All Forum Posts by: Kate Stoermer

Very market and property specific - and you didn't mention how many bathrooms and if you have parking to accommodate.  I wouldn't got to 9 on one bathroom.  It will depend alot on the number of beds offered and the size of the home overall; do you have enough indoor and outdoor seating for 9 guests?   Most people aren't excited to pay extra for a sleeper sofa (lets be honest, there is no such thing as a comfortable SS) and if they pay more, they expect it to fully accommodate the number in the party. As others said, sometimes these moves aren't going to move the ADR meaningfully, but they can move the needle on occupancy.  Well managed and marketed can impact your revenue upwards of 30% or even more, so hone your pricing strategy and listing positioning.   And increasingly - optimized for the algorithms.  Good luck!

Hopped in to say Avalara as well.  I do it manually (and keep in mind, it also depends on the state and location - VRBO does for some and not for others, Airbnb does for some and not for others) I know many folks happy with Avalara though. 

Kate

For 1 property, its a cost/benefit analysis in my opinion. Software automates what you already know (hopefully) - for some folks they get in trouble because they assume the software "knows" and they don't bother to learn it. While to some extent software can act appropriately based on averages, that'd different than actually understanding the marketplace and workflows and optimizing.  

Further, the costs - depending on your margin as well as the time to learn it vs doing it yourself may not be worth it. 

That said, VRBO doesn't do auto messaging and that's a PIA that makes a channel manager a nice tool to have, but often the cost isn't worth it until you get at least 1 more unit - again, my opinion.  

I do like the efficiency of pricelabs in terms of easily monitoring your comps (if you use the Neighborhood tab and load in your comps)

 south haven township not city

Not yet on MLS - would love to direct sell turnkey STR in South Haven Michigan. This 4 bed, 3 bath midcentury modern on over 2 wooded acres walking distance to Lake Michigan Beach with a private pool.

Partnership dissolution means selling a lucrative STR

$130K on the books this year; add a hot tub and freshen up outdoor landscape and you will be $150K easy.  Current management can stay in place if desired for truly turn-key investment 

No realtors at this time, ty. We have a local realtor we'll work with if we don't find a direct buyer. 

Asking ~ $1.3K. Will negotiate for the right deal. No owner financing. Not currently listed. 

Will come with book of business. 

Message me for info. 

Boots on the ground is key; my cleaners are the lifeline.  And schedule regular visits.  Some tips here  

My properties are between 7 and 2 hours away. In almost 5 years I did ONE urgent unscheduled visit across over 500 stays (multiple properties)  - and that was in order to take a booking on a new property that wasn't totally ready.  I didn't have to - I just could.  And probably less than 5 unscheduled, nonroutine visits requested of my boots on the ground. 

I have a brochure that outlines both the current financials and the value-ad opportunities. But honestly, the idea that income can vary as much as 30-40% based on marketing and management isn't well understood. Good luck. 

Gross revenue is all income except taxes collected.  Cleaning fees and other line items are revenue; its just a way of parsing out revenue to try to reel in customers.  My cleaning fee's don't have a direct correlation to the amount paid for cleaning.  Historically cleaning fee's reflected pre-Airbnb the  way that Mom and Pop joints allowed customers to pick if they would clean up the cabin or if the resort did.  Now its just a way to generate more revenue per booking.  Keep in mind platform fee's are, by the IRS definition, also revenue.  You don't pay those directly - they are retained by the OTA, but your revenue includes those (the Host fee's, not the guest fee's).  

 That's about it. Otherwise, its all about the owner and a minimum threshold for rental potential. 

Switching to Ownerrez was a gamer changer for agreements. My biggest pain point is being on call always.