All Forum Posts by: Blair Russell

@Andrew Wong It's in your best interest to avoid trying to upsell things in this market, unless it's for a real reason. If you're not doing more work for it you really shouldn't try to charge for it. Some things you can get away with are: daily housekeeping services, additional guests or beds, airport rides, catering, they need to be things over and above what people will expect. A/C is not a luxury to people. When it comes to researching where to stay people want to see everything they are going to get in the price they see on Airbnb, if you start adding things after that you will suffer. Some things are the cost of doing business.

@Aaron Smith I have lots of experience with older southern folks, lol, and people from all over the world. I'm just saying it's possible and actually once it's done not that hard for people to fathom. 

@Aaron Smith In 5 years no one has ever asked for a landline, and only one group of guests has complained because they didn't have cable. It take me abut 10 minutes to prepare a step by step guide to use the television, but anyway it's really not that techinal (Step 1:Turn on TV, Step 2: press Netflix button ;p). People don't need television anyway, they will most likely watch on their computers.

 I used to be able to use a Google Calendar that would sync all of them (down and up) not sure if that's still supported though. 

@Michael Parrish If you're creative and have thick skin there are still things to find but it won't be easy.

 I'm guessing you are just getting started in this, no shame about that. I only say that because if you've been around for any number of years you would have heard tons and tons and tons and tons of analysis, interest, success stories, and failures about Vegas (just search on this site). It was a huge hot spot, hence the big hit it took during the crash, then it was huge again, now it's sort of leveling out. There are a lot of guys on here, see above, who can give you the numbers and the outlook. But you haven't stumbled upon a secret. That being said depending on what you want to do their are options out there, but buy and hold is hard for traditional rentals, from my perspective the numbers just don't add up. 

What @Michael Greenberg said. I had all of the main three - Airbnb, Homeaway/VRBO, Flipkey - going at one point. Now I'm down to just Airbnb (which fills up the calendars) and my own webpages. Flipkey just wasn't useful enough and their website was really bad back in the day. Homeaway/VRBO was nice and brought in a lot of rentals too but I cancelled when they implemented 'best match' search results and $399 subscriptions and wouldn't refund my now useless $1800 subscription, the renter fees are just another nuisance. Honestly it will be property and location specific but you can't go wrong with an Airbnb and Homeaway listing. I'm sure people will have totally anecdotal experiences that say otherwise but it doesn't cost anything to try either. 

My Toolbox:

Google (Free)

• Sheets - For tracking all rental information (name, dates, $, contact), basic accounting and calculations, and some forms. Integrates with other products (I use Zapier for this). Great add-ons - gmail scheduler, translate, mapping, split, autocrat
• Calendar - For tracking rentals and rental specific tasks and events. It can support multiple color-coded calendars for different rentals. Can be shared with cleaners/managers easily, 
• Docs - Producing guides and marketing materials. Storing message templates, etc.
• Drive - Keeping Records, Property Information, Insurance Certificates, Advertising Photos, etc.
• Keep - Long term to-do list for property maintenance, repairs, and one-time tasks.

Zapier ($20/month) - Automation/Workflow product. Takes information from my main spreadsheet and automatically populates calendars, tasks, sends emails, etc. 

Evernote ($34.99/year) - Easily capture receipts, notes, and business ideas stored in the cloud. Tags and notebooks allow for great organization. 

Wave (Free) - Accounting Software and Reports

@Leo Morales Just find someone flexible with time (one of my housekeepers has her own business, the other works nights) , understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, and easy to communicate to. Have everything you think you will need done written out when you meet with them for an interview, and also make sure they are committed to being local for a while. Go with your gut.

@Clay L. Cleaner or housekeeper is probably not very accurate for what mine do. They are half cleaner/ half property manager and handle restocking supplies and the day to day nuisance calls. I'd rather pay them a little more to handle that stuff then pay a property manager to do very little. I don't know how easy this would be for you but I actually have all of my supplies delivered.