All Forum Posts by: KiKi Wood

I have heard a lot about this, but thank God we haven't experienced it! We are actively trying to move over to direct booking and build it up through our current Airbnb bookings so we don't have to depend on Airbnb for income. I totally understand the worry, and have seen a lot of people post in local groups about their profile getting taken down for seemingly no reason. 

Hi @Dominick DiFilippo! Great question. I am a realtor and property manager in Indianapolis, Indiana, and have helped a ton of out-of-state investors in the area. A lot of my clients are worried about the same thing, but if you have a good team on the ground, it can ease a lot of worry! The obvious negatives are that you can't view your investments in person before purchasing most times, and you have to rely heavily on a good team. 

If you're interested in the Indianapolis market, I would love to chat about our process and how we help a ton of out-of-state investors! Let me know. :) 

Hello, link is not working.

Like everyone else said, I'm a hard NO on the Airbnb pricing! We use a system called PriceLabs, but even then we like to tweak the pricing and minimum daily rates. If you want something more automated, PriceLabs helps, but make sure it is up to par with the rest of your competition! 

 Actually, I found out shortly after I replied to you that there is a way to do it, that's way more efficient! You will have to go ahead and make the new listing. If the CURRENT host makes a ticket on Airbnb, saying they're selling the property and you are wanting to honor the current bookings, then Airbnb will help transfer them over! You will need to link the new listing (your listing) in the message to Airbnb, so they know where to transfer them. It is so much easier than going through, and trying to get people to rebook! 

You learn something everyday. :)

I love all the recommendations above! I would say, if you have your heart set on STRs, it's great to find a mentor that is in your area, and is established in the STR game! Also, learn a lot about the systems you can/should implement to make managing an STR easier for you. There are some great resources on BP for STR systems, but we personally use/have used Guesty, PriceLabs, Hostfully, Hospitable, and Breezeway.

It can be overwhelming because STRs require more work/attention, but can be great if you have the right systems in place! :) 

Hi @Nathan Marshall! Welcome to BP, and congrats on your purchase! 

My fiancé and I run a STR property management company in Indianapolis, IN and we manage over 22 properties. We have ran into this with one of our properties, and we generally did option #1. We were on good terms with the (then) host, so we were able to have the host tell all of the upcoming guests that the business was transferring to our profile, and they would need to re-book there. To incentivize the guests, we offered a small discount, (10% if I remember correctly) if they decided to rebook through our profile. We has 99% of people rebook, and had no problems with any of the transferred bookings!

I hope this helps! 
 

Hi @James Williams! I'm a realtor and investor in Indianapolis. My fiancé and I run an Airbnb property management company in Indy, have a unit of out own, and we have flipped a few homes here! I work closely with out-of-state investors daily, for any kind of investment, and would love to help you as well! Please let me know if you want to connect. :) 

 Thanks, John! Great advice. 

 Thanks, Michael! We definitely try to stock up on the necessities, but I will make sure to get the extras!