Dollars & Cents

All About That Paper

When managing a rental income property, maximizing the home’s earning potential benefits both our homeowners and Beats Working Vacation Rentals alike. Because of our hands-on approach, homeowners who switch to Beats Working Vacation Rentals from another rental manager earn an average of 30% more per year. Each listing is touched daily, pushing our vacation homes to the top of each booking site’s search results.

We like to be transparent and communicative with our homeowners, ensuring that there is no ambiguity or confusion about cash flow or projected expenses. Unlike the larger rental companies, we do not have yearly marketing fees, required linen programs, or maintenance up-charges. 

At Beats Working Vacation Rentals, we review our listings and nightly rates on a daily basis, adjusting the rates as needed to find that “sweet spot” where both occupancy and income are maximized. Although many management companies and software packages advertise complicated algorithms that generate “smart pricing,” we have found these algorithms to be relatively useless. The pricing is often inconsistent, and inconsistency is not part of how we do things. Larger rental companies use these programs so that they can “set it and forget it” when it comes to determining nightly or weekly rates. These companies generate revenue for their business based on quantity. We generate our business revenue based on quality and attention to detail.  

We charge both our 18% management fee and a cleaning fee for each reservation. Our management fee, paid as a percentage of the base booking income, covers all of the services that Beats Working Vacation Rentals provides for a home, outside of the actual cleaning and any maintenance. The flat-rate cleaning fee is paid by the guest and goes directly to our staff, whom we take pride in paying a living wage.

All reservation payouts are made via direct deposit to a homeowner’s bank account, no later than the 10th of each month.

  • Airbnb: Reservations booked on Airbnb are paid directly to Beats Working Vacation Rentals’ escrow account. These funds are held until your monthly payout.

  • Direct Bookings: For two specific reasons, we no longer offer direct bookings.

    • Liability Purposes — Airbnb offers the homeowner and the host $1 million in liability coverage. This protects both of us from fraudulent lawsuits and allows us to keep our premiums for our home and business liability coverages low. That said, we do have incentive programs for our regular guests which drives them to book on Airbnb.

    • Staying Current — Algorithms are tricky. If you were to block three months for a snowbird flocking to the beach for a winter, your home’s listing would seem inactive to Airbnb. This lack of guest interaction would then push the listing down the Airbnb search algorithm, which in turn drives down the speed in which your home books for spring and summer.

Beats Working Vacation Rentals uploads all reservation and expense data into an easy-to-read Google spreadsheet that homeowners can access at any time. For each reservation, we detail the owner’s gross and net revenue, Beats Working Vacation Rentals’ commission, any applicable lodging taxes paid, nightly base rate, platform service fees, cleaning fees, check-in dates, etc. This is a great way to reference current revenue generated, current nights rented, and the home’s annual rental income history. We utilize Google Sheets as an “owner portal.” We store monthly invoices and receipts in the portal for easy homeowner access, along with a record of completed maintenance projects and recommendations for future maintenance items. We provide owners with a link to their home’s online listing and give the option for owners to have a co-hosting account for full calendar viewing. Our business model is designed so that homeowners can easily call, text, or e-mail us if they have any questions or concerns. 

We strive to have a consistent business format for all homeowners, but because we are a boutique company, we do have the freedom to be a little flexible. We fine-tune our offerings to each our homeowner’s needs, requests, and quirks. Some of our policies are non-negotiable, but we work hard to make the management experience personal and customized for our clients. We are anything but cookie cutter, and we know the same is true for our owners. We want our homeowners to have the same experience as our guests—feeling cared for, supported, and heard. 

If you are interested in working with us, please reach out

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