All Forum Posts by: Garry C.

Congratulations on your third STR! I also have three, and I manage one, and have a traditional rental too.

My advice (and it looks like others have said the same and you've decided to go that route), put up the curtain now for the sake of less time and money. I'll add that I put the curved shower rods in my units to give people more room, which you can't really do with a door.

Further, this kind of advice is good for all decisions like this going forward. Don't overthink it. You've got time on your side. STR can be a very lucrative business. So, do what you need to do now to get your properties looking good and functional, and then put them market. Later, when it's making a profit, come back during slow seasons and look at your list of potential upgrades. See what options make sense and decide then if you want or need to spend the time and money on them.

Great thread! I'm liking these tips, and plan to implement them. I'm going to develop something to inform them of the review system and the difference from a hotel in my early communication. Then I'll set a triggered message for a day after arrival to 'check in' with them, make sure they are enjoying their vacation, ask them to reach out with anything they need, etc.

Here is what i already do. Three days after their stay, I send a request for a review on Google, Facebook, and any OTA they may have booked through. I provide links to these as well. And then I ASK for a 5 star review. I let them know that this helps us increase our bookings, which in turn helps keep our rental costs down.
I'll likely update this to explain the difference from a hotel system again.

I don't rate guests. And I don't think I can be convinced to do so. But if anyone has good arguments for that, I'm all ears.
The way I see it, they are customers. Ever seen the Black Mirror episode 'Nosedive' on Netflix? I can't imagine being rated by the server at a restaurant, the checkout person at the hardware store, or anything similar. If I'm giving my money to a business, I find it odd they might want to jeopardize my repeat business with a poor review.
Not to mention, I don't have much interaction with my guests. Many of them want to be left alone on their vacation, so I only communicate via email, and provide all of my contact information so they can reach out to me in any way that they wish. Most of them never do.
If they don't need attention from me and leave the place relatively clean, would that be 5 stars for them?
But if they break something or leave with a blanket is that 1 star?
Honestly, I think the rating system for STRs is broken. We can't all expect to be 5 star every time, and unless you have a true luxury space, you probably shouldn't expect to be 5 star at all. Yet we do, and the OTAs encourage this.
I think the whole system needs to be revamped to something that makes more sense. But I haven't yet figured out what that is.

@nancy bachety, sure, I market through several channels, but not as many many as I need to. And yes, I do take bookings through both Airbnb and VRBO. Right now I'm at about 85% of bookings through VRBO, 10% through Airbnb, and 5% through my own website.

You want the ERentalLock. It's what I use on STRs and traditional rentals too. There is no monthly fee, and no Wi-Fi required, and you can still generate codes remotely.

Let me clarify, because the "Wi-Fi not required" thing can generate a lot of questions.
Summary: You do NOT need to be connected TO THE LOCK via the Internet.
The lock does not need to connect to the Internet at all. However, you need to be connected to the Internet in order to generate the codes on the erentallock web site.

The way this works is that you setup an account with them and provide a master code. This code is then entered into your new lock by you, prior to or during the installation. The software in the lock and on their web site then uses this matching code as a hash to generate guest (and/or long term maintenance or housekeeping) codes based on time/date/duration.
It's a really brilliant system, and one of the few that I've found that don't require Internet access or monthly fees. It even integrates with my booking software now, so I no longer even need to manually create and send codes. If you're interested in that, the booking software I use is called OwnerRez and it's better than fantastic. It's saved me so much time and energy. I even moved to a hosted web site with them.

The only other one that I'm aware of is IglooHome locks and lockboxes. I actually need this type of lockbox too, but I'm not drawn to the style of the IglooHome lockbox. If they made one that looked more like a traditional lockbox, or if erentallock offered a standard lockbox, I would immediately begin purchasing those as well. 

Different generations all prefer different styles of communication.

Face to face, phone, email, text, snapchat. You need to be able to communicate with ALL of them to be successful, even though you probably only fall into one of those groups.

I tried WP with plugins for a long time. It's a nightmare. Some people do it and claim to make it work well, but I'm IT savvy and found it to be nearly impossible.
My current web site is hosted by OwnerRez, who makes the backend booking software (you can find a link in the footer at my site). You could conceivably use OR as a plugin on your WP site. I'm sure it would work great and their support is awesome so they would help you get it up and running in no time. But I decided to go with OR hosted, since I was having other problems with my GoDaddy hosted WP site.

I absolutely list on AirBNB and VRBO. Although I probably don't need AirBNB, as 90% of my business comes from VRBO.  You kind of 'need' to be there regardless. But some rentals are the exact opposite, with most of their business coming from AirBNB and very little on VRBO. It all depends on where you are and what you offer, as there are distinctly different types of people that use the different OTAs. You won't find that you can use just one and be as successful as if you were to use both.
With that said, I don't think you need the others. But as they are incorporated into OR, I'll likely fire them up and use those too. It was just too hard to manage and sync more than two before I found OR. 

Tim, drive it to your own web site. My web site does all the things that you mentioned, including insurance, security deposits, rental agreements... everything that VRBO does and some things that AirBNB does not.

I've got 3, and one under management. It's not yet 10+, but I'm getting there.

My rental agreement is one page. Then there is the possibility of adding up to two additional addendum pages, depending on which property you are staying at. So, up to 3 pages. I feel a rental agreement is very important, to protect my business, my property, and my guests.

AirBNB does not allow for a rental agreement to be 'signed' like VRBO does. Therefore, my booking system automatically emails any AirBNB bookings and directs them to my rental agreement at my web site. This should not be a surprise, since it's listed in my 'House Rules' that they must agree to it prior to receiving directions and access instructions. If they miss it, I'll send a reminder in 24-72 hours. If they don't wish to sign for some reason, the booking is cancelled, and without penalization to me, since I've listed the requirement in my house rules.

Next up... automate the email for directions and access instructions to be triggered by the signed rental agreement. 

I use erentallock.com, which is a Schlage lock with some extra code. This is the only one I've found that is NOT dependent on Wi-Fi. Instead, you can generate a code online that will work between certain times, based on the original setup of your lock. No need to connect to the lock itself, or for it to be 'online', the info in the cloud and on the lock are the same. It's brilliant. If only they made a lockbox... for that, I think I'm going to try Igloo Home lockboxes very soon.