Gear Box - Lodging Newsletter July 31, 2023

By Wm, May
Published: 07/31/23 Topics: Aberdeen Washington, Education, Lodging Management, Lodging Newsletter Comments: 0

At age 14 my best friend and I were conscripted. My father ran a Kenworth brand truck dealership in Aberdeen on the coast of Washington State which promised "Parts, Sales & Service". He was moving into a new building in the town's port dock area. Hundreds of heavy metal racks had to be assembled and wrestled into position. It was a big job and took weeks.

At 15 I started to deliver parts all over Washington's Olympic Peninsula, driving a one-ton pickup with no power steering. It was like wrestling a steer down the road. No problem, because I loved listening to the scratchy AM radio that played rock and roll for hours on end.

Arriving from school at 2:30 pm, Dad might say, "You go to Port Angeles today" and hand me a list of 10 to 20 truck shops, logging yards and government warehouses to visit. The truck was loaded to the gills with big, greasy heavy parts. I was expected to wrestle them out at every stop.

I would say, "I won't get home until midnight." And he would say "Ah, it ain't gonna kill you." "But I have class at 8 in the morning." And he would say, "It still isn't gonna kill you. Best start and go now."

Monthly, I drove three hours to the company's headquarters in Seattle. Behind its shiny corporate offices were 20 bays where giant trucks could be serviced at once. It was a beehive of activity.

On the south of the building was a quiet mysterious place called "The Gear Room" where men slinked about working on transmissions, rear-ends and even steering boxes. Other mechanics did not speak to "Gear Heads" and they didn't speak to each other. They tinkered and worked as if doing open-heart surgery.

If you have never looked inside the transmission of your own car, you have missed a work of art. Inside are gears of all sizes, and bearings spinning at enormous speeds on one axis, and others in another. If you stuck your finger inside it would be sliced and diced instantly.

Gear boxes are a whirling indecipherable maze that only the experienced, skilled and studious experts could disassemble and reassemble correctly. It has dawned on me that lodging management of Inns, Resorts and Vacation Homes is a bit like that. One can pretend to be a manager, but only those with a the right mentality are truly Gear Heads.

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Vacation Rental Management is like a Gear Box, with everything running in many directions. Renting out a private vacation rental home is a seemingly simple concept but there are more moving parts, gears, stresses and strains than imaginable. We do it well by employing experts just like the Gear Heads. So many people and things to deal with.

- Guests are the folks who kick in the money to pay rent on properties.

- Property owners are clients because they have an investment at stake.

- Neighbors are clients because they have the potential to be clients in the future.

- Staff members are also clients because their input & performance are critical.

Generally guest goals are much alike - go on vacation, bring the family, rest, relax and recreate and all for the lowest price they can find.

But our other clients, the property owners, have goals that differ from those of guests. Landlords are aware that making guests happy is what brings them back to rent again.

 

Property owners who try to self-manage their homes remotely get a rude introduction to the world of dealing with consumers, with houses that need maintenance, and with advertising channels that are overbearing and monopolistic.

Engineers, Architects, Doctors and even Lawyers make good clients because they too live in a professional world where the nuts of bolts of performing are often invisible to their customers. Their time is valuable and they leave transmission repairs and vacation rental management to the experts.

Owners who are new to landlording, unaccustomed to business, or have invested too much in their homes, live on pins and needles. They worry about the home and want to make every decision.

When they use a manager they bug the manager with questions, concerns and emotions never realizing that every minute they demand is time stolen from the manager's primary duties - to take care of homes, take care of guests, and spend long hours advertising, marketing, reservationing and pursuing money, most of which goes to the property owner.

There are still Gear Heads in every truck shop in the world, working quietly and uninterrupted. Now they have many high tech tools, but it is their experience and concentration that ensures the gear box will work flawlessly for hundreds of thousands of miles. To disrupt a Gear Head is to risk a slight mistake that could cause major problems. So truck shop managers are careful to let their scientists do their work alone.

Wise Vacation Rental Owners use their lodging managers like Gear Heads. They let them work alone to fine tune every vacation rental gear and bearing of every vacation rental home. They set rates, scrub toilets, advertise everywhere, persuade guests and coordinate cleaning every home 50 to 100 times a year come rain or shine.

In the end vacation rentals can perform like a well-made giant Gear Box which causes the entire process to run smoothly.

Author: Wm, May, Vortex VIP
Blog #: 0965 – 07/31/23

Sponsor: Vortex VIP – – VortexVIP.com