All Forum Posts by: Gulliver R.

@Leslie Anne Morris - On Ownerrez do you have your VRBO listing/s linked to it? If so, are you seeing a delay in receiving messages or is it fairly instant? 

Hi all!

I'm currently using iGMS and have it linked to my Airbnb listing, my VRBO listing, and my dynamic pricing tool. I like everything about it except for 2 BIG things:

1. The VRBO messages come in waaaaaaay later on. Meaning, I don't receive any VRBO messages, inquiries, instant booking messages, requests to book, pretty much any messages from VRBO until about 40 minutes later (which is not acceptable for me at all). So this causes problems for me in a couple of ways: my response time to the guest, the message automation I setup is pretty much useless if I have to manually message them in the VRBO app instead, and it just adds more work for me in general.

2. There's no message automation option specifically for Instant Bookers. I want to be able to have a specific message automation for Instant Bookers and one for non Instant Bookers (both be automated). Currently I have to make specific templates for both instances and manually message them out to the guest. I want to be able to just have these templates be sent out automatically for each Instant Booker and non Instant Booker respectively.  

What PMS are you guys using out there that solves these two issues? I'd appreciate any help on this :)

Thank you,

Gulliver

Thanks all for the insight! I'll continue to for sure use Airbnb and VRBO. But I'll think about Booking.com a little bit more. Not sure that I have the time to invest in more management, since it sounds like its going to require a lot more of my time and energy, which I don't really wanna do right now. 

And I'll be lowing the price for the weekdays for just the current month and see how that works. And slowly test if doing that for the next month works well too.

As far as the FaceTiming with my cleaners: I'll continue to use TurnoverBNB, which gives me the ability to require them to take photos of cleaning tasks. That's been working well for me.

Thanks again!

Gulliver

Hey All,

Right now I'm on Airbnb and VRBO. I wanted to know if you would recommend I add Bookings.com to the mix?

I have a lot of gaps during the weekdays. Most of my bookings are on the weekends. How do I fill those gaps? Do you recommend I lower the nightly rate for weekdays?

(FYI: I do use dynamic pricing)

And lastly, do you guys recommend I FaceTime (video share) with my cleaner after every cleaning job? Part of me wants to verify that they've actually cleaned the home, but part of me feels bad that I'm putting them through FaceTiming every time they've finished cleaning my property. What do y'all think?

Thank you so much in advance!

Gulliver

@Michael Plaks - I reside in Seattle WA and LA both. But my domicile is Seattle, WA. My Seattle address is on all these areas: IRS, work, credit card, bank card, personal mailing, billing address, etc.

I think I'll take your advice and dissolve the CA based LLC. There is no protection I get from it other than limited liability. I have really good insurance for the CA rental property. I'll consider WY LLC or the Delaware Statutory Trust that @Jason Marino recommended. 

All of these are gold. Thank you! Yah I have a repair guys that's pretty reliable. Thankfully! And I've lowered my nightly rate for a handful of months and I've already got some bookings now. Thanks y'all! Now I hope the 5 star ratings start to roll in. 

Thanks everyone for all the feedback! That's really good to know.

@Jason Marino - I'm going to look into that trust. Any resources you recommend I look at? Also, my mailing address is in Seattle. Not sure if that makes a difference. But I have rental properties in other states. 

Hi All,

I'm planning on switching from a California-based LLC to a Wyoming-based LLC for my California rental property. Let me explain..

Currently I own a property in California which is owned by a California-based LLC. So my plan is to create a Wyoming-based LLC because there's no state tax there and the fees are lower. Then I want to have that Wyoming LLC be the LLC that holds title to my California property. So my question is: can I do that? And is there anything you think I should know about this before I pull the trigger on it? Thank you in advance for the advice! :)

Best,

Gulliver

Okay I just lowered the nightly rate for the next four months. Crossing fingers that my results will change for the good. Thanks again for all the feedback, I really appreciate it!

-Gulliver

Hi all,

I have a 4 bedroom STR in Indio, CA. I listed it on Airbnb and VRBO about a month ago from today. So far I've gotten one booking that has already happened and two future bookings. Other than that: crickets. I have great photos (clear, bright, well positioned), it's in a great area where people love going to for Coachella and Stage Coach music festivals, there's a beautiful pool and hot tub with lounge chairs, I have Instant Booking on both Airbnb and VRBO, I have nice furniture and decorations, and I have the nightly prices slightly below my competitors. I know that this market has seasonality but I didn't think it would be this bad. Any advice to get more bookings?

Thank you,

Gulliver