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The CasaCast.
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The CasaCast.
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Steve V2: Hey, welcome to CasaCast.
I'm your host, Steve Schwab.
Here today with Felipe Caldera . From Port Boulevard, and we're gonna be talking
a little bit about flower fields a day.
Welcome to the show Felipe.
Thanks Steve It's a pleasure to be here So I met you probably two months ago
now and you and I had this fantastic conversation about elevated design and
how it was actually elevating revenue And it was one of my big aspirations this
year of rethinking about maybe some of my own blind spots inside of the industry.
And I wanted just to talk to you about that today.
Maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background.
How did you end up getting into Casago?
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
So I go a little bit farther back, even in Casago, I bought my first short In
this market in Crystal Beach or Port Bolivar market back in December 21.
So you can say it was at the height of the Airbnb frenzy.
Everyone is getting in.
It's like the gold rush of, I want to get into short term rentals.
And I remember the house that I bought from my now partner.
It's kind of things come full circle, but George was my
partner in the business today.
He sold me the house and it was a house that.
It was a beautiful beach house, but there was literally 10 other houses on the same
neighborhood that were identical to mine.
So everything looked exactly the same.
And I'm looking at it.
I'm like, why is somebody going to book my house and not my neighbors?
They literally, one is green.
The other one is blue.
Sure.
But everything else is the same.
And I kind of looked, took a step back and try to see what
was working in different markets.
Right?
So hot tubs.
I cannot tell you how many people told me it was a dumb idea to
add a hot tub by the beach.
But I was like, you know what?
Let's give it a try.
We added a hot tub, we added a game room, a fire pit, and we
significantly outperformed our competition neighbors and so on.
So that was my first signal like, hey, maybe there's something to this.
Uh, and again, that was my very first short term rental and we
replicated that over and over again.
Not only in this market, but I also own a few others in Pittsburgh.
And we added I mean some crazy man is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
which is not a vacation rental market and did really well.
So I got really confident approaching owners after that and
saying, Hey, here's a guidebook.
Like here's the, I'm going to tell you how to succeed.
I'm going to, if you do this one, two, three, four, five things, I
know very confidently that your house is going to generate more revenue.
Uh, that's how we went over the last few years.
Speaker 2: And that's how you got started, huh?
Yeah, absolutely.
I find it interesting on two fronts.
One, I think with the saturation of the inventory now.
A lot of investors and people look at the industry like oh, there's oversaturation,
it's not going to be a good investment.
And on some level, there's truth to that, especially if you're just a blend
vacation rental, that's just like, quote, unquote, another one of those.
Right.
But I think when you get into a property that differentiates itself,
the demand curve goes up pretty dramatically for it, especially
when you're in a sea of sameness.
And I was telling you earlier about a story about, you know, when
you drive through Kansas, Kansas.
And you're seeing, you know, wheat field after wheat field or, you
know, cornfield after cornfield, this field after field after field.
And then you come across these wild fields of, you know, these beautiful
flowers and, and, and wild flowers.
And all of a sudden everybody pulls over and starts taking pictures of
them and, you know, photo shoots.
And, and when you go through Airbnb or VRBO or, you know, any listing
site to include, you know, casago.
com.
And if you're going through a search and everything looks the same, Why book yours?
But when you come across that one property that pops is that flowered field, right?
Exactly.
I think that's kind of what you're on to.
Speaker 4: What I like to say is you could throw anything on Airbnb three, four
years ago, especially during the pandemic.
And it would make money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Like it was, it was that easy.
And people don't like to, I think it's an ego thing.
It's like, Oh, I was so good at this.
But in reality, honestly, it was pretty easy.
Kind of easy to make money back then.
And now we're having people who are, have lots of options, have lots of options.
And why are they going to stop that scroll through Airbnb or through VRB
or even our own website, uh, our direct booking or Costco website, something
has to catch their attention, right?
Something has to catch their attention.
So I think that's, that's point one and then point two, just kind of just as
important because pictures, you know, and pictures do make a difference.
Design makes a difference, but it's also about experience.
Right.
Again, we're, we're in a beach market and the majority of my competitors were
betting that the experience is the beach.
What if it rains?
What are you going to do?
Like, we have this, this huge family, you know, we have big houses of
maybe have 10 kids in the house.
What are they going to do?
They're going to drive mom and dad crazy.
And, you know, but instead if you have a, you know, uh, amenity or the
experience, you know, with a game room or a hot tub, there's something to do.
Right.
So you're selling that experience as well.
Speaker 2: Everybody who's raised a child knows that when you take them
to the beach, you only get maybe two to three hours of beach time with them
before they're bored and they're done.
It just becomes a blue stuff out in the backyard that the
kids don't want to do anymore.
They're like, come on, we're at the beach.
What are we going to do next?
And having a home that has amenities.
Keeps them busy to let the parents have vacation also.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
And that's, I mean, I've had three kids under the age of
eight, so I know how that is.
And we go, we go to our houses and the first day they love the beach.
The second day it's like, can we go home?
Can we go play?
And they want to go and they want to be in the hot tub.
They want to be playing games.
And it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable.
Right?
So that's the experience thing that we also need to.
Think for our guests as well.
Speaker 2: Right.
So Philippa, I'm wondering what the needle movers are when it comes to
the properties and occupancy and ADR.
And as I think about it in four different categories, I want to go
through each one of them with you.
So I think about it in style, I think about it in story.
I think about it in upgrades and then amenities.
And I want to break down each one of those.
And I also want to find out if I'm missing any categories
that you might have as well.
So what are the big needle movers that you see in style?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a really good question.
And it's interesting because I'm here talking about design.
I'm the least designing client person you can think of.
I just, it just not my talent.
I'm very lucky that my wife is a professional interior designer.
Yeah.
And I've seen her take Properties that were quite honestly, just ugly,
boring, but kind of the same and turning into something beautiful.
And I've observed her process a lot.
And there's a couple of things that that comes with the design.
One, of course, is making it look good.
Like it has to be something that pops right.
And we have this conversation a lot, especially because I'm sometimes working
with homeowners and, you know, if you give up a designer, Unlimited budget.
She's going to redesign or he or she's going to redesign
your entire house, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker 4: And some people think, Oh, no, let's put a little bit in each
location, a little bit in the bedroom, a little bit in the living room.
And, and Julie, my wife is always like, I'd rather like choose two
and go all out and make those spaces really, really special.
Because that's going to be our hero photo, right?
It's going to be like, something's going to be very eye catching and
people are going to look at him and like, I can see myself there.
This is beautiful.
So that's, that's one.
But the other one, which is just as important is at the end of the day,
we are a proper management company and functionality has to be top of mind.
There was one house that we've worked, that she worked with in the past.
The house could sleep 28, but they were sitting for Like, what do people eat?
You know what I mean?
So there's a functionality, and this is an example, but also the
type of material that's used.
Is that something that can be used over and over again, right?
So, I think design serves the two, those two points, which is making something look
really good that people want to be there, but also having the functionality and
the quality that people want to be there.
People can keep using it and you don't have to be replacing
Speaker 2: a
Speaker 4: piece of furniture every three months.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
And also making sure that you can replace it with like items if you need to.
Right.
Like I've had homeowners who bought beautiful Mexican hand
painted plates for the property.
Like, man, one of those busts.
Speaker 4: Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got a problem.
And of course they're going to.
And so there you are.
Speaker 4: We were just joking about that actually internally that there's
a homeowner that said, It was a very sentimental piece made out of glass and
she's like this means the world to me So, please make sure nobody breaks and we're
like, you know what if it means so much Let's make sure it's not left out that
it goes in your owner closet that want to use it when you're in the house Let's
do it because again people will come to the house if we're doing our job Well,
the house gonna be booked all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah,
Speaker 4: and we do not want to be in a situation where we're, you know
Speaker 2: And no matter how much stewardship you put into that property
and guest selection and filtering, accidents are going to happen.
Yes.
I had a homeowner, when I first got started, they were an older couple,
maybe in their 70s, very sweet couple.
And she had her hand painted, hand painted portrait of her as a young bride.
She's like, yeah, we just need to make sure nobody touches this.
I'm like, you got to take that down.
Speaker 4: You got to get that out of here.
Because
Speaker 2: if I can't replace it with money, it can't be in this property.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
So yeah.
Yeah.
So talk to me a little bit about story.
Tell them the story with the property and what actually moves the needle when it
comes to creating demand for the property.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
I think is being very mindful of, uh, Who are you trying to rent to, right?
So for us in our market, we want to rent to families, right?
So whenever you're thinking, uh, where does the grill go?
And George, my partner talks a lot about this.
He spent a lot of time thinking about this is the beach houses are always on
stilts, they're pretty high up the ground.
And it's like, well, if the kids are going to be playing inside or in the
hot tub, nobody's going to want to go downstairs to grill and bring the food up.
So it's like, let's put the grills up on the deck, right?
It's a simple change, but like, now we're thinking of.
When mom is doing something, when kids are doing something.
Somebody can go grill and still be kind of part of that conversation
or that experience, I should say.
Right.
So I think it's just being very mindful of who are you designing this house to?
Who are you putting the amenities to?
Because when you try to sell something to everyone, it's
difficult to sell it to anyone.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: You know,
Speaker 2: plant your flag, right?
Like this is for this property.
This property is for these types of people.
Exactly.
And
Speaker 4: one thing that I've been looking into doing, but I haven't been
able to successfully do it yet is, uh, and I'm sure you've seen now the
new somewhat trend I would say is in the photos you have actually actors
and people they're doing stuff, right?
So you kind of, okay, if I'm, if I'm trying to sell this to a family, I'm
going to have a family here that is acting throughout the photos and you're,
again, you're selling the experience and not just selling the house.
Speaker 2: So I, I personally struggle with having actors in the photos cause
I feel like it almost replaces in their mind that these people are there and not
them, but I've come to a place where I've started to stage properties and if you
go through some of our inventory, you can see where we're staging it as if it
was you that had left a drink there or, you know, it's telling the stories as if
you're there with, with, you know, a drink or play to something, whatever it looks
like, trying to make it look like that.
But.
I don't know which one's better.
Statistically, it'd be interesting to run the AB testing.
I would
Speaker 4: love to.
And that's one thing that I've, it's been on my radar to test as well.
I've known people who have done the acting at this age and have done extremely well.
You should report back on this one soon.
Speaker 2: I will say this.
Telling a story.
There is a gentleman, and it went viral.
He has some cabins in the woods and he ended up buying a Sasquatch costume
and taking pictures as a Sasquatch, like out, like hanging out by the fire
and doing s'mores, whatever it was.
And it really worked.
Yeah.
So being incredibly unique like that absolutely will work, you
know, and that's telling the story.
So let's talk a little bit about amenities and upgrades.
We'll just going to put them together.
Give me a few amenities that you've seen in your experience that are absolute.
Needle movers when it comes to it.
Speaker 4: This one is very unique to a market.
For example, if you're in the smoke is every single cabin has a hot tub.
So like it's more of a requirement than a needle mover.
Right.
But I tend to look at what's working in other markets and
replicate validating to ours.
So let's stick with hot tub is a good example, right?
We have a little over 2000 short term rentals in our market in general.
That's the whole market.
We have less than 10 percent of those that have hot tubs.
You know, once I saw that, hey, it worked out for me, let
me look a little bit deeper.
If it worked out for others in the market.
And I have the numbers memorized from AirDNA because I usually show this slide.
But if you look at the average revenue for every single house
in the market, it's about 58.
9 thousand for every single house in our market.
If you just look at the 10 percent that have hot tubs, that goes up to 91.
3.
If you take hot tubs out, it goes from 58 to 53.
So it actually goes down by 5,
Speaker: 000.
Speaker 4: Right?
So for us, as difficult as it is to maintain a hot tub at the beach in a
brutal environment for anything that is, you know, outside, it moves a needle.
Yeah.
It makes a big difference.
And, and I've noticed, especially, and this is where I noticed the
most benefit, is in the winter.
In the down season, right?
So it goes from getting no bookings to getting weekends booked every weekend.
Speaker 2: Hot tubs and ski markets are amazing for rentals.
I mean, always a needle mover.
Okay.
I'm going to ask you a question.
Cold
Speaker 4: plunges.
I have not tried that.
And it is actually, I have two that I've been considering.
It's, it's, It sounds crazy again, but you know, it's not a crazy
investment that it's worth a try.
It's cold plunges and sauna.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Like one of those like smaller saunas you can put on the deck.
And I've seen people doing really well with that as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But I think at the end of the day, it's like kind of back to
the same conversation about design.
A code plunge is not very expensive and quite honestly neither a hot tub or
a sauna and you can usually make that money back in one off season in bookings.
And the more boxes you can check on Airbnb or on the OTAs or on your own
website saying I have this amenity, this amenity, this amenity, the higher they're
going to push you on the algorithm.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
And they talk about that.
You know, you talk to Jenny and Alex and you know, those guys over at VRBO.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Making sure you can check those boxes is one of the biggest
differentiators in their algorithm.
Speaker 4: And just to, I do have proof that that is true actually.
Because what we do as well is, have you heard about RankBreeze?
Basically link breeze will look at your house and we'll say, here's where
you rank on Airbnb for the house.
You know, are you, your average is first page, second page, you
know, third page, whatever it is.
When we do a major redesign slash upgrade, we can see what date that is and we
can see when those boxes got checked
We can clearly see the jump in ranking , it's pretty clear that
it does have an impact to me.
That's a leading indicator, right?
It's like, Hey, If you're ranking well on the OTAs, unfortunately, only
does Airbnb, not others, but if you're ranking well on OTAs, bookings will come.
It's a matter of time.
And I've actually used that with homeowners that contact me and say,
Hey, I noticed that bookings kind of took a little bit of a break.
You know, I'm like, well, first of all, we have more bookings in the
calendar, so less availability.
But second of all, I can see the ranking here.
We're doing really well.
We're getting views.
It's a matter of time before the bookings come.
And more often than not, like, I say that and next day we got a booking.
I'm like, . See, it's working.
. Speaker 2: Any other unusual amenities before I go to one last question for you?
Speaker 4: Not amenities, but I would add just a new category if that works.
And it is marketing in general.
Back to my comment earlier, A few years back, you just put it on the
OTAs and you get booked, right?
Now, I think over the last few years, people noticed that not only it's more
profitable to have direct bookings, but you also have more control, but
I'm seeing another benefit now here is, uh, you may get bookings that you
otherwise not get by being active with your marketing, by being active with
the communication with your, with your guests, by offering Labor Day sales.
It costs us 0 to send an email.
We've got five reservations out of the, One email.
So I think if you can combine like everything we talked about in the
experience, amenities, design, but also good strategic marketing plan, I
think there's a, a lot should benefit, you know, you and your homeowners.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
You know, and I can tell you that also from just us doing email marketing,
we've had a single email produce 50, 000 worth of the reservations
just for one email sent out.
If you're not doing email marketing, , you're just missing out.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So as we're winding down, , hero walls.
My theory is that there has to be one place in a property that, whether it's
a hero wall or a hero angle, whatever this is that you're like, this is where
I'm going to show this property off to get into people's heads that they
want to come here and take pictures for Instagram with their pals to show
that they are living a better life.
Then everybody else is looking at it.
And I think that's a big motivator for some of these properties.
Do you agree or disagree with that?
Speaker 4: I agree a hundred percent.
It's the, we just talked about marketing.
It's the cheapest market you can get.
It's free.
Yeah.
You know, you put something there that people want to take a picture of.
And I wouldn't only call it hero walls, but hero features even.
Right.
So for example, we added one of our beach houses.
We added a, a swing.
It's in cost us a couple thousand bucks to put a swing,
but people love sitting on it.
Yeah.
Taking a picture with the beach in the front and they're on the swing.
So anything that you can add that people will share on Instagram,
will send to their friends.
It's free.
You get free marketing.
Yeah, I love
Speaker 2: that.
. Appreciate you coming on to Casa Cast and sharing your knowledge
with all of our partners.
Appreciate becoming part of the family and looking forward
to a lot more conversations.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
This is really great to talk to you and meet all the franchises
this week here in Casa Cone.
It's been an eye opening experience of possibilities and the connections
that are being built here.
So again, thanks.
Thanks a lot.
It was my pleasure.
That's fantastic.
Thanks again.
Speaker: It's the CAA cast.
We're so luxury Casa Cast, they wanna be a CAA cast.
Just don't call it in their B
CAA cast.
We've got Orange Credo, CAA
Cast.