All Forum Posts by: Bill Cereske

I set up a free site with my registrar. It's very simple, with a couple of photographs, a link to the management company web page and a link to the property Facebook page.  I made up some cards directing people to tahoeacres.com, which makes it easy for folks to find.

It will be interesting to see what happens in South Lake Tahoe, as ALL vacation rentals not in the "tourist core" area are legislated to be put out of business in 2021.  The town is on total lockdown right now, with owners of vacation rentals not allowed in their properties, under punishment of a $1,000 per day fine.  I wonder if this lockdown may change the voters minds about vacation rentals being banned....

At South Lake Tahoe, the ski resorts have closed and the remaining March bookings have vanished.  There are still 2 for April, so I guess we'll see how it goes.  Summer is still all but sold out.  That's why we maintain a cash reserve, in case something happens.  It sure is happening.

The latest I have heard about South Lake Tahoe's ban, is that there will a hearing in court come February.  I don't have details/

For my Tahoe STR I do use a full service management company, and yes they charge 30%. It made sense to me when I lived in San Francisco, and even more so when I now live in Boise, which is a 9 to 10 hour drive away.

Happy New Year Paul.  My useless tidbit is that squirrels will relentlessly try to get to the seed in the bird feeder, and will usually succeed.

My property is on Lakeview.  I predict that the economy will become like that of Summer 2002, following the 9-11 attacks.  Nobody is going to want to go to South Lake Tahoe, If their preferred places to go are confiscated.  People who want a vacation home experience are NOT going to check into Harrah's - they're going to vacation rentals in another state.

2020 may be the last full year I'm in the STR business in South Lake Tahoe, unless something happens. I expect it will happen, my property will revert back to a family vacation home, and the economy there will collapse. Then, the ban ordinance will be repealed, and I'll be back in business - but it will take years for South Lake Tahoe to recover.

Although the JC Penny towels were nice, they stopped stocking enough inventory to make it worthwhile.  We switched to Wamsutta towels from Bed / Bath and they work out very well, in vanilla. Housekeeping once added a towel from another property, and it felt cheap and disgusting.  No cheap towels for us!

I keep two tanks of propane for the gas grill (which I just replaced with a new one last week).  I keep the gas grill on deck, so it's the first one guests find.  The charcoal grill is tucked around the corner, which guests can take out if they're so inclined, but they have to provide their own charcoal.  The reason I do this is to prevent guests who don't know what they're doing from using the charcoal grill.  I've had guests dump ashes into the bluff, which drains to the lake and can pollute it.  Worse, some guests have dumped hot ashes there, which could burn the whole place down.