Will building a main mountain cabin and a additional 1 bedroom apartment above my detached garage help or hurt bookings?

[Nick1735]

I have a piece of land in the smoky mountains and am thinking about building a main cabin 2/2 and then a detached garage with a 1/1 apartment above it as an additional unit. This is a lifestyle investment for me so I believe having more space for my family when I want to go stay there myself as well as the opportunity to have 2 different listings on the same property means a much higher return on my investment. My question is, do you think i can create enough of separation between the 2 listings (main home and detached garage) to be able to pull this off or is the seclusion idea of a mountain retreat make this a bad idea? Anyone have any tips to pull this off?

[Lawrene0]

I've got a secluded treehouse, @Nick1735 , and every once in awhile its popularity makes me think about adding a second treehouse or cabin or bunkie. (Not thinking of it right now, as I'm a little burned out and a second anything would finish me off.)

But it's the seclusion that my guests really like. I got four stars from a guest last week who had a "fantastic time" (their words) but who, through the trees, spotted a farmer working a nearby field for 15 minutes.

Cannot imagine how many stars it would have cost if they had seen another couple. 

I think it can be done, but it sounds like seclusion is your selling feature, too, so maybe create three listings -- one that is the entire thing and one for each space, but never renting both at the same time to separate parties? I stayed with a host in New Zealand who did that, and she said it worked for her. 

The main thing will be to do what works for you and your family, and rent whatever configuration of that has the most appeal to guests. 

[Sarah977]

@Nick1735  Rather than thinking of marketing as 2 separate listings, I would have it as one listing and market it towards families who need some separate private space, basically the way you foresee using it yourself. 

So Mom, Dad and the kids get the house, and Grandma and Grandpa have their own space to retire to if they want to nap, go to bed early, wake up and start their day at 5 AM (which many older folks do) or get away from the hustle and bustle. 

Or the teenagers get the upper garage unit because they stay up til 2 AM, want to listen to their music, and sleep til noon.

It could be other family or friends situations as well, but I think if you market it right, it would be an attractive situation for those who want to vacation together, but would also like private spaces beyond a bedroom in the same house.

It would save some money in that the garage unit could just have a mini-fridge and coffee maker sort of kitchenette area, rather than an entire kitchen, and would do away with the concern about privacy for 2 unrelated sets of guests.

[Lorna170]

@Nick1735   We have a 3/3 bedroom house that was an STR for 15 years.  The detached garage was set up as an efficiency/studio apartment, and was rented as an LTR.  We had no issues with guests in the big house as we advised that the garage apartment was our "security" resident.  We had no issues with the long term tenant interacting with guests as he would just pick up the phone and call our maintenance team or us as needed.  

We liked this setup as we had investment income from both the STR and the LTR.  The LTR provided a local resident with affordable accommodation, which is in very short supply in Asheville.