Year one on a cabin closed at $26k net. The well nearly ended it.

Posting the numbers because this room mostly has people asking whether the nightly model works and I have one full year of it now.

What it is: two bed one bath cabin, about 1,100 square feet, sitting on 6 acres of mostly trees, 12 minutes outside a small town that functions as a gateway to a big block of public land. Bought at $215k with 25% down. Unincorporated county, and the reason I bought it there is that I read the county code cover to cover and there was no short-term rental ordinance, no permit, no cap. I also read two years of planning commission minutes and there was no discussion of one. That was the deciding factor, ahead of the revenue math.

What it cost to get open: $215k purchase, $19,400 furnishing and setup, $8,600 on the well and pressure tank because the inspection flagged the pump and I chose to replace it rather than wait for it. So about $28k on top of the down payment.

Year one, 12 months on the calendar:

gross booking revenue $61,200
ADR $310, occupancy 54%, average stay 2.9 nights
cleaning $8,100 across 69 turns, most of them $110 to $130
utilities, internet, propane, trash $5,400
supplies and consumables $2,200
platform fees and software $2,900
insurance and taxes $4,700
repairs and replacements $3,600
debt service $12,300
net to me about $26,000, and I did all the guest communication myself

The part that nearly broke it: February. Pipes to the well house froze despite heat tape, I was 90 minutes away, and I had a guest arriving in six hours. I lost the booking, refunded it, paid $1,900 to fix it properly with insulation and a temperature alarm, and then blocked ten nights. That single week is the difference between $26k and $30k, and if it had happened in July with three back to back bookings it would have cost triple.

The other near miss is the cleaner. One woman, 35 minutes out, does every turn. She's the entire operation. I have no second option and I know it.

What I'd keep: buying outside town limits after reading the code and the minutes, not just the code. Replacing the well pump before it failed instead of after. Pricing manually for the first three months so I actually learned the shape of demand before letting a tool set rates.

What I'd change: the temperature alarm should have been in the $19k, not added in month eight. And the county can still adopt an ordinance, so the thing that made this work is a condition and not a moat.

5 replies

1tonyv88SO4CPRO6

One cleaner and no backup is the whole business and you said so yourself, so I'll push on it. What happens the Saturday she has a family emergency in July with a checkout at 10 and a check-in at 4? Right now the answer is you drive 90 minutes and clean it yourself, which works until it doesn't.

I'd spend this off-season finding a second person and giving them four turns a year at a slight premium so they're real, not theoretical. Also get her to accept a written scope with a photo checklist. When she does leave, and she will eventually, the checklist is the only thing that makes the handoff possible.

54% occupancy at $310 on a 12 minute drive from the gateway town is a good result, for what it's worth. Most of the ones that cross my desk in that shape sit in the 40s.

2nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

Reading this to figure out where someone like me fits. You said you did all the guest communication yourself. How many hours a week is that actually, and is it the kind of thing you'd have handed to a co-host at, say, 10% of gross, or does the value only show up when someone can also physically get to the property?

2aaron_fitz10 Get yoursPRO6

Move occupancy from 54% to 44% and the picture changes a lot. Gross goes to roughly $49,800, you save maybe $1,500 of cleaning and $600 of supplies, so you're around $16k net instead of $26k. Still positive, which is the actual test.

What's your read on why you got 54%? Was it that there's genuinely little competing inventory out there, or was your pricing sharp? Because if it's the first one, three more cabins listing next spring is the variable I'd worry about ahead of the county code.

1renee_dubois Get yours

Comparing to my four unit: I net about $31k on a building I paid $340k for, and I've never once refunded a guest at 5am. Your $26k on $215k is better on the money and worse on the life, which is roughly what I expected and useful to see in real figures.

The February week is the thing I'd underline for anyone reading. A long-term tenant with a frozen line is a repair. A guest with a frozen line is a repair plus a refund plus a blocked calendar plus a review that follows you around.

Year one on a cabin closed at $26k net. The well nearly ended it.

5 replies