Million Dollar Host on Airbnb with Julie George Episode #163

Joining us this week in the lab is Julie George, author of the best-seller book “Million Dollar Host” and a rockstar expert on Airbnb who built a unique property portfolio in less than 3 years with $8million dollars booking income. Julie lives in Australia, studied Hospitality Management, and dreamt of running her own hotel. After working for years in a corporate company, she decided to break free and be her own boss, have that financial freedom and flexibility to do whatever she wanted. She started with little secretarial service,  an errand running service, and then bought a few investment properties. Since Julie loved the real estate industry, by the time her long-term renter moved out she discovered the world of Airbnb in 2016. She went from earning $240 per week to $600 per week using the sharing platform of Airbnb. Julie’s first year in the short-term rental business grossed her total income of $1.4 Million. She loves to experiment which is why her unique business structure and operation made her dream of running a hotel into 130 instant hotels. Imagine her one property accommodates 400-500 guests per night, bigger than the biggest hotel in their city. Making her the Industry Expert on Airbnb in Australia. As a way of Julie’s giving back to the community she now travels the world speaking, mentoring, and consulting on ‘Airbnb’ and ‘building a business on the back of the sharing economy. If you want to learn and be successful in putting your property in Airbnb, develop your unique business structure, and make use of the social media platforms, you’ll definitely want to hear from Julie on how she had the right model on the right framework in the right vehicle! So, grab your pen and notebook, and together let’s build! HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE: 04:01 - Background of the Guest 07:24 - Launching the first STR 11:35 - Be passionate about what you’re doing 14:57 - Trying to figure out bringing people in 19:18 - Finding the guest - Airbnb KEEPING IT REAL: 24:44 - Developing a business structure 28:03 - Charging the cleaning fee 31:20 - Franchise model inspiration 35:51 - How other property hosts brings some business 39:44 - Key takeaway for good branding 44:41 - Buying the furniture 47:48 - Not all properties are right for STR 51:52 - Structuring partnerships 55:09 - Favorite Book - Get Paid for Your Pad 55:55 - Best Habit - Achieve one thing per day 57:15 - How impactful is social media 1:02:08 - Connecting more with the guest CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST Website Instagram LinkedIn Youtube This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Guesty.com which is a property management software that Ruben and his team use as short term rental Superhosts to manage and streamline all communication with their guests and team to make it a memorable stay for each guest that books their property. Use our private unique link here https://hosts.guesty.com/?r=therealestateexperiment  to let Guesty know we sent you!