How to start a short-term rental business: Lessons from your first year
To start a short-term rental business, set up your property from the guest's point of view. Build a reliable cleaning team. Use pricing software rather than guessing your rates. Keep your tech simple, focus on one booking channel first, and over-communicate everything.
That's the advice from Colleen Coale, Co-Founder of Hurford Place Hospitality, in Stage 1 of The STR Growth Curve from Host Planet and Hospitable. Catch the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
How do you get your first short-term rental property?
Colleen and her husband Matt started without owning a single property. They're co-hosts and property managers in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Their first client came from networking at a local short-term rental conference, where a larger operator agreed to pass on owners whose properties didn't fit his portfolio.
Even so, it took nine months to land that first property. "It's a lot of trust for someone to put in you," says Colleen.
How do you set up a short-term rental for the first time?
Walk through the property as a guest, not an investor. Colleen's checklist started with the basics: if the house sleeps eight, provide at least eight of every cup, plate, and set of cutlery.
The things she missed at first were small but mattered:
Throw blankets for cold winter evenings
Complete kitchen sets. If you provide a cupcake tin, add measuring cups too
A sponge with the washing-up liquid
An emergency plan for problems during the night
How do you find and train a cleaning team when you start a short-term rental business?
Start with a simple checklist and ask cleaners to send photos when they finish. Set clear standards and stick to them, but listen when cleaners say something isn't realistic. "It might not be the first person you hire, or even the third, and that's OK," says Colleen.
How should first-time hosts price their rental?
"If you don't know what you're doing, find someone or something that's going to help you," Colleen says. She and Matt skipped Airbnb's built-in pricing tools and used PriceLabs from the start, building sets of comparable properties to price against.
What tech do new Airbnb hosts actually need?
Avoid "shiny object syndrome." To start with, you only need:
A guest messaging tool with automated messages and calendar sync, such as Hospitable
A dynamic pricing tool
A way to talk to your team. WhatsApp or Slack works fine to begin with
Noise monitoring, depending on your area (Colleen uses Minut)
How do you get five-star reviews?
Remind guests to leave a review after checkout
Give them a private channel for complaints, so frustrations don't end up in public reviews
Set the tone from the start. Colleen's Wi-Fi password is literally "fivestarstay"
When a bad review comes in, look for the truth in it. If several guests say the same thing, "that's a you problem, not a guest problem."
How should you handle a guest crisis?
Fix the problem before you offer money back. When a cleaner missed a clean, Matt brought round firewood and s'mores supplies, and cookies arrived the next day. "Even when you refund a guest, they're still going to be angry with money in their pocket," Colleen says. Getting the stay back on track is what earns the review.
What do new hosts learn the hard way?
Nothing is common sense. At their first property, almost every guest set off the house alarm because they thought the keypad was the door lock. Use signs, photos, videos, and QR codes to explain everything.
Quick-fire tips for first-time hosts
Photography: hire a specialist short-term rental photographer, not a real estate one. Stage the rooms and keep photos true to life.
Welcome baskets: keep them simple. A note, water, and snacks is plenty.
Amenities: find out what your area needs. In the Poconos, a hot tub is essential.
Local recommendations: know your area and support local businesses.
Scaling: only add a second listing when your systems and your confidence are ready.
Download the full STR Growth Curve e-book
Stage 1 is the start of a 12-stage journey. The STR Growth Curve e-book covers every stage, from preparing for your first booking to selling your business. Download your free copy.
The STR Growth Curve is brought to you by Host Planet and Hospitable. Get 25% off Hospitable for the first three months. Click here for details.
Comments