The Beachside Airbnb Blueprint: Maximising Your Property's Potential with Chris Doherty-Fisher

Ever wondered what it takes to run a successful short-term rental property on the Sunshine Coast? This fascinating deep dive with Chris Doherty-Fisher, General Manager of Sunny B&B, unveils the mechanics behind managing 80 holiday properties spread across 50 kilometres of coastline.

Chris reveals eye-opening statistics about the extraordinary returns possible in this market, with Coolum, Mooloolaba and Maroochydore all ranking among Australia's top 10 suburbs for short-term rental yields—delivering approximately 80% higher returns than traditional rentals. For property investors considering this path, he offers candid advice about what truly works, from proximity to beaches (the closer the better) to the must-have amenities that drive bookings.

The conversation demystifies common misconceptions, like the belief that short-term rentals significantly impact housing affordability (census data shows only 2% of rental properties nationwide are in the short-term market), and the assumption that booking far in advance guarantees the best rates (often the opposite is true thanks to dynamic pricing models). Chris shares insider knowledge about guest preferences, including why air fryers have become one of the most requested kitchen appliances and how pet-friendly properties can substantially widen your booking potential.

Beyond the business aspects, we explore Chris's fascinating journey from cocktail bartender to managing a thriving family business, his passion for systems and logistics, and the challenges of coordinating cleaners, maintenance staff, and guest experiences across dozens of properties. His insights into property management software, damage prevention strategies, and the art of creating memorable guest experiences provide a masterclass for anyone interested in the short-term rental space.

Whether you're a property investor considering holiday rentals, a curious traveler wanting to understand how these operations work, or someone fascinated by the evolution of the accommodation industry, this episode delivers valuable knowledge directly from someone at the coalface of this dynamic market.

Episode Transcript

Amy (00:03):
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard, where you get the
opportunity to learn all thereis to know about your real
estate journey fromprofessionals who are passionate
about property.
I'm Amy Bennett, your host, andI look forward to providing you
with education, inspiration anda behind-the-scenes look at the
world of real estate.
Well, good morning.

(00:30):
I am absolutely delighted to bejoined by Chris Doherty-Fisher
from the team at Sunny B&B thismorning.

Chris (00:37):
Welcome, chris.
Thanks, amy, pleasure to behere.

Amy (00:40):
My word, am I excited to have you.
Chris is the general manager ofSunny B&B.
He's been an absolute godsendin my business, providing
short-term rental appraisals forevery one of my listings,
always within such a quickperiod of time.
So we're going to get to learna little bit about you and also
Sunny B&B, and then, of course,most importantly, what

(01:02):
short-term rentals are, thebenefits of them, some myths and
misconceptions and dive inreally deep.

Chris (01:09):
Excellent.

Amy (01:09):
Wonderful Chris.
Before we chat about Sunny B&B,I want to know your journey, of
how you got to your positionnow.

Chris (01:17):
Yeah, no worries.
So I'm a Cairns local, so farnorth Queensland up, where it's
hot and sweaty, very humid,every single day of the year and
we get about a two week winterperiod, unlike down here where I
get a lovely couple of months.
It's been fantastic since Imade the move.
But yeah, my work historystarted when I was 13.
I actually became a soccerreferee.
Oh wow, and yeah, that'ssomething I still do through to

(01:40):
this day as well.
Yeah, I did that all the waythrough school and it was a
little bit of a funny story.
I was always wanting to be ajournalist and I'd done work
experience in journalism at theCairns Post, I've done local
media for a football team andeverything, and it got to the
last week of grade 12, excuse meand I had a spare week of block

(02:01):
exams and my mum didn't want mesitting around the house doing
nothing.

Amy (02:09):
She said I'm going to organise you some work
experience somewhere.

Chris (02:10):
So thanks mum.
Yeah, thanks mum.
She worked at the school, soshe was all integrated with it.
Yeah, um and yeah, she organisedme um a week of work experience
at one of the local five-starhotels um, the Pullman
International in Cairns.
Um, and it was there that overthat week, I just fell in love
with people, fell in love withhospitality, and I don't
recommend this kids.
But in the last week of grade12, I changed all my university
preferences from journalism tobusiness and business management

(02:34):
.
Wow, and yeah, my life thentook a completely different
direction from where I thoughtit was going to go.

Amy (02:39):
So thanks again, mum.

Chris (02:41):
Yeah, thanks, mum, wow.
So yeah, off the back of thatwork experience, the hotel
actually offered me a job and Iwas there for the next five
years.
So five years of workingthrough back of house room
service, out onto the floor,having my own section, becoming
like the maitre d' and thecashier.
I eventually found my passionin the bar and worked my way up
to be bar supervisor for acouple of years, released three

(03:03):
of my own cocktail menus.

Amy (03:05):
Oh, tell us more about that .

Chris (03:07):
See, I'm not a creative person at all.
Like, if you ask me to sing ordance or do art absolutely
shocking.
I'll do my best, but it will beterrible when the creativity
does come out of me, for somereason, is with the beverages.
I had full autonomy with my backbar there, which was absolutely
fantastic.
So every single day I wouldcome onto the shift after I do
the setup, I'd make, um, youknow, a little invention based

(03:29):
off of what I was feeling likeat the day, give it to the staff
to try, and that was all sortof trial and error for new
cocktail menus when they cameout and everything.

Amy (03:35):
I love that, your favorite cocktail.

Chris (03:38):
My favorite cocktail.
I'm a classics person, so a ginmartini with a twist does me
nice and easy.
Yeah, but yeah, I can makeanything you like, for sure
that's so fun Actually funnystory.

Amy (03:49):
when we got married, daniel and I had curated cocktails for
our wedding.
Oh yeah, fantastic yeah so weboth had one.
So I'm just trying to thinkback.
I think mine was a pink pinacolada and his was a spicy
margarita Love, a good cocktail.

Chris (04:05):
I love doing themed cocktails for events.
They're the most fun.
I mean, we had a couple of umlike alice in wonderland events
where I ended up doing somethingwith dry ice, yes, which was
really cool.
And yeah, there's a tourismtropical north queensland one
where I did some.
I made my own orgette for a maitai.
So because, uh, orgette is madeum with an almond base and
almonds are super unsustainableto grow, okay, so so I made my
own orchard out of walnuts andavocado pits as the sweetener in

(04:28):
my own style Mai Tai.
And it was also instead of darkrum and white rum, it was a
local dark rum and a local ginBeautiful.

Amy (04:38):
That's amazing.

Chris (04:38):
That's probably one I'm most proud of, actually.

Amy (04:40):
So it's amazing, isn't it?
Because I too would say I'm notcreative, but it's interesting,
isn't it, where ourexpressionism comes out, like
mine's, generally with my hairor my clothes and everything.
So I think there is thatelement of it.
But you're also superanalytical.
You love data.
Yeah, I love numbers.
So how did you get from whereyou were to where we are now?

Chris (05:01):
Well, after five years in hospo I was getting a little
bit sick of the 3am bedtimesmidday, wake up back to work at
2pm so I was looking for a nineto five and I found a job at the
Commonwealth Bank in Cairns upthere as a relieving officer and
I did about 18 months therebefore I eventually moved down

(05:21):
here and I suppose that's sortof a little bit of a segue into
the business.
So it's a family owned andoperated business.
My auntie and uncle are theowners, and they were actually.
They've been doing it for sevenyears, as of 2023.
And they hadn't taken a holiday, they hadn't managed to get out
.
They just work, work, work,work, work.
They've got amazing work ethics, very inspiring, and they were

(05:45):
looking to sell the business.
Uh, they actually found thebuyer.
Um, the buyer came and workedwith them for two months, um,
and it was one day beforesettlement and the buyer's like
no, I'm out of here, see youlater.
Um.
So my poor auntie, julia, whowas very much in retirement mode
, um, just had a very rudewake-up call there and had to
keep working, um, and they werelike, well, we don't want to

(06:08):
stuff around with the saleprocess anymore.
Um, we'll, we'll get someone into manage it and we'll, you know
, go off on our travels and sortof do the remote thing.
Um, and yeah, so my parents hadhad a chat with them about that
and they let me know what hadhappened, um, and like, oh, you
know, I'm okay at the bank, butyou know, I wouldn't mind a
change and be nice to get out ofCairns because I hadn't moved

(06:29):
away from my hometown and Ididn't want to be one of those
people who's?
never leaves the hometown.
So I reached out to Len andyeah, let him know.
You know that I've got mybusiness degree.
You know I'm interested.
It sounds like a cool gig, um,and you know that I'm available
if they wanted to give me atrial.
Um, they flew me down, uh, fora weekend, got to know the
business um, did a bit of aninterview, how it would all work

(06:50):
.
Um, I really enjoyed the work.
Um, they thought I would be agood fit and yeah, a month later
I was noticing at the bank anddown to the sunny coast amazing
and never looked back righthaven't looked back, no yeah, so
how long ago was that?
uh, so that was september.

Amy (07:04):
2023 is when I moved down here, yeah, just over 18 months
ago now, and have you enjoyedthe transition to the coast?

Chris (07:11):
oh, I think the weather and the lifestyle probably more
than anything else.
Um, yeah, get to live in abeautiful property um on the
canals in minyama, so I'm in agreat spot there, so that's
really helped as well yes and,yeah, having a winter, I think,
has been the biggest gods and Ilove dressing up in warm clothes
because, you can't wear warmclothes in Cairns um, so it's
been nice to expand my wardrobea little bit there as well.

Amy (07:32):
I love that as a Sunshine Coast local because I would say
like I barely put a jumper onyeah, it's still.
Queensland.
I lived in Melbourne, had allthese beautiful coats and, you
know, heated, heated seats inthe car, and certainly not what
we have here.
So, chat us through thebusiness.
Love to know, yeah, obviously,the reason that your aunt and
uncle started the business andalso what a day in the life

(07:55):
looks like.

Chris (07:55):
Yeah, no worries.
So going all the way back tothe start.
So my aunt and uncle they wereactually partners in a franchise
business.
They had about, I think, over15, might've been over 20
franchisees around the country.
They were called Stacks ofSnacks and they put like little
snack boxes into workplaces andthings like that.
And he'd been doing that for, Ithink, 17 years or a very, very

(08:19):
long time, and they were sortof looking you know what's their
next idea going to be as theyget a little bit closer to that
sort of retirement age?
Um, and in the house that theyhave, um in Minyama, they had
done like um homestay workersbefore in the front room, cause
it's fully self-contained Um,and they thought why don't we
put that on Airbnb and see whathappens?
Um, so that's where it started.

(08:40):
And then, uh, I think, believeit was that, following Christmas
, a few of their friends saidhey, we're going overseas.
You know your Airbnb seems tobe doing really well.
Would you mind looking afterour house while we go overseas?
And then, just through word ofmouth and the actual experience
of running it and thehospitality side of things.
They decided to sell their stakein the franchise business and

(09:02):
go yeah whole hog into theAirbnb.

Amy (09:04):
Amazing, when they were doing Airbnb from home, were
they doing the cleaning and theywere doing everything, or
they'd already sort ofoutsourced those things, yeah,
when it was just at their place.

Chris (09:14):
Julia is one of the most fastidious people I know in my
auntie.

Amy (09:17):
Is this where you live?
Super, super clean?
Yeah, that's right.
Oh, I'm so lucky, so I'm inthat front apartment.
So I'm in that front apartment.

Chris (09:22):
So yeah, she's super fastidious, so she would always
do all of her own cleaning andthen sort of when they got to
around five or six properties,that's when they started to look
at different contractingservices for cleaning and things
like that.
But what they found is thatwhen you're only managing such a
small number it's hard to keepconsistent cleaners on the books

(09:42):
, because there's not alwaysthat consistent work.
So Len being Len was like waslike well, if we're gonna do
five, we may as well do 10.
Yeah, and got to 10 and it wassort of like I mean, if we're
here, we may as well do 20.
So after it went over to 20, um, and they started thinking, oh,
we're running it out of thegarage 20, you know, starting to
get a little bit much with thelinen.

(10:03):
Why don't we just go the wholehog and we'll go get a warehouse
and we'll build it all the wayup to 50?
So, um, yeah, start of 2023.
Um, they purchased the warehousedown in warana there um so very
central on the coast, 20minutes to call them, 20 minutes
to go so that's their own linenum, so the linen itself so is
actually from sunshinecommercial laundry, um, and it's

(10:24):
all premium hotel quality linen.

Amy (10:26):
Yeah, wonderful.

Chris (10:26):
So all the towels, all the sheets, pillow slips,
everything.

Amy (10:28):
So you're not washing linen .

Chris (10:30):
No, I'm definitely not washing linen.
Oh my God, if I had to washlinen for 80 properties, we'd
get an actual full likesemi-trailer truck comes and
picks up from us three times aweek.

Amy (10:39):
Yeah, I don't have the capacity for that I was just
thinking about your time atPullman and you know I've
watched so many documentarieslike behind the scenes with
hotels and you look at thosesort of laundry services.
It's, it's incredible, isn't it, what goes into it.

Chris (10:51):
I think it's a common misconception.
Uh, when people originally comeon, they think like, oh yeah,
you must have a laundry?
It's like no well, we're notactually a hotel yes, we're a
management company and we haveall of this service that we can
provide, but it's's alloutsourced.

Amy (11:03):
Yes, smart business, so we got to 50 in 2023.

Chris (11:08):
Yeah, so that's about when I came on board.
So yeah, I came on boardSeptember 23.
We had about 60 listings thenand, yeah, it was all me
learning the ropes for about sixmonths time, hands-on with
Leonard.
Julia Got through my firstChristmas.
Oh my God, that was absolutelyinsane.

Amy (11:24):
Is that peak time yeah?

Chris (11:26):
Christmas, definitely peak time, I think, and this is
again where it's different to ahotel, where everything's sort
of in the one spot.
We're running a hotel across 50kilometres, so we've got a
hotel with 80 rooms spreadbetween Golden Beach and Coolum.
So, yeah, you've got to havethe staff that are able to get
out there when things go wrong,someone gets locked out.
It's not like going up theelevator, it's get in the car,

(11:48):
go to the shed go to gold beach,go to call wherever you need to
go.
So, um, definitely a lotdifferent to being in the hotel,
but you can still draw on a lotof the same philosophies that's
a great um yeah, synergy ofyour experience previously and
how that works.

Amy (12:02):
So you've obviously got to be able to pivot and move with
anything happening right A bitlike real estate.

Chris (12:08):
Yeah, absolutely you never know what's going to
happen.

Amy (12:11):
Perfect.
So a day in your life as ageneral manager.
What does that look like?

Chris (12:14):
Yeah, well, my day always starts with a coffee.
I think every good day does,because when the coffee doesn't
get in, it's generally not agood day.
Yeah, um, but yeah, we'll getinto the shed.
Um, we'll have a look at whatthe day looks like.
Um, all of the cleaners willhave already been organized the
day before, so, um, we're alittle bit different to some
other companies in terms of howwe set that out.
We actually supply all the linenum and cleaning equipment for

(12:38):
them, so we will put the linenout on their dedicated stations
right so that when they come in,as opposed to some other
businesses, they don't have topack their own linen on their
own time and we are essentiallydoing a formula on pit stop.
They pull up we help them grabtheir gear load the cars up and
we get them out there.

Amy (12:54):
And so obviously that takes orchestrating, you know,
obviously minimizing timeframe,you set routes and everything
like that as well.

Chris (13:01):
Yeah, exactly so like if someone had three cleans through
two marooch at all, one inmalula bar we'd schedule the two
in marooch at all first andthen back to malula bar, so that
they're coming.
They're working on their wayback to the shed, um, as they're
coming back.
So you know all about trying tomake everyone's life as easy as
possible while still gettingeverything done that we need to
get done wow, it's so much tofactor in, and obviously the

(13:21):
clean time varies on the size ofthe property.
Absolutely yeah, so that allfactors into it as well, and
making sure that we're able toget them done, uh, within the
five hour turnaround time frameas well, if it's got incoming
guests coming in as well yeah,gosh, let's drill down on that,
because I love logistics andeverything.

Amy (13:38):
So is that something that you're manually working out each
day, or do you have automationsystems that help you?

Chris (13:44):
Yeah, so the team sort of all works together.
So our guest services agent sortof like my personal assistant
as well she's responsible formaking sure that we have a
spreadsheet of what our cleansfor the next two weeks are going
to be and she updates thatdaily so that on the next day we
know what the cleans are goingto be.
It was previously myself, thenwho would go into that

(14:07):
spreadsheet?
I would section it all out, dothe logistics of it.
Who's going to do what first?
How many is each cleaner goingto get?
I now have a fantasticoperations manager that does
that role for me.
Awesome Big load off of myplate.
Because that was sort of everyday, yeah, yeah exactly Every
single day yeah, there's alwaysproperties that need cleaning
when you've got 80 in theportfolio and I guess as well

(14:29):
too.

Amy (14:30):
Is there a commonality with like check-in dates?
Like, obviously do you havelike a larger volume on a Friday
afternoon going in and checkingout on a Sunday?
What is that kind?

Chris (14:39):
of like yeah, it's interesting to see how the
trends change throughout theyear.
I know previously Sunday isalways the biggest day.
People come and stay Friday,saturday or Saturday night and
check out on Sunday, so I'llhave anywhere between 25 and 60
properties to clean on a Sunday.
And then the.

Amy (14:57):
It's those penalty rates right?
Yeah, I know it's so great, butyeah.

Chris (15:01):
so then Monday would normally have been the next
biggest day, but for the lastsort of six months or so we've
been seeing um a lot more uptakeand it might just be in our
bookings um, with tradies andpeople coming up to the coast
from brisbane to do work, andthey're staying a lot monday to
friday.
So I'm getting you know 15 to25 cleans on a friday yes and
only sort of 10 to 15 on amonday.

(15:22):
So it really is fun to see andfun to change how your
availability works for thecleaners as well, because you've
got to be super dynamic becauseyou might hire someone and say,
look, these are the days thatwe're definitely going to need
you and then if there's amassive change in trends, it's
got to be like are you going tobe flexible enough to change
this?
You know we want to work withyou as well to make sure it

(15:42):
still fits in with your life andyour schedule.

Amy (15:44):
So, yeah, definitely lots of things it's so well and I
can't wait for us to delvedeeper into trends, because I
know that's something that weboth have an interest and that's
, um, ultimately, why I wantedyou to jump on the podcast,
because we've had such greatconversations, um.
But look, I wanted to ask youthen that just sort of picked my
interest, just speaking aboutthe cleaning, because that's
paid for by your guests.
Is that right, correct?

Chris (16:04):
yeah, so again, this is different to a hotel where
everything would sort of bebundled in as one price.
What our guests see is anaccommodation price that they're
paying as the nightly rate forthe room and then a standard
cleaning fee, which, with ourbusiness, is the same whether
they're staying for one night orseven nights.
We don't have a differentcleaning fee.
We stock the property withlinen for maximum guests

(16:27):
consumables as though they werecoming for a short stay, and
that doesn't change whether it'sgoing to be one night or seven
nights, so that cleaning feealways stays the same and, yeah,
it's always paid by the guests.

Amy (16:36):
Wonderful, and your team that look after the cleaning of
the properties.
Obviously that allows them theability.
You know, do you find whenyou're recruiting them, a lot of
them have had their ownbusiness cleaning business
beforehand.

Chris (16:48):
Yeah, I mean cleaners on the Sunshine Coast.
I think if you go and ask anyshort-term rental accommodation
provider, they're really reallydifficult to find and really,
really difficult to keep it's avery very high turnover of staff
because, you know, a lot of itis seasonal work as well.
You know, during school holidaytimes, which we're sitting in
now, I'll have maybe 20 to 25cleaners on my books, whereas

(17:12):
opposed to in the low season,we'll have 10 to 15 cleaners on
the books.

Amy (17:15):
Look, that's a full-time job, managing it in itself,
isn't it?

Chris (17:18):
Yeah, absolutely.

Amy (17:19):
Yeah, amazing, awesome.
So let's get into.
I just wanted to.
I'm just fascinated with thetrend, so why don't we just jump
straight into there?
So when you and I caught uprecently, like I said, you're
always phenomenal at providingour prospective buyers an
overview of what the short-termrental would be of a property.

(17:39):
What I've always loved isobviously, in addition to your
speed, but also that you'rereally honest, so you share with
them what the actual vacancyrate is or what the viability of
the property, so you don't sortof say that every night's going
to be full.
But really, what I want todrill down here is just that
appetite for what your guestsare looking for.
That's what I find reallyfascinating.

(18:00):
So we're obviously, centrallyspeaking, about the Sunshine
Coast, but, yeah, what are thepopular things that they're
looking for?

Chris (18:07):
Well, I suppose for us, because we well, I consider us
to be a little bit more niche,because we only take on
properties that are east ofNicklin Way and the Sunshine
Motorway, so they're all on thebeach side of the main
thoroughfare, so they're sort ofbeach side properties that are
all within two, three, fourblocks of the beach and that's
what we're selling.
So when I speak to, you know,prospective owners or

(18:28):
prospective clients about howthey're setting up their
apartment, we're selling thebeach, so the decor needs to be
beachy and then once you getthat down pat and it's going to
look great for photos, it's justmaking sure that all the
essentials are in there.
So it's going to be functional.
They've got a functionalkitchen, you know, functional
bathroom, functional laundry,coffee pods right.

Amy (18:46):
You said to me.

Chris (18:47):
Well, so we say pod machines.
Unfortunately, when we get tothis, the size that we are, with
any properties in the portfolio, it becomes a lot more
difficult to scale.
And yeah, when you're supplyingthose sort of premium items
like whether that be laundrypowder or coffee pods.
You've got to be a little bitcareful, because what a guest
will do is they will come in andthey will grab all of it and

(19:07):
they will take it with them.

Amy (19:08):
Oh yeah, guilty.

Chris (19:10):
Similar to like a hotel, and that's again the
misconception like that thehotel just has this massive
stockpile sitting there, whereaswe you know, as an individual
property.
Whilst there's 80 in ourportfolio, that in itself is one
individual property and wedon't always have the capacity
to be able to keep maintainingthat stockpile and it gets
expensive as well, Of course,and if you're like, if a guest
is staying for seven days, youknow you go, do you?

Amy (19:32):
you know how many coffees does somebody have a day?
No, that's a really fair point.

Chris (19:36):
I'll think of that as I grab all of the English
breakfast, Cause it is somethingthat we work with our owners on
, because some of our ownerslike we've got some very, very
nice luxury properties.
They do want to offer thosemore luxury items.
So they are able to leave astockpile of those items in a
locked cupboard that ourcleaners can access when they go
through, and then we would putout just, you know enough for

(19:57):
the first night or the firstcouple of nights, not
necessarily a two week stay oranything like that.
So, yeah, there's stilldefinitely a wiggle room to work
those sorts of things in.
It's just figuring out how it'sgoing to work with each
individual property and howyou're going to make sure that
you're not losing money as wellby supplying those extra items
and potentially going missing.

Amy (20:16):
Yeah, no, it makes sense.
So key thing it sounds likethat people are looking for is
proximity to the beach.

Chris (20:22):
Absolutely.
I think you know the hotter itis in Brisbane, the better it is
for our business, because theyjust want to get out of the big
smoke and get to the damn beach.

Amy (20:30):
Oh who wouldn't?
That's why we live here.
Awesome.
What else do they look for whenthey're booking a property?

Chris (20:36):
Yeah, so I mean top search amenities.
In terms of all of the bookingplatforms, pool is number one.
It's the most searched item onAirbnb, bookingcom and stays,
closely followed by airconditioning, yes, and then it
sort of filters down to havingfree parking, having Wi-Fi and
then having a laundry as welland then a kitchen.

(20:56):
But yeah, your two main onesare your swimming pools and your
.
What did I just say before?
I was going through the list inmy head and they all got
jumbled there.

Amy (21:09):
Well, it was funny when you said that, because we spoke
about off-air, about the freeWi-Fi.
Yes, that's right.
Like I still can't fathom inthis day and age that it's not
free, but interesting that yousay so.
Those are really common thingsas well.
Air conditioning was number two.
Oh, that's right.

Chris (21:23):
Air conditioning and I know, like, like you say, you're
a Melbourne girl.
So you come up here?
Oh sorry, I should say theopposite I'm from camp.
So I come down here and it'sreally cool for me and I could
probably get by even in summerwith just a ceiling fan and you
know some fans in my living room.

Amy (21:37):
That's fine, but when you're talking about the people
like yourself, that are comingup from Melbourne or the Kiwis
that are coming over the Kiwisneed air con, man, or they just
die and you'll be hearing aboutit.
Yeah, and I bet they have it on18 as well.
Oh yes, the cleaner will walk init's bloody freezing in here I
know I'm feeling like the mosthorrible guest now that we're
chatting yeah, with those thingsthat you suggested.

(21:57):
Then, too, it's interestingbecause we also run analytics on
sales searches.
So buyers are generally thesame thing proximity to the
beach, pool, air conditioning, acouple of different things.
For prospective buyers is morethings like security and
everything as well.
And then what about areas thatthey're looking for?
Do they sort of drill down inspecial areas on the coast?

Chris (22:17):
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say there's any In terms of
search volume?
Um you definitely have, uh,malula bar coolum, uh,
maruchador and golden beach inthe top four, yep, um.
So everyone, when people thinkof the sunshine coast, they
think noosa, they think malulabar um, and then, yeah, when we
drill down into the data, itbecomes cool and maruchador and

(22:37):
then golden beach is actuallythe top suburb um of the
southern.
Well, yeah, when I southern, Isay south of the shed in Warana.
Always logistics On the southsuburbs yeah.

Amy (22:48):
Absolutely, and look the appetite for people looking for
short-term rental properties.
I'm certainly growing and I'vecertainly sold properties in
Golden Beach Awesome.
I want to chat to you about, Iguess, who your clients are and
then want to chat through aboutwhat a buyer should look for if
they're looking to increasetheir short-term rental

(23:08):
portfolio.

Chris (23:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So the majority of our clientsare property investors, either
from Brisbane or interstate.
They're looking for two things.
They're looking for either apurely investment property that
is only going to be there forAirbnb.
They might use it once a yearfor a weekend, but that's about
it, so they can still check intotheir own property.
Yeah, absolutely, Because theother so I'd say probably 75% of

(23:31):
our clientele purely investmentand the other 25%.
It's a second home, it's aholiday apartment, it's a
holiday home that they're goingto come up and use once a month
quite regularly with theirfamily, with their friends, um,
and it's sort of, yeah, just anadded bonus that it can, you
know, earn some revenue whilethey're away, um.
And yeah, I suppose that's themain difference between a
long-term and a short-termrental is that with the

(23:52):
short-term rentals, you havethat flexibility and ability to
come and use your own propertywithout needing to go through
the whole eviction process andthen getting a whole another new
tenant in, and that can getquite lengthy from what I hear.

Amy (24:05):
And also I believe it's a lot more lucrative.
Is that right as well than apermanent rental?

Chris (24:09):
property, absolutely.
I think I shared with you guysa month ago or so or I might
have just been off air last weekwhen we were chatting there was
a study done in January of thetop performing study done in
January of the top performing,top 10 performing areas in
Australia for short-term rentalsand three suburbs made that

(24:29):
list Coolum, mooloolaba andMaroochydore.
All made that list of top 10 inAustralia and it found that the
short-term rental yields wereon average 80% higher than the
long-term rental yields and thatwas across all 10, but yeah.
Mooloolaba, Maroochydore Coolum,all fell into that 10 as well,
and that was across all 10, butyeah, Malula Barmaroo, Chitlok
Coulombe, all fell into that 10as well.

Amy (24:44):
So that obviously fluctuates.

Chris (24:46):
You know everywhere you go across the coast and there's
different factors that need tobe considered in some areas.

Amy (24:51):
But yeah, definitely for those three that's a recent
number, strong appetite, I thinkas well too.
You know that's a really goodpoint that you make, that it
gives people the flexibility tobe able to enjoy the property as
well.
But also, you know in thatdowntime where they're not there
.
Do you have any properties inyour portfolio where they have
sort of a secondary dwelling?
So they're in a main house andthere's a granny flat?

Chris (25:12):
Yeah, not too many.
I've probably got two or threeoff the top three.
Three now, because I've justput a new one on in.
Wartala, yeah, that's right.
So yeah, one of them is agorgeous little Palmerstone
cottage down on LandsboroughParade in Golden Beach, so
pretty much bang across from thelovely passage there.
And, yeah, the owners, theylive out in a separate dwelling

(25:34):
at the back of the property.
But we've also got like atwo-story house where the main
living area is all upstairs anddownstairs is fully
self-contained and we have thatone rented out for them.
Um, and yeah, the most recentone was, uh, the owner of the
property.
They converted their garageinto a self-contained unit and
so they live in the mainproperty and the garage at the
front of the property is its own, self-contained unit as well.

Amy (25:55):
So so many different factors, isn't it yeah?

Chris (25:58):
and you know that again goes into, like the different
clientele that we can receive aswell.

Amy (26:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
What about pets?

Chris (26:05):
Pets are well.
What I always say is it's not adetriment to not list them but,
it is absolutely a benefit tohave it available.
There is always the risks thatcomes along with it.
You know we can prevent,prevent, prevent as much as we
can, we can say no pets inside,no pets on the furniture.

(26:25):
The unfortunate thing with us isthat when they're actually in
the property, we have no way tobe able to police it, so there
is always that added risk.
But if you're able to have yourproperty as pet friendly, it
opens up a lot more of themarket.

Amy (26:34):
Yeah, and I think that's, you know as certainly as a pet
mum myself I've got two littlepugs um for me.
That, uh, is such a greatadvantage to be able to um.
You know, I've certainly donehotels that have pet stays but
it's, you know, really awkward,you know, obviously taking the
dogs to the toilet andeverything like that.

Chris (26:50):
So the ability for it to be a property, I think it's
really good to target a lot ofthe younger generation of guests
as well, like your gen z's andmillennials, because a lot of
them are finding it tooexpensive at the moment to have
children but they'll have theirlittle fur baby and they want to
bring their little fur babywith them on holiday.
So you know it opens up to thatsort of younger generation um as
well, because we do have quitea lot of young couples um that

(27:12):
do bring pets um to our petfriendly properties yeah, and
can you give us a bit of a Iguess an overview of who your
guests are like?

Amy (27:19):
is that common?
I mean, like I love that youwere just saying then about you
know, like sometimes you knowyou've got businesses that need
their staff to be here tradiesso I guess, yeah, what kind of
guests do you get?

Chris (27:29):
well, I mean the majority of our clientele is people from
brisbane.
You know it gets too hot in thecity.
They want a weekend away at thebeach.
They come up um for the weekendor just for a couple of nights
during the week.
So we do get the majority ofour clientele from Brisbane,
gold Coast, but you also getlike inland from Toowoolpur and
whatnot all the southeast.
We have 15% to 20% a month isinternational guests.

Amy (27:49):
Yes.

Chris (27:50):
So that's New Zealand generally, but also China and
Japan.
Chinese New Year always goesoff.

Amy (27:55):
Yeah, wonderful, we love Chinese New.

Chris (27:56):
Year, yeah, but yeah, the majority of clientele from the
southeast of Queensland, yeah,with 15 to 20%.

Amy (28:03):
Yeah, so a lot of drive traffic.

Chris (28:04):
Yeah, absolutely so um, that's, I suppose, one thing.
Because we are so accessible toBrisbane, having that free
parking as an amenity with yourproperty becomes even more
important.

Amy (28:16):
Yeah, I mean like it's interesting, isn't it?
I know a lot of people don'tuse filters, you know.
You know even if they'relooking at buying a house.
But certainly when I'm onwebsites looking at
accommodation, you know you kindof start large, don't you?
And then I mean I always usethe map view, but then you start
to use filters and, like I said, I'm just perplexed that.
You know, free Wi-Fi isn'tavailable for everyone.
I know?

Chris (28:36):
Yeah, and I think it.
I think everyone has such adifferent way that they search
for accommodation as well.
Like you were saying, you usethe map filter.
Yes, if I'm traveling for anevent, like I was saying to you,
last Friday I was down for aconcert at the Fortitude Valley
Music Hall.
So I searched up the FortitudeValley Music Hall, I looked at
the map and I said what's withinwalking distance?
That's where I'm staying.

Amy (28:56):
So generally if.

Chris (28:56):
I'm going somewhere.
I want to be walking distancefrom where it is that I'm
staying, because sometimes Iwon't take a car with me,
because it's just a bit of ahassle.
It's a bit big, so finding theparking for the over two metre
cars is always a bit of a hassle, so try not to.

Amy (29:10):
That's a great tip.
So you actually typed in thevenue.
Yeah, rather than this.
I love that.
I've never done that.
See, learn something new everyday, awesome.
So we've got your guests,they've checked in.
I guess what would you expect?
I guess any troubleshooting orthings that happen while guests
are in the accommodation.

Chris (29:28):
Yeah, so I suppose, like over the ninth year now that the
business has been operating.
It means that we're prettystreamlined when it comes to the
guest experience.
So we're all no contact interms of check-in.
It's self-check-in.
Wonderful when a guest books aproperty, they'll receive a
confirmation message thatexplains to them what's going to
happen on their check-in day,what's going to be available for

(29:49):
them, things like that.
On the morning of arrivalthey'll get sent their lockbox
details, parking details, howit's all going to work, and then
, if the property doesn't gowrong, we shouldn't hear from
them again until they leave.
But if there is an issue, likeyou know, the Wi-Fi cuts out,
there's a burst pipe, the airconstopped working.
We've got a list of over 40preferred trades that we're able

(30:11):
to call on at any given stage,you know, for electricians, for
plumbers, so it doesn't matterif one's not available, we're
going to have another one onhand.
We've got a full-time handymanas well.
That's just employed by us.
So light bulb, door handle,bedroom door lock, something
like that happens.
We're always out within 24hours, which is great.

(30:32):
And then, yeah, I've got myfull-time guest services agent.
Looks after all of the guestmessaging for me from midday
till 8 pm, and then I'm onoutside of that for any of the
emergencies that happen.
Yeah, um, but yeah, it's it's agood approach.

Amy (30:45):
And do you have like when people are arriving they get
like a compendium.
Is that kind of an outdatedthing?

Chris (30:50):
it's a little bit outdated for us so what we had
done, uh, about six months ago,might have been a bit long,
about nine months ago.
Time flies in this industry, umis, we switched from
compendiums to QR codes.
Oh great, so we stick a QR codeon the fridge and then that has
got everything that they needand it becomes a lot easier for
updating.
So if the owner had to get newWi-Fi or if something in

(31:13):
particular a local restauranthad closed.
We don't have to reprint andthen go out to the property,
redo the brochure there.
We can make the edit online.
We click, update the QR code,updates automatically and then
all the current information isthere, which is fantastic.
I love that.
We are currently revamping it alittle bit.
We're going to split it up, sowe're going to have the property
specific instructions, we'regoing to have a suburb specific

(31:35):
things to do, we're going tohave a broader sunshine coast,
what you can do, and then we'regoing to link back to our direct
bookings website as well toencourage those return guests.

Amy (31:43):
That's awesome.
I love that.
Look, I think COVID was agodsend for QR codes.
Nothing, you know, not muchelse, but definitely QR codes.
I mean, we've always had themon signboards and brochures and
it's really nice that people nowcan use them and, like you said
, you can make those tweaks andedits you mentioned there about
your direct website.
I'm really curious where yourguests are finding your

(32:03):
properties.

Chris (32:04):
Yeah, I mean the majority still do book through Airbnb.
We'll see, you know, between400 and 700 nights a month get
booked through Airbnb.
Bookingcom does come in.
Next I'll just say a directwebsite is a work in progress at
the moment.
I'm not quite happy with itright now, so it is something we
are working on.
But, yeah, airbnb, followed byBookingcom.

(32:25):
The direct bookings that we doget at the moment come from our
trade partners, majority of them.
So we've got several companiesdown in Brisbane engineering
electrical plumbing that come upregularly to do work on
buildings.
There's so many newdevelopments happening on the
Sunshine Coast all the time andthey always need a place to stay
nearby.

Amy (32:43):
It makes sense, doesn't it?
Rather than letting a propertyand everything.
They know that everything'sgoing to be there for their
workers and everything.

Chris (32:50):
I look after them, they look after us.
The properties are alwaysreally well maintained when
they're in, because they knowI'm going to look after them
when they come back again forthe next time.

Amy (32:58):
It sounds like, you know, ultimately the success of the
business has been relationshipsand having mutually beneficial
relationships, whether that bewith cleaners, you know, with
trades partners and everythingWith yourself.
Yeah, honestly, like I said,it's been, you know, and you're
always just so quick to respondand to get those, and for me
it's obviously about providing abuyer with as much information

(33:19):
as possible, but also, I guess,for them knowing that that's
another option as well.
I mean, circumstances change,you know, I had a client that
had moved to the coast with theintention to be here and then
had to be, you know, workingoverseas.
So they ran their numbers onwhat would be the best viable
option for them.
But, yeah, good to know that,ultimately, that there is
multiple channels.

(33:40):
I'm a bit of a bookingcom gal.
I use it all the time because Ifind actually they've got a
great reward system andeverything as well.
But no, good to know thatthere's lots of things I guess I
can't remember if I've used theAirbnb website, but interesting
to know the volume of peoplethat come through that.
So, ultimately, your clientsget the opportunity that they'll

(34:01):
be on all of these platformsand you manage that whole
process yeah, that's right.

Chris (34:05):
So we list on airbnbbookingcom, verbo, which
is stays, and all of theirsubsidiaries, as well as agoda,
their subsidiaries, which we'rehoping will help us tap into the
asian market, because agoda ishuge over in southeast as Asia
and it's just something we'venewly brought on.
And then we're on Google Hotelsand also our direct website as

(34:26):
well, so which is gettingrevamped yeah, it's all the work
in progress.

Amy (34:30):
We're actually just talking off air about tech and look it
can help us, but can also be,yeah, and making sure all the
integrations work.
So when a client is onboardedwith you, I know that you're
very hands-on.
So you mentioned about how youprepare a property, but do you
want to chat us through?
Say, I purchased a two-bedroomunit in Golden Beach that was

(34:51):
vacant, so no furniture.
What would be your process toonboard me?
And then I guess, ultimately,what I'd love our listeners to
know is how hands-on is thatowner?

Chris (35:02):
Yeah.
So I mean, it can vary fromowner to owner and it really
depends on what they're lookingfor in the property as well.
So again it comes back to is itgoing to be that purely
investment it's only there tomake money or is it going to be
something that they want to comeand use or potentially even
retire in?
Because your decisions that youmake are going to be completely
different depending on whatsituation you're in.
So, say, if you were buying itpurely as an investment, what I

(35:26):
like to do is I like to come out, have a walk through the
property, meet the owner, makesure that we click.

Amy (35:30):
Yeah, I love that.

Chris (35:31):
Because, again, like I said, it's a relationships
business.
And if we're not going to havethat relationship, I've got
enough on my plate.
I don't need to be dealing withdifficult people.
But yeah, we'll have a walkthrough the property, talk about
you know the goals, whatthey're looking to get out of it
, and then from there we canhave a look at what needs to go
in place.
I always say, if people havethe time, if it's an unfurnished

(35:52):
property, gumtree, facebookMarketplace you'll get all your
things almost brand new.

Amy (35:58):
Such a great tip.

Chris (35:59):
Yeah, and like just at really great prices, but again
almost brand new.
Such a great tip.
Yeah, and like just at reallygreat prices.
But again.
You really need the time to beable to yes, buy all these
things and also the capacity togo around and pick them all up?

Amy (36:06):
yes, um, tell me about it.
I've just I've just added acouple of pieces for a house I'm
selling, so I had to get a?
Um, a console desk, and then Ihad to get some pool chairs and,
yeah, I was traipsing aroundthe coast, but worth it in the
end.

Chris (36:20):
But yeah, know what you mean.

Amy (36:21):
There's bargains to be had if you've got the time.

Chris (36:23):
We briefly thought about adding it to our business as
something that we offer.
We did it once and my auntieJulia, she was like I'm never
doing that again.

Amy (36:31):
It was far too much, absolutely At least, for us
anyway.
So you have an inventory list.
I guess you know things thatthey should include.

Chris (36:43):
It's on that checklist.
It's not necessarily everythingthat you have to have but it's
things that you should beconsidering Awesome, so like
extra items in the kitchen, forexample.
Like you know, you said, havinga pod machine, having an air
fryer is a massive one.

Amy (36:57):
It's coming like all the inquiries.

Chris (36:59):
now, like before school holidays, which is when people
come to cook, it's like do youhave an air fryer?
Do you have an air fryer?

Amy (37:10):
It's do you have an air fryer?
Do you have an air fryer?
It's like, all right, we needto actually go and add these
into the listing airbnb.
Can you please add an amenitycalled air fryer so that we can
just click on it, please, that'sa lot of chicken nuggets right,
a lot of chicken absolutely, isthat amazing?
I mean, I, to be honest, Ibarely use my oven.
I'm like air fry, it's.
It just works easy, isn't itconvenience yeah, and especially
if you've spent the day at thebeach, you know you want to be
able.
You want it to be nice and easy, don't you?

Chris (37:26):
yeah, exactly but yeah, I suppose, touching back on
things that we go over, um, whenI go out to a property, like,
one of the big things is howguests are going to access the
property as well.
So is it going to be a lockboxwith keys?
If you're bought into abuilding complex, will the
building allow you to install alockbox as well?
And then, if not, you know whatare our options outside of that

(37:47):
.
Is it going to be a key pickuplocation?
Are we going to installelectronic uh door handles so
that they can just get in withthe code, things like that?
Um, so that will always getlooked into.
Uh, we'll talk about that,styling, making sure we're
selling the beach and everythinglike that as well.
Um, and yeah, just how we'regoing to do photos, basically,
we we send them.
I've got a video and also adocument that I can send out as

(38:10):
well.
That is like this is what theprocess is.
This is how, each step by step,as it will go it's so all the
way through the systems andprocess.
That's it, and I mean I'd loveyou to come down and see our
shed, because you'll walk in andyou'll be like, oh my god, they
systemize the crap out of this,I love it.
We've got like a big whiteboardthat's got all the cleaners
where their stations are at.
Um, it's all rows of shelving,uh, with all numbered system.

(38:33):
We got like the dirty linencage over there.
The clean returns, lostproperty, yeah it's lost
property.

Amy (38:38):
Oh my god, it's so we literally could unpack this for
hours.
Well, I'm very I'm a virgo, soI'm very systemized, so I love
that fellow outside yeah, so, um, so you're onboard the client,
they get the property ready, andthen just back to that.
I guess how hands-on they are.

Chris (38:55):
Yeah, and that can be different for each owner as well
.
So I mean, we are a fullservice management company, so
once we sort of have thehandover, of the keys, the
property is all set up, readyfor the photos.
I can just get it all donemyself.
That's wonderful.
Some owners like to be therewhen the photographer goes
through so that they can, youknow, make sure they get the
angles that the owner wants,style the beds how they want to

(39:17):
be styled, because sometimes youknow when our cleaners go
through before the photos, youknow they make it up.
It's presentable, it looks nicehow it will when a guest goes
in, but you get the occasionalowner.

Amy (39:33):
That's like that pillow wasn't in the right spot, so I
like it I like it, I can relate,yep, yeah.

Chris (39:35):
So it just really depends um on the owner, and you know
we're more than happy to work inum with different people's uh
own quirks and idiosyncrasies,because, god knows, I've got a
few of my own yeah, I just lovethat it's a really tailored
approach.

Amy (39:44):
I love that it's a family business, you know, and it
really sounds like you're reallywanting to curate a portfolio
of you know really good clients,as I guess, as a time poor
individual for me you know,being able to hand the keys over
and then ultimately probablyjust get my statement once a
month or anything like that,would be of benefit.
How do you update your clientswith information?

(40:05):
Do they have the ability to seewhat bookings are coming up?

Chris (40:08):
Yeah, so the property management software that we use
is called Resley, and they havea fantastic feature called the
owner's portal, where the owneris able to log in.
They can see the calendar fortheir property for the next 12
months.
They can go back and have alook at the previous six months
as well.
It will show them exactly whatbookings are already in place.
It will also tell them whattheir payouts are going to be

(40:30):
for those bookings and then,with our company, they have the
full autonomy to go in and makeany owner reservation that they
like.
Great.
I know a lot of other companiesput restrictions on, you know,
two weekends a year or notduring school holidays.
Our philosophy is you'veshelled out the money for your
property.
Please use it if you would liketo.

Amy (40:47):
Yeah, that's great.
Now could they book that onbehalf of friends and family as
well?

Chris (40:52):
Yeah, absolutely so.
The portal is great becausethey can even put in the name of
their friends and family andtheir contact details as well,
and then that drops in just asthough it was a booking from
Airbnb, and they'll receive alltheir check-in information.

Amy (41:04):
Awesome, same as a regular guest would.
Yeah, it's so many factors,isn't it?
I mean, I'm reallyreconsidering my journey as a
you know guest in a property tokind of think, oh, you know, you
don't think of all of theselogistical components, even,
like you were just saying, withthe lockbox, you know if it's in
a unit, complex or anythinglike that.
So thank you for your serviceand what you do.
I always love to ask guestsabout misconceptions or myths

(41:30):
about industry.

Chris (41:30):
Have you got any that you can share?
Yeah, yeah.
So I prepared one for propertyowners and then one actually
from the guest side of things.
So property owner side.
One of the big things thatpeople worry about is the impact
on the housing crisis.
And I actually have some statshere that shows that it's not
actually as big as people think.
So, as of the last census,which was back in 2021, only 2%

(41:54):
of rental properties were on theshort-term rental market across
the country Sure, and thenstatewide, so I didn't get
Queensland data, but there wasonly 1.9% in Victoria and 1.6%
in New South Wales.
I might have got those mixedaround.

Amy (42:07):
Yeah.

Chris (42:08):
Victoria and 1.6% in New South Wales.
I might have got those mixedaround, but it just goes to show
you that there's a lot of fearmongering out there from people
in potential power or whatnottrying to get their narrative
across, when the actual hardbacknumbers and facts show that
we're actually just providingaccommodation services for
people and it doesn't have theimpact that people are saying
it's having.

Amy (42:25):
Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it?
I had no idea of that.
I think you're exactly right.
I mean, it is overinflated,that's for sure, and one for the
guests as well.

Chris (42:33):
Yeah, so I mean, this might be a bit of a hot take or
something that they can stealaway, but people think that when
they book in advance they'regetting the best price.
Like booking nine months inadvance, they're getting the
best price.

(42:53):
It's actually the other wayaround, and if the more last
minute you book, whilst youmight not have your
accommodation secured until thatlast minute, people are
dropping their prices to makesure that their rooms fill up.
So, for example, if someonepays, you know, for September
holidays right now, they'regoing to be paying the premium
rate because we've got it set atthe premium holiday rates,
whereas you, you know, if it wasa week before and we still had
a three or four day gapsomewhere, we'd have it priced a
lot lower and they'd get abetter price.
Okay, um?
So it really depends on howyour heart can take whether or

(43:16):
not you've got your bookingsecured or not.

Amy (43:18):
I like that.
What would you do?
Oh, I'm a last minute personyeah, like when I went down for
the concert in brisbane lastweek I booked that like two days
before I went.
It's funny.
So I used to be.
I used to be really freneticwith holidays, like I'd book
every element and like,literally, have you know, we'd
have an itinerary for our trip,and I mean, my husband likes
that.
But now I'm kind of a bit morefluid and I'm like, look, we'll

(43:39):
just get this part of theholiday organized.

Chris (43:42):
I've got that industry insider knowledge now, so I know
.

Amy (43:48):
So do you know?
So it's so, do you?
So let's ask about that,because obviously we know that
with things like flights andeverything like that, now ticket
sales, concert ticket sales aretiered.
So is that something thatyou're manually doing or it's
kind of gets to a week out andit's automatically?
Yeah, so I mean.

Chris (44:00):
Our pricing software that we use is fantastic.
So basically it's suburbspecific in the way that it
analyzes and it's also bedroomspecific.
So all of our two-bedroomproperties, for example, in
Caloundra that's where we areare getting, compared against
any other two-bedroom propertyon the short-term rental market,
what their occupancy is, whatrates they're getting booked at,

(44:22):
and then it will adjust theprice based off of those factors
twice a day Wonderful.

Amy (44:32):
I also go in myself and I manually manage it if I don't
think it's pricing it correctlyand I can make small updates.

Chris (44:34):
But since we switched to this pricing software, which was
back in November, I want to say, yeah, I haven't had to do
nearly as much manual pricing aswhat I used to do.

Amy (44:44):
That's amazing.
So it's using data that'savailable from the market?
Yeah, so it scrap using datathat's available from the market
yeah.

Chris (44:48):
So it scrapes all of its data from Airbnb and stays so.
It's a massive part of themarket, obviously doesn't take
into account the other bookingplatforms, but it does well
enough that you know.
It's meaning I've had, I'vebeen able to take a step back
from the manual pricing and it'salso working a lot better
because it's able to charge, Isuppose, a higher rate than my
manual adjustments because it'sable to look at those other

(45:12):
properties in the area and go.
I know that's what it's gettingbooked at.

Amy (45:16):
Chris might have put it down to this much, but I know we
can get it for this much.

Chris (45:20):
And we have parameters set as well, like we've got the
minimum price that it doesn't gobelow, and a base rate that
we're trying to target annually,but yeah, it's really
interesting that you say that,because I mean it's the same
with pricing houses, right.

Amy (45:33):
But it takes me back when I was a kid at school, in
business studies, we did thisthing called lemonade stand and
I just told a friend's daughterabout it recently.
But it is those factors.
So you know, quick story shortis that essentially you run a
lemonade stand, you get aforecast for the weather and
then you set the price for yourlemonade and then you see how

(45:54):
the market responds.
You know, you don't know thatthere's going to be weevils in
the sugar or that it ended upbeing raining.
So I guess you know.
My analogy with that is that,yeah, it's going to take out
that unknown isn't it, it'sgoing to be able to give you an
appetite of what's happening.
that's not in your portfolio,which I think is really
wonderful, and obviously we'vegot tools like that in the real
estate market as well, wherethere's a guide.

(46:16):
Obviously, there's alwaysthings outside of that, like you
might know, that that propertyhas X, y and Z.
That's highly more desirable.
So interesting insight.

Chris (46:25):
Well, there's a couple other things I can touch on with
the pricing software, and itsort of segues a little bit into
minimum stays and whatnot aswell.
So we are, I think, a lotdifferent to the majority of
companies in terms of we allowone-night stays.

Amy (46:38):
Yeah, wow.

Chris (46:39):
And that actually makes up anywhere between 25% and 40%
of bookings on any given month,depending on the month.
So it is a massive market andif you have a minimum stay of
anything two nights or more,you're potentially shutting
yourself off from between aquarter and half of the actual
renter's market or the peoplethat are looking to book.

Amy (46:58):
That's a great insight.

Chris (47:01):
So what our pricing software allows us to do is it
allows us to do flexible minimumstays.
So all of our school holidayperiods, apart from Christmas
New Year, are two-night minimums.
Christmas, New Year, threenights.
But what we can do is we canset off and gap.
So if there was someone bookedto check in from the 15th to the
17th and then someone from the19th to the 21st, the 18th would

(47:25):
be in the middle and it wouldhave a two-night minimum so no
one could book it yes but thesoftware is able to pick up that
there's a booking either sideand it will change that to a one
night booking.
One night available, so thatsomeone could book it for one
night yeah um, and then we alsohave that two night set um in
advance, year round until a weekbeforehand.
So say uh, what's today,wednesday?
So from today people couldstart booking one night stays

(47:47):
from Monday and Tuesday nextweek.
But if it's further than sevendays away, we still have that
two night minimum, so that ifit's a weekend, like a Friday,
saturday, someone's not bookingthe 3rd of August in.
February and taking out apotential full weekends of
revenue.
But it will open up to allowone night stay if we haven't
received a booking that weekbeforehand.

Amy (48:07):
No, that's awesome, so super flexible, and how I would
literally think back to gosh,you know, when you'd have a
manageress of a hotel andthey're flicking through the
book, aren't they?

Chris (48:16):
And it's a nightmare.
It's what I used to think atthe bank.
Yeah, like I would not want todo any of this manually, man.
Yeah, it's so much work.
I love the tech.

Amy (48:24):
Yeah, it's amazing and look like we said off air.
You know, sometimes it can beour best friend and sometimes
our worst nightmare.

Chris (48:30):
We can have a date like yesterday, yeah we've all had
one of those Awesome Gosh.

Amy (48:35):
it has been so amazing.
Like I said, when we caught up,you know, a few weeks ago, I
knew that there would be so muchto offer our listeners.
I guess one thing, a myth ormisconception or something I
really probably feel reallycompelled to ask, is damage.
I think that's probablysomething that when I'm speaking
to a buyer of a property,they're really concerned about.

(48:56):
You know, I guess, again thehorror stories of you know
somebody leaving an Airbnb in arevolting state.

Chris (49:02):
Yeah, and look, it does happen.
It's part and parcel.
I think you know you.
Look at any investment carriesrisk.

Amy (49:08):
Yes.

Chris (49:08):
And that is one of the risks that come with purchasing
an investment property as an STR.
As much as we'd like to say youknow happens, you know five
times a year, which you know itdoesn't happen very often at all
.
Yes, it does have the potentialto happen, but again, it's all
about prevent, prevent, preventand putting the measures in
place to make sure that we don'tget guests in that would do

(49:30):
that Wonderful.
So I mean, airbnb has alwaysbeen the platform leading the
way with its air cover forguests and air cover for hosts.

Amy (49:39):
Okay.

Chris (49:40):
And also with the guest rating system as well where
hosts can also rate the guests,so we'll always make sure that
we're not letting anyone in thatdoesn't have a five-star rating
, and if it's a new account andthey're unrated, they have to
answer several questions beforewe confirm the booking for them.
And then, if there is anythingthat ever happens, we have
before and after photos thatwe're able to then submit to

(50:00):
Airbnb and recoup our money.
Now the other booking platformsdon't have that feature, so
what we do instead is we have anonline check-in process, so
guests are required to submitthe members of their group car
address and their id.
So that we can make sure thattheir id matches the person on
the booking and the card beingused for the booking and then,

(50:21):
depending on the size of theproperty, we'll take a damage
deposit hold anywhere between250 for a two-bedroom apartment
all the way up to $1,000 for awaterfront dream home.
So when you've got their name,all of their personal
information, their car, wherethey live, you've got their ID
on file and you've got another$250 to $1,000 on their card,

(50:42):
they're usually on their bestbehavior.

Amy (50:43):
Yeah, amazing.
Oh, that's such a good insightbecause I mean, obviously I
didn't have that information tobe able to share, so I just
normally give people your number.

Chris (50:55):
Yeah, yeah and I mean yeah, like it's preventative,
but again, you know it doesn'talways stop.
But I suppose the benefit withyou know, if it does happen
through one of those otherplatforms, we don't have to go
through a claims process whereit may get denied.
We have the funds on the card.
We debit it, we pay forwhatever's happening.

Amy (51:07):
Yeah, and you've got the handyman and the owner has the
peace of mind.
Yeah, amazing.
So, Chris, you have absolutelyfound your feet in what you're
doing, but I get the impressionyou would no matter what you did
.
If not Sunny B&B, what wouldyou be doing?

Chris (51:19):
That's so tough.
I'd love to live in Melbourne.
Melbourne is where I want toend up eventually.
I'm not 100% sure what I woulddo.
I'd probably go back tosomething in hospitality.
But something that sort ofstruck me the other day is what
if I bought my own little coffeevan, because I've always been
like right into my coffee?

Amy (51:36):
and everything as well.

Chris (51:37):
So you know, that sort of struck me as a nice idea that I
could drive around makingpeople coffee.

Amy (51:42):
Good interaction with people.
Yeah, what about cocktail bar?

Chris (51:46):
Cocktail bar people yeah uh.
What about cocktail bar?
Cocktail bar oh gosh, if I hadmy own for sure.
Um, it's tough, it's.
I love it, but it is toughworking in a bar, and I'd have
to really psych myself up to goyeah, back to you, back to your
12 o'clock I think I get my fixbecause I've got all my own
cocktail gear and back bar athome, so I make my own cocktails
.
I get friends around, we havelittle cocktail parties, things
like that, so that gets me myfix.

(52:07):
For that, I think I definitelyneed to feel much more of an
urge to go back into the thrashof a full Friday night or
Saturday night cocktail barservice for sure.

Amy (52:18):
It sounds like enjoying one at home is a much better option
.
Wonderful, I would love we'vealready had a little insight
into your favourite drink, but Ialways just like to ask people
some personal questions.
So your favourite meal anddrink?

Chris (52:32):
Steak and scotch for sure .
Oh, together, yeah, absolutelyyeah if you've got a great
restaurant that also has a greatwhiskey back bar as well and a
bartender that can talk to youabout it as well, because, like
back when I was working at thehotel, we did several master
classes on different spirits andstuff, so I could talk to you
for days about alcohol and howit's made have you done?

Amy (52:52):
whiskey at what den?
Um, I have yeah, yeah, yeahthat's my husband's a whiskey
drinker, so and how do you?
Have your steak cooked, oh rareah, well see.
I chef's delight.

Chris (53:02):
Yes, that's right see and I suppose that comes from like
eating steaks in pubs, likebecause generally it's going to
be overcooked.

Amy (53:08):
So at least if rare is overcooked it's going to be
medium rare and I can still eatit, whereas like if I order
medium rare and it comesovercooked.

Chris (53:14):
It's going to be medium.
I'm going to be like chewing onit for an hour.

Amy (53:17):
I'm like that's not what I want, so let's get it rare.
Yeah, I like it.

Chris (53:29):
And whiskey country yeah, reserve, amazing I like he know
, he knows his drinks um.
Chris, what would be your dreamholiday destination?

Amy (53:32):
oh see, that's such a hard question to ask um within
australia.

Chris (53:34):
I think purely because I love melbourne, I just always
want to go back there I'd goback once a month if I could
yeah, it's a fun city, isn't?

Amy (53:40):
it's so much fun of all the sport, the culture, the food,
the coffee like everything isthere, everything's in melbourne
.

Chris (53:50):
So it's just bloody cold man, hey.
Hey, I got a great, a few greatfriends in melbourne, um, but
I'd love to go to the uk um.
I'm a massive, massive uhfootball soccer for any of the
afl rugby people yeah, um, handegg, as I call those sports, not
football, um, but yeah.
So I'm a big Liverpool fan, soI'd love to follow Liverpool
around, go to like a whole bunchof matches in the Premier

(54:12):
League over there, maybe see acouple of Champions League
matches if I'm lucky enough.
And I think the UK is also agreat base to explore the rest
of Europe as well.
I studied Italian all throughschool and I do have a 450 day
streak on Duolingo for myItalian, so I'd love to check
out Italy.
I've got a couple of friendsthat did exchanges over to my
school and I could go and seeover there, so that'd be really

(54:33):
cool.

Amy (54:34):
Oh my God, I'm literally.
My jaw is down with yourduolingo.
I just got to 12 days on Wordletoday as a streak and I was
happy with that, like, oh, I'mjust praying that you never miss
that day.

Chris (54:46):
It's all about having your friends on there with you.
Okay, because, like you, canstart friendship streaks on
Duolingo now as well, so it'sall about don't let me down.

Amy (54:53):
So this for those that are listening, that aren't into
Duolingo.
So it is a language learningapp.
Yes, yeah, oh my gosh, that'sepic.
Do you get a reminder or do youset yourself a reminder?

Chris (55:03):
Yeah, so Well, there's a widget that I stick on my
homepage.
And for those of you thataren't familiar, Duolingo has
the Duo Owl, which is the littleowl that pops up, and it will
do all of these like crazythings and faces when you
haven't learned or anything yet.
It'll be like you haven't doneyour lesson today or I'm dying
over here or something like that, and it'll be doing all these
crazy actions, so it's actuallyreally fun as well.

Amy (55:23):
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to hear how many days you get to.
Like I said, I think my longeststreak on Wordle, which is like
a word game I'm a real nerd forthings like Scrabble is 16 days
.
So at the moment I'm on thisstreak.
That's epic.

Chris (55:37):
The bigger it gets, the more afraid you are of losing it
.

Amy (55:39):
I know and this responsibility.
It speaks volumes to your workethic to continue with that.
Interesting is that aboutsoccer.
My dad's a soccer referee.
So when I was growing up hereat Bee Gees in Glasshouse I used
to follow dad around and Ialways remember it's funny,
isn't it what you remember?
When he'd give a red card outhe'd say to me Amy, get to the
car straight away.

(56:00):
You know, certainly in theadult matches, because he would
generally be heckled out ofthere.
So funny to have thatconnection and good to know you
follow Liverpool.
Wonderful.
So definitely the ability tohead over to the UK.
Italy, that sounds like youwould be a great companion to
know what to order.
What's your favourite Italianline to speak?

(56:22):
Don't ask me that there's toomany beautiful lines.

Chris (56:25):
Oh my gosh.

Amy (56:27):
No, I can't pick Just give us something basic then, oh my
gosh, no, I can't pick, justgive us something basic then.

Chris (56:30):
Oh my goodness.
No, you put me on the spot, Ican't get it up now.

Amy (56:33):
Oh good, all right, and to end our catch up, chris, what's
your favorite quote or saying?

Chris (56:40):
Purely for this industry, because there's so much crazy
stuff that can happen, and Ithink, like I was talking before
we got on air about my dayyesterday, is this, too shall
pass, because, no matter whathappens, however crazy it's
going to get, the next day willroll around, you'll reset and it
will pass.

Amy (56:58):
It's such a good oldie but a goodie, but I think you're
exactly right the ability to beable to keep moving forward.
Chris, it's been amazing tohave you on as a guest.
That's been great.
Like I said, we recently caughtup.
You have an amazing guide forprospective Airbnb or short-term
rental hosts, which I foundreally valuable, and we will

(57:19):
make sure that we share that foranyone listening.
Any other further insights withyour business or anything you'd
like to share before we signoff?

Chris (57:26):
Oh gosh, I think we covered everything that I had
written down, I suppose, yeah.

Amy (57:32):
Reach out.

Chris (57:33):
Yeah, I mean, do what's best for you.
I think, at the end of the day,like I'm never going to
oversell someone, because Inever want to oversell something
I can't deliver.
Yeah, and I'll always be honestand upfront and let you know if
your idea is crap or if youridea is good, or you know, I
want to make sure that if we'regoing to move ahead, it's going
to be successful, and that meanshonest conversations and honest

(57:53):
relationships.

Amy (57:54):
Awesome.
What a wonderful way to end,Chris.
Thank you for being my guest.
Look forward to having you allagain in the future.
Awesome.

Chris (58:00):
Thanks, Amy.

Amy (58:02):
Thank you for listening to this episode of Beyond the
Signboard.
We trust you enjoyed it as muchas we enjoyed making it for you
.
If there are any topics youwant covered in the future, make
sure you reach out and let usknow.
Also, feedback and suggestionsare appreciated almost as much
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