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Increased number of rentals in the area.
Many are empty.
Unauthorized People are using them for personal use-birthday parties by the pool, living there, adult fun time, etc.
The recurring themes are no cameras & no elock so service providers or their friends or maybe strangers who’ve noticed it is empty are taking advantage.
Whether the property is owner managed or with a property management company doesn’t seem to matter. It’s the lack of anyone being on-site and/or cameras.
With no proof of anything, I’m guessing in my area the lack of affordable housing is contributing. Plus there is always someone willing to take advantage. And in some FB groups of guests & hosts some guests have been extremely negative which comes across as the perception of the have nots vs the haves.
Sad/tough times we are in. Please be diligent monitoring your property.
The increased number of rentals to some extent depends on your area. If you’re in a place that historically is a vacation town, then there have always been plenty of hotels, motels and STR rentals.
The important thing is to do your job better than anyone else and offer fantastic value and hospitality.
Regarding those empty rentals, they are possibly owned by remote hosts who are basically landlords.
They might also belong to hosts who don’t have insurance, local licenses, pay bed tax and so on - these rentals are there one minute and gone the next.
Over the years I have seen millions of them. (Okay, exaggeration).
I know that I’ve been banging on about this forever, and I also know that some people host remotely remarkably successfully but I’m convinced that it’s being on-site that prevents 99.9% of problems and enables a host to offer excellent hospitality.
Professionally, my mind always goes to internal controls and lack thereof with property managers. It seems to me that remote hosting offers an unpalatable choice between going with a major company and its cookie-cutter approach and impersonal cleaning & maintenance outsourcing, vs. a small time manager who is more prone to unexpected service interruptions or could easily make more money renting your place out on the side.
