Running an Airbnb with Moira from The Sedgwick Chalet
Photo: @sedgwick_chalet on Instagram
On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, our host is Emily Egan, Strategic Projects Manager, and she is joined by Joy’s client, Moira Sedgwick, to talk about hosting through Airbnb.
Podcast Notes
Moira has a full-time job that she loves in the food and wine world, but she is also renting out Airbnbs. It is bigger than a hobby.
It is her way to have a side hustle and a way to have her own business that connects back to hospitality.
When Moira was younger and trying to figure out what she wanted to do when she went to college, she was deciding between interior design and culinary school. She ended up choosing culinary school, but she thought it would be great to run a bed and breakfast.
Moira started hosting through Airbnb in 2015. She has a 4.93 rating, which is over 100 five-star reviews. Her Airbnb is about two hours away from NYC or Philadelphia, and it is in the Pocono Mountains, in a town called Pocono Pines. It is a block away from Lake Naomi. The house is named Sedgwick Chalet.
Moira is based in NYC, and she did a two-hour radius search when she decided to buy a property. It was right after Hurricane Sandy, so she started looking more inland.
Moira felt like she found her true love, when she found the Sedgwick Chalet. She saw it in the winter and it seemed to be glowing. The house had a great energy.
Things have changed drastically since March. The lull is usually March, April, and May, and then things pick up. This year, she has been fully booked for months, mostly by people looking to do day trips and get out of the city.
She bought the house in April 2013. She needed to freshen up the house and let some light it. They cut down trees and changed the flooring. She did one project at a time, and it took her about two years before she was ready rent it out. It started having a profit fairly quickly, but she put the profits back into the house.
There are things you need to be aware of when you enter a market, like how are you going to set your prices and how are you setting yourself up to get those five-star reviews. At first, she relied on Airbnb for advertising.
Moira does a lot of the management remotely and she manages other peoples’ properties remotely as well. It is all about finding and training your local team. She has a turnover team that includes an inspector and a cleaning team.
The inspector makes sure the staging elements are all in place and the house is reset, and they check the work of the cleaners. It is important to have the right communication tools.
Moira focuses on the welcome experience. There is generally a welcome bowl and some sort of treat. She also offers a concierge service, where guests can hire them to do a fridge fill. She tries to set herself apart and wants to make sure her guests have a great stay.
If someone wants to host on Airbnb, there are different levels of engagement. It is possible to hire someone like Moira to come in and stage the home and set up the systems.
If you want to start hosting, the first question you should as is “Why am I doing this?”. This will help you figure out your next steps. Determine if you want this as only an investment or if you want to be deeply involved.
Early on, it was a challenge for Moira, because Airbnb was still getting traction. She learned the hard way not to cancel a guest, or you will get wiped out on the website.
One of her favorite resources is a podcast called Thanks for Visiting.
Moira’s plan for this revenue was to purchase another property, called Chalet Ramona. It should be ready around Spring/Summer 2021. This property is about six minutes from the Sedgwick Chalet. It is in the Stillwater Lake community and it is closer to attractions.
The audience for Chalet Ramona will be a little younger than the other property, like early to mid-thirties, and much more active. It is in a not so quiet area.
Instagram is your friend, especially because you can meet other Airbnb hosts and keep in touch with past guests.
Resources Mentioned
Moira’s Property: Sedgwick Chalet (click here for a video tour on Dropbox)
Instagram: @sedgwick_chalet @moiraboira @achaletcollective
Podcast: Thanks for Visiting