Beyond the Signboard with Amy Bennett
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard; where you get the opportunity to learn all there is to know about your real estate journey from professionals who are passionate about property.
Beyond the Signboard with Amy Bennett
The Beachside Airbnb Blueprint: Maximising Your Property's Potential with Chris Doherty-Fisher
Ever wondered what it takes to run a successful short-term rental property on the Sunshine Coast? This fascinating deep dive with Chris Doherty-Fisher, General Manager of Sunny B&B, unveils the mechanics behind managing 80 holiday properties spread across 50 kilometres of coastline.
Chris reveals eye-opening statistics about the extraordinary returns possible in this market, with Coolum, Mooloolaba and Maroochydore all ranking among Australia's top 10 suburbs for short-term rental yields—delivering approximately 80% higher returns than traditional rentals. For property investors considering this path, he offers candid advice about what truly works, from proximity to beaches (the closer the better) to the must-have amenities that drive bookings.
The conversation demystifies common misconceptions, like the belief that short-term rentals significantly impact housing affordability (census data shows only 2% of rental properties nationwide are in the short-term market), and the assumption that booking far in advance guarantees the best rates (often the opposite is true thanks to dynamic pricing models). Chris shares insider knowledge about guest preferences, including why air fryers have become one of the most requested kitchen appliances and how pet-friendly properties can substantially widen your booking potential.
Beyond the business aspects, we explore Chris's fascinating journey from cocktail bartender to managing a thriving family business, his passion for systems and logistics, and the challenges of coordinating cleaners, maintenance staff, and guest experiences across dozens of properties. His insights into property management software, damage prevention strategies, and the art of creating memorable guest experiences provide a masterclass for anyone interested in the short-term rental space.
Whether you're a property investor considering holiday rentals, a curious traveler wanting to understand how these operations work, or someone fascinated by the evolution of the accommodation industry, this episode delivers valuable knowledge directly from someone at the coalface of this dynamic market.
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard, where you get the opportunity to learn all there is to know about your real estate journey from professionals who are passionate about property. I'm Amy Bennett, your host, and I look forward to providing you with education, inspiration and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of real estate. Well, good morning. I am absolutely delighted to be joined by Chris Doherty-Fisher from the team at Sunny B&B this morning.
Chris:Welcome, chris. Thanks, amy, pleasure to be here.
Amy:My word, am I excited to have you. Chris is the general manager of Sunny B&B. He's been an absolute godsend in my business, providing short-term rental appraisals for every one of my listings, always within such a quick period of time. So we're going to get to learn a little bit about you and also Sunny B&B, and then, of course, most importantly, what short-term rentals are, the benefits of them, some myths and misconceptions and dive in really deep.
Chris:Excellent.
Amy:Wonderful Chris. Before we chat about Sunny B&B, I want to know your journey, of how you got to your position now.
Chris:Yeah, no worries. So I'm a Cairns local, so far north Queensland up, where it's hot and sweaty, very humid, every single day of the year and we get about a two week winter period, unlike down here where I get a lovely couple of months. It's been fantastic since I made the move. But yeah, my work history started when I was 13. I actually became a soccer referee.
Chris:Oh wow, and yeah, that's something I still do through to this day as well. Yeah, I did that all the way through school and it was a little bit of a funny story. I was always wanting to be a journalist and I'd done work experience in journalism at the Cairns Post, I've done local media for a football team and everything, and it got to the last week of grade 12, excuse me and I had a spare week of block exams and my mum didn't want me sitting around the house doing nothing.
Amy:She said I'm going to organise you some work experience somewhere.
Chris:So thanks mum. Yeah, thanks mum. She worked at the school, so she was all integrated with it.
Chris:Yeah, um and yeah, she organised me um a week of work experience at one of the local five-star hotels um, the Pullman International in Cairns. Um, and it was there that over that week, I just fell in love with people, fell in love with hospitality, and I don't recommend this kids. But in the last week of grade 12, I changed all my university preferences from journalism to business and business management. Wow, and yeah, my life then took a completely different direction from where I thought it was going to go.
Amy:So thanks again, mum.
Chris:Yeah, thanks, mum, wow. So yeah, off the back of that work experience, the hotel actually offered me a job and I was there for the next five years. So five years of working through back of house room service, out onto the floor, having my own section, becoming like the maitre d' and the cashier. I eventually found my passion in the bar and worked my way up to be bar supervisor for a couple of years, released three of my own cocktail menus.
Amy:Oh, tell us more about that.
Chris:See, I'm not a creative person at all. Like, if you ask me to sing or dance or do art absolutely shocking. I'll do my best, but it will be terrible when the creativity does come out of me, for some reason, is with the beverages.
Chris:I had full autonomy with my back bar there, which was absolutely fantastic. So every single day I would come onto the shift after I do the setup, I'd make, um, you know, a little invention based off of what I was feeling like at the day, give it to the staff to try, and that was all sort of trial and error for new cocktail menus when they came out and everything.
Amy:I love that, your favorite cocktail.
Chris:My favorite cocktail. I'm a classics person, so a gin martini with a twist does me nice and easy. Yeah, but yeah, I can make anything you like, for sure that's so fun Actually funny story.
Amy:when we got married, daniel and I had curated cocktails for our wedding. Oh yeah, fantastic yeah so we both had one. So I'm just trying to think back. I think mine was a pink pina colada and his was a spicy margarita Love, a good cocktail.
Chris:I love doing themed cocktails for events. They're the most fun. I mean, we had a couple of um like alice in wonderland events where I ended up doing something with dry ice, yes, which was really cool. And yeah, there's a tourism tropical north queensland one where I did some. I made my own orgette for a mai tai. So because, uh, orgette is made um with an almond base and almonds are super unsustainable to grow, okay, so so I made my own orchard out of walnuts and avocado pits as the sweetener in my own style Mai Tai. And it was also instead of dark rum and white rum, it was a local dark rum and a local gin Beautiful.
Amy:That's amazing.
Chris:That's probably one I'm most proud of, actually.
Amy:So it's amazing, isn't it? Because I too would say I'm not creative, but it's interesting, isn't it, where our expressionism comes out, like mine's, generally with my hair or my clothes and everything. So I think there is that element of it. But you're also super analytical. You love data. Yeah, I love numbers. So how did you get from where you were to where we are now?
Chris:Well, after five years in hospo I was getting a little bit sick of the 3am bedtimes midday, wake up back to work at 2pm so I was looking for a nine to five and I found a job at the Commonwealth Bank in Cairns up there as a relieving officer and I did about 18 months there before I eventually moved down here and I suppose that's sort of a little bit of a segue into the business. So it's a family owned and operated business.
Chris:My auntie and uncle are the owners, and they were actually. They've been doing it for seven years, as of 2023. And they hadn't taken a holiday, they hadn't managed to get out. They just work, work, work, work, work. They've got amazing work ethics, very inspiring, and they were looking to sell the business. Uh, they actually found the buyer. Um, the buyer came and worked with them for two months, um, and it was one day before settlement and the buyer's like no, I'm out of here, see you later. Um. So my poor auntie, julia, who was very much in retirement mode, um, just had a very rude wake-up call there and had to keep working, um, and they were like, well, we don't want to stuff around with the sale process anymore.
Chris:Um, we'll, we'll get someone in to manage it and we'll, you know, go off on our travels and sort of do the remote thing. Um, and yeah, so my parents had had a chat with them about that and they let me know what had happened, um, and like, oh, you know, I'm okay at the bank, but you know, I wouldn't mind a change and be nice to get out of Cairns because I hadn't moved away from my hometown and I didn't want to be one of those people who's?
Chris:never leaves the hometown. So I reached out to Len and yeah, let him know. You know that I've got my business degree. You know I'm interested. It sounds like a cool gig, um, and you know that I'm available if they wanted to give me a trial. Um, they flew me down, uh, for a weekend, got to know the business um, did a bit of an interview, how it would all work. Um, I really enjoyed the work. Um, they thought I would be a good fit and yeah, a month later I was noticing at the bank and down to the sunny coast amazing and never looked back right haven't looked back, no yeah, so how long ago was that?
Chris:uh, so that was september.
Amy:2023 is when I moved down here, yeah, just over 18 months ago now, and have you enjoyed the transition to the coast?
Chris:oh, I think the weather and the lifestyle probably more than anything else. Um, yeah, get to live in a beautiful property um on the canals in minyama, so I'm in a great spot there, so that's really helped as well yes and, yeah, having a winter, I think, has been the biggest gods and I love dressing up in warm clothes because, you can't wear warm clothes in Cairns um, so it's been nice to expand my wardrobe a little bit there as well.
Amy:I love that as a Sunshine Coast local because I would say like I barely put a jumper on yeah, it's still. Queensland. I lived in Melbourne, had all these beautiful coats and, you know, heated, heated seats in the car, and certainly not what we have here. So, chat us through the business. Love to know, yeah, obviously, the reason that your aunt and uncle started the business and also what a day in the life looks like.
Chris:Yeah, no worries. So going all the way back to the start. So my aunt and uncle they were actually partners in a franchise business. They had about, I think, over 15, might've been over 20 franchisees around the country. They were called Stacks of Snacks and they put like little snack boxes into workplaces and things like that. And he'd been doing that for, I think, 17 years or a very, very long time, and they were sort of looking you know what's their next idea going to be as they get a little bit closer to that sort of retirement age?
Chris:Um, and in the house that they have, um in Minyama, they had done like um homestay workers before in the front room, cause it's fully self-contained Um, and they thought why don't we put that on Airbnb and see what happens? Um, so that's where it started. And then, uh, I think, believe it was that, following Christmas, a few of their friends said hey, we're going overseas. You know your Airbnb seems to be doing really well. Would you mind looking after our house while we go overseas? And then, just through word of mouth and the actual experience of running it and the hospitality side of things.
Chris:They decided to sell their stake in the franchise business and go yeah whole hog into the Airbnb.
Amy:Amazing, when they were doing Airbnb from home, were they doing the cleaning and they were doing everything, or they'd already sort of outsourced those things, yeah, when it was just at their place.
Chris:Julia is one of the most fastidious people I know in my auntie.
Amy:Is this where you live? Super, super clean? Yeah, that's right. Oh, I'm so lucky, so I'm in that front apartment. So I'm in that front apartment.
Chris:So yeah, she's super fastidious, so she would always do all of her own cleaning and then sort of when they got to around five or six properties, that's when they started to look at different contracting services for cleaning and things like that. But what they found is that when you're only managing such a small number it's hard to keep consistent cleaners on the books, because there's not always that consistent work.
Chris:So Len being Len was like was like well, if we're gonna do five, we may as well do 10. Yeah, and got to 10 and it was sort of like I mean, if we're here, we may as well do 20. So after it went over to 20, um, and they started thinking, oh, we're running it out of the garage 20, you know, starting to get a little bit much with the linen. Why don't we just go the whole hog and we'll go get a warehouse and we'll build it all the way up to 50? So, um, yeah, start of 2023.
Chris:Um, they purchased the warehouse down in warana there um so very central on the coast, 20 minutes to call them, 20 minutes to go so that's their own linen um, so the linen itself so is actually from sunshine commercial laundry, um, and it's all premium hotel quality linen.
Amy:Yeah, wonderful.
Chris:So all the towels, all the sheets, pillow slips, everything.
Amy:So you're not washing linen.
Chris:No, I'm definitely not washing linen. Oh my God, if I had to wash linen for 80 properties, we'd get an actual full like semi-trailer truck comes and picks up from us three times a week.
Amy:Yeah, I don't have the capacity for that I was just thinking about your time at Pullman and you know I've watched so many documentaries like behind the scenes with hotels and you look at those sort of laundry services. It's, it's incredible, isn't it, what goes into it.
Chris:I think it's a common misconception. Uh, when people originally come on, they think like, oh yeah, you must have a laundry? It's like no well, we're not actually a hotel yes, we're a management company and we have all of this service that we can provide, but it's's all outsourced.
Amy:Yes, smart business, so we got to 50 in 2023.
Chris:Yeah, so that's about when I came on board. So yeah, I came on board September 23. We had about 60 listings then and, yeah, it was all me learning the ropes for about six months time, hands-on with Leonard. Julia Got through my first Christmas. Oh my God, that was absolutely insane.
Amy:Is that peak time yeah?
Chris:Christmas, definitely peak time, I think, and this is again where it's different to a hotel, where everything's sort of in the one spot. We're running a hotel across 50 kilometres, so we've got a hotel with 80 rooms spread between Golden Beach and Coolum. So, yeah, you've got to have the staff that are able to get out there when things go wrong, someone gets locked out. It's not like going up the elevator, it's get in the car, go to the shed go to gold beach, go to call wherever you need to go.
Chris:So, um, definitely a lot different to being in the hotel, but you can still draw on a lot of the same philosophies that's a great um yeah, synergy of your experience previously and how that works.
Amy:So you've obviously got to be able to pivot and move with anything happening right A bit like real estate.
Chris:Yeah, absolutely you never know what's going to happen.
Amy:Perfect. So a day in your life as a general manager. What does that look like?
Chris:Yeah, well, my day always starts with a coffee. I think every good day does, because when the coffee doesn't get in, it's generally not a good day. Yeah, um, but yeah, we'll get into the shed. Um, we'll have a look at what the day looks like. Um, all of the cleaners will have already been organized the day before, so, um, we're a little bit different to some other companies in terms of how we set that out.
Chris:We actually supply all the linen um and cleaning equipment for them, so we will put the linen out on their dedicated stations right so that when they come in, as opposed to some other businesses, they don't have to pack their own linen on their own time and we are essentially doing a formula on pit stop. They pull up we help them grab their gear load the cars up and we get them out there.
Amy:And so obviously that takes orchestrating, you know, obviously minimizing timeframe, you set routes and everything like that as well.
Chris:Yeah, exactly so like if someone had three cleans through two marooch at all, one in malula bar we'd schedule the two in marooch at all first and then back to malula bar, so that they're coming. They're working on their way back to the shed, um, as they're coming back. So you know all about trying to make everyone's life as easy as possible while still getting everything done that we need to get done wow, it's so much to factor in, and obviously the clean time varies on the size of the property.
Chris:Absolutely yeah, so that all factors into it as well, and making sure that we're able to get them done, uh, within the five hour turnaround time frame as well, if it's got incoming guests coming in as well yeah, gosh, let's drill down on that, because I love logistics and everything.
Amy:So is that something that you're manually working out each day, or do you have automation systems that help you?
Chris:Yeah, so the team sort of all works together.
Chris:So our guest services agent sort of like my personal assistant as well she's responsible for making sure that we have a spreadsheet of what our cleans for the next two weeks are going to be and she updates that daily so that on the next day we know what the cleans are going to be. It was previously myself, then who would go into that spreadsheet? I would section it all out, do the logistics of it. Who's going to do what first? How many is each cleaner going to get? I now have a fantastic operations manager that does that role for me. Awesome Big load off of my plate.
Chris:Because that was sort of every day, yeah, yeah exactly Every single day yeah, there's always properties that need cleaning when you've got 80 in the portfolio and I guess as well too.
Amy:Is there a commonality with like check-in dates? Like, obviously do you have like a larger volume on a Friday afternoon going in and checking out on a Sunday? What is that kind?
Chris:of like yeah, it's interesting to see how the trends change throughout the year. I know previously Sunday is always the biggest day. People come and stay Friday, saturday or Saturday night and check out on Sunday, so I'll have anywhere between 25 and 60 properties to clean on a Sunday. And then the.
Amy:It's those penalty rates right? Yeah, I know it's so great, but yeah.
Chris:so then Monday would normally have been the next biggest day, but for the last sort of six months or so we've been seeing um a lot more uptake and it might just be in our bookings um, with tradies and people coming up to the coast from brisbane to do work, and they're staying a lot monday to friday. So I'm getting you know 15 to 25 cleans on a friday yes and only sort of 10 to 15 on a monday.
Chris:So it really is fun to see and fun to change how your availability works for the cleaners as well, because you've got to be super dynamic because you might hire someone and say, look, these are the days that we're definitely going to need you and then if there's a massive change in trends, it's got to be like are you going to be flexible enough to change this? You know we want to work with you as well to make sure it still fits in with your life and your schedule.
Amy:So, yeah, definitely lots of things it's so well and I can't wait for us to delve deeper into trends, because I know that's something that we both have an interest and that's, um, ultimately, why I wanted you to jump on the podcast, because we've had such great conversations, um. But look, I wanted to ask you then that just sort of picked my interest, just speaking about the cleaning, because that's paid for by your guests. Is that right, correct?
Chris:yeah, so again, this is different to a hotel where everything would sort of be bundled in as one price. What our guests see is an accommodation price that they're paying as the nightly rate for the room and then a standard cleaning fee, which, with our business, is the same whether they're staying for one night or seven nights.
Chris:We don't have a different cleaning fee. We stock the property with linen for maximum guests consumables as though they were coming for a short stay, and that doesn't change whether it's going to be one night or seven nights, so that cleaning fee always stays the same and, yeah, it's always paid by the guests.
Amy:Wonderful, and your team that look after the cleaning of the properties. Obviously that allows them the ability. You know, do you find when you're recruiting them, a lot of them have had their own business cleaning business beforehand.
Chris:Yeah, I mean cleaners on the Sunshine Coast. I think if you go and ask any short-term rental accommodation provider, they're really really difficult to find and really, really difficult to keep it's a very very high turnover of staff because, you know, a lot of it is seasonal work as well. You know, during school holiday times, which we're sitting in now, I'll have maybe 20 to 25 cleaners on my books, whereas opposed to in the low season, we'll have 10 to 15 cleaners on the books.
Amy:Look, that's a full-time job, managing it in itself, isn't it?
Chris:Yeah, absolutely.
Amy:Yeah, amazing, awesome. So let's get into. I just wanted to. I'm just fascinated with the trend, so why don't we just jump straight into there? So when you and I caught up recently, like I said, you're always phenomenal at providing our prospective buyers an overview of what the short-term rental would be of a property. What I've always loved is obviously, in addition to your speed, but also that you're really honest, so you share with them what the actual vacancy rate is or what the viability of the property, so you don't sort of say that every night's going to be full. But really, what I want to drill down here is just that appetite for what your guests are looking for. That's what I find really fascinating. So we're obviously, centrally speaking, about the Sunshine Coast, but, yeah, what are the popular things that they're looking for?
Chris:Well, I suppose for us, because we well, I consider us to be a little bit more niche, because we only take on properties that are east of Nicklin Way and the Sunshine Motorway, so they're all on the beach side of the main thoroughfare, so they're sort of beach side properties that are all within two, three, four blocks of the beach and that's what we're selling. So when I speak to, you know, prospective owners or prospective clients about how they're setting up their apartment, we're selling the beach, so the decor needs to be beachy and then once you get that down pat and it's going to look great for photos, it's just making sure that all the essentials are in there. So it's going to be functional. They've got a functional kitchen, you know, functional bathroom, functional laundry, coffee pods right.
Amy:You said to me.
Chris:Well, so we say pod machines. Unfortunately, when we get to this, the size that we are, with any properties in the portfolio, it becomes a lot more difficult to scale. And yeah, when you're supplying those sort of premium items like whether that be laundry powder or coffee pods. You've got to be a little bit careful, because what a guest will do is they will come in and they will grab all of it and they will take it with them.
Amy:Oh yeah, guilty.
Chris:Similar to like a hotel, and that's again the misconception like that the hotel just has this massive stockpile sitting there, whereas we you know, as an individual property. Whilst there's 80 in our portfolio, that in itself is one individual property and we don't always have the capacity to be able to keep maintaining that stockpile and it gets expensive as well, Of course, and if you're like, if a guest is staying for seven days, you know you go, do you?
Amy:you know how many coffees does somebody have a day? No, that's a really fair point.
Chris:I'll think of that as I grab all of the English breakfast, Cause it is something that we work with our owners on, because some of our owners like we've got some very, very nice luxury properties. They do want to offer those more luxury items. So they are able to leave a stockpile of those items in a locked cupboard that our cleaners can access when they go through, and then we would put out just, you know enough for the first night or the first couple of nights, not necessarily a two week stay or anything like that.
Chris:So, yeah, there's still definitely a wiggle room to work those sorts of things in. It's just figuring out how it's going to work with each individual property and how you're going to make sure that you're not losing money as well by supplying those extra items and potentially going missing.
Amy:Yeah, no, it makes sense. So key thing it sounds like that people are looking for is proximity to the beach.
Chris:Absolutely. I think you know the hotter it is in Brisbane, the better it is for our business, because they just want to get out of the big smoke and get to the damn beach.
Amy:Oh who wouldn't? That's why we live here. Awesome. What else do they look for when they're booking a property?
Chris:Yeah, so I mean top search amenities. In terms of all of the booking platforms, pool is number one. It's the most searched item on Airbnb, bookingcom and stays, closely followed by air conditioning, yes, and then it sort of filters down to having free parking, having Wi-Fi and then having a laundry as well and then a kitchen. But yeah, your two main ones are your swimming pools and your. What did I just say before? I was going through the list in my head and they all got jumbled there.
Amy:Well, it was funny when you said that, because we spoke about off-air, about the free Wi-Fi. Yes, that's right. Like I still can't fathom in this day and age that it's not free, but interesting that you say so. Those are really common things as well. Air conditioning was number two. Oh, that's right.
Chris:Air conditioning and I know, like, like you say, you're a Melbourne girl. So you come up here? Oh sorry, I should say the opposite I'm from camp. So I come down here and it's really cool for me and I could probably get by even in summer with just a ceiling fan and you know some fans in my living room.
Amy:That's fine, but when you're talking about the people like yourself, that are coming up from Melbourne or the Kiwis that are coming over the Kiwis need air con, man, or they just die and you'll be hearing about it. Yeah, and I bet they have it on 18 as well.
Amy:Oh yes, the cleaner will walk in it's bloody freezing in here I know I'm feeling like the most horrible guest now that we're chatting yeah, with those things that you suggested. Then, too, it's interesting because we also run analytics on sales searches. So buyers are generally the same thing proximity to the beach, pool, air conditioning, a couple of different things. For prospective buyers is more things like security and everything as well. And then what about areas that they're looking for? Do they sort of drill down in special areas on the coast?
Chris:Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say there's any In terms of search volume? Um you definitely have, uh, malula bar coolum, uh, maruchador and golden beach in the top four, yep, um. So everyone, when people think of the sunshine coast, they think noosa, they think malula bar um, and then, yeah, when we drill down into the data, it becomes cool and maruchador and then golden beach is actually the top suburb um of the southern. Well, yeah, when I southern, I say south of the shed in Warana. Always logistics On the south suburbs yeah.
Amy:Absolutely, and look the appetite for people looking for short-term rental properties. I'm certainly growing and I've certainly sold properties in Golden Beach Awesome. I want to chat to you about, I guess, who your clients are and then want to chat through about what a buyer should look for if they're looking to increase their short-term rental portfolio.
Chris:Yeah, yeah. So the majority of our clients are property investors, either from Brisbane or interstate. They're looking for two things. They're looking for either a purely investment property that is only going to be there for Airbnb. They might use it once a year for a weekend, but that's about it, so they can still check into their own property. Yeah, absolutely, Because the other so I'd say probably 75% of our clientele purely investment and the other 25%.
Chris:It's a second home, it's a holiday apartment, it's a holiday home that they're going to come up and use once a month quite regularly with their family, with their friends, um, and it's sort of, yeah, just an added bonus that it can, you know, earn some revenue while they're away, um.
Chris:And yeah, I suppose that's the main difference between a long-term and a short-term rental is that with the short-term rentals, you have that flexibility and ability to come and use your own property without needing to go through the whole eviction process and then getting a whole another new tenant in, and that can get quite lengthy from what I hear.
Amy:And also I believe it's a lot more lucrative. Is that right as well than a permanent rental?
Chris:property, absolutely. I think I shared with you guys a month ago or so or I might have just been off air last week when we were chatting there was a study done in January of the top performing study done in January of the top performing, top 10 performing areas in Australia for short-term rentals and three suburbs made that list Coolum, mooloolaba and Maroochydore. All made that list of top 10 in Australia and it found that the short-term rental yields were on average 80% higher than the long-term rental yields and that was across all 10, but yeah.
Chris:Mooloolaba, Maroochydore Coolum, all fell into that 10 as well, and that was across all 10, but yeah, Malula Barmaroo, Chitlok Coulombe, all fell into that 10 as well.
Amy:So that obviously fluctuates.
Chris:You know everywhere you go across the coast and there's different factors that need to be considered in some areas.
Amy:But yeah, definitely for those three that's a recent number, strong appetite, I think as well too. You know that's a really good point that you make, that it gives people the flexibility to be able to enjoy the property as well. But also, you know in that downtime where they're not there. Do you have any properties in your portfolio where they have sort of a secondary dwelling? So they're in a main house and there's a granny flat?
Chris:Yeah, not too many. I've probably got two or three off the top three. Three now, because I've just put a new one on in.
Chris:Wartala, yeah, that's right. So yeah, one of them is a gorgeous little Palmerstone cottage down on Landsborough Parade in Golden Beach, so pretty much bang across from the lovely passage there. And, yeah, the owners, they live out in a separate dwelling at the back of the property. But we've also got like a two-story house where the main living area is all upstairs and downstairs is fully self-contained and we have that one rented out for them. Um, and yeah, the most recent one was, uh, the owner of the property. They converted their garage into a self-contained unit and so they live in the main property and the garage at the front of the property is its own, self-contained unit as well.
Amy:So so many different factors, isn't it yeah?
Chris:and you know that again goes into, like the different clientele that we can receive as well.
Amy:Yeah, absolutely. What about pets?
Chris:Pets are well. What I always say is it's not a detriment to not list them but, it is absolutely a benefit to have it available. There is always the risks that comes along with it. You know we can prevent, prevent, prevent as much as we can, we can say no pets inside, no pets on the furniture.
Chris:The unfortunate thing with us is that when they're actually in the property, we have no way to be able to police it, so there is always that added risk. But if you're able to have your property as pet friendly, it opens up a lot more of the market.
Amy:Yeah, and I think that's, you know as certainly as a pet mum myself I've got two little pugs um for me. That, uh, is such a great advantage to be able to um. You know, I've certainly done hotels that have pet stays but it's, you know, really awkward, you know, obviously taking the dogs to the toilet and everything like that.
Chris:So the ability for it to be a property, I think it's really good to target a lot of the younger generation of guests as well, like your gen z's and millennials, because a lot of them are finding it too expensive at the moment to have children but they'll have their little fur baby and they want to bring their little fur baby with them on holiday.
Chris:So you know it opens up to that sort of younger generation um as well, because we do have quite a lot of young couples um that do bring pets um to our pet friendly properties yeah, and can you give us a bit of a I guess an overview of who your guests are like?
Amy:is that common? I mean, like I love that you were just saying then about you know, like sometimes you know you've got businesses that need their staff to be here tradies so I guess, yeah, what kind of guests do you get?
Chris:well, I mean the majority of our clientele is people from brisbane. You know it gets too hot in the city. They want a weekend away at the beach. They come up um for the weekend or just for a couple of nights during the week. So we do get the majority of our clientele from Brisbane, gold Coast, but you also get like inland from Toowoolpur and whatnot all the southeast. We have 15% to 20% a month is international guests.
Amy:Yes.
Chris:So that's New Zealand generally, but also China and Japan. Chinese New Year always goes off.
Amy:Yeah, wonderful, we love Chinese New.
Chris:Year, yeah, but yeah, the majority of clientele from the southeast of Queensland, yeah, with 15 to 20%.
Amy:Yeah, so a lot of drive traffic.
Chris:Yeah, absolutely so um, that's, I suppose, one thing. Because we are so accessible to Brisbane, having that free parking as an amenity with your property becomes even more important.
Amy:Yeah, I mean like it's interesting, isn't it? I know a lot of people don't use filters, you know. You know even if they're looking at buying a house. But certainly when I'm on websites looking at accommodation, you know you kind of start large, don't you? And then I mean I always use the map view, but then you start to use filters and, like I said, I'm just perplexed that. You know, free Wi-Fi isn't available for everyone. I know?
Chris:Yeah, and I think it. I think everyone has such a different way that they search for accommodation as well. Like you were saying, you use the map filter. Yes, if I'm traveling for an event, like I was saying to you, last Friday I was down for a concert at the Fortitude Valley Music Hall. So I searched up the Fortitude Valley Music Hall, I looked at the map and I said what's within walking distance? That's where I'm staying.
Amy:So generally if.
Chris:I'm going somewhere. I want to be walking distance from where it is that I'm staying, because sometimes I won't take a car with me, because it's just a bit of a hassle. It's a bit big, so finding the parking for the over two metre cars is always a bit of a hassle, so try not to.
Amy:That's a great tip. So you actually typed in the venue. Yeah, rather than this. I love that. I've never done that. See, learn something new every day, awesome. So we've got your guests, they've checked in. I guess what would you expect? I guess any troubleshooting or things that happen while guests are in the accommodation.
Chris:Yeah, so I suppose, like over the ninth year now that the business has been operating. It means that we're pretty streamlined when it comes to the guest experience. So we're all no contact in terms of check-in. It's self-check-in.
Chris:Wonderful when a guest books a property, they'll receive a confirmation message that explains to them what's going to happen on their check-in day, what's going to be available for them, things like that. On the morning of arrival they'll get sent their lockbox details, parking details, how it's all going to work, and then, if the property doesn't go wrong, we shouldn't hear from them again until they leave. But if there is an issue, like you know, the Wi-Fi cuts out, there's a burst pipe, the aircon stopped working. We've got a list of over 40 preferred trades that we're able to call on at any given stage, you know, for electricians, for plumbers, so it doesn't matter if one's not available, we're going to have another one on hand.
Chris:We've got a full-time handyman as well. That's just employed by us. So light bulb, door handle, bedroom door lock, something like that happens. We're always out within 24 hours, which is great. And then, yeah, I've got my full-time guest services agent. Looks after all of the guest messaging for me from midday till 8 pm, and then I'm on outside of that for any of the emergencies that happen. Yeah, um, but yeah, it's it's a good approach.
Amy:And do you have like when people are arriving they get like a compendium. Is that kind of an outdated thing?
Chris:it's a little bit outdated for us so what we had done, uh, about six months ago, might have been a bit long, about nine months ago. Time flies in this industry, um is, we switched from compendiums to QR codes. Oh great, so we stick a QR code on the fridge and then that has got everything that they need and it becomes a lot easier for updating.
Chris:So if the owner had to get new Wi-Fi or if something in particular a local restaurant had closed. We don't have to reprint and then go out to the property, redo the brochure there. We can make the edit online. We click, update the QR code, updates automatically and then all the current information is there, which is fantastic. I love that. We are currently revamping it a little bit. We're going to split it up, so we're going to have the property specific instructions, we're going to have a suburb specific things to do, we're going to have a broader sunshine coast, what you can do, and then we're going to link back to our direct bookings website as well to encourage those return guests.
Amy:That's awesome. I love that. Look, I think COVID was a godsend for QR codes. Nothing, you know, not much else, but definitely QR codes. I mean, we've always had them on signboards and brochures and it's really nice that people now can use them and, like you said, you can make those tweaks and edits you mentioned there about your direct website. I'm really curious where your guests are finding your properties.
Chris:Yeah, I mean the majority still do book through Airbnb. We'll see, you know, between 400 and 700 nights a month get booked through Airbnb. Bookingcom does come in. Next I'll just say a direct website is a work in progress at the moment. I'm not quite happy with it right now, so it is something we are working on. But, yeah, airbnb, followed by Bookingcom. The direct bookings that we do get at the moment come from our trade partners, majority of them. So we've got several companies down in Brisbane engineering electrical plumbing that come up regularly to do work on buildings. There's so many new developments happening on the Sunshine Coast all the time and they always need a place to stay nearby.
Amy:It makes sense, doesn't it? Rather than letting a property and everything. They know that everything's going to be there for their workers and everything.
Chris:I look after them, they look after us. The properties are always really well maintained when they're in, because they know I'm going to look after them when they come back again for the next time.
Amy:It sounds like, you know, ultimately the success of the business has been relationships and having mutually beneficial relationships, whether that be with cleaners, you know, with trades partners and everything With yourself.
Amy:Yeah, honestly, like I said, it's been, you know, and you're always just so quick to respond and to get those, and for me it's obviously about providing a buyer with as much information as possible, but also, I guess, for them knowing that that's another option as well. I mean, circumstances change, you know, I had a client that had moved to the coast with the intention to be here and then had to be, you know, working overseas. So they ran their numbers on what would be the best viable option for them. But, yeah, good to know that, ultimately, that there is multiple channels. I'm a bit of a bookingcom gal. I use it all the time because I find actually they've got a great reward system and everything as well. But no, good to know that there's lots of things I guess I can't remember if I've used the Airbnb website, but interesting to know the volume of people that come through that. So, ultimately, your clients get the opportunity that they'll be on all of these platforms and you manage that whole process yeah, that's right.
Chris:So we list on airbnbbookingcom, verbo, which is stays, and all of their subsidiaries, as well as agoda, their subsidiaries, which we're hoping will help us tap into the asian market, because agoda is huge over in southeast as Asia and it's just something we've newly brought on. And then we're on Google Hotels and also our direct website as well, so which is getting revamped yeah, it's all the work in progress.
Amy:We're actually just talking off air about tech and look it can help us, but can also be, yeah, and making sure all the integrations work. So when a client is onboarded with you, I know that you're very hands-on. So you mentioned about how you prepare a property, but do you want to chat us through? Say, I purchased a two-bedroom unit in Golden Beach that was vacant, so no furniture. What would be your process to onboard me? And then I guess, ultimately, what I'd love our listeners to know is how hands-on is that owner?
Chris:Yeah. So I mean, it can vary from owner to owner and it really depends on what they're looking for in the property as well. So again it comes back to is it going to be that purely investment it's only there to make money or is it going to be something that they want to come and use or potentially even retire in? Because your decisions that you make are going to be completely different depending on what situation you're in. So, say, if you were buying it purely as an investment, what I like to do is I like to come out, have a walk through the property, meet the owner, make sure that we click.
Amy:Yeah, I love that.
Chris:Because, again, like I said, it's a relationships business. And if we're not going to have that relationship, I've got enough on my plate. I don't need to be dealing with difficult people. But yeah, we'll have a walk through the property, talk about you know the goals, what they're looking to get out of it, and then from there we can have a look at what needs to go in place. I always say, if people have the time, if it's an unfurnished property, gumtree, facebook Marketplace you'll get all your things almost brand new.
Amy:Such a great tip.
Chris:Yeah, and like just at really great prices, but again almost brand new. Such a great tip. Yeah, and like just at really great prices. But again. You really need the time to be able to yes, buy all these things and also the capacity to go around and pick them all up?
Amy:yes, um, tell me about it. I've just I've just added a couple of pieces for a house I'm selling, so I had to get a? Um, a console desk, and then I had to get some pool chairs and, yeah, I was traipsing around the coast, but worth it in the end.
Chris:But yeah, know what you mean.
Amy:There's bargains to be had if you've got the time.
Chris:We briefly thought about adding it to our business as something that we offer. We did it once and my auntie Julia, she was like I'm never doing that again.
Amy:It was far too much, absolutely At least, for us anyway. So you have an inventory list. I guess you know things that they should include.
Chris:It's on that checklist. It's not necessarily everything that you have to have but it's things that you should be considering Awesome, so like extra items in the kitchen, for example. Like you know, you said, having a pod machine, having an air fryer is a massive one.
Amy:It's coming like all the inquiries.
Chris:now, like before school holidays, which is when people come to cook, it's like do you have an air fryer? Do you have an air fryer?
Amy:It's do you have an air fryer? Do you have an air fryer? It's like, all right, we need to actually go and add these into the listing airbnb. Can you please add an amenity called air fryer so that we can just click on it, please, that's a lot of chicken nuggets right, a lot of chicken absolutely, is that amazing? I mean, I, to be honest, I barely use my oven. I'm like air fry, it's.
Amy:It just works easy, isn't it convenience yeah, and especially if you've spent the day at the beach, you know you want to be able. You want it to be nice and easy, don't you?
Chris:yeah, exactly but yeah, I suppose, touching back on things that we go over, um, when I go out to a property, like, one of the big things is how guests are going to access the property as well. So is it going to be a lockbox with keys? If you're bought into a building complex, will the building allow you to install a lockbox as well? And then, if not, you know what are our options outside of that. Is it going to be a key pickup location? Are we going to install electronic uh door handles so that they can just get in with the code, things like that? Um, so that will always get looked into. Uh, we'll talk about that, styling, making sure we're selling the beach and everything like that as well. Um, and yeah, just how we're going to do photos, basically, we we send them. I've got a video and also a document that I can send out as well. That is like this is what the process is. This is how, each step by step, as it will go it's so all the way through the systems and process.
Chris:That's it, and I mean I'd love you to come down and see our shed, because you'll walk in and you'll be like, oh my god, they systemize the crap out of this, I love it. We've got like a big whiteboard that's got all the cleaners where their stations are at. Um, it's all rows of shelving, uh, with all numbered system. We got like the dirty linen cage over there. The clean returns, lost property, yeah it's lost property.
Amy:Oh my god, it's so we literally could unpack this for hours. Well, I'm very I'm a virgo, so I'm very systemized, so I love that fellow outside yeah, so, um, so you're onboard the client, they get the property ready, and then just back to that. I guess how hands-on they are.
Chris:Yeah, and that can be different for each owner as well. So I mean, we are a full service management company, so once we sort of have the handover, of the keys, the property is all set up, ready for the photos.
Chris:I can just get it all done myself. That's wonderful. Some owners like to be there when the photographer goes through so that they can, you know, make sure they get the angles that the owner wants, style the beds how they want to be styled, because sometimes you know when our cleaners go through before the photos, you know they make it up. It's presentable, it looks nice how it will when a guest goes in, but you get the occasional owner.
Amy:That's like that pillow wasn't in the right spot, so I like it I like it, I can relate, yep, yeah.
Chris:So it just really depends um on the owner, and you know we're more than happy to work in um with different people's uh own quirks and idiosyncrasies, because, god knows, I've got a few of my own yeah, I just love that it's a really tailored approach.
Amy:I love that it's a family business, you know, and it really sounds like you're really wanting to curate a portfolio of you know really good clients, as I guess, as a time poor individual for me you know, being able to hand the keys over and then ultimately probably just get my statement once a month or anything like that, would be of benefit. How do you update your clients with information? Do they have the ability to see what bookings are coming up?
Chris:Yeah, so the property management software that we use is called Resley, and they have a fantastic feature called the owner's portal, where the owner is able to log in. They can see the calendar for their property for the next 12 months. They can go back and have a look at the previous six months as well. It will show them exactly what bookings are already in place. It will also tell them what their payouts are going to be for those bookings and then, with our company, they have the full autonomy to go in and make any owner reservation that they like. Great. I know a lot of other companies put restrictions on, you know, two weekends a year or not during school holidays. Our philosophy is you've shelled out the money for your property. Please use it if you would like to.
Amy:Yeah, that's great. Now could they book that on behalf of friends and family as well?
Chris:Yeah, absolutely so. The portal is great because they can even put in the name of their friends and family and their contact details as well, and then that drops in just as though it was a booking from Airbnb, and they'll receive all their check-in information.
Amy:Awesome, same as a regular guest would. Yeah, it's so many factors, isn't it? I mean, I'm really reconsidering my journey as a you know guest in a property to kind of think, oh, you know, you don't think of all of these logistical components, even, like you were just saying, with the lockbox, you know if it's in a unit, complex or anything like that. So thank you for your service and what you do. I always love to ask guests about misconceptions or myths about industry.
Chris:Have you got any that you can share? Yeah, yeah. So I prepared one for property owners and then one actually from the guest side of things. So property owner side. One of the big things that people worry about is the impact on the housing crisis.
Chris:And I actually have some stats here that shows that it's not actually as big as people think. So, as of the last census, which was back in 2021, only 2% of rental properties were on the short-term rental market across the country Sure, and then statewide, so I didn't get Queensland data, but there was only 1.9% in Victoria and 1.6% in New South Wales. I might have got those mixed around.
Amy:Yeah.
Chris:Victoria and 1.6% in New South Wales. I might have got those mixed around, but it just goes to show you that there's a lot of fear mongering out there from people in potential power or whatnot trying to get their narrative across, when the actual hardback numbers and facts show that we're actually just providing accommodation services for people and it doesn't have the impact that people are saying it's having.
Amy:Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? I had no idea of that. I think you're exactly right. I mean, it is overinflated, that's for sure, and one for the guests as well.
Chris:Yeah, so I mean, this might be a bit of a hot take or something that they can steal away, but people think that when they book in advance they're getting the best price. Like booking nine months in advance, they're getting the best price. It's actually the other way around, and if the more last minute you book, whilst you might not have your accommodation secured until that last minute, people are dropping their prices to make sure that their rooms fill up. So, for example, if someone pays, you know, for September holidays right now, they're going to be paying the premium rate because we've got it set at the premium holiday rates, whereas you, you know, if it was a week before and we still had a three or four day gap somewhere, we'd have it priced a lot lower and they'd get a better price. Okay, um? So it really depends on how your heart can take whether or not you've got your booking secured or not.
Amy:I like that. What would you do? Oh, I'm a last minute person yeah, like when I went down for the concert in brisbane last week I booked that like two days before I went. It's funny. So I used to be. I used to be really frenetic with holidays, like I'd book every element and like, literally, have you know, we'd have an itinerary for our trip, and I mean, my husband likes that. But now I'm kind of a bit more fluid and I'm like, look, we'll just get this part of the holiday organized.
Chris:I've got that industry insider knowledge now, so I know.
Amy:So do you know? So it's so, do you? So let's ask about that, because obviously we know that with things like flights and everything like that, now ticket sales, concert ticket sales are tiered. So is that something that you're manually doing or it's kind of gets to a week out and it's automatically? Yeah, so I mean.
Chris:Our pricing software that we use is fantastic. So basically it's suburb specific in the way that it analyzes and it's also bedroom specific. So all of our two-bedroom properties, for example, in Caloundra that's where we are are getting, compared against any other two-bedroom property on the short-term rental market, what their occupancy is, what rates they're getting booked at, and then it will adjust the price based off of those factors twice a day Wonderful.
Amy:I also go in myself and I manually manage it if I don't think it's pricing it correctly and I can make small updates.
Chris:But since we switched to this pricing software, which was back in November, I want to say, yeah, I haven't had to do nearly as much manual pricing as what I used to do.
Amy:That's amazing. So it's using data that's available from the market? Yeah, so it scrap using data that's available from the market yeah.
Chris:So it scrapes all of its data from Airbnb and stays so. It's a massive part of the market, obviously doesn't take into account the other booking platforms, but it does well enough that you know. It's meaning I've had, I've been able to take a step back from the manual pricing and it's also working a lot better because it's able to charge, I suppose, a higher rate than my manual adjustments because it's able to look at those other properties in the area and go. I know that's what it's getting booked at.
Amy:Chris might have put it down to this much, but I know we can get it for this much.
Chris:And we have parameters set as well, like we've got the minimum price that it doesn't go below, and a base rate that we're trying to target annually, but yeah, it's really interesting that you say that, because I mean it's the same with pricing houses, right.
Amy:But it takes me back when I was a kid at school, in business studies, we did this thing called lemonade stand and I just told a friend's daughter about it recently. But it is those factors. So you know, quick story short is that essentially you run a lemonade stand, you get a forecast for the weather and then you set the price for your lemonade and then you see how the market responds. You know, you don't know that there's going to be weevils in the sugar or that it ended up being raining. So I guess you know. My analogy with that is that, yeah, it's going to take out that unknown isn't it, it's going to be able to give you an appetite of what's happening.
Amy:that's not in your portfolio, which I think is really wonderful, and obviously we've got tools like that in the real estate market as well, where there's a guide. Obviously, there's always things outside of that, like you might know, that that property has X, y and Z. That's highly more desirable. So interesting insight.
Chris:Well, there's a couple other things I can touch on with the pricing software, and it sort of segues a little bit into minimum stays and whatnot as well. So we are, I think, a lot different to the majority of companies in terms of we allow one-night stays.
Amy:Yeah, wow.
Chris:And that actually makes up anywhere between 25% and 40% of bookings on any given month, depending on the month. So it is a massive market and if you have a minimum stay of anything two nights or more, you're potentially shutting yourself off from between a quarter and half of the actual renter's market or the people that are looking to book.
Amy:That's a great insight.
Chris:So what our pricing software allows us to do is it allows us to do flexible minimum stays. So all of our school holiday periods, apart from Christmas New Year, are two-night minimums. Christmas, New Year, three nights. But what we can do is we can set off and gap. So if there was someone booked to check in from the 15th to the 17th and then someone from the 19th to the 21st, the 18th would be in the middle and it would have a two-night minimum so no one could book it yes but the software is able to pick up that there's a booking either side and it will change that to a one night booking.
Chris:One night available, so that someone could book it for one night yeah um, and then we also have that two night set um in advance, year round until a week beforehand. So say uh, what's today, wednesday? So from today people could start booking one night stays from Monday and Tuesday next week.
Chris:But if it's further than seven days away, we still have that two night minimum, so that if it's a weekend, like a Friday, saturday, someone's not booking the 3rd of August in. February and taking out a potential full weekends of revenue. But it will open up to allow one night stay if we haven't received a booking that week beforehand.
Amy:No, that's awesome, so super flexible, and how I would literally think back to gosh, you know, when you'd have a manageress of a hotel and they're flicking through the book, aren't they?
Chris:And it's a nightmare. It's what I used to think at the bank. Yeah, like I would not want to do any of this manually, man. Yeah, it's so much work. I love the tech.
Amy:Yeah, it's amazing and look like we said off air. You know, sometimes it can be our best friend and sometimes our worst nightmare.
Chris:We can have a date like yesterday, yeah we've all had one of those Awesome Gosh.
Amy:it has been so amazing. Like I said, when we caught up, you know, a few weeks ago, I knew that there would be so much to offer our listeners. I guess one thing, a myth or misconception or something I really probably feel really compelled to ask, is damage. I think that's probably something that when I'm speaking to a buyer of a property, they're really concerned about. You know, I guess, again the horror stories of you know somebody leaving an Airbnb in a revolting state.
Chris:Yeah, and look, it does happen. It's part and parcel. I think you know you. Look at any investment carries risk.
Amy:Yes.
Chris:And that is one of the risks that come with purchasing an investment property as an STR. As much as we'd like to say you know happens, you know five times a year, which you know it doesn't happen very often at all. Yes, it does have the potential to happen, but again, it's all about prevent, prevent, prevent and putting the measures in place to make sure that we don't get guests in that would do that Wonderful. So I mean, airbnb has always been the platform leading the way with its air cover for guests and air cover for hosts.
Amy:Okay.
Chris:And also with the guest rating system as well where hosts can also rate the guests, so we'll always make sure that we're not letting anyone in that doesn't have a five-star rating, and if it's a new account and they're unrated, they have to answer several questions before we confirm the booking for them. And then, if there is anything that ever happens, we have before and after photos that we're able to then submit to Airbnb and recoup our money. Now the other booking platforms don't have that feature, so what we do instead is we have an online check-in process, so guests are required to submit the members of their group car address and their id.
Chris:So that we can make sure that their id matches the person on the booking and the card being used for the booking and then, depending on the size of the property, we'll take a damage deposit hold anywhere between 250 for a two-bedroom apartment all the way up to $1,000 for a waterfront dream home. So when you've got their name, all of their personal information, their car, where they live, you've got their ID on file and you've got another $250 to $1,000 on their card, they're usually on their best behavior.
Amy:Yeah, amazing. Oh, that's such a good insight because I mean, obviously I didn't have that information to be able to share, so I just normally give people your number.
Chris:Yeah, yeah and I mean yeah, like it's preventative, but again, you know it doesn't always stop. But I suppose the benefit with you know, if it does happen through one of those other platforms, we don't have to go through a claims process where it may get denied. We have the funds on the card. We debit it, we pay for whatever's happening.
Amy:Yeah, and you've got the handyman and the owner has the peace of mind. Yeah, amazing. So, Chris, you have absolutely found your feet in what you're doing, but I get the impression you would no matter what you did. If not Sunny B&B, what would you be doing?
Chris:That's so tough. I'd love to live in Melbourne. Melbourne is where I want to end up eventually. I'm not 100% sure what I would do. I'd probably go back to something in hospitality. But something that sort of struck me the other day is what if I bought my own little coffee van, because I've always been like right into my coffee?
Amy:and everything as well.
Chris:So you know, that sort of struck me as a nice idea that I could drive around making people coffee.
Amy:Good interaction with people. Yeah, what about cocktail bar?
Chris:Cocktail bar people yeah uh. What about cocktail bar? Cocktail bar oh gosh, if I had my own for sure. Um, it's tough, it's. I love it, but it is tough working in a bar, and I'd have to really psych myself up to go yeah, back to you, back to your 12 o'clock I think I get my fix because I've got all my own cocktail gear and back bar at home, so I make my own cocktails.
Chris:I get friends around, we have little cocktail parties, things like that, so that gets me my fix. For that, I think I definitely need to feel much more of an urge to go back into the thrash of a full Friday night or Saturday night cocktail bar service for sure.
Amy:It sounds like enjoying one at home is a much better option. Wonderful, I would love we've already had a little insight into your favourite drink, but I always just like to ask people some personal questions. So your favourite meal and drink?
Chris:Steak and scotch for sure. Oh, together, yeah, absolutely yeah if you've got a great restaurant that also has a great whiskey back bar as well and a bartender that can talk to you about it as well, because, like back when I was working at the hotel, we did several master classes on different spirits and stuff, so I could talk to you for days about alcohol and how it's made have you done?
Amy:whiskey at what den? Um, I have yeah, yeah, yeah that's my husband's a whiskey drinker, so and how do you? Have your steak cooked, oh rare ah, well see. I chef's delight.
Chris:Yes, that's right see and I suppose that comes from like eating steaks in pubs, like because generally it's going to be overcooked.
Amy:So at least if rare is overcooked it's going to be medium rare and I can still eat it, whereas like if I order medium rare and it comes overcooked.
Chris:It's going to be medium. I'm going to be like chewing on it for an hour.
Amy:I'm like that's not what I want, so let's get it rare. Yeah, I like it.
Chris:And whiskey country yeah, reserve, amazing I like he know, he knows his drinks um. Chris, what would be your dream holiday destination?
Amy:oh see, that's such a hard question to ask um within australia.
Chris:I think purely because I love melbourne, I just always want to go back there I'd go back once a month if I could yeah, it's a fun city, isn't?
Amy:it's so much fun of all the sport, the culture, the food, the coffee like everything is there, everything's in melbourne.
Chris:So it's just bloody cold man, hey. Hey, I got a great, a few great friends in melbourne, um, but I'd love to go to the uk um. I'm a massive, massive uh football soccer for any of the afl rugby people yeah, um, hand egg, as I call those sports, not football, um, but yeah. So I'm a big Liverpool fan, so I'd love to follow Liverpool around, go to like a whole bunch of matches in the Premier League over there, maybe see a couple of Champions League matches if I'm lucky enough.
Chris:And I think the UK is also a great base to explore the rest of Europe as well. I studied Italian all through school and I do have a 450 day streak on Duolingo for my Italian, so I'd love to check out Italy. I've got a couple of friends that did exchanges over to my school and I could go and see over there, so that'd be really cool.
Amy:Oh my God, I'm literally. My jaw is down with your duolingo. I just got to 12 days on Wordle today as a streak and I was happy with that, like, oh, I'm just praying that you never miss that day.
Chris:It's all about having your friends on there with you. Okay, because, like you, can start friendship streaks on Duolingo now as well, so it's all about don't let me down.
Amy:So this for those that are listening, that aren't into Duolingo. So it is a language learning app. Yes, yeah, oh my gosh, that's epic. Do you get a reminder or do you set yourself a reminder?
Chris:Yeah, so Well, there's a widget that I stick on my homepage. And for those of you that aren't familiar, Duolingo has the Duo Owl, which is the little owl that pops up, and it will do all of these like crazy things and faces when you haven't learned or anything yet. It'll be like you haven't done your lesson today or I'm dying over here or something like that, and it'll be doing all these crazy actions, so it's actually really fun as well.
Amy:Oh my gosh, I can't wait to hear how many days you get to. Like I said, I think my longest streak on Wordle, which is like a word game I'm a real nerd for things like Scrabble is 16 days. So at the moment I'm on this streak. That's epic.
Chris:The bigger it gets, the more afraid you are of losing it.
Amy:I know and this responsibility. It speaks volumes to your work ethic to continue with that. Interesting is that about soccer. My dad's a soccer referee. So when I was growing up here at Bee Gees in Glasshouse I used to follow dad around and I always remember it's funny, isn't it what you remember? When he'd give a red card out he'd say to me Amy, get to the car straight away. You know, certainly in the adult matches, because he would generally be heckled out of there. So funny to have that connection and good to know you follow Liverpool. Wonderful. So definitely the ability to head over to the UK. Italy, that sounds like you would be a great companion to know what to order. What's your favourite Italian line to speak? Don't ask me that there's too many beautiful lines.
Chris:Oh my gosh.
Amy:No, I can't pick Just give us something basic then, oh my gosh, no, I can't pick, just give us something basic then.
Chris:Oh my goodness. No, you put me on the spot, I can't get it up now.
Amy:Oh good, all right, and to end our catch up, chris, what's your favorite quote or saying?
Chris:Purely for this industry, because there's so much crazy stuff that can happen, and I think, like I was talking before we got on air about my day yesterday, is this, too shall pass, because, no matter what happens, however crazy it's going to get, the next day will roll around, you'll reset and it will pass.
Amy:It's such a good oldie but a goodie, but I think you're exactly right the ability to be able to keep moving forward. Chris, it's been amazing to have you on as a guest. That's been great. Like I said, we recently caught up. You have an amazing guide for prospective Airbnb or short-term rental hosts, which I found really valuable, and we will make sure that we share that for anyone listening. Any other further insights with your business or anything you'd like to share before we sign off?
Chris:Oh gosh, I think we covered everything that I had written down, I suppose, yeah.
Amy:Reach out.
Chris:Yeah, I mean, do what's best for you. I think, at the end of the day, like I'm never going to oversell someone, because I never want to oversell something I can't deliver. Yeah, and I'll always be honest and upfront and let you know if your idea is crap or if your idea is good, or you know, I want to make sure that if we're going to move ahead, it's going to be successful, and that means honest conversations and honest relationships.
Amy:Awesome. What a wonderful way to end, Chris. Thank you for being my guest. Look forward to having you all again in the future. Awesome.
Chris:Thanks, Amy.
Amy:Thank you for listening to this episode of Beyond the Signboard. We trust you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed making it for you. If there are any topics you want covered in the future, make sure you reach out and let us know. Also, feedback and suggestions are appreciated almost as much as likes, shares and downloads.