All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

 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.

Just FYI, I heard on a FB group that Wayfair offers a business discount if you sign up with an LLC. Have not confirmed.

I started with Hospitable with a single property and I had nothing but excellent experiences (including the Schlage Encode lock integration).  The only reason I don't use them anymore is because I needed to start a direct booking website.

@Diya L. , your story is incredibly interesting, particularly the work you put in and the commercial vs. residential aspect of typical STRs. Very interested in hearing how receptive guests are to your boutique experience.  Also in how you are managing daily operations.

Please continue to share you experience with the BP community.

We went through this. We did two things: ordered some stuff delivered to our primary residence (TVs, kitchen items, etc bought during a Prime Day sale) and transported it to our STR via a Penske truck, and then ordered the majority of furniture from a store near our STR.

I recommend buying local to your STR if they can store your furniture in their warehouse until you're ready to move in. Additionally, ask for a discount because it's a big order. Our furniture store had no problem throwing us a little discount. They delivered and assembled the furniture as well.

I signed up for PriceLabs a year ago because it had a flat monthly fee.  Since then, Wheelhouse has also introduced flat monthly pricing (they used to be % based only).

Just this week I had an issue with minimum stay rules on a booking during New Years (PriceLabs/OwnerRez) and I opened a support ticket with PriceLabs.  I was surprised when they emailed me that same day to resolve it.  They also engaged OwnerRez support to work on it.  Long story short, I am deeply impressed at the tech support with PriceLabs (and OwnerRez).

As far as pricing rules go, PriceLabs is very robust (dynamic pricing, minimum stay rules, orphan day rules, seasonal adjustments, etc).  They do a good job with default settings.

Lately they've even updated their "base price" algorithm to respond to lower occupancy some markets are experiencing.  Personally we found this too low and ignored it.

I recommend PriceLabs.

I wish we got Roku TVs.  We have Fire TVs and they're awful.  Their UI is laggy and slow and the remotes frequently lose connection to the TV.

Going back to @Courtney Murphy's original question.  I'd go with regular water heaters.  

We looked at tankless for our 5.5 bath and decided they wouldn't keep up.

Also, check with your plumber.  He's the expert.  :)

We installed a 100 gallon, electric water heater in our 4 bedroom / 5.5 bath cabin that sleeps 16.  It has a recirculating pump that pushes hot water to the furthest bath every few minutes.  The result is that you get hot water within just a few seconds on any faucet.

We have a similar setup at our primary residence except with a tankless gas water heater.  The pump works great in this application, too.

The only issue we ever experienced was our first cold winter at the cabin.  We had to get the handyman over to bump up the temperature in the water heater.  I think the incoming water was colder than normal due to the weather.