Creative strategies to fill waterfront vacation rentals?

[Nick Burns]

Hello BP folks! I’m very interested in a lakeside property that consists of the main house (3 small bedrooms and 1.5 bath) and a separate building that consists of 4 identical 400 square foot efficiency apartments.  The property is currently used as a small motel and they receive $120-$140 per night per unit depending on the season.  The owners live in the main house and do not rent.The property is lakeside with a small/medium sized ski resort within 15 minutes. 

Currently, their asking price is quite high where their current income doesn’t support the value.  I’d like to purchase significantly cheaper, but I need to find ways to keep the units rented, preferably short-term vacation rental to maximize income.

One strategy I considered was short-term vacation rental during the 10 summer weeks when it is busy and then seasonal rentals during the remainder of the year when tourism is much lower, but still, using this model doesn't produce enough income (this includes renting the main house as well as the other 4 efficiency units) to support the investment resulting in a very low ROI.

The most profitable model would be short-term rentals all year long.  In addition to summer tourism and skiing, the area attracts snowmobiling, ice fishing, leaf peepers amoung others.  

How do I attract year long short-term renters to make this investment work?

I understand that as an investor you shouldn’t have to stretch your options to make an investment work, however  my family would use this some for personal use as well, so clearly there is a partial emotional attachment ;)

Any ideas are welcomed and appreciated!