San Antonio Short Term Rental Set Up Guide

I put together this guide awhile back for myself and thought I'd share! This high level guide should get you through most steps of setting up an STR here in San Antonio.

Step 1: Order Furniture and Supplies

1. At the end of this guide you will find the Supply list! We have complied a list of just about everything you will need to create a complete home and be prepared for anything that might happen. This list is separated into the Essentials List that doesn’t take much thought and can pretty much all be ordered from Amazon. Then there is the Style Specific List, this one will take more thought and depend on the theme and layout of your home.
2. Don’t go cheap! We tried furnishing our first short term rental as cheap as possible with the cheapest Wayfair furniture and it was a disaster. All 3 of our bedframes broke within a few months and several other chairs and benches had to be replaced as well. Buy quality furniture!

Step 2: Apply for Short Term Rental permit (San Antonio)

1. You will need a few things prepared
   1. Contact information for: property owner, applicant, and 24/7 designated operator
   2. Floor plan showing:
      1. Maximum number of guests
      2. Location of fire extinguishers
      3. Sleeping areas
      4. Emergency evacuation routes
   3. Sketch or Description of parking situation 
   4. Owner authorization (if the person applying is not the owner, a notarized authorization from the owner is needed.)
   5. Proof of ownership (if you have recently purchased the property, you may need to wait until it is officially in your name with the Bexar County Appraisal District or provide the recorded deed document)
   6. Payment information ($450 application fee)
2. Important Info:
   1. Permits are typically issued within 5 business days after a fully completed application is received.
   2. Permits are valid for 3 years
   3. Permits cannot be transferred.
   4. You are required to pay or report "zero" Hotel Occupancy Tax every month (9% for the City of San Antonio, 1.75% for Bexar County).
   5. Note if your property is not technically within the city limits of San Antonio or is in a suburb or surrounding city there may be additional or differing requirements. Make sure to check with your city municipality for more information. For example, the suburb city of Helotes has slightly different tax rates and reporting requirements. They require quarterly reporting that is paid by mailed check!
3. Here is the link for how to apply for a permit in San Antonio. The site can be confusing but you can use this step by step guide to help you through the process.

Step 3: Get Internet

1. Research available internet services in the area (most common will be Google Fiber, AT&T, and Spectrum)

Step 4: Transfer Electric, Water, Gas, Trash service to your account

1. The most common utility companies will be:
   1. CPS - Electric, possibly trash and natural gas as well
   2. SAWS - water
   3. Grey Forest Utilities - possibly for natural gas
   4. Tiger or Metro Waste - Possible for garbage
2. Call the utility company and request to start service at the new property

Step 5: Set up furniture

1. Monitor Amazon shipments
2. Monitor other shipments for furniture
3. Once all furniture has arrived, schedule a TaskRabbit furniture assembler to assemble all the furniture and open all boxes or do it yourself
4. Once everything is unboxed and all items are assembled, schedule a Thumbtack Trash Removal Company to take the trash away (there will be a lot!)

Step 6: Get Photos taken

1. Reach out to a photographer to schedule professional photos to be taken of the property. You can find them on Thumbtack.com or sometimes Airbnb offers promotions to new hosts for free photography. Airbnb also has a link here to get connected with a professional photographer.

Step 7: Add Property to Airbnb and Hospitable

1. Create your Airbnb Listing.
2. If you want to add to VRBO or Booking.com you can do so at this time as well. (I would start with Airbnb and then Hospitable can publish your Airbnb listing to these other platforms to save you some time)
3. You can use the Hospitable Help Center which has great guides to set up a listing! Their customer service team is awesome too if you get stuck.
   1. If you are using the Schlage Encode smart locks or any other compatible lock and thermostats, you can connect these to Hospitable as well so it will generate unique codes for each of your guests automatically and adjust the temperature when guests are not there!

Step 8: Create Notion Guidebook

Create a digital guidebook for guests. I use a simplified version of this Template (https://www.notion.so/marketplace/templates/airbnb-welcome-g...) . This will have a step by step guide to create that and add its link to our check in message.Step 8: Create Notion Guidebook

Step 9: Add Cleaning Service to Property

1. Use Turno.com to find, hire, schedule, and pay a cleaner
2. How to connect Turno to Hospitable

Step 10: Add Property to Hospitable Dynamic Pricing

1. Follow this guide to set up Hospitable Dynamic Pricing

Step 11: Add Lawn Care

1. Find a lawn service provider or use Lawnlove and add a property or use any other service you prefer!

Step 12: Install any Security Devices

1. Minut and Noiseaware are popular options for Noise Monitoring
2. Any exterior cameras
   1. Eufy - no monthly fee
   2. Blink
   3. Ring

Step 13: Order Professional Listing Description/Copy

1. I've used this service in the past: bnbduck custom listing
2. Or use ChatGPT or a similar AI service to generate this for you!

Launch!

Completion Checklist

The completion checklist is a way to list all the major items to verify that the work was complete. The main use case for this section is to add a new check anytime something fails in the system (as well as updating the system).

1. Are all items ordered?
2. Is all the furniture assembled?
3. Is trash all removed from property?
4. Is Internet, Trash, Water, Gas, and Electricity set up?
5. Is short term rental permit approved?
6. Were professional photos taken?
7. Is property live on Airbnb/VRBO/Booking.com?
8. Is property on Hospitable/PMS?
9. Is property on Turno with a primary/backup cleaner?
10. Is property on dynamic pricing?
11. Does property have mowing scheduled?
12. Has Airbnb/VRBO/BDC listing been updated with descriptions?
13. Is the guidebook created and linked to our check in message?