All Forum Posts by: Bill Cereske

Lucas, I started date coding my towels in 2015, and have yet to replace a single one.  I use the vanilla Wamsutta towels from Bed Bath and Beyond. 

It's about to get worse.  El Dorado County just voted a VHR permit moratorium in the Lake Tahoe area.  It was a great idea Andrew.  We started the VHR thing in 2004 at Tahoe, and it's been good.  We'll see how it goes from here.  Worst case is they put us out of business and we wind up living there.  We'll have to suffer with all that premium furniture and amenities we bought as a business. 

The haters just turned in their petition to ban VHR rentals in SLT today.  We'll see what happens next.  For now, they've probably resumed their patrols, looking for minor violations to report. 

Abandon all hope, Ye who have hopes for a VHR at the city of South Lake Tahoe.  Outside the commercial core, there is a limit on the number of permits (1400) and they are all taken, with a waiting list.  If you sell a property with a VHR permit, it gets confiscated and awarded to the next person on the waiting list.  The new rules are draconian.  If your guest parks on the street for one minute, THEY get a $1,000 fine and YOU get a $1,000 fine as well.  There are plenty of other things that will get the fines.  If you get three fines in a 2 year period, they confiscate your VHR permit.

Here's the good news: 

http://www.cityofslt.us/index.aspx?nid=453

The bad news is that there is a petition circulating to put the question of implementing a complete BAN on VHRs on the ballot.  If it passes, I'm out of business.  There is ANOTHER petition circulating that will confiscate the permit of any property that doesn't generate enough Occupancy Tax in a year.

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/petition-seeks-to-tighten-south-lake-tahoe-vhr-regulations-maintain-current-cap/

I'm with the gang here.  Let your guests bring their own combustible liquids and don't leave beer containers around.  Trouble?  Let me count the ways.....

So, there are three premium hotels in your market, all doing well.  There are 3 economy motels there, (yours, his and the dead one).   This tells me that the market is screaming for a mid level accommodation, and that's going to come from one of two places - either you are going to upgrade and fill it OR somebody is going to buy the dead motel and modify it to fill that void. 

You are right there at that sweet spot.  I recommend grabbing the opportunity at once!  By all means get rid of the old TVs and put in flat screens.  If the ones at the dead motel are really nice and new, get them if you can.  Otherwise, just get nice new ones - they'll pay for themselves in energy savings and guest satisfaction.  Even if your competitor gets the TVs, it just raises the tide for everybody. 

Look at the rooms.  It's not difficult to spruce them up.  Make them look as clean and fresh as the premium hotels!  Visit the premium hotels and steal a few ideas you can use to make YOUR place stand out from the other economy motel.  If you run out of ideas, binge watch "Hotel Impossible".

Don't worry about your "competitor".  You're about to hand him the entire economy segment, while you eat the premium hotel's lunch.

Personally, I would call the police immediately.  They'll bring Fire and HazMat to tell what you need to do to keep your next guests safe.  If you don't put the safety of your guests first, you have no business being in the hospitality business.    If you are considering not doing that, I would call my attorney for guidance.  If you don't have an attorney, get one.   He'll tell you to get out of the hospitality business.

If your property passes inspection, it's still time to go overboard with guest safety.  Smoke and CO detectors inside and outside of every bedroom.  GFCI outlets in the kitchen, baths, garages and outdoors.  For the top of stairways, you can get battery operated, motion sensing lights that will come on in the dark - warning guests that they are getting close to a stairway.  No code requires those, but common sense does:  If a guest has a bad experience, like falling down a stairway while having had just a BIT too much to drink - you may not be liable in a legal way, but you have lost a repeat guest.  Remember, you are a Hotelier and passing code is just a start.

One thing I would design in - and have implemented at MY STR - is a "flash" hot water heater capable of serving all the bathrooms at once. Not only do your guests never run out of hot water, you never pay to store a tank of hot water during the week, when your winter guests are weekend skiers. (That's my case, except this week which has a midweek booking). Storing a 50 gallon tank of hot water in an Alpine winter garage, is a lot more expensive than you may realize.

@Account Closed  I have always allowed pets and have never regretted that.  That said, you shouldn't change your policy simply based on this winter's bookings.  EVERYBODY is having a hard time with bookings this winter - although the Tahoe Daily Tribune will never tell you that.   It's the lack of snow. If you're marketing your place right, it will start booking as soon as the snow conditions improve.