All Forum Posts by: Scott Watson

Hi Scott, I have 2 rentals that I self manage and am really happy with Lodgify to coordinate messaging, sync calendars etc. I am on Airbnb, Booking and VRBO. You can set up the automated messages and you can adjust pricing here. I just recently had Pricelabs take over pricing but I think to get started I would just keep it simple. I highly recommend doing as much research as you can. You may not need Booking.com but I use it as we have guests coming from out of the country due to St Augustine's tourist attractions and history. Every market is different. "30 Day Stay" is a great book and not just about mid term rentals. BiggerPockets podcasts and YouTube are great. I also like watching all the STR tours on YouTube, i.e: Levi Kelly. Good luck!

I'd encourage you to just work through airbnb and vrbo to start as well. Most cleaners are not going to comply with your PMS platform protocol for cleaning and 98% of the functionality that you are going to use a PMS for will be messaging. It's just not that hard with 1 property to do messaging. 

Pricelabs is important, but right now, the most important thing is for you to spend time in Gulf Shores establishing trust and relationships with local vendors. You need a deep bench and the ability to ask for a favor every so often. If they feel like they know you, they are more likely to help you out of a jam and not kill you for it. You're just another rich guy from out of town until you get to know them and hopefully establish some sort of a friendship or good working relationship. 

I'm going to echo the idea that the bells and whistles aren't required if you just have 1 property. The KISS principle is helpful here.  Calendars can be synced without a channel manager, the platforms themselves have automations you can leverage.   These third-party tools are simply that - tools.  Understanding and having experience of those processes in the platforms is exquisitely helpful.  Layering on the cost of these tools as well as the learning curve of learning to host and navigate a bunch of software isn't necessary. I DO like dynamic pricing tools, but for a single property I don't think they add enough value for the cost. You should know your pricing and not rely on a tool to tell you - it can only give you averages, we have to understand our market and position correctly; I don't use Pricelabs recommended pricing (and I operate in the 95% percentile across my portfolio).  It will tell you it "should" be, but the job is for you to know it well enough to tell IT what the pricing should be. 

I say all that... if you are set on it, Guesty has a new product - Guesty lite.  Another, HostTools looks to keep it simple as well   Lots of folks like Hospitable. 

Best of luck to you!

They're all fine...don't get caught up on which platform to use. I use Guesty and it's good enough. Same goes for all the other popular ones. If you are just starting out, get your finances in good shape because it's likely going to be death by a thousand cuts getting a property to market. 

Have you purchased your first property or are looking to purchase your first property? Not a big deal either way, but it changes the way that I would attempt to help.