All Forum Posts by: Dave Stokley

Sorry to hear that. The market is definitely down in many areas this year. However most people on here will tell you that the local manager is going to do a better job for you because they just know the market better. Unless you're in a crazy small market it's not unreasonable to think you could find a local company that also can help with maintenance (we do everything for our clients and only operate within about an hour of Cleveland OH).

The most important thing for me is looking very closely at the comps it’s using to project annual revenue and determining which ones are actually comps for my property. Dig into the listings: which ones have good pics, good design, dynamic pricing etc.

At the end of the day the ONLY number that matters though is annual revenue. You just gotta figure out what the most reliable projection of it is.

Agree with @Jim K. in that I disagree with almost all the negativity above. 

As long as the client is aware from the beginning that you’ve never done this before I say go for it. You’re gonna learn A LOT along the way, but you gotta start somewhere!

What you charge depends highly upon many factors, including what the local market norms are and what level of service you provide. We currently charge 25% but we literally do EVERYTHING for our clients, including coordinating landscaping and snow removal (at their expense) and serving as authorized contacts for utility companies. But we started at 15% and didn’t do any of that. We’ve just found it’s easier to have complete control and work with clients who don’t want to be involved.

The best way to get paid is for you to collect all the revenue through your account and distribute it to the client monthly, less your fee and other expenses.

We charge our fee based on all actual booking revenue (nightly rate, pet fees, late checkout fees).

You should pay the cleaners out of the cleaning fee you charge guests.

As mentioned above we coordinate landscaping and snow removal at the owner’s expense. We pay and deduct it.

We do not let our clients be co-hosts on the listing for several reasons. We completely own the listings. There is no rule that the owner has to be the primary or on it at all.

Hope this helps! Don’t apologize for asking. Good luck!

Anyone

You mean of other peoples’ properties? Airbnb doesn’t make that publicly available.

Quote from @Leslie Anne Morris:

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Quote from @Leslie Anne Morris:

Nicely done! I am a huge fan of the clean white wall look, so I love it. Making me want to visit Houston. I'll be in Austin in June - I am speaking at the STR Forum conference. Only feedback I might give you would be around the title of the listing. You don't need to put the name there, you might fill in all the characters with something that will jump out when travelers are scrolling. Like what makes it special or what amenities it has. Here's an example of one of my listings:

Hot Tub + Amazing Views | Huge Game Room

With all dues respect for Leslie, who is clearly an experienced investor and host, I HATE the clean white wall look. It looks like my house. Which is not what I'm looking for on vacation. Just my perspective. :)

That’s why I said it…because a lot of people will say they don’t like it. White walls don’t do well in the Smoky Mountains. 

Ahhh got it! 

Quote from @Leslie Anne Morris:

Nicely done! I am a huge fan of the clean white wall look, so I love it. Making me want to visit Houston. I'll be in Austin in June - I am speaking at the STR Forum conference. Only feedback I might give you would be around the title of the listing. You don't need to put the name there, you might fill in all the characters with something that will jump out when travelers are scrolling. Like what makes it special or what amenities it has. Here's an example of one of my listings:

Hot Tub + Amazing Views | Huge Game Room

With all dues respect for Leslie, who is clearly an experienced investor and host, I HATE the clean white wall look. It looks like my house. Which is not what I'm looking for on vacation. Just my perspective. :)

Quote from @Kwame Koom-Dadzie:

@Dave Stokley, Tnx for feedback, back yard got a lil delayed, however we had to list

How hard is it to put a fire pit and some chairs? Corn hole board? Give me SOMETHING to do back there other than looking for the shrunken kids.

Not bad, looks like a beautiful property but kinda generic if I'm being honest. What makes it different than the competition? Why is the backyard empty?

I’ve done it with a few units but it’s not my preferred method, I’m not actively pursuing new arbitrage deals, and I generally don’t recommend it.