All Forum Posts by: Jeffery Wilen

@John Underwood

As you stated, we also charge a higher cleaning fee than we are billed by our cleaners. 
Also as mentioned by several others, we have an early/late checkin/out fee. We cannot always charge it as it’s not really possible on back to back stays. It typically is a couple $k per property annually. 

@Catherine Cleveland

These properties would still be valued as individual properties based on local comparative property sales. In order to value using performance, it must be a 5 unit or higher property. Buying them as a package doesn’t put them into this category. 

Just another example of why you always always file eviction paperwork the very first day you are able, no delays.

Live by your lease, it says the 5th file on the sixth. It says “no pets” file if they bring in a pet. The lease document is there to protect both parties. Don’t hesitate to use it to protect your investment. 

What @John Underwood said…

We were using Cozy and liked it like every else has commented.  The switch over for us was horrendous.  We were in the middle of showing the unit and accepting applications for a vacant unit and everything got shut down. We were unable to accept any applications for nearly 4 days.  Their change over took that long, totally unacceptable for us.

We switched to Turbotenant, so far we've been happy with them.  Their model is much like Cozy was before Apartments.com took them over with much the same functionality.

@Ben Hooper

The challenge in WA is finding an area that has the draw for travelers and acceptance by local jurisdictions.  Even areas on the coast that are economically dependent on tourism are enacting restrictions on STRs. Everyone wants to bang on the drum of STRs driving home prices up.  But frankly the real driver is just overall demand for housing, not any just STRs.  There are more people simply looking for housing than is available in most of the the NW.

Feel free to reach out if you want to have an offline conversation.

There’s an FB group dedicated to Airbnb buy/sell. 

@Lisa Graesser

In 4 years, we’ve never had anyone else have an issue. It’s not an unusual drain, just typical pull up and turn 1/4 turn  to make it stay up. Same as many tubs and kitchen sinks. This is a unit that was a full gut renovation 4 years ago. Nothing is old or unusual. 

@Ned Carey, @Nancy Bachety

Yes, we're in the STR business. Agree it's part of doing business. We did get a reply from the guest, they felt embarrassed and were appreciative that we sent someone. The stopper wasn't down from the cleaners, this was after several people had taken a shower without issues. Yes, all our people performed as expected.
At the end of the day, it was head shaking that an adult would t be able to figure out how a shower drain works. 

@Ken Boone

Agree with that assessment, it's definitely a shake my head situation. Using as a learning situation, we'll certainly have the VA ask the question going forward before sending maintenance.
We have our maintenance on a fixed monthly stipend for these type calls, anything over 2hr is billed hourly. That’s why he grumbled. But hey, it’s part of doing business.

We’re certainly able absorb it. Hopefully others can find it helpful for them too.