All Forum Posts by: Andy Whitcomb

I am a strong advocate of embracing direct bookings and highly recommend doing so as soon as possible. However, it would be a missed opportunity not to utilize at least one of the major OTAs like Airbnb, especially in the beginning. These platforms are designed to bring guests to you easily and simply. They act as marketing machines, although you and the guest pay them for their services. So, my suggestion is to use them, leverage their reach, but avoid relying solely on them.

It's important to build up your own direct booking site and start leaning into it as soon as you can. You don't want to be solely dependent on Airbnb because their primary focus is on the guests, not the hosts. While hosts are a necessary component for their business, they don't necessarily prioritize your best interests. By developing your own direct booking site, you gain more control and have a platform that truly puts your needs first.

It's interesting to see this post... my business partner is obsessed with pickleball and has been wanting to add one to one of our STR properties for a year or two. We're near Seattle and there is a shortage of courts, and TONS of people wanting to play. I've been wondering about the ROI, especially considering we'd be doing a covered space for our climate. However, in our case this covered space would be designed so it could be used for multiple uses. This is still on the table, but might be something we consider on a new project rather than add to one of our existing properties.

It's doubtful that you'll come up with "the" right strategy to make $20k/mo right off the bat, because as you move forward and invest in more properties you'll gain knowledge, strategies, connections, ect. that will give you better information on how to proceed. My thought is, start with what you can now and move forward. I think of that saying that goes something like "start where you are, with what you've got". 

I'm sure you'll get some other great responses from folks here, but that's my thought on it for now. 

Having the ability for guests to book directly is an essential component of operating your STR at a professional level. It allows you to reduce your dependance on OTA's like Airbnb and VRBO, which is essential because you never want your business at the mercy of another. They can and will place you in a bad position in favor of guests, or their own best interest (this is especially true of Airbnb).

Taking direct bookings allows you to control the guest experience from start to finish, and it also allows you to "own your customer". Your direct booking site will allow you to capture your customer's information in the form of an email address, which Airbnb will not give you, allowing you to build up a list of past and future guests. This is invaluable! We use our list to promote new listings, updates to our properties, and to send out emails to people who are on our waitlist for last minute openings at our properties. 

We use instagram and other social media platforms, in tandem with influencers, to drive traffic to our website. We haven't done paid ads yet because we haven't needed to, but that could be another great way to drive traffic to your property. 

We use Lodgify, but there are many other direct booking platforms out there like Hostfully, Guesty, Hostaway, etc.  Most offer a service to help you build your site, so no need to hire a website developer. You can, if you prefer not to go through a service like that, but there are a lot of things in the backend you'd need to have in place that these platforms provide; like calendar syncing, guest messaging, etc.

I think STR success is less about whether the market is established or not, as much as it is about how unique and quality your property is combined with how well you market and manage it. My market was not an established market, but it's a drive-to market (less than 1 hour to Seattle) so we get a ton of people wanting a quick escape from the city.

Established markets tend to have much more competition, plus you tend to pay more more for the property. A less established STR market can be a great option, especially if it's a market that you are familiar with, assuming you buy right and operate professionally.

You're asking the right questions. I would add another question that is important to ask yourself, and that is "who is my guest and why are they going to be staying at my property?" Answering this question is essential for helping you narrow down the property type, location etc. You could also do it the other way, find the property and then ask the question with regards to the property. However in your case I would pick who you want to stay with you and build your business model around that guest avatar and the experience they'd want to have at your STR.

With that said, here are my response to the questions you brought up, based on my personal experience:

HOA - Definitely no HOA if you can help it. You want to reduce any chance of others telling you what you can and can't do on your property.

Choosing a Location - Focus on drive-to markets, especially now, because they will typically do better in a downturn than fly-to markets

Mountain View or not, waterfront or not - Focus on unique properties, both architecturally and the natural setting; trees, nature, and preferably access to water (lake, river, stream, pond, ocean). Views are nice but guests would prefer access to water, it offers a better experience.

These are just a few, I could go on for hours about this, haha

I've been thinking about this buy or build debate for a while now. Like @Collin Hays said, time to market is a big consideration in the STR world. How long will it take for you to start making money after you invest? This is true for most real estate investments, but even more so in the world of short-term rentals.

Another thing to consider is financing. If you're buying a property, you might be able to get better financing options compared to building from scratch. But, for me personally, I want to build because I want to create a better short-term rental than I can buy for the price.

When you build your own STR, you get to pick and choose what you want. You can choose the location to get the best scenery, and build the design that you want. Plus, you can put in specific systems that make your rental low-maintenance, like a whole-house generator that kicks in automatically during a power outage.

So, it really just depends on what you're after. Building gives you more control, but takes more time and money. Buying is quicker, but you have less control. It's all about finding the balance that works for you.

Hi Sean! This is a good strategy, but as others have mentioned it's not just about putting numbers into a spreadsheet. I definitely encourage you to pursue this, however keep in mind the more you understand how to run a vacation rental, the more accurate your analysis will be. 

I totally understand your situation, as I started out with no money also. There are a few ways you can gain knowledge and experience without having money. You could try co-hosting, arbitrage, and partnering with someone. 

My first vacation rental was a large 6 bedroom house that I rented from an investor I knew, he had bought it as part of a larger development project but wasn't scheduled to demo it for several years. Not only did it come already furnished, but the previous owner had already been running it as a vacation rental. She was generous enough to get us going, even let us use her images and copy for our airbnb listing. The first month we did 11k in gross revenue, and through our background as designers we put our own touches on the furnishings and went on to average $20k/mo over the next few years. This was life changing money for me, but more importantly I was able to leverage some else's experience to level up my own new business. 

Obviously this is antidotal, and you probably won't find this exact scenario, but the concept is repeatable. Leverage someone else's real estate, leverage someone else's experience, and add your own unique talents and capabilities. This will give you the knowledge and experience that will propel you to the next level. Best of luck!

I wouldn't use the word "recession proof" for any investment, especially not for STRs. However, if you buy right and operate your business right, you should do fine. When I say "buy right" I don't just mean get a good deal. It's more about having a good strategy and buying in accordance with that strategy.

What a great opportunity! I found a similar seller and bought my first STR property from her several years back, but in my case I found her a bit too late and bought her last property, haha.