[00:00:02] This is Short Term Rental Management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl.
[00:00:16] All right, today I want to talk about fire pits and pickleball.
[00:00:21] Are we over amenitizing or are we overcompensating?
[00:00:28] On today's episode of Short Term Rental Management, ladies and gentlemen, Smarter Short Term Rentals is now available.
[00:00:44] The new book from Avery Carle, Smarter Short Term Rentals. Build a dynamic real estate business and out post the competition.
[00:00:58] If you want to take your short term rental to the next level, pick up the new book, Smarter Short Term Rentals. Wherever books are sold.
[00:01:11] All right, springtime is in session. My mustache is back. For a limited time only on short term rental management. Today we're going to talk about these amenities. We've talked about it before, we're going to talk about it again. Amenities, Amenities. Over amenitizing. Why do we need so many amenities? And I have to tell you, I hate to say it, but when I see folks going crazy with these amenities and these fire pits and these pickleballs, etc.
[00:01:36] I'm thinking to myself, you, this is a first time landlord. This is a first time landlord. You don't understand what it's like to have all of these things.
[00:01:49] They're things, things break.
[00:01:53] Okay? So what drives me nuts is when somebody puts a bunch of expensive stuff in their house and number one doesn't know why they're not getting any bookings. Because I'm here to tell you, I've said it a thousand times, the best way to get bookings is to keep your rates low.
[00:02:15] Even if you want to go with this quote unquote luxury house that a lot of folks talk about, I want a luxury house. Well, why? First of all, if you want a luxury house for your family and rent it out on the side, go for it. If you're looking to do a luxury house that you're never going to go to and don't care about and it's just a spreadsheet, why are we doing that? Because you're just driving your price per night up, you know, and I would hope that you're keeping track of how much money you're spending on this thing so that you know how much you need to rent it for to make money. Lot of people don't keep track of that kind of stuff and then the next thing you know they're in over their heads and don't even realize it, which is a whole another problem.
[00:02:52] But maybe the reason that you're needing to Price your property so high is because you loaded it with a bunch of expensive crap.
[00:03:07] Did you really need a $14,000 swim spa?
[00:03:12] If you need a $14,000 swim Spa, your location probably stinks. What do you. Why are we. You're compensating for something. Why do we need all this stuff? Are you a terrible manager that has horrible reviews and you need a bunch of stuff to compensate to make up for the fact that you're not good at this? I just don't get it.
[00:03:35] Okay, I'm going to play both sides here. I am, I'm going to do. I'm going to go the other way. Both sides of the coin.
[00:03:41] Can it make your management life easier if you have a bunch of expensive crap in your house? Maybe it will definitely make it a little bit more attractive on the front end when they book the property, possibly make it a little easier to get some bookings.
[00:03:59] But in the end those people are going to show up and they're going to be expecting the world and you're going to have to give it to them.
[00:04:07] And I need you to think about that kind of stuff.
[00:04:10] Do you want to be the over the top hospitable host or do you want this thing to be passive, which is impossible, you know that if you're listening to my show, you know that. But it can be more passive than others, you know. So think about what kind of host you want to be. If you want to be super active, involved, etc. Then spend a bunch of money and get a bunch of stuff.
[00:04:41] If you just want to set and forget it, move on to the next house. Maybe you shouldn't be buying a whole bunch of expensive stuff that's going to raise your nightly rent, making things more difficult to book, but maybe make it a little easier to book because you have all that stuff. So it's a fine line there, right? Lots of fine lines on short term rental management. But it is a fine line between spending a bunch of money on stuff to make the house more attractive to get more bookings, and spending a bunch of money on stuff so that you're now your nightly rate is so high that you're not attractive.
[00:05:16] And the point I want to hammer home today, strm, is now that you have all this expensive crap in your house. The frappuccino machine, the I don't even know what, the three hole mini golf, the outdoor fire pit, the pickleball, etc. You've got to maintain it. You are now in charge of all of these things. They're Things, they're items and they will break. And the guests will lose the pickleballs and the guests will lose the pickleball paddle and you can tell them to bring their own, but somebody is inevitably going to show up to the house without a pickleball and a pickleball paddle and be butthurt that they can't play pickleball. And the truth is, why are we not just going down the street to the pickleball place and playing pickleball there if we're such big pickleball players?
[00:06:10] Because there are pickleball courts in every city in America now. They're at the tennis court place and you just reserve the pickleball court and you go play pickleball.
[00:06:22] Okay, now I get it, I get it. The cool stuff at our house could possibly make our lives easier in some ways. But you gotta be careful what you're getting yourself into. If you're a first time landlord and you are loading this house up with a bunch of stuff, you are loading yourself up with mo problems, more problems, more things to break, more stuff for the guests to be upset about that it doesn't work right and it wasn't as clean as they wanted it to be and the net's falling apart and a bird pooped on it and it looks gross and there's dead lizards in the corner and whatever.
[00:07:03] I live in Florida, so lizards are all over the place, you know, so you got to be careful with that.
[00:07:10] You do, you got to be careful.
[00:07:12] Why are we putting all this stuff in our house and then worrying about guests breaking a bunch of stuff? Oh, I gotta get my, my security deposits in order. I gotta get my, my rental agreement in order. I gotta get my, my, my, my damage insurance. Gotta have my damage insurance. Well, if you didn't have so much crap to break in your house, maybe you wouldn't need all this insurance and all these damage deposits, waivers, etc.
[00:07:41] Keep it simple, stupid. It's a band rock band called Kiss, which has nothing to do with keep it simple stupid, but they do rock.
[00:07:50] Took the kids to see Alice Cooper the other day. That was great. On a school night. You know, it was a little rough, but we made it work.
[00:07:58] Are you afraid of saturation? Well, join Short term Shop plus and let the saturated be afraid of you.
[00:08:08] Become the best in the
[email protected]. so while I do think there is a time and a place for the stuff, I also think you're causing yourself some headaches. And if you're a first time landlord and you're going out and spending $35,000 on a bunch of junk to put in your house, they're just going to break it. It is more stuff for people to break.
[00:08:33] People that have never been to a house before. Here's what they do. Here's what they do. They go, they walk in the house, they turn every knob, they turn every faucet, they turn every knickknack and they say, well, this doesn't work right. This isn't right. And then they message you and say your knickknack doesn't work right because number one, they don't have that knickknack in the house they live in. Or number two, the knickknack is different than the one in the house that they live in.
[00:08:59] And every single guest is going to do that same thing. They're going to walk in, touch everything, say it's broken or they will break it because they don't know how to turn it on. This happens in every house in America.
[00:09:13] The more stuff you have in that house, the more stuff that can break and fall apart and the more messages you can possibly get and the more annoyed you will possibly become because of this house.
[00:09:31] I just don't know how we got, we came to this world we live in here in short term and vacation rentals where people get into this because it's almost like they want to become an interior designer. And then the next thing you know, they're ripping the whole house apart and spending a bunch of money because they wanted it to look cool so they could get more bookings.
[00:09:51] I disagree with that.
[00:09:57] You have a tile shower that's indestructible, no glass shower doors, etc. Why are we going out and spending all this money on these fancy shower doors? They're gonna break.
[00:10:08] And a glass shower door is a liability.
[00:10:12] I got a two million dollar rental, one house, two million bucks. I don't know what it's worth somewhere in that neighborhood.
[00:10:19] Not one shower, glass shower door in that house.
[00:10:24] And would it be worth more if I were to go to sell it? If it had some fancy glass shower doors? Sure. Would it be more luxurious with this fancy glass shower doors? Sure. But I would hear about them and I would be worried about them and they could possibly break and some little kid could put their hand through it and cut themselves. And I don't want to have to think about that.
[00:10:43] It's a freaking rental house.
[00:10:46] All this stuff to me is adding up to the fact that you've just never been a landlord before and you probably need to go out and get a long term rental.
[00:10:56] I can't tell you how much better of a short term rental host you would be if you owned a couple of long terms.
[00:11:04] And I say that. And then I do meet these people that have three or four long terms and they get in short term and they still stink at it because they stink at their long terms too. We can't be doing that either. You know, you got to be good at both of them and care and pay attention.
[00:11:20] But I just wanted to hammer it home that the more stuff you buy for your house and put in your house, it's possible you are now causing yourself more headaches, possibly even costing yourself some reviews. Yeah, it's all fun and games and all that stuff's brand new and they're like, oh, five stars, pickleball and ba ba ba, shuffleboard and putt putt. But then a year and a half goes by and your mini golf fake grass is all torn up and moldy and falling apart and looks like crap. Four stars.
[00:11:52] It's more junk to keep up with.
[00:11:57] Okay, so what are we compensating for? Are you compensating for the fact that you're not a good manager? Are you insecure about the product that you're offering and think that you need it to be bigger and better and better? Because I'm here to tell you, if you're doing all this because you're not getting enough bookings, there are a lot of other ways to get more bookings.
[00:12:17] And to be honest, it's a lot of maybe your location just stinks because location is like 80% of it.
[00:12:26] And if you bought in a market that you don't know anything about and you just picked the house because you liked it, you know, maybe you got the wrong location there. And that's, that's going to be a bummer if and when you find that out someday.
[00:12:39] And hopefully you didn't, you know, but at the end of the day, I just want to, I just want to reiterate the fact that we could be costing ourselves more headaches, more problems, more management, more time by putting all these things in the house. Okay, It's a fine line. If it helps you get some more bookings, that's great. If it's, if it's causing you headaches or it might cause you a headache down the road, don't do it.
[00:13:08] Anything that I put in a rental property, I think to myself, is this going to get a phone call? Is this going to get A message. Am I going to get a text about this thing? Is somebody going to ask me to do something because of this item ever? And if they are, I don't want it in my house.
[00:13:25] Obviously many exceptions to that rule. We've got to have coffee machines and they do break, but you have an extra coffee machine in the closet and you could have systems for all this stuff. If you want to have the pickleball court, no problem. You have the pickleball paddles and the balls and you have extra ones in the closet and you work it into your system and you pay your cleaner a couple bucks extra to keep an eye on things.
[00:13:46] Or maybe you have a pickle, pickleball court guy that comes over once a week or once a month and maintains it and looks at it. Okay?
[00:13:56] So if you can build a system around it, that's fine.
[00:14:03] But at the end of the day, you do need to be asking yourself, is this thing going to make my life harder?
[00:14:08] And if the answer is yes, don't put it in the house.
[00:14:14] All right, I'm going to leave you with a quote from a book I'm currently reading called Buy Back youk Time by Dan Martel. It's really good. I'm really digging it. And the quote is, winners and losers have the same goals, but winners have better systems and know how to execute them. Which, by the way, I believe he stole that quote. And I think he credited the quote to a book called Atomic Habits, which you should read. And since we're talking about books, there is a new book that I have my hands on called Smarter Short Term Rentals and you should pick it up and leave us a five star review on Amazon. For. For Smarter Short Term Rentals. Long hair Luke Carl, the greatest vacation rental landlord in history, reminding you, don't overthink it.
