What is the future of AirBnb with Eric Moeller

Doing. Since the start of all of this, we've been talking about so many different things, from marketing to finance to productivity to pivoting. We've pretty much gone through every type of situation that the business owners, hosts around the world need to be looking at. And whether you can take bookings now or whether you're looking to be getting bookings for the back end of 2020, then this episode is going to be really interesting because we're going to be talking a lot of different topics, but we're going to be focusing a little bit on Airbnb. We're going to be potentially looking at the future of Airbnb and other things. As always, what I would love for you to do as you are coming into this on the live video. So obviously we're recording this live for the podcast. If you have any questions, please do leave them in the comments. We won't be able to answer them during the recording, but today's guest and I will be more than happy to jump on in if you've got any during this live recording. But as you're coming in, let us know where you are in the world. Leave a link to your website, to your Facebook page, give yourself a little bit of a promo. But also as well, let's do a little bit of a mood check in. How is everybody feeling? One being absolutely rubbish, five being epic. Let us know where you are, let us know how your week has been and most importantly, let us know what you are drinking on Friday night. Drink. So I've got the estrella. I did have a peyronie earlier but that gone and as you can see from my post earlier, I've got a little bit of the orange chocolate left. So let us know what you're drinking, let us know what you are snacking on this this evening and we're going to get started. So today's guest, we have got Eric, part of the str profit academy 1/2 and you're gonna meet the other half over the course of the next couple of episodes. But I wanted to do this episode today because I've got to know these guys pretty well. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been sort of chatting about how we can work together more over the course of the next weeks and months and years. And I'm super excited to be able to showcase everybody to what these guys are doing. But tonight what we're going to do is we're going to delve into a little bit about Airbnb as well as other topics that we're going to go and chat to. But Eric, just before we begin, buddy, can you just give everybody a little bit of a welcome, a little bit of an introduction, tell everybody a little bit more about yourself and how you got into this crazy world of hospitality.

Yeah, Mark. Hey, listen, man, I appreciate you having me on the podcast. I love what you're doing and that's what this industry needs more of, man. It's just a positive voice around, around this industry and connecting, you know, some incredible people to your following. So keep, keep doing what you're doing, man. I love, I love the podcast. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, there's a lot that we can go into, but yeah, I've been in the short term rental world for full time now, over five years, and prior to that I was a real estate developer. We can get into all of that, what that looks like. But yeah, I'm originally from Jersey, live here in San Diego, and we have two companies. We run the Short Term Rental Profit Academy, which is a large educational and training company for professional short term rental companies. And then we also have our property business here in San Diego, which we're getting ready to start expanding due to Covid. So, yeah, man, there's so many different rabbit holes we can get into. I'm looking forward to this. Yeah.

And it's really interesting and to hear you say you're ready to expand during COVID which where so many people are looking to do the opposite. So I'm looking forward to digging into that. Okay, so you've obviously, as you said, you're from the real estate and property world and you've done it for a long time now. Like you say, you've, from what I gather from interviews and whatnot, you've been doing it since your late teens, which is awesome. But it's a question I love to ask all of the guests when they come on to the podcast and come on to the interview is what would be that one piece of advice? So just before you got started, what was that one piece of advice looking back on now that you wish you had received before you started up doing hospitality rental business and sort of real estate?

Yeah, that's a great question, man. You know, this is something that I've been saying to myself, and I kind of preach this to a lot of our students as well, is, you know, we got to be patient, but we have to take action. You know, like when I first got into real estate, when I first got into short term rentals, marketing, education, all of that, every business venture I got into starting at early ages. I wanted to make money now. I wanted to be the biggest, baddest company in the world. All of this right now. And if it wasn't happening right now, that I was, you know, I was falling behind, you know, air quotes, falling behind the ball here. So, you know, like understanding that everything that we do, this podcast, the real estate business, the short term rental business, we have to be ready, we have to be willing to get into it for the long haul, but we also have to take fast action because, you know, Covid is a perfect example of what we're going through. It just opens up so many opportunities and, you know, we have to make a decision. Are we going to look at this as a way of like slowing us down and preventing us from growing, or do we take action now to try to figure out where the opportunities are and capitalize on those? So, yeah, I mean, I look at this all the time. It's like, man, we got to be patient with our business. We got to focus on our cash within our businesses, but then we have to take fast action now within our company. So, yeah, yeah, I think, you know, especially for brand new startup entrepreneurs, they look at it and they don't really look at the long haul. They look at trying to make money now and selling in a couple of years. And it's. I think this is a perfect example that we have to, we have to have our eye on the goal line.

Yeah, 100%. And like you say, you've gone from building up your property portfolio, from doing all of the different aspects of when you've got a property portfolio, to the point now where people are coming into your world and you are showing them how to do this. You know, you've got people part of your training program, which is super exciting to see. And you know, from, from your experience, where would you. So to people that are coming into your training program, where would you say that the majority of them are from? Are they US based? Are they sort of, Are they more over in Europe? Are they all over? Where do you find the majority of them are from right now? The guys that are coming through the program?

Yeah, it's funny, man. We, we did, from the data that we've collected over the years, we have students and people in our community from 92 different countries, which is pretty, you know, it's pretty incredible to even state that. I would say the majority of our students that are active in our communities and in our training are from North America. And then I would say 25, 30% are from Europe and additional countries.

That's cool to see.

Yeah.

With Boost Lee, I find that the majority of people that come through for my training, majority uk in Europe, we do have people that are Australia, you know, down that way, we do have quite a couple from America, but yes, mainly UK and Europe. So this is why this next question I wanted to ask is really interesting to me. So when everybody gets going through your training, what is the one most common mistake that you see them making when they first getting started with Airbnb or hospitality or rentals?

That's a great question. I mean, the first thing that comes to me is they get emotional behind what they're doing. Right. So they get emotional behind the properties that they take on. Again, we train people how to go out and leverage other people's properties and grow and scale. So we really only focus on people that want to grow multiple units. And if that's five units or 100 or 300 units, we have the training and the communities and the masterminds for that. But I'm always focused on big business, big scale, all of that. So that's what we teach. And what I find is a lot of people, again, they're not patient. They want to get to the point now and then the common mistake is taking on properties where they're over leveraged or they're emotional about it because it's a sexy property, they want to get in the property or they just want more units. So they're just, just kind of blindly going ahead without really understanding why they're taking on properties or why they're making decisions in their business. They're just taking action and that's great, but we have to take the right action, we have to know why we're taking those actions. So right now we're seeing the result of this is that a lot of people have signed leases with the master lease model or taking on property management units in their marketplace just to get units and start building their business, but haven't really focused on the infrastructure of their company and understand why they're taking those actions. So, yeah, you know, being impatient and then just taking on the wrong. The wrong units that will dry them up during a crisis like what we're going through.

So in the uk, the sort of model that I think we're sort of talking about is called rent to rent or you've got service accommodation or you do buy to rent and short stay accommodation. What are those sort of models called in the States? I've heard the term rental arbitrage used before, like what are the different sort of models that you've got over there in the States?

Yeah, there's three main models. Right. So you have the own, the owner model. So you buy the property and you run the management, you know the short term rental through the property. Two is you have the rental arbitrage or master lease. It's the same thing. It's essentially when you negotiate a lease on a property with the owner for guaranteed rent every single month on that property and then you re rent it back out to short term stays and then you make the difference between your cost and what you bring in through the short term stays and then the third is the property management co hosting model. That's where we're going out and we're partnering with homeowners or real estate investors that have vacant properties. They're responsible for the cost of the property and furnishing the property but then we as managers, co hosts are responsible for the whole short term rental and marketing process. So those are the three main models. Essentially what we teach and what we focused on, what I focused on the last four plus years is the rental arbitrage or the management model. Specifically management.

So interesting. Different countries around the world, exactly the same setup. It's just different names. You know I think it pretty much sums up the British and in American, you know, I've lived over in America just we're chatting before like for many years with the exact same thing but the different words are different meanings and Right. It's really interesting like me sort of coming a little bit more into your world and hearing yourself, you know, yourself and Jasper talking about these things and how you word them specifically like rent to rent or whatever. And again it's just me trying to learn like a new language even though it is exactly the same thing. So it's really interesting to hear that and yeah thanks for explaining because I say majority of the people tuning in will be more accustomed now to sort of the rent to rent where you rent off a landlord and you do it on short stay accommodation yourself or you bought it and you're renting out. So that's cool. But the next thing I want to pick up from what the current state of play in America is obviously a third of the world's on lockdown. COVID 19 is, you know, it's a pandemic, it's worldwide and it's affecting different countries in different ways. Obviously with America being so big, each state is like a country and everybody's got different rules and regulations. What's the current state of play right now in California, in Southern California, where you are our hosts and able to take bookings or is it just an extreme close off?

Yeah, it's interesting, I believe here in California. I mean, California is one of the most restricted states out of all 50 states. Right. It has the most laws and restrictions in place to begin with. So it's a difficult place to actually run a business. Now with COVID it's even more difficult. They're considering, in most parts of the state they're considering hospitality, a non essential business. So short term rentals and hotels are essentially closed. I'm looking out over Sail Bay here and on the other side of the Sail Bay is a beautiful, beautiful resort that for the first time in its history has shut down completely. Right. So it's like this is happening throughout the whole state. It's happening throughout the entire country where cities and states are actually mandatory that you have to shut down your short term rental business. Now we're noticing Airbnb in some areas are actually complying with this where they're restricting bookings in certain marketplaces so you can't actually use Airbnb to book and other platforms are doing the same. So yeah, there's a massive shutdown in certain areas. There's cities and towns around here that actually have their border shut down. So you can't enter in to the town unless you live there. So they're shutting down travel completely. And this is something that we talk about quite a bit. It's like all of us on a global basis, if we're in the short term rental world, we have to mentally and emotionally be in a position and make that switch that the new avatar for, at least for now is necessity, travelers, necessity. Guests, right? We have to move away from the leisure guests and start focusing on midterm guests. Right. To fill our units. And this is what we're watching a lot of people do, a lot of hosts now do to just keep their head above water and possibly even make some cash on their units. So yeah, long answer short, it's the state is putting some really strict lockdowns in place and that's happening throughout the whole country.

Are you noticing any of your delegates, any of your people in your training program are swapping from a short stay accommodation to maybe renting out their properties on a long term lease instead now? Or are they sort of doing what they can to get ready for when these lockdown restrictions lower and become a bit more light so they can then take shots? Day bookings?

Yeah, everybody. And this is what, what we're preaching is everybody is switching to midterm stays versus long term. So just to clarify that midterm stays, from what we're noticing, anywhere between 28 days and 90 days, that's what we're seeing. So 30 and to 90 is essentially the sweet spot, what we're finding for a lot of hosts nowadays. Of course, you know, I have, I was telling you before the podcast that I have over 50 calls that were scheduled with me today and tomorrow with hosts from all around the world. And I'm doing that to talk to them, to understand what are hosts doing to fill their units. Are they staying in business or they get rid of leases, get rid of properties? There's a big majority of hosts right now that are actually just getting out of the business. They're just shutting down their doors, they're not marketing, they are just completely stepping away and converting their short term rental properties to long term tenants, signing a year long lease, stuff like that. For everyone who's staying in the business right now, the only way that we're watching them actually drive revenue is through medium term stays. Yeah. So really focused on the next 90 days and I think after that we're gonna have a good understanding what we as a globe, which is kind of crazy to think about, is what we're gonna be dealing with.

So we had Price Labs on two episodes ago and Price Labs were talking about pricing post Corona. But what they did is they pulled up one of their reports that they recently did. I know Price Labs and Air D and D are pulling up loads of reports at the moment on the current state of play. And right now what they're noticing is the length of stay getting even bigger from say pre March 2020. And the length of booking, from the booking to the time they arrive is getting shorter and shorter. So it definitely correlates and goes on top of what you're noticing from speaking to delegates of yourself is that length of stay is getting longer. And so many people are now looking at that. I think one of the main reasons is if you look at the context around that stat, is that a lot of people right now the only people that can book are key workers. A lot of them will be hospital staff. And obviously hospital staff are not coming in for a week. They're coming in for a large majority of time here, that longer period, that 14 days to a month. So that definitely bounces on top of that, which is interesting. And obviously it also goes on to see what Airbnb are starting to do a lot more of now we're going to move on to talk about Airbnb. Now, obviously, you're big on Airbnb. You have a Facebook group called the Airbnb Profit Club. You've been really good, actually. The way you've documented the updates recently, you've been doing live videos alongside Brian Chesky's little updates and just sort of breaking it down and sort of giving live commentary through to it. I've loved seeing and watching them. Now, what is your opinion on how Airbnb have handled the whole COVID 19 crisis?

Oh, man, it's.

Yeah.

I mean, first of all, I love that company. I love Airbnb. And again, I'm obsessed with business. I'm obsessed with what it takes to turn an idea into a movement, into a service that impacts people. And what Airbnb has done from the absolute beginning has been inspiring to me since 2008. I've been following that company from the beginning. So I love the company. I love the vision of the company, their services, the culture that they created, all of that. And to watch them go from where they were at to where they're at now today, at the level of where they're at is just completely insane to watch a company grow that fast. So with that said, when I look at Airbnb, I try to put myself in the mindset of Brian Chesky, the CEO of that company. I'm a CEO of my company. I have four employees, right? It's like. And that's a big deal for me. I'm like, all right, this is awesome. This year we're going to do this revenue. Next year we're going to grow. And I'm making air quotes. Tough decisions within my company. I look at Airbnb and I'm trying to understand what is it like for Brian Chesky making these decisions. And for me, I'm just like, man, I think he's kind of shooting from the hip to try to find out what. What's going to work and what's not going to work. And I think he made some really bad decisions on the way that they. They handled the guest cancellations. I think they made some really bad decisions on the way that they communicated about the guest decisions. I think he's continuing to make bad decisions on talking strictly about the online experiences versus these other avenues that they truly have the ability to kind of disrupt the way that they disrupted short term rentals. And I also think that they made a major mistake with the $250 million host fund. So with that said, is I Think I don't know what decisions would be better than that as far as, like, how he can made a different decision. I'm just not a fan of what they've done so far. And I think it's hurt them. I think it's hurt the industry, and I think it's hurt the perception of Airbnb, the cult following that they've had throughout the last few years. I think they completely disrupted that. Even myself, I am looking at Airbnb now as, once we get out of this, as just another channel to market on versus a partner in this space. So, yeah, little disappointed in what they've done. And, you know, I think with the coming, coming weeks, coming months, we're going to see how they, how they pull themselves out of this.

Yeah. I mean, I think for a lot of people who are watching this or whether you're listening back on the audio, you got to understand that in America, people are a lot more favored to Airbnb than maybe what a lot of people are in the UK and Europe and especially Australia. And, you know, I see this a lot in Facebook groups. You know, there's Facebook groups set up just for Airbnb, just like, you know, with the Airbnb profit club. There's, there's, there's loads of other Facebook groups specifically around Airbnb. It's got Airbnb in the title because there are a lot of people that rely on. Relied. 90% of their. Of their bookings coming in came from those, those channels. And, you know, if you're a host of whatever property that you have and you've got 90% of your total bookings for the full of 2020 has come from Airbnb. And what we're talking middle of March, doesn't matter what cancellation policy you've got. Airbnb sent a message without communicating to any host first, that they're just gonna give every single guest a chance to cancel their booking free of charge, you know, and literally overnight, people have lost thousands upon thousands of dollars, and there's nothing you can do about it. Even with the backpedaling of the PR and trying to, trying to give super hosts and hosts a bit of a grant. The way they definitely. I agree the way they went about it, and I think they realize this. Brian Chesky has never done live videos or as many live videos as he has done in the past month and for the past 10 years of being in business. And, you know, and I think he's doing that to try and get the host back on site. But, you're right. And this is the thing that I've noticed in the Facebook groups that I'm a part of. And I can see this, I can see the communication moving away from just Airbnb to how can we now get this multi channel. How can we now. What's this thing called the channel manager? What's this thing called a pms? What's this thing called a website? You know, everybody now go down, go down this route and it's super interesting to me. And you know, and, and you know, there's so many different conversations to have about Airbnb. And again, I think that, you know, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. And I think, you know, in a year's time, they will look back on this, whatever state that they are in, and they will regret it. But. And obviously you've seen them doing a lot of things in the news, have been getting massive investments in the news pretty much daily. There was an article on Wired which was, what is the future of Airbnb? And yeah, it's really interesting. How do you potentially see now, this is going to be the year with the big ipo. This is going to be the year where it was all going to go rosy for Airbnb. Where do you personally think that they will be come the end of this year, December 31, 2020? What. What would be your prediction of where Airbnb are at?

Yeah, man, that's such a powerful question. I don't think anybody really truly understands how they're gonna end up because they're making some really massive decisions. They brought on a billion dollars in the last 30 days. They brought on a billion dollars, but they brought, that's with that was in debt. So they're paying 10% on that billion dollars. Plus they're bringing on another billion dollars. And their valuation, internal valuation, dropped over 50% of the company. They haven't started massive layoffs, but I think that's going to happen. They have a ton of cash. The one thing that Airbnb did really well is figured out how to manage their cash and they just stockpiled cash away, equity lines, all of that. I think the company, Airbnb is going to be completely fine. I don't think they're going out of business. People are talking about this, that Airbnb is going to shut down, all this other stuff. I don't think they're going to be affected that bad. I think they have a ton of cash, they'll be fine. I think what's going to happen is and this is just my gut talking, but I think the culture of Airbnb is going to disappear, especially in this country. Airbnb created so many different entrepreneurs literally overnight with their platform of, you know, hosts. Everyone from the individual host all the way up to these massive companies, I think the cult like following is going to disappear. Right? And that's huge, that's huge to say that's kind of like, I don't know, Apple phone users moving to Android. Right. You know what I'm saying? It's like the cult like following that Apple has just imagine one day that's gone, right? And that's a big shock to that company. So I see that happening. I see the company being completely fine as far as not going out of business, but I also see them having to make some massive, massive changes to overtake certain avenues that they can disrupt right now. And that's long term, medium and long term rentals on their sites. I see them being able to completely disrupt the Realtor situation here. So, you know, real estate agents here in the States, I think they could completely disrupt that. And I think they're gonna have to go into different, different channels, different, different revenue models. So I think they're gonna be fine. I don't know what it's gonna look like, but I think they're going to also have to release something that is going to build back the host trust, especially in this country.

Yeah, I totally agree. I think you're 100% right. It's not like it's going to disappear. It's not like Expedia or Airbnb or booking Holiday Group. They're just going to disappear because of the amount of cash and everything that they've got there. They will take a hit massively. But who isn't that sort of level of company who isn't taking a massive hit right now? Unless you're Amazon. But you know, it's, it's, it's, it's definitely your hundred percent spot on, is that it's not so much the money that they're gonna get hit, it's gonna be their following, it's gonna be their members. It's gonna be the perception they're just gonna be treated like another channel. They're gonna be treated like booking.com, they're gonna get treated like Expedia. Now booking.com and Expedia have tried so hard these last three or four years to get their people that are listed on their platform to be look at them the same way that Airbnb get looked at by their host. They try. They're trying so hard to do that now. All the good work that Airbnb have done over the course of the past sort of say 10 years or however long they've been going for, that has just gone. And you're gonna find that more people will now start to get their own website. They will start to get a channel manager, will start to get a pms. They'll just be one of the channels that they list on. And again, I think for the book, direct movement, which is what talk about massively. And there's so many people else who talk about it, I think that is just, again, it's another little edge and a kick and a sort of a push towards host to keep talking about it because again, so many people have just built their house on somebody else's land and literally overnight, they have lost so much revenue. Businesses are going out because of that. And the one thing that we always talk about, the one thing that we always talk about on this channel, the one thing that we always mention to everybody is, listen, get the guests to book via you. You get so much power. You get to book them on your terms. They are on your cancellation policy. You know, they are your guest. And I think that is what's going to continue to expand and grow. And, you know, I think Airbnb are just hoping for all of this to just sort of blow over and people will come back to them. And yeah, people will come back. People will still be there, but they'll be looked upon definitely differently. And they will get new people starting up hosting companies, they will get more new people. But I still think that the general communication between the groups has changed. So that will be really interesting. Now, one thing that I found interesting and I heard you talk about on an interview that you were on saying that you are looking to potentially acquire a hotel. What's the thinking around here? Is this something that you've done before in the past, or is this something you're just looking at doing now?

Yeah, no, I've never owned a hotel. You know, my previous, I got into real estate when I was 17 years old and bought my first house at 19, turned that into a development company and all that stuff, had apartment buildings, sold all of that stuff. When I figured out the whole short term rental model, traveled the country for six months, you know, came to San Diego and built, built the short term rental business here. And I was only focused on, over the last few years, I've only been focused on leveraging other people's properties, right so in real estate it's, there's something called opm, other people's money. You leverage other people's money to buy real estate. I started focusing on opp, other people's property. Right. So leasing people's property or managing people's property and really at the end of the day just focused on cash flow. Right. Covid comes and this has always been in the back of my mind is I always want to get back into buying real estate. I've always wanted to get back into developing and designing real estate. It's just a passion of mine and I put that off to the end. Covid came and wiped us out immediately. When I say us, I mean the host community in general. The biggest companies in our space that did the OPP model, other people's properties model of raising hundreds of millions of dollars and doing this on a global basis within 30 to 45 days have nearly shut their doors. Right. And that's completely insane to me. And it made me realize I was like, I have to get back into the property owning business. We have to control the assets to really be able to build true wealth. And that's really what I'm focused on. I love this industry, but I also love the real estate industry of owning real estate. So I want to combine the two and really focus on purchasing and developing a portfolio of boutique hotels. So I love the model of buying small hotels, designing them to attract the modern traveler that is used to staying at a short term rental. Right. But have it in a property where we can control the asset and we're legally allowed to run this business.

That's cool.

So many places.

Yeah. Just be able to put all of the skills that you learn exactly this into, into that. That's awesome.

Exactly. And it's like, how do we. Because that's where the modern traveler is going is they want a cool place. They want to feel like it's, it's unique. They want to be tied into local culture, but they also want to have a, have their own privacy within, within the unit. So how do we combine modern age short term rentals with boutique hotels? Where throughout the US there's so many boutique hotels that you don't need this type of upgrade, if you will. So yeah, it's a passion of mine. That's a focus. And now it's amped up even more now than ever.

Nice. Well, I look forward to seeing the updates on the Instagram and how you document that. I'll be super cool. Alright buddy. Really appreciate that insight to Airbnb and All the things that are going on over in America. And as we always do on these Boostly podcast questions, interviews, we finish with Quick Fire questions. So this is where we ask five to six questions. Get a little bit more of an insight into Eric and his way, his mind thinks. Are you ready, buddy?

Let's do it.

So today, Quick Fire question, Zoom background is going to be when it loads up, Marvel. There we go. I've got tons of these bad boys lined up in the background, but today is going to be Marvel. One of my true loves right there. So first question on Quickfire Questions. And again, if you're watching this live or on the replay in the comments, please do leave your answers to these questions. I do go through every single one of them and I do love seeing everybody's different answers. So first one in lockdown. If you could be isolated with a famous figure, celebrity, dead or alive, you could pick one person. Who would that be?

Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan. That's who mine is. That is who mine is. Good, good, good, good, good answer. I like that. Good one. Okay, so if there is one movie or one series that you've had on your to watch list for some time now but just never got around to it, what would that be? What's been on that to watch list that you can share with everybody?

Oh, man, I don't even know. I. We've watched so much, so much Netflix over the last few weeks. It's kind of crazy. I think I've been through everything I've wanted to watch. I don't know, maybe I'll toss that question at you because I don't. I don't have anything in the queue.

That I haven't seen has been. What have you been watching then since the last few weeks? You've gone through the fullest. What's that one Netflix that has stood out to you and you've. Yeah, I love that one. Which could you recommend to people to go and check out?

And the only reason I'm mentioning this, and unfortunately I'm one of those guys that have to bring this up, is Tiger Kings. That is. I hated that show. I was so against it when my girlfriend was forcing me to watch it. And then towards the end, I was completely obsessed. So I'm sure everyone's seen that by now, 100%.

And that is right here. That's the next. I've got that. And I've got. I got. I got Carol Baskin.

That's hilarious.

It was this night, Friday night, two weeks ago, when somebody three Weeks ago when somebody told me about it and I said, yeah, I'll get the podcast out the way, I'll go and check one out. And then before I knew it, it was like 2 o' clock on Saturday morning. And I'm just going through the whole of it. I'm just hooked. I just went boom. One after the, one after the.

And also I just finished this last night is called Waco. It's about Waco, Texas back in 1993. And you know, that was a big deal here in the States. And I never really truly understood the real story. But for people that are into history, into real life stories, that thing is, it's as crazy as the Tiger King story.

I think I've heard of this and I heard about it after I watched Making a Murderer. And again, I think I know what you're talking about here. Is it around like a group of kids or something like that?

Yeah. So long story short, it's back in 93, there was a religious group in Texas that just ran into some legal issues with the FBI here and the FBI and this, and this, this group for had a 51 day standoff. And long story short, it came to a horrible, horrible ending where the building burnt down, killed over 23 people in this religious group. And no one truly knows the real story if it was the, you know, the government's fault or the religious fault. The story here in the States is that it was always the religious groups causing behind this whole thing. But this really gets into the weeds of the story of it and yeah, yeah, opens up your eyes. Wako, Waco.

That's gonna be my, that's gonna be my one. I'm gonna get it on the iPad later.

Check that out.

All right. What has been the one thing that you've missed the most since being on lockdown?

I think, you know, the last four years I spent my time really focused on social groups, masterminds, business groups. You know, it's just, yeah, I'm missing that. I'm missing the gym like crazy. Like we're getting some good workouts here at home. But I'm a martial artist and you know, I love martial arts, I love boxing, jiu jitsu, yoga. I miss that stuff. I miss that. I miss my groups, I miss my master in person masterminds. Virtual is awesome. But yeah, I need some human connection.

I know. You mean it's amazing how many people have sort of pivoted and taken everything online. But, but yeah, I think what we're now, what, six weeks in, it feels like, longer. And it's hard to know when that may be a normality again, when you can go to, like, events and all these sort of things and sort of do group sessions like that. But hopefully it's sooner rather than longer. All right, next question. What has been your favorite purchase over the past six to 12 months? Under $100.

Under $100? Oh, that's a good question. Gonna look around. Ah, got it. For the ones who are watching. Can you see that?

What is that?

It's a. It's a back massager that works in every single part of your body. It's called A. I mean, I don't even know how to pronounce it. N, A, Y, O, Y, A. But Yeah, it was $80.

That looks intriguing.

Yeah, it's $80. But, you know, for everyone who's sitting in front of a computer all day, your neck starts killing, your back starts killing you, this thing digs in. I. Yeah, I use it about four hours a day.

That is a good recommendation. I like that. I like that. And it was on hand as well, which, which makes even better to be able to explain. Okay, so obviously, Joe Rogan fan, we've established that. But do you have any other podcasts that are on your. On your to listen to list or any YouTube channels that you could recommend to people?

Yeah, I mean, I'm obsessed with Joe Rogan, have been for many years. But I'm very simple when it comes to. I have certain channels that I just stick to and just absorb that information. But of course, Joe Rogan's top one Tony Robbins podcast is incredible. Highly recommend that to a lot of people. The Jocko podcast. This is Navy SEAL Jocko Willock. His podcast is incredible for mindset discipline. There's a podcast that I've been getting really into lately. I'm really focused on the question at this point in my life, the question of what is it to be a man? What is that? Who do I need to be the definition of a man? Right. And to me, there's not a lot of places I can go to to truly understand that. And I'm not surrounded by elders, you know, to really kind of direct me at this stage of my life. So there's a podcast for the men out there called Order of Men that I'm truly, truly into. Another combat Marine who just brings on high level performing men and women to talk about what is it to be a man in today's world? And then a couple other ones. I'll fire it at you, London. Real love it. The MMA podcast Junkie. Love it. Team never quit. Love it. And then hardcore history is my other.

Yeah, hardcore history. I'm a big history guy. I like that one. Thank you for that. There's tons of recommendations and. All right, we're going to finish off these quick fire questions with one final one. If somebody came to you go, Eric, listen, I really want to increase my diary bookings. What would be about one piece of advice that you would, you would give to them?

Go talk to Mark.

I like that. That's a perfect way to end. I love that, buddy. So come on, come and talk to Mark. Come and talk to Bruce Lee. Brilliant. I truly appreciate everything that you do, truly appreciate coming on tonight and sharing, sharing these stories. Now, if anybody wants to go and check you out online, where's first place that they should go to?

Yeah, the easiest spot is, you know, we have our free Facebook group, the Airbnb profit club. It's not just for Airbnb, that's for anyone in the hosting industry. So that's a free resource. And then you can always find us over@strprofitacademy.com Amazing, amazing.

And yeah, we will definitely talking more about all of that. We'll have everything in the show notes, all of the links, even all of the little recommendations there, the quick fire questions, including that back massager. We'll find it on Amazon and we'll, we'll get those links in. In on the notes. You go to booster.co.uk podcast, just look for Eric's face and go to season eight. Most importantly, click on there, you'll be able to get everything and you'll be able to also subscribe on the itunes and check it out on Spotify. Everything is in there. Eric, buddy, before we say goodbye, has he got any final thoughts, any final thing that you'd like to say to the people that are tuning in?

Yeah, man. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. This is awesome. A lot of fun. Yeah. And for everyone who's listening, you know, I keep preaching this over and over. Just stay safe, stay positive. This industry is going to come back stronger than ever. Just got to be patient.

I love that. Be patient. We will get through this. This is the overriding message from the last six weeks of doing these daily live videos. We will get through this. The hospitality industry, wherever you are in the world, it will bounce back. Because all you've got to do right now is you got to transport your mind into the mind of your guests. Right now, the guests that have been on lockdown. A third of the world are on lockdown, sat at their homes. And the one thing that people want at times like this is something to look forward to. And that will be a vacation, that will be a holiday, that will be a trip somewhere. So all you have to do, you have to stay visible. Don't go dark in these times. Don't just go quiet on your social media. Be posting. Be posting daily. Get the emails going, start talking about it. Because there was a recent study done and 70% of over 15,000 travelers said that they want to hear from you. So don't go quiet, don't go dark, keep visible. And you will bounce back from this first when this is all over. And that is my guarantee to you. So keep tuning in. Keep tuning into these daily live videos. Make sure that you subscribe, make sure you hit the like button, make sure you comment, but most importantly, make sure you share this video. If you go right here on your live video, there should be a little share button. Tap on that share button. Go and share into a Facebook group. Go and share it on your Facebook wall. Go and share it in your Facebook business page and tell more people about what we're doing. Tonight's topic is all about Airbnb. So it's a really, really current event, one that so many people need to hear about. But please go and share it. Please do me that one big thing. We'll be back on the next episode where we're going to be talking more about direct bookings, about being proactive. But in the meantime, thank you so much for tuning in, and we'll see you on the other side.