All Forum Posts by: Jon Crosby

 Thanks @Ashley James, I wrote that so long ago I forgot what was even in there.  I think most of it is still relevant though.  :)  I would most certainly consider building if the location, permitting and cost of materials/construction make sense for the area.  Our homes were in Lake Tahoe area so building there is extremely cost prohibitive due to poor service contractors, high and slow permitting processes and extreme environmental regulations.  I would certainly love to build a vacation home for free though if the math made sense.  

 I usually just put it into the 'construction/reserve costs' field.  Because it's a 'cash-flow' calculator it mostly focuses on Op Ex versus Cap Ex however.  

Thanks @Rajan Udeshi, I hope it helps you out! 

@Sean Haardt feel free to message me, will help where I can.

@Lynn Currie It depends on the system, for me, I was fine just taking the booking data and creating a calendar entry with the data that then fed everything downstream, however the more complex integration I did, was using iGMS as a listing aggregator then used their API to feed the booking details to Zapier and parsed it out to the calendar and other downstream pieces.   It all depends on how complex you want to get and how much time you are trying to save.  For me and just a few properties, creating the calendar entry as my one manual step and having everything downstream was good enough.  :) 

@Lynn Currie  Below are high-level blueprints of some flows I did in the past.  My personal one was more simple as it didn't require the Docusign component.  But in general, Zapier is the conduit by which a calendar entry of new booking would then put email automations from Mailchimp into a queue and release those emails based on that check-in/out date.

Yes, I don't think 50% is out of the question for Occupancy rate based on Airdna data across all properties and types there.  It all depends on your business model and how well you do in reviews, pricing, guest satisfaction, etc. that will actually determine your final occupancy rate.  This data just shows you what others are achieving as an aggregate, but you can subscribe and get more granular data at the property type and size level for the area here.  

If they need the lockbox code, it should be a situation where they call and it's an emergency.  I provide the lock code the day prior to check-in.  

Below is a spreadsheet I created a long time ago that people seem to like to run numbers.  I managed remotely using automation integrations with Mailchimp, Zapier and other home automation systems, but the most important thing is to just make sure you have a great cleaners who will be communicative to you if anything looks off.  I leveraged Evolve to handle my listings, payments and calendar however and they charge 10% if you want to do a 'hybrid' model...but it's not rocket science and you should be able to do it all yourself.  

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

I think it's valuable and it provides a landing page for other campaigns (like paid Facebook/Google ads) you might be doing.  I'm in technology though so it's an easier lift for me to create but using Wix and other tools like that the learning curve has come down greatly.  

The big benefits of your own site is getting commission free bookings and SEO traffic directly to your property and not all the properties around you like you get with the OTAs.  SEO is hard though...it's more art then science and it takes time and arguably you will never even reach page 1 or 2 for the keywords you want if you are in a very saturated area.  SEO on your site is not a set it and forget thing either, so if you are serious about it, you either need to teach yourself and be disciplined about it or just higher somebody for a few hundred bucks a month to do it for you.   

So, long story short, it's good to have an accompanying site for your properties, there are valuable uses for it and you are running a business and every business should have a website in this day and age, but don't expect it to delivery any sort of significant traffic or bookings unless you are in non-saturated STR market.

Best of luck!