SoCal with Val 10 31 25 Guest Tal Price

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello, and welcome to so Cal with val.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm your host, Valerie Van is over and I'm thrilled
to have you here to join me as we explore
the best of Southern California. Each week, we're going to
dive into exciting destinations, hidden gems, family friendly adventures, all
that make so Cal the top spot for getaways. And
we all know that's true. So whether you're planning a

(00:48):
trip to Disneyland and today's a great day for that,
seeking the perfect beach, or looking for unique vacation rentals,
We've got you covered. But this show isn't about my picks,
It's about yours too, So I want to hear about
your favorite spots. You must visit, eateries, unforgettable experiences, So
share your stories, your suggestions by emailing me. Will have

(01:09):
that information at the bottom. And today I am especially
excited to welcome a very special guest, Tal Price. Tal
is the co owner of Frontierland Vacation Rentals. He is
definitely a pioneer in the vacation rental industry, known for
his creating magical, family friendly homes just steps away from Disneyland.

(01:32):
His properties blend a theme of Disney inspired homes with
modern comforts, very very very nicely furnished and well maintained
homes offering guests truly an unforgettable experience. So we're going
to chat with Tal about what makes a vacation rental
truly family friendly, the advantages of choosing a vacation rental

(01:54):
over a hotel, and tips for selecting the perfect home. Plus,
we're going to dive into his journey from starting Castle
Homes to being a co owner of Frontierland and his
role in Definitely he's been important in shaping the vacation
rental industry and landscape in Anaheim near Disneyland.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
So buckle up.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
If you're driving, roll up your window, turn up the volume.
If you're at home, grab a cup of coffee or
a glass of wine, and let's get started. We're about
to embark on a fun filled journey through southern California.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Let's get started. Tal.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Welcome, Welcome, So exciting to have you with us today.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Excited to be here. Always loves talking with you. Val
And we've been friends for a long time now and
really appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I remember when you had Castle Homes and everyone who
wasn't Castle.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Holmes wondered, who is this person?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I think maybe you had one and I don't even remember,
maybe it was on Castle Street or something. And then
we thought, oh my gosh, who's this person?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then eventually got to meet you.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
You're just just a really nice guy, and you grew
your portfolio of homes in the Anaheim Disneyland area, so
you have a long standing reputation in the Disneyland area
vacation rental scene. Tell us all, how did you get
started in vacation rentals?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Oh? For me, you know, I came from the financial
services industry, and so as I grew in the career
over there, one day I kind of looked around and
I'm like, hey, I'm invested in stocks, I'm invested in bonds,
I'm invested in all these securities, but I don't have
any real estate investment, and I think it'd be interesting
to look into some real estate investing. And I started

(03:43):
thinking about where would what would be a good real
estate investment, not knowing much about it, not having a background,
not being overly handy at the time, and ended up
going to Anaheim and saying, Hey, let's try this vacation
rental thing. And this is clear back in twenty and
eleven before Airbnb. Really it was on the map, and

(04:10):
decided to try a house out on Castle Avenue as
you mentioned in Anaheim, and say, hey, we I was.
We had a very young family at that time, just
two kids a third on the way when we got
our first home, and so we thought, hey, it would
be nice to have a house pretty close to Disneyland
and go visit. And we were living in Salt Lake City,

(04:31):
Utah at the time.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
So you were yep, yeah, yeah, And so then that
was the beginning of Castle Homes.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah. Castle Homes was you know, Castle Avenue was the
street that our first home was located and the second
as a matter of fact, and and Dyre was born
the name Castle Castle Avenue. Yep.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
So we're going to go through this again a little
bit more. But so how did that evolve into co
owning frontier Land, which it's also a respected vacation rental company,
not like yours, but I had a little bit different portfolio,
I think.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
But how did the two of you come together? How
did that happen?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And now you manage sixty seventy homes throughout California, and Olaii.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, I'd say right around sixty or so somewhere around there,
primarily in Anaheim, and then a few in San Diego
County and then a few newer ones over in Kawhai
and Hawaii. Absolutely, you know I think you were from.
This is where I probably met you at the first time,
as well as I met Ryan now my the co

(05:38):
owner of Frontierland, who I partnered with a while ago
now probably tenish years ago. And really what brought us
together is, you know, when we started Castle Avenue and
buying homes next to Disneyland doing vacation Reynolds. I went
into the city of Anaheim, went to the planning desk
and I said, Hey, I want to do a vacation

(06:01):
rental in Anaheim. What do I need? And they looked
at me with the blank stare what do you mean, right?
And I said, well, I want to rent out my
home to people coming to Disneyland. And they said, yeah, okay, great,
you can do that. And I was like, but do
it on a short term basis, So like people that come, like,
you know, for a week or five days or whatever,
is there a permit I need? And They're like, there's

(06:23):
nothing on the books like if you ren at thirty days,
if you ren it three days, it's no different to us.
And I was like, yeah, okay, great, can you put
that in writing. Answer was no, And we won't get
into that all the whole politics and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
That's about a ten year story.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, But like Lo and Behold, Anaheim did decide to
put together some short term rental regulations and policies and
started permitting vacation rentals and started taxing vacation rentals with
the hotel tax and anyways, as that started happening, short
term rental owners in Anaheim started grouping up and trying

(06:59):
to navigate that process. And that's where you know, I
remember we met at a park with a bunch of
owners and you were there, Val and you know, Ryan
was there, and my wife was there and anyways, we
started getting to know each other a little bit better.
And that's where I first met Ryan, and I kind
of looked at him as like he just managed condos

(07:20):
at the time. I just had homes, our own homes
at the time, and I was like, ah, he seems
like a bright guy and it might be interesting to
talk to and yeah, Lo and Behold, we kind of
married like his condo expertise in the area with my
home expertise, and then we created fun, cheerland, vacation rentals

(07:40):
and people, you know, through you know, all that stuff
that was going on in Anaheim. People had asked me
to manage for them, and unlike you, who was smart,
smarter than me, you you were managing for other people
the whole time. I kept telling people no because I
didn't view myself as a property manager.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Right, I didn't either, But that's another story.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
And the reason is because a property manager, you're the
one if there's water that starts falling out of the
ceiling in the middle of the night, you get the
call and have to deal with that. Up. There's a
lot a lot of things with property management that isn't like,
very attractive, and it's a twenty four to seven type
of a thing, and so I wasn't looking to expand

(08:25):
that part of the business and take on more headaches.
But lo and behold, I think, you know, I ultimately decided,
you know, it's going to be better to build a
better business around this with more infrastructure, with local employees
and to be able to handle those types of problems
better rather than just one person as the point person.
And that's kind of where Ryan and I decided to

(08:46):
combine forces and to like the way that we put
it is to build a better rocket ship together than
either one of us would be able to build on
our own. And that was the impetus for you know,
for Castle Homes and saying yeah to some other people
who had been asking for management to combine forces and
to really grow fun tierland vacation rentals in the Anaheim market.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
So your homes, though, were always decorated in a Disney theme, as.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I recall, yeah, the initial ones, yep.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, although I don't recall that they were ever so
over the top that they were almost a little obnoxious.
Some people's vacation rental homes at the time, a few
of them were almost like an amusement park in themselves,
and yours I always thought were tasteful but well done.
So what inspired you to make them like that for
your guests? Was it the fact that you had a
lot of children and everybody came to see Mickey Mouse

(09:37):
or what was it?

Speaker 1 (09:38):
How did you decide on that direction.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
I'm I'm very much by nature a supply and demand.
That's just how my mind works. And at the time
there was less homes available to rent in Anaheim that
were themed. So for us, we would do a pretty
over the top cars themed for the boys, you know,
and do like a cool yarls on the wall and

(10:01):
beds and colors. And for the girls' room it was
like the princesses and stuff like that, right, and then
for mom and Dad's room it might be like a
Donald Duck or a Mickey Mouse or Minie Mouse or something,
but like definitely toned down is the way that we
were doing it. But strictly reason why we did that
is we felt at the time there was demand for that,

(10:24):
but less competition. There's some of the other people and
I'm sure you managed for them and did these homes
where they were you know, had maybe some more flipping background,
definitely more than I had, and they were doing really
nice looking homes but not themed at all. And so
we were just trying to create our niche and create
a brand, and that's ultimately why we went that direction.
And also, of course, yeah, we had young kids, and

(10:46):
we just felt like that's what a lot of the
young kids wanted, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yep, that's true, but don't you find that you have
to kind of have a combination of the magic, right
that comes with Disneyland, but also with function and also.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Something that's maintenance.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
So I know, and I know you know too, when
when people come and they want to start a vacation
from home, they're going to buy all this stuff. They
put all this cute stuff up, but it's not functional.
It's not going to last very long. So you seem
to have done a good job of balancing all that
where it's magical, but it's still functional and people can
actually stay there and it won't everything won't be broken

(11:20):
by the time they leave.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, exactly, And I appreciate that. And a lot of
it is trial and error to say, like what works well,
what doesn't work well? And unfortunately for a lot of things,
like you don't really figure that out until you try
things that don't work. But like you're right, the more
nick knacks and things that you have, the more things
that go missing or they get broken, or that are
just you know, end up detracting from a guest experience

(11:44):
rather than enhancing the guest experience. And that's ultimately what
we're striving to do, is how do we enhance the
guest experience right in our particular market, you know, people
are going primarily to attend the park, right, They're not
just coming because there's this cool house next to this

(12:04):
amazing waterfall or something like that. So we want them
to enjoy their time in the house. But they're not
just coming for the house. So how do we enhance
that experience for them and definitely not detract from it
because the last thing that people want is a house
that's not working well and that it kind of ruins
the vacation And we all heard those horror stories and
vacation rentals, and and to make sure that that's not

(12:28):
happening with our guests, right.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
And then in your vacation homes that aren't in Disneyland
area like some you have some in Carlsbad, you have
one in Santa Clementi. Are you in that part of
the San Diego County?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, we're in Incannitas as well. We have one that's
you know, pretty close to the beach over in Incinnitas,
you know, yep.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
And so then I haven't been there. Is that more
of a beach theme?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, beach theme, same with the Carl's Bad one. We're
actually in the middle of a remodel on the Carl's
Bad property. It's a big property right by Tamar, which
is one of the best that you know, it has
tide pools in the Carlsbad area, one of the best
surf spots. Prime, awesome location. But it was just dated.
You know, this home was you know, Jewel the singer

(13:10):
used to own this home. It was done in Tuscan style.
It was you know, it felt like something kind of
out of the late nineties, and so it was time
to update and renovate the home. And that's something that
we found is that that's really what people want, is
something that is up to date and clean and more modern,
and you know, so that's what we're in the process
of doing in that carlsbadhouse right now.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, So when people are looking for vacation rentals, what
really makes a vacation mental family friendly? Are there specific
features or amenities that you think should be there that
people should should deserve and should have.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
For me, it's there's the critical ones like hey, you
got to have some high chairs, you got to have
maybe some baby gates, if you got stairs and stuff.
Some of the safety things like originally, like all of
our homes in Anaheim have pools, and we gated all
of the pools of every single property, and we got
a little bit away from that to say, like, okay, well,
maybe you know, three quarters of our properties have fences,

(14:04):
and like the families that really want that, there's there's
an opportunity for them to be in homes like that.
But some families don't need that fence anymore because the
kids are a little bit older whatever, right, And that's
kind of the way that I look at it. I
would say the number one honest thing for family family
friendly vacation rentals is like communal space for people to

(14:25):
eat together, to hang out together, to talk, like our
bread and butter has been grandma grandpa bringing friends or
bringing kids and grandkids to Disneyland, right, or like multiple
families from different places, maybe they knew each other in
college or something, and those three or four families all
meet together. And so that's that's what's super special about

(14:49):
the vacation rentals in my opinion, especially family friendly. Is
it like you get them together that the kids play
and give them kind of you know, a place where
they can go off, where the adults can kind of
hang out and catch up with each other where they
can you know, talk to late late late hours in
the morning or early hours of the morning, late hours
at night and be catching up and not disturbing other people,

(15:10):
you know. So that's where like vacation rentals shine in
comparison to a hotel, for example, I'd say.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Right, yep, that's true.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
So then on the other side of the spectrum, so
how do you ensure that a home is senior friendly
because I know, we know that a lot of families
come and the graham and grandpas bring them. They are
so excited to bring their four kids and all their
grandchildren and all of that. But maybe the Graham and
Grandpa can't walk up downstairs. Maybe it's not so easy.

(15:37):
Is there anything special you do for those people?

Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah? And for us, again, the nice thing of having
a management company, of having a portfolio of homes, we
will make certain homes that we're built in a way
that are more conducive for maybe less ambulatory type of people,
whether they're seniors or not. Right, it's just people with
special needs. And so we well, we have a couple

(16:01):
homes that have ramps that go up into the house
so that if there's a wheelchair or even a walker
or something like that. It's just easier to get in
and out of the home. Love homes that have masters
on the main floor and that have a shower with
no curbs, so you can go put somebody in a
lot easier. Definitely in those types of situations, we're putting

(16:22):
grab bars in places that make sense to have the
grab bars. And you know, the hallways are typically a
little bit wider. If if we are remodeling, we would
leave the doors wider. We would do things like that
to make a much more family family friendly. But vacation rentals,
it's a mixed bag. So some homes frankly aren't that

(16:43):
suitable for people with those types of special needs or
and so we let people know this is. And then
the nice thing is on the platforms where you list,
whether it's our own website or one of the online
travel agencies, we can say, oh, this this house is
a great house for nonlar less ambulatory, nonambulatory type people.

(17:05):
This house is not because it has a lot of stairs,
it's split level, it's whatever, and then giving them a
selection to choose from and and and so it's really
just looking for those types of features when you're looking
at the home, speaking with the host and saying, hey,
is this house good for this? This is the situation,
and they can typically point you at a home that

(17:26):
will really meet your needs quite well.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
And we often get increase from parents.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
So they have a child that's in a wheelchair, yeah,
or something like that, and so that's really good. And
you know, you can even have ramps now going into
showers and then makes it a lot easer. So instead
of aging in place, they can vacation in place.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right there, you go, yeah, well that's great because they
can spend time with their grandkids and in a more
home environment. And you know, like I said, like enhancing
the vacation, it's just like creating a space to create memories,
right And there's there that's where I think, you know,
short term rentals and especially kind of what we're trying

(18:04):
to put together up in Anaheim are really special, yep.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
And that's a great way to creating a space to
create memories. Great, we'll have to be sure and post
that here. So let's say a family checks in, so
they've picked your house out of hundreds of them, and
they get their hopes up, they fly across the country,
they get here, they check in.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
So paid is a picture? So what does that weekend
look like?

Speaker 2 (18:31):
What kind of experience can they expect in a fun
tier land home.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
A frontier land home we're going to be you know,
you book a house, you get the contract, you sign it.
There's Anaheim has a lot of rules. We're very very
upfront in our listing and our contracts and everything about
the rules. And if people keep those rules, we're good.
But you know, you walk into the home and prior
to coming, you would have received a welcome email, a

(18:58):
welcome text saying hey, this is going to be your
door code, right, and so we automate that process. Right.
We're not meeting people at the door, showing them around
the house, doing those types of things. I think that's
something that used to be common in the short terminal space.
It's less common now, and frankly, most people don't really
want that. So we make it very automated, very seamless,

(19:19):
easy to get in. And then you know, some of
my favorite times actually when we were growing this portfolio
of businesses, you know, I just remember numerous times we're
just doing the final little touches before people are coming in,
and then all of a sudden, the guests are there
a little bit early. I'm sure this has happened to
you as well, val and managing properties, and you're like, yeah,

(19:40):
come on in, I'm just finishing up here. And the
little kids come running in and they run into like
you know, the car's room or the up room or
whatever kind of themed room we have, and they just
start going bonkers and they're just thrilled and like this
is so cool. And then you hear another kid like
from somewhere else in the house, hurry run over here
and see this. And there's like a little door into

(20:00):
like a you know, like a Mickey room, and they
go through the door and they see the dress ups
and they do this type of thing and and like
that is like, honestly some of the more joyous moments.
It's like, Okay, that's cool to see that reaction because
you don't get to see that often. Actually, as the host,
you kind of create the house to have that experience.

(20:20):
But when you see the little kids just going from
room to room in ecstatic, whoever booked that house now
feels like a hero, like, oh, yeah, we picked the
perfect house and get that reaction. That that's where it's
at right, that's that's the best.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's true, and it is exciting. And you
have to imagine for some people. And look, tell when
I grew up, the thought of us being able to
go to Disneyland. I mean that wasn't even in our wheelhouse.
That never would have been possible for me. So I
know what it's like to sit in some small town
on your computer, on your laptop, maybe you know in
the Midwest or northern north part of the country, and

(20:55):
you're in this little this little house and you finally,
for some reason, you get to go to Disneyland and
you're picking up this house and so people pick it
based on you know, the bedroom or and the kids
pick out their rooms and they're all set and ready
to go. So the fact that when they arrive that's there,
that's pretty amazing. And then you have I'm sure things
that make their stay easier from a technology standpoint, like

(21:18):
a welcome book, and I know you have signs I
think for how they can use the pool and the
laundry and things like that.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Is that true.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, We've digitized a lot of it, so our welcome
book is now just a QR code. They can hit it,
they it will automatically sign into the Wi Fi. If
they hit that, the Wi Fi passwords up as well
in different places. You know, we're automating a lot of that,
digitizing a lot of it, which is pretty cool with
the technology that's out there now, and just trying to

(21:47):
make it as easy and simple as possible, you know.
So absolutely we do those those types of things too.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
So for people who are listening to us or viewing
our show today and they've never been a VACA, they
would like to, they don't really know how to look.
So what are some of the things that families or
seniors should look for when they're picking a vacation rental home?

Speaker 1 (22:10):
And are there any red flags?

Speaker 3 (22:12):
There must be some all of the above. And so
so when you're looking for something, I would look for
property typically that has like reviews already, you know that.
So these properties they have some solid reviews, and I
would say the number one key in reviews is looking
at like the most recent reviews and giving weight to those.

(22:34):
I think of one example. You know, we started traveling
with some of my high school friends and their wives,
you know, and it's almost ten years ago now, and
so the very first trip. I planned where we were going,
and we're going to Costa Rica, and it was this
big thing. It was the first time. It's like, oh,
are we going to enjoy traveling together all these things?

(22:55):
And I picked the house based on my experience that
had the highest number of reviews, the highest number of
five star reviews, and it was the highest rated house
numerous times in this area that we were going to
in Costa Rica. And we got there and it was fine,
but it was a little rundown and you could tell
that it had been operated as a vacation rental for many,

(23:15):
many years, and they weren't the upkeep wasn't wasn't as
good as we would have liked. And so I, as
the person who booked it. That's the thing is whoever
books the house has a lot of responsibility on their shoulders, right,
So I was a little disappointed with the house. And
there was another house that I was contemplating booking at
the same time that only had like twenty reviews, but

(23:35):
it was way newer, it looked like it was at
a good location. But I went with the one that
was tried and true. And now in retrospect, I think,
you know what it's not the fact that this one
had hundreds of reviews that I actually don't think it
was the better home. It's just you got to look
at the more recent reviews and say, is the house tired,
who's the host, who's the manager? Are they able to

(23:58):
keep up with like a really really popular rental, because
as you know, when Reynolds are booked back to back
to back to back, like it's like many of the
homes in Anaheim, it is harder to keep up on
all the maintenance and keep them fresh. Not impossible, but
so those reviews are very telling, and to see how
the host responds to them and see what they're doing

(24:19):
about some of the issues, because homes are going to
have issues, just like your home that you live in,
you know has issues from time to time. Vacation rentals
are going to be the same, and so it's really
just looking hard into that. But I would just say,
you know, reviews are going to be key to knowing
which one to do and who the host is. Trying
to look into that as much as possible is very

(24:41):
telling because different people are going to to react to
problems in different ways, and so you just want to
know if you're the unlucky one that does have a
problem during your stay, that you're with a host who
is going to take care of him away. That makes sense.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
So that's one of the things I think we should address,
is because it's not a perfect science and it's not
a perfect world. And when you know, we all have
a dream vacation, but sometimes things fall short. They just
reality sets in. So I mean, in all fairness to
the host, you know, you may have some You may
get there and the dishwasher doesn't break or does break,

(25:19):
or the hot water heater breaks or something that work.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
And it's not their fault, right, but it happens.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Sure, sure, So you know for people that, in all
fairness to both sides, how should the guests manage that?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
What should they expect?

Speaker 2 (25:34):
You know, because certainly if you're in a hotel, you
just call down to the front desk, right and the
handyman is right there.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Well, our hotel can move you a lot easier. A
hotel room is a commodity type of a product, right,
if they have availability, they can put you in a
very very similar room, where short term mentals typically aren't
a commodity type of a product, and there may not
be availability, and so it could be a lot more
difficult to move somebody, right.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, so what do you recommend, How should the guests respond,
what should they expect and you know, be nice if
the guest was understanding. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not.
But how does funtier Land manage that? And how do
you think it's managed across the industry? Do you do
something that you think is better different than most vacation

(26:20):
mental managers or owners.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
It's hard to say, like what others are, Like I
would hope that we do it in a very similar fashion,
but we're going to ideally get on the phone and
not just be communicating via text or through an application
on one of these OTAs or something, but get on
the phone and say, hey, what's the issue, Like here's
our options, you know, depending on the day of the week,
the time of the day, Like sometimes we can have

(26:46):
somebody there within five ten minutes because we have local
on site staff during the working hours of the day, right,
but when sometuff happens at eleven pm, it's like, okay,
here's what our options are. And kind of going through that,
and you know, we love guests who like set realistic
expectation and it's not not that they're not going to

(27:06):
hold us accountable and say, hey, we want this fixed
by this time or whatever, but having realistic expectations. You know,
I think there was a period of time where cancel
culture was very strong, just in the United States in general,
and it was the less fun time to be an
operator of a vacation rental management company because there was

(27:27):
a lot of guests who were coming in with the mindset,
we're going to get a refund and we're doing this
before they ever stepped foot into the property. And you know, luckily,
I feel like that's that's become less there's still people
with that type of mentality, and if you've got the mentality, yeah,
please don't book my vacation rentals.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Right.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
But but you know, it's not like guests should have
expectations of the vacation rental. The company should be doing
whatever they possibly can do to fix and remedy that issue.
And there's a lot of different like they're just there's
thousand different issues that could occur, and so it's hard

(28:06):
for me to talk about them in generalities. But I
think as long as both are kind of working with
each other, there's almost always an amicable solution that all
parties can be happy with at the end.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
And don't you think that really, at least for me?
If it was me, I would say, Okay, I understand
that things happen, but I want to know how you
respond to it, right, And that's exactly what you said.
I want to know how you respond. It's not that
things things are always going to happen. You know, delays
are happening in the airports every day. But what can
you what kind of courtesy do you get from the

(28:40):
person who's who's responsible And even if they just pick
up the phone and call me, you know that means
a lot. Absolutely, So we talked a little bit about
you talked a little bit about vacation rental versus hotel.
That's a big question that travelers debate, and certainly brought
up a point about a short term visit isn't so good.
But what are the advantages for a family staying in

(29:01):
a vacation home for a traditional hotel. You've had to
make those choices as a family. So are there any
situations where staying in a hotel might be an advantage
for a family?

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Absolutely? And that's the thing, is I every once in
a while I hear somebody say, oh, I only stay
in vacation rentals. I'd never stay in a hotel again.
I love them so much and obviously we're more likely
to help.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Everybody's like that, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, and I'm like, I don't you know, when I travel,
I don't always stay in a vacation rental. Sometimes I
stay in a hotel. So for me, like I would say, like,
the number one factor of like am I staying in
a vacation rental hotel has to deal with, well, how
many people am I traveling with? If I'm by myself?
Rarely do I stay in a vacation rental by myself? Right,

(29:46):
But the number two factor I would say is length
of stay and just the inherent nature of vacation rentolds
is the cleaning fee. Right, There's nothing, no way around it.
And to put this into perspective, you know over in
why the cleaning fees are very, very expensive. There's just
there's not a large pool of employment over there, and

(30:09):
at the end of the day, a lot of the
cleans are upwards of one thousand dollars. Wow, the clean right,
so much higher than what we would be paying in Anaheim, right,
And so it's not gonna make nearly as much sense
to stay one or two nights in a vacation rental anywhere, frankly,
because even in Anaheim, if we're, say we're paying three
hundred dollars to clean like a larger home, it just

(30:32):
wouldn't make sense for one or two nights stay so much.
Whereas the if you the longer you stay, then you're
breaking up that cleaning fee over a longer period of time,
and vacation rentals start making a lot more sense. The
more people you have, the more more vacation rentals make sense.
And then you know, it's just like, are you trying

(30:52):
to have like a place where family gatherings, where friends
can sit up and you know, watch movies together and
do things that frankly aren't as going to a hotel.
That being said, but you know, I just went to
Florida with my family for spring break and we stayed
in hotels for you know, we went on a cruise.
I've never taken my family on a cruise before, and
just how time is now. It was great. I mean

(31:15):
I'm not a huge cruiser. I like the adventure and stuff,
and I feel like when you go into ports, you
don't quite have enough time to do all the adventures
stuff that I would like to do. But it was
a good experience. And my oldest daughter is seventeen now wow,
youngest daughter just turned six last week, and so we
got a bit of a span and so I have

(31:37):
five children total, right, and so it was a great experience.
But we stayed in hotels on the front and back
end of that that cruise because it just wouldn't make
sense for us, even though we had a high number
of people, to like go pay a cleaning fee and
do all that stuff. It made a lot more sense
for us to go find you know, like a Maria

(31:57):
springfill suit with that had pulled out caches and queens,
get two rooms and split the family up, and it
just makes sense. And so it really just depends on
what the purpose of the travel is. But like I
use hotels, I would say just as much as I
use vacation rentals, And it really just depends on what
the purpose of the travel is.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
So you talked about fees, you talked about cleaning fees.
The vacation rental industry has faced a lot of criticism
with things like that that people consider to be hidden fees.
Some of those are cleaning fees, some of them are
other fees. So how do you keep Frontierlands business ethical
and transparent? How do you handle the fees? How do

(32:36):
you explain them to your guests? And quite frankly, why
are some of them necessary?

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah? Tough question, but yeah, fees are part of it,
and they've becoming, like I guess to your point, they
become increasingly prevalent with professionally managed vacation homes throughout the world,
not just the United States. And frankly, like it comes
down to it, like, like you know, vacation rental property

(33:05):
managers charge what people think is a very high management fee.
So we'll just say like twenty percent or whatever, twenty
five percent on average, somewhere in between there is kind
of the average of what vacation rental property management companies charge.
And they think, well, well, my long term rental that
gets done for eight percent, So you guys are making
a killing. It's like, well, you're not, because you're paying
a lot of money to be marketing on the various

(33:27):
OTAs right like vrbo, Airbnb, Booking, dot Com all those,
So you have expenses there and then you have all
these contracts going in and out for people who are
staying every three to five days. And so what they
find in the industry when you go to the professional
conferences and stuff is like that management fee is actually
covering costs, and like some of the fees say, there's

(33:49):
like a reservation fee is what's going to help pay
for the team, you know, and and to to a
lot of the margin is in those those fees. But
the margin is actually a lot smaller in the vacation
rental management industry than people realize. Right, It's not this
big thick margin where people are making a ton of money.

(34:09):
There's the owners of the property and the vacation rental
property management company are working conjunction to be hopefully profitable.
But it varies market by market too, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
So the fees from the guess is that, as you said,
you can't get around cleaning fees. You have to pay
somebody to clean the properties be cleaned every time. Yeah,
and it's an individual house. In a hotel room, you
go in and you do the beds and so forth,
and you vacuum all those things. Vacation rental you've got
to do dishes, right, make sure that the shelves are
wiped off, all the drawers are cleaned, right.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
And just the share property size. You know, we have
a forty two hundred square foot property in Anaheim that
we rent out versus a hotel room that you know
might be what like four hundred square feet or so. Like,
you know, one cleaner can go clean ten twenty rooms
in a day at a hotel that the like two
cleaners can clean one property in a day in a vacation.

(35:07):
Real it's a completely different animal, right, it really is.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
So let's say someone's budget minded or they're just in
a situation where they just can only afford so much.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
What are some of the.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Things you think that people could look for or maybe
they could do without. If they're budget minded and they
want to have still a really nice experience, what should
they How should you guide their search?

Speaker 3 (35:32):
You know, I would be saying, hey, look for the
homes that may not have all the amenities of some
of the other homes. So you think, like most of
our homes have pools, right, Well, the expenses associated with
a pool, as you know, operating there. Like people don't
realize this, but like our gas bills for heating pools
in the winter are upwards of almost two thousand dollars

(35:54):
a month. People don't realize that and don't think about it.
And the cost of service a pool today is more
than double what it was even three years or four
years ago prior to COVID, right, And so there's just
a lot of additional expenses with some of those certain amenities.
And so if I'm budget conscious, I'm looking for, Hey,
what's the minimum number of bedrooms that I really need?

(36:16):
Like I don't need a pool, Like we can go
to the beach instead, you know, that's the great thing
of like an Anaheim property. You are like twenty minutes
fifteen twenty minutes away from the beach, go to the beach,
don't go to the pool. Then don't have a pool
at the property. If you're really budget conscious, obviously, if
you're traveling, if you can get other people to go
with you and split the costs on it, that's that's

(36:36):
definitely a great way to reduce the price. And that's
where short term rentals become extremely economical, because if you
look at the price per room of a short term
rental versus the hotels, typically the short term rentals are
a better value. Right, So it just depends like how
many rooms would you have to get at the hotel
and then a lot of times and it's like, oh

(36:57):
and I get the living room for free and the
kitchen the private kitchen for free, or the private pool
versus a huge hotel community pool with hundreds of people
or dozens of people in it at all times, and
who knows what is going on in that pool? Right,
So it is there's definitely pros and cons to both.

(37:18):
But I think it would probably just be picking up
the or reducing the amenity list to be budget conscious.
And it is the way that I look at it.
But it doesn't mean that you have to give up
like a good host and quality reviews or anything of
that nature. Right.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Also, I think one of your homes has a.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Spa a hot tub, just a hot tub only yet.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Right, And really, you know, for people that may be enough.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
They're not there all day, they go to Disneyland or
they go wherever else they go. So having a spot
they come moment at night and sit in the spaw
and and still have some time to chat and be
together and be in the water and have fun. So
maybe that's a good compromise to having a.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Pool, absolutely absolutely, and.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Some of our homes don't have either, but they're really
close to Disneyland, so people can walk and then they're
decided that that's.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
And honestly, with Uber these days, like I think a
lot of the homes are like a five to ten
dollars less like Uber ride. I mean that is a
pretty like after a long day walking through the park,
it's like I'll pay that ten dollars to get home
and it's actually cheaper than parking at the park and
don't have to deal with all the congestion. And so
there's really good alternatives. But like walking is certainly an option.

(38:32):
We have several properties as to you that you can
walk over to the park and kind of go through
the downtown Disney area and enjoy that that part too,
you know, So lots of good options.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
So people, a lot of people don't like the rules
of vacation mentals. They feel like they want to come
and they want to come and party, right, and that's
a pro vacation evyone. Right, they're on vacation and they
don't want to have to tell you who they are
because after all, their privacy right.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
So tell us.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
We know we've gone through a lot in the city
Vanaheim and in other cities. I've gone through in other
cities here in Orange County. So tell people the benefit
of having the rules. What is the benefit to the
vacation rental industry, because then we can do business in
that city. But help them understand why the rules are
important for me.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
It really comes down to the general theme of short
term vacation rentals are typically in residential neighborhoods where local
people live, right, And that is the magic of them, right,
is that you can go experience that city in the
way that a local can, right. And so really then

(39:42):
you have to be able to act and respect the
neighbor and the neighborhood at a level that you would
want if you were living next to a vacation rental
as well. And that's the best way that I can
put it into perspective for people is like, Okay, if
you live next door three hundred and sixty five days
a year, how would you want this home to be operated?

(40:06):
What hours would would would it be appropriate for people
to be using the pool and having a good time
and kids to be yelling and screaming in the pool? Right?
And what hours wouldn't be appropriate, right, how would you
want your neighbors to park? How would you like all
these things? And then I think the rules start to
make a lot more sense to be like, and it's

(40:26):
just a level of respect for the people and this
that you're around, right, and and that's but that's definitely
the way that I would like or I like to
think about it, because numerous times while we are going
through some of the stuff in the city of Anaheim,
and frankly, some neighbors who didn't like short term rentals
that they live next to, they would say, tell, how

(40:47):
would you like to live next to one of these rentals?
And I'm like, and I had to like really look
at myself in the mirror and say, you know what,
I'm going to operate our homes in a way that
I would be fine living next to one of my
bigcation rentals. And that's what we try to do. And
I truly believe that is that if I live the
next to one of the one of the vacation rentals

(41:09):
that we operate in Anaheim, I would be fine with it, right,
And I want the guests that come there to have
that mentality as well, So that we can continue to
have that sharing economy type of perspective anywhere we go
in the nation, because you know, there are just some
really special places that you can go as a short
term rental that hotels will never be able to go

(41:30):
in the US. But like especially in Europe. You know,
my wife and my family are my two oldest children
were actually born in Europe, and we traveled all over
in Europe right and back then there weren't Airbnb didn't exist,
and vrbo wasn't really over there, and so you know,
the way that we traveled with them like when we

(41:52):
live there and now that we've gone back, and some
of the vacation rental units in and in Europe are
just special. You can be right in the heart of
one of the busiest, coolest plazas in the city where
hotels can't be, and you can just be right there,

(42:12):
look out. You open up your window and you're looking
over the plaza and seeing the people and walk downstairs
and be in one of the greatest places, and it's
just truly unique to a vacation rental and so it's like, hey,
we have to be respectful of the people around us
so that we can peacefully coexist. And it's not just
about us during our stay, but it's going to be

(42:33):
the next people and the next people and the next people,
and ultimately it just comes down to a level of
respect for other human beings and just coexisting. And you know,
if I were them, would I be okay with it? Right?

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah? I get it.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
There.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
I have four vacation mentals directly surrounding me.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
You're in Newport.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, and there's a.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
New one being built that's got six bedrooms and we're
a little worried about it. Absolutely, it's a concern that
that's a good way to describe that are just realizing
that if you were there, how would you like it?

Speaker 3 (43:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
One of the things I wanted to talk about is
book Direct.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
So a lot of a lot of the vacation.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Rental portals where people are introduced to vacation rentals are
through VRBL Vacation Rental by Owner, which used to be
home Away or still is a little bit and Airbnb.
In fact, people even call vacation rentals and Airbnb I'm
going to stay in an Airbnb amazing marketing on their part,
amazing amazing. But yet we also tell people that they
should book direct, So tell people why.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
They should or they shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Do they have more protection because some people, I think,
think they're better off if they book with a big company.
They have a big company behind them. And some people
may be worried that if they go to a book
direct with an owner that maybe it might not be
might get there and not find a house.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
So let's talk about that.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yeah, I think we'll talk about all of them. I
think the probably one of the better reasons to book
direct is it's typically going to say a few dollars.
So if your budget conscious, if you're trying to find
the best value, you know, all of those online travel
agencies OTAs like airbnbvrbo, booking dot com, all those they're
charging the guest and the host of fees. So those

(44:15):
are typically going to be a little bit more expensive, right,
And so you can go direct to a website, you're
gonna save a little bit of money. As far as
it being better protected, that isn't that that's not my
opinion that you're better protected by by Airbnb's policies. They'll
try to say that they have insurance like they do.

(44:35):
I'm not going to disparage that. I don't think it's
as good as people would like to believe that it is, right,
and so I don't think there's a lot of drawbacks
going direct. Besides, to your point, like this used to
be more common years ago, I haven't. I haven't heard
of it more recently. But like people would go and
still pictures off of the Internet of a home and

(44:57):
put it onto Craigslist or some like site like that
that isn't reputable. You're not going direct to them. You're
going to some other kind of tertiary, weird place to
book a vacation rental, Like, do not book a vacation
rental on Craigslist. It's likely a scam. Right, But if
I go to vals Vacation Rentals right dot com or whatever,

(45:20):
I think like that is that your website? I think
VAL's vacation Yeah, awesome. So if I go there, I'm
gonna know that I'm dealing with a reputable company that
has many reviews and has these properties, and I'm going
to get the best deal, and you're gonna give me
great service, and I can communicate with you and get
a good feel, and that's going to be the best
place for me to book and for you as the

(45:41):
property manager for to book right. So I definitely say
I love direct bookings because we can provide better value
ultimately for the guests. But be wary of like Craigslist
and stuff like that. If you're going to a reputable
site that's been around for a while, that you shouldn't
be worried about. Not are showing up and they're not

(46:04):
being a home there right right.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
So so you think that booking direct just for to
recap for our listeners and our viewers, and we want
people to know they can always get a good the
scoop cret at Sokel with val that booking direct is
a safe thing.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Absolutely, it's it's a great place. But if you really
love Airbnb and you have a really high profile and
you feel good about it, do it. It's there. It's fine.
You're just going to pay a premium to do that,
and I don't know that you're getting the value in
return for it in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Sure, sure, So let me ask you. The travel landscape
is always changing. So we've seen it. We saw it
the before COVID we had a lot more I think
we'd say international travelers.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Then we went through the COVID period when.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
We had no travelers at all, and certainly no international travel.
Now things are coming back a little bit. So what
you see changing in the travel landscape and what do
you see coming up? Anything, any anything you want to
tell us about your view of the future of you
the future.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
That's a good question. I think you know. Vacation rentals
have become more mainstream over the last almost fifteen years
that I've been doing this. Like I said, Airbnb didn't
exist when we started, or if it did, it just
it wasn't even on the map. I've watched Airbnb go
from three percent of our bookings to five percent to

(47:34):
ten percent, and during COVID I think, all the way
up to almost eighty percent of our bookings right and
now it's back down it to thirty five percent, which
is fine. It's about I don't like to be too
dependent on any particular source, but I believe that we're
still like in the adolescent stage, I would say of
vacation rentals, right, I think they're going to continue to grow.

(47:57):
I think there's reasons why they're so popular, and we're
going to continue to see them be professionalized and because
the guests do have certain expectations and the professional hosts
that have been around typically meet those expectations very well.
There's still going to be room for the small mom

(48:18):
and pose that have one or two or three properties
and provide a personalized experience that no professional manager can touch. Right, Like,
there's just a few just super superhosts that good for them.
Those are awesome people to rent from as well. But
I think we're going to see for example, brit is great,
she's super nice, and people you know, probably gonna get

(48:38):
fresh baked cookies when they walk in the door, and
all sorts of great stuff. Right, less scalable when you're
managing sixty properties to do that, right, But I think
we're going to see more and more people, you know,
do the vacation rental. We're gonna see the vacation rental
industry grow further. And I think one of the biggest
things that may change travel and just the way all

(49:00):
of us work is like, you know, I'm a big
believer that you know, Uber and Lyft and Tesla and
these companies they're going to create these big autonomous fleets
and you know, it's not gonna be quite the same
where we're all driving our vehicles. I could see a
time where where you know, if you're traveling for work,
you go to the bottom of the office building and

(49:22):
there's like this little pod that picks you up that
has like a bed in it, a little workstation and
in a bathroom, and it takes you off to like
some you know, lookout point and over the San Francisco
Bay Bridge or whatever wherever you're at, and that's where
you spend the night, and then it takes you back
in the morning type of a thing. Like who knows
like where travel is really going to go. I think
there's gonna be some really cool new concepts that are

(49:45):
going to like change the way we view things here
over the next like decade or two. And I think
the autonomous autonomous driving is going to propel actually things
even in the travel industry.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah, and I don't want to get into it because
it could be a long subject.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
But I also think that AI is going to make
a big difference.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
For example, you know, I could be wherever I am
and I could just ask chat GPT, where should I
go right now for whatever it is that I want,
and you just get an instant answer. I don't even
have to go back to my office or my house
and look on my computer, look on my laptop.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
You get it. And that's coming like that. There's a
lot of that stuff that exists right now. You can
even like in vacation rentals, it's possible to set up
like a type of device such as an Alexa, Amazon
Alexa or something like that. You know, where you ask,
where you ask a question, it will spit out the
Wi Fi pass code, It will give like information that
a guest previously was having to text or a call

(50:38):
and ask these questions. They could look it up in
the welcome book, but it sure is a heck lot
easier just to say hey, Alexa and then ask whatever
question and it spits it out. That that exists today.
And like I said, that's where I think the professional
managers are going to ultimately do really well in this
space because they're going to be able to invest in
that AI technology and provide the guests experience where you know,

(51:01):
my kids are just going to say, well, that's the
way everything should work. Why do you think that's innovative.
It's just how the world works, right dad. And that's
we're going to see more and more of that as
technology continues to just just explode like it has, you.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Know, and for better or where's your youngest daughter? Probably
won't ask for a car.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
No, exactly exactly, it's kind of crazy exactly.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
So we have just a few more minutes and I could.
I'm certainly going to have you back again because we
want to talk about this. There's more things to talk
about and talk about your different areas where you operate.
But also so what is the one thing that you
are several things that you want your guests to take
away from being a guest at frontier Land.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
No, I ultimately want my guests to feel, like, you know,
staying in the home help them create better memories with
their friends and families that they were traveling with. If
if that, if we can enhance their travel experience, that's
what I want them to take away. We don't need

(52:03):
to be the focal point, but we want to just
like say, you know what, we had just a fantastic
vacation and we really appreciate the space that you provided
to help us do that. That's we get that feedback
on a regular basis, especially with the number of properties
that we have, and that's the one that means the

(52:23):
most to me is that we're helping families create better memories.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
That is fabulous, and tell us, tell us, we have
just two minutes left. Tell us how people can find you,
not just Funtierline dot com. But when they go on
a fontier Line website, what should they look for? How
should they.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Search to find a home that's best for them.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
So our website is set up that we have maps
so you can zoom in. If you're going to Disneyland,
you could zoom all the way into Anaheim and pick
exactly where you'd want to be. You can search them
by number of bedrooms on our website frontierland dot com.
And then if you want to go to Kawhi, we
got three awesome properties there, hopefully we'll have more and

(53:04):
now down in Carlsbad, Incinitas. And so click on that map,
pick the property that's right for you. It's really searchable
kind of in a lot of different ways that you
want to see it. That's a great way to find us.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
So your website's definitely user friendly. Yeah, and then as
I recall, you even have a real life person people
can talk to.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Absolutely if you call our number as long as it's
I think it's probably eight am. To eight pm, you'll
catch one of our staff and if you call after that,
we have an answering service that should be able to
If it's an emergency, then they will call us, and
if it's not, we'll get back to the next day.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
That sounds fabulous and I can honestly vouch for talent.
When I started the show, I knew that tal had
to be my one of my first guests because of
the reputation in the experience that people receive when they
book a vacation with fun tier lend.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
So thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Unfortunately, this wraps up our episode today with so Cal
with Val. I hope that our listeners and our viewers
have enjoyed visiting and getting to know tell Price and Frontierland.
But remember that your insights make our show even better.
So send me messages I'll respond to everybody. Tell me
where you'd like to go, where you'd like to eat,
any special places you've discovered. Be sure to go to

(54:18):
frontierland dot com and book a vacation rental with them,
and don't forget to come back again next Friday at
four o'clock. Until then, keep exploring, stay curious, and enjoy
all that. So Cal has to offer, and we'll see
you next time on so Cal with Beal.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Thanks Thal, thank you Col.