All Forum Posts by: 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.

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.

Gatlinburg TN, new build luxury cabin that sleep 16.  

Currently we're starting this year way better than last year (which was our first year and very good for us).  I think we're starting stronger this year due to a record of good reviews from last year.  

All weekends are taken January - April (40% - 60% occupancy those months).  This occupancy may not seem great but our ADR is very high and we're fine with that.  Bottom line is that if this trend continues this year, we're going to blow away our first year which was already great.

We installed one back in May 2022.  We've had 33 stays since then.  No one has used it yet.

Our house is new construction, sleeps 16, in Gatlinburg.  We probably get about 4 cars in the driveway per average trip.  The EV charger is listed as an amenity on our Airbnb listing.

Cost $1800 for Tesla charger installation.

One interesting insight is that we couldn't get 100% charge ability from the charger because our house's electrical was sized for 225 amps (the electrician sized it for the house's electrical requirements at the time, the charger was an add-on afterwards).  As a consequence, the charger operates at about 50% of its full capacity (but we figured some charge was better than nothing).

Anyone adding a charger to an existing home may encounter the same limitations.

Random note: our house was hit by lightning that fried one of the outdoor outlets and our computer equipment but the charger was unaffected (thankfully).  The Tesla ones are well built.

I think the primary factor is increased supply (and therefore increased competition). I personally know two other families jumping into the STR market in the last month. It's anecdotal but I don't think there's any denying that there's more competition in this market. You need to stand out.

1. General anxiety when something goes wrong.

2. Staying in your own wonderful STR and never getting to enjoy it because of maintenance or improvements. It's an ongoing joke between me and my wife.

3. I was going to mention uncommunicative cleaners but we found a wonderful replacement after our original cleaners quit on us.  A blessing in disguise.

For what it's worth, my place is listed on Airbnb and VRBO and they are almost exactly split 50/50 in the bookings between the two this year.  We have a big cabin that sleeps 16 in the Smokies.  I'm glad we're on both OTAs.

October, November and December are great for our Gatlinburg cabin as well.  We have one weekend left in Dec that we hope to fill last minute.

This is our first year so we don't have any historical data to compare to but we're wrapping up our first year in a very good place.  We just hope 2023 will be as good.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Hospitable is behind on automating direct booking websites.  That's the reason I moved to OwnerRez.  Their direct booking templates and automation was so fully featured it surprised me.  Having said that, I set it up but haven't gotten around to telling my past guests about it yet.  I will in the next week or two.

Curious why you wouldn't just ask your past guests to contact you directly if they want to visit again? No fees and all that....

 We put up signs in our house asking that.   Our direct booking sites only been up the last couple of months.

Hospitable is behind on automating direct booking websites.  That's the reason I moved to OwnerRez.  Their direct booking templates and automation was so fully featured it surprised me.  Having said that, I set it up but haven't gotten around to telling my past guests about it yet.  I will in the next week or two.

As far as SEO and direct marketing for the direct booking site, I'm not worried about that.  I collect guest emails from my property's wifi via StayFi and my strategy is to offer direct booking to past guests who I already trust.