All Forum Posts by: Anthony R.

@Kristie Dimak

Your better ROI will likely come from a new kitchen. New appliances (from look to less headache), cabinetry (ikea makes solid and beautiful, inexpensive cabinetry & countertops (quartz is very resilient and zero maintenance). It won't be "cheap" but likely not only your best investment for better "pop" and also help the value of the home (cash our potential in future refi....)!

It really does!  I hope it's increased your guests satisfaction in multiples!

@Tyann Marcink 

@Charles Kao

To clarify, I mean items like the wall switches (living room vs dining room etc) and similar/exact items (such as individual room remote controls: master bedroom etc). We have a label on our coffee maker on how to dispense (it’s a carafe free model and many don’t know how to operate so we have a label that says “ push mug against gray bar to dispense coffee.”

Things like this will not only help your guests from trial & erroring but also for your Housecleaner to do inventory.

We wouldn’t do anything that we’d consider tacky considering our home rental on average for $2k per night but want to ease the experience for guests.

Of course having some tasteful signage (nicely printed and put in picture frames) can be nice. We do that next to our Alexa Show with some sample questions the guests can ask (we have customer q&a setup in our Alexa.

Hope this helps!

@Anthony Pinto if you don’t own a label maker (Brother P-touch has been solid) you should get one immediately. Label all of the things that you can imagine might even remotely be ambiguous. Ask your friends to come and maybe stay a night and critique the experience (assuming you’ve stayed in it after build out too - right?)

Making things as EASY as possible will pay off in spades (why do so many people buy things on Amazon when it’s available locally or even for less on other online stores- they make it TOO easy to buy!!!)

@Jonathan M Peters I’ve been using cozy.co for over a year and just onboarded another LTR using them (both background check and now rent collections & maintenance requests). It’s a great platform and has been reliable for me. It’s nice for the bookkeeper too instead of mix of alternative payments mentioned above like Venmo or Zelle (which technically aren’t supposed to be used for business either).

Hi Amar,

Yes - definitely different. If you're main goal is an STR I'd recommend not only manual analysis of comp properties in your desired location, but also using tools like airdna.co to help gauge expected occupancy & ADR. Cash flow is still very important and will likely be higher with an STR (one of the main advantages over LTR). Using the service like airdna you can also tell what the strong months/prime-time is. Furniture will be something you'll have to price out yourself based on your budget, target guest and taste. Consumables such as toilet paper, paper towels etc will also have to be estimates until you know what your consumption is broken down on a per night perspective (the best way to average it over the year assuming you won't ever achieve 100% occupancy).

Additionally, outside of BP, I'd highly recommend Short Term Rental University (Facebook Group/Youtube channel/podcast etc). Richard Fertig, the owner of that content, is an incredible resource. 

Hope this helps and best of luck in this fun journey.

@Jen Faulkner I'd pass on this. Many STR commercial insurance policies actually ask you if you allow "events" - which would disqualify your coverage should you allow this knowingly.

@Andrew Neal I'd bet if you stay there FIRST and then after a good experience tell them you'd love to shoot their property at that point (post initial transaction) you'd have some credibility to discuss a "deal."

We decided against August b/c of the higher than expected failure rates we read about. After a lot of analysis and discussion we went with erentallock.com and have been very pleased with it. Key features include time set codes, one time use codes and permanent codes, no wifi needed, backup key use (which we have in a lockbox on property), and it's waterproof (important as our STR is at the beach and on an outside door. It's been super reliable and guests can change the code to something they more easily remember (than the generated 10 digit code).

That sounds a bit crazy and have not heard about it. We've been pleased with Proper insurance for our STR as it is geared specifically to STR and has commercial liability protection.