Leverage your Airbnbs to travel for free (Ep591 )

In this episode of “Get Paid for Your Pad,” I had a fascinating conversation with Landon Wilkinson about Host Share, a promising new platform for short-term home sharing. Host Share operates similarly to familiar vacation rental platforms, but it offers a unique twist. The primary focus is on allowing hosts to exchange stays in their properties with others around the world, creating a network for adventurous travelers and property owners.

Here are some key takeaways from my conversation with Landon:

How Host Share Works: Host Share simplifies the process by directly connecting to your existing property listings. It synchronizes your calendar with major platforms, ensuring that your availability is up-to-date. You won't manage your calendar within Host Share, but it will show your property's availability based on your other listings.

Property Managers and Owners: If you're a property manager, you can utilize Host Share to add listings and invite property owners and staff as co-hosts. This unique approach can benefit property management companies by offering perks to owners and staff, such as free stays in other properties listed on Host Share.

Preventing Abuse: To prevent misuse, Host Share has several controls in place. Travel privileges are linked to the active status of your listing on the platform. Delisting your property or frequently abusing the system can result in access restrictions.

Expansion and Integration: Host Share is currently available in 22 countries, with plans for further expansion. While it aims to integrate with popular property management systems like Logify, you can still use iCal for avoiding double bookings.

Future Messaging Features: In the initial beta phase, the platform will offer limited messaging capabilities, but full in-platform messaging will become available in the future.

VRMA Conference: Host Share is set to attend the Vacation Rental Management Association International Conference in Orlando in October. Vacation rental management companies interested in the platform can participate in the beta.

To join the Host Share community, you can sign up at hostshare.co
, and there's a dedicated Facebook group for discussions and feedback. Membership will soon be available at $29.95 annually, offering substantial savings compared to other vacation rental platforms.

I encourage you to explore Host Share and consider joining the community. It's a fresh approach to short-term home sharing that has the potential to become a significant player in the vacation rental industry. Don't miss out on the opportunity to be part of this exciting journey.

Jasper Ribbers:
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pad. Today's guest is Mr. Landon Wilkinson. He is one of the founders of Host Share. You probably haven't heard of this yet because it's a very new company. So I'm excited to learn more about it. They are in beta mode right now. But they're going to be launching soon. And we now have the opportunity to become to use the platform for free as one of the first users. So I'm excited about that. Lendon, welcome to the show.

Landon Wilkinson:
Hey, thank you, Jasper. Super excited to be here. Honored to be part of the show and listening for a while. Uh, really enjoy what you do in the space and yeah, I'm excited to share about what we're doing and maybe how the thinking behind host share might be useful for other people as they're looking at kind of the future of the sharing economy and what that means for short-term rentals and cars and whole bunch of other stuff.

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to learn more about it. Why don't you give us a quick description of what Host Share is.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, so basically the easiest way to the one-liner is basically the platform that allows hosts and owners of short-term rentals to exchange last minute unbooked nights in exchange for free travel. So every host that joins, you add your listing, you get 21 nights of free travel, so three weeks a year, and that goes for any of the properties on the platform. So, um, Then everybody shares basically a number of nights it's determined off of their nightly rate. So the higher the nightly rate, the less nights you share, the lower nightly rate, the more nights you're sharing. And so it makes it a very, you know, fair democratic sort of formula. And you can use the HoSher calculator on our website to see kind of how many nights you would share if you were to sign up. Um, and basically the way it works is if, you know, right now the, there's about 6 million Airbnb listings. Um, and that's not including booking.com and all of these other platforms now that do similar things. Um, and on average they're sitting, you know, empty about 50% of the time, the average occupancy rate across the platform is about 50%. So when you start running those numbers, like we did in the beginning of the host share, it was kind of breathtaking when you realize, okay, the average nightly rate is $300. So on an annual basis, that equates to about $330 billion in lost value potential. And so what we thought with HostShare was, well, we're all short-term rental owners ourselves, we're interested in traveling, you know, more than we do. We travel a lot as it is, but it's, you know, how do we, how do we take advantage of this asset that we have? And this is kind of what the founding basis was for HostShare.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, it's kind of staggering, right? It's like in a time where resources are scarce and like we have to make use efficiently of our resources and the housing shortage and all

Landon Wilkinson:
Right.

Jasper Ribbers:
this stuff, like it's kind of shocking to hear that 50% of the time, these short-term rentals are empty, right? We got to find a way

Landon Wilkinson:
Mind-blowing,

Jasper Ribbers:
to

Landon Wilkinson:
yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
use this, right?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, my…

Landon Wilkinson:
I mean, that logic of like what Uber did 10 years or 15, whatever it was now, you know, they looked at the average car owner, you know, how much they're using their car and I think at the time I would get around was like 5% of the day or 3% of the day, their car is being used at. I'm probably exaggerating, but, um, you know, that premise is what was the founding principle of Uber. And you look at that, that's a big waste for sure. The cars globally, but to apply it to short-term rentals, it's an industry that's grown so rapidly. And particularly in the last five years has gone through these really large growth spurts. And I think the timing for Host Share. And companies doing, you know, uh, making better use. There's other companies out there that do, uh, home sharing like, uh, you know, have been doing this for a while. Home exchange, you know, these other ones, but there's never been one that does it, uh, which, you know, geared towards short-term rental owners. And so it makes it a lot more simple what we're doing, um, for people who own short-term rentals, because they're much less likely to be giving up revenue nights in exchange for that value, whereas all the other ones pretty much are going to be sacrificing. dates in the future, ours is last minute only bookings. And so that's kind of how we're geared strictly for short-term rentals.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. And I remember that statistic too, of like a car is only used like 5 to 10% of the time, which is why I don't own a car, but I use Turo.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
And

Landon Wilkinson:
Love,

Jasper Ribbers:
some people

Landon Wilkinson:
Terrell.

Jasper Ribbers:
are saying, yeah, Turo is awesome. And some people are saying that in the near future, there's going to be a number of self-driving cars that are

Landon Wilkinson:
Totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
just going to be driving nonstop and they're going to be so cheap that it's not even worth getting a car anymore. It's not just the cars are like not being used. It's also like the cars take up so much space in downtown cities.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Do you have a statistic on that? Like how much, how much of the land in the downtown average American city is used up for parking?

Landon Wilkinson:
I don't know. And I know, you know, there was obviously, um, Turo is, uh, is a really good example of, you know, the same kind of thinking that's propelling, uh, or, you know, the foundation of host share. Um, because I think the asset utilization, I, the concept for host share was kind of, um, my brother and I are both pilots. And so we, we were, uh, for about three years, we've owned an airplane together with another guy. And what's really apparent is that even with all three of us using it, um, there's never once been a crossover where we haven't been able to use it, you know, when we wanted to. And so, you know, the monthly hanger costs, the annual inspection costs, all of these things are split three ways. Um, but the utilization is just as much as you want, you know, and so it's. You know, kind of a light bulb for us. It's like, man, how many other things are out there? How many airplanes are sitting in the other hangars around us that aren't getting used? How many boats are sitting in the marinas that aren't getting used? Because there's just a poor structure for sharing those assets and making, you know, better use of them. Many of them are better off because they're getting used more, you know, things that sit mechanical things that sit are generally, you know, it's almost as bad for them as if they were getting used. And so it's, you know, it's a funny thing. We live in this time that still is not more widely. you know, changing yet.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, I just spent a couple of years in Panama and we were fortunate enough to have two friends who owned yachts. And I noticed that they weren't being used very often. And then half of the time when we wanted to use it, it was in maintenance. There was

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
something wrong

Landon Wilkinson:
totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
with it.

Landon Wilkinson:
Same with airplanes. There, somebody told me once, if you want to know what it's like to own a boat, just stand in a cold shower and tear up a hundred dollar bills, you know? So, uh,

Jasper Ribbers:
That's hilarious.

Landon Wilkinson:
but yeah, I mean, the same thing. It's yeah, maintenance and, uh, and like a lot of these assets, like boats, you know, they're depreciating. Like. Or RVs are a good example of this, you know, um, and there are companies now like RV share and other ones that are doing some cool stuff to make, you know, possible to share those assets and make an income or, you know, return on those investments, but you know, the reality is most RVs don't get worn out. It's not like they're getting used so much that, you know, they're, they're depreciated forcefully or, you know, they're, they're getting worn out and then, you know, uh, refurbished or sold or whatever, most of the time they just, they, they just age, you know, they're, it's not like the cushions are worn out or, you know, the tires are falling off. You know, it's literally, they just sit in a lot somewhere until they're no longer useful. And so, you know, you're not really like the rate of depreciation sitting is faster than if you're, you're renting it out and having it professionally cleaned. And, you know, all these things that go into running a business with something like that. And so anyways, uh, it's, I love the thinking that there's so many companies doing, uh, you know, trying to do this. And I think it's, uh, you know, we're just part of that movement.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. You know, I remember when I started getting into Airbnb, it was like, I think it was 2011, like I was, I was, I was obsessed with the sharing economy. Like, and there was all sorts of platforms that were popping up, you know, like, and I thought it was so cool. I actually, at some point, um, wanted to build my own online marketplace for, uh, I think it was it like surf or yeah, surf instructors. I was like,

Landon Wilkinson:
Oh,

Jasper Ribbers:
man,

Landon Wilkinson:
awesome.

Jasper Ribbers:
surf instructors

Landon Wilkinson:
You're a

Jasper Ribbers:
are

Landon Wilkinson:
surfer.

Jasper Ribbers:
so. Yeah. Well, I was learning.

Landon Wilkinson:
Okay.

Jasper Ribbers:
And, you know, I was trying to find a surf instructor. You go to the school and then they charge you like 60 bucks an hour. And the guy

Landon Wilkinson:
Right.

Jasper Ribbers:
gets like 15.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
And I'm like, damn, like, why isn't there an Airbnb for this? Like, can't

Landon Wilkinson:
Totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
I just go on a platform and find a, I'm sure there's a local person here

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
within

Landon Wilkinson:
totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
five minute walk from here who would be more than happy to take out a surfboard and teach me for

Landon Wilkinson:
Absolutely.

Jasper Ribbers:
like 20 bucks an hour, like, why do I need to pay 60 to the school,

Landon Wilkinson:
And what

Jasper Ribbers:
right?

Landon Wilkinson:
happened with this platform? I'm thinking there's a lot of potential there. I like that.

Jasper Ribbers:
I know, right? But I also realized how much work it would be and how hard it is to create an online marketplace.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, absolutely.

Jasper Ribbers:
And then I decided I was doing too many things at the same time. I

Landon Wilkinson:
Right.

Jasper Ribbers:
was like, I got to focus on one thing. Let me just focus on this Airbnb thing. Everybody knows me because of my book and my podcast. So like, might as well just stick with that. But yeah, no, I love the idea of, you know, how do we… How can we be more effective and efficient with the resources that we have, whether it's people or assets, right?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Cars, houses, boats. I mean, there, and it's, yeah, it's a topic I'm very passionate about. So let's talk a little bit more about host share. One thing that I really like about your concept is, because I looked at other home sharing platforms before, and the first thing that always stuck me was like, well, It's not fair if I have a one bedroom and somebody stays in my house for a week and then I get to stay in somebody's like seven bedroom villa, you know, on the,

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
on the

Landon Wilkinson:
totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
beach. That's not a fair trade, right? So I like that you, that sounds like your, your model, it takes that into account.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, I mean, so a lot of times the, this might be sort of boring. Um, but the detailed way it works is we take an average of all of the listings on the platform. So it's say it's $300 for an average nightly rate. And so, um, you, with everybody getting 21 nights, that's also the average, you know, uh, that everybody's getting to travel with it. And so, uh, that, that 21 times $300 is about $6,000 in value that host is contributing to the platform when they join. Um, and so what everybody else that's adding, if their property is a thousand dollars a night, then you basically divide that and it's, you know, they're sharing six nights essentially. And so that's the way the math works out. If it's a hundred dollars a night, then it's, you know, whatever, a much higher number. Um, and so, uh, that basis of that formula is what, and the other side of this too, is that if you're booked up like 80, 90% or you're very seasonal and your, your peak seasons are, are experiencing very high occupancy and you never. have the opportunity to share or you're unable to share those nights because you're booked, then there's no obligation. It's really only for last minute unbooked nights. So again, that makes it much more easy to digest the idea of doing this.

Jasper Ribbers:
By the way, do you hear the coyotes in the background?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, is that your side or is that mine?

Jasper Ribbers:
That's my side. So we live, we live right next to like a forest reserve

Landon Wilkinson:
Thanks for

Jasper Ribbers:
or

Landon Wilkinson:
watching!

Jasper Ribbers:
whatever it is. And the coyotes are going nuts and they jump over the fence and they walk around in our area sometimes. So, um, I don't

Landon Wilkinson:
That's funny because we're in the country as well and have the very same thing going on. Like last night we had the exact same thing happening. So I was thinking, oh, shoot, I hope that's not my side.

Jasper Ribbers:
It's so crazy. We're right on the edge of the wild area. So yeah, we get to listen to the howl

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
every single day. Anyway, we'll try not to let the coyotes distract us. So another thing that comes to my mind is you were saying as soon as you sign up for it. And right now, it's in beta mode, right? So. If

Landon Wilkinson:
Correct,

Jasper Ribbers:
you go to

Landon Wilkinson:
yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
hostshare.co right now, I just literally just signed up actually. It's basically where, you know, you go on a wait list, like, and you know, the platform is gonna launch in a couple of weeks and then, you know, we're the first ones to get to experiences, right? Maybe you can share a little bit more about that process.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, so basically what we're doing right now is we're in pre-beta. And so we're going to basically be rolling out with a very stripped down version of the site. And then in the next weeks after that, you'll be able to… So like I predict probably the first week or two of October, there's going to be, you know, a functionality of being able to, you know, create your account, get validated on your identity validation, verification rather. And you'll be able to add your listing. to update your profile picture, all those basic functionalities of having the sign in. And people who are… on the list prior to the launch of the beta are going to have free months, uh, free 12 month access, you know, no, no cost membership. And so what we're trying to do now is just basically get enough people part of that initial beta to, uh, give us productive feedback and, and understanding, you know, what deficiencies there might be. Um, but then once the beta is live and travel starts to happen, then there'll start to be a cost associated. It probably won't be full price until November, December, but part of, you know, I thought it might be interesting to your listeners is if. You know, their access now, they're definitely part of a core team that's going to help us build the, build the company in a way. And we have a focus group on Facebook and things that are helping us, you know, further, uh, you know, understand what people are needing from it. And so, um, so yeah, I recommend like all, all that's required is, you know, you put in your email, your property listing and a few other details, and then your spot is basically reserved on that list and you'll get an email when you need to create your portal and you can start, you know, checking out other properties and things like that.

Jasper Ribbers:
So you're saying once the platform is live, we can travel or we can do 21 nights, 21

Landon Wilkinson:
Correct. Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
stays or nights. Does that also depend on the type of listing that we're staying at?

Landon Wilkinson:
No, so pretty much up to $2,000 a night properties will be on the platform. Um, above that you have a different program that's probably going to be in the future, but that's basically the range, you know, zero to $2,000 a night properties, you'll be able to. So if you're really opportunistic with how you use host share and how you travel, um, it's possible that your membership, uh, you know, you could be staying value of over like $20,000, you know, for, you know, if you're hopping on, we have many homes that are over a thousand dollars a night. So. You know, um, if you're willing to travel last minute and, you know, try to take advantage of those spots, granted they're sharing less nights. So there's a scarcity, you know, the higher the dollar, uh, per night. But, um, but yeah, it's the other thing that like with host share, I think is going to be interesting is, you know, because it's five days in advance. It's very last minute travel plans that you're able to, uh, to do. But what I imagine is going to happen is you're, you're going to be Say you're, you're wanting to get away for the weekend. Um, and maybe you typically book in advance and, you know, say it's Monday and you're wanting to get away Friday through, you know, Saturday night or whatever, um, you know, you're going to have the choice of either, I'm going to pay full price through, you know, one of the major platforms now, or I'll check and see what's around me on host share and then make that decision. Okay. Well, there's, you know, six good places to choose from. And if I wait until, you know, uh, you know, five days in advance to book it, um, It's possible I'll just be paying cleaning fees for this weekend's trip. And so I think the travel habits are going to adapt a little bit to the, to

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm.

Landon Wilkinson:
the constraints of the platform.

Jasper Ribbers:
Okay, so I'm trying to visualize this in my head, right? So I have one of my listings on Host Share. And so I'm going to, let's say I wanna go away, I'm flexible, I wanna go

Landon Wilkinson:
All

Jasper Ribbers:
to

Landon Wilkinson:
right.

Jasper Ribbers:
someplace next weekend or whatever it is so I can book it. I just pay the cleaning fee, right?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Are there any other fees associated with the booking?

Landon Wilkinson:
No, so as long as you're within that five days, it's a, there's no service fees, no tax, there might be a tax on the cleaning fee, but other than that, um, it's going to be just whatever that direct pass through is. There's no host share platform fee or commission or there's no taxes because there's no revenue changing hands essentially. So, um, uh, so I think that's another thing that's like You've probably experienced this being in short terminals now for as long as you have, but like the taxation and the costs for travelers and hosts alike for what we do has gotten very expensive, both from Airbnb commissions or platform commissions. And then there's just a lot of municipalities tacking on to get involved in the action. And so this is another way that's sort of, because it's exclusively hosts and we're all… contributing value but non-monetary essentially prevents that from being an issue right now.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah. And it's also, you don't have to pay tax on it as

Landon Wilkinson:
Exactly.

Jasper Ribbers:
well.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right. So, so it's almost like, it's almost like, okay, imagine in a, imagine you and I, there are only people in the world, but both have one house

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
and we want to go on holiday like two weeks a year, right? I could pay you, let's say I pay you five grand and I get to stay at your place. You pay me five brands. You get to stay at my place for two

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
weeks. We just swap. Now we have to pay, you know, thousand dollar in Texas on, on just the air, you know, Airbnb service fee and like the

Landon Wilkinson:
Totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
TOT and all this, all this stuff. But now I have to report to an IRS five grand income.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
I have to pay tax on that. We might as well just say, Hey, why don't you stay at my place for free? I stayed at your place for free. And then we both have our holiday and we don't pay any taxes. And it

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah. And what's

Jasper Ribbers:
makes

Landon Wilkinson:
crazy

Jasper Ribbers:
more sense.

Landon Wilkinson:
too, like you hit the nail on the head with that, but I think even like if you take it a step further and this might be too boring or in the weeds, but I also think about, okay, well that five grand that you're paying, unless it's a business expense is coming with pre-tax dollars. You're, you're traveling with money that's already been taxed by, you know, say you're in the U S you know, uh, if you've got a hundred dollars in income, you're paying 20 to, you know, 50% of that in taxes in many cases. Um, and so you think about the cost too, to travel is actually, you know, what you're earning, you know, after tax. And so again, you just preventing all of that, that issue, um, because again, you, you might not share any nights. And so it's all going to be, uh, you know, basically supply demand in that regard. And, uh, very hard to put a number on exactly how much is being contributed and, you know, share it over the course of a 12 month period. So.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah.

Landon Wilkinson:
It's exciting.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, it makes sense. Okay. So, so now let's say somebody said, let's say I have a couple nights open on my listing that's connected to host share and somebody books it like, how is it? How does that work? Is that booking coming through host share?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, so it's going to operate much the same as the platforms you're used to. You'll have, you know, your login, your calendar will be basically directly connected to, you know, if you have a channel manager, you can work with that, or we can integrate with, you know, all of the main platforms to sync calendars. And so the way that you're controlling your calendar is off of, you know, your wherever your listings are. So if you block out the dates on your channel manager or Airbnb, then they're going to show up blocked on, on our side with host share. Um, and so that's, you're not going to be controlling your calendar on host share because it's going to be just, uh, you know, keeping things pretty transparent and, and if, if you're not getting revenue from it, then, you know, uh, that's going to be on, on the Airbnb end or whatever.

Jasper Ribbers:
Got it. So it's essentially serves as just another OTA from

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
a booking perspective. Right?

Landon Wilkinson:
Exactly.

Jasper Ribbers:
OK, so what if, all right, so one of my units is managed by my property manager.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
So I'm trying to think through how does that affect that, because

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, this

Jasper Ribbers:
my

Landon Wilkinson:
is

Jasper Ribbers:
property

Landon Wilkinson:
really…

Jasper Ribbers:
manager is probably going to bark at me because he's going to be like, hey, I don't

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
get my 15%, but I have to

Landon Wilkinson:
Do all the work for

Jasper Ribbers:
clean

Landon Wilkinson:
it.

Jasper Ribbers:
the apartment and do all, like,

Landon Wilkinson:
So

Jasper Ribbers:
how do I navigate

Landon Wilkinson:
we have

Jasper Ribbers:
that?

Landon Wilkinson:
a structure and I'm really glad you brought that up because it's something that we kind of wrestled with for a while and I actually had a meeting recently with a property vacation rental management company and he was really enthusiastic about Host Share and he actually had the idea, well, what if we made it possible where the vacation rental management company for every listing that they add, they are given three days of the 21st. And so their owners get 18 days, um, and they get, you know, the, the three days that they can use for their staff. And since they're technically co-hosts on the listing with those owners, it makes it really, um, kind of a no-brainer because, okay, now the, the VRM can offer a, you know, basically a perk to the owners that sets them apart because now the owners don't feel obligated to travel to just their home, they can go, you know, 22 countries right now and growing rapidly, you know, um, and they can make use of. many other homes and so that gives them an upper hand on I think many other companies. And then the other side of it is they can offer perks to their staff that would be very expensive. I mean if you think about this VRM that I was speaking with had 40 properties and so that's 120 days if he gets everybody in his company, all of his owners to join. 120 days of travel that he would have access to with his staff of 10. So, you know, uh, it makes, makes it really compelling for them to, to manage a few days for free here and there. Um, and then their cleaners and subs still get paid. Um, but their staff is getting a, you know, a non-monetary reward for that.

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm. Interesting. So you're saying, in that case, yeah, so that's a good question. So what if I have multiple listings? So you're saying each of the staff members could sign up for Host Share and get their 21 days? Or would you pull it?

Landon Wilkinson:
So basically the vacation rental manager will add the listing to Ho-Share and then he'll invite the owner as a co-host

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Landon Wilkinson:
and his staff as a co-host. So the staff of the VRM is only going to have access to up to three days of travel for every property listed, but the owners have the access to the 18 days. That

Jasper Ribbers:
Got

Landon Wilkinson:
makes sense.

Jasper Ribbers:
it. Okay, so it's per list. So if I list two listings, then I get 42

Landon Wilkinson:
42,

Jasper Ribbers:
days.

Landon Wilkinson:
yeah, exactly.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
on.

Landon Wilkinson:
we're interested in, I'm excited to see, I'm hopeful that somebody has about, we have many people who have 50 plus listings that have signed up, and I was thinking how fun it would be if somebody could do, if they add 17 listings, they're basically a full year of free travel, and so I'd like to see who is the first person to go travel exclusively for a year using Host Share, because the other thing, too, that I didn't say that is relevant is, if you're in a property, say you book five days, And you're there, you can extend it if, if it's still available another three days at a time. So if somebody has, you know, say they're sharing 30 nights that year, um, based on the property, you know, you could theoretically stay there a whole month and like a shoulder season if there's no bookings or, or if they're just, you know, experiencing a downturn in, in bookings, you know, um, that could be one guest that stays that entire time, assuming that's, you know, uh, available in that last five day window or whatever. So yeah. Um, so yeah, that's how it's kind of worked with multiple listings right now.

Jasper Ribbers:
So how do you prevent people from gaming? I see some, the little devil on my shoulder

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
is whispering some potential

Landon Wilkinson:
Hit me. What you

Jasper Ribbers:
ways

Landon Wilkinson:
got?

Jasper Ribbers:
to abuse this platform. All right, so I sign up with a listing. I take my 21 days and then, you know, I cease to be an Airbnb host, like block my calendar off. Like how do you prevent people from gaming it?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, so basically we have controls in place. So if, okay, let's, in your situation, you sign up, you go out and you travel a bunch. As long, you're only able to travel as long as your listing is active for one. So if you delist it from the platform, you know, the travel privileges are denied. But at the same time, if you go out and you travel all of your 21 days, the first month you have host share, and then you take your listing down for the rest of the year. Um, that's going to be basically, you're going to have an explanation that's provided that, you know, um, there's going to be an agreement before you listed that this is a 12 month agreement. And so there's those two things in place. And then also if somebody has done this more than once with the property without, you know, um, really compelling information, they won't be allowed access to the platform. So it's, it's basically three things that prevent people from doing it. And there's, there was going to be people who do that, but, um, you know, we're going to have. margin built in to where that's not going to be something that limits the usefulness of the platform to the majority

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah,

Landon Wilkinson:
of people.

Jasper Ribbers:
sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure the majority of people aren't going to be as evil as me and think

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
about these

Landon Wilkinson:
no,

Jasper Ribbers:
things, right?

Landon Wilkinson:
but it's absolutely relevant though.

Jasper Ribbers:
Sweet. Is there something that we haven't talked about yet that you think it's important to mention?

Landon Wilkinson:
Actually, bringing up the vacation rental management companies, we're going to be at VRMA, the Conference for Vacation Rental Management Associations International Conference in Orlando towards the end of October. Part of what we're doing is really, in addition to signing up individual hosts with the beta, there's essentially another user type that's the vacation rental managers. That's a separate kind of application. We're only accepting up to 100 companies to do that with currently. And so if you are a VRM and you're interested in signing up for Host Share, make a note of that so that we can put you down to reach out to you once that beta goes live because that's going to be a little bit of a different onboarding process than the Aperture host.

Jasper Ribbers:
Okay, makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not trying to make it out to the V or Moray. The challenges were we're about to launch our brand FreeWild and we're working on a lot of things at the moment. So we'll

Landon Wilkinson:
Have

Jasper Ribbers:
see.

Landon Wilkinson:
you been

Jasper Ribbers:
We'll see if

Landon Wilkinson:
there

Jasper Ribbers:
I

Landon Wilkinson:
in

Jasper Ribbers:
can

Landon Wilkinson:
the

Jasper Ribbers:
make

Landon Wilkinson:
past

Jasper Ribbers:
it.

Landon Wilkinson:
to hear me?

Jasper Ribbers:
I have. Yeah, I have. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of fun. For sure.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Like the last time I went was around COVID.

Landon Wilkinson:
Okay.

Jasper Ribbers:
And then the world shut down for a while, so as you probably noticed.

Landon Wilkinson:
Right. I didn't see that.

Jasper Ribbers:
Do you have any competitors? Is anybody else doing this?

Landon Wilkinson:
So there's a home sharing and home exchanging or home trading has been around for probably as long as a VRBO. I don't know exactly when the first home exchange website because it was acquired and changed names. So I think it was home exchange.com is probably one of the, and I could be totally wrong on this, but I think it was one of the original groups that was doing this. And so I first learned about them probably five years ago and was interested and tried to sign up and, but then realized that it really wasn't practical for our. rentals and there's really none doing this for short-term rentals and catering the experience for short-term rentals. I think I told you on the intro, you know, one thing's really nice is that we've already all created listings. We all have the photos and everything. And so what, when you sign up for host share, all you're doing is entering a URL and that pulls all of the data from your listing. So if you have five listings, it'll take you a few minutes to, you know, copy and paste those URLs and put all your listings in, and then you're We're aiming for basically a 24 hour turnaround from the time you sign up to when you can travel. So I ID verification, listing, edition, you know, all of these things, um, happened really quickly. And that also is another thing that sets us apart from what other platforms do because typically they're expecting you to share or make a contribution prior to the, the using of the platform to travel. And so home exchange, you get credits in exchange for, you know, sharing your home and then you use those credits to go travel. And so on. And so it makes it a little bit more time prohibitive and time intensive to get really the value out of the platform. And we're really trying to make that not an issue. You just hop on and go, you know, you just, I want to get to Panama this weekend or, you know, whatever the case may be, it's very easy to do that.

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm. What about the, the post booking process, right? So is that the same kind of as an Airbnb, you can message the host and, you know, automated messages and does it connect to like

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
a PMS where we can, you know, our automated messages are still going out and stuff like that.

Landon Wilkinson:
Definitely. So, for the beta, it's going to be a little bit stripped down. It's going to be probably a much more humble experience for the month of October. The messaging

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm-hmm.

Landon Wilkinson:
functionality is surprisingly, you'd imagine it'd be a fairly simple thing at this point, but integrating that within the platform is one of the more complex development tasks. And so we figured that first month, it's going to be a little bit more… direct cell phone and email contact. And then after that first month, it'll be in platform messaging service. And then you can do the automated messaging and all the same, uh, you know, tasks that you want to automate.

Jasper Ribbers:
Hmm. Okay. Are you already integrated with the major PMS systems or is that something that is in the pipeline?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, so like Logify and those are going to be the most simple to integrate with, the big four and the channel managers. But then we'll probably, when it gets into the more broader, as long as their API is really accessible, it's going to be really easy for us to add people on. If it's

Jasper Ribbers:
Mm.

Landon Wilkinson:
a little more in depth, it might take a few weeks or months to catch up with all of the integrations.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, but then even if that's not integrated, like we can still use a iCal,

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, exactly.

Jasper Ribbers:
you know, to make sure we don't get double bookings and stuff.

Landon Wilkinson:
Absolutely, yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Awesome, man. Well, I'm excited to use it. I think this is a great solution. So yeah, I'm definitely excited. And you mentioned you're in 22 countries.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, is there going to be enough inventory? Or is it mainly going to be focused on certain regions?

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, I mean, uh, so there's, there's about 400 hosts that have signed up currently and about 800 properties, um, represented by those hosts. And so, uh, we are spread out around the world. Um, but, uh, again, I think I made the comment earlier. It's like, you know, you, Hozier, I think is going to be really, it's going to have an early adopter group that signs up and makes, takes use of it, you know, at this stage, and then when it becomes more of a network effect that takes over It's going to be much more accessible for everybody to use it as a substitute for their normal go-to platforms.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right. Yeah. So in the beginning, like people might just travel to certain destination because there is a whole shared error,

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
right?

Landon Wilkinson:
yeah.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, that makes sense. I remember when I first signed up for Airbnb, I was kind of doing that too.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
I was

Landon Wilkinson:
yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
like, I

Landon Wilkinson:
same.

Jasper Ribbers:
don't want to stay at a hotel. So like, oh, let me see if there's some cool Airbnbs in this city. Oh, well,

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
if not, okay, let's go somewhere else.

Landon Wilkinson:
It's funny because I was just, I just saw something in a box of old stuff I found where I had a, a couch surfing sticker on my, one of my notebooks from back when I was early, you know, uh, early teen or late teens and, uh, and it's just interesting to think back through all of the iterations and starting to use Airbnb and learning how, you know, this was happening and it's just fascinating the industry and I know that you're, you're talking about this on a daily basis, but, um, Yeah, it's fun to see the evolution of this, you know, and be part of that in a way.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, couchsurfing. Damn, does that still exist?

Landon Wilkinson:
I don't know. I don't know.

Jasper Ribbers:
Oh man, it's crazy how

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
I was…

Landon Wilkinson:
my only experience with couch surfing is I live in Washington. I went over to Oregon and I wound up sleeping on the floor with a bunch of cyclists, the other dudes that were, you know, this guy had his house and he just let people crash there. And so it's like me and like four cyclists in the living room of this guy's house and it was super fun. You know, I made some great, you know, friendships there and stuff, but it's like, it's totally, it's come a long ways.

Jasper Ribbers:
I know, it's so funny. I think the world, the world changes so quickly. Like you have these platforms

Landon Wilkinson:
Totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
and then five years later you think like, wow, it feels like Flintstones kind

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah,

Jasper Ribbers:
of thing,

Landon Wilkinson:
totally.

Jasper Ribbers:
you know, like.

Landon Wilkinson:
It's such a simple observation that Brian Chesky and you know, when you look back on it, it's, you know, it's, it's a relatively simple concept, but at the time so many people just couldn't imagine, oh, you're, you're renting out a part of your home or you rent, you know, and now it's such an accepted, you know, a part of our lives, which is cool.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. In the beginning, everybody thought it was a crazy idea. Nobody wants to invest in it.

Landon Wilkinson:
Yeah, right. Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
Cool. Anything else? Any final thoughts you want to share?

Landon Wilkinson:
Well, just thank you so much for having me on and anybody who's thinking about signing up for the post year, feel free to reach out to us. We're a small team based in Washington and Tennessee. And so it's very accessible. We'd love to hear questions and feedback and please join the Facebook group. We're all kind of active on there. And so really trying to grow a bit of a community around what we're doing and understand what people are liking and disliking about what we're doing and hopefully, you know, make those changes as quickly as possible and iterate to. be something that you really enjoy and use.

Jasper Ribbers:
Right on. And can we join that Facebook group or do we have to sign up for the platform first?

Landon Wilkinson:
So if you sign up for the platform, there's a link to it right there. Just click right over that. You can search on Facebook and request to join and you'll most likely get in if it's not spam.

Jasper Ribbers:
Got it, okay. Sounds good, okay. Well, thank you so much, Lennon, for taking the time. And so for everybody who's listening, if you wanna be one of the early adopters of this new way of traveling, Host Share, I mean, this could be the new Airbnb, you know? Like, it's small now, but like, you know, who knows, in 10 years, we'll see. But it's hostshare.co, hostshare.co. That's why you can sign up. I just signed up right before we started recording this. It takes

Landon Wilkinson:
Awesome.

Jasper Ribbers:
a few minutes. So it's super simple. And then you can use the platform for free. And it looks like the annual membership is gonna be in the free 95, it says on the website. So you're

Landon Wilkinson:
Yep.

Jasper Ribbers:
gonna save yourself some money and sign up for hostshare.co. Awesome.

Landon Wilkinson:
Well, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.

Jasper Ribbers:
Yeah, thanks, Landon. And thanks to the listeners. Of course, hope you enjoyed this episode. I will be back soon with another one. Until then.

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