A concierge for short-term rentals: Be My Guest Boulder breaks new ground servicing short-term rentals

Some serial entrepreneurs are not dropping millions of dollars into startup technology companies. They are simply reinventing themselves to take advantage of evolving technology.

So it appears to be with Boulder’s Andrea Tollefsrud. A former American top 20 cyclist and a resident for more than 25 years, she runs bike tours (Boulder Area Bicycle Adventures), a personal training company (Mountain Edge Fitness), and formerly ran a home-cleaning business.

For the last several years, Tollefsrud has been breaking some new ground in the the vacation/short-term-rental industry, assisting property “turnovers,” co-hosting and guest services. A property host herself, Tollefsrud offers services for other hosts in the burgeoning market of Airbnb and VRBO hosts, helping them greet guests and turn over their property for new guests under the Be My Guest Boulder moniker.

“I actually came up with the idea almost seven years ago, and I was doing it for part of 2012 and then really gotten into it since 2013,” Tollefsrud said. “I think entrepreneurship is just in my blood, I really don’t like working for anyone else, and I love being in Boulder.”

For other hosts, Be My Guest Boulder offers a range of services, starting with turnovers (getting new guests into the rooms or home). The most simple of those services includes guest-arrival coordination, key/lock-code management, greeting guests and setting the thermostat prior to the guest arrival.

From there, the company adds a range of cleaning services, some on an hourly rate. Tollefsrud said that the meet-and-greet services not only help alleviate scheduling difficulties for hosts; she also emphasizes getting the guests to review the home.

“That’s important, because that’s how those hosts are going to get ranked in comparison to other hosts,” she said. “The average amount of time I can save someone is about 10 hours a week.”

But Tollefsrud has actually made her management expertise in the short-term-rental market available for much more than turning over the property to new arrivals. With extensive management in Airbnb, VRBO and FlipKey rentals, she actually offers full management services from staging, photographing and listing of properties, essentially co-hosting the property.

“There’s a lot of aspects to helping people start from scratch,” she said. One important aspect is knowing how much to charge, and when to change those rates in light of special events.

“When (CU) graduation comes around, people can’t find a hotel room in Boulder, or even in the nearby area — there simply are not enough rooms,” she said. “I also keep my finger on the pulse of all the events in town, including the sporting events.”

Boulder’s primary booking season is the summer, but Tollefsrud said that often there are surprising months at other times. “Usually the booking season starts in March, and runs through October,” she said.

With global short-term rentals projected to hit $51 billion by 2020 (that since Airbnb’s founding in 2008), Boulder isn’t about to see decline in rentals, she said. Today, her business handles as many as 10 hosting clients during the height of the season.

“Even when they add more hotel rooms, they are still going to be short. This city always gets great accolades s one of the most desirable places in the nation.”

Once she got into the game, Tollefsrud quickly realized that her skills were not only valuable to other hosts, they are valuable to guests, as well. She offers concierge services to vacationing and business guests, ranging from pre-arrival shopping or arranging catered meals to arranging a special night for celebrations such as anniversaries.

“You never know, maybe they want a room sprinkled in rose petals,” she said. “Business travelers have specific expectations and needs, but you can also be helping people thinking of moving here.”

By and large, most recent studies have shown that short-term-rental guests prefer those accommodations over hotels, and Tollefsrud said a big part of that is because of the hosts. With her extensive knowledge of people and business owners in Boulder, she believes her business can elevate the experience — driving even more future guests to her hosts.

Tollefsrud, who also arranges business tours such as a brewery tour, also sees the short-term rental industry as important to the city’s business owners.

“It goes beyond keeping things affordable,” she said. “When people aren’t having to pay that $200 for a hotel room, they have more money to spend on dining and entertainment.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn