All Forum Posts by: Luke G.

Hey Jesse- I invest in Northern and Western WI- feel free to PM me, but if I know specifically where you're at I may have some leads on GC's for you that I've had luck with.

I do Saturday-Saturday and my big cabin, thought process is if you do Friday-Friday they're having to take off 6 days of work, whereas Saturday-Saturday it's 5.  We don't require Saturday to Saturday, but do encourage it.

I go as far as 16 months.  I'll open the following year's Peak season around May/June timeframe (summer beach market) with a significant premium (30% plus) out past 10 months.  I had several bookings this last summer at those nightly rates and I was happy with it.  I really don't think I left much on the table considering they're my highest ADR bookings on record.  

Ask around, you'll find a bank that will. We have a 90% LTV HELOC on our lake cabin, but I also have quite a bit of business with that bank with my LTR's as well.

I use it but it's honestly trash.  I hate it.  Having to contact guests to collect payment, 15% commission they take is terrible, janky website that's choppy and difficult to navigate.  I keep it open as we get an occasional booking from there, but it's a distant 3rd between Airbnb/VRBO.  I will say the few guests we have had through them have been easy, but their owner portal is garbage.  
   

"Did you know you have bed bugs?"  Sends me a picture of a tic.

There's a scary dog locking us inside, it won't let us leave.  Sends me a picture of the neighbor's 6 month old golden retriever.  Same guests, didn't send me a review luckily.  

I'll keep my short and sweet, I've always had a PM do the majority of my day to day and clean-ups, but at the end of the month I get billed and for each hour and they have a category with a quick explanation.  These are my 2 favorites in the last 7 years.

1 hour- Dead petrified cat in the middle of the living room, removal of dead cat

3 hour- tenant stated live racoon dropped through ceiling while watching tv- repaired hole in soffit and patched/repaired drywall

I have a large place that sleeps 16 people but the house is basically split in 2.  I have a 75 gallon on one side and a 40 gallon on the smaller side, I've never gotten a complaint.  

I've had the opposite experience than John.  My biggest headache's have always been VRBO people, seems it's an older age class that generally expects that they're staying at the Plaza in New York.  Have had a couple on Airbnb that weren't great as well, but in terms of percentage of bookings, VRBO has had a much higher ratio on the PITA scale.  I'll continue to rent to both as I think it's silly to limit yourself to one OTA.

Don't worry about cancels, they happen.    

Whiny guests, 10% of the guests take up 90% of my patience.  Complaining about bed bugs when it turns out it was a tick (in the woods shockingly), showing up 2 hours before actual check in and complaining the fridge isn't cold (was being defrosted), wanting a refund because a light was burned out in the hallway etc.  I can handle everything else, most guests are great but man the bad ones are...bad.