My thoughts would be to keep property as full as possible for as high a rent as possible to stay full.
Ways to do this is by researching your competition and use the free analytic tools that HA/VRBO offers.
Look at demand in the graphs and also notice what average rents are for your competition and adjust as necessary. No that I have a bunch of 5 star reviews I price my high house slightly higher than my competition because I can get it especially during the peak season and during peak events. Lower your prices slightly below the competition when it is slow. Set high minimum days for stays during peak season and peak events and 2 day minimum stay during off season.
Check amenities with your competition and make sure you offer comparable or better ammenities.
Try and have same day check in and check out instead to maximize revenue instead of worrying about charging more for late or early arrivals.
Have a Pet friendly house and charge pet fees. Many people travel with fido and if you don't allow fido you are reducing the pool of people that will look at and book your property. You can use some of the extra revenue to steam clean carpets in the off season.
In addition to VRBO/HA and AIrbnb I advertise on Craigslist (Facebook Market is also hot) I drive them to my HA listing but also take direct listings with a rental agreement and photo ID.
During the peak season my cleaning lady is extremely busy cleaning our Lake house as soon as people checkout so that it is ready that afternoon for another arrival.
Know your market and make sure you are taking advantage of events that you might not have of though about if you hadn't done your research.
Discounts in the off season also increase your days rented and reviews which puts you higher in the search position for when you are getting top dollar.
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
8y
@Luka Milicevic , one challenge I've found with monetizing is that AirBnB does not have a way to add extra fees, other than the cleaning fee and charging for additional guests. So, you'd have to arrange payment for those items separately, which would create additional work for you.
I'd like to charge a pet fee, but there is no way to do that with AirBnB. It takes the cleaning lady a full hour longer to clean if a dog has been in the place. She's a perfectionist and likes to get every single dog hair (which is amazing for us!), but it's not really fair to her to pay her the same amount. I'm considering asking guests with pets to leave a $10 cash pet fee on the counter and explain that it's for the cleaning lady.
My thoughts would be to keep property as full as possible for as high a rent as possible to stay full.
Ways to do this is by researching your competition and use the free analytic tools that HA/VRBO offers.
Look at demand in the graphs and also notice what average rents are for your competition and adjust as necessary. No that I have a bunch of 5 star reviews I price my high house slightly higher than my competition because I can get it especially during the peak season and during peak events. Lower your prices slightly below the competition when it is slow. Set high minimum days for stays during peak season and peak events and 2 day minimum stay during off season.
Check amenities with your competition and make sure you offer comparable or better ammenities.
Try and have same day check in and check out instead to maximize revenue instead of worrying about charging more for late or early arrivals.
Have a Pet friendly house and charge pet fees. Many people travel with fido and if you don't allow fido you are reducing the pool of people that will look at and book your property. You can use some of the extra revenue to steam clean carpets in the off season.
In addition to VRBO/HA and AIrbnb I advertise on Craigslist (Facebook Market is also hot) I drive them to my HA listing but also take direct listings with a rental agreement and photo ID.
During the peak season my cleaning lady is extremely busy cleaning our Lake house as soon as people checkout so that it is ready that afternoon for another arrival.
Know your market and make sure you are taking advantage of events that you might not have of though about if you hadn't done your research.
Discounts in the off season also increase your days rented and reviews which puts you higher in the search position for when you are getting top dollar.
Attorney · Dallas, TX · Member since 2018 · 43 posts · 39 votes
8y
One thing I have seen from my own experience renting VRBOs is additional amenity/equipment rentals. I have rented cribs from owners and seen bicycles, kayaks, etc. available, depending on the local area.
This is a pain that Airbnb doesn't have an option for this. My listing says there is a pet fee and pets must be pre-approved.
Once I get this request and I approve then I just send a separate payment request for the pet fee after the reservation has been made.
I haven' t had anyone try to sneak in a pet that they didn't tell me about. I have an exterior security camera that sends me pictures on detection of motion so I would see unapproved pets (or people). I disclose that I have exterior security cameras.
@John Underwood Security cameras is something I am also considering getting. Can you please recommend a brand or specific type of camera you use?
I use digital Watchdog cameras and Digital watchdog software. It is more of a commercial system. The software is very robust and is free. You just have to pay about $80 per camera license if you want to have the capability of recording. You can use any POE (Power over Ethernet ) camera that has ONVIF. I just bought a inexpensive $300 laptop to act as my camera server. You can keep adding cameras to the system and just get another software license if you want to be able to record.
There are cheaper boxed systems that are wireless that are easier to install but not as powerful. If you want a cheaper and easier system to deploy then I would look at Sams club and Costco. But I highly recommend the Digital watchdog cameras and software.
Rental Property Investor · Tennessee Florida · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 5k+ votes
8y
@Luka Milicevic I would think that just by taking over your own management you'd be looking at 10%++++ increase.
To continue big johns topic of pets... we quickly learned that wasn't for us. We figured oh, no carpet, pets no big deal and we can charge more! Wrong. Once you're a pet house you're always a pet house and people that don't have pets will always complain about smells and hairs so you're essentially limiting yourself to pets only or opening yourself up to bad reviews. Plus the extra work to send them the resolution for the pet fee quickly gets old. And your housekeeper will hate you.
Late check-outs are common on Airbnb and are expected for free. VRBO you won't get this often. Early check in is more common on both platforms. We've played around with check-in/out times and 11&4 works best for us but again we're in a different market.
My guess is that after a month or so of self managing you'll get the hang of things and learn how to keep the asses in the seats which is the ultimate goal. We shoot for 85% year round and quite frankly I never even look at the calendars anymore I just assume they're jammed and they always are.
But nice stuff like new pots pans couches HUGE TVs etc and the money will come.
Rental Property Investor · Tennessee Florida · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 5k+ votes
8y
@Luka Milicevic AND then you'll get a 4 star like I just did and want to pull your freaking hair out and buy more long term rentals. Which is exactly what I'm doing. 5 self managed STRs are enough for me!
Rental Property Investor · Castle Rock, CO · Member since 2017 · 335 posts · 387 votes
8y
I have a rental in a vacation market and have toyed with offering tickets to local tourist attractions, amusement parks, etc, to make a few bucks. Not sure it's worth it though.
Lake Oswego, OR · Member since 2015 · 174 posts · 115 votes
8y
I haven’t tried this with mine, but a friend suggested linking up a Turo rental with the house. We have a large home and charge additional per person, have disclosed outdoor security cameras, and make it known that additional unapproved guests will be charged an even higher per person fee, to discourage people from sneaking others in
I haven’t tried this with mine, but a friend suggested linking up a Turo rental with the house. We have a large home and charge additional per person, have disclosed outdoor security cameras, and make it known that additional unapproved guests will be charged an even higher per person fee, to discourage people from sneaking others in
I nearly bought a second car a) because I wanted to and b) because I justified the expense saying I'd rent one or the other on Turo when I wasn't driving it. Then I looked into the insurance implications.
Your personal insurance will almost certainly drop you if they find out you're renting on Turo. There's no commercial policy that will cover a single vehicle or small number of vehicles for these purposes - the car insurance industry does not appear to have caught up to the sharing economy the way property insurance has. And while Turo's insurance policy appears to be solid, if something weird happens (e.g. the renter lets their friend drive who's not on the agreement and they get in a wreck) you're toast. Your umbrella policy won't cover it either.
I have too much to lose to take that kind of risk - and anybody with investment property is likely in the same situation. Consider the risks carefully if you want to start renting cars out.
I haven’t tried this with mine, but a friend suggested linking up a Turo rental with the house. We have a large home and charge additional per person, have disclosed outdoor security cameras, and make it known that additional unapproved guests will be charged an even higher per person fee, to discourage people from sneaking others in
I nearly bought a second car a) because I wanted to and b) because I justified the expense saying I'd rent one or the other on Turo when I wasn't driving it. Then I looked into the insurance implications.
Your personal insurance will almost certainly drop you if they find out you're renting on Turo. There's no commercial policy that will cover a single vehicle or small number of vehicles for these purposes - the car insurance industry does not appear to have caught up to the sharing economy the way property insurance has. And while Turo's insurance policy appears to be solid, if something weird happens (e.g. the renter lets their friend drive who's not on the agreement and they get in a wreck) you're toast. Your umbrella policy won't cover it either.
I have too much to lose to take that kind of risk - and anybody with investment property is likely in the same situation. Consider the risks carefully if you want to start renting cars out.
Thanks for the information Julie! I used to work in insurance so I know how bad things can get. I’m not going the Turo route - real estate is where it’s at for me - but I will ask my friend and make sure he is taking the proper precautions with his Turo! :)
I haven’t tried this with mine, but a friend suggested linking up a Turo rental with the house. We have a large home and charge additional per person, have disclosed outdoor security cameras, and make it known that additional unapproved guests will be charged an even higher per person fee, to discourage people from sneaking others in
I nearly bought a second car a) because I wanted to and b) because I justified the expense saying I'd rent one or the other on Turo when I wasn't driving it. Then I looked into the insurance implications.
Your personal insurance will almost certainly drop you if they find out you're renting on Turo. There's no commercial policy that will cover a single vehicle or small number of vehicles for these purposes - the car insurance industry does not appear to have caught up to the sharing economy the way property insurance has. And while Turo's insurance policy appears to be solid, if something weird happens (e.g. the renter lets their friend drive who's not on the agreement and they get in a wreck) you're toast. Your umbrella policy won't cover it either.
I have too much to lose to take that kind of risk - and anybody with investment property is likely in the same situation. Consider the risks carefully if you want to start renting cars out.
Thanks for the information Julie! I used to work in insurance so I know how bad things can get. I’m not going the Turo route - real estate is where it’s at for me - but I will ask my friend and make sure he is taking the proper precautions with his Turo! :)
It was a real bummer for me 'cause I was all set to take possession of my shiny new Model 3, and let my Mustang convertible make the payment via Turo... alas, could not figure out a way to make it work without leaving myself too exposed. No car is worth risking my investments on!
Specialist · Carrollton, TX · Member since 2016 · 145 posts · 100 votes
8y
Thanks for the post. I have been experimenting with STR on AirBnB for about 4 weeks. So far, only thing I am doing different from others in the area is allowing 1 day stays. This brings in extra income but it's extra work.
Real Estate Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 142 posts · 79 votes
8y
I agree with @John Underwood about the pet fee. We advertise a non-refundable $100 pet fee (soon to be $150). VRBO makes it easy. With AirBnb we just put in for a special fee request for that amount and we let the renter know to look out for it and that we won't be square until they put in for it. Haven't had any issues yet.
My wife made the great point that $100 fee for pets is a no-brainer for the renter. When we go on vacation and have a pet sitter it costs us about $70/DAY! So someone bringing their pets and spending an extra $100-150 at your place is a steal as far as they are concerned.
Surprisingly at least half of our renters bring pets. To turn that off might hurt us. That said, I don't know how many I'm losing because of the people who don't want to stay at pet properties.
Investor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes
8y
I see where some people add their boats for free or for an additioanl fee. I think the liablity is too high on boats and jets skiis, but I do supply a canoe, kayaks and a paddle boat. I direct them to the marina to rent boats.
There is a 3rd party company that you can rent your new model boat through and they provide insurance for the rental. Too much hassel for me.
I have see bad reviews becase the free boat was left dirty or low on gas from the previous person. Not about to ask maid to clean boat in addition to the house.
Contractor · Sheboygan, WI · Member since 2016 · 917 posts · 266 votes
8y
Luka, think of all the restaurants, bars and entertainment spots you can make referral agreements with.
Think of things occupants would buy or enjoy doing while in Nashville. Make affiliate/ referral partner agreements while providing your guests with valuable discounts.
Real Estate Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 142 posts · 79 votes
8y
@Mike Shemp Would you mind sharing a bit more info about your #4? What is the approx cost for such ads? How are you able to track that they translate into bookings? Thanks
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
8y
@Mark S. , I think Facebook ads are a bargain. I'm new to Instagram ads, so the jury is still out on that. These are my recent results for an ad I placed for our event venue. "People reached" are people who viewed the ad. I got quite a few inquiries while the ad was running, so it did its job.
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
8y
@Krishna Chava , we started out allowing 1-day stays, too. You're right; it's a lot of work. I found that I could make a 2-day minimum and lower the rate a bit to bring in more of those 2-day renters. Another thing I do is to make Tuesday & Wednesday much lower. That attracts people who are looking for 1-week or longer stays. We'd often be unoccupied mid-week, so it's a big plus for us to have that low rate.
Manvel, TX · Member since 2014 · 309 posts · 127 votes
8y
@John Underwood , I just went in and edited my booking settings to add the pet fee and tell them that they'd receive a payment request for that when booking is complete. Woot!
Peoria, IL · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 52 votes
8y
@John Underwood, how do you represent your price on Facebook Market? I don't like that it only allows me to put the monthy rent price, rather than a nightly rent. And since most people aren't doing a search for the crazy monthly price that my rental would be if someone really were to stay a month, I have ours listed at $1 just so it'll pop up in the search results, but I really don't like doing it that way. Do you have a different system for Marketplace?