The Blissfully Bold Podcast
A podcast talking all things boundaries, growth and courage for peaceful living. We dig in to boundaries for every day life and learn how to implement and maintain them.
The Blissfully Bold Podcast
Ep. 31- How to Start Your Digital Nomad Dream Life: Exploring the Realities of Long-Term Travel, Budgeting, and Remote Work with Susan Montiel
In this episode of the Blissfully Bold Podcast, I have a chat with Susan Montiel, a cultural anthropologist turned digital nomad. Susan and I dive deep into what it truly takes to live the digital nomad life—balancing budgets, adjusting expectations, and making financial decisions. From the importance of choosing a good Airbnb to handling the day-to-day realities where you’re more than just a tourist, Susan shares her personal journey of exploring over 17 countries while running a short-term rental management company. We also discuss navigating the challenges, such as staying within your budget while still enjoying life abroad. If you’re dreaming about taking the digital nomad plunge or just curious about long-term travel, grab your coffee and join us!
04:18 Meet Susan Montiel: Digital Nomad Extraordinaire
06:56 Susan's Journey to Becoming a Digital Nomad
13:14 Making Remote Work Possible
19:22 Financial Realities of Digital Nomad Life
26:50 Embracing Family Travel
27:23 Transitioning to a Travel Lifestyle
28:11 Traveling with Kids: Challenges and Solutions
29:11 Finding the Perfect Airbnb for Long-Term Stays
31:32 Importance of a Good Host
32:08 Navigating Health Issues Abroad
32:32 Evaluating Airbnb Hosts and Reviews
38:12 The Reality of Long-Term Travel
39:07 Balancing Travel and Settling Down
40:55 Investing in Airbnb Properties
41:36 Services Offered by Our Company
42:16 The Future of Airbnb and Market Shifts
46:34 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
47:28 Parting Wisdom for Aspiring Digital Nomads
49:44 Closing Remarks and Announcements
Susan Montiel is a cultural anthropologist turned digital nomad, full-time traveler, and entrepreneur with a passion for creating memorable experiences through short-term rental management. With her husband, she has explored over 17 countries and spent a year living the digital nomad lifestyle, staying in Airbnbs around the globe. Inspired by their experiences as guests, Susan and her husband founded Casa Montiel Properties, combining their passion for travel and their expertise in hospitality.
Connect with Susan:
- Website: www.casamontielproperties.com
- Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmontiel/
- Instagram: @casamontielproperties
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You're not a tourist when you're living this digital nomad life in like the various places, the different countries, like you still have to maintain reality, right? So can you tell us a little bit about like what it actually takes to like live there and balance your budget and Like getting in the mindset of like i'm not a tourist i'm living here
Yeah, it honestly it takes it takes a little while to get there Like you're gonna make some financial mistakes when you're out there and we have totally Done that where we we've overspent and we've had to sit down and say, okay, um, we need to not spend like that again.
Um, but yeah, you do have to maintain the budget. You do have to. Go grocery shopping, make your food, make your food at home. Um, pick your outings wisely. You know, we were, we were in Venice, uh, for new years, a couple of years ago. And Venice, you're like, I want to go on a gondola ride and I want to go here and I want to do this.
Well, Venice was part of a longer three month European trip that we were on. And we. We were, you know, taking weekend trips. Um, we were in Florence and we would take a weekend trip to Pisa. And then in this particular time, it was Venice. When we got to Venice, you know, you're going to spend 150 euro to 180 euro for that beautiful gondola ride.
And you've got to ask yourself, okay, is it. Is it worth it for me to do it for somebody? Maybe it is because they've always dreamed about it. They want to do it for others. It's like, I don't know if I want to spend that because it's not 180 on a vacation, it's 180 on a much larger budget of me being in Europe.
So we decided to get some gelato and sit on a beautiful bridge and watch the. The gondolas go by, which was just an alternative. You have to learn some time to adjust your expectations of what you can do when you're out traveling. And that's no different than your, our budgets here. I mean, I know, like, like you said, you're like, Oh, that sounds like the boring budget.
I have to abide by here. You're right. But at least you're not sitting at your park down the street. Uh, you're sitting on beautiful steps in Italy, watching the gondolas. Eating gelato. Eating gelato, right? So it's like, yeah, that's what I go back to saying. I can be broke here or I can be broke in Italy or broke in Spain, right?
Yeah. Um, or I have to budget here or budget there. The same applies. You'll learn to make the adjustments.
Hi, my name is Gabby Ramely and I'm your Boundary Advocate to lead you to a more peaceful life. Four years ago, I was stuck in a deep depression, a fog covered lake in the dead of night, with no idea of where to turn to get back to me or my own needs.
After seeking professional guidance to lead me out of the darkness, advocating for myself, my boundaries, and my overall well being has become a daily practice of self care. Here on the Blissfully Bold podcast, we'll chat about balancing life's chaos within ourselves and in everyday spaces, pumping the brakes on people pleasing and understanding our personal needs to create the peace and happiness we so crave and deserve.
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Hey friend, welcome back to the blissfully bold podcast. This week on the show we have my good friend and former boss Susan Montiel. Susan is a cultural anthropologist turned digital nomad. Full time traveler and entrepreneur with a passion for creating memorable experiences through short term rental management.
From a young age, Susan cultivated a deep love for travel, which inspired her to pursue a degree in cultural anthropology and immerse herself in understanding diverse cultures and ways of life. After gaining experience in the small business world, Susan played a pivotal role in transforming a company into a fully remote workplace.
This transition not only fueled her professional growth, but also enabled her to embrace her dream of traveling full time. With her husband, she has explored over 17 countries and spent a year living in the digital nomad lifestyle, staying in Airbnbs around the globe. Inspired by their experiences as guests and fueled by a shared entrepreneurial spirit, Susan and her husband founded a short term rental management company, Casa Montiel Properties, combining their passion for travel and their expertise in hospitality.
This venture has allowed them to curate unique, welcoming stays for guests while managing properties with care and efficiency. To sustain their nomadic lifestyle and align their love for travel with their long term goals, Susan and her husband are venturing into real estate investing, focusing on acquiring properties and destinations they love to visit.
Their journey reflects a commitment to living life on their terms and creating a sustainable, fulfilling way of life. So in this episode, I feel like I had some really good takeaways. First of all, that digital nomad life has extreme equalities, but there are lifestyle considerations like living in a new destination versus being a tourist in that destination.
Like if you're living in Spain, like, Susan talks about like you can go and you can do all the restaurants and do all the sightseeing and do all that stuff, but then you gotta like look at your budget and be like, can I afford to be a tourist here or do I just like live here? Like if you think about the city that you live in, do you go and do all those touristy things or do you budget to live?
Right. So I thought that was a really great takeaway. Um, and also being able to pick a long term rental that feels like home. Which I think is a really great point. So grab some coffee and join our chat about traveling full time and what it's really like to be a digital nomad. The good the bad and the ugly.
Hey Susan, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining me today. Um, i'm gonna do a proper introduction But like after we record But just for the audience here, like Susan used to be my old manager at my previous job. So I'm actually really happy to have her here today. Uh, it's, it's, uh, going to be a fun conversation.
We're going to be talking about being a digital nomad,
my favorite subject in the whole world. I'm so excited for the conversation
for sure. So. So, as I like to do, I like to ask everyone who comes on the show, what makes you kick ass in a particular area of your life? And for you, I want to know what makes you kick ass at booking like a really great vacation and picking a really good Airbnb because they're not all winners, you know?
That is so, so true. True. So I, I think what makes me kick ass is I've stayed at so many of them. So I think I'm up to about 75 Airbnbs that I've stayed at all over the world. Um, so I have seen the gamut, um, from great properties to like awful properties, all based on my varying budget, but I also own a short term management company as well.
So. A lot of time in this space, really understanding what the market's doing, what the people are doing out there that are really kicking ass at this. You can clearly see when you look at properties, just which ones aren't going to cut, which ones aren't going to give you a good stay. Uh, so all of that, I think together makes it really kind of a superpower of mine.
My niece reached out to me recently and she's like, yeah, I have A trip I'm taking with my friends, help me to pick out Airbnb. I was like, absolutely. I got you. My favorite thing to do.
I got
you.
And we're going to get into that later in this episode of like, what, what do we look for in picking a good Airbnb?
But before we get there, I want to talk about like, what set you on this chase or set you on this, like, So, um, I know that you have this like grand vision of becoming a digital nomad. Now, I know from working with you, right, I know a little bit about you,
like
you used to study cultural anthropology, right?
So how did that tie into like you wanting to explore different cultures and your love for traveling and all of that? Like, take us down that road.
Take you down the road. Okay. I'll try not to go too far down the rabbit hole. Yeah. So, so yes. So I have a bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology, but my love for all things travel started way before that.
Um, I grew up in a house where, you know, we had a vacation, you know, every now and there, I remember vividly my parents taking us to the mountains. So hiking and we went to the mountains for New Year's. Oh, I just really love cut to me being 18 years old. And remember the gentleman I was dating at the time, his family would take summer vacation for a couple of months throughout the summer.
And when we were dating, he invited me and I went. And I have a Hispanic mother, so it was against her wishes. I wasn't married to the guy. Um, but talk about boundaries there, right? I was like, mom, I'm going, and you can't help me, so I was very strong willed. Uh, I, Would go on these one month road trips with him and his family.
And we would go really from like California to Michigan, which is where his family was. Doing all the stops along the way, the museums, the national parks, all of that. Just being gone for a whole month. Amazing for me. I just loved it. Being different parts of our country. We have such a vast country. We have different cultures, different landscapes.
So you can really do a ton of travel, even full time travel, just in our own backyard here in the United States. Um, but that really kind of sparked my love for, for travel. And then cut to time in college. Uh, I actually went to school for, um, biochemistry. I was going to, Go to see if I wanted to do like a nurse practitioner or something like that.
And I had to take an art humanities class. So I picked cultural anthropology 101 and I was like, Oh, my soul right now. Like, I love everything that we're learning, because we talked about cultures, but in a different way. We talked about family systems, and societal expectations, and of course, all the beautiful aspects of the culture, like the art, the dance, and all those things, and literature.
I fell in love and changed major in one semester. My journey into cultures and all Really kind of started from a young age and has just grown to where I'm at today.
So you found a love for traveling pretty early. You know, you talking about going with your ex boyfriend for these month long trips, which is pretty long.
Most people when they're like, oh, like come on vacation with my family and me, it's like a week or two, right? But you're talking about like a whole month. So I imagine that like Um, and I think that's what sparked the interest of like, oh, we can just kind of go and live different places, right? For like a month at a time.
So this series that I'm doing, um, for here in January is the resolutions kind of series where it's like, okay, it's traveling. It's talking about health and fitness. And like, these are the things that people are like setting their rules. resolutions on, right? So we want to know, like, how did you make it happen?
Like, what did you have to do financially for work? Like, so many people work in a corporate environment and they're like, I don't know how the f k I'm supposed to take a month, if not more, like, off. And like, I am in an office and you were actually in an office, office also, right? You weren't, you weren't, Like in a digital setting at that point.
So tell us like, what did you do to make it happen? And like, what's the good, bad and ugly of it all?
All right. Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely all three of those things, the good, the bad and the ugly. So I guess I would start with really kind of. Getting it into your head that this is really what you want to do.
That's, that's the first thing, right? Cause there's a difference between wanting to, you know, take a two week vacation, right? Some people just want a long, good vacation versus I'm going to go for a month versus I'm going to make this my lifestyle and do be a digital nomad. Right. Um, if you're going to do.
The ladder, right? And you are going to want to make this your lifestyle. You need the job that allows you to be able to do that. So, whether or not your current job lets you do that, or if they don't, you can find a way for them to let them do that, which is what I did, or you quit your job. And go find one that does allow you to do that, or you create your own job, you, you become a business owner also, right?
There's all sorts of different ways, and especially since the pandemic, there's so many more businesses out there that are offering remote work as a perk. Yes, there are a lot that want that return to office, right? And you hear that a lot in the news. You, you hear less of all of the businesses out there that are okay with you not doing that.
But the reality is, is that there are so many businesses that do, and there's actually content creators out there and influencers that their job is to help you find Remote work opportunities so you can actually travel. Um, there's one that I've followed for a long time She's on Instagram hers is it's a travel OD and every Friday She puts out remote gig Friday, and she gives you all sorts of jobs where people are looking for Remote workers, so there's all sorts of resources out there to do that So when I started, I knew that this was something that I wanted to do.
I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I wanted to figure it out. And at the time I had, uh, a place that I was working a job and one of the owners wanted to move to Houston. We were based out in San Diego and he wanted to move to Houston really for work, to expand into markets out there. So we had to.
Develop some operational processes to allow him to, to do that. So I worked with my team and we got things up and running. It was a little bit of trial and error. And I thought, well, okay, if, if he can go do that, right. And we've set things up and it's been successful. Then I went to my boss, one of my other bosses and said, how can we make it so that.
More of us can work. He did it. I want to do it. Yeah, if he can do it and you guys are already approving that. And he's the owner, then how do we make this accessible to all of us? And we had, we had a little bit of back and forth with it. My manager at the time was a bit more old school, right? Still liked his yellow pad of paper and, you know, writing his notes that way.
So it took a little bit of convincing, but any chance I got I would plug for. Oh, you see how easy that was that we could do that? We could totally do this from home or things like that. Way to sell it. Then I started to get, yeah. And then I started to get smart. And I was like, you know, we could really cut down on our rent expense because we had an office that had two sections.
And I was like, we probably won't need that other section in that room. If we opened it up for remote work, we can also expand to different markets to find sales people, different people have different salaries and different parts of the country. So I tried to. Play my cards right. Yeah. And relate it to business.
Um, deep down. I just wanted to be able to travel myself and go full time. Um, but he slowly started to agree and said, okay, let's start with salespeople. I was not a salesperson. I was an operation. So I was like, okay, I got to let other people go ahead of me. So we started with sales. That panned out well, and then we went to kind of marketing and then we eventually got to the operations team, which I was, I was a part of.
So I worked on it, honestly, it took a couple of years and this whole journey. Has taken years to get to so I think that's really important for people to know because you're scrolling your Instagram You're like, I want that lifestyle. That looks amazing. It's not quick. And even if you leave quickly, you're probably gonna come back Figured out that's happened to me before Where I did the journey and then I came back and, okay, well that didn't work.
'cause I ran out of money and then, okay, I worked a little bit and got an apartment. Mm-hmm . And then like, okay, I'm hitting the road again. So
it's
a journey. It's not as easy as everybody and every guru and influencer out there makes it, makes it seem, especially as you're trying to figure out your money situation.
Mm-hmm .
But I would tell my, my husband, I was like, well, we can be broke in San Diego. Or broken Spain. And, and, you know, that does, that translates differently because it is much more expensive to be in San Diego than Spain, but that was the mentality that I
started
to develop before we even met. Got going, you know, is that money's money, make it work.
Yeah. And that's crazier to even think like we can be broke in San Diego, which we probably will be because the cost of living is a little higher than it is in Spain. Right. And it's like in Spain, I get to see all the like cool things and experience the culture. So it's like, Do you want to be broke in San Diego, where I've seen, like, most of the things most of my life?
Or do you want to be broke in Spain?
Exactly, exactly. And as soon as we started doing it, we started realizing that Just as we're in another part of a country, of our country, or a different country, we still have to budget. We still have to have money coming in. You know, your finances don't change just because you went to another country.
Maybe you can do a little bit more. Right? Because you have, depending on the country you go to, cost of living is less. So you have a little bit more, but what ends up happening is you're like, I've got a little bit more. YOLO. I'm going here. I'm going there. And then you're like, Oh shit, I totally overspent and I put money on my credit card.
Right? So you still got to go through, you still got a budget. You still got to do what you need to do financially to, you know, maintain your monthly finances, even when you're living this kind of life. So.
So let's talk about then, you're talking about like maintaining your monthly budget, and it's like, that fucking sounds like me living at home.
I know. Like, so that brings me to the point, like, you're not a tourist when you're living this digital nomad life in like the various places, the different countries, like you still have to maintain reality, right? So can you tell us a little bit about like what it actually takes to like live there and balance your budget and like getting In the mindset of like, I'm not a tourist.
I'm living here.
Yeah, it honestly it takes it takes a little while to get there Like you're gonna make some financial mistakes when you're out there and we have totally Done that where we we've overspent and we've had to sit down and say okay Um, we need to not spend like that again, um, but yeah, you do have to maintain the budget you do have to Go grocery shopping, make your food, make your food at home.
Um, pick your outings wisely. You know, we were, we were in Venice, uh, for new years, a couple of years ago and Venice, you're like, I want to go on a gondola ride and I want to go here and I want to do this. Well, Venice was part of a longer three month European trip that we were on. And we. We were, you know, taking weekend trips, um, we were in Florence and we would take a weekend trip to Pisa and then in this particular time it was Venice.
When we got to Venice, You know, you're going to spend 150 euro to 180 euro for that beautiful gondola ride. And you've got to ask yourself, okay, is it, is it worth it for me to do it? For somebody, maybe it is because they've always dreamed about it. They want to do it. For others, it's like, I don't know if I want to spend that because it's not 180 on a vacation.
It's 180 on a much larger budget of me being in Europe. So we decided to get some gelato and sit on a beautiful bridge and watch the the gondolas go by, which was just an alternative. You have to learn some time to adjust your expectations of what you can do when you're out traveling. And that's no different than your our budget's here!
I mean, I know like Like you said, you're like, Oh, that sounds like the boring budget I have to abide by here. You're right. But at least you're not sitting at your park down the street. Uh, you're sitting on beautiful steps in Italy, watching the gondolas eating gelato, eating gelato. Right. So it's like, yeah, that's what I go back to.
I'm saying I can be broke here. I can be broken Italy or broken Spain. Right. Um, or I have to budget here or budget there the same applies and you'll learn to make the adjustments.
Right. That's awesome. I love that. I love that. You're just sitting there eating gelato and it's like, hmm. Yeah, this is still better than me sitting at home and me not having the gondola ride.
At the park bench with a slurpee or something like that. It's
just not the same, right? Oh my gosh, it's not like, this is you at the park bench with a slurpee. This is me watching Gondolas and eating gelato.
And I make it sound like poor me, I'm so broke, right? Like, I'm so broke, I had to do this,
right? When I went to Italy, like, I had pizza.
This is when I was still eating dairy. I ate pizza like almost every single day. And the same thing with gelato. I hate so much gelato because it's so like accessible there. It's like literally a Starbucks, like on every corner here, right? You got gelato and pizza everywhere and it's delicious. And it's not as expensive because.
Like I said, it's on every corner. Exactly.
And it was funny because in this same trip, again, like we were, we were budgeting as it was also new year. So like all the hotels, everything was a little bit more expensive. There were a lot more people, you know, supply and demand, all the prices go up. But we spent a lot of time eating in like the little, the little cafe, the little bar where they have the little Italian, like sandwiches for a Euro, right?
We were doing that throughout our whole trip because we're trying to make our money. And I remember we were laughing because we were waiting for the fireworks to start and we were sitting on the steps of of a restaurant and we were kind of laughing because we looked in the window and there were, it was a fancy restaurant, all these people are eating and we looked at each other and I was like, I feel like we're these poor peasants that are just sitting on the outside steps and within 10 minutes there was actually a maitre d that came out and he was like, you can't, You can't sit here.
You guys got to go. And I was like, I totally feel like a peasant that just got swept with the broom to like get off the steps of this beautiful restaurant. But hey, I still got to see the new year's fireworks in Venice. So it was a good trade off.
That is so funny. Like, I just have this image of like.
Have you seen Aladdin where he's like breaking off the bread to give to the little kids? And it's like you're sitting on this stoop eating a piece of breadstick or something. That's what I have in my
head. That's exactly what it felt like. That is so funny. But again, woe is me. Poor me. I'm in Italy for New Year's.
So you mentioned about all the hotels being booked and stuff, right? So part of traveling is anticipating some of those busier times, right? And so getting around the hotels and instead booking an airbnb So, how do you find a good airbnb? We talked about this a little earlier that you've stayed in plenty.
You've seen like the awful airbnb's You've seen the really great airbnb's like, well, it makes a good one. And what are some red flags to look for? To avoid those.
Yeah, which there's, there's so many. So you definitely want to do it. And it's a little bit harder sometimes when you're in a foreign country because you don't quite know what you're getting.
Uh,
tricks of, tricks of photography in, in our market in the U. S. also. Um, but it really kind of depends what kind of stay that you're talking about. I mean, we're talking about long term travel here. So I'll stop there. Stick with that. But of course, if you're going for a weekend or a vacation trip, you're looking for certain things to make your vacation, uh, better.
Depends who you're going with. If you're traveling with children,
you want to
make sure that you have, uh, Entertainment, things to keep them occupied, great places to sleep, sofas, play areas, all of that kind of stuff.
Non breakable things.
Non breakable things. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and that's actually, you know, if you're traveling with kids, first off, there's so many more families out there that are doing this full time travel lifestyle with families that it makes me really excited.
Um, and this, Kind of goes off on a little tangent, I'll make it quick, but part of another reason that solidified my desire to do that is my husband and I had trouble having children and we got to a point where we would need help to do it. And we decided that that was not for us for us. When you So when your life is no longer planned out or the vision of the life that you had is no longer planned out, you have the ability to stop and say, well, what do we want our life to be like?
So I swapped us not having kids to my next baby, which is my love for travel. And how do we actually do this full time? But I remember always being told. It's so good that you're traveling now. Do it now because when you have kids, you can't do it. And that actually delayed me having children. And I always felt like that also contributed to like infertility that we had because I waited a lot longer.
That, that was my personal, um, feeling about my own situation. Anyways, I, I love the fact now, part of, part of that's cultural, part of that's economical, those kinds of comments. Um, I totally am not disillusioned that traveling with kids is, is very hard. But. I do see more and more families that are wanting to do that and are doing it successfully.
Whether they're doing the van life, the RV life, or literally living in Bali with their children. I have one lady that I follow also on Instagram. You know, they're in Greece one month. She's in South Africa the next. They do semester at 10. C with her children. Um, so anyways, there are more Airbnbs, short term rentals that are catering to midterm or longer term rentals for families that have children also.
So that's one thing that is becoming competitive out there. So if you're a family, you know, you can go to Airbnb and put some filters on and look for cribs, look for baby monitors, uh, look for children's. Play toys and cups like Airbnbs actually added those as amenities because more and more people are doing it, which I think is really, which is really great.
But, um, for us as midterm travelers, we're looking for a place that we can make it a home or call it home for the month, two months, three months. It's different if you're going on vacation, you don't really care what the sofa is like when you're on vacation, right? Because you don't plan on being home. Too often.
Right.
But when you are a full time traveler, you're going to be there for two months, and especially if you're working remotely.
You
want that comfortable sofa. You need the dedicated workspace. You need a dining room table. You need a fully stocked kitchen, right? You need comfortable bedding. Depending on you and your partner, you may need a king bed.
I don't mind sleeping on a queen bed with my husband if we're gone for a weekend, but for two months, no, I'm sorry. I need my king. I need my king bed. Right? So there's all sorts of things like that, that if you're doing this long term, your mindset and what you're looking for has to change. Because it has to be home for one month, two months, three months, however long you're going to be there.
Okay. That makes sense. So when you're looking at that and you're like, okay, like I need to book this long term and you have to get out of that. That mindset, again, of me being a tourist or me being on vacation. And it's like, okay, what looks really awesome? Because I think that people can look at Airbnbs and be like, Oh, this place looks great.
And it's kind of like the shiny object syndrome where it's like, Oh, like this, like, but it has a pool, but it's like, how's everything else? So like, what are the things that we should like, okay. Like you're talking about, like, think about the bed and. All that so if someone if I like if I were gonna look for an Airbnb and I would think like, okay What's gonna feel like home for me?
What are some things I can like as a checklist or something think about like what are some things you mentioned the bed? You mentioned a comfy couch a workspace The kitchen is there anything else that we would like maybe walkability to places or things like that?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely And even in those things that you mentioned like the beds You know, there's so much also to look at when you want to make sure you're having a good stay as well because Maybe you're okay dealing with a bad host if you're there for a weekend
But if
you're living in somebody's home for a month or two months You want to make sure that the person whose home you're living in is somebody who you're going to want to Talk to engage with also if you're going abroad for so long Your host is really like your point of contact In case something happens.
You know, we were, we were in Spain and we got COVID in the first couple of days that we were there. And this was in 2023. And I had dodged the COVID bullet for three years. And then we got hit within a couple of days of being there. And we were basically like dead for two weeks, but I had to reach out to my host about what kind of medication can I take here that's safe for me?
That's locally or like, where's the nearest hospital? How, how can I, as a tourist, you know, see a doctor, like, what are those kinds of things? So when you're staying for longer, you want to make sure your host is good. So when I'm looking for a place. Yes, I'm looking at all of that information, but I also want to look at a couple of things to see if the host is a good and active host.
So, what is their rating, and what are the reviews that they've had? And then have they had recent reviews? You know, if it's December of 2024 and I go and I see their last review was in April of 2024, then why isn't anybody else staying in this property? Recently did something happen. So I'm looking for those things on the reviews.
I'm also looking for how hosts respond to the reviews. So if you've seen this, but a host can actually reply to the public review that you leave them. So if I see a review where somebody said, it was really hard to check in and the host responds, well, I sent you the, I sent you the check and instructions.
I told you how you could do this. Yeah. It's a little snippy. That's a little like you remember they're in customer service and hospitality. So if they're constantly complaining that it's not. It's the guest's fault about why something happened.
I don't
want that to be my host for two months when I ran into an issue.
And sometimes reviews are deceiving too, honestly. I've stayed at places that are 4. 95 great reviews and I walk in and I'm like, what is this place? I've had to check out of, I think, Two, two Airbnbs in my lifetime. I've checked in and checked back out.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, you can walk into some crazy Airbnb sometimes, even when you think they're, they're, they're good, you know, but definitely looking at the host and how they respond because you're going to be there for a while, you know, things like even bedding, you know, look for those four, four fluffy pillows on their, their bed and white bedding because Plenty of Airbnbs out there have colored bedding and the only reason, the only reason that a host would not put white is because they have to turn those over if there's stains or things like that.
They don't
want to have the expense of doing that. That's why hotels all do white, right? So I won't book a place that has, I literally will not book a place that has colored, colored bedding. I just don't. Put, put the theme of your, you know, Airbnb and the walls and the decor and all of that stuff, not in the bedding, right?
Yeah.
Wow, I wouldn't have even thought of that to be like nah, they don't have white sheets. I'm not staying there. Yeah
No I definitely don't do that. Yeah, I, I wouldn't do that. And I, I have that insight too, cause I'm in the industry. Right. So I I've, I've stated so many Airbnbs and I see a lot of chatter with Airbnb hosts and revenue expenses, all of that kind of stuff.
Um,
but definitely like the bedding, right. The decor, those full kitchens, dedicated workspaces. And then going back to what you were saying to also like transportation,
am
I local to things? And especially if you're traveling abroad, because I'm going to be in Europe or I'm going to be in Mexico for three months.
I don't have, I didn't bring my car with me.
Right.
Right. Um, if I'm going to do weekend trips, depending on where I'm at, I might rent a car, but I'm not going to keep a car for the full three months that I'm there.
So
I want to be in a place that Is walkable or either to cafes, restaurants, coffee houses, things like that.
Because I
work from home, I want to get out of my house. I don't want to be here all the time. So I need to go to a coffee shop. So as I've been walking distance, um, And then things like public transportation and maybe even like museums things like that Also, but then you can also uber too There's a lot of places obviously that have uber or their version of uber that's inexpensive So yeah, those are definitely important to look at
for sure and also like a co working space You mentioned coffee shops and you know you working from home But I think something to look into also if you do want that escape from your from your house Or from wherever you're staying like is there?
You A nice coworking space that you would want to be at nearby, right? And of course you don't want to travel or commute to a coworking space.
Right, exactly. And depending on like your employer, I would definitely, if you actually are an employee of a company that you work remotely for, there's a number of them that give you an allowance for a coworking space.
And there's others that don't, right? So I think it's important to ask your your boss if they offer any kind of stipend um for that and then be And then be con be conscious of How you're still interacting with your employees, because if you're in Spain and in a cafe, maybe the rest of your employees are not right.
So if you're on a zoom and you're having issues hearing, like you still have to understand that you're there, you're working, you got a nine to five still you have to apply to, right. It's true. Um, but that is one thing that I enjoyed about being in, in Europe is that, uh, because of the, uh, eight hour time zone difference.
I actually didn't need to start work until 4 p. m. my time in Spain. So I was able to get up, do what I wanted to do, go see a museum, have lunch, siesta, and then come back and start working from 4 p. m. to 11 to be on the same time zone of my, my co workers. So that was a big plus.
That sounds pretty nice.
You're just selling the dream. I'm
selling the dream. I'm selling the dream. I'm selling the dream. But, but it is a dream. It's great. But again, budgets, you're away from your family or you're, you're away from your network for a long time.
Oh yeah, we touched on that. Yeah. Yeah.
You're away from your network for a long time.
And especially if you have a time zone different, that can make it Um, if you have a medical issue, like my husband's a marathoner, and he totally ate it one day running and hit his head and blood gushing and all of that, having to navigate all of that kind of stuff. And also the life of constantly being on the move, like it is great when you see the Instagram highlight reel, but it's also exhausting for every month you have to figure out where you're living.
Or if you're trying to hop every month, right? Or you're constantly, constantly researching. I'm constantly researching where I'm living, how to get places, um, what museums, what bars, what restaurants, what cafes, what events, constantly, constantly. Right? And it gets, it does get exhausting also, but again, it goes back to Portland.
I'm exhausted. I'm planning all this travel and where I'm going to eat in Spain, but it is, it is a reality. You do get fatigued with it. So
with that fatigue, do you ever think like, oh, there's like, I really would like to settle down in one place. Like, do you ever get that feeling of like, you know, maybe, maybe we should just relax here for a couple years
or something.
All the time, all the time. I looked at my husband, I think, this weekend. I'm like, are we still enjoying this lifestyle? Because, We're, we're in the U. S. right now, but, um, I, I'm, I'm, I'm in Virginia right now because we are looking to purchase an investment property to turn into an Airbnb, but we have a short lease with the apartment that we have right now because we're trying to get into this other property and, um, I have family here and I don't want to purchase a bunch of furniture
for
me here because I need to purchase it for this investment property.
So my apartment right now is basically all my family members just like donated like a couch, a seat, a pan, a this, a that, you know? So it's like we're in this little makeshift home that we've had to, to make, you know? And I've got my, TV that my aunt lent me on a big cardboard box right now, and Those kinds of things make me look at my husband and I'm like, are we, I don't have my stuff.
That's, that's another thing, right? Is you don't have the comforts of that blanket you love or, or your bed. You know, my, my full kitchenware that I have and my blender what, whatever it is in your home, my books, my stuff, you know?
Mm-hmm .
Um, so that also makes it a challenge. And I look at him, I'm like, we're still enjoying this.
Yes. Yes. Okay, let's. Because the vision of where we're at is like, really going to get us to a point where we're getting those things for ourselves. So,
right. And as you mentioned, it's temporary because you're going to turn this, um, you're going to purchase the investment property and turn it into an Airbnb.
So you actually work with, um, your clients to help them both like turn their Airbnb into something that is affordable.
And you're also doing the investment properties to create an AirBnB, right? So can you tell us a little bit more about, like, what services you offer and how people can work with you? And, um, You just seem like such a good, like, source of information for traveling and for, like, sourcing out a good Airbnb.
I, I honestly, I honestly love all of it.
So, my husband and I own a company called Costume Retail Properties and, Yes, we offer short term rental management services. So we work with people who own properties who want to turn them into Airbnbs, and we help them do it. I like to tell my owners that we, we help them get into the Airbnb business without having to actually be in the Airbnb business and the day in and day out that that actually requires.
And that's one thing for people to understand. Airbnb, and if you're going to launch one, is a Business and you have to treat it as such you need the legal setup the accounting setup. You need, you know Management for it. You need customer service all of that kind of stuff and in today's airbnb industry And maybe you have or haven't heard it but like in the industry, it's like airbnb bust, you know Airbnbs are highly regulated Markets are super saturated You know, nobody's making money anymore.
There was a high during COVID, but now everybody's returning back to work. And so Airbnb is dying, right? If you Google that, you're going to see some influencer talking about that. But the reality is, is that the market is just shifting. And just like any business, right, we have to adjust to shifts in the market and what's coming out.
So part of what we do is we help our owners navigate all of those shifts. And we work with them to understand what market are you in, what does your property actually look like? And what do we need to do to get it up to par, right? Because everybody wants to just kind of throw furniture together. But as we've been talking, that just doesn't cut it anymore.
You have people like me that are swipe. Nope. Swipe. I don't want to stay there. Right?
Yeah.
So we help all of our, our owners. So that's one side of our business. And then the other part that we're getting into is the actual real estate investing ourselves. So we actually want to own the properties and our, our big grand vision, which I'm, you know, want to look back when I'm 50 and, and see this, um, is I want air short term rentals, Airbnb's that are in.
All of the locations that we love to travel in that we just, that are ours, we own it. It's our furniture, all our stuff there, of course, all done up nice for everybody. But as we do this digital nomad lifestyle, and we're constantly moving to all the places we love, we're actually staying in our own homes
when we
do that.
And we rent it out when we're not there. So that's kind of like the grand vision.
And we're here
in Virginia looking for that, looking for that first property.
Nice. Yeah, I love that a home in every country how bougie a home in
every country,
which I was kind
of
laughing
because You know As I have my little makeshift apartment here We did go to home goods and I bought I bought a couple things, right?
I did buy our own bed and stuff and
yeah
all of that and I was like we're gonna put in the airbnb That's also me putting it out into the universe. So i'm here to do that So i'm gonna buy some big furniture because I got to do something with it I'm not leaving till I put it into my house here Um, but anyways as we were Strolling through home goods.
I look at my husband and I was like, you know what? We'll never have the problem of me buying too much at home goods or too much at Target or too much clothes because the vision is I have ten houses that I own. And I've got to, I've got to fill them and they're going to be in different places. So my beachfront property is going to have a little bit different decor and then my property in Mexico is going to be a little bit different and I'm going to need clothes that I just leave in every one of them.
So I'm not taking all these suitcases. So I'm like, I need to spend more time. I'm justifying my home goods and my target and my clothing shopping because I've got to fill all these.
That is so funny. All of these homes. So are you the one doing the design then? You don't bring a designer in?
I, I have done some design and I do want to get better at it, but in this next, first property that we're launching of our own, I am contemplating bringing a professional designer in.
Okay.
It really depends on A, your ability and B, what does the market look like in order for you to compete. We have a property in. In Oceanside, California. That's in North San Diego County. And there's so many beautiful homes that are done really well. So in that one or something like that, it's like, yeah, bring in it, bring in a designer.
There's
other properties here in some rural parts of Virginia that I'm like, honestly, if I just brought furniture that matched, I could compete. That isn't goodwill. That isn't goodwill. Um, Furniture, I can compete here and probably do really good. So I think it depends on the budget and the market, but, but that is something I'm learning more about.
That is so funny. Well, I have loved this conversation, Susan. Thank you so much for joining me and telling my audience about how they can go and live their own digital nomad dream and how to pick a good Airbnb whenever they are on vacation or when they're traveling long term. That's fun.
I love it. Thank you so much for having me on, Gaby.
I really appreciate it. I hope you can tell, I could talk about this stuff for hours. I just, I love travel. I love Airbnbs. I'm really getting into real estate and it's just so much fun. I wish more people would really just, just travel and just go for it and either pursue that dream or spend some time outside of their own communities.
Because I think if we really do that, our horizons expand, our eyes expand. You, we see more of the world for what it actually is than what we think it is. And so that for me is just so important. Ciao.
So, I just want one little last, like, parting bit of wisdom for you. For the person who is like, I would really want to be a digital nomad, but I am so scared of, like, not being able to afford it and find a job, like, what is the one thing that they can start, like, looking at right now?
So, I, I would first tell them, it's okay. That you're scared. You should be scared. This is a, is a big thing and it is normal for you to be scared.
But
I would say the first thing to do is A, find a system that allows this to keep it at the forefront of your mind. For me, I followed, I don't know, 50 influencers on Instagram that were doing this lifestyle.
Right. And so all the time on my feed, I would see it, see it, see it reinforced. And I would learn from them on what they're doing. Right. And I was kind of seeing the mistakes they were making before I leaped. There's so much information out there for people on what they can do. There's even programs out there.
If you want to become a digital nomad and learn from people or have a coach, you can actually go out and do that now. So. Consume content right on what you want to do and then work on that job, right? Make sure you have that in place or some sort of savings in place and start working on that If you're not there yet, or you don't think you have the job to do it go find it If you can't find it or you're not prepared for that and you need more skills Go get those skills, right?
Like I said, it can be a longer journey Yeah, you might not do it in 30 days It honestly might take you five years to do this because you feel you need to go learn coding So you can become a software engineer to do it. I don't think you need to there's so many industries marketing um engineering data analytics data analytics, I mean you can go to google and take a You a five month data and a data analyst course and then apply for a data analyst job, right?
So if you need to go do that to get to a point where you can Then do that and be okay with that that it's it's all part of a larger journey
Yeah, just
take it one step at a time.
Awesome. Well, thank you again, Susan. I appreciate it
Thanks,
Gabby. Good talking to
you.
Bye Bye! Thanks for sticking it out to the end here.
I'm glad to have you here with me. So some great points to think about this episode, um, is to have the mentality of do you want to be broke at home or do you want to be broke in Italy? That feels and sounds so fucking bougie as I say it, but it's a really great point because it's like, you're scared to take the leap into this digital nomad lifestyle.
But really, it's like, well, what if I'm broke? Like, that being the common fear, it's like, well, you're broke at home or you're broke in Italy and you get to gelato because it's available everywhere. That sounds like a great opportunity for me. Um, also say no to colored sheets. And if you kind of skipped around this episode, like, if you're thinking, like, what do you mean colored sheets?
Like, just go back and listen, cause it's Um, and I love that Susan talked about digital nomad lifestyles and it being more family friendly these days. And there being more options for people who have kids. So that was really awesome. And then, um, Lastly, how to pick your home away from home because when you're out traveling for a month or two months or three months or however long your extended trip is, like, you want to make sure that you have those comforts of home, right?
So, again, thank you for being here and listening to this episode. If you loved it, share it with a friend. Um, also, you've been listening here for a while. So, go and do me a favor and rate and review the show on Apple Podcast. I know that you guys DM me and y'all tell me how much y'all love the show and all that and that's great, but um, having a review on Apple Podcast actually really helps grow the show.
So that would be a really, like, huge, solid, great favor that you can do for me. Alright, well, until next time, I will see you next week. Bye! This episode was brought to you by the Daily Planner Sheet for the Overthinking High Achiever, the perfect balance to productivity and self reflection. With sections for keeping you accountable of your backburner to dos and your random thoughts of inspiration or worst case scenario, the Daily Planner Sheet for the Overthinking High Achiever has you covered.
Please see the link in the show notes for your free copy. So something I've been working on is And I'm super excited about is the five day microjournaling challenge audio series. Um, I did a challenge back in November, and this is going to be a version of that, but it's going to be available to you any time.
So you don't have to wait for me to put on a live event. You can just go and be like, Oh, I feel like I really want to start a journaling practice, but I don't know where to start. I don't have time for that. Like I'm a busy mom. I just got tons of shit to do all the time. Well, go and do this five day microjournaling challenge.
I know that you're probably thinking, like, journaling, I just said I don't have time. But literally, this, like, builds it into your day. Someone was talking to me the other day about building white space into their schedule to have time to think and just kind of unwind, decompress. Well, microjournaling is building that white space into your day.
Every day, you just literally write down whatever it is that you're thinking. You don't even have to think about what you want to write. You just write what you're thinking, which sounds easy and it is easy. Like whenever you get a thought, instead of going to your notes app in your phone, just write it down on the daily planner sheet and you can download that.
I have the link in the show notes for you.