Welcome to another episode of our series, SLD Meetups by Super Luxury Group, where we connect with some of the most interesting players in the Luxury Market. My name is Alvaro and today we'll be having with us a very special guest. His name is Ludo Vico Cenqueta and he's a serial entrepreneur and money-making coach. He will be talking about how to make money with Airbnb while traveling the world.
Ludo Vico shares with us how he has able to turn his passion and technology skills into a successful career while teaching others how to do it. We also will be talking about the current trends that are happening in vacation rentals and the importance of online strategy marketing. I hope you enjoy it. My friends, come with us.
Everything okay, thank you for the invite here. Look at you, you're important. Yes, exactly. Love it, love it, that's awesome.
Now you are originally from Italy, right? Yes, I'm half Italian and half Argentinian. But I live in Portugal. That's a good combination and you were not too long ago in Dubai, right?
Yes, exactly. Two weeks ago I was in Dubai. So I find it very fascinating because everybody these days are struggling with traveling and they have to stay at home and you are finding the way to keep making money, traveling, living a great life, teaching people how to make money through Airbnb, which is how you originally started, correct? Yes, exactly.
So I have to take two main businesses. The first one is doing Airbnb without owning any property because I do arbitrage or I do property management and this is my first entrance. And then since everyone was asking me, how can I do it to basically all my friends at the beginning, I say, okay, let's teach to these people. Then one student, two students, three students, I say it's impossible to keep teaching to every one.
That's why then I decided to create my own video course and yes, now I have also this second entrance that is teaching to everyone to do this fantastic business. That's fantastic because at the end of the day you cannot teach something that you are not self and you definitely are doing it successfully. I mean, you started renting those properties to Airbnb in Italy and then slowly expanding and look at you, living the dream, traveling the world while making money. And as you said it right, you don't own the properties but you still get a piece of the profit while managing it through a platform such as Airbnb.
Now, how did you get started and what are some of the most interesting things that you've learned along the way? I started because basically I left my own, my job, my full-time job, normal job at the office, even if the paid was really great. And I'm talking with my lawyer because in the past years I made a lot of startups. So one of my dear friends is a lawyer and he was also my business partner in these startups.
Say, do you know that you can take a property basically just paying the rental and use it like your one. So you can pay 1,000 euros for an apartment in the Central Milan, put it where you want and basically make money. I say, perfect, if I can do this with normal rentals, I can do this even. So I started with the one apartment in the center of Milan.
I was paying really small rent, but I was making like three, four, five times the money I was paying for. So I started and I say, wow, it's great. So then I started with the second one, third one and going forward, I started also to understand it. I could do this even without paying the rental because I can manage it for the owner and take a percentage, 30%, 30%, 50%, sometimes.
They are still making a great amount of money, but I'm doing a great amount of money to basically with zero investment. No, that's fabulous. And I really relate a lot to your story because this is exactly how I started in the Caribbean a long time ago. And I think it's a very profitable business.
And it's really about creating a lifestyle, you know, that through the vehicle that you're creating will allow you to expand. Yes, at the moment, we have the BMD Academy in Italian and Spanish, but in a couple of months it would be available also in English. Is there anything that you've done throughout this journey that has been the hardest this year because obviously Airbnb wanted to get public and it got shut down. Now it's trying to get at the end of the year to get public again.
People are not able to travel. How has that impact your business? At the beginning, it was really hard because I saw a lot of cancellation going through my accounts on Airbnb. But then I said people will still travel.
So the most important thing is just to keep stronger because soon everything will be better. So moved to my short rentals in a more meat-to-term rentals. I started with the old stinger, like people working in the hospitals, journalists from all around the world may be coming in Italy to the reportage for the coronavirus, etc. So now I also updated, well, not now, months ago I updated the Airbnb Academy for my students to help them looking for meat-to-term like one month, two months, three months, rent-to-eye and I teach how to automatize everything.
So everything is automatic from self-checking to the check-out. I agree with you. And I think that everything that is happening is helping us in this industry to elevate the way that we present ourselves and you said it well right there. You know, it's about creating the seamless process both for the company and for the client.
So thanks for sharing that. Now, Ludavika, one thing I'm curious about. You are coming from the tech world, marketing and tech. I mean, you've been featuring many magazines like Forbes and I've seen that your background is very heavy on technology and marketing.
So how have you been adjusting when it comes to technology this year? So thanks to technology, I think we created all these. So having a brand new technology helped me to have a bigger vision of what we can merge between technology and the Airbnb, obviously, is a technological platform. But for example, the self-checking is something that a lot of people would think is not easy, is not secure, but thanks to technology, we helped this business to continue and to keep doing this amazing business.
I think that after this pandemic, a lot of people would still thinking about, for example, digitalize their business or continue with these contact-free check-ins. So technology is a big part of our life and I think everyone should use it to create a better business. Now, thanks for sharing that. I think that's completely true and I agree.
And right now with Airbnb trying to get public and raising such amount of money and putting it towards technology and improving their platform. How of an impact do you think it's going to have in the industry of short-term rental, location rental and how it's going to affect you in the future? Well, the IPO probably will create a lot of room or a lot of noise around Airbnb. So maybe a lot of people that were not using it or maybe they didn't know Airbnb.
Now we know it. How Airbnb will use this Monet to improve the website and the platform? I don't know. But the difference between Airbnb and the other platform, for example, booking or Expedia, in my opinion, is that they really care about what us think and what they like or don't like.
Now with you leaving that lifestyle, traveling the world, writing those properties and especially being able to provide these kind of services or experiences to the guests, there's always something that comes to my mind that I always ask is, what is luxury to you? For me, luxury is basically that I can travel when I want, where I want without caring too much about my job. Everything is automatic in my job with my Airbnb or with my course. I just need my phone to accept the reservations or manage them.
And this is luxury for me to go where I want, when I want, I want to go buy for one week, I can go, I can go, I can go, I want to go in Italy to see my family, I can do it, then I want to come back in Portugal or just I can go and take a walk with my dog in the park or I can go and play tennis. That's my luxury, main luxury that I have in my life in this moment is to be able to travel when I want, where I want. Well said my friend, well said. And hopefully we'll get to see each other soon.
I mean, you have your home here in Miami. But it's a tennis theory. I will look forward to that. Now, now any takeaways for anybody that is looking to start an Airbnb or that are currently an Airbnb or working with OTA, so it will be your one takeaway.
In what people need, the feature people need to have success in this business is to focus on quality because everyone can put an apartment on Airbnb. So the only way to have a difference between who do it in the successful way and just everyone else is to focus on quality. Everyone can put his apartment on Airbnb. So we have to focus on quality on cleaning.
Now cleaning is one of the most asked features from Airbnb. So focus on quality and in having five stars of you obviously because the review is the only thing that will put a difference between you and your competitors and quality in the picture. Quality in how you write, the announce, translate it in different languages and offer a great experience to your host. That means maybe just to leave one chocolate and a letter, easy things will help you to grow in this business and have a difference from your competitors.
Quality and details, I like that. So for sure, take notes. I think that's applied for anything, for Airbnb business but also for anything you do in life. Quality and the details are a massive necessity to really stand out.
So thank you for sharing those points. I think that's great. Now, I'm going to put your information on the comments so that everybody that is listening or want to learn more about it or really, I encourage everybody that is interested about his business to reach out or to look into his courses. They're great.
They're phenomenal. He's doing incredible himself. So make sure to follow him or reach out and anything else you want to share since we're here. To, well, for sure to keep dreaming if someone has an objective to keep hustling for it, I work with a lot of viewers on such apps, then I sold them or maybe some of them failed, then I start working in an office and I understood that that was not the road I wanted to take.
So again, I started at 23 years old again from zero. I was not old but I was in the business since 18. So after five years, I started again from zero and I created my own reality. I was dreaming for since I was like a teenager.
So never stop dreaming. And even if you're doing a job that you don't like, you can start doing in the meantime another job that you would like or that maybe it will help you to reach your life. And the life you always dreamed about and when you will be able to leave your main job, you will keep focusing on the job that finally will permit you to leave the life you always want. Dream high and hustle higher.
I like that. Let's go. I hope my English was understandable from everyone. Your English is phenomenal.
Just like I was in Spanish, but it was great. I think everybody got a great value out of these conversations. I do appreciate your time again. I look forward to meeting you whether in Miami or in Europe.
Keep doing your thing. You're doing phenomenal. Thanks again for your time. Thank you very much and have a great day.
And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace its beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.