How do you use AI in your STR business?

Michael Chang
OP
Member since 2025 · 4 posts · 5 votes
9mo
I'll go first:

We upload vendor quotes, contractor bids, and comps and have it build comparison tables.

When something is broken, we send a picture of an appliance with the name and AI tells us what's wrong and how to fix it.

We have a team rule - every question asked publicly must go through ChatGPT first and share the link. Forces the team to self-solve 90% of problems.

We use HelloHost AI to handle the majority of guest comms. VA monitors and steps in when needed.

We use Gemini to see what a room looks like with different furniture/decor before buying.

We use a custom AI bot to write review removal appeals that actually work.

We use ChatGPT to analyze competitor reviews to check sentiment and spot fake ones.

What else am I missing?
2 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
9mo
I wouldn't use AI for anything. A reasonably smart person can do everything you mentioned themselves very easily.
2 Reply
Andrew Street
Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 292 votes
9mo
We’ve been integrating AI more too, and it’s surprising how much it can take off our plate. Beyond messaging, it helps us analyze trends, organize operations, and spot gaps we might miss on our own. It really makes me feel like there’s still a lot more potential to unlock.
0 Reply
Josh Ball
Real Estate Agent · Louisiana · Member since 2017 · 215 posts · 147 votes
9mo
I don't use AI for anything besides helping me create clever descriptions for my listings when I am creating them or updating them. I still go back through to "humanize" it prior to upload but that is it.
Nothing I hate more than messaging/calling a company & getting some robot type response so I don't ever see me using AI for guest interaction/response.
1 Reply
- Bruce WoodruffPro Member
  Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
  9mo
  Quote from @Josh Ball:
  
  I don't use AI for anything besides helping me create clever descriptions for my listings when I am creating them or updating them. I still go back through to "humanize" it prior to upload but that is it.
  Nothing I hate more than messaging/calling a company & getting some robot type response so I don't ever see me using AI for guest interaction/response.
  
  Like Josh says, I occasionally check out AI to see what it can do to improve a description of a listing, whether STR, LTR or property I'm trying to sell.
  I seem to always find that, although it can come up with a few different words and I think of, it's just all sounds like AI. So I might steal a word or two, but I also can spot AI a mile away, and don't want to be associated with it. It just smacks of laziness....
  1 Reply
Michael BaumPro Member
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
9mo
I am with @Bruce Woodruff, I don't use AI for anything.
Now I could see using it to somehow verify my conclusions on a deal or an area I am researching.
Otherwise, nope.
4 Reply
Mike GrudzienPro Member
Lender · Eugene, OR · Member since 2019 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9mo
I'm old school, sorry. Hands on, personal messages, personal calls. (I have 1 STR. 11 years in with a 4.98 average...)
2 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
9mo
I just heard a radio interview about the use of AI in general. They mentioned that McDonalds just had a commercial that was AI produced.....it was pulled after negative reaction from the public.
AI seems 'soulless' to most people. It's ok for occasional help writing a letter, but I'd keep it personal and human for public interactions......
Just my $.02...
1 Reply
Mike Anderson
Rental Property Investor · Clayton, GA · Member since 2020 · 185 posts · 152 votes
9mo
As a tech guy by day that has worked on, installed, and helped integrate some AI I read this tweet below a few days ago and it couldn't possibly sum up better where we are these days with "AI". I've sat in multiple all hands calls where C Suite executives begged their employees to use AI and had no idea how to actually use it outside of it being a super charged google search...

Tweet:
Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.
$30 per seat per month.
$1.4 million annually.
I called it "digital transformation."
The board loved that phrase.
They approved it in eleven minutes.
No one asked what it would actually do.
Including me.
I told everyone it would "10x productivity."
That's not a real number.
But it sounds like one.
HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.
I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."
They stopped asking.
Three months later I checked the usage reports.
47 people had opened it.
12 had used it more than once.
One of them was me.
I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.
It took 45 seconds.
Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.
But I called it a "pilot success."
Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.
The CFO asked about ROI.
I showed him a graph.
The graph went up and to the right.
It measured "AI enablement."
I made that metric up.
He nodded approvingly.
We're "AI-enabled" now.
I don't know what that means.
But it's in our investor deck.
A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.
I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."
He asked what that meant.
I said "compliance."
He asked which compliance.
I said "all of them."
He looked skeptical.
I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."
He stopped asking questions.
Microsoft sent a case study team.
They wanted to feature us as a success story.
I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."
I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.
They didn't verify it.
They never do.
Now we're on Microsoft's website.
"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."
The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.
He got 3,000 likes.
He's never used Copilot.
None of the executives have.
We have an exemption.
"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."
I wrote that policy.
The licenses renew next month.
I'm requesting an expansion.
5,000 more seats.
We haven't used the first 4,000.
But this time we'll "drive adoption."
Adoption means mandatory training.
Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.
But completion will be tracked.
Completion is a metric.
Metrics go in dashboards.
Dashboards go in board presentations.
Board presentations get me promoted.
I'll be SVP by Q3.
I still don't know what Copilot does.
But I know what it's for.
It's for showing we're "investing in AI."
Investment means spending.
Spending means commitment.
Commitment means we're serious about the future.
The future is whatever I say it is.
As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

3 Reply
Collin HaysBusiness Member
Property Manager · Gatlinburg, TN · Member since 2020 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
9mo
I'm really wanting AI to make me some virtual money.
[email protected]806-672-7102
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2 Reply
AJ WongBusiness Member
Real Estate Broker · Oregon & California Coast · Member since 2022 · 822 posts · 696 votes
9mo
We don't. AI is a useless bubble.
541-800-0455
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2 Reply
Steve K.
Realtor · Boulder, CO · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 5k+ votes
9mo
I have started using AI a little bit and have been shocked at how wrong it is much of the time. Definitely double-check everything that you use it for!
2 Reply
Chris Bounds
Investor · Sugar Land, TX · Member since 2012 · 554 posts · 232 votes
9mo
Quote from @Michael Chang:

How do you use AI in your STR business?

We use it for streamlining a lot in ours.

It can do so much that it makes me wonder if there are angles I'm missing.

- Answering 100% of inbound calls and booking appointments directly to my calendar
- Following up relentlessly by voice, text, and email
- Looping centralized data to continuously improve personalized follow-up and button up scripts.

Beyond that, I use it a lot to fine-tune strategic planning.
0 Reply
Andrew SteffensBusiness Member
Tampa, FL · Member since 2022 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
9mo
I imagine some people who are more tech savvy than I are using it in more meaningful ways but mostly AI has only helped me with:
- Streamlining some admin
- Updating listing descriptions
- Made some of my softwares easier to use through their own AI enhancements.
It has not made me any more money, and only saved me a negligible amount of time. Im sure it will improve more down the road but I think it is still early in STR.
[email protected]813-563-0877
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0 Reply
Bo SmithPro Member
Hinton, WV · Member since 2026 · 1k+ posts · 373 votes
7mo
Honestly AI voice agents have been a game changer for me. They handle the initial screening calls while I'm out looking at properties or dealing with contractors. The key is training them on your specific questions - not just generic stuff but things like 'how flexible are you on timing' or 'what's your backup plan if this doesn't work out.' Are you using AI for guest communication or more on the lead generation side?
0 Reply
Andrew GlissonBusiness Member
Property Manager · Memphis · Member since 2026 · 135 posts · 95 votes
7mo
AI is a powerful tool but it's not a replacement for boots on the ground. Our business moves too fast ... sub-1-hour turns, 1-night stays, constant guest communication (for AI to meaningfully engage in real-time operations without expensive, well-trained agents that can actually analyze the data in context). We haven't found a cost arbitrage over really good remote team members yet. That will probably change, but we're not there today.

[email protected]832-477-1007
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0 Reply
Thomas Hensley
Investor · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2019 · 11 posts · 3 votes
6mo
Currently we use ai to market are str, we use it to find local events and attractions, write facebook posts and ads, google search, recommend a budget for the ad spend. Its edits are images, saving us money by not having a photographer take fall photos(we only had summer images). This advertising has filled in some holes in our calendar.

0 Reply
Sunil Ghosal
Member since 2023 · 39 posts · 13 votes
6mo
AI is incredibly useful for photos. Currently it is possible to extend the useable lifetime of photos massive by using AI editing tools.
0 Reply
Laura Winters
Member since 2021 · 124 posts · 87 votes
6mo
This is the best example of how real estate is such a lagging industry. In 2 years, the world will be divided between people who use AI and can't. (Not don't) From my experience, AI can do everything in real estate infinitely better than humans. Hopefully, I can have a cleaning robot soon so I don't need to deal with human errors.
0 Reply
Laura Winters
Member since 2021 · 124 posts · 87 votes
6mo
This is the best example of how real estate is such a lagging industry. In 2 years, the world will be divided between people who use AI and can't. (Not don't) From my experience, AI can do everything in real estate infinitely better than humans. Hopefully, I can have a cleaning robot soon so I don't need to deal with human errors.
0 Reply
Tyler Divin
Property Manager · Chattanooga, TN · Member since 2018 · 175 posts · 134 votes
6mo
We're using AI for everything Josh mentioned, and we're looking to integrate it more and more.
When we started our management business a year ago, I thought we would have virtual assistants handling after-hours guest communication by now, but we're holding off on using AI for this, opting instead to invest time in hiring and training VAs. I was talking to some peers a few weeks ago who have VA's and have invested heavily in their training, and the consensus was that AI guest communication is almost as good and probably makes less mistakes currently than human VAs and it's my belief that that gap is going to disapear very quickly throughout 2026 as AI has achieved the ability to build and improve itself late 2025/early 2026.
I envision later this year, early next year, we're going to our properties, engaging a screen share with AI, and walking through them, showing them everything...how the lock works, what's in every cabinet, where the board games are located, where the extra sheets are, etc., and it's asking us clarifying questions. It's trained on all our tens of thousands of guest communications, guidebooks, listings, photos, and property dashboards, and will become an increasingly integral part of our team.
I also anticipate it taking more and more backend administrative tasks off our plates, such as bookkeeping. We use QuickBooks for our business and REIHub for our personally owned properties. I've noticed a significant reduction in having to manually book transactions from 2025 to 2026. More and more, bookkeeping on both platforms is just reviewing and accepting suggestions.

We also use it more and more for strategic discussions to help think through problems and communicate clearly with clients.
0 Reply
Veronica De La Puente
Property Manager · TX · Member since 2026 · 19 posts · 9 votes
6mo
It's interesting to see everyone's takes on AI in here. AI can do so much, but it's easy to start relying on it more and more. I sometimes catch myself going into ChatGPT and asking it to write something for me that I can easily write myself. At DLP Home & Host, we're moving away from AI and doing most things on our own. Sure, we use it to gather helpful insights on the Texas market or get some quick fixes for grammar, but we really pride ourselves on our experienced team, and we don't want AI to be something we rely on.
0 Reply
- Tyler Divin
  Property Manager · Chattanooga, TN · Member since 2018 · 175 posts · 134 votes
  6mo
  Quote from @Veronica De La Puente:
  
  It's interesting to see everyone's takes on AI in here. AI can do so much, but it's easy to start relying on it more and more. I sometimes catch myself going into ChatGPT and asking it to write something for me that I can easily write myself. At DLP Home & Host, we're moving away from AI and doing most things on our own. Sure, we use it to gather helpful insights on the Texas market or get some quick fixes for grammar, but we really pride ourselves on our experienced team, and we don't want AI to be something we rely on.
  
  I would encourage you to challenge how you use AI because I believe the methods of use are extremely important to the quality of the result. I'll give an example of how I use it to write blog posts.
  
  You can go into ChatGPT and say...I'm a vacation property manager. Write 10 blog posts for my blog...and it will churn out 10 generic blog posts (IMO junk). I tried that and thought...no way, I'm not publishing this. Instead, I created a blog post writer for myself. I fed it a bunch of my writing, and we agreed on a voice and style. I gave it the top 50 keywords/phrases we target for SEO and told it to use them naturally when possible. I jot down blog post ideas that I'm passionate about, and then when I'm ready to create a post, I go to my blog post engine, give it the topic, and then I brain dump all our thoughts, how I came to believe these ideas, the real-world experiences we've had, etc. I snip and paste in data, photos, and screenshots as appropriate. I don't have to worry about ordering my thoughts, calculating the data, spelling, grammar, or structure... It's just a hot mess of everything we're thinking and know. There's a lot of... oh, and I forgot this, one time this happened, and we tried this and got that result. When I hit enter, what comes out of that is a writing product that is 90% amazing.
  
  From there, I revise, refine, and clarify in ChatGPT to bring it from 90% to 98%. I ask, what angles might I be missing? What question might the target audience have that I'm not answering? Can this be more concise without losing the points? Then I drop it into a Google Doc and tune the last 2%. The result, in my mind, is a post that is better than what I could write in a fraction of the time.
  
  I say this to say... in my mind, AI can produce a lot of robotic trash work really fast, but it can also produce great work. It's all in the methods you use.
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