Shampoo & Booze 11: Being Your Own General Contractor for your Airbnb

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Since we started buying houses, we have, by necessity, been our own general contractors. This means you deal with every detail on a renovation including who does what, budgets, colors, materials, hauling trash, even some demolition and physical labor, etc etc. If you're not willing to pay someone else to do it, you've got to just do it yourself. We do have limits as to what our construction skills afford, but that's when we make sure we have a professional ready and willing. So far this system has worked well for us and hopefully will continue to work for this next big project.

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Shampoo & Booze 10: We Bought Another Airbnb Rental!

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Yes, that's correct. We have been looking for a few months and we finally bought a second rental. We are very excited. Check out some photos below to see what we saw (lots of cool potential, nice view, solid bones). Also see how insane it is that people rent houses in our area in this condition. The horror, oh the horror!

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!

Shampoo & Booze 9: Interview with Anna, Independent Airbnb Host in Colorado

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We met Anna through our Scavenger Life blog because she also sells on eBay for extra cash (and fun of course). We were thrilled to find out that she also runs a successful vacation rental long distance from California. Before we got our rental started this year, we got a lot of good advice from Anna on how to get started and run things properly. Her story is inspiring because she's able to run her place from about 1100 miles away with very little friction. Check out her lovely abode in Silverthorne, CO and her guidebook to the area. If you want to stay there, she's giving fellow listeners a coupon for $50 off. Thanks Anna! Coupon code: Shampoo4u

You know you want to stay here:

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!

Shampoo & Booze 8: How to Wish Your Airbnb Competition Well and Learn From Their Mistakes

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Competition is inevitable in the rental business. You wouldn't be able to run a rental without it, because your area would not be a place that people wanted to come stay. So overall, it's a good thing. We can also learn a lot from our competitors, like how much to charge and when the slow seasons might be. We try to spin it as a positive even though we definitely want all their bookings! P.S. These are the AC air deflectors that we mentioned, we love them and they're working great.

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!

Shampoo & Booze 7: How To Handle Customer and House Issues on Airbnb

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Issues with the house or with customers are inevitable. This is our process on how we handle them and keep our business sustainable and our life sane. Here is a link to the electronic deadbolts we're installing this week. They are very sturdy and dependable as compared to the locks with the handles included. Cross my fingers!

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!

Shampoo & Booze 6: Interview with Bekah, Airbnb Host in New Orleans

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Bekah, a trained professional nurse, and her husband Brian kind of accidentally became very, very successful Airbnb hosts. They own a multi-family in a lovely New Orleans neighborhood not far from The French Quarter. Not wanting to become a long term renting landlord, Bekah thought she'd give Airbnb a try. That was three years ago. In that time, she was able to cut her hours down at work to almost nothing and make a full time income through Airbnb. We have been inspired by her work and we know you will be too. Thanks Bekah!

Check out how freakin' cute Bekah's place is!

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!

Shampoo & Booze 5: Zombie Airbnb Listings, Hiring A Caretaker

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Moving apartments in Amsterdam, we found that lots of listings that had totally open calendars, were not actually available, making our search a little bit frustrating. We dubbed these apartments 'Zombie Listings'. Eventually, we found a lovely apartment in a great neighborhood by some Airbnb first timers and we're fully enjoying it. Meanwhile on the home front, our caretaker dealt with a house emergency when the central air conditioning unit stopped working. Luckily it was only a $150 fix and it's back and running like new. Phew!

Thinking of becoming an Airbnb host or guest? Use our referral code and get $20 off your next stay or $80 credit if you become a host!