184. SOLO EPISODE! WE ARE SO BACK, BABY!

0:00Thanks for checking in today to No Vacancy, the podcast, the show for hosts, owners, and operators putting hospitality first. I'm Natalie Palmer, real estate investor, 35-time Airbnb super host, and co-founder of Level Up Your Listing Summit, running my business from home as a wife and mom of four. Let's get into it.

0:37Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of No Vacancy, the podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Palmer.

0:42Natalie Palmer:It's been months since I've said that. Holy cow, I feel like I owe you all a huge explanation. I have not recorded a new episode in probably like five or six months. I don't even know if there were episodes more recent than that. It's because they were pre-recorded. wow I yeah I have some explaining to do where the heck have I been first let me start by saying this was not an intended break I think if it had been I would have done like a final episode and said like hey I'm putting the show on on pause there's gonna be a hiatus new season coming soon this was so unplanned and I wish I had been more on top of things and pre-recorded more content I hate to have ghosted the podcast like that.

1:30Natalie Palmer:But wow, let me catch you guys up. So as you may recall, I did a couple episodes at the end of last year talking about how we were in the process of buying a sleepaway camp. And at the time, it was still back and forth in negotiation. I did one episode kind of on the negotiation process and all of that. I actually went back and deleted that episode because so much changed. Lesson learned, like, wow, things can change so quickly in this space. And until money has changed hands and keys have been handed over, nothing is set in stone. So I actually, if you heard it, you heard it. And then you know where we were that we were buying a camp.

2:10But if you missed it, don't worry, I'll fill you in. Don't even bother going back and looking for that episode. I deleted it. It was the info was so, so everything changed so drastically. I did a second episode when it finally looked more concrete, like we really were about to buy everything. And then it took, we were supposed to take over in January 1st with this camp. And then it took literally five months.

2:34Natalie Palmer:So we didn't get the keys and officially close until May 1st. And, you know, looking back, I don't know if that five month period from January to May, if it was a blessing or a curse. In some ways, it was super frustrating because we inherited some summer bookings from the previous owner. And I thought that I would have more of a ramp up period to make the most of these summer bookings. And that just didn't happen. Basically, we took over May and we had bookings coming Memorial Day. So it was just such a fast rush of things, which was so hectic. but in hindsight I don't know maybe it was kind of nice and happened for a reason because do you guys know with level up your listing basically January February March I am so swamped anyway how much could I have realistically done if we had gotten the keys in January I don't know also we have full-time groundskeepers that live on site and they moved up there in January expecting that we were going to take over and they ended up living there in a separate cabin while the owner, the previous owner was still there.

3:43And so I feel like kind of sucked because we were already paying them a salary and we didn't even own the place yet. But you know, their contract had said we were already going to start paying. So that was kind of frustrating that we already had expenses before we had any income coming in. But again, maybe it was nice because they actually had like a true transition and got to live and shadow and apprentice the old owner and see how things were done for five months. So looking back, I don't know, maybe it was for the best. But from my perspective, all of a sudden in around April, we had basically gone four months into this deal and still had not gotten the keys.

4:24And the main reason was there were just so many hangups getting the lease renewed from forestry. And they wanted, the old owner had let a lot of deferred maintenance take place. and a lot of things were no longer up to code and we were not able to get like final inspections and stuff to renew our lease until these things were brought up to code and so this was a whole tricky thing to navigate to because it was part of us was like do we just want to buy it now lower our offer and take on some of these improvements ourself or do we need to put it back on the seller and say like dude you're the one selling this like you got to get these things taken care of before we can take over.

5:07That ended up being the route we chose. I don't know if that was like right or wrong. It ended up making things take another five months, but I just didn't want to, we just didn't want to buy something that still had all these issues. So it was kind of like you, you need to fix it first, but yeah, it took months.

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5:58so there was a point in April where we were already a quarter into the year when we had submitted our final offer we had calculated that offer knowing that there was still bookings that we were going to be inheriting there was already some q1 q2 and q3 bookings for the year and so when we submitted our offer part of it was a calculation of okay we're willing to pay this much and knowing that we have some more income coming in to do some other projects. Well, once we realized that we lost all of Q1 bookings in April, we ended up saying, hey, we're still interested, but we have to do a lower offer.

6:37Like enough time has been taken. We also now have been paying our staff for four months at that point when we had no income coming in and we lost all of q1 bookings so we submit this final offer in april and just said hey we still want it but this is now our final price like we've already been paying salaries and wages and you know lost q1 bookings and the owner was definitely blindsided by this so his reaction was kind of like yeah i don't know if i can agree to this like i thought that you know i was making these improvements and everything under a certain price assumption and if that's not happening I don't know if I can move forward so he was definitely caught off guard which I fully understand and I'm sympathetic to but you know we had to just park emotion aside and as much as we like the guy it's business the numbers had to make sense and so at that point I really thought he was not going to come back around I thought it was done and so it's kind of crazy because for months and months I felt like I had just an iron tight grip on this project.

7:43Like I really, really wanted it to go through. And at that moment when we decided to submit that lower offer, that was the first time that I was like, you know, I need to be ready to let this thing go. If he doesn't accept like, okay, maybe it's not meant to be. And that was the first time I had truly made peace with the idea that we might not get the camp and maybe it wasn't meant to happen.

8:03Natalie Palmer:He came back the next day and accepted that offer. This was like on April 26th or something. And then by May 1st, we had the keys. So it was just a whiplash of emotions. Like the first time that I had made peace with like, yeah, maybe it's not meant to be. Within five days, we finally had it. And this was this whole thing was in the works since August of last year. How we found out about the camp being on the market or being for sale was in July of last year. We had officially decided that we wanted to make an offer and pursue this in August. Didn't get the keys till May. so anyone out there buying a camp I've actually give me your thoughts you guys would you be interested in me doing a workshop on this whole experience at level up your listing summit because I can talk about it on the podcast for sure but I feel like I knowing my personality I will be so much more candid with you guys and transparent with the numbers if we are like in an intimate room and you can ask me questions on the spot so I would love to do a workshop on this but also this is such a niche business that we bought and so if not everybody out there cares about buying a sleepaway camp or a business or a venue I don't want to bore you all to death with this topic so let me know if that would be of interest and I would love to do a workshop at level up where like I really go through this whole process but yeah for anyone out there buying a business lordy lord it is not like buying a house there's no 30-day escrow like yes we got inspections done on the property but it's not like you just get your inspections and then you know you have your realtor or your agent walking you through this like oh my gosh there are so many things we didn't know so many things I've learned since we bought that I was like wow I should have asked that we didn't ask for the cost of this utility we didn't even know that this utility existed like a whole new world whole new world that I was not prepared for which leads me into why I have taken the last four months off the podcast like I said this was not intentional if I had known that like May 1st we were getting the keys and how slammed I was going to be this summer I would have tried to pre-record more content in April but I was so tired after level up I had a few episodes still pre-recorded and then basically when those trickled out is when we got the keys inherited all these summer bookings and I was just fully thrown into this thing oh my gosh you guys I am like this project I'm recording this end of August so what's that May June July August four months now that it's been this has been like one of the most exhausting hardest endeavors I've taken on.

10:48Natalie Palmer:And I'm not even there. I'm not even the one at camp. Like we have live in groundskeepers. It's not even like manual physical labor that I'm doing. Like I'm not the one revamping things up there. My entire job has just been remote handling bookings and, you know, learning the ropes of all this. I'm overseeing the whole marketing strategy for the camp. I do the whole customer service side, navigating the entire rebrand that we did like this has been just so difficult and I keep going back and forth on would it have been harder to build a camp from the ground up or was it harder to buy the business and then tweak things I don't know I don't know I think both have pros and cons like I built my co-hosting business from the ground up We belt level up your listing from the ground up.

11:38And that was hard too. But I think what was so tricky about this was dealing with like guest expectations and groups that have been coming for years used to things a certain way. I've learned that a camp is a very emotional thing. Like the groups that we get. Guys, if you think that like short term that our short term rental guests are in need hand holding and stuff and are picky and need assistance, just wait till you've hosted a group of 100

12:11Natalie Palmer:campers who are like away from their parents and are emotional and have allergies and we're feeding them and we do food service and they're all sleeping on site. And there's also wildlife and bears there and things that need to be up to code and liability with archery and fencing. And there's a river there and a giant commercial pool that has to be maintained. And we're dealing with elevation and all the elements and I it's like I oh yeah yeah it's been a lot of work and again I'm not even the one there I'm not even the one on site like this has truly been how exhausted I am just being the person like answering the phone calls and sending emails dealing with like updated contracts and oh my gosh so so many hours spent with our attorney because gosh the liability of like hosting something like this it's just next level it is next level it's been so fun at the same time I like can't explain what a thrill that I've gotten out of this like whenever we get a booking and people check out it's just so cool to hear that we are offering truly such a unique experience so it's a privilege to do it and I just have to keep reminding myself like 10 10 year old Natalie would be would I would think I'm the coolest person if you could take me back to 10 years old and be watching the parent trap and then be like hey did you know one day you're gonna own a camp just like that like this scene at the beginning you're gonna own that I would flip my shit I would not believe you I think it's like one of the coolest things I've ever done but man this summer seriously kicked my butt I finally feel like I'm coming up for air we're kind of coming my systems in place like SOPs have been built we got this whole updated client portal that's making things so much easier contracts are done there was like so many things I had to create like just resources that we didn't have our food service guy our chef he redid the entire menu the old owner you know he would just bring in a lot of like U.S.

14:18food deliveries and a lot of like frozen lasagnas and you know hey I don't knock it like you got to do what you got to do to prep food for that many people but our new chef he made an amazing menu everything is so good and so fresh and that was something that every group has been asking me like what's the menu and we just didn't have one he was

14:39Natalie Palmer:still experimenting with like which food works and doesn't and so like sending you know like getting on the phone call with people and being like hey yeah we've updated this but I don't really know what we're gonna feed you it's gonna be good trust me like things like that have just been so exhausting to deal with but like finally now we have an actual menu and it's in a cute pdf that's easy to send out it was so hard for me to figure out new pricing we were trying to honor legacy pricing for the bookings we inherited and then for new people coming in I was like you know we have to raise price we're reinvesting into the property like it is worth more to stay here now but we added new things like we added Starlink we upgraded the mattresses like there's been so many changes There was no furniture around the pool and we redid all the furniture up there.

15:26Did a whole deep clean of the place. Like it's better. It's a better product now. But then you have people who have been coming for years and are attached to a certain price. And so having to, you know, price what it's worth but not have sticker shock and like incrementally navigate it. I mean, I could go on and on. The last four months have seriously kicked my butt. I have just never had to like think about this many things for this many groups. and it's just so many people.

15:53Natalie Palmer:It's so many people. Like our group sizes are crazy. And, you know, some of them are smaller, but yeah, we've had groups that are 100 people and they all get fed and they all want their activities planned and making sure everything is safe and that there's kids running around. And if the kid has asthma, like are we storing their medications? Like is all of our staff CPR and lifeguard certified? like things like this that I've never had to think about with a short-term rental is all on my mind right now so yeah apologies for ghosting you all for four months but that's what I've been up to and now that we're slowing down a little bit and going into our shoulder season we're still booked through October through September October surprisingly I have some December bookings coming in right now and then next year I'm so excited because we're already getting wedding inquiries and as many of you know my background was in weddings before I ever did short-term rentals I was in the wedding industry and it has always been my dream to own a venue I thought that if I ever owned a venue it would be more like a I don't know I mean like a like a like a venue like just a normal venue I didn't think that it would be a camp with 120 bunk beds there so yeah it's very different but I'm so excited to finally start getting weddings up here and just get back to my roots in the wedding world it's been so fun but it has been exhausting so that's what I've been up to truth be told I think that the break from the podcast really came at the right time although it was unintentional but one thing for you guys to know about me I have never ever with my guests that come on the show I never pre-plan my questions I mean I usually pick somebody because I kind of know what I want to talk to them about or what their area of expertise is but I will have guests email me and be like hi can you send over a list of questions and I'm like no no I can't I don't have that sorry I do not think of my questions until we are in it I usually know like the first one or two questions I want to get into and then I genuinely get excited about something that we're talking and then I want to dive in deep on that and I could feel myself I hope truly that this didn't come off in any way and that you guys didn't pick up on it but the last few episodes that I had recorded before ditching the podcast for a few months the last few episodes I could feel that I was not as passionate about short-term rentals I think that I was coming off of level up my mind was on the fact that we'd be transitioning to camp and at this point my co-hosting business is running itself I barely barely lift a finger for it and it just didn't feel like when I started this podcast I was genuinely so curious about short term rentals and wanted to learn everything I could from my guests to make my hosting craft better and it just kind of got to a point where I'm not in it enough anymore.

19:02It's running so passively and I'm not in it enough anymore to feel like I can genuinely ask those questions. Like again that's something I've never prepped my questions. They always would just come up naturally because I was such a curious learner and for the first time I felt like some of the episodes I recorded before I left it was harder for me to come up with questions. Again I hope you guys didn't sense that but it was just internally I really felt like I I was like I

19:28Natalie Palmer:think I I've learned everything not to say this in a cocky way there's always more to learn but I really had this sense of like I think I've exhausted the topic of STR like I don't know what else there is for me to to pick apart and ask about this subject and the break came I have been diving headfirst into camp stuff and as I decided to bring the podcast back I really wanted to pivot some of the content. This is still going to be a short-term rental show. Don't worry, we're still going to talk Airbnb stuff and all of that. But I realized I've gotten so much more passionate about other topics too.

20:02One thing I didn't tell you guys is that I invested in a storage unit. So that was exciting. I did that over the summer too.

20:09Natalie Palmer:So there's just been so many new fun things I've been working on. And I'm like, I can't keep talking about checkout procedures and what bed sheets and there's just I don't know I don't know you guys get how it all is like I needed a break from the STR and one thing I'm so excited for is I started batch recording episodes again and so you guys are going to get guest episodes again starting next week I just wanted to kick things back off with a solo episode so you can hear from me again but I've recorded I don't know, five or six episodes already with guests. And I feel that I am just buzzing and humming with excitement.

20:51Like I can't believe how fast these interviews are going. I'm looking at the clock and then I'm like, oh my gosh, we're literally out of time. Like it's time to wrap this up. I feel like I could keep going with these guests for another hour. I think I'm finally, even though this summer kicked my butt, it finally put me back into that operator role, which I've just been so passive in my business for years now.

21:17Natalie Palmer:Like I really barely lift a finger with Airbnb stuff at this point. And I think I needed to be a newbie at something again. Like I needed to go start from square one, feel like a fish out of water again, all the idioms you can think of. I needed to be brand new again and get my curiosity and excitement to learn back. And so some of the guests that I've sat down with already, we have an expert on venues. That episode is going to be so fun to listen to. Even if you don't think you're interested in venues, you'll get so much just out of learning about a different business model. And I think that episode, anybody who is on the fence about whether they should own a venue, it will give you such an appreciation for how if you think short-term rentals are hard just wait till you hear that episode like it will give you such an appreciation for how simple the bookings are in comparison so that one's going to be so fun but we have an episode coming up with a land flipper and it's almost the complete opposite of what we're doing with short-term rentals there's no hospitality involved no design no upgrades made no laundry no no guest checkout list that episode is going to be so fun for people who are just burnt out right now maybe and want something simpler and are tired of all the moving parts required with short-term rentals.

22:37I'm getting on a storage unit investor which will be so fun. Like I said I invested in a storage unit this summer and so diving more into that. Who else? We have some familiar guests on coming back for part two because they were popular episodes that I know you guys want to hear more from. So if you guys have any suggested topics you want to hear about don't worry I'm not abandoning the short-term rental cause like I'm still here for it but I this this break just really ended up being such a blessing I I needed to go back and just be new at something again and I hope that with the next

23:14Natalie Palmer:episodes that you guys hear in the coming weeks you'll hear my I mean I hope that you didn't hear me lose my mojo with the last few episodes either. Like I hope that I still kept it professional, but internally I could feel that it just doing the podcast has always felt so effortless to me. I get on the microphone and it's just it flows because I just am always so curious to learn. And the last few episodes before I took my break, it was the first time ever that the podcast felt hard to me and I think I just needed this break I think that the camp just forced me to like re get back into my operator days and build something from scratch again and just get that childlike excitement and what to learn so I cannot wait for you guys to hear the upcoming episodes so excited to be back on the microphone and I also have to talk to you guys about level up your Listing Summit 2027.

24:11Natalie Palmer:We have made a huge huge change to the summit. I might need to bring Tatiana back on to talk to you guys about what's changing but mark your calendars for September 15th. Early bird tickets will be on sale and save the date for March 21st through 23rd 2027. We are returning to Phoenix, Arizona but in a completely different venue. You guys are not ready for how level up is changing. There's so many exciting things coming. Thank you guys, as always, for being here. Also, did you catch my new show intro? It was still my old intro still said I have two kids. That's how outdated it was. We're finally updated that I am a mom of four.

24:57This was so needed. I needed this break. I needed to come back refreshed and re-energized. Let's go, you guys. I'll see you back here next week.

25:04Natalie Palmer:and with that it is now checkout time thanks for listening and i'll see you back here next week lastly as airbnb hosts we all can appreciate a good five-star review so you already know a great review on this podcast would mean so much to me please subscribe review share and connect with me in the show notes below bye

25:44We'll see you next time.