All Forum Posts by: Johnny Duray

👆Agreed with both gentlemen above...I think it’s market dependent. For my indoor pool cabin in TN, I have someone come between each guest and wouldn’t have it any other way.

For my current residence on the FL Gulf Coast that I'll be turning into a STR once the military moves us, I'll be having someone come once a week like @Luke Carl. It’s an outdoor pool and won’t get beat on nearly as hard because most folks are coming here to come to the beach. In TN, I’m convinced some guests spend 90% of their time in the tiny indoor pool I have.

Ahhh. The ole pool question. 
Caveat: I only own one cabin and have been doing this for 5 months.

 But I went big and bought a 5 BR pool cabin in PF as my first. The pool and I started out with a love/hate relationship. It was 95% of the reason my guests booked but it was also 95% of my problems. I had a bad pool guy from the start and knew it but couldn’t find a replacement. (Every pool guy I reached out to said they weren’t taking on any more pools). After a ton of time, I finally found a replacement and fired my initial pool guy.

What a difference. Now my pool is still 95% of the reason people book and I haven’t had an issue since my new pool guy took over. So now I love my pool all the time.

I believe pool cabins rode (and are still riding) the post-Covid wave even more so than the non-Pools. People just don’t want to go swim in a public place still. I have zero data to back this up, just my own inkling based on my guests.

I’m a numbers/Excel guy and am happy to share. I went live in mid-June (lucky timing). I have had $133k in revenue in 2020 and $20k on the books for 2021. With any luck, I’ll be north of $200k for my first year. I spent a ton of time getting everything set-up, but now I only look at things every few days if something comes up.

I would buy a 4 BR with a pool over a 5 BR without, everything else pretty equal. 

I’m on the @Avery Carl and @Luke Carl train too BTW.

I’ve run into this problem twice now in 3 weeks so I’m starting to think “It’s not you, it’s me” and looking for some advice.

Someone leaves me a 4-star review. Zero issues during their stay. I reach out and the convo goes like this...

“Hi. I saw you left a 4-star review, anything we could have done better for you?”

“Nope. Loved the place. Had a great time. We’ll be back next year.”

“Ok great! Unfortunately, a 4-star review lowers our rankings in searches, puts us at risk of losing Superhost status, etc.”

“Oh really?!! I had no idea. I just don’t give 5 star reviews for anything normally. I’d love to change it to a 5-star if I could.”

Then I start the process of trying to get it changed...which is somewhere above brain surgery but below putting someone on Mars in terms of difficulty level. I was successful once with VRBO after weeks of back and forth. Just had the same thing happen on AirBNB and don’t even want to think about what this might be like.

I know a 4-star review isn’t the end of everything, but I want to reserve those reviews for when I actually have issues that deserve one. I don’t want to “waste” my 4 stars on misunderstandings like this. I’ve tried editing my wording in my automated messages to indicate how I’m trying to provide a 5-star experience, but I’ve stopped short of saying “If you’re going to give us anything less than 5-stars please reach out before doing so.”

Should I go that route?

@Theresa Harris My cleaners charge me $200 per clean (5 BR. 5 Floors. 3900 sq ft). I obviously pass that on to the guests. 

I changed my VRBO and AirBNB "Rules" to read that I can take out of the Security Deposit for any excessive cleaning required. I never had that in there before. I could probably get away with trying to pull that from the guests that caused me the issue....but I didn't think it was worth the fight on this one. I'm new and need more 5 star reviews more than I need $125 right now. I paid my cleaners an extra $125 for the work, obviously out of my own pocket.

I think this will be a case by case scenario for me for now. If this becomes a habit for my cleaners (where every other guest requires "Excess work") then I'll address it differently. If the pictures are truly atrocious, I'll pull the fee from their Security Deposit (with a message obviously telling them why) and hope that a bad review doesn't follow.

How does everyone on here handle the situation when their cleaner calls them and say the following....“Your guests trashed the place. No damage, but trash everywhere and just left in a disgusting mess. Took us twice as long to clean as normal.”

They didn’t call to say “Pay us more money”, but said “We wanted to know what your policy was on this since it was excessive in case you need to hold back a deposit or anything.” 

This is the first time they’ve called me saying this. They have been tremendous cleaners so far. They sent me pics...it was dirty (sand and Cheerios on the floor, excessive trash piled up near the trash bin, random cups left lying around the bedroom) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

What is everyone’s policy? Do you pay them a little more, try to hold back some of the deposit, tell them to suck it up, etc. 

I’m torn...I want to keep my cleaners happy, but I don’t want to set a precedent...especially since this is such a subjective thing.

Again, I want to emphasize that she has been awesome so far as a cleaner...always on time, I constantly get reviews on how clean the place is, etc.

I closed at the beginning of June with @Avery Carl’s help and took the advice of everyone and went big (5 bedrooms with a pool) for my first one. Obviously it’s still really early, but I have zero regrets so far. I’m active military with a pretty demanding job at times, but with the right processes in place and a great cleaning crew, a caveman really could do it. 

I know the market has really picked up, but even at what I paid, my cash on cash this year is projected to be pretty awesome. I know I hit the “post-Covid boom” perfectly, so I’ll stay humble until I see another few months. I’m well above what I projected for thus far.

When I do this again, there’s no doubt I’m waiting until I have enough stashed up to go 5+ BRs with a pool. I could go smaller earlier, but I wouldn’t see the point. When some guest messages me with the dumbest question ever that’s literally in 3 different messages or guidebooks I’ve already sent him...it’s an easier reply when I remember I’m getting a lot of money to answer his lazy question. That would be a harder pill for me to swallow if it was a 1 BR making significantly less.
 
Happy to talk numbers @Adam Cade if you are interested. I’m a moderate excel sheet dork...not varsity level...but I’m on the team :)

I’m so confused. If I go on any major insurer’s website (Geico, Progressive, USAA, etc) they ARE giving customers 15-20% off their bills. What are you upset about? The fact that they aren’t doing it for the next 5 years?

Over half the US is beginning to reopen as of May 5...which will obviously lead to increased travel on the highway. Most insurers are giving the discount for 2-6 months. What part of their decision to give folks some money back doesn’t sit well with you?

I just went under contract with @Avery Carl in the middle of Corona virus hysteria and a stock market collapse. Market saturation for the Smokies? In the words of @Luke Carl...Bring it on!!

In all seriousness, I ran numbers left and right and nothing compared to the Smokies. I paid a little more than I wanted to, but even then, nothing still could compete with the potential NET income the Gatlinburg area brings in....even now when the market is super hot. 

There's always the chance I could completely fail at this and feel differently in a few months, but I'll take my chances for now.

I’m very new to the game as well, but I would suggest looking into RevPAR/RevPAN when you get a chance. RevPAR is Revenue per available Room. It’s used in hotel calculations. RevPAN is Revenue per available Night and is basically RevPAR modified for vacation rental owners who only have one “room” (property) they are worried about.  It’s the one number that allows you to compare apples to apples to determine how well your pricing strategy is working month to month and year to year.

RevPAN is calculated either by taking your total revenue for a given period (call it a month) and dividing it by the number of days you had the place available. You could also calculate it by figuring your Average Daily Rate for the nights you were booked and multiplying that by your occupancy rate. RevPAN is nice because it allows you to see the combination of ADR and occupancy.

Essentially it’s a way of figuring out where the sweet spot is for pricing...

For example, if you pulled in $5,000 in gross rents for the month and the place is available for all 31 days of the month, the Revenue Per Available Night is $161.29 ($5000/31). If next month you only pulled in $4,000, but you stayed in the property for 7 days and it was down 3 days for repairs, it would only have been available for 21 days...thus the RevPAN is $190.48 ($4000/21). RevPAN allows you to see that your pricing structure actually worked better the second month even though you pulled in less cuz of other circumstances.

@Michael Baum Thanks!