Catering to Modern and Traditional Check-In Methods for Guests

Hi and welcome to the new episode of the Boostly Podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings and most importantly the confidence for you to go out there and get more direct bookings. So my name is Liam Carolan and I'm the co host of the Boostly podcast. Today we're going behind the host of an interesting and successful short term rental host and learning about their business, Lauren Maidwell and she is from Aunt Bellum's Cabin Rentals. You can go and check them out if you go to www.aunniebellums. sorry Auntie Bellums with an S.com and you'll be able to go and see their awesome, awesome website. So welcome along Lauren. Thank you for joining us and thank.

You so much for having me.

So let's get started by you just explaining where you're based in the world, what kind of hospitality business you know, who do you host, Is it, is it leisure, is it workers and also how many units you've got. I know we talked briefly before we kicked off with this and I was pleasantly surprised. So yeah, go ahead, fill us in.

Sure. So we are in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and that's the Smoky Mountain National Park. So just outside of the Smoky Mountain national park and there are two main towns here. This is Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and same county. And this has been a popular vacation spot for going on 100 years. So we're a well established short term rental, vacation rental market. Who's our ideal customer base? So where we're located we're within a day's drive of 70% of the United States population. So we're a big drive to destination. So it's, it's honeymooners, it's, it's anniversaries, it's weekend getaways, it's see youth groups and families and family reunions and sports teams. We have all sorts of sports complexes in town and there's always events going on whether in the convention centers or just car shows. And so we, we, we service vacationers.

That's cool. That's really cool. And tell me about yourself then. So how did you specifically get into hospitality and what is your favorite thing about hosting?

Oh, so it's some, it's, it's a slightly more dramatic entrance than most folks, I think, I don't know, it's the vacation rental world is, it's a mixed bag. But so back in 2009 I was still in college in Georgia for air traffic controlling. Actually when I Got a call one day that it was from my dad and his cousin who I'd, I'd always called Aunt Shannon. His cousin had passed away and she had left the business to him in the will 51 to him, the other 49amongst family. He eventually bought the bought 100 of the company that was back in 2009 and he took over the business immediately. He fell in love with it and he was working with a rubber manufacturing plant. He was a manager of a rubber manufacturing plant before. But he fell in love with vacation rentals and the people who were who had worked here for so long that he just went full time in Tennessee. My mom, she kept residency in Georgia because our tuitions were paid for. So I finished school and once I finished school I moved here and started working for the family business. So that was like 2011 I think. So I joined my dad up here. My mom wasn't here yet and I did fall in love with it. But I was young, I was in my young twenties so I did have to spread my wings and I bartended for six months and then I traveled for six months and then I begged for a job again. And so I have been full time with antebellums for about nine years now.

Let's talk about your the cabins. What can a guest expect when they come and stay? What is Aunt Bellums cabins like? You know, what can a guest expect to get experience wise from the Smokies when they come and stay?

There's gosh, there's so much to experience here. Well, first off, they're going to get so from the moment they book, it's communication, it's personable, easy here for you, hospitable communication, whether it's text message, email, phone calls, Airbnb messaging, whatever. And then the day of their check in, we shoot them out a video that I made and it just talks about, hey, you know, we try to be perfect but we can't be 100% of the time. So if you have an issue, let us know. We've got people, we're going to come fix it. Don't, don't not enjoy something during your stay when we can come fix it for you.

You belong in the family of hospitality. And by having other hosts explain their process and what guests like about theirs, then people can take things and put it into their own business. And the one word that you, that you said there was was trust. You know, you really sort of said how you build that trust and a couple of the ways that you've done that is first of all, by always having a cabin, which you know is outstanding when people walk in. I mean, it's the most important thing about hospitality, isn't it? And then you mentioned that the video that you sent across as well. So that video, is it a generic video or is it a personalized one each time? How does that work?

It's not personalized. So I just went up to a cabin. It's, it's really funny. It's like 50 seconds. It's totally funny. You guys should check it out. It's, it's on our YouTube page, Auntie Bellum's Cabin Rentals, or on our Tick tock Auntie Bellums. But so it's just, I uploaded it to YouTube so that it was a simple link so that I could text message it to them like, today's your check in day. You might enjoy this funny, helpful video. And there's the link when it comes.

Down to that, that guest experience. One other thing that you mentioned was loads and loads of people are now doing self check in, you know, contactless check in. How has that changed in the time that you've seen, you know, since you've been doing this since 2011, how has that changed?

So before it was just before the pandemic, it was before COVID we were 100 in person check in because we wanted to establish one. We're here. We have a storefront. We're here, here. We are human beings. Not a voice on the phone, an actual person. Like people that, you know and just answer all their questions and engage them. Like you can see if you might have to tell somebody that, that I don't. Where am I going with this? You know, like, like, hey, smoking outdoor. Just a reminder that smoking outdoors only. Or please make sure to leave the key in the key box in case of emergencies. Or hey, just a reminder like past 10pm no loud music. You know, you can kind of gauge that person and nudge them in the right direction. You get a feel for folks or an opportunity to give all sorts of local recommendations. And we have like mom and pop shops and restaurants printed up on a sheet that we could give to them if they're interested in it. But you can, you can gauge this person. And oftentimes my girls, you know, Southern hospitality, we just, they just end up chatting and having a good time with people. And so it, it was precious and it was priceless. Being able to check in 100% of our guests.

That's cool. Like you say there's, there's benefits to, to meeting People and you, you get that feel for people. And having this new system, you've now got the best out of both worlds. You know, you can, you can literally do what that person prefers as their choice of check in, which is cool. So one thing I'd love to dive into and we'll go into the tech route first, just because you mentioned how you can, you know, verify people and do that cool stuff, there'll be people listening to this who haven't, who hasn't set up those systems yet. What would you say in your experience or what tech do you use in your experience and in your business, which helps to first of all, verify those guests? And also more generally, what other tech do you use in your business, which helps you.

So we are, we are not a tech heavy company for two reasons. There's, there's so, there's so much tech out there. There's so many moving parts. I don't want to compile this big chain of all sorts of, of different tech when our system's not broken. If there's, if I ever see a piece of tech that can genuinely make things more efficient, I'll be interested. But right now I feel like I have a system, we have a system that's not broken. Why introduce an expensive piece of tech that I don't, I can't see, I can't, I can't play it out of how it's going to offer me that much more time or efficiency or whatever. The reason being is we, we. The property management software that we use is called Brightside and they do everything, they do reservations, they do direct integrations with Airbnb and VRBO and whoever else.

Thank you so much, Lauren. So that's buy from yourself, buy from me. I know that everybody listening to the podcast, I know that there's a lot of places you can put your attention and we thank you for putting it with Boostly. We look forward to seeing you on the next one. That's bye for now.

Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Boost Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.