The City of Portland's Bureau of Development Services has been hard at work on a technical solution to make registering as a short-term rental host easier. Their new online portal is up and running here. Check it out!

And hey, if you enjoy staying on-top of regulatory changes, like helping your fellow hosts navigate them successfully, and have about 1-2 hours to volunteer a month, consider joining the Host2Host Advocacy Committee.

We were absolutely thrilled to be invited to the Travel Portland Visitor Center located near Powell’s for a Host2Host open house. Speakers from Travel Portland presented information about all the ways they are equipped and eager to make life easier for hosts and help improve the guest experience when visiting the city. 

We were also excited to hear from Heather Rose from Peak Tours & Transit about different ways for guests and even hosts to experience the great Pacific Northwest.

Travel Portland Printed Guide

Lucky hosts were able to pick up fresh-off-the-press magazine-sized guides for guests to up-level their in-listing experience and entice them to return for even more adventures. They also grabbed an assortment of pamphlets and guest-friendly brochures to restock their onsite house manuals. 

It was great to connect with everyone. Thanks, Travel Portland and Peak Tours & Transit!

On April 20th, Host2Host held a donation drive for two of Portland’s finest non-profit organizations, Blanchet House that serves the homeless population as well as the Oregon Humane Society who serves our furry friends.

We really appreciate ALL of the donations we received. If you missed it but still want to participate, we are still accepting donations so just email us for donation details.

If your guests are anything like me and millions of other travelers, one of the best ways to spend a little downtime when visiting a new city is to peruse an insider’s guide to local attractions. These informative guides include the best things to do, see, eat, and drink in a city. They inspire visitors to broaden their original plans to include some of these vibrant inspirational sights and can elevate the guest experience.

Returning with a Fresh Look!

We all know that the pandemic set the city back in several different ways. One small part of that was not being able to offer a printed guide since 2020 that guests could really curl up with and read while staying in your charming short-term rental. Guess who's back, baby!! That's right. Now, they are better than ever with insider scoops and tons of side quests to get your guests excited about visiting or returning to Portland.

Visitor Center Open House

Travel Portland has invited Host2Host members into their newly opened Visitor Center on April 18th for an in-person open house from 6p-8p. There, you’ll be able to pick up your guide (and even several backups) and meetup with some of your favorite folks from Host2Host. 

Starting at 6:30p, we’ve invited representatives from Travel Portland, as well as local tour operator, Peak Tours & Transit, to talk about all the ways they are available to support hosts. There'll be lots of valuable insights on tour opportunities for guests to really get out there and experience Portland like a local!

Stock Up on Materials

Since the best guides are the ones that help guests get lost and find themselves on a fabulous adventure, make sure you grab more than one to replace them throughout the year. While there, peruse the other pamphlet offerings to refresh your in-listing guest handbook.

Register for the event today!

Submitted by Angela Kockler, Host2Host member and host in SE Portland

On an absolutely beautiful, blue-sky 68° day on Saturday, March 16th, local short-term rental hosts from the Portland metro area teamed up to remove litter from an Inner-Eastside neighborhood of Portland, OR. In 2 short hours, 10 volunteers picked up an estimated 84 pounds of trash!

The weather and the company couldn't have been more perfect for accomplishing our mission, which included several things: generating Neighbor and City goodwill, socializing with other short-term rental hosts, and beautifying our city to help inspire tourism. All of this helps to strengthen our short term rental businesses and collective success. 

As we gathered to start the day, we introduced ourselves, the locations of our rentals, and one operational improvement we are hoping to make this year. Then folks paired off with some new acquaintances, and I overheard more than one promise to follow up and continue the conversations they were having when the event concluded. 

This is an example of a win – win – win type of event. One where we are helping ourselves, helping each other, and helping our broader community. We hope this can become a periodic event for Host2Host, and that we can also use this as an example to demonstrate the value of short-term rental businesses when we advocate with the city of Portland at large.

It also just feels really good to be picking up trash off of our streets so that it's more pleasant on our eyes. I'm grateful to all of the volunteers who showed up. We hope this event will continue to grow over time. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future litter cleanups feel free to contact Angela Kockler.

In February, our Education Committee coordinated a truly informative online meetup featuring three of Host2Host’s favorite photography experts, Carlos Camarena, Amina Moreau, and Jared Whitney. 

This meetup focused on providing hosts with actionable tips they could use to create compelling images for their short-term rental listings.

Complete with a ton of visual references, our panelists provided guidelines to hosts on best practices for lighting, perspective, and staging. 

Our casual and fun roundtable discussion then focused on the relevancy of captions for photos, bulb warmth variance, easy-to-use editing software, and even whether drone images are appropriate for rental properties.

Members of Host2Host can review the webinar on our Members Resources page and check out the links that were included in the chat. For more information about special offers for the Host2Host community, check out their profiles in our Member Directory.

Thanks to all of our panelists for imparting a wealth of knowledge in such a short time and helping our hosts create more compelling listings.

If you'd like to check out the super helpful content, watch the recording on the Host2Host YouTube channel.

Don't forget to like and subscribe! ;-)

As our newsletter readers are probably all aware, BIG changes are in play for the city of Portland’s licensing requirements for short-term rental hosts and the Airbnb pass-through processing system that was but no longer is. RIP.

Last year, the City’s Bureau of Development Services terminated the data-sharing agreement with Airbnb. This resulted in a new requirement to directly submit registration details to the city. While this roll-out has not been without its fair share of hiccups, we believe efforts are moving forward to streamline the process for hosts while ensuring only operators behaving in good faith can continue listing on Airbnb. The city’s promised, easy-access online portal to collect registration details and payments will be rolling out in April. We hope this system will make it easier for hosts to comply and ensure only legally authorized listings remain on the booking platforms.

At Host2Host, we try to protect, educate, and enhance the interests of the short-term rental host. If you’re a host who has been directly impacted by these changes, you can reach the permit office at BDS by email or calling 503-823-2633.

If you enjoy staying on-top of regulatory changes, like helping your fellow hosts navigate them successfully, and have about 1-2 hours to volunteer a month, consider joining the Host2Host Advocacy Committee.

Host2Host founding members and former presidents, Dabney Tompkins and Alan Colley generously donated three nights at their lovely fire lookout tower in Southern Oregon. Their highly coveted and very popular paradise amongst the stars is the perfect getaway from all the hustle and bustle of urban life. Fortunately, this charming space was offered to Host2Host as an auction, held in March. 

As a result of the auction, we were fortunate enough to raise $1,600 including a generous $50 donation to the organization from one of the bidders. We really appreciate the generous offer on this unique piece of perfection in the sky. Many thanks, Dabney & Alan and congrats to the winner!

The Host2Host Board of Directors met to set the course for our upcoming year and we are so excited about our line-up of interesting event offerings! We want to give you a little taste of some of them, keeping in mind there’s a chance we may need to change things due to conflicts or other urgent issues that might come up. Take a look and consider all of the ways you can participate.

• Rediscovering the Soul of Hosting
• Picture Perfect: Photography Tips and Tricks
• SOLVE Cleanup: Lend a Hand
• Host Share & Artisan Showcase
• Tech Trends to Make Hosting Easier
• Travel Portland Visitor Center: Open House
• Hoyt Arboretum Host Hike & Guided Tour
• Slow Season Strategies & HostCo Preview
• Regulatory Updates
• Hosted Home Tour & Design Discussion
• Tax Preparation Panel
• Host2Host Holiday Gathering

Not included in the list are our weekly host chats, some of which will occur in-person or will be moderated to facilitate deeper discussion and introspection. And hey, if you enjoy organizing activities, maybe even consider joining the Education Committee, where the ideas for these events are generated and where the logistics are implemented.

At Host2Host, we like to keep things simple and to offer you an unparalleled opportunity to learn, grow, and connect with other hosts sharing the same struggles and triumphs as you. Every week we offer a host chat opportunities (some of which are moderated and others will be hosted in-person this year), monthly in-depth meetups on a variety of topics important to running a short-term rental business, multiple annual chances to connect and engage in-person at sponsored events, and an informative social media presence.

New Member Benefit
We're also proud this year, to be able to extend a special member benefit - a listing optimization service for just $25 in which one of our resident experts will review your listing description, photos, and rules and offer actionable recommendations to improve it so you can generate more business and enjoy a better overall guest experience and therefore higher ratings.

Membership Level Changes
In the past, Host2Host has had two membership levels for individuals and households. While that was good for folks who enjoyed hosting alone, most of us don’t. We often have not only a partner but also a whole community of friends, family, and even neighbors who help us be reliable, responsible hosts. That’s why, effective April 1st, Host2Host is making it easier for you to bring a friend to events and invite them to participate in our online meetups.

Host2Host Membership
Instead of offering Individual and Household membership, we are streamlining membership levels into a single Host2Host Member offering! Under this type of membership, you are welcome to bring a plus 1 to any event whether in-person or online. If they’re not already a member, we hope they’ll decide to join after spending a little time with us. This guest doesn’t always have to be the same person so you can spread the love around. 

Fee Changes
Annual membership fees under the new, united Host2Host Member level will be $75 per year. Again, this will go into effect on April 1st, so if you would like to renew your membership early at the $60 Individual level, we encourage you to do so. Otherwise, we hope you will enjoy the simplicity and inclusion of the new, unified Host2Host Membership level. We’re here to answer any questions you might have about the changes, so send them our way!