All Forum Posts by: Yitzchok Carmen

Thats true but auto-response only gets you so far. The standardized messages. Welcome, check-in, check-out, review request, etc. If the guest has a specific inquiry about your place you will still need to be the one that answers the email yourself. Auto response wont help for that

Originally posted by @John Underwood:

They free you from having to constantly be on top of your email and phone 24/7 to be there for any guest inquiries. Is that worth 10%? Debatable. But that is def a serious benefit. I know people that can never put down the phone and disconnect for a day bc they might miss an inquiry. They also manage your listing (pay the $500 annual VRBO fee) and take pro pictures for your listing

I am using Evolve for my cabin in the Smokies for the past 6 months and they have always charged me 10% on nightly rate AND the cleaning fee. So this is not a new change...

@Jason

How can I send an auto message when someone is asking a specific question? Lets say they ask if I have Netflix. Or if The bedrooms are near each other. How can a software know the answer to auto reply?

Never mind I see you wrote Upwork. I just read your post again:) Thanks. Its just a funny kinda job. I dont want to pay $12/ hr an entire day for someone to spend at most a few minutes responding to an email and its entirely possible that there wont be any email at all. That would be a really expensive alternative...

Luc thanks for your lighting fast responses as always. Didnt you tell me you dont hang out here anymore?:) I was thinking that route also but I dont know much about it. Is there any service that you know of for VA's? Also, how does a VA plug into my Airbnb/ VRBO messaging without giving him/her control of the entire account?

If you are suggesting VA does that mean that there is no US based service/ software that you know of to do it?

Thanks man!

Hi everyone,

I have a cabin in the Smokies (Thanks Avery, Luke Chuck and others) that is currently under Evolve Vacation Rental. While I am happy overall with their service, the fact that I do not have control over the prycing and that they do not have dynamic rates in TN (pretty misleading on their end as they advertise that they do yet in their biggest market of TN which they told me accounts for over 25% of all their bookings nationwide doesnt have it) is somewhat of a turn off. Also the 10% is still a nice amount and they take it on the cleaning fee too. The only thing that they do on a continuous basis that I really feel like I need them for is the guest communication. Plus they own the listing.  

If I were to manage it myself I know that there is software that automates most of the messaging like igms, or yourporter. However that is just the repetitive check in, check out messages etc. There will still be the occasional question from a guest that needs the owner or a live person to answer it. This poses an issue for me. I am a Sabbath observer and am unable to be reached from sundown Fri till Sundown Sat (which is prob when most of the questions happen also). 

I do have me cleaner/ maintenance folks as a primary contact for the guest while the guest in in the place so thats not so much what I am worried about, I am more concerned about meeting VRBO/ Airbnb 24 hr response rule. If someone emails me rights after Sabbath begins I will most likely miss the 24 hr cut off.  

Does anyone know of any service that will answer guests emails 24/7 and have a real person respond in cases of need on a listing that I own? Does such a thing exists? 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you Jay and Jeff. I really appreciate your responses!

Will do. I was hoping you'd see the question Luc, you're the guy I wanted to ask:)

Hello everyone,

I have recieved a copyright infringement violation notice from Spectrum/ Charter for a cabin that I have in the smokies as a vacation rental. Says that there was a movie that was downloaded illegally and that as the account holder I am responsible. Also says that if they receive more complaints my service can be suspended.

Obviously I personally have nothing to do with this . I dont see how I can control this. A VPN etc wont help when every guest has their own laptop/ phone. Whats the solution here? Basically how does anyone offering public wifi deal with people who are almost certainly eventually going to do something wrong with the internet? Not offering wifi/ TV is obviously not an option on a vacation rental...

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!