January 6, 2026 • 33 mins
In this Ask Us Anything episode of Pretty Smart, the hosts answer real questions from designers who are curious about—or already working in—vacation rental design. From pricing structures and contracts to finding clients, entering new markets, and avoiding costly mistakes, this conversation is packed with candid advice and actionable insights.
The episode dives deep into how vacation rental design differs from residential work, why contracts matter more than you think, and how charging for blocks of time can create stronger client relationships and recurring revenue. The hosts also unpack one of the biggest challenges designers face: clearly communicating their authority and value in a saturated market.
You’ll hear practical strategies for attracting the right clients, leveraging existing networks, using data to break into new regions, and sourcing smarter—especially through High Point year-round. The conversation wraps with hard truths, humorous horror stories, and reminders that vacation rental design is not staging, not decorating, and definitely not about playing it safe.
Whether you’re new to vacation rental design or ready to scale your expertise, this episode offers clarity, confidence, and a realistic look at what it takes to succeed.
Timestamps00:00 – 03:00 Why contracts and pricing matter more in vacation rental design
03:00 – 06:30 How charging blocks of time creates flexibility and recurring revenue
06:30 – 08:30 Why there’s no “one right way” to price—and how to find what works for you
08:30 – 10:30 How to find vacation rental design clients using your existing database
10:30 – 13:00 Property managers, housekeeping companies, and creative ways to get noticed
13:00 – 15:30 Breaking into new markets with data, not guesswork
15:30 – 17:30 Why being new to a market can actually be an advantage
17:30 – 20:30 Sourcing smarter at High Point—on and off market
20:30 – 22:30 The biggest mistakes designers make in vacation rental design
22:30 – 25:30 Why vacation rental design is not staging (and never should be sold that way)
25:30 – 27:30 Design don’ts: themes, sameness, and furniture mistakes
27:30 – 31:00 Vacation rental design horror stories and what designers and owners can learn from them
31:00 – End Wrapping season one and what’s coming next
Key Quotes- “If you want to do vacation rental design, you have to have a good contract.”
- “If you don’t tell people you’re doing it, how can you expect them to hire you?”
- “You are the one in charge of educating your client.”
- “Vacation rental design is not staging—don’t sell it that way.”
- “People don’t want to rent a place that looks like their house or their neighbor’s house.”
Vacation Rental Design Summit Register for the upcoming Vacation Rental Design Summit in Las Vegas: https://tinyurl.com/2rd8w6sr
Pretty Smart Podcast Learn more about the podcast and explore additional episodes: https://theprettysmartpodcast.com/
- Vacation Rental Designers: https://www.instagram.com/vacationrentaldesigners/?hl=en
- J Duce Design: https://www.instagram.com/jducedesign/?hl=en
- High Point x Design: https://www.instagram.com/highpointxdesign/?hl=en
- Saurit Creative: https://www.instagram.com/sauritcreative/?hl=en
Social Media
- Carousel: Biggest Mistakes Designers Make in Vacation Rental Design
- Reel: “Vacation rental design is NOT staging—here’s why”
Email Marketing
- Subject line: Are You Making These Vacation Rental Design Mistakes?
- CTA: Register for the Vacation Rental Design Summit
Blog Content
- How to Price Vacation Rental Design Services
- Why Designers Must Lead with Authority in Short-Term Rental Projects
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you want to do vacation rental design, you have to have a good contract.
And I'm not saying anything bad's going to happen. It's just it also teaches you
right out of the gate what are the rules. But if I go to their
website or I get their emails or I look at their social media,
it doesn't say a word about it. So if you don't
tell anybody you're doing it, how can you expect people to reach out to you?
(00:22):
Because if you're going to sell luxury, you got to understand it from the inside
out. That's my belief. You are the one in charge
of educating them. So you have to say, right? The thing that makes me
different is that I start with data. I start with
this insight that really nobody else has access to. And this
is how I can help you. On the flip side, though, and this is really
(00:43):
important, people are not wanting to rent a place that looks like their
house or their neighbor's house. So on the other side of that,
don't do theme explosion. But also you have to have
a different vibe.
Welcome to Pretty Smart, the podcast where three design industry
insiders accidentally started a movement, mostly because no
(01:07):
one else was doing it. Where Erica Sarrett, Jane Dagme, and Jessica.
Deuce, friends, founders, and people who probably should have asked
more questions before launching a summit, a collective, and now
a podcast. We created this show for every designer, host,
brand, or creative entrepreneur who's ever thought. Am I the only one
who feels like everyone else has their life together?
(01:29):
Spoiler. Yes. And also absolutely not. So
here's what you can expect. Real conversations about the courage it
takes to build something in an industry that can feel enormous or
glamorous and occasionally a little ridiculous. And we're going
to talk about the messy middle, the bold leaps, the panic, the
accidental wins, the strategic wins, the
(01:51):
friendship that held it all together. And why doing something before you
know how to do it might just be the secret. We're here to pull back
the curtain on the business of creativity and what actually happens
when you follow an idea that refuses to let you go. Will it
be funny? Sometimes. Serious? More than we
expected. Honest? Always. This is Pretty
(02:13):
Smart, the design podcast for people who are building something
bigger than what they're comfortable with. Season one starts
now.
And we're back. This episode, we are going
to answer all of your questions. This can be about
(02:33):
vacation rental design. Short term rental design. This can be about the
vacation rental design summit coming up. Gonna
do very conversationally and hope that we can get a
lot of Actionable takeaways for you here as well. Yeah. Let's get
started, girls. You ready? I'm so
appreciative of all the questions that were sent in like this, so great.
(02:55):
People are really excited. Yeah. All
right. One of the things that we hear a lot about is
charging in the verd versus residential. And I
Jess, this is going to be for you. Do you charge the same for residential
as verdict? Is it the same contracts? How is it
different? The charging structure, contracts completely
(03:16):
different. And we tend to work where we don't live. So we
have contracts by state, and depending on if the
project is going to have remodeling work, we have to have our attorney
look over the contract again. For example, our contract in
California is 12 pages long, and our contract in Texas
is four pages long. So it's very different depending
(03:39):
on where you're working. And again, I have to learn most things the hard
way. That is my biggest takeaway to you. If you want to do vacation
rental design, you have to have a good contract. And I'm not saying anything
bad's going to happen. It's just it also teaches you right out of the gate,
what are the rules. California has a lot of rules on how you should do
it. So does Florida. Contracts are very different. The way I charge
(04:01):
is different. And not everybody agrees with this. I've tried
all the different things. Flat fee, square footage,
time blocks. And I continue to be an advocate for
blocks of time. And here is why I say that I
sell blocks of time to work with me on vacation rental design. And I tell
them, this is your time you have with me. You can use
(04:24):
that however you want. If you purchase another property or
if maybe you need some help with your residential home, you can ask
me any design questions because this is based on time.
And that has been a continual, replenishable model for
me in that we're wrapping. Wrapping up a project, and
you say, hey, you have a little bit of time left, or if you just
(04:46):
do another block of time, you can put it toward this. And they will call
you and say, I have a question about my house. I am
considering buying this home. Will you take a look at these pictures? And it takes
away that anxiety or fear about all of these different
contracts or square footage for just this project.
And I really think that has been the key for me to grow
(05:08):
relationships in design. And I end up doing personal home design for
vacation rental design. So that's how I charge to me the blocks.
There's a total psychological thing there. Right. Because you Buy in
advance. And I don't know if somebody buys
50 hours of your time when it's at 40, or do you send
an email to that person and say if they haven't pinged you in a while,
(05:30):
if they're laying low and say, we've still got this block. And do your
blocks of time expire at any time? Rollover one year.
There's one. They're good for one year. And yeah, we can do a
little nudge. To be really honest, they wipe out the blocks every time,
but it's also a good little nudge. Hey, you're running out of time.
And I know you've mentioned XYZ at your
(05:53):
home. So I just wanted you to know if you're gonna wanna do this, you
may wanna buy a bigger block of time. And when the time is
right, we could talk about it. And yeah, I do think it's psychological
and I mean it with the best intentions because I don't want you to
have a barrier to talk to me about your design ideas. What
I think for people who are. Listening to this, outside of the interior
(06:15):
design or home furnishings world, there has been an
opacity to interior design as a
profession. People see it as this luxury. People see it as
something that, I don't know. I think there's a lot of very different ways
of seeing interior design. And one of the struggles that I think we have in
this industry is how people price. Right? Because every single
(06:37):
designer does it differently. There are different, so many different ways of
getting into this. And so this question is always huge, like, how
do you charge and stay profitable? The idea that you're blocking is
super smart, Jess. Right? Because some people charge for services,
they will charge every phase of the project from sourcing
to design, all differently. And that becomes again, really opaque
(06:59):
and unclear to clients. But to block it out like this
and let them come to you with all their questions, right? Not just about
product, but are there space, but about maybe future investments.
That's cool. I have to share, though, when I talk to designers about this,
I have the right personality for it because I enjoy the pivot.
And I can talk to you about your rental and then in the same
(07:21):
conversation talk to you about your dreams, about your powder bath. Like, I enjoy
that. For those designers that need that clear cut
separation, this is not a good plan. You are more of
a flat fee designer. And there's nothing wrong with that. The key is
finding out the best way you work. So, okay, pricing is great,
contracts are great. But maybe before that, like, how
(07:43):
do you even find these clients? This is, I know a perennial
question that we get asked is like, where do you find them?
Are they residential clients that also have vacation rentals or
seasonal or short term rental homes? Are they thinking, like you said, about
investing in it? And you advise them, how do you get the work? How do
you find them? The first thing you should do is use your existing
(08:05):
client database because. And this is the data that's out
there. If one in five people own a second home or
vacation home, go through your database first and let
them know. This is the biggest mistake I see with designers.
They say they want to do vacation rental design or they've done it, they've
dabbled, they want to do more. But if I go to their website or I
(08:27):
get their emails or I look at their social media, it
doesn't say a word about it. So if you don't tell
anybody you're doing it, how can you expect people to reach out to you?
So utilize your social. All of these things that you have at
your fingertips. Do that email blast. I have this new item
on my menu and I want to talk to you about it. And if you
(08:49):
aren't interested, do you have somebody you can refer me to? Because
this is what I can do for you. That is the very first step.
Second step is look in your community and see
what property management associations are there.
Oh, my gosh. Help me, Alexis. Rent responsibly. Rent
responsibly. Reach out. Join the organizations.
(09:12):
VRMA has local chapters all over the country.
Get involved. It's not going to be handed to you. It's a different
way. You have to go out there and let them. And with
that you can do those mailers, cold calls to property
managers. But I actually think you'll have more success targeting housekeeping
companies. They're the ones that really have a lot of power with property management
(09:35):
companies. One of the designers in our collective, her name's
Kate and she's absolutely fabulous. And she's going to be speaking at the summit.
She was doing vacation rental design and was looking for a different way
to attract property managers and owners. So she started talking with Justin
Ford and she offers a safety audit. A design.
A safety audit with design. And so she'll come in and give you this
(09:58):
audit of what you need to do. And that's basic math for them that
speaks their love language, right? And then works design into
how can you do this the right way and be safe and profitable?
And that is opening doors with her for her design projects.
So there's a lot of ways to be creative. And those are just a few.
Those are great, great ideas. And I love the Kate story and how she and
(10:20):
Justin met at Summit too. And testament
to the power of showing up and networking with like
minded people. But this may come into the next question
about how do you break into a new market and how do you get to
know a new market? But I was gonna ask about the value of
Realtors. Is there a reason to hook up to Realtors?
(10:41):
Because like here in High Point, there's a degree of investment
because people know between High Point University and the High Point market, there's a lot
of rental energy here. So is there
value in getting to know some of the Realtors? I know some
designers do that and that's great. Realtors now actually have
a certification that they can get to be aware of what to look
(11:03):
for or to sell or show a property that is specific to
short term rental design. And you can actually get access to the people
that are vetted in those courses through the real estate associations.
I personally have not utilized any of those resources, but
I know other designers that have. So then how do you
break into a new market? You've said before, we know that there's a lot of
(11:26):
remote work in vacation rental design. If
you've spent most of your life as a designer in Minneapolis
and you have your sights on a more southern climate
for the second part of your life and
livelihood, how do you start digging in?
I would treat an area I want to target the same way I would
(11:47):
treat a property I'm going to work on. And I'd start with data and I
would get a report, but I would structure the way I want to get that
data in the report and I would want to see the number of rentals in
the area. Where are they profiting? Where are their gaps?
Where is the up and coming stars of the area? What community?
This is the one part of the data that I think a lot of people
(12:08):
forget that we have on every report. I want to know every event
that's happened in this area in the last five years and what's projected to come
for dollars in the area in the future. Five years.
Because you can target that. Tyann is a perfect example designed
for, yes, our property management queen. She
knows about FIFA and the world soccer and
(12:31):
she is targeting and educating other people
on opening their homes to be short term rentals because the
demand is so much higher than what the resources are available.
And she did all that with data and she's helping people all
over the country. So again, that's the way I would start with
targeting an area. I work with a lot of
(12:53):
clients who are residential designers in like
really high end coastal markets, especially in Florida.
And I have to do a similar exercise with them, even though they're not
necessarily designing short term rentals. But there's a lot of
competition in those areas. The market is already saturated with
interior designers, with builders, with people who are ready to service,
(13:15):
people who are maybe moving there or buying second or third homes
from the Midwest or from outside the U.S. there is a lot of
interest in a vacation rental area
or in an area, especially on the coast. Coast or mountain states, there's
different regions. So if you, like you said, are in, let's say
Arizona or, I don't know, another state and looking to enter a new
(13:37):
market, you've got to really think like, how are you going to differentiate yourself? Because
you're coming in at a little bit of a disadvantage, not knowing the
market, not knowing the vendors, not knowing the trades, not knowing
who is there to build the properties when there are established
people already there working in that market. But the data can
tell you where the gaps are. I think that's an important piece that you
(13:59):
made and then help you figure out what's the right approach to
target clients there. This probably won't be a very
popular thing to say, but I actually think you have an
advantage coming in new. Okay. Because when
an area is saturated with designers, they're
comfortable and they aren't necessarily doing
(14:21):
the data because they live there and breed there and
they're used to what they do. And I've been guilty of that.
And you come in as the fresh faced, look at all this
shiny data I have and look at all this research I did and
here's my math. And they don't have that from the locals because
again, you get comfortable. So this advice goes to those of you that are
(14:45):
comfortable in your area as well as those people that want to target a new
area. Stay on top of it. I think staying on top
of it is a lesson in general for business, for entrepreneurship. You can't get
comfortable, especially in our industry when there are so many
talented and eager and motivated
people who are ready to eat your lunch. So you gotta
(15:07):
stay competitive and data is one way to do that. I'll second what you
said about making sure that you're messaging very clearly that
this is a core competency for you on your website, on your socials.
We get a lot of people who want to speak at
the summit, who come to us and say, I want to talk about this, I
want to talk about that. And when we go to see their expertise and their
(15:29):
authority in this space, if we can't clearly understand
how they are building projects or speaking about this already
or leading communities, it's confusing for us.
Right. You have to establish yourself as the authority and then
share that with everyone because people will want
to go and vet you and see what you're doing. Same goes for if you're
(15:52):
emerging in a new market. Right. They want to see your work even if it's
not in that market. Good points. And same for
brands. Same for brands. Brands say they want to partner with
you, but if I can't find any language on your
websites that you're interested in hospitality or vacation design
or we're designers. Oh, my
(16:12):
gosh, that's so true. That's a whole other season, I think.
But yeah, yeah. That brings me back to
High Point by Design. Jane, this is one of the
questions we have, and it's how are you
sourcing? You mentioned sourcing in High Point year round. How does that work?
And I could go on and on, but, Jane, I don't think people realize
(16:36):
the wealth of opportunity there year round still.
Yeah, yeah, we know. Jess, you're an ambassador for high point
2, 4, 7, 365, and as is Erica and me.
But yeah, what High Point by Design? I think you've done it firsthand. You've come
here outside of the market when things are quiet, you've been able
to go into showrooms, you've been able to score some great
(16:58):
floor samples. Whether you're here for our big
sale that happens twice a year or just coming in,
say, August. Having those conversations, coming to High Point
outside of market gives you the time to have the conversations, really
establish those relationships with showroom managers and other people in
corporate that then get to know you, start to understand your business
(17:20):
better and can truly serve you and the needs of vacation rental
design. So you're coming here, you have time to educate and
be educated on their product. It just helps you buy smarter.
Right? Agree. Yeah. So the designers that I've helped with their
itineraries, whether they're buying for vacation rentals or buying for a
residential client, they love the experience of coming
(17:42):
and having, as I like to say, High Point Auto themselves.
So it can be super rewarding. I don't think people realize, and
this is one of the questions too, like when they're considering
coming to High Point off market, you actually help them.
They can reach out to you and you can say, here's who's open.
Here's who we need to make an appointment with. Here's this. You're looking for this
(18:05):
type of product. Here's who has it. And the cool thing, too,
is that I had gotten an email from a Chicago designer right before
market, and she couldn't make this market, and she won't be able to make the
next market. But she has a team, and she wants her
team to understand High Point, to understand how quality
furniture is made. So we'll be helping her create an itinerary
(18:27):
where not only is she going into showrooms and visiting with antique purveyors
and things like that, but she'll be able to go see how things are made.
So she can take a factory tour, take her younger associates
into it, and really show them. Because if you're going to sell luxury, you
got to understand it from the inside out. That's my belief.
Oh, my God. I want to do that. I know. Me too.
(18:49):
Another designer from Long island, she's coming in January
looking for a luxury experience, bringing her client.
Designers are so split on that. Like, some designers will
totally shop with their clients. Christy Hopper is like an ace at
that. And others are like, never. I don't want my designer to go
into those places. But the places is largely. They tag
(19:11):
it at retail here. So your client is not seeing the price that you
get. But anyway, it's great to come outside when it's
quiet, you can get a hotel room at a really good price and park
anywhere and get me. That's my favorite
part of the whole experience, getting you and both of you.
But it makes me realize, like, building the collective.
(19:33):
It's my time at market at High Point. I mean, off
market is when I had the best brand relationship
meetings to grow. Because for those of you that
don't know, with our Verd Collective, what's different is that the
brands that are our brand partners have to offer something different to our
members that a designer typically can't go on get on their own.
(19:56):
So, like hooker, you're automatically stocking dealer. Classic home,
Eastern accents. I could go on and on and on. So that magic
happened by going to high point off market. Yeah.
You got to invest the time to get the reward.
All right, I know. We have more questions. Yes. Okay, here we
go. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see designers doing
(20:18):
in vacation rental design? Not saying what they do on their
social is a big one. And they're talking about that. Can
I just say one other thing about that. And, Eric, I don't think you said
this specifically, but. But maybe you did. Oh, you did. When we're.
Yeah, when we're planning the summit, we get a lot of pitches, but tell us,
make it easy for us to see your authority in this space and. Make it
(20:40):
easy for your clients, too, because, again, this is a really
saturated market. Interior design. So it's. We
know obviously from the inside, interior design, people who design
workplaces, people who design commercial spaces or restaurants or
homes, that the skill set it takes to do those, the vendors,
the pricing, the project timelines, all the things are so different.
(21:02):
We know that. But outside, think like your client. Your client
has no idea you are the one in charge of educating them. So
you have to say, right. The thing that makes me different is that I
start with data. Like, I start with this insight that
really nobody else has access to, and this is how I can help you. That
message is so clear and so client focused and effective
(21:24):
in converting them that you wouldn't believe it. So put some time into
making sure that people do understand your authority, because if
you're focused on doing this, you really want to make sure that you're attracting the
right clients. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what
else? What are they doing wrong? Big mistakes. What could they do better?
I think that the courage to educate
(21:46):
strongly is very important. And here's what I mean by that.
So you're the expert. They're hiring you. And I know designers,
especially in residential. In a sense, we're used to needing to tiptoe.
Okay, yes, you want to work in grandma's purple chair, or
this color is important to you. We'll make sure we rotate this
color in vacation rental design. And this has
(22:09):
happened many times. They're like, okay, we just want this,
or we don't really understand the importance of this, so just do this.
And having the courage to push back and say, not only
is this important, but I can't guarantee the numbers that I
have expressed to you because you won't do this. And this may seem
insignificant to you, but here's why it's significant.
(22:31):
And pushing back and having really strong
conversations, it's hard, and you have to put your
foot down and you have the math or the confidence
or the pretend confidence to push back. I use a lot of pretend confidence,
but. But I mean that seriously, because they don't know what they
don't know, and you are just a part of their business
(22:53):
growing the strength to really push back is important.
I think in vacation rental design, I see designers struggling with that
and I also have heard this multiple times, and it really drives me
insane. But I have seen people talk
about it as just elevated staging or pitching their services
as staging, and it's not staging. I know I've mentioned
(23:16):
this before, but I still see it. Each one of these is an
important category, but they're completely different. And don't pitch
your services that way because you think by, in a sense, making
it sound more affordable will get you the job. You're doing a disservice to
your owner and to yourself. Those are great,
great responses to the question, but could you tell us some
(23:37):
decorating mistakes? Like some things that you've seen do's and
don'ts? Like, what are some of the don'ts don't?
Or are there any live laugh love? Is that a don't?
My very first project, Big Blue, I didn't know what an
Airbnb was, and it's this beautiful beach home. And
(23:58):
so I'm going to just admit it. I bought my share of seashell pillows.
I may have incorporated some anchors. I had no
word signs. I did draw the line there. But I went themey. I did.
And I've evolved. But at the time,
that was what I thought of embrace the beach
house. Well, themes aren't bad. Themes can be fun.
(24:22):
Yes. Elevating it. Thinking out of the theme box.
I've evolved. And it was actually one of my favorite rooms, but it
was this room and we were figuring out budget and
Walmart had this bedding set that had
lighthouses on it and they had a lighthouse
statue in the room, like a little piece of architecture
(24:43):
sitting on a dresser. So I ran with it. I had
lighthouses. I did it and I thought it was really pretty.
But I've evolved. So theme light. I don't know how else
to say that. Well, I just remember when we were going to do the coastal
challenge, because I was like, do coastal, but don't
do seashells. Lobster. Lobsters, Yeah. I mean,
(25:04):
or do a shell, but just do it more abstract. Or waves. And that's
all beautif. And also goes into channels into
wellness. Yes. Yeah. I think do coastal, but without
pillows from home goods. Yeah. On the flip
side, though, and this is really important, people are not wanting
to rent a place that looks like their house or their neighbor's house.
(25:26):
So on the other side of that, don't do theme explosion.
But also you have to have a different vibe. People don't
want to. And some people were utilizing the free
design skills of that company that rhymes with
Madre Marne.
And that's great. They have great pieces. But the whole house
(25:48):
looks the same because it's all the same collection. Guests don't want to
rent what their neighbor's house looks like, so
don't use watery marn. They want an experience. They want something different.
They want to go and sink into a local
experience, but they also want it to be cool and different so they can
dream and feel like they're in a totally new place. Of course.
(26:11):
And we can tell when you bought everything off of that place that rhymes with
maymare and.
May rare. And don't fill it with mid century modern
little furniture. Hundred pound capacity. That's a big scale.
That mistake is made over and over again. Okay, I'll
be quiet. I have some of that in my own home and I love
(26:35):
it in many respects. But scale wise,
I'm not the biggest fan. Or it's time for change. So
we gotta move on to another question because we are. Gotta go. Jess, this
question always comes up. Tell us some of your str. Horror stories.
Do you have two sort of. Yeah, horror stories. Go ahead.
One of our projects was used for a porn film
(26:58):
that we didn't know. Very common. How did you find out?
Should I. I don't know if. Will we be bleached? Just say it. We actually
were. We had just finished redesigning. It
was a refresh and the timing had worked. Everything was
installed and we flew back and
the housekeeping was going to come through and do everything. And we were flying back
(27:21):
in and meeting the photographer at the project and we were going to shoot it
all day Sunday. This was back when you couldn't use your phones
on the plane. So I land, I turn on my phone, it's blowing up.
And I see it's the housekeeping company.
And I call her back and she's crying. And I hear
words like it's crying. And then I hear words like
(27:43):
dildo and then oil and then
sand. I'm like, what in the holy hell is happening here?
Long story short, the property manager had gotten a last minute booking and
thought that it wouldn't be a problem. And whoever had
rented it had decided to shoot a film. And they had
carried the sofas out to the beach for whatever
(28:06):
produced out there. And so those had sand in them. There
was everything. There was tarps with oil on them, there were
toys. And we would learn later what
this meant. But once we arrived to the property, we see all this damage. She
had called in the whole crew, the photographers there going, what the hell?
And There were command strips with hooks all over the house
(28:30):
and there was washcloths taped over all the vents. And we didn't know
why. I was like, I clearly don't understand what's happening. And we
found out later that was for them to run the cabling for the film
equipment and the washcloths over the vents was to hide the noise of the air
conditioning coming on. And so anyway, we end up
still shooting and we would shoot a spot where the clean
(28:53):
people had finished and then he would shift over because there was
cleaning. So like we're just one step behind what's being
cleaned. And of course, the owners were livid, property
managers were livid. And they fire off a
scathing email and huge dollar amount of
what the damage is. And the people wrote a check and went,
(29:15):
no problem, whatever you need, no questions asked.
This happens a lot. That was my abbreviated story there. Actually. The
marketplace kind of rental platforms have
been giving advice on this. I had to write a little bit of a
help file about this. Like how do you
limit short, like very last minute bookings just for other
(29:38):
reasons beyond potentially flag as an adult film
location? But you also want to limit the amount of, of luggage
people bring in because if they are bringing cameras
and cables and equipment and soundboards and all the things, they're going to show
up as like large amounts of baggage coming
into your property for a one night rental. Right.
(30:00):
So there are some things that you can do, but this is actually very common.
Yeah. Which is crazy. Well, and I think renting spaces
for film and art and commercial uses is a way
to increase revenue. You just want to be wise who. You want,
but intentional. This was intentional. Look, there's entertainment for
everybody. I believe it's just be say what you're going to use it for and
(30:23):
don't be destructive. Right. With oil. Don't take the sofas out to
the beach. Okay. Oh my gosh. That. Come on. I will share
one thing too. Real quick. That and Jess, I don't know if you've experienced this,
but at Airbnb we had in specific markets like
Nashville. Nashville is a bachelorette. It's
the bachelorette capital of the US and so there's a hashtag Glitter
(30:45):
Woo. Yes, the Woo girls. And so the owners of
properties there were having a lot of problems cleaning up
Silly String and Glitter. Like they had very
specific housekeeping issues because of the amount of parties and
things. And so they made it a restriction where in certain parts, like
hosts could limit the number of guests. Right. No more than five
(31:08):
women at once, like, just to kind of keep these things from happening.
But you're right. If you're gonna use it for a commercial purpose or you're gonna
use it for party, just this is someone's home or
someone's investment. Be thoughtful. We use this now as
a tool when we talk to owners and investors about, okay, here's what could happen.
But we could also go this direction for profitability. And so, like
(31:29):
Bandon Dunes, a golf apparel company, is
using that property for photo shoots. And there's websites that
you can list your property on, and it's just for commercial
use for photo shoots and video shoots or for corporate retreats.
Yeah, there's a whole revenue stream. Bird retreats with us
coming soon. 26. All
(31:52):
right, so we are going to have a sort of ask us
anything that's going to be. We're going to have that at the summit as well.
So those who are attending can bring their questions, and
we'll get you all the answers. But I think it's time to
wrap up season one. Can I just say, for
all of you, thank you for submitting your questions, but also, we. We want to
(32:14):
know what you're interested in for season two. I would love to know,
because it could be anything. It could be what
Jane wears. Yeah, we're just tossing around. That would be a
really great season. I want to go in Jane's closet for season two.
When we first came up with this, we thought each season would have a different
theme, and we got really excited about that. And so the first
(32:37):
season, of course, has been about the summit and vacation rental design
and High point and. And all the resources that are available to interior
designers. But, yeah, season two is going to be totally different.
And I think we're planning to announce the topic and theme of
that at the summit. So excited. Because
it's pretty smart.
(33:00):
All right, so I love you all. Thanks for listening. Yeah, thank
you. Good to see you ladies. Till next time. All right,
till next season. Ciao. Bye. Thanks
for hanging out with us on Pretty Smart. If today's conversation gave you
something to think about or made you feel a little more seen, we'd
love for you to keep the momentum going. What's your next step? Register
(33:22):
for the Vacation Rental Design Summit. It's where community creativity and
big ideas meet in person. Check out the link in the show notes or
visit hvxd.org to get your ticket to join us this
January in Vegas, us. But until next time, stay
inspired, stay connected, and stay pretty smart.
If you want to do vacation rental design, you have to have a good contract.
And I'm not saying anything bad's going to happen. It's just it also teaches you
right out of the gate what are the rules. But if I go to their
website or I get their emails or I look at their social media,
it doesn't say a word about it. So if you don't
tell anybody you're doing it, how can you expect people to reach out to you?
(00:22):
Because if you're going to sell luxury, you got to understand it from the inside
out. That's my belief. You are the one in charge
of educating them. So you have to say, right? The thing that makes me
different is that I start with data. I start with
this insight that really nobody else has access to. And this
is how I can help you. On the flip side, though, and this is really
(00:43):
important, people are not wanting to rent a place that looks like their
house or their neighbor's house. So on the other side of that,
don't do theme explosion. But also you have to have
a different vibe.
Welcome to Pretty Smart, the podcast where three design industry
insiders accidentally started a movement, mostly because no
(01:07):
one else was doing it. Where Erica Sarrett, Jane Dagme, and Jessica.
Deuce, friends, founders, and people who probably should have asked
more questions before launching a summit, a collective, and now
a podcast. We created this show for every designer, host,
brand, or creative entrepreneur who's ever thought. Am I the only one
who feels like everyone else has their life together?
(01:29):
Spoiler. Yes. And also absolutely not. So
here's what you can expect. Real conversations about the courage it
takes to build something in an industry that can feel enormous or
glamorous and occasionally a little ridiculous. And we're going
to talk about the messy middle, the bold leaps, the panic, the
accidental wins, the strategic wins, the
(01:51):
friendship that held it all together. And why doing something before you
know how to do it might just be the secret. We're here to pull back
the curtain on the business of creativity and what actually happens
when you follow an idea that refuses to let you go. Will it
be funny? Sometimes. Serious? More than we
expected. Honest? Always. This is Pretty
(02:13):
Smart, the design podcast for people who are building something
bigger than what they're comfortable with. Season one starts
now.
And we're back. This episode, we are going
to answer all of your questions. This can be about
(02:33):
vacation rental design. Short term rental design. This can be about the
vacation rental design summit coming up. Gonna
do very conversationally and hope that we can get a
lot of Actionable takeaways for you here as well. Yeah. Let's get
started, girls. You ready? I'm so
appreciative of all the questions that were sent in like this, so great.
(02:55):
People are really excited. Yeah. All
right. One of the things that we hear a lot about is
charging in the verd versus residential. And I
Jess, this is going to be for you. Do you charge the same for residential
as verdict? Is it the same contracts? How is it
different? The charging structure, contracts completely
(03:16):
different. And we tend to work where we don't live. So we
have contracts by state, and depending on if the
project is going to have remodeling work, we have to have our attorney
look over the contract again. For example, our contract in
California is 12 pages long, and our contract in Texas
is four pages long. So it's very different depending
(03:39):
on where you're working. And again, I have to learn most things the hard
way. That is my biggest takeaway to you. If you want to do vacation
rental design, you have to have a good contract. And I'm not saying anything
bad's going to happen. It's just it also teaches you right out of the gate,
what are the rules. California has a lot of rules on how you should do
it. So does Florida. Contracts are very different. The way I charge
(04:01):
is different. And not everybody agrees with this. I've tried
all the different things. Flat fee, square footage,
time blocks. And I continue to be an advocate for
blocks of time. And here is why I say that I
sell blocks of time to work with me on vacation rental design. And I tell
them, this is your time you have with me. You can use
(04:24):
that however you want. If you purchase another property or
if maybe you need some help with your residential home, you can ask
me any design questions because this is based on time.
And that has been a continual, replenishable model for
me in that we're wrapping. Wrapping up a project, and
you say, hey, you have a little bit of time left, or if you just
(04:46):
do another block of time, you can put it toward this. And they will call
you and say, I have a question about my house. I am
considering buying this home. Will you take a look at these pictures? And it takes
away that anxiety or fear about all of these different
contracts or square footage for just this project.
And I really think that has been the key for me to grow
(05:08):
relationships in design. And I end up doing personal home design for
vacation rental design. So that's how I charge to me the blocks.
There's a total psychological thing there. Right. Because you Buy in
advance. And I don't know if somebody buys
50 hours of your time when it's at 40, or do you send
an email to that person and say if they haven't pinged you in a while,
(05:30):
if they're laying low and say, we've still got this block. And do your
blocks of time expire at any time? Rollover one year.
There's one. They're good for one year. And yeah, we can do a
little nudge. To be really honest, they wipe out the blocks every time,
but it's also a good little nudge. Hey, you're running out of time.
And I know you've mentioned XYZ at your
(05:53):
home. So I just wanted you to know if you're gonna wanna do this, you
may wanna buy a bigger block of time. And when the time is
right, we could talk about it. And yeah, I do think it's psychological
and I mean it with the best intentions because I don't want you to
have a barrier to talk to me about your design ideas. What
I think for people who are. Listening to this, outside of the interior
(06:15):
design or home furnishings world, there has been an
opacity to interior design as a
profession. People see it as this luxury. People see it as
something that, I don't know. I think there's a lot of very different ways
of seeing interior design. And one of the struggles that I think we have in
this industry is how people price. Right? Because every single
(06:37):
designer does it differently. There are different, so many different ways of
getting into this. And so this question is always huge, like, how
do you charge and stay profitable? The idea that you're blocking is
super smart, Jess. Right? Because some people charge for services,
they will charge every phase of the project from sourcing
to design, all differently. And that becomes again, really opaque
(06:59):
and unclear to clients. But to block it out like this
and let them come to you with all their questions, right? Not just about
product, but are there space, but about maybe future investments.
That's cool. I have to share, though, when I talk to designers about this,
I have the right personality for it because I enjoy the pivot.
And I can talk to you about your rental and then in the same
(07:21):
conversation talk to you about your dreams, about your powder bath. Like, I enjoy
that. For those designers that need that clear cut
separation, this is not a good plan. You are more of
a flat fee designer. And there's nothing wrong with that. The key is
finding out the best way you work. So, okay, pricing is great,
contracts are great. But maybe before that, like, how
(07:43):
do you even find these clients? This is, I know a perennial
question that we get asked is like, where do you find them?
Are they residential clients that also have vacation rentals or
seasonal or short term rental homes? Are they thinking, like you said, about
investing in it? And you advise them, how do you get the work? How do
you find them? The first thing you should do is use your existing
(08:05):
client database because. And this is the data that's out
there. If one in five people own a second home or
vacation home, go through your database first and let
them know. This is the biggest mistake I see with designers.
They say they want to do vacation rental design or they've done it, they've
dabbled, they want to do more. But if I go to their website or I
(08:27):
get their emails or I look at their social media, it
doesn't say a word about it. So if you don't tell
anybody you're doing it, how can you expect people to reach out to you?
So utilize your social. All of these things that you have at
your fingertips. Do that email blast. I have this new item
on my menu and I want to talk to you about it. And if you
(08:49):
aren't interested, do you have somebody you can refer me to? Because
this is what I can do for you. That is the very first step.
Second step is look in your community and see
what property management associations are there.
Oh, my gosh. Help me, Alexis. Rent responsibly. Rent
responsibly. Reach out. Join the organizations.
(09:12):
VRMA has local chapters all over the country.
Get involved. It's not going to be handed to you. It's a different
way. You have to go out there and let them. And with
that you can do those mailers, cold calls to property
managers. But I actually think you'll have more success targeting housekeeping
companies. They're the ones that really have a lot of power with property management
(09:35):
companies. One of the designers in our collective, her name's
Kate and she's absolutely fabulous. And she's going to be speaking at the summit.
She was doing vacation rental design and was looking for a different way
to attract property managers and owners. So she started talking with Justin
Ford and she offers a safety audit. A design.
A safety audit with design. And so she'll come in and give you this
(09:58):
audit of what you need to do. And that's basic math for them that
speaks their love language, right? And then works design into
how can you do this the right way and be safe and profitable?
And that is opening doors with her for her design projects.
So there's a lot of ways to be creative. And those are just a few.
Those are great, great ideas. And I love the Kate story and how she and
(10:20):
Justin met at Summit too. And testament
to the power of showing up and networking with like
minded people. But this may come into the next question
about how do you break into a new market and how do you get to
know a new market? But I was gonna ask about the value of
Realtors. Is there a reason to hook up to Realtors?
(10:41):
Because like here in High Point, there's a degree of investment
because people know between High Point University and the High Point market, there's a lot
of rental energy here. So is there
value in getting to know some of the Realtors? I know some
designers do that and that's great. Realtors now actually have
a certification that they can get to be aware of what to look
(11:03):
for or to sell or show a property that is specific to
short term rental design. And you can actually get access to the people
that are vetted in those courses through the real estate associations.
I personally have not utilized any of those resources, but
I know other designers that have. So then how do you
break into a new market? You've said before, we know that there's a lot of
(11:26):
remote work in vacation rental design. If
you've spent most of your life as a designer in Minneapolis
and you have your sights on a more southern climate
for the second part of your life and
livelihood, how do you start digging in?
I would treat an area I want to target the same way I would
(11:47):
treat a property I'm going to work on. And I'd start with data and I
would get a report, but I would structure the way I want to get that
data in the report and I would want to see the number of rentals in
the area. Where are they profiting? Where are their gaps?
Where is the up and coming stars of the area? What community?
This is the one part of the data that I think a lot of people
(12:08):
forget that we have on every report. I want to know every event
that's happened in this area in the last five years and what's projected to come
for dollars in the area in the future. Five years.
Because you can target that. Tyann is a perfect example designed
for, yes, our property management queen. She
knows about FIFA and the world soccer and
(12:31):
she is targeting and educating other people
on opening their homes to be short term rentals because the
demand is so much higher than what the resources are available.
And she did all that with data and she's helping people all
over the country. So again, that's the way I would start with
targeting an area. I work with a lot of
(12:53):
clients who are residential designers in like
really high end coastal markets, especially in Florida.
And I have to do a similar exercise with them, even though they're not
necessarily designing short term rentals. But there's a lot of
competition in those areas. The market is already saturated with
interior designers, with builders, with people who are ready to service,
(13:15):
people who are maybe moving there or buying second or third homes
from the Midwest or from outside the U.S. there is a lot of
interest in a vacation rental area
or in an area, especially on the coast. Coast or mountain states, there's
different regions. So if you, like you said, are in, let's say
Arizona or, I don't know, another state and looking to enter a new
(13:37):
market, you've got to really think like, how are you going to differentiate yourself? Because
you're coming in at a little bit of a disadvantage, not knowing the
market, not knowing the vendors, not knowing the trades, not knowing
who is there to build the properties when there are established
people already there working in that market. But the data can
tell you where the gaps are. I think that's an important piece that you
(13:59):
made and then help you figure out what's the right approach to
target clients there. This probably won't be a very
popular thing to say, but I actually think you have an
advantage coming in new. Okay. Because when
an area is saturated with designers, they're
comfortable and they aren't necessarily doing
(14:21):
the data because they live there and breed there and
they're used to what they do. And I've been guilty of that.
And you come in as the fresh faced, look at all this
shiny data I have and look at all this research I did and
here's my math. And they don't have that from the locals because
again, you get comfortable. So this advice goes to those of you that are
(14:45):
comfortable in your area as well as those people that want to target a new
area. Stay on top of it. I think staying on top
of it is a lesson in general for business, for entrepreneurship. You can't get
comfortable, especially in our industry when there are so many
talented and eager and motivated
people who are ready to eat your lunch. So you gotta
(15:07):
stay competitive and data is one way to do that. I'll second what you
said about making sure that you're messaging very clearly that
this is a core competency for you on your website, on your socials.
We get a lot of people who want to speak at
the summit, who come to us and say, I want to talk about this, I
want to talk about that. And when we go to see their expertise and their
(15:29):
authority in this space, if we can't clearly understand
how they are building projects or speaking about this already
or leading communities, it's confusing for us.
Right. You have to establish yourself as the authority and then
share that with everyone because people will want
to go and vet you and see what you're doing. Same goes for if you're
(15:52):
emerging in a new market. Right. They want to see your work even if it's
not in that market. Good points. And same for
brands. Same for brands. Brands say they want to partner with
you, but if I can't find any language on your
websites that you're interested in hospitality or vacation design
or we're designers. Oh, my
(16:12):
gosh, that's so true. That's a whole other season, I think.
But yeah, yeah. That brings me back to
High Point by Design. Jane, this is one of the
questions we have, and it's how are you
sourcing? You mentioned sourcing in High Point year round. How does that work?
And I could go on and on, but, Jane, I don't think people realize
(16:36):
the wealth of opportunity there year round still.
Yeah, yeah, we know. Jess, you're an ambassador for high point
2, 4, 7, 365, and as is Erica and me.
But yeah, what High Point by Design? I think you've done it firsthand. You've come
here outside of the market when things are quiet, you've been able
to go into showrooms, you've been able to score some great
(16:58):
floor samples. Whether you're here for our big
sale that happens twice a year or just coming in,
say, August. Having those conversations, coming to High Point
outside of market gives you the time to have the conversations, really
establish those relationships with showroom managers and other people in
corporate that then get to know you, start to understand your business
(17:20):
better and can truly serve you and the needs of vacation rental
design. So you're coming here, you have time to educate and
be educated on their product. It just helps you buy smarter.
Right? Agree. Yeah. So the designers that I've helped with their
itineraries, whether they're buying for vacation rentals or buying for a
residential client, they love the experience of coming
(17:42):
and having, as I like to say, High Point Auto themselves.
So it can be super rewarding. I don't think people realize, and
this is one of the questions too, like when they're considering
coming to High Point off market, you actually help them.
They can reach out to you and you can say, here's who's open.
Here's who we need to make an appointment with. Here's this. You're looking for this
(18:05):
type of product. Here's who has it. And the cool thing, too,
is that I had gotten an email from a Chicago designer right before
market, and she couldn't make this market, and she won't be able to make the
next market. But she has a team, and she wants her
team to understand High Point, to understand how quality
furniture is made. So we'll be helping her create an itinerary
(18:27):
where not only is she going into showrooms and visiting with antique purveyors
and things like that, but she'll be able to go see how things are made.
So she can take a factory tour, take her younger associates
into it, and really show them. Because if you're going to sell luxury, you
got to understand it from the inside out. That's my belief.
Oh, my God. I want to do that. I know. Me too.
(18:49):
Another designer from Long island, she's coming in January
looking for a luxury experience, bringing her client.
Designers are so split on that. Like, some designers will
totally shop with their clients. Christy Hopper is like an ace at
that. And others are like, never. I don't want my designer to go
into those places. But the places is largely. They tag
(19:11):
it at retail here. So your client is not seeing the price that you
get. But anyway, it's great to come outside when it's
quiet, you can get a hotel room at a really good price and park
anywhere and get me. That's my favorite
part of the whole experience, getting you and both of you.
But it makes me realize, like, building the collective.
(19:33):
It's my time at market at High Point. I mean, off
market is when I had the best brand relationship
meetings to grow. Because for those of you that
don't know, with our Verd Collective, what's different is that the
brands that are our brand partners have to offer something different to our
members that a designer typically can't go on get on their own.
(19:56):
So, like hooker, you're automatically stocking dealer. Classic home,
Eastern accents. I could go on and on and on. So that magic
happened by going to high point off market. Yeah.
You got to invest the time to get the reward.
All right, I know. We have more questions. Yes. Okay, here we
go. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see designers doing
(20:18):
in vacation rental design? Not saying what they do on their
social is a big one. And they're talking about that. Can
I just say one other thing about that. And, Eric, I don't think you said
this specifically, but. But maybe you did. Oh, you did. When we're.
Yeah, when we're planning the summit, we get a lot of pitches, but tell us,
make it easy for us to see your authority in this space and. Make it
(20:40):
easy for your clients, too, because, again, this is a really
saturated market. Interior design. So it's. We
know obviously from the inside, interior design, people who design
workplaces, people who design commercial spaces or restaurants or
homes, that the skill set it takes to do those, the vendors,
the pricing, the project timelines, all the things are so different.
(21:02):
We know that. But outside, think like your client. Your client
has no idea you are the one in charge of educating them. So
you have to say, right. The thing that makes me different is that I
start with data. Like, I start with this insight that
really nobody else has access to, and this is how I can help you. That
message is so clear and so client focused and effective
(21:24):
in converting them that you wouldn't believe it. So put some time into
making sure that people do understand your authority, because if
you're focused on doing this, you really want to make sure that you're attracting the
right clients. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what
else? What are they doing wrong? Big mistakes. What could they do better?
I think that the courage to educate
(21:46):
strongly is very important. And here's what I mean by that.
So you're the expert. They're hiring you. And I know designers,
especially in residential. In a sense, we're used to needing to tiptoe.
Okay, yes, you want to work in grandma's purple chair, or
this color is important to you. We'll make sure we rotate this
color in vacation rental design. And this has
(22:09):
happened many times. They're like, okay, we just want this,
or we don't really understand the importance of this, so just do this.
And having the courage to push back and say, not only
is this important, but I can't guarantee the numbers that I
have expressed to you because you won't do this. And this may seem
insignificant to you, but here's why it's significant.
(22:31):
And pushing back and having really strong
conversations, it's hard, and you have to put your
foot down and you have the math or the confidence
or the pretend confidence to push back. I use a lot of pretend confidence,
but. But I mean that seriously, because they don't know what they
don't know, and you are just a part of their business
(22:53):
growing the strength to really push back is important.
I think in vacation rental design, I see designers struggling with that
and I also have heard this multiple times, and it really drives me
insane. But I have seen people talk
about it as just elevated staging or pitching their services
as staging, and it's not staging. I know I've mentioned
(23:16):
this before, but I still see it. Each one of these is an
important category, but they're completely different. And don't pitch
your services that way because you think by, in a sense, making
it sound more affordable will get you the job. You're doing a disservice to
your owner and to yourself. Those are great,
great responses to the question, but could you tell us some
(23:37):
decorating mistakes? Like some things that you've seen do's and
don'ts? Like, what are some of the don'ts don't?
Or are there any live laugh love? Is that a don't?
My very first project, Big Blue, I didn't know what an
Airbnb was, and it's this beautiful beach home. And
(23:58):
so I'm going to just admit it. I bought my share of seashell pillows.
I may have incorporated some anchors. I had no
word signs. I did draw the line there. But I went themey. I did.
And I've evolved. But at the time,
that was what I thought of embrace the beach
house. Well, themes aren't bad. Themes can be fun.
(24:22):
Yes. Elevating it. Thinking out of the theme box.
I've evolved. And it was actually one of my favorite rooms, but it
was this room and we were figuring out budget and
Walmart had this bedding set that had
lighthouses on it and they had a lighthouse
statue in the room, like a little piece of architecture
(24:43):
sitting on a dresser. So I ran with it. I had
lighthouses. I did it and I thought it was really pretty.
But I've evolved. So theme light. I don't know how else
to say that. Well, I just remember when we were going to do the coastal
challenge, because I was like, do coastal, but don't
do seashells. Lobster. Lobsters, Yeah. I mean,
(25:04):
or do a shell, but just do it more abstract. Or waves. And that's
all beautif. And also goes into channels into
wellness. Yes. Yeah. I think do coastal, but without
pillows from home goods. Yeah. On the flip
side, though, and this is really important, people are not wanting
to rent a place that looks like their house or their neighbor's house.
(25:26):
So on the other side of that, don't do theme explosion.
But also you have to have a different vibe. People don't
want to. And some people were utilizing the free
design skills of that company that rhymes with
Madre Marne.
And that's great. They have great pieces. But the whole house
(25:48):
looks the same because it's all the same collection. Guests don't want to
rent what their neighbor's house looks like, so
don't use watery marn. They want an experience. They want something different.
They want to go and sink into a local
experience, but they also want it to be cool and different so they can
dream and feel like they're in a totally new place. Of course.
(26:11):
And we can tell when you bought everything off of that place that rhymes with
maymare and.
May rare. And don't fill it with mid century modern
little furniture. Hundred pound capacity. That's a big scale.
That mistake is made over and over again. Okay, I'll
be quiet. I have some of that in my own home and I love
(26:35):
it in many respects. But scale wise,
I'm not the biggest fan. Or it's time for change. So
we gotta move on to another question because we are. Gotta go. Jess, this
question always comes up. Tell us some of your str. Horror stories.
Do you have two sort of. Yeah, horror stories. Go ahead.
One of our projects was used for a porn film
(26:58):
that we didn't know. Very common. How did you find out?
Should I. I don't know if. Will we be bleached? Just say it. We actually
were. We had just finished redesigning. It
was a refresh and the timing had worked. Everything was
installed and we flew back and
the housekeeping was going to come through and do everything. And we were flying back
(27:21):
in and meeting the photographer at the project and we were going to shoot it
all day Sunday. This was back when you couldn't use your phones
on the plane. So I land, I turn on my phone, it's blowing up.
And I see it's the housekeeping company.
And I call her back and she's crying. And I hear
words like it's crying. And then I hear words like
(27:43):
dildo and then oil and then
sand. I'm like, what in the holy hell is happening here?
Long story short, the property manager had gotten a last minute booking and
thought that it wouldn't be a problem. And whoever had
rented it had decided to shoot a film. And they had
carried the sofas out to the beach for whatever
(28:06):
produced out there. And so those had sand in them. There
was everything. There was tarps with oil on them, there were
toys. And we would learn later what
this meant. But once we arrived to the property, we see all this damage. She
had called in the whole crew, the photographers there going, what the hell?
And There were command strips with hooks all over the house
(28:30):
and there was washcloths taped over all the vents. And we didn't know
why. I was like, I clearly don't understand what's happening. And we
found out later that was for them to run the cabling for the film
equipment and the washcloths over the vents was to hide the noise of the air
conditioning coming on. And so anyway, we end up
still shooting and we would shoot a spot where the clean
(28:53):
people had finished and then he would shift over because there was
cleaning. So like we're just one step behind what's being
cleaned. And of course, the owners were livid, property
managers were livid. And they fire off a
scathing email and huge dollar amount of
what the damage is. And the people wrote a check and went,
(29:15):
no problem, whatever you need, no questions asked.
This happens a lot. That was my abbreviated story there. Actually. The
marketplace kind of rental platforms have
been giving advice on this. I had to write a little bit of a
help file about this. Like how do you
limit short, like very last minute bookings just for other
(29:38):
reasons beyond potentially flag as an adult film
location? But you also want to limit the amount of, of luggage
people bring in because if they are bringing cameras
and cables and equipment and soundboards and all the things, they're going to show
up as like large amounts of baggage coming
into your property for a one night rental. Right.
(30:00):
So there are some things that you can do, but this is actually very common.
Yeah. Which is crazy. Well, and I think renting spaces
for film and art and commercial uses is a way
to increase revenue. You just want to be wise who. You want,
but intentional. This was intentional. Look, there's entertainment for
everybody. I believe it's just be say what you're going to use it for and
(30:23):
don't be destructive. Right. With oil. Don't take the sofas out to
the beach. Okay. Oh my gosh. That. Come on. I will share
one thing too. Real quick. That and Jess, I don't know if you've experienced this,
but at Airbnb we had in specific markets like
Nashville. Nashville is a bachelorette. It's
the bachelorette capital of the US and so there's a hashtag Glitter
(30:45):
Woo. Yes, the Woo girls. And so the owners of
properties there were having a lot of problems cleaning up
Silly String and Glitter. Like they had very
specific housekeeping issues because of the amount of parties and
things. And so they made it a restriction where in certain parts, like
hosts could limit the number of guests. Right. No more than five
(31:08):
women at once, like, just to kind of keep these things from happening.
But you're right. If you're gonna use it for a commercial purpose or you're gonna
use it for party, just this is someone's home or
someone's investment. Be thoughtful. We use this now as
a tool when we talk to owners and investors about, okay, here's what could happen.
But we could also go this direction for profitability. And so, like
(31:29):
Bandon Dunes, a golf apparel company, is
using that property for photo shoots. And there's websites that
you can list your property on, and it's just for commercial
use for photo shoots and video shoots or for corporate retreats.
Yeah, there's a whole revenue stream. Bird retreats with us
coming soon. 26. All
(31:52):
right, so we are going to have a sort of ask us
anything that's going to be. We're going to have that at the summit as well.
So those who are attending can bring their questions, and
we'll get you all the answers. But I think it's time to
wrap up season one. Can I just say, for
all of you, thank you for submitting your questions, but also, we. We want to
(32:14):
know what you're interested in for season two. I would love to know,
because it could be anything. It could be what
Jane wears. Yeah, we're just tossing around. That would be a
really great season. I want to go in Jane's closet for season two.
When we first came up with this, we thought each season would have a different
theme, and we got really excited about that. And so the first
(32:37):
season, of course, has been about the summit and vacation rental design
and High point and. And all the resources that are available to interior
designers. But, yeah, season two is going to be totally different.
And I think we're planning to announce the topic and theme of
that at the summit. So excited. Because
it's pretty smart.
(33:00):
All right, so I love you all. Thanks for listening. Yeah, thank
you. Good to see you ladies. Till next time. All right,
till next season. Ciao. Bye. Thanks
for hanging out with us on Pretty Smart. If today's conversation gave you
something to think about or made you feel a little more seen, we'd
love for you to keep the momentum going. What's your next step? Register
(33:22):
for the Vacation Rental Design Summit. It's where community creativity and
big ideas meet in person. Check out the link in the show notes or
visit hvxd.org to get your ticket to join us this
January in Vegas, us. But until next time, stay
inspired, stay connected, and stay pretty smart.
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