Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb live, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello, hello, hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let R.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

What is up, Micah Man?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Chill Stevie Stacks, how you doing?

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Oh, kicking it old school, man. You know how it is. We are back. This is episode 170. 170. Holy crap. Of your favorite Airbnb VRBO Home Wade Dro Lift Share Economy. Short-term rental podcast in the world. And we're coming at you from Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's new with you, man? Anything new going on? I know you got like a ton of things going on.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Not much, man. Just getting one more, one more house set up. So uh that's about it. But it's not about me. We got a special guest. Who we got, Steve? Who do we got?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

We have a certain Andrew Kaiser joining us. Who's Andrew Kaiser? Well, I'll tell you who Andrew Kaiser is. Andrew is head of growth for Mend B, which solves the maintenance piece of the puzzle in the short-term rental space.

Andrew Kaiser introduces Mend BNB's maintenance subscription service

SPEAKER_04 1:24

I could really use you. Um men B clients enjoy 24-7 emergency maintenance, unlimited calls for corrective work orders, and two to four scheduled preventative maintenance visits annually. Mend BNB is based in Nashville, Tennessee, but has recently expanded to new markets such as Palm Springs, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. When y'all coming to Texas, Andrew, uh, give it up for Andrew Kaiser, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Man, thanks for coming on, man. First off, awesome idea. I love the idea that you set that up. That's awesome. And you started in Nashville. How did you come up with the idea? I think I know, but I just want to know how you came up with it.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Well, I can't take all the credit. It it wasn't my idea, but we got a couple guys. Um, I always gotta be honest and point the arrows towards Thomas. He's our COO, and this is kind of his brainchild. But um, yeah, I mean, he kind of comes from a uh from a manufacturing background in like electrical engineering. So he the way he views a home is like if something's not working, then nothing's working right. It's like an assembly line. So he was like, Well, I'm kind of working, kind of tired of doing the manufacturing thing. What's another market that like could benefit from that way of thinking? And I mean, you doesn't take long to look at the short-term rental market to see like, well, there are things that are going right, but definitely some areas that could be made more efficient.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So okay, okay. And and so you so you're in Nashville, and uh Nashville where the where you guys have units or yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

So we've got most of our units here. We just got started in California a couple months ago, and then we're uh we're starting at Scottsdale this month and next month.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So okay. When are you guys going to Arkansas? Right next door.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe, you know, city number 10 or 15 or 20 down the line. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Yeah, well let me get to Dallas first. Dallas first, and then and then go. I got arbitrary, of course.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

I need I need some work on my houses. Like, I need to be able to call by the middle of the night to go get an AC unit fixed.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Well, I'm I'm from Texas originally, so that I I might have some sway in that decision making. We'll see. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

So that's that is the like a huge issue for short-term um rental hosts out there to get someone reliable that can fix things because you will get those calls. Hey, this toilet's leaking, this sink's leaking, this whatever, this um I don't know, microwave ain't working. I don't know. You get all these calls, and and yeah, I mean, and and Micah mentioned something interesting. Yeah, he's got arbitrages here, which is like a lot of them are at apartment complex. They're supposed to fix everything, but sometimes you need something fixed quick. And um, and you can't wait for uh uh you know, put an order in to the apartment complex will be there in two to three to some some worse ones a week or never, you know. And so you gotta keep your you gotta keep your Airbnb going or your short-term rental going. And so you need someone to to get out there and fix it. So so how does how does your um how does your business work? Is it like you you sign up, you part of the company, or what happens?

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Yeah, it's a subscription base. Okay. So, you know, you you as the homeowner or the property manager just sign up for a subscription with us, and then anytime you need us, if it's an emergency, we'll try and come out immediately. Um but if it's not an emergency, you just go into the

Three-tier pricing model: basic, premium, and super premium plans

SPEAKER_03 4:51

uh the portal that we built out and create a work order, schedule us to come out in a time slot that works for you.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Okay, and is this an app or online or just a website?

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Both. Both.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

And and how much do you pay like a monthly fee for this? How much does it cost?

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Yeah, right now, well, we have three tiers. Um, but I mean, I'm I do all the sales. Uh I haven't really seen anybody. Well, there is one person who didn't do the the best tier, the premium tier, but I just got a text 20 minutes ago that they want to upgrade. So basically everybody goes for the premium plan, which uh is is about a hundred bucks a month.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

A hundred bucks a month. And they come out and fix anything. Is it no charge when they fix it, or how's that work?

SPEAKER_03 5:36

So we um all the labor is included for like 90% of things that we fix and come out to do, right? Because it's it's an Airbnb. Most of the time when we come out, it's to like look at a garbage disposal or you know, diagnose a problem, this or that. Occasionally, uh we will need to use our network um to bring in somebody that needs to go into drywall for plumbing or electrical or something super complicated with the HVAC. But most of the time, you know, nine times out of ten is something we can fix in-house, and yeah, the labor for that's free.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Dang, that's a that's a game changer right there. So it's a hundred bucks a month per unit, correct? Yes, sir. Yeah, okay. So it yeah, that would add up. Yeah, 10 units you're paying a thousand a month, but still it might be worth it, you know. Um, peace of mind. Um, so and so like that that's interesting. You have three different tiers. What are the three different tiers?

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Um the one that's a little bit, well, probably double is 200 bucks a month, um, has a more comprehensive uh HVAC solution. Um because we all know that that can be five, six, seven grand to fix, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

And then um the one that's our our basic plan that's 79 bucks a month. Um, that's basically the same thing as the premium plan, except without the emergency maintenance and without the preventative maintenance.

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Okay. So so it's basic and then premium, and then what's the other one?

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Oh, uh, I think we called it like the super premium or something, you know.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Super unleaded. Yeah. Um, okay, cool. And and that it's always fascinating to me the thing with pricing. I know you give three options, you know, that's what they say to do in a business class, right? And then so like like at the movie theater, you know, the small popcorn is like, I don't, you know, I'm gonna age myself by saying a buck something. Now the small one's probably like three something, and then three fifty, then the medium one is like 450, then the large is like only 475. So everybody gets they want everybody to grab the large, right? Is that what you're trying to do? But but people get stuck in the middle.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Right. I mean, we just we just want people using our services, you know. It's when it comes down to our pricing, it was really kind of tricky because for a while when we were in the early days of expansion, um I mean, people were getting a steal on what we did. Some people were paying, I couldn't even tell you, like, I don't know if I'm legally allowed to say uh how much they were getting away with, but it was we were just giving it away. And it was actually interesting because we fell in a rut because a lot of people, prospects of ours, wouldn't sign up with us because they thought, well, something that cheap is probably not really worth it, you know. There's a difference between going a, you know, I don't know, old Navy versus going to a higher end store, you know. And I I wear old navy all the time. I'm not dissing old Navy, but I'm saying five buck t-shirt's gonna wear and tear a little bit than a hundred buck t-shirt. So, anyways, my point is once we raised our prices, we actually saw more business come in, which was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

People saw value, thought value. Yeah, go ahead, Steve.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Yeah, no, that's cool how that works. Yeah, people saw that we valued ourselves well enough.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I love that. Yeah, I'm over here making my account. There you go. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 9:00

You don't waste no time. Um so that's cool. So so if someone goes on to the yeah, some I don't know. I'll fix like a pipe bust at the place, you go over there and and handle it right away if someone they go online or they give you guys a call directly, or how does it work?

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Uh either way, really. So um we actually have we call them table tents

How guests contact Mend BNB using table toppers in units

SPEAKER_03 9:23

or table toppers. You know, there's a little paper that you fold in half and it sits on the table. We have one in every unit with a a pretty attractive model that's our handyman, right? So so all the all the people out there are like, oh, what's that about? And so the guests can actually call and and uh schedule us to come out, which is cool. Um alternatively, most of the time it's the homeowner uh giving us a call or scheduling the work order via the portal.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

Nice. Tell us uh tell us one of y'all's um a crazy story, uh a problem that y'all saw for somebody.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Oh man, I could tell you about the time that we found 30 fish hooks in the bottle of a garbage disposal.

30 fish hooks in a garbage disposal and other service horror stories

SPEAKER_03 10:06

What the wow? Yeah, stuff stuff like that all the time. My uh one of our operations guys um had to crawl in this crawl space, and he sent me a picture of the spider that was as big as my face that he had to crawl past to get past something. We'll do it all, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

So okay, so how long does it take to get the account? Because it says I have to pend approval. How long is the approval process?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Um, so I mean, pinned approval. Oh, it's probably just talking about the onboarding. Um were were you down, did you download the like the app on your phone?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Yeah, yeah. So um the way it works is like if you wanted um to sign up with us, you could just go online to min be minb.com slash uh Nashville plans, I think for the Nashville uh market. Or you just go to the main page and scroll down to sign up. Uh and then once you do, you'll get a link to our um it's like our onboarding scheduler. Which is the time for us to come out onboard your home. We will get serial numbers of all the large appliances and stuff. That way, when it comes time for parts, we already know what to bring. We don't have to come out twice. Um and we have a whole like 75-point checklist that we do for onboarding. It takes about 90 minutes. Um and then after that, you'll be able to get into the app. But yeah, otherwise you have people creating work orders and we don't know anything about their home.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

So so like does pricing, let me see, for example, so someone that has like a one-bedroom condo, one bedroom condo is gonna pay the same price as someone that has like a five-bedroom house?

SPEAKER_03 11:49

We do it

Pricing by square footage: 500 to 2500 square feet

SPEAKER_03 11:50

by square footage. So right now the bracket is 500 to 2500 square feet for you know most of them. And then if you have a bigger home, then that's a separate deal.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Yeah. Yeah, I was wondering that.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Now, do you guys mainly now have you noticed like your clientele type? Like, have you guys mainly noticed people with homes do it? Or do you have people with apartments, condos? Who who's like been your main clientele?

SPEAKER_03 12:15

A lot of homes. Well, we got some condos too. Um, we kind of have a mixed bag as far as um our clientele demographic, too. Uh, we've got a lot of property managers that just dump all 30, 40, 50 properties with us, you know. Um, we have individual homers, homeowners that just have one or two, you know. We got a lot of different sized eggs in our basket, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Because I was thinking like maybe someone could like, you know, the people that arbitrage, like, hey, we have 24 by seven on-call people coming in, fixing up stuff, you know, that I think that'd be a kind of like a good little uh incentive to get a yes, you know. Hey, we got men, B and B coming up. So I was wondering, okay, people on the arbitrage route were using it.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Yeah, I I used to do the arbitrage thing for a while. It was uh it's it's a different game for sure.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Do you ever like um worry about someone calling y'all out and thought that they tried to hit up men B instead? You show up in a plumber outfit. I don't know. Things could get a little crazy.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

You you were asking how the company started, and I can't tell you the reality. No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

They actually wanted you to fix the plumbing. You're like, oh, oh, okay. Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

That's not the guy from the picture. All right.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

Hey, 100 bucks is a hundred bucks. I'm already here.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Are you guys affiliated with the men home? Is that you guys as well?

SPEAKER_03 13:46

We are, yeah. So we have men's home, we have men's B, we have men's commercial, and men's lighting. It's all us.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Okay. So and they are all you guys are all in like the construction or you know, uh fixing things, you know, around the house or yeah, yeah, mainly the mainly the maintenance thing.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Um men's home, men commercial, and men's BNB are kind of generally the same product just for different markets, you know. Um and there's slightly different needs. Obviously, if you're around your home that

Mend Home, Mend Commercial, and Mend Lighting divisions

SPEAKER_03 14:18

you live in all the time, you're probably gonna see more things that can be done versus an Airbnb, you know, um, versus commercial. And then men's lighting is a really cool thing. We have um a really, really, really good uh supplier for these um very cool like LED lights. So we can come in and like dramatically improve the efficiency of your home, drive your bills down, and so that's its own package.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, definitely be efficient for an Airbnb or a short-term rental, for sure. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

So what I'm what I'm thinking, you know, as you're setting up your business, and um the only the uh a big a big company that comes to mind is uh American Home Shield. And so so I know I I would already, you know, I'll ask you first, okay, what what differentiates you from American, something like American Home Shield that's like you know 50 bucks a month, plus they charge you 75 bucks to come out each time. You know, what what differentiates you from them?

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Well, we don't charge you to come out at at all, you know. Um and secondly, we have a really, really, really good training program. So like I don't know what they do and I don't know who they send out, but we're not just some middleman that's you know on on Yelp, you know, trying to trying to be the middleman. We actually train our guys, you know, up and then they work for us. So that's it, I think you get a better quality, you know.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

And it kind of it kind of goes back to that um viewing the home as an assembly line thing, too. Because those guys, you know, and I don't know too much about them, so if I'm wrong, please let me know. But they'll probably come out, solve the problem, and be on my way. But the really, really cool thing that we do is we'll come out, we'll solve the problem, and we'll look around for the three or four things that are wrong, we'll fix it on the spot too. That way, you don't have to call us out again, and we don't have to come out again. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Now, okay, because now you brought up a good point because I was going where Steve was going with the American Home Shields, the Home Warranties of America. Have you seen people replacing those people and coming to you guys? Because, or do you guys offer that to people that don't have Airbnb? So let's say I wanted to just go to Mend B instead of having American Home Shield, because clearly you're cheaper. I'm just playing a flat rate every month and you come out for free. Is that an option for people?

SPEAKER_03 16:40

It can be. Uh, there's a couple things that that I just thought that that might make us better too. One is typically with like the insurance thing, that just replaces you when you're out as a homeowner. You know, you gotta fix something, then you bill it, then you get paid back. The guest doesn't interact with that at all. All the guest had was a problem, and then you know, somebody paid for it. With us, the guest sees, hey, I have a problem, reaches out to you, the owner, do something about it. You call us, we come some and do something about it. The guest is happier, you get a better review, and it improves your um SEO, you're placing the algorithms, and ultimately your bottom line.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Now, I this is this is a because uh we've had so many people, different types of people come on, and I think a a really cool partnership with you guys. Have you guys thought about partnering with some of these short-term rental insurance companies, such as like Proper or Safely? So then Proper's already insuring everything, and then if something breaks, they just send you guys out. Is that an option?

SPEAKER_03 17:46

We we're having a couple conversations with them. Yeah, I can't say too much.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

That's that that's next level. That's what I wanted to see.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

So yeah. So you go, uh, okay, so someone signs up with you guys, you you send uh you send someone out and they do like um how many points inspections they do? 75. Okay. And so they can um it's that's uh that's pretty ingenious

75-point onboarding inspection and preventative maintenance approach

SPEAKER_04 18:10

because home show don't send shit out. But so they go, you gotta go check everything. And it helps, I mean, it gives the the homeowner peace of mind, I'm thinking, because they go wow, they're checking, seeing everything works good, and that's great. And then, but that helps you guys too, seeing, oh man, this, you know, you can knock out a bunch of you know some things that won't give you problems in the future at all. This preventing preventative maintenance.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Exactly. And you know, it shows to the to the client that like we respect ourselves well enough to not take on a home with a thousand problems, you know. But I don't think we've ever encountered one that was in total disrepair. In fact, most of our clients um are not most of them, but a lot of them are just out of staters, you know, that have their homes as a passive income and they just wanna they just want it to work and have it make them money. So that's what we go and do.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

Now now do y'all do things like um uh swap out like AC filters and refrigerator filters, stuff like that for yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

It's it's funny you bring that up. I I spent the uh most of today working on a spreadsheet that's just that just going through all of our homes, looking at all the different filter sizes, and uh we actually have a new feature on our site that's a route planner, and we actually we're we just like we're in the process of hiring somebody who literally just drives around in a van all day with a bunch of air filters and replaces air filters. That's just his job. The filters guy.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah.

The dedicated air filter replacement van and route planner

SPEAKER_04 19:37

That is that is cool. I mean, because that's I mean, you think about it, that's a huge percentage of the problems with with what happens when an AC freezes up, goes out, is the freaking filter that's never been changed in like a year, or uh the refrigerator filter starts starts leaking. Oh, they haven't changed the filter out in a year, you know, those little things like that. And you do that for free? We do that for free. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Right now. As of this podcast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

And the and you said, like, okay, the it's the third tier, the most uh the super whatever deluxe tier is the one that covers like 100% air conditioning.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Um I'll give you the breakdown of it real real quick. Um, most of the time, that one when somebody calls, they like know exactly what they want. They're like, all right, I saw this, you know, let's do it. We call it a premium plus plan. Um, it includes everything in the premium plan. Uh, so that's unlimited corrective maintenance, two annual preventative visits, property cataloging, 24-7 emergency. Um, and it also does two more preventative visits. It includes the inner C efficient lighting package I was talking about. So get yourself some really good lighting in there, save you some money long term. Uh we have a smart home package. So, you know, the smore, the more uh oh, what's the word for that? The smarter your home is, the more appliances that you have involved. We can hook all that up together. Um and then we have a HVAC ultraviolet air purifier, which is a game changer. You you gotta look into that one. I don't I don't have the time to spit at you too much on that one. But we do have a one-year contract with that with that plan.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Oh, okay. Because that's what I was trying to get at, because like here in Texas, you you know you can't do nothing without an AC. So people might jump on that you know, Cadillac plan just for the summer and then jump back off, you know, when they just need that in December. Yeah. Okay, what happens? I know this is this is um uh I don't know if you follow the home shields approach to this because let's say I signed up today and uh you know I know my AC struggling a little and I give you a call tomorrow. Hey, my AC just went out. What a coincidence. You know, how do y'all prevent what do y'all do against that?

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Uh well, I mean, you don't get access to your um ability to create a work order until we've done the onboarding.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Oh, that's true. Yeah, you have to go inspect the house first. We've we've learned that.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

We've we've you're not the first.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

I guess that home shield, how the home shield does it, they make you wait 30 days until you can file a claim. So I bet day 31, they're like, yeah, this is probably when the claims are gonna start rolling in.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Yeah. I will so we're we're just kind of uh rolling out a new feature though that we're all really excited. It's in beta testing right now, but it's uh when you go to create a work order, you have been having to just call us or go in the portal or create it. It's like four or five clicks, it's not too much, but it's four or five clicks. We're working on a text to create work order now. Just text the number. The fridge is broken, garbage disposal is clogged, and I'll say, great, we'll we'll send somebody out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Now what's your response time on something like that? If somebody sends a text, how fast will you guys get there?

SPEAKER_03 23:10

Uh I mean we have to prioritize everything, right? You know, we're obviously if if there's a hot water that a hot water heater that exploded and flooded a basement, we gotta go on that first. But um generally within 24 to 48 hours, we like to be be out there. Um we're growing so fast that there's always stuff to do, but generally one to two days.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yeah, that's about faster than home shield. Yeah, you can definitely replace your home warranty with that.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

We're working on it. Now, do y'all handle like uh swimming pools?

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Um we're we're about to figure out that piece of the puzzle in Scottsdale, because everybody's got a pool.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

Everybody's got a pool there, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Yeah, yeah. So we're working on it.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

Cool, man. What else do you um go ahead?

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Oh, I was gonna ask you, like, what kind of maintenance issues are you having with swimming? Because I know Steve has a swimming pool. Like, what kind of issues do people with swim pools usually have to call men B and B out?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Well, there's a lot, a lot. I mean, I haven't luckily, well, I've had a couple, but um, you know, the the pump goes out, the motor goes out, uh, electrical, uh pipe busts, you know, and they have to you know to fix the pipes that go to all the stuff. And uh yeah, there's there's quite a few they they call the swimming pool a giant hole in the ground that you throw money into.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Water pan.

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Water pit. Money, money, money, water pit, dude. And and what you know, the the big Texas freeze that happened, remember? So many people's uh swimming pools got messed up because you know, their motor, everything stopped working, and so they couldn't keep pumping the water through and all the pipes busted, and so they they were yeah, way behind on finding parts. They couldn't even find parts to fix the pools for so for a long time. And so it's a it's a lot of issues and a lot of potential money in and fixes that goes back to how Midbn B is.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

They already have your parts because they already did the inspection. That's that's pretty dope, man. I don't need to I can't wait till you guys come to Texas and Arkansas because I'm waiting. And I I've already signed up, I'm pending approval.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well, well, Dallas is on the list. If I had my way, we'd go to Texas next, but we'll see. We gotta, you know, walk before we run, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Yeah, go to Dallas first. There's no good handyman or uh fixers here. Oh, if or they charge a uh boatload to come out, man. I mean, you're talking about like right now, it's it's crazy because just for someone to come look at something, you're gonna be charging a hundred dollar fee. Just to go freaking look at something. That's not even doing anything. You know, they might go there and say, uh, you know, it's gonna cost a thousand bucks to fix it. You wants to fix it or not. Uh yeah, I'll go mess with it. All right, you still gotta pay us a hundred dollars just for come looking at it. I'm like, are you freaking serious? And so you And that's not even weekend or night hours, you know. Right, yeah. They could when you get a hold of them, forget about it on a Sunday. You ain't getting nobody to come out on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

And you guys come out on weekends.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

We sure do. 24-7 is 24-7.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Okay, that's yeah, you guys are definitely that can be a game changer, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

We think so.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I think so. Yeah, that's definitely game changing stuff right there. I could see a lot of uh home warranty people getting kind of pissed, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

Yeah, can I work for y'all? Do I get a cool t-shirt like that?

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Yeah, let's go, man. We we have a one size fits none program right now.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

Hey, live lay thrive ain't too hard to beg, so you can send some t-shirts our way. We'll wear them on the show. What's up? Let's let's do it. Yeah, so go ahead, Micah.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Oh no, I was waiting on you.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Okay, I have a very important question. Yeah, Andrew. How come everybody want to keep it like the Kaiser?

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Keep it like the Kaiser, man. I hear I hear Kaiser puns all the time. What's that one from?

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Give it away now. Remember that song, Chili Peppers? Like a way. Oh, yeah, that's right. How come everybody wanna keep it like the Kaiser? Oh dude.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

That's yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

That's early.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Yeah, when you were a kid, you're like, yeah, that's me.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

They want to keep it like that. Hey man, I was I was I was in high school, I think, when California Cation came out. I'm not I'm not that young.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Oh, cool. Yeah, it's it's the fuzzy fuzzy beard makes you look younger. I'm behind it. Yeah. So so what's next for um for minned B. Mind BNB, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

That's some else. Um well, right now, um to all the listeners of your podcast,

VR Tech Startup Award nomination and voting request

SPEAKER_03 27:47

can I can I ask something of them? Sure. Alright. So um have you guys heard of VR Tech?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

What's it called? Repeat that.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

VR Tech? Have you heard of VR Tech? Like vacation rental tech?

SPEAKER_01 28:03

No, no, no. What's that?

SPEAKER_03 28:06

It's this really cool um just like community of people in the vacation rental space, especially innovators that are trying to change the game through tech. It's mainly in Europe, but they hold these, I think, quarterly conferences. Um, and I went to one recently. Well, anyway, we were nominated by VR Tech. Oh, and I should say, um, y'all know Rentals United. Okay. Rentals United, um, one of their executives created this VR Tech as a side project. So it's they kind of have some some friends. Anyway, um, they have this contest every year. It's called the VR Tech Startup Award. And uh there's been some pretty cool winners in the past, if you if you want to look at it. Um but we made the top 20. Um, and so if you just go to Google VR Tech Startup Award, it'll take you to the page where you can vote for us and go vote for us. Because if we get the top three, then we get to go to France and uh present our business at the worldwide vacation rental summit in September.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

We'll do.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

You get some money to start uh for your company too from that.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Uh I mean I think we'll get some some new clients out of it. Oh, that's good too.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

That's good too. You get some new clients from this show, I'm sure. Yeah, let's go. So so are you are y'all doing anything like like um funding like to get to get growing faster?

SPEAKER_03 29:41

We are having a couple conversations with people, yeah. Okay. Right. Right now it's just um we're trying to get our uh ourselves in a position where we can show, like, hey, these are the things that have value attached to them. Here's the spreadsheet, here's the documents, you know, we're at that stage.

SPEAKER_04 30:01

Would you do something, keep it all uh share economy? Would you do something like fundrise?

SPEAKER_03 30:07

Um tell me more about fundrise. I know there's a stuff, bunch of stuff out there.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Yeah. Yeah, our last, you know, um, I've heard about it a little bit. It's pretty much, you know, small startup companies go on there and they and they pitch their whatever, whatever their product is, and and just people regular people, like you know, non-credit accredited investors like like us could just go in and start and throw some throw some money at it, you know, kind of be an early stage investor, some seed money. And so it's uh it's you it's kind of cool. It's usually utilizing the share the sharing economy to to grow people's business. And um, so that's that's what um our last our last guest was talking about. She's she's on there doing um doing scooter rentals for Airbnb host, and she's getting money through fundrise. And I thought that was a that's a cool way, you know. It's uh you don't have to go through the old fashioned, you know, um start up seed money through banks, through big banks and all that stuff to get funded. You could, you know, your your peers in the in the share economy world could help fund your your business.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Built to help smart investors invest smarter. Cool. Yeah, thanks. That's why I love doing stuff like this. You always get a bunch of new stuff on of what's going on. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

So yeah, see, and this is why I think uh like I think we're all like we always interview people in the share economy space, and we always interview people who do Toro, Airbnb, and I think that's why the short-term rental game is so far advanced, like like the Airbnb space. I'll just say it's so far advanced because people are always building tech around it. Like there's a whole VR tech award for it, you know. Like, I need I know Turo needs a bunch of stuff right now. Like they need messaging systems, they need they need uh mechanic B, whatever you want to call it, to come out there, you know, it's so many things. But I think this is what's pushing it forward. And that's a pretty dope idea y'all got. And I hope y'all go far with it. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Yeah, thanks. We're we're really excited about it. It's been it's been a wild ride. I I joined in February, and I think we've tripled our business. It's been crazy. At least doubled. I haven't looked at it. So yeah, it's it's great. Mins B and B coming to a town near you.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

No, one quick question. When were you guys established?

SPEAKER_03 32:15

December 2019.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Okay. Oh, how did how did how did you guys go through COVID? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

SPEAKER_03 32:22

You know, it was actually a good thing because it helped us control our growth.

Quality over quantity: controlling growth through COVID

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Okay, that's cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Because the the last thing you want to do is grow too big and then you don't have the product to deliver.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yes. Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

I heard that on I heard something like uh on a on a podcast I like to listen to. I listen to the uh Tim Ferris show. And somebody was on there and they're like, hey, yeah, you know, I go to this uh whatever, this kind of woo-woo retreat, you know, every year. It's just it's awesome. He goes, and he goes, I could I could tell you which which one it is. He goes, No, he goes, Don't he goes, we've made that mistake on our on our show before because he has millions of listeners. If we say the name of that company, yeah, they're gonna get flooded with requests, you know, and this and that, but then they're gonna try to grow too fast and they're gonna start dropping the ball in so many arenas, and then they said the company's gonna just end from going too big too fast, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

That's what happens with people at oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

That's what happens with the people at what?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Oh, the bigger pocket sponsors?

SPEAKER_03 33:24

Oh good point, good point.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Well, we say it was go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

I've been involved with a couple uh startups now. I I I used to work with um a couple smaller property management companies that grew, and that was our problem. We we grew too fast, and then you know, you think you can replicate what you do in your home city where you live in a brand new city. Well, it's not just plug and play. When when we go to Palm Springs, they have a whole different set of permitting regulations and uh you know everything's different out there, and then of course Scottsdale is different, Dallas is different, every place is different, so you gotta take the time. Um and until until at least in the uh in the Airbnb sort of vacation rental market, everything's standardized and like has common sense standardization. So so when you go to Airbnb, you know you can expect XYZ, you know, you can expect mentome, you can expect a quality clean, you can expect whatever. But we're not there yet. So um it anyways, uh I'm the head of sales at Mint's BNB. Like I'm I'm the growth guy, and when your growth guy is like, hey, let's make sure this, you know, let's let's do it both at the same time. Equal growth, let's do it all, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Quality over quantity, man. I love it. It's about brakes, pump the brakes.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

No, I like that, man. A lot of most because a lot of people, you know, come on a lot of these shows. Oh, and by the end of the year, I want a hundred or I want a thousand. You know, just like it's all about the number, the big number, big growth. But there, yeah, there's not, I mean, you gotta put the the right systems into place, you know, get everything running smooth and then start growing. I like that. That's true, guys. That's Scottsdale.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah, I made that mistake. Going to the code. I've done it too, man.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

Well, cool, man. Well, thank you for hopping on. This is this is great. Uh, I can't wait till you come to Dallas, but you you're in Scottsdale and where at in California? Uh Palm Springs. Okay, why Palm Springs? That's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Yeah. Well, it's the the money's there to be honest. Uh, no, we um it kind of happened organically. We had a couple clients in Nashville that also had homes out there, and they kept saying, you need to come spring to Palm Springs, you need to come to Palm Springs over and over. And eventually um, me and Thomas, the the COO, went out there, looked around, we were like, Yeah, we don't want to leave. Let's let's let's just stay here in Palm Springs, never go back to Nashville. No, um, but um, we kind of used our network there and and got I think we have a dozen or 20 or 30 homes out there, so it's it's going.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

That's cool, man. I uh I I flew out to Palm Springs a couple times. I have a buddy that lives out there, and um well, his family you know is from there, and so I went to his wedding and you know a couple times. But I just I've never seen so many golf bags come off of uh you know the the luggage belt before. It's just like everybody that goes to Palm Springs.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

Flying in, you just there's a golf course, there's another golf course, there's another golf course.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

They're everywhere, dude. Everywhere. I didn't know it gets really hot in the summertime. Really hot. The airport is stunning though. It's really nice, yeah. Outdoor indoor style. Outdoor indoor style. But um when it's a little less stunning when it's 120 degrees outside, but it's stunning. That's true. It's a dry heat, man. It's a dry heat.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

Hey, speaking of Texas and heat, are y'all's uh y'all's thermostats and AC working down there? I read some stuff about some things happening.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

We're waiting for allowed to turn it up. Yeah, we're waiting for the next heat Mageddon. We had the snow mageddon now. We know it's gonna happen. Everything's gonna just gonna shut out on us.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

I don't know, man. That that's that's I don't know. They're they're pissed off at people that they're pissed off at the government down here with ERCOT. So yeah, it's uh lot going on.

SPEAKER_04 37:11

Yeah, Governor Abbott sneaking uh an extension cord to Mexico trying to plug in down there on the down low, get some juice, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

All my family's in Texas, man. I hear it. You know, my my my neighborhood, we didn't lose any uh electricity or nothing, but we're we're on the same grid as uh like a fire department right down the road. So that saved us during the snowmageddon. So hopefully it saves us during uh the heat mageddon that's gonna that's coming.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

Yeah, that's smart.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

Yeah, yeah. Or else we'll call men B. Call Mends B and D. Well, cool, man. Any um any any thoughts or any further words for our listeners out there? Any inspirational quotes from Andrew the Kaiser?

SPEAKER_03 37:57

Oh man, just just uh if you want to grow long term, you gotta focus on quality. That's it. It'll grow. Simple.

SPEAKER_04 38:08

I like that. I like that. Quality over quantity. Nice. Well, thanks for coming on, and we wish you the best of luck. We will be signing up, and hopefully you'll come to our cities you know soon. And we'll be waiting for our t-shirts in the mail.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

So yeah, yeah, let's go. I'll hey for real though, we can probably do that. Uh just send me uh send me an address and I'll we'll think about getting some over.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Okay, cool, man. Yeah, man. I'll go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Oh, yeah. I sorry, I just thought of one more thing. Um, if you go to men's bnb.com slash new city, you can request us in your city.

SPEAKER_04 38:47

Yeah, that's it. Thanks, guys. Thanks for hopping on.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah, thanks for coming on, man. It's been blessed. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Yep. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Bye. Man, that was Andrew Kaiser with Men B. Man, I that this actually episode actually made me think of like all the stuff you can really base around, like

Guest eviction story: seven people on a one-guest reservation

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Airbnbs. And one of them that we me and my my partner, he he just implemented was he implemented a security system, like a security team. So if they're partying, he hooked them up to the minute and they go out there and break up the party. So it's so many things. I was like, man, you could make something like security BNB, and that'd be pretty cool. But yeah, men BNB, I like it. That's pretty dope. You know, it's certain things that like how do you prevent parties? How do you, you know, get stuff fixed? I think that's a really good idea, man. And I think remember Homey was supposed to do it, but it just never took off.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

You tried to use them, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Yeah, and it just didn't like they charge you per hour sitting there. I'm like, yeah, the subscription-based model is better. You know, you just pay somebody it's like homework these. I I literally considered like how you were talking about American Home Shield, I got them, and they just came out and fixed the toilet actually like today. And that'd be pretty cool. And they charge you $125 to come out. I'm like, I just pay you guys $100 a month and you come here? It's a better deal.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

See, Home Show must have gone up on their prices. It used to be $75 to come out for something.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Yeah, it's $125. But um, let's say let's say whatever you call them out for breaks, it's free for them to come back out. So it's $125 until they fix it.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

Oh, okay. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

That's good. But at the same time, you're paying them what? Like you said, you're paying them $70 a month, $50, $70 a month. Then you charge $125 on top of that. Then I don't know, you have to really break down the cost. I mean, is it cheaper just pay somebody $100 flat fee? Something breaks, they'll be there, you know? Right, right, right. Also, though, how do you feel about the 24 to 48 hour thing? Because you have to also look at it. Somebody's in there for a month, man, and uh freeze well a month refrigerator goes out. Unless he, but he did say they prioritize it. Maybe that's maybe that's high priority. Refrigerator goes out, they got to get out there and fix it. So I think it's a good service.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, what home shield?

SPEAKER_01 41:07

No, no, no, min B and B.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Oh, min B. Yeah, yeah. If it, you know, if it gets here, I'm I'm gonna look into it.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Seriously, I'm gonna go ahead and uh make sure we got the new city on lock, man. I'm gonna put us in.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

See, I I to me, because that is a big uh spread from 500 square foot unit to 2500. That's a that's a huge spread. I thought it would be like a 500 square foot will cost you know 50 bucks a month, a thousand square foot will cost, you know, whatever. Then but because that's a huge because I'd I'd be like, yeah, I definitely if I had a you know with my 2500 square foot house, I'll get y'all because I'll you know, I'll get y'all um I'm paying the same price as someone with a one-bedroom condo at 500 square foot. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 41:43

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

Yeah, I'm sure they're working on their pricing, but to me, I'm like, yeah, it makes great sense to get it in my personal home, you know, Mend BNB right now, as putting it in one of my little 500 square foot condos where I could fix most things and then I just need an emergency every now and then. I don't know if I want to spend, you know, but that's just um well, he said 100 per unit, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Based upon square footage.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

But that's what he said. He said between 500 and 2500 square foot is the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

So it is a big ass gap.

SPEAKER_04 42:11

And then after 2500 foot is it jumps up. So maybe if there was you know different, you know, because one bedroom, one bath, yeah, that's 500, you know, one toilet to fix, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Shit, 2500 square foot, that's a damn four-bedroom, two and a half house, you know. Yeah, that's big.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

I'll definitely get it. It makes sense for me on this house, but as at one of my condos, it might, you know, I just and they're working on their pricing. That's cool. They're like you said, they're getting everything, you know, uh, quality first.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Yeah, and even at the quality thing, if it's if it's if the quality's there, you might want to do it, but then at the same time, yeah, 500, 2500, that's a big ass gap, dude.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

That's I uh uh yeah, yeah. I automatically think that I would get it for my my three rental long-term rental homes. It makes beautiful sense. I never gotta go freaking fix a toilet, fix a shower, I don't gotta fix nothing. I just lock it in, you know, 100 a month for each one, and then they fix it right away, whatever goes. That's that's beautiful for a long-term see.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

That's why I asked them too. I'm like, could you guys get out of the short-term rental space? I mean, cater to it, be min B, but then hop into the regular space as well. You know, because I would I would do it too. Like, I would put it on this house and then stop paying American Home Shield every month, something ain't breaking, and then But they don't they wouldn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:31

He he he was saying they wouldn't go out and fix a whole AC unit, kind of like Home Shield would, you know what I'm saying? Unless you get the super deluxe tour, the super deluxe one, which is 200 something a month. But yeah, we have to we have to we have to talk with we'll we'll be in touch with Andrew. I'm sure they're working out all their pricing and stuff like that. Cause that would kill 'em if they had to replace a ten thousand dollar AC unit with someone that's paying a hundred bucks a month and do that a few times, they'd be losing their, you know.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

See, and I think that's probably why home home shields like, hey, you pay us a month, right? Let's just say you pay them 60 bucks a month, but then I'll charge you 125 to come out. And they probably didn't bank all your money. You know what I mean? And it's just nothing but profit. So yeah, because like me, I got a new AC unit last when the pandemic started last year. I got a brand new AC unit. And so I can just call them out to do a tune-up on it or whatever, but it'll cost me $125. You know, so yeah, it's it's ways to think about it, you know. Um I'd be very interested in like how you said, put it on some long-term rental properties. That's beautiful. Yeah, you can't lose with that. Yeah, that's that's the now. Now, do you use uh America? Do you do you use Home Shield on your rental properties?

SPEAKER_04 44:38

My other rentals, not yet. I think I'm gonna put it on there this year because um because I'm getting a few, yeah, a few things popping up on some of them. And and Home Shield really, I mean, they saved my ass on this house. Uh my first year I moved in. The first like the bottom ACU unit went out, and um, and I remembered I had you know, whenever you buy a house, it usually the agent you know gets you gets you home shield for a year, right? And you don't have to pay nothing. But anyways, um, so it was gonna be like a $3,500 fix, right? They had to buy that whatever that part is, and um, and so actually I called first I called my AC guy that I've used before in my other houses, and he's he told me in $3,500. Like, crap, man, it sucks. I was like, Oh, wait a minute, I my house came with home shield. I called them up, they sent a dude out. Yeah, same thing, you know, $3,500. So I knew they weren't lying. He said, I'll fix it out. He swapped it out, and then um I think it cost me just the $75 for them to come out, right? So it saved me $3,500. Then the other AC unit went out. Same shit. They said, you know, they they had to fix that same part on the other one. And I was like, the first year in, I'm I'm already like playing with seven thousand dollars of house money, you know what I'm saying? So it saved my ass with the AC units.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Facts. So uh that's in Texas, that's the biggest thing, right? Ace if your AC's out in Texas, you you better go fly for the live. This is real, you you you underwater, dog. You better go find somewhere to live. It ain't it ain't gonna work.

SPEAKER_04 46:02

So at least at least have uh get get you a window unit for one of the bedrooms, stay cool, stay cool in one of the bedrooms.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Yeah, and I have bedroom units, I have three for my upstairs. Remember when I was doing the rentals upstairs? That's what I put up there because we don't have a second unit for the upstairs, it's all one unit. So we just put the uh wall, the air units in they and they'll cool off a room and they'll have it free.

SPEAKER_04 46:23

Oh, they work good, man. Like how about the ones you put in the window or the portable ones?

SPEAKER_01 46:29

The portable one, the stand-up ones that you just put the hose in.

SPEAKER_04 46:32

And then you stick it out the going out the window, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Yeah, you stick the little long. No, you don't even stick it out the window. You leave it the little long piece in the window and you close the window on top of it.

SPEAKER_04 46:41

Yeah, that's yeah, that's what that saved my ass at the um at our Airbnb in Dallas. Because um, yeah, the ACU the I guess the way they do it at these townhomes, it's all like one unit that that feeds into one section of the complex, and each each one it's it's weird, but um, so they went out, right? And we have guests there, and so I was like, Well, wow, we're working, they're working on it, and it took them a few days to fix it. But in the meantime, I can't have we had guests leaving, you know, and guests coming in. I said, hi, I gotta go. I went to Home Depot and um got one of those R2D2 stand-up ones, yeah. There you go, the R2D2 stand-up ones, but it but yeah, but if man, those things blow cold as hell, man. So it helped, it helped, and yeah, that shit'll cool off of man.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

I don't have a room freezing, man. You'll be having ice uh icicles on your palms, man.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, they got the AC fixed and everything, so I could just, you know, it's Home Depot, you could just take it back. Hey, it ain't working out.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

I mean, because I ended up, yeah, because I was doing the Airbnbs upstairs, I bought three of them for each of the rooms. Man, they like my guests, they would come down and be like, Hey man, can you turn the AC down here off a little bit? Because it'd be so cold in their rooms with the AC up there blowing, you know.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

So hey, I'm tempted to get some seed money together, go to all the Home Depots, buy up all their little AC units and stuff, and just wait, just wait for I uh Heat McGeddon to happen.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

Heat McGedon is I'll be the only one.

SPEAKER_04 48:04

I'll be sitting on a pile of AC. Come on, I got you, I got you.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

It's gonna cost snipe them, you could I don't know if Heat McGeddon's gonna come, but they they were talking about it, dude. Like, ain't nobody turning a damn house up to no what'd they say, 73 or something crazy, 78 or something? Oh wow, yeah, talking about because you know all the people, all these damn people are working at home, man, and they like saying we can't get I'm like, dude, Texas might be Texas might have to get it together, dude.

SPEAKER_04 48:34

Get those uh windmills uh churning, man.

SPEAKER_01 48:37

For real.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Oh Lord, yeah, man. So anything crazy happen? We have a couple minutes. It uh you mentioned uh some you had to stop a uh oh well I heard from Mike Brown, he said you had to stop a party, which brings up a good like you talked about the security thing, and he he put me on to them. I was like, yeah, so we're probably gonna sign up with that. That's a good that's a good thing to have.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Dope.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

So what happened?

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yeah, he well, he his party was totally different, but mine, I had to like kick some people out for not following rules, man. They um they came in the same night, same day booking, it was for like four nights. Came in, I was like, cool, they came. They uh but they put one guest down, right? So I'm like, we charge anything over the bed count, it's $50 extra dollars a night per night. So we have we allow seven, but if you bring anything over four, you get charged because it's not they're not in the bed, so they're gonna have to use other sleeping spaces. So they put one guest down. Okay, cool. So and I knew we knew it was gonna be a problem before they booked. They came in kind of like, hey, we have all these allergies and we want to make sure this place is extremely. I'm like, shit, and but ended up, it ended up getting, they ended up insta-booking it. I was like, fuck it. So as soon as she walks in, she starts saying the place was dirty, uh, the floors needed work, and it was like, okay, so I know they're they're they're these types. So I look at the camera, it's like seven people walking in. So I'm like, okay, whatever. But I look at that reservation, it says one guest. So I said, Look, I'm gonna send my cleaning crew by in the morning to clean. They're gonna come by and clean. Um, but I do need you to update the reservation, and I knew it wasn't dirty because I spot checked it that day. The reason I spot checked it was because I had to drop off my parking parking passes. So I knew it was clean. She went and pulled up some dust. She pretty much took a paper towel and she scraped dust, I'm assuming from like the bottom of somewhere off the floor, because she took a picture of it next to the floor. So I'm like, oh, okay, I see what you're doing. I see what you're doing, right? So you're trying to get a refund. So I said, okay, hey, we're gonna send somebody after send somebody to clean in the morning. And I just need you to update the reservation. She goes, Don't send anyone over here to clean until past 12 when we're out. So I'm like, okay. So I said, what it was was she didn't want my cleaner to see how many people she had in there, right? So I'm like, oh. So uh I was like, okay. So I said, look, I'm gonna give you to eight o'clock to update the reservation. If after eight o'clock the reservation is not updated, updated, you're considered trespassing. She goes, Um, well, uh Airbnb told me to wait and don't touch the reservation. I I said, I don't care, you have until eight o'clock. She starts arguing. She goes, Well, um, what'd she say? She goes, I'm Airbnb said to wait, and I'm not paying no extra for no extra people. So I knew that's what it was right off the bat. Okay, that's what it is. So I said, Okay. Eight o'clock rolls around. I said, uh, eight o'clock. I said, Hey, uh, you're trespassing at this point. Um, our uh we're we'll be dispatching police shortly. She's then she comes back, but why? I didn't respond. I uh took a picture of the uh how many people she had in, and I put it in I purposely put it in the Airbnb chat because I remember I do everything through Airbnb, I put it in the Airbnb chat to show she had break broken the rules. Uh they pack up their stuff, they get out of there. Nobody even had to come. They pack up, they get out. Uh, then Airbnb hits me up. I already knew it was coming. He goes, Uh, I want to hear your side of the story. I said, Here's my side of the story. You can check everything in the messages. And then she took a picture. When then when she walked out, what really messed her up when she walked out, she flipped off the camera. She flipped off the camera. I screenshotted it, sent it to Airbnb, said this is the type of guest she is. Airbnb was like, Okay, we understand both sides. We're gonna refund her for the night she didn't stay. I said, That's cool. They refunded her for the night she didn't stay, they charged her for the night she stayed. And then they Airbnb told me this. They said, Hey, if you want to request the money, the extra money for her that she didn't pay for the extra guest, you can go ahead and push it to the resolution center.

SPEAKER_04 52:41

So you got paid?

SPEAKER_01 52:43

Uh I got paid. I didn't even want to request it. I was like, I don't even want the people there, but I could have, but I'm like, man, I ain't even it's like it would have been well been well over a hundred bucks. So you know, but I was like, I ain't even tripping on it as long as they're gone. I don't want the type of guests in there. So, but yeah, that that that's pretty much what happened, bro.

SPEAKER_04 52:59

So you you out Karen the Karen, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

You want to get petty, I can get petty. Hey, what what did uh what did uh Michelle Obama

Dallas party bust and neighborhood security concerns

SPEAKER_01 53:12

say? When they go low, when they go low, low, we go high. Shit. When you go low, I take it to the flow. Hey, seriously, like people don't know, like I guess people don't think, and I think what happens is a lot of Airbnb guests, they think Airbnb controls the property. In order for Airbnb to not control the property, you have to have your rules down to a T. If you have your rules down to a T inside of the Airbnb app, Airbnb cannot control the property. We control the property. Uh Airbnb told you to wait. Well, Airbnb about to get you kicked out. And they had no issue with me calling authorities. They had no issue. I put out everything in the app. They were like, oh, she broke the rules.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

Now that's where um that's where like having that private security company would come in handy. So you don't want to be calling the cops all the time. That's not I was just talking shit. If I I know I'm just saying, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

See, and that's who I would have sent anyway, was the private security. But I heard from Mike if the private security comes and they still give pushback, the cops will come with them because most private security they have the police officers and stuff that they can call and they can come out.

SPEAKER_04 54:24

Right, right, right, right. But I I looked up that one that he sent me, and he's you know, they if you look at it, if you glance at him and say, Oh shit, that's the cops coming. You know, he has the the the thing here, you know, the top that has the the belt with things in it. I don't know there was a gun, it looked like similar to a gun, you know, but he he looks like a it looks like a cop.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

I ain't gonna lie, I would want mine strapped up. I would want mine to have a gun.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

Now they do they they do offer. I looked at the the one he sent me. Uh he said they do offer like armed and unarmed, you know. I want mine armed.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

You want to no, just just it's just a simple thing, man. If you armed and you got all that people, you look more legit, like look, it's time for you to go, you know. And then did you see that party up in Dallas, in North Dallas? Uh uh, what happened? They messed somebody's house. Oh, man. I'm talking, it was like 30, 50, 60 people in here, TVs broken, fights breaking out. It was only it was on like all over Facebook, Instagram, and it was in North Dallas, TVs broken off the wall, they kicking down the doors. So they pretty much they booked this uh Airbnb. They had a party in it, and when it was time for the party to end, not everybody wanted the party to end, and they was like, hey, it's time to go, man. They weren't with it, dude. Fuck that house up.

unknown 55:39

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

I was like, bro, yeah, if you're I ain't gonna lie, that's one thing that kind of concerns me about having like a big house up here doing it because I have been looking at a few, just a few birds just here and there. Um, I got some money I gotta use, some, you know. Oh, by the way, uh, and this is where I'm kind of going with this. Wells Fargo's closing down all their personal lines of credit. And so if you have one, it's use it or lose it. So I'm about to use mine real quick so I can, you know, uh get that done. But yeah, bro, it's just uh man, it it's so I gotta use that. So I've been looking at a couple birds. So, and that was one thing that kind of concerned me. A friend of the show, he uh hit me up because he has a big ass one out in Plano with a swimming pool, and people are planning on throwing a party at it. Like, I guess like a two, three hundred people party, person party, and he had to find it on Instagram, shut it down. Oh my god, yeah, especially like if you have a pool in the summertime in Texas, man, you gotta be on high alert, dude. Like, I would suggest the my note system, uh vivid or some type of alarm system where you can see everything, and that security company. Get a security company, and then what you can do with my new, you can actually set up my note to where it alerts your security company if they're the if any like noise goes too high for a certain amount of time.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Million uh million dollar idea on the you heard it first in the show, party busters, you know, party busters BB, whatever you want to call it, and that's your whole job is say, hey, I'm I'm gonna hire you. I have a big house, I'm gonna hire you guys to all you do is scour the freaking web 24-7, all this whole area, and you make sure there ain't no party gonna happen. And then, you know, that part of the party busters thing, they they they install all the right cameras, all the sound things, everything, and all that they have their own security team. Party busters B and B. I I think I should invent it right now before you uh just pop it off.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

Party Busters B and B. I mean, all you gotta literally do. Never mind, I didn't even go tell people on the cast how you do it. It's simple. Like, all you do is simply contract a bunch of security companies, charge everybody a flat rate, then pay off the security company every month on a on a retainer. You gotta business.

SPEAKER_04 57:50

That's that's part of it, but the the other part is just preventing people from that wanting to throw a party at every book with you, you know, or follow like you said, hitting up the staying on the Instagram, staying on the wherever they're at, you know, and finding these these parties before they happen, so you don't have to, you know, call nobody out and then get you know banned from Airbnb in your neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Um, one quick thing, because I do gotta go. I think that's the best part about the security company. You break it if it the party does break up, they can break it up. Then you won't have a bunch of cops flashing lights in your neighborhood because that man, that's like a thing that right there that'll throw it all off. But I'm happy you brought that point up.

SPEAKER_04 58:28

Sure. Start it before it happens. For real.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

But yeah, man, uh, been a good episode, been a little minute. But yeah, we uh check us out. Email us at liveletrive at gmail.com, follow us on IG, Steven Chase Suarez, Micah Art, Mike, Micah Artist, Live Let Thrive, follow us in the email. And uh yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen to us. We've been doing this a little while, man. Thank y'all for continuing to listen. And uh we are out peace later.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.