All Forum Posts by: Dave Stokley

Building and syndicating deals in niche destinations.

Quote from @Anna Antipkina:

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I am managing my first STR. I set my communication up through Guesty to automate booking and task notifications for my cleaner. On the day of cleaning, my cleaner sends me texts and pictures of all the things that may be dirty or damaged.  She's sending me pics of a dirty outlet, sticky stuff in a cabinet, games that weren't put away, etc. In the bigger scheme of things, minor items like that are not important and she should just clean them and not notify me. A torn blanket that I need to re-order is something I should know. What are everyone's thoughts and advice on that?

P.S. The guests who have stayed in my house have 5 star raving host reviews on Airbnb, so I'm wondering if dirty outlets, sticky things in cabinets, torn blankets, trash not taken out are a normal occurrence I should just accept and move on from?

 Your cleaner is your primary eyes on the property so over-communicating is much bette than under. Unless it’s a huge burden I’d let it go. Also, cleaning is kind of a crappy and lonely job, so she probably needs someone to vent to. I’d just say “thanks, I really appreciate your attention to detail and the great job you do.”

Good stuff, I like the travel insurance opening question!  But I would personality not try to explain/interpret airbnb’s extenuating circumstances policy because it is THEIR policy and not up to you to interpret. If the cancellation falls outside YOUR cancellation policy then I’d just refer them to Airbnb and say “you will have to discuss with Airbnb customer service whether this falls within their extenuating circumstances policy.”

Quote from @Michael Baum:

It is always better to have a municipality introduce some small regs like registration and the like and not just ban them outright. 

Yep that’s why I said I love it!

Good, love it.

If I’m reading this right the 5.5% tax is the Summit County rate and they share it with Akron. In Cleveland the county rate is 6.5% and Cleveland charges another 3%.

FYI your ABJ link didn’t work. I googled it: https://www.beaconjournal.com/...

We do not allow cancellations outside of our cancellation policy. They exist for a reason. Moreover, Airbnb has an “extenuating circumstances” policy, which I typically refer guests to (meaning I tell them to contact Airbnb about it). Finally, they could have purchased trip insurance.

Simply put, we do not give refunds for things beyond our control. 

My AllState landlords policy has an STR rider.

Quote from @John Underwood:

This is no surprise as Airbnb keeps making changes that are not owner friendly.

Only charging owners 3% is pretty friendly. If you have to process your owner credit cards that's 3% right there. Plus you have to figure out how to drive thousands of people to your personal website (tons of money and time), you don't have Aircover, your guests have no prior reviews, etc.

No idea, but what you SHOULD do is add it to your wishlist. Almost certain that’s an important metric.

Quote from @Trent Reeve:

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Why do you want less seasonality?

 im assuming they are trying to look at an area that rents year round vs only in-season

Yeah I get that. Question is why? Some of my best properties are extremely seasonal. The only thing that should matter is profitability.