All Forum Posts by: Justin Anderson

Quote from @Glen Wiley:

I like the idea of collecting email addresses to help with direct booking in case I need to. It sounds like StayFi isn't the right answer, what are alternatives for collecting email at the STR?

I'll jump in here with some actual usage data.

I have 250 units on stayfi and have been running it for a couple of years now.

I initially got it to simplify my wifi login process...  Doing a deep dive into support tickets, around 40% were wifi related.  Stayfi enables me to see the current uptime status and answer about half of the issues instantly.  It also allows me to avoid the dreaded wifi router password resetting guest.  

Onboarding new units was a pain when we try to standardize passwords and have to coordinate with the owner for access.  It'd be even more of a pain when dealing with TVs and smart thermostats.  Stayfi is an access point that gives us a new network, so it's literally plug and play.

Whoever is complaining above about it being hard to install must have never used it.  I literally have our inspectors plug in the device and we're up.

The last benefit, which wasn't even intended at the start, is guest email collection.  At this point we've added 30,000 emails to our database (after cleanup).

Given most of our bookings are OTAs, this now enables us to market to them to book direct.

I've grown my STR property managment company from 0 to 150 units in 3 years. (Just under 10M in gross rents last year not including cleaning)

I did a dive into my lead source and it was split into 4 roughly equal sources: social media, realtor referrals, Seo, owner growth/referrals. 

Ive done zero outbound marketing to hit this number - postcards, display ads, etc.  This is all inbound leads. 

My background is owning an internet marketing company for 20 years, so I have a bit of a leg up for sure. 

Ultimately success using my channels hinges on solid execution IMO.  We've only had 2 owners leave in 3 years and I've fired 2 more.  Without executing well, those lead sources wouldn't have happened.

I'd say Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg are among the most STR friendly cities in the country. Very few properties prohibit STRs and you can see the dramatic price difference for those.

Knoxville is definitely too far away to take advantage of STR here, but Pittman Center is perfect.  In general, try staying south of downtown Sevierville, west of Cobbly Nob and east of Wears Valley (including both of those).

Sorry you've been taken. I was almost taken when I first started using Telegram groups and someone asked for my Metamask phrase.   I've used Ccoinbase for several years with no issues but at this point it's only to onramp fiat.  I now use defi for any exchanges so I hold my own crypto and don't leave it in an exchange.

Are you certain it wasn't your computer (or phone) that was hacked?  I believe Coinbase uses Plaid for bank account connectivity which means they never would have your login credentials.

If significant cost savings can be achieved.  In my case, I have 50 acres I want to build on.  I've learned that due to the location and length of road needed, I'm looking at 750k in road costs.  Amortized over 10 or 12 lots for that stretch, it no longer makes fiscal sense to build there.   But if he could bring it in for 250k (or whatever), maybe that equation changes and the deal now is viable.

I appreciate the idea of bringing sweat equity into a deal.  Just like the folks on BP encourage partners without money to apply a skilled trade to get into deals, you're offering the same thing with development.  I just shot you a PM to pick your brain on something.  

I'm all about Jimmy and he's inspected at least 15 or 20 of my owners as well as most of my personal.  He's even helped avoid a couple of bad ones which I feel is where they earn their money.  Super nice guy and will answer all your questions.

We've had thousands of stays and had mayyyybe one or two requests for anything longer than two weeks. Of course we only marketed on STR sites, but I can't see anyone wanting to do LTR when STR money is there for the taking...

Following.  I've considered it off and on but never made the leap. 

Vrbo is easily better to deal with than airbnb but from the support side and being more "owner friendly"....

BUT you should list on both so you double your market audience.  Then you'll be able to raise your rates quite a bit since you have twice the eyeballs looking.  (Ie - the supply is 2x so the demand is 2x.  You won't get 2x the boost but it may be 20 or 30%)

Also note that each city is different about market share.  Even in my market it'll differ on size:  Airbnb comprises most of the smaller sized units but it flips to vrbo as unit size gets larger.