All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

Bill Faeth has like a 3 hour training class on how to run FB ads for STRs. I took that last year which honestly saved me a lot of time in figuring out how to do it right.  The hard part is tracking how effective the ads are. 

Now at the end of the stay we send our guests a link to a google survey I built just to get some more feedback from guests. Most guests do not touch this survey - only a very very small percentage. As in, I have 4 STRs and they have all been booked solid for the last 2 months and I haven't had a response to this survey in over 6 weeks. Now having said that, I do have a question on there how did you hear about us? One of the answers is Facebook Ads.

I received a handful of replies with Facebook Ads selected on that survey. Based on the low number of people that actually responded to that survey, I feel like I most likely had several more bookings than what came back in the survey as a result of the FB ads.

The other thing the Ads do is help you grow your facebook followers. One thing I have learned over the years, social media is a numbers game, the more followers you have, the more people see what you post, the higher odds someone will act. So last year my focus was on learning how to run FB ads, this year my focus is on growing my FB following.

I am no expert at this but here are a few pointers that I have picked up on.

- Video Ads do better than photo ads.
- You need to capture their attention within the first 2 seconds
- You need to use selective targeting so you are hitting the right guest avatar.
- If an ad is not running under .18 - .20 a click, don't be afraid to stop the ad and try something different. 

I appreciate your attempt at educating folks with your post, but personally it really bothers me when people keep referring to what is in the tax law as loopholes. It is not a loophole, it is tax law. Per the tax law you can do these things, it is not a loophole.

No offense intended, but so many people use this term and to the uneducated, they believe someone is evading tax law or doing something shady when they hear people using the term "loophole". 

Quote from @Collin Hays:

Just an hour west of Asheville is the Maggie Valley-Waynesville-Cataloochee area. This is a somewhat less commercialized version of Gatlinburg, and might be worth considering.

I drive through this area all the time.  The realtors are pushing Waynesville as if it’s a destination place for people wanting to visit Asheville because it’s only “20 minutes to Asheville” so it’s in the hot bubble for the Asheville market.  I don’t see it.  I know people visit Maggie Valley but man every time and I mean every time I pass through there it is just dead.  No traffic. Stores and restaurants only have a handful of cars in front of them.  It doesn’t matter when I go through there. It’s always like that. Been that way for years. 

Very good list you have there. On a new build you cannot overstate the need to stay in the property a couple weeks before taking bookings. EVERY new build, ESPECIALLY in the Smokies is going to have so many problems that you cannot imagine and you will not learn those problems until you have lived there. You want those fixed before you have guests.

Jump on one of the Asheville STR owner groups and follow along. I haven't looked in the last few weeks, but I have been repeatedly seeing posts about how low bookings have been. I know the realtors are pushing it hard, but that market is expensive and competitive and like John said there are some areas with strict rules. The market will come back no doubt but you have to go all in on a property there for it do good. It's almost as bad as Kissimmee, you have to decorate to the T's and have all the amenities to compete well. I'm sure the top properties are doing good, as top properties seem to always perform, but you really need to understand what you are buying and what it is really capable of producing income wise.

@John Underwood @Kerry Baird Yea I got neighbors who shot at me for trying to clear out Beaver Dams along my creek. Told both the Sheriff and Game Warden if they saw me down there that is when they will start their target practice. Both of them told HER that if she shoots while I'm down there they will take her in for attempted murder. She scoffed at them.

For four years after that, during hunting season, if I shot a deer on my land in the evening and was retrieving it on my land (after dark using flashlights) they would fire a shot off. 4 years straight man. Every year I file a police report.

Crazy neighbors suck!

What the heck man???? I would try to talk with this guy first and see what his problem is and then maybe you guys could work something out. If he has all that land, maybe he is worried about his woods catching on fire from your fire pit or something so he is doing a knee jerk reaction perhaps. I dunno. It's pretty much fire season right now it seems.

If that is his fear maybe you can calm them down. We put up signs at our fire pits explaining about burn bans and such and QR codes on the sign so the guests can check and see if there are any fire bans in place. Maybe you can tell him you have done stuff like this and taken all precautions.

Or, that may not have anything to do with it and he is just a butt. 

Nobody seemed to care about all the federal workers and military personal that were fired or discharged for not getting the COVID shot. 

Now all of the sudden people are up in arms about cutting federal jobs for valid reasons.

I have worked as a consultant to a lot of govt entities over the last 20 years. The problem is there is ZERO accountability. The government doesn't have stockholders to answer to. There has never been an incentive for any government entity that I have ever consulted for to be more efficient and save money. The plan in the government organizations I worked for has always been to spend all of the budget - whether they needed to or not - and by doing so they get a bigger budget next year. 

Everybody has to live by a budget. We all have to make decisions based on what we can afford. If we overspend, we find ourselves in financial trouble. Not true with the government, they spend, spend, spend.. the problem is that it is OUR tax dollars that we worked hard to earn that they our spending. They need to be accountable to us. Period.

Is this going to be rough? Yes - no doubt. But this is the first time in my life I have seen anyone trying to really fix the government problems. The rest have all been talk and political posturing.

Quote from @John Underwood:

We have Xfinity cable at one place and YouTube TV at another. Both provide cable channels, local news and weather.

I have nicer place and provide nicer amenities.

I even advertise that if the other guys won't give you cable channels what other corners are they cutting. Come stay with us where we don't cut corners.

 I do the same thing John does. We have projectors in theater rooms and pool rooms and guests have asked on a few occasions if they will have access to watch certain sports games on TV before booking so we provide Xfinity with local channels. You only need to pay for one TV hookup with Xfinity (and it doesn't even have to be connected) in order to stream their Xfinity channel on all your Roku TVs/devices.

I also think having local channels is very helpful when we have emergency situations, we seem to get fires quite a bit in the Smokys and it's nice being able to tell guests, watch this channel for updates kind of thing.

It has gotten much pricier over the years though to do this.

That is very positive. Congrats on the upticks. What does you occupancy look like right now for May and June, larger cabins va smaller cabins?