We value your property like it’s our own. We keep it safe in a variety of ways. We pre-screen all guests who stay at any of Busy 2 Book’s locations, and the average stay is 1–6 days. We also have state-of-the-art security systems, including exterior cameras, electronic locks, and 24/7 monitoring. Lastly, we always collect damage deposits and handle any issues that may arise as a result of someone damaging your property. We also perform maintenance inspections to ensure your home stays in immaculate condition on a regular basis. It’s in our very best interest to keep your home in perfect condition because otherwise it will reflect poorly in our reviews from our guests.
That depends! This is why we conduct a thorough market analysis after you apply to partner with Busy 2 Book. We will provide you a detailed estimate of what we think your property will yield in income for you.
Like any investment property, it’s important for a homeowner to have the right coverage in place to protect their asset. Since Busy 2 Book has no ownership in your home, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to ensure they have proper coverage that also protects their home for short term rentals. If needed, we do have several connections with very reputable insurance companies that do provide this coverage in the event your carrier may not cover short term rentals.
Our objective is to make everything as simple and passive as possible for all of our partners, this includes taxes as well. As we manage every reservation and guest that comes through your property, Busy 2 Book also handles the responsibility of collecting and remitting the appropriate sales taxes and tourism levies on behalf of their clients. Of course, since you are receiving income from your property as a homeowner, you will still have the responsibility of filing this income on your own personal tax returns, but everything else we take care of for you.
It varies. If you have chosen our Partnership Program, then we offer to have an interior designer review your property and provide an estimate to transform it into a luxury destination. Typically, this varies anywhere from $15,000–$40,000 depending on the size of the property, location, layout, and market demographics. All you need to do is make the investment, and we coordinate everything else to make your property stand out and command high rates.
Valid question! Our motto is that party prevention is the best protection. Before any guest books with us, we have a very diligent screening process where we ensure their profile is verified with their government issued ID’s. We ask several questions pertaining to the purpose of trip, number of guests, etc. We also confirm they’ve read our house rules and understand the consequences, and we collect a damage deposit. In our experience hosting over 10,000 guests, people behave very differently when they know there’s a possibility they may not receive their deposit back if they cause damages. Nonetheless, we also have exterior cameras installed at the points of entrance on your home and our team monitors these 24/7. If more guests show up to the house than was listed on the reservation, we also have a private security company under contract that can come to the home and break the party up before it even begins. In short, this occurrence is very rare, but we do have protocols in place to handle this to ensure your home is protected.
Unfortunately, this has happened in some cities, although thankfully not in the markets where Busy 2 Book operates at this time. We understand this concern. That’s why encourage all potential partners to review any Homeowners Association or Condo Board Regulations before moving forward with any short-term rental agreements.
Fortunately Busy 2 Book operates in markets that have embraced short-term rentals and all that is required is that we simply carry a business license for each property that is managed, as well as paying the local taxes that are levied for each reservation.
At the government level, it is a rare and lengthy process for municipal leaders to move forward with legislation to ban short-term rentals on private property. It has happened, but usually with considerable notice. We will always maintain communication with our partners with any relevant information that would affect the market. That being said, we cannot operate in locations where it would be illegal for us to do so, so if short-term rentals were banned, then our Partnership Agreement would become null and void (as stated in the Agreement itself).
While we typically average between 80-90% occupancy year round regardless of seasonality, but, as the old saying goes, past performance is no indication of future results. If you decide to go with our Partnership Program, during our initial onboarding we get very clear on exactly how much income needs to be produced in order to cover your costs on a monthly basis as our baseline target. Of course, it is always our intention to outperform this benchmark. Although we can’t outright guarantee performance, our track record our partners have typically produced anywhere from 25–100% more monthly income than they would have by renting their properties as a long-term rental.
We firmly believe that short-term rentals are the most flexible option that exists for a homeowner to get the most use and utility of their properties where they can use the home when they wish and rent it out when they aren’t there. We do not believe in locking our clients into rigid, long-term contracts, as we understand circumstances can change for each and every person. While we do encourage our clients to have a long-term outlook for their real estate investment, we do provide flexible exit clauses in our agreements (typically 90 days), so that if a client’s situation changes, they do have flexibility to finish out an agreement ahead of schedule.