All Forum Posts by: Dominic A.

Good to have it, especially for direct bookings and situations where they could become injured (pool, golf cart, etc.) or affect a neighbouring property. 

@Paul Sandhu offers a good point though; no matter the quality of the guest...understand that you may get stuck chasing a resolution (even if your contract is great).

We always charge a damage/security deposit. 1/5 guests complain about it, but the two times we've waived it, we got stuck with a lofty repair and replacement bill.

Is that the full length? Or will it be a few months?

Some folks add a monthly or biweekly inspection/walkthrough. Similarly, you can offer a biweekly cleaning/maintenance to make sure everything is still in top shape...but that's pricey and time-consuming; I would usually just set aside some time after they check out,  to do a reset before going back to a short-term rental.

If it's just a month, making it clear that this is still a temporary rental contract (and that you only offer the initial supply of toiletries etc.) should be ok. 

Some folks find it easier to just do a fixed-term lease in this case, but if you're trying to avoid changing the rental status (not sure if Georgia has that rule), then a very clear clause that the short-term rental agreement will "reset" every 30 days is a good idea (maybe even have a process where they check-out (with "bag storage") and check back in after a cleaning).

The quick "dinner party" advice I always give is to figure out what you need to make to cover expenses, then divide that by 15 nights. If that number seems reasonable as a minimum nightly rate, then you're on the right track, and you should have a pretty safe investment. Dynamic pricing is your friend (you don't need to get fancy with it yet...but check back in later to optimize it for local events etc. that the bookings sites and pricing tools sometimes miss)

After that, the advice above is great. Definitely follow the model of the top listing(s) in the area and price slightly lower. Keep an eye on your rates; drop down a bit for 1-3 day orphans between bookings (has the added benefit of lowering your advertised "average night price"). 

Many of the listing sites offer the option of creating promotional offers..I like having a few of those (because the listing sites like them, and will push them forward in search). That allows you to shave that 10-30% without simply lowering your rates as a whole. 

@Conner Olsen

If I'm understanding your scenario correctly, you're writing off the booking for Wednesday? It's unbookable because of your minimum night requirement?

I apologize; this may be a discussion for another form, so feel free to PM me or point me in the right direction...do you have a reason that vacant night isn't also being offered up? Maybe this strategy is worth the free night? Maybe there's another reason for your 2-night min in the first place that excludes a one-off?

I quite recently have been circling these "orphan nights," and I'm rather conflicted about how and if they're worth trying to fill. Just wondering about your experiences/reasons.

The best place to start is ABB and VRBO; the tools there will give you a great feel for what to do and problem-solving for guests will be the 2nd half of the initial learning process.

The books and forms are great as well, a key thing to do is to have an exit strategy if it's not a go for you (make only the investments you need to make, have a plan for how you would undo/sell if it starts to look like it's not going to pan out). If you're starting outside of peak season I'd say give it 4-6 months. On peak, it should be 2-3 for you to know if this will work for you (but you also need to plan for the slow season ahead).

The core I start with was can we run this unit at 15 nights a month? If the answer is no, or the rate is too high..keep planning before you spend more money.

At the one-year mark, I might suggest looking at listing sites like Booking.com. Slightly more complicated systems (and higher fees) but often a much wider net for bookings (to fill those slower, tricker nights).

Best of luck!

Quite a bit. 

Not a total dealbreaker though; you will want to make sure it's clearly laid out in the listing and check out some alternative STR sites that cater to nature and camping clientele (they will be your most successful and understanding guests and will appreciate the aesthetic).

If you can upgrade the outhouse or set something up inside, bonus points for that. The toilet itself would be the first focus if there's no running water or compost type system (aka just a bucket or hole in the ground); try to find a better system/upgrade right away. Keep maintenance in mind as well; who's cleaning this thing...you may need to pay extra/look harder if it's a tough job.

Once your toilet is A+ create a nice path, add some lights overhead, and really lean into the "aesthetic" so it seems like a fun "adventure" to not have an in-house toilet for a few days.

If you can't find comps in the area/state maybe start looking at camping rates in the area and build out from that.

Your turnover rate will likely be higher as well; many folks will do the math on how many days they want to go outside to use the bathroom. You should factor that into your budget and strategy, but likely not the nightly rate.

@John Underwood has the easy and correct answer here.

I swap out my doorknobs for non-locking and add a keypad for custom-coded entry. 

If you want to have both, you could leave a key inside the unit (key the knob and deadbolt the same), lock only with the deadbolt between guests, unlock for them remotely and then have the guests use the key after check-in...but you're likely ok. This was the approach we used in a condo building where keypads/guests using the August app was a no-go.

The August locks work great, especially in San Antonio where the cold weather is (supposed to be) rare. 

We use firesticks and provide a few different services with it (Netflix, Disney, etc.). If you're not providing cable or satellite, it makes it a bit more of a nice touch (keeps guests happy and relaxed).

Very infrequently, guests will log into their own accounts, we try to make a habit of checking and always ask (in our guidebook) that they let us know if they've logged out of our provided account. Even if they have the services at home though, they just pick up wherever they were from our guest account.

Roku does have the cool Guest feature (that @Derick Bonsu mentioned earlier) which resets all the passwords at checkout (maybe you know that already); last I checked, it logs out of absolutely every account which didn't quite work for us because we wanted to provide at least one or two options for folks...but it could be perfect if you're not planning to provide streaming.

For what it's worth, the decision to pay for streaming services was as simple as asking about 15 different "boomer" travellers what they thought of logging into their own accounts. A small sample group, but all 15 said (without hesitation) they have no idea what the Netflix password is; they'd have to call someone.

There could be something I'm missing, but if the property management company is being paid to manage your listings they should be maximizing it for you. There shouldn't be an extra fee for listing on other services, especially if they take a percentage.

Having said that, those services do take a commission fee. So the management company may be suggesting that there is an extra charge in that respect. I've never heard of managers charging a listing fee though (they should be able to pretty easily list and track on multiple platforms). The model would usually be that listing site commissions are an expense (advertising) and you split the net income as a profit share. The other option here is that you build in the markup for those specific sites to cover the commission. Again, I'm not sure why your manager isn't just doing this for you...there must be part of the arrangement that I'm not understanding.

Listing "internally" is fantastic! But it's often a tough way to start if the listing is new (even if the local manager has a great site/reputation and customer base)

You've put a lot of thought into this, and there aren't many bad options here. 

Short term, here's the action plan before you worry about changing your business model:

You need a new cleaner. 

If you can't find one overnight (and I fully appreciate that you can't) you can at least start looking now and I would look for more than one. We have a "team" of cleaners, and we gain and lose a few every quarter basically. We have never had to "fire" any, the cream rises to the top and the ones who aren't that into it slowly drift away. In doing things that way you'll also discover your best cleaners are people looking for a little extra money (students, moms or dads looking to boost the household income or pay for a vacation).

We use apps "Properly" and "TurnoverBnb"

The app schedules cleanings automatically based on bookings. You'll create a custom checklist and inventory for the property to make it very clear what you want done. This will also include the cleaner matching photo examples of how you need things to look as well as sending photo examples to the app (the app requires the photo before they can mark the job done). Properly actually offers a paid service for someone to do a quality check, but I have done a review from the back of a taxi in another continent; so believe me when I tell you it makes managing these things remotely very doable.

With the inventory, the cleaners do a count after each cleaning, and when the threshold gets below what you've set as your "warning" you'll be notified of that (so you can prepare to stock up after the upcoming stay).

 If you have a "pool" of potential cleaners you can start to see who is going above and beyond and push them to become your primary cleaner. The best ones often have 2 or 3 other clients, so if they're busy the day you need a cleaning they just decline (no pressure) and the job gets sent out on a first come first serve basis to the rest of your cleaners.

If you're honest and fair with your team, this system works pretty great and the best part is it's VERY scaleable if you end up really happy with the results and looking to invest in more long-distance STRs.

In my example, there would be a separate manager who actually buys/delivers supplies and fixes things. This could be you if the rental is within a weekend drive and you don't mind checking in once a month or so (might also be worth looking and minimum night stays to decrease turnover). But could also be one of your primary cleaners (for bonus pay) or another person (student maybe) to whom you pay a monthly fee for occasional stop-ins or even pay "per visit as required." If you hire full time they'll likely want % of earnings, but that's still manageable if they're doing a great job and making money for you. When I was a student I did some cleanings, and when the inventory was low the owners just sent a list to their friend who would do a bi-weekly visit.

The issue you're running into is THE primary issue that STR owners run into, and if you'd prefer to hire an STR manager there are likely one or two in your area who would be happy to take this on. I have faith that you can figure this out though and not have to spend a disproportionate amount of time on it.

If you go the route of medium-term rentals you'll want to do some homework to get connected with insurance companies and other groups that relocate folks for months at a time. If you make the right connections this can be a great option. The sweet spot for MTR was the last two years, I think we're going to see a bit of a slowdown now..but it's still not a bad option by any means (especially if you can max out those Football and Grad weekend bookings)

Long-term rentals will always be the more passive option. So if you prefer to sit back a little more, that's the way to go. No shame in it. I love STRs, but sometimes they just aren't the right fit for what we're doing. 

Piece of mind has a price tag, and many owners find it's higher than the money you'll make running around trying to put out the same fires over and over again. Any time there's a chance to make a "quick and easy" dollar I remember the 3 days it cost me to clean up the mess lol.