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Sustainable Short Term Rentals with Bob Garner
Bob Garner, co-founder of Enviro Rental, shares his story of transitioning from corporate life in London to running sustainable holiday apartments in Central Italy. He talks about the challenges and rewards of hosting vacation rentals and the importance of sustainability and building long-term relationships with guests.
Avery:
Hey guys, welcome back to the short-term rental podcast. Today, we’ve got a really cool guest. His name’s Bob Garner, and he has a company called Enviro Rental. We haven’t really talked about environmentally friendly or green initiatives related to short-term rentals, so I’m really interested to have this conversation today. How’s it going, Bob?
Bob:
I’m doing great, Avery. Thanks for inviting me.
Avery:
Thanks for coming! Where are you calling in from?
Bob:
I’m calling in from Central Italy.
Avery:
Nice! Although I’m English, as you can probably tell from my accent, Central Italy sounds amazing.
Bob:
It’s not too bad, I can’t complain! Yeah, it’s a great place to be.
Avery:
Let’s just start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into short-term rentals, and then we can get into your company.
Bob:
Of course! So, my partner and I used to live in London, and we both had corporate jobs. Eventually, we got tired of the rat race where you make a lot of money but end up working too hard. We wanted more of a work-life balance, so about 18 years ago, we moved to Italy. We bought an old farmhouse that was in pretty bad shape and renovated it into six sustainable holiday apartments. We didn’t know much about vacation rentals at the time, but we realized we loved it. We’ve been doing it ever since, hosting guests and encouraging people to live more sustainably.
Avery:
Wow, that sounds like quite a journey! It’s easy to burn out, but you sound like you’re still excited about what you do.
Bob:
We really are! We live on-site, so we interact with our guests every day, which keeps it interesting and fun. The best part of our job is the guests—talking to them, hosting them, socializing. We have all the usual tasks to do, but the fun part is definitely the people.
Avery:
It sounds like you’ve got a great setup. You mentioned that you have a high return rate?
Bob:
Yes, about 65% of our guests return. They book directly through our website, and many of them have become more like friends than customers. We’re lucky to have such a loyal group of people who love what we do and our environmental sustainability aspects.
Avery:
That’s amazing. How do you keep things fresh for your returning guests?
Bob:
We make sure we’re always on top of our game, keeping things vibrant and exciting. People love Italy, but they also come back because they like what we offer and how we host them. We focus on giving them a great experience and promoting sustainable living at the same time. It’s all about delivering on those two things, and it seems to resonate with our guests.