Slay The Short Stay ™

The more short-term rentals I add to my portfolio, the more I realize that the investments I can make in hardware and software products can make life a lot easier. Even with just one rental, there are lots of tools you can use to make you feel more at peace while managing the business. Keeping… Continue reading My STR Tech-Stack: The Smart Tools I Use At My Airbnbs To Improve My Operations

I've talked in previous posts about my undertaking of a further-away, remote management Airbnb home. I also mentioned the fact that we (my girlfriend/business partner and I) "inherited" long-term renters from the previous owners. Luckily, those tenants were on a month-to-month lease which we allowed them to extend a couple months until they found a… Continue reading Sh*t Hit The Ceiling Fans: Frustration Over Fixtures

It can be scary letting strangers into your house, especially if that house is also your home. Whether you're living a thousand miles away from your short-term rental or just a few feet from your rented-out room, establishing rules that are clear, concise, firm, and easily visible can make a big difference in the control… Continue reading Airbnb House Rules And How To Make Sure Guests See Them

The area in which two of my short-term rental properties reside is home to a few large companies and a handful of hospitals. These, among other causes like home renovations keeping people out of their homes, make my houses desirable to guests looking for stays of a few weeks to a month or even more.… Continue reading Monthly Management: Handling The Longer Short-Term Stay

This week was one of the longest of my life so far. What started as a trip to check on the placements of my smoke and CO2 detectors turned into a week-long near-nervous breakdown and 12+ hours of driving to prevent the would-be disaster of a burst pipe in the Michigan Winter. In this post… Continue reading Remote Temperature Monitoring: My Battle With Frozen Pipes And How I Watch The Winter From Afar

In a previous post I talked about my renter-from-hell experience and how it opened my eyes to the potential for awful guests in this industry. I tried my best to learn from the experience and protect myself from ever letting it happen again. In this post I'll talk about what raises my antennas before and… Continue reading My Top Airbnb Guest Red Flags

This is a common discussion topic in all of the Airbnb forums I've joined and it isn't a one-sided argument. Allowing renters to bring pets into your home not only opens you up to more customers - It also lets you charge extra in the form of a "pet fee". Obviously, these animals can also… Continue reading Pet Policies: Should I Let The Furry Friends Come Along?

I left the closing table of my latest house excited to get started furnishing and listing my first out-of-state home on Airbnb. I was also excited, nervous, and unsure about a brand new challenge… telling the long-term tenants, who had never met me, that they needed to find a new place to live. This problem… Continue reading Respectfully Removing a Renter: How To Transition From Long-Term To Short-Term Rental

My phone started “blowing up” with pictures and videos from my cleaning partner, showing me the damage and disregard for my house rules by the guest who had recently checked out. I was LIVID at first. But, after a few minutes, I realized why I should be grateful for the experience and started identifying the… Continue reading They Had a Party: The Dreaded Phone Call And How It Improved My Short-Term Rental Business

After I got my first short-term rental up and running, my mind started buzzing about a million miles-per-hour thinking about the possibilities of the business. Especially once I strengthened the automation of my same-state rental homes, I thought about what it would look like to have homes in other places…further away places…places I would want… Continue reading Short-Term Staycation: Utilizing Your Airbnb Business To See The World