Any luck with vacation rentals?

[Andrew Jones]

I tried searching for posts on vacation rentals so forgive me if this is redundant...the only thing to pop up was a blog from 5 years ago and vacation rental apps have come a long way since then.  

My wife and I are getting ready to buy the next rental and the only small multi units that pencil out are in war zones.  We want a place we can manage ourselves and put some sweat equity into so out of state investing is out and we're not looking for syndication or REITs.  The last option I can think (outside of sending mailers to distressed homes) is buying a single family home in one of the nearby tourist destinations.  At first blush it looks like a $290k asking price home would demand $179-250 per night and the season is most of the year.  We'd probably see dips in early spring and late fall as most people would be looking for fun on the lake or skiing (both near by the subject property).  

My big questions to anyone with short term vacation rentals are:

1. How big a bite does AirBNB (vrbo, whoever you use) take out your income?

2. In a mountain town what does your vacancy look like?  I imagine in the summer and winter most weekends will be booked along with major holidays in between, but do you get any action in the off season?

3. I imagine the stuff I need to worry about on a vacation rental is different than a standard residential rental.  Insurance, permitting, absentee managing (I'm not going to be there for every flip)...anything I'm missing?

4. The long term plan for this would be to rent it for a few years, make some improvements, have some fun with my family when the unit is not booked and a few years out 1031 to something more exciting.  Does this process work the same on short term rentals as it does long term rentals?

Thanks in advance for any advice.