Keynotes by Casago

Speaker: Welcome to Keynotes, a
podcast just for Casago homeowners.

This is where we explore how to get
the most out of your relationship with

Casago, learn tips and tricks on how
to make more income with your property,

and learn a little bit about the short
term rental industry along the way.

I've been a vacation rental nerd since
my 20s, and the team has finally let

me have this podcast so I can share
everything I've learned with you.

I'm your host, Steve Schwab,
and this is Keynotes.

Hey, welcome to Keynotes.

My name is Steve Schwab,
I'm your host today.

And today, we have a special treat.

We are here with Mike Reinman.

He's the owner of Casago in
both Kona and the Redwoods.

Mike, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me, Steve.

Mike, I've known you
now for about six years?

Thanks.

Yeah.

About six years now.

Yep.

And it's been such a pleasure to
get to know you both professionally

and personally as a friend.

You've always got such great wisdom
and kind things to say and out of all

the people that I know, I think you're
one of the kindest hearted people that

I know when it comes to just general
day to day how you treat people and

I've always really admired that.

Mike, how did you end up?

Getting into hospitality.

Speaker 2: I think part of it goes back
to when I was in the Peace Corps, where,

where I met my wife as well and serving
in the Peace Corps, I think as a going to

a place and being a complete stranger in
this different community, you know, where

you don't speak the language or understand
the culture or anything like that.

I think you become very appreciative
of hospitality and the folks, many of

them did not have much at all from a.

material world, but they had huge hearts.

So I think that was it.

Speaker: Yeah.

That's really cool.

And so when you got out of the
Peace Corps, you ended up doing some

consulting, if I remember right.

And then you ended up starting up your own
short term rental company before Casago.

Speaker 2: Correct.

Yeah.

So I was a teacher.

I was working.

I actually, uh, to take a step back,
like I was fairly close on 9 11.

I was doing joint ventures and the
like in New York and New Jersey.

And I was fairly close on 9 11.

And it just got us thinking about stuff.

My wife and I only had two small kids.

So ended up moving out to California.

And sometimes when you move to a new
place, you see yourself differently.

, and you see the world differently.

Maybe the world sees you differently.

And I think that helps you to
start to start something fresh.

Cause I don't know if I would have
been the entrepreneur if I had stayed

in New Jersey, you know, I'm not sure.

Maybe I would have been the corporate guy.

So moved out.

And one of the things I started doing
was teaching and actually working

with the Spanish speaking community.

My first job moving to California was
I would work with Spanish speakers

that wanted to start a small business.

And I would teach these classes that were
paid for by the small business development

corporation with the government.

And I'd have these
classes and it was great.

I do it in Spanish and stuff.

And we had books and stuff
and it was beautiful.

And I'd go and I'd see , their, they'd
show me, Hey, we just opened our business

and I'd go there and I still go back and
I see their businesses and it's amazing.

This is like 20 something years later.

That's really a great story.

Steve V2: I know last time I was out
there visiting you in the Redwoods, we

traveled to a small little town with a
little cape . And you pointed up to a

house in which you were helping people
at the time, you know, years ago,

taking care of people and educating
them and making sure that they're okay.

And I think that really speaks to The
kind of person you are and where your

heart is and where your mind is often.

Thank

Speaker 2: you, Steve Yeah, I hope so
and I think when we work on building

a team in this business a big part
of that for me is Having like minded

people with me that have that heart.

Yeah people that are
in alignment with you.

Absolutely

, Steve V2: Mike when it comes
to hospitality What's your

approach in delivering?

Speaker 2: I think you've
got to empathize with both.

If you do that properly and that's
your priority, you're going to hit it.

So that's what we do.

So we look at things from the owner's
perspective and I am an owner, I own

some short term rentals and that helps
me have that perspective as well.

And I think when I speak with owners,
they're excited to see that as well.

And then on the hospitality
side for the guests.

It's the same thing.

It's, , what are they looking for?

What works for them?

How can you make it better for them?

One of the things I tell my folks,
including like in Kona, is look, that

person that just got there, they're just
called and maybe they had an issue opening

the lockbox or something like that.

Understand that might be
hour 23 of their travel.

Right.

I mean, these guys came from depend if
they came from the east coast or something

like that, they got to get to the airport.

They got to do maybe
they're traveling with kids.

It is brutal.

So you got to look at it
from that perspective.

How can we make it as
smooth as possible for them?

So looking at changing your lens as
that person, as that host to see it

from their perspective and the same
thing with the homeowner as well.

Steve V2: Yeah, when it comes to Casago
and you being the owner of Casago,

What's unique about Casago as opposed to
maybe others who operate in your market?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean and I
could have done this myself.

I didn't have to do this with Casago.

I wanted to do with Casago because
I saw the strong culture of Caring

that definitely is a match with how
I see things and also The pride and

the knowledge I saw you have got
people that are phenomenal You that

know their stuff so well for them.

You succeeding is something that
has to happen and they're with you.

They're with you in your corner
and they're helping you do

that every step of the way.

Whether it's, I'm looking to expand
my team or I need some different

technology or I'm integrating with this
other OTA and I'll make sure things

go smooth or I'm having a problem with
this OTA and I need help with that.

You know, everything it's,
it's, yeah, it's phenomenal.

, Speaker: when you became the owner
of Casago , , you really embody

that, , local boots on the ground.

And when I'm with you, the last time
I was with you, , phone calls came

in and you're making the decision.

, and speaking to homeowners, , when you
speak to like the big box companies or

other, , companies that might be out
there, I know that often if you want to

talk to somebody who can make a decision.

They could be several states away
and several phone calls away if

you're going to get an answer at all.

And you really become the
person where, you know, the

buck stops with Mike Reinman.

Absolutely.

If somebody wants to speak to the
owner of the company, speak to the

owner of Casalgo, they call you.

And they get , the guy that's in charge.

And it's really cool.

Speaker 2: I love that.

And also our team, we are empowered.

Everybody's empowered.

And a lot of people do a
lot of different aspects.

So really any of us can do any of the
job that the other person is doing,

whether it's picking up a phone call.

Wanted to make a reservation.

They had a couple of questions
first, , going and doing an

inspection of a property, right.

Or doing the backend work on
the, on the software side of

things, all those kinds of things.

We can all do that stuff.

And even the pricing like,
yeah, I'm the expert, but my

team helps that a lot as well.

And they can do changes on that as well.

And yeah, you're an owner, , you
compare it to the big box.

So cool.

Cool.

You're an owner and you say, Hey,
, can you explain this pricing thing?

Or Hey, what if we do this, , now I'm
going to, I'm going to do the analysis

for you, maybe right there on the spot.

Maybe I already know it.

Or I'm going to say, look, give me
a day to do the numbers on this.

I'm going to come back to you
in a day, probably in person,

, because that's how we are.

And we'll go through this stuff and
say, Hey, That was a great question.

Yeah, let's do that.

Let's make that change.

Or, well, we'd kind of recommend
let's it, hold it on the pricing

and stuff and see what happens,

?
, so we're the ones doing that.

It's not somebody else out there doing
it and we have the expertise to do it.

And fortunate where I've got an analytical
background and a computer coding

background, it makes it easy for me to,

Speaker: yeah, so cool.

, it's really the sweet spot between
having an international brand and

enterprise tools to support you, but also
being truly the local business owner.

Boots on the ground, taking
care of your property owners.

Each one at a time is the perfect
sweet spot between the two of them.

Speaker 2: And I love it.

And I love, and those relationships,
, with the owners, I know we're

going to get to that in a little
bit more, but those relationships,

that stuff, that's so special.

That's why I'm, I'm, I'm in this
business for the relationships.

, that's what it's about, not just
with my team, but for the homeowners,

, I've got homeowners that are
super fans, , they're incredible.

If we're thinking about doing something,
we might talk to them about it.

Hey, we're thinking about doing this.

What do you think?

The other thing I just talked to
some of that, I said, Hey, look,

once every couple months, I like to
have a meeting where I want to rotate

where I have three or four owners.

That we're thinking about doing things.

We want feedback from you on these things.

We want to say how are we doing?

What can we do better?

, so I don't know.

I don't think those big
box places are doing that.

No,

Speaker: no, they're not getting a
local Volunteer board of directors on a

personal basis to be able to think about
best decisions in that market, right?

It's very cool that you do that.

So you touched on a little bit.

I'm gonna go into it now We
have this credo inside of

Casago that we all subscribe to.

And it's really about how we take care
of our homeowners and the stakeholders

within, , the ecosystem that's created
by the short term rental, , operations.

And the first tenet of that
is being owner centric.

And that owner centric approach is
foundational to how we do business.

Can you describe what owner
centric is in your own words?

Speaker 2: Absolutely.

And, , an owner, for many of them,
that home that they are renting out may

be one of their biggest investments.

Right?

It may be their biggest investment.

And they also, they may have an
emotional attachment to it as well.

You know, it might be the
house they grew up in.

Or just that they worked really hard to
buy that, , as a, as a couple or , as a

family, or maybe , it was brought down
from their folks and stuff like that too.

So you see that attachment they
have, but the other side of that

is what are their pain points?

What do they want?

What are their priorities?

It's asking and listening, right,
before you start talking, right?

It's dropping your own ego
and really listening to them.

What can we do?

How can we do that?

And how can we over
deliver on that as well?

So, what's their priority?

Their priority might be, I want my
house to be, Kept beautifully, , I

want it to look really well.

I want to always keep it updated.

I want to make changes to it.

I want to, maybe I want
to make it themed now.

Maybe I want to change the theme of it.

The other thing we do with homeowners is
we strongly recommend that they consider

putting 15 percent of their income.

Back into the property every year.

It might be that for that year,
maybe it's you're replacing some

furniture, things like that.

Maybe you're doing some upgrades
in your kitchen, and maybe

it doesn't take the full 15%.

We'll put that aside for the next year.

And maybe that's when you add
that other amenity that you've

been thinking about doing.

Maybe you add the hot tub or the
sauna, or maybe you do the bathroom

remodel, stuff like that, too.

So for us, we're empowering the owner to
both have that income, but also continue

to invest and make that property better.

Right.

And , that's, that's what it's about.

Speaker: So awesome.

So exciting.

Mike, do you have a memorable story
with a homeowner that highlights

why homeowners should come on with
Casago as you being the property

Speaker 2: manager?

Absolutely, Steve.

And this one, like it
gets, it's a little hard.

We have an owner in the Redwoods.

His first name is Jim.

He's a little older.

He was in early stages of
some illness and stuff.

Yeah.

But we hadn't met him.

He actually was introduced to us
by his CPA who was also our CPA and

said, Hey, you should think about this
because he had this other property

next to his that he had built for
his brother that had passed away and

he wasn't sure what to do with it.

So we looked at it.

We met with Jim.

Great guy.

And we looked at the property and said,
Look, we think we can do this for you.

He said, , I don't know anything about
decorating or furniture and stuff.

We said, Don't worry, we got that.

And we started right away.

Like that day we started getting the
furniture and my wife worked on that.

She was part of that, the design.

We have friends that are
really good at science.

We had them to make sure
it was themed properly.

, when we had work done on it, we
all, we managed all that stuff,

really worked closely with him.

And then we got to turn around.

I think we had it live within a month
or five weeks or something like that.

You know, it was great.

And now he's talking about
putting a hot tub in there because

it's been going really well.

It's been something where he
said, , this is so nice for me.

And.

The key here also is he's
been getting nice cash flow.

That's all great.

But now as he's getting to a later
stage in life, His daughter now has

the opportunity to own something that's
running, and it's generating great income,

and it's staying in great shape, right?

And it's growing in value
and stuff like that.

So that he gets to hand that, and
that makes him feel really good.

And he says that to us.

By the way, he comes to
our Super Bowl parties.

You know?

I mean, it's great.

He comes.

My wife loves playing, um, what is it?

They go in the, to these places,
and you do the trivial pursuit.

He'll come sometimes to that.

, it's fun.

So we bring them into the
family and it's great.

I love it.

I love that.

Yeah.

We also

Speaker: talk often about building
relationships that transcend business

and that's a perfect example of
building those relationships that

it's not, they're not transactional.

They're truly relationships that
value the human, absolutely not

just there for, to use the human.

Right.

And I love that about the way you
operate, , in everything you do,

Speaker 2: Mike.

Thank you.

It's fun.

It's fun.

We enjoy it.

Right.

Right.

And also you're also.

Just because you build that
relationship of friendship and trust

doesn't mean you're also not giving
your all as a business person and

making sure that that house, which
is also their business is succeeding.

, that's what we do.

Exactly.

Steve V2: So Mike, if somebody wants to
get ahold of you to talk about property

management, maybe they've heard the
podcast or have seen something and want to

reach out and, and have a discussion about
how you can help them with their property.

What email or phone number
should they reach out with?

Speaker 2: Sure, they can call
my direct number, 707 496 8746.

And for email, they can use my
Redwoods with an S, gm at cossago.

com.

And I'd love to talk to him.

We love what we do.

That's great.

Speaker: You guys, if you get a
chance to talk to Mike, even if

you don't sign up, it's well worth
the time just to get to know him.

Mike, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Really appreciate you.

And we'll talk to you soon.

Thanks so much, Steve.

Appreciate it.