All Forum Posts by: Juan Duque

Vacation rentals are a good way to invest but you have to be careful and pick a good property manager or have the time needed to manage. 

I think Sarasota would be a great place to have a rental as long as you don't buy anything crazy expensive. There is a good amount of tourism and you are likely to have low occupancy if you price the unit right and have a location closer to the beach. Check the numbers and make sure it can be profitable before you make a decision. 

I think to estimate annual occupancy you have to look at how active you are in monitoring the prices of properties around your rental. If your property is sitting on the higher end of the range of prices you will have low occupancy for any specific set of dates unless your property is significantly  nicer than the competition. 

Hi Patricia,

I work with short term rentals in Orlando. There is a great podcast done on short term rentals, as far as insurance I recommend keeping it the same, key drop off and pick is best if you leave a $30 lockbox at the door. 

Hope this helps

Try to minimize vacancy as much as you can. In my opinion your worst enemy are vacant days. 

@Michael Le the way I do it is if I have 20 days rented out the only thing left to do is lower rates because the only days you have left are the little gaps in between stays. Unless the remaining 10 days are continous.  One thing to keep in mind with short term rentals is in my opinion your number one goal should be to minimize vacancy. Time will give you the proper knowledge in regards to what your rate should be but the market will dictate the price and educate you. The way I look at it is if I price it too high I know for a fact my property most likely wont be rented. In regards to maximizing your profits it should always be your priority but focus on lowering vacancies first. 

@Michael Le for me every time I wait to get higher rates it only happens sometimes, meanwhile if I lower the rates just in time I always have a better chance of reserving more days in a given month. For this particular scenario and property the lower daily rates give a real good and profitable enough return so that I don't have to chase the high rates. I think if this particular property was only profitable with high rates then in my opinion a short term rental strategy would not be the best option. 

@Michael Le from my experience lowering rates always works when filling up certain vacant days on short term rentals. I use that strategy every month on mine and as an example October is a slow month for me and I have 25 days rented out. Although you have to lower rates at least a month in advance. If you do it last minute there is a lower chance of you actually renting the unit out. 

I have one listing so far with them. So far it has produced $11,000 in rental income in 6 months for a house that would get Around $6000 in the same time period on a one year lease. There are other costs associated with short term rentals but its worked great for us. My main recomendation is don't focus as much on price, instead focus on lowering vacancy and you will see a good stream of revenue. 

Anyone use homestay.com for their vacation rentals or short term rentals? I am looking to start using it however I read that hosts must provide breakfast. Does anyone know if it is mandatory? I have this unit as an investment and the only thing we provide are the essentials.