All Forum Posts by: Megan Davidson

We are 95% occupied for our high season for 1 and 2 bedroom vacation rental units on the beach. 

We run a vacation rental and it's a grand old time with many highs and lows. One of the biggest stipulations for running an STR is that you have to like people and want people to have a good time in your rental, otherwise you just aren't going to get good ratings or make good money.

One of the best ways we have found to manage consumables for our 7 units is to use Amazon's subscribe and save and pantry features. We get monthly, bi-monthly, and bi-yearly boxes with all our consumables ready to go, then we just have our property manager/cleaner restock after every guest. 

@Charles Kennedy and @Michael Greenberg We use electronic, wifi-connected door locks by lockstate and they are fantastic. They aren't highly reviewed on amazon, but we've had them in our units for several months now with minimal problems. 

As to pricing, we have high and low season priced separately as determined by the number of bookings we've gotten over the past few years. Additionally it really pays to keep track of big events in the communities you tend to rent to and bump the price a bit for in-demand times. 

Wifi thermostats are amazing, and save so much energy. We personally use Ecobee in our rentals. 

If you would like more information, please feel free to check out my website www.thevacationrentalist.com

We have found that using Airbnb and VRBO's maximum verification works best for us. Once someone is verified we have had no issues.

Build in cleaning costs and a cushion for extra messy renters (about 1 in 10 of our renters just don't like cleaning) as well as a security deposit. 

Plan on some breakage (sometimes literally) and to replace items along the way (we are always out of wine openers in our rentals?) and you and your guests should be happy. 

 We just started using Guesty, we're testing the software and getting started with it. I like the deep integration with Airbnb and that it goes beyond just ical trading and actually picks up average rates and has auto responses based on custom triggers you can set up.

Tuft&Needle mattress from amazon has prime shipping! We like this one http://amzn.to/2BO1B4J and always have a waterproof mattress protector like this one: http://amzn.to/2BKLuVe

I hope those links help