All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

Call Valley Pools & Spa in Sevierville.  When a hot tub breaks it doesn't mean you have to buy a whole new hot tub.  The motor can be replaced, the circuit board can be replaced, etc..    

@Lisa Goodbrake You will find everyone has their own opinion on pets.  Plenty have them and will state that your market is larger because it consists of renters that do and do not take pets with them on vacation vs a no pets cabin which has a smaller market.  Plenty of good arguments both for and against out there.  It really comes down to what YOU want to do.  Will allowing pets increase your rental income?   If so, will the income increase be enough to sway you to deal with the problem with pets?  That is up to you.  In my case, I do not allow pets in either my STRs or LTRs.  My STRs stay booked pretty much non stop.  Taking on the additional risk of pet damage will not bring me any more income so I do not allow them.

@Marc Rose - Marc you are absolutely correct in not to care about what others think.  Each person needs to make their investments based on their risk aversion and comfort level and we are all different.  At the end of the day, you need to be able to sleep at night!

Wow - I think you have opened up Pandora's box as you will find a lot of people both love and well, not love Dave Ramsey.  I for one like Dave Ramsey for the idea that his method will help anyone learn how to get out of debt.  There are tons of people that have no money management skills whatsoever nor have they been taught anything about financial responsibility. Dave Ramsey is great for these people and helps thousands of people get their life back on track.  Now - what I personally don't believe is that all debt is bad and that business type debt can be good because it helps you to grow.  So having said that I am a Ramsey fan when it comes to getting people out of debt, but not a fan when it comes to building wealth.  If you are comfortable with the business risks you are taking then go for it to reach the reward that comes with it my friend!  Best of luck to you.

@Chase Hoover Thanks for the clarification.  Yea I was curious about that.  

@Chase Hoover Chase thanks for sharing that info.  I have always wondered how that would work out at review time.  I know there are others who say the lack of internet works great for them if you state it clearly, but your example clearly shows that for most people it is just about a requirement now for high speed internet.  I would guess that a percentage of those that complained about the internet being too slow would most likely not be return guests.  Can you comment on that aspect of it?

@Austin Sheehan

My buddy is on the list to beta test that network.  What is unique about his sat network is that they are in a much lower orbit than the other guys.  The other guys require 1/2 second for data to go up and 1/2 second to come down.  His will be a fraction of that based on the low orbit of his sats.  I am hoping his sat network lives up to its promises.  If so it will provide a really good rural solution that blows the other guys away.

Yea that is the downside to being rural.  

@Scott K. -  Well that's a sales guy for you.  Data storage is always in terms of bytes, and bandwidth is always in bits.

I have stayed at a cabin with limited bandwidth and it is just one of those things I knew going in to.  I think the key thing is just be up front about it in your listing and you won't have any issues with guests.

Do you know if there are any small mom and pop wireless ISPs in the area?  Sometimes that will work out in rural locations.

Scott for some reason when I put my post up I couldn't see anything but your title so I didn't see your whole message.  So as I mentioned I did the whole antenna to the hotspot thing and my friend up the road bought the booster as well.  Neither of us had great service.  There are not many unlimited plans out there anymore, and even if they are unlimited, they will slow you down after a certain cap rate - so you are unlimited in the sense of how much you can use, but they drop the speed over a certain point and start throttling you.

Unfortunately from an internet perspective, probably the satellite service is going to be your best bet as much as I hate to say that.  However, you will have cap rates more than likely.  I would advertise it as basic internet service, email, work from cabin type of thing, but I don't think you want folks to be streaming on that or it will eat up your data plan.

Oh BTW.. all internet speeds are rated at bits per second ;)