All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Ok, I just went thru the exercise with hubby, asking him the same question you asked me :)

It looks like the most critical thing we don't have but you do, is a very reliable handyman, as well as housekeeper. From your postings, I know that you have a handyman who lives in your unit and is pretty much dedicated to take care of your properties. That is HUGE. 

Also, a very reliable housekeeper who communicates really well and could handle basic things, for example: 

- reports to you when she/he smell cigarette in the unit, which means the guests break the house rules.

- takes pictures if things don't look right, say there is a mess left behind, or any trace of party happened the night before. Or an iron left turned on (this happened to us). Or a door left wide open and the guests already left. Or furniture moved around. Basically anything that broke the house rules. Also, if the guests don't check out at their check out time, the cleaner has to be assertive enough to tell them to get the f00k out. The last guest I had told the cleaner to come back the next day and said he's not checking out until tomorrow. When I called, he said he 'forgot' that he was supposed to leave that morning, but he's all packed up and will leave in 10 minutes. Yeah, right.

But I did have a few guests who really didn't realize that they were supposed to leave that day. When you have the same day arrival, you need to make sure this gets handled accordingly.

And there are always those guests who don't know how to use keyless code. Or frantically called you and said they do have the keyless code, but how do they get the key. Imagine if they call me when I'm sleeping somewhere in Rome with this kind of dumb question.

The other key thing is to have non-complicated switches, appliances, etc. My old flat is a good example. Everything is very user friendly, from dishwasher to refrigerator, washer/dryer etc. The only funky thing was the delta shower faucet where you have to pull the bottom part of the faucet to turn the shower on. That is easily handled by putting a label on the faucet itself.

The house we lived in before was remodeled by the previous owner and she was quite fancy. Everything is high end and not very user friendly, for example that light switch that I mentioned about. 

So with all that said, you do not physically have to be at the property. However, what I find challenging to handle while traveling is when a guest contact me, I can't immediately know which unit they are staying at due to the multiple units I run. And the time difference if I were say, in Europe is another challenge. 

I actually did hire a property manager a while ago, however had to cancel when I realized it took her 2 days to respond to my emails and I was supposedly her client. Couldn't imagine how she would deal with my guests.

At the end of the day, this is probably mostly about mindset. I can't have that peace of mind when I'm away and not easily reachable by guests. Hopefully it gets better with time, but right now I'm happy to be staying put.

So J, with all these said, if you ever think of setting up a company to handle this kind of business, I'd love to speak with you :)

Exactly! When I quit my day job, I told people that I retired. And naively, I started planning all kinds of trips, even thinking about spending 4 months in Europe next year. And in the last road trip, I realized that it wasn't very realistic of me to just expect things to go smoothly without my presence here. The way I look at it is, the cleaners, the handymen, as great as they are, only 'baby sitters'. Eventually the parents (me!) will have to be here to raise the kids. LOL

Mind you, I automated everything: Keyless Entry with Z-Wave system, Thermostat, Cameras, etc. But there are always things that only my husband knows how to fix. For example, we got a call last week from a guest who said the lights are not working. I asked her to check the dimmer and she said she tried everything and they happened to have the same kind of lightpads at home. We finally left a day early from our trip to Santa Cruz and went to the house. After checking everything, especially the circuit breakers, finally my husband found the culprit. Apparently the previous guests, or probably the cleaners, accidentally 'locked' the keypads by sliding the bottom part of it. Who would have known. We lived in that house for 3 years and never knew that there was a locking system to the pads.

Anyway, Amit, you're right about newbies and the veteran hosts. I used to respond with all kinds of info, even including links to all kinds of things they could do in the bay area, etc. Now I just said: if you google: things to do in SF, you'll find all sort of info. LOL

Also, as soon as someone asks for 'better rates', I drop them right away. Those bargain seekers are definitely not my target market as often times they are very high maintenance and difficult to please.

Airbnb actually started a business with Concur now, that processes expense reports for most corporations. So business/corporate travelers can book thru their Concur page, as long as their companies agree to it:

https://www.concur.com/blog/en-us/concur-airbnb-sh...

So they all make enough extra gravy off the rental income to not work? I like the sound of that! Way to enjoy life and start traveling, even if it makes the AirB&B a bit more tedious.. My new goal may be to find

"THAT BETTER WAY"

Yes, those 4 peeps (2 couples, actually), make enough to make 'ends meet', as they love to say it here in SF. My beef with this kind of business, from an owner's/neighbor's perspectives, is that in order for them to make enough, they pack in as many guests as they could. The condo that I rented for me and hubby was a 2-bed, 2-bath, about 1,150sqf. They listed maximum occupancy for 13 people!

My flat, with the same size, only accommodates up to 4 people and I prefer to have 2 people. More guests = more $$, however that also equals to more wear and tear, and definitely more noise and neighborhood disturbance that I'm trying to avoid at all costs. 

And to @Kathryn M., I ask strangers questions all the time :) How else would you learn otherwise? Oh I guess I search online lots, but  nothing beats getting answers from strangers LOL

Actually, I was in Montreal recently and rented an airbnb condo. The hosts do this professionally - there are 4 of them, renting 24 properties that they manage and rent short term. Looks like they take turn a few days a week and that's really their day job, meaning they do sit in front of their computer all day and respond to guests questions, inquiries, etc. THAT, could definitely work. In fact, I was doing this much more easily when I had a day job :). But I quit my job so we could travel and that turned out to be a challenge for now. 

And no, we're not selling, at least not in the next few years. But yeah, there's got to be a better way. HOWEVER, in SF you have more challenges than just managing. There is a city policy as well, that makes it tricky to run more than one unit. And this applies to those management companies as well. I'm sure there will be creative ways to handle this, so we'll see how this will all play out. 

OK, I finally got a chance to chime in.  I started with one unit two years ago and was pretty easy to manage since it was an apartment attached to my house. It was so easy that I became ambitious and acquired a few more, a total of 7 units. Although I'd say we're doing really well, but the fact of the matter is, running vacation rentals is like having kids. Having one could probably be quite easy and really enjoyable. But once you have more than 2 and each is going thru different stages in their lives, say: 2 babies, 3 toddlers, 2 teenagers you are faced with challenges. I have great cleaners, or so I thought until we found some dirty linens on the bed that was supposedly for an arriving guest. Good thing that the 'guest' happened to be us. Otherwise it could have been a disaster, namely: bad review.

But it is possible to make really great profits especially if you could have a great handyman who is on call for every little question the guest might have (why is the wifi not working? answer: it's your laptop, reboot. Where are the washer/dryer? It's right there, in the W/D closet. Is the icemaker broken? No, the ice melted a bit. Just take out the thing out of the freezer. Is the bathroom light not working? It is, it has a dimmer on it! - that sort of thing).

I think the ideal thing is if you have a condo or condos in a condo building where all the floor plans are the same, the appliances are the same, cable channels are the same, etc. I know someone who has this kind of condo in Kona, Hawaii. So she actually has a property manager who lives on site, in that condo building.

Even if you could manage all the logistics really well, there is still this 'guest factor'. You just don't know what kind of guests you would end up having, no matter how well you screen or how many house rules you have. They may smoke inside your unit, invite their friends and family to have dinner at 'their' place, etc., etc.

Didn't mean to discourage anyone, but just wanted to give a sense of reality. We're still doing really well, but are now thinking about downsizing, possibly down to 3 units.

 I know. Definitely lots of crazies here LOL.

But like @Amit M. always says, craziness creates opportunities for the rest of us! I'm not as brave as him tho. At least twice a week I'm thinking about selling...

@J. Martin: I'm itching to go to Oakland to see one of your properties, but not sure if we can do that tomorrow :(. Will try tho.

@Johnson H.: Been busy so far. And I did that Road Trip!! :) Too much time on the road, so probably won't do that again :( Would love to catch up with you and yes, the week of 20th is perfect. Will definitely make it!

@Johnson H. Darn, not in SJ on that day. When's the next SF Meet Up? Would love to see all of you again!