Evolve for Managing STR's?

Question

As I work towards my first STR I have spent some good time on researching the management side.  I'm wondering if if anyone has had experience with Evolve?  I had a 30 min conversation with them and they appear to be a solid consideration.  10% management cost, including the booking sites 3%. What I gather is that they are a software company that coordinates a lot of the systems (booking, dynamic pricing, communication with your boots on the ground, etc.)  While I do have time to self manage one or two STR's I would prefer to set up a nice cruise control system.  My main concern is the customer interface as I feel a personal touch is more preferred than working with a company.  Thanks!

Ryan Moyer · Answer

More like 10% charge to get 10% lower occupancy rate at 30% lower price then you could do yourself.  But I do understand some people want things to be truly passive.

Ultimately my issue with them is they charge 10% to do the front end stuff.  The front end stuff is the easy part.  You still get to deal with the midnight broken HVAC yourself.  If I was going to pay 10% for anything that would be more interesting.  Most self managers here would probably do the front end stuff for less than 10% and do a better job to boot.

Pricing is $8 of software and 20 minutes a month.

Robert Tinker · Answer

We use Evolve. But will be switching to self management. They are ok. We initially signed up with them for the free professional photos and they helped us find a local cleaner. Bookings were slow to begin with but it was March of 2020,so... We've gotten our feet wet I think it's time for us to swim on our own now. I think with Priclabs or similar software we can do just as well or better. We haven't switched yet, but probably will sometime this year.

Erik Stenbakken · Answer

I used Evolve on properties in Colorado and Tennessee (Pigeon Forge). First few years they were awesome. Then it was like they got a company lobotomy. Total change. They went from owner-friendly and supportive to "take a hike" to owners.

We had them book over-occupancy guests (intentionally, against my explicit statement). They don't verify guests like we do. Pricing was between wildly too low, and wildly too high, especially in Colorado. They have (had?) a policy where if a guest complains about a cleaning issue -- Evolve doesn't pay cleaner, just refunds guest. So of course there was a scam of how to get "no cleaning fees" -- and my cleaner fired all her Evolve-using customers. Who wants to work for free?

While under management with them, I had guests reach out to me and tell me they'd been trying to reach Evolve for a month to cancel. Once they got through, Evolve told them to wait till 48 hours before arrival and *then* cancel. Evolve keeps traveler money as "credit" for the traveler to use anywhere they want and cancelled owner gets ... nothing. Just vacancy. We had something like a 30-day cancellation policy originally, and I protested this change. They pointed me to a new clause they had added to their contract that said basically, Evolve can change their contract and terms with me at any time in any way without notification to me. I didn't believe it till they showed me the clause. It had been added. No notice to me. That was the last straw.

We fired them two years ago. Been self-managing just fine. Keep in mind, they (like similar companies) are a BOOKING company, NOT a "property manager." Big difference. You'll be calling for repairs, etc. It's work, but not that hard.

I was a superfan of theirs 5 years ago. Today? Not so much. Your mileage may vary based on location of property and tolerance for certain things. And who knows, maybe their policy changed again!

Emily And Eric Erickson · Answer

We currently use Evolve and have been very happy with them. Daily monitoring of rates is not my idea of a fun time and Evolve has a much larger database (they have about 100 properties under management in just Tucson) and so have the advantage of large numbers.

My basic math for using Evolve is simple. Their charge of 10% is easily justified if they can get me 10% higher price and / or 10% higher occupancy rate and when comparing notes with other STR operators in the area, they often do both so I am not just break even but ahead and I still couldn't tell you how to load a daily rate in to AirBNB and then cross link it to VRBO and .... you get my drift.

They are not perfect, the app is buggy, and customer service response time isn't great but we were 100% booked during our high season which covers a LOT of sins and is fun seeing our STR cover our mortgage month in and month out

John Mausteller · Answer

I have not used Evolve personally but have noticed that properties that do use them in my area (Outer Banks of North Carolina) have less bookings, and a lower nightly rate that homes that are managed by the owner or a local 'co host'.  I also agree with what you said about the renter preferring a custom experience with a local host or home owner versus going through a big rental company.  It is nice that they only charge 10% but it seems they are not on top of getting the property booked out.  When everyone else around here that is self managing has their property fully booked, and the evolve properties still have vacancies , even with the lower rates...

Stacy Edwards · Answer

I currently work with an owner who uses Evolve. Evolve does all the booking-ish stuff and I coordinate cleaners, respond to guests, etc.

If you do go with them, make sure you have someone to respond to guest problems locally. The Evolve listings in my area all have bad reviews from guests who had problems and couldn't get a hold of anyone.

Barry Seidel · Answer

Evolve is a booking company, no more and no less. You are way better off determining the Pros and Cons of self-mamangement vs utilizing a management company. The management company will take care of bookings, customers service, Guest liaison, Pricing, cleaning, maintenance. For that you pay a managment fee and is relatively hands-off and stress free. Self management although made simpler these days with a few apps requires your time. It is for you to determine if your time is worth more or less than the management fee. I recommend a management company. Communicate with them regularly, build a relationship with the local general manager, make your goals in terms of rates and occupancy clear and leave it to them as experts to manage your property.

Gerald Pitts · Answer

Self management is definitely worth a shot. Whether you do Evolve on the front end like Robert, or whether you self manage first with plans to hire them down the road.

if you do the latter, you'll see how much money is to be made for how little time with automation. Then you can see if evolve can generate the same revenue or more.

There are also other ideas for going more passive like a virtual assistant or a cohost.

Sean Bramble · Answer

I’ll be direct here and suggest you consider other management companies or self managing I havent used them myself but I’ve been doing market research across the US looking at comps in many markets. More often than not when I come across an Evolve property the photos are sub-par (too much HDR- looks like a cartoon/ impossible to judge depth), and the revenue management leaves tons of cash on the table compared to revenue optimized comps in that same market (they either set the price too low sacrificing revenue, or too high sacrificing occupancy)

With these two variables out of sync it often equates to tens of thousands of dollars left on the table. And since your COC return is largely a function of exceeding your fixed costs - especially your PITI - most of these dollars left on the table would have been essentially pure profit.

I’m sure they do manage some properties well, and would still be far better than self-managing for many folks who want to completely outsource, but based on my research I would really suggest either looking into self managing with the help of the types of software available today (check the forum for posts on STR technology stack folks are using) or shopping around elsewhere for a manager that really delivers on the revenue management side.

Best of luck! (And my apologies if this offends anyone in here using Evolve, or anyone working for Evolve for that matter - these are just the trends I’ve been noticing in my research).

Karen Chenaille · Answer

I am a huge fan of self-managing whenever possible.  Even the 10% evolve takes for what they provide is too much.  You are still stuck holding the bag for any boots-on-the-ground issues.  I was forced to use them for a one bedroom ski on/off STR I held in my SDIRA and it was a nightmare for my guests. Worst communication ever. I had another studio condo in the same area that I self managed...it was lower headcount and only a studio, and not as desirable location  I consistently beat the 1 bedroom condo revenue that Evolve was managing.  Have you considered finding a co-host?  Roughly same cost as Evolve, but it's more of a partnership and you can learn the ropes of the co-host and eventually manage yourself.

Evolve for Managing STR's?

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