All Forum Posts by: Sean Wilt

Thanks @Jon Crosby and @Chris Neal.   I guess that makes sense, but it feels like I would be paying tax on revenue with no chance to take a corresponding deduction, in essence over paying these particular taxes.

If I treat cleaning fees as pass throughs (which I do), I may collect say $10k in cleaning fees over the course of the year, immediately pay them out to our cleaning service so in effect net $0.... but in this scenario, I would owe 13% tax (in my area) or $1,300 in tax on revenue that was not really income.  

Guess that's why there are CPAs.. :)... I will do some more digging.

Thanks for replying.  Happy New Year.

I know I will have gross revenue from rentals for income tax purposes which would include cleaning fees collected.  For income tax purposes, I know I can deduct the actual cleaning costs so that portion of revenue becomes essentially non-taxable.

My assumption is that I would NOT have to pay sales tax and/or hotel/motel tax on cleaning fees collected.  I'm sure there is likely is no way for local jurisdictions to police that anyway, but I want to do the right thing.  So, I plan to pay sales and occ taxes on the rental fee only, NOT the cleaning fee collected.

Am I right here?

Yeah, I hear you @Michael Greenberg.  We are a new listing though and are awaiting our first review (which hopefully comes in today!).  3 separate bookings are at the property just this week..... So, was just curious how we are doing so far.

But yes, lots more ways to truly analyze performance than just this metric.

Thanks!

Wondering what a "good" percentage is for bookings per views on AirBnb.  We are currently at 2.3%.  I tried to do some research but couldn't find an easy answer so thought I would ask the group.  (we have 5 bookings out of 215 views in last 20 days)

A lot of the posters here have mentioned looking on the various sites and look at pricing/calendar bookings, etc.  This surely can help but in the instance of a true "vacation" seasonal rental such as a beach house, it would be impossible to get a feel for things just by looking at current listings as we are in November and there will be no data for the peak summer months available.  If you are making investment decisions on a beach property this time of year, it would be wise to utilize third party data providers.  The monthly investment is small, and the additonal insight is well worth it.

I would rely on a service such as AirDNA (which is have spent many hours vetting).  sure the data will not be 100% accurate but based on my research as well as conversations wtih the folks at AirDNA, I feel pretty good about it.  @Martha Jardine Wilson

@Ashley Lewis

We don't have a separate liability policy actually. Going to pick up an Umbrella Policy this month though so that hopefully would cover both our new beach rental plus our home. On our new full time STR, we do have STR addendum.... It must not be too much of a premium beyond basic coverage though considering we got a good policy with decent deductibles on the beach house, 2100 square foot 4 bedroom only $3100/year --- even with the short term rental liability on it.

One more thing.  We purchased a set of sheets for each of the 4 bedrooms in the house that are all the same color/style.  We only use them for the renters.  When the house is not rented, we just use our own sheets sets. Makes it super easy to get set up and tear down when we return home.

@EZ Hassan

Check out the site Airdna.co.  they have a product called MarketMinder that you can subscribe to on a monthly basisi.  I bet Snowshoe WV would be $39.99 at most but probably more like $19.99 ---- well worth the investment.  On there you can see top properties with links to their actual listings, historical 3 year rental, pricing, and occupancy history, etc.  It's really a great site.

If you did go for it, be sure to market it for 4 seasons.  As I understand, Horshoe is good for winter sports but also for mountian biking trips in the summer.  I have a buddy in rural mountain Colorado that does very well to groups that want to come out to hike and bike in the warmer months.

At $40k-$50k with no mortgage, it seems tough that you could not do fairly well and if you enjoy going there personally, than all  the better!

@Ashley Lewis

Just responsed to your thread but forgot to tag you :).  good luck!

Ashley,

We have rented our personal home out while on vacation (as you noted) quite a few times --- maybe 10 or so.  It has worked very well for us and we love the extra cash.  Just in the last 6 weeks, we we booked 4 times for $5200 in revenue. (been on the road a lot :)).

We just clean up like you would for anyone else.  We have a second refridgerator in the garage that we can put items in to make room in the main kitchen refridgerator.  I make sure oven and fridge are cleaned up good and that's about it.

As for personal belongings, anything real valuable like jewelry or something, we either take with us or stash it somewhere in the garage or something.  I have some nice guitars that I just leave out.  I don't worry too much about those types of things and am pretty trusting.  I figure if they steal from me, shame on them and besides with $5k in new money in my account, I don't care that much.

But seriously, it's been a fantastic way for us to get some extra cash. We live outside of Austin so will put the home on STR for just random weekends if we want to have a stay-cation - paid for by our guests.

Our home does rent for around $400/night so the caliber of our guests has been pretty high - executives on golf trips, families on vacations, so that likley is key as well.

We just purchased a full time STR at the beach and plan to visit there often. Each time we do, we will have our permanent residence on the available list on both AirBNB and VRBO.

Hope this helps.

Hi Lee,

First, ski season is just starting so there's still time!  Many guests book within only a couple of weeks until their trip so things may pick up there.  Don't panic just yet. 

You will need to get some reviews going so in your first season, you may have to compete aggressively on price --- at least until you get some traction.  And some $ is better than no $.  You then get a much better feel for the entire process and get some valuable feedback from you guests.

I would put pictures of skiing in your photos and the amenities of Mount Snow.  I grew up in NH and used to ski there all the time --- its a great place!

Also, see if you can get brighter pcitures.  Your pics look dark and uninviting.  The MOST important thing in a listing that will make or break you are the photos.

I'm not nearly as experienced as many on this forum, but those are some quick tips I see.

Good luck!!!!