All Forum Posts by: Ariel Smith

@Erol Dolen I've not heard of them taking a cut of the profits, but I have heard of them allowing them to do it with permission. Many people make a business out of renting unfurnished units long-term then turning around and furnishing them for short term rentals.

Hi @Nicholas Bowers I have experience with this, but I'm not quite sure which side of it you are on. Are you the property manager or are you trying to rent the space and then re-rent to corporations? It's a different story depending on if you are the landlord or tenant in this situation, but I'm happy to help!

@Mark Duda here in California the association of Realtors has a referral network that was built by members. If you're in the association of realtors in your area, you should check out potential networking options. They are definitely out there, but just not publicized so broadly. Best of luck!

@Pralay Desai of course! I'll send you a PM

@Pralay Desai there are a couple of meetups in the south bay near Fremont. Check out this group that meets in San Jose:

https://www.meetup.com/San-Jose-Real-Estate-Networking-Club/

@Nancy Bachety I currently manage my property remote and my suggestion is to research a cleaning provider that specifically works with vacation rentals. It's a different standard of cleaning for a STR and you want the guests to get that hotel-like experience with the clean.

I also recommend asking what they charge per clean and adding a small percentage on top. Let them know that this is because you want them to do a great job and you'd like to build a long-lasting business relationship with them and be able to refer them to other owners in the area. I did this with my cleaner and she was so shocked and thankful. She watches my property and reports everything to me (including photos) so that I don't need a property manager. The best part about it, is that I pass the cleaning fee completely along to the guest so it's a win-win-win for me!

Hi @Stefano C. and welcome from the Bay Area! There are plenty of meetup groups in SF and down here on the Peninsula - you should check them out!

@Shelby Pracht No problem! 

@Dj Larsen haha I don't know if I'm there yet, but I'm always happy to share any tips or information! I have experience working with hundreds of landlords who run STRs at my previous company, as well as the ones I manage on my own. Feel free to PM if you ever have any questions!

@Selena Walsh Oh, gotcha! I use the below tips to drive views to my listings. It's working very well and lately I'm gathering over 1000 views per month.

1. Update your calendar daily. Even just going to "calendar" on your host dashboard will trigger an update in Airbnb's system. I set my calendar to be my home page on Chrome so that I always open it each day.

2. Get professional photos! I cannot stress this point enough. If your listing has professional photos, it will show up higher in search and also be clicked more in search when guests are looking at other properties in your area. If you don't already have professional photos, get those taken asap. It's totally worth the investment.

3. Fill out your entire Airbnb profile. This means answering each question and filling out information about yourself as the host, as well as the property. Having a full profile will help your listing appear higher.

4. Respond quickly to guests and inquiries. Having 100% response rate is crucial.

5. Turn on instant book, make your property "business travel ready" if possible, and try to gain superhost status. Airbnb will instantly boost your property in search when you have these features.

6. Continue to promote your listing link on social media. You want to do this as a traveler and not as a host. If you send the link from your host profile, it doesn't boost. However, logging in as a traveler and sharing the link to your property on your Facebook, Instagram, etc. will boost traffic and also boost search rankings.

You can also tweak pricing, minimum stay, max number of guests, etc. to make your home show up in more guests' searches. This will depend on your personal strategy and property. But for me, I allow up to 12 guests (my property is near Coachella festival so this makes sense), I have a 2 day minimum, and I set my "base rate" just below the competition. This allows me to show up on more searches. The great thing about the "base price" feature too is that you can set all of the individual date pricing to be completely different, but for marketing purposes, your property shows up at that rate! 

@Selena Walsh are you saying that you're trying to drive traffic to your VRBO/Airbnb listing or you are trying to drive traffic to your website so that you can have guests book direct?

If you're trying to drive traffic to your VRBO/Airbnb listing, I'd spend more time on SEO for those platforms since you are already paying for them. There are many tricks you can use to get your property higher in search within their algorithms. 

If you are trying to drive traffic to your website or to book with you direct, I would not advise using google ad words. It is incredibly expensive and you will lose money per deal 99% of the time. I would stick to Instagram, the blog posts and other low cost (or free!) platforms to drive the traffic. I've never used Facebook ads, but am interested to hear from you or anyone who has! I just have experience with Google.

I'm very weary of Craigslist because of the plethora of scams on the site, so I do not use it for my property.