All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

We have one property, a big cabin (sleeps 16) with a $375 cleaning fee.  We give our cleaners a $50 bonus if the guest leaves a 5 star review (overall).  That's a 13% bonus and it's a nice round number that feels like a substantial bonus.

I don't have any historical data since we've had the same cleaners and we've only been live since December 2021.  But I can say that they do an incredible job and have a sense of ownership in the house.

Every stay has been 5 star except for one 4 star (when we started).  Every Airbnb review is 5 stars.  For some reason we get a small minority of guests that don't review on VRBO (I suppose because those guests are older and less tech savvy).

Additionally we plan on giving them a big Christmas bonus this year because we appreciate the good work they do for us.  There's no math or incentives involved.  It's just gratitude.

As for your strategy, the first thing I thought was that I wouldn't be motivated by a $5 bonus.  But I don't know your market and pricing.  

I like 5 star review metric bonuses (after all, a clean house is the foundation of a 5 star stay) but it has to motivate your cleaners.  Increase the bonus or perhaps lump together 2-3 5 star stays into a larger bonus.  I don't know.  I'm just saying if I was a cleaner and I got a $5 bonus it would not impress me (and in fact may do the opposite).

I recommend listening to podcasts.  It's an efficient way to passively learn while doing other things.  It helps because there's so much to learn.

Good luck on your journey!

Much respect @Collin Hays 

I was just going by your scenario if you never made a dime in cashflow then an STR would still be worth it. I don't think the market is there yet (and hope it never gets there).

I do find it suspect that I keep seeing homes priced at 10x the supposed annual gross income.  i.e. A cabin priced at 1mil that supposedly grosses 100k per year.  It's like everyone is basing their home prices based on the supposed gross revenue numbers from 2020-2021 record numbers.

What you're describing looks like an LTR. I believe the expectation for an average investor is that putting the effort and work into an STR should reward you with high cashflow + appreciation.

I started with an LTR and the renters paid off my mortgage and appreciation eventually turned it into a giant piggy bank.  Very minimal hands-on management involved.

I got into an STR in Gatlinburg with the LTR model as a baseline with massive cashflow on top of that. Very hands-on but luckily for us it's paying off with high cashflow. We built and furnished at $276/sq ft.

Today it seems prices are so high that you end up doing the work of managing an STR with an LTR return.

I believe you can check RemoteLock .com and use their service. They support a wide range of lock manufacturers.  It's around $6/mo/lock.

I was going to sign up for them but I discovered that Hospitable (my PMS) recently added Schlage Encode remote lock integration.

It can generate the code based on the guest's phone number; set a schedule of when it's active; and put the code in your guest check-in message.  It automatically does all this when we get a new booking over Airbnb or VRBO.

It works great and is included in the Hospitable's monthly fee.

In fact, I was contemplating moving over to OwnerRez to start working on a direct booking site but Hospitable works so good I'm kinda stuck.  Good problem to have I guess.

Another vote for Southpoint for my cabin in Gatlinburg.  The folks we dealt with were friendly and responsive.  Though full disclosure: I haven't had to make any claims yet.  

They were cheaper than my first, popular choice Proper.

We also got a personal umbrella policy to cover us since we don't have our properties in an LLC yet. We'd still have the umbrella regardless.

We went with PriceLabs because it's a flat fee per month.  I just checked and apparently Wheelhouse now also provides a flat fee model as well.

We're using Hospitable as our PMS.  It's a fine piece of software but not as full featured as I want.  I'm considering OwnerRez.  Luckily most of these have trial periods to test them out.

Thanks @Cole Britting.  We really think it's beautiful because it's our baby.  :)

I gotta say 2021 was a busy year with the construction, supply shortages, cost overruns, furnishing, handling all the logistics remotely.  Finding a cleaner.  Took us a month to get the driveway poured.  It was nuts... very stressful and busy.

Makes the day to day hosting seem simple in comparison.

Hi @Joe Splitrock, this is how we figured the damage was deliberate.  The cleaner found a screw in the sink (which we thought was odd).  After we arrived later that night and started cooking dinner, we discovered several scratched pots but one of the pots had serious damage and couldn't be used.  The scratches were deep, straight lines from side to side like a star pattern.  This was a brand new, titanium coated pot.  I can't imagine the muscle power required to get that level of deep scratches.  I almost admire the dedication it took to do it.  :P  What sucks is they asked for an extended check out and I just wonder if that's what someone in her group spent their time doing with the free time we gave them.  Keep in mind these were the second guests ever to stay in our house.

Anyways, it's the cost of doing business.  I get it.  But dealing with an angry wife just sucked.

As for why we didn't hammer her in a review, it's because our communication was good and friendly.  When she immediately reviewed us, I suspected it must've been good (and it was).  Her attitude and the damage didn't add up.  I suspect someone in her group did it and she didn't know about it.  So we decided to just not review.

@Bruce Woodruff Yes I hear you. The main reason the pet question came up is because we've already had 2 inquiries with pets and they would've helped fill out our empty February calendar.  We're new so I'm just being eager.