me that they've kind of moved on from Hospitable. I've also heard from some hosts who are larger than me that haven't been able to leave Hospitable. They Refer to it as a warm blanket. And I think that's kind of cool.

That's a nice way to look at them. And they're fantastic pms. And we've had the guys from Hospitable on, you know, Mark's not the guys from Hospitable, but it's one of those things where like you say having a good PMS and having something which allows easy messaging and connects well. Did you say you've got smart locks? So the people listening, how do you, how does that work for your property?

Yeah, so I have the slage. I'm not even sure I pronounce slage. Slage. S, C H, L A G E. Encode smart locks. It's encode E N, C O D E. And these are battery operated locks that are connected to the WI Fi. So on the door facing outside, there's a keypad, you know, much like the phone numbers on your phone. And a guest is sent a email that has the code to enter. It's a randomly generated code that's used to enter the property. And I have one of these smart locks on the front door and one on the rear door. So when Hospitable sends over this email and does this syncing between the smart locks or gives the same code to both locks, so it's easy for the guests to remember. And you know, just like dialing a number on your phone, you go and enter the code and the door opens. It's connected to WI fi. So that's how hospital is able to transmit the information to the locks. And then also, you know, I have, I have an app on my phone, a Schlage app, where, you know, I can see when people have entered, when people have exited. It's also really handy because I could see the status of the door. I could see if it's locked, if it's, if it's unlocked. And so that's, that's actually something that, full disclosure, I've had to use when I've been at the property and I'll leave and I say, oh snap, did I remember to lock the door? And then I can, then I can look and you know, either lock it or just know that it's already locked it.

It's one of the amazing bits of tech, isn't it, smart locks to be able to, to do that from, from afar. And like you say, so you're about three hours, did you say around.

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That's cool. So there'll be people who are listening into this and just go, well, you know, it sounds good. Get hospitable, get smart locks. Is there any other tips you'd have for managing from afar?

Yeah, I'd say that you definitely, in addition to trusting in the technology, you just need to have a solid team up there. You know, you need to have a. Somebody who can clean your property very well and the cleaner is going to also act as the eyes and ears for your property. So you definitely need to have a really good relationship with a really strong cleaning partner to do. I say cleaning, they're really called turnovers. When the cleaner comes and turns over the place, they'll take care of the laundry, they'll take care of the cleaning, they'll polish any chrome, do the vacuuming, mop the floors. It's really comprehensive job that they do. So I interviewed a bunch of cleaners in advance of starting this property and I found one that I really liked and they did a great job. I did do a, like, what we call here in the States a secret shopper type experiment, or really with secret shoppers, where somebody who's been designated by management will go into a store and shop to get a customer experience and then do like any negative or positive feedback back to management saying, hey, you know, when I went through and I shopped, this is my experience, this was good, this was bad, that kind of thing. So I did a couple secret shoppers and one time I found some, some issues, which I, I reported and then the other time I actually found some issues too. And I know that, you know, in, in one of the cases it was minor, in the other cases it was major. But I would say that even as much as strong of a relationship as you have with your cleaners and really any professional partner for that matter, they need to be managed and you need to really just take responsibility into your own hands and do something like that. So I'm a big fan of the Secret Chopper. And despite those couple issues, and there have been some others, but there's bound to be. When you have people staying for hundreds and hundreds of nights in your property, there's going to be issues that come up. I mean, nobody's perfect, but just being able to first have that solid foundation, but then manage the heck out of them, you'll be in good shape.

It's one of those things where, like you say, the themes of having good technology and good team seems to come up often because you do need these good people. And what you've added in there is that, that kind of. We call them mystery shoppers across here, but the secret shopper kind of experience, you really get an idea of what your guest is seeing. And obviously by feeding back on that, you're not only able to help improve standards with your, you know, with, with the cleans and that obviously your cleaners don't know when you're doing that either. So you get a real experience of how it is for your guests. So that's a really good tip. We suggest it within Boostly where if you've got, you know, a listing on Airbnb or if you've got your own website or like you say, if you go and try out your own home, you can do these things to really get that experience of how does your guest feel while, while, you know, seeing the property or what, While using the property. So that's, that's a really cool tip. So how long is your short term rental been running for now?

Short term rental has been running since March of the beginning of this year.

Amazing. Amazing. And has there been, what would you say has been the biggest challenge, the biggest learning curve?

God, the biggest learning curve. I just, you know, it's funny, I was talking about, like managing things tightly, and I do manage it tightly, but there's this element of like, letting go, you know, like, I can't walk around the corner and get to this place, you know, like it is a trip, you know, like, I live in New York. Like, I'll have to either take a train or rent a car to get up there. And I just have to really trust in the people that I put in place up there because, you know, there have been like little things that have come up where, you know, I had a guest, for instance, who they somehow did something that tripped the breakers and against better judgment, I let them into the basement, which I keep the basement locked, but I told them where the key was and I let them go to the basement. And turn the breakers back. They did great. Except they didn't turn on the breakers for or they didn't turn back on the breakers for the hot water heater. So they left. The next guest comes in and they're like, where's the hot water? I'm just like, oh my goodness, what happened? You know, I'm thinking my mind goes to these terrible places of, you know, like the thing, the heating element blue and I'm going to need to get a new hot water tank or whatnot. But you know, I called the, I thought that if outside chance, you know, just going through troubleshooting, I just thought, you know, first order would be to check the breaker. And I contacted the cleaner and I said, hey, can you go down and take a look? And she went down and took a look at based on me and thankfully it was just the breaker hadn't been so bad. But you know, like I, I trust them enough to go and do, you know, work on the house essentially. And I think that that's really important. But being able to like trust that others can do a job good enough for me, that was good. Because no one's ever gonna be able to as a host. No one's ever gonna be able to do it to your spec. You know, you could have the best cleaners in the world. You're still gonna find dust, you could have the, you could have the best lawnscaper in the world, you're still going to find weeds, you could have the best snow removal company. There's still going to be some patch of ice somewhere. That's not okay to you.

But we find what we're looking for, don't we? A lot of the time. And that's if we look hard enough. And I mean, it's just one of those things though. Why even having a place where you know where that key is and you're able to instruct the guest and then you're able to send the cleaner. It sounds as though, you know, you've thought ahead because some people wouldn't even have that key available. Do you know what I mean? So that's quite cool. And one of the things obviously being quite fresh to short term rental. What are some of the transferable skills that you've used from other areas of your life which you'd say are important while being a host in short term rental?

Yeah, you know, like I mentioned before, I do product management in the daytime. So for those who don't know what that is, you're. You work with really everybody in your organization. To develop your software products. So work a lot with engineers who are really, you know, they're taking the process of building one line of code at a time. You know, you need to have, you know, your foundation and you need to just keep building, building upon that. And I think that's. That's the mentality that I've taken with this, is that there's, you know, really one thing that you can do at a time really well. And it's super easy to get overwhelmed with looking at everything like, you know, how am I going to design this place? How am I going to pay the bills if I don't get enough guests? How am I going to this, how am I going to that? You know, there's a laundry list. I mean, it's a property business that you're managing where you have, like, this huge responsibility to giving people an amazing time. There's a million things that are going on, but you can really only focus on one at a time. And you're not going to be able to build that beautiful product if you're focusing on everything at the same time. It's just not going to happen. So I think that's one of the skills that I took that's helped me the most is just to stay. Stay narrow, really, and just keep, like, one thing at a time. You know, I mean, you could have, for instance, you can have a million windows open on your computer, but there's really, as I do right now, but there's only one thing that I can do, you know, and that's talk to you. And so that's what, that's what I'm doing. You know, I got my. My finance spreadsheet over here. I got my work stuff over here. I got, you know, pricing software open over here. I got another finance spreadsheet over here. But, you know, I know that stuff has to get done, but I can only talk to you.

I mean, one of those things, and there'll be loads of people who resonate with what you're saying there about you can only, you know, you focus on the next step, don't you? As opposed to the entire staircase. You're looking at the next step at the time you build those foundations. And it sounds as though you've done that by, you know, the research and then getting the right amenities within the property and then having the right things for guests available, then having the right team. All of that is a layered. It's like a layer of a cake each time, isn't it, that you're adding to and that, that definitely continues. And I'm sure there's, there's going to be a lot of people who have listened to this and heard your story, Josh, and you know, feel inspired because one of the things with short term rental is, is quite forgiving. You know, there's not many places where you can just open a shop and, and get, you know, sales. Whereas on using, you know, the online travel agency Airbnb and then building these foundations by making sure, you know, some of the things we've, we've talked about are in place, you're able to make a success out of it. And that sounds really good. And the thing which really, that I've got from this, this interview is the passion for actually looking after the guest, which is what hospitality and hosting is all about. So as we come to the end of these podcasts, what we like to do is do a couple of quick fire questions. So these just a bit fun can be short or as long answers as you like. So, Josh, what's your favorite beverage? What do you drink?

My favorite drink. My God. Well, I'm sure you've seen me drinking a couple different things here. One's water, one's coffee. My favorite. It's gotta be coffee.

It's the, the nectar of entrepreneurs, I think. What's the one place in the world that you love to visit or you'd like to visit?

One place more I'd love to visit is Bangkok, Thailand. And I'm going there in November.

Oh, congratulations. That always makes me think of the film Hangover these days. But yeah, yeah, it looks, looks amazing. And finally, who inspires you?

Who inspires me? God, my parents inspire me. They're amazing people. Lucky that they're, they're still alive. My dad has been an entrepreneur almost his entire career. He's had his own business, which he's just actually now selling after I think it's 44 years in business and you know, to go through. I couldn't even imagine what, what he's been through as, as a business owner all these years. You know, that's really inspiring to me and I'm lucky that I have somebody that close to me who I can talk with about business stuff and that. Who, you know, I've just, I've seen it work. You know, there's, there, there's a lot of times where I think we all doubt our abilities and we doubt that, you know, what we're doing can, can work. And you know, I just see what, what my dad's done in, you know, in like the past half a century really. And it's just been phenomenal. And you can do it I think is the short answer there. So yeah, that is a, it's a.

Beautiful answer and what a great way to, to bring it to a close. So people listening will have been inspired by your story. Josh, if they wanted to get in touch, what's the best way to do.

So yeah, LinkedIn is probably the best. My handle is my last name Kitlis K I T L A S. You can just go to LinkedIn.com kitlis and nerma and you can find me there and we can talk more. Short term rentals.

That's really cool. Well, thank you so much for your time today. And yeah, really the passion is shined through. So thanks again. That's it for another episode of behind the Host podcast. And bye for now. See you on the next one.