All Forum Posts by: Mary Pastoral

Hi, any new reviews of Beyond BNB for STR? Thank you!

I sent to Airbnb photos from our security camera. I also called them to ask about the process. They said to contact resolution center.

Luckily, the cleaners told me that there is no damage and that guests cleaned up. They filled up two huge trash bins but that’s about it.

I will look into how to do a rental agreement to avoid situations like this. I educated myself by reading books and listened to videos about STR, but clearly I have way more to learn. I appreciate all your advice.

The guest booked for two guests (she and her sister) I did not ask for ID of the sister. Looking at the videos there have been at least 10 other people in and out of the property (listing accommodates only 6 people) . A lot of coming and going throughout the night as late as 4 am. 

Multiple cars also now parked in front of three neighbor's houses. 

My dilemma is that I do not have a digital rental agreement. My worry is that the guest who booked clearly lied. People like these will likely trash the place and might even create more damages when called out?  

I messaged Airbnb and they advised to contact resolution center. 

Thank you all for your guidance. 

New to hosting and currently hosting our first problem guest. 

A guest with no reviews asked to book our place for two guests since she will be spending time with her sister for her sister's birthday. I asked if she read the no party policy.  She said that it is no problem since there will be no party. 

We have security cameras in the outside of the property. Since 6 pm last night up to 4 am multiple guests came and went and there are 6 cars in the driveway up to this morning. Property has no smoking policy, and they were seen smoking at the porch and I am not sure if they are smoking inside as well. There's a quiet time of 10 pm to 6 am written on our listing, which was not followed as well. 

The guest checks-out tomorrow. What do you do in this situation?

1. Wait until check-out and just call the guest's attention if there is severe damages on the inside?

2. Call their attention today and say that we will not charge extra guest fees as long as they clean up? (I am not sure of this since they clearly do not care about rules. They were smoking weed while looking at the security camera. ) 

Also, will Airbnb penalize host if we just accept guests with prior reviews from now on? Thank you. 

Hi, we started investing in Cleveland last year. We used the Azzam group to look for properties and they also do the property management for us. So far, we have one long-term property with them and currently purchasing another long-term property through them. 

Thank you for your responses.

From my understanding Airbnb automatically collects tax depending on the location.

On setting up the VRBO listing, there were three options regarding how to collect taxes:

Collect a tax per person per night (collect at check-in) then you would be prompted to place an amount

Collect tax as percentage of rental amount(during booking) then you would be prompted to place a percentage 

Do not include taxes (I am collecting and remitting as required) 

I do not know where to check which one I should choose? Do I look it up at my city, county and state websites? 

Thanks. 

We recently launched our first short-term rental on December 22, 2023, with AirBnb. So far we have gotten four reservations, two for December and two for January 2024. It is a single-family home so it can be listed on VRBO. I am setting up our VRBO account and quickly realize it is much less user-friendly than Airbnb. I cannot even find the correct answer for tax options on VRBO so I did not finish the VRBO listing. 

My question is, is it still worth listing on VRBO?

Thank you. 

We do not have an LLC yet.

We are preparing to have our old primary house turned into an Airbnb and plan on listing it in December 2023.
Would it be better to ask the law firm that we are working with to start the process of creating an LLC as soon as possible?

Is there a significant benefit to rushing to form the LLC before launching the short-term rental?

We have one existing long-term rental that is also in our name and will be also placed into this LLC.

Thank you. 

Hi! We are looking for a short term rental property manager for a property at Akron Ohio. 

Thank you. 

Thank you everyone for your responses. To answer a few questions:

Mortgage rates quoted to me are around 7.5%

Single-family homes 1945 and younger, typically bungalow, Cape Cod houses in Cleveland B-C neighborhoods.

The percentages I placed on the calculator are 5% for Capital expenditures, 5% for vacancy, 5% for repairs, and 10% for property management.