How this Airbnb host fired her traditional property management company and doubled her income with Wheelhouse

THE STORY

Kim is a successful director of marketing in higher education. A few years ago, she began building her second career as a real estate investor.

When she originally bought a home in the Pacific Northwest a few years ago, she realized the potential of short-term rentals and decided to pivot outside of traditional real estate investing. “Why would I rent this out? I could try Airbnb and know I had the potential to double my income over traditional long term rental.”

THE OPPORTUNITY

When Kim first started her business, she decided on a property management company (PMC) to manage her listing. “The person who managed my property in this company used to work for Airbnb and was considered one of the experts in the short-term rental space. They had managed over 50 Airbnb, so I assumed they were experts and would optimize my listing/income. It was worth paying them the management fee.”

As a marketing professional, Kim was keenly interested in how the property was marketed, including how it was priced. She followed the pricing closely and noticed that guests were booking far in advance at low rates on big holiday weekends.

When she questioned the property manager, they told her, “We are experts in the area. We know what we are doing. Our manager reviews and updates pricing every Monday. Have a nice day.”

“As a marketer, I felt my listing wasn’t optimized,” she remarked. “There was no transparency.”

THE ANSWER

“The cool thing about Wheelhouse is we have such trust in what your pricing does that I don’t even look anymore. I set it and forget it.”

As Kim dived deeper into the short-term rental universe, Kim began exploring other options for managing her property. What would it look like if she took control of her own destiny and managed the property herself? Considering that the property she was running was 800 miles away from where she lived, how could she automate the management process and still keep her day job?

Optimizing pricing became a big part of that exploration. With her current setup, the company she used to manage her listing relied on a pricing manager to come in and manually adjust prices every Monday. “I could tell it wasn’t priced well enough. The manager only updated [my prices] once a week.”

Kim started researching automation tools and listened to an Airbnb hosting podcast about how Wheelhouse updates prices dynamically. She compared this to how her property management company was pricing weekly and knew that pricing could be optimized.

Kim moved on from her property management company at the start of the new year and began automating everything so she could effectively manage her property long-distance while successfully retaining her day job. MyPorter was what she used to automate guest communications, Properly streamlined cleaning, and Wheelhouse managed her pricing.

What sold Kim on Wheelhouse was her ability to customize her pricing strategy for her specific goals — whether she wanted to maximize her average nightly rate, occupancy or overall revenue. “Having the ability to choose between a [conservative, aggressive or recommended] base price simplifies the decision-making process price-wise. And it’s usually always the right price to get a booking!”

Add in Wheelhouse’s easy-to-use interface, and suddenly pricing for Kim became worry-free!

THE OUTCOME

“Wheelhouse has helped me double my income compared to the property management company who manually priced the house weekly… so I fired them and replaced them with Wheelhouse.”

With Wheelhouse, Kim found the answer she was looking for: A pricing service that allowed her to set it and forget it while optimizing her business. Kim doubled her income year over year, generating the highest per night fees while also capturing 5-star reviews including value.

“Wheelhouse definitely allows hosts to set it and forget it. We’re getting the best price possible. We have other things to think about and Wheelhouse allows us to do that.”

Now that she’s seen success with Wheelhouse, Kim is exploring the next steps for her business. She has already expanded beyond her first property and is looking to increase her inventory even further.

Having the extra free time that Wheelhouse provides makes all the difference in turning a first-time host into a professional property manager!

Interested in being involved in a Wheelhouse case study? Contact us at hello@usewheelhouse.com! We’d love to hear your story.

If this story inspires you, click here to sign up for a 30-day free trial with Wheelhouse. Use the referral code provided to get an additional $1000 in free bookings after the trial ends!