Like many in the short-term rental advocacy sphere, proposed regulations at the local City Council brought hosts Annette Grant and Sarah Karakaian together.
Both had come to speak at the Columbus City Council meeting in spring 2018 to oppose a proposal that would have capped short-term rental operating days to a little over 100 days a year.
Sarah had just moved to Columbus from New York City after investing in short-term rentals in the Ohio capital. Annette was operating a short-term rental property management company.
But what looked like a potential crisis at the time ended up presenting an opportunity.
A slip of yellow paper
“This young lady (Sarah) sat next to me,” Annette said. “I don’t really remember what we talked about, but I do remember giving her my number, and she gave me her phone number.”
Annette kept the yellow slip of paper where Sarah first wrote her phone number as a memento of that pivotal moment.
They met up for a coffee date and later met up again at a bar. Sarah had been wanting a partner for her short-term rental business and found out over drinks that Annette was looking for the same thing.
“I didn’t want to do it alone,” Sarah said. “And we had this awesome synergy at this bar that day. I’m not a crier, and I remember tearing up; then she started tearing up. And that was it.”
Columbus’s short-term rental ordinance
Thanks to advocacy by Columbus’s hosting community, the City Council revised the short-term rental ordinance to only require registration, licensing, and payment of a tax that helps support the development of affordable housing. They scrapped the proposal to limit the number of days of operation.
Sarah and Annette now remember the council meeting as the beginning of their journey together through Thanks for Visiting.
They knew they wanted to start a short-term rental business together, but they didn’t know the details at the time.
Annette had recently started a short-term rental investment podcast and had recorded about 11 episodes that had not been released yet. Sarah blogged about home improvement projects and flipping homes.
“We both liked creating content, but we didn’t have any idea of the journey we were on to build Thanks for Visiting,” Sarah said.
Thanks for Visiting podcast
They started the Thanks for Visiting podcast on Feb. 8, 2019, shortly before the country shut down due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
“We started to learn a lot through hosting the podcast and then connecting with hosts from all over the country,” Annette said. “It was an outlet for us to talk about hosting and record it and share it.”
Annette and Sarah also founded Thanks for Visiting LLC later in 2019. It started out as a consulting business where they would advise new hosts on how to set up their short-term rental business, but the demand for their advice outgrew the 24 hours each had in the day.
In order to expand their reach, they turned the business into a membership program where members can gain their expert coaching in an online group setting. The membership gives members access to a community of about 350 hosts and a private Facebook page.
On top of the short-term rentals they already owned or managed, they invested in one short-term rental together. Together, they own or manage 30 short-term rental properties and are both highly rated hosts on the major vacation rental booking sites.
Priceless tips for short-term rental hosts
But Sarah and Annette may be better known as influencers in the short-term rental sphere. Their podcasts and energetic social media videos have drawn a large following.
Since early 2019, listeners have downloaded the podcast 1.2 million times to take advantage of Annette and Sarah’s insider tips on hosting and running a profitable but ethical business. Topics range from investment to how to make your vacation rental more accessibility friendly through universal design.
Meanwhile, the Thanks for Visiting Instagram profile and YouTube channel deliver quick hits on creative hospitality hacks and tips like reminding hosts of the wisdom in prohibiting glitter at their short-term rental.
Sarah’s background as a professional actor brings a certain show-biz pizazz to the clips. She pitches some ingenious tips as well, like lint rolling all of the beds directly before a guest’s arrival to remove any stray dust or hairs that fall from the ventilation system.
Annette brings a strong entrepreneurial background and experience starting a short-term rental business from scratch.
She started managing short-term rentals for a real estate investor who was her landlord after being laid off from a job she had worked for eight years.
Sarah and Annette now facilitate a community of about 350 short-term rental hosts. It was the kind of community that they were longing for back when they were hosting in isolation as individual entrepreneurs.
Building and maintaining a community of short-term rental hosts was important to them because it helps hosts learn from each other and motivate each other.
“I didn’t realize how lonely I was hosting because you can’t really talk to your friends and family about dirty sheets and what the best deal on coffee is or the best cleaning supplies,” Annette said, “but hosts have a whole different language that they speak. And when you find those people that speak your same language, there’s kind of an instant connection.”
Sarah and Annette will record a podcast episode, Sustaining Your Whole Self With Hosting Practices that Work for You, on April 18, 2023, at the Rent Responsibly Summit: People, Places, and Planet.
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