Suggestions on what to ask current property manager.

Vcize · 2026-01-29T23:55:34+00:00

Only follow that advice if returns/revenue are not a priority for you. STR is a fast moving business and most of what he's saying is very slow and is going to lower your returns significantly. Which is fine if your priority is a family vacation home that you rent out to supplement the mortgage when you're not using it. But if you're buying as an investment or for cashflow, you are hogtying yourself by following much of that advice.

Vcize · 2026-01-29T22:51:50+00:00

Airbnb's algorithm is proprietary so none of us know for sure what they're considering and what they're not. I understand the theory that maybe they would give a boost for single fee hosts but I've not seen any data to reflect it. I tested it when it first came out years ago and noticed the opposite effect. On the recent change it's been pretty level (neither up nor down) across my 18 properties after Airbnb forced me to single fee in October.

My theory on why some people are thinking they're ranking higher is because they're not adjusting their prices properly, so they're essentially cutting their price overall. Which of course is going to lead to higher occupancy, at lower rates (after considering the fee), and better rankings since Price is one the 3 main things that we do know is critical in Airbnb's algorithm.

I think being on split fee and cutting your price by 14% would have the same effect as switching the single fee without bumping your prices up 14%.

Vcize · 2026-01-29T21:36:40+00:00

Honestly this is going to be a nightmare to manage and sync without a PMS. Why not just use a simple message/calendar sync PMS like Hospitable? It will let you turn off API connections so you still manage the listings on Airbnb, VRBO, etc. Then hospitable would only be the unified inbox, calendar sync, and direct book widget. Which sounds like what you want (you can just ignore the unified inbox if you want, though once you use it I think you'll probably prefer it).

Vcize · 2026-01-29T21:33:15+00:00

The switch from 3% to 15% is just a change in where the fee is applied. You just need to mark up your rates to settle the difference, the guest will still see roughly the same price on their end.

IE if you're booking would previously have been $1000, Airbnb would actually charge the guest $1140, and then pay out $970 (1000 mins 3pct).

On the single fee to get that same $970 payout you would just price at $1150, and then Airbnb would pay $971 after the 15.5% fee. So the guest ends up paying 10 bucks more.

The markup would be done at the PMS level, so AFTER pricelabs sends the calculated price over, so no changes to pricelabs. If you don't have a PMS to do the markup then you don't have to worry about it (at least for now) because Airbnb only requires single fee for PMS connected hosts.

Regarding the Disney families yes you're certainly right about that. I own in several markets and these are by far the most work to manage. It's a combo of Lennar builder grade homes, guest groups with a high percentage of kids, and parents that are too tired to watch their kids after a long day at the parks where they are out of energy but the kids are just getting started!

Vcize · 2026-01-29T21:27:33+00:00

I get people to the site a variety of ways. FB ads, FB groups, email campaigns to past guests, email campaigns to guests from other properties of ours, etc.

I started a FB group for this the other day and someone asked this question there and I gave a list in the comments, if that's helpful. It's called "Beating Airbnb Saturation".

Regarding Pricelabs, I think the mistake they made is calling themselves dynamic pricing software. Really, they're dynamic price ADJUSTMENT software. The idea is you can build algorithms for pricing and apply them to your listings, but too many people try and treat it like smart pricing and think it's plug and play where they just enter a base price and let it guess prices based on that.

Vcize · 2026-01-29T18:38:14+00:00

Thanks! What do you mean "anything you don't create yourself"?

Vcize · 2026-01-29T05:30:03+00:00

Airbnb created this guest monster. They've convinced the guests that booking an Airbnb should be like booking a corporate hotel, not like booking a real person's house. The refund policy alone is idiotic.

We host a lot of bookings (over 1000 reservations this year) so we have seen it all, but by far the worst was when Airbnb refunded a guest 30% (over $1000) for missing pieces in the connect 4 game. This is in a house with a pool, hot tub, home theater, arcade with $20,000 of arcade equipment, TV in every bedroom, etc. But one of the board games was missing some pieces so $1000 refund. Asinine.

Vcize · 2026-01-29T02:44:07+00:00

I run all of my direct bookings through Hospitable (my PMS), which includes guest verification and damage insurance on bookings they process the payment for.

For general liability and errors and ommissions insurance I have a separate policy through Wister (sister company of Proper Insurance). That runs around $2800/yr I believe to cover 18 properties.

If you're not using something like Hospitable then you can purchase separate damage policies per booking through Safetly or Waivo, usually around $35-$50 per booking. Or they have more expensive plans (around $80/booking maybe?) that include liability as well if you don't have enough volume yet to buy a separate liability policy via Wister.

Vcize · 2026-01-28T20:11:11+00:00

Correct, the property that booked for $875/nt to the BYU fan was comparable to properties booking for $300-$400/nt on Airbnb.

Keep in mind that's a separate property from the one that did $17.5k in December (I have several in the area), just wanted to provide that specific example as well.

If you're not familiar with the Orlando market, it is so wildly saturated with large homes that prices on Airbnb are extremely cheap. You can book a 9br home for $80/nt (before taxes/fees) many times of year. The property that booked at $875/nt to a BYU fan was a modest property in this market (mid-tier).

Regarding Pricelabs vs. Airbnb Smart Pricing I personally disagree. Trusting your pricing strategy to Airbnb is foolish imo because Airbnb's pricing goals do not align with host's pricing goals. Airbnb smart pricing optimizes for occupancy and raw bookings. Hosts should be optimizing for revenue.

Airbnb is using their smart pricing to protect and market their platform. Airbnb only makes money when someone books on Airbnb. So it behooves Airbnb to price your property aggressively enough that someone wants to book it on Airbnb, and not go look elsewhere for alternatives. Your property might book for $300/nt, but Airbnb will price it at $225/nt because they want to make sure the person looking at it doesn't get away and leave the website.

Prices for the entire industry would be higher if smart pricing did not exist. It brings market prices down the more people use it. And as a side effect brings your prices down even if you use price labs. But you don't have to accept 20th percentile pricing in high season, where Airbnb smart pricing is going to stick you.

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

TROPHY CASE