All Forum Posts by: Tom Dieringer

Looking for thoughts on a strategy to help VRBO not get immediately buried by Airbnb and be permanently assigned to an “also ran” capacity. I realize that there are variables from market to market and property to property that could make VRBO more effective for a given property, but my understanding is that in general Airbnb bookings get out to such a dominant start in regard to percentage of the bookings, that VRBO and other lesser OTAs have trouble catching up.

One unvetted thought I’ve had for when I go live is to give VRBO a 1-2 week head start on our listing. It wouldn’t even be listed on Airbnb during this period so I wouldn’t get dinged by them for blocking the calendar. I would limit the open calendar days on VRBO to maybe only 30 or so out so as to not cause any/many issues (having too many dates show as booked) when I subsequently go live on Airbnb. After the head start period and hopefully getting a couple/few? VRBO bookings in that 30-day window, I would then go live with my Airbnb listing, open out the calendar a little bit further so adequate availability shows, and take advantage of it’s first week or two? of listing boost. In my mind, the reason for doing this would be to have two engaged platforms versus one dominant one.

What am I missing? Why is this not important in the long run? How could it backfire?  Thanks group!

Some have mentioned the Tulsa market. Yes, it has low entry cost, growth, and is LL friendly. but it also has a couple shortfalls:

• - Low to fair rents at best
• - Low rent appreciation

I bought fairly smart, but still not smart enough to consider it an immediate good return. We are definitely dependent on that population and job growth to eventually gain some profit spread.

Quote from @Alice Fairbairn:

Hi everyone! 👋

Good thoughts Alice. Where are most of the better STR returns in Central OR right now? Nd what housing is currently attracting the highest CoC and total returns potential - studio - 1bd, 2 - 4bd, or 5+bd? 

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Send me a PM @Nick M.

May I have a copy as well  Michael? I'm not yet sure where I fall as to whether I use one or stick with the platform's agreement & house rules, but would like to have one in case

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

Whenever I had a max complainer who uttered a word about any review not at five stars, I immediately comped their stay, apologized, and made sure they didn't write the review (even when they were a scammer or crazy person). A 1-star scammer review isn't worth the money for the stay.

Jonathan, how do you "make sure" they don't write a bad review? I've dealt with thousands of reviews in my other companies, and I get how you increase the odds of not getting a bad review by comping, but there's always a couple crazys who still give a bad review.  And if you make it a quid pro quo, don't you run the risk of violating the OTA's policy of paying to alter reviews? 

Next, and again my current experience is in a different industry but one that's a highly dependent on Google reviews and ratings, I've found that there's always a break-even point where "paying someone off" doesn't provide enough of a return on the payoff.  I could see fully comping 1-2 nights at low season rates, particularly if one doesn't have a lot of reviews yet, but would you, as an established host with tons of reviews, comp a full week or more of a prime season stay?  Sorry for the huge questions.  :D

I understand why you want to avoid a HELOC. I don't like paying interest on my down payment unless I know it's a temporary aid to get a good opportunity. I've done that on flips and LTRs. And maybe it's not all or nothing for a given method, sometimes a combination of various financing tools is what wins.

These are the posts and discussions that I love and select "follow." Great information from regular, experienced contributors whose opinions I value. Fortunately, even though I'm a newbie still in setup mode (working through renovations on a value added property) I'm already starting to recognize the right answers before reading the responses, thanks in big part to many of you. Thank you BP STR community!

Thanks Garrett.  Really found this useful!

Starting to consider whether to convert one of my LTRs to an STR. I'm already familiar with some of the basics of how the markets differ, but I'd be curious to hear what some of you have experienced in regard to any unexpected differences between them.  I've got 7 months before the lease is up, so no is the time to research and think it through

Are any of you who use a separate rental agreement willing to share a copy? I have rental agreements for my LTR but couldn't imagine using that for my STR. Thanks