New rental property in the Smokys! Looking for some sagely advice

[Gary Dawson]

Hi fellow big pocketers! In escrow on our new cabin (thanks to Avery Carl) in the Smoky Mountains area. What is best approach for the initial ad on Airbnb and VRBO? I've heard that discounts for the first couple of months are necessary to attract renters since you start out without any reviews. Also, is it possible to list the property before you close escrow in order to get some early bookings?

My property was listed with "Cabins of the Smokeys" and they had quite a few bookings for the next month or so. Is there no way to do a deal with the management company to retain those listings?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

[Luke Carl]

Originally posted by @Gary Dawson:

Hi fellow big pocketers! In escrow on our new cabin (thanks to Avery Carl) in the Smoky Mountains area. What is best approach for the initial ad on Airbnb and VRBO? I've heard that discounts for the first couple of months are necessary to attract renters since you start out without any reviews. Also, is it possible to list the property before you close escrow in order to get some early bookings?

My property was listed with "Cabins of the Smokeys" and they had quite a few bookings for the next month or so. Is there no way to do a deal with the management company to retain those listings?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

 Zero reason to care or even know about the PM. They can’t compete. 

To answer your questions in order.....

Your headline is: 

“New Listing Special” 

You need to be competitively priced but not necessarily “discounted” 

Don’t take your listings live more than 5 days before accepting warm bodies.