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CATCHING BY DANI-ELLE DUBÉ twitterinstagram @danidmedia
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o you want to make a little extra money listing your abode on a homestay or short-term rental marketplace online like Airbnb. It seems like everyone else is doing it, so why can’t you? But with 4,500 other property and room listings in the Ottawa area available on one website alone, what chance would yours have at generating interest? How would your listing even stand out? Enter Trista Lynch-Black, owner of Red Door Interiors. She is a home stager whose bibbidi-bobbidi-boo skills will make your rental pop from the page and attract guests. Trista started her company
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in 2010 and has been offering homestay and short-term rental staging services for over three years. Despite looming changes to Ottawa’s short-term rental rules, she says her services have never been more in demand. Online homestay and short-term rental networks have come a long way over the years. Gone are the days of simply listing your couch or room for rent on a website with a quick description and price tag for wandering nomads. Today, it’s a competitive market with a seemingly endless menu of options where renters can choose listings based on location, type of property, or even design concept. Ottawa listings on Airbnb, for example, have seen about 258,000 guest arrivals staying an average of 3.6 nights at a rate of $104 a night in a one-year period from October 1, 2018 to 2019. So if owners want their listing to be successful and make money in today’s fierce market, Trista advises that it is all about appealability. “I call it adding luxe to your property,” says Trista, who explains that luxe does not only apply to staging with a modern design. “If it’s a character home, you can add a beautiful area rug and you can have a feature wall with some antique pieces.” By putting in that extra bit of effort (and being truthful in their representation), Airbnb Canada spokesperson Lindsey Scully says owners will see several benefits.
