STR Fact of the Day – Card Pack

Short Term Rentals Are Under Attack!

Cities all across America are rushing to enact laws to dramatically limit or outright ban Short Term Rentals like Airbnb. Because some destination or vacation cities have had problems, they fear that their city will be next and they are highly motivated by this fear to act quickly and strongly to limit or outlaw STRs.

The problem is that the majority of cites are not destination or vacation cities and have little if any problems with STRs at all and never will. But with all the hype, fear and media pushed disaster stories out there, there seem to be now way for you to get the real facts about your city into the hands and minds of your cite staff, Mayor and Councilors?

Now you can! These amazing STR Fact of the Day cards the exactly the tool you need to break through the hyperboly and fear and help city leaders know what’s really going on in your city!

Most city councilor and staff are overwhelmed. In addition to the current COVID-19 Pandemic and its historic effects on global, national and local economies and they heightened political landscape many cities are engaged in with police, justice and race issues, it’s easy for our city leaders to shoot from the hip and go with their first impressions when making policy decisions.

The narrative seeded and fueled by Hotel lobbyists (who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to create an anti STR narrative) and the bad experiences a few destination vacation cities have created a default environment that many city leaders start with and they just assume it to be true in their city too. They have read a horror story article in the New Yorker magazine or a news website about a popular tourist city where STRs are growing faster than some cities want. But chances are, most cities are very different from these destination cities. But how will they know this without the data? Without the facts?

They have read or hear just enough to assume that they know enough and that the best course of action is clear, even though this is normally far from true.

They are afraid they must do something to keep these same things from happening in their city! We know… we’ve fought that exact same misconception and bias. Our Fact cards cut through the negative hype and help them see the great benefits that STRs bring to their city. And they also lay waste to Hotel lobby distortions and lies, and complaints from a few frustrated neighbors.

Change the Narrative!

If you could get one simple message or understanding about Short Term Rentals in your city into the minds of your city council, what would it be? Would it be more than one? What if you could put one key idea, one powerful fact, or one game changing piece of information or knowledge about STR’s into their hands and minds each day for over a month? Would it make a difference? You know it would! And it does!

These STR Fact of the Day cards do exactly that. They give you the tool you need to put the truth about STRs directly into their hearts and minds. And, you don’t have to be adversarial to do it! Thanks to the STR fact cards you can become your city councilor’s friends, by saving them hours and hours of time while bringing them up to speed on what is an otherwise complex and nuanced situation.

By being their allies in collecting and distilling information into easy to digest, bite sized chunks, you’ll do the hard work for them, save them a ton of time and they will actually appreciate it and willingly ingest it! And we’ve done 400 hours of heavy lifting hard work for you! So you get to be the hero’s or closer to zero!

These beautiful fact of the day cards give you something you can give to your city councilors that no one else will even think to give them… time! We’ve spent over 150 hours collecting real data that you can use as an example on how to gather and process your own cities data. We’ve spent over 250 hours, distilling it all down to 32 individual facts cards that focus on one key issues at a time.  We make the sea of data and numbers super simple and easy to understand. Giving these cards to your city leaders saves each of them dozens of hours of trying to learn about, understand and process what STRs really are and how they actually impact their city, their citizens and local economy.

Save yourself hundreds of hours, save your Short Term Rental business!

Each card is a treasure trove of help, just when you need it most!

• 33 Short Term Rental Fact of the Day Cards in two layouts.
• 33 Landscape Layouts – Perfect for sending to desktop users or on printed postcards.
• 33 Portrait Layouts – Perfect for sending to smart phone users or printed posters.
• 4K resolution for great detail on any device and large printing. 3840 x 2160px landscape & 2160 x 3840px Portrait.
• Each card represents an average of over 12 hours of distillation, design, copy writing and polish time, not including collection of raw data, initial presentation of that data in various presentations and reports! Which took an additional 1600 more hours!
• Save hundreds and hundreds of hours of time!
• Some cards contain information worth over $3000 in legal fees!
• A complete educational information campaign you can use to change the hearts and minds of your city leaders.
• Wide range of critical topics and issues, these cards cover all the bases!
• Key concepts and ideas address different ways on more than one card.
• Each card is easy to understand and can be read and understood in a minute or two!
• Powerfully persuasive!
• PDF format for easy editing with Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW or any graphic design program that can edit .PDF files.
• Each card is a “finished” template that you can swap in your own information and data.
• Every key and essential Issue is addressed.
• Understanding what STRs are and how they work can be confusing. But our Fact Cards make the complexity of STRs easy to understand!
• All cards are meticulously hand crafted and clearly designed.
• Complex information is simplified and made easy to understand.
• Professionally written copy to bring laser focus and strong messaging.
• Finely turned and polished.
• Condensed to convey the maximum impact and understanding in the least amount of words.
• Proven effective in communicating the vital information and facts that city leaders need to make wise decisions.
• Illustrated with concrete and easy to understand examples, data and graphics.
• Full customization text and graphics – You can easily edit any and all text or leave the pre-written text and just change your city, contact info and report data on each slide.
• We tell you how we arrived at the data so you save time compiling and reporting your cities STR facts.
• Colors, graphics and images can also be changed.
• Over 250 hours of data distillation, visualization and design time.
• Over 150 hours of research and conceptualization time.
• Over 1500 research hours that was needed in order to create these cards so we would know what they can and need to show!
• Powerfully persuasive!
• Condenses complex information into simple, bit sized chunks, so you can communicate the truth to busy and often overwhelmed city councils, policy makers, city staff, media, social media, presentations, proponents and adversaries.

Fight back! Hotel lobbyists have been working behind the scenes for over a year, spending many millions of dollars trying to limit, control or outright ban STRs because of their disruptive nature to their business model. These STR fact cards give you the information you need to stand up to hotel lobby distortions, lies and misinformation so you can fight back!

Before you didn’t even know they were pushing levers behind the curtain, now, you can pull the curtain back and expose the truth, with facts!

Know Your Rights, Protect Your Rights!

Most hosts don’t know their property rights. Most city staff and council member don’t know your property and privacy rights, or they just don’t care about them! Our STR Fact cards remind them of what they can and can’t do and give you the constitutional and legal facts that protect you from being infringed upon by overzealous ideological do-gooders!

Easy Online Purchase and Instant Download Delivery

You’ll get instant download of your digital file within minuets of your purchase so you’ll be able to start now, and be up and running right away!

FREE Bonus Content!

The STR Fact of the Day Card Set also includes:

• Data Gathering Guide – How to streamline you local research – Save even more time!
• Suggested Uses – How to leverage them for maximum result.
• Suggested Process Steps – For more effective communication and persuasion
• Example Scripts! – Public forum testimonial scripts for City Council meetings!

Personal Testimonies That Work!

Are you uncomfortable speaking in front of other people or not sure what to say? We’ve included some example personal testimony scripts from real STR hosts! These are well written, tightly edited and emotionally powerful testimonies that you can use as inspiration for your own story, pull sections out of for use or just swap in your personal examples. Save hours drafting your own testimonies. Some are even professionally scripted but all have been passionately written and they are very strong and persuasive.

Q & A

Are the STR Fact Cards already customized for my city?

No, Sorry. These are templates that contain real data and issues from a real city. But, the issues and type of data used to make them is common across the country. You will need to gather your own city specific data and then add it to each card. You may also change any specific issues to reflect your own cities issues. The cards save you literally hundreds of hours of time and give you a professional, clean and consistent design and layout which adds great impact and “trust-ability” to your message.

Can I make my own versions of the STR Fact Cards? Absolutely!

You can customize any of the text and body copy to suit your city and replace references to Eugene, contact information, logos, images, colors. You are not allowed to duplicate and make versions that you sell to other cities, persons, and designers etc. that are based on our templates/design.

Are there Generic Versions of STR Fact of the Day Cards available?

Not at this time. We may come out with a set of generic fact cards in the future.

However, many of the cards are fairly or completely generic and can be used basically “as is” after changing your logo and contact information. Others could be made more generic if you don’t want to take the time to collect and apply your cities own unique data. You could change exact number into percentage and be pretty close if your city is not a destination/vacation city. For example, 18% of listings have no review in a year! 37% book rarely (only a few times a year) 43% book occasionally, 10 book half time or more and only 3% book full time in most cities like ours!

Obviously, having exact, city specific data makes a much more powerful argument and makes it much harder for people who are against STRs on ideological grounds to dismiss. It’s worth doing the research!

Are the STR Fact of the Day cards copyrighted?

Yes, all works, text, art (unless it’s not created by us) is copyrighted and protected under international copyright law. When you purchase our templates, you are granted limited use for your city/host organization to use, modify and edit the cards as needed. You do not own the design, content, text or ideas expressed by the cards. You cannot modify them and sell them to others.  You cannot give them away to other organizations. You are granted permission. If you create a card that based on our cards, but contains a new topic or unique presentation of a top and you think it’s great, you may submit it to us for possible inclusion in the pack, but we reserve the right to not include it, and we would include it only with the understanding that we own and control all copyrights to it and may edit or modify it to fit our overall product design and style. Submissions are welcome as they may help other hosts too!

Can I make all the changes and edits to the cards myself?

Yes! You can edit them yourself, find a volunteer to do it or pay someone to do it. We are also available to do this for you at affordable rates. Note: Having us help you will very likely save you money because we know all the cards and design specs intimately, and also ensure that the design stays consistent from card to card (other designers tend to feel an uncontrollable urge to change everything they touch! 😉

What program do I need to edit the STR Fact of the Day cards?

You can use any program that allows editing of .PDF files. We recommend CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator for maximum ease and control. Other programs my work too or may work for changing text but not graphics. Some word processors will also work, but may not allow you to easily change images.

Are fonts included?

Yes, all fonts used in the STR Fact of the Day Cards are included and are also available FREE online. We do include the names of all fonts used and a links to get them!

I don’t have the time or skills to edit these for my city, can I hire someone to do it?

Sure! You can hire anyone locally to help or you can hire us to do it for you. We normally charge $85 per hour for graphic design and editing work, but we are currently offering a limited time discounted rate of $50hr for putting your custom information, logo and numbers into each card. For example we can update all cards with your logo in under an hour!

What if our associations needs help with a logo?

No problem. We have very talented graphic designers that have been doing high end logo design and branding work for decades. They can create a brand and logo for your association without breaking the bank.

What if I need help gathering and verifying my own cities data and adding it into a spread sheet and generating the numbers for my city to add into our fact cards?

We can help with that too! We have data digging pro’s that are able to help. Just contact us with specifics about your city and we can give you a quote.

Are images included?
Mostly! We’ve have either created our own images and graphics or tried to source royalty free images. However, some images may not be licensed for your specific use. Tracking down royalty rights can sometimes be difficult or impossible. If any images are discovered to not be correctly licensed, you will need to either license them for your limited use (normally a small fee) or replace them. This is easy to do! Please notify us if this happens so that we can update our master files also to help save others time in the future.

Do I have to use every card?

No, you can use any cards that you want, in any order that you want, simply by editing the card number.

Can I make more of my own cards?

Sure! Use any card as a starting place, copy it to a new page and edit it until is completely perfect for your needs. If you think you have created a really fantastic new card, and would like to send it to us and grant us permission, we may include it in future versions of the card pack. The card design, text, illustrations (those that are ours) and elements remain the soul property and copyright ownership by Aardvark Hill.

Do I have to customize the contact info and Logo for each card?

Yes. These are example templates that have all the text pre-written, but you will need to swap in your own specific logo, contact info, city name, relevant articles and links and numbers for your local STR hosts. Logo and contact info can just be edited once and then copy/pasted to other pages! Charts and graphs can be edited to match your STR review data once you have compiled that.

Do I have to generate data and numbers for STRs in my city?

Yes, there will be some work involved in collecting and tallying your local data. We provide instructions on how we did it which will save you time. We may also provide the option to purchase the Sisson-Kovash Report spreadsheet, that is already setup without example data and reports and which you can enter your own data from and run the reports that you’ll want from easily.

Is collecting the correct data hard?

Collecting that data is easy, but does take time depending on the size of your city.

We tell you where to get it, how to verify it, and how to use it to estimate bookings from reviews and so on.

Is the data free?

Almost. The best way to collect the data for your city is to purchase a month’s subscription to the AirDNA service. They collect all sorts of data and it’s got most everything you need, which after some manual verification/categorization, will be everything you need to build your own data set from.

It’s very likely that someone in your local STR host association will already have an AirDNA subscription or you can band together and pay for a month for about $40.

Most of the data you’ll need will be compiled by using the AirDNA listing data and then going to each listing in your city and manually verifying its size, type and number of reviews it has. It’s not hard. It just takes time.

Can I resell my cards to other people or cities?

Sorry, No.

How much time will it take me to collect my cities data and enter it into a simple spread sheet so that I can get the numbers I need?

Since every city is different, there is no one answer to this. It will vary by city size and number of STRs the speed with which you work. We can tell you that collecting, verifying and adding the data for a city of 170,000 people, with 841 STRs took about 200 hours, so you’ll want to gather a group of people to help you collect your cities data over a weekend.

Why are these STR Fact of the Day Cards sold on this music site?

Yeah, we thought you might notice that! Aardvark Hill is the world’s smallest publisher or contemporary worship music, children’s choral music and children’s musicals.  While building Aardvark Hill Music, we also co-owned and operated an Advertising and Design Firm. Sometimes we fall back on old habits and get into design projects and two of the previous Firm owners still do design full time. Rather than create a whole website just for one STR related product, we decided to handle the sales and delivery of the Fact cards from our music site because it already has everything we need for digital file delivery and commerce. Sure, you could go listen to some music before you leave – make yourself at home!