Vacation Rental Owner in Seattle, SF and New Zealand

[Tammi Sims]

Hello All,

I purchased my first home at the age of 23 (after selling my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme to fund the down payment) and have been buying and selling real estate on a small scale ever since. I love creating "nests"- either for myself or others to enjoy. I have had long term rentals for over 10 years and then happily stumbled into vacation rentals 2 1/2 years ago when I listed one unit of my Seattle home on Airbnb. I was amazed at the number of reservations I received. Since that time I have hosted just over 100 groups in my home and had almost 100% positive experiences. I found that I enjoy managing a vacation rental and providing an excellent and personable experience for my guests. In November of 2015, along with my partner, Alex, I was one of about 50 hosts selected to be a host educator at Airbnb's second host conference which was held in Paris. Later this month, Alex and I will be speakers at the Vacation Rental Success Summit in Toronto, Canada. My favorite aspects of being a vacation rental owner are designing the space for the best guest experience and fostering quality guest relations. Alex is a part-time Airbnb host in SF (which is how we met) and we both love talking about vacation rentals!

Our future plans include expanding our inventory of vacation rentals and developing our property in New Zealand to be able to more easily and broadly welcome guests. 

I'm thrilled to have found your forum regarding vacation rentals and welcome participating in information sharing. I see that there have been some questions regarding people's experience with Airbnb and I'm happy share what I know. I am also quickly delving into the broader vacation rental market scene and am happy share that knowledge as well. 

Cheers!

Tammi

[Timothy Daniels]

Hi @Tammi Sims

My wife and I have 12 vacation rentals on San Juan Island, and manage a few others besides.  We do our own management,  hire (and help with) cleaning, and greet our guests.  We put our high-end units in my wife's account and our budget rentals in mine.  

This latter choice is an interesting conflict in the Airbnb world as they always push for 5-star and Superhost status (my wife) but I intentionally shoot for 4 stars.  To keep the experience budget friendly, it must be affordable for both me and the guest.

We love the VR industry, but I don't think it is for everyone nor is it always as lucrative as people imagine.  We have done well because of location, supply and demand, and the purchase price of our units but not every VR offers those advantages. I have found that often VR is not an investment strategy. It is a lifestyle strategy.  When people ask me about buying a VR, I always ask them about their goals for ownership. I also help them run the numbers, including management fees because their time is valuable. They may choose to self-manage and pocket the money but at least they have an accurate assessment of the value of their investment.  If their goal is lifestyle--just to offset the expenses of ownership--it requires a different "bottom line" than may be required for the professional investor.

Just thinking out loud.  You two sound like you're doing great! I will be sure to check your places out when we are in need of a Seattle space.