The impact of careless decisions on your bottom line

[Collin Hays]

So we have a new property on our program.  A very nice, two bedroom property just outside of Gatlinburg.  We projected that it would easily do $40K a year and were planning for that. But the owners jumped in and made a few decisions that would kill the thing.

Number one, they wouldn't let us name the cabin.  They wanted to do it because it was "their cabin" and they wanted their personal touch on it.  Now, we have several examples since 2011 where the name of the cabin makes a huge difference in annual revenue.  I am not going to reveal the name of the cabin in this situation, but suffice to say that it wasn't appropriate for the area and quite silly.  

Next, they decided they wouldn't allow children. Children would translate into more repairs and maintenance.  Wow.  You just made a $20K a year decision there.  Good job.

Next, they decided to go without either a hot tub or a game table.  Now I don't have either of these in my personal home, but when I am surfing homes to stay in in the Smokies and practically every home has these amenities, yours sticks out like a soar thumb.  Sure, we can discount it to overcome these deficiencies, but at what ultimate price?  

We manage 29 properties, and this weekend, 28 of them are booked, except for this one. We project it might rent 3 nights in March.

Some people are too smart for their own good.