Management company vs personal management for overnight rental

[David Almasy]

Hello all. I hope everyone is staying healthy! I am in the medical field, so I am not as educated in the real estate area as you all. I am in process of building a vacation home/investment property in Gatlinburg, TN. The property will be in an overnight rental. My question is if I manage it myself, what are the best vacation rental platforms/sites to use (VRBO, airbnb, etc), and how many platforms to list my home on? Can I just list it on VRBO and be OK with occupancy rates? Should I have a rental company manage it and rent it initially till I learn how to do it myself? I am unsure if I should list it on as many sites as possible to optimize occupancy rate. As an example, if 90% of all rental bookings are from VRBO and airbnb, should I still add my property to more vacation rental sites? Thanks for your input!

[Avery Carl]

@David Almasy you can easily manage it yourself with Airbnb/VRBO, a few automation tools, and a smart phone. 1 property won’t take you more than 30 min a week once you get it all set up.

If you really feel like you do need a PM, I don't recommend any of the big brick and mortar cabin companies. Most charge a significant percentage of your gross income and they do not utilize any of the major booking platforms. There are some smaller boutique managers who charge less utilize the proper channels, as well as the big national STR managers.