I want to thank everyone on this thread for your input. Here’s where I’ve ended up:
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To clarify, I never expected this to be easy. My wife and I purchased this property for myriad reasons. We’re just hoping to offset some costs by renting the most modern and newly renovated dwelling on the property.
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In my 30 years of experience, a vendor, contractor or consultant does not become the brand of your company. This concept of my property (my business) being listed under a management company account is ludicrous. Barring any new developments in this space, I won’t be working with any of them.
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Dogs: I’ve decided to run some A/B tests to better understand the response to allowing pets. I can always change the listing one way or the other
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Most importantly, as @HostAirbnbVRBO @Brian_R170 @jaquo and others have pointed out, a local co-host or property manager is a necessity. It was always my intention to have a co-host: my son lives in another dwelling on the property from August through May and will be my co-host during those months, but June, July and August are considered the high season so I need to find an interim solution - or work remotely from Santa Fe in the Summer. It certainly doesn’t suck.
Open Items
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How should I search for a local co-host? Does anyone have experience with this? How would you compensate them? Retainer, hourly or a percentage of bookings? Something else? Would a management company be better?
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I need to find the right SaaS solution for managing bookings across the STR sites. I’ve found lots of reviews, good and bad. Does anyone have personal experience with this? I’ll continue to search the forum for opinions.
Once again, thanks to all.