All Forum Posts by: Jeff Piscioniere

Jeremy Aldridge Gatlinburg, TN is an outstanding choice for a vacation rental! As was already stated, it is active 12 months of the year. I have successfully used just Airbnb and TripAdvisor/Flipkey for 97+% of my bookings (just a single booking from VRBO). If you can assemble a "Team" of cleaning service and handyman you can easily manage it without a service. If you're interested in the area let me know and I can forward some important names. Good Luck!

I have not had time to look over our profits for the portion of the year we've been running the business. We were told by a property manager an approx gross we could expect in the first year and we are on pace to knock that number out if the park on our own. Put it this way, the gross we've already gotten on our own is already more than if we hit that predicted max gross and had the 30-40% property management taken out.

Tim, The cabin was generally move in ready. We spent some money on an outdoor structural repair and next spring we're going to have to stain the cabin. As long as you have your own "team" we see no reason to sacrifice 30-40% of our gross to a property manager. No doubt a property manager is what's best for some but we have done fine without.

Hi Tim! My wife and I, also from CT (Shelton), bought our first 2nd home/vacation rental back in May in Gatlinburg, TN. I cannot go on enough at how happy and successful we have been! Obviously the markets are very different but I believe what is uniform to each and every vacation rental is a set of important aspects you need to establish and have in mind. Assuming your goal is to rent as frequently as possible, you're going to have to establish your "team" in the area. What I mean by that is most importantly a cleaning crew that is used to the volume of check in/outs with vacation rental. You're going to have to make sure its cost effective and this will be a very clear cut fee you pass on to your guests when they book. Aside from cleaning you're going to need a general handyman that can be available at a moments notice. Ideally you again look for someone who is familiar with vacation rentals. Further you will need landscaping addressed if your not in an association with HOA fees, heat/AC service, snow removal. We have had unspeakable success with Airbnb. They have a very user friendly website and their app is tremendous! I virtually run my business off my phone! We have additionally had success with TripAdvisor/Flipkey. This has taken longer to establish but you are exposed to a greater number of people including international listing sites and being in New England you might have success with marketing to Europeans who travel here. Both charge extremely reasonable fees to you and generally reasonable fees to the guest (6-13%). A final thought would be the seasonality aspect of VT. Would it make sense for you to try to appeal to summertime vacationers by seeking out a property near a lake with water sports? Hope that helps and good luck!!! Jeff

Maura Paler your cabins are absolutely spectacular! You have something you should really be proud of! I'm from CT, have a very successful vacation rental in Gatlinburg, TN but I'm beginning to think other areas for our hopeful inevitable 2nd vacation rental purchase. Your cabins and passion for what you do has inspired me to look into the Adirondack area. Not only is it beautiful but it seems like the perfect relatively close location for my family, which includes 3 small kids, to possibly pursue as a great getaway for ourselves. I hope you wouldn't mind if I reach out to you in the near future to ask a few questions about the process you've been through? I guess a starting point would be the locations and maybe a real estate agency I might reach out to. Be well and congrats and good luck!

@Wes Melton we heard all about your company both from the Derosia family and one of your clients who is a mutual friend. And we've heard nothing but great things!  My wife and I committed to doing it ourselves and for now things are going well. If we're ever looking to go the other route, you will be the first group we call. 

Charli Stevens I completely agree with Kent Baltare. My wife and I are cabin owners in Gatlinburg. We are using it as our 2nd home/vacation rental (pretty much all rental) and it has gone so incredibly well. We also used Phil Derosia and his wife Darlene. They were incredibly professional. We flew down in April from CT and Phil spent a day and a half showing us the inventory of what we were looking for. We made an offer once we got home and talked things over and by late May we were owners. Have you ever considered doing all the rental aspect yourself? You're talking 35-40% to the property management company! We listed first on Airbnb by the second week in June and we were virtually full for June, July, and most of August. We are additionally listed on Tripadvisor/Flipkey and now VRBO. Airbnb has been hands down the best! We have met so many great people. If you work with the Derosia team they will help you if you want to do it yourself. Their daughter owns her own cleaning company and all I've had to do is text her check ins and check out days and my cabin is cleaned. Phil's brother Steve has his own contracting service and has already replaced some decking and repaired carpenter bee damage and may be staining our cabin in the spring. If your purchasing a property in good shape you are not going to have huge pressing issues. Charli I love chatting about vacation rentals and love Gatlinburg! Reach out to me via messaging and I would be happy to chat with you any way that works for you. Good luck!!!

@Brady Lee Your Tripadvisor/Flipkey calendar will sync with your Airbnb calendar but so far Airbnb does not have a way to sync outside of their own calendar so you have to manually go in there and block dates.  Airbnb is hands down my favorite and if they can add this feature it would be awesome. 

@Tom Albares Congratulations!!!  My wife and I are into our 3 month renting out our new vacation rental in Gatlinburg, TN and it has been a great way to meet many new and different types of people both your guests and the various professionals you will need to work with.  My suggestion is to try to network with fellow home owners/hosts in your area.  You'd be surprised how open people are to helping out.  No 2 rentals are alike so you're not really going to get people not wanting to help due to competitiveness.  A simple way of doing this?  Go check out properties near you that are vacation rentals and VRBO and Airbnb and just message those people telling them who you are and that you'd like to network.  I did just that and it turned out it was how I met the cabin owner 2 doors down from me.  We have since worked closely with each other on the inner workings of the resort we own in and have even referred prospective guests to each other in the event that we cannot accommodate them.  One hands washes the other!  Also, Airbnb has been an absolute homerun for us.  Met so many great people and there app is incredibly user friendly.  It truly is a community where both guests and hosts try to make each other's experience better.  Good luck!!!

@John Underwood I am in the process of listing on VRBO and I chose the per booking fee to start with.  Now when I signed up the subscription choice I saw was for somewhere in the range of $300-400 per year.  I was suspicious of this because many people I talked to said the annual fee was around $1000 and on top of that VRBO then tries to bait you into paying more to get listed higher up.  Is any of that true???  The other thing I discussed with someone is that thinking with a conspiratorial mindset, what would VRBO's motivation be to rank a listing high when the person has already paid their annual fee?  It would make more sense to get the per booking listings as visible as possible because otherwise no one will see them.  Am I being a little overly suspicious here?

I have been slow to get my listing up on VRBO because Airbnb has been an absolute dream and like @Michael Greenberg said, it is a wonderful community where I feel both the host and guest have an unspoken agreement to make each other's experience better.  I've not met a guest on Airbnb who didn't epitomize courtesy and decency.  I understand VRBO is the giant in the industry but they are more expensive per booking than Airbnb and I've really had a great experience.  I suppose with the slower winter season not far away I'm going to need VRBO to get more visibility.

Gentlemen, thank you both for the input!!!