Why on earth would checking out your ‘local firearms store’ be helpful in terms of having accurate information about the Corona virus @summerfun?
And lots of the ‘information’ you have posted has been shown to be inaccurate sadly.
1 Like
This is my first post here but I have lurked around a lot in the past year and gotten some truly significant value from all of you.
I am a host with 5 properties, 4 of which have mortgages still attached. So I am feeling a lot of the same pain that I am reading in this forum but there are definitely steps that can be taken to mitigate the pain. I understand that not all of what I write will be applicable to every host in this forum, but maybe some of you will find some value in what I write here. These are the steps that I am taking in all 5 of my rentals right now and having some moderate success.
-
Deep cleaning everything
-
Putting a large bottle of hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes in each unit, photographing it and adding it to the first 5 photos in my listing with the caption reading " Our condo is professionally cleaned between guests, we change every towel, bedding and pillow between stays and we are providing Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer in addition to our normal package of soaps and shampoos. Your health is our #1 priority and we are taking every precaution to make sure your stay is safe and you are entering a sanitized space!"
-
Sending a form letter to all upcoming guests that haven’t yet canceled. Informing them about the situation here in my area, what the local government is saying, what precautions are being taken and informing them about past guests we have had and what their experiences have been upon returning home to their local airport.
If you have questions on this I am happy to send it to you if you send me a PM. -
I have begun advertising the listing in new locations, primarily the FB groups about my destination and Craigslist. I have posted 5x a day in both for every single listing. This is something that I would have never done in the past but I have already gotten a month long and 14 day booking through Craigslist. There are the obvious negatives of these type of guests compared to the more controlled system we are accustomed to with the platforms but I am generating revenue and I vetted the people pretty well and am happy with the renters. On CL I advertised both in the Vacation Rental section as well as the long term section. AGain if you would like to see examples just DM and I am happy to share.
-
I have started offering additional services that when I was working full time I would not have been able to do. (I am currently not going in to the office at all so I have all the free time). I know many of you already do this but its something I never had time to do in the past and just wasn’t necessary in the “good times”. This is in the form of a check in note that I am leaving with $ amounts attached. The actual $ amount charged obviously differs based on your market but it’s a nice way to earn some additional money if you have the time.
These include offering:
Airport Pickup/Dropoff
Grocery Delivery Service
Car Rental
Bike Rental -
Connecting to all the hosts I know in my area and creating a WhatsApp chat with many of them. This is just to stay in contact and see whats going on in my area. However this has already lead to another booking for me where one of the hosts was going to cancel on their guest and I stepped in to host them instead. I paid the other host a 10% “finders fee” and told everyone if they can’t host confirmed reservations for any reason, send me their contact info first and I can try to accomodate them.
As of today this is going to net me about 55% of my normal monthly revenue but something is better than nothing. I am posting this because I have been reading nothing but gloom and doom the last few days and while this is obviously going to be an incredibly difficult time we can still take proactive steps.
If you want to continue hosting, are in good heath, are aware of the risks and can still provide value to the customer there are plenty of opportunities to recoup some of that lost income.
Hope someone reading this takes some value from it and I am open to hearing other ideas and strategies. Stay safe and healthy and good luck to all of my fellow hosts!
Alex
8 Likes
Thank you so much for your attempt to be helpful and positive. I assume you are in Cabo San Lucas?
When this hits Mexico and the travel ban is implemented, do you have a fall back plan?
This is a fantastic post, lots of concrete suggestions. Thank you for posting.
2 Likes
Some interesting suggestions and useful pointers @AlexLosCabos
You are lucky though, that you haven’t been banned by these social media groups. Many make it clear they don’t like members to join the group primarily to spam it to promote their services.
If you want to use social media to advertise - why not set up a FB page and invest in some targeted advertising to direct traffic to your page.
Oh, it has hit Mexico. From a handful of confirmed cases a few days ago to about 100 now, and I’m sure the actual number of cases that haven’t been identified are far greater. And will probably skyrocket, as the govt hasn’t put out any info or restrictions on travel and Mexicans seem to be walking around in ignorant bliss.
once more I have failed to adequately word my thoughts. I know there are cases. I mean hit, punch, hurt Mexico. So much that they take sensible steps like close all non-essential travel. An El Paso family just left their 2 dogs with me on Monday afternoon and flew out yesterday to a Cancun resort. I’m flabbergasted but happy for the dog money. In a selfish sense I hope they get stuck there. Another dog is who came Sat has now been extended to the end of the month. I’m giving them a discount given the circumstances but hey…their fault too.
2 Likes
Simple answer is no. If we went to completely zero income I would be in very bad shape. So trying to stay positive and stay out in front of the issues. I have been through this here before after a massive Hurricane hit in 2014 and we got a good view of what this is going to look like.
We have some cash reserves and are exploring long term options for rental but I’m not sure what the demand will be. The recent bookings have all been people that have been offered a work from home option and are choosing to do it here in Cabo instead of back home. I am very open to hear other ideas that people are implementing. Just talking it out is a huge positive
1 Like
Craigslist in particular is much less used by Mexicans and completely unregulated. I was actually banned in the San Diego CL where I was posting 2-3 times a day as well.
Its crazy but we are still getting incoming guests. They are FINALLY temperature checking at the airport but ignorant bliss is an accurate way to describe the governments/ populations attitude up until about a week ago. They finally canceled all school for a month and are getting more proactive with the measures that they are taking.
@SNC I have to admit that I was wrong about the virus and the heat. Just got off the phone with folks in Brazil. It’s picking up there too.
86% of infections comes from asymptomatic people, mostly young folks. Recent study.
This is a good one about 3 hours in the air…
2 Likes
I’m going to be honest. More than one of your posts over the last few days annoyed the snot out of me. But your posts did seem to be coming out of good intentions so I was trying to be patient. Ability to admit one is wrong is a great quality that really separates the sheep from the goats. All of us could probably do a little less “pronouncing on the truth” and more “waiting for the the data.”
Thanks for being open to learning.
3 Likes
The other thing you don’t seem to be aware of is that you seem to think that anywhere south of the US has hot temperatures. The temperature for Sao Paulo, Brazil today is 74F. Where I live on the west coast of Mexico just north of Puerto Vallarta it’s still long sleeves at night temps.
It takes way higher temperatures, for a sustained period of time to kill cornavirus.
The Brazilian folks I talked to live not far away from San Paolo. The temperature during the day was about 90F. Humidity is a factor too but I’m not sure what was it like in their area as it was a business call.
If I understood your comment correctly with hot temperature there is hope…
I’ve never been to Mexico hence know nothing about weather patterns over there.
But in Southern Europe the weather gets hot only from mid July. Heating bills are high there so many people use warm clothes instead of heating. Hence lots of folks have weak immune system and pneumonia in winter months.
In the US, in my area, where I live now, people seem to be much healthier even though food is crap compared to Europe. I can’t understand why the virus spreads so fast here. My theory is that it was always here but never detected before.
Again, I truly believe that hot temperature will help.
First corona death announced a few minutes ago in Mexico. The person never travelled overseas just visited concert in Mexico City…had pneumonia…41yo…
Really @summerfun???
Did you actually read what I said? Out of the seven points I made, five are still completely valid. The other two were valid based on information we had at the time.
Let’s remind ourselves. The ones I made that are still very much valid are:-
- I said it was a global pandemic- you said it was only a western world pandemic
WHO declared it as a global emergency back in January - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51318246
- You said as a 50 year old you were high risk. I said high risk are older people 70+ and those with lower immune systems
The WHO says “People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.”
-
You stated that a vaccine wouldn’t be available till 2021 - I said we didn’t know when a vaccine would be available.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51665497 -
You said ‘southern Europe’ isn’t as prepared as Asia. I said you can’t lump huge areas together as individual countries have individual responses.
I was correct each country has had different responses to the virus. And countries in Asia also struggling to contain the virus https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51939911
- You claimed the warmer weather would exacerbate the virus. I said the evidence so far points to it be seasonal .
How are these statements 100% wrong?
If you have factual evidence that shows, for example, that older people and those with low immune systems aren’t more vulnerable to the virus than a healthy 50+, or that the pandemic is only in western countries. please feel free to provide links that support your position from credible sources such as John Hopkins, BBC, Reuters, PA.
If not I ask you again please stop scaremongering.
3 Likes
@summerfun
There you go again. KKC and many others are probably right out of snot.
“Hence lots of folks have weak immune system” - what a load of bollocks
“My theory is that it was always here but never detected before.” no , that is why it is called the NOVEL coronavirus
" I truly believe that hot temperature will help" - well some people believe in fairies, and Santa Claus and lucky charms . Wish you luck with your belief !
6 Likes
So, how many summers have you actually spent in “Southern Europe”?
Temperatures of 30C+ are not unusual as early as April or May, or don’t you consider that hot?
Jeez…
@RobbyG It will you know, as it’ll make chatting to your neighbour more pleasant when you do it from your roof terrace, in the sun, with a beer in your hand. Whilst still under lock down 
JF
4 Likes
Certainly true though I don’t think that was what @summerfun. (oh the delicious irony of this nom-de-plume )had in mind. I wonder if he/she has seen your Corona virus Honest Govt Ad post in the Dumb in the time of Corona thread.
Salud!
3 Likes
Anyone can look up current or average temperatures for anyplace in the world with a simple Google search, it isn’t necessary to go to that place.
But you don’t seem to be into doing any real research, instead you just post your theories and beliefs.
In other words, you have no idea what a highly contagious pandemic is or how it is spread. It spreads fast EVERYWHERE if people don’t just stay home.
1 Like