All Forum Posts by: Rob Hilton

Also, I want to highlight that we price our homes at the 25th percentile, not the 50th, 75th, or 90th.  We are always priced under the market average for properties, as we prefer a slightly higher occupancy rate over a higher nightly price.  

Thank you for the responses.  As you all know, Pricelabs has customization that can be set with base rates based on seasonality.  I set these base rates a year in advance, knowing that prices increase from Jan to Feb to Mar to April, and then decrease starting in May in the desert environment of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley, CA.  Same would hold true in a beach environment in the summer months.  These are not long-term rental properties, and our guests are traveling to the desert for vacation, not because they need a place to live for two nights on a weekend.  Each night of the week has a different price based on market trends for short term stays, not annual leases.  For what it's worth, we offered our homes at a discounted rate for a former guest who was looking for a place to stay.  What I disagree with is VRBO's blanketed take on pricing when it comes from a 3rd Party, which is something that was mentioned on the phone today.  That was probably a slip up, but at least they admitted it.  Bottom line, this is a short-term rental in a market where the average nightly stay is 2 nights.  90% of those are on Friday and Saturday night.  

VRBO shut down two of our properties in JT and Yucca Valley, CA due to accusations of price gouging after the LA fires.  We are also listed on AirBnB and Booking.com, and both of those are fine.  We use Pricelabs dynamic pricing and our base prices are set a year in advance for each month.  We tried to explain this to VRBO call center reps, but they can't offer anything other than telling us to lower prices to pre-Jan 6 rates.  Has anyone else experienced this in the SoCal area?  As many of you know, Pricelabs adjusts rates based on days of the week and seasonality.  The folks at VRBO can't seem to understand that.  All they see is a 10% increase on a weekend, or month over month, and they call it price gouging.  We also sent a letter to CA AG Bonta's office.  Anyone else?  

@Leslie Anne Morris, so you don't charge a fee for a late checkout?  Do they usually ask for one on the front end of the reservation, or during the stay?  It almost feels like a red flag if guests are asking for a checkout past 10am.  I always communicate to my cleaning team when I have guests asking for a late checkout, so that they can prepare themselves to potentially walk into a mess.  Have you had your cleaners show up past checkout time and guests are still there?  

@John Underwood I understand your logic on 1-night stays.  I actually don't allow 1-night stays at my FL beach property, but I do allow 1-night stays in Joshua Tree, where most stays are 2-night weekend stays, and so I don't turn away opportunities to make money during week nights.  People party on weekends as much as they will on a 1-night stay.  Market specific, I guess.  People tend to party in Joshua Tree, as far back as 1973 with Gram Parsons being the Legend.  Google that story. 

@Michael Baum, thank you for that insight.  I guess I could allow early or late checkin/checkout if I'm not booked on both ends.  I suppose it's really a matter of cleaning crew schedules.  I'm more than happy to allow early access if my cleaner is cool with it.  

Thanks for that Carolyn.  I actually make it a habit to always discuss these issues with my cleaners before I make a decision on early or late checkouts.  I have a rock star cleaning crew, and I treat them as such. 

Also, I would split all late checkout fees with my cleaners.  

Hey STR Family,

We are self managing an STR in Joshua Tree, and one of the most frequent inquiries I get is late checkout requests. Especially during this time of year in JT, we have A LOT of same day turns, and I simply do not want to offer late checkouts when our cleaners have such a high volume of turns. Our checkout is at 10am and I have backed checkin time to 3pm (from 4pm), which helps for 1-night stays. My thought is to charge a $50 fee for every 15 min past 10am checkout. My hope is that $100/hr will motivate people to wake up and check out. Have any of you done this? Have you built something like this into your AirBnB or VRBO pricing? I'm using Guesty and most of my pricing is coming from PriceLabs. Thoughts on this is appreciated.

Happy New Year, 

Rob

Hi BP Family, 

I'm located in SoCal, and I have an STR in Perdido Key, FL, and I'm moving away from a VERY BIG property management company and setting up self management. ANY recommendations or contact information for STR cleaners would be highly appreciated. I'm scouring social media sites, and I wanted to make sure that I checked here too. Many Thanks, and Merry Christmas.

Rob 

Thank you for the reply.  We found a cleaner. 

Kindly, 

Rob