Rental Property Investor · Marietta, GA · Member since 2017 · 131 posts · 101 votes
Hi all,
My wife and I closed on a home in WNC in February of this year. It's been a busy few months working our normal 9-5's and then heading up to the cabin to work on the weekends. We finally got it listed on VRBO/AirBnb. The listings weren't live until Wednesday night and we already have 7 bookings for a total of 32 days. All this to say, I want to shout out (sorry for those I am not connected with, the tag doesn't allow me):
Going really well so far. We have gotten setup with SmartBnb and Price Labs. Both very useful and powerful tools. We have 54 days booked out of the first 75. We just opened our calendar beyond that, so we will see how that progresses.
Many lessons learned so far:
(1) Don't underestimate how long renovations will take... especially when you have an 8-month old and 3 year old.
(2) Don't underestimate how hard it is to find someone to do good work
(3) Don't underestimate ALL the little things you will need for a STR
(4) Many of these I knew before, but talk is cheap. You will probably have many friends and family members say they love the place, can't wait to stay there, can't wait to book, etc... in all likelihood, it's either tire kicking or looking for a discount. With that said, beyond people stumbling upon your VRBO/Airbnb listing, driving traffic to your page is tough and something I will be working to improve.
We did a decent job estimating our budget, considering it was our first time. But we still went overbudget some.