All Forum Posts by: Ian Tyndall

Bo,

I am happy to talk. What time zone are you in?

 Yes, this would only be for direct bookings.

You don’t have to be on site, but you do need the codes.  It is helpful to be on the phone with them. You can’t scan the QR code but on your end you select (try another way) or something like that to manually enter the codes  

Do y'all have referral systems in place for your guests to refer their friends?

I am going to try to manually run a "refer-a-friend" program with my direct booking site.

I plan to message my guests after they checkout with a link to my referral program. I am going to offer them $50 if one of their friends lists them as a reference and give their friend a 10% discount.

The best way I can think of to track this is to use a dedicated promo code for these customers.  Any thoughts or experience with this type of progream?

 It varies for me per listing. My farm stay is only $50 per pet, my Sedona property is $100. 

Limit is 3 let’s per stay, and no pets on the beds/furniture or in the pool (yes, I have to specify this)

I had the same question for my place in Glendale, AZ.  We have 4 Bedrooms, so I didn't need to do a garage conversion, but instead went with a Star Wars themed game room.

I put in a mini-split HVAC unit - it has been 110 degrees for the past 70 days.  That cost $2,300

I went with a local artist who did the mural and the one by the pool for $4,200.

Flooring is 4 large rugs with rug pads.
Gaming systems are PS5 and Xbox One.

You can see from my setup that a sofa/sleeper could easily add a queen bed capacity.  Could probably put two in a two car garage and have room for gaming.

My water heater and water softner are in the in the garage.  We just put up a black curtain to hide them out.

Brady, 

Your setup depends on your business strategy.  I can share my settings with you, and you can see how my settings are setup to try to meet my goals.

My objective is to get about 60% occupancy with higher paying guests.  I price my calendar higher for advance reservations.  I have a 2 night minimum as my standard stay requirement, but this changes as time starts to decay on my calendar.  Most of my bookings are between 45-60 days in advance.  That is my sweet spot for pricing.

So here is what I have as my settings:
Last Minute Prices = 30% discount within 35 days (Gradual)

Orphan Day Prices = Weekday: 35% Weekend: None Discount for gaps between 1 and 5 nights applied within 0 and 8 nights

Min Stay Update 
Default :
Fixed Weekday: 2 nights Weekend: 2 nights
Last Minute :
Weekday: 1 night Weekend: 2 nights within 17 nights
Far Out :
Weekday: 2 nights Weekend: 3 nights beyond 90 nights
Weekday: 3 nights Weekend: 4 nights beyond 180 nights

Min Far Out Price 
40% premium of base price on weekdays and 55% premium of base price on weekends outside of 120 days

Occupancy Profile = Default

Rounding 
Last digit by 4 or 9

If I could get the pricing to actually go up to my full base price within 3 days, that would be ideal...  

I hope this helps.  If you have specific questions, feel free to DM me.

I recommend Houfy.com now while it is free to get your site up and running. It is really difficult to get traffic to a direct booking site. My recommendation would be to use Houfy while it is still free (they are planning on charging in the future) and use that to buy time while you build up a customer base. 

With as much money as i out into rehabing a property to be a high end rental, I think the reality is quite the opposite!