Matthew Krueger, Airbnb Expert & Coach: “Every day, the first place I go is Hospitable.”

Is it possible to scale up your vacation rental business without being chained to a property manager? OH YES! The new Hospitable Hosts Podcast is about exactly that — managing multiple properties while sipping cocktails on a beach (or just finding more properties to invest in 😅). 

Joining us this time is Matthew Krueger — a short-term rentals (STR) property investor, Airbnb mentor, and Cash Flow coach. He’s here to share his secrets on how to self-manage multiple properties while working just a few hours a week. Trust us, you won’t want to miss this!  

Discover the must-have tools in the Hospitable stack, insights on Direct vs. Airbnb, and predictions for the future of vacation rental biz in our latest Hospitable Hosts podcast!

Prefer to read the highlights? We’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below. 

Retiring Before 30: Matt’s Playbook

Matt’s entry into the world of vacation rentals real estate wasn’t through a six-figure salary. Nope, it was through a clever strategy called “house hacking.” With a growing family, Matt purchased a $90,000 single-family rental, lovingly dubbed “grandma’s house,” and dug in.

Over the next five years, he repeated the following strategy — live in, renovate, move out, rent, and repeat — five times! Each move built on the last, steadily constructing a robust rental portfolio. Matt underlines creative financing, including leveraging conventional loans and HELOC (home equity line of credit), to fuel property investments: 

“You don’t have to be making a lot of money or come from somewhere special to do this. You just have to be smart with how you’re doing this. That’s what we’re teaching people today.”

Yes, Family. No, Property Managers. 

Matt and his wife, parents to four little dynamos, are in the vacation rental whirl together. Yep, you heard it right — they face the challenges of fixer-upper properties, parenting, and full-time work as a team. As Matt puts it, “We decided we were gonna do it together or not at all.” 

Now, here’s the kicker. With 12 properties in their arsenal, Matt and his family spend a mere two to three hours per week managing them. But HOW? 

Matt focuses on making the existing properties work efficiently: “I don’t want to have too many properties taking up too much time. And we can do that.. we still have our family time while managing these properties and have enough cash flow to live on.” 

Read on for Matt’s efficient hosting tricks or jump to the full episode with all the expert tips!

How Does Hospitable Help? 

“Every day, when I focus on my short-term rental business, the first place I go is Hospitable.” Matt finds solace in knowing that everything he needs is in an “all-in-one synchronized place,” whether it’s Airbnb, VRBO, or Booking.com:

• Advanced Automation: Matt enjoys Hospitable’s instant replies, including our ChatGPT integration: “Hospitable already knows the reservation, they know the property […] just hit a button and respond to a message automatically without typing anything!”
• Empowerment Through Delegation: “If you want to be able to still have your life and reasonably manage properties, then [automation] is a must,” — Hospitable empowers Matt to handle guest experience on multiple channels as well as internal task management without hiring a third party to help out.
• Time-Saving Mastery: Time is the one resource we can’t get back. Matt manages to transform what could be a “20-30-hour work week” into more family moments. The variety of Hospitable features “brings [the workload] way down because it automates and synchronizes it all in one place.”

Get a deeper dive into Matt’s playbook in the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast! 

Airbnb Guru Opinion: Direct Booking vs. OTAs

While Matt is all praises for Airbnb, acknowledging its role in driving revenue and visibility, he does raise a crucial concern: control. 

“I’m not gonna bash on Airbnb because, honestly, they make us a ton of money. Airbnb in and of itself is a fantastic platform where I’m happy to list properties. However, some things come into play here that concern me…”

Get Matt’s hot in-depth take on Direct Booking? Play the full Hospitable Hosts episode now! 

Looking to scale up without a property manager? Do it with Hospitable.com!
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