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Get Paid For Your Pad | Airbnb Hosting | Vacation Rentals | Apartment Sharing
How to Hire and Train Virtual Assistants
Are you starting to feel overwhelmed as your short-term rental (STR) business grows? Or maybe you’re just tired of doing EVERYTHING and wish you had a little more time to yourself? Either way, you may want to consider taking on a virtual assistant, or VA, to help. So, where do you go to find a qualified one? And what can you do to make sure your VA has all the information they need to do a good job?
Rebecca Slivka is the STR Legend behind Pillow and Coffee, a fully-furnished vacation rental company out of Los Angeles, and Hicksville Trailer Palace, a unique vintage trailer motel in Joshua Tree, California. Rebeeca has five years of experience as a STR host, and in that time, she has created a team of VAs that she describes as ‘a lean, mean fighting machine.’
On this episode of Get Paid for Your Pad, Rebecca joins me to share her detailed process for finding and training a virtual assistant to support your STR business. She introduces us to the benefits of outsourcing work to a VA, explaining how her remote team of 6 performs 95% of the tasks in her business! Listen in for Rebecca’s insight on creating training videos for your VAs and get her advice on building a strong team that will perform well and stay with your business for the long term.
How much of the work VAs do in Rebecca’s business
- Lean team, 6 VAs do 95% of work
- Anything online or over phone
Why a STR host would want to outsource work to a VA
- Want to grow business or more time for self
- Transition from employee to business owner
Rebecca’s process for finding and training a VA
- List out everything you do for company
- Create very clear job description
- Determine if good fit in interview
- Train in ‘bite-sized pieces’
- Retrain and check in regularly
Rebecca’s advice for creating training videos for VAs
- Make video for anything you do more than once
- Don’t worry about making it perfect
- Consider having VA create or recreate videos
Rebecca’s secrets for building a strong team of VAs
- Take responsibility if they don’t perform well
- Create step-by-step training and check work
- Get feedback re: how they would do things
The benefits of hiring VAs for your STR business
- Time to work ON vs. IN business
- Better experience for you and guests
The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Email jasper@getpaidforyourpad.com or support@strlegends.com
More episodes
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25:35||Ep. 634Curious what your portfolio’s potential is? Apply for RPM at https://freewyldfoundry.com/rpm/.Hey there! Welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pad! Today, you’re joining me from Savannah, Georgia, where I’m visiting one of our revenue managers, Thomas. If you’ve never been, it’s a historic and charming city with amazing weather and incredibly friendly people. I’m even planning to go kayaking this weekend—which should be a blast!In this episode, I’m answering your biggest questions about Airbnb’s Photo Tour feature, using pricing tools effectively, and managing last-minute pricing. There’s a lot of confusion around Airbnb’s new Photo Tour functionality, and you might be wondering if it’s really worth using. I’ll explain why it actually helps boost bookings and how to maintain control over your first five photos. I’ll also break down why pricing tools like PriceLabs are a must-have for short-term rental hosts—and how you can fine-tune the settings to make them work for your business. Lastly, if you’re spending too much time manually adjusting last-minute prices, I’ll show you a better, automated approach to make your life easier.If you’re looking to optimize your Airbnb listing, I’ve got something for you—a free Airbnb Optimization Checklist! You can grab it at freewyldfoundry.com/checklist to make sure your listing is fully optimized and ready to convert more bookings.Got a question for me? Email me at jasper@freewyld.com, and I might feature it in a future episode. Now, I’m off to explore more of Savannah and maybe try some Southern food. Thanks for listening—see you next time!633. 3 Airbnb Revenue Management Mistakes to Avoid in 2025
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45:36||Ep. 632Curious what your portfolio’s potential is? Apply for RPM at https://freewyldfoundry.com/rpm/. In this podcast episode, Jasper Ribbers welcomes back Derek Gisriel, a successful short-term rental entrepreneur who first appeared on the show in May 2023. Since then, Derek has made significant progress in his business, growing from one property to managing 26. He shares his journey, from starting in real estate with a W2 job and owning a solar company, to launching a property management business, Level Up, which now manages multiple properties.Derek talks about the importance of guest experience, having a personal touch in hospitality, and how this has been key to his success. He emphasizes the importance of consistency, especially in content creation, and how he uses tools like a calendar to plan his week and content. Despite occasional setbacks, Derek's approach to content creation and business growth focuses on showing up, staying consistent, and sharing valuable knowledge.The conversation also covers revenue management, with Derek explaining how using tools like PriceLabs to optimize pricing and implementing length-of-stay discounts has helped increase their revenue. He discusses the importance of guest reviews and how personalized touches can elevate the guest experience and secure five-star ratings.Finally, Derek shares some insights on the value of joining a community, like the Legends X program, to get support from others in the industry. He stresses that the success they've achieved didn’t happen overnight but was built with consistent effort and learning from others.631. The Airbnb Category Hack: How to Optimize & Get More Bookings
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