All Forum Posts by: April Vogt

@Jennifer Gardner I own a vacation rental in south lake tahoe (city limits) and manage communications for few others in the county, as well as in over the Stateline in Nevada. As Dustin already mentioned, you'll really want to do your research on the area of Tahoe-remember that the area has 4 different counties within 2 states, so regulations can vary quite a bit. Despite Covid this year, my personal vacation rental and all those owned by friends or colleagues have all experienced above average returns this year. Even with more than 2 1/2 months of unexpected vacancy, my personal property is up over 15% this year. 

I use a Google Doc as a home manual and send a shortened URL to every guest before check-in. An owner sent me his template years ago and I adapted it to my listings. I've sent it to multiple other owners, it seems to work pretty well with minimal effort and it updates in real time. Every 3-4 months I may replace the hard copy we keep at the home, but I've found that most guests will not read the home manual anyways :) The Doc also works well for my team who helps me with the communication side of my listings, as the answers to 98% of the questions guests typically ask are contained within it. When responding to guests, we can just copy & paste these answers straight from the manual with a little personalization and everyone is happy 

We used to allow pets in a larger vacation home I manage, but over time it no longer seems worth it. The amount of damage the pets have caused, plus the more frequent deep cleans needed does not provide any benefit to us monetarily. There are some property where I think it may work in your favor (smaller to mid size cabins/homes with no carpet, you provide a crate onsite, less beds & furniture for a dog to potentially sleep on, etc) In our 5 bedroom home it was more hassle and cleaning in the end

@Kate B.I'm surprised you aren't able to rent by the room in a market like Denver, but @Steve K.has some great tips. Make sure you are in all the housing groups on Facebook, find the travel nurse groups, and reach out to local larger employers (hospitals, etc) to let them know you have a spot available for incoming employees 

Hi @Melissa Bovee I have vacation rentals in both the city & the county portion of SLT, and I have been going back and forth on what to do. I also live in the area. I found out that owners of a larger company in  the area will 'honor' all reservations in December, yet not take any new ones for this time period (in turn being booked at 100% capacity, because as we know most homes are fully booked for this holiday period). I felt ok about this initially but in the end it doesn't seem worth it, especially when you consider the ICU capacities of our surrounding small towns. While it'll hurt a bit not to receive the big December payouts this year. I also think next year will be another huge year for vacation rentals, so I am just trying to look forward.

I am offering a date switch or credit to guests who cancel on their own, and a few of them already have. This lets you go without the cancellation as the host. The credit option, the guests will just have to trust you to apply this to their next reservation, since Airbnb doesn't have this built into their system. This way you will get a little of the income this month. With the vacancies in the schedule I am scheduling as many trades as I can (essential businesses) to update and do needed repairs so we can hit the ground running when we are open to host again.

@Tyler Johnson agree with @Nathan G. you'll want to narrow this down a bit for the best responses based on the specific market and property size you'll be targeting. The needs and desires of your potential guests will vary greatly depending on this information. 

thank you for the responses! @Erwin Groenendijk and @Ricardo Naya I would love to be added to the group as well!

Thanks for connecting @Erwin Groenendijk! I still have my Idealista settings sending me listings from Tarragona, from when I was living there a few years ago. I most likely wouldn't purchase there but it is nice to look to see whats available. I did enjoy the location and the size of that city, though! Right now I am in the information gathering stage so hoping to follow some threads like this one and start making connections-so I can start asking the right questions.

@Ravi Kulkarni I am curious- did you get to invest in a property in Spain? Or did this year shake things up a bit and that idea get put on hold? @Africa Elansuga I would love to connect with you as well, if possible-I'd like to start seriously discussing how I can invest in Spain with the next year 

@Ricardo Naya Thanks for starting this thread. I've been interested for quite a while in investing in Spain (almost doesn't matter where, I love almost everywhere I have visited and lived in the county) As a foreigner, do you have any advice for where I could get started researching if this is possible?