All Forum Posts by: Matt Bowman

We are getting a sofa bed for the living room of our STR. The mattress is 60x64. What kind of sheets do you think would work for this? For our other beds (king, queen, twins) I followed advice here and got sheets from Kohls, and those are great.

It seems like the simplest thing to do is just leave a set of queen linens in the closet for guests to use on the sofa bed. One side of the sheet set will be too long but maybe that's no big deal. I thought I would ask here just in case I'm missing something. Thanks!!

Sorry for the delayed reaction Christina, but thanks so much for your response!

Thanks, everyone! The standard advice seems to be that allowing pets increases revenue. For those of us with reasons not to allow pets, I was wondering if it is possible to advertise to the niche of people who really want vacation homes that try hard not to have pet dander. I appreciate your responses and will keep searching Facebook!

Are you aware of any online forums for people who are severely allergic to animals and who want to find a vacation rental that is less likely to trigger their allergic reactions? 

I understand the laws about service animals and ESAs. Those laws actually seem to make it more likely that people with severe allergies might organize themselves or gather online to discuss how to find places to stay. 

So I'm just curious if you know of forums where people who have animal allergy problems try to figure out how to find a place to stay for vacation that is less likely to trigger their allergies. Thanks!

I installed Minut senors in May (living room + master bedroom). The monitoring of temperature, humidity, and noise is great. The cigarette detection, I'm still unsure about. I got my first positive a couple guests ago--or was it? I very nicely asked the guest and he said it was smoke from cooking. I have reasons to trust that guest and his report, and we came the next day after they checked out and didn't smell cigarette smoke. I got another positive the next week, but I am not sure if I can trust it. The Minut alerts themselves seem to admit of ambiguity: declaring "elevated risk" of cigarette smoke. Maybe I need my cleaner to light up outside, walk in with smokey clothes, and see if that sets it off. I would be interested in whether others have had instances where Minut flagged an elevated risk of cigarette smoke, but you have reason to believe there wasn't actually any. And maybe all of this technology is not an exact science.

Hi! My wife and I just listed our first STR (single family home, 8 guests), and I have a question about dynamic pricing. I am in the 30 day trial period with PriceLabs.

The vacation attraction of our house is that it is near the beach (7.5 mile drive) and walkable to a pier and boat launch on the sound (< 1 mile), but it is not at the beach. Yet because my house is in a close radius to the beach (only 2.5 miles as the crow flies--the 7 miles is what it takes to a drive out, around, then over the bridge), it seems like PriceLabs is using on-the-beach or walk-to-the-beach properties as comparables, and this may be leading to dynamic prices that are too high.

I am not sure exactly how to fix this. I don't think it is practical for me to set a tailored price for each day, and even if I could, that price would no longer be dynamic. What I think I need is for the dynamic pricing to be based on the true comparables, which I have identified on the PriceLabs map. But I'm not sure if I can make my own comps list into the one that PriceLabs uses for dynamic pricing.

As likely as not, there is an easy fix I am overlooking. Thoughts?

UPDATE: I asked PriceLabs help about this, and they can do some work on their end to tailor a comparables set for the customer, so I am pursuing that.

Thanks for everyone's input, I wanted to provide an update. We ended up self- designing and furnishing (a lot of work!). We took this approach because even though the house is an STR it is also one we want to use as a family a couple times per year, and we feel we have our own personality as hosts, so we were particular about what we wanted. We bought much of the furniture new, choosing premium quality for the main rooms, and supplemented with discount deals online or some lightly used items. We hired a photographer experienced in shooting STRs, and we think the photo results turned out great. Late last week we went live on booking platforms, and while reservations are slow, we received our first booking for Memorial Day weekend. I really appreciate your help, and will be posting other questions soon!

It seems like there are paid services that will give you interior design to set up an str, buy new furniture, ship it and install it. Or you can DIY from Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, thrift stores and furniture stores.

But is there anyone you can pay to help you DIY, to take advantage of local offerings and your own labor, while still not doing it wholly on your own? Specifically looking at the area near Sneads Ferry, NC. Thanks!

Thanks for this perspective, JD. It seems like allowing pets increases occupancy and fees. But my wife and I want to partially use our str, and we're very allergic to any pet dander and sensitive to smell, even after cleaning.

So for the people who are not going to allow pets, does anyone have advice for how to market their property in light of that fact? Even though I seem to be in the minority, whenever I see a listing that says no pets I consider it a plus, because it means my family won't have allergy or smell problems when we arrive. Similarly when you are buying pre-owned furniture, people tend to advertise if it comes from a no pet household. 

So it seems like there might be a way to make no pets a positive feature of a property. Or maybe the advice would be to make the restriction clear, but otherwise don't emphasize it?