How Vacation Rental Design Drives More Bookings, Better Reviews, and Higher Profits

Andrea (00:00)
I think they just don’t know better, you know, because they have these properties and they’re amazing. They’re so great properties. And they’re just thinking about, they’re just thinking about how many beds they can, you know, get in there and how much money they can get for it. But if they’re thinking about your experience, they’re going to get that rented over and over again. And they’re going to get amazing reviews.

Micah Johnson (00:02)
Right?

Hello everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Andrea who’s been making serious moves in the real estate design space now for 23 years. Andrea, welcome in, glad to have you.

Andrea (02:08)
Hi!

Micah Johnson (02:10)
I’m excited for you to be here. You’re doing something that I realized from a few friends that own companies in this space that the value of it is tremendous. And if you’re gonna be a professional at it, it’s the way it’s going. It’s just the way it’s going. So I’m pumped for you to share the value that you have and dig in. So for folks that aren’t familiar with you yet, tell us a little more about yourself and what your main focus is right now.

Andrea (02:37)
Okay, my name is Andrea. Thank you for the intro. 23 years sounds like a long time and I started when I was 10. Just kidding. So yes, I’m a prodigy. I was a design prodigy. No, no. I’ve been doing this a long time and I love, love what I do. But this year, for those of you who aren’t familiar with me, I’m from Authentik Home. We’re in Fullerton, California, Orange County.

Micah Johnson (02:46)
Exactly Steve, it’s prodigy.

Andrea (03:05)
for those who don’t know where Fullerton is, it’s by Disneyland. we this year are really focusing on vacation rental designs and short-term rentals, which is a whole new thing for our business, but is a really rapid ⁓ performing kind of niche in the interior design world. But it really shouldn’t be a surprise to

our industry and it’s really something that’s folding into your industry right now. So I’m excited ⁓ to dive into that and we’re really excited about the services that we’re developing towards that end and I’m excited to talk about it today.

Micah Johnson (03:54)
⁓ Well, take it, sir. Take us on a little trip here. What, what led you to where you are today? How’d all this begin?

Andrea (04:00)
⁓ In design or in vacation rental design? my gosh, okay. I’m gonna make the design story short and sweet. Because I could talk about that for an hour and then I’ll lead you into the vacation design rental because that one is funny too. But ⁓ in design, I became a designer by accident and it is a great story and I think I made a blog about it so go read it. But. ⁓

Micah Johnson (04:03)
wherever you want to start.

Okay, deal.

Andrea (04:26)
In design, it is a kind of funny story, ⁓ but I was going to be a teacher. I was going to be a teacher, come from a family of teachers. That was what I was going to do. I took a summer off from school and this was a very long time ago. We did not have the internet for jobs. We had the newspaper. People might not remember this, but we had the newspaper and there was a job listing at a design showroom.

and it was for a receptionist. And so I needed a summer job. So I went and I applied for this summer job and behind the counter was this kind of scruffy looking guy. He like kind of smudgy dirt on his face

rough around the edges. And I had my little resume and you know, I’m in my little dress and he goes, do you want to interview? And I said, yeah, sure. Whenever you guys could do that. And he goes, how about right now? And I said, okay. Turns out he was the owner.

He was the owner, but he had been on a delivery. He had been delivering some furniture because someone had called out sick that day. So I have this interview in his office and we’re talking and he goes, well, good news and bad news. I actually already hired the receptionist, but I’m looking for a designer. And I said, I know nothing about design. ⁓ I am going to school to be a theater teacher. And he said, you’re really good with people. I bet you would be really good at this job. And I said,

You’re I don’t know what is going on with you, but you’re wrong. And I was very young and he said, I just have a feeling about you. So anyways, long story short, I got hired at this design showroom. I loved it. And I went back to school and I became a designer and I’ve never left the industry since. And I absolutely love what I do, which probably comes across because I’m here now. So that’s that’s story of how I got to design. So it’s kind of a funny story.

but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Micah Johnson (07:09)
that. I love it. People journeys to real estate are so fascinating to me because it’s always kind of like that. It’s kind of like life through it in their way. Never would have guessed it. Not what they thought they were

going to do. I never dreamed of being in real estate. Wasn’t like something I wanted to do. All of a sudden you just kind of get in and you’re like, wait a second. This is kind of great. This is kind of, this really, this is doing it for me. That’s awesome. Okay. So now you’ve got the design, you’ve done that for a while and now you’re switching to this new area, this vacation rental design.

Andrea (07:21)
Right?

Yeah. Yeah, just, I like it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Micah Johnson (07:39)
Let’s dig deep in

Andrea (07:39)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (07:39)
there. What led to that transition and then open up that world a little bit more for us.

Andrea (07:44)
Yeah, so the interesting thing is I’ve always loved travel. I’ve always loved travel. It’s something that just really just has been important for me, but ⁓ kind of funny story. I was on a trip with my best friend, an international trip, and we get to this beautiful resort. It’s gorgeous, right? I mean, it is insanely gorgeous, like five-star resort. We get into this room and I start picking it apart.

because that’s what I do. And she goes, what is wrong with you? go, well, the TV should be over there because I can’t see the TV. And where are we supposed to put the luggage? Because the luggage, you know, there’s no place for it. And I don’t understand why they built this little bar over here because that’s just a waste of space because we could have had this like as a sitting area. she goes, only you would come to a five star resort and start talking about this. I go, no, I’m not even talking about.

like the decor, it’s beautiful, but the space is laid out really badly. And she goes, only you would do that. And I said, well, if they just, you know, had done this or just had done that. And I, started talking about this other place that her and her family had actually rented an Airbnb. They do this like huge camp out trip out of state. And it’s like three families together at this big cabin. And they had.

like spent a lot of money on it and they did this reunion. And I said, yeah, right. Remember that cabin you guys got and you thought it was going to be great, but you know, that bed thing didn’t work out because of this. And we start talking and I go, you know what? I think I should start designing for vacation rentals. And she goes, yeah, because apparently you’re real passionate about it. And I said, I really am. I said, because I think.

Micah Johnson (09:29)
Yeah

Andrea (09:32)
I think they just don’t know better, you know, because they have these properties and they’re amazing. They’re so great properties. And they’re just thinking about, they’re just thinking about how many beds they can, you know, get in there and how much money they can get for it. But if they’re thinking about your experience, they’re going to get that rented over and over again. And they’re going to get amazing

Micah Johnson (09:35)
Right?

Andrea (09:55)
They’re going to really create a guest experience that’s going to elevate that, you know, to a different.

to a different space and she went, yeah, that’s a great idea. You should do that. And they said, yeah, I should do that. And then I, you know, I kind of thought about it and kind of thought about it. And so now we’re developing a whole service umbrella for that. And this last January, I had the, just the great opportunity to go to a summit at Vegas ⁓ in Las Vegas. And there is a whole group of amazing people who are already doing this work. ⁓

Shout out to the Vacation Rental Designers Collective and it was amazing. And I learned from so many great designers who are already doing this work, join their collective. I’m re-educating myself about this and we’re just about to launch it. So I’m really passionate about this because I feel like it’s so needed because whereas I am designing for, right now I’m designing for homes, right? Micah, if I’m doing your home, it’s for your enjoyment.

Right? You’re, I’m going to design a beautiful home and you’re going to enjoy it. But if I’m designing for a vacation rental, I’m designing business to business. You’re going to make money from that. Right? So I’m actually giving you, I’m giving you the tools to make money. I’m making you profit. And that as a designer is very exciting for me because I’ve always designed for enjoyment and you know, ⁓ and that’s very.

you know, that’s, very important to me, but now I’m going to be designing for somebody to actually ⁓ make money and that’s going to improve their life and improve their bottom line, which is exciting. Yeah.

Micah Johnson (12:16)
Right. Right.

And you’re nailing it it’s like the short-term rental space, vacation rental space, it is a hospitality industry. The best in the business that do it, that’s what they understand. You aren’t selling, you aren’t renting a room or a house. You’re selling an experience. That’s what you are selling. And if this experience doesn’t work, then the house doesn’t work. And I mean, let’s all just face it, like the shiny new part of Airbnb wore off.

Andrea (12:21)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. Experience. Yes.

Micah Johnson (12:44)
Right, the way we judge the houses we go into now is much different than the way we used to. The amount we would let off the hook beforehand just because it was like, my God, at least we have this house. That’s not the case anymore. You can’t just, for lack of better term, half-asset. You just can’t in this industry because your consumer demands a high quality product. And also if your business is gonna work, it has to do that.

Andrea (12:44)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

You

Yes.

Micah Johnson (13:14)
And what you were saying a second ago about you walk into the room and you notice the layout. I noticed something early on in my career. I don’t fill spaces well. That’s not my gift for sure. It’s not my gift. And I lived in my house for like 10 years before I ever set the living room up the right way. And the moment I did, was just like, my God, why does this feel so good in here? I’ll actually sit in this room.

Andrea (13:39)
Bye.

Micah Johnson (13:39)
And my wife was like, see, I told you, like, that’s all we had to do. And I was just, I don’t know, right? That’s not my gift. But that’s when it hit me like, Whoa, wait a second. Okay, this is a blind spot, then you have to solve that problem. If you’re ever going to do things like this, you have to make sure you know, hey, that may not be your thing. And inside of real estate, there’s there’s niches, especially at the highest levels where if that’s not what you’re good at,

Someone like yourself comes in and plugs that hole because you were saying this a great way earlier that I really enjoyed, which was I likened it to a ⁓ computer and how we write code. Like design, everybody thinks the pretty stuff and like all the cool things we get to see and yes, that’s that. However, that’s like what you’re seeing on the screen where behind the scenes, it’s just a bunch of numbers and letters and all the code that’s written back there, but that’s what makes it beautiful.

especially when it comes to being profitable, right? So in your world, take us into that. Just give folks an idea of what it’s really like, where it’s not just picking tile, it’s really understanding a budget. Literally, it’s spreadsheet living.

Andrea (14:52)
Yeah, well, gosh, and something just came to my mind as you were kind of talking through that, because we had a previous conversation about how much goes into it that people don’t see.

And one of the things is how many decisions go into something that you don’t see that the client doesn’t see behind just one decision, right? So if you’re looking at a beautiful picture, right? Like, let’s say you’re looking at a beautiful kitchen design on

on Pinterest, right? And you’re looking at a tile floor and a cabinet and you’re looking at just this beautiful kitchen, right? That tile had a tile layout. had a grout color. It had a pattern. The designer had to pick which kind of tile was going to be right with that subfloor, which kind of grout they were going to pick for that climate to be the right kind of grout.

which kind of cabinetry joints were going to work, which kind of cabinet door. I mean, what you’re looking at is probably the result of 1,500 decisions. And I’m not overestimating that. And then they’re also looking at not only 1,500 decor decisions or aesthetic decisions, then they’re also looking at the numbers behind the plan.

how many drawings did they have to do, how many elevations did they have to do to get to that plan, and then how many budgets did they have to do, right? Like how many tile layouts, how many per square foot, how many of this, how many that? So what you’re looking at, this pretty picture, is the result of 1,600 decisions, probably 30 drawings, and about four to five different spreadsheets.

When you look at the back work of something and you saw it from start to finish, you would understand why you’re hiring a designer or why you have that. We used to laugh like a pillow, right? Like you were talking about your living room and you didn’t see that coming together. ⁓ The decisions about a pillow, like if I custom make a pillow right now, 20, 20 steps to making a custom pillow.

Like a pillow. What’s going inside the pillow? What’s trimming the pillow? What kind of stitches the pillow? What kind of zipper is the pillow? What is the fabric of the pillow? What is the backing of the pillow? I mean, these are things that you look at a pillow and go, it’s a pillow. Right? So.

Micah Johnson (17:58)
Wow.

Thanks.

Thanks for watching.

together and it’s, it’s all the behind the scenes things. That’s the, and that’s where, you’re saying that real value comes in. And that’s where I was excited about this show is to show so people can see that. Right. So often we’re doing things a certain way, cause we don’t, we don’t know what we don’t know. And you need that lid taken off for you to realize like, wow. I didn’t realize putting literally this pillow right here.

Andrea (18:37)
yeah. Yeah.

Micah Johnson (18:46)
could change the entire experience if someone has right when they walk in the door, right? And how many, like that’s your chance, really. That first time some of us open a door in there, that’s a, you miss that, you better have a really bad-ass bathroom and a great kitchen. Because if you miss the walk-in, it’s really hard to come back.

Andrea (18:49)
Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, also in that and one note, because I kind of got off topic a little bit with my 20 steps to a pillow. But I wanted to say to the knowledge and the background are invaluable. Right. In today’s today’s Internet world and Pinterest and HGTV, what you are not seeing, you’re seeing a bunch of pictures, you’re seeing a 15 minute snip of before and after. And what you’re not seeing

is that the person behind that design or behind that TV show has a wealth of knowledge. They have worked with hundreds and maybe a thousand different projects at this point and every single project they have built a library of knowledge of how to get projects from A to Z and that is

extremely valuable and the value that that brings to the table, think sometimes people don’t understand. ⁓ Case in point, can I tell you a little story? Do we have a minute? Okay. Okay. I, this actually happened two weeks ago and I was like, ⁓ see, this is the value of having somebody who knows versus DIY stuff. So I have a client, they’re moving into a new home. ⁓

Micah Johnson (20:16)
Yeah, priest.

Andrea (20:33)
a long time client, I love her. ⁓ But she thought there was this downstairs bathroom that they had and she thought, you know what, I’m just gonna take that vanity out and put like a Home Depot vanity and a new mirror up and a new light and that’s just gonna be, you know, a little refresh, right? But what she didn’t consider is that this vanity was much larger than the new one that she wanted to put in. And when she would do that,

that the tile would be exposed underneath because the tile wasn’t put underneath this vanity. So essentially she’d have a hole in the floor and then she went, well, no, no, it’s fine. Cause I have some extra tiles from the old owner. They’re in the garage and I can just do a little patch, but a tile in a box for 30 years versus the tile that was on the floor for 30 years is not going to look the same. Right. And then also the new vanity.

Micah Johnson (21:06)
Right. Right.

Andrea (21:28)
where the faucet is, is not gonna be the same where the light was. So you’re gonna have electrician have to move the light. So what somebody would think is like, that’s a quick fix, that’s fine, right? If she didn’t tell me that she was gonna do that, guess how much of a headache that would have been and then how I would get a call in two weeks going.

Yeah, we decided to do this thing and now I need you to come out and uninstall a vanity and I need your tile people to come back and do this thing, right? And that’s the value of knowledge. Somebody who has done a million projects and can get that phone call and say, no, I’m sorry, you have to do it this.

Micah Johnson (22:05)
Right. Right. There’s the quote I heard a long time ago and it’s always with me. Folks know, they always know how much money they’re saving, but they never know how much money they’re losing. And that is what that lines up with. Cause it’s, especially when you start messing around with these things and especially when you start doing it in the investment world, don’t just do random stuff. Be intentional about what you’re doing. That’s how you run a business is be intentional.

Andrea (22:27)
intentional.

Micah Johnson (22:31)
Well, Andrea, I really appreciate you sharing your just your wisdom with us today. Just opening that door for folks again, I think it’s really powerful for them to hear it. So for those that are listening in that want to find out more about you, see what you have going on, even check out the blog you mentioned. What’s the best way for them to find you?

Andrea (22:47)
Yeah, so our website is great. It’s a wealth of knowledge. We are actually just about to launch a couple of new series on our blog. It’s just Authentik Home, Authentik With A K Home.com (authentikhome.com). And we have a great blog series, lots of content. I love sharing stories. I’m a big storyteller, so there’s a lot of stuff ⁓ on there that’s real fun to read. And then our ⁓ Instagram as well is there’s links to our Instagram on our website so you can go straight

there but that’s a good place to start to find us.

Micah Johnson (23:21)
Thank you for sharing that. Those watching and listening, check our show notes. I’m have all Andrea’s links there for you to reach out to her. Like I say all the time on this show, it’s not random folks we’re bringing on. There are people that are professionals at what they do. If you’re in these areas and you want to learn or understand or have a project, work with people and learn from people that are actually doing it. So go follow along, check out that blog, follow her on social media.

Go, start getting that education so you can take advantage of the way the market’s acting now. It requires you to be really good at it. So Andrea, thanks again for being here. Really appreciate your time today. Absolutely. Me too, me too. These are the I can go for a long time. Thank you everybody out there for being with us today. Appreciate you being with us. If you got value out of today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone else you think, get value out of it. And if you’re not a subscriber yet, you know what to do. Click that button, follow along.

Andrea (23:59)
Aw, thanks. I really enjoyed our conversation. Oh, sorry.

Micah Johnson (24:19)
We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Andrea, folks out there building a real business in the industry. Thanks for being with us today. We’ll see you on the next episode.