Shampoo & Booze 34: How Hotels are Changing to Compete with Airbnb

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As more and more of us are renting out rooms, cabins and homes on Airbnb and other services, smart hotels are adapting. In our town, the big fancy hotel has expanded to add a bunch of "cottages" to give their guests a more personal experience. They still have the regular hotel experience, but now you can rent a little place by the pool like you're at a resort. Younger travelers especially want this kind of experience that includes a little kitchen and living room. I know we do.

We're having a great July. Lots of reservations and good experiences with guests. Summer is our high time so we're trying to book as many of our free days as possible. We're still on the hunt for a reliable cleaner, but in the meantime cleaning is keeping us busy.

The driveway to our second rental is happening. Our excavator has cleared off the entire lot. We now have plenty of firewood for next year after he cut down several trees. Now to start carving out the actual driveway.


Hope you guys are having a good month of rentals.

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!

13 comments:

  1. Dude, how's the calorie counting going? I've been doing mine hella slow for the last few years but in the last 6 months I've upped the pace/lowered the daily allowance. It's all been strategic so I'm not complaining. My strategy does not include being in a rush.

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    1. we stopped doing it. maybe we're lazy, but i was hungry all the time and cranky as hell. i lost about 8-10lbs last year, but gained it back. it's a process!

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    2. I get cranky like that too. Your body will down regulate your metabolism anyway. Very frustrating.

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    3. I hear ya. I've been going super slow so that I'm dropping ounces instead of lbs per month (5-10 lbs a year). I was pretty nervous that if I did it too aggressively it would be unsustainable or a uncomfortable. Since recently adjusting my daily allowance to the lower limits I can totally see what you're talking about. Let's see if I can hang on long enough before I throw in the towel for maintenance mode.

      I definitely would not call you guys lazy. It's something like 10% of the people who lose weight can keep it off for more than 7 years. The odds are not in my favor.

      As far as down regulating metabolism I've read enough stuff that suggests that doesn't apply to 99% of people. Often people may not be weighing food on a scale or lowering the calories every time they lose 10 lbs or so. The lower your body fat is the longer it takes and the more accurate you need to be with your logging. Lots of factors that could be misinterpreted as metabolism down regulation so many people. But plateaus are frustrating regardless.

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    4. It refers to "starvation mode".

      It's a dramatic subject that people get super passionate about.

      I don't get bent out of shape about it. It can be assumed when folks hit a wall with weight loss that it's "the metabolism". I won't discount that possibility but there's ways to make sure it's not user error in regard to counting calories first.

      https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10377361/question-about-the-starvation-mode-myth

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    5. ah i get it, it's to explain a plateau?

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    6. Since you body seeks to retain homeostasis (everything to stay the same) when you reduce caloric intake your body will try to reduce the number of calories that you burn. For example: fidgety people become more calm. I tend to get cold cranky and constipated as everything slows down. The only way I've found to seriously drop the lbs is by reducing carbs to 60-100 per day.

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    7. wish i had a personal chef. i live on carbs. love them. can't help it! so yummy.

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    8. Macro nutrients ratios are personal for sure. A ton of people swear by high protein. pythonesk99 swears by low carb. You can't argue results.

      It took some playing around but I figured out that if I dip below 220 grams of carbs in a day then I'll feel hungry regardless the the volume or quality of the food eaten that day. I can cut fat pretty low and I can be generally moderate with protein but I will feel it if my carbs go below that threshold. Since maintaining my 220 gram carb minimum my workouts have improved to my surprise.

      I did do 50-100 grams of carbs for about 4 years a few years back. That was my first introduction to bingeing. I didn't even know what bingeing was at the time. How embarrassing.

      After 14+ years of follow other health gurus advice and not getting the results they promised I'm very glad be self directed for once. I'm confident my needs will change as time goes by so I'm trying to stay flexible, follow the results and not the rules.

      Another strange thing is that as I lose weight I get more fidgety mostly while watching netflix. Strange for sure since I do not have a fidgety personality. I don't play sports, I like to read and have a chill personality. Who knows.

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  2. I believe it was this episode that Jay was questioning how to look at certain stats for your rental i.e. past, current and future rentals prices. There is an easy way to see this-just go to Host, then the Stats tab, and then under "Earnings in July" there is a box that says "see transaction history"
    This brings up a page that shows all your completed rentals, your future rentals in a different tab, and you can also filter this from all your rentals, month, current year, past years, etc. Hope this was what you were looking for!

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    1. Wow. This is exactly what I was looking for. So awesome.

      I love that I can see number of nights booked and profit for any past period of time. Thanks for letting me know. Opens up a whole new part of the site for me.

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    2. awesome! glad I could help. I've been kind of a nerd about learning all the ins & outs of the site and setting goals for certain months and the year as well. There will soon be an 'additonal host' feature available for us to use-for when we as hosts travel and need someone else to manage our listing. I believe its in certain markets already but hasn't yet come to my market.

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