This is John, I have recently finished reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, two Untied States Navy Seals who taught me about taking ownership for mistakes and failures. It is hard to do it. In life and in your airbnb hosting journey, it is crucial to take a look at the person in the mirror – this is everything for personal and professional growth.
Tim is going to share an experience that he had to take ownership of, an experience that literally broke his heart – a guest could not check in past midnight. He is going to explain how he handled it. Best of all, the guest left pleased and has even referred friends that have booked for future stays! We will teach you the mindset on how to turn a bad situation around by doing the right thing by the guest, always. This is called Extreme Ownership.
Podcast Highlights
- Tim goes over the worst situation he has been in with a guest, why it was his fault, and how he took ownership and turned it around
- Why having a Plan B is important
- The mindset of Extreme Ownership and how you can use it in your hosting journey
For more information on Extreme Ownership, you can visit https://echelonfront.com/extreme-ownership/
Transcript
Announcer (00:01):
Welcome to the Vacation Home Help Podcast, the only podcast dedicated to helping vacation rental owners self-manage their properties. Your host delivers short and sweet episodes with actionable advice, tips, and strategies to level up your hosting skills.
Announcer (00:18):
Whether you are a complete beginner …
Announcer(00:20):
Or have been in the vacation home rental business for a while, you are in the right place to get the tools you need to succeed. Here are your hosts, John Candelario and Tim Casey.
John Candelario (00:34):
All right, Tim, you had a situation with your lock recently. You shared a story with me and, I mean, it seemed like it troubled you a bit so.
Airbnb guest locked out and could not check in. Tim shares a story of how he responded to an Airbnb lockout.
Tim Casey (00:43):
It didn’t trouble me, John, it broke my heart. You and I talk a lot about the guest and they only get a week or two of vacation a year so when they come to your vacation home rental you’ve got a responsibility as an owner to make sure they have a great experience, and I let this guest down and it broke my heart. Let me tell you the story. This guest was having a horrible travel day. Their flights were getting canceled. They were getting in really, really late and they went to check into our house and the code didn’t work. There was a technical malfunction, I own that but, man, think about it. That guest was standing on the patio, holding kids, two o’clock in the morning, and they couldn’t get in the house.
John, I think a lot of the stories that we share with our listeners is not going to be just success stories, it’s going to be lessons learned the hard way. Well, this was a lesson learned the hard way. I’ve got to always have a backup plan. I’ve got to have a way that that guest can get into the home if technology fails me. I installed a lockbox on the outside of the home, five digit code, and if necessary, if technology fails, if wifi goes out, I can get that guest in the home. This broke my heart because they not only had a bad travel day but I extended that bad day when they couldn’t check into my home, so lesson learned. Always make sure you’ve got a backup plan so that guest can get into your home and start their family time together.
Always have a backup plan as an airbnb host as technology and operations sometimes fail…
John Candelario (02:34):
Backup plans are super, super, super important but making it right is all the more important because things happen. The lock is terrible because someone being outside, that’s the last thing they want when they’re on vacation, but making it right there’s always a way. Sometimes people could be heated when something bad happens but it’s how we respond that matters and that should come from your heart. That should come from your values and wanting to make it right and there’s a lot of ways I’ve seen people make bad situations right. I’ve seen people compensate. I’ve seen people go over the top to let guests know that they’re sorry. I’ve seen some bad situations turn around and end up being repeat guests and they come back year after year. What did you do this time that made it right?
Accountability and Airbnb – superhosts hold themselves accountable.
Tim Casey (03:26):
The only thing that you can do, which is own it. You can’t blame anything. You can’t blame technology. You can’t blame the wifi. The bottom line is, I own it. That was my problem, it was my mistake. I didn’t have a backup plan. Maybe it was two o’clock in the morning but I should have made sure that guest was in the house before I shut my eyes or have a backup plan, I didn’t have either one. I failed this guest and I had to own it, and then I had to do whatever I could to make it right by them and, believe me, I did that. But I’d say the number one lesson learned for me was, you’ve got to own it. You can’t blame a mistake or something that caused grief to that guest on anybody else, on anything else. It’s my fault, it’s my problem, and it’s up to me to solve for it the right way.
John Candelario (04:18):
I love that because so many people are excuse makers. You can make an excuse when something goes bad and say, “Oh, maybe the lock failed.” It did, it did fail but making excuses doesn’t help anybody and just saying that, “Hey, I messed up this time and I won’t let it happen again,” that shows that you have a lot of integrity as a host and that you are committed to doing things the right way. It might not be as severe as a lock, it could be something like you forgot to heat the pool in time or maybe the floors were sticky, but it’s just by standing by our word and owning any mistake we make and not making excuses for everything because it sounds something like you’re taught in school or growing up but so many people make excuses. With guests, they don’t want excuses, they just want you to be honest with them. I think it’s really cool what you did because you stood there, you looked at the situation, which was horrible. It was bad.
Tim Casey (05:16):
Horrible, horrible.
John Candelario (05:17):
You were able to say, “Listen, I messed up. I’m so sorry. Can I make this right?” That’s what it took. It’s not going to be the last time that you or I make a mistake. When you’re doing your own hosting journey, to anyone listening, you’re going to make a ton of mistakes but if you take the mistakes and learn from them, and if you learn from them you will grow. But if you make an excuse, even to yourself … People can make excuses to themself like, “Aw, it won’t happen again but that wasn’t my fault.” No, we have to just be accountable for what we do and that’s how we grow.
Extreme Ownership is a great read and it can be applied to your Airbnb hosting journey.
Tim Casey (05:53):
Let’s give a shout out to Jacko, extreme ownership. You got to just own it, and you’ve got to be willing to own it, and you’ve got to be willing to what you said, John, you got to be willing to learn from it. Thanks, Jacko.
John Candelario (06:04):
To our listeners, if you mess up just own it and learn from it and don’t let it happen again, but you’re going to keep making mistakes and that’s okay. No matter what, if you make mistakes just keep going, just keep moving, just keep swimming. You will grow as a business person in vacation rentals, you just have to have that integrity. Sometimes it’s hard but if you stand by that you’re going to see the benefits, not just in business but in life. Just own it, any mistake you make.
Announcer (06:36):
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