Outsource & Grow - Leveraging Virtual Teams For Short-term Rental Success

When it comes to hiring people, I used to do all the interviews, right Then I brought on somebody that really knew how to do interviews and, and filter for, like, quality people. My mind was blown. I was like, all right, like, now we're bringing in better people for our operators and my life gets better. Because that's not something that was ever my strong suit. Like, business got more fun for me. I agree with that entirely.

Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce, like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea is loosely licking up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you're better.

But direct.

Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.

Hi, and welcome back to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, and most importantly, the confidence to get more direct bookings. On this podcast, we don't just talk about direct bookings. We love to have it as a question. But we also like to dive into anything hospitality. And we do a mini series called the Boostie Spotlight series where we shine the Boostly spotlight on people, services and people that you just need to know about as a host wherever you are in the world. And today we've got special guest, we've got Matt Metros. He is the founder of a company called CS Outsource. Is that right?

Yep. You got perfect.

Perfect. And we're basically diving into just a conversation all about overseas staff hospitality. We don't know where the conversation can go, but I really enjoyed. We've recently had Matt on for another show within our Boostly community and we could have filled much more time. So we thought, you know what would be cool? Let's do a podcast. Let's jump on here and give our listeners loads of value. So Matt, welcome along and thank you for joining me.

Yeah, absolutely. Just to introduce myself, my name is Matthew Metro. I help short term rental and midterm rental operators outsource and build virtual assistant teams. So the way we got started in the business was helping out with the guest communications, vendor communications, you know, scheduling vendors, disputing negative reviews, helping with the turnovers and cleaning process, ordering inventory and supplies, helping with, you know, Airbnb claims as they come in, listing optimizations. You know, when a new listing comes in, you need to get a photographer, you need to find a new cleaner, a whole new handyman, all that sort of stuff. So that's where we got started in the business. And then over time, operators started asking for things like digital marketing. So email and SMS campaigns, we target past guests, graphic design, social media posting. Then they started asking for things like bookkeeping. So sending out those owner statements on time, setting up a trust accounting process, reconciling the accounts, remitting the local lodging taxes and then we also do appointment setting and business development. So we're fully end to end outsourcing and virtual assistant service for STR operators.

What do you want somebody to take away from this episode? So if they listen to this, what is the kind of feel or the kind of experience that you want them to take away from listening to this podcast?

Yeah, I would say, you know, the, you know, struggles and challenges of hiring, training, managing, retaining and compensating VAs. I know a lot of people think you can just go to online jobs ph and you know, set up, put out a job description and you know, lo and behold, you have an awesome va. It doesn't end there. Basically come and go. Training them takes a lot of time. You have to be very meticulous about that managing them. You know, you're almost like a part time psychologist. You know, if they break up with their girlfriend or boyfriend, you know, that's going to have an impact on your business and you know, retaining them for the long term. You know, get creative with how you compensate. Performance based pay, deferred pay, there's all sorts of things you can do. But the reality is VA is come and go. When you bring somebody on, you're now a manager, you're now doing hr, you're training them so you know, be prepared for that sort of stuff. And you have to prepare ahead of time.

With most hosts, what would you say the normal journey is? So do most hosts that you talk to, are they getting a virtual assistant literally when they start their business, are they getting it when they've got 10 places? Or when do you find is the moment for most hosts where they go, do you know what, I need some help?

Yeah, so it's a gray area for sure. You know, I was just on the phone with somebody and you know, they are locked in. They quit their W2, they're at six properties and you know, they rely on this for their, you know, income. So I said, you know, probably don't do this right now. Get to a place where you feel like you need one and a half people, you know, but it's going to vary based on your business goals. You know, if you have a full time job, you know, maybe get started a little sooner. But if you're all in, maybe you want more properties on your belt so that, you know, it's, it's not, you know, financially stressful on you. My rule of thumb is for really any recurring expense that you're about to take on in your business, like a virtual assistant, you, let's say it costs, you know, 1500 for somebody, 40, 50 hours, right? I want to have a plan on how I'm going to get that 1500 in my business, right, to cover those expenses. So what I encourage people to do is, you know, start doing business development, marketing, bringing on more properties, at least get, you know, 30 to 50% of the way there before that person comes on so that when they come on, you're not feeling that pinch, right? You already are in. You've already like, built up the momentum of building in that new revenue for the business. So that's always my rule of thumb to make sure that operators are comfortable and they're not bringing in a VA into what could turn into a toxic situation because financially it's struggle for them when it comes to hiring people. I used to do all the interviews, right? Then I brought on somebody that really knew how to do interviews and, and filter for like, quality people. My mind was blown. I was like, all right, like now we're bringing in better people for our operators and my life gets better because that's not something that was ever my strong suit. Like, business got more fun for me. I agree with that entirely. Change your life, really.

It really does. Because as soon as they're in their area of expertise and you're able to go, well, what is, what's my area of excellence or expertise? Go and do more of that and get the, you know, the people who want to do the other stuff in those kind of roles and it is just really good. But for hosts listening to this, should they just hire out the tasks they don't want to do, or what is your advice around actually choosing the tasks for them and the responsibilities that they really should be outsourcing.

You know, for me, there's a delicate balance between like I'm always thinking about. My rule of thumb is like, what is the customer impact? If it's like very sensitive, that's typically something I will keep to myself. If it's like super high value task, that's also something I keep in house. And for me, that's generally something around sales and business development like that is that just something you really can't outsource. The way you speak, the way you talk on topics, you know, in 2024, you know, your personality, like who you are on the Internet is a lot of your company's brand. Personal branding is huge. So that stuff I do not delegate. But, you know, the bottom line is you have to look at your business and see, like, how risky is this? What is going to be the client impact if something does go wrong? You know, and there's, there's like hybrid models, right? Some people, they come to us and they're, they want to do digital marketing, but they, you know, they have rules around how, you know, we outsource with them. They want to approve the messaging before it goes out. They want to see all the designs. They, Right, they have so much brand control. But when it comes to the tactical execution of graphic design, of the copywriting, that's on us. But, you know, at the end of the day, they have guardrails in place to prevent, you know, us from just sending, sending, sending. So there's hybrid models, there's fully outsourced models where you just, you know, like, like your accountant, you know, most, some of us, we just, here, take the Excel sheet, give it to your accountant and they handle the rest of it. But yeah, you have to really look at your business and see, like, how risky is this and look at, you know, your, your brand. Like, does it call for being outsourced? Does it call for, like, I really need to own this in house.

There's so many things that you can outsource as a host. Like you say, the bookkeeping, the guest comms, you know, the operations of managing your cleaners, daily messages, you know, all of that sort of stuff is really cool. But there's also that time where perhaps with the new world, and I know I've asked you this when we saw you the other day, but with the new world, there's a lot of AI out there, right? So do I really need to hire a virtual assistant or can I just replace that need for that person? Should, should virtual assistants be worried?

Yeah, yeah. You know, my, this is the way I think about it. You could talk to, you know, an AI expert, they'll have a whole different opinion on the world. I think right now, in the near term, and I'm just talking about the near term, I don't know, five years from now, like, I might even turn into AI at that point. Who knows what's going to happen? But in the near term, for sure, I think some of the low level, tedious tasks, like, you know, basic guest communications AI is going to play significant role in that. But at the same time, you know, answering the phones adding that human touch. I don't think we're there yet. And you're still going to need a virtual assistant to do things like that. Also, a lot of the tools we use are very fragmented, right? Like your cleaners on WhatsApp or maybe you're communicating with a vendor over email and the chats are coming in through, you know, your pms. You're still going to need someone that's going to be able to connect all the dots there and make sure that messages get through at the right time, at the right speed, you know, with the correct undertones, all that sort of stuff. So my rule like of thumb here, how I think about is one agent is going to be able to do more. You know, you'll be able to have more properties under one agent. Right. Right. Now, generally how, what I see is one agent can oversee around 20 to 30, you know, 35 some. You know, it obviously depends on what is the scope of their test. If they're just doing guest comms, you know, it's going to be on the upper hand. There's. But you know, with AI, who knows, maybe that goes to 40, you know, you know, so it's, it's like the perfect match made in heaven. You know, you have humans working with a tool that just makes them smarter. And also what I like about AI is a lot of the times I'm always finding, you know, that I have to like, check on people. Did they do this, do, did they do that? And where I think AI is going to like really be able to step in and is it's going to provide that level of oversight, like, hey, now you missed this. Like you need to, to check on this because it does have that brainpower to do it. So, you know, be able to provide some supervision, just overall make, you know, one agent that much better in your business, that much more productive, effective, etc.

Matt, this has been really fun. Thank you so much for coming on the Boostly podcast and spending your time freely with us and our listeners. For you listening to this, if you've picked up your just one piece of information that you think another host or a friend would be able to get some value of, please share this podcast with that other host. And Matt, that leaves us with the final question we love to end on, which is is there a mantra or a motto that has resonated with you during your time in business?

I have a, I have a lot of these, you know, but one that really, you know, I hold true to my heart is, you know, Give away all your secrets and, and you'll have everything in life. And what I really mean by that is in, in business, it's very easy to get, like, cagey around what you know and how you operate, how you do things. And the way I've grown, my business is just being super transparent about everything with my employees, with the community, just, you know, giving as much free education and knowledge on how I'm doing things. I. I'm an open book. And what I've found is, like, one. I have the respect of, you know, my employees because I'm very open book about everything. I'm attracting the right customers that really value knowledge and education. These are really professional operators. And, you know, I, I don't think I would be where I am today if I didn't have that mindset to just give as much value everywhere, Anywhere. It doesn't matter. Take every phone call. Give everybody the time of day. Just be like, the nicest person. You'll be happier. Like, people are gonna like it. All this stuff is like a snowball effect, and it comes back to you in weird ways in the future. So resonate with me.

That definitely resonates with me, especially because at the end of the day, especially what you just said at the end there, where it. You actually get more from it than people are going, hey, why are you giving all this weight? You actually, well, this is for me. I actually get more from doing this. And the world does give it back in droves, doesn't it? So what a very cool sentiment to. To end on. Thank you so much again, Matt. And thank you too, for listening to this on the Boostly podcast. We'll see you on the next epis.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. Cheers, Liam.

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