All Forum Posts by: David H.

Hi.

I'm still in my first year as a STR owner, and I'm going to start taking bookings for next spring/summer/fall for our lake house. This past summer (our first season) we had many multi-generational family reunions book stays. Our house is one of the larger lake homes in the area so it caters to large groups.

With that said, my goal with advance booking is to bring-in a decent amount of revenue during the offseason (winter), but don't want to scare anyone away with a large initial deposit, and of course I'd like to discourage cancellations.  We currently take bookings on Vrbo, AirBNB, and Direct.  But I'm hoping to lead guests to book Direct as much as possible so the OTA's can't sit on the deposits for months!  We've been working to build up our FB page and email list (Stayfi user) in order to bring people directly to our site.  

I'd love to hear any advice on how other hosts in similar situations do this!   Specifically, what is your advanced payment structure and refund policy when taking bookings 6-9 months out or further...and also how do you encourage Direct Bookings?

Thanks!

Wow, this is exactly what I was hoping to get...a breakdown on a bunch of strategies.  

Totally agree with @Ricky A. & @Chris Watson on Sat-Sat standard in beach markets.  It's the same on the Jersey coast where my in-laws had a house for decades.  Problem I see though, is Sat-Sat stays breaks the weekend in half.  And if all weeks don't fill, I'm worried last minute renters will probably want a full weekend.  Plus our cleaner, who we love, can't commit to Sat turnovers each weekend.  

Our lake is not really a destination place...we do get some people coming from all over the country but they are coming for family reunions, and most people are 2-3 hours away from metro areas (Chicago/Indy/Detroit).   So travel is not a huge issue.  

@Patricia Andriolo-Bull I like your strategy of 5 day min with discounts, I was thinking about doing this at a 7 day min with discounts for 7+ day stays.  You also suggest using the "enemy method."  But we actually don't have a lot of competition on our lake or local area with big houses that rent, so that's why I'm mulling all this over.  

Maybe it's best for me to test things this fall and winter and offer, as @Chris Watson suggests, a 7 day min with no mandatory check in/out days (except Saturdays) and see what people generally prefer...

Thanks everyone for all the feedback!

Thanks @Michael Baum and @Andrew Steffens for your advice.  Definitely agree with you about limiting the pool of renters. A little background though...last spring we finished a long renovation by mid-May and didn't get the house listed on AirBNB and Vrbo until early June, which was much later than we were planning, and we still filled the rest of the weekends for the summer.  (Plus we are filling fall weekends as well with a 3 Day Min.)  And now we also have better marketing in place on socials and a have a direct booking site, plus we are open all year long so word of mouth is improving.  

So with all that, I'm thinking to open booking now for next summer with a 7 day minimum, see how it books out, and by late winter/spring I can reduce it to a 3 day min to fill any remaining weekends, and then work on filling mid-week vacancies as summer approaches.

We were leaning towards Fri-Fri, but Michael I like your suggestion about the Mon-Mon option, which could be nice because renters would have the weekend to travel and then begin their stay on a Monday, then they would end their stay on an upnote with a long weekend...

But with either Fri-Fri or Mon-Mon renters would probably need to take 6 days off work...Sunday-Sunday might actually be better because renters would only need 5 days off.  

Any thoughts on Suday to Sunday?  Does anyone else do this?

Hi. We have a large lake house in the midwest that attracts multi-family stays from Memorial to Labor Day.  This past summer was our first year, so to test the market we had a 3 day minimum, and we filled every weekend with 3-5 day stays easily but we had holes in the midweek.  We plan to open reservations now for next summer (2025) and want to avoid the mid-week vacancies.  

We are considering either a Fri-Fri, Sat-Sat, or AnyDay to AnyDay 7 day minimum strategy. It seems that there are pro & cons to each. Our cleaner says she has another house on the lake that does Fri-Fri and fills the whole summer...unfortunately (or fortunately) there aren't a lot of other STR large lake houses around for us to comp.

For those of you that also do 7 day minimums, what is your preferred strategy?  Or does anyone find that having a 5 or 6 day minimum is also effective?

Thanks!

Hi, my LLC is about to start a rehab on a future STR lake house that the LLC will manage via rental arbitrage. The LLC will be renting the property from my father and he is willing to share some of the cost for the rehab and upgrades. The house will stay in my father's name for now, so we want most of the repairs to be paid by him for depreciation purposes (he will be doing cost segregation and taking bonus depreciation later this year). However, the LLC will need to chip-in financially to help complete this renovation.

My general question is what items should the LLC cover and which should my father cover for best tax benefits?

Upgrades/repairs include:
flooring (tile and carpet, entire house),
painting (entire house),
complete kitchen renovation with new appliances, cabinets, sink, lighting
complete bathroom renovations
upgrade/replace AC
upgrade/replace existing hot tub  
upgrade/replace furniture/beds
upgrade/replace old pier with new
add new kayaks, paddle boards, and bikes

I am thinking anything that is removable (furniture, appliances, water toys, bikes, pier, etc) could qualify as an asset for the LLC and thus be used as a tax expense for the LLC. Correct?

As for the permanent upgrades, can the LLC cover and write off items that are considered a repair or upgrade, like painting and flooring, or new AC or hot tub?

We are also re-purposing part of the house which will allow us to add a new bedroom...my sense is this should be paid for by my father since it is a permanent value-add.  Correct?

(Another option to the above scenario is to instead have the LLC lend my father money to complete the rehab so all the repairs are made in his name...but then the LLC would get no tax deductions on the rehab, plus my father would wind up paying interest on the loan and the LLC would incur taxable income on the interest of the loan as well.)

I've said a lot here, but It would be greatly appreciated if anyone can give me advice on the best strategy to pursue...

Thanks!

 Thanks, I will check out Foremost.

 Yeah, that's a great idea about locking them in a storage shed.  But still concerned about the liability aspect.  Since guests would be using the items off of our premises, home insurance would not cover them getting hurt.  I think getting them to sign a strong waiver would be very important...

Hi John.  

Would you mind sharing the name of your insurance company that covers your pier? Is it a rider, or is it part of the basic coverage?

I'm looking for a new landlord policy for the house and have gotten a few quotes.  It was very hard to get a firm "yes" from the insurance companies that our pier would be covered for liability... we also have a bridge that connects our mainland to a small island that is also part of our property.  The insurance company said the bridge is covered because it is "permanently" connected to the land, but they were very unclear about the pier since it is "removable" and not permanently connected to the land.  I'd love to find a company that is 100% clear in that they cover the pier...

Also, do you have your guests sign waivers for use of your kayaks, paddle boards and canoe?

Hi.  

I'm opening up a new STR on a speedboat-friendly lake in Indiana, and I'm thinking about including kayaks, paddle boards, and bikes (there's a great 20 mile paved biking path next to our property).

These items would add a lot of built-in recreation to our listing, but I have been warned by an insurance agent that this will open our LLC up to a ton of liability should something happen to a guest using one of these items.

(I also have a 10 year old pontoon boat that I was thinking about offering as an additional rental, but I'm leaning against this due to maintenance and possible breakdowns (and especially liability)).

Does anyone have any advice on this?  And if you do offer recreation items such as these, how do you protect yourself from liability?

Thanks!