All Forum Posts by: Shawn G.
Shawn G. has started 0 posts and replied 16 times.
Post: Best wifi in Western North Carolina (Robbinsville)
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Quote from @Michael Baum:
Hey @Jerod Jones, so WiFi is a term that gets tossed around a lot but I would like a bit more info.
Do you have a WiFi provider? No router, no cable modem, no DSL you just have a WiFi device of some kind that you can link to that acts as a router?
Frontier is in the area so you might give them a call or punch in your address into their site and see what is available. They provide DSL and Fiber, but without an address, not sure if they can provide it to your house.
Earthlink is another option they say they are in the area. They provide Fiber and DSL.
Now, satellite services are an option, but weather plays a role in connectivity and speed. Plus the angle of the dish, sun activity etc.
I would avoid dsl at all costs. yes weather can play a role but for occasional bad weaether id take a hard look at starlink.
Post: Best wifi in Western North Carolina (Robbinsville)
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
I would consider star link if you have a good view of the sky. https://www.starlink.com/
Post: Build Direct through Hospitable
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Its fairly crude at the moment. Their payment processing for them to be merchant of record is very difficult to set up been trying for over 2 weeks and its a nightmare. Very broken process. Probably better off having boostly build out your direct book using hospitables api.
Post: How much does Guesty for Pros cost?
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
There are alot of components to guesty. Are you wanting only pms? Do you want their team to answer guest messages? Do you need advanced analytics? Each one adds to costs. They also have to pricing models. Per listing or rev share. Its best to calls them. They also have discounts when you cross if i recall 20 doors.
Post: What's the best AirBnB Integrated Smart Lock - Looking for Reliable and User Friendly
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Quote from @Allan Smith:
We've used Encode for 2 years. Works good, but hospitable.com had integration issues. The lock itself does its job tho.
That issue is fixed. It works well now.
Post: What's the best AirBnB Integrated Smart Lock - Looking for Reliable and User Friendly
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Quote from @Melissa Nash:
I actually removed mine. The reason: because when the wifi goes out, so does the lock and my renters freak out and then I am having to give out my back up code with no wifi.
So, if you want to do that- make sure you are in an area with strong wifi connection that doesn't go out a lot. My property had issues bc of the desert and wasn't worth the pain.
Best of luck!!! Melissa
We set emergency codes in the lock that are " set to always" for these incidents.
Post: Property Management Platform Comparisons
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
I use both Guesty and Hospitable. I prefer Guesty over Hosptible as its much further along in development. Their support is much better as well. It really come down to what you need. If you just want something to tie airbnb/vrbo/Booking .com come calendars and messaging together Hospitable is inexpensive and will get the job done. If you need more advanced features like own dashboard and a well developed direct book site guesty is the way to go.
Post: Now that fall is arriving, how are bookings looking in your market?
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Quote from @JD Martin:
I'm curious to see, anecdotally, how everyone is doing now that the summer is over. I know there was plenty of discussion about a slow-down earlier in the year in many markets (including mine).
I am in Four Corners. Things are still definitely slow. September & October are low booking months there, so that's to be expected, but surprisingly I do not have Christmas/New Year's booked yet. I do have some winter bookings in place, Thanksgiving week is covered, but overall it is still pretty slow definitely compared to last year.
I ran some experiments on both AirBnb & VRBO on pricing - AirBnB lets you do promotions, whereas you just have to adjust price on VRBO, and I picked several typical very slow weeks to run promotions such that it put my pricing to where I was about cheaper than everyone else, and there still was very light activity. I did pick up one 10-day stay in October that typically would have been vacant, but otherwise even the cheap pricing didn't move the needle much.
My personal feeling is that everyone is just busted at this point - high gas, high groceries, student loans coming due, high interest on their credit cards - and so they're afraid to spend money right now. My market (Orlando) pretty much revolves around theme parks and other pricey attractions so as they go, so will I.
How about you? What market are you in, how much is your place, and how are bookings coming alon
1) Have you used Airdna to shop you competition and see what their numbers look like? Is your competition offering more amenities ect? The competition is getting tougher and we need to make sure our properties are as good or better than our competitors.
2) Have you checked your pricing tool for competitor data?
3) Are you using rank breeze to see what page in search you are showing up on?
4) Whats your ad strategy look like?
Post: Experience using Evolve?
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
I tried them on one STR to see how they performed. They were managing the property when i bought it. They do very limited marketing and handle reservations/payments/taxes. All guest calls, maintenance, supplies, cleaners, yard maint ect is handled by the property owner. I also had a lot of cancelations to be rebooked with a guest paying less for the time frame. I would self manage or find a strong co host that will provide a higher level of service. Evolve does little to make your property successful.
Post: Airbnb Guest Refuses to Leave or Pay Rent for 540 Days
- Investor
- Shreveport, LA
- Posts 16
- Votes 10
Automated smart locks would have probably prevented the situation. All of our properties the guest code only works from 4 pm day of checkin to 10am day of check out.