EPISODE 7: NAVIGATING CHANGE – THE IMPACT OF NEW REGULATIONS ON SHORT-TERM RENTALS
Steve Turk: [00:00:00] Welcome back. Tangy talk episode numero siete, number seven here. We’re sticking with it, right? I think we said the top 5 percent of podcasts have to get the 21 episodes. So we’re marching along Victor. Welcome to episode seven.
Victor Feria: We’re getting there. Welcome. Welcome, Steve. Happy Friday. Happy women’s day.
Victor Feria: That’s right. Right.
Steve Turk: Women’s day. But I think it’s women’s day every day in our household.
Victor Feria: 100%. 100%. I agree with that. But. Um, shout out to all the ladies. I know I’ve worked with many, many, um, great leaders. So, you know, I think, uh, a lot of what, what I’ve, uh, what we’ve been able to accomplish has been a lot, you know, in part by having really strong and beautiful women alongside,
Steve Turk: I agree.
Steve Turk: My wife, I’m very proud of her every day, given a great example for my daughter and being able to raise a strong woman, I’m excited to see her as she continues to blossom.
Victor Feria: There you go. Shout out to all of, uh, our wives as well. And Alexandra, my [00:01:00] wife as well with. Doing a fantastic job with our 11 month old baby.
Victor Feria: So praises to her as well. All right.
Steve Turk: I think we’re good. Now. I think they’re going to be happy. We got us a week. We got. But listen, we’ve had a lot of fun this week. A lot of cool things happening. And I always, I put a post on this on LinkedIn and I was really, I told you, Victor, I write to myself sometimes like to motivate myself.
Steve Turk: Right. And I was like, you know, when you’re in the hotels and when you work in a big company, you get people cheerleading for you. Like, Oh, great job, Victor. Great job, Steve. And you know, when you become a business owner, you don’t really get that. You’ve got to find it for yourself. Right. And you got to find those little moments to cheerlead.
Steve Turk: And as silly as it may sound, I want to cheerlead a moment for us because for our journey here. We’re in year five and a half. We’ve been slowly growing the right way as competitors closed down after raising millions of [00:02:00] dollars. But we invested in our first van. Look at that thing. Viewers, not the best picture, but we got it yesterday and we’re just excited because it is our mobile marketing.
Steve Turk: Now, not only is it for our team to get around and do a great job at servicing places, now we’ve got a beautiful tangy van. I think our shirts actually matched the van today. I think so too.
Victor Feria: I think we’re on brand today, but yeah, man, it’s a, it’s a really proud moment. I was like thinking about it. I’m like, man, when we first had the tangy logo on a piece of paper, now it’s on a car.
Victor Feria: So it’s a really proud moment. We’ll get for sure. We’ll get some better pictures in that, but, uh, our, our, our team did a great job in designing it and shout out William for, for seeing it through and putting it together. And. Hopefully you get to see us out on the street, you know, don’t honk at us, don’t honk at us, or do honk at us,
Steve Turk: but just don’t, don’t distract our drivers, but if you do see, I think we should run a competition, like, Hey, where do you see the tangy van?
Steve Turk: And we’ll, and we’ll run a little competition to see if you spot it and send us the picture. We’ll give you a [00:03:00] discount to stay with tangy. com. Yeah, we’ll do something nice. It’ll be cool. And spot out the tangy
Victor Feria: mobile and get a discount.
Steve Turk: Tangy mobile. I like it. See, you have to win these little times. I’ve got to celebrate when we have these wins.
Victor Feria: I love it, man. Yeah. I saw that post and I was like, wow, Steve hit it right on the spot. Right. Cause it’s like, uh, I think we’ve had this conversation. It gets a little lonely sometimes. Right. I mean, and thankfully we have each other that we get to share. You know, a lot of, uh, details, you know, personally and also business wise.
Victor Feria: But, um, it’s good to, to sing your own praises because sometimes we, we definitely don’t see them. Um, are always so focused on our team and making sure, you know, they feel praised and they feel, um, you know, special and what they’re doing. Um, but for us as well, you know, we’re doing a good job. Yeah, we got to
Steve Turk: truly for ourselves.
Steve Turk: It gets hard for business owners when you’re on your own, right? Can you imagine some of these guys who are starting up their vacation rental business and it’s just them and dealing with guests? Cause usually you only talk to guests when they’re angry or upset, right? There’s 90 percent of it. So it could wear you down a little [00:04:00] bit.
Victor Feria: 100 percent and you know, our background, we come from hotels with, you know, 600, 700 employees where you’re walking in every day. Yeah. Saying hello to 500 people, uh, just to get to your office. It’s not like that for us anymore, you know? So, um, so I love it. I love that post and
Steve Turk: I’m glad we’re talking about it too.
Steve Turk: Me too. And I mean, you might’ve talked about it, but for those who haven’t heard it, we did something for our team to kind of learn about them. Um, do you want to talk about what we created to learn about our team? Get to know me, get to know me.
Victor Feria: She, yeah, that’s a, it was, it was a special, not only cool idea, but also seeing the team itself, you know, putting it together, um, it was also cool to see.
Victor Feria: But we basically created a get to know me sheet, um, with all of our teams, like hobbies, favorite restaurants, what motivates them, their goal for the year. Uh, we had them sign it off, um, and fill all of the information. It was cool to see them kind of like, Oh, what motivates you? Oh, my family. What’s your favorite movie?
Victor Feria: So. Um, it was cool to see and we’ll be using that, you know, to, to hopefully, um, you [00:05:00] know, motivate them to give, you know, awards to, to give, um, you know, employee of the month, um, and having that information, I think will go a long way for us. You know, as business owners and for them as well, um, to make sure that they know that they feel that they’re heard and they’re special and, and what they do doesn’t go unnoticed.
Steve Turk: I agree. And I love that we have it. And again, you could celebrate with them that way. So if you have a team that’s spread out, especially a virtual team, this is a good way to get to know people and celebrate their birthdays and big occasions and see what really motivates them and kind of reward them.
Steve Turk: So if they love going to the beach, like we had one of our supervisors, we found that loves going to the beach. We got her some awesome Tommy Bahama chairs and an umbrella so that she can go and enjoy that. Right. Little things that don’t cost a lot that you can do for everybody.
Victor Feria: She loved it. Yeah. And her, her expression was priceless.
Victor Feria: Like right away, she was like, I can’t believe you remembered. It’s like, of course we remember
Steve Turk: little things, which I love, but we can talk about this stuff all day. We have some headlines we want to cover. Um, cause something’s affecting us [00:06:00] here in Florida and some other big cities. And then we’ll give us a couple of tips on what you can implement today in your business.
Steve Turk: But the first one is a new law that just passed here in Florida is the Florida’s SB 20 80. Uh, the bill is going to be tough cause it’s just passed narrowly. And now they’re going to be able to say that local governments can implement laws on vacation rentals and short term rentals as they see fit. So even harder than any other lodging, um, laws, this is going to be even tougher.
Steve Turk: So, you know, we’ll see what happens here with it, but what did you see? You’ve been following it along a little bit more.
Victor Feria: And it’s a, it’s a big bill and there’s a lot of details and information on there that everyone I think should go and read cause it, it could partially, you know, affect them in some other ways.
Victor Feria: Uh, but I’ve been thinking about it all morning, you know, I mean, we talk about this all the time. That, you know, being black and white on regulations and, um, how do we [00:07:00] process things like, like permits and stuff like that should be, um, very clear so that, you know, I’m all in accordance to, uh, but the property rights, you know, from owners and removing those property rights from owners.
Victor Feria: Um, we’ll get into this topic in a little bit of, you know, New York and the impact it did over there. Um, but I think, you know, the property rights of owners and having them or allowing them, um, to be able to, to, you know, to conduct their business in a smart and professional, um, way, you know, won’t hurt them necessarily.
Victor Feria: Uh, but having, you know, clear regulations is, I’m all for it. Um, and then there’s also other things, you know, there’s also other topics of, you know, what the cap on, on how much you can charge for registration or, you know, the basically any fees and fines also cap that as well. Um, but then there’s verbiage in there about like possible liens and stuff like that.
Victor Feria: And that’s where it gets a little dicey.
Steve Turk: Yeah, because it’s not very clear. And so this is something that, you know, we being on the board of the Florida Alliance of vacation rentals, we got to see [00:08:00] a little bit more than we’ve ever seen, right. Just being a part of this association. And so we’re really pushing, like if you are in this industry, you need to join an association in your local community.
Steve Turk: So if you’re in Florida, you should be a part of it. It’s 75 for your business to join. It’s not anything crazy. And you can see when all these laws are starting to come through and you can help make a difference. Um, as they’re going, so do your best to make sure you join this.
Victor Feria: Yep. 100%. I completely agree with you.
Victor Feria: And I was telling you the other day on Wednesday, um, when the house was speaking on it, I had, I had your, um, uh, morning podcast at 10 AM with, with Sarah and on the other side, I had the, the Senate floor and listening to them. So that’s the first time I’ve, you know, looked into it and, and, and looked and seen that live.
Victor Feria: So it was cool, you know, even myself, uh, not really thinking that I would, uh, you know, be interested in that. And now I’m finding myself. You know, kind of a knee deep and all of that. So it’s cool to see and hopefully I think it’s going to get now has to be passed by the Senate. [00:09:00] Um, so
Steve Turk: I think I think it’s through.
Steve Turk: I think they went through. Yeah, it went through. We saw go through the house and it’s now through the Senate, but just shows you like things can change very quickly. That is really knowing. And so this is why it’s important to join these things. Um, join these associations because Hey, we wouldn’t see it.
Steve Turk: It’d be a headline. And then all of a sudden it could be like how Miami beach was, where it was booming. And then all of a sudden it got shut down because there were a lot of bad actors. And so this is where it comes from is from the bad actors, right? It’s not like the people like our company that try to do things the right way, be a good neighbor, enhanced neighborhoods that we’re in do things legally.
Steve Turk: It’s the people who create these party houses. They get out of control. Garbage is all over the neighborhood cars coming in and out at all hours of the night. Yeah. These are the people that really give us a bad name. And I agree, we should not have those kind of homes, right? If you’re not in the right zoning to have that kind of business, you should not be.
Steve Turk: So this is where it came from. And they want to get it even stricter because I was reading with some of the state [00:10:00] senators were saying that they really want to get even tighter where you can really like knock out these homes and make it, you know, back to the neighborhoods that it should be. But if you’re doing it the right way, right.
Steve Turk: You have people who travel and really want to experience something like a local, like Airbnb’s tagline, right. Or just really have that home and space for their kids to run around and save a little money on vacation. And also for the owners to make a little extra money when they’re not in town. Exactly, exactly.
Steve Turk: Yes, it goes a bunch of different
Victor Feria: ways. Right, right. But, and all I think, uh, in totality of it is, you know, stay, stay ahead, stay informed, um, you know, read, read through the bill carefully and see how it can affect you, um, and then just prepare for it and be, you know, ready for any change. Um, I think change is good.
Victor Feria: So, so we’ll see where we’re at. I’m
Steve Turk: excited to see what the final rules are. So you said, we know what we have to do because once we know what to do, we could do it because so many things are gray area. Look, it can happen very quickly in any major city. [00:11:00] And that’s, I think our next topic here is what happened in New York city of all places where.
Steve Turk: Man, they wiped out thousands and thousands of Airbnb listings, right? Um, people who had built whole businesses and careers and doing things this way. Um, it was already kind of illegal, but the city couldn’t enforce the laws, changed the laws, made it enforceable and really wiped it out. So the only way you can do a short term rental in New York city is if you actually live there.
Steve Turk: So you, you and I can’t rent. An entire place from somebody. It has to be someone who’s a host that lives there and rents it out. But the majority of them are not that want to have your short term rental accommodations. You almost need like, I think it’s the hotel license there. So not many people have that at all.
Steve Turk: Um, so you can happen in any city. It could happen if it happens in New York city, it could happen in any major city or any [00:12:00] small town. So that’s why you got to be involved. But. There was something that who was a big winner, which city was a big winner, Victor, New
Victor Feria: Jersey, New Jersey. It’s a New Jersey is reaping all the benefits.
Victor Feria: There’s been a huge increase in their demand. Um, it says about 77 percent year over year as of mid February, so that means there’s still a strong demand and a strong need for, for, you know, short term rentals, uh, but people are going elsewhere, you know, and they’re, and they’re looking at places like, uh, Weehawken and Hoboken, places that have real easy access over to Manhattan.
Victor Feria: So. They’re reaping all the benefits. Um, and one thing also that we’d have mentioned there also, uh, Steve is that you can do short term rental, but basically it’s, um, if you don’t live in the property, but basically it has to be a 30 day minimum. So, you know, that’s not, uh, necessarily somebody staying there for 30 days is as common as people think.
Steve Turk: No, that’s like a little interesting niche. Cause there’s not that many people who do it. Right. You know, we have a couple of people in our properties that do it [00:13:00] every once in a while, but it’s usually the weekenders, you know, week stay, definitely under 30 days. Yeah. The interesting thing is, you know, we’re coming from hotel worlds and the hotels have benefited, but not as much as everybody thought, right?
Steve Turk: Right. And so what it shows is that, all right, you could take away the short term rentals and hotels thought they would be sold out across the city and get a lot more revenue. But they had a nice little jump, but it just showed that people are not looking for hotels, right? Those type of travelers are looking for that apartment style home style place that maybe has a little bit of savings or a lot because I tried to go, I remember during the holidays to go see, right?
Steve Turk: And this was already implemented. I could not find a hotel that was under 700 a night. Incredible. Like courtyard Marriott’s, you know, Hampton ends, all these places were a sky high. Right at that time. So I agree. Yeah, man, people want to travel that way. They’re going to travel that way and they’re going to figure it out.
Steve Turk: And now New [00:14:00] Jersey is going to hopefully see all these cool things happening in there.
Victor Feria: Yeah. And it goes to show you that the, you know, like, like you said, kind of touching on what you said, like people are looking for that, you know, experience. And I think Airbnb or short term rental in general created its own.
Victor Feria: You know, uh, level or type of guest. Um, I take it back to kind of like the, the taxis and Ubers, you know, there’s a similarity, not everybody are necessarily felt comfortable. You know, going into a taxi or using a taxi, then Uber came up and it made it, you know, much more, um, uh, available and easier, um, to, to be able to stay and it created its own, you know, its own, uh, market and its own, uh, customers.
Victor Feria: So I think there’s a similarity here and I can’t, I think time will tell right on the hotels, the housing, um, you know, affordable housing situation there as well. Um, and then also New Jersey, New Jersey, that’s benefiting everything.
Steve Turk: Well, something we’re starting to see a little bit here in Miami, not that they’re making it illegal, but kind of the change in things.
Steve Turk: And I think [00:15:00] a good way to hedge it is kind of what we’ve done. And maybe it’s an idea for other people in this industry is we’re starting to manage long term properties too, right? So we saw the shift a little bit and there’s a need for. Top tier hospitality people to manage long term property stays over a year.
Steve Turk: Right. So we started to have our first properties doing that. Um, so we’re excited to see where that goes. Do you think that’s something that others should look at too? If they’re in certain cities where it’s getting a little dicey.
100%.
Victor Feria: 100%. I think, um, if you know, I think like, like our model right now, what we’re doing is where instead of, Hey, you know, losing that client to a long term we’ll say, Hey, we’ll keep you, um, you know, we’ll continue managing your property, nobody knows your property better than we do.
Victor Feria: Uh, if you need anything or the tenants need anything, we can, we can be the person for them to contact and then, you know, during the slower time, if they want to do long term, they could switch to long term. And then during our high season, since we’re already have, you know, everything set in place, we could just click [00:16:00] that button and then set it live on short term rental and we could do kind of like.
Victor Feria: a conjoined, you know, uh, long term versus short term model. I don’t think that’s very popular. I don’t think that, you know, maybe, you know, we were onto something doing that. Um, but I think it’s a little tip and advice and something that we’re doing. Yeah. It’s a high, I think I like our hybrid model. I think it’s good.
Victor Feria: It gives options. That’s the word hybrid
Steve Turk: option. You know, we’ve got the licensing with the realtors. Like we have things lined up the right way. You got it. It’s a different type of license now out there people. So make sure you talk to your attorneys and every state’s a little bit different. Um, make sure you do things the right way.
Steve Turk: Um, but I like this model for us and I’m excited to see where it goes because you said it’s like a light switch. We can turn it on one way, we can turn it off the other way. And it gives owners that we work with and partners. We work with a lot of different options.
Victor Feria: There you go. I like that. I like that.
Victor Feria: And basically a hybrid. There’s got to be a term for that. Right there. We got to make something up there.
Steve Turk: I like it. I think the hybrid rental management, [00:17:00] short term and long term. We got to update our website. I was looking at it. All right. So if you’re going to our website to look, we’re updating it as we go.
Steve Turk: We’re working on our Okay. Marketing taglines. And we’re excited to see all the new things that we’re working on. Again, I think this shows very uniquely going back to New York, people want to stay in these types of rentals. If the hotel people are going to stay in hotels and they’re going to go find a place to stay and still go enjoy one of the best cities in the world.
Steve Turk: I still love visiting New York, but I wish we had some more of the Airbnbs there. Same here.
Victor Feria: Yeah, it’s a kind of going through a personal experience. I stayed in Brooklyn a couple of years back in an Airbnb, and that was an experience I would probably never get. Um, you know, if I were to be at a hotel, I had a bodega right in front of us that I was going to in the mornings, crossing the street, having my little coffee, and I got that real, you know, Brooklyn experience.
Victor Feria: Um, and, and it’s still one of my favorite, my favorite trips so far. So. You know, hopefully, hopefully they can work it
out.
Steve Turk: [00:18:00] Yeah. You want it to be like a local man. Exactly. Right. Well, look, talking about Airbnb, we talked a little bit about it last week, but they’re continuing to evolve and they’re starting to announce some new things.
Steve Turk: And I think it’s not stock advice by any chance, but I think we both have invested in Airbnb and it’s slowly climbing little by little, um, so I’m happy to see that, but they’re making some new changes. Um, to get people in and they’re highlighting a couple of things that they’ve got. They’re going to be really focusing on co hosting, right?
Steve Turk: So you and I have talked about that prior to seeing this article where. They’re going to make a big push on co hosting because people realize it’s hard to be a host. It’s really hard. It’s not something that is easy, um, to do, especially if you want to do it full time. So we’re going to look into that and how we can, you know, get into their expanding co hosting program and help people and really coach them up.
Steve Turk: So if you want to learn about how to be one, you can always ask us or always watch our Tangy Talks and subscribe. Uh, they’re going to be leveraging AI for support. So we. I got to talk about this [00:19:00] a little bit afterwards. Yeah, I got to talk about what I saw recently and then they’re revamping the experiences feature, right?
Steve Turk: So they really want people connecting and they’re going to refocus on the experiences that they kind of haven’t focused on too much. And then the last, they haven’t talked about it, but people are saying that they might start having sponsored posts, like sponsored homes, but they said that’s not in the near future.
Steve Turk: So a lot of things going on there. What interests you the most of what they’re, they’re working on?
Victor Feria: Yeah, I think, um, two things, the, the AI, as we talked about it and we saw, you know, we use AI and, you know, we’re not ashamed to say we use AI for, for a lot of things. Yeah. Um, it’s a great, great tool. So really interested.
Victor Feria: And I’m, I can’t wait for you to talk, um, um, to the viewers about, uh, your experience. Um, and then the other part was the, um, the sponsored listings, right? As they’re afraid that, you know, these bigger companies are going to be using, um, this feature and then it’s going to start [00:20:00] shying away. The, you know, the, the single family or the host with one property.
Victor Feria: So that was a pretty eye opening. You know, I could see that, that, you know, going very different ways, but those are the ones that stood out for me. Um, how about you?
Steve Turk: Yeah. I like seeing, we talked about the co hosting. I think a lot of people got themselves in deep water thinking that they could do this easily and didn’t know what they were doing.
Steve Turk: And then they got kicked off because if you, if you don’t get good reviews, especially on certain platforms, they give you a warning and then toss you. Right. And so when we were first starting out, we had to tell owners, cause they wanted to cut corners and not do things the right way. And then their properties would get tossed.
Steve Turk: Right. And I think a lot of people are experiencing that. So we’d be happy to co host, but the AI stuff, man, like we have a great team and we’re not going to be replacing our team. I want to give them more tools to be efficient. Well, one of the tools I saw and being playing with is. A chatbot that, you know, you think about chatbots as not being very good.
Steve Turk: I thought I was talking to a [00:21:00] real person the whole time. And I was giving it scenarios that were ultra difficult to answer. Like an example, I gave it a pretended that our pool was losing water and I was really upset and that I wanted a refund and needed things to be done right now. Or I was leaving.
Steve Turk: And it responded just as we would train somebody acknowledge that, Hey, so sorry about the pool. It then contacted the vendor, our pool vendor to say, Hey, there’s an issue with the pool to let them know. It responded to that vendor to say, come to this address right away. It then responded to the guests saying that we’re so sorry.
Steve Turk: I’m going to look into talking about a refund for a portion of your stay. Cause it was trained on that as one of the standards that was given. And it took care of everything just as it was. And then as a guest, I was like, wow, all right. Responded within seconds instead of minutes. Right. Cause that’s one of our KPIs, our key performance indicators is how quickly can we respond to [00:22:00] everybody?
Steve Turk: Right. And so it did it within 30 seconds versus the three minutes that we really pushed for. That’s incredible. Yeah.
Victor Feria: The part that, that impressed me the most, um, about that. And that’s like one of the first questions I asked you is about, you know, kind of closing the loop. Um, I guess complaint comes in what’s happening next.
Victor Feria: You know, I always thought there, there needs to be a human component on that part, who’s going to be. Coordinating the vendors, et cetera. So that part where you told me, Hey, immediately a message was pushed out to the vendor, um, and there was communication on to where he needed to go. Completely impressed.
Victor Feria: That was, yeah, that was amazing. So like you said, if it brings more tools and more ability to our, our team and customer service and creates a better experience, um, and service for the guests, we’re all
Steve Turk: for it. Yep. And I think for a lot of people out there, it’s how you’re gonna make your team more efficient, right?
Steve Turk: Cause across all of hospitality, there’s a million jobs open that have not been filled. One million. So again, I see I’m a big believer in having that human [00:23:00] touch, but making them more efficient and making their lives better and easier. So look, I’m excited to see where all this goes. It’s a little crazy to see how fast it’s happening, right?
Steve Turk: Because just a year ago, it was, you know, not that great. And, you know, Only 12 months later, things are really ramping up, especially in hospitality, which is usually like the slowest to take on technology. I’m excited seeing how all of this is going to start playing out. Yeah, it’s starting to feel
Victor Feria: like 2024 could be a, a big, uh, a big, uh, change in, um, in the short term rental and ways, you know, that we operate and ways that we function, or we even think about, you know, hosting.
Victor Feria: So. So it’s really cool to see. I’m excited for, for what’s to come.
Steve Turk: Yeah. I think for us too, it’s like, how do you personalize even more? Cause we get so many reservations coming through and it’s different than a hotel. Like we’re used to it. Like Victor and I, we were talking about it. We did VIP services and we would write who’s checking in today.
Steve Turk: We have 200 check ins, 30 of them are VIPs. Here’s their dislikes and dislikes. But when you’re spread out, [00:24:00] um, amongst many homes is how do you personalize those things? And I think this is some of those tools that are going to come through is like, yeah. Hey, Mr. Jones arriving at Bayshore home really loves this type of wine and we can start to like dial in.
Steve Turk: Much easier
Victor Feria: for all the messaging. That’s amazing. Yeah, we had, um, no, you’re touching on it and, um, and we’re revamping our VIP processes as we speak right now. And, and, you know, we take it back to hotels. Like you said, we were in the morning lineups. Um, and I, I had the privilege of being able to work in the VIP department, the attaché department at the, at the Rogoff resort.
Victor Feria: So, um, I saw it firsthand and we were calling, you know, the, the guests beforehand, the VIP guests and asking them what are their likes and dislikes. And. Um, you know, what their daughter drinks and what their son likes to eat. Um, and we were checking all of those things off and giving them their own, you know, uh, profile and that way it saves and then future guests, uh, when they come back, you know, we know all of this information.
Victor Feria: So I would love for that to [00:25:00] happen, you know, in short term rental, um, and we can give that, you know, that white glove service to, to the guests. Um, and, and it’s something that’s, that I think will go a long way for the guests as well.
Steve Turk: Yeah, for us, it’s about standardizing stuff because we were realizing a simple thing is wine, right?
Steve Turk: Like we like to give wine for anyone celebrating things, but we would leave it up to the team and they were choosing things that are not the best because they’re not specialized in wine. So we’ve standardized what wine we have and what fruit you’re going to serve and what the card looks like. So we’ve done all those things.
Steve Turk: Now we have our own branded sticker that we put on certain stuff so they know that we were there. And checking the toilet paper and all these fun things. So there’s a lot that you can do out there. We could talk, maybe we do a whole show on just like the little touches. Right? I think that could be something fun that we talk about.
Steve Turk: Um, yeah.
Victor Feria: That’ll, that’ll be super, super cool. Yeah. One, one of the, one of the things, you know, obviously you can, um, from what guests are saying in the communication, you know, usually guests will share that they’re, you know, having an anniversary that’s, you know, very easy and, and, and, and common practice.
Victor Feria: But the other, you [00:26:00] know, going above and beyond is actually researching the guest. Um, because a lot of guests, sometimes, you know, they, they don’t necessarily add that information or provide that information. But I remember we used to go guest by guest, we would see what they would do. We would see, you know, um, if they’re a CEO, a celebrity or whatnot, and then we would register them as a VIP and do little touches and things like that.
Victor Feria: So. Um, that’ll, that’ll be above and beyond a little step forward for that.
Steve Turk: I always like following the comments at hotels and we’re getting sidetracked here. We need that. We have our button, our tangent alarm button, but my favorite was people who would sneak in things to see if we were reading like, Hey, I want to.
Steve Turk: Autographed Burt Reynolds photo on top of his car framed by my bedside and happened at Manor Antle a couple of years ago. Celebrities framed. And so we would go in, print out the picture. I would sign it, we would put it, and then it would be by the bedside and they would call down and laugh and say, Hey, I never thought anybody actually looked at these things.
Steve Turk: Thank you so much for paying attention and [00:27:00] enjoying it.
Victor Feria: Wow. I never, we never got those requests, but, um, but yeah, that’s, that’s, uh, that’s a, that’s a pretty cool one, but I’m glad you guys went through that and above and beyond for that. But yeah, we would get pets all the time. Children’s, uh, types of juices, you know, specific juices and things like of that nature.
Victor Feria: But, um, but yeah, okay. You know, there’s so many fun things like that, man. Like I
Steve Turk: remember, You know, we’re going to start like name dropping celebrities, but we had Gary Vaynerchuk staying at the Lowe’s as one of the thousands. But I was very much listening to him at the time and I knew he was into basketball cards.
Steve Turk: So we went out and bought basketball cards. We found like some of his favorite snacks. We had all these things and we put it in the room and he called down and said, Oh man, this is awesome. Thank you so much. So that was a lot of fun. Those are the cool things about hospitality. 100%. I bet if you ask him, he’ll remember that.
Steve Turk: I think so. I mean, Look, do I have his number in my phone? I cannot confirm or deny that, but, uh, it was fun. Those are the fun things that you could do. And hotels that I think now we’re really focusing in our operation. Yeah. I think the really good short [00:28:00] term rental operators are doing that too, because they have like a good dialed in team.
Steve Turk: But I think for anyone that has like one, two, three units, start looking at what you can really do to elevate it that way. I think we’ll see it. Not only repay with consistent stays, but great reviews and people really appreciate you just thinking about them.
Victor Feria: 100%. Yeah. And then to sum it up, I think it’s, um, you know, it’s all about the guest at the end of the day, it’s all about the guest.
Victor Feria: So. I think, uh, they’ll, they’ll be really happy to see that, you know, people like us and companies like us are having this conversation, um, and really thinking about their stay and their experience. So, um, that’s, that’s, those are the type of experiences and, and, and things we want to incorporate into, into what we’re doing and hopefully others that are hearing, you know, could do so as well.
Steve Turk: Yeah. Something, my, uh, my other co host Sarah Dandish, you said, it’s not about perfection. It’s about connection. I love it. You know, you don’t have to be perfect, but if you can make a connection with that guest and make them feel special, um, they really appreciate it. So [00:29:00] shout out to Sarah and to anybody out there, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Steve Turk: Don’t overthink it. Just do it from the heart. Take care of those guests. And I think they will really appreciate staying with you. Look at us preaching here. Look at us preaching here. Uh, that goes for any business, right? It goes for any business. You and I see it all the time. Right. Right. Yeah. So look, we’ve gotten here.
Steve Turk: I can’t believe 30 minutes has flown by. Um, but listen, we’d love to come and do this with you guys every single week. We appreciate you listening. We’re seeing the downloads climbing up the charts. So that means a lot that you’re sharing this and listening. And if you think there’s somebody that might enjoy watching it, we’d You know, share it with them too.
Steve Turk: Um, we promise we’ll continue to deliver content that people enjoy. Right, Victor. Can we promise them that we
Victor Feria: could definitely promise that. And, um, I love seeing the interaction and, um, hopefully some more questions start coming in and we can bring those topics in and thank you to everyone who takes their time to listen in.
Victor Feria: That’s right. And if
Steve Turk: you [00:30:00] see the tangy mobile out there, make sure to take a picture, send it over to us at tangy on, uh, Instagram. We would love to see it.
Victor Feria: There you go.
Steve Turk: I love it. All right, everyone. Have a great weekend.
Victor Feria: Have a great weekend.
