Behind The Host with Kat Pape

Cool. So we are here for another episode of behind the Host and we're joined this time by Kat Parpe who's the founder and CEO of BNB Equity Group. Been managing short terms let since 2014. She is an advocate of green cleaning and we're going to dive into that today. She's a pioneer of how they do the green cleaning and also soon to be author with hospitable hosts, which was really cool. So we're going to dive into that today as well. One of the things which I really want to talk about is your tech and your tech stack and how that's helped you to grow your business. So first of all, Kat, thank you for joining me. And let's get started by you telling us a bit about you, your business and how you got started hosting.

Hi Liam. Yeah, thanks for having me. So yeah, my name's Kat Pape and I'm in the Pacific Northwest here in the US and basically the Seattle, Puget Sound area as well as Spokane. And how I got started hosting is basically drama, life drama hit. But it started with my background. So my background is in being an entrepreneur, business owner since I was 24 and I had multiple retail stores starting with an English tea garden in San Antonio and then I had mid to high end furniture stores including interior design here in the Pacific Northwest. But When I was 33, I had a massive stroke, lost my speech and my memory. A few years later they diagnosed me with a rare high mortality rate disease called Cushing's disease. And so at that point my husband of 18 years said, See ya, takes all the money and leaves. And so I find myself penniless and unable to function post op, much less able to work. And so I had this home and I had long term renters in there and they were pulling their shenanigans. And I had an acquaintance so suggest that I do short term rentals. And so I watched the market for six months and I said, you know, this is doable. It's terribly scary because I've never done anything like it before. And you're letting people into the home that I cannot afford to live in. And so I went for it. I did a business plan, I turned my house into a vacation rental and discovered that I love it. I'm, I'm very good at it. It kind of combines all of my past experience in one, you know, in one market. And so while I had myself in 2014, so while I had my personal home set up as a short term rental, I'm still trying to get back on my feet and recover from this financial disaster that the divorce put me in. And I began working for a big real estate investor in the Puget Sound. And so my role was market analysis. I'd go out and I'd look at the properties for flips and I would do the comps in the neighborhood, put the numbers together and basically optimizing the flip. And so as I'm playing along with that and I'm running my little short term rental on the side, I start looking at my rental and saying, you know, I can use the same skills but on the short term rental side. And I saw my business, you know, shoot up and decided during the pandemic to start managing for other homeowners. And so that's how I got into hosting. Absolutely love it. And it's been quite a ride. But it saved my, yeah, saved my home from foreclosure. I was very close to having to foreclose. That was during the recession. And it has me back on my feet financially and great.

This is one of the things we see time and time again with hosts is that often when you get into short term rental, it's not always necessarily planned. Sometimes it is a necessity and looking at doing something a bit different to be able to cash flow. But one thing which people always share in common is the ability to take the action, to actually, you know, start doing something like this and to be brave. And as you say, it was scary when you first started doing it. So just talk us through some of that challenge of. For the very first one, what did you, what were the challenges that you had to overcome? And was there any kind of perceptions that you had of short term hosting that has changed over time?

You know, the first time I think the biggest anxiety trigger was just like, oh my God, what am I doing? I don't know these people. I'm handing over my home. I've, you know, and where I was at, I had very little to, you know, what I had to spend. I basically invested everything I had in furnishing the home because of the position I was in. And are they going to destroy it and are they just a lot of unknowns? Like, I don't know what to expect that at all. And so that was a hurdle that I had to overcome. And then. I'm sorry, what's the second part of your question?

Was there anything which changed any perceptions of hosting that changed over time?

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, actually starting with my first guest, you know, the guests are amazing. You know, for, you know, we hear the horror Stories and there are guests that you don't want to come back, you know, occasionally. But overall the guests are amazing. And so my first guest came in and she took the time to write, like, hey, you know, I know this is your first time. And then she just gave me some very thoughtful suggestions. And so that was a very positive experience for me. And it just took off from there. Like, I love the guests, I love interacting with the guests. They appreciate having a home to stay in versus a hotel and they tend to love it and treat it like it was their own or better. So, yeah, that was the big turnaround for me.

That's really cool. So you went on from the first one, which was your own home. Where are you up to now? So how many units do you manage or own now? Manage and do rental arbitrage for you?

Yeah. So as you probably know, Liam, I, I still have some challenges with my health and stuff, but I am also, because of my health, I become very chemically sensitive and so I can't be in a home that has bleach or synthetic fragrance. I become very ill. So my niches, and I tell all my owners I do this for, is that our homes are eco friendly, green clean. And so as far as growth goes, I want consistent growth, but I want quality over quantity. And so I want to make sure, you know, training the cleaners and getting the products down because not all that we can talk about later, but not all the products are actually, you know, doable for people with chemical sensitivities. And so at the moment I'm at five and I have three that will be onboarding soon.

That's amazing. That's amazing. But still, that's growth every step of the way. And like you say, you've got a unique feature there which I want to dive into and talk more about. So you've mentioned green cleaning and that side of things. So talk me through what that is and why it's a benefit to both your guests and also to the owners who you're looking to manage for.

Yeah, you know, and it's, it's interesting because it's, it's really multifaceted. It's, it's, it's good for our environment, it's good for our communities that we have our short term rentals in and it's good for our cleaners, our guests and the homeowners. So what it means is like for me personally, as I mentioned, you know, it's our cleaning products and eco friendly has become a big buzzword and, you know, more and more people are wanting to be healthier, whether they have reactions or not. And so companies are picking up on this. And, you know, I can't speak for other parts of the world, but in the US how we market things can be deceptive. And so they can market things as natural. And I learned this the hard way. And you have to read the labels and a lot of times to put natural stuff in on top of the chemicals that are causing the issues for a lot of these people, which in the US is 40% of the population, according to the last study that I could find, which was back in 2016. So you have to be very diligent on the products that we use. We read the labels, we know exactly what's in in there. And we're not necessarily fragrance free. But if we do use fragrances, it's always where we can see where the natural source comes from, like an essential oil or a plant versus something that's just generic. Labeled as fragrance tends to be the problem.

And do you find guests, you know, eco and eco friendly sort of stays is getting bigger and bigger certainly is something that, you know, we all can and need to do more about. So is it something that your guests compliment you on and do you find that people are quite appreciative of that and do you market that as part of your stays initially so guests know before they book?

Yes. So I have not, you know, I'll admit I have not been marketing it, gearing up towards that to really market it more. We do let guests know and we do get guests who will say, you will ask what is it that you use? Because I am chemically sensitive. And so, you know, we're ready with the this is what we use. And then a lot of times they come back with their own, their own suggestions of what they use at home, which is great too because it's just a sharing community at that point because we're all trying to not to be able to travel and not become ill. And it's a big, big issue for many people where they've stopped traveling. I have an aunt who cannot travel because she becomes so ill due to it. So that being said, we will be posting a host guarantee in all of our properties that we are eco friendly and what that means in properties and marketing it and really pushing it. So it'll just go from there. And we're going, we're doing a Change.org petition to Airbnb so that they will hopefully add it as a search criteria and an opt in for the host that if they want to be eco friendly and then they have to check off that, you know, this is what it means that they're eco friendly for just for that chemically sensitive community.

I know a few of the OTAs have got certain options around, ticking options of being eco friendly and also reusable soaps and that side of things. So, yeah, it's definitely an area of growth and I can see them adding a feature like that. And at the time of recording this, Airbnb have just released their summer 2022 update. So these things, you start to see categories on there of unique stays, of, you know, sort of design stays and stuff like that. And there certainly is room for echo stays, you know, eco stays and that side of things. So I can really see that growing.

Absolutely.

If we've talked about obviously how you got started your, your business as it is now and your kind of niche is the, you know, sort of the eco friendly cleaning and that side of things. Let's talk about the tech that you use within your business because obviously people listening to this, curious to see how other hosts do it. And that's one of the things that we do this mini series for, is to find out what tech do you use, how do you use it and how has it helped your business.

So, yeah, I want to preface this by saying that I was unable to work for 13 years. I was recovering from a pituitary brain surgery and they removed half my pituitary. And anyway, and all that to say so in tech, in tech world, that's like 50 years. So I jumped back in and, you know, tech is a very important part of this business, especially if you have more than one property. So the tech that I am using is, you know, a property management system. Of course, I'm with most fully for that. And I also do dynamic pricing and I use, I've used them, almost all of them, but I'm using Price Labs and for managing cleaning, maintenance and supplies, I use Breezeway.

That's cool. Cool. And.

Oh yeah, and I also have Stayfi and there's probably some others, but Stay fi.

Stay fi. Brilliant. So let's talk a little bit more about. We've got a very similar stack, by the way, in terms of the tech we use for both our hospitality businesses. Let's talk about Breezeway and how you're finding that has helped and what it is for those listening who may be not too familiar with Breezeway. What does it do and how does it help you?

Yeah, so Breezeway is an app that helps to manage cleaners maintenance and supplies. And so I just implemented it and I'm training my cleaners on it now. But it's fantastic because, you know, it has the checklist and you can have more than one checklist so you know, departure versus deep cleans or whatever. And you can put photos in there so they know how to stage it. And I am, I'm like a beast mode on the staging and I don't apologize, you know, so we're at a high level of training for our cleaners so it's very beneficial for that. And then they can report issues which can trigger your maintenance person and of course they can accept or decline, but it's really great for automatic automating the schedules for cleaning supplies and maintenance helps you manage your amenities. Cleaning supplies, you know, every, anything that you put in there basically in those three categories.

It just makes things so much easier, doesn't it? And especially that's that kind of can we remove the day to day hassle. Ops in short term rental and for hospitality can be quite complicated. And if you're, you know, if you're still using, you know, older systems, pen and paper and that side of things, this is where this new tech can really help you. And for me just being able to see the pictures of the cleans after they've been done without necessarily having to go there, like you say, the staging and that side of things is just so important. So that's really cool. And so let's talk a bit about Stayfi because Stayfi is something which I think you know to grow an email list which we're very keen on at Boost Lee. So you get direct contact with your guests is so important. How long have you had stayfi and how are you finding it at the moment?

So I've had Stayfi for six months, probably around six months. And I actually, I love it for, for what it does, which you know, for people who don't know what it is, safely attaches, I'm not going to say technical terms here. So attaches to your, your WI FI system and so then guests can either scan a QR code or enter the, the WI FI information. And to get onto the WI fi it'll ask for their email. And so then you have every guest email that's verified and now you have your, your mailing list that you can stay in touch with and convert to direct bookings and all that good stuff. So I have quite a list. It can't, you know, like with any tech there can be a glitch here and there but for the most part it works very smoothly and, and so with the marketing that I am doing with the eco friendly and a new website that I'm having built, I'll be launching my email campaign and getting in touch with the guests and starting that whole adventure.

It's such a cool way to collect emails because unlike we talk a lot about how we can collect emails or if you've got a PMS which allows you to collect emails from guests and how important that is because then you're not relying on anyone else, you've got a direct form of contact. Obviously the guest has given you permission to be able to remarket to them and there's such a good way of doing so. But in the past and traditionally we're just taking the lead guest details.

Exactly.

Whereas with StayFi, every guest who is staying there. So especially if you've got big properties, you know, we've got properties which are four, four bedrooms and three bedrooms that side of things. So if you imagine you could, you could have eight, 10 people stay in and that you could collect all of those email addresses and of course if you're then able to remarket to those potentially if you've got last minute deals, if you've got new units launch and all of that side of things, you can send them an email. As long as you've set up your email marketing and that is again part of your tech stack then so who do you use for your email marketing?

Well, so I haven't done the email marketing yet so if you have any suggestions, let me know. In the past I've used like mailchimp but I, I will have to check to see who all integrates with that. If I'll go with someone like Constant Contact but I'll be reaching out to, you know, my, my mastermind group.

So for those listening, me and Kat are part of the same mastermind group. We meet up every Monday and discuss all sorts of tech and it's just a really good way of keeping accountable and I mean let's talk a little bit about that. How have you found since being in a mastermind your business has changed and this isn't just to let everybody know, this isn't something which is arranged for anyone. This is just a group of similar hosts all getting together to speak about the systems and the tech and yeah, how has things changed since having Accountability Weekly?

You know, it's, I'm not. Well, I wouldn't be where I'm at today without my mastermind group. I wouldn't be where I am today without the mentorship group that I had joined and paid for, you know, and they've always talked about, like the books that you read and the groups that you. And you're always wanting to be with the people who know more than you or that are going on that journey and growing with you. So it's been vital because, you know, and I've said this before, this business has the most moving parts of any business I've ever done. And you just feel like you're juggling things, you know, until you can get the tech in place and you can hire and train people and there's a lot of details. And so, so it really helps to have people that are on that same journey, even at different spots in the journey that can share what works for them, what doesn't work. So we throw out ideas and we go with it. It's been fantastic. Absolutely game changer.

I couldn't have said it better myself. That's awesome. And this is partly why, I mean, we've got the Boostly Academy here at Boostly, and we actually worked out there's over 800 members in there now. And we worked out, we, we sent out a questionnaire the other day about how many years have you been hosting? And between everybody in the Academy, it equated to over 10,000 years of hosting, which is when you consider that combined knowledge and all of those awesome hosts, different experiences, the number of guests that that must have hosted. So it's so important to become part of some sort of mastermind or to just invest in yourself, isn't it? So that's one thing that you can definitely see and get that vibe from. Yeah. So one thing that we should definitely talk about is that we're in an up and coming project together, which is Hospitable Hosts. Hospitable Hosts is thanks to fellow Boostly member, which is Jodi Sterling. She had an idea about six months ago to take stories from hosts all across the world and put them together and bring them together in a book, which is available on May 16, 2022. So if you're watching this live, you'll be able to still, you know, register on the email list to be able to receive, you know, a notification when it comes out. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, then you'll be able to go ahead and, and purchase it. And that is on www.hospitablehosts.com. and so, Cat, let's talk about that side of things. What got you involved with the, with the project and what does it mean to you to be a hospitable host?

So, you know, I learned about the project through Julie George, who was one of my mentors. Well, was my mentor and it drew me in because I love Jody's concept of bringing all these stories together. Nobody's done that before. And so I definitely want to be a part of it because I just think a collective collaborative effort to get the stories out and share what being a hospital host is all about to each of us and how varied those stories are is just incredible. So of course my chapter is on how I decided to the eco friendly and why it's important. And so I share a lot about that in the chapter that I wrote.

I love that. A little sneak peek in there. And is there any tips that you'd have for others? I mean, hospitable hosts. This is, this is what Jodi. We had Jodi on the podcast the other day and she mentioned that, you know, there may be other, other books coming up. What would you say to other people who have got a story to tell and you know, should, should they get involved? What advice would you have for them?

Yeah, you know, absolutely. And I think, you know, one of the things that if I could go back and I would, could tell myself, you know, what to do or what not to, what advice I would give myself, it would be to trust myself, trust my gut, trust in my story and my, my talents and my experience and then just go for it. And I think that's part of sharing your story or being a part of a collaborative book is, is to put aside any self doubts or anything and just tell your story. As humans, we're storytellers. I love to hear people's stories and we love to tell our stories. And so I would just say tell your story.

There's so many. And the thing is you can learn so much from each host. Everybody, we're all in the same industry, but everybody's business is unique. Everyone's personality is unique. And that's reflected in the homes that we offer, isn't it? Even today, talking to another member of the Bouchely academy who has got a very different style and a very different type of business to a business that I've ever considered. And it's just great to talk to other hosts to see how differently the same industry can be done and how everyone can cash flow from it. So obviously we've talked about your business, how you got into it, we've talked about some of your tech stack, we've talked about the book, if there was any tips that you could give to new hosts and to people who they might be listening to this and thinking, do you know what? CAT has overcome quite a big challenge at the start in 2014 to start hosting. What would you like to say to them about getting going?

I would say what I did. I researched the market. If you're not uncomfortable with it, you research the market, see how it's going to. But just be willing to learn, be open to making mistakes and adjusting as needed. But in the end, just, you know, I would just say do it. Just go for it and do it. Find, Find a group of people, you know, as you go along, you're going to find a group of people that you click and connect with. And it's an amazing community of people who love to share. Nobody's stingy with their ideas or anything. So, yeah, we'd welcome to have more people.

That's a really golden nuggets of advice there. So what we like to do is we reach towards the end of these episodes on the podcast and on the lives. What we like to do is do a couple of quick fire questions and I've got some particularly fun ones for you today. So these can be a short or as long answers as you like.

But.

But yeah, let's go into it. So if you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Oh, yike. So I hate quickfire questions because my brain just freezes up. So you get to watch Kat just go, like, zone out my superpower. I would love to have the superpower of. Time travel. Yeah. Going into the future or the past.

Do you know what? That leads me nicely. That leads me nicely onto the second question. This is, if we've, as if we've planned it, what time period would you travel back to if you could travel in time?

Oh, yeah, you know, if I could travel back in time, I think I would go to. I think I would go to England and the Queen Victoria period, which was an interesting time. I probably just shake things up a little more than I should. But I like it.

I like it. Welcome. You can have your tea across here as well.

Exactly.

So would you drive a cuddle, a baby panda or a baby penguin?

Oh, a baby panda.

Baby panda. Nobody ever says penguin to that one. And lastly, who has inspired you and who's somebody that you look up to and that you've learned from and, you know, potentially that you'd advise other people to follow?

Oh, man. You know, there's quite a few. The first one that actually comes to mind with that question is Kevin Max. So he's one of the most creative geniuses of our time, I believe. But he's in an artist, a poet and he's just been very inspiring to me as far as just facing adversity and being creative even when you know it may not suit the, you know, the best commercial interests and things like that. Just being true to oneself. So he's been very inspirational for me.

That's really cool. That's a different sort of answer. So thank you so much Kat. I feel we've really got to know you and your business and that we've got a bit behind the host. We understand the challenges that you've gone through and the tech stack that you use. So I hope people who are listening has picked up some tips and some actionable things, some of the tech that you can use or some of the communities that you can reach out to. So if people who are listening want to get in touch with your cat, what's the best way to do so?

Yes, so my website is bnbequitygroup.com and this is more of an owner facing website. You can send me a message. We will be launching a new direct booking website soon. That's echo friendly bnb.com but that is still under the works. So yeah, get in touch with me. Just, just go to my website, bnb equity troops.com cool, cool.

Thank you so much. And again, you know the book is coming out on 16 May hospitable hosts, which Kat is a co author of along with Mark Simpson, along with myself. And you can go and register for the waiting list now which is www.hospitablehosts.com. and yeah, we look forward to sharing the stories, things which can inspire, motivate and educate sort of hosts from across the world. So hope this has been useful. If it has, then you know, add some comments to the video and reach out and press the like button and we'll see you on the next behind the Host podcast. Thank you very much Kat. We'll see you again.

Thank you. Bye.

Thank you so much for checking out today's podcast episode. Now before you head and go anywhere else, before you click to the next episode, before you do that, do me one big favor and go check out boostly.co.uk forward/trust. IPRAC are the sponsors of all of the booster content and the reason why I work with them and the reason why we spread the message of IPRAC is that when a host or a company is looking to get more into direct bookings. The main question I have is around trust, as in will a guest trust that I am a true and real business? Will IPRAC take care of all of that? And they've got a special offer that is only available to Boostly people. But but to do that you need to go to boostly, which is B O-O-S-T L Y.co.uk trust you can find out all the information there. You can book in a demo, book in a call, and then you will get your super special offer that is only available to Boostly peoples. Thank you again for tuning in. Do go check out iprac. We'll be back again very shortly with another podcast episode, but until then, we'll see you all very soon. Take care.