All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Vail

I used a great cleaner in Indy for a year, then sold that house. I’ll DM you now! 

33 days booked that fast means you under priced those dates (or evolve did for you). Let me guess, all the dates that booked are 30 of the top dates of the year for ADR in your area?  In my market, there are about 60 dates of the year (or about 20% of available inventory) that make up about 80% of the revenue opportunity. It follows the 80/20 rule very well! More specifically I believe there are about 10 dates on the calendar that make up about 25% of the annual revenue opportunity. 

Unfortunately under-pricing those dates has now locked you in to leaving a lot of money on the table vs. your competition. I suggest hiring a firm to do some revenue management (or even a consultant) and looking into some dynamic pricing software (pricelabs). Spend a few bucks on it, and you will increase your ADR, and your annual gross by way more than you spend. Spend $100 on Pricelabs, and I bet you could increase your gross revenue by $10,000 - $20,000 (calculate that ROI).

Evolve is famous for under pricing, and they get newbies very excited by doing so (because “Look Mom, I got a booking!) I took over Managment on a unit where that Owner was leaving Evolve, because Evolve was not performing well for them. Turns out Evolve was having the local cleaning company set the nightly prices. That is scary, but a true story... 

With all that said, it sounds like you have a great property going for you, and with a few small tweaks, you could be in the right track to $120k/year. Best of luck! 

Hey Ya'll we just closed a cash out on a BRRRR deal that is a short term rental in both units of a duplex. There is FINALLY a lender (Mortgage broker) that will work with STR income as income towards the Debt servicing side of the debt to income ratio. It was a 75/25 LTV, and a 6.25% rate. Send me a message if you are interested in their contact info!

The city of Austin’s rule banning type 2 rentals was ruled “unconstitutional retroactively”, uninhabited other rules being overturned as well.  That is beautiful news! :) 

I have not purchased this course, but I do have some food for thought: 

This course has been on the market for years, and the information you are seeking through the questions you posted is changing all the time. So I would definitely not rely on a course created several years ago to get the best answers to your questions. 

The laws in US cities, and outside the US have changed a lot, even in the last several months. 

Questions 3 and 4, there are new products coming on the market all the time. Brian used Guesty for a long time, but now their are newer better products available. 

- Best of luck! 

I am also interested in getting more 30 day + bookings. We have had a lot of success finding these clients on Airbnb. If you are only interested in 30 day or longer stays, you are able to set a 30 night minimum on your Airbnb listings, and that should help you filter out from being seen by shorter stay guests. Have you tried that? 

We still like to fill in small gaps, with short stays, so we are still a 1 night min. However, using pricelabs, and our unique pricing strategy, we have many of our homes that are available to be booked by 30 day + guests with very little advance notice. The key is preventing shorter stays from booking, so that your have long gaps of availability in your booking calendar. One of my favorite bookings we got this year was a 45 night stay, that was booked 1 week in advance of the check in date. I have found that those guests are willing to pay a higher nightly rate because they are desperately looking for a place to live, and 30 days at one of our houses, is way cheaper than 30 days at a hotel or other short term rentals. 

There are more and more platforms popping up all the time to list 30 day + rentals. To name a few on top of the ones you listed:

Furnishedfinder

30DayStays

Homads

Homefornow

Xome

ect.

As @Paul Sandhu will tell you, I think there is still a lot business that can be conducted using Craigslist as well.

I also have reached out to Hospitals, universities, and large local business, to let them know of our available properties if they should have a client who is in need in the area. 

I think it depends on your market, and your target audience as to where is it best to find mid-term renters, but I think this is a market that will continue to grow and develop as more and more people decide to move around more often, work remotely, and work on short-term job contracts. 

Cheers,

-Benjamin Vail

We are running 45 units in Columbus and Cincinnati. We also have set up a central storage hub in the garage of ourr most central STR unit (we call it the Mothership). It saves LOTS of time from constantly going to the store. We re-stock this garage 1 time per month. We have a list of the items we get every time, and use at every unit. I do a Sams Club order for most consumables, and do a few on Amazon. About once every 3 months I make a linens and soaps order from hotel items.com. I have often though about Offering this as a service to other local hosts. Great thread here!

I am friends with Syed, the owner of Hostly. They now manage 115 units in Chicago. I can pass your info along if you would like? 

Is anyone else attending the 2019 VRMA conference? If so, let’s meet up!

@Andrew Ratterman 

The STR laws in San Diego are changing as we speak. There are professional operators doing arbitrage and have for years, and they will probably always be some opportunities to do that even though the laws change. However, I just want to caution you that there are lots of professional operators doing this in San Diego. Unfortunately, you are a bit late to start this game. Not that you won't have any success, but be wary of saturation, and also be wary of your competition.

@Ken Latchers this STR forum, and the world, would be a better place without you constantly dragging it down. In my opinion, your comments provide zero value, and usually sound more like the drunk grandpa in the back of the room that nobody pays attention to.