Are they good communicators?

It also allows you to manage paperwork and document communications with Tenants. 

Hello all, I've actually communicated with both Josh and Larry since the new year as Josh was out of the country for a family-related event and Larry was unfortunately in the hospital.

We have one as a rental and have long term tenants there who are great and we have good communication in both directions.

Quote from @Mike Grudzien: Two thoughts:1) stay in your STR for a day or two and you'll discover things it needs or that would be nice to add2) use several touch-points to communicate with Travelers/Guests.

On the other side, the bigger companies have more experience and their numbers tend to be more accurate (not always)... as they are big companies "their costumer service" and communication is better but at the same time they "have more mouths to feed" if we need to be honest so can get a bunch of ok or good deals but I kinda doubt they will be great (just my personal candid opinion).

They are also very unresponsive, you'll get a lot of upfront communication while you're signing up for things and then they disappear. 

(many contractors are going to bite off more than they can chew and communication will be key). 

However, we are taking over from a PM to self-manage and are inheriting the current setup.Our biggest concern is that this first communication from the tenant was a sob story asking for $500 back/off rent.

So, communication and assignment issues, as well as not being able to explain the maintenance issues and the required work.3) Proper documentation and quality of work issues.