All Forum Posts by: Dave Stokley

 Couple thoughts:

1. Your pictures are bad. Hire a professional photographer and have them shoot in the day when you can open the windows and get some natural light.

2. The layout is super awkward. Where are 8 people going to hang out together? A personal rule of thumb is that there needs to be enough room at the dinner table and seating in the living area for everyone that you accommodate. This isn't always possible, but sleeping 8 and seating 4 is unacceptable. Same for the outdoor area.

3. Titles are less important these days, but you've wasted 75% of yours. I don't need "4 br" in the title because if it matters I've already put that as a search filter. Don't care that it's "Victorian," don't know what "uptown" means, and obviously it's a "home."

It shouldn't be this hard. There's something wrong with your listing or property. Can you post a link?

Yep get out while you can!

Seriously though, yeah it is way more competitive and the people who aren’t operating their places like real businesses probably aren’t gonna make it.

 Lokal Real Estate hosts my favorite one: https://www.facebook.com/group...

Per STR Insights, 60% of the highest performing properties are managed by LOCAL property managers. Not self-managed. Not managed by the big companies.

What days will you be here? There are a couple good meetup groups that have regular networking events.

As others have alluded to you’ll have to have a massive marketing budget to drive the kind of traffic you’d get from the big boys. You’ll also be missing out on the other things they provide like payment processing, AirCover, guest reviews and screening, etc.

We’ve used Safely in the past (primarily for the insurance) and I think it’s a great service for high-end properties with high-end furnishings. Here’s the problem with the guest screening aspect: for a property like this you’re probably having 8+ guests in your place, but they’re only screening the one person that booked it, so how much value is there really in that? And practically speaking you can’t spend the time and money to screen every member of every party. Better to charge high rates and if you really feel like you need the protection take a deposit. But I’ve hosted 10,000+ stays and never taken a deposit.