Resident ‘Future of Living’ Starts with Home-Sharing, Flexible Living
It’s becoming more apparent that every Class A building will soon have some type of short-term rental component, according to Curtis Palmer of Dreamscapes Companies and Lisa Tully-Lavian of Sentral.
Today’s renters want something new, flexibility, said Tully-Lavian, her company’s head of marketing.“Sentral is the modern property manager. We offer any length of stay. The average consumer doesn’t know the difference, they just want is comfort and a sense of coming home, whether it’s a day, a month, a year.”
Dreamscape features a hotel and apartment vertical. “Why have these concepts not come together in the past?” Palmer said. “We provide services like a hotel and enable short-term stays for residents wanting to take advantage of home-sharing’s revenue.”
Working with Migo, a Real Page product, residents can sublet for up to 180 days per year. Its revenue share gives the resident 75 cents of every dollar collected on home-sharing, Dreamscape keeps 25 cents; and Migo earns 7 cents.
Palmer, its EVP of Acquisitions & Capital Markets, said, “Speaking to our private equity investors, I tell them, ‘You guys love hotels, and you love apartments, yet, God forbid, you combine the two concepts. Today we see flexible workspaces, why not have flexible living spaces.”
He said it somewhat initially strikes a fear in them–as it did to most apartment operators about seven years ago when Airbnb busted onto the scene. But their worries are receding once looking at performance. Palmer and Tully-Lavian said their buildings have outstanding track records of legally handling these new types of renters without a hitch.”
Both use video, experienced staff, protocols and self-policing effectively to identify “bad actors.”
Palmer said his properties have “busted”155 illegal Airbnb bookings by his residents.
Tully-Lavian said when Sentral discovers renters not playing by the rules, she explains how they can work with her business model.
It’s a lucrative one. Palmer said his Miami property already has bookings through May.
“Our residents can charge $850 per night over a busy weekend and pretty much cover their $2,700monthly rent,” he said.
At a Dreamscape property in Miami, over a 120-day period this year, 61 residents created host profiles. They totaled 598 bookings, for 1,574 nights, and averaged $5,514 in home-sharing revenue. Dreamscape earned $49,040 in revenue.
As Palmer said, “that came with no expenses for us.”
Migo handles much of the back of the house management and comes it to help educate the whole building on how to do this by hosting townhalls.
In partnership with Airbnb, Migo provides its clients with a $400 to $600 NOI increase per unit per year;2% to 3% additional resident renewal rates; 1% to 2% greater occupancy; and 2% to 3% higher rents through a transparent, more secure and controlled process.
Both are designed to complement existing buildings, coming in and finding the best way those properties can benefit.
“All buildings have tough units to rent, so we’ll take those units offline and furnish them and do short-term rentals with them and will get more than what an owner would get if they rented them at below market value,” Palmer said.
Sentral will come in as an additive to a optimize and convert it to support home sharing and hospitality.
Sentral’s marketing includes listings on Expedia, Trip Advisor, ILSs and of course, the communities’ website.
“We’ve got something for everyone,” Tully-Lavian said. “You tell us where you need to be and for how long, we’ll serve up a product for you that meets your needs."
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