All Forum Posts by: Leigh Ann Smith

We are currently renting our properties through AirBnB, and I'd like to also have the ability to book guests directly through my website.  Does anyone know of a web page template/plugin that would do this?

Our VR is through AirBnB, and we've made the max stay 28 days for this reason.  It's just not something we want to deal with.

@Carolyn Fuller, there is a website that specializes in tiny house rentals:  https://www.tryittiny.com/ .  I just heard about it and we have not listed our tiny houses there yet.  AirBnB has worked pretty well for us.  

You might look into some of the tiny house Facebook groups.  Tiny House Talk has over 200,000 followers.  Send them info on your tiny condo and they might feature it.  People who follow those groups like to see cool exterior photos though, so a condo may be a tougher sell.

@Jason Kahle, thanks for the info!  We are in unincorporated Brazoria County, so we have much more freedom from regulations than most others.  Our tiny houses are on wheels, and they would qualify as RV's.  They were built by SD Tiny Homes, a very small builder down here in our area south of Houston.

@Nick Winikoff,  they've been on our radar for probably 5 - 7 years, and I think it was probably 2012-2013 when HGTV started broadcasting a show about tiny houses, and that's when it really took off.

@Mike Reynolds, most of our guests are young couples.  If you categorized them, they're primarily:

• Young couples on a romantic getaway weekend
• Tiny house enthusiasts
• In town for a wedding, family reunion, etc.
• Miscellaneous (an author on a writing retreat, a traveling nurse, people leaving on a cruise from Galveston the next day, etc.)

Our tiny houses are on wheels.  You can look us up on AirBnB with "Tiny House on the Christmas Tree Farm" and see pics of the houses.

@Michael Greenberg, @Jeff Graves, @Jon Crosby, @Gala Klein,

Do you price your listings differently on AirBnB vs. VRBO, HomeAway, or other platforms?

@Mike Reynolds, ask away on tiny house rentals.  We started about a year ago with 1 house, and we added another in September.  The cost of the houses was reasonable, but it was expensive putting in the road, water, electric, and septic system.  That's the main reason we hope we can keep multiple houses rented out.  We actually have a 3rd space ready to go, but it's on the back burner while we focus on one of our other ventures (an event venue) and we're also waiting until we have enough demand to sustain a 3rd house.

For 2017, we're netting about $1,350 per month on a 90K investment.  It's not a passive investment, though.  I've got a great cleaning lady, but I'm doing all of the laundry as well as communicating with guests, managing the calendar, etc.

We're just south of Houston, so stop by some time if you are in town.

@Nick Winikoff, I've never heard of Try It Tiny, and I have 2 tiny house vacation rentals.  I just looked up their website.  If you meet with them, you can tell them that I found it unnecessarily difficult to find their fee structure (Guest pays 9.5% service fee, host pays 3.5% transaction fee).  It was buried in their Terms of Use page along with their privacy policy and other legalese.

Thanks, @Jeff Graves!  It might be worth it for me to try a year of VRBO and see how it goes.  Our 2 tiny houses were booked pretty heavily Feb - April, but it's slowed up a lot for May.  Fortunately I have a traveling nurse who has reserved one of the houses for 2 weeks of the month for the next few months (at a significant discount, but 2 weeks is great anyway).

Good point about the canned responses.  I do that with AirBnB already.  VRBO guests probably have the same kinds of questions.  I have the templates on my phone, so I can respond fairly easily.  I like the idea of direct access to the guest.  I like to send my guests a link to a video showing how to drive in since it's a bit complicated, but I can't send it through AirBnB.