All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

Quote from @John Carbone:

Just for reference, we have a big cabin in Gatlinburg that sleeps 16.  We have a direct booking site thru OwnerRez and 2023 is our 2nd year.  Here's how our bookings break out:

2 - manual (personal friends)
6 - direct booking site
15 - Vrbo
29 - Airbnb

52 - total
11.5% of bookings were direct

We haven't started our mailchimp email marketing yet.  Those were return guests and people savvy enough to search for our cabin name.  For us, it's worth it since OwnerRez made it very simple to set up.

Software:

OwnerRez - PMS

Pricelabs - dynamic pricing

StayFi - wifi, capture guest emails

Hardware:

Schlage Encode - front door lock

Honeywell/Resideo - wifi theromstats

Kasa - wifi light switches/outlets

Ubiquiti - cameras/doorbell (no subscription but requires manual setup)

Use case:

Between guest stays I use the Kasa outlets/switches to turn off mini fridges, outdoor lights and the water heater pump.  I turn off the thermostats and back on before guest arrives.

Quote from @Joseph Hossenlopp:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

In addition to cheaper prices through Minoan, they set up a site for your property with affiliate links in it.  You put QR code placards through your property for guests to see and browse.  

You split the affiliate commission with Minoan.  I believe that's their primary business model.

Seems like this would be a great bonus!  Have you gotten any of these commissions?

We didn't use Minoan in our first cabin.  We're researching them now because we're building another one and the timing's better because the new cabin is obviously not furnished yet.

I don't personally know anyone who's actually used Minoan but I hear about the company on various podcasts.

Airbnb will let you post a "step free entrance" accessibility feature but it needs to be documented with a picture.  Not sure if that affects the search algorithm but it's worth implementing if you are doing new construction.

We've been hosting 1 house for almost two years and only gotten 2-3 specific questions about wheelchair accessibility.

We've gotten an expensive guest stay once because the guest's wife needed grab bars in the bathroom so we installed those in one.

Grab bars, wheelchair accessible showers and front door are not expensive to build if you're starting from scratch. Hard to know the ROI but it's so cheap that it's not really risky to do it.

In addition to cheaper prices through Minoan, they set up a site for your property with affiliate links in it.  You put QR code placards through your property for guests to see and browse.  

You split the affiliate commission with Minoan.  I believe that's their primary business model.

We have one big house that sleeps 16.  We went live in Dec 2020.  

This year we are 30% ahead of this time in 2022.  However, we noticed that there are a lot more last minute bookings.

So on the one hand we're pleased with our numbers, but on the other we're scared about the rest of the year.

We have an excellent mountain view, within Gatlinburg city limits, private and a big, concrete driveway.  We'll never build a place this good again.

And despite all these benefits, we're still nervous about the downward pressure caused by all the new competition.

In our custom build, we put the grill in the driveway away from the house.  Our lot was a burn lot from the 2016 fires so we were pretty sensitive about fires.

No one has complained about grilling a little further away from the house.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Talk to some local builders.  One thing you'll probably discover is that you can build much cheaper than buying an existing home.

That must be a local thing. Out west, it is much cheaper to buy then to build right now.

Guess I should have qualified my post by saying this is my experience specifically in Gatlinburg.  I just looked on Zillow and see some existing cabins for the high 300s/sqft but they're basically orange boxes with green roofs.

We had success custom building our first cabin and believe we can do it again with the second one by building something that stands out.

Talk to some local builders.  One thing you'll probably discover is that you can build much cheaper than buying an existing home.

For example, we built our 3500sqft home in the Smokies for ~$285/sqft.  Good luck buying a cabin for that price now.  (We're custom building another now.)

As for the mortgage, one option is a construction loan.  We started by buying the lot with cash and owning it outright.  Then the loan required 20% down but the land value counted.  In our case, the lot was 20% of the construction cost so we didn't need to put any more cash down.  The loan had a one time closing fee and after construction was complete converted into a 30 year mortgage.

Be careful on the mortgage because ours is a 5 year ARM. But we plan on having it paid off in 5 years so it doesn't matter. You can find construction loans with standard 30 year mortgages.

During the construction process, the builder sends invoices to the bank to cover current costs and asks you to approve and then cuts a check to the builder. This process continues until the construction completes.

As for architect, be prepared to pay 10 - 25k depending on the size of the property.  In our case, it was an investment that was well worth it ($25k plan for a $1mil property that we absolutely love).

Focus your energy on vetting the builder.  I've heard so many horror stories about builders being late, delivering the wrong floorplans, shoddy work, etc.  This is the greatest risk in custom construction.

I remember when we first posted on VRBO that the initial payment took a couple of weeks during the verification stage.  After that it was faster.