All Forum Posts by: Scott E.

I appreciate the views and detailed explanations.  Can someone give me a breakdown of a creative/seller finance?  Sale, terms, payments, balloon (?), equity, full ownership (deed in hand AND original seller paid off) 

Or am I completely off in how I understand how this works?

Looking for someone to explain like I'm 5!

Thanks

My favorite part of this whole silly hotel push on social media is how quickly people have forgotten how much they hated staying at hotels sometimes

This idea that sometimes you get a bad host, but hotels are always great, is absurd.  Hotels are LITERRED with bad reviews and bad experiences.  At a far higher rate than STRs.

Last year we stayed a Hotel Del Coronado (one of the top Hilton properties in the world) for free on points, and it was an awful experience.  It was honestly not worth what we paid even just for the resort fee and parking fee.  I can't even imagine how livid I'd have been if I paid the $1000+ nightly rate too.

There is a place for both.  Some hotels are good, some are bad.  Some STRs are good, some are bad.  It's just comical to see this idea that hotels are some great mecca of consistently great travel experiences though.  I stay in STRs all the time and I've been staying in them since the 90's (back when you had to take your trash home with you when you left) and if I had to list my top 5 worst lodging experiences they would all be hotel experiences.

This reminds me of the referee strike in the NFL years ago when the optics convinced everyone that we desperately needed those particular refs back and everyone forgot that all they did all year long during football season was complain about how awful those particular guys are.  And all they do now that they're back is complain about how awful they still are.

I am building a hybrid apartment/hotel in your market to get the best of both worlds. It's STR/MTR at scale. I'm near Arrowhead Towne Center and my cost to build is a lot less than adjacant 20-year old B class apartment transactions with a cost of $450+k per unit.

I own a 8 STR's, they are all on Airbnb and I'm doing pretty good across all properties. I travel extensively for my consultation practice and I frequently stay at hotels and Airbnb's. If I'm solo, I'll stay at a hotel....I guess you can call it convenience. If I'm travelling with family, I stay at an Airbnb....I guess you can also call that convenience. Depending where you are staying, hotels can charge additional "guest taxes", "resort fees', and expensive nightly guest parking. The overall room rate may be very enticing but then when you start adding up the different charges, they get to be very expensive. I often look at the "whole rate" just to see what the price will be.

When travelling with family, I like the convenience of Airbnb's because 

1. Generally speaking, parking is included with Airbnb stays and it is also a few steps away from the house (if its not in a garage).  At hotels, parking isn't always "out front" and sometimes you have to walk several hundred feet away to get to your vehicle.  No biggie, but when you're travelling with toddlers, this can be a pain in the neck.

2. I can congregate in an Airbnb a lot easier than in a hotel room. Some hotel rooms are so small you barely have enough room to walk inside the individual rooms.  My kids can be noisy from time to time and I would hate to be the reason that I'm the guest with the noisy hotel room.

3.  I can cook meals for my kids, rather than eat at some of these expensive hotel restaurants.  I don't like staying at hotels with "Continental Breakfast" that is included with the room rate because honestly, are those breakfast options any good?  Is anyone ever excited about getting a Continental breakfast?  My daughters toy-play-food looks more appetizing.  

Regarding chore lists....yeah, I totally agree with you on that. I don't require any of my guests to do any chores and I stay away from any Airbnb's with chore lists.  

Different purposes for us.   We like to check out new cities.  We fly in and need walkability to the sites, a shuttle from the airport, a pool and breakfast.   Hotel/motel for that, usually our favorite franchise. 

More remote experiences where we have a vehicle and bring our own food and stuff we would STR.

Glad there's more price transparency and hosts are getting pushback on the chore lists. Who wants to pay a cleaning fee and do a bunch of chores on vacation anyway?

Is your question really "are hotels better than Airbnbs?" If so, the answer of course is "it depends." As a host with nearly 5,000 reviews I still stay in hotels sometimes. Just depends on the situation. I think there's a place for both.

As for the reports of guests fleeing STRs, like everything you see in the media it's mostly a case of sensationalism and click-bait. STR demand, per AirDNA, is up 20% YOY. There are way more new users and repeat users than there are people leaving.

https://www.airdna.co/blog/air...