All Forum Posts by: Luke Carl

I have a VRBO “concierge” who I can email directly anytime I have a question or concern. I asked her about this last month. I can’t remember the exact response but it was something like “we’re not exactly sure how premier partner will work we’re still testing it” AirBnB just rolled out APlus and this seems to be VRBO’s answer.

@Josh Stack if you want to self manage vacation rentals pigeon forge gatlinburg can’t be beat.  If you don’t want to self manage it’ll never work. 

@Josh Stack    I own and self manage 5 vacation rentals on the TN side of the smokys. They are not “high end” but some of them have stainless lol. All of them have nothing but raving 5 star reviews but that boils down to great management. 

First thing I would do is get on AirBnB and obsess. You’ll be able to tell within an hour or so research if they’re worth your time. And you’ll be able to tell with 2 days or so of research how much money you can make. 

Personally I wouldn’t touch them If  they’re not year round. In my market I look for 83% occupancy year round. Jan/feb can be a bit slow but I can put butts in seats if I try hard. The other 10 months people are begging for my cabins. Occupancy is of course market specific. 

Start with AirBnB and see what you find and let us know how it goes! 

Clayton Oakley why would they finance to you when they could just cash out or AirBnB themselves. It’s not very likely you’ll make this happen.

This reminds me I also received one of these. Luckily property taxes in TN are dirt cheap. I’ll get on this and share what I learn. Thanks!

Josh Stack I think you need to be more specific

@Joe Splitrock  There's a pretty good chance they don't even know what the rental agreement says they probably just googled "airbnb rental agreement" and downloaded the first one the saw. I'm not saying this because it's been a while since I've read mine and it may have popped in my head that I don't know what mine says because that is of course not true ;) 

My guess is if you call 855-4-airbnb you can probably get out of it full refund because you don't like the RA. Unless their listing says "all guests must sign and return the rental agreement" at which point you would be bound to the cancelation policy. 

 I bet you'll have a great experience and I hope you leave them a fantastic review. 

Keep us posted. 

It’s important to note that “lease” is not the correct word here. That would involve tenant rights and lawyers which is not the case. This is a “rental agreement,” at least I assume, I haven’t seen it. Joe Splitrock in my experience it is common and normal. I wouldn’t hesitate. It’s bs that AirBnB isn’t more pro-RA. This host is likely high-VRBO / low-AirBnB, which probably means they’re old. Did you get an old vibe? I have a long rental agreement that I send to some AirBnB guests if I think they’re going to be annoying. All VRBO guests get it. It’s one of the few things VRBO does better than AirBnB. AirBnB is always trying to make things easier and cheaper for guests. I also don’t understand why you have a problem with his price and or cancelation policy? If it’s too expensive find one that’s less expensive. You booked with his price and his policy. It is not his fault you changed your mind and decided you didn’t like it. If anytning it means they care about their place and it’s probably pretty nice. For the sake of the host I hope you do cancel because it sounds like you’re already fired up for a 3 star review and you haven’t even seen it yet and that’s just not fair. If it’s a hotel you want.... please stay in a hotel and don’t kill this poor persons reviews. Watch Black Mirror “Nosedive” on Netflix. That’s how AirBnB makes high volume hosts feel every day.

@Angela Liu any luck so far? Wife wants to relocate to Austin from Nashville. One very expensive mid sized city to another. Trying to decide if there’s any money to be made in SA or Waco. Love to hear your journey 

@Andrew Kerr excellent point for newbs make sure you can pay a manager if you lose your fingers in a car wreck. Our VRs gross 1.5% in the slow season so I think we’ll be ok.