All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

I believe you can check RemoteLock .com and use their service. They support a wide range of lock manufacturers.  It's around $6/mo/lock.

I was going to sign up for them but I discovered that Hospitable (my PMS) recently added Schlage Encode remote lock integration.

It can generate the code based on the guest's phone number; set a schedule of when it's active; and put the code in your guest check-in message.  It automatically does all this when we get a new booking over Airbnb or VRBO.

It works great and is included in the Hospitable's monthly fee.

In fact, I was contemplating moving over to OwnerRez to start working on a direct booking site but Hospitable works so good I'm kinda stuck.  Good problem to have I guess.

Another vote for Southpoint for my cabin in Gatlinburg.  The folks we dealt with were friendly and responsive.  Though full disclosure: I haven't had to make any claims yet.  

They were cheaper than my first, popular choice Proper.

We also got a personal umbrella policy to cover us since we don't have our properties in an LLC yet. We'd still have the umbrella regardless.

We went with PriceLabs because it's a flat fee per month.  I just checked and apparently Wheelhouse now also provides a flat fee model as well.

We're using Hospitable as our PMS.  It's a fine piece of software but not as full featured as I want.  I'm considering OwnerRez.  Luckily most of these have trial periods to test them out.

Thanks @Cole Britting.  We really think it's beautiful because it's our baby.  :)

I gotta say 2021 was a busy year with the construction, supply shortages, cost overruns, furnishing, handling all the logistics remotely.  Finding a cleaner.  Took us a month to get the driveway poured.  It was nuts... very stressful and busy.

Makes the day to day hosting seem simple in comparison.

Hi @Joe Splitrock, this is how we figured the damage was deliberate.  The cleaner found a screw in the sink (which we thought was odd).  After we arrived later that night and started cooking dinner, we discovered several scratched pots but one of the pots had serious damage and couldn't be used.  The scratches were deep, straight lines from side to side like a star pattern.  This was a brand new, titanium coated pot.  I can't imagine the muscle power required to get that level of deep scratches.  I almost admire the dedication it took to do it.  :P  What sucks is they asked for an extended check out and I just wonder if that's what someone in her group spent their time doing with the free time we gave them.  Keep in mind these were the second guests ever to stay in our house.

Anyways, it's the cost of doing business.  I get it.  But dealing with an angry wife just sucked.

As for why we didn't hammer her in a review, it's because our communication was good and friendly.  When she immediately reviewed us, I suspected it must've been good (and it was).  Her attitude and the damage didn't add up.  I suspect someone in her group did it and she didn't know about it.  So we decided to just not review.

@Bruce Woodruff Yes I hear you. The main reason the pet question came up is because we've already had 2 inquiries with pets and they would've helped fill out our empty February calendar.  We're new so I'm just being eager.

I have a feeling since we're in the Smokies that occupancy won't be an issue.  We'll figure it out this year.

I think I'll be open for pets once we can collect a security deposit... we plan on doing Direct Bookings in the future.  That way we can charge a pet fee and the guest has a deposit on the line.

Lol... I was about to show @John Underwood 's comments about pets to my wife then I read @Bruce Woodruff 's comment.

We just got a reservation inquiry this morning from a guy with a dog and my wife talked me into declining it.  That's hard to do when you're looking at an empty calendar.  

We travel with our dog and we make sure she behaves.  We put her in a crate when we leave the property and don't let her on the furniture.  I guess we'll figure this out as we move forward.

Hello, this is long so sorry in advance.  :)

I've been following this forum for over a year.  Now that I'm a host I wanted to give back and contribute to the forum with our experience.

Our journey in the STR space began in 2017 when we were attempting to buy a cabin around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (we have family that live there and we vacationed there frequently). We switched to custom build and at the end of 2018 we found the perfect lot - Gatlinburg, great view of Mt. LeConte, private, level build area. We bought it sight unseen from the advice of my father-in-law who lives up the street. It was 1 acre listed for 200k. We talked the seller down to 150k. Still, it was expensive for the time and we believe it was the start of the crazy comps in the area. Even today I can't believe we found such a great lot.

Then with a combination of web searches and referrals we found an architect, lender and builder.  At the start of 2019 we started the process of designing the house with our architect.  In September we finally completed the design.  December 2019 we broke ground.

The house - 3500sq ft, 4 bed/5.5 bath/sleeps 16 was finally completed in October 2020. It went live on Airbnb on December 6, 2020.  

This is where things got interesting.  We launched with what we considered a "minimal viable product" - no professional Airbnb photos, not completely decorated, no hot tub, no built-in microwave, not enough outdoor furniture - we had our first booking on 12/17.  This family had a single good review.  They were outstanding and gave us a 5-star review despite our shortcomings.

The second family was over the Christmas holiday. Being new to this, we were desperate for bookings.  They had no reviews which made us nervous.  We booked them anyway.  Unfortunately they left a mess (which was forgivable) but they deliberately destroyed our pots and pans by using a screw to scratch the bottoms of the pots.  I was "ok, it's part of doing business".  But my wife was furious.  We stayed in the house ourselves after these guests and saw the damage they left.  I actually consider ourselves lucky that we were the next guests in the house because our cleaners couldn't clean the house completely or repair the damages because the day after Christmas was their busiest day of the year.  We spent a couple of days cleaning up the mess these guests left (on top of what our cleaners already did).

We agonized on whether to leave this guest a negative review.  But then they reviewed us.  I assumed it was a good review because our communications were so positive.  So we didn't review them but started an Airbnb resolution.  The guest denied our request (of course) but Airbnb paid out a little of the damages we sustained. My wife has since gone back to Airbnb to dispute their original decision.  What's weird about this whole situation is that the guest gave us a glowing 5-star review.  My takeaway is that in a 16-guest group, the person scheduling the stay isn't responsible for the actions of everyone in her group.  I am now glad we didn't give her a bad review.

After her, we got a couple of last minute bookings due to snowy roads and electricity outages in the area due to the snowstorm (our roads are plowed because we're in the city and our electric wasn't affected).  These folks had good reviews and left us outstanding 5 star reviews.

In the meantime, we've turned down bookings due to people not having reviews or requesting to bring pets (we don't allow them).

Today we've had 4 guests and all 5 star reviews.  What's interesting to me is that I don't feel like we've gone above and beyond to earn these.  We've simply communicated with the guests with automated messages (via hospitable.com) and manually thru the Airbnb app.  The house being a new construction with great views probably helps too.

At first I lamented the fact that we started in the slow season in the Smokies (Jan/Feb) but now I'm glad. It's like we need to have our training wheels on as we get used to this whole STR thing before it gets busy. We're learning more as we go on this journey and feel like we'll be in good shape for the busy season. Also, I feel like the partnership I have with my wife brings great balance to this business (she's strict and I'm laid back).

Anyways, that's our journey in a nutshell so far.  You don't need to know everything to get started or to get 5 star reviews.  You just need to care about it.

@John Carbone We used First Century Bank in Knoxville.  Great outfit that does construction loans in the area.  You'd have to ask your lender if they'd grant a loan for multiple properties.  My gut says no because it's more complicated.