All Forum Posts by: Leigh Ann Smith

I just completed the "Quick Member Survey" that came by email today.  In the question about how much monthly cashflow you generated, the max amount you could select was 100.  Not to brag, but mine was higher than that.  Just wanted to let you guys know so you could go in and make an edit.  

Great idea, @Bettina F.!  That's gonna be a tricky group to find.  If it were moms of any description they'd have Facebook groups and blogs that they follow.  But dads?  Not so much.

I wonder if you could advertise with the local sports teams (Little League, etc.).  That might be another thing those dads do with their kids. 

Google ads?  Maybe use keywords like "weekend activities" "kid activities", etc.

Maybe local gyms would allow you to place a flyer there.

You have to provide linens, in my opinion.  Yes, it's a hassle and an extra expense (a significant extra expense!), but it is expected.  

Imagine if you were renting a place and the family was traveling in from everywhere and then you found out that everyone had to bring their own sheets & towels.  I think it would be a deal-breaker for lots of guests.

What you could do would be to offer a discount to guests who bring their own linens and towels.  Maybe not $10/bed, but whatever you think it would cost you in time and money.

@John D. and @John Underwood, the reason I am concerned about the difference is that I'm trying to optimize my pricing.  I want to understand what the end price is to the guest. We are very new to VRBO and have only been doing AirBnB for about a year, so I'm still playing with the numbers.

Since VRBO supposedly attracts those looking for longer stays, I have my per night rate lower, but I have a 4-night minimum stay.  With AirBnB, it's 2-night minimum on weekend nights, 1-night on weekdays.

For August, my page views on one of the properties were 313 for AirBnB and 52 for VRBO.  I have 2 guests with 6 nights booked (August is super slow), and both are from AirBnB.

The other property has 506 views on AirBnB and 74 on VRBO.  We have 4 guests with 14 nights booked, all from AirBnB.

With AirBnB, we've had to keep dropping our prices to get bookings.  We have 2 tiny houses, and I often have to drop them as low as $59/night (+$25 cleaning fee) to get bookings.  $59/night is my default price on VRBO.

Both platforms add the sales tax to that.  AirBnB pays the state tax for me, but I have to remit the tax on VRBO income.

@Timothy Church, we live about 40 miles from Galveston and are not in a flood zone, thankfully.   How does flood insurance impact profitability in Galveston?  I would think the rates would be pretty steep!

The formula for calculating guest fees on both of these platforms is far from transparent.  Have any of you worked this out?  Which platform offers the lowest guest fees?

@James Carlson, I actually got 1 traveling nurse through AirBnB and the other through VRBO.  I've been leery of Craigslist because of concerns about fraud, but I could dip my toe in by linking to AirBnB from the Craigslist posting.

We had several of those last week, as did others in an AirBnB hosts Facebook group I'm in.  I am assuming there was some kind of glitch in their system.

We're using Proper Insurance for our VR's.  

https://www.proper.insure/

@Account Closed, combined, our 2 houses have been booked for about 215 nights this year.  One of those was a 65 day rental (from VRBO) and one was a 6-week rental.  Both were traveling nurses.  I need to find out how to market to them!  So, that's about 50%, but those long term ones do really skew the numbers.  

Summer is slower, as is January-February.  March was crazy busy.  We tend to be busy in November-December because we're a Christmas tree farm, but I wouldn't think most rentals would be busy then.