All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Don’t look at it like your standard LTR. You are now in the hospitality business and you aren’t renting an empty space you are selling experiences. Focus on quality, delivery, and execution. Underpromise and over deliver.

Gulliver R. I run 3 bedroom units all over the country and they consistently out perform other sizes time and time again. Having the extra rooms makes it easy to market to not just a single traveler Microsoft employee but to groups families etc. I agree with the above responses this is a good move. Happy Hosting

Hi Tony, We manage properties all over the country. Where are you looking to set up a location?

Karen Chenaille It really comes down to what features you are looking to streamline. Is it guest communication? Pricing? Calendar syncing? Listing duplication? Channel Management software and programs can offer many tools and resources that can simplify listing management. If you are just looking to just simplify pricing, you could use a revenue management program like Beyond Pricing, Pricelabs, or Wheelhouse. There are several completely package deals like HostAway, Guesty, and Lodgify where you can have all the features you need, you can connect them to a credit card processor like Stripe, and have a website all wrapped up into the same price. Happy Hosting

Dustin Verley Day use rooms is far from a new idea, more popular in other parts of the world like South America and Asia these provide micro stays when overnight accommodations aren’t needed. In the U.S. there are several companies like DayUse.com and HotelsByDay.com which provides a platform for these services and would also do it for the STR community. Upside is being able to rent rooms multiple times a day, more revenue.. Downside is the stigmata and very real possibility that you will be servicing others that aren’t traveling business people between meetings.. Happy Hosting

Philip Price Just like any other real estate purchase it comes down to due diligence. Doing your homework in regards to potential revenue generation for STR Using platforms like Airdna, Everbooked, and Eliotandme. Check out bookin platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway to see what your competition is, running the numbers and being realistic about what type of return you are looking to generate and what the property can do. At the end of the day run a doomsday scenario. If laws change, if Airbnb dies, if you are just over STR... what would this property do as a LTR, what’s the potential resale value, what can you walk away with if you had to change your business model. Hope this helps. Happy Hosting

Mark Futalan There’s several options out there from Schlage locks which can be paired with the Lowe’s Smart Hub solution Iris, it’s cost effective and can be paired with an entire smart home solution. I’ve had my issues with August and for the price point it’s not as great for scale. There’s the Kwickset Premis locks that are also up there in price and allow you to connect to an Apple TV or Apple Home Hub to change codes lock and unlock doors etc. I think prior to shopping for locks making a list of wants that you need the locks to do like remote access, changeable codes, lock logs, staff access, etc. and go from there. Hope this helps. Happy Hosting

John Erickson The reason HostAway doesn’t show pricing is because it’s flat rates per listing and gets lower depending on how many properties you add on. Typically they start at $25.00 per listing per month with a $500.00 setup fee. Then drops pretty aggressively every 20-30 units. I would suggest doing a demo for 2 weeks to try it out. The central dashboard is a nice feature along with the revenue management and automated messaging (when it works) the integration with platforms like pricelabs and beyond pricing isn’t there yet, as well as task delegation for staff such as area managers and cleaners. The app also leaves much to be desired. One of the bigger wins for me is the ability to duplicate listings fairly quickly across multiple platforms like HomeAway and booking.com, with an API integration you no longer need to use their admin screen and can do it all from HomeAway as well as process payments via Stripe. Hope this helps, happy hosting.

Mark Futalan There’s numerous products out there that work really well. What I suggest you focus on is devices that play well together. For this it comes down to using smart hubs. Lowe’s Home Improvement offers a product called Iris that has an entire line of everything from locks to thermostats to cameras. This gives you everything you need but is still relatively cost effective compared to other products on the market. https://www.irisbylowes.com/products/?gclid=CjwKCAjw4sLVBRAlEiwASblR-8fQVLNokS8Uvlk9YJQAlSQcf8DDmFefQ9rYOCzvycl8i07nGf6BmRoCPlEQAvD_BwE

Chastity Cortijo There’s several Facebook groups for STR hosts that share all of this information. If you plug in Airbnb into the search bar under groups international and local groups will come up.