From Fired To Famous - Airbnb Employee Writes Best-Selling Book For Airbnb Hosts with Daniel Rusteen: An EOFire Classic from 2023

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down from fire to famous Airbnb employee writes bestselling book for Airbnb hosts. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Daniel Rusteen into EO Fire Studios. Daniel is a prior Airbnb employee, author of the best-selling book, Airbnb Host, Optimize Your BNB, and Airbnb Guests of Over 2 ,000 Nights. And today we talk about how direct bookings could become a thing in the future, how the decisions you make reveal what kind of host you will be, and oh, so much more.

0:37John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Daniel and our sponsors. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something. Short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD. On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:17John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Daniel, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Will do. Thanks, John and Fire Nation. Let's kick right into it. I am not a big fan of the, I think it's recent advice of maybe the last five years with all the gurus and courses coming out, where they say something to the effect of like, do something for an extended period of time. And usually it's really extended period of time and something will hit.

2:02like for example do a podcast for a year 365 days and but do you know how many podcasts there are that have done that i know personally dozens of them and they haven't been successful and i think the reason why is because this one part which is good advice except for it's being taken out of the successful strategy. Do something consistently for a long time. That one piece of advice is good. But when it's taken out of the whole successful strategy, I think it becomes bad. So what I would say is, and this is something actually I realized, I would give it if someone asked me to give advice to younger me or to people who are 18, 28, anyone working a professional job, if you don't feel like you can be the best of whatever it is that you're doing, then that's the trigger that tells you you're on the wrong path so if you're doing this podcast for example and you know you you just know inside you i feel like i'm i know what i'm doing then it's a probably a good strategy and something will hit but if you're just following someone else's advice and you don't feel like you can be the best if you if you feel like you can be the best not even that you have to be the best but if you feel like it doors open i can go into a story I was an accountant.

3:27We'll probably get into it. But that was the trigger for me. That was the realization. I had a good job. I was an accountant, a CPA. Parents were proud of me. Society said I had a good job. But inside me, I knew I was never going to be a good accountant. And that was the only trigger that I had back then, which was concrete. I know I can't be the best. Okay, I got to move on. But as we'll discover soon, I'm sure I, and by the title of this podcast, I did not move on. I was fired and forced to move on.

3:59John Lee Dumas:And Fire Nation, I think you've heard me probably say this before on the podcast, which is become the number one solution to a real problem in this world. I've never said become the 17th best solution or the 84th best podcast or the 116th best person when it comes to Airbnb advice. No, become the number one solution to a real problem. And that's why we're talking to Daniel today from fired to famous. What is it like working for Airbnb, Daniel? Well, that part was great. Working for Airbnb was great. They had free food. You had, I rode my bike to work. I got free bike tune-ups, massages. It was basically like, I think it was Silicon Valley, the Netflix show maybe.

4:45It was basically like that. Beanbags, open office space. The CEO, Brian Chesky, sat with us. He would rotate around. The team was great. There was dog shows. Literally, there was dog shows. We had Friday meetings, off-sites. It was a very social atmosphere, for sure. I actually, by far, my best office job, for sure. And I was in the headquarters in San Francisco, so that made it even more special. And I worked there before we expanded to two floors. which actually separated the company, saw less people, less of the time, less often.

5:25John Lee Dumas:Well, let's shift into you getting fired to becoming famous because that's the title. I think a lot of people have been interested in what that exactly means. Take us through that story. The part of being fired is rather unspectacular. I just simply, I'm a CPA. And for the international listeners. That's just an accountant, a specialized accountant, certified accountant. And I started working a public accounting job before Airbnb. And now I can say I hated it. At the time, I didn't know I hated it. But now I hated being a public accountant, everything about it, the team, the work, how the clients treated us.

6:05On my first day, okay, my first day as a public accountant, I walk in to the venture capital firm, I pass the janitor's closet. And I go inside and they're like, oh, you passed your guys where you guys are at. And they put us in the janitor closet. So I thought, all right, let me see if I can switch the company. I don't like the company. I don't like what I'm doing. I don't like the team. Let me see if I can get to a company that I like or a team that I like. I don't think I'll like accounting. So I did that. I went to a company that I thought was cooler startup and I still didn't like it. And then Airbnb was the third stop.

6:40It was like, all right, let me get to a company that I like and a team that I like, and maybe I'll like accounting. So loved Airbnb, still do. The team was great, but accounting was still, I just didn't like it. And so it caught up with me. After a few years, it caught up with me. I had an advisor be like, look, this just isn't the place for you. I can see it. This is not your skill. And so I tried to switch departments to business development. I couldn't convince them that an accountant would make a good business developer. I actually left the company though, based on a promotion where the most referrals you get, you get$500 referrals to Airbnb, the platform.

7:21You get$500 and they get$500. That's kind of a business development thing. I left the company with$15 ,000 in Airbnb credit. And because of that, they actually hired me back in a contractor role just like three weeks after I left. And I did that for a year, which was business development. And I was number one in the company by like three times in all the stats, retention rate, how much the hosts were making, how many reviews they got.

7:49John Lee Dumas:So I want to move into how you actually got started in vacation rentals with the Airbnb market, specifically short term. Because the reality is, I mean, you worked for Airbnb. We heard a little bit about that story. Obviously, you have the CPA background, so you understand the tax side of things, you understand the financial side of things, but you knew that you weren't going to be the best accountant that you could possibly be for a lot of reasons. I know a lot of people that are listening right now definitely have that same vibe about their current job. So what was your shift into actually doing the vacation rental side of things?

8:23It was kind of serendipitous. So I knew I didn't enjoy accounting. Whenever there was, when I was at the company and whenever there was experiments, I was a host. I was a host. I was hosting the couch in my living room in San Francisco, the exact same way that Airbnb, the company, got founded five years before at this point. I actually got fined$2 ,000 for that same couch. That's a different story. I would volunteer for any kind of projects that were related to being a host at the company. So I was often not at my desk in the accounting department. That was the start of where I was like, oh, I like this stuff.

9:00That was the start where I felt like I felt, oh, I feel I can be good at this. Just something inside me. This is a natural ability of mine. When I got fired from the company, I got connected with a local Airbnb property manager. And that's when the knowledge really started kicking off. My bonus was based on how the listings performed financially. And so I would go in and update listings. And it probably to no surprise of anyone, when I would get an inquiry or a reservation 24 hours after this lagging listing would be optimized by me, I started noticing a trend. And so I did it more and more. And I started developing some kind of strategies, noticing patterns.

9:45And that was kind of the first real start into me becoming an Airbnb expert.

9:50John Lee Dumas:And Fire Nation, I really want to dive into what makes Daniel different as an expert. to talk about some other good things, specifically for people that are out there looking to potentially get into this field and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. There's no better time to review your systems than the new year. And one of the most important systems you can streamline right now is your communications. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O, the smarter way to run your business communications with more than 90 ,000 businesses from solo operators to growing teams, relying on Quo to stay connected, professional, and consistently reachable every single day.

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11:03John Lee Dumas:Quo, no missed calls, no missed customers. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more.

11:55John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Danny, we're back and there are a lot of quote unquote experts in the vacation rental market. What makes you different? There are two things that make me different from every Airbnb expert in the entire world, both of these things. The first thing is that I worked at Airbnb. The second thing, which I think is even more important, is that I am a guest. I'm an Airbnb guest. I'm not just a host. I'm not just a property manager. I'm not just a super host. I'm a guest. I'm in an Airbnb right now in Medellin, Colombia. I've spent more than 2 ,000 nights on Airbnb.

12:38So that gives me a perspective, a guest perspective that no one else has. And I think that's really the difference between the advice that I give. Because I really think of myself, I'm helping hosts, right? But I'm doing that really to make the guest's travel experience better.

12:56John Lee Dumas:So Fire Nation, I think what you really need to realize is how can you learn from somebody with an edge, with an inside scoop? And now Daniel, you don't need to go into super detail right here, But just give us one quick, concise, specific example of the fact that you work to Airbnb, giving you one of these inside edges. What is that? Everyone talks about rank, Google rank, Amazon rank, Airbnb rank. It's all about rank. How do I get higher in the rank? And it became quite apparent for me through these experiments is that basically whoever is making air, it sounds obvious, But whoever is making Airbnb the most money is going to rank highest.

13:40And so one of those realizations, for example, is Airbnb cares less about your review rating than the number of reviews you have. Because Airbnb would rather have a guest book a listing with 200 reviews and a 4.8 because the guest expectations are very accurate. The guest is expecting 4.8 home. But if a listing has 10 reviews only at a 5.0, well, what if that guest is going in thinking they're at a 5.0 listing, but it's actually after 200 reviews, it'll be a 4.5. So the expectations are all wacky. And that leads into the other key point, which is about guest experience. You make Airbnb the most money by providing the best guest experience.

14:25And if you do those two things, you're going to rank high in Airbnb search.

14:29John Lee Dumas:Where's the future of Airbnb? I mean, you have your finger on the pulse. You're living in Airbnbs on a consistent basis. You're working on both sides of the equation. What's the future? Airbnb doesn't clean up their act on both the host and the guest side. They're going to lose the market. Airbnb's created the market and they're the market leader by far. But now that they've created the market and now that they've kind of pissed off both hosts and guests, hosts by if the guest trashes the house, the host it's very difficult for the host to get any money if the guest brings an additional um guests it's very host for the host it's very difficult for the host to collect extra money from the guest so they feel like they're being wronged the guests they're also upset because the most recent thing is you know the cleaning rules the host is charging a hundred dollars two hundred dollars two hundred fifty dollars for cleaning and then they're asking the guest to do the dishes and all of this stuff on their checkout day which is already a stressful day with my business, I've taught from day one, don't do that.

15:37It's obvious that you shouldn't do that. It's already a stressful day. It's the last point of contact they have with you just when they're about to leave their review. Make it as easy as possible. I think that direct bookings could become a thing in the future. Now, guests know there's Airbnb. They know there's these short-term rentals. What there isn't is a direct booking platform. So Airbnb, that's why Airbnb has the edge. But I feel like there's a lot of people, there's some movers in the direct booking space, teaching Airbnb hosts to a very high level how to get direct bookings, various strategies going in that direction.

16:12And I think it will become a really big force to reckon with if, like I said, if Airbnb doesn't clean up their act. And I really hope they do. But for the past five years, they've been really lackluster on guest and host product updates.

16:25John Lee Dumas:I want to talk about what makes for a good Airbnb. You gave a couple examples on the checkout day specifically, but walk us through some of your key points, like maybe three points that you really think are key to make for a good Airbnb experience, rental, all that. You're a new host. You just started your Airbnb. You're going to buy some things for your Airbnb for your first guest. You're a little nervous. You're in the toilet paper aisle. You've got 20 different options of toilet paper to choose. And so the big option is, well, do I buy the cheap one or do I buy the expensive soft one? And so this brings us to one of a hundred decisions, micro decisions that a host is going to be faced with.

17:11Not one decision will make it or break them, but all of them in accumulation will tell me whether or not they'll be a successful host. The decisions they make reveal what kind of host they'll be. And so I call it the mindset is the first one. A lot of Airbnb hosts their employees. And by that, I just mean they have nine to five jobs. They're accountants. They're HR folks. And so they have that employee mindset, which is more short-term focused. And the employee mindset would be, well, expensive toilet paper or cheap toilet paper. Cheap toilet paper makes the most sense right now because it's cheaper.

17:48I'm not going to use it. So I want hosts, future hosts to shift from an employee mindset to an executive mindset, which is more strategically thinking, more future forward thinking. And they would go with that soft toilet paper that leads to a better guest experience. The guest is using the toilet, you know, numerous times throughout their stay, usually at the very end of their stay. Okay, so shifting the mindset I've realized is the biggest difference between great hosts and mediocre hosts. Become an entrepreneur. You are an entrepreneur. You're running a business. You have online management, customer service, all that stuff.

18:27So the mindset is very big. And then the other things are think about your future guests. If you want a long-term reservation, get a desk. Get a desk with a nice chair. Get a washer and dryer. Think about what kind of guest you want. If it's a family-friendly unit, if it's a party house. And then the third thing is going to be a digital guidebook, which both, as a guest, like I said, I have never, not once, has a host sent me a digital guidebook. Not once. It's incredible. I've had hundreds of reservations, over 100 cities across the globe. And this is an underutilized service because it both decreases the host's involvement, time investment, and it increases the guest experience.

19:21It's a unique win-win situation. And the digital guidebook, all you do in there is you just tell them how to work the TV, how to work the dishwasher, how to work the coffee maker. All the basic questions that you're going to get anyways, put them in this digital guidebook. The trick here is getting the guest to open that digital guidebook. But once they do, the guest realizes, oh, I don't have to ask the host, where do I empty my trash? Do you have recycling? It's in this digital guidebook.

19:46John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, these are just the things that add up to make sure that you're going to get a great review. Your guest can have a great experience. And then, of course, like Daniel was mentioning earlier, your rank with an Airbnb is going to be improved because they're looking for the places that are making them the most money. Daniel, I want to talk about the where. How do we know where to invest in our first or next short-term rental? In 2023, this is the question. Back in 2013, 2015, you could get a house, sublease, whatever, in a relatively popular area, and you would do good. You would pick guaranteed success.

20:25That's part of the reason why Airbnb became so big. It was guaranteed money. In 2023, you have to focus on that first decision is the most important decision. And where depends on you and depends on your research into a market. But there's a lot of things to consider. I break out markets in two markets. There's discovered markets and undiscovered markets. A discovered market has a lot of supply. In this case, that would be Airbnb homes. and it has a lot of demand, which is incoming guests. That's like a Lake Tahoe, New York City, all of these world-famous destinations. And then there's undiscovered markets, which is going to have less supply and less demand.

21:14But the relationship between those two markets, it usually does make the undiscovered markets a better option because the difference between the supply and demand is less so that there's more incoming reservations for less supply. Because all of these articles online, the hottest markets 2022, the investor scores on these data tools, that's kind of the lazy way to go, but that's what most people are going to go with. They're going to go with these lists and they're going to go to these discovered markets. The undiscovered markets are going to be places that have a fixed demand, but it's not public.

21:54is there some place that specializes in some kind of surgery or is there some place that you know everyone goes to learn a language something like that where it's not going to be you know it's not going to be super popular it's not going to be in the news but there is a there's a fixed demand there and it's it's off the radar i i ended up i bought a house in medellin colombia last year and it's on Airbnb now under the name of the Belmonte Penthouse. And I'm going through this, I'm writing a new book to be published in early 2023. And I go through all of this process because I realized it's very important.

22:37How do you pick a market? How do you pick a micro neighborhood, which is even more important? How do you run the numbers? What size of home is the best option. So when you are going to look for a new STR, vacation rental, Airbnb, you have to dig into the numbers and you're going to find some, that's where the profits lie, in the details. When you dig into the numbers and you realize, oh, I would have made this assumption differently. That's where the real profit comes into play.

23:12John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, lots of interesting information on an individual who went from fired to famous, living down in Medellin, Colombia, doing his thing, sharing some details and making it happen. Daniel, what if Fire Nation wanted to connect with you? Give us a call to action to learn more from you. Of course, best place to pick up your book and then we'll say goodbye. Sure. The book is under the name Optimize Your Airbnb. You can reach me on Instagram or YouTube, Optimize My Airbnb. And I'd love to hear from you. I answer all of my messages. So we'll connect there. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

23:53John Lee Dumas:You've been hanging out with DR and JLD today. So keep up that heat. If you have any direct questions for Daniel, find this episode on the podcast listening app, Podopolo. Post a comment. Get the conversation rolling. And of course, eofire.com. You can find the show notes to this episode by typing Daniel in the search bar. And one more time, Daniel, what is that URL call to action? Optimizemyairbnb.com. Daniel, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks for having me, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Daniel for sponsoring today's episode.

24:37John Lee Dumas:And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for, you guessed it, free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something. Short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD. On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure.

25:19John Lee Dumas:High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com.