All Forum Posts by: Christina B.

Thank you both @John Underwood and @Michael Baum. After re-reading Pricelabs' section on their recommended base price not including all the various fees (not just cleaning, but for example, Airbnb's own fees, etc.), I've reformulated the base price to consider all these fees so that it better reflects the total price the guest is paying (independent of taxes). While it's a topic for another day, I'm concerned over the softening of the market for domestic travel (although personally, it's great the US $ is doing so well). Grateful for this group.

Thank you @Ian Tyndall, @John Underwood, and @Andrew Steffens for your comments. I wonder if streamlining the cleaning cost into the ADR ("eliminating" another extra fee) encourages greater business (especially if positive reviews note place is clean, etc.) even if the market has shown it will bear the cleaning cost (and it's routine).

Scenario 1: Guest pays $400 per night for 2 nights plus $300 cleaning fee. Guest sees total for stay ($800), cleaning fee ($300), guest fee (OTA charge), occupancy taxes.

Scenario 2: Guest pays $550 per night for 2 nights. Guest sees total for stay ($1100), guest fee (OTA charge), occupancy taxes.

Total still comes to the same. I was initially confused because the OTA manages the taxes on cleaning whereas if I end up paying more for cleaning, I'm not aware that I have to remit further taxes to the government beyond what's already known. (I get that it's an expense, etc.) I just pay the cleaners, record the extra expense (all gets submitted to our accountant), and move on. It's also a strange thing as while we can submit the cleaning cost online (that gets taxed), it's not like other services get taxed in a similar way (e.g. I use a maintenance service for the hot tub and while that cost is a factor in pricing, we don't submit that as an extra charge to the OTA platform although it's a service). I'm all for making things simpler, lol.

Having reviewed what's previously been discussed on this forum regarding whether people list what their actual cleaning cost is vs. a reduced (or in some cases inflated) price, can anyone share if there is a tax liability with this I'm unaware of? That is, initially I was surprised to learn that at least in Colorado, cleaning services are taxed (on AirBnB and VRBO). So, if my actual cleaning rate is $385 and I list it as $300 (and eat the difference), is this a potential tax problem down the road? Hopefully this makes sense- and thanks in advance for your thoughts. On the one hand, I doubt anyone submits if extra cleaning charges are incurred or needed (whether owner pays them or passes on to guest): viz. I don't think anyone is retroactively reaching out to VRBO to say the cleaning actually cost $450 (instead of the originally listed price). But I'm curious what people with much longer history- have experienced.

We have a ski in/ski out rental in Colorado and the one factor we're aware of but no one has brought up yet in this discussion is the impact of rising temperatures on, in this case, ski resorts. There is data out there- but you have to look for it. If your range is short term, perhaps your STR won't feel the impact for a while. Or if the location offers other value, then you're limiting your risk. But from the reports I've read, a ski resort is more insulated (not free though) from declining snow pack at higher altitudes (so you can keep that in mind). And there is a particular cutoff per geographic region.

In our specific case, our property is less than 15 minutes away from 2 golf courses, and 20-30 minutes away from 2 major lakes, 30 minutes away from Rocky Mountain National Park, etc. My Colorado peeps here can pretty easily lock down location, lol (clue: skiing here isn't the greatest). But we wanted to attract beyond ski season and for a niche set of guests, we're ideal. Hope this is helpful.

@Luke Masaschi If direct booking makes sense because 3+ STRs, then my guess is you'd be using property management software that syncs all your calendars. You probably already know this but it's straightforward (and less than 5 minutes) to sync your current VRBO and Airbnb calendars such that you are free from manually updating.

We have been using this since late Dec. 2023 (so not as much time as others here may have). It's been great as a noise monitor (and I can also see temperature readings which are verifiable and solid). However, I'm unsure with regard to the cigarette smoke monitor. First, it took over a month to activate/set up the cigarette smoke detection. When I talked to Minut about this, they said they might update the language to reflect it can take longer to establish a baseline. (And if you think they'll update the language, I have a bridge to sell you...)

Next, it has triggered occasionally and we send out a reminder that we are a smoke-free property which usually works. However, on a few occasions, where we give the reminder and it still triggers? The guests insist no one smokes but they did grill. So, now we're unsure as to the sensitivity and accuracy (except for the context that we've grilled heavily at the property and never triggered it). Unless a guest smokes regularly or heavily, our ventilation and air filtration is such that our cleaners have not yet alerted us to undeniable smoking, etc.

Would love to hear what others use and their experiences with Minut as well (since in part, I went with Minut based on what I read here about the other alternative- NoiseAware).

You're not wrong but when most of your posts upsell emailcollect, I just have to shake my head.

Another vote for Schlage Encode (easy setup if you use Android, very reliable, great battery life even with heavy usage) and more straightforward for us than Yale Assure (which we also tested). Using Minut (great for noise monitoring but undecided on cigarette-smoking as the 3 sets of guests it called out- 2 were iffy/possible and 1 insists no smoking but they grilled so more testing is in order still). The advantage to Kwikset is you can rekey the lock but Schlage's smart features, security, and reliability (even in the mountains with single digits or below) make it our go-to for now.

Our ski in/ski out STR in Colorado only went online late Dec. 2023 so my data is very limited. However, 83% of our bookings (through ski season which has been pretty full), came from Airbnb with the remainder from VRBO. We could be an anomaly but there are several STRs in my neighborhood and I hear the same from the owners (currently the majority of bookings are coming from Airbnb). Absolutely looking at other options (including direct booking) because want to keep learning, improving. I really appreciate the community here and have learned so much just reviewing old posts and searching on specific questions and topics. Thank you.