START HERE!
Once you’ve made the choice to move forward with a short term rental, that’s when the fun starts! Start with our checklists for each room to make sure you’re providing everything your guests will be expecting, plus the little details that they’re not necessarily expecting but will be delighted to find waiting for their arrival!
Then peruse our collections of articles about other topics you may find helpful during the process of setting up your first (or eleventh!) short term rental.
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Articles from our Blog that are helpful for STR beginners!
Being Prepared for Wear and Tear in your Short Term Rental
Wear and tear is an enigmatic term. It’s one of those ill defined legal terms that create tension because one person’s expected wear is another’s unexpected damage. So how do you know? We recently had a host pose this question as they plan to open their second short...
Short Term Rental Bathroom Checklist
This article contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission when you make purchases using these links, though there is no price increase for you! This nominal income helps us keep this website up and running - thank you for supporting our work! The worldwide...
Short Term Rental Living Room Checklist
This article contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission when you make purchases using these links, though there is no price increase for you! This nominal income helps us keep this website up and running - thank you for supporting our work! The worldwide...
Operations Plans for Short Term Rental Hosts
Early this week Amy showed us her tried and true process for mapping customer experience (and thereby putting a plan in place to improve customer experience and garner 5 star reviews!). It works really well for most industries, but is especially suited for short term...
Guest Experience Mapping for Short Term Rentals
In my 17 years of marketing, within many industries, customer experience mapping is still one of my all-time favorite exercises to work through with my clients. Every single touch point in which your potential guests, guests, and former guests interact with your brand...
Short Term Rental or Long Term Rental? What matters to you?
We really enjoy talking to property owners who are choosing between short term rental and long term rental. The factors that go into making a decision on how to utilize an investment property or Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to earn income really vary from person to...
Short Term Rental Guest Gifts: What to Consider
Should you provide a welcome gift? The answer: it depends. In working with hosts we are often asked if welcome gifts are necessary and based on our experience and listening to what others have to say on the subject, we can categorically answer: maybe. First, most...
Beds for Seats — Don’t Leave Your Guests Standing
Along with not having hooks for guests to hang a coat when coming in from the outside, another big short-term rental DON’T is having fewer places to sit and eat than there are places to sleep. If your STR sleeps 20, provide dining accomodations for 20. This doesn’t...
Well-Placed Labels in Your Short Term Rental
Elizabeth and I recently visited a client, Martha, in her short term rental for a consultation on quick and easy improvements needed around the unit. We were there to see what we could do with a budget of exactly zero dollars to improve guests’ experiences while in...
Accessory Dwelling Regulations and Short Term Rentals
Today we’re digging into a regulation change close to home for us that may have a positive impact on local residents’ ability to add a short term rental unit onto their existing property. The City of Durham recently approved an initiative called Expanding Housing...
5 Easy Tips for Impressing Your Short Term Rental Guests
Around here we talk a lot about things. Physical things, that is. Things that can enhance your guests’ stay in your short term rental property. And it’s true that the tangible items that your guests will touch and experience in your home are so very important to a 5...
Short Term Rental Branding: One Room, 3 Ways
Elizabeth and I spend a lot of time in short term rentals. With her color, planning and design background and my marketing and communications background, we always have ideas for how rentals could be spruced up or tweaked to speak more to us, personally. We’re also...