All Forum Posts by: Sarah Kensinger

I hate if the cleaning goes past 24+ hours! Sometimes it just can't be helped, but I do tend to stay after cleaners if it goes much longer than that. 

Quote from @JD Martin:

I keep in reasonable regular contact with guests before their stay but I will not provide access or location information earlier than an hour or two before their stay, as I have had people show up before guests have left and before cleaners have finished. Without the address and access code I don't have to worry about that. 

Hour or two before the stay is nerve wracking! I just had a host do this to me a few months ago and did NOT appreciate it in the least. I was after their tail for 24 hours before check in and heard nothing until right before we're supposed to arrive. 24-20 hours is more than fine, and I don't know of anyone that has had issues with that time frame. So, we won't be changing to 72 hours for VRBO new requirements.  

If you're running an STR you must have STR commercial insurance! Even a tree falling on the property or fire would not be covered, if they found out you "broke" the policy agreement by using a landlord policy for a STR.

Micheal Sjogren with STR Secrets offers VA services for his students, and in the last year opened it up to the public. We haven't used them but heard many many good things about the VA's that come from his connections.

I wouldn't be worrying about google business page until you're well established with a number of good reviews on the OTA. Instead, I would be focusing on adding the STR to as many listing sites as possible!

I have no idea either! But be very thankful you at least have the loss of income until the property is fixed. So many hosts in the area do not, and just lost all their income for the season! For a couple hosts/owners it's a major revenue loss!

Quote from @Andrew Steffens:

Luckily since I have an integrated account I charge the guests so VRBO cannot refund them :)

Same here! Some extra steps at launch, are worth the added blessing down the road.

We don't plan on changing anything, so we'll see if they contact us. Thankfully we don't get to many bookings on VRBO and always respond within 1-3 minutes of the message arriving. 

We reply to every review no matter what they said! This not only looks good to other potential guests, but also the OTA algorithm. ChatGPT is a wonderful tool for reviews that were unreasonable. Although you may need to edit some of the responses it's gives back. 

We only pay the cleaner extra if there was excessive cleaning while a pet was at the property. Some guests are actually worse than pets, so sometimes even with a pet there's no extra cleaning. You could have your cleaners show photos before they clean so you know if they really had extra to do or not.