How A Management Company Can Help Grow Your Business

Okay. Welcome to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings, and most importantly, the confidence on how you can go out there and get more direct bookings. Today we're going to be talking about the Smokies in the usa. We're going to be talking about what to do when considering investing, owning cabins and generally short term rental. So certainly one, if you're one of our American listeners and just if you're based anywhere else in the world, there'll be tips and tricks on what you can do as a short term rental host. So this is the behind the Host podcast and today we're going behind the host with Leslie Ann Morris. Leslie and Morris owns a portfolio of companies and today we're talking about Josh's Cabin, which is the kind of management and short term rental side of a business. Welcome along, Leslie. Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

Um, so first question is, would you mind giving yourself an introduction to yourself, your companies and anything else you'd like to share.

Well, I'm here, based in Tennessee. I'm in Nashville today in my black and white condo. But yeah, I am the owner and founder of Josh's Cabins. It's a company located in eastern Tennessee, all in the Smoky Mountains, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg. I also own Invest in the Smoky Mountains, which is property acquisition. We can help you buy or sell a cabin and then we can manage it for you. That's the businesses. But it just all grew out of my own portfolio. I was buying cabins when I was working in commercial banking. I was living in Los Angeles and I just kind of was over the grind. And so I thought, what else is out there? What more can I do? And there's a lot more to the story. You know, I had clients in banking that had done something similar that kind of coached and mentored me. And I got to a point where I felt financially ready to start buying real estate. So I built this portfolio. I think it was when I got to five cabins all in the Smoky Mountains and it was just going gangbusters and it was really demanding of my time. And so I said, what can I do here? I want to, you know, I don't really want to hire a property management company. I love hosting. I want to stay involved in this. So what does that look like for me? And out of that thought, all of these companies were built.

You mentioned something there which is quite interesting and for people listening that that will resonate with them, which is I didn't want to hire a property management company. What was the reason behind that? And why did you go, do you know what, I'm going to do it myself instead? Because as you mentioned there, you've got, or we mentioned just before we went live, you've got 11 units and you're looking after 17 doors overall. What was it that attracted you to the management side of things and why, why do it yourself?

Well, I'm like I'm writing a book on passive investing and short term rentals. So I'm really a big proponent of do not self manage because it's so much work and you might end up creating a company to just disclaimer. But I felt like I heard so many bad things about the property management industry, so many bad things about local companies that they, you know, they don't understand real estate ownership, they don't understand investor mindset, they're literally just trying to get bodies in beds and you lose that connection with the guest. That's first and foremost the biggest thing. You know, other thing is that they had their pricing structure in a way that really just took a lot out of your pocket. And honestly it's because they're being compensated I think fairly for the work they're doing, which is really hard work. But so what I wanted to do was I wanted to create a company that kind of addressed all of the negatives that I was seeing and was a company people would want to do business with. So we have our pricing really streamlined, easy to understand, we don't nickel and dime owners and then on the guest side, same thing, charge a million and one booking fees and we try to be really fair and communicate quickly. Like any of the lack I saw in other companies, I make sure ours doesn't have that. So that's kind of, you know, where I, where I was at with that.

And what did you find was the difference between the ones that you own directly versus the ones that you manage? Particularly there's going to be people out there considering starting a management company or doing it themselves. What was some of the challenges I guess when it came down to and the difference in perception between owning and managing.

There's a big difference. So we, you know, our marketing is that we are going to manage your cabin like we own it and we do, but it is hard when it's not yours. You can't just quickly make changes. You can't, you know, say oh we hate this couch, you need to throw it away and get a new couch or whatever because it's not our cabin. So that's one of the big things. Um, there's a lot. It's a litigious business. I will say that it's a new company. You know, I own 11 and so there's only six that I don't own. We just started this honestly and are scaling, scaling rapidly, but being picky about who we partner with. For one, I don't want to work with somebody that owns a cabin who doesn't want to make it an awesome experience for the guest. For example, if there's something in there, you know, like, I don't know, it could be anything. Like, I had. I have a cabin and they fixed this. But I have a cabin I managed that had one of those windows that kind of lost its seal and it's real foggy and it's blocking the view out the window and it's like an expensive window. So if they weren't willing to fix that, that would just be like. As soon as the guest walks into the property, they're like, what the heck? Like this seems like it would be such an easy thing for them to fix where I would jump in. If it were my cabin, I'd fix it right away. You might not have that control over other people's properties. In that case, we did fix it as fast as we could.

But what was it about? Why. Why the Smokies? I mean, there's many places, obviously, why the Smokies? Why is it that you wanted to look at. Look at the Smokies as the place that you're forming your business around. And then two. Is there anything else? Transferable skills? You mentioned the real estate and you've always been around this. What transferable skills would you say was most important to being successful in short term rentals?

Well, it's in the book. You have to get Hospitable Hosts, Volume two. It is in the book, though I won't reveal it all so that you'll have a fun chance reading it. But no, I was so I was in commercial real estate lending and that really did lend itself to the beginning of this. But also I was a world traveler. I traveled to 45 countries within 15 years and I stayed in a lot of cabins. I'm from very rural California, Northern California, north of San Francisco. Back, you know, where you think you're in Oregon, but you're not quite. That's where I'm from. There's a lot of cabins there. You know, I just grew up with this love and affinity for cabins. And honestly, I was turned onto the Smoky Mountains based on the high occupancy that we enjoy. You know, I had my first year in, it was like 88% occupancy. And everybody was like, no, no, no, that's too high. You're going to figure out why when you're replacing flooring. So that turned me on to it. Just the avatar for the type of traveler that we get booking the cabins I really love. I've tested a couple of other markets, didn't enjoy those markets as much. And so I just kind of went all in. In the Smoky Mountains. That's in a nutshell.

What would you say has been the most useful tools and tech that you've used within that management company, which is really help to generate the success beyond pricing.

Hi, Beyond. They are amazing. I did not learn that. I mean, I basically am the type of person and some of you be like, oh, you're crazy person, or oh, I resonate with you. But I'm the type of person that will make a decision and then just like dive in head first. So I made the decision to buy the cabin and I was like, I'm just gonna throw it on Airbnb and if it makes its mortgage cool. That was like. Even though I was doing commercial real estate, underwriting, cap rate, all the things in this. In this setting, I was like, you know, I can afford the mortgage out of my. Out of my own paycheck. Like, it's all good, whatever. I have this cool cabin now. That quickly changed. Like within just a month or two months, I was like, oh, I only had it at 180 night every night of the week, and it's like fully booked for months. What. What am I doing wrong here? And I just started learning and researching and found them amazing tools. So that is a dynamic pricing. It is one of the dynamic pricing companies. I've met some of the CEOs of the other companies I like beyond because their customization is greater than other companies. Even though they do charge more, it's a more premium product. I make more money with them. I've done kind of a trial side by side, so that one is huge. So that is literally plugging into all your calendars, into your direct booking site. Um, and it's giving you that nightly rate and it's giving you customization where you can say, okay, if it's so many days before and it hasn't booked, drop the price by X percent. So you get rid of those manual actions around revenue management. And for a long time, I was able to have in house, revenue management. Just myself doing it. And now, you know, I have a team at Beyond. I've grown large enough to have, you know, their lighthouse structure or whatever. Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee because it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf. Making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.