Are you ready to take your short-term rental business to new heights? 

In this episode, we explore the remarkable journey of Chad Harker, a savvy entrepreneur who has transformed his single-room Airbnb listing into a thriving portfolio of seven properties with an impressive 75% direct booking rate. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• The importance of providing exceptional hospitality as a foundation for success
• How to leverage guest data to create personalized experiences and drive repeat bookings
• Strategies for building local partnerships to enhance your offerings
• Tips for implementing upsells that benefit both guests and hosts

“If you’re utilizing the right tech, it could go such a long way with being able to buy back some of your time and operate at a higher level.” - Chad Harker

About Chad Harker

Chad Harker is a real estate investor and short-term rental entrepreneur passionate about transforming properties into exceptional spaces that maximize guest experiences and profitability. With three properties—soon expanding to six units after renovations—he combines real estate investing expertise with short-term rental strategies to create high-performing spaces for himself and the investors he partners with. Chad’s approach focuses on adding value through legal suites, direct booking strategies, and guest-centric branding, achieving a 75% increase in direct bookings and fostering repeat guests. On track to surpass Edmonton’s top-performing rental, Chad’s model exemplifies how thoughtful renovations, strategic operations, and independent marketing can redefine what short-term rentals can achieve.

Connect with Chad and Eco Escapes

Eco Escapes Website: www.ecoescape.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chad_harker780

Resources Chad mentioned in the podcast

Linkbase: https://linkbase.ca/

Chad shares his journey from conventional real estate investing to short-term rental success, offering practical advice for those looking to follow in his footsteps. Whether you’re just starting or looking to scale your existing operation, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you achieve direct booking success. 

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Show notes are available at: https://directbookingsuccess.com/podcast/

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From a single room to a thriving portfolio, this episode dives into the strategies behind skyrocketing direct bookings and guest centered upsells. Stay tuned.

You are listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast bringing you all the information you need for your short term rental to stand out from the crowd. I'm your host, Jenn Boyles. As an owner and manager myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate the hospitality industry. I'm here to help so you too can have direct booking success.

Welcome to the Direct Booking Success Podcast. I'm Jenn Boyles, your host. Today I am thrilled to be joined by Chad Harker of Eco Escapes. He is a short term rental entrepreneur who's built a thriving business with seven properties and counting under his belt. Chad's journey started with a single room on Airbnb. But after realizing the potential for growth and the power of direct bookings, he's taken his business to incredible heights. In this episode, we're going to dive into how Chad has shifted away from relying on the OTAs and the creative strategies he uses to drive 75% more direct bookings along with the lessons he's learned along the way. So welcome Chad.

Thank you so much for having me, Jenn. Excited to be here.

Oh, it's wonderful to have you here. I think from meeting you last spring at CanStays to now, to knowing the trajectory of your business, it's just so, so exciting. So let's start from the beginning. You had a basement suite that you were renting out long term, weren't you? How did you sort of get into it? Into Airbnb?

Yeah, so I always was a very conventional real estate investor and I was in the process of purchasing my second property and I heard a lot of the good things about Airbnb. You know, like people say it's a gold mine and then you hear a lot of the bad things as well, like a lot of things in the media. Now it's not always in the best light, so I thought the only way to really know for sure is to try it out myself. So I thought a pretty low risk option was to try putting my master bedroom on Airbnb. So I made the sacrifice and just moved to my spare bedroom and just decided to get a feel for it, understand how the platform works and to see if it was a viable option. And I pretty much made every rookie mistake in the book, but it was eye opening for sure and it really changed my perspective. And after I purchased that property, I was hooked and I wanted to go full Airbnb rather than a long term rental.

So what was the moment that you realized the potential of short term rentals rather than long term rentals?

Good question. So pretty much I had, I did the whole basement suite renovation, right? Because it was pretty much a bare basement. And we converted it into a full legal suite, two bedrooms, two baths. And that first month, even with all my dumb rookie mistakes, I actually generated more income from the one bedroom than the entire legal suite. And I didn't. I invested practically nothing into the one bedroom. Right. So I was like, what if I did this with one bedroom? What would I be able to do with an entire property? Or if I were to do a similar model with the legal basement suite and the top floor, how well it could perform. And then, not only that, but just being able to provide the amazing experience for the guests and seeing the level of appreciation and how grateful people were for the level of hospitality and the active business model of the short term rentals. It was a little bit off. A little bit of everything, but I loved it.

That's great. Yeah, I can see it was the investment side that sort of got you hooked, but I love that the hospitality side plays a role in what you do because we see so many quote, unquote investors nowadays who don't seem to care about the actual guests. And I don't see that with you. I see that you are definitely a host. A host with heart, if you will. So tell me about attending CanStays last spring in Banff. How did that play a role in your business?

In a room with people like yourself and very high level operators, property managers, on average, it felt like everyone had between ten to a hundred plus properties. And I'm just there with one, one room listed on Airbnb in the process of purchasing the next property. So it really opened my eyes to how people leverage the different systems. All of these things that I never heard anything about before, like property management software, dynamic pricing tools. It showed me how you could really scale just being a single operator or having a small team by leveraging the different tech and systems. If you're utilizing the right tech, it could go such a long way with being able to buy back some of your time and being able to operate at a higher level.

And what about direct bookings? Because you started on Airbnb and that's where you put your single room. When did the penny drop about direct bookings for you?

Yeah, so it was actually like during your talk at the Cannes phase and. Which was amazing by the way you did an excellent presentation. I loved how you incorporated things like AI and the custom GPTs. And it was really eye opening because I didn't really consider it and I didn't think how being dependent on Airbnb could be potentially risky or bad for your business. So that was kind of when I started to realize like, okay, maybe Airbnb is a great tool, but you shouldn't be fully dependent on a single platform. If you look at any other business, they're not really dependent on one thing for their customer acquisition or their lead generation. You want to be able to have different streams or different sources. So that was a really eye opening experience for me and I didn't really even realize what kind of position I was putting myself in until I heard you talk at CanStays.

Okay, well, the check is in the post. Chad. The check is in the post. Thank you so much. That's really sweet of you to say that because you've come a long way. This was, we're talking April, it's now the beginning of December, less than a year and you have gone from a single room to seven properties, 75% direct bookings. The success you've had is amazing. So how did you start when you got back from that conference, how did you start with your direct booking strategies? What did you do first?

Well, the first step was I got a pms, even though at that time I only had the one property. But I knew that because of the level that I wanted to scale to I needed to implement the systems now and if I was able to learn the tools and the software and make it easier for me down the road. So I got that checked off right away and then I started immediately looking into how to create a draft booking website or what the best method or approach for that would be because there's so many different options out there. And yeah, I just kind of started to dive into the research and figure out what would be the best option for me and kind of my ideal guess and what I was the segment of the market that I was trying to target.

And what market was that? Do you have an ideal guest? Is that something that you use in your strategies?

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's important for anyone who's just getting started to really think about what that looks like for them and take a look at the whole macroeconomic outlook of their market and see what are the primary guests that are coming to their city or their area. And also basing it on your bed bath count and the other data is also very important. But for Us, it was a lot of families and we've seen that from our reviews and our guests who were booking. So we wanted to really cater things to families or working professional traveling was kids or pets a lot of the time because we're. All of my properties are pet friendly. So that was something that we really wanted to work on and try to capture. So we implemented things like board games or just putting out pet bowls or little welcome treats for pets and people go crazy for that. Absolutely love it. So. And it was good to see because I always speak with our cleaners to get feedback on what people are actually using. And when you see that all the board games are out and you're missing a Monopoly man or something, you know that they're actually using it. So it's a good thing.

Yeah, that is a good thing. Especially the communication with your cleaners, keeping that open, but also to find out more about what your guests are actually doing when they're in the property. Okay, so talk us through your strategies for getting up to. You said 75% direct bookings at the last count, right? That was the increase that you've, you've hammered. So how have you gotten there?

So we've done a few different things. One of the, probably the main things, putting the word out there and I would say number one is just starting with having an excellent product. So like in this case it's providing that excellent service and level of hospitality to your guests because if you don't even have that checked off, it's going to be hard to convince someone to come back and book with you again. So we had that really dialed in and the feedback we had was great. So being able to present them with an offer and leading with some value. We have an email follow up for every guest two days after they check out, make that direct booking offer and saying like, hey, thank you so much for being such an incredible guest and because you were so amazing, we would like to offer you the opportunity to book with us directly next time and save that money from the platform fees. And because we trust you and we know you, we're, we're happy to be able to give you this offer and saying like, we'll have a little surprise for you at the property and cause we started putting out gift baskets. We have a little welcome basket, but we have a movie night kind of experience basket which we will charge for. So if someone wants to have it, it's an additional service. But if someone books back directly and regardless if they purchased it at the time of their stay, they'll still see the basket and be like, oh, this is kind of cool. And we'll now say like in the offer, in the email we say that we'll include that basket for free during your next day. And we also have a relationship with a great Italian restaurant here. So we offer them the choice between that and a gift card at that Italian place.

Oh, I love it. So this is so great. So you're saving the money because of course they're not having to pay the platform fees. But you're not saying here, have a, have a big discount. We're not taking money out of your own pocket and doing this.

Yeah, because obviously with whatever the business is, you want to try to avoid taking away from your top line revenue. And obviously it's going to be very dependent on what the actual value is. Like for ad spend, for example, if you're spending like $10 on ads but you're getting $100 back in bookings or guests and it's obviously worth it. But we wanted to try and keep the cost low, but the value as high as. That's why we made the basket. Because for us to make up the basket, our cost is just under $10. But we charge 30 for it. So it has the higher perceived value with the guests but it's able to keep our costs a little bit lower. And the gift card, we get a little bit of a deal with the Italian place and it's an incredible restaurant. So it's just like going back to that, having that excellent service and level of hospitality. It aligns very much with what we do. So that's why we refer them there. And we always get amazing feedback. So it reflects great on both of us and it's good to have a local partner from a great spot in the city.

Yeah, that's great. And a marketing partner. Right. You can do so much together. I love the idea of this movie night basket and I love that this is something that's adding on to your guests' experience. You can use it as an incentive for them to come back, which is great. But also it provides that little bit of extra revenue for you as an upsell. So are there other upsells that you are doing?

Yeah. So going back to the CanStays, which was an amazing conference, shout out to Katherine for putting that on. And that actually was funny cuz the first table I sat at, I know you're also friends with Shavan and I met him and he was sitting at our table and it just so happened that he has an amazing software company also based out of Canada that does the upsell. So I learned a lot more about how we could actually improve our operations by offering upsells as a service and being able to enhance the guest experience and be able to eliminate some of the questions like the going back to your question, what are some other upsells? So we offer early check in and late checkout. Those are probably the best spots to start because they have the highest conversion and it's just an easy thing to do and it's nice not having to get that question all the time. We get it. That's probably the number one question that we get is can we check in early or check out late? So having a message set up that shows, hey, we offer this additional service if you would like, then you have the option to purchase it through Linkbase, which is amazing and saves us so much time with the communications and guests honestly love it. So I wasn't sure at first if it was going to be something like a little bit too salesy, but it actually adds a ton of value to the guests and makes it a lot easier for us as well.

Yeah, we are providing a service, aren't you? And there's no one out there that needs to say that service needs to be for free. You're already providing a high level quality product and you've got the hospitality. It's not like you're charging them for each towel they use. That's not what you're doing. You're providing an extra service. Something that the guests wouldn't necessarily think is included. So that's great. So early check in, late checkout, the movie night basket. What other successful upsells are you using?

Well, we have one of our properties as being from Canada, the excellent weather that we could have in different parts of the country. I know you're a little bit blessed to be in Vancouver on the. On the coast.

I was going to say our weather, we get like some frost and rain. You're in Edmonton so I know you're probably. You already snowed in.

Yeah, pretty, pretty much. It's a little bit chillier here. So yeah, going back to your question, we have a heated garage and we have an additional service for our guests because the other property has a legal basement suite as well. So we actually have it split and it's excellent for the revenue potential of really maximizing one property going back to that real estate investment standpoint. So we have only one spot available for two units. So we do offer that as an additional service. And we have an EV charger in the garage as well. So it's really great for anyone who's has an electric vehicle and wants to, you know, plug it in in a nice heated garage overnight. And a lot of people are happy to pay for that level of service, especially when it's minus 40 here.

Yeah, well, don't scare people. Don't scare people. But it is, it is cold, isn't it? It is cold. But I'm thinking because you've taken an amenity there, which is this heated garage and the EV charger, but you have effectively two units in one property. So it's deciding if you just used it for one, it wouldn't be fair, would it? So this gives both sets of guests the chance to decide if they want to use it or not.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's, it's really nice. So then you could kind of see who would like that service or someone coming with a car, it obviously makes a lot more sense for them to pay for it and then they could leave and their cars charged up overnight and then they could hit the road or go about their day.

Yeah. So cool. Really great. And you mentioned our mutual friend Shiven who has Linkbase. Can you tell us a little bit about Linkbase, like how, how has that tech and that platform helped you?

Yeah, it is such an incredible tool and Shivin is amazing. Especially just the level of service they provide. Starting out I didn't know a ton about it and I wasn't sure how it would all work or how effective it would really be. But the onboarding process and actually getting familiar with the software is super simple. They made it very easy. So you pretty much just give them your bank account information and they just use their processor and a guest whole request. So it's really nice because with a late checkout or early check in maybe you have a same day turnover and you're not sure if you could accommodate it or as you get to a higher level you'll notice that a lot of checkout days or check in days, they're all happening on the same day. So you might have five check ins or something like that. Crazy one day. So it's nice because you could request the early check in or early checkout so the guest will request it and then you could coordinate with your cleaning team and see if you're able to accommodate that. And what we did to actually make sure that we were able to accommodate that is our check in window is from 11 or the guests are scheduled to check out at 11am and check in at 4pm so we coordinated with our cleaners that every clean has to be done by three. So that way we could guarantee guests an extra hour. If they request an early check in and if it's ready sooner, we let them know and we just say, hey, if it's ready any sooner, we'll be happy to provide you the code and you guys could come in, but we could only guarantee an extra hour. So I really love how Shiven is kind of understood from the hosting standpoint that there's a lot going on and you have to coordinate with your team. So to make it a little bit easier to handle logistically by having it be an option to request is amazing. Like it's very well thought out, the way it works.

Yeah, no, I like that. And we'll put a link to, to link base in the show notes so people can go check out Shiven and what he's doing there. Because I can see that there could be a potential conflict like you're offering late checkout and early check in. If you've got that same day turnaround and both of those guests have opted in for late and early, you wouldn't have time to actually clean the property. So I like the idea. That's where that request comes in, isn't it? So you're not dealing with any conflicts like that.

Yeah, exactly. And then we always make a note with our team, we have some amazing virtual assistants we work with and they'll make a note on the guest profile. So then if we have multiple check-ins or multiple checkouts, then we could prioritize the units that have that roomy check in request and then we could move on to the other ones. And we always communicate with our guests like, hey, what time do you plan on checking in? We want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible for you. So if we know that a guest flight doesn't land until atm, then we know that we have a little bit more time and, and flexibility with some of the other turnovers. And then we could prioritize the guests that wanted to have that service of the early check in or late checkout.

And have these add on services, these add on amenities, the upsells, if you will have they helped you increase those direct bookings?

Yeah, I would say that the biggest factor with base and helping with direct bookings is they have not only the upsells, but they have a really nice check in procedure. And we have some condo units so you could buzz yourself in and it has the integration with Glaze or I, I don't even know how, how to say how if I'm pronouncing that right. But yeah, so they have direct integration with that. So then they could just push the button on the app and then open the door. And it makes the check in process really easy because that's probably one of the biggest pain points with the guests is the check in experience. Right. So you want to make sure it is consistent as it is with the OTAs. So then you provide the same level of amazing service and easy check in whether it's a direct booking or on. On the platform. So I think that's the biggest impact with linkbase and direct bookings and then still being able to provide the additional services.

Mm. And are you collecting the guests that don't come directly, that come through a platform? How are you collecting their data?

So right now we're just doing the collection of the email and we also have a guest form. So we try to really word it in a way so it shows the guests like we're really trying to enhance their experience and personalize things for them. So we send it out and they could input some of the most important data that we're looking for, like how often they're coming to the city or how many guests are traveling with them and pets and what their pets' names are. And so then we could have that important data like how often they're coming to the city and then also be able to further provide that level of excellent hospitality by being like, oh, or is your dog Charlie coming in next time? Or like when they book again, be like, hey, welcome back. We're excited to host you and, and your family and, and you know, actually saying their names because it really shows that you care and you remember them.

It's that personal touch, isn't it?

Yeah. So absolutely. So that's what the main things that we're doing right now are to collect the data and then offer that excellent level of hospitality when they book again. And we have some other systems like in our property management software to tag guests who are a repeat guest or if they're a referral and then naming who referred them and, and offering some incentives for different referrals as well. It's like a guest refers to their brother or their friends and family. We want to be able to reward them for that and be able to offer maybe a little something at the property as a thank you because it is really appreciated. I think referrals then are kind of like the lifeblood of any business. You get a referral and it's like going to be the warmest lead. The best guess and that's honestly probably one of the best or the way that we've actually generated the most direct bookings.

That's great. What I love is hearing how the data that you're getting from your guests, because that is gold dust. It really is getting that data and then understanding what, why they're there, how they're going to have their vacation and what they're going to do. And that has driven your decision to create the movie night basket. And also it will drive decisions for other things, won't it?

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that having a really good understanding of your guest avatar or your ideal guest is how you cater these choices to what services you offer. And going back to the upsell thing, you'll have a really good idea of what upsells to offer or how to market remarketing to these guests. Just understanding the reason that they came to the city, like if they're coming for a concert or something like that, you could maybe mention next time they book or in your email marketing with your follow up, be like, we noticed that you said you really like pink and that was like a concert here last summer. So maybe say like, oh, she's coming to town or someone similar is coming to town again. So if you would like to book with us again directly, we'll give you a special rate or you know, offer that movie night basket when they come back again.

I love it. So it's a great idea and you're just mashing it up in Edmonton. You really, really are. Now, okay, what if somebody who came to you and they said, and chad, I really want to do what you're doing. What's one piece of advice that you would give to get them started?

Yeah, I would say number one is just making sure that you're providing that excellent service because at the end of the day, nothing else really, really matters. If you aren't able to provide guests with an amazing experience and they want to come back and book directly, or whether it's directly or not, if they don't want to come back, then you're not going to get a direct booking or you provide a level of service so good that they want to tell their friends, they want to tell their family and they, they want to come back and book with you again, I would say that's the number one. And then everything else, there's so many different levels that you could go as, you know, I know you're really good with the marketing and the branding. So, yeah, I would say that would be like the number one thing. If you check that off, then you could look at some of these more advanced strategies and other methods on how you could drive more direct bookings.

I think that's really wise, sound advice. Start with what you're offering, the hospitality you're providing and having the best product you can. And that's a great place to start. That is a wonderful place to start. So thank you, Chad. This episode, so many gold nuggets there, so many takeaways for the listeners. So thank you so much for coming on.

Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me, Jenn.