My city has been building new restaurants, houses, apartment complexs and more so I believe this area will grow.

The meetings have great energy, but networking is a challenge in his packed restaurant venue.

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. 

The cap rates in those asset classes have already compressed and they are saturated with people looking to deploy active and passive income into.For over 10 years, I have been screaming from the mountain tops to invest in office, retail, industrial, land development, flex, warehouse, mixed use, restaurants and conversions.

@Kevin Sobilo I’ve done something similar with a restaurant where I was buying $50 gift certificates for $45 and then charged my B&B guests more.

Out to eat at restaurants we barely like, getting hammered at bars we don't remember, and buying a big house that we use 30% of).Frugality gives us the ability to save 40%!

For instance, a neighborhood right by a college campus, and/or near a trendy area that has the types of bars/restaurants and other amenities that attract young adults.  ...most young adults don't want to live out in a suburb surrounded by families and retirees, they want to be surrounded by other young adults; so it's important for the property to be in that type of neighborhood (otherwise, you may end up with a lot of vacancy).Good luck out there!

I recently inherited a commercial property that houses a restaurant, so my feet have basically been held to the fire right off the bat, but I'm learning a lot.  

A couple meetups I've heard of have been held at chain restaurants La Madeleine, Chuy's, and Olive Garden, as well as Fox and Hound that @Cameron Marmon that recommended.

The best business trining I received was as a manager for a major restaurant chain before I went out on my own full time.Funny thing is I would only hire people with advanced degrees for C level positions in my companies especially CFO.