All Forum Posts by: Tyler Divin

$10-20 PSF is a good rule of thumb depending on how how high end you want to go.

I've actually never done it myself so here is a diagram that explains it better than I could :)

One more point about duvets: the reason we sometimes use triple sheeting instead of a duvet boils down to cleaner personal preference.  One of our cleaners hates duvets because she doesn't like taking the comforter in and out.  I think duvets are superior, but since this cleaner hates them, her prices are fair, and she consistently produces 5-star reviews, we allow her to triple-sheet.  We're also comfortable with it as an alternative because there are large, well-respected hotel brands that triple sheet, so that tells us it's an acceptable method.

We generally feel like this is a positive.  I think the additional fee game has gone to far in favor of the host/property managers and away from the guest.  I don't think guests should have to go through two checkout processes to book.  I also suspect security deposit abuse is rampant.  We stayed in an Airbnb a year or so ago and were sent a security deposit fee schedule as part of our guest messaging...stained towel $20, broken glass $8, broken mug $6, scratch on floor $50, etc.  We felt like we were walking on eggshells and couldn't wait to check out and get our hostage money back.  We look to the premium brand hotels as guidance.  When I check into a Hilton or Marriot brand hotel we never feel this way.  If we arrive an hour early and the room is ready they let us go up.  There may be a security deposit but we never feel like it's at risk.  At some point hosts need to understand they're in the hospitality business.  The returns reflect the risk.

Our cleaners use duvets or triple sheeting (sandwiching the comforter between 2 additional sheets).  The duvets or sheets are washed each turnover and the comforters themselves are washed every 3-4 stays in rotation meaning they wash 1-2 comforters each stay so they never have to wash all comforters at one time.  As @Patrick Osterling said, this mirrors what top tier hotel brands do which is where we look for industry standards.

I like BNBCalc personally.  Reason being is when you populate an address with beds/baths/guests the initial data populates at it's projected revenue percentile but there is a link to Data Breakdown that shows you the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile data.  Then you can scroll down to the Airbnb Comparables section and it has the data for it's suggested 40 comps along with the average annual revenue, average occupancy, and average nightly rate with links to each comparable.  What I do is arrange the comps by Revenue and look through them.  You can easily click the eye symbol to hide comps that are too high or too low to narrow down the comps and the averages above the comps adjusts as you do that.  Once you have the better comps isolated you can compare that to which percentile you fall into of ADR and Occupancy and adjust the model.  You can also add defaults for loan, expenses, etc and add furnishing cost by room or on a PSF basis.  Long story short, in 10 minutes you can play with a property and get the estimate feeling really good without spreadsheet adjustment, jumping around to different tools, and see the changes play out live in the model.  It's the best/fastest tool I've found to underwrite properties for clients and share a link with them.  The cost is hard to beat, Pro is only $16.99/month and it's accessing AirDNA and other data sources that cost WAY more.

I'm curious what folks here think is a typical co-hosting arrangement as far as fees, who does what, and who's profile is the property listed on?

I agree with the recommendations for Ring.  We have also used Nest but at the end of the day I think Ring is superior and more affordable.  The Nest app for example will only tell you the batteries are low vs Ring will tell you what % charge they have left.  On another note, I highly recommend hard wiring cameras.  We have done rechargeable doorbells but have found it difficult to get cleaning people or handymen to recharge them reliably so they spend a lot of time offline.  As far as placement, we always like to have one doorbell camera at the primary entrance to monitor who is coming and going from the property and one on the parking area (typically a floodlight camera).  This allows you to always be able to see who is at the property and in the house.  This is not only useful for guests but also if you hire a handyman and pay by the hour or you get a large bill for a small job you can look at the cameras and say...you were only there for X number of minutes.

I disagree as long as the limits are setup reasonably.  We limit ours to 67/68 low and 73/74 high.  We did this after having two issues in 2024.  One guest in the winter in Helen, GA had his son staying upstairs which is on it's own unit.  He came in hot after a long day riding bikes and turned the AC to 55 when his father downstairs had the heat on 70.  The upstairs unit froze up and they were upset that there was an issue until we investigated and explained what happened.

Another one in Chattanooga in the dead of winter, the guest turned the thermostat to 85 and complained that it was cold and not getting up to the temperature she had it set at as if the property/unit was defective.

Each time it cost us a HVAC tech visit that interrupted the guests stay.  After that we set high/low limitations, put a sticker on the thermostat stating the limits, and added it to our welcome binders along with an explanation that turning the HVAC system way up or down can cause issues that will interrupt the stay.

For me it's not about the utility bill its about keeping guests from doing something that impacts their stay and causes an expensive service visit.  With both these guests we had to explain to them what the issue was and calm them down because they were upset as if something at the property was defective when in reality no HVAC system can perform how they were asking it to perform.