STR On-Call Rates for Local Backup Person

[Stacy Edwards]

TLDR: What is the best way to charge for an backup/on call person for your vacation rental in case of emergency? (Not full property mangement)

Long version:

I do virtual vacation rental assistance for a property about an hour from my home and have really been enjoying it, so I was hoping to expand and take on some clients in the area where I live, which is very STR-heavy.

I'd rather not dive into full-on property management, as there are several companies here who already do that and I'm not sure I want to take on that much yet.

 I'm finding there's an "in-between" need: people who do a lot of management themselves, but need a local backup person for emergencies and on call and potentially some other various tasks.

I'm struggling to figure out how to charge for this. 

My thoughts: charge a rate of $100-$300 per month as a base and then have separate rates for when I need to actually do work. However, with this, I worry about the times where I would go out of town for a weekend and would need to hire someone to cover - if I was at $100, it would eat up a bunch of my rate to hire someone (I can't imagine paying someone less than $25 a day to be on call for a short period of time) but if it were $300 I think it would be too expensive for people.

I was thinking $175 would be a sweet spot, but not sure if that would be worth it for people. 

I'd obviously charge more if additional tasks were added. 

Does anyone have any thoughts for how to charge for this?

Thanks - I appreciate it! 

[Michael Haas]

Sounds like a good business idea @Stacy Edwards - A lot of municipalities are requiring that a local person be withing 30 min - an hour away for emergencies. For out of state or out of county investors even just being able to put your name down as the "local person" on their permit holds value.