All Forum Posts by: Tim Schroeder

Tim Schroeder has started 15 posts and replied 314 times.

Get them to leave a review first. Once that's arrived, charge them the "pet fee" of at least $100 out of their deposit. If your rental agreement does not include a pet cleaning fee, add one so that next time you have it.

1 Vote

It sounds exactly like OwnerRez. I'll check it out and post a review

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Originally posted by @Julie McCoy:

I'm using YourPorter and I love it. I've never heard of Airgms.

Hmmmm.... If you're using it, I will definitely give it a look

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I don't know anything about Airgms. But I use OwnerRez for $20 a month and it gives me fantastic automated messaging, auto-responders, auto rental contracts, combined booking calendar sync, and much more. I highly recommend it for messaging. They also offer additional services for extra fees like integrated website to take your own bookings outside of OTAs, quickbooks integration, and more.

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Photos, photos, photos!

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Originally posted by @Michael Greenberg:

Thanks @Tim Schroeder! So do you think it's worth the monthly investment? It seems that it takes the headache out of a lot of the daily monotonous tasks. Are you using any of their "pro" features?

$20 for 2 properties. I'm also using the Channel Bridge Pro feature which they're going to start charging a bit extra for soon.

1 Vote

@Shelby Pracht If you use OwnerRez then the messaging and day-to-day maintenance happens there and you don't use the platform that much. Therefore, adding more platforms does not change the equation that much.

@Michael Greenberg OwnerRez is great for messaging, calendar sync, automated rental agreement signing, autoresponders, and it can take bookings direct or link to your own website. The one thing it's missing that I pine for is the ability to push rates to all my listing sites, including VRBO. They push rates to AirBNB and others, but not VRBO however this is a VRBO problem not theirs. VRBO is not at all friendly to outside integrations unless you have at least 5 properties (other than a handful which they charge for, which results in those integration sites charging high fees to the hosts)

@Nancy Bachety If you gross more than 10,000/yr from VRBO you're better off with the annual fee instead of PPB.

2 Votes

Originally posted by @Luke Carl:

@Nancy Bachety We're in Pigeon Forge Gatlinburg Wears Valley Sevierville. I do not pay the annual fee on VRBO. We get about 40% VRBO. Many of our clients do not want to list on more than one platform because they're concerned it will be twice as much work. There is of course an initial time investment to get your listing set up, but once it's up it's no big deal.

I use both platforms. Many folks only use VRBO and many only use Airbnb. I figure the more people looking at my listings the better!

We find. after hundreds of folks we've taught to self manage, the percentage per platform depends on the host. Older hosts tend to prefer VRBO just as older guests tend to prefer VRBO. Younger = Airbnb. People with iPhones prefer airbnb and get more airbnb. Android = VRBO. @Tim Schroeder and @John Underwood don't like when I point this out. You're not old dudes! You're beautiful!

Nancy, I'm in the same area as Lucas, I get 45% from AirBNB and 55% from VRBO (those numbers are booked days. The revenue split is 37-63). It is true that the younger guests prefer AirBNB, but obviously the age of the hosts has nothing to do with which platform you use. I use both, because I want to maximize my exposure. Most people hate the $499/year VRBO fee. Me, I don't mind paying $41.58 per month for VRBO, especially when they give me most of my (substantial) revenue. My electric bill is literally 10 times that. But AirBNB is free, other than the 3% credit card charge which you cannot escape no matter where you get guests.

At the end of the day, having two listing companies is no more work than one. Get on AirBNB. It doesn't cost you anything. Why would you NOT be there?

Try OwnerRez or Logify --- they automate guest communications, emails, and much more and it makes it easier to be on multiple platforms.

Android rules, @Luke Carl :)

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To elaborate on the VRBO side.... If you haven't set a VRBO tax rate of around 13.5% (state+county+local), do it now. Otherwise you're losing that much of gross revenue. The tax man isn't going to care whether you collected tax or not. It's on YOU to pay 13.5% of whatever you collected in gross revenue (rent+cleaning) up to this point. Avalara has a tool that you put in your address and they research it and give you the exact requirements.

@Luke Carl you're getting slow in your old age Mwuhahaha

3 Votes

AirBNB collects AND SUBMITS state occupancy taxes in that area. You don't even see it happen. But you have to collect and pay LOCAL occupancy taxes of 3.5%. I think this varies a bit if you're in a county area vs. city limits. Be aware that if you don't collect it (in the form of higher rates or a separate fee for your guests) you still owe it to the local tax authorities. Which means if you don't do something, you are losing 3.5% of AirBNB gross revenue.

VRBO does not collect and pay tax, but they let you set the amount you want them to collect on your behalf. You're paid this extra money, which you then submit to tax authorities (or let Avalara do it for you)

Avalara has a MyLodgeTax service that a lot of people use. Once a month you report gross income on their website. Then they calculate your taxes, debit your checking account, and pay all the right agencies. $20/mo plus $50 one-time setup per property. Well worth it.

https://www.avalara.com/lodgingtax/resources/vacation-rental-tax-guides/tennessee/

https://mylodgetax.avalara.com/taxcenter/usa/tennessee/sevierville

https://mylodgetax.avalara.com/taxcenter/usa/tennessee/gatlinburg

https://mylodgetax.avalara.com/taxcenter/usa/tennessee/pigeon-forge

6 Votes