All Forum Posts by: Alice Horn

Here are my thoughts and of course I am biased :). The more demand you have for a specific market, the more competitive it is....and the more work you will have managing that demand. In Orlando, which is the market I know, it's all about pricing the units exactly right. Too high, and you lose bookings. Too low, and you lose revenue and have more wear and tear. It's about finding that sweet spot. We often have owners who initially would like to do their own bookings, and they end up booking mostly peak dates for far less than we could have gotten them. Or they don't know about a big event in town, which is driving up rates, and they lose that opportunity. Then...their house sits empty for other parts of the year because they are holding out for rates that are too high. At the end of the day, they invest tons of time and effort and end up netting less than if they were letting us do the work and paying our 20%. (which is typical in Orlando)

Some owners will always prefer the DIY approach. I believe they enjoy it! Which is absolutely fine. Right now, we have a number of overseas owners who traditionally do their own bookings, and they are relieved to have our help during the pandemic since overseas travel is prohibited and all of their bookings have canceled. 

Bottom line, there are many ways to skin a cat. If you do your own, make sure it's something you have the time for and will enjoy. You can expect a learning curve and some trial and error. It's great to see so many on this channel with tips and resources, this is definitely a great place to learn.  

We actually relocated our business from Miami to Orlando (Osceola and Polk Counties) for that exact reason. It was impossible to scale our business in Miami without breaking the law. Osceola and Polk are very STR friendly and have a longstanding history of supporting and encouraging vacation rentals.

@Mark Miles I would add to that:  use a good channel manager to ensure you have visibility across all the channels. We use Guesty. And use Beyond Pricing or a similar tool to manage your pricing. It's impossible to figure out competitive rates just by looking at other listings.

Also, Mark as a local property manager, trust me we're not getting rich lol. We are in an extremely competitive market (Orlando) where just a few dollars on the rates can make a difference on getting a booking. Most owners simply don't have the time nor the technical experience to keep up with the market, balance rates vs. occupancy to maximize revenue, weed out challenging guests and do all it takes. I'll take a look at your other post :)

Hi Sarah, just came across this article which includes top performing beach side communities https://www.inman.com/2020/07/20/florida-is-the-no-1-state-to-purchase-a-vacation-rental/ 

Of course, should you decide on the Orlando area we are happy to help here too!

@Bernadeau C. will do!

@Bernadeau C. I am based in Orlando too, and interested in the meetup. Is this happening in person or virtually?

@Adrienne Donato If you are thinking about vacation rental properties, I would suggest looking at older homes in stable vacation rental communities close in to Disney, that can be renovated to a high standard. You'll get the best bang for your investment, with higher rates and occupancies. 

@Bernadeau C. I am based in Orlando too, and interested in the meetup. Is this happening in person or virtually?

Also, @Valerie Rogers just a small note of clarification. Orange County, where Orlando is located has the highest number of Covid cases. Orange County actually has very few (legal) vacation rentals. Osceola and Polk Counties, where the vast number of vacation rentals are located, currently have far lower rates and the rentals are typically pool homes spread apart from each other in quiet neighborhoods. All eyes are on Disney, which reopened last Saturday with extremely rigorous safety measures. Reports were very positive from park goers.Fingers crossed all will continue to go well.   

We are based in Orlando and have added a number of restrictions and disclosures to our Rental Agreement which guests must sign. We enforce occupancy limits for each home, for total number of people in the house at any given point in time, including visitors who are not staying overnight. Doing everything we can to avoid parties in the homes.

We have also deployed CDC cleaning and disinfection standards as well as guidelines for guests staying in the homes. These are reinforced in our listings, confirmation email, guestbook and even signs in the home.