Using the Lesson in Australia
May 03, 2011
Though her name isn't well known, Ms. Helm competed in one of the toughest events: renting out space in people's homes during the Games. And she didn't make much money, to say the least. ``We came close to breaking even,'' says Ms. Helm, a co-owner of Rooms & More, a unit of Profile Realty & Investment Corp. in Atlanta. ``And if we hadn't scrambled and restructured, we wouldn't have done as well as that.'' So why travel halfway around the world to try it again? Ms. Helm thinks that she and her staff have largely figured out why Atlanta homes were so difficult to rent. For one thing, expectations were too high: While homeowners thought they'd pocket around $500 a night per room, there was so much competition that the reality was closer to $100 a night. Second, a large chunk of the 1,000 rooms she leased out in Atlanta were rented at the last minute -- an influx she wasn't prepared to handle. Moreover, she figures she lost some potential renters because she didn't have anyone on staff who could speak more exotic tongues, such as Japanese. So, to start with, she will bring a dose of reality to Australia. Her plan: encourage more modest financial aspirations; set up an office at the airport and operate at least one shuttle bus, to capture last-minute renters; and hire workers who are multilingual. Until she meets with Australian real-estate executives, sizes up the availability of rooms and other logistics, Ms. Helm hesitates to predict how much business the Sydney Games could represent for her company. But she says if she had known in Atlanta what she subsequently learned over the course of the Games, ``we could have at least rented the 2,500 rooms that we originally thought we would. We could have doubled our money.'' --Anja Talley
