All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

So for 3 of my cabins, we have a power outage every now and then, but they are usually brief and don't last long.  My buddy on the other hand has a 6 bedroom pool cabin with propane fireplace and he has a ton of power outages every winter that last for days.  The first year he had his cabin, the new guests lost power, and that is when he learned the prior guests used up all his propane.  It was costing him big bucks in refunds so it was worth it for him to install one.  I don't feel like it's worth my time and money to install one at my cabins due to the amount of times the power goes out.  Now my mountain cabin that is at 2000 ft elevation I have more risk there, but we tell people if a storm is coming pack food, water etc.. and if its gonna be  bad storm, we give them the option to cancel with a full refund.  They can get iced in up there and it's just not worth the drama.

@John Underwood The only problem with the IP address is that it will be different depending on where they booked from.  Many ISP also hand out dynamic addresses so they change over time. Also if the person normally uses a VPN, you got nothing there too.  I had to do forensic audits, tracking IPs for law enforcement in the past for suspected pedophiles, and it was extremely difficult due to how the ISP was setup, and I had full access to all of the ISPs equipment.  When it was all said and done, we could not pinpoint the suspects IP, they ended up getting him with different evidence.

The guest does agree to the rules when they book in VRBO and AirBnb, but in my case, with pools, my Insurance company requires me to have certain verbage along with a signature on that clause to give me the best support in the case of a liability issue.  I feel safer with own digitally signed RA.

I install all TCL Roku TVs in my STRs.  I label all the remotes.   In some rooms I have remote holders mounted on the wall where it makes it obvious that is where the remotes belong.  My cleaners also check to make sure all my remotes are in place as well.  Again, the labeling on the remotes help.  

Sticking with TCL Roku TVs ensures that the bedroom remote will also work in the living room if the battery dies. They are also super cheap to replace with 3rd party TCL remotes, so I keep several extra at each STR.

Can't help you with the screen though...

A few questions. Is this a new build, or are you buying an existing STR? I have never had an STR ready in the first weekend in either case. If an existing STR then maybe if you don't make any changes it's possible, but I have never had one ready that fast. If it's a new build you better plan on staying there for the next 2 weeks to flush out all of the problems and screw ups that the builder put in there. And even so that probably won't be enough time to get everything fixed. I just don't think it's realistic to have it ready to list the weekend that you close. And actually you need to stay at the property to figure for a good week anyway, just so you learn the ins and outs of the property. You need to be able to field questions from guests about things and if you don't stay there a bit to get a feel for it, you won't know how to answer some of these questions. I don't list until I am confident I know the STR will be ready. For starting out fresh, just stick with VRBO and Airbnb. You need to learn what happens and how things work and how to handle things before you switch over to a PMS. Calendar integration and automated messaging are doable on both platforms.

@Tom Scott I use Guesty for Hosts for PMS, Hostfully for guidebooks, SignNow for digital rental agreements and Zapier to tie it all together and automate everything.  Guesty for Hosts works great when it is working, when it's not, it sucks bad and the customer support is awful.  We had a period of about 2 months, where it stopped sending us the notification of a booking (this notification is what triggers the start of my automation flow).  It also stopped sending out automated messages if the end user was using gmail.  At that point, I went back through and did demos with about 8-10 other PMS packages.  The ones that had integrated signed rental agreements to me were not what I wanted.  They were just too simplified with only a signature.  i.e. I have guests sign each page of the RA as well as sign the specific clauses about the indoor pool, as well as collect the names of all guests on the property. (Helps me in the cases where they bring way too many guests).

The other thing is the dashboard is huge deal for me.  Guesty for Hosts provides everything I want to see on the dashboard.  Other dashboards did not include pricing, or guests names or various stuff like that and it would take a few more clicks to find out that info rather than looking at the dashboard.  

The biggest problem for Guesty for Hosts is that they have terrible customer service.  During that two month period I told them what the problem was (I am an IT guy) early on once I figured out what was happening.  Basically they were getting blocked on a lot of their outbound emails using gmail.  Then you might get a response in a couple of days.  Finally after about 6 weeks they acknowledged the problem and that they are having it with other customers as well, and then finally it got fixed. But that is why I spent my time researching other platforms was during that problem period.  Customer support is just awful and I don't think they really care.  I just couldn't find anything I liked better, that would make it worth my time to switch my automation routines over and couldn't find one PMS that did everything I wanted.

As far as rental lock management, I had a great solution, that was using smartthings and the RBOYS RLA software.   It was all automated and didn't cost anything extra, once you purchased the software for your hub.   I say had because smartthings recently changed the underlying framework their software runs on, and that broke the 3rd party app that RBOYs provided.  They are still working on fixing that but no ETA.

You just have to do what you are doing and demo a ton of them until you find the right fit for you man.

Right on @Michael Baum.  The other thing I have noticed is that it seems like there are one or two people who seem to make replies to various threads and I swear, they must have used ChatGPT to generate the very generic reply they post and their reply absolutely adds no value to the existing thread.  My impression is they just want to get their name out there and thinks that will work for them.  I dunno if anyone else has picked up on this, but I have been working with ChatGPT regularly for a project I am working on, and those replies stick out like a sore thumb to me.

 That’s a great idea there. Thanks for sharing. 

I have agreed with others here.  Like @Andrew S. I think the 4 stars could be warranted.  Look you are a new host and quite honestly this was valuable feedback for you.  You have already made improvements with the blackout curtains.   Definitely agree with @Karl McGarvey you don't want to be defensive here.  They probably didn't contact you about he issues during your stay because quite honestly there is probably nothing you could have done to resolve their issues.  It is not like you were going to redo the kitchen, swap the beds and hang up curtains right.  A simple thanks for your stay, appreciate the feedback and here is what we have done so future guests don't have the same problem and move on.

But let me prepare you for this cause it is going to happen eventually.  You are going to get an absolute great review and then 4 stars with no reasons as to why it was 4 stars.  Just be prepared.  If you do things right, fix the details as they pop up, take care of your guests, you will have enough 5 star reviews to quench these random 4 stars that pop up.  

Here is my biggest take-away for you as a new host.  Some hosts tend to take every non 5 star review as personal, and that typically makes them upset and defensive.  Don't do that.  Unless something is just way over the top, just step back, don't take it personal, analyze if there is anything you can do to correct or make better for future guests and just treat it as a business deal, not a personal issue.  That mind set will help with dealing with these types of reviews, at least that is what I think.

Hey Brandon. I don't mean to knock your socks off here and I could be absolutely completely wrong. I grew up in that area and am very familiar with it. Lakeland just doesn't seem like a great STR location at all. Long term rentals - absolutely. I just don't think people are going to look for an STR in Lakeland if they want to visit Orlando or Tampa. I just don't see that happening. There is no real tourist draw in Lakeland and there is no major business inflow there either. Again, I could be wrong but I am not seeing it.

Haha.. im still stuck working out everything for last year.  Trying to get a cost seg done on my last cabin.