All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

I have been down a similar path only the guest was not problematic.  I would get a statement from your pest control company confirming they found no evidence of a bed bug colony in your cabin, then I would also hire the bed bug dog handlers to bring their dog in as well.  If the dog finds nothing get a statement from them as well.  At that point I think you can say you performed your due diligence to ensure there was not a bed bug colony alive in your cabin.  

In my case, the guest sent us  some pictures when they were heading home of bites on their arms.  They were in the hot tub the night before for a long time and could have been bitten by mosquitos or who knows what.  So we immediately followed up with both inspections for good measure.

I don't know what AirBnb will do but if you have proof from two sources and two types of sources confirming no bed bugs I think it would be hard to dispute.  Also as far as the review goes, you can state a follow up response, that you maintain your cabin with routine pest maintenance and as soon as you heard this complaint you acted immediately to find that no bed bugs were found and that your cabin is in the woods out here and that is how things are, etc.. etc..  Then you can state that future guests can look at your prior reviews that ensures you keep a clean cabin. blah blah blah..   You get the idea.  

BTW.. the bed bed dogs were only like $125 if I remember right.

Absolutely true.  Reminded of this once again, when we dropped our rates in order to rebook all of our cancellations for Covid-19.  It was still worth doing, but wow, 50% more "issues" with these guests that are booking my primo cabins at 50% off during spring break peak season.  I am so glad we are back at full rates now.  No more of this haggling.  People were so ridiculous during this time.  Not all but quite a few.  

I mean I had one person send an inquiry on one my cabins that does $420/nt normally in March but was now about 50% off (it is a pool cabin) and said "I want to stay 4 nights and I will pay $600 total"  I'm like are you freaking kidding me????  They just expect to rent a private pool cabin with all kinds of amenities cheaper than they can get a basic hotel room for.  The number of people that continued to try and haggle for lower prices after it was already reduced just blew me away.  

These are also the guests that when there is a problem, and there will be at times, are the biggest jerks to deal with.  

 Yes it does, but I went in to this foray with plenty of reserves as well and with expectations that I might have to carry a few months to get started.

@Drew Lamb It depends.  Not sure about non vacation markets, but as far as vacation markets I think this was just a bump in the road.  I took an initial hit on my vacation cabins and had to lower prices in order to fill back up.  But right now, my cabins are smoking hot and booked almost solid for the next 5 weeks or so at full price.  Bookings are back to normal as of about 2 weeks ago.

@Kristina Bayes Fair enough.  Just wanted to make sure you were aware of your options.  Hopefully you will get some recommendations that will work for you.

Well just because you live in Ohio is not the reason to use a property mgmt company.  We live in SC and manage STRs in TN.   The property mgmt company is going to take a large chunk out of your revenue.  Now the reason to use a property mgmt company is because you don't want to fool with managing it yourself, or the income is not your greatest concern in the deal which are valid reasons.  Plenty of folks on this forum manage their STRs remotely using services like VRBO and AirBnb and others.  Scout this forum and you will find a ton of info from people doing this.  There is an initial learning curve but the folks on this forum will be glad to help you out.  Just some food for thought.

So far I got a notice like that for one of my cabins but not the other two.. still waiting to see what that will be.

@Vincent Chen I understand what you are saying and for me I would would want more cash flow. I do agree that the returns in that market have come down, solely based on purchase price increases that have occurred over the last 18 months. However, a 10% second home mortgage at 3.75 % to wet your feet in the STR business, and see if this is for you is not a bad option to start with. There are a lot of personal details that come into this of which only the buyer will know i.e. his cash position, his goals, family situation, etc.. all of this comes in to play for each person and weighs in on their decision making process for these deals. So it's never a once size fits all scenario. Each person needs to do what is comfortable for them and be able to sleep at night. At least that is my theory ;)

So at his given rate and down payment.. if he only nets 10k/yr his CoC for 1st year is still 29%. Which is a most excellent return. The real question is whether the additional work in this active investment is worth the $832 /mo (10k/12 months) he would make on that return and that question can only be answered by the buyer and what his time is worth, how much the education he is receiving in what I think is his first STR asset purchase and what having a cabin in that fantastic part of the country is worth to him.

Nathan,

As far as towels go.. here is thread when @Michael Baum posted one of his deals of the day for certain towels at Costco.  So I have no idea what the price is today on these towels.  What I do know is that I have seen a number of recommendations for these towels.  We ended up switching cleaners from one who provides this stuff to one who doesn't.  We ended up  stocking  3 cabins with these towels a few months ago and have been very happy with the quality of these towels.  Check the post below for the  exact brand/details.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...