Your Guide To Furnishing A Short Term Rental For Maximum Exposure

Welcome to the Boostly podcast. If you're joining on either the podcast or we've gone live on Facebook as well, which is cool. This is a podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings, but most importantly, the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. Today we're shining the spotlight on another awesome service that you need to know about as a host. And I'm not going to go too long on the intro because I've got two people here who I'm really excited to introduce. Welcome along Jeff Illulian and Jen Sexton and they're both from Host gpo. This is an awesome, awesome service that can help you furnish your short term rental. And that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about how do you as a host furnish your short term rental for success. So let's dive in. So welcome along to yourself, Jeff. And to yourself, Jen.

Hello.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you, thank you for being here. So let's start off before diving into the service, if you wouldn't mind giving yourself a little introduction, your role within the company and anything else you'd like to share. And if we start with, if we start with yourself, Jeff, and then move on to Jen, is okay?

Sure, yeah. My name is Jeff Lillian. I'm the CEO and co founder of Host gpo. So we're a buying group for vacation rental companies. We get discounts on furniture, linens, mattresses, amenities and help you set up and furnish and restock your listings. I've been in the vacation rental industry about nine years and I've set up over 250 vacation rental homes.

Amazing. Thank you. And Jen, for yourself.

Yes. Hello, I'm Jen Sexton. I co manage the design program here at HostGpo. I am also a host myself and I am incredibly passionate about design and creating overall experiences for our guests.

Amazing. We couldn't have two better people to talk about how we can furnish a whole lift home for success or a short term rental for success. So let's just start off by talking a little bit more about Host gpo. Is this important for people to really understand the service? First of all, where does it cover and what problem does it solve? And if we go to you first, Jen?

Yeah. So basically like Jeff said, we're a group purchasing organization for the vacation rental industry. So what we've done is we've kind of taken this collective buying power and we have targeted our very favorite vendors to set up our members for success. So you know, like furniture, mattresses, linens, we've kind of taken all of that guessing work out of it and we've given you basically the vendors that we know and we love and we trust.

That's cool. And anything to add, Jeff, or is Jen nailed it?

Jen nailed it. But I'll only add that we're in the US and Canada right now and that yeah, that's, that's pretty much it. Our discounts tend to range from 30ish to 70ish percent off. So they're really substantial. They're the industry's best discounts and we partner with, not just with name brands. So you know, your West Elms, Creighton Barrels articles, Brooklinens, Public Goods, Rugs usa. Right. Those kind of more household names but also with brands that would otherwise be only available to hospitality. So something like a standard textile linen where it's, you know, the, the number one hospitality linen company that sells to giant hotels. We make those also available to, to our members, things like Ace Hardware, which is a discount both online and in store. So it's really the things that you need both to get set up, but also on an ongoing basis from the brands that make the most sense for each of those categories.

That's cool. That's cool. And the nice thing is here is that although you're just covering the US and Canada, I mean all of our listeners are based all over the world and there's hosts. The problems that host GPO is solving is what hosts just run into all of the time. Me as a host, I've certainly run into some problems when it comes down to what to furnish, how to furnish, what things I should be considering. So let's dive into, into that. First of all, I'd love to ask why should a host be even thinking about their interiors? I mean, I guess there might be hosts out there who have got long term rentals who are thinking, you know what, I might be able to do this as short term rental. What should I be considering? Why should they even consider interiors in general? And if we stick with you, Jeff, on that.

Yeah, absolutely. So the way I always say is the first and foremost vacation rental hosts are our photographers. Right. And you're listing the picture that's on, you know, any listing platform or on your direct booking website. Right. That is what people are going to look at when they decide whether to click your listing or somebody else's. So you really need to make sure that right out of the gate you have something eye catching, something that is going to drive traffic to your listings. And that's going to make you stand out against your competitors. You know, I recently saw a statistic that said that only 5% of vacation rentals, I believe it was in the U.S. but only 5% of vacation rentals are actually optimized, meaning that they have everything set up, you know, including pricing, using the right PMS software, having automated messaging, but also being design focused and design forward and being like set up for, for that kind of success. So, so really optimizing your listing, making sure you're driving traffic there. And the second component of it is you want to make sure that the designs that you're choosing and the furniture that you're choosing, the linens that you're choosing, are actually the right types are going to last, that you're not going to have to replace and that are actually manufactured and graded. For this kind of vacation rental, use the pullout couch that you have in your house for when your buddies come over or, you know, you have some relative in town. That thing gets open once or twice a year. But really focusing on design means, you know, focusing both on how it looks, but also on getting the right kinds of products that can withstand the opening and closing of a three to four turnarounds week, depending on how you're running your vacation rental. You know, that type of actual wear and use. That's.

That's cool. That's cool. And Jen, I'd love to come to you with, you know, the same sort of question, why interiors? But I'd also like to put a spin on it. Is that do you think interior design is becoming, you know, expected, becoming the norm within the industry?

I definitely think that you need to elevate your property. I mean, what is really going to make your property stand out? Why is somebody going to choose your listing over another listing? So, yeah, I definitely think that you need to have really good interior design. It doesn't need to be complicated, though. I mean, it can still be very simple. It can be timeless, it can be clean. But it also needs to be inspiring and inviting to your guests.

That's cool. And one thing I'd love to ask Jen, for yourself is I'm one of these hosts who I can kind of see what works when I see it, but I don't know. It's not my passion. Why do you like interior design from a personal level?

Yeah, so I love it because it inspires me. Like, I love the feeling when I walk into a home and I'm just like, you know what? This is Calming. This is inspiring. Like, I want to be here, I want to stay here. I don't want to go outside. I want to be surrounded by the beautiful, beautiful things that are in this home. So for me, it's all about just that inspiration in general and just getting that overall feel.

That's cool. And Jeff, slightly different for yourself is. I know we talked about it. We've had you on the Boostly podcast previously, which was amazing. But just for the people who are listening to this fresh, why does host GPO focus on interiors? How did you come about solving this problem? Or when did you discover this was a problem that needed solving in the industry?

Yeah, absolutely. I really started host GPO in part because my vacation rental company and a lot of the other folks I was talking to or having the same problems, trying to figure out when you look through an Amazon or you're trying to go to a retail store, you know, if these sheets are going to work and how long they're going to last for, and are. Are these even the right ones? Or, you know, am I going to be able to buy this again in the future?

Or.

For me, it was setting up. I set up 16 units at a time once, and I ended up going to Ikea and checking out with 48 shopping carts. And I had my whole team with me, and, you know, we ended up going. You know, it was. It was probably one of the worst days of my life. And we ended up going to the house and getting there at night and realizing we had to build the furniture and, you know, set up these units and they looked terrible and they didn't perform well. And while I very much, you know, feel calm when I walk into a listing, like Jen says, and feel affected in that way, I was very focused on the bottom line. And that, for me, was the driver. I realized that the units that I was setting up with kind of inexpensive furniture that I was replacing, that didn't have that wow factor, that didn't look great. Those were the ones that were underperforming. And when I started getting into luxury units or even just setting up basic units nicer, those units were really outperforming everything else. And the roi, the money I was making back was immediate on the increase in spend on getting something slightly better than kind of the most basic thing. So I've done a lot of the mistakes. I've done, you know, the Facebook marketplace, which isn't scalable because you have to go out and try to find stuff all the time. I've done the Wayfair Roulette. I've done the IKEA, you know, 48 hour builds with little Allen Wrench. I mean I've done all of these things and I think that really resonates with a lot of people who have also gone through these experiences. And when you realize that you can get really quality furniture at, you know, discounted pricing through GPO and get it installed and really make a room that looks for those of you that are watching, you know, that looks like the room that Jen and I are in. Right. These are kind of both examples of what a more quality put together room could look like that just really changes the bottom line. And so, you know, I had a lot of those experiences which really led me to, to wanting to increase ROI and knowing how to do that through design.

And for the people who are listening to the podcast, what Jeff is referring to in the background there's some awesome pictures. They do look like something out of a magazine, which is amazing. Are they short term rentals? These are they or these are.

These are just examples from, I believe mine is from, from West Elm who we partner with and I think Jen's is mostly from Pottery Barn, but they're just room examples of, of, you know, well put together room that utilize the furniture that these vendors provide. Quick break from the podcast to let.

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They do make such a difference. And like you say, good photography as well as another thing, what I loved about your answer there was the Wayfair roulette. I've not heard that term before, Wayfair roulette, but that is very much like is it going to be good, is it going to be bad? You know, like I've used Wayfair a number of times as a host both and in my own personal home. And it just differs the kind of thing that you can get. One thing I got was I got dining room table and it felt like it was made of air. Literally it looked like wood, but it was just made of nothing. Pretty Much. And we had to get rid of it pretty quickly.

Yeah, I got some nightstands that turned out to be the size of a dollhouse. But you know, they're photographed. They're like photographed on a white background. So I wasn't reading that. They were only like 6 inches or 8 inches tall. I couldn't believe the price. But then I could afterwards. Yeah, it made much more sense.

I've done that so many times. And when we. This is the great thing about this episode is that both from host point of view, that as hosts who own the individual property or is investing in short term rental, then they can get value out of this. But also as a property manager, one of the things that I find is when I'm talking to hosts who are setting up their homes for our company to then manage, we actually find that they make these same mistakes again and they end up overspending on budget. And Amazon's a great example of things look bigger in the pictures. So they go, oh, I've got these wonderful plants, they're beautiful. You know, I've got these wonderful shelves. And when they turn up, they're just not exactly what, what you'd expect. And you've got this great big wall with this tiny little ornament or this tiny little bit of decor. It doesn't look how they intended, I'm sure.

But yeah, I mean, look, I think, you know, I've never put it this way before, but I think, you know, just because somebody is a, you know, really good at their job, right. If somebody's a great, I don't know, dentist or a great student, right. And their reviews are, you know, all A's or five stars on their business, right. That doesn't mean that that person is also a good guest.

Right?

So in the same way like just because something on an Amazon, a piece of furniture is five stars or four and a half stars, right, that's being rated by people that are using it for something very different than what you're using. And so it's hard to know from a picture from rating something that's not actually made for the use that you're using it for.100%.

You mentioned that it's based on the bottom line was, was one of the reasons you looked to start host gpo. So that brings us nicely onto the next question, which is how should a host decide on their budget for furnishings? How should they decide on the quality of furniture? What sort of things should they be considering? And I'd love to throw this over to Jen. First of All.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that first and foremost you need to look at your overall picture and think about your guests and think about the durability of your furniture. So like we were talking about, you know, ordering from Amazon, ordering from wherever, those kind of places, you really don't know what you're getting. And even though that those items have these amazing reviews, it's not to say that they're going to hold up with all of the wear and tear and the high traffic that's in a short term rental. So I think you need to think about that first. Also you need to think about your target audience. So is this a home that's super kid friendly? Is it a home that you probably only going to have, you know, maybe traveling nurses traveling to it? So that's going to kind of decipher what items you actually put into your home as well. And then as far as budget goes, again, it really just depends on the size of your home. It depends on the location of your home, what type of experience that you're giving to your guests. But as far as the budget goes, I mean again, very loaded question. But you know, for, I'd say for like a two bedroom home, you're looking at anywhere overall between 25 and 35,000.

That's cool. And did you have anything to add to that, Jeff?

Yeah, I'll say. You know, that's definitely kind of the, the ideal. Like if you're trying to set up a luxury home that really is like the best thing, that's the range that you want to be in. Now look, that's, that's not the perfect fit for a lot of folks. Right. If you're in a small market or you, you're setting up a three bedroom home that's, you know, really setting to do something more like, I don't know, maybe Your market is 80, $90 a night. Right. That seems like an unattainable amount. So for those of you that have to spend less or for whatever reason are looking to try to do something more in like the 5 to $10,000 range. Right. There are still certain things that I would definitely recommend focusing on. And the two right out of the gate are make sure that your key furniture pieces, so the heavy use items, which to me are your couch, your dining table, your dining chairs and your bed frame, those should be contract grade furniture. So I think that's super important. And contract grade for those of you that don't know, is a grade of furniture. If you're on, for example, the West Elm website You can see underneath each item, it'll say contract grade or not. And that means that it's gone through the types of testing like shake tests and material tests and I don't know, they blade it on fire and throw it out of a window or, I don't know, whatever your guests do to it, you know, nail it to the ceiling. I've seen some crazy stuff. So they do all of that and they make sure that it can hold up. So. So contract grade furniture on your heavy use items, Sure, I get it. Maybe your credenza in the entryway or your corner piece isn't going to get used as much or that's not as important. But, but making sure that contract grade furniture in your main items is probably one, I would say, a good use of budget. And the second one is I always encourage people to think about when you walk into your space, which room, which shot, which angle is most likely going to be your hero shot or that main photo that's going to be your first photo on the listing. So for your direct booking, maybe the one that's on your website, corner to corner for your Airbnb listing, maybe it's the one big picture on the, on the left before the four pictures, right? So that hero shot, how can you spend a little bit more there to either get a bigger piece of art that's going to pop or something larger for the wall, or, you know, curate or get something a little bit nicer so that you're at least drawing people to click and then read about how great your reviews are and where you are, et cetera, et cetera. So focusing money on that hero shot and then making sure you're spending on those contract grade items are two great ways to like, if you're on a budget, at least get out of the gate doing the right thing.

That makes sense. That makes absolutely sense. You gave me some really good mental images of literally people like sellotape and duct tape and my beds to the ceiling and stuff like that there. And you know, on the serious note, you make a really good point. I mean, again, every time we're having one of these questions, I'm going, oh my God, I've made that mistake. And as a host, there must be so many people do that. I've had beds and these were like, these were not contract grade beds, but the number of those beds which have either had, you know, sort of either replacements or repairs is just huge. And when you look at the time that it's actually taken, I should have just spent more in the first place on those good quality beds. And now we do obviously for the new places, but we're learning those lessons as we go. And I guess that's the great thing about host GPO is that you don't have to have that cost all the time. You can, you know, it is solved for you. You know, there's recommendations on what you should be going for, which is cool.

Yeah. And like the, the, the, the real numbers of that just to not just jump in really quickly like the actual numbers, right. Your, your kind of basic bed that you're going to buy at least you know, here in the States, right. You're looking at, if you try to order some really, really basic thing off of Amazon, you're looking at like 2, 300 bucks, right? That's how much it's going to cost plus your time that you're going to take to put it together. Now through host gpo, you know, we have a core collection of items with West Elm that's like the best discount, you know, ever, you know, where, you know, you can look at something like a West Elm bed at like 40% off. That really brings the cost down to like 6, 700 bucks. So we say, you know, buy nice, not twice. And the idea there is that if you, even if you had to buy two beds that were 250 or 300 bucks, right, you're going to buy them within a, you know, maybe 10 to 18 month period or, you know, if they even last you that long. And then when that happens, you got to go there again, you're building it twice. Maybe you have to refund the guest who the bed broke on and then hopefully didn't hurt themselves when it fell. Then you got to block off the calendar, you know, possibly to get it in there. Then you got to, you know, what if there's another guest coming? You can't get it there fast enough, Right. So all of these are kind of hidden costs that go into that thing. Whereas if you just got the one, you know, 706, $, 700 bad, or the West Elm bed at 40% off. Right. That really does actually fit the equation by nice, not twice.

Yeah, so, so important and such a good point. And literally the moment when the bed went wrong. For me, that was a bad review. I mean, I dropped a star on the review. It wasn't what I call a bad review, but it was enough to drop it from a five star to a four star stay from the guest point of view. Because when you stay somewhere you want a comfortable night's Sleep. But actually it was then actually the hassle and the time of dealing with going to drop off new beds to have to arrange that between guests and not affect things. So just spending that extra at the start is just so, so important. So let's talk more about. I'm definitely seeing in the market at the moment, there's sort of, there's people who are going more after leisure and there's people who are going more after like midterm stays and things like that. What I'd love to know from you both would be, is there anything that those different hosts should be considering? So if we start off more with the leisure, is there certain pieces of furniture or interior tips or brands that people should really be looking at more if they're trying to attract the leisure guest, you know, that experience or stay?

Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, people who are on ledger on vacations, think about your kitchen area and think about how well stocked it is. Right. Because most people are going to be spending time with their family, they're going to be spending time with their friends, they're going to be cooking, they're going to be staying in. So you really want to make sure that you're providing all of those pieces for your guests in order to create that overall experience.

That's cool. That's cool. And Jeff, did you want to add to that?

Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. I think, you know, the, the, the flip side of it is for those people who are doing midterm stays, something that's really important is generally the sleeping area. Because somebody who's in town for three days or four days, maybe that mattress doesn't make as big of a difference because, you know, they're only sleeping on a few nights. But somebody that has to sleep somewhere for a month or two months or on a midterm basis, you know, you're going to want to make sure that bed is very comfortable because it's something that they're going to be returning to. And after a week of sleeping poorly, they're going to, you know, send you a message and say, hey, is there a mattress topper or another mattress that you can bring in? And again, then you end up buying twice and buying five different parts of a bed and, you know, getting a plush top with a 2 inch foam. And then, you know, that thing doesn't, you know, all of that. I mean, everybody that's listening that's done this before knows, knows that move. So, you know, I think beds are a particular thing for midterm.

Stays 100%. 100%. And you know, just seeing the difference with my longer term or midterm sort of stays, I definitely see that they're less forg over the cheaper items within the home. You know, like people, if they're just staying somewhere for a weekend or for seven nights, they might forgive, you know, a slightly rickety table or a slightly, you know, but if you're living somewhere for a period of time and you know the table's moving or the chair's not very comfortable, then it's just so important, isn't it for that sort of stuff. So how long in advance should people be considering? So say I've just bought my first short term rental investment or I'm now converting from long term to a short term sort of rental. How long in advance should I start thinking about the furnishings? And if we go with Jen for that one.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think again it all depends on the level of quality that you have in your home. But I would say anywhere. I mean the earlier you can think about it, the better. Right. Because it really, if you want this durable furniture, you're going to probably be ordering it from somewhere. Right. And so I would say anywhere from eight to 12 weeks. And that kind of plays into. We have a design program here at host GPO as well, which I co manage and so we give our members the opportunity to work with an interior designer for absolutely free. And that's one thing that we say we need at least eight to 12 weeks in order for them to go through with the program. And again it just depends on their location and you know, the project complexity. But I would say the sooner the better.

That's cool. That's cool. And especially from a distance I guess. Jeff, I'd love to ask, is there, is there different things that people should consider especially if they're trying to furnish from a distance?

Yeah. So I think there's two things to think about. I agree with Jen's timeline. I think the longer the better. Eight to 12 weeks, especially on more higher end type places, I think you can do it in two to three weeks. I think there are partners like article furniture that we work with that has a really short shipping timeline and all of our linens and beds and stuff like that, like those are all come within a week or two so you can do it faster. But the ideal to give yourself the most optionality and to really give yourself the time to do it is 12 weeks. And then to your, to your question again, if you go through somebody like, like a William Sonoma or through our design program. Right. If you're getting all of your furniture from that one brand. So like a West Elm or a Pottery Barn or somebody like that. Right. Or even you're getting from a couple of brands you want to think about, plus placing that order for all of the items from that brand at once. Now why do you want to do that? Because a lot of these brands have the option for what they call consolidated delivery. So what that means is let's say you're ordering $10,000 worth of, you know, West Elm furniture plus. Right. You can or, or a mix of that through our design program from all of their different brands. They will consolidate. There's a fee to do it. It's not crazy, but like they will consolidate all of those items for you, hold it in a warehouse, and then when you are ready and you are there, or you have somebody that is there, you can call and schedule the delivery to have that person come out. Now, I've seen folks that have done it from afar where they work with our team and we're happy to help walk people through this, especially the first couple times, and really make sure you do it. But you can set it up so that you order your furniture, have it consolidated, schedule the delivery, and then a week or two out, you're ordering from the other brands that have a seven to ten day shipping timeline. And realistically, the likelihood that everything's going to show up on the exact same day isn't super high. But you know, you can get it where it shows up, you know, roughly within a week. And that is what most people end up doing. They end up going out there, staying for a week, having somebody go out there every day for like four or five days at least, and set it up. So that's my tip for, for doing it from afar. And then my mental tip for doing it from afar is don't price for perfection. Don't think that everything. You're going to get this listing and it's going to be up in, in seven days and that's in your pricing model. And that your revenue is based on the fact that if it's not up in seven days, you're going to start losing money. And because that adds to this level of chaos and panic that like is unrealistic. So be intentional with your timeline. Be thoughtful about how long it's going to take. Understand that that furnishing and setting up a home or listing isn't an overnight thing. I mean, it's not just run to the store Grab it, throw it in. But that, you know, if you give yourself and budget that amount of time, you know, maybe if you're doing something like lease arbitrage, it's signing the lease and not taking it next day, signing the lease and saying, hey, I want to start the beginning of the next month. That might not kill your deal, but it might give you four weeks of lead time to choose all these items and make sure they're getting there on time. Right. So there are ways to be more intentional about your timelines. So I think that's a mental tip and then a consolidation is a kind of a physical tip for setting up from afar.

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And booking an appointment with one of our sales team. That's such a good point. That is one of the biggest mistakes I see time and time again is people go, I'll have this ready in five days, I'll have this ready in a week. And it can be done with good planning or certainly planning far out. The trouble is that what most people do is they wait until just before and then start thinking, how can I get this stuff? Then they order it for next day delivery from Amazon and then they're into the world of that. We've mentioned already. One of the things which I see time and time again, and you mentioned it just there was that when people are pricing up and getting these deliveries on different days, we set up for one of our clients and we actually, you know, I said, you know, we can send out our handyman, we can send out people to help take deliveries and set stuff up if they need it to. Obviously it's chargeable. But they were then surprised by the cost of the labor to set all of that stuff up. And we explained, hey, we literally, some days we had to go there like three, four times, you know, a week, you know, just to try and take the different deliveries. And each time these aren't places which are necessarily close by. So it's definitely a mistake which people will make by ordering, I guess, from one supplier and having a bit more of a fixed timeline like you say, at least everything is more likely to turn up in one go and you save on that cost and you can spend more of that labor cost on the actual quality of the furniture and that delivery.

Their installation is usually included. So if you're doing a consolidated delivery, they're going to build it all for you and carry the couch to the third floor and build the bed also. They're going to build it right, which, you know, I've definitely built some IKEA furniture where like the leg ends up on like the top corner of the, you know, console. And I'm like, you know, this doesn't look right, but you know, they're going to build it right and, and install it for you too.

That's going to take away all of the garbage, like the boxes. Like that's huge. When you're setting up a property, I mean, it's one more thing that you have to think about. You can't usually just throw it into, you know, the trash. You have too much of it. So you have to figure out how to get rid of it.

Or worse still, you do throw it into the trash and then the first guests have got a deal with full bins, which is, you know, I've seen that happen before. So one of the things that I definitely notice when setting up these short term rentals is that one of the things which always gets forgotten is the pieces of wall art and the stuff which really bring the cohesion of the room together. And that is where I see here. A lot of people just run out to their local discount store and buy the same picture that's in everybody else's listings, which doesn't quite match. And that side of things, is there anything that you see that people tend to forget? You know, those specialist, more detail items and things like that, or any things which you would say, hey, everybody listening to this? Just don't forget to think about this.

Yeah, I mean, I think that just from a design perspective, I think a lot of people think about the furniture, which is obviously one of the most important pieces, but they don't think about like pulling it all together so they don't think about like any of those additional accessories. Thinking about like throw pillows or even just having some greenery in the room. And like you said, even just artwork. We have one of our vendors is Society 6, which they have so many amazing pieces of artwork that you can choose from that aren't your typical pieces that, you know, everyone has maybe from Target, right. You want to like, set yourself apart. And so we actually have a curator there that we can connect our members to that will actually help them choose artwork that'll, you know, help bring their room together, but also help their property and their listing stand out as well.

That's cool. And it's so important, like you say, to bring the artwork together, to bring everything all together, which is cool. So, yeah. And then I'd really love to just ask, what is the future of Host GPO as we reach the end of these? I just want to know what's happening with you guys in the future.

Oh, you want all the gossip, you want the hot gossip on what's next?

What are you excited about?

So we're really excited one about this, this core collection that I was talking about earlier. So it's West Elm and Host GPO collaboration where we've selected kind of best selling items that really never go on sale and taken them to really, really deep discounts. That's kind of a big thing for us. And we're launching new partnerships all the time, which is kind of the most exciting thing here. So we're about to announce a big slate of new partnerships. So for those of you who are members, you'll be getting some emails that should hopefully very much excite you. And for those of you that aren't, you know, make sure you follow us on, you know, Host gpo, our Instagram or, you know, check out our website. We always kind of announce things there. So we've got some really exciting new partnerships coming down the line and this new core collection that we just launched at kind of a best ever discount, is something that we, we're pretty stoked on.

That's awesome. And one of the things as we reach the end of these, that we always love to ask, and we asked you last time, Jeff, is there a mantra or a saying? But because I can still, I can remember yours, which was the further you push out of your comfort zone, the larger the zone becomes. I'm going to mix it up a bit and ask you a different question. So what would you say is your favorite productivity hack for yourself and potentially for other entrepreneurs and hosts listening?

Yeah, absolutely. I had another quote just in case you're going to ask me, but.

All right, you go ahead with them both.

All right, well, I'll give you the productivity hack. The one that really, really did a lot for me was I do not check my phone for at least 10, 15 minutes every morning, I keep it on another table. It's not my alarm. I am awake and like having a coffee before I will look at my phone. And that really, especially in this industry where everything can feel so panicked. I mean, I remember waking up and getting messages from, you know, guests or whatever and it was like, you know, guests get really intense sometimes. I'm sure that resonates with a lot of people about things that, you know, aren't that crazy. And so it was. I woke up one time and I remember like the guest was messaging that like my sink was broken and you know, and I was like, oh my God, like the house is flooding. And it turns out they just couldn't figure out where the garbage disposal button was. And the kitchen sink was totally fine.

Right.

So you know that level of panic when you're not fully awake that will set your whole day off and there's no way to be productive after that. So just making sure you're giving yourself time before you jump into the chaos and the fray and actually over wake an alert is a really big all day productivity hack.

I am going to definitely try to do that and I did not do that this morning. I use my mobile phone as my alarm and like you say, you look at it, you see the message, you're straight into, into work mode. Whereas I'm definitely going to try that. I'm going to get myself one of them old fashioned type alarm, you know, like the ones.

That's what I have. Yeah, I have like an old fashioned alarm clock. It's the best. I love it. I like look over. It's very peaceful, very nice.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to get one. And you mentioned you did have a. Well, if we go to Jen first with. Do you have a mantra or a saying that you like to live by? A one that really resonates with you?

Well, when it comes to this industry, honestly, it's buy right the first time. Buy once, not twice. Because in the long run if you buy cheap just to get things done, you're gonna end up spending a lot more money anyway and you're just gonna end up overspending. So do it right the first time.

Love it, love it. And so true, as we've, as we've discussed. It's so true. And Jeff, take us home with your.

Okay, here's the. Here's the. Here's the. Here's the one that got me last year. So my big one for last year was everyone lives two lives until they realized that there's only One and so I really like that. Or versions of that. There's a lot of versions of it because I think that it goes to this idea of I like it in this industry because for me, vacation rentals start as a side hustle for a lot of people and then they turn into your main hustle and then they turn into your main business. And I hear that story over and over and over again every time I meet hosts and. And talk to our community. And so I just love the idea of if this is for you and if you find it making it your life and really like becoming a part of this community and you know, and committing and being intentional with what you're doing and, you know, I think it just really resonates. So I like it in the setting especially.

Yeah, it definitely resonates for me when you first say it is like, it's like the saying tree falling in the woods doesn't make a noise. Do you know? I mean like as in you have to think about it a little bit and until. But yeah, that definitely resonates with me. And you're so right. So many people do just move into this industry as a side hustle and then, I mean, for my life, I'm one of the people. It's changed my life having hospitality in the world and I love it. You know, it's one of those things which I get excited about and wake up for. So there's going to be a lot of people listening in wondering how can they find out more information? Where can they come and follow you guys? Where can they come find out more about host GPO?

Yeah, you can head over to host GPO. So H O S T and then GPO for group purchasing organization.com click join us now. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, I don't know all the socials and. And if you want to reach out at all to. To us, there's a live chat on our site. You can email us if you want to learn more about the design program specifically. Jen, what's the best way for people to figure out how our free interior design program works?

Yeah, so you can actually either hop onto our website and go ahead and join now and then click on the design program and there's a form that you can fill out for your project or you can also email me@design programostgpo.com that's really cool.

Thank you guys. And I'm really the aim of this. I really wanted hosts to start to think a bit more about their, their interior and how they can furnish their short term rental for success. And I think we've achieved that today. So thank you both for sharing so much value, for spending your time here with us on Boostly, and also thank you too. If you're listening in on the Facebook Live, if you're listening in on the podcast, I know there's a lot of places you can put your attention and I really thank you for putting it with Boostly. So was there any closing comments before we close things off, guys?

Yeah. What I have to say, there's one thing I have to say. Don't use full beds. I just. People make the mistake of putting full beds in your units. They technically can only sleep one person. So you're better off putting a twin and making a nicer room or two twins or just, you know, squeezing a queen if you can. That's just my last parting tip. If I don't tell people that and I see full beds and listings, it just drives me nuts.

I love it. I love it. The value keeps coming. Thank you so much. So that's me and that's bye from Jen and from Jeff. Thank you guys.

Take care.