All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

I signed up for PriceLabs a year ago because it had a flat monthly fee.  Since then, Wheelhouse has also introduced flat monthly pricing (they used to be % based only).

Just this week I had an issue with minimum stay rules on a booking during New Years (PriceLabs/OwnerRez) and I opened a support ticket with PriceLabs.  I was surprised when they emailed me that same day to resolve it.  They also engaged OwnerRez support to work on it.  Long story short, I am deeply impressed at the tech support with PriceLabs (and OwnerRez).

As far as pricing rules go, PriceLabs is very robust (dynamic pricing, minimum stay rules, orphan day rules, seasonal adjustments, etc).  They do a good job with default settings.

Lately they've even updated their "base price" algorithm to respond to lower occupancy some markets are experiencing.  Personally we found this too low and ignored it.

I recommend PriceLabs.

I wish we got Roku TVs.  We have Fire TVs and they're awful.  Their UI is laggy and slow and the remotes frequently lose connection to the TV.

Going back to @Courtney Murphy's original question.  I'd go with regular water heaters.  

We looked at tankless for our 5.5 bath and decided they wouldn't keep up.

Also, check with your plumber.  He's the expert.  :)

We installed a 100 gallon, electric water heater in our 4 bedroom / 5.5 bath cabin that sleeps 16.  It has a recirculating pump that pushes hot water to the furthest bath every few minutes.  The result is that you get hot water within just a few seconds on any faucet.

We have a similar setup at our primary residence except with a tankless gas water heater.  The pump works great in this application, too.

The only issue we ever experienced was our first cold winter at the cabin.  We had to get the handyman over to bump up the temperature in the water heater.  I think the incoming water was colder than normal due to the weather.

I started with Hospitable and moved to OwnerRez when we decided we needed a direct booking site.  We only have 1 property.

I can say both are great.  If you're keeping it lite with no direct booking site, I'd recommend Hospitable.  It's very easy to use, great UI and includes Schlage Encode password automation for free.

I was surprised at how easy it was to get a direct booking site up with OwnerRez.  They have website templates, payment processing integration, rental agreement templates/signing/archiving.  It handles Vrbo payments, so you get the guest payment at time of booking.  They support credit card security holds for Airbnb.

My criticism of OwnerRez is that the messaging center is pretty confusing (compared to Hospitable); there's no free door lock automation (you need to integrate with another vendor like RemoteLock); and the initial setup is more involved than Hospitable.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I like new construction.  You get the opportunity to build something that stands out from the competition which can be important in saturated markets.  I'm not sure if your area is as bad as the Smokies.

If you do want to build, I'd recommend getting a real estate agent.  They can be very helpful with looking at zoning, septic, easements and other questions that will pop up.

We paid cash for our land which covered the down payment for our construction loan.  Basically you work with a builder who can give you a cost estimate (including septic and well).  Then you take this number to a bank for that loan.  We added in another 15% as a buffer.  Btw, we ended up paying for some things out of pocket at the end of the project (landscaping and the driveway) because of cost overruns (we started right when lumber prices went through the roof).

After your agent, I believe the builder is critical.  Find a reputable and established one.  You want a local builder that has a good relationship with his subcontractors.  The builder may also have a relationship with a bank for construction loans.

We hired a great architect as well.  Wasn't cheap but we don't regret it one bit.  We love our floorplan.

Good luck!

We have one property, a big cabin (sleeps 16) with a $375 cleaning fee.  We give our cleaners a $50 bonus if the guest leaves a 5 star review (overall).  That's a 13% bonus and it's a nice round number that feels like a substantial bonus.

I don't have any historical data since we've had the same cleaners and we've only been live since December 2021.  But I can say that they do an incredible job and have a sense of ownership in the house.

Every stay has been 5 star except for one 4 star (when we started).  Every Airbnb review is 5 stars.  For some reason we get a small minority of guests that don't review on VRBO (I suppose because those guests are older and less tech savvy).

Additionally we plan on giving them a big Christmas bonus this year because we appreciate the good work they do for us.  There's no math or incentives involved.  It's just gratitude.

As for your strategy, the first thing I thought was that I wouldn't be motivated by a $5 bonus.  But I don't know your market and pricing.  

I like 5 star review metric bonuses (after all, a clean house is the foundation of a 5 star stay) but it has to motivate your cleaners.  Increase the bonus or perhaps lump together 2-3 5 star stays into a larger bonus.  I don't know.  I'm just saying if I was a cleaner and I got a $5 bonus it would not impress me (and in fact may do the opposite).

I recommend listening to podcasts.  It's an efficient way to passively learn while doing other things.  It helps because there's so much to learn.

Good luck on your journey!

Much respect @Collin Hays 

I was just going by your scenario if you never made a dime in cashflow then an STR would still be worth it. I don't think the market is there yet (and hope it never gets there).

I do find it suspect that I keep seeing homes priced at 10x the supposed annual gross income.  i.e. A cabin priced at 1mil that supposedly grosses 100k per year.  It's like everyone is basing their home prices based on the supposed gross revenue numbers from 2020-2021 record numbers.

What you're describing looks like an LTR. I believe the expectation for an average investor is that putting the effort and work into an STR should reward you with high cashflow + appreciation.

I started with an LTR and the renters paid off my mortgage and appreciation eventually turned it into a giant piggy bank.  Very minimal hands-on management involved.

I got into an STR in Gatlinburg with the LTR model as a baseline with massive cashflow on top of that. Very hands-on but luckily for us it's paying off with high cashflow. We built and furnished at $276/sq ft.

Today it seems prices are so high that you end up doing the work of managing an STR with an LTR return.