All Forum Posts by: Reagen Natho

Same here. I have one STR that has been booked at 95% occupancy since I started it in May and I literally maybe spend at the absolute most 2 hours a week managing it. And that is probably a stretch. I have the occasional fire to put out, but my housekeeper can handle most things that come up with the house. Maybe it's my established vacation rental market that makes things so much easier to self manage...

@Gururaj Iyer @Avery Carl is your person! She's the resident Smokys STR is expert realtor.

@Clinton Titlow Yes, it’s very feast or famine out there in the Permian. My home town is in the heart of the Eagle Ford and I’ve watched things change literally overnight with the fluctuating price of oil. My husband works in oil & gas and we got into real estate investing as a means to no longer rely on it.

I purchased a cabin from @Avery Carl in April in Sevierville and couldn’t be happier! I self manage from all over the US while traveling with my husband. You will be in great hands with them! Best of luck!

I recently accommodated a Vrbo guest, driving in from Florida, with an early check in as soon as my cleaners had finished cleaning my cabin in Sevierville.  They arrived around 1:30 (normal check-in is 4) and I didn't charge them my early check-in fee. They communicated great things about my property during their stay and that they were having a wonderful time and then left me a 4 star review that literally only says "Good.". It was my first sub 5-star review :( I learned the hard way that it was definitely not worth the extra work coordinating with my cleaner and them so they could arrive early! 

No, I never received notification of a booking and then a cancellation. Although, I thought this may have been the issue and it was just cancelled right away before I received it. I have tried re-syncing calendars twice and thought it may just go away, but it has been there over a week. Thanks for the feedback!

It is the weirdest thing.  The Vrbo tech support was at a loss. I have tried re-syncing calendars, trying to manually block and they reopen the dates and nothing will get rid of the reservation on my calendars! I guess I'm just going to hope nobody shows up that day since they can't find anything to help me. 

Well, Vrbo can't tell me one way or another if someone is coming to check in that day. 

Since I've currently been on hold with Vrbo for 15 minutes trying to get an answer, I thought I'd see if anyone has ever experienced this. I have a one day Vrbo reservation showing up on my synced Airbnb calendar and it shows up as a reservation on my apple calendar with the person's name. It is nowhere to be seen on my Vrbo account and I've never received any communication from them about it.  

I listed on Airbnb and Vrbo for my new cabin in April and am 85% booked for the year. I have received 50 bookings from Airbnb and 6 from Vrbo. In my experience as a newbie, Airbnb does a better job making your new listing visible and getting those initial bookings to build up your reviews.  

I purchased my first STR in Sevierville from @Avery Carl in April. It's a cute little 2bed/2bath on bluff mountain and it's performing better than I could have imagined.  I self manage while traveling full time all over the US. It's the easiest money I've ever made. Avery hooked me up with some contacts for cleaners and such and @Luke Carl walked me through the day to day operations of running my rental.  I'm so thankful for the Carls and happy I went this route instead of wasting money and time on a property manager. 

You can possibly try looking on TurnoverBnB for cleaning staff. I recommend making your expectations and how you wish to communicate with them VERY clear. My first housekeeper was defensive when I gave her guest feedback and I later found out was not cleaning properly and using other people's linens in my house.  She had great references, but I think got too many houses to keep up with and was in over her head. They have been replaced and I can tell by my guest's tone in feedback they are happier with the cleanliness of the cabin. My housekeeper drains my hot tub after each guest and replenishes it with water and chemical that they provide. Hot tub cleanliness is not something you want to mess with.  Check out this news article from this summer. http://fox17.com/news/local/wo... 

Good luck!