All Forum Posts by: Paul Stewart

Hey BP World,

I’ve been a bit quiet here for a while, but I’m ready to change that. When I first dove into real estate about seven years ago, I was devouring the forums and reading every BiggerPockets book I could get my hands on. As my portfolio grew, I became laser-focused on the work in front of me.

My wife and I own Cozy Co-Host LLC, a short-term rental management company based in Atlantic City, NJ. Between growing our business into one of the largest STR management companies in South Jersey, building our personal portfolio, and starting a family, my time for forums and reading on platforms like BiggerPockets fell by the wayside.

But I’m ready to get back into it—sharing, learning, and connecting with this amazing community. I’m no polished writer, and my grammar might not be perfect, but I hope to find some fun and value in posting here regularly. Let’s chop it up and talk real estate!

What’s the Goal?

Over the past seven years, I've gone from being a novice investor to owning 28 investment properties. Some are in partnerships, while others are owned solely by my wife and me. On top of that, our STR management company now oversees more than 90 listings under the Cozy Co-Host banner.

My wife and I have transitioned from the typical 9-to-5 grind to achieving financial freedom as business owners and real estate investors. I’m incredibly grateful for everything real estate has brought us. That said, it wasn’t an overnight success story. Scaling was slow, and we reinvested almost all of our profits into new deals to keep building.

At this point, I feel like we’ve found our niche, but I keep asking myself, What’s next? What’s the next big goal?

I’d love to hear from others who have reached a comfortable place in real estate:

• What’s your next step once you’ve “made it”?
• Do you stay in your lane, or explore something new?

For me, the thrill is no longer just about profits—it’s the excitement of hunting for the next deal and learning something new along the way. I think stepping into development and new construction could be an exciting path to explore.

What’s your take? What’s your next big real estate goal? Let’s hear it!

Yes I did upvote it. I really hope you guys will consider it. I think it would help bring in more larger scale managers to hospitable. I feel like hospitable is known for more small scale managers or those with only a few listings. I have had others mention that to me and try to swing me to other PMS. I really like Hospitable though and know other larger scale managers would favor hospitable over other PMS if there were some more channel integrations. Hopefully it is something will we see in the future. 

I have been with Hospitable since they were "smartbnb" have 92 listings on their software. Overall I am very happy with them. The API to VRBO sometimes is a issue but since most my business is on Airbnb its not a huge game changer. We were going to switch to Hostaway last year since they have direct API connection to VRBO. The day we were set to switch over I was told with their direct API, VRBO no longer will process payment and for our business model I was not setting up 90 plus listing stripe accounts or doing the accounting for that process. We ended up staying with Hospitable and have been fine with it. I do like Hospitable direct booking options and that they can process payments, tax etc. on their end and each DB site can have a different pay out options for different clients. MY only issue now is we are looking to partner with Marriot Home and Villa's but Hospitable does not have a partnership for API connection to Marriot so looks like I am most likely looking to either go to Hostaway or Hostfully. For direct bookings does Hostaway or Hostfully over payment processing? 

Long time Hospitable user here..it's been a good software for me. My biggest issue is constant issues with VRBO connections. Apparently Hospitable uses a public API and is not a official partner with VRBO. We have 80 different properties so we considering moving to hostaway but the price point is triple the amount of what we pay for Hospitable

@Chris Barczewski you'd really have to use each of them for a prolonged time to get a real gauge.

I use Hospitable and it's pretty good. Definitely have some issues with VRBO synchronization and prices not being changed tonthe proper amount.

From my research Guesty seems to be the best out there but for me the cost to use Guesty with 25 properties would be crazy. Hospitable it so much cheaper so that's probably what I will keep.

@Kyle Debiase yeah I'm out of town right now so can't give you the specific policy. She's probably not understanding what you need. You can also try to call Neptune insurance directly. Or just Google generic STR insurance coverage.

@Kyle Debiase ask for Izabella Ward. Some of the reps are not very seasoned and don't know what policies are what.

@Kyle Debiase so r

I run 20 STR properties all over the city. The STR unit I own is located in back area of Bungalow Park. My property is a 2004 build and raised to fema specifics so I actually only pay like 370$ a year.. most people don't have the situation i have with flood ins due to year built and being built to Fema specifics