All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

 Great to hear Bear. PayHOA's really been laser-focused on the needs of small-medium sized HOAs and continues to impress me in this space. 

@Andrea Fajardo to be clear, are you asking if there's a way to block a neighbor from texting you about tenants you placed that are causing your neighbor disruption? If you provided your contact info (whether directly or via an owner contact list) you've provided permission for contact and this is not in the realm of robocalls or text messaging spam. 

Lots of people here equating Guesty (for Pros) to Guesty for Hosts. Keep in mind these are different products for different markets: Hosts is the former YourPorter product and bought out to address an entry level < 10-20 listing portfolio , Guesty for Pros is the big brother with more advanced direct booking website and advanced features for larger portfolios. Both have their pros and cons and I would agree customer service is not a strength.

Foliage in October for northern New England is almost always an every-weekend booked season so things have been decent occupancy-wise this October before heading into the slower shoulder months of November and December. 

The challenge is that continued increase in available rentals in market continues to apply downward pressure on ADRs across New England. 

Looking back, Maine saw record summer bookings due to urban exodus from Boston and New York trying to escape the a record hot July and now record rainfall all summer has broke a regional multi-year drought pattern, which appears to also be extending New England foliage another several weeks, which is helping (somewhat) offset losses in ADRs due to the a longer autumn season. 

Since I like hard data, I’d be curious to hear from others in this thread if this increase in listings is similar to what you’re seeing in your regions as well? 

I have so many thoughts on this one John! 

On the one hand, as hosts, we're often always careful to balance private vs public feedback, since we're often asking our guests for that "benefit of the doubt" as well. As we all know here, there's enough public shaming in reviews that most of us don't feel the need to repeat that ourselves. 

As hosts, we're also often familiar enough with the tools used in this space to distinguish careless "templated hosts" from those independently owned/managed hosts serious about improving the quality of their guests' XP and rentals. Personally, I've found those indie-owned/managed hosts are far more likely to take private feedback to heart and improve their property versus those hosts you click on their headshot and get Glamour Shot of a couple and their golden retriever... alongside a list of 30 rentals they've outsourced to automation and equivalently manage in a way that, in the LTR space, we would simply call slumlords. For those hosts, they're getting blisteringly honest rental feedback because the backchannel private feedback's a nonstarter. 

The answer is no unless you’re projecting at least $1k/door after factoring in at least the following overlooked expenses:

Professional PM with XP in area paid 10-15% of gross rents + 1 month rental leasing fee

LT Tenants already in place with written leases

Major development in area projected to complete < 5y time

Written records with permits confirmed on all major systems: roof, HVAC, electrical, water

@Katie Casper Colin hit the nail on the head: North Conway has more STRs than any area of the state. It’s also been a lightning rod for the balance many regions and towns are still trying to reach between full time owners and short term visitors.

As you may know being local, SB249 is the bill that came up as a defense against towns like North Conway trying to shut down STRs, but it ended up in zombie state due to the sheer nature of diametrically opposed views on the matter and Governor Sununu’s push to do better than what the bill ended up proposing.

Some details here:

https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/SB249/2022

As with all areas in New England I encourage investors to start thinking of oversaturated STRs markets as expense offset versus cash flow properties. The sheer volume of money and investment flowing in all the northern New England states over the past couple years is unheard of and created a highly competitive marketplace of rentals with investment that do not appear to be slowing down, even given the rental rate’s dropping double digits over the past couple years. As an example I just checked AirDNA’s data against one of my rentals this week and occupancy and ADR was way off from the reality on the ground that most others I know are seeing in 2023. That’s not an attack on their service, just the reality of a market data that’s changing at light speed.

But what if you could have more doors with more dollars? Wouldn’t that be better than less doors with more dollars?

8 minute abs all day.

@Alberto Nikodimov make sure your cover photo “pops + crops” Cannot tell you how many STRs whose owner never bothered to see what their cover photo looked like on mobile booking apps.

Good photos, yes.

I’ve also started hiring professional interior designers for some properties. You don’t have to go with everything they propose and it’s a great way to get different perspective and enhance appeal.

Character + local flavor. This should go without saying but so so many rubber stamped STRs out there. Look over your market, see what everyone else’s is offering, then try to do something else different. You can see the difference between impressions and conversions on most channels and you need to understand that difference to thrive in a competitive market.

@Katharine Gonzalez most of the traditional LTR analysis templates will work just fine, you just want to spend more time understanding vacancy rates and seasonal patterns in your market to translate LTR assumptions to STR earnings. Completely agree with others' recommendations to ensure it works for both LTR, STR, or seasonal rental. STR as a market is cbs going rapidly and even AirBnB is talking about the value of diversifying into LTR.