All Forum Posts by: Sarah Kensinger

Quote from @Palmer Thomas:

Quote from @Sarah Kensinger:

No, you just go on there like you're looking to book and start looking at people's calendars and pricing. To be honest this take A LOT of time and your search would need to be based off a very similar property that you would be possibly purchasing.

One concern I have about this is that I have no idea what percentage of bookings are done weeks in advance and what percentage are last minute.  If the average occupancy for an area is 80%, how far out should I see 80% of the days booked?  In my area, RE agents have said that they get well over 50% occupancy rate, and I don't doubt that at all given the location.  It's just when I look at other people's calendars, not many seem to be at the +50% mark for the next 3 months.

If an area has a lot of people coming in for a weekend getaway, does it make looking at other STRs much less useful since some percentage of those would probably be last minute bookings?

In some areas that are not vacation markets there could be many last-minute bookings. And there are some people like me that still book last minute in vacation markets to get a cheaper rate. ;) 
But yes, you do have a point with looking at the OTA platforms for numbers of the area. I actually do that after I see what Airnda says to confirm their data. Don't forget the occupancy would be spread across the whole year so you might not see it within a certain timeframe of someone's booking calendar.

Also, I recently heard someone give a good example of how people tend to book...usually after people get home, they want to travel again so they'll book the next trip. For example, after the holidays are over spring break starts getting booked, after spring break they book a summer trip, after that is past they'll book a fall break trip, and once they have made it home they're thinking of the holidays and book that trip. So, depending on how close those breaks/holidays are, as well as people's budget, it could be some "last minute" bookings.

Quote from @Saranya Sundararajan:

Quote from @John Underwood:

Vrbo and Airbnb. 

Just look at the competitions calendar.

 Is this only if you have listings on airbnb/vrbo?

No, you just go on there like you're looking to book and start looking at people's calendars and pricing. To be honest this take A LOT of time and your search would need to be based off a very similar property that you would be possibly purchasing. I do it myself but don't use it as the main source of research, I feel it's pretty hard to narrow down exact numbers that way. Airdna is pretty good, and they have a free trial rentalizer, but remember it's looking in the past. Although some lenders do use Airdna to project the income of a STR property and decide if they'll loan on it, so that says a lot! Rabbu is also another good place to look. It's a free website that looks 30 days ahead in airbnb/VRBO sites and calculates the data off of those potential numbers. 

It would depend on who you are marketing to, but 3 bedrooms are nicer for families.....

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Sarah Kensinger:

And we're all basing this off a Yahoo article! Somebody should call a stock expert to explain just what percentage drop is actually a big deal.

 Where are you getting this notion? Did you actually read the posts? Most that are critical are speaking of the poor business operation or outdated model, not some article. 

As for stocks, there is no universal % drop, it varies stock too stock. 

If O dropped 5%, in 1 trading session people are going to flip-out wondering what the heck is going on. If TSLA drops 5% in one session we shrug and say "must be a Tuesday". ZG/Z can move on average ~2% any direction any given day but any blip in the news and it's an up-to 10% roller coater ride of up's n down's and again, not a big deal, just is how that trades. Hence how day traders make $. 

I have a feeling your not as clued into stocks as thought you were, maybe, possibly. 

I'm not going to get into this because the whole thread has IMO spiraled into no point. People are basing their comments on the article, so therefore it is the bases of the comments. Yahoo has not been an accredited source for decades now and is the brunt of numerous jokes. Stocks move up and down, has since the beginning of wall street and will continue until the era of wall street is over (when that'll be who knows, it's beside the point). But I know one thing... good chance Airbnb will be around for many many more years to come! They had an amazing start that is enough to inspire any young entrepreneurial and now they're a strong company. If the story is correct, to this day a rich businessman has a cereal box sitting in his office to remind him that taking a risk on some young college boys is not always a bad thing. Have they possibly lost their focus and need to straighten out a few business policies, probably, what company that has grown so large doesn't. Is building a direct booking site a lot of work not to mention time to build your place in the google algorithm system, yes and lots of people are about to find that out. I also want my own direct booking site and already have a website with a blog to start my way through the algorithm system. But for the time being I don't ever see leaving the booking sites totally, because too many people trust that process and won't book any other way. Lastly, I don't know stocks, that's my husband's department since he has quite a few at the moment and of course like a good wife I listen when he talks about them. But I also think Airbnb is too big of a company to have a 2 page spread of this tread about a 6% stock drop, when they've already had an uptick in bookings for the first quarter of this year. 

And we're all basing this off a Yahoo article! Somebody should call a stock expert to explain just what percentage drop is actually a big deal.

Quote from @Zambricki Li:

Not a fan of Guesty. They should be upfront how they take over your account. They change pricing for all future dates with no warning--at sign up. They should at least provide a pop up window warning of the implications for active accounts, if nothing else.  Guesty auto-wipes your settings, pricing, and calendar like a sledgehammer.

 I prefer to use in- house platform messaging for basic messages, and actually write personal messages for anything else. It's quick, its better customer service than having all these bot-like features.

You don't need pricelabs either just check your area, be a little better than the other options. Raise your prices on weekends and holidays, just check the comps in your area now and then for a baseline.

This must take a lot of time! I have to have pretty much everything automated! 

If anyone needs help with a STR start up I have some contacts, and we do it in our area (Canton/Akron) as well.

Just met and chatted with Kayla at Fulton Title last week. She would be of help to you!

I know a lot of people who have tried both Guesty and Owner Rez, prefer Guesty. But I also think which PMS that is right depends on the person/company, what works for one doesn't always work for others.

You just opened a can of worms! ;D