All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Vail

We have several two bedroom ST are units in urban Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Most of them have 2 queen beds. Some we have a Twin over Queen bunk bed. It provides options for if it is 2 kids, sleep separate, or if it is a couple they can sleep together, or 3 can crash. It is an extra $200 for that twin bunk, mattress, and sheets, and I'm taking a bet that we will get that $200 back, plus more in profit over the life of the STR.

When searching for the “Best market”, you must define what metric you are looking for to be most important. 

If you are looking for highest gross revenue, then I would say costal or large popular cities, with STR friendly laws (San Diego, ect).

If you are looking for ROI, then you should consider markets with lower property values, that still have a strong travel industry. I have a house in Columbus OH that I bought for $50,000 and is averaging $2500/month over the last 2 years. (That is a 5% per month).

1.) Constantly be improving your listings, and your systems. Every time a guest has an issue, do something to improve it so that future guests don’t have that issue. Put yourself in the guests shoes. 

2.) find good cleaning people, stick with them, and constantly be training and improving them and their work environment. Work with them to make their job easier (like buy extra linens, better laundry infrastructure, ect.). 

3.) If issues with guests or the house come up, deal with it right away. Don’t let it fester. The longer you wait to deal with it, the more time and money it will take to fix. 

I like what @Tim Schroeder said, it is not a passive business. You should constantly be improving, or your business will suffer. 

We charge a cleaning fee that is a pass through to our cleaning company. $50 - $70 (in our market). 

As a side note, some management companies (like Evolve) lower their management fee, and then charge 2 -3x on the cleaning fees. That way they sound great to property owners “we manage your property for only 10%!” But then they make the real money on overage in cleaning fees. That is likely why you are seeing $395 cleaning fee. Just like a higher cleaning fee, and lower rent plays games with a guests mind when they book, it also plays games with an owners mind when they work with a management company. 

I believe that guests will care about the bottom line, and to high of a cleaning fee will either cause them to book something else, or leave a bad taste in their mouth before they even show up. Also, their expectations of how clean the house should be will increase with the amount they pay in a cleaning fee. 

@Luke Carl thank you for that analysis! I have always been curious how much time we spend on each rental. I see that you tracked your time spent on Airbnb, and platforms. I’m curious how much time/money you spend on things outside of the platforms. What time do you spend cleaning (or coordinating with cleaners) and maintenance? Do you take feedback from your reviews, and turn that in to action items for your “on-site” workers? Do you track and follow up with their work? 

I know that after a year or so of guests it seems like you may have fixed all the things in the house that need fixed, but soon enough I think it makes sense to go back through the house and re-fresh the design and items inside. My first full time STR house was launched in sept 2016, and in April of 2018 we went through and updated about 1/2 of all items inside. Do you do things like that?

Also, do you file damage claims? With 24 STR properties that we manage, I spend roughly 2 hours a week just filling damage claims, talking to Airbnb reps on the phone, ect.

I’m also curious if you spend time on accounting? Paying invoices, tracking expenses, and analysis on how you can improve the bottom line? 

I am thinking that all of these items end up at about 3 - 5 hours per week, per house for us. And yes, that is if nothing goes crazy. We had a guest bring us some bed bugs last month. That one thing cost me about 20 hours of my time when it was all said and done. 

How long do you guys think you spend in total on each house? 

Thanks again! 

Thanks Sean! 

Yes, the City of Columbus has made new rules that have jurisdiction over all addresses that are in Columbus. Other smaller municipalities have some older rules that seem to ban Short Term Rentals, but most have not moved to enforce those laws that I have seen. I have heard that Bexley, Upper Arlington, and Worthington all have some rules against it. I also know hosts that are hosting there. 

I think I’m general If you are responsible about hosting on Airbnb, and you don’t piss off your neighbors, then you should have a pretty smooth ride. If you allow parties, and don’t control your guests, then the neighbors will file complaints, and those municipalities will start shutting you down. 

Do you host short term rentals now? We host lots of houses around the city, and would be happy to help. 

@Scott Ellis we have been using hotelitems.com . They have great stuff, but shipping can be $50 - $100. So really only worth it for big orders. 

Each of our houses has a locked storage spot. Each locked storage has enough supplies for 1 - 2 months with of guests. The cleaners are responsible to restock the house as needed from locked storage. 

Then once a month we have the cleaning crew report what is low, and the manager will drop off ( or ship) supplies to re-stock the locked storage. 

Since we manage 23 houses this way, we now have a master storage facility (my garage) that we re-stock every other month or so as needed. Mostly from Walmart, Sams Club, IKEA, and a hotel supply website. 

We are considering offering a service where we send out boxes of these supplies to other hosts as well. We buy things in bulk, and get pretty good deals. We do not ship things like toilet paper and paper towels. It is cheaper to drop off, or have the cleaner run by the local store. 

Good luck! 

I am opening my 3rd ST duplex property this week. We have 1 internet service that is used by both units in each property, and it works just fine. The most recent property is actually 2 small houses right next door (about 4 feet apart), and it still works just fine with only 1 router. Love the little efficiency savings you get with multi-family! 

I echo what everyone else said. STR is a good option, but I would find a good local support staff.

One thing I want to point out is you said it is in an HOA. Read the rules of the HOA before trying short term rental. Most HOA's won't allow rentals of less than 30 days. If you are not in Austin proper, you should not need to worry about STR rules of Austin.