STR CoronaVirus strategies (metro area)

[Jacob P.]

I know there are already a plethora of short term rental threads talking about the impacts of CV. None of them are really talking about strategies for the STR owner. I've been brainstorming, and curious if anyone else has any bright ideas.

We do STR rentals in NYC. Our calendar for the next 3-4 months has *completely* cancelled in the last couple weeks. All cancellations have been refunded. So we're staring at several months that are normally when our busy season start ramping up... and we have no income at all, and some substantial overhead (mostly in terms of mortgage payments)

While we have even discussed turning these properties into LTRs, I fear that in the current climate in NYC, this is not the time period to start a LTR contract.

The only idea that I've come up with so far, is to list the properties at a substantial discount for week-to-month long chunks, and to advertise through alternate sources like Craiglist. My thought is there might be *some* demand for folks living with roomates, etc. who want to just find some peace and quite amidst a lot of panic going on right now. They might not have the budget for a STR on par with our normal rates, but perhaps at a significantly reduced fee, we can at least get some incoming cash flow to go towards the mortgages, and they get a clean, private space that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford.

Any other strategies anyone has been playing with to weather this pandemic?

[John Underwood]

How about lowering the minimum stay to attract as many people as possible?

Adjust pricing below competition. Advertise ever where including FB marketplace.

I think I am going to post an ad on Nextdoor.com this is for local neigborhoods. I am going to target families working from home with kids out of school. I have a lake house. So people could come up and fish, kayak, canoe etc.