Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Landro.
Hi Kelsey, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My husband and I started our first short-term rental business when we bought our first duplex in 2018. I had always had an interest in real estate and wanted to do some kind of side hustle that involved real estate and interior decorating. As a hairstylist and salon owner, I have always enjoyed a passion for creative industries that allowed me to fuel my creative outlet in a way that was fun, rewarding, and of course, brought in a little extra cash.
My husband jumped on board with the idea of buying a duplex when I suggested that we would live in one unit and Airbnb the other. We both enjoy travel and one of our favorite things about traveling is the places that we stay. We have always had an appreciation for a nice hotel or unique rental that makes the trip more memorable and interesting. There were trials of course during the first couple of years – we lived in a partially furnished basement apartment while strangers enjoyed our new home we purchased as newlyweds. We laughed many times over the funny stories of things we encountered, and the hilariousness of us utilizing a kitchenette and living underground like ninja turtles for our first couple years of marriage.
Thankfully, we also really enjoy eating out so the lack of a kitchen wasn’t too much trouble while we remodeled and made the basement apartment a home. We were shocked by the success of our first rental and decided that we wanted to pursue this further. As life and things changed and a pandemic came along, my husband decided he wanted to pursue something different with his career but wasn’t sure just what that was. It had suddenly come to us that he would find himself much happier as an entrepreneur and having loved running the Airbnb we had started a few years back that maybe he should pursue that as a full-time gig.
From there, we decided we were going to buy another property, he quit his job, and a couple of family members who showed interest in real estate join us in this venture. Together we had all purchased a second duplex in St. Paul, renovated it, and started listing it on Airbnb. We took on the role of managing the properties since we had the experience in running a short-term rental already and my husband now that the time to take on more properties. Since then we have purchased another property on the north shore of Lake Superior in Lutsen, MN that will be hosting guests summer of 2023.
We will continue to pursue more short-term rental homes and act as the managers of each rental along with helping other hosts list and manage their rentals on Airbnb. We decided that since we have always signed off on our messages with “Cheers, K + B” that would be what we would call our property management business. We always want to make our guests feel welcomed and excited about their stay and the sentiment “Cheers” felt like a great way to convey that over messaging. We truly love hosting on Airbnb for so many reasons.
We love the feeling of knowing we were able to make someone else’s trip special, the same way we have felt at a rental before. Whether people are coming for business, pleasure, visiting family, or anything in between, it always feels good to be in a place that feels welcome, and special, and makes your travel easier. From the moment we get the first booking to the time we get the review, we get little moments that being a lot of joy to the process. We look forward to discovering our next destination for a vacation rental!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There certainly have been a few bumps along the way, but overall we have been pleasantly surprised by how smooth it has been! There have always been small challenges like scrambling to find a cleaner when we weren’t available (thankfully there are many more options today than there were 5 years ago when we started). We once had a cleaner not show up while we were out of town in Colorado.
We were out in the mountains with little cell service and got a message from our guest that the apartment hadn’t been cleaned. We panicked and found someone to clean the place, refunded their payment but had them stay, and did our best to make it work. Although it was challenging for the guest given they had a 2-year-old who needed a nap, they had decided to give us a chance to make it right and stayed anyways.
The great news is that even though it could have been a disaster, we recovered and they even came back to stay again the next time they were in the cities. Some of the other challenges along the way have included the financial burdens of purchasing a remodeling a second home. We had all agreed that we would do a couple of small fixes on the property and do most of the work ourselves. That case of the “might-as-wells” happened and we ended up doing a full-blown remodel on the duplex in St. Paul that we had purchased in 2021. It took almost a year for the first unit to be finished listed on Airbnb and another 6 months later for the second.
It was stressful and overwhelming to take on the added expense and time of this and left us all with a feeling of exhaustion and burnout. In the end, we’re glad we did it and the hard work paid off. I feel like I have a great appreciation for downtime and free weekends after sounding a year’s weekend doing housework. Real estate investing can often feel like a game of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but in the end, the stress pays off and it’s all worth it!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I started my career as a hairstylist back in 2008. I had always loved creative fields and had wanted to be a hairstylist, an interior designer, or an event planner. I had always assumed I would go to a traditional 4-year college until it dawned on me that I didn’t have to follow the traditional route of a four-year college and we to cosmetology school instead. I loved every minute of doing my hair.
I love the craft of it, my creativity, and the relationship I have with my clients. It is so fun to have the opportunity to spend 2 hours with someone, get to know them and their families, and also leave them feeling good about themselves and how they look when they’re done. When people ask what I do for a living, I often reply with, “I get paid to hang out with my friends”. My clients have truly become friends and going to work feels like I am out to lunch with a friend. After about 5 years of doing hair, I was ready for another challenge and had always wanted to own my salon. I decided to go back to college to pursue a business degree.
I was never very into the education side of hairstyling and more the business side so I had wanted to pursue that instead. After 4 years I had finished a degree in marketing and had met my now business partner, Gina, at the salon I had been working at at that time. I had been renting a chair at a salon that was looking for new owners and a new space and Gina had asked if it would be something I would be interested in and I was elated. We found a space in 50th and France and opened in November 2019.
It has been such a fun experience and I have learned so much along the way! My husband (the B in “Cheers, K + B”), started his career thinking he wanted to pursue a degree in business. He had been taking classes at UW Milwaukee when realized that he was not all that interested in business, so his love of sports led him to finish his degree in kinesiology. He then worked as a personal client (where a mutual client introduced us), and he managed a small gym in St. Paul. He loved both working with clients and also getting a chance to run the business.
He has always been good at and had a passion for a great customer experience (that’s why he’s so good at running our rentals) so when he worked for a different fitness company where he spent most of his time in an office, he had realized he was missing that passion. At that point is when we decided that may his time in the fitness industry had run it’s course and he was ready to retire from that and pursue something of his own.
His experience over the years of having both face-to-face time with clients, and always organizational and customer service experience has given him many great tools for what he does now running our rental business. It has been a great journey for both of us!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Putting up the Christmas tree. I always loved the Christmas season and the joy it brought to me. My mom and I always loved to do fun, creative things together like decorating, shopping, arts and crafts, etc. We would always have a night after Thanksgiving when we would put on Christmas music, pull out the bins of stuff, make appetizers too much throughout the night, drink egg nog, and put up the decorations.
It was always a magical time and it is something I make my husband do with me still today. He would tell you that his favorite memory is playing sports or the annual trip his family took to the Cayman Islands for spring break.
Grandma and Grandpa had always believed that family was number 1 and made it their priority to create lasting memories with their grandchildren. They purchased a time share in the Cayman Islands and took the entire family and all 9 grandkids every spring break. They all have an incredible family bond that is truly inspiring and amazing.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @cheers_kandb_hospitality
