The Check-In

The manual host tax: why you're leaving money on the table

Leo Walton and Sarah Nan Dupre Season 1 Episode 21

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0:00 | 33:56

In this episode of The Check-In, Leo and Sarah sit down with two industry heavyweights, Jamie Lane, Chief Economist at AirDNA and PC Hamana CEO of Founder of Hospitable, to break down the data behind "Single-Channel Syndrome."

Jamie reveals exclusive AirDNA research showing that a surprising amount of hosts aren't using a Property Management Software (PMS), and are listed on only one platform. PC Hamana explains how automation isn't just about saving time; it's about "technological dividends" that protect your business from platform volatility.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The Data Drop: Why being on Airbnb alone could be costing you 50% of your potential revenue.
  • The "Manual Tax": The hidden costs of refusing to automate your messaging and operations.
  • Market Disparities: How different markets perform on each channel, with surprising insights. 
SPEAKER_03

Hello everyone and welcome to the check-in. Sarah, my friend, how are you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, really good, Leo. I can't believe I get to see you tomorrow in person, live.

SPEAKER_03

It's about time.

SPEAKER_01

I think it'll be like, what, the third time we've actually seen each other in person, which sounds crazy.

SPEAKER_03

She always says I'm taller than she thinks I'm gonna be, which I don't know what that says about me, actually. There we go. We can think about that, can't we? Taller than I remember. Uh today we're delighted to be joined by two industry superstars. Wow, I think this is this is a busy pod for us, isn't it? So I'd like to welcome Jamie Lane and PC Hamana to the pod. How are you both? Starting with you, Jamie.

SPEAKER_00

I'm doing very well. I'm really sad I'm not gonna be out in London for the conference this week. But if I win a shorty, please I'll take a shot on my behalf.

SPEAKER_01

We don't need an excuse for that, Jamie.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I don't know if Sarah's going to the shortties. I I could collect it for you. I'd happily get on stage for you, Jamie, if you want.

SPEAKER_00

I think my boss is going, Rohit, which is funny because the last time I won, my old boss, Demi, uh accepted it for me. So that's always a great like you come up to review and you're like, well, what'd you do last year? And they're like, well, you did accept a shorty on my behalf, so that's that's pretty good uh pretty good one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Good work, Jamie. And we know Rohit's a big fan of the pod, so he's definitely listening right now as well to that. Great, perfect.

SPEAKER_00

100%.

SPEAKER_03

PC, how are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_02

I'm doing absolutely amazing, and I too will not be there to collect any shortties, and I would not be travel to traveling to London for the for the short show, so that's a totem thing. So that's uh that's too bad. Yeah. But luckily I I I get to I get to be with you, so that's that's an amazing opportunity in its own right.

SPEAKER_03

There you go. Well look, guys, um I know you you don't really need to be introduced to the audience that we that we have here, but let's do it anyway. So, PC, tell us a bit about yourself and then Jamie will go to you.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, absolutely. So I'm the founder and CEO of a software company called hospitable.com that we refer to as a property management software, and it sounds all very complicated, but it's a lot simpler. It's basically we help you connect to all your booking channels, we help you make that data that you have with your with your platform basically work for you and you multiply so that you can scale your short-term mortal operations. And yeah, I've been live since 2016. I found 2 billion in customer payouts, just a small company that's growing a little bit. Thanks, PC. And you, Jamie?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I'm the chief economist at AirDNA. I work with Sarah. I'm what informally her BDR help her bring her deals, but formally it's my job to try to make sense of all the data that we collect across as 12 million unique and something like 16 million individual properties across Airbnb, booking, verbo. And we've been collecting data since 2014, and I've been at AirDNA since 2020.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I gotta say, Jamie is not kidding about being my BDR. I got I was on a call on Friday, and the guy said, Hey, I need to talk to you. My business partner was on a flight yesterday, sat next to a guy called Jamie, and he got a demo and he called me. He's like, dude, we need this now. Go sign up. I was like, Do you even need a demo? He was like, no. Send me the contract. So Jamie's selling to people trapped on planes. That's how it really works. You get them trapped for a good three hours and then they have no excuse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. Well, they should be definitely sending you to London then, Jamie. Lots of trap time trapped on planes for people. Alrighty. So, guys, look, we've got a very qualified panel today to talk about the manual tax of not listing on multiple channels. Sarah, tell us a little bit more about what we're going to be talking about today.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, sure. So I think a lot of times, I was actually shocked by the data, and I know we work in the data all day, Jamie, but this is kind of on the back of a post that Jamie Lane did. Gosh, it's been almost a month now, essentially commenting on the mass disparity of money that all of these hosts and operators are missing out on by only being listed on one channel. And spoiler alert, it is a massive percentage. There is so much money that's being left on the table. And, you know, this also ties into episodes that we've had previously, which it's not just about being on all the OTAs. These people, they're not using any kind of channel manager. They don't even have their own booking site. So you're also missing out on direct bookings. And it's a definite miss. Jamie also owns his own short-term rental and operates it in the Georgia Mountains. So he has unique insight into this. And he's sort of the profile. If he wasn't in the data all day, he would be the profile of person normally that would only list probably on Airbnb because it's like, well, this is easy, it's simple. I don't want all this complicated software. But today we're gonna look at what the true cost of that is and whether or not operators can afford to only be listed on one platform. I think the answer will pretty easily be they cannot. So excited for Jamie to shock us with some of the numbers as well.

SPEAKER_00

So you guys want me to get into the numbers? I'm happy to. So one of the things I'm being a data guy. So when I get a new data point, it's like incredible for me. So we got this great natural experiment where Airbnb forced everyone that was on a PMS to their host only uh P structure. So essentially that what that allowed us to do for the first time was know essentially which listings were on versus off a PMS because all of a sudden you've got these one and a half million short-term rentals uh prior to October of last year when they sort of made the switch over. It was like in less than 5% of listings that were um had the host-only fee structure. And then overnight, it like went well above 30%. Uh, so we were able to tell uh all those listings that it uh switched over, and then we could sort of dig into the differences of okay, I'm property managers versus non-property managers, since we track all the property managers across the OTAs and really get an interesting view of uh what share of the industry was not using a PMS because they were um on that single fee structure. So we sort of analyzed the data and it was honestly, it was super surprising to me and to see such a high percentage in the US. It was 64% um of listings uh were not on the PMS. And then we could also sort of look across those of like, all right, which share, because we sort of analyze every listing and which ones are on multiple channels and see that 48% of listings were only on a single channel. So that combination, and to me, I just showed that that still the vast majority of uh listings in the US, and this holds pulled the data for the UK, pulled the data for the rest of Europe, and it was really, really similar uh in terms of the share that there are a large number of hosts that are leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.

SPEAKER_01

Jamie, this may be a little bit outside of the data, but why do you think there's so many hosts or operators that are reticent to list on multiple platforms and or use some kind of channel management software? What's the lie they've been told?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean I'll say for in the US, I don't think it's a lie. I think for certain markets, you can get away with being single channel because the other channels have not and sort of penetrated and sort of guest booking behavior well enough. So in most urban markets in the US, and Virbo has no presence, like no one's going to Verbo to book a short-term rental in downtown San Francisco. Booking has yet to make a big impact on a lot of markets, especially domestic markets. So think less San Francisco and more Houston. Like there's just not a lot of presence for booking there. And then if you are an urban operator, your ability to drive direct bookings, repeat guess, I is is pretty limited, especially if you have a small portfolio. So I get the reason why a lot of individual operators aren't listing on multiple channels. I don't get why they're not leveraging a PMS to improve their operations and all the other things, because I think do think there's a lot of sort of operational efficiencies that you get from a PMS that aren't just around being multi-channel, but there's no excuse. And if you I mean there's still a huge amount of bookings, even in my property, like North Georgia, I would have never thought I would be getting demand through booking.com, but some of my highest ADR bookings came through booking. Sitting here at the beginning of 2026, over half my revenue has been generated by Virvo. So if I was only on Airbnb, which me being sitting here in Atlanta analyzing the industry, I'd be like, like maybe I'll get a little bit of incremental revenue from booking in Virbo, but I'd be out probably half my revenue if I wasn't on multiple channels.

SPEAKER_01

You alluded as well, Jamie, to some of the other operational benefits outside of just the fact of using a channel manager. This might be a good time for PC to step in and kind of tell us a little bit more from the property management software system, like what some of those benefits are. And also if you could speak PC to how easy they actually are to implement or difficult if the case applies.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. That's that's very awkward to ask me that because I'm running one of them. So I'm gonna do my best to not be a sales pitch and to be genuine and and not basically uh yeah, too much marketing y. So yeah, yeah. The actually to be fair, uh there when I started this business, I didn't know anything about property management software or channel manager. All I wanted was basically just send those goddamn check-in instructions because I'm tired of replacing the first name myself, which I do badly because I'm terrible. I'm a human, I make mistakes all the time. Sounds like that's the number one reason why you actually would be using a property management software. It might be the the messaging automation, it might be paying your cleaner, it might be just running different revenue experiments. The core reason why people are using uh why hosts are using a property management software is not in this first intention distribution. There may be an opportunity later, but I think if you want to be grounded, first you're gonna need to optimize the operation that you have on the one channel that's leading the way, and then you get some kind of a technological dividend that allows you to invest more into the the next booking, the next booking platform, the next channel. So this is basically uh is what we do. So the guest messaging, the operations. So you're gonna need to communicate with your cleaners, you're gonna need to pay them. So obviously, Airbnb has plenty of baked-in features. They might be convenient, they might be have their own limitation. I think a good first mission of a property management software is basically allow you to run your business logic on your booking platform data and make it work to your profit so much that you can generate ancillary income. And that's all the parts that basically is already important before having to list on another booking platform. Then you're ready to do so. And that's definitely a great moment. As Jamie was saying, you can generate a ton of other revenues, of other revenue, including in markets where you believe it was not thought to be particularly meaningful in terms of the other other booking platform presence. I think there has also been a rationale that being listed on one is simple enough, and everything is gonna be adding a lot of operational complexity. The second mission when it comes to distribution of a property management software is definitely to make that like you won't even notice a thing. So we approximate the experience of one booking platform to the experience of all the booking platforms that we integrate with so that you can pilot everything, everything to your property management software without you feeling like you've added the operational complexity. However, what you get is this uh kind of incremental revenue from those other bookings. I was saying there is this rational, basically, you can list on one, the operational complexity I think is going wrong, is now no longer up to date. There is also the other part, which is that booking platforms are increasingly competitive. And I think that's been really the trend. I want to say the past two years, but it's really like every year is a step change in the competitiveness between, let's say, the red and the blues, so Airbnb and Booking.com in particular, where booking.com is now generating about 80% in terms of volume, as what Airbnb is doing. There is a World Cup in the US, it's a fantastic opportunity for booking.com uh to be developing that market. I can assure you, we hear that very frequently. And so there is a big opportunity in that booking platforms now getting more competitive. That means that may mean better terms towards us to be listing on those platforms. And so there is also this kind of thing that you hear all the time on social media, which is that uh platform X no longer cares about its host. Like we are we are the one generating the revenue for those platforms, they don't pay attention to us, it's always about the guests. But then move to the expand to another booking platform. And hopefully that gives you first downside protection uh if uh one platform goes down or is not performant enough in your market, just as much it gives a signal to those booking platforms that they need to pay attention to their own supply, to those hosts that get listed on their platform to basically be the most performant continuously. So I think there is a lot of change going on in this industry, including in this kind of perspective. I think the same conversation five years ago would have been very different, including in the US, where there was basically a leader and a minor one. And now it's really becoming no, everyone is spending their marketing dollars in the United States. That is the year uh for uh for for some booking platforms, and and they're very clear on that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I wonder, Jimmy, was this in any of the research that you did in terms of the host cohort? So, like how many is there a tipping point at which the number of listings that a host or an operator has under management does kind of prompt them to then get a PMS or list multi-channel? And if there isn't a tipping point, is there added benefit, I guess, for just one listing?

SPEAKER_00

Obviously, you've got one property, so I think you would say yes, but yeah, uh I'll say the what one of the I think hidden benefits or maybe it's I mean not so hidden benefits of having a PMS is you think about this business we're in, like hospitality is hard. Like I mean there are all these guest demands, there's all these operational demands, and honestly, like the platforms are not built to make hosting easy. Like they're meant to make booking easy. And so I love that there's all these PMSs that are doing everything possible and in terms of their software, in terms of their connections, to make hosting as simple and seamless as possible. Like that is like having someone in your corner looking at all the friction in terms of running your business and trying to make it seamless. Like, I do not think Airbnb is ever gonna try to do dynamic AI messaging for guests. They're never gonna try to do like integrations with my cleaners to make sure they get the notification as soon as I get a booking for them to accept and come to my property where I never have to interact with them unless there's a problem. Like there's all this functionality around making hosting easy that just the platforms are never gonna solve. So that's I I see one of the biggest and like why I pay or theoretically would pay for a PMS is because of that. I don't want to leave that sort of complexity up to the OTAs to try to solve for me. Now, there's a lot of things that I think are correlated with having a PMS. Like it's not that having a PMS is all of a sudden gonna make my pricing better, but there's a much higher likelihood that I'm gonna use a pricing software if I have a PMS, because then it's gonna integrate and do all these things. So I don't think Hospitable does this, but I think there's others that sort of tout all these great revenue gains that you're gonna get from getting a PMS. And a lot of those are from all the incremental softwares that they connect you to. Like I truly believe that using a revenue management dynamic pricing software is gonna increase your revenue fitting on your market anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. Uh, I think using operational software is going to decrease your expense by a certain amount, and all those benefits sort of accumulate into and you're more than like more likely to do all those things if you've got a PMS that is gonna integrate it all together and make it seamless in your in your life. So now, Sarah, to answer your question around that sort of step change of like, and when does it generally make sense for someone to have a PMS? I typically I what's fun, like you look at one unit host, which I'm a one unit host, like, and it's like I'm less than or around 20%. Uh you look at two to five, it's around 21%. You look at five to let's say 20, it's a little bit higher. But it's not until you really get and significantly higher that that we see the percents really ramp up. And even for professionally managed and more than 21 plus unit on properties, I still not still not 100%. And one of the things we called out in the post was for and one, the large share of non-PMS connected property managers, I was it was still like eight percent. Like, and that's that's pretty significant. And then even that for property managers, the number that were on a single channel was pretty high too. So if think about going and hiring a property management company, like their one number one job is to distribute and market that property for you. And if they're not on multiple channels, and you should fire your property manager.

SPEAKER_01

You heard it here first, though.

SPEAKER_03

Jamie Lane says PC, you obviously speak to a lot of hosts who are who will be having uh PMS discussion for the first time, right? They're thinking about entering that space. Why do you think plenty don't and plenty are scared too?

SPEAKER_02

And we sometimes miss some of those 20 plus properties whose software is a piece of paper and a pen and a manual cleaning schedule and everything like that. So it does exist and yeah, it has a life-changing effect when they onboard a software like ours. I think there is an insane amount of anxiety over the change that is perceived will bring a PMS. It doesn't help that you have what Jamie alluded to uh back in October, like a complete change of pricing structure. For a company like ours at Hospitable, we had to explain for three months that basically no, you just need to mark up. This is neutral to your guest, it can be neutral to your payout. But the change that occurs when you connect to a PMS is a bit like that there is things that are there are things that are happening that I do not expect. For a long time, I don't know if you remember, but we've been in the industry for for way too long, maybe. You needed to you uh you lost all your reviews. You could only accept instant bookings. There were some features that would not be supported. And there, I think for people that have been in this industry for a long time, there is this basically kind of a retinent memory of basically seeing those kind of messages and complaints. So there's behavior on the platform is going to change. Then what is the leading PMS? Like this is literally the question that you have on every Facebook group, because there are hundreds of different property management software, and you have a feeling like you're literally betting your house on the own software, and you always have case for them going wrong. There is also the part which is that on top of that, you're not buying software for today. I've never found a North American in particular that wanted to buy software for today. They want to buy it for two years when they're gonna have 10 times more properties. They may still be just like Jamie on just one, but I'm pretty sure that if you wanted to buy an actual software, it would look like, yeah, but it needs to be working for two or for three. So you have all those kind of parameters. It's a lot of competition that all are saying the same thing. Now, the reality of it is you want to pay attention to the scale of the property manual software for one thing. It means they fixed a lot more fringe issues that would not necessarily arise. So all the fringe cases, the integration problems that they might have. If you want to look at something that's gonna be easy to use and to get started, the reality is that there are, I think there quite a question as to the implementation, the timing that it takes to be onboarding. Again, I'm sorry I represent one of them, but I really there are a few competitors, just like Hospitable, that offer a free trial where you can actually get set up yourself and you can see the pixels before you have a talk with a salesperson. And I find that basically a better way to be using software, especially to discovering what the hell is all the fuss about on the property, on the property modern software. So that those are something that I that I kind of look at. Now you ask me to play a bit against my own field here. But I do find that more and more in this industry is gonna have to go towards what we call the self-managers, rather than the small hosts, please ban this. Self-managers that are just like Jamie, one, two properties that are looking to make their data work for themselves. I think the right time to be onboarding a PMS is when you have a conversation with your significant other about why you're gonna be responding to that Airbnb, to that Airbnb guest. We are the dinner table. I would like you to be present and give me some attention. That actually is a good trigger. But then they they don't often feel heard or seen in that particular industry because you hear a lot about property management, owner statements, and a lot of bells and whistles. So they're adding a lot of complexity and don't talk to me. So for our for our company, we're really focused on the self managers because I was one and I burnt out and a lot of hosting fatigue about having the back and forth and the back to back reservations. So I need to find a way to stop, uh, to stop this. Created the self-faceted. Software so that other people get to not burn out. And I think that basically is where there is a very meaningful amount of growth in this industry. Um, that is currently under trust, but there's a lot of work to do, especially on the education, about what it means, what's the reality of it. I think there is a lot of fear and distrust by the software industry because it takes one person to have one bad experience with one other software, and basically it gets amplified to oblivion. And yeah, this industry has doesn't have a particularly good reputation on that. So especially over the over the years, that is uh that yeah, that's been running. A bit too doom and gloom, I guess. But no, but the way it is that all of that was there was a lot of progress, there was a lot of work, there was a lot of growth, also from the Park and Booking platforms, uh, and from property minor software alike, I think, to really uh level the playing field for for everybody. Um so one such initiative that we've done at Hospitable is basically we we thought that basically it's uh it's too difficult to um to have uh higher penetration as an industry if we basically still make it about the price. So we've we released at the beginning of the month of April, on the 1st of April, our new plan, which is the Essentials plan, which is uh a less than free plan. We will not charge you any recurring fee. We believe that if the promise, the promise of a property manual software is to help you generate more revenue, so we're gonna show you that and we're gonna take a fee out of the extra revenue that you get so it can be sustainable, it's uncapped, because as Jamie said, there is still a very large number of properties managed by property management that are not yet connected to property manual software. So we need the message to be heard loud and clear. It doesn't have to be breaking the bank, it's only net positive to be using a property manual software. That makes it particularly valuable if you're using a technological solution like an ICAL, which was a technology from the, I want to say the 80s, but I'm probably aging that absolutely not appropriate for real-time synchronization of data. So it's horrendous to have billions of dollars revolving around iCals that refresh every four or five hours. So that's uh that's a great way to have real-time thinking. Uh and then all the add-ons that basically you would expect from property management software without sticker price. So you can pay your own team, you can have guest messaging, you can all have that. And I think it's a kind of signal that this industry needs to be sending to actually be able to unlock a ton of value for host and for the industry. Right now, uh it's very easy for a booking platform to disregard the professional hosts that are connected to property management software, because even though that's significant on the upper end, it's not so much on the lower side. I want to do a 51% attack on booking on booking platform, just in the same way that it's on it's on crypto, to force the behavior to change, to reinforce the competitiveness between booking platforms that ultimately I believe will be a net positive on all hosts. Basically, take the booking where the platform that's working the ass off is going to be working with the most for you. Uh rather than take it in the one where you're the most captive, that is selling you an idea of a product that's easier, but might not be in a reality when you confront it to the reality of your own business and its logic.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think that's a really good point, especially that, especially that last one. I was going to say that I felt that the most obvious barrier to getting a PMS for a self-managed host is is the price, is that idea that you're investing. I wondered if you'd seen any, and then this is it's interesting, your initiative. I wonder if you'd seen any difference between that behavior in Europe versus the US. Because I definitely see it as being that um Sarah and I often talk about this, but the European host being more cautious potentially in where they spend their dollars or euros, should I say.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, that's the rule of the business, is basically uh selling to Americans is fantastic. It's basically within an hour you can get a business card in. Uh, try to sell to a European, it's gonna be terms of service, give me all the credit statements, uh, I want to have three calls, etc. There's a lot more friction. So, first of all, to go back, uh, there is something a bit odd about the kind of perception of price. I think it's uh it has a lot to do because it's money that simply is leaving your wallet. Yeah, you're using your credit card and small leaving, leaving your bank account. When you earn, you generate 3,000 euros a month in bookings, you have 500 that's going to booking platforms, not 30. Okay. So you you have to basically edge that and be honest about the real numbers. If you don't use the property manual software, sure, you may not pay 30 or 70 or whatever is the price of the property manual software, but you're sure as I'm still gonna be paying those 500s. And in terms of perception, yeah, I do believe that's being historically the case, I think it's a really cultural is the willingness to pay and the kind of perception of risk, especially. So I think the so that's why I was a bit surprised to hear from Jamie that uh the numbers were actually quite the same across uh across the US. And uh, I think you you were saying mentioning the UK. And I'm I'm curious about the penetration rate of property minor software in Germany, for example. I do do believe it might be a little bit lower, but I but I think there is a lot to that. And when you do that, you actually end up being more captive from the from the leading booking platform. And that that's not just a great service to the industry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I've got a fun stat on Germany, but before that, I did want to qualify my statement around fire your PMS if they're not on multiple channels, in that I want to add in direct booking as a channel. So if your property management company is driving more than 80% direct bookings, like they're fine just being on one channel. And you should send them a gift basket for doing such a great job of driving direct bookings to their listings. So huge caveat there. If they're doing amazing on direct bookings, maybe you're fine with just being on one channel. All right. So one of the stats I recently pulled on Germany, though, was such a high share of German hosts are on one channel, but that channel's not Airbnb. So booking.com just like dominates in in Germany. And so it's over 30% of listings in Germany are not on Airbnb. So they that's a pretty interesting stat in terms of and Poland's that way as well, Hungary, so very booking heavy. Uh and there it's maybe trying to convince the host that they need to be on multiple channels and be more attractive to the American or UK guests that might be more likely to book on Airbnb than on booking.

SPEAKER_03

If I might, if I may jump in on that, it not just the idea of being on the channels to get your your UK cousins. We're we're, you know, we're still in the continental European, not in the European Union, but we're still there continentally, if not politically. But the other thing is there may be an expectation of service as well that comes with so when when you go to a European short-term rental, often you'll find that there is nothing. There's not even salt, pepper, and and olive oil, which is, and you know, we're all we we've all experienced that. And so there's as the industry matures and you level up your game, that's that's part of the expectation, right? That you're, you know, and yes, if you are just maybe getting your bookings from a traditional booking provider that's always got them for you, and it's people who travel in their car with their own stuff, there's that level of expectation. But you know, there's there's a wider, uh, there's a wider guest out there that you probably want to capture. PC, I wonder if that's if that education is something that you find yourselves doing as a company. Or if if you if you don't, have you thought about it?

SPEAKER_02

I think I I think I have to give uh huge kudos to the support team uh or in the industry in general, whenever they they work, especially on uh on those that are uh I won't say casual host or obese and are maybe discovering the platform. I think there was something on our on our side and that has changed based on the on the host-only fee that we need to educate that no Airbnb is not a hundred billion dollar company because it charges a 3% processing fee. It's actually there is a very different costing structure, you may not see it, but that's part of the product of Airbnb, is the pricing opacity. It's also really like it's so it's it's a bit difficult, but uh we we have plenty of stories obviously of uh of hosts that are asking to provide the sheets, or they can rent it for you. Like you could think that uh an short-term month all is basically about foring a bed, but actually you need to bring your own sheets. Or you know that that host, which I thought was a bit extreme, it had to be Dutch, but basically was charging electricity consumption during during the stay. And so this probably is more common than anything. So there is a lot to do. And I I think to reframe it basically on under stable terms. This is a business. You are an entrepreneur when you host on whatever booking platform, uh, you market it on those booking platforms. You have ever rights, uh, and it's well understood by the booking platform themselves to list elsewhere, to do what you want uh on your business. You have full accountability for it, which is great and amazing, but you you get to basically care for your customer. Uh, this is really uh hardcore part. Um, do the extra um increase your fees, it's not a race to the bottom. Price better. When you price twice more, you can invest twice more into your customer, you can make them twice happier, you can have better amenities, you can have a better service, you can have a cleaner place, and that basically pays off into big investment. Like I have a feeling that is something that needs to be earned, maybe by my mom, to not disagree. But basically, you you really want to double down on the value that will deliver your customer. The pricing is the thing that helps you do that. And I think a lot of times you have value-based pricing, that's cost-based pricing, I want to say, that's applicable in Europe. Like I want to have uh just as much to be paying for whatever cost I have, and it's not the right approach. This is a business, no one is gonna blame you for making a margin, for making money. This is the job. Do it, embrace it, and you will be more sustainable, you will generate greater value for yourself and immensely more value to to your guests. So no worries, this is not gonna be a pure extractive mode. You're gonna invest more because you have your uh you have your your your guests paying more as well. It's kind of a moral obligation, which I think is really well understood on that part of the Atlantic, that basically if you're gonna charge more, you're gonna have to deliver more. And I think the people that do um are doing are doing a great job there. But yeah, this this all the anecdotes that I've shared were basically gives a bad vibe uh on uh on us that are uh probably just getting started or basically need to have a bit of a pep talk to understand the industry that they're in. So speciality. Sarah?

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna challenge our audience to something, which is I think we've heard a lot of the benefits of automation and making things ultimately easier, even though maybe the setup will take you a little bit of time, but it sounds like it's worth it. So, my challenge to our audience members who are maybe thinking, well, I still don't know. Sounds like a lot of work. I'm not convinced. I would challenge them to automate one thing in their business over the next week. So think about this week. What's one thing you can automate? Is that the check-ins? Is that having an email that goes out that's linked with the booking platform? What does that look like? If you automate one thing, how does that change kind of your day-to-day and your bottom line? And then have a think and extrapolate that to being able to automate obviously not everything in your business, but a lot of these kind of time-consuming, tedious tasks. So that's my challenge to the audience who isn't maybe quite convinced.

SPEAKER_03

Love that. Okay, love that. Good challenge. Who's gonna take it? Thanks so much, guys, for hanging out with us today. This has been awesome. And to everyone at home, if you've enjoyed today's show, please hit like, share, subscribe in all the usual social channels. PC, Jamie, we're not gonna see you in London, but I guess that gives you even more time to come back on as guests again. So let's think about let's think about getting you on. Thanks very much, guys.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, good luck on stage. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

All right, gang. See you soon. Bye.