By Debi Hertert

By Debi Hertert

C L Reed is one of the many hosts of color and an entrepreneur who has expanded from her first room rental to now hosting her own 3 properties and co-hosting several other Airbnbs. She shares with Debi how she initially got started via her daughter's prodding. C L discovered that her home was exactly in the right spot for skydivers, and she has hos…

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome interviews Kevin Rhea ("Krhea") of Portland, Oregon, a fellow member of Host2Host. Debi reached out to Krhea because he is one of the few hosts of color in the Portland area, and he is kind, candid, and willing to teach. Debi is starting this series on Hosts of Color to further her own and her listeners' understandin…

The pandemic and short term rentals in Oregon. In mid March, 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic began impacting short term rental reservations in Oregon. Airbnb saw its global reservations drop like a rock. For three months, the pandemic has basically eliminated the STR market. Debi and Rob Hertert of Hosting Your Home use this episode to talk about ho…

We had an AWESOME photo shoot in Portland, Oregon directed by FabStayz founder Robert Geller, featuring airline flight attendant Danny Lee Cabrero as drag queen “Liquor Mini”, named after the little booze bottles on planes. It could not have been more fun! Robert was working on a publicity campaign for FabStayz and wanted it to be fun and attention…

What company comes to an author’s mind after writing bestsellers about Starbucks, Zappos, Mercedes and Ritz-Carlton? Airbnb! Joseph Michelli became highly interested in the company and authored a book "The Airbnb Way". Joseph identifies the ways in which Airbnb engages with customers and builds brand loyalty. He includes both the view from inside t…

Short Term Rental (STR) advocacy Short Term Rental (STR) advocacy is difficult and time-consuming. But if you want STR regulation that is informed and fair, you need to work. It's very easy for local government to spring into an over-regulated model, being saturated with negative news, so be proactive! There is no single regulatory model that works…

Debi Hertert of the Hosting Your Home podcast talks with FabStayz LGBTQ Listing Site founder Robert Geller, about his exciting, new STR platform. Robert has 10 years of experience with his gay travel company "Outings and Adventures". Through his personal Airbnb hosting experience and Airbnb travel, he saw a real need for a travel platform that woul…

Debi Hertert talks with her friend and colleague Tyann Marcink about how Tyann got started in the vacation rental hospitality business, and the many hats that Tyann wears. The two spoke in October, 2018 when Tyann participated in the Host2Host Vendor Fair in Portland, Oregon. So listeners will find a wealth of information about vacation rentals, co…

By Debi Hertert with Betty Lindstrom

Download Episode! Airbnb Hosts love what we do - the hospitality, meeting travelers, interacting with happy people, and showing off our places. There are problems, ranging from rude guests, messes, animals, noise etc. But physical safety isn't a common part of the experience. This episode addresses two incidents around the same time in Portland inv…

Download Episode! Kati and Brian Greene are two long-time travelers who produced an eBook of interviews with vacation rental industry “thinkers and do’ers”. Now, they have created a structured video course, teaching smart phone photography to vacation rental owners. There are good reasons to use professional photographers, but there are also good r…

Download Episode! Kim Boaz is the owner of Back to Basics Bookkeeping in Portland, Oregon. Debi Hertert from the podcast “Hosting Your Home” talks with Kim in this short, upbeat interview. Many short-term rental owners who use Airbnb, VRBO, or their own website don’t consider their businesses to be large enough to warrant professional bookkeeping o…

Download Episode! Matt Landau To many hundreds of independent vacation rental owners and VR managers, Matt Landau is the guru of the vacation rental market. He translated his remarkable experience in Panama into a valuable VR knowledge base that continues to expand within the large, virtual community that he has created. Matt’s experience, his sens…

Download Episode! Mark Sheel is a Google Android developer and Airbnb host in Colorado. He has long used Meetup.com to organize his large developer group in Denver, and leveraged that experience to create a 500-member Colorado Airbnb Hosts Meetup. Debi and Mark have been exchanging info and tips for the past couple of years. Colorado is an exceedin…

Here is a fun, short talk from just Debi, about the new Host2Host association. It is a natural outgrowth of the Portland, Oregon community of hosts and the result of three years of community building through the 41 monthly Meetups Debi has organized, and the great success of the Portland Area Hosts Facebook group. Debi mentions in her talk that Por…

Download Episode! Come to Italy and listen to Debi Hertert talk with Bob Garner about his beautiful, 6-apartment vacation rental in Le Marche, Italy. Dubbed “Casal dei Fichi”, 12 years ago this building was an ancient farmhouse where the family once lived on the second floor to make use of the heat rising from the animals living on the bottom floor…

[0:45] In September, 2017, Debi and Rob visited Italy: Debi wanted to attend the Vacation Rental World Summit conference in Florence, and it was hard to convince Rob to join her. They visited Rome, the province of Le Marche, then Florence, Siena, and Pistoia. They mostly used Airbnb listings, as they typically do while traveling. Sara’s house in Ci…

Every short-term rental needs a guest guidebook. But what used to be a dog-eared, 3-ring binder can now become a spectacular, highly useful web-based product, accessible on a phone. David Jacoby, Airbnb Superhost and co-founder of Hostfully, traveled to Portland to meet with Debi Hertert and "Home Share PDX" Meetup group to talk about his product. …

Join Debi Hertert and Michele Fitzgerald as they talk about Michele’s vacation rental in Sedona (that is not on Airbnb). Debi and Rob traveled to Sedona, Arizona in early 2017 to find some sun, and stayed in Michele's wonderful vacation rental home. She teaches intuitive methods, leads tours in Ireland, operates on-line businesses and manages her b…

Debi Hertert interviews Portland Superhost Evan Ross, owner of Cycle Portland. She visited Evan at his Cycle Portland business in downtown Portland. They first met at the 2017 Host2Host conference where Evan participated as a vendor. The two began with Evan’s hosting experience in the popular Alberta Arts area. He began hosting in January, 2017. Ev…

In this episode, Debi Hertert talks with Alanna Schroeder of “The Distinguished Guest”, a vendor at the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon. Alanna started as a commercial real estate agent, then wanted to have another baby, so started renting out her house in Lake Tahoe. She recognized a need for a source of higher-end products for vacat…

Download Episode! Prior to the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome interviewed Andrew Kitchell of Wheelhouse. Wheelhouse provides a pricing service for short-term rentals. They analyze the pricing of the local home-sharing listings, local hotels, and current events. Those three components affect pricing of accommo…

Listen in as Nolan Mondrow, founder and CEO of LockState is interviewed by Debi Hertert of Hosting Your Home. LockState offers electronic locks for Airbnb hosts, and in a beautiful illustration of responding to hosts’ needs, the codes for the locks are produced automatically within the Airbnb platform. The host does not need to change the codes for…

Debi Hertert interviews Rod Fitts from AVROA, in her series of Host2Host 2017 Vendor interviews. AVROA stands for "Association of Vacation Rental Operators and Affiliates". Rod began this company in 2008, when the recession wiped out his education business and he needed to reinvent himself. The model of AVROA is to provide a free listing platform t…

Join Debi Hertert for her interview with Portland's Becky Knecht (pronouned "connect"), owner of TBH Clean, specializing in Airbnb-style homes. Becky's company slogan is "Your Mess is Our Mission!" Debi is working her way through interviews with hopefully all of the vendors who are attending the Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland on April 22, 20…

Airbnb host Debi Hertert of the HostingYourHome podcast interviews Carlos Rafael Camarena, a Portland, Oregon photographer who specializes in architectural photography and is expanding to add Airbnb and other short term rentals. Carlos is a professional photographer with a background in portraiture and real estate photography. In early 2015 he seiz…

Join Debi from HostingYourHome.com as she interviews many of the vendors who will attend the upcoming Host2Host 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon. Vendor support is critical for Airbnb hosts who want to provide the best accommodations and hospitality for their guests. Insurance is a critical issue and not always understood by hosts. But it does n…

No interview! In this episode, Debi explains her dream of having a local Portland conference to support Airbnb and other hosts, and how it's come true: Host2Host 2017. If you don't see the links to the conference in your iTunes or whatever podcast listener you use, go to HostingYourHome.com and check out the show notes. This is a nice episode to ju…

Please join Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome and Portland's Airbnb Superhost Shannon Hiller-Webb. Debi discovers Shannon’s amazing involvement in hosting and curating guest experiences, and about her own local food business “Green Zebra”. Shannon uses her connections with the local food scene, art scene and other social contacts to help …

This episode is part 2 of our podcast about the 2016 Airbnb Open in Los Angeles. Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviewed several hosts there, and there is the same happy background noise that gives you a flavor of the overall vibe of the event. This episode includes June Stoddard, Diane Sherry Case, and Myranda Love. As in the “part 1” epis…

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she interviews three people at the 2016 Airbnb Open conference in Los Angeles. For each of the past three years, Airbnb has held an annual conference called “The Airbnb Open”. In 2014 it was in San Francisco, in 2015 it was in Paris, and this year it was in Los Angeles. Debi has attended all three of thes…

Debi Hertert of Hosting Your Home talks with Todd Brandewie, owner of a whole-house rental near Dayton, Ohio. At the time, Debi and her family were renting Todd’s house for a family reunion. Todd is a single dad and lives in his house with his four-year old son. Several nights per month, Todd and his son move to Todd’s dad’s house, or Todd’s RV, in…

Portland, Oregon Airbnb host Nina Liebow talks with Debi Hertert of the Hosting Your Home podcast about Nina's life and how she came to hosting with Airbnb. Listen in as Nina shares her wonderful story, her Japanese connection, and her deep, heartfelt feelings about hosting. Nina hosts in the historic Irvington neighborhood in the heart of Portland…

Join Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Bob and Sue Low, the Portland citizens and now Airbnb Superhosts who prompted the City to change their ordinance prohibiting short term rentals. A concept: “Age in Place” 1:40 Sue starts by telling about the remodel of their home in Lauralhurst and moving to their basement durin…

Debi Hertert of the podcast HostingYourHome.com talks with Portland Airbnb host Nancy Stevens. Debi hears a great story of Airbnb support when Nancy needed it most. 0-02:15 Introduction 02:15-06:15 A short tour: Nancy shows Debi the view, and gives her a short tour, punctuated by a stained glass window that Nancy gave to her late partner to commemo…

In this interview, get to know Airbnb Superhosts Alex Nigg and Tammi Sims as they talk with Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com. Alex is the creator of “Properly”, a suite of tools that allows homesharers, vacation rental owners and property managers to manage guest turnovers remotely. Properly users can send detailed visual and text checklists to …

Debi Hertert of podcast HostingYourHome.com visits with Steve Niebrand, owner of the "Hoffman Woods" Airbnb in West Linn, Oregon, a whole-house listing where large families can celebrate special times together. Debi and Steve talk about his very special house on 2 acres near Portland. He explains how he got started hosting, buying a house specifica…

This week's podcast is a special treat as Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com tours the brand-new “Hobbit Hole”, Greg Raisman’s artistic creation for an Airbnb apartment in Portland, Oregon. Greg and Beth and their architects, builders and carpenters have been working on this project almost as long as it takes to grow a new human, and it really is …

Soon after Taylor Scheftstrom began working for Airbnb she recognized a need for reaching out to Airbnb hosts in the Portland area. Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com talks with her about working at Airbnb and Taylor’s efforts to build personal relationships between hosts and Airbnb staff. Taylor grew up in southern Oregon in a tiny town of Rogue …

Please join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com, as she visits with Airbnb Superhost Kym Cumbo and tours the "Slater House" in Portland, Oregon. Kym and her husband Fred live at the “Slater House” in Ladd’s Addition in Portland, Oregon. Fred has lived there for 26 years and Kym for 7. Kym began listing on Airbnb in 2012 and has really done her home…

This week, Debi Hertert of hostingyourhome.com coaches Ann Sigler, a Portland area Uber driver and imminent Airbnb host. Ann has lived in her house for 36 years, just retired from Intel, and wants to try her hand at hosting. Debi is helping her get started. Ann would like to begin hosting in September, 2016. You may wonder where Debi finds people t…

Join Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com as she talks with Airbnb host Kaila Thomson. Kaila and her husband Matt have a house just five minutes from the Portland, Oregon airport in the up-and-coming Montavilla neighborhood. They host two rooms above Matt’s “Ivy League Recording” music studio. Matt is a musician and sound engineer. They have owned t…

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…

Debi Hertert from HostingYourHome.com talks with Michael Burke and Caitlin White, as a follow up to last week’s episode “Hear the Wind Give Voice to the Trees”. Michael and Caitlin have twice been guests at Alan and Dabney’s Airbnb listing: Summit Prairie, and this year they got engaged there! In this episode, Michael and Caitlin offer us the guest…

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Airbnb superhosts Alan Colley and Dabney Tompkins, self-described “City Slickers” who none the less, live on a very remote 160 acres. In a house, but it's on a 40-foot high lookout tower. Alan and Dabney lived in Portland in a condo and rented it out on Airbnb while they went backpacking or touring. Bu…

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com interviews two veteran housekeepers who take care of Debi’s three Airbnb vacation rentals on the Oregon coast. Bonnie (left) and Billie (right, with Makenzie) bring their wits and humor as they discuss what makes a good guest, funny situations that come up like having to help pack up some guests who were forgetti…

Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com leads a panel discussion about money matters with Airbnb hosts from Portland. This episode was requested by Marcus, one of Debi’s listeners, who wanted to know about the financial aspect of hosting. The discussion covers initial setup costs, gross income, taxes, expenses, how much time is involved, and what diffe…

Apples to Applesauce! You may THINK you’re busy, but there is busy, then there is really busy! This week, Debi Hertert of HostingYourHome.com talks with Katrina Eastberg about her rental in southeast Portland and her nonprofit “Apples to Applesauce”. Katrina is not only an Airbnb Superhost, but also: founded and runs a nonprofit “Apples to Applesau…