Furnished Rental Owners Sharing Resources Makes Us Mighty!
We’re a small crew of furnished property owners, fighting to be seen and heard, seeking to compete with the likes of Airbnb and Furnished Finder, but on limited budgets. How can sharing our resources make us most likely to succeed?
First, we have gathered here. I have been so excited to see that our new platform is actually working! Competing again the “big boys,” (i.e. AirBnB, Furnished Finders, CHBO etc) is no small task. NESTinNOLA is only getting started, yet I’ve got a panel full of general inquiries for properties that outnumber the inquiries I’ve gotten from the national platforms I’ve used for years.
I think it’s the authentic content here, articles from first-hand experiences of owners and tenants, geniune reviews from users, blog posts which are not produced by AI, but through fifteen years experience in the furnished rental space, right here in New Orleans. We are hyper-local, real people, and the search engines out there have found us. We are becoming the truly valuable resource we set out to be.
This community is producing results, and one of the most unique things about NESTinNOLA is our ability help other mid-term rental owners, because we are traversing the same landscape as you are. We also pay for ads all over the place, trying to figure out the magic bullet that will keep our property rented.
Think of it: Dozens of property owners all paying for leads, learning lessons one incident at a time on our properties. Occasionally we meet each other and share ideas… knowledge grows slowly. Networking is difficult – because we are competitors, too, right?
It doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve managed properties within the corporate leasing world for over a decade. When a prospective tenant calls, it really boils down to two things: What can he/she afford? And which property “speaks” to the tenant as being their favorite temporary home?
There’s literally nothing you can do with a lead who simply doesn’t like, or can’t afford, the property you are offering. Nothing.
Now, imagine that one of the other owners on this site has a lead like that. The property is not a good match… but is the lead dead? Could it be valuable to someone else?
Of course it could. The inquiring tenant will definitely find his “nest” somewhere. If not your property, then whose? As an owner, you have paid for that lead. On this site, we are all spending advertising dollars in MANY places… and how many of our leads are just dead ends? Don’t you hate that?
So a creative solution for these “lost leads” is one of my favorite innovations on this site.
Our owner forum is not a social network – it’s a resource. And what more important resource is there than prospective tenants looking for housing? It’s what we’re after, and we’ve paid for so many of them that don’t work out. That’s why we created the “Un-Matched Leads” topic in the forum. Those leads aren’t dead – they’re just not a match for you, but another NEST member may have the perfect spot for them.
I am posting all of my mis-matched leads in the forum as they come to me through other platforms. I have paid for them, but they didn’t work out for my property. Read the request – maybe this is for YOU? All the contact info and the details of their stay are listed, and once in the forum, you, as a member, may access and use them if it’s a match. A great bonus and a way to “recycle” resources through each other.
There is also the ability to add items for sale that your property no longer needs, and multiple areas for resources and suggestions of housekeepers, vendors, repair and maintenance contacts… and lots more.
Thank you for being a pioneering member of NESTinNOLA. Keeping it local is what makes our site stand out from any other in this niche, and sharing our resources makes us all a little bit stronger.
Anne Beck, Host
If you have other ideas, suggesetions or questions, let’s chat! 504-812-4702