Shaun Ghavami

How it started

Shaun is the son of Iranian immigrants whose family left a dictatorship for a freer life. After college he went into a steady nine-to-five career in banking.

That changed when he listed the spare bedroom in his rented apartment for $65 a night. For the first time, he was earning money while he slept. He saw the potential and decided to go all in on building a hosting business, rather than spend forty years waiting on a corporate retirement plan.

He had very little in savings, so buying property wasn't an option. Instead he offered to host other people's homes for a share of the booking revenue. That approach, which he calls co-listing, let him grow without owning or leasing anything, and it's still the first thing the program teaches.

Iconic Retreats

The business became Iconic Retreats, the Vancouver hosting company Shaun co-founded. Vancouver is often called the Hollywood of the North for the number of films shot there, and Iconic Retreats now oversees the short-term rental of a portfolio of premium real estate worth more than $100 million.

Since 2018 the company has taken in more than $5 million in booking fees, hosted over 3,000 guests, and earned more than 1,000 five-star reviews, along with Superhost status.

What he teaches

Shaun now coaches people who want to start short-term rental and corporate housing businesses. His banking background is behind the financial models students use to analyse a property before committing to it, and the co-listing system he built at Iconic Retreats is the starting point for most students.

He also writes about the approach in his guide to starting an Airbnb business with no money.