All Forum Posts by: Sarah Kensinger

Ways to create a 5-star experience for guests...

1. Give the guests an experience. Nail down your guest avatar and tailor the property to them.

2. The property must be clean, clean, clean!

3. Set expectations in your listing and especially pre-arrival messaging. Then fulfill those expectations.

4. Add the small details and be hospitable.   

Because Airdna is an average for those that manage STR, hosts that put the effort in can ALWAYS make more revenue than what is projected. Although you do need to take location into account. With the completely new update that was rolled out a few months ago, some of the data is still being fine-tuned. Our group of STR hosts has been trying to help them out with that but it takes time.

Also, for those that have direct booking sites and a strong VRBO presence the comp numbers come in lower on Airdna. It's hard for them to tap into VRBO but they still pull data off them, and of course they can't pull anything from a direct booking site. 

There are so many considerations that can vary the numbers and you do need to know how to use data software. But to say the site is no good and should be avoided is so off base it's not even funny! 

Quote from @Michael Baum:

AirDNA is a bit of a crapshoot. I don't have an account to test it out any longer.

This is completely inaccurate! 

Reviews like this are great, but I always feel like there are two sides that should be shared. Unfortunately, that's not always possible. 

Chicago and Minneapolis are bound to have something! Sometimes it's hard to find the area real estate association website, but that may be another way to find meetups.

CA is hard all the way around with real estate, but if you're willing to jump through the hoops, San Diego is a good place to have a STR in a CA city. But you'll need to get permits before the last 1,000 or so are used up, after that no more permits will be given out.

You need to talk with Darryl at Stayspace. He knows NY better than anyone else and has an excellent company that does A-Z in STR management!

There's a number of people that have done something similar here in Ohio, but I don't know of any in Maine. Besides the contact above, you could google other campgrounds with cabins/tiny homes and see what info they would be willing to share with you.

If you haven't started with the city, you better call or visit the city hall.... especially if you're in LA city limits. After you find out all the do's and don'ts, you can decide the best course of action. 

Quote from @Evan Hudson:

I know this is an old thread but has anyone been filing/paying STR excise taxes in Summit County / Akron? I was recently told by Summit County that they currently do NOT assess the tax on STRs and only on hotels (which seems to not agree to the County ordinance). I was told by Akron that they charge a 3% tax and outsource the filing to an online platform called Granicus. I have made a couple inquiries to Granicus on how to get started with no reply back. There are some other online platforms used for munis in Ohio that seem to be easier to set up and more user friendly.

Akron is just now starting to get an online portal up and running, and you'll also be required to have a yearly license/permit to have a STR. The city had identified all the STR within limits and planned to make contact with homeowners in November. If you did not receive a letter, etc., you may not be within their limits. But definitely call the city and check! I spoke with them 2 months ago and received all the above info.