All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

All of the above plus coupled with the statistical fact of how many visitors come to see the GSMNP each year say that it will continue to be a consistent area for a LONG time to come.  Visitors to most major national parks seem to generally increase year over year, but if you look at places like Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain - their yearly visitor stats don't even compare with the visitors to the GSMNP.  You can google these stats and see for yourself.  Another stat I have seen but I can't quite remember how accurate I am stating this - is that something like 50% of the US population is within an 8 hour drive of the GSMNP so that makes it even more accessible than other places where you have to fly to.  So all those people coming to the GSMNP need a place to stay and a LOT of them choose the Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg area and will continue to for years to come.

YourPorter is not the only one.  There is quite a list of platforms that help you manage your listings across multiple channels.  And most of them have features for scheduling your cleaner.  They all have good and bad about them.  For instance YouPorter support is awful but the product normally works well for me.

I am using YourPorter.  Like many other rental management platforms, it keeps my cleaners updated automatically.  It sends them a  reminder the day before, but my cleaner also has a link to the yourporter calendar for cleaning events.  They can see the check in and check outs and know whether or not it is a turn, which in my case they mostly are turns.  Where I am in the loop, is in our check out procedures we have the guests text us the cabin name they are in when they leave.  If I receive that early in the morning, I let my cleaner know the place is ready if she wants to get there early based on her schedule.

@Bruce Woodruff - Well a couple of things here.  Each host has to do what they are comfortable with.  We just had this happen about a week ago.  They called and said they were thinking about cancelling because one of the parties had a minor injury occur and might not be able to enjoy their stay there and wanted to know if we could extend credit for another time in the fall possibly.  This call came around 5pm on the day before check in of a 6 night stay.  We have a strict cancellation policy which means no refund if cancellation occurs within 30 days.

Ok first thing you do before you make any decision is ask the guest - did you purchase trip insurance when you booked the trip?  Because if they purchased that then they need to handle it with the insurance company and move on.  If you decide to provide full refunds in these cases means that you will always be the insurance company for the guests as well.  You are NOT their insurance company.

In my situation we felt like we would be able to book most of the 6 days if not all of the days even though it was last minute.   We might have to lower prices some to get it booked but we are operating at a premium now so it's not a huge deal.  

Make sure your communications is through the platform so everything is recorded there.  So we went back over the cancellation policy which is 0 refund if cancellation occurs within 30 days and we also let them know it is our policy not to extend credit for a future booking or change dates within 30 days.  The game is here is that a guest changes their mind last minute and they know that  they are within the 30 days and will get nothing back.  Then they give you a sob story and ask to change their dates for like a couple months down the road.   Once the system is updated, they can now go in and cancel their stay since it is no longer in the 30 day window.  In this case you get hosed.  So we explained to them that we are not saying they would do this at all but because this happens is why we have this business policy.

What we decided to do was offer the guest two options.

#1 - You cancel in the next 2 hours so I can get the property listed ASAP and I'll issue you a 50% refund.  In this scenario I take the risk that I will book at least 50% worth over those days.

or

#2 - You cancel in the next 2 hours and do not receive any refund, however, if I can book those days, I will provide you a refund based on how much I was able to re-coup through new bookings.  In this scenario the guests takes the risk that I will book anything period and hopefully over the 50%.

The guest chose option #1 and we issued a 50% refund.

We re-listed and by the next morning had booked 4 of the 6 days at full price and then ended up booking the last 2 days at discount.  Since that happened we issued an additional refund to help the guest re-coup more of their loses.  I know we didn't have to do any of this based on our policy but I did what gave me a good conscience and I am not saying I would do this every time but I take it on a case by case basis.  I want to treat others I would want to be treated.  It is a fine line because you can't always tell if the guest is being truthful or not.  But if I was in an accident or fell ill right before a trip - yes its my fault for not having trip insurance, but if the hosts could rebook and not lose money then I hope they would be willing to help me out as well.

Again, you have to do what you feel right about.

What I would do differently knowing what I know now..  I would have started sooner!

So based on those revenue numbers you need figure out your operating costs with your mortgage and see what is left over.  Then you have to decide is the time investment on this family property worth the income it produces for you.  If you decide it is worth it, then by all means it is do-able.  

@Ben Ertl You should be able to manage that cabin from 3 hours away.  You need some automation and some tools in place.  You need to hire a dedicated cleaner and have a local handyman you can trust.  Also good to have a backup cleaner and backup handyman or 2.  The cleaner should be your eyes and ears on the property not your parents.  We manage 3 cabins and under construction on #4 and they are 3.5 hours away from us.  My buddy lives in Seattle and manages a 6 bedroom cabin in the smokies and that's a lot more than 3 hours away.  Again key things are cleaners and handymen.  If you can get those two items taken care of, then you should rarely have to visit the property.  At that point you are simply handling customer inquiries, and responding to minor issues.. i.e. you talk to guest and then call cleaner or handyman to take care of it if needed.  This should absolutely be do-able.  With a cleaner, you want to set a fixed fee - not by the hour.  You include that cleaning fee in your listing so it is merely passed through from the guests to the cleaner.  That way you always know your costs.  Let's say it takes them 4 hours to clean on average.  Sometimes the place wont need a lot of cleaning and they are out in 3 hours and sometimes it needs more cleaning and it takes them 5 hours.  It will all work out.  Now occasionally, it might be trashed and takes a lot longer.  In that instance I tell my cleaners bill me extra for it.  I want them to be happy too.

I totally disagree with the cameras on a private hot tub or private pool. Hotels do for liability reasons and those are public environments. I would never stay at a place where a camera was pointed at a private hot tub or pool. #1 rule with cameras in STRs is that you need to explicitly let your guests know where those cameras are and what they are covering in your listing. If I was booking an STR with a hot tub and it said camera monitoring hot tub I would NOT book that place. Sorry just gonna think the owner is a perv and not gonna book there. Also, if I rented a place with a camera on a hot tub and the camera was not disclosed - I would be ticked off and you are not gonna get a very good review. I know of one owner that put a camera on the outside monitoring his back door but he faced it so it looks at the back door and in through the window into his indoor private pool. I don't know if he has since moved it but shortly after he got some not so happy guests because of that.

I have hot tubs at all my STRs and some of my STRs have private indoor pools as well.  For liability reasons I work with my insurance company and they provide guidance on what does/does not need to be done to cover me.  But in the end each owner has to do what they are comfortable with.  I for one want my guests to be comfortable and most will not with a camera pointed at a private pool or hot tub.

As far as having cameras I think they are a must for the 3 main reasons @Joe Splitrock listed.  

Same as others.  Monthly pest control, yearly termite bond inspection, and yearly spring treatments for carpenter bees.

@Kristin McPherson So in that case its not really an investment but rather truly your vacation home that you are simply sharing the cost with others.  I think the arrangement that you have described is an extremely unique situation.  Any time that many folks as in friends and family, go in together on something of that magnitude - siblings or not - there are usually issues that arise at some point.  I have seen it ruin friendships and cause hardships in the family.  If you do something like that you better make sure are on really good terms and spell out all the details in a contract.  And also realize if you are using family in this arrangement, you might have some in the family that would take offense to putting things down in a contract and think the family bond is strong enough to keep it together. I have not done this type of thing, just relaying what I have seen over the years. I would not advise.  I think there would be much less headache just buying it yourself and putting it up on VRBO and Airbnb when you are not using it.  That's what most of us do here.  Get a good cleaning lady, a good handyman, and you are good to go.