All Forum Posts by: Emmanuel Borromeo

Hey Ryan.  I’m just wondering how your search for a cleaner has gone?  How many did you have to go through before finding the right one?  We’re going self management eventually so I’m kinda wondering how your experience went.  Thanks!

That’s a crazy story but sounds like it will be worth the effort.  Nice work!

I just signed up for stayfi. I purchased 2 wifi access points for my two properties here in Alaska. This was my thought process: one access point costs $200 plus $6/month. So the first year the cost is $272. My hope is that this service will drive more traffic to our direct booking site and generate return customers. If I can get one return customer off my direct booking site within the first year, the product will have paid for itself. This might not generate enough bookings to carry my business, but in terms of marketing ROI I think this will end up being a no-brainer. Someone remind me to update this post in a year to see if everything works out as planned.

I’ll be there albeit a little bit late.

@Kaiden Foster I talked to the treasury Dept. Regarding my permit and they specifically said that Airbnb and Vrbo remit taxes for you. Permit is required only if you’re listing outside of those platforms and collecting taxes yourself. 

@Kaiden Foster I’ve only been at this short term rental game since September but so far so good. I’ve had locals rebook.  I’ve had a company express their intent to be back in the spring.  At the end of each guest’s stay I mention my website and their ability to save money on fees by booking there so I think it is worthwhile. Anything that will bring value to the customer is a good thing in my opinion.  I build and maintain my own websites so it keeps the costs down.  All three channels (Airbnb, Vrbo, and Nelchina.com) are calendar integrated so there’s no jumping back and forth between calendars.  Everything is synchronized through iGMS.com and really makes my life simple and easy and hopefully will help bring in more repeat revenue. In my case I believe it is worth it yes.

I've read the AMC regarding room tax and from what I understand if you're listing with Airbnb and VRBO they will collect and remit taxes for you. I am also listing my property on my own website which would require me to collect and remit taxes myself. I've applied for the permit with the MOA and because my place has more than 3 bedrooms, they are requiring me to put down a $5,000 deposit as surety for their taxes. After 8 quarters of successful payment of MOA taxes you can then apply for a surety waiver and get your deposit back.

Taxes should be automatically added by Airbnb.  I would just contact support to ensure that everything is in order.  It just might be the way your listing is displayed that needs to be fixed?

I’m kind of curious as to what percentage of Mountain View owners rely on property managers vs self manage.

Eagle River would be a good option for you considering you’ll be working at Ft. Rich.  Plus you won’t have to worry about the is this a good/bad area question too much unlike Anchorage.  I wouldn’t invest in Mountain View right out the gate and the rest of Anchorage is street dependent.  One street you’ll be good while across the street you’ll be wishing you bought dogecoin.