All Forum Posts by: Gerald Pitts

 Yes! They seem to all be except for maybe 5% or so VRBO. 

This is still baffling to me haha. Maybe covid brain/fever dream. 😊

A hybrid option might be hiring a co-host? Or virtual assistant? 

Technically, the two I own are in my home state, but far enough away to where all of the work I do is remote. For me, that is better ultimately. I am forced to leverage expertise of people that do this better than me, and it frees me up to work on scaling my business.  And soon, I will be looking at other states as my market is getting pretty saturated.  As long as I focus on researching good boots on the ground, I now am very comfortable with investing remotely.

I suggest vacation areas that thrive on tourism economy, and have been doing this a long time over metro areas that are still in earlier phases of airbnb.  You're at the mercy of residential areas that don't want a party going on next door, and eventually the city starts restricting.  Basically, go where the areas have been vacation rental friendly for decades already.  

I try to focus on the Higher dollar / per hour tasks.  Every hour I spend on the minutia of cleaning / repairing, I could be learning about how to raise money or partner with someone on another property.  I even enjoy housepainting, but now if I even do that to save a few bucks, I kind of feel like I'm stepping over dollars to grab dimes.  And i can leverage the expertise of others that have cleaned / repaired for 20 years, and then not be tempted to do it myself.  

Software will be your best friend in Self Management.  Your Porter / or IGMS for PMS. Pricing tool like Pricelabs.  Hostfully for Guidebook / house manual.  

Love this. I commend you for pulling the trigger based on having just enough experience, and not over analyzing.  Now you can educate more / optimize. 

Congrats, my friend!  Keep us posted on the newest one!

Another vote for self management.  Tech makes this a breeze to do remotely today. 

I cancelled it at both cabins with zero comments/ bad reviews. I figured I could always add it back if needed.  Agree with Luke that it's 2021, and people have streaming accounts. 

Just had to share this gem.  Today was one for the books in my Vacation Rental journey.  The guest booked a one nighter at my Gatlinburg cabin on Valentines day.  Normally there's a 3 day minimum on the weekend, but this was an orphan day (long story).  She asked about early check in. I send the normal response about "We'll see what we can do / can't make any promises / check back closer to check in day / we'll try to make it happen, etc." 

I know I could probably just set my own reminder and be more proactive about the early check in, but I think I started putting the ball in the guests' court on this one a while back because so many people ask for this. I really need to just update my auto-messaging to address it better.  Anyway, beside the point. 

Rather than messaging me on check in day, or the day before, She sends a message a week before check-in saying "Can you let me know on the 13th if we can checkin early on the 14th?" lmao that's not really how it usually works, but I think it (unintentionally) made me laugh, so I'm like "Sure!"  Why not?  :)  

Yesterday, 11:16am before I get the reminder, she's like Can I check in early tomorrow?"  I check w/ the cleaners.  They say that "it's possible if the weather tonight isn't too nasty."

I pass this on with "Hopefully it'll work out, we just can't always know about early check-in until the last minute, etc."  

Fifteen minutes later, I get a cancellation request.  Sure, this is about right.  After how this has gone so far haha.  The email is asking for me to make an exception to my policy. The guest says that she is currently in the hospital with a positive COVID test and doesn't want to get any one sick so they would like to cancel their plans?  Again, 15 mins earlier she is asking about early check in?

I give the usual response of "it depends.  If the property gets re-booked, I'll refund you."  So she cancels immediately.  There's only a day for someone to re-book last minute.   It's Valentines, so someone does re-book last night.  

Today she said "I DIDN'T MEANT TO CANCEL THIS TRIP.  CAN I UN-CANCEL? I'M ALREADY ON MY WAY". 

Adorable haha. Why do I get the feeling they are still gonna show up at my cabin?  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I do love this business.  :)