Finding a good STR manager or management company takes time, but is well worth it. Often painful, but well worth it once you find the right one. I have 9 properties in Columbus, Ohio,and may want to move out of the area before too long, so I have been exploring managment options.
I have an absolutely great property in a great location for an STR, so I decided three years back to give it a try. The goal is, and has always been to be able to go completely hands off.
The first company I tried promised the world. Great revenue, great reviews, they would be on top of the maintenance, etc. They were fairly good at bookings, but not so much the maintenance or the reviews. In fact, the reviews they got were so low that they asked if they could take the listing down and then re-list it to get a clean slate. We did that, and 9 months later, the AirBnB rating was 3.6. Here is what it says online regarding a 3.6 rating:
"Bottom line: A 3.6 on Airbnb is not “okay”; it signals significant problems and will seriously restrict bookings. Guests should be cautious, and hosts need to make major improvements if they hope to stay competitive."
The problems I saw was that too many guests either had trouble with the code for getting in when they first arrived, or that when they did get in, the units were not cleaned very well. There were also so many parties and disruption that the neighbors tracked me down on social media to complain. This company also promised to list the two units of the duplex not only individually, but together for large parties. It took them a year to actually get around to doing this, and only after I asked them to make good on their promise repeatedly.
They were also managing a second property, and it took them forever to get it up and running. I finally went with a different manager. During the process of transferring to the new manager, the first company provided the code to get in, and, when the second manager went over and went in, the place was full of the belongins of what looked to be many homeless people and the TV's were all gone. During the process of cleaning that up, it became clear that in 6 months of management, the first company had never done basic things like changing furnace filters. (They also were not able to produce and security video to help the police.)
When I eventually moved on, the company complained that I had said I wanted to be hands-off, but I kept calling them about issues. (Go figure. I should have explained that my "goal" was to be hands-off, but that would not include me passing on the complaints of neighbors complaining about loud parties or reading the reviews and asking them if they could do anthing to get the ratings up to the point where it was not costing me money.)
In any case, the second manager was simply a college kid who had his own AirBnB and got high ratings. He was excellent with the parts the first company failed at, like good cleaning and being responsive, but I don't think he was successful with booking the property as he did not take advantage of things like dynamic pricing. He did, however, immediatly take the ratings from the dismal 3.6 right up to 4.7.
In any case, I am now with a third company who absolutely has their act together. Ratings are high, the property is solidly booked, and it looks like the revenue will be at least 50% higher than what the property would earn as a standard rental.
What is best is that, after this company demonstrating that they can actually manage the property well, I have been able to achieve my goal of going completely hands off. I have not called them or emailed them a single time since the first two months where communication was necessary to work with them to get the whole thing up and running. They are on top of the bookings, the cleaning, maintenance, and they are responsive to the guests.
Best of all, the neighbors are not tracking me down to complain about parties, noise, and other disruptions caused by my STR.
Again, it is worth your time to find a great management company.
