All Forum Posts by: Leon Lee

It depends on the customer base. Do they have kids usually and would a game room help in this case? Small theater especially in a dark basement could be good to cater to families looking for a space for kids to have fun while the adults are upstairs. Projectors and screens can be done for a relatively low budget and buy a used PS4 with some old games and either a Roku or other dongle for streaming.

Also, think about beds in common areas. Futons could help with adding additional beds and potentially increasing your $150/night to $200/night.

Collin

Collin

These are great ideas! We did think about adding another bed in the living room, but feel that we really do not want to make the whole house only full of beds, making it attractive for some large groups who are just extremely budget sensitive. From our experience, they seem to be very costly overall. Too many beddings add extra work for cleaners too. It seems a used PS4 with a TV and a couch is a good way to use that space.

Thanks again!
Lee

0 Votes

Hi, Fellow STR investors

We have a 1960 brick ranch that is ~1100 sq ft with a full basement. It has three relatively small bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs. The basement is fully renovated, but with low ceiling. We will have four bedrooms with 4 king beds in the house. What is the best way to use the living room in the basement? I am thinking about to change it into a game room with a ping pong table, but there are some support beams in the middle and the ceiling is low too. Any idea on the best use of the lower-level living room? We already had two TVs (one in the living room upstairs and one in the master bedroom upstairs) and we do not want to have another TVs. It is an economical stay with approximately $150/night with 80% occupancy rate.

Any ideas will be appreciated!

Lee

0 Votes

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Originally posted by @Leon Lee:

Hi, Fellow STR operators

After they checked in for two days, we got the notice from Stripe (the processing payment we use for bookings from VRBO and booking.com )

Don't these platforms process their own payments? AIR and VRBO police their own guests payments as far as I know. Who is Stripe? Anyway, I've never had the problem either......?

Bruce

For VRBO and Booking.com, you could choose to either use their payments or your own payment processing method, which is Stripe for our case. In this way, you could charge guests 100% at reservation, refund them, add extra charge, add your taxes in the invoices or send them invoices to pay based on your own policies. The downside is that you need to have manpower to process payments and fight disputes.

Best
Lee

0 Votes

We got them out, telling them that we will cancel the reservation and it will be trespassing and police will be called. I think as counties start to resume eviction process, we will have more of this type of guests. They reported fraudulent charges on the booking one day after they checked in.

Now, we added an online checkin process that will require guests to upload their IDs. Hopefully this extra step will deter some squatters.

Thank you all for your inputs!
Lee

0 Votes

Hi, Fellow STR operators

I have a question on fraudulent payments from STR guests and wonder whether you all have a standard practice dealing with such situations:

We have some units in the rough part of the town and we have to deal with many interesting situations. One of them is fraudulent payments. For example, we have a guest booked for two weeks. After they checked in for two days, we got the notice from Stripe (the processing payment we use for bookings from VRBO and booking.com ) saying the the bank is disputing the charge as fraudulent. So, what is the best practice for such situation? We do have the front desk in the building that checks the photo from the ID matches the person and the name on ID with that in our system. We only send door codes to registered emails of the booking channel.

Your inputs will be appreciated!

Lee

1 Vote

Hi, STR fellows

So, I have a quick question: Sometimes, when guests request money or hosts need to send money to guests, we were given the option to pay guests via Credit Card, PayPal, etc.. Why do we need to use a credit card to pay guests? Why can't the money be deducted from Payouts? This seems to make booking keeping a little more challenging.

Thanks in advance!

Lee

0 Votes

Stephanie

You hit the nail on the head! It really requires a combined skill in investment basics, PM and hospitality!

Thanks
Lee

Originally posted by @Stephanie Peterson:

Hey!

I manage my STR's long distance. Rather than looking for books specifically for STR teach yourself about PM and hospitality.

I've found that asking your real estate agent for whom to contact as far as " boots on the ground" is a great place to start. I wish you the best of luck!

Stephanie

1 Vote

Ethan

Just bought it! Thanks!

Originally posted by @Ethan McCarty:

Read @Avery Carl's book

0 Votes

Dave

Thank you for the info, which is helpful!

1. I will check out BP's book on STR
2. Ha, no wonder we feel overwhelmed: we are managing them with me (part-time) and another 3/4 VA. But it's difficult to set a certain ratio that applies to all: high-end STRs and economical STRs definitely require different amounts of time and energy. Yeah, finding the right person is definitely the key.
3. That is exactly what we are planning to do: learning these baby steps by starting from local properties and then gradually increasing the radius.

Thanks again!
Lee

Originally posted by @Dave Stokley:

Hey @Leon Lee,

1. I've read a few that have been mediocre and won't be of much use to someone like you who already has 40 doors. I've heard the new one published by BP is good.

2. I've got about 40 units too. We have two full time employees, in addition to me and my business partner. We're going to hire a VA by year end. Finding good people is always tough, especially in this market.

3. Can't help you here. We provide full-service management for our clients and only do places within an hour of us.

4. As mentioned above, we have 40 units, 2 full time employees (they are NOT cleaners or handymen), plus me (part-time) and my business partner (full-time). I think the current team still has capacity to add more properties before another hire.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Dave

0 Votes

Hi, STR fellows

I have a few questions on managing short-term rentals and wonder whether I could get some help from you more experienced STR managers here:

1. Are there really good books/podcasts on managing short-term rentals, especially long-distance STRs?

2. Although we are relatively new, we are expanding rapidly. Currently we are managing close to 40 units. What are key factors in building a team that can reasonably manage such portfolio? Virtual Assistants? boots on the ground? What are reliable sources/ways to find these people?

3. What are the key factors in successfully managing long-distance STRs? Currently, whether we could manage properties successfully becomes the major bottleneck for our expansion. We are thinking about hosting remotely, and finding a local team on cleaning, repairs & maintenance. Any advice?

4. Is there a typical ratio between the # of managers and # of properties for STRs? We feel somewhat overwhelmed, but want to know whether it is because we are relatively new or because we are stretching too thin.

Any inputs will be greatly appreciated!

Lee

0 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Leon Lee

Leon Lee has started 89 posts and replied 284 times.

Post: The best use of the living room in the basement for STRs

Post: The best use of the living room in the basement for STRs

Post: Standard Practice on Dealing with Fraudulent Payments on Guests

Post: Standard Practice on Dealing with Fraudulent Payments on Guests

Post: Standard Practice on Dealing with Fraudulent Payments on Guests

Post: Why do Airbnb hosts need to input a credit card

Post: Several questions on operating growing STR portfolio

Post: Several questions on operating growing STR portfolio

Post: Several questions on operating growing STR portfolio

Post: Several questions on operating growing STR portfolio