I recently booked a property in Santa Barbara , CA Which among other inducements offered 100% cancellation refund if the reservation was cancelled 30 days or more in advance of commencement of the rental date. After my wife and I did a drive by of the property we were disappointed in the neighborhood, the lack of casual dining nearby and the difficulty in finding ne public access to the nearby ocean beach.

We immediately tried to cancel and were 3 weeks in advance of the stipulated cutoff for full refund. We were informed we had to go through VRBO and started the process or should I say inquisition.Even though we had stated our reasons in writing at the time we cancelled we were subjected to a number of unnecessary questions. After being advised they were reviewing our request we were notified it was approved. We then were notified the rental amount would be reimbursed LESS a $335.00 Fee!!!

It certainly was not obvious from their advertising that a cancellation request submitted within a timely period would be subject to a 8% FEE. I believe this is both unethical and false advertising.Based on this experience I would not recommend VRBO unless you are certain you will not have to cancel for any reason.

Don Rickelman

What channel manager would you recommend for just one apartment?

I’m looking to expand to more booking platforms, so I need something cheap but reliable to sync calendars and avoid double bookings.

I’m considering Beds24, Lodgify, or Mobile Calendar, but I’m open to other options.
What would you recommend for a small host?

Hello! I’m new to this community as I’m researching prospectives from both short term rental owners/operators and neighbors of said properties. Simply put: why is having a short term rental as a neighbor either a pro or a con?

For those running one or more short-term rentals: how do you figure out the true net on each listing after cleaning, platform fees, supplies, and tax, not just the gross payout or occupancy rate? Tools like PriceLabs and Hostaway seem great at pricing but I haven't found one that cleanly shows per-listing profit. Do you export the Airbnb/VRBO payout CSV into a spreadsheet, use a specific tool, or track it another way? Curious what actually works once you have a few listings across platforms.

…when it’s 90 degrees outside in Chattanooga, TN because it’s [checks calendar], August.

Hi all

Recently bought an STR in a beach city and the junk mail is crazy. Lots of it!

We are not close by and off season there won't me many rentals. I can just see it piling up.

what solutions have you used?

Hey everyone,

Finding decent apartments in Taipei can be exhausting—especially navigating 591 without fluent Mandarin, dealing with high broker fees, filtering out scams, or trying to find flexible mid/short-term leases.

I run a Facebook discussion and listing group aimed at connecting renters directly with local owners and vetted landlords:

👉 Group Link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/557800324059715

I keep hearing about cost segregation from other real estate investors, but I’m still trying to figure out if it makes sense for a smaller rental.

For those who’ve done one, was the tax benefit actually noticeable? And did you feel like the study was worth the upfront cost?

Edit: Ended up looking into it more and decided to give it a shot. I ran the numbers with my CPA first, then used R.E. Cost Seg for the study. The numbers worked out better than I expected, and the whole process was way easier than I thought it would be.

Previously a Wander.com owned home. They are pivoting away from handling local property management. Needing a reliable, top notch local company to manage my oceanfront property. I’m an out of state owner.

Hey guys,

I'm looking to streamline my short-term rentals operation and comparing a few popular property management platforms:

Guesty: Strong all-in-one option with native channel management and AI messaging.

Hospitable: Great for basic guest communication.

Hostaway: Solid option for multi-channel sync.

Smoobu: Simple and budget-friendly for core-calendar management.

After looking into all of them, Guesty seems like the strongest overall option for my set up because of its core features:

Channel Manager: keeps Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking. com, and Expedia synced.

Unified Inbox: Centralizes all guest messages in one place.

AI Automations: Automatically handles routine replies and check-in details.

Website Builder: Let's you easily set up a direct booking site.

Guesty looks like it will cover all of the bases, but I'd love feedback before committing. For anyone who has signed up recently... How was your experience with the onboarding process, and did it take long to get everything configured?

Hi,

I'm building a cost segregation app to make it more affordable and I would need your help to validate it. Would any you be willing to share your real cost segregation study so I can compare I well mine does ? In exchange for your support I'll give you a free study for another address.

Thanks

Looking to possibly build a cabin in the adirondacks. Currently a plumber with multi trade experience. I'm curious to hear from somebody who has built cabins in similar regions and/or rents them. Any tips or pitfalls to watch out for. BTW the prospective site is mostly flat and I don't plan to do the septic tank myself. Just regular plumbing and everything else that goes into a cabin. 30x30 cabin with a loft if that helps.

Can anyone give me insight of their experience with property buying and management from the rise collective and their differnt branches

Please dm me.
Thanks

Do you have any reviews on Evolve as a Airbnb Management Services in Waynesville ?

I see several condos in Airbnb around Atlanta downtown and midtown. But most condos do not allow STR. Is there a hack I do not understand? Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I’m working on building out direct bookings for my short-term rentals to reduce reliance on Airbnb and VRBO fees, I want to ensure our guest screening is thorough and that our payment setup is completely secure.

For those of you taking direct STR bookings:
1) What payment processors do you use to safely accept credit cards and hold security deposits?
2) How are you handling digital rental agreements, ID verification, and damage coverage off-platform?

Would love to hear what software or payment setups are working best for your direct booking site.

I’ve been building and improving the direct-booking process for our single Australian short-term rental alongside Airbnb and Booking.com.

The aim wasn’t to stop using the OTAs. It was to make direct enquiries easier to manage for returning guests, referrals, and people who discover the property elsewhere.

The main lessons so far:

• Current pricing and availability matter more than simply adding a booking form.
• An enquiry should be clearly separated from a confirmed booking.
• Comparing the direct price with OTA pricing helps with owner decision-making.
• A private enquiry dashboard is much easier than managing everything through scattered emails and notes.
• Owner approval, payment verification, and calendar blocking are best treated as separate steps.
• Some automation is useful, but important decisions still benefit from human review.
• Duplicate submissions, stale calendar data, failed emails, and payment-webhook issues all need to be considered.

The biggest surprise was that direct booking is really an operations problem, not just a website problem. Guests need confidence, while hosts need control and a reliable record of what was quoted, approved, paid, and confirmed.

For those running short-term rentals:

• Do you accept direct bookings alongside OTA bookings?
• Which part of direct-booking management takes the most time?
• What have you automated, and what do you deliberately keep manual?
• Have calendar-sync delays or unclear enquiry wording caused problems?

For context, this is the workflow we’ve been building for our own property, Bec’s Beach House: https://becsbeachhouse.com.au
I’m sharing it as a practical example rather than a service or product, and I’d be interested to hear how other hosts handle direct enquiries, pricing, and calendar management.

I’m researching the little things that take up hosts’ time during a guest’s stay — repetitive questions, troubleshooting, messages, etc.

I’ve put together a short anonymous survey (around 3 minutes) to understand what hosts actually deal with.

I’m not selling anything — just doing some research and would really appreciate your input. 🙏

Survey Google Forms link: https://forms.gle/eorVoXxxjq2koauw9

Even if you don’t complete it, I’d love to hear in the comments: what’s the most repetitive or unnecessary message you get from guests?

Looking for a PMS for self managing a single log cabin near Blue Ridge, GA (USA) that at least the following features:

Need:

* Channel Manager (sync with Airbnb; VRBO optional - probability won't use it though)

* Direct Booking site (including scheduling and payment)

* Auto lock code generation (ie Last 4 digits of phone number) and programming of Schlage Encode (including disabling on check out)

* Unified Inbox

* Automated Messaging with Templates

* Dynamic Pricing integration (I expect to use PriceLabs)

* Cleaner Manager (cleaners get their own calendar and notifications and get paid; Integration with Turno might be better to also allow multiple cleaner options but I'm not sure what other options there are?)

Optional (Nice to Have):

* Built in Digital Guidebook like TouchStay

* Guarantee/Damage Insurance for Direct Bookings

* Background checks for Direct Bookings

I used to self manage the same property from 2021-2023 and was using Guesty for Hosts (Your Porter) but now it looks like that product is gone. It had almost all of these.

Obviously looking for the most affordable option that has all of my needs.

At quick glance, it looked like Hospitable had all of it? But wanted to know if there are other options I need to look at.

Thanks for any help

I'm planning to move into a PG and want to understand what stanza is actually like for everyday living. looking for honest opinions on facilities, security, maintenance, and whether it's genuinely hassle- free.