All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

@Stephen Ray...  I get that.  Doesn't always fit and I am speaking in general terms for the average cabin.  There are always other aspects that could make a cabin do better as well.. i.e. location, view, etc..  You do what you can do with the cabin you have to work with.

@Collin H.    I think some names can be a hinderance to some people.  In your example your customer probably didn't have many folks renting that had an aversion to alcohol with that name.  I can see how that might have turned someone off of that cabin.  In general I don't think they matter too much, however, against common wisdom, I had to change the name of the last cabin I purchased.  It was called Million Dollar Views when I bought it.  The views are amazing but I kept running into problems with cleaners, pest control and guests thinking they were talking about my cabin but were talking about one of the other 10 cabins in that area with the same or similar name.  

The day before a guest showed up, they messaged my wife, saying that their relative looked at our reviews online, and that if all these problems weren't fixed and the pool wasn't cleaned and on and on.. then they want a full refund.  And we were like whoa.. what are you talking about.  Basically they shared the cabin name with their relatives who went out and googled it. Someone else with a cabin up there with the same name took out a google ad for their cabin.  So their cabin with the same name was popping up on the right side of the google search.  Well they had awful reviews with all kinds of problems.  At that point we said enough is enough and changed the name.  So although I don't think they are hugely important, they do have to fit the area and be as unique as possible in my opinion.

Colin,

My theory is that every 2 bedroom cabin in the smoky mtns has a hot tub and and multicade.  If you don't have both of those you can't even compete with the "average" 2 bedroom cabin up there. I always strive to throw as many extras in my cabins as possible to try and rise above the average.

It could be that your customer just likes the idea of having their own cabin in the smokys and just wants to have someone else manage it to help "offset" their costs while not using it.

I am seeing no impact on my smoky mtn properties.  Bookings are rolling in right  now for spring and summer every day.

So I would go with Spectrum as Lucas said just so you have 1 bill to pay, 1 place to call, easy right.  I have directv at one  of my cabins because that is all  I could get, but I had it at my house for over a 10 year span and can only remember it going  out due to weather like  twice over 10 years.

Are  you sure spectrum is the provider for your cabin and its not Comcast Xfinity?  I have Xfinity service at two  of my Sevierville cabins.  If your choice is xfinity and not spectrum then  I would  def go with xfinity.  It comes with a remote that your guests can just speak in to, to change the  channel but here is one of the other benefits with xfinity.  If you have a Roku TV, you can pull down the Xfinity Streaming  App.  If xfinity  is servicing the house,  then you can use the app on  all Roku TVs  in the house to stream  all the xfinity  channels you subscribe to without having  to pay for a box at each TV.  I put TCL Roku TVs in  all my cabins.   

So its 1 property... if that feels like a second almost full-time job, I would try to figure out what components are taking up so much of your time. And then analyze what you can do to either streamline or automate some of these functions. We have 3 properties that are booming like yours as well so I do understand what it takes. But I come back to the idea that 1 property should really only be taking a couple of hours per week. It shouldn't be almost a full time job. What you do really depends on your goals. An STR is an active investment - not passive and there is work involved. The LTRs are almost no work once setup and definitely take up a lot less time. But on the other hand if you are going with a BRRRR method, that rehabbing and/or managing contractors is probably more work than what your STR should be for that period of time.

Yea that is def a spam.  It happens and if in doubt just call HomeAway and they can verify and take care of it for you so it doesn't count as a non-response on your part.  I get these kinds of things every say 3-4 months.

My wife handles the inquires for us and she spends far more time on her responses than I would.  I like the idea of the automated replies to save time.  But.. she estimates that she converts about 80% of her inquires to bookings.  

I would let it go unless there is damage.  There might be some additional cleaning if the dog sheds but the cleaning company might charge extra or might not.  I am  not  pet friendly in my cabins but I have let a few stay for folks who made special requests to me.  I have had one guest sneak a pet in.  I have not had any damage or issues due to the pets that have stayed.  I have also  had service dogs of which you need to accept them.  If you are just starting out you don't want a bad review if you tick someone off - even though you are in the right.  The fact is a lot of folks either don't read or pay attention to the rules.  

Yea that would make things a lot better in my eyes. Probably the key there is getting feedback from other folks in that specific market to try and determine if that is doable. What can you provide at your STR that is perhaps over and above what other similar STRs in that area provide? You want your STR to have more/better amenities than the the competing STRs in order to bump your rates above the average STR there.

When I read this I'll tell you what I am struggling with. Purchase cost of 290k with 25% down = 72.5k. Estimated cash flow after all expenses is only $600/mo. To me that just ain't enough extra cash flow for me to manage an STR. Now if you want the condo because you want it for your own use and you want to help pay the costs with it being an STR - no problem. If you want it for purely investment purposes and cash flow then I would take that 72.5k and put into a couple of LTRs. You might make $200 less in cash flow a month. But you can have that managed at that rate and basically have near the same cash flow but it will be almost be a purely passive investment with no work. Just some thoughts on that.