All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Vail

Pricelabs gives the user more control, and more tools. I tried BP, wheelhouse, and Pricelabs. Beyond pricing is like bowling with bumpers on (it guides you, and it is hard to mess up). Pricelabs is more like sitting in the cockpit of a 747 (lots of buttons, confusing at first, but once you learn the system you can do amazing things). 

The #1 tool for my business is the dynamic minimum night stays on Pricelabs. Before I tried pricelabs, I didn’t even understand why that was important. But now I live by it. It allowed us to be mores selective on only getting the reservations, and the guests we want (longer stays, higher rates). Then at the last minute it opens up the gap nights. In my urban market, this equates to full calendars at high rates. With all that said, Pricelabs is also far less expensive. For me, it costs less than $5/month per listing.

I attended DARM (data and revenue management) conference put on by VRIntel a few weeks ago. I got to see all these companies demo their product, and compete for large VR managers business. BP has some impressive new features with data analysis, and KPI reporting that look nice. They basically tell you which listings need attention on pricing. However you can get similar data from PL and other sources. 

Switch to Pricelabs, bite the bullet, and never look back! 

Hey Logan, 

We manage STR in Cincinnati. It is a great market! Happy to connect.

@Remington Lyman that is a good question! Here is one of my favorite graphs to follow on AirDNA. This graph shows the demand in yellow (number of nights booked in a Columbus STR) vs. the supply level in purple (number of Columbus STR properties that had at least 1 booking). At times when the yellow is higher than the purple, we see really good nightly rates and occupancy.

Hey @Joe Chillinsky, I would be happy to connect! I operate Housepitality, a short term rental property management company here in Columbus. We are a dedicated team that provides white-glove hosting service for our guests, and over 70 clients/owners of the short term rentals that we manage. 

The Columbus STR market was getting saturated, and then COVID happened. In March, the demand dropped off the table. The inventory soon followed, and as owners decided to rent long-term or sell, the number of STR listings had dropped by 40% at one point in June. Now the demand had come back, and the inventory is only slowly catching back up. We are seeing some record high nightly and monthly revenue numbers in July and August. I would love to chat with you about what your goals are with the STR, and see if we can help you get there.

@Curt Bixel You definitely should consider doing short term rentals in Columbus! I run Housepitality, a licensed brokerage that specializes in short term rental management. We operate about 65 short term rentals in Columbus, and they are very profitable compared to long-term rentals. Just FYI, there is a website called AirDNA.com that is basically Zillow for short term rentals. My friends at STR capital simply typed in your address and those are the numbers that the algorithm will spit out.

Choosing to have a management company handle your rental will make it a hands-off and profitable venture on your part, and IS something you should consider with the property you currently own. You should probably not listen to the naysayers above (@Mark Miles). I brought in over $1.2 million on Airbnb for my clients in 2019 in Columbus Ohio. It IS a great market for short term rentals. When you mix the appreciation Columbus is seeing, along with the STR cash-flow, I have some properties that I sold this year, and made a combined ROI of 100%+ annually.

Things to consider are the cost of furniture, the cost of utilities, and the overall performance of the manager you choose. I would be happy to connect if you have any questions!

A friend of mine runs a STR management company in Travers City. That market is on FIRE right now!! They keep adding new units, and their houses are always full. I am sure they would be happy to help point you in the right direction. Let me know if you would like to connect.

I recently moved to Austin. I think the market in Pflugerville really depends on what happens in Austin. Previously STR was being snuffed out by Austin city officials, and places like Round Rock and Pflugerviller were very hot for STR. Then last year the state of Texas ruled the Austin anti-STR ordinances as "unconstitutional retroactively". Currently the ordinances still stand, but people are buying and opening STRs in Austin again like the flood gates are open again.

With all that said, if you get a good deal on a property in Pflugerville (or a house hack), you will likely see a decent return on investment. Also the mid-term (30 Day+) market is becoming very attractive in this area, let me know if you want some advice on any of the STR or mid term strategies.

Have you checked on AirDNA.com? 

It is always good to have a local trusted contact on your team that can go to the property if needed. It is also good for quality control if you have them check up on the units (and cleaners). You should be able to find someone in the area will to work on an as-needed basis (at a high rate), that is willing and able to go when the call is needed. 

Where are you looking to open an STR? I Manage STRs in An urban market, and have guests trying to book to have an unauthorized party (to often). All of the things you mentioned help, but The fail safe plan is to have a local person there to meet the police when they are needed. The police are not able to act in our jurisdiction unless there is a representative of the owner present.

This weekend we had a guest book for five people. We have all of the measures in place that you listed, but these fraudulent guests know how to get around the vetting, agree to house rules, enter in the back door where there are no cameras, ect.  Our NoiseAware sensor went off, and we sprung into action. Our local representative went to the property, and discovered 30 people showing up. The police came within 10 minutes, and everyone was escorted off the property within 40 minutes. They found this magazine left behind at the unit... 

Noiseaware saved us again!! 

Some things you just can’t rely on a cleaner for. 

I am a Realtor, and I leaned the business by first helping others buy and sell. After a few years I started investing myself. Today I own about 12 units at any given time, and I own a brokerage that manages 65 STR properties.

My parents always told me the being an agent will feed your family, but owning property will build a lifetime of wealth. so I work hard as an agent/PM, and then take that money and buy assets. The goal for me is to eventually own enough assets that nobody in my family needs to work. However I love this industry so much, I don’t have a desire to stop anytime soon. 

I also want to point out that the person who is a Realtor and an investor is WAY more effective than the person who is just an investor, or just a Realtor. It is like the Realtor side of my brain helps inform the investor side of my brain, and visa versa. Not to mention when I buy or sell as an investor, I make a commission as a broker (or save paying someone else a commission) so it also helps the numbers on investments. 

@Rachel Hughes yes, take the opportunity to make a new listing!! I have tried this before, and I am shocked how well it works. Airbnb will treat it like a new listing, and they will give it a great SEO boost for the first couple of bookings. You can actually run both listings, and sync the calendar (if you want to) or you can just close the first listings calendar and fully open the new one. I agree with the thought that you might be able to turn the first listing around, but you have stumbled on to a loophole on Airbnb, creat a new listing. I have some friends that manage laRge STR companies also, and this is a common strategy to improve ratings.