All Forum Posts by: Alex Scattareggia

Is anyone having success renting MTR in Mexico? I have a portfolio of STR´s here and have gone back and forth between the advantages of converting some to MTR. Just curious if anyone has had experience with this specifically in Mexico. Thanks in advance!

I think the simplest summation of Booking is that if you are willing to live with very limited and frustrating customer service it is a great tool to fill gaps in the calendar. 

The lack of service and security goes both ways, we have taken 20+ bookings from the platform to our Direct Booking funnel and never once been questioned by Booking.com about it.  The fee structure is so brutal on the client side it makes a lot of sense from the client perspective and you can take advantage of some free marketing. If you are considering getting rid of them anyway try to move some of the reservations to your own Direct Booking or even to Airbnb if you can provide a savings to the client. 

Is the problem that the property wont be profitable with the 20% management fee taken out? And are you moving out of the upstairs unit?  Seems to me whatever % you would give up would be offset by simply renting out the upstairs unit.   

@Hannah Tate There is a lot of good information in here already. Mexico is my home market and Mike knows what he is talking about. 

The thing that is very overstated here is the operating cost liability. You can't get around the auto withholding of taxes from the OTA´s as a foreigner in this country, but A. these are operating costs that exist wherever you invest and B. you more than make up for any loss of revenue by having operating expenses that are 50%+ less than what you would expect from a STR in the states or Canada.

The last point I would make is that people sometimes think of Mexico as the wild west, because information is much harder to come by, especially online in English. Just because the information is not as readily available online doesn't mean there aren´t people (agents, builders, notaries, accountants etc)  and resources that can prove to be invaluable. I can give you some more specific advice on permitting processes and building.  We built our personal home from dirt up and while it definitely can be more challenging, you will capture additional value vs buying new if it is done correctly. 

Ok that's good.  The fact that you don´t have any recent reviews is actually a good thing here.  Airbnb is trying to crack down on fake listings.  The biggest red flag is listings that do not have reviews, because part of the scam is that people never stay there (hence no reviews).  

So my educated guess is that when you went back into the listing and tried to update some information it triggered an automatic review of whether your account is legitimate or one of the fake scam accounts. 

All of the above is thorough and will help you qualify the PM and hopefully establish crystal clear expectations of workload and income split.  

From a more practical side I would ask them to show an example of a comparable property they manage (ideally the same size + market as your listing) and see the results of their management for yourself.  

You want to thread the needle between a PM that is knowledgeable in your market, has existing listings and can add value, while not being so big that they will let your property fall by the wayside.  

On your own time do some digging. Look at their existing listings and more specifically at the reviews, and you can get an unbiased look at how they treat the service side of the business. 

 Has the account been active and receiving bookings + reviews this entire time or dormant and you tried to reactivate it?

@Ana Brasher 

Once you get your hands on the data be very cautious using the last few years as predictive metrics for the next few.  This is market dependent, but overall, the industry thrived in late 2020/21 and 22 because of external factors and we are starting to see a bit of a pull back.  That being said, the best investors are still doing great but just be aware how those years can skew the data pretty significantly.  I´m not trying to dissuade you at all, just be conservative in your projections and you will have a much safer investment.  Good luck!

Hi Danny.  If you don´t have stated income in Mexico the only real way is if it is new construction, and the developer is offering financing or if you can convince a seller to structure some sort of seller financing.  Seller financing is very rare and even if you do get it, the terms will not be comparable to what you might find in the states. 

There are a few companies now that will finance in Mex based off of your US W2 income.  I have not used them, but I know they are out there. Reach out to @Nick Conley I believe he works for one called Moxi.  

Good luck.  

All of the negative stuff about customer service, cancelation policies and fees are true.  Booking is a pain in the ***, especially compared to Air/VRBO.

That being said, I love Booking because it attracts completely different clientele bases, we generate a much higher ADR (which helps offset some of the policy issues) and the positives outweigh the negatives for me. 

I have never had an issue being paid, so I cannot weigh in on that topic.  I think the ease of use on the other OTA´s has skewed how people view Booking, but it is a really valuable revenue source IMO if you are willing to put in a little more work and deal with the occasional headache.