Today I’m sitting down with and talking with none other than Austin Dane Walker, Airbnb guru. Austin what’s going on with you?
Hello, thanks for having me, I’m doing great! I’m excited to answer to all the questions everybody is wondering and spread my insight.
To begin why don’t you tell our readers what it is that you do?
I purchase real estate properties, and lease them out through Airbnb. It is a very unique and fun business, I’m always meeting new people.
How did you get into the Airbnb business?
At the time, I was recently out of jail and had to work in my mother’s yard in order to stay with her. Not long after, I had met a young lady on Tinder who showed me Airbnb and the host we had told to me all about it. It peeked my interest and gave me the idea to try to pursue it. So I returned to LA with a plan and then executed it. I now have expanded to 107 properties I rent out on Airbnb.
How did you get the skills necessary to run this type of business?
It really just came naturally to me. I did also have a business partner at the time who I learned a lot from. It turned out to be extremely toxic relationship so that didn’t work out. I don’t regret it though because what I learned is priceless. I learned a ton about the business side of recruiting individuals and starting payrolls.
How do you market your business?
Word of mouth and of course through the app. I expect to keep growing, I don’t want to stay stagnant, I want to keep expanding.
Are there certain areas you want to expand in? Domestic or international?
I don’t plan to expand internationally. I don’t know if that would work for what I’m trying to do. It hasn’t been completely ruled out but I guess we’ll see.
What does your management style resemble?
I have employees I trust very much handle the everyday task and come to me with issues if those issues can’t be solved.
What are the greatest issues for maintaining this type of business?
People that only rent spaces for parties. There are certain people that simply party too hard and annihilate the suites. I attempt to do as much as possible to ensure I don’t run into those issues, but there’s just only so much you can do.
Seems like you have everything figured out. Well Austin, I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today, and giving our readers some of your knowledge!