STR owner starting out with 1st rental
Member since 2023 · 7 posts · 3 votes
Hey guys, I would love to hear your feedback on MUST HAVE PMS platforms for "newbie" STR investor. I would like to use a PMS to automate most important booking platforms, price labs, etc. my goal is to keep it as simple and low cost as possible.
I've read and researched so much on STR startup and mgmt at this point, but looking for some real world experience before we make a decision. Any books, guru's, podcasts, websites that you can recommend would be so appreciated.
I look forward to your responses. Thanks in advance.
Scott
I'd encourage you to just work through airbnb and vrbo to start as well. Most cleaners are not going to comply with your PMS platform protocol for cleaning and 98% of the functionality that you are going to use a PMS for will be messaging. It's just not that hard with 1 property to do messaging.
Pricelabs is important, but right now, the most important thing is for you to spend time in Gulf Shores establishing trust and relationships with local vendors. You need a deep bench and the ability to ask for a favor every so often. If they feel like they know you, they are more likely to help you out of a jam and not kill you for it. You're just another rich guy from out of town until you get to know them and hopefully establish some sort of a friendship or good working relationship.
i hear hostaway works good. i just manage my own on 2 OTA platforms. pretty much all is streamlined on there. just have to keep up responsiveness and price optimization. but you could always hire out to a co-host if that would be worth your time.
They're all fine...don't get caught up on which platform to use. I use Guesty and it's good enough. Same goes for all the other popular ones. If you are just starting out, get your finances in good shape because it's likely going to be death by a thousand cuts getting a property to market.
Have you purchased your first property or are looking to purchase your first property? Not a big deal either way, but it changes the way that I would attempt to help.
Great feedback. Thank you. We just purchased and I’m ramping up my OTAs. Trying to determine if it’s worth the time and money for the PMS software to help sync calendars and use their automated messaging. Trying to simplify while be efficient
They're all fine...don't get caught up on which platform to use. I use Guesty and it's good enough. Same goes for all the other popular ones. If you are just starting out, get your finances in good shape because it's likely going to be death by a thousand cuts getting a property to market.
Have you purchased your first property or are looking to purchase your first property? Not a big deal either way, but it changes the way that I would attempt to help.
Great feedback. Thank you. We just purchased and I’m ramping up my OTAs. Trying to determine if it’s worth the time and money for the PMS software to help sync calendars and use their automated messaging. Trying to simplify while be efficient
I currently only have 1 STR (studio attached to my primary) and I think this might be overkill to start. But, I also don't know your calendar and the availability you have for communication either. You can sync calendars on AirBnB and VRBO back and forth with each other, so you don't need a separate software just for that. Regarding messaging, I have my welcome message, checkout message, thanks for booking message, and quick check-in message all saved on the notes of my phone. It takes about 20 seconds to copy, paste, and send those out when they are needed. We did purchase PriceLabs and I would recommend that for their dynamic pricing. If I had 5 or more properties, I would probably automate more. But, it's not worth the money for me right now.
I'd encourage you to just work through airbnb and vrbo to start as well. Most cleaners are not going to comply with your PMS platform protocol for cleaning and 98% of the functionality that you are going to use a PMS for will be messaging. It's just not that hard with 1 property to do messaging.
Pricelabs is important, but right now, the most important thing is for you to spend time in Gulf Shores establishing trust and relationships with local vendors. You need a deep bench and the ability to ask for a favor every so often. If they feel like they know you, they are more likely to help you out of a jam and not kill you for it. You're just another rich guy from out of town until you get to know them and hopefully establish some sort of a friendship or good working relationship.
I'm going to echo the idea that the bells and whistles aren't required if you just have 1 property. The KISS principle is helpful here. Calendars can be synced without a channel manager, the platforms themselves have automations you can leverage. These third-party tools are simply that - tools. Understanding and having experience of those processes in the platforms is exquisitely helpful. Layering on the cost of these tools as well as the learning curve of learning to host and navigate a bunch of software isn't necessary. I DO like dynamic pricing tools, but for a single property I don't think they add enough value for the cost. You should know your pricing and not rely on a tool to tell you - it can only give you averages, we have to understand our market and position correctly; I don't use Pricelabs recommended pricing (and I operate in the 95% percentile across my portfolio). It will tell you it "should" be, but the job is for you to know it well enough to tell IT what the pricing should be.
I say all that... if you are set on it, Guesty has a new product - Guesty lite. Another, HostTools looks to keep it simple as well Lots of folks like Hospitable.
Best of luck to you!
I'm going to echo the idea that the bells and whistles aren't required if you just have 1 property. The KISS principle is helpful here. Calendars can be synced without a channel manager, the platforms themselves have automations you can leverage. These third-party tools are simply that - tools. Understanding and having experience of those processes in the platforms is exquisitely helpful. Layering on the cost of these tools as well as the learning curve of learning to host and navigate a bunch of software isn't necessary. I DO like dynamic pricing tools, but for a single property I don't think they add enough value for the cost. You should know your pricing and not rely on a tool to tell you - it can only give you averages, we have to understand our market and position correctly; I don't use Pricelabs recommended pricing (and I operate in the 95% percentile across my portfolio). It will tell you it "should" be, but the job is for you to know it well enough to tell IT what the pricing should be.
I say all that... if you are set on it, Guesty has a new product - Guesty lite. Another, HostTools looks to keep it simple as well Lots of folks like Hospitable.
Best of luck to you!
I'd encourage you to just work through airbnb and vrbo to start as well. Most cleaners are not going to comply with your PMS platform protocol for cleaning and 98% of the functionality that you are going to use a PMS for will be messaging. It's just not that hard with 1 property to do messaging.
Pricelabs is important, but right now, the most important thing is for you to spend time in Gulf Shores establishing trust and relationships with local vendors. You need a deep bench and the ability to ask for a favor every so often. If they feel like they know you, they are more likely to help you out of a jam and not kill you for it. You're just another rich guy from out of town until you get to know them and hopefully establish some sort of a friendship or good working relationship.
Hi Scott, I have 2 rentals that I self manage and am really happy with Lodgify to coordinate messaging, sync calendars etc. I am on Airbnb, Booking and VRBO. You can set up the automated messages and you can adjust pricing here. I just recently had Pricelabs take over pricing but I think to get started I would just keep it simple. I highly recommend doing as much research as you can. You may not need Booking.com but I use it as we have guests coming from out of the country due to St Augustine's tourist attractions and history. Every market is different. "30 Day Stay" is a great book and not just about mid term rentals. BiggerPockets podcasts and YouTube are great. I also like watching all the STR tours on YouTube, i.e: Levi Kelly. Good luck!
Hi Scott, I have 2 rentals that I self manage and am really happy with Lodgify to coordinate messaging, sync calendars etc. I am on Airbnb, Booking and VRBO. You can set up the automated messages and you can adjust pricing here. I just recently had Pricelabs take over pricing but I think to get started I would just keep it simple. I highly recommend doing as much research as you can. You may not need Booking.com but I use it as we have guests coming from out of the country due to St Augustine's tourist attractions and history. Every market is different. "30 Day Stay" is a great book and not just about mid term rentals. BiggerPockets podcasts and YouTube are great. I also like watching all the STR tours on YouTube, i.e: Levi Kelly. Good luck!