All Forum Posts by: Anthony R.

Anthony: We have not switched out. We have kept ours a king size bed. My fellow neighbors get together and share intel and experiences on our individual STR. The occupancy rates have been comparable to each one of our properties and we have talk about whether we felt the bed size made a difference. Our age demographic has mainly been 40-50 years old. Our guests are usually coming to either visit their college student, come for a football game or have ties to the area.

Hope this answers your questions.

I am looking at a condo in a resort area that has the potential to be a good deal with the right occupancy rate. I’ve confirmed the nightly rate, which averages out to be $135 per night. This has been confirmed by multiple sources (AirDNA, Mashvisor, Evolve, looking at comps). However, I’m getting all sorts of numbers in regards to the occupancy! I called Evolve to see if they would quote me their numbers, and they said that occupancy at their properties in this area are 30 to 40%. When I looked at the spreadsheet from Mashvisor, that also came out to around 40% on average.  AirDNA estimates 56%.

I need a total revenue of about $25,000 for this deal to be worth my time - in other words, if we are using the $135 average, I need it to come in at about 54% occupancy.  The comps that I pulled on AirDNA are supposedly making $25,000 at the low end, and some that are more updated/better designed are making quite  a bit more. I noticed that these particular comps weren’t listed on the spreadsheet provided by Mashvisor.

So now I’m confused and frustrated because this completely makes or breaks the deal.  What data points should I be trusting here? On the one hand, I feel like it’s safest to be conservative and assume that if I can’t make the numbers work at 40%, then the deal is dead. But on the other hand, if AirDNA is correct, then I’m missing out on a great opportunity due to cold feet. Any advice? What would you do? 

We own a 1 bd-1.5 bath in a college town and there are 9 other identical units in our building. We decided to put a King into the bedroom. We have a little more room then you do, however. It has really been interesting to see what each owner has built out in their townhome. I personally like the other townhomes with a Queen better than ours with a King from a look perspective. Also, 6 of the owners do STR and we openly compare notes. Not one time, this past year, have any of us gained a reservation or lost one.

I personally think it comes down to what you want. In our case, the wife wanted a king size bed, so that decided that.

Good luck!

@Anthony R. First of all, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE small, studio or one-bedroom STRs. Those cash-flow the best per sq ft. I hope you do awesome. I have two of those kind and they kill it on a regular basis.

Second, I am going to respectfully, but very firmly, lol, disagree with the advise you're received so far. If in any way you can fit in a KING, GO WITH A KING! You don't need a headboard, you only need one night stand or no night stand at all. Or if you can fit a headboard, they make some with built in lights, so you don't need night stands. Or built-in shelves on the wall next to the bed, if the fit is that tight. The people, the guests, are coming to your unit mainly for the attractions of the location and for a place to sleep. We live in a society where people are "in general" taller and larger. If a "larger couple" (or any couple actually) is given a choice between your place with the Queen bed or Motel 6 (or whatever equivalent) with a King, they will go for the King. Most people won't care if you have night stands or if they have to jump from the door to the bed, lol, if they are able to get a comfortable sleep once they get on that bed :-). Yes, a Queen will look better, but you will lose clientele that you would otherwise capture with King.

Hey @Anthony R., I agree with @John Underwood. Go with the queen. This sounds like a place for a max of 2 or 4? You could do a queen sleeper as well. Keep all the linens the same.

We looked at a place at the Inn at the 7th Mountain in Bend, OR. Similarly sized and a queen fits so much better and looks better 2. Kings in a 10x10 might work but look stuffed in place.