All Forum Posts by: Wilson Hunter

Great insights - thanks, @Joseph Bafia!

Particularly for those with mountain cabins, this is going to happen… How do you deal with evidence of a single mouse from your cleaner if guests have not seen a mouse or complained? Assume 100% occupancy for the next month. Would glue traps create an unnecessary problem if guests see them? I don’t know how else to catch a mouse during 100% occupancy except by placing traps and checking them on turns, but this risks drawing more attention to the situation than needed.

This is the opposite of my typical problems with Airbnb support. Someone can have allegations of serious illegal misconduct in their profile reviews, and Airbnb will still count it against your booking acceptance stats if you don’t want to host them - calling support will not help either. To hear that they are actually trying to help screen rather than punish hosts for screening is new to me.

I don’t know @Collin Hays personally, but from following him on Bigger Pockets I’d say he’s a rare and valuable resource as a property manager in the Smokies. 95% of PMs in the area do not know what they are doing, but I’m fairly confident from what Collin says on these forums that he could be well worth it for a newbie.

There are wildly varying opinions on PM vs self-manage, and some of the best content creators on STRs push the idea that it’s easy to self-manage remotely. I self-manage from Virginia, and I love it, but it ain’t easy, and it takes serious ongoing effort to optimize everything. I have no clue how people do it effectively without ever visiting the area.

Even though there are literally thousands of cabins in the Smokies I can count on two hands - perhaps plus two feet - how many self-managers I believe are hitting home runs based on my Airbnb competitive analysis deep dive.

I like David Trent from 1st Choice in Knoxville. He’s the kind of guy who breaks into a cold sweat when he sees the hot tub sitting on sagging deck joists hanging off the mountain and is extremely OCD about meeting code and safety. Exactly what you want in an inspector in my opinion.

Airdna is a very cool tool, but I find that it is frustratingly inaccurate considering the price. 

Does the Pentecostal minister also work on a refinery? Does he want to bring snakes with him? If so, do you plan to charge a pet fee per snake?

Thanks in advance.

Is it a residential-looking home or cabin style?

Regardless, add a hot tub and rent it out.

I'll be honest... The only reason I logged in tonight was to read some fresh replies from Big John and Uncle Paul. The real estate content has become a secondary attraction.

That said, I think I got over-zealous with my first welcome binder. We used Canva to create something about the size of a middle school yearbook only to see the second guest chugging a carton of against-the-rules cigs on the porch via the security cams. I'll have to revisit Luke's "Never Watch the Cameras" video to regain my sanity.

When we bought the cabin it would have been possible to immediately put it on Airbnb as-is. Instead we decided to change the style from “just another cabin” with the typical bear quilts, deer antlers, and bulky brown leather furniture to something a bit more upscale. We also did new carpet and stonework on the fireplace.

My perception is that the higher end look and feel justifies our increase in price and also causes us to stand out. We’ll see how it goes, but so far I’m pleased with the results.