Seth H

@MrJonesSTRs I’m ready to test this theory in KY

@theSTRpro In a cold market, indoor pool is absolutely rip

How much additional revenue does a swimming pool add to your Airbnb? Here's some data (with vs without pool avg revenue difference) Austin, TX +$38,181 Miami, FL +$53,195 Joshua Tree, CA +$19,121 Smoky Mountains, TN +$9,868 Atlanta, GA +$8,468

We’re currently about 45% Airbnb, 40% VRBO, and 15% direct bookings. Our biggest focus this year is growing that direct booking to 25%. We’re testing StayFi, email marketing, retargeting ads, and giving past guests a reason to book with us again instead of through an OTA. Diversifying channels is great, but owning the guest relationship is even better.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. 🧺 Airbnb + VRBO + Booking.com = more demographics and fewer empty nights. Diversify your reach to keep that calendar full. 🗓️✨ Which platform do you find most reliable?

31/ Everything I know about this business I learned between 2019 and 2022. One house to seventeen, through a pandemic that should have ended us. I’m documenting all of it here the numbers, the acquisitions, the mistakes.

30/ I’m not saying he was wrong. He wasn’t wrong for everyone. He was wrong for us. The best market is usually the one you can drive to and already understand.

26/ Here’s why. One handyman. One plumbing crew. One HVAC company. One set of cleaners. Every property inside a short drive of where I live.

25/ Around the same time, an Airbnb guru I genuinely respected and still do told me we were doing it wrong. No diversification. Every asset in one city. We needed vacation markets. Poconos. Gatlinburg. Gulf Shores. I respectfully disagreed.

24/ Then we caught wind that our city was drafting short-term rental regulations, modeled on a nearby city’s. Covid slowed the whole process down. It took two years to finalize. In that window we built out 17 properties in our hometown.

1/ In 2019 my brother @hillensc and I bought a $525,000 house to put on Airbnb. I was terrified. Nine months later a global pandemic erased every booking we had. Here’s what happened next. 🧵