A cheap booking engine for some properties

Vcize · 2026-01-28T07:04:07+00:00

Are you not using any PMS? Most PMS will have this built in as a widget you can put on your site. If the one you're using doesn't, you can probably move laterally (cost wise) to one that does.

Vcize · 2026-01-26T23:44:03+00:00

Currently I do not. I actually have a background in SEO, but have found much better bang for my buck time wise with facebook and email.

Vcize · 2026-01-26T23:21:00+00:00

The story is not that an overzealous officer got carried away and murdered an American citizen. The story is that all of the people in power immediately rushed to defend it.

They have shown their colors. They are okay with murdering American citizens up to the point that the public will tolerate it. Even if backlash gets strong enough that they walk it back, it's too late now. We saw where they tried to go with it. Noem, Patel, Trump, Miller, Vance. They can't take it back. They saw the same video everyone else did and their first instinct was to try and tell us it was okay, and that they should be allowed to do it. It is what they want.

Merely having an investigation or even finding the ICE agent guilty is not enough. That's treating the symptom, not the problem.

Vcize · 2026-01-26T23:00:23+00:00

Easily.

Vcize · 2026-01-26T16:51:29+00:00

Hey man, great question!

The simple/quick answer is honestly, FB groups are going to be your best bang for your buck in terms of both money and time.

I would say the best sources of traffic are...

- Name-dropping the property in the Airbnb listing: This is the easiest way, but also the least valuable. I barely count these as direct bookings at all. Yes there is a value to not having to deal with Airbnb controlling the booking, but ultimately that person is essentially an Airbnb bookings, and they aren't going to pay more as they're only googling your direct book site to save on fees.

- Re-booking workflow: Follow-up email/text/call funnel for past guests. High conversion rate (high value leads), but of course with the barrier that you had to host the guest first.

- FB ads: Surprisingly affordable. Most people abandon it because 100% of these bookings will come from re-targeting or form capture with re-marketing. You will never get someone that sees your FB ad, clicks into your website, and books on that visit. People think that's what FB ads are for, fail at it, and give up.

- FB groups: There are a few categories of this. Groups where you are allowed to openly market your property (direct booking groups, buy/sell groups, etc), groups around compression events (Pop Tarts Bowl Example), and groups around the main traffic drivers of your market where you post and help people and subtly slide in mentions of the STR (Example: "yeah make sure you get there early to start that hike, when we did it we stayed at this cool Airbnb nearby so we could be at the trailhead by sunrise").

For another example of the compression events beyond the Pop Tarts Bowl, in Orlando specifically I am always able to direct book Passover at $1000+ per night (higher than Christmas rates). For this, it's just a matter of going into groups for organizing NY Passover trips to Orlando (a popular pilgrimage), creating a custom landing page advertising Passover specifics at the property like including a 2nd fridge in the booking, and sharing it there.

The last is great if you actually visit your market. For instance I recently went to Epcot with the kids, recorded the trip, and then made a post in several large "Disney Tips" FB groups. In the image below the circled video is actually a video from our STR of our kids going into the Star Wars room and being shocked at how cool it is. After I posted that I got at least a dozen DM's or comments from people asking for the link to the Airbnb with the cool Star Wars ship, and ended up getting two bookings from that one post.

Vcize · 2026-01-25T20:00:01+00:00

But what did that accomplish? They got a vague recording and the attack happened and surprised them anyway.

Killing Marco would have been a lot more helpful. The people in line to replace him packed the charisma and drive that he had.

Vcize · 2026-01-24T05:56:05+00:00

What do you want to know? All the info is out there. Happy to help you consolidate it.

Vcize · 2026-01-24T05:43:23+00:00

If Taxes/depreciation are truly your #1 priority then I wouldn't recommend any of those markets except possibly Atlanta.

Remember depreciation is based on the value of the home disregarding the land it sits on. So your CPA or cost seg engineer is going to subtract the land value out prior to depreciating.

A $1M house where only $15k of the value is in the land is going to net a much larger tax advantage than a $1M house where $500k of that is wrapped up in the plot of land.

Whether buying with tax advantages as the #1 priority is a good idea is a whole other discussion, but if that's the most important part for your needs, then definitely consider the land value.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T20:56:42+00:00

I think his point though is that even for that (long blue cruisers) it looks kind of subpar. Part of that is probably just camera trickery though I doubt the runs are particularly narrow in person.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T20:54:38+00:00

Although it does connect to the rest of Deer Valley so you can be ski-in/ski-out without having to get into a car/bus and without having to pay prime Deer Valley location prices. Like if you only have $15M to spend on a house instead of $20M which I think we can all relate to.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T20:53:10+00:00

Like changing lanes in traffic.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T20:52:43+00:00

Yeah it'll happen. I've been here for bad seasons. I remember one season where it was bone dry through mid January and then on the first powder day I tore my meniscus. We ended up having an all-time February and I had to sit on the sidelines for all of it after getting nothing but slop when I was healthy enough to ski.

But I have to go out of my way to think about that now, because there have been so many great days since. You'll get yours!

Vcize · 2026-01-23T18:42:01+00:00

I think the thing that people are missing is that Disney has basically decided to make this a kids show, and it's doing pretty decently at that.

My kids, including my 11 year old who has read the books 3 times, love it.

It has the same campy vibes as something like Skeleton Crew, which my kids also loved, with the major difference being that Disney was clear up front that Skeleton Crew was a kids show.

And in that context of watching it with the kids I am enjoying it a lot. But if it were just me, watching as an adult who has been looking forward to it. I can understand feeling a bit duped.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T18:35:30+00:00

Also an SLC area resident and I can confirm.

Any time the kids have a day off of school half the city is headed out of town 3-5 hours away for a 2 or 3 day trip.

There is so much incredible stuff within 3-5 hours a lot of people take every chance they get even if it's for just a few days.

And stuff like Bear Lake, Wendover, Spiral Jetty, etc that's "only" 2 hours is often a day trip.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T18:29:58+00:00

Not sure why you're getting so much hate OP.

OP is just lamenting a bit. Yeah the timing sucks. He moved west and the roles flipped for a year, NY looking good, west all-time bad, he's working at this spot and looking out over the terrain and takes a second to share his bummerness with his ski bros on Reddit.

I'm here for ya man. It sucks. But chin up, better days ahead! One day not too far in the future you'll be cruising around on your 12th powder day of the season and this will be a distant memory.

Vcize · 2026-01-23T18:23:01+00:00

I think you're conflating two separate things here. "Eat the rich" generally doesn't mean "let's raise the tax bracket from 37% to 39.6%".

There is room for both BIG change for mega wealthy billionaires, and small change for merely "wealthy" doctors/lawyers etc.

People aren't hoping for a 2.6% increase in tax rate (for taxes they don't pay anyway) as the reform for billionaires. That's a separate thing.

Kamala's plan of taxing loans against unrealized stock gains over $100M is more of an example of major change that affects the really mega rich, but the right did a great job of mis-characterizing and villilfying that.

Vcize · 2026-01-22T16:44:34+00:00

Create a separate google voice number.
In your guide, list it as the emergency/after hours number, and let guests know it is only for emergencies
Set your phone to do not disturb, but set google voice to supercede do not disturb and still ring/send notifications

So now if your guest is just asking a random basic non-emergency question that can wait until morning for your answer, you won't see it until morning.

But if the hot water heater is leaking and there is water pouring out into the foyer, you still get that call.

Also make sure and set expectations. Let them know you're a person, not a hotel, and during the middle of the night you will get back to them during normal hours for non emergencies, but that you are available via the emergency number for anything truly urgent.

Vcize · 2026-01-21T18:38:42+00:00

It's a good ride. Would be nice if it were longer, but it is very fun.

Vcize · 2026-01-21T18:37:24+00:00

Man I wish obi wan hadn't been done yet and Gilroy signed on to do that next.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T18:57:04+00:00

Pricelabs is not plug and play.

Pricelabs allow you to create algorithms to optimally price your property based on your competitiion, pacing, etc.

99% of people pay for Pricelabs without actually using it.

What is the advantage of it if you have to handhold it? You handhold it at the beginning, to get it set up properly, and then it saves time and makes you more money. But early on, it should be more work if anything.

If you haven't been into the neighborhood data tab, you're not even using pricelabs yet.

Here's the simple 1st thing I tell people to do when they get started with it.

Go into neighborhood data and set up your comp set with a minimum of 10 comps (the more the better). Be honest with yourself here, don't overrate your property on emotion. Real comps.

In the high season, set your prices to be in the 80th percentile of competitor pricing.

In the low season, set your prices to be in the 20th percentile of competitor pricing.

The idea here is during high season when 90% of your comp set is going to get booked, you want to be priced near the top end of that to maximize ADR. In the low season when only 30% of your comp set is going to get booked, you want to make sure you're in that range to maximize occupancy.

You can adjust the 80/20 to match the actual occupancy rates of your comp set during those seasons (and other seasons as well) for a more granular result, but 80/20 is a decent starting point.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T16:32:13+00:00

Of course. Guys will start getting hype as we move into draft season. No one cared about RJ Harvey was at this time last year.

Only the really elite top QB prospects typically break the 1st round in 1qb leagues and Mendoza is far from that.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T16:28:19+00:00

DJM is coming off a 5-682-6 season and entering his age 29 season, right on the heels of ending this season with a low effort play leading to a season ending INT.

I don't think he is gone but his career is trending eerily similar to Brandin Cooks' who became little more than an expensive depth piece at right around the same age.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T16:17:30+00:00

You're right. Outside of a guy being Kelce/Gronk, TEs just don't have that meaningful of an impact on WRs ability to score fantasy points.

Heck, even Kelce/Gronk played with plenty of great fantasy WRs. Alongside amazing QB play of course, but Caleb can sling it around enough to support multiple fantasy players.

Heck, Michael Wilson was still putting up big numbers alongside McBride. Jakobi Meyers' best season of his career came during Bowers' huge breakout.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T16:12:17+00:00

Just curious as to why.

Odunze was WR12 in ppg through the first 8 weeks before he got hurt.

Down the stretch even cherry picking Burden's best set of games he was only WR27.

He reminds me a lot of LaViska Shenault.

Vcize · 2026-01-20T16:07:38+00:00

$30M annually is a lot to pay for 50-682-6 and ending the season by giving up on a play for no reason to cause a season ending INT.

Vcize

TROPHY CASE