All Forum Posts by: Anna Antipkina

 The property in newly renovated. The issues I'm seeing are small, such as what looks like Avocado smeared on a light switch and a sticky substance that was hard to clean in a kitchen cabinet. The blankets I have are of high quality, it looked like someone took a knife or scissor to it because it was a perfect cut, not on the stitches. But I'm just starting out so I need good reviews first before I can complain over $100 in my opinion. For now I'm just telling myself (in a yoga pose) that it's part of the journey! lol 

Thank you all for your input! Since this is a new venture for me and a new partnership with her and her husband, I figure we'll work out the kinks as we go. She has been very coachable when it comes to feedback and expectations and yes her communication is impeccable. We get along as people as well given that we're about the same age and share a similar work ethic. I'll use this as building blocks on perfecting how I interview and set expectations in other markets as I continue to scale. Thank you all for the sanity check!

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I am managing my first STR. I set my communication up through Guesty to automate booking and task notifications for my cleaner. On the day of cleaning, my cleaner sends me texts and pictures of all the things that may be dirty or damaged.  She's sending me pics of a dirty outlet, sticky stuff in a cabinet, games that weren't put away, etc. In the bigger scheme of things, minor items like that are not important and she should just clean them and not notify me. A torn blanket that I need to re-order is something I should know. What are everyone's thoughts and advice on that?

P.S. The guests who have stayed in my house have 5 star raving host reviews on Airbnb, so I'm wondering if dirty outlets, sticky things in cabinets, torn blankets, trash not taken out are a normal occurrence I should just accept and move on from?

Hi everyone, This is a little bit of a different question around communication, but thought this is the right chat for that. I am managing my first STR. I set my communication up through Guesty so I have automation around calendar and task notifications for my cleaner. My question is about the day of cleaning communication. My cleaner sends me texts and pictures of all the things that may be dirty or damaged. I feel like it's nice to have the insight, but I feel like it's too much and stressing me out far more than I need to be. She's sending me pics of a dirty outlet, sticky stuff in a cabinet, games that weren't put away, etc. In the bigger scheme of things, minor items like that are not important and she should just clean them and not notify me. A torn blanket that I need to re-order is something I should know. What are everyone's thoughts and advice on that?

Guesty does the same exact thing and I agree, cleaners love the big heads up to new bookings. Makes it easy for me and gets me first priority with my cleaners. The only difference between the two from what I found was that OwnerRez was better for if you build your direct booking website through them because they offer damage protection, but Guesty offers damage protection now too so not sure if either is better than the other for any particular reason. 

You were right Luke. I picked Guesty for Hosts since I'm just starting with 1 property and I'm fairly satisfied for what I need it to do right now. 

Hi Eryn. I'm buying an STR in VT currently. I highly suggest subscribing to the VTSTRAlliance https://vtstra.org/regs You will find a lot of town specific regulation information there. 

The governor race that's taking place on November 8th and is something to watch closely. If the incumbent, Phil Scott (R), wins we will be safe, but if Brenda Siegel (D) takes office I fear VT will become a heavily regulated state for STR. You can form your own opinion, but mine is that Brenda is going to single handedly kill STRs in VT for new investors and possibly also existing STR owners. Purely my own opinion based on the research I've done.

That being said, there is overwhelming support for Phil Scott in VT in general so the prediction is that he will be re-elected so I'm banking on that. https://projects.fivethirtyeig...

Thank you everyone for your input! :-)

Thank you both!

Hi all! Have you ever had a short term rental that has an ADU on the property or in a separate part of the house where a long term tenant resides? Do you put that in your house rules and ask the guests not to bother them essentially? Keep in mind that the LTR tenant is staying, I will not be asking them to vacate so please don't suggest the obvious. :-)