All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

@Mark Miles VRBO has always been a far second source of rentals from AirBnB, but comparing apples-apples I'm seeing 1/2 the search impressions, but 2x the property views on AirBnB vs VRBO, respectively. As I've said elsewhere, April, May, and June are the slowest months of the year here in New England, but I think of us here that have been at this for a number of years has that "spidey sense" of what we expect to see in bookings throughout the year and that's way down from last year around this time (which was already down about 50% from the "roaring (20)20s." The post COVID drop-off last summer was expected post-lockdown when people just needed to get out and travel internationally again. The further drop-off this year is concerning given the basic data the STR platforms offer in terms of search impressions and page view numbers tell a pretty clear story: if you're under triple digits in pages views for any prior 30 day period expect business to be very slow in the 30 days to follow.

Post-COVID I've also learned to question the pricing dashboards, which continue to promote year over year growth in the aggregate and feel, increasingly, out of touch with the reality on the ground for many of us. I'm finding myself manually tweaking prices far more than I have in the past and, ultimately, if you're not seeing the leads come in on the platforms anyway, what good is a difference of $10 here and there really going to do? 

@Jaron Walling yes I think now's a great time for everyone to be thinking about building their own booking channels, whether that's through a custom site or leveraging any one of the platform managers' own website capabilities. I'm using Guesty for Hosts myself and have leveraged their direct booking site with repeat customers for a number of years now. Not perfect by any means (lots of bugs that never seem to get fixed), but when get past all the marketing hype of AirBnB, VRBO, and others you realize it's really all just lead-gen, listing availability, and payment processing with basic reputation management which, one could also argue, was never really that great with AirBnB anyway since most hosts are accepting both reviewed and non-reviewed guests regardless.

I see there's a few other threads related to the change in platform leads and while much of the chatter in the AirBnB space is around the impact after AirBnB's "Summer Release" where they pivoted to focus on boutique treehouses and Hobbit homes, I'd maintain there's a larger phenomenon going on with the platforms that no one with a vested interest in their continued success (ie: data dashboards, platform managers, etc) wants to really much talk about (ie: how quickly were the "AirBnBust" headlines shot down?). 

Higher STR Vacancies?

Not getting bookings

Bookings down July 2022?

Bookings down

What Michael, John, and JD said: AirBnB is dead from April on. People are booking late or not at all. 

Maybe AirBnB tweaked their algorithm, maybe they completed their pivot to boutique rentals, maybe all the 20 year TickTockers complaining about taking out the trash finally gave up on the platform and took their parents with them?

Either way it’s not you, it’s them. Our bookings in New England are down 80-90% on AirBnB, fortunately there’s other platforms and repeat customers to fill in the gap. 

This is the part where we talk about the importance of “owning the relationship” with your guests, not letting a platform, with an algorithm that can change overnight, control the equation. 

If all continues at this rate I’d expect to see a lot more markets self correcting as STRs sell or return to mid or long term markets.

Note: none of this is to say that I or anyone else has all the answers here, but the dangers of depending on a single platform or service, like a Airbnb, for all of our STR business was writing on the wall for a while now. It's the same circumstance that happened with Facebook tweaking their news feed a few years back and millions of businesses losing traffic on the switch to "pay to play" or Amazon purchasing competitors to a top selling product and selling it at half the price as an "Amazon Basics". In any market you have to control the relationship with your customer. If there is an intermediary between you and them, there's a real possibility of losing that customer or business when it's beneficial to that intermediary's own best interests.

@Jaylan Archer yes and would love to hear what Portsmouth is doing since so many municipalities look to it as the epicenter for tourism in the state. 

I think most locals are aware of the history of STRs proposals/cases in Portsmouth, Laconia’s existing restrictions limiting non-owner occupied STRs to resort/shorefront only, VT's local option tax that allows a 1% tax above the state's existing 9% tax, Portland cap on STR permits and increases tied to inflation, and it's also probably a good idea for folks to understand NH's Senate Bill 249, which proposed a "ban of local bans" around STRs and basically died on the floor(?) if I read the history right. I know Gov Sununu wasn't a fan when it was hotly debated last year and given all the talk around a presidential run I doubt he'd be spending much time thinking about it now. 

As someone that grew up in NH, knows every corner of the state, has managed both LTRs and STRs across New England, and spent as much time as I can learning from others in different regions across the BP STR forums for years now I would honestly not recommend anyone invest in New England versus areas with far longer rental seasons.

Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are states with huge shoulder seasons: effectively 6 of 12 months of the year (Spring: April, May, June + Fall: late October, November, and most of December) rental demand is near nonexistent. 

That does not mean you cannot make a good return, it just means you have a highly compressed period of time to do it. In short, if you're not renting every week of July-August and every weekend of the winter, you're taking losses, particularly given the ridiculous prices I'm seeing new investors pay farther north in vacation areas like North Conway or the White Mountains.

And looking solely at North Conway's recent court case is a red herring: plenty of small towns around the NH continue to enact knee-jerk reactions and excessive permitting/regulations as a reaction to STRs assumed role raising housing prices and shrinking supply for local residents. That's a really big concern with many residents all across New England. In short, just because municipalities can't ban it, doesn't mean they can't tax you out of business. 

Yes it should go without saying to lock up your hub in your secure storage area. No different than a guest popping off your WiFi lock’s cover and reprogramming your lock with your master code printed on the inside. 😀

I’ve used them all and for short and long term rentals. Whatever you do, just don’t go with the mechanical deadbolt varieties in climates with high temperature variability. The locks jam, burn through batteries, and are very confusing for most guests/tenants to use. I like the Schlage Lever locks for most applications which can last nearly a year with one set of batteries.

As a general rule, be careful or have local help on hand if using any of the WiFi based locks: WiFi-based locks use much more power than locks that interact with an intermediary hub or plug-in accessory, since those locks are most often lower energy Bluetooth at the lock and the hubs just stay plugged into the wall.  

Take look at Igloo locks as well. They allow generation of unique guest codes even while completely offline. Very cool tech.

@Collin Hays thanks for sharing this. Part of the challenge of many STR investors who overpaid in the last couple years appears to have been driven by high profile STR dashboards and headlines showcasing unrealistic narratives and/or singularly focusing on gross over net income. In the STR space determining real vacancy or base pricing often ends up being a bit more complicated than pulling comps from area rentals in a traditional LTR rental market where tenants pay utilities and vacancy's often an assumed 10% of gross deduction.

From the looks of your site, you've also controlled PM costs by building out your own PM practice and "renting" that service out to others, which is a great strategy. To flip this helpful thread around to present day, are there specific metrics or ground rules you would recommend to newer investors coming into the market today to avoid losing their shirts in this rapidly-moving market? 

Appreciate your longer-term perspective and experience on the current downcycle, which feels like the elephant in the room that many in the media are either over or under estimating. 

@Gulliver R.what others have said: the booking platforms are selling you on "faux safety" no more or less safe than direct booking with a deposit you control and refund as needed. Many channel managers have also caught onto the revenue available through STR per-booking insurance policies as well, which you can make mandatory on any direct booking stay.

As the news outlets are finally realizing, the new hotness in the institutional STR market is already direct booking to cut out the platform tax:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news...

Never used RentRedi, but if the system doesn't allow for a group application (common in many areas) maybe look into another system. Last I checked, even free apartments.com rental application allowed group applications. 

100% @Stephanie Gledhill.  Every interested party follows exactly the same process and answers exactly the same questions: fully automated and as a requirement of requesting a viewing on the property. 

There's no need to charge an application fee to ask interested parties basic questions. And equally no reason to waste your time showing spaces to applicants that that do not meet your written minimum rental criteria.