Last updated on July 16th, 2022
Welcome back to another episode of Into The Airbnb, where we talk with Airbnb hosts about their short-term rental experience.
Our guest for today is Jillian Schaffling, based in Syracuse, New York, who manages remotely an Airbnb unit in Davenport, Florida. Today, she’ll share with us about her story and Airbnb experience with some useful tips for hosts who are interested in remote hosting.
This episode is sponsored by Airbtics, the only one analytics dashboard for short-term rental investors and managers, where you can find precise Airbnb data such as occupancy rate, revenue, average daily rate and so on. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!
Into The Airbnb S2 EP 23: Planning on buying an vacation home? Make Airbnb payfor itself – Managing remotely in Davenport, Florida
You can also listen to this Into The Airbnb Podcast Episode on Otter.
Delia:
So can you tell me how did you get started on Airbnb?
Jillian Schaffling:
It was a few years in the making, we were rather new to it. We bought our first Airbnb in the fall of 2019 and started it in January 2020. Basically we wanted a vacation home that paid for itself. and we had been looking for actually about two, three years and with the rates they had dropped so drastically, we decided it was time to take the plunge. We purchased a single family home by near Disney World because that’s something we enjoy a lot as a family. So it was going to be for us, but as well as an investment property.
Delia:
Great! And did you come across that specific market just because you wanted to be near Disney or because of the market itself?
Jillian Schaffling:
Yes, it’s both. It was a smart investment because the theme parks drive a lot of traffic. It’s one of the if not the most popular vacation destination by volume and also, we enjoyed ourselves. We are Disney people, we have two young boys and we would go several times a year. So not only would the home be an investment, it would also be a savings for us because we would no longer be having to stay at hotels and so forth.
Delia:
Right? Yeah, I agree that was a smart investment. So I assume you’re doing remote hosting, right? Since you told me you’re based in New York.
Jillian Schaffling:
Yes, we pretty much handle almost everything on our own. We do have a great property management company in the fact that they’re just on call if we have any issues. They do our cleanings, they manage our pool and our lawn and again, anything that comes up, but we do manage everything ourselves, all the bookings, all the communication and so forth.
Delia:
Any particular thing that helps you manage remotely better, you know, any tool, anything you do?
Jillian Schaffling:
Absolutely, we heavily rely on our technology. We have an ecobee thermostat, so we can adjust that if necessary. We’ve had guests who want to pump the AC rather hard in Florida and can freeze up the AC unit, so luckily, with these devices, we can help manage that a little bit to avoid those issues. We have a slog door lock, which is phenomenal. So we can enter codes, delete codes, manage who’s coming and going. And we also have an Arlo camera with a solar panel on our driveway, which that’s disclosed, of course. All those items are so helpful, along with our excellent property managers that we really rely on.
Delia:
Yeah, I agree, those are really great tools! So how do you screen guests? How do you filter them? Because I know as there are multiples, it must be, not like a problem, but something that can worry you a lot. What can guests do you receive?
Jillian Schaffling:
Absolutely. Actually, that’s one of our biggest concerns. You know, this is our home, is our investment, you know, along with the rentals. We want to make sure that it’s in good condition and well cared for and we do screened a lot, we really do and we have knock on wood been very lucky. And reviews are great, you know, of course, reviews from inquiring guests are very helpful. But in our area, we actually get a lot of guests who don’t have reviews and we’re okay with that. You know, we are happy to give people a chips. One of the things that we’re lucky in our market is that it’s mostly families and mostly families who are out all day there at the theme parks. So meaning they’re not putting a lot of wear and tear on the home. You know, they’re not at the beach, so sand isn’t coming in and water and those kinds of issues. We do have a pool, but again, a lot of our guests are at Disney or Universal all day. So when we get cast guests inquire, we asked what the reasoning is for to be in town and as I said, most people are for the parks. We have make them acknowledge our three big rules through Airbnb messaging before we accept their request, which is that we do not allow any pets, we do not allow any smoking and we do not allow anyone on the premises other than those who are on the reservation, meaning absolutely no guests. So that avoids parties, locals who want to rent to throw, you know, a reunion party or just any kind of holiday event. Anytime we’ve had people that are questionable, usually when they have to acknowledge those rules, they don’t respond. We’ve been very fortunate where we have our guests say, “oh, absolutely no problem at all” and again, if you know ig they’re not being honest, we have it in Airbnb messages. So we have to make a claim we can refer back to that.
Delia:
Yeah, those are good rules. It’s actually the main rules for almost every listing.
Jillian Schaffling:
The most important roles, absolutely.
Delia:
That’s right and many guests, especially families are already used to it, so great for you. In the area you’re hosting, do you know what is the seasonality like?
Jillian Schaffling:
Actually, to be honest with you, what are the main reasons we invested in this area is it’s really very lucrative all year. There is really no downtime for the theme parks people visit all year long. Our slowest month is probably September, maybe October, but besides that, we are usually at just about 100% occupancy all year. September is our slowest where we would say it’s about 50% and that’s again because most of our guests are families visiting Disney World and so forth and their kids had just started school. But besides that, there’s lots of conferences, there’s lots of events and again, the Disney World just drives such a crowd. So we really do not have a low season, we have not experienced it yet.
Delia:
Oh, that’s great then! And how do you manage pricing throughout the year?
Jillian Schaffling:
Okay, so though there is a lot of vacationers in the Orlando area, there’s also a lot of Airbnbs and hotels and competition. So though we are at capacity mostly all year, unfortunately, that competition does drive our price down. So we just like to basically look at that internal Airbnb metrics, see what’s heavily searched weeks and then we do look at those recommended pricing guides that they provide and we pretty much manage it ourselves and our goal is honestly to be pretty close to the lowest priced home comparable to ours, so other single families, three bedrooms, two baths, with pools. That’s kind of our pricing just kind of constantly watching, you know, the popular weeks, what our competition is priced at and adjusting accordingly. Also, a big indicator for us is, we like to keep our bookings around 60 days, if we notice we’re getting reservations further out, we know our price is too low. If we’re empty within our 60 days, we know we’re probably priced too high. So that’s also a good indicator for us.
Delia:
Oh, I see and have you tried another pricing strategy aAlternative? For example, using a dynamic pricing solution or those types of services?
Jillian Schaffling:
No, no, we haven’t. We kind of just manage it on our own. Again, we are newer at the game, we only have the one property, so we can have more of that, more hands on approach.
Delia:
That’s great. I understand. So were there, in the time being an Airbnb host, some big challenges you confront it?
Jillian Schaffling:
Well, I think we kind of addressed that definitely the distance is a concern. You know, we are, you know, a good 18 hour drive, so it’s not like we can just pop over if there was an issue. So hence, the importance of really great property managers, as I had mentioned earlier, we’ve had the AC freeze up, our property managers ran right over, deiced it, got it going for us, you know, clogged toilet, things like that, things that we know we wouldn’t have been able to do ourselves. We just unfortunately can’t because of the distance, so we do rely on our property managers for that. And again, the technology, very helpful to make sure our property is being cared for and those who are there are supposed to be there and so forth. So those are our real saving graces.
Delia:
And was it easy to get your property management company, like this good one you have right now?
Jillian Schaffling:
We actually got extremely lucky. So when we purchased this home in, I think October or November of 2019, the pool was just sparkling and it had been vacant for a long time. The owners were from the UK and they weren’t able to come over because of COVID. But the pool looked sparkling, so we got in contact with our pool company and they are the property management company, they had only been managing the pool, nothing else. But they were able to take us on as the client to manage not only the pool, the lawn, the cleanings and those things that pop up. Oh, and they’re fantastic, they didn’t want to handle the bookings, which was great for us because that’s something we really wanted to control ourselves. We wanted to make sure we had good guests in that, you know, we’re going to take care of the property and we’d like being in charge with that, so it’s a wonderful agreement. They’re happy to help us take care of things and we’re happy to manage the other end of items.
Delia:
That’s great. You did get very lucky with that! And lastly, are there any tips that you’d like to share for other Airbnb hosts?
Jillian Schaffling:
Oh, sure. After only a year of this, I’m sure there’s a lot more people could add, but for us, lots of things that we’ve figured out to be very helpful in our success. We’re super hosts and we’re proud of that. We’ve been super hosts for four quarters now and, you know, obviously have that’s happy guests and what we find makes our guests very happy is the value. That’s a big contributor for making happy guests, they feel like they got a good value for their money, hence why we do price competitively. Also, cleanliness, our property managers are fantastic in the fact that they are so attuned to every detail and so clean. Almost every review remarks on how clean our places, we’re not the most updated property, we don’t have, you know, brand new kitchens and bathrooms. But we’re very clean and we have nice decor and it’s very friendly, inviting and people really want that, that’s really what they want. Of course responsiveness from the host, any questions or concerns, whether we can’t be there ourselves, we just tell our guests we will have someone over as quickly as possible that makes them rather happy. So just make sure you’re always responsive to your guests. And again, if you are like us or even if you’re not, even if you are local, technology is your friend, you know, the smart thermostats, whether you go with the nest or the ecobee, camera, perhaps on the driveway or the doorbell and then that door lock that you can adjust and manage yourself on your smartphone is just a real lifesaver. So those are some really good great tips I would think for someone just starting out.
Delia:
I think so too and thank you for the tips! Those are really great indeed. So that would be it for today. Thank you for your time.
Jillian Schaffling:
You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me!
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