Profitable Properties with Daniel Rusteen

Thank you for joining us on the Boostly podcast. We've got a very special guest and today we are shining the Boostly spotlight on somebody who I'm a major fan of, who I've read his books. He's a super host on Airbnb. He literally wrote the book on Airbnb. He's an influencer and a best selling author. And today we're going to be talking about a new book which he has finished writing and is, is going to be sharing with us today. And we're going to be diving into why he's done it, what the book's going to be about and just some cool tips to share with everyone. Thank you very much for joining me today. Let me introduce Danny Rustein and welcome along. He's coming all the way from. Whereabouts are you today, Danny?

I am today. I arrived in Vancouver, Canada. I arrived yesterday and I'll actually leave tomorrow.

I know you're always traveling and that's one of the brilliant things about your books is that they're tips from firsthand as a guest as well as a host, which is going to be cool. So let's get started for. There'll be a few people who are tuning in on the podcast and also on the Facebook who may not be familiar with yourself. Can you give yourself an introduction and share a bit about the journey for people who may not know you?

Yeah, sure. I, I used to work at airbnb back about 10 years ago at this point. And then I, I left and I, my life got more entangled with Airbnb. I started a property management company. I started traveling on Airbnb permanently. I still have that property management company. I have passed 2,000 nights as a guest. In 2018, I wrote this book which I'm very, very happy about. You said that you read it, so that's, that makes me very happy as well. And then I, I bought a house, an international real estate investment in Medellin 2021. And so I've been documenting that on my social channels. And then In October of 2022, I just, I, I didn't really ever want to write another book because it was a lot of work. A lot of work, this one. And something hit me in October where I just, everything kind of clicked and I thought, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna write a new book. And it turned into this one, which is a 400 page mega book which took way more time than the last one. A little bit nervous, but it's, it's coming on pre sale in a couple weeks. And it's a very well, it's broad and specific about all things str, from finding a profitable market all the way to pricing, direct bookings, which is, which is your specialty.

Do you know what? I'm so excited to dive into that book. And I know first of all from the previous book, the amount of value and the tips that you've shared. And for anybody who hasn't gone and checked that out, please go and check. Optimize your bnb. It is literally the book on Airbnb. How long ago was that? Right now, 2018. 2018. But they're still very relative. I mean, a lot of is evergreen and it's just a great book for people looking to get started on short term rent in general, particularly if you're listing obviously on, on Airbnb. Before we dive into the book, the new book, can we get your opinion on the term Airbnb bust, which is going around, you know, on socials at the moment? How do you feel about the way the STR market, the short term rental market is performing and you know, terms like Airbnb bust and why?

I believe Airbnb bust, by the way, I love it because Airbnb has become too associated with easy money, passive money. What has that done? That's a very sellable idea. And you make a lot of money on Airbnb on short term rentals if you know what you're doing. And it's not tremendously hard to know what you're doing, but if you go into it with that mindset, you're not going to do well. And what happened, I believe, is some influencers got onto this idea as well. They have some extra money. They bought an Airbnb. They bought an Airbnb in a not ideal market. They didn't manage it in the ideal way and they didn't make much money. They probably didn't, you know, negotiate a great deal either. And so they went public to their audience and they said, oh my, Airbnb is not what I thought. And that's where it came from, I believe.

And I mean in general, do you think there's, do you think there's any truth to it or is it just a case of poor market, poor, poor choices?

There is truth to it. But if you're, if you're running your Airbnb well, and a lot of the recent videos are basically saying what I'm saying, if you've always been running it well, like you should have anyways, you, you're there's winners in every market, always in, in good times and bad. And so, you know, slow season is like, you can Airbnb bust and slow season, you know, you could say there's an Airbnb bust once a year where it's where slow season comes in. But guess what? Slow season, and you know, I have a slow season strategies chapter in both books, because it's so important, really is one of the things that separates good from great hosts. If you're managing your slow season well, which is and in advance of slow season, not it's slow season and oh, I have no bookings. That's not well managed. So the slow season looks a lot different for the great hosts than it does for the average host. This, this Airbnb bus looks a lot different for the great host than it does for the average host. There are still guest arrivals. There are still a lot of guest arrivals in all markets. So there are still winners. And personally, I haven't, I don't think noticed anything at all on my units.

And do you know what? That's, that's reassuring to hear. And ultimately I saw a, one of the stats, I think this was shared by, I think it was Price Labs or might be Airbnb themselves, which was saying that the travel market globally is still growing. You know, there's still more people traveling today than there was in the previous years, which is, which means the opportunity is still bigger, there is more competition, but ultimately, people doing it well is always going to succeed. So thank you for, for sharing that. The title, Profitable Properties is an interesting one. Why did you go with that title?

I asked my community for. So the title, I will say the title and the COVID took me a combined one month and one month of intense thinking. Probably I overdid it. You know, probably I overdid. I'll just be honest. But I just felt like I had to get things right, and I hope I did. But I went through a bunch of different titles and I asked my community eventually, and there was some, you know, one title I wanted was the title of a famous podcast, for example, not yours, a different one. But I was like, oh, shoot, that was my favorite title. And then I had some controversial titles, you know, that I, that I didn't go with. This one was the least favorite of the four I asked my community on. This was the least favorite by far. But I went with Profitable Properties because it, it's about, I wanted to separate myself from Airbnb. This one is. This one is. Airbnb is still the leader in short, in short term rentals. But this is more broad spectrum about how to turn. Because nowadays what we're doing is we're, we're looking at from the step, from step one, where's the most profitable market, neighborhood, profitable property, how do I manage it? And then when you sell it, you're selling it as an STR. That's very different than 2018 and before. And so I really wanted people to focus on the more, you know, it's not just Airbnb. A part of, a big part of this subject is direct bookings as well. You know, we're running our business, we're running our Airbnbs as a business in 2023. And so that's the reason why. That's cool.

And what was it that inspired you to produce the book? Why, why now? As you know, is, is it the, as you mentioned just then, you've, you were very connected to Airbnb. What is it that's changed, do you think, over the last sort of five years?

The main thing that's changed, I just touched on it, is that five years ago, 10 years ago, even you would Airbnb what you already had. I had a sofa in my sofa in my living room. That's all I had. And I had three roommates. We Airbnb that if you had an in law unit, you happen to have an extra, you know, extra house. A lot of people, you know, one of my first managed properties was this very wealthy couple and they, what they do, they moved houses or something and their mansion near San Francisco in, in the hills in the North Bay was available and they normally wouldn't do this, but they just had, they had a house available and they're like, okay, well why, why don't we Airbnb what we have 20, 23 and beyond. People are building. There's a construction site in front of me. You know, I wonder if it's Airbnb. A lot of some of these construction buildings, they're, they're marketing it as Airbnb. And then when you go to sell, if you have tangible or I guess intangible assets like email addresses, et cetera, a website that gets visits, YouTube that gets visits, Instagram that gets visits, that has real world value that someone will pay for.

That makes sense. That makes sense. And when it comes down to, I mean, there is just more people like you say, seeing the opportunity and selling it as a packaged short term rental these days, isn't there? As it seems to be growing in popularity, how does this compare then? You mentioned the first book obviously focuses purely on Airbnb. What would you say is going to be the main takeaways for somebody on the new book versus the old book? What was the main takeaway for somebody with optimize your bnb? And what do you want the main takeaway to be for this new book? For the reader.

The main takeaway for this new book is going to be being conscious about your investment decision, your real estate investment decision from day one. And that's why the first main section is vacation rental market analysis, where I go through my process and how I quadrupled the revenue from the prior owner who was also an STR owner. And I talk very detailed about not only the market and I break markets down into two categories, but also the neighborhood. But even more specifically, I don't really talk about neighborhood. I talk about micro neighborhood because even in one neighborhood there's a profitable area of that neighborhood. And, and then ultimately when you find properties, you I talk about how you can run the numbers and what kind of advantages you can have and things you can look for that the owner wasn't doing that can help you skyrocket the profits.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only on niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk call and book in an appointment with one of our sales team.

Nice. Nice. And would you say this is for kind of just anybody or is there is a certain avatar of person who is this before and who is not for, you know, who would you say should pick up this book?

So optimize your baby was for Airbnb hosts and only that intermediate and advanced Airbnb host. That's how I marketed that and that's who I wrote it for. Profitable properties is for existing Airbnb hosts, those interested in short term rentals and also traditional real estate investors who have an interest in moving some of their portfolio into short term rentals. I get that.

And there's a lot of real estate investors who want to get in. They just don't know how, and it sounds as though this could be a good, a good step into that, into the world of that. How do you ensure for the books, this is one of the things which I know Mark, obviously he's written some, some of his books, his book Direct Playbook and the Blueprint. How do you ensure the content stays evergreen with all the things that changed? Obviously we've seen huge tech changes and things like that. How, how are you ensuring that things stay evergreen within the books? And what things have you seen remain consistent in your experience during your time as a short term rental host?

Regarding Evergreen, so in Profitable Properties, in the beginning I say, you know, well, what is the difference between optimize your BRB and why might you buy it? And so that one I list out, I think it's like six or eight chapters where I'm like, look, if you buy this book, you don't just skip these chapters. They're no longer relevant. And this book wasn't written to be evergreen. Profitable Properties was written to be evergreen. And what that means for your audience is that in five or 10 years time, it'll still be relevant. The way in which you find a profitable market, et cetera, is still going to be relevant. The way in which you price your listing, it's still going to be relevant. So I really focused on that. One of the big ways is I have a feature in the Profitable Properties, the QR codes. So instead of adding URLs in there and adding things that can go, you know, can expire, you know, a company can go out of, out of, you know, move shift, maybe I don't recommend that anymore, whatever. So I have a, I'll have a permanently updated list of kind of my recommendations and resources. That's going to be a big one.

Nice, nice. And like you say, those resources can be added to over time. And that's the cool thing about QR codes. I know you've been kind enough to send over a sneak peek. And I noticed your 11 vacation rental commandments, which I thought was amazing. Can you just give us a sneak peek of what those or one or two of those are?

Yeah, there's, they're meant to be kept in mind throughout the whole process of you running your Airbnb. That's what they're meant, they're meant for. And so one of them is they're like, you know, be an entrepreneur. And I talk about, well, what does that mean? So, you know, it's a problem solver, you know, it's looking to the future and always trying to improve, et cetera, either kind of general things. Another one is like we talk about marketing, which is the main thing. You asked that in the last question. What has not changed from the last book? The marketing aspect really hasn't changed and probably won't change and it probably has changed the least from the last book to this book in the last five years because I still see these listings that could be improved from an objective standpoint. There's some subjective strategies that I believe work, but there's also objective strategies that are just, you know, you can prove without a reasonable doubt that they're not effective strategies 100%.

And I mean, just like you say, improving listings and the general advice around that, I mean, I even spoke to a host today who doesn't have bedside lamps, you know, in, in a, in a place, you know, and you look at the very basics.

I mean, so I'm in an Airbnb now. I'm actually staying in a good friend's Airbnb in Vancouver. He just set this up. I'm the first guest and I don't know if he watches my material or not. I know he's a very good host anyway, so he probably figured this out on his own. But like, I was surprised because I, I talk about this often on my, on site and whatnot. Bed lamps are so important and no one has them. But he, he specifically called these out and he's like, what do you think of my bed lamps? And I was like, I love them, they're great. They're perfect. There's two of them on, there's one on each side.

It's so important, isn't it? It's just so important. So you mentioned something close to our hearts at Boostly, which is direct bookings. Why have you included a section on direct bookings in this book? And what perceptions have changed over time?

Yeah, I just want to. Because I know you Boostly caters to new and existing hosts. So I just want to make one comment on the lamp because some people might be thinking that and being like, well, why are these guys getting so excited about a bedlam?

It's true though.

Yeah, yeah. But it's not exactly the bed lamp. It's. I, I have a theory and I. And there's actually a section at the beginning where I talk about different, like concepts that I have. One of them is one of a hundred. And so no one decision is going to make you a successful host. But those hosts who correctly make the most of those hundreds of decisions as an, as a rental host what, what kind of towels are you going to get? How many towels are you going to get? Are you going to provide this to that? Those are the best hosts. And now I forgot your question.

No, no, just expanding on your point there. Just a lot of people turn to us and they say, hey, will this do this or will you get this result? Yes, putting in this feature and you go, well, don't think of it as a finite answer. It's to what degree will that improve your chances of your guest having a great experience and you invite more people back. And that's exactly like say all these little things that you do increases the chances of a great experience. And, you know, a sought after short term rental question was the direct booking section. What perceptions have changed over time? Why did you include that in this book?

Yeah, I used to not recommend direct bookings for the majority of posts. That has changed for two reasons. The first reason is my recommendation is most hosts should have somewhat, at least somewhat of a direct booking presence online. And the reason why, I'll say the reason why that's changed and I'll see why that's important at the end. But the reason why that's changed is because, number one, the tools have gotten so much better. So it's, it's made it so much easier in the past, it would take a lot of time. Now the tools have gotten better. And also I hinted to it earlier. Oh, and the other thing is, you know, I believe that I follow Airbnb and an industry very closely. I believe that Airbnb has mismanaged, has been, has been rather poorly managed for years on end from both the host and the guest side. And I'm unique in that. I can see it from the guest and the host site. I am both very actively. And so they're still a market leader. But what I see is that they're losing their grip. In fact, I saw an article come out recently. I think I did at least. Maybe it was a dream, a future article. It was like, the hosts are now Airbnb's competition. And that's true, they are. And why is that? Well, because Airbnb hasn't been so pleasant to the hosts. So what I'm saying is Airbnb has created that opportunity. They've created it themselves, I think. And the reason why that's important is because, as I said, if you, if you, and when you go to sell your house in whenever, and you have 5,000 Instagram followers and a thousand emails, addresses of prior guests and a website, an active website that has value. An investor will pay for that. That is real world value.

That's a really good point. I mean it's branding, isn't it? You've, you've then got your own, your own land, as Mark says. So yeah, really interesting. And I'm excited to read the section within the book. There's going to be people listening to this who you know, some are, some are a mix of new, some are OGs at listing. So I'm gonna in a second ask a question on, on how to rank well, we'll, we'll, we'll look at Airbnb and how to rank well. I wanted to mention that because we've, we've just discussed Airbnb and, and like you say, they are losing their grip. What would you say is more important, having that online presence? You know, the Instagram and, and being accessible or the offline hospitality, the old, the kind of the core of hosting for making your guests feel welcome in that what is more important? If there is one, they're both different.

So your online presence or your offline hospitality as I call them, which is more important? I guess maybe your online presence would be more important because if you don't have that, they're not going to book in the first place. But they were or they are really different. You know, they're in, they work in sync. Nice. Nice.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the book Direct Playbook and the book Direct Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the Blueprint. And then for 101 marketing tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now Just type in Book Direct Playbook or the book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

What's the most common question you get asked by short term rental hosts? And I know you do some training. What, what is the kind of question that a lot of people ask? And, and how do you answer that?

Where should I invest? I saw this list come out online. Can you look at it and tell me where's the best market to invest? And I don't like that question there. It's a lazy question. There's no such thing as stupid questions.

Right.

But it is a lazy question. It's like I get sometimes as well. I'm sure you guys do in messages on your social media, Hey, I want to make money with Airbnb. How do I get started with Airbnb? Like those messages get ignored. So that question is interesting because that is such an important. Actually, I'll tie this in with photos as well. There are services out there where they sell you, hey, I will, I'll find you a short term rental market and a house. I'll lead you through the process. And in theory that's fine, but in such a big important decision, maybe the biggest of all of your real estate, short term rental investing, you're going to give that up to somebody else. Seems strange to put it as nicely as I can, you know, and where, where I would invest could be the wrong answer for you. So you need to really, you just need to do. If you can't do that, then go invest in a passive short term rental investment, of which there are a few and of which I recommend two in the book. That's your best bet. You're not going to make as much returns, but that's your best bet. Okay, so I don't like that question and I hope I've addressed that question with part two in this book.

Nice, Nice. Yeah, that makes sense because so many people have different investment appetites, risk appetites and that side of things. So the answer is it always depends, doesn't it? And you're right, we do get questions. You know, hey, how do I do direct bookings? Well, there's not a single answer. You know, where should I invest? Well, there's not a single answer. It's a big question, isn't it? And I can see why you get that a lot. So hopefully people can, you can say, hey, go and listen to this. This is, this is my advice. So we mentioned there'd be some, a mix of people listening who have existing hosts. There'll be people looking to get into it. We've got return things back to Airbnb. Is there any tips you can share on maybe top two tips on how to rank well on. On Airbnb.

How to rank well on Airbnb would be you want to. The overall concept is who's making Airbnb the most money. So you want to be as highly booked as possible. Acceptance rate that's highly valued on Airbnb. How many are you accepting? That goes hand in hand with, with Instant Book. Instant Book does give you a little boost. But if you don't have Instant Book and you have and you're accepting all of your reservations that, that you know the boost, Instant Book is very small. That's one kind of low hanging fruit you can do. Now if we take a step back, you need to write your listing in a way that you don't get people inquiring who aren't a good fit. That's kind of more of a secret sauce type type of a thing because you, you know, you don't want to waste your time even you don't want. So you want someone to filter themselves out. And the other thing I suppose I'll say is Wishlist saves is one of the very few things that Airbnb said. Hey, this directly affects your search rank. Now how much we're not sure, but Airbnb has said that directly more Wish list saves interactions with your profile. This directly affects your, your listing. So there's ways in which you know. Another good thing about a website is how on, on Airbnb or booking or vrbo, how many visits do you get? Well, Airbnb shows that now mine gets a lot. 10,000 visits a month. And what am I getting for that? Nothing. I don't get anything. Now I try and capitalize that on trying to get something from these visitors. Now whether that's asking them to save me to their wish list or visit my profiles online for videos on a website, you can actually capitalize on those visitors. So all those visitors become a lot more valuable to you if they get on your list, if they go and follow your Instagram, et cetera.

It's so true. And something that we absolutely preach here is, is having your own email list is just so important because you can then retarget. You mentioned you get rid of the guests that you don't want by the wording in the listing. So you're already getting more people across to your website. Who?

People.

Your ideal guest avatar. And then really it's just building more of those. And you know, it's referral marketing. They can tell their friends and family about it and you know, you can, you can build up more following just by sharing more information with your audience. And some of the cool stuff, I mean, I follow a lot of people's lists and information and sometimes it's not all a sell. You know, there is always a call to action, but sometimes it's just saying, hey, check out our new feature at our property. Hey, this is cool. We've just installed smart lighting. And it just makes you think of that place. And all of a sudden when you think, where shall I go and stay? They're top of mind. And you're more likely to book There, which is cool. So obviously the book is. When does the book get released and where can people go and find it and purchase the book?

Well, it's on, I know we're live. So it's on pre sale now and it'll be released to the public. It'll shipped out if you bought physical or brought to your Kindle on April 19th. And a difference is I will be the voice actor for this audiobook. So I'll record the audiobook, it'll come out within a month in my voice, which I hope you like.

Nice. Yeah, I think that's good because I always think I would remember being disappointed. The first audiobook I listened to was Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he starts off reading it for the first chapter and then it goes into somebody completely different and you're, the whole time you're trying to think, hey, I know how this person sounds. So you kind of, it's a bit disappointed if it's not the original author. So that's going to be cool, being able to listen to yourself, you know, sharing the advice. So as we reach towards the end of these, Danny, we love to just do a couple of closing questions, not so much about the book, but what advice would you give yourself if you were starting out in short term rental today, 2023.

Oh, if I was starting out today, what advice would I give myself? I would talk more. I would talk about the mindset that you need to be a successful Airbnb host. I think the mindset solves all problems. And I mean that. All problems. And I came upon this idea years ago when I was just, I was just selling, I selled, you know, as, you know, online optimization. So I'll go on and I'll change your online listing and that, you know, to make it highly converting. And I realized that that was only kind of half the battle because the hosts were, their mindset was not correct in that they weren't having, they weren't actually good hosts, they weren't providing good experiences. And so I, I offered a different product where it's, it's more inclusive. I'm looking at everything, I'm changing everything, I'm helping them, I talk with them one on one to try and set them up for success. And so what is that mindset? That mindset is the maybe, you know, a lot of people who start off in STRs, they have jobs, they're an employee, they have a 9 to 5, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But when you're a STR owner You're a business owner and you need more of a business mindset. So you need to shift from an employee mindset, which is doing your job right now, to more of an executive mindset, which is thinking, to the future and more strategic planning. Yeah, that's what I would say.

Yeah. Nice. Thank you for that. And so true. I speak to a lot of hosts and most of the time they are still in a full time job. And a lot of the time I spoke to somebody today who said, hey, I feel like I've replaced my job with a job. And you go, well, it is like that at the start, you know, when you're hands on. But ultimately it is about that forward planning and looking at it from a helicopter sort of perspective of the whole business. What superpower would you say that you've got? If you've got a superpower, a talent or something which you excel at?

I, I would say I can be, let's say a chameleon in terms of interactions. Like, if there's a kid with me, I'm an uncle now, I've got six nieces and nephews. I could be very silly. But if it's like, you know, if it's my mom or someone else's, you know, mom or dad or grandparents, I can change my like intellect to match them and I think that I can connect with people. I suppose that's cool.

I like that. I like that a lot. And finally a question which we always ask is, what mantra or saying resonates with you and why?

Oh, there's a lot. I have a. I keep a document on my computer with a bunch of mantras and sayings. Most of them I forget, to be honest. But the one that popped into my head and has popped into my head frequently is I forget where it's from. Exactly. But today it's something like today is the first day of the rest of your life and it's a good, it's a good perspective to have because you don't want to, you know, be at the end of your life and being like, wait, what happened? All the regrets. I think about that often. What, what, what would I regret if I didn't do that or didn't do that? Should I have done something different to be more fulfilled? Yeah, that's a big one.

It's very hopeful and true. We can, we can be who we want to be, can't we? Day to day, which is cool. So, Danny, thank you so much for sharing today. Just for everybody listening on the live and also on the podcast As a reminder, where can they go to find the book or find more about yourself?

It's going to be sold most places online anyways. But Amazon is a fine way to go. You can search my name, Daniel Rustin, or you can search out profitable properties and the book should come up. I appreciate pre sales and I'll just say, you know, I'm an indie author, which means I don't have a traditional publisher. I do everything, I do the marketing, I hired a proofreader. But all of it is under one roof, so to say. So if you do buy this, first of all, I appreciate that very much. And reviews are as an Airbnb host, as a short term rental host, whether you're doing direct bookings on Google, we know how important they are. For an indie author, they might be even more important because I'm up against, you know, Goliaths with a lot of budget. So I do appreciate reviews. You don't even have to write anything though. Amazon appreciates that. You can just give me a star review that does help more than you know. Awesome, awesome.

Thank you so much. Was there anything we missed or anything else you want to share before we bring it to a close?

Yeah, sure, I have. I'm releasing a course in conjunction with this book and I'd like to offer your audience a 50% discount.

Oh, that's amazing. So I'm sure we're going to get a lot of people jump on that. How do they find out more, more about that as a, as a author.

So if you buy the book, the information will be there and when the book is released, it'll be live. It's not yet live, depending on if people are watching this right now or not. But we'll add, or, you know, I think we'll add a think maybe in the description and someone can find it, find it there. But otherwise, you know, you could just go to my website and it's called Optimized Business Course.

Thank you. Thank you, Danny. So we'll add that to the show notes for sure. And obviously if you're watching this on the live, that will be coming soon. If you are listening to this on the podcast and it's imminently about to go live as we're doing this in sync with the book release, which is going to be cool. So Danny, thank you so much for spending your time with us today. Really appreciate the tips you've shared and also to find out more about the book. I'm excited to find out more about it and yeah, just thank you for sharing all information. That's bye for now from us.