All Forum Posts by: Kevin Lefeuvre

Your repeat guests have your contact info anyway. They don't need your FB page to call you. Right? As for new guests, a FB page with no ads doesn't create traffic. Not sure why you consider FB is bringing you business.

I have a different view on this:

1) Typically existing bookings at any given time may represent 15-40% annual gross revenu. That may represent 3-6% or more of the purchase price. Why losing/ wasting that revenue? What is the amount of those bookings?

2) What do you mean by "illegal" STR? Many cities (small or big) have neither explicitly allowed nor banned STRs. That doesn't mean illegal. Best example is LA. City is getting their taxes and the regulation has been under discussion in the past 4 years. If it was in limbo and now banned then that maybe why he is selling. But if STRs are "tolerated" that's not necessarily bad.

3) Haven't you ever heard of GOODWILL in business? It's true that as of now, platforms (airbnb/vrbo) don't offer a solution for sellers of STR houses to leverage the goodwill. But that may change and there are workarounds. I guarantee this will change as STRs become more common. The same way you can sell a hotel or any business with ongoing clients and bookings. Our STR businesses are composed of RE assets + cashflow from bookings + Furniture + Intangible GOODWILL which includes the setup, fine tuning of amenities, the experience of all the parameters (minimum nights, pricing, ....), returning clients, past reviews (screenshot from vrbo/airbnb and post on a dedicated website, etc...). If one day I sell, for sure I will market it not just as a RE but also the "Business".

So I think there's value in the bookings (obvious common sense) and the seller is right to want to leverage it. Seller is apparently not even leveraging the goodwill. But why they didn't bring this up with the contract? They can't sell the walls and the business separately obviously. Now, is it a good purchase for YOU? That's another story.

@Rhonda Blue are you saying you have a facebook page and run FB ads ? How about calendar sync/management, credit card clearance, and generally all the other services airbnb/vrbo provide? Or maybe you have built your own website and run FB ads?? 

Let's talk "profile" and "account". Single profile no issue. Maybe the confusing thing is that there is a different UI both in the app and the desktop, traveler vs. host. The airbnb mobile app gets sometimes confused with the host vs. guest default . Even your inbox is different. So technically it IS a different "account" under the same "profile".

Go under your "profile" and you'll see that you can "switch to traveling" if you are hosting or vice versa "switch to hosting" when you are in the traveler account.

Hope this helps.

@Paul Sandhu thanks. I admire your intelligence actually. Very practical advice in general plus humor as a bonus :-)

There are many lenders who don't need docs for rental to do a cash out refi. If you can't find, just post on the right forum here on BP.

@John D. Like John said. Airbnb will waste your time and won't support your claim. Been there done that. But make sure you post the review on their profile clearly and formally NOT recommend them to other hosts, and share the photo to airbnb in the private note so that it gets filed.

We, the hosts, have the power, it's our properties. Airbnb is abusing us through the rating system. If we all become more truthful about the guests and disclose what they do, we get airbnb with their own trick: The reviews. So disclose publicly what the guest did but move on. 

Airbnb used to have this feature. Somehow it never worked and I noticed they decided to remove it. I think it's hard to put it into execution. We are building businesses, we are not property-managers-for-hire. I think that's the huge difference.

Doing great in a couple markets and ignoring you can go wrong in a new market. Hot markets may also be the most competitive forcing you to be less profitable as expected. Find the balance between a good market and the number of existing STRs as well as the barrier to new entrants in that market.

thanks @Nick Hedberg