Hello, all,
I feel compelled to write one last message before I remove this app from my shortcuts. I want to express appreciation to the members of this forum for the wisdom gained here.
After a shaky start, I checked this forum every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I think I dreamt about some of these conversations. A note to the newbies: The first time I visited, I stomped off after an exchange with someone who was unnecessarily snippy with a newbie that wasn’t familiar with the fact that some of the posts are not current. I came back, though, because I realized I was only hurting myself. There is a learning curve.
This forum has enabled me to conduct my 5-star, short-term rental business successfully from the get-go. I believe I avoided nearly 99% of the pitfalls of hosting because of the advice freely given, the wonderful helpful hints, product recommendations, and delightful debates that are had here. Out of several hundred bookings I only had two slightly bad experiences, and those were caused directly by my lowering my rates and standards briefly just to get a booking (yes, yes, against the advice given here). Every other booking was delightful. I loved hosting. What I loved most was making my guests happy. Every single one of my reviews seems to glow with the sentiment that my husband and I went out of our way to make our guests comfortable and that is true. I did not love working with Airbnb and Vrbo. I booked quite a few directly which were much easier. I transitioned to mid-term rentals last year and hosted a lovely traveling nurse. Mid-term rentals are much less stress and much lower income.
My motivation for hosting in the first place was to provide a stream of income to help finance a ministry to veterans and first responders that have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and/or traumatic brain injury (PTSD/TBI). I know that others have other financial reasons for hosting. We are retired and while the income was wonderful, it was not necessary for our financial survival. My husband and I are former military and we are in a location that is surrounded by military bases and is also a resort area. Throughout our STR experience we slowly upgraded our rental to be handicap accessible with the money we made. I was contacted by a woman that had seen an article about our fledgling ministry in an online magazine about accessible accommodations. She did not know that we do not charge for veterans and was excited to make plans to visit. This young family of seven who had never been on vacation or seen the ocean, the father, already suffering from PTSD had recently become a paraplegic, was able to stay all in one place for free for a week. They went fishing, crabbing (in a wheelchair!), played on the beach (our beach has an accessible wheelchair) and became lifelong friends. This all because we had seven successful years of STR. If I had not already promised next year to a professor from Austria who found us on Furnished Finder (that’s the site traveling nurses usually use) who is bringing his family to stay for the school year I would probably not be renting at all anymore. I have decided to finish my 501c3 application and transition fully to a charitable organization for veterans, first responders, and those in ministry or charities to use. I’d be glad to answer any questions about mid-term rentals if anybody has them, or any questions at all. I really appreciate everyone.
Anyway, thank you for so many great tips and stories. I couldn’t have done it without you.