How to Combat Unfair Regulations in 2024 with Rent Responsibly

One of the big Talking points of 2024 is hyperlocal but also regulations. How can we you combat unfair regulations that are sweeping not only your towns, your cities, but Europe, America, Australia and further afield? The more that the short term rental industry grows, the more that the hotel world and further afield will try and put a cap on the growth. Because for every stay in a short term rental, you can guarantee the the hotel world are getting annoyed at that now. How do we combat unfair regulations? How can we showcase that we are professional hosts, professional business owners and not Airbnb charlatans? As the media is painting this picture across the Internet, one person and one company that are doing that is David Kraus of Rent Responsibly. I've known David for a couple of years now. We, we met recently at the Vermo event in America and I was very lucky to grab him for 20 minutes to talk about Rent Responsibly but also the brand new Went Responsibly network. So out of all the podcasts I've done, the 711, 712 we're at right now with this episode is one of the most important that you need to listen and watch this year 2024, because if you haven't got regulations in your area, they are coming and you better believe it. We are getting ready for it and the Rent responsibility team give you the tools and the templates and the training and the education on how to prevent it. So really good one. 20 minutes. Without further ado, let me hand you over to Mr. David Kraus who's going to give you a super quick intro and we get stuck into it.

My boostly friends, this is your boy Dave Kraus reporting live from Fort Worth, Texas. I am a short term rental owner and host at hart. That's where I got my start in this space, like many of you do. I didn't go to university to become what I am today, but fell in love with the industry upon entry. Just loved meeting the people, of course, supporting myself and ultimately my family was just a little piece of magic that I didn't know I would grow up to, to discover. And once I did, I wanted, I wanted more. I wanted to, to. I was obsessed, right? Like everybody else. If you're listening to this podcast, I know you're obsessed and there's nothing wrong with that. But really what, what brought me here today to talk with you, Mark, is, is the journey I went on after somebody threw a party at my short term rental. So I was running about nine short term rentals I was the king of short term rentals in Dallas, Texas at the time. And, you know, had this, this great reservation. It seemed like there's no spidey sense going on. Didn't seem like anything was wrong. But come to find out after the guest left that they threw a massive party, which is, if it's happened to you, I feel for you. It happened to me. This was 2015 and I immediately looked just like, you know, any other problem solver for a solution to that problem. And there was no such technology or method other than going and putting your ear with a cup to the door to see how loud it was, which is impossible. You'd never do that. So I, I found a friend who could build me a sensor that would ultimately help me monitor the property. So that turned into Noise Aware. You may have heard of Noise Aware. If you haven't, you can check it out. There's other noise monitors out there. But I started Noise Aware after this party and after a couple years, four to be exact, of talking about decibels and noise and nuisance issues and community and party houses, which by the way is a really fun thing to talk about. For four years I, I was kind of, I was done with decibels. You know, I, I had already gotten the claim to fame of being the international party pooper, which again, is not something I wanted to grow up to be. But it happened anyways. Anyways, after, after Noise Aware, I started to notice and to really look, look inside the industry and say, what is missing that I'm perfectly suited to try to tackle, to really focus on. And what I realized is the regulatory issues just were mushrooming. They were, they were blowing up. They were, you know, finding small towns, big towns, urban environments. In the US where I am international, all over the world, these regulatory issues were coming up. And because I'd been talking about noise nuisance, party houses, community relations, I realized I knew a lot more than the average person. And the key, the key to our future really laid in how we as a community, we us are as an industry, get organized, get involved, get into advocacy, show up to these conversations professionally in an organized way, and so rent responsibly. Where I'm the CEO and co founder now, is the community building and education platform for our industry. And we help local communities, local alliances, local associations get together, become very effective and well organized, and ultimately fight for good and fair regulation. And then, you know, that's the firefighting side. The more exciting side is the fireproofing side where we build community, we extend Our reach into the existing travel and tourism ecosystem in a way that as a young industry we are just becoming mature. We're teenagers, we're past our awkward teenage stage. It's time to grow up. So we're leading the charge.

So you and rent responsibly came on my sort of radar. It was a couple of years ago now and you were doing an event like a virtual event. Can you just talk about the virtual events that you host annually and why you do them and sort of the, the, the things that you get on the back end of, of, of doing these? Sure.

And thank you for attending that virtual event, Mark. We, we welcome one and all. So as a community building and education, underscoring the education piece, we do national events and international in that, in that case events where we focus often times on a value that we have internally. So sometimes it's community, sometimes it's sustainability, things of that nature. And we really dive deep. We get all the brightest minds on the subject into a good run of show. Sometimes there are single webinars on one particular issue, like a safety issue or something of that nature. And then sometimes we have our summits which last year we did two of them and we'll have two days of virtual, it's a virtual conference. So we'll talk about everything, short term rentals, but also how to build sustainable organizations, how to avoid burnout, how to, you know, take care of employees and all sorts of stuff that we as entrepreneurs, you know, we need to find the information but we also need it for our industry.

Right.

We're a unique industry and so we really tailor everything to the needs of short term rental owners, hosts and managers.

It's a topic and discussions that regularly does not get talk about enough in my opinion. In this industry. Everyone wants to talk about, you know, the, the lovely side of the industry and all of that. But when you really do think about it, the things that you're talking about is some really important steps. Regulation, safety, you know, environment. It's, it really is a thing that you know, you should, all of you be proud for talking about because it brings such education to it. I think the next question I've got, which is one that I've had written down, is there's so many people who come into your world, whether it's online or you meet in, in person. What would you say is one of the most common mistakes that you see most hosts make when, when they're coming into, into this industry? So they're coming to, to speak to you say David, with The event when you see one of the most common mistakes that they're all making, especially when it comes to what we're talking about here, which is like rent in responsibly, regulations, et cetera.

That's a great question. The first thing that comes to mind is that folks don't know how powerful they actually are and how powerful their voice is at the local level. What I say is you are already an expert in short term rentals. If you have been a host, you're already an expert in short term rentals and you have the voice to share that. If you are local somewhere and everybody is local somewhere and everybody. If you're listening to this podcast, generally speaking you've been a host, therefore you are over qualified to be an advocate or to be involved in the broader conversation. And it doesn't have to be in city hall. There are many ways to get involved and we need, as an industry, I hate to be up here saying we need, you need to do this. We all should be doing that. This is not a preachy type subject. It's actually a community conversation, is what kind, how do you show up to our community? How do you show up and contribute to any community? Mark, I know you have a massive and thriving community. It's, you know, you got to encourage people to show up and bring their story and bring their expertise. But in, in the world of the regulatory conversation, there are five ways you can contribute. So there are the five T's of, of advocacy. You have your time, you can contribute time, volunteer, be on a board, things of that nature. You have treasure, you can contribute financially, you have talent. If you're a great marketer, you have a social media following. That's your talent. You can bring that to bear. The two most people don't know about which I think are the most important are your ties, so your connections into the community. Are you a realtor, are you neighbors with the city council member, things like that. And the last is your testimony, which is where I started. You can tell your own story. That is a powerful story. Nobody really knows. Not only your story, but you know, when you put your story out there and tell people about it, it's really cool. People think what we do is really freaking cool. And it's the only way we build respect and we get credibility is telling our story. We're the people who, who we have been looking for. We're the people we've been waiting for. It's our time to tell our story and not let other people do that for us. So in summation, people don't know the power that they have to tell their own story and how powerful that really is.

And at the end of the day, your net worth is your net worth. So the more that you can build that in your local area, then the more that it will power to you in the, in the long run. But especially as well, what I know to be true, especially with community, is with regulations that are happening all the time, they're popping up all over the world at the moment. But the, the, the areas that have given themselves a fighting chance. I've got a professional set of, of hosts, property management companies at a local level that can go together, go to their local mp, go to the electoral like member of Parliament, the elected official and showcase that listen, this Airbnb brush that the, the media has been tarnishing us, the whole community with is not true. We are a group of professional hosts. This is us, this is our network and we provide X, Y and Z. And this is all of the safe and secure things that we do behind the scenes. And if it wasn't those communities, then there would be much more unfair regulation brought in on a mass scale. Are you seeing that as well for the areas that rent responsibly, locations around the states that you're in?

Yes. And I think it's, it's an incredible trend line, it's an incredible evolution that we've seen. So when I was leaving Noise Aware to, to start rent responsibly in 2019, 2020, there were only about 15 local short term rental alliances or associations in the United States. There are now 90. So we're starting to see this movement come alive. And the biggest thing I can point to for whether you have a good regulatory outcome, reasonable regulatory outcome or not is do you have a local community group, an alliance or an association that is able to get the voices, those voices, your voice. Now if you have two ears right now and are listening to this, you probably have a mouth and you can use it. And if you hear of something coming up, the question is, are you going to show up and have your voice heard? And so the best way to do that and to unify your voice is to, to get organized in the local level. That's what Rent Responsibly ultimately was built to do. We have free guides on how to do it. We have free support levels. We also can contract to help groups get organized and, and help on a professional level. So you know, Mark, to your point, five years ago, this wasn't really what was necessary or going on but nowadays with post pandemic realities, you know, our industry is, is not on the stable foundation that's going to last a hundred years. It's up to us to build that and it's up to you to build that at wherever you live, wherever you are local.

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One of our sales team. I think one of the big mistakes that I see so many people make, especially when it comes to this side of the industry regulations and stepping up for yourself, they always go, oh, it's okay, somebody else will do it. So I don't need to do this because somebody else will. And it's that sort of mindset that everybody has to sort of shake themselves out for because everybody getting into this industry now who is more than one property owner, let's say they are looking to grow and scale. So if you've got one property and you want to stick at one property, brilliant, fantastic. This could be a hobby for you or it could be just a side, side project. But as soon as you go to property number two, the assumption is that you're going to want to have property number three, four or five. Doesn't matter what your model is, whether it's owned, managed arbitrage, whatever. And so with that being said, you're looking to build a business and a career and something that, who knows where it could expand to. So if, if this is you, but we're talking to and you've got the mindset of it's okay, somebody else will sort that, then you are technically part of the problem. And like I say, we don't want this to be preachy, but if you have got the ability to tap into the five T's that you were talking about, it's more fuel to your business and it's detrimental to business if you don't. So this is why it's amazing to see something like yourself and responsibly in the network that you've Got there coming together and providing the education. Because another thing that everybody goes is, well, I don't know where to start. They go, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know what to do. Help. And so talk to now about the thing that you've just launched. I'd love to talk about the network. So can you just take a bit of time talking about the network that you've launched, why you launched it and you know, what are your hopes for 2024 with it?

Yeah, with permission. Mark, I'd like to take one more second because I realize it is a bit preachy to say, you know what, you need to get involved, you need to do this, you need to do that. I do want to. Before I talk about the round responsibility network, I want to mention the benefits of doing these things because it goes beyond the you shoulds and you know, prevent the bad thing from happen happening. So I did a little preparation, Mark, for this podcast and I was like, all right, we had five T's. Let's, let's see what the benefits are. So these are five eyes. I'll keep it really quick. The five eyes of the benef benefits of getting involved with your community. Number one is you have information. You're going to get information that's going to impact you sooner than anybody else. Number two is you can become infamous like Mark Simpson of Boost Lee. People will know who you are and they will come to you at the local level. It can help bring things you need to you. Right. You can manifest them. You need a cleaner. Great. You're in the middle of a lot of people. You can help find. You can get what you need. Number three is influence. You can ultimately influence the outcome. That's really important. But influencing other people, building your influence, whether it's social, you know, online or or elsewhere, you want direct bookings like, great, you need some influence to get there. The next is is right up there is inbound. Things will come to you inbound. If you are sticking your hand up and becoming a leader and getting out there, the last piece of it is insurance. Right. If you have one home. And to your point, Mark, if you have one home, it doesn't matter if you have one, two or three or 300, you have a stake in the game. And so your insurance policy is being a part of the community and helping grow it. So I hope people see that as not just this kind of volunteer only idea. It's like be, be selfish. Get benefits from what you're doing. Okay, yeah, good enough, right?

Network. Yeah, no good I was going to say becoming the go to. Becoming the go to person has never been a bad thing. If you are known as the go to, it's always a good thing. Right, Network, let's chat about this.

All right, Come on. Drum roll. Where do you have sound effects? Drumroll. All right.

Oh man. If I did.

Yeah. All right. So the RR network is what we call the home for hosts. What we have built is a platform. It's free to log in network.rent responsibility.org I got sanctioned by Mark. He said I could, I could tell everybody about this. Yeah. So no matter where you are in the world, you're going to have education needs, you're going to have connect to, you're going to want to connect, join a community. So certainly if you're not already part of Mark's community, join that too. But the, the RR network has a plethora of education items. All the most frequently asked questions we've heard over four years are answered in the network. We have replays and downloads from all of our events. You're going to be able to find your community group if they're signed up and on our platform. So there, like I said, There are 90 alliances around the country. We have about 12 of them have already joined and so you can find your subgroup. That's where you're going to get your news and information about your local happenings. And then as we grow there are more and more vendors that are joining the responsibly network. So it's really this kind of Facebook like platform but dedicated specifically to short term rentals. So you kind of have the privacy and the purpose built nature of the platform. So the, the vision though in the long term is to have one platform where if you are day one a day one host, you'll have education there for you. Or let's say day 10,000 and you're hosting 300 units and you need to find information about, you know, your market updates, things of it. It's all in one home. So bringing that all together has been a dream come true. It's kind of what I wish was there when I started hosting. There was no such thing. Yeah, but it's, it's been a pleasure to build. We have over 1200 people have signed up for it in less than a month. So we're growing pretty fast and we'd love to have you join and bring your, your flavor and add it to our Kool Aid.

Amazing. So what's the plans for, for 2024 with the network? What if you could Try and like put it on any one like sort of route or funnel which, what would be your goal for it?

I think, you know, we, our heart is in local community building. So we're stitching together like I said, there are 12 groups now, so they're now stitched together where you can find people from all over the country. Again, this is mostly domestic us, but you can join from anywhere. So my dream and what we're really building at is a platform where people can find each other offline but they've discovered each other online. So we've already had somebody in Portland who found another person in Portland, Oregon and then they met up for coffee in the real world and made this real bond, real connection. So in 2024 I believe that will grow the network massively. I believe we'll get all of these short term rental local groups on the platform. But what I really want to see happen is those real in person bonds and meetups and meetup groups happen. I know Mark, you have your meetup for your community and there's just something magical when you bring people together in one room. So you know, part of what we're doing is building an online community so we can establish and really, you know, celebrate this industry offline as well.

Yeah, know you're right. You're 100% right. It's, we're so used to, to the online world. We're chatting online now but the real connections happen when it's in person. You're able to, to have a more of a flow of a conversation and things do happen. This is why, you know, meetup events and conferences and networks are so powerful and popular because so many things can happen on the back of it and you know, it's very lonely this entrepreneurial lifestyle. It can be very lonely as well, especially if you're in operating in an area that you don't know anybody. So to have a, a network like this available, phenomenal. What's the domain? So everybody can go and run to it, charge to it, type it on the, on the phones or the keyboard. What's the domain where they're heading?

Network.rent responsibly.org and you're free to join. Just, just jump in and you can start conversations, contribute to conversations or just ping us if there are things that you, you want to see, whether it's education, questions you have, we're, we're all about, you know, serving the people that, that we've known and grown to love. There you go. There's a lot of that's A lot.

Of the group says Mr. John Hildebrand. Yeah, Bruce Lee fave over there. So, yeah, amazing. Got some amazing people. So, yeah, really nicely laid out. I was saying before we went live, the website is very, very nice, very easy, very, very lovely to look at. So, yeah, go and check it out. Network.rent responsive rent responsibly.org and this link here, I'll put in the description and the show notes. So make sure you head to the booster website and we'll have all of it afterwards. Love it. Thank you very much, Mr. Kraus. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for sharing the network with our network and hopefully loads of people are going to head over and. And join. If you've got any questions, you know how to find rent responsibly. But if anybody wants to reach out to yourself. Which is the best social media of choice? Which is your favorite social media?

You know, I feel like a fuddy duddy. I don't know if that's a phrase you use, but a Fuddy Duddy on LinkedIn. I mean, I find myself on LinkedIn. I found myself on LinkedIn on the weekend. I don't know why, but it's. They're doing something for me. Yeah, I like LinkedIn. Happy to connect there or just directly on email. David responsibly.org Mark, can I steal 90 seconds to share the only the reason I have confidence that we as an industry are going to be the crown jewel of travel and tourism for the next 100 years.

The floor is yours.

All right, so a hundred years ago, almost to the year, the automobile came of age. So in 1908, mind you, Airbnb was established in 2008, but in 1908, the Ford model T came off the assembly line. And don't think I wasn't prepared to show my little Ford Model T model there, but the Ford Model T comes off the assembly line and rolls onto the. The streets. The roads in the US before there were rules of the road. So there were three major problems with the automobile being on the road. It was noisy. When they crashed, they became trash. And they had parking issues because there were no such thing as parking spaces at the time. So noise, trash and parking were the original issues. The same exact issues were the first ones we faced as an industry. But what the automobile did, the. The road they paved, the. The example they laid that we can follow is the groups of automobile enthusiasts got together in their local communities and then started networking and networking and networking until the American Automobile association was established and so for the next 100 years, that industry basically built their own rules of the road. They started taking the technology, seat belts, airbags, blinkers, horns, all the safety technology that was being innovated from within the industry. They ultimately became standard operating procedure. And then ultimately, the rules of the road were built from the inside out because regulators realized that the experts in automobiles were the drivers themselves. And so we, as the host, are the experts. We will create the rules of the road ultimately for ourselves. But the sooner we do it, the less pain we go through. And over the last 100 years, the automobile has been the most celebrated industry in the entire world. And the American Automobile association, one of the more advanced and powerful organizations in the country. And I think the, the, the road is long, the green lights are there for us. We just have to step on the gas. You know what I'm saying, Mark?

I think if I had that sound effect, it'd be a mic drop right now. Just happening. Really nicely put, really nicely explained. Thank you very much. Been an absolute pleasure. I look forward to seeing you in person at one of these events this year in 2024. But. But yeah, everybody head over to network.rent responsibility.org go and sign up free account. Go and join the community. I'm always a big fan of anybody who is trying to build a community away from Facebook. I've tried so many times, failed so many, so many times. So it's always good to see something set up really well and it gives me, gives me much good vibes when I can see that. So, Mr. David Cross, thank you so much. And everybody, thanks for tuning in. This is episode 712, I believe we said it before. It's a lot of episodes, a lot of years of doing this free podcast every single week. Make sure you go and subscribe on boostly on the YouTube we've just touched. Just passed, sorry, 10,700 subscribers. So thank you to everybody that's jumped on there. And if you're listening on the Spotify or Apple or wherever that is, thank you very much. Keep spreading the word. This is definitely one I need for you to share. So as well as liking and commenting as you all do really well, this is the one where you hit the share button and go and drop it into a Facebook group, go and drop it into your LinkedIn groups and all of that. And just to draw more awareness because it's awareness of amazing education like this that is going to help save our industry. So with that being said, thank you so much. And we'll be back any day now with another episode. Cheers now.