Background
My wife and I bought our first vacation rental place in Berkeley Springs, WV about 3 years ago (2005). Since we were not sure how to rent it or how to manage it since we lived about 90 miles from the cabin.
We decided to use the local vacation management company. We had to pay some startup fees to be on their website which was fine. Their commission was 30% which I thought was a bit high but we decided to try it. We needed to sign a one year contract which we did. Every month I would get their statements and would be shocked to get around 40% of the total revenue for that month. For example
Below is a sample monthly statement
As you can see the company took 30% commmission and charged us for supplies (soap, toilet paper). Even during our business months we would barely get $1,000 even when it was rented over 20 days. I decided to help the management company by putting ads in Craigslist and VRBO. I was able to get plenty of referral through those sites which I forwarded to our management company. I thought by sending referrals to the management company they could reduce their 30% commission to 20% or at least 25% but they would have none of that.
Finally I had enough of the nickel and diming. They charged .12 cents for each small soap bar and charged .40 per 55 gallon trash bag. Plus they did not reducing their commmissions for referrals that I brought in, I decided to let the management company go and start managing it myself. And it was one of the best decisions I have made. Now don't me wrong it took some work doing it on my own. But since leaving the managmenet company, I not only break even but make a small profit.
We decided to buy another vacation rental place in WV and that's when I needed a software to track everything. I probably need something when I was managing one cabin.
Looking online for software
I did days of research and found several vacation management software. However, I would say half of the applications that I found were download and install application. Which are nice but I wanted something that I could use online and check from any computer. Plus most of those applications, would charge for upgrades and support. And charge for additional rental unites. Some of the applications didn't have the reports I needed or features that I wanted. Plus they charge you extra if you have another cabin.
Other companies charge 10% of the rental costs instead of a monthly fee. Which is even worse since that could add up to thousands of dollars per year. [You can check out the comparison vs other software in the Features section.]
The Start of the Vacation software
I decided to built an online vacation management software with several exciting features. [check out the features] Plus, we will have a low monthly rate and it will be the same monthly rate whether you have 1 cabin or 3 cabins. Upgrades will be free and there is no yearly contract. So you can cancel at any time. We plan on having a monthly newsletter and useful rental articles so you can maxime your rental income.
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