Massachusetts - Seasonal/Weekly Rentals & AirBnB - Considering Throwing in the Towel.

[Ken-and-Kathleen0]

We own a home on Martha's Vineyard that we rent out weekly during the season. We have worked very hard to make sure our guests have a great stay. We qualify half the year for Super Host (we don't have rentals during the offseason and thus don't qualify). We upped our services to meet the AirBnB and standards by supplying bed linens, towels and beach towels. What we learned is the extra costs of purchasing linens and towels and then having them laundered (we have only a few hours to do turnover) along with a quality cleaning service really hurt our profits. Laundering four weeks for stuff at the only Island laundromat costs well over $100...not including $25/hour to have the cleaning service do it...or getting to do it ourselves. Weekly cleaning/turnover is roughly $300.
When you couple this with the AirBnB cancellation policies that just don't work for seasonal vacation properties (even the strict is way too lenient when you're looking at 10 weeks of rentals a year and most rentals for July filled by the end of February.
Then Massachusetts' short-term rental was implemented and AirBnB bailed on doing collection and remittance for this tax (while they do it just about everywhere else that such a tax exists). Worse, though, there's no place in the system to even put the tax in place so prospective guests can see what it will cost. AirBnB's solution was to put a note about the tax in the description (and hope they read it) and then put in a special after reservation request for the tax amount (which will also be taxed) is really unworkable.
After working the numbers doing an AirBnB at AirBnB's standards meant making about 10% (after costs), and if we can't easily collect the tax and have to pay it out of pocket means we make nothing for all of the efforts.
So...we will either dump AirBnB and go back to using realtors without having to worry about ratings, linens, towels, etc. or just sell the home. We did try raising the rent (to AirBnBs suggested rate) and we're only 40% booked. Because the ferry to Martha's Vineyard has to be booked months in advance there are very few families that don't lock-in their vacation by March for the following summer.

Anyone else in a weekly/seasonal vacation area facing these issues? Come up with any better solutions?

[Lisa723]

@Ken-and-Kathleen0 do you book on other platforms (VRBO, TripAdvisor, Booking.com) as well?

[Ken-and-Kathleen0]

We have in the past 

[Lisa723]

@Ken-and-Kathleen0 well, in your shoes that's what I would do. Those platforms are more geared to vacation rental markets. Also, you could consider an automatic pricing utility such as usewheelhouse.com-- they seem to have a more accurate picture of local market pricing sweet spots.

[Ken-and-Kathleen0]

Lisa, Thank you for the tip on usewheelhouse. I just tried it though and their suggestion was to literally double our rent ($700/night). I'm not sure that's really a good move.

[Lisa723]

@Ken-and-Kathleen0 I was also surprised by the rates they suggested for our places but we are booking. Our revenue has increased substantially. Also, their algorithm learns from experience with your place and will adjust prices accordingly.

[Lindsay69]

In a similar boat. We rent a place in Oak Bluffs and trying to figure out how to handle this new tax. My understanding is that it was required for all bookings after January 2019. But I have bookings after that time and the tax was not charged. So now do I pay it out of pocket to MA? I think I see it showing up in rentings for 2020 though (when I played around and pretended to book my place myself). This is so confusing.

[Susan151]

@Lindsay69 Please read the active MA tax threads. July 1 was the start of the tax. You are not responsible for paying any taxes that AirBNB didn't collect. AirBNB is. Etc, etc.