This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with soon-to-be Airbnb Host Ashley Kern, as they go over Ashley’s plans and final touches. Be sure to see the pix at the end of these notes. Ashley and her husband James own the “No Hope No Fear” Tattoo Art Studio in SE Portland. In a city with over a hundred studios, James is a widely recognized tattoo artist with 22 years of experience. James also teaches at international conventions and hosts visiting artists. The teaching aspect has allowed the two of them to travel all over the world and they look forward to using Airbnb more often as travelers. This has made Ashley want to host other people too, and their home/business which is zoned mixed-use residential gives them the opportunity to include an Airbnb listing. Debi and Ashley walk through the home, built in 1922 in a Craftsman style, and Debi found the combined home/business to be very attractive and definitely looks residential. The final project Ashley wants to finish before hosting is the outside patio. Her dad is helping out and was painting the back porch the day Debi visited. Ashley explains the requirements in her zoning of having to be at least 50% residential, so they can’t expand the tattoo business any farther, but are allowed to do short term rental and chose that path. There are dozens of nearby restaurants but no hotels. There are many other Airbnb offerings in the popular area. Their potential guest market includes not only tourists wanting to visit Portland but also clients from other cities, coming to get tattoos, and visiting artists. Debi and Ashley talk about the house potential to be kid-friendly, and business-ready. "Business-ready" is an Airbnb term for listings that request the designation and have no pets, have high-speed internet and a working space/surface, and allow 24-hour access to the space for the guest. Debi explains this in detail in her introduction to the episode. After walking through the home, Debi encourages Ashley to open soon. They talk about locks and the insecurity of using a lock-box type access that uses a key; the key can be copied. Debi recommended that they consider using eRentallocks or Resort Locks or similar electronic locks that make it so easy to change the code between guests that there is no excuse to not do so. As they toured the house, Debi was wowed by Ashley and James’ photos on the walls of beautiful northwest scenes, all taken by cell phone cameras and printed by Costco! Ashley has scheduled for an Airbnb photographer to come through the space to take photographs for her listing, and she and Debi talk about staging. James Kern Tattoo Art Studio: http://www.nohopenofeartattoo.com/ Costo photo production: Costcophotocenter.com Electronic locks: http://www.erentallock.com/ More electronic locks: http://resortlock.com/
