All Forum Posts by: Wendy Schultz

It's a fascinating concept and I think offering unique experiences is a great way to stand out in a crowded market. I've considered doing Tiny Houses for the same reason. I hadn't thought of tree houses before. 

If you can swing buying one, I see so many requests for properties near the beach. The snow bird market is strong too so you could get good rent from snowbirds for longer stays

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As others have said, I also pay them how they want to be paid. Some are by PayPal, some by check, some by Venmo and some by bank transfer. I have them send an invoice to be checked by my assistant and then paid. 

I agree with being more flexible with the cancellation policies too. We reduced our timeframe to get back 100% to 30 days out and offered anyone within the 30 day time frame either 50% back or the ability to reschedule for a year from the original date. A lot of people opted to reschedule. 

Our future bookings for 2021 are already at 17% of our entire revenue for 2020 and it's only January 5th. Most of our bookings don't start coming in until March since we are primarily summer market. 2021 is starting out really strong. 

@Mike Shemp that's a great idea! 

@Amy Zemser I get it!  I ran at a loss for awhile until I figured out how to price the properties better and make revenues through fees. It sucked!  You're in the sticky spot where you're not large enough to have achieved economies of scale yet but are big enough that you need something to support the business. A changeover isn't fun but running at a loss is even less fun. I would recommend finding the software that can support you now and for the next year. After that, you can convert to a new system. 

Depending on how organized you are, you don't necessarily have to buy a management software. You can list on Airbnb and VRBO and sync the calendars. I've not been a fan of Craigslist for our listings because they have been subject to fraud. I use Quickbooks for tracking our expenses but it's not where we track our sales tax. For a few years before I invested in a property management software, I would track the taxes on an excel spreadsheet. 

I am not familiar with how LiveRez works. If you're planning to grow, I would definitely recommend finding the software that will support your growth in the long run and where you want to go.  It's not much fun to switch systems. Converting is a big pain.  I currently use Direct but have used Ciirus before too.