All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

$750 security deposit. Our cleaning fee is $375. We have a cabin that sleeps 16 people so it's pretty big. We feel $750 hits the sweet spot between being high enough to make people accountable without scaring them off from booking with us.

0 Votes

We have minimum stay rules in PriceLabs based on the seasons. For example, I have 1/2 - 2/29 defined as slow season for the Smokies and a flat 2 day minimum rule for weekends and weekdays. 3/1 - 5/31 is better and we have 3 night minimums. Here's our high season rule that I copy and pasted from PriceLabs:

Default :
Fixed Weekday: 3 nights Weekend: 3 nights
Last Minute :
Weekday: 2 nights Weekend: 2 nights within 6 nights
Far Out :
Weekday: 4 nights Weekend: 4 nights beyond 50 nights
Orphan Gaps :
Weekday: 2 nights Weekend: 2 nights for gaps between 1 and 7 nights

When we started we had high minimum nights set despite the season because we didn't really have any experience.

We have overrides for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

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We had the same concerns. We solved it with security deposits. OwnerRez has the systems in place to allow you to charge a real security hold on the guest's credit card. It works with Airbnb, VRBO and our direct booking site (hosted through OwnerRez).

We prefer security deposits over damage/travel insurance because the guest goes into the house with money on the line. We think this provides a greater incentive to behave.

In the time we implemented security deposits, we only had to dip into it once when a guest was super messy requiring another cleaning fee. And we didn't have to deal with Airbnb AirCover to collect it.

4 Votes

One big cabin in the Smokies here. First quarter of this year is more booked than last year (our first year). I credit a history of good reviews and minimum day stay tweaks for the improvement.

Lots of vacancy for the rest of the year still.

We went a whole month (February 28 - March 23) before getting our latest booking. Hopefully they'll keep coming in and the calendar will be as strong as our first quarter.

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If you're looking for OwnerRez specific info, go to their forums and post your question here:
Forums - OwnerRez (ownerreservations.com)

If I understand your question correctly, you can go into OwnerRez site -> Settings -> Door Locks (bottom right) -> Click Edit icon on your lock -> Integrate with Locks (screen) click Change -> here you will see a dropdown for the code generation length

1 Vote

I'll comment with advice that was a game changer for us. We've been doing this for over a year now so take that for what it's worth to you.

When we started, we immediately encountered a situation with guest damage that Airbnb didn't fully compensate us for. We had no control over guest damage deposits.

We switched to OwnerRez and were able to begin charging security deposits (Airbnb, VRBO and our direct booking site) and legal agreements (e-signed) through their software.

Since then, we have comfort of mind that guests will now be charged a security deposit. We think this helps guests behave and gives us peace of mind that we can reclaim part of that deposit in case anything goes wrong. (We've only had to charge a guest an additional cleaning fee from the deposit once since we did this.)

Long story short, OwnerRez has the integrations to allow for owner payment processing, legal agreement signing and security deposits that make your life easier.

0 Votes

The primary advantage of building is that you can stand out from the competition if you know what you're doing. It's market dependent... how are the local builders, do you have much competition, can you simply rehab an existing property to stand out?

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That’s pretty good, What was the price per square foot on the 3500 square foot one?

All in: lot, build and furnishing it was about $285 sqft.

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Quote from @John Carbone:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Quote from @Ken Boone:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Quote from @Nathan W.:

@Kyle Smith I hear you. A lot of people have really bad experiences building. I love it though and this will be my fourth build with this builder. Other than it taking longer than I would like (about 18 months) I have nothing but good things to say and can't wait to do it again.
Pool or not pool, I'll definitely be building something on this lot.

Kyle and @Ken Boone, how large are the pools in your cabins?

Our first cabin in the Smokies was a new construction. That allowed us to purposely build an STR that stands out from the competition. We're currently building another cabin with the intention of doing the same thing again. We got a great builder so no issue there. I'd rather custom build than buy an existing cabin.

So you said something that is key in this market, especially with a cooling off. And that is build something that stands out from the competition. That is exactly what having the pool does. It is the #1 amenity in that market. It trumps the view, dollar for dollar all day long. However you still have to buy right and that is tough right now, especially without doing new construction.

However, not sure when your last build was @Matt Mertz but I am in the camp with those guys that I will never build there again. It has to be one of the worst places to build in at this current time. However, it sounds like @Nathan W. might have a history with this builder and if that is the case that might change the story. I have had 2 cabins built there. The first one was a nightmare dealing with the builder and all the cheap shoddy work that was done because they used the bottom of the barrel for labor, and they left problems they knew about and waited to do something about them until I found them. The second build which was completed June 2022, only because I pretty much had to spend the first 6 months of last year in TN 90% of that time, managing, doing, fixing, due to unscrupulous builders (plural) (who were vetted), made the first build look like a walk in the park. In fact, in my circle I know of 8 people in the middle of builds there right now, and they are all upside down, nothing is being done, lawsuits, etc.. And this spans 3 different builders. And oh, most of these builds having been going on for like 2 years.

I've heard this repeatedly about building in the Smokies enough to believe it. All I can tell you is that we found a builder who built our 4 bed /5.5 bath 3500 sqft home with a fire suppression system in 10 months in 2021. We visited during construction and walked in on the subs actually sweeping up and cleaning their mess and not knowing we were there. Somehow, our builder instilled this work ethic in them.

That man is David Carr of C&C Construction of East TN. This man has subs that are loyal to him with an incredible work ethic.

After our first build we assumed we couldn't build with him since he was so busy. Luckily, we found a small lot in Gatlinburg in 2022 (his town HQ) and was able to work with us due to the small size of our next cabin (1 bed).

Anyhow, this probably isn't helpful to the forum readers but I just wanted to counter the narrative that all Smokies builders are bad. I personally know they are not from experience.

What was your price per square foot on the 1 bed excluding lot turn key?

Don't know yet... we're still in design phase with the architect. The lot was 100k and our builder was quoting 250-300 sq ft for the build. But we intend to go high end on this one since it's a 1 bedroom.

1 Vote

If you're losing thousands on a 3 day electricity outage, then a propane powered backup generator would have great ROI for you. I'd protect your Austin based STR with this.

I live in Leander, TX and also experienced outages. I have a cabin in Gatlinburg TN that was affected by this winter's outage. My opinion is that a 1st world country should never experience outages due to weather events, but as hosts and business owners we should plan for it.

2 Votes

Austin, Texas

All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

Matt Mertz has started 3 posts and replied 158 times.

Post: Direct Booking Website: How Do You Protect Yourself?

Post: Anyone else feeling the market pick up?

Post: Direct Booking Website: How Do You Protect Yourself?

Post: Anyone else feeling the market pick up?

Post: Some help with Schlage encode lock

Post: First time getting into STR

Post: Buying vs. Building

Post: Indoor Pools in the Smokies

Post: Indoor Pools in the Smokies

Post: Losing thousands - cancellations left and right due to Austin Energy