All Forum Posts by: John Underwood

I'm not seeing a link or image, John.... (?)

But I suspect that ABNB is priced lower because people know that they allow hosts to rent trailers, tents, RVs and rooms. Just a thought. I think of VRBO as a little 'higher class', but that might be just me, I am (as you know)  a little biased towards VRBO based on many issues.

Also have you noticed the constant advertising by VRBO pushing this exact concept and really selling themselves as the better 'free-er' choices. Pretty good ads really. They are trying (and succeeding I believe) to capture a larger market share. I personally believe that ABNB is vulnerable in this regard...(i.e. a sloppy host sitting in the spa with the guests, Lol)....what do you think?

Hey guys, so I believe you guys saw that Airbnb just changed the review system without any announcement. 

There are 2 major changes and it is a part of Airbnb moving forward to AI system. 

1. Airbnb review removal is no longer handled by the support team or a human. 
This is critical for any review removal since now hosts can’t no longer convince support teams or continuously calling them until find a host-friendly support team member.  
When you choose to dispute a review, they give you 5 categories and the process is very straightforward. 

- retaliatory (bad review because we enforced the rule or charged)

- irrelevant (guest never arrived)

- guest was pressured to write a bad / good review (paid review)

- competitor

- content policy (usually name or address calling or bullying)

Anything that is outside of these 5 categories is not removable at all.!!!!
For example, usual challenging reviews such as complaining about noise, parking, neighbor throwing party, local event, weather…. Are now impossible to remove since they fall under the category of how guests felt during the trip.

This will break a lot of myth about the Airbnb review system such as hosts are not responsible for things that is outside of host’s control (Airbnb never said this in their policy) or Guests can’t write a review about nonfactual things such as BBQ grill or hot tub were broken even it was simply user error. (Airbnb doesn’t get involved in fact checking)

Once you request a review removal, you get the answer pretty shortly and they just tell you whether it was approved or not. They don’t tell you anything about why and you get only one more chance to appeal for that specific review. 

I tested with old reviews to see how easy it is and Yeap. It is not easy at all to remove reviews. (I tested with 1 outside of my control factor, guest’s car got vandalized in a public street and 1 complained about something we don't provide. )

So what happens if you fail to remove the review? It is really bad with the change 2.

2. Airbnb now uses relevant review first as default. (guests have to click the newest first to see reviews in timeline order We have no knowledge of how AI chooses which review to bring it to top but they definitely choose none-5-star reviews over hundreds of other 5 star reviews.
This is really bad since now every single guest will see that one bad review you failed to remove before making their bookings. Even after year and hundreds of successful 5 star stays! So imagine that review talks about they had a sewage back up or the neighbor had a huge truck and they couldn’t find a parking spot. (even if it was just one moving day, now everyone will see this first!)

This will be a challenging time for hosts. I only see that this is the start of AI era and everything will be strictly rule-based even if those rules are not perfect. Big players who usually choose to push bad reviews by volume tactic now really need to think about their strategy. 

Hey @Jewell Arceneaux, yeah arbitrage isn't a thing most of us advocate.

It can work, but the last couple years have been very tough to make that strategy work, especially for new investors.

It is just a job and you don't get anything out of it in the end but a paycheck.

The only time I have said cool to anyone asking about arbitrage is someone who already had a bunch of properties (LTR or whatever) and wanted to give it a shot. They could afford to take the hit if/when it goes south.

One strategy you could look at is buying up to a four plex and finance with FHA. Low down in most cases. Move into one and rent the others. If you do it right, then you could make a decent amount of cash while building equity.

After a year, you can refi that loan into a conventional, go look for another 'plex, move into a unit, renovate your old place, rent it and start all over. You do this a few times, you will have 3 or 4 performing LTR properties and can then branch out.

I don't know if you are married and/or have kids. This strategy can be tougher with family in tow but it can be done.

If I was starting out, this is what I would do. 

I'm looking to add an 1,100 sq ft ADU on the back of my land.

Targeting a luxury feel (at budget) featuring a stocked pond for fishing, hot tub, etc. All in, we're estimating the cost to be ~$100k (doing most of the build ourselves).

While we're somewhat central (40-2hrs) from multiple larger tourist destinations (SAV, Hilton Head, St. Simon's), there's hardly any AirDNA comps to gauge occupancy. I'm estimating ~60% occupancy and planning to set flex rates $185-200+ per night. Based on this, I'm targeting >20% CoC. The only thing is, it's a best estimate.

TLDR: does anyone have experience analyzing more rural areas to gauge their STR potential? Any other factors I should be considering? TIA!

This is big news in my neck of the woods. STRs have been mostly banned in the City of South Lake Tahoe since a voter initiative passed in 2018. It created a carve-out though for locals to STR their primary residence up to 30 days per year.

The court found that favoring local owners over non-locals violated the dormant commerce clause and they invalidated the whole measure.

Lawsuits against the city expected soon over lost STR revenue.