All Forum Posts by: Chris O.

I assumed he’s trying to do it direct, but if not, yeah, just use Airbnb  

Availabilitycalendar?

I think the answer is pretty simple - it’s not a service for you. 

What’s wrong with taking direct bookings? 

Just to clarify this - its 1% unless you have 10 properties, at which point it becomes .75%

** I  know there a few previous threads on this subject. I've read through them -I wanted to start this in case anything is new since the last thread/others that hasn't saw those perhaps wanted to comment here - as well as my Canadian specific question. Also - Perfect Price is pretty new - not sure if anyone has experience with them

I'm trying to decide which pricing tool to go with - I'm leaning towards Price Lab (partly because it integrates with the PMS I want to use) but curious what others are using and how they find it. Or even better, if you made a switch and why.

I find Beyond pricing to be a little expensive compared, and Wheelhouse next in line. It seems the flat fee model of the Price Labs and Perfect Price work out better if the unit is at least average in annual rental. Of course if you're leaving money on the table in lost revenue from poor software, that point is moot.

Also curious, does anyone have any experience with Canadian properties on these? During one my PMS demos the salesperson made a point to comment that I should be careful as some of the pricing software is better than others in Canada - but they didn't elaborate how/why, or which were good/bad. I've tried a long google search and can't find anything.

Just touching back on this in relation to the market pricing in the Comox Valley. We'd actually closed on a 2nd rental property in March that was viable. For various reasons the deal fell through. The property recently relisted and sold for 12% more than our price in March. The low interest rates have really given the local market a kick. Talking to a few friends who bought homes here in the last 2 months (primary, not investments), sounds like the market is still red hot for SFU's. I'd anticipate it will be well into the new year before you see any potential negative macro effects hit this area. As John said in a previous post, this area really seems like one of the last on the island to feel the effects of a potential market softening.

On a related note, just thought I'd throw out there if anyone was interested in a meet up in the area. PM me if so and we can arrange 

I'm using Mobirise v5, so not sure how limited my options are. I'm trying to find if there's a direct booking tool/calendar I can embed on my site, without going to a full blown PMS. The 3 direct booking tools I've found so far are

Availability Calendar - company says they can sync with the big 3 OTA's, but direct booking I'd have to manually update (which is fine at this stage). Anyone have any experience using this? 

PHPJabbers - doesn't work with OTA's

Availcalendar - can't even figure out how to contact anyone there - doesn't seem like something worth relying on.

Anyone else using any direct booking software/calendars on their sites without utilizing a full PMS?

Does anyone resupply (either free of charge or billed to the owner) kitchen cooking items - parchment paper, saran wrap, tin foil, zip lock baggies? Apologies for getting quite specific but that's one example I haven't seen show up yet and am curious what others are doing 

 That's nice to have a rough estimate what the consumables end up costing - if I read your previous post correctly that $10 average is covering paper towels, toilet paper, all types of soap, Shampoo, Conditioner and coffee correct?