676: Rob's Real Talk: What Running Short-Term Rentals at Scale REALLY Looks Like

The short-term rental game is not one to enter lightly. Regular rental property investors shudder at the constant turnover, consistent guest complaints, and far more intensive upkeep that vacation rental property owners pride themselves on. But is a week in the life of a self-managing short-term rental empire owner that bad? Well, maybe we’ll just have Rob Abasolo AKA Robuilt, YouTube’s go-to authority on vacation rental investing, answer this. Rob has had a troubling week to put it lightly. From guests somehow deadbolting themselves out of their homes to ACs being frozen solid, sending vacationers to the wrong address, and almost obliterating a $20,000 pool, many things can go wrong in the realm of short-term rentals. But, is the profit worth the pain? Dave Meyer from On The Market joins along this episode to act as Rob’s therapist/cheerleader as we go through a week’s worth of almost unbelievable events in the life of a vacation rental property owner. This episode highlights lessons learned from each mistake that you can use to build a better rental property portfolio, have a more seamless customer experience, and maybe get a little more “me and my burrito” time. In This Episode We Cover: Setting up fail-safes around your short-term rental so guests always have a way in Why sticking to your guns isn’t always the best way to build a strong vacation destination brand Supply chain shortages and how it’s severely delaying short-term rental owners Why you should never fully drain a pool (unless you like paying $20,000+ in repairs!) Using speed to your advantage and making guests feel heard as soon as a problem arises Staying in contact with your team so you can solve problems smarter And So Much More! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Youtube Channel BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets Pro Membership BiggerPockets Bookstore BiggerPockets Bootcamps BiggerPockets Podcast BiggerPockets Merch Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Learn About Real Estate, The Housing Market, and Money Management with The BiggerPockets Podcasts Get More Deals Done with The BiggerPockets Investing Tools Find a BiggerPockets Real Estate Meetup in Your Area David's BiggerPockets Profile David's Instagram Rob's BiggerPockets Profile Rob's Youtube Rob's Instagram Rob's TikTok Rob's Twitter Dave's BiggerPockets Profile Dave's Instagram The Ultimate Guide to Short-Term Rental Properties How I Perfected the Process of Self-Managing My Rentals Vacation Rentals Are Popular, But Are They Profitable? Book Mentioned in the Show: Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth by Avery Carl Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-676 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our sponsor page! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices