Meaning, you have to always be selling, always doing your best for a 5 star review.

A good bonus structure can turn an average manager into an all-star. 

One of their so called instructors from one of the training sessions asks the students to go to the five star hotels, or go play golf, or go horse riding, or go hang out at the high end night clubs for the sake of fund raising.

Frankly if the neighborhood is sketch, you are begging for 3 star reviews and failure.Run the numbers on a LTR scenario or maybe a MTR.

No need for a PMS with only one.AirBNB and VRBO can handle things for you.In the end you won't save much time with only one STR.Plus, personal correspondence really works well to boost those 5 star ratings. 

INstead of just saying "no" we asked them to check with their credit card company if they offer travel insurance yada yada.. we got a 5 star review form them without giving a refund.

Didn't get his $3.2mm; but that was shooting for the stars and the interest rates just went up.He gets his $310k downpayment back. 

Commercial properties can be lucrative, but the financing/underwriting required from lenders is generally more "conservative" relative to residential and usually have higher interest rates (unless you have a "rock star", long-term commercial tenant in place) and generally require more equity from the borrower compared to residential.

Don, is there more insight into what happened with the 2 dogs vs the 1 star? 

For the first few reservations, I would put a lot of focus on bringing in good 5-star reviews.