All Forum Posts by: Tammi Sims

@Yvette Owo I am an Airbnb host and if I were to decide to use a property management company, I would use Evolve. They are top notch. You might also be able to find a local management company or a current host interested in taking on management of another listing. However, I have had an easy time managing mine on my own - even though I travel a lot and therefore am mostly hosting remotely. I maintain all of the reservations, guest relations and communication and mange the turnovers and cleaning with an app. I get 5 star ratings so it can be done, and relatively effortlessly. Good luck!

Hi Travis. There is a site called learnairbnb that has a calculator tool, of sorts. However, I'm not advocating using Airbnb exclusively as a listing platform. Al the vacation rental experts highly recommend listing on multiple platforms. Good luck.

@Paul Weller. Why does your name sound familiar? 

Sorry to hear about your situation with your board. I hear that often from people. I just talked to a host in Wellington, NZ recently who is in the middle of the same dispute with her board. Good for you for attempting to address it before you started renting. One thing I talked about with the woman in Wellington was approaching the HOA and asking what people's concerns were and trying to work collaboratively to address those concerns but also proposing a "win" for the HOA - potentially in the form of a percentage. Sometimes it is an education process and a process of alleviating people's concerns about having "strangers" in their building, which I understand. I have hosted over 100 groups and have had the most lovely guests 98% of the time. And even the 2% who were not as lovely we still nice people - just not perfect guests. One word of caution with Seattle in particular is that the city is looking at this topic right now as it relates to the overall shortage of affordable long term rentals so there are quite possibly regulations coming in the future. I'd suggest letting that settle before you make a purchase if your only interest in STR/vacation rental market.

Best of luck! 

@Timothy Daniels, congrats! Sounds like you have a great business in the San Juans. I couldn't agree more that people do have to go in with eyes wide open and it is demanding in ways that are unexpected. I think one really has to love it to do it. Because of my experience with Airbnb, I have lots of friends and family ask me about it and as a result I have developed a loose set of questions that I go through with people so they can assess for themselves whether it is really something they want to do, whether part time or full time. Airbnb is interesting in the marketplace as it brings people onto the platform as hosts who wouldn't otherwise have considered being a vacation rental owner/host. Some of those folks decide they love it and have created larger businesses out of it. (Or have financial success and therefore create a bigger business for the business of it.) Airbnb is distinct, though not necessarily better or worse, from traditional vacation rental owners and those folks are quick to point that out. We'll look you up when we get back to the San Juans next. We had our first date on Orcas so we have a soft spot for the islands. :)

@Christy, I'd love to. I'm away from Seattle for a bit but back in the summer. Happy to connect and brainstorm in other ways until we can meet in person. 

And I can so relate to the daunting turnovers. For me it is actually the laundry that is daunting because it takes so much time. I have other friends who have vacation rentals. Perhaps we could share a pool of helpers. 

Yes, Tonya. It's all about having the right people in place, isn't it? Congrats on your rental. 

@ Christy - I just took a look at your profile. You're a houseboat lover and owner! For many years I "boat-sat" for my dear friends who have a houseboat in Portage Bay while they were at their winter home. Such great communities. 

@Christy. It IS lots of work! VRBO IS still around. And in fact many experts in the vacation rental industry strongly advise diversifying and not putting all your marketing eggs in the Airbnb basket, so to speak. So many owners list on multiply platforms including VRBO, FlipKey, HomeAway and local sites. Serious owners have their own websites. I am not that sophisticated just yet. 

I don't use a cleaning service but I have recruited a handful of people I trust and am continuing to build that network for the times when I can't take care of it myself. With that, I have found easy ways to handle the turnovers and it is reflected in my reviews. I, personally feel better about managing that myself rather than handing it over to a cleaning company. It could be my controlling nature. :) I have found that it just takes sharing information about the distinction between a residential turnover and what I have termed a hospitality turnover. The people who help me with my vacation rental turnovers know that there are extra steps that relate to hospitality like making sure that leftover food is removed from the refrigerator from the previous guest, putting flowers on the night stands, etc. 

All the best,

Tammi

Hi Jeff,

Congratulations! You're in for a fun time! I am not in TN but I am an accidental vacation rental owner and love it. I manage my property in Seattle mostly remotely and have been very successful and had great rating and guest relationships. My partner owns a home in San Francisco and occasionally rents that as a vacation rental as well. We are also in the midst of starting the conception phase of a vacation rental property in New Zealand. We already have the land. HOWEVER, I'm small scale and like it that way to keep things personable. I'm happy to share information and happy to point you int he direction of fantastic people and resources including some great free podcasts. In particular, Vacation Rental Success with Heather Bayer. (Listening to her helps me get through my long runs...) She's a gem in the industry. She, along with her business parter, Mike Bayer (I think it is her son) are hosting a small but packed conference at the end of this month in Toronto. If you can swing the time, it would get you off on a great start and provide you with some fantastic resources. 

At any rate, lots of resources and I'm happy to share information as well. Most importantly, I think you'll have a really good time with your vacation rental!

All the best,

Tammi

Hi Christy,

Thank you! I'd be more than happy to help. 

My property is a single family home with a legal MIL until. The MIL is and has always been rented full time. The upstairs is my home and I started renting it on Airbnb when I was gone. It took off in ways that I couldn't have imagined. However, Seattle is starting to look at the issue of short term rentals and the potential impact on the rental housing shortage as did SF and many other cities where housing is scarce. So, this could impact things in the future and is something to be aware of. At this point it is largely unregulated but that's all on the table right now. 

I have found that I really enjoy managing a vacation rental. I enjoy the process of creating and designing a home space and providing hospitality services to my guests. I also love people so I enjoy the interaction with guests (though it is mostly virtual communication.) I'm a host at heart. So, for me personally, I would love to add a property that would only be a vacation rental and where there are no potential hinderances an conflicts with a long term rental shortage. 

With regard to management and cleaning, etc. when I started, I did it all myself until I went on a 3 week vacation about 4 months in and needed to call in help. I enlisted friends to help out but I still essentially managed everything - just from England where I was traveling. I still responded to guests and reservations and scheduled the cleaning in between guests, etc. And for the most part it went smoothly. Now I use an app that allows me to send house information and visual cleaning/turnover instructions to the person doing the turnover for me. It is brilliant and easy.  (Full disclosure, it is my partner's company so I won't say more or share the name as I don't want to violate the guidelines about advertising. But I will look into listing it in the marketplace or encouraging him to do so.) Even though I love hosting (Airbnb's term for the vacation rental owner), I was surprised by how much time it takes so that is a consideration. It is an involved process because you enter the hospitality industry and not just the rental industry. 

With regard to Airbnb specifically, the upsides are that it is easy to get started with. In my case, I had nothing to lose as I was renting my primary home, so it wasn't an extra expense of an additional house and it was just extra cash flow. It only turned into more of a business for me once it took off in the way that it did and once I realized how much I enjoyed it. I could essentially be booked as much as I want to be which currently works well as I travel often and now spend some time in SF where my partner lives and in NZ where we have property we are getting ready to develop. 

At this point, I am learning more about the vacation rental market outside Airbnb and all of the experts advise to diversify your marketing. There is a conference being held in Toronto in a couple of weeks with some of the industry leaders outside Airbnb. 

I could write pages. Happy to share more and hope I've answered your questions too far.

All the best,

Tammi