I like to take a "guided tour" approach to investing so you can see the entire forest, not just trees.Continued success,Marco Santarelli

I will usually coordinate a tour with my buyer and meet the team at a property that I have for sale or a current rehab project from another buyer.I work with a lot of long distance buyer's or new investor's and they appreciate the "full service" that I provide for them.

You may tour some of the rentals in your area to know exactly what the standard is.

Just about every time a prospective tenant tours the house, they always comment that its so clean and doesn't feel like a rental.

I joined the rehabber tour by acre.

However, I have been to a property tour in Antioch (wasn't that impressed so I haven't been back).Sacramento has some well-attended REI club meetings, and I'm sure there's some in the Bay Area as well.

I will be touring this property and the one next door with the seller on March 2 (the seller owns both and is from out of the area.)

With this (awful) approach of pretty much just listing a house on these sites....and hoping for the best, my prediction is you would get pretty much slaughtered in the reviews, which would lead to less bookings, and then eventually reaching the conclusion that STRs don't work.To do it with a better degree of success you would want to purchase the property, put in all the finishing touches that guests want to see such as books about the area, maps, buy new furniture and decor if needed, create a welcome book with recommendations on restaurants and attractions, list it on multiple sites, build your own website/brand, promote it on social media platforms, have professional pictures taken, have your listing completely filled out, be incredibly responsive to every question and message you receive, build a really good guidebook to the point where you are almost an ambassador/tour guide for the area, interview and contract with professional cleaners and have backup cleaners in place, have a relationship with a professional handyperson so they know who you are when you call the first time requesting their service, have several electrical and plumbing contractors identified to call when problems come up, set expectations for your cleaners up front and provide feedback immediately to them when guests have a complaint, and handle all complaints with your guests the way you would want it handled if you were the guest...put the guest first before any profit/money. 

You even see a map of the immediate area and the comparable rents.You can always Google map or better yet Google Earth the location in question to get a virtual tour of the neighborhood.

@Darryl Smith They have a bus tour this Saturday.