Koloa Kai Blog for Owners

Blog Entries:

Get Back to Having Fun
Setting Goals Understand the Process        

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Get Back to Having Fun
March 3, 2017

Buying a sliver of paradise in Hawaii was supposed to be a dream come true, wasn't it?  No one spends their hard earned money on vacation property with the idea that it is going to be a daily headache, a money pit, or a constant stress inducer. 

In our past blogs, we have described ways that you can maximize your return with minimal stress.  In this blog, we want to share some of the ideas we have to maximize the experience from both the guest's and the owner's perspective.  Being in the property management business, there are several tics that we have picked up along the way as visitors to Kauai in someone else's property that, with small adjustments, could mean volumes in terms of keeping your guests happy and coming back year after year.  From these experiences, we have learned how to better optimize the experience for both owners and guests alike.  We wanted to share two of them here.

True story no. 1: not long ago, we flew in on a late evening flight direct from LAX into Lihue.  It was late, the plane was delayed, and it was raining.  We chose to rent out our place and instead stay at a rental property that had not thought to adjust their prices for the holiday season.  We thought we had scored this great deal.  Despite having an office in Lihue, the management company provided for pickup of the keys in one location only--the rental car agency.  We collected our rental car and proceeded down to Poipu.  Upon hitting the tree tunnel, a thought suddenly shrouded my brain like fast-moving fog--the car rental packet did not have our property keys.  The clock said 10:10 p.m.  And it was still raining.  My repeated calls to the rental car agency, and then to the property management company, went unanswered.  We turned the car around and went back to where we rented the car while alternate scenarios played through my head.  Hotel?  Too pricey.  Sleep in the car?  Not with a 2-year-old in the back seat. (Photo: credit James W. Betts)

It was nothing short of a miracle that the parent car rental agency employees, who were quite gracious, had left just late enough and had left the gate open just wide enough that we were able to go implore them to fish the keys out of the now-locked neighboring property.  They succeeded and we were on our way, but totally stressed out and exhausted.  How easy would it have been to send the guests the keys in advance, or to have a lock box at the agency, or even just answer the phone?  Simple solutions avoid bad problems.

True story no. 2: A friend ours was working with a rental management company and decided to go spend some time in their unit.  Once situated, they decided to sit back and enjoy some of the lovely comments written by their guests.  It was then that they realized they had had guests staying at the property at a time when their management company said there were no guests.  This happened not once during the month, but twice.  Without any access to an owner's portal online, they were totally reliant on their management company to provide an accounting of when guests were present.  How simple would it be to offer the owner the ability to access the same information that the management company has access to?  What kind of peace of mind would that offer the owner?

These are just a couple of war stories we've compiled from years of experience as visitors and business owners in Hawaii.  We want to help you avoid these problems from the start so you can get back to one of the most important reasons you bought your property in the first place -- to have fun.

This concludes our 5 part blog series on the 5 Best Headache Cures for Kauai Vacation Rental Owners - we hope that you've enjoyed the information and have a better handle on the best ways to avoid stress and enjoy your property after reading.  If you have any stories of your own to share or would like to add any great advice for other homeowners, just drop me an email at [email protected] and we may be able to post it as an upcoming blog topic!  

Mahalo Nui Loa for reading!

 
Lisa Stevens is the Owner/Manager of Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals, which she runs with Jed Stevens, her husband and General Manager.

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Setting Goals
December 27, 2016

It’s time to make New Years Resolutions again. 
 
I never understood why a new year should be the single most significant impetus to aspire for personal success.  Whatever works, I suppose, for people to decide to eat healthier, to tackle that cluttered attic, to join a spin class, or start saving for a trip to Europe.  Having goals is a good thing.  I’m a fan.
 
So it’s a shame that many of these goals tend to fall by the wayside because life gets in the way.  These unfinished goals pave the way towards the next New Years Eve, when we can wonder where the year went over a glass of champagne and earnestly try to do better.  They don’t slip because they become unimportant to us, though, or because we don’t care enough.  Unless we go through the effort to carefully plot a roadmap to our own success, we leave a massive void in between our dreams and reality in which it is all too easy to get trapped.
 
Think of your resolutions like Google Maps.  We pick a place we want to go, and it plots out a course.  Usually, it is thoughtful enough to give us a couple different options, depending on our available time and mood.  Without Google Maps, all we would have is a finish line, but no step-by-step information on how to get there. Goals for your rental property are no different.  You had a dream of owning a slice of paradise one day, and were wildly successful in fulfilling that goal.  But paradise, like everything else, takes time and upkeep.  Maybe now you’re searching for ways to minimize the financial burdens of homeowners associations and management fees. Perhaps you’re trying to figure out how to boost your occupancy rates.  Or maybe you’re seriously considering a remodel of the kitchen. 
 
Whatever your goal is, with the New Years upon us, now is as good a time as ever to chart a course to getting there.  How are you going to accomplish it? Just like Google Maps -- are you going to take the scenic route, the quickest course, or opt for the least expensive mode of getting you to your final destination?  Make a list of what’s important.  Talk with your property manager, your cleaners, do some online research, and chat with your neighbors.  They may have some valuable ideas that will help you chart out the path to your goals. Here, too, is where your property managers might be really helpful.  Your property managers have interacted with many different guests and owners.  They’ve researched repair services, contractors, cleaners, painters, appliances, and home goods.  They can be your Google Maps to help you along to your goal.
 
As the year winds up, pour a glass of your favorite beverage, and take a moment to reflect on what you really want to accomplish in 2017.  You can lean on us to help guide you there.
 


Lisa Stevens is the Owner/Manager of Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals, which she runs with Jed Stevens, her husband and General Manager.

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Understand the Process
May 2, 2016
 

• How do I ensure that I don’t double-book my property?
• How do I ensure that my renters can get their keys?
• What happens when my renter loses their key or locks it in their unit?
• What is the best way to coordinate laundry and housekeeping?
• Who do I call if there’s an emergency, such as a broken pipe?
• What happens if someone is injured on my property?
• What is the most effective way to handle billing?
• What is a reasonable cancellation policy?
• How do I handle GET and TAT taxes?
• How do I ensure that the unit remains adequately stocked?
• What items should I have available for my renters?
• What do I do if a renter doesn’t check out on time?
• What happens if my cleaning crew doesn’t show up?

   

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Find out your “SOS” (Satisfaction of Ownership Score)!     Click this link to take a quick survey and leave your email address to have your “SOS” Report emailed to you!

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How to Handle Emergency Maintenance Issues...

...Practice Aloha.
March 18, 2016

(#2 in a 5 part series on the 5 Best Headache Cures for Kauai Vacation Rental Owners)

At some point during your property ownership, you may get THE call.  The dreaded but likely inevitable call you really wish you didn’t have to deal with.  The washing machine broke, there is a family on vacation in your unit, and they need to do their four loads of laundry ASAP.  And they’re not happy.
You’re in the middle of a four-day work seminar and this issue doesn’t seem to fit anywhere into any moment of your pre-planned, pre-packaged day.  How can you possibly put out this fire?

There are only two things you need remember in this situation.

First, do not lose your patience.  That’s where it can all go wrong before it can start to get right.  Remember in those times that the people who are in the middle of the issue, your renter and your maintenance crew, are the people most affected by the broken down washer.

Put yourself in the renter’s shoes ~ you’re on vacation and you go to use the washer to clean your only pair of Aloha print board shorts, but the washer won’t start.  You start to panic because you’ve been looking forward to sitting on the beach and looking awesome in those great board shorts!  How bummed out are you?  Now your only option is to wear your backup shorts that you bought 3 trips ago that are all faded… talk about a buzz kill.

How about your maintenance staff?  They are probably in someone else’s rental property either fixing a light switch or painting baseboards when they get your call that the washer is not working.  It’s not too likely that they are sitting in their truck with the engine idling just waiting for someone to call in an emergency.  All the same though, they tell you that they can wrap up the current job that they’re on and get over to your property ASAP to get the situation dealt with.  Once they get to the unit and wade through the renter’s belongings to diagnose the issue, they will probably have to make a few trips to the hardware store, perhaps even get up to Lihue to the Home Depot to get a new appliance.  After all is said and done, the emergency washing machine probably cost them about 5 hours of their day and because most of them are pretty great human beings, they will only charge you for the time actually spent in your place, probably 2-3 hours.

Second, now that the problem is solved, the renter is back in his awesome aloha print board shorts and looking great on the beach, and your maintenance crew is back to fixing that light switch or putting the last coat of paint on those baseboards that he started yesterday; there is still important work to be done.  All that inconvenience for both the renter and the maintenance staff needs to be addressed.  How do you do that?  It is imperative at this point to show one thing to both of them; your sincere appreciation for their patience, and their help.

For the renter, you may want to send them a gift card to Keoki’s paradise or Lappert’s Ice Cream so that they can go have a nice relaxing experience after having to stress about wearing a 3rd string set of board shorts to the beach.

For the maintenance crew, perhaps you throw in a tip, an extra $20-30, for having them jump to help, putting off their priorities for the day so that they could help you out in your emergency.

Each will understand one thing at the end of the ordeal.  You appreciate what they went through, and they will feel good about their experience with you.  From the renter, you’ve just forged a deeper relationship that is well on its way to building trust that can lead to repeat business.  From the maintenance staff, you’ve just solidified that same trust, resulting in a willingness to help out the next time you find yourself in an emergency.

Basically, when it comes to dealing with maintenance emergencies, one phrase says it all: “Practice Aloha.”

Then, get back to enjoying your life.  If this isn't they type of thing that you want to do, or worry about, why not let us handle the details?  Give us a call, you’ll be so glad you did.
Be sure to follow the blog in order to get automatic delivery of the next in the series, where we'll discuss Understanding the Process of running a vacation rental.

Find out your "SOS" (Satisfaction of Ownership Score)!  

We have developed a short survey that can be completed in under 2 minutes to help you determine how you can improve your ownership experience by focusing your efforts where the most improvement can be made.
Click this link to take a quick survey and leave your email address to have your "SOS" Report emailed to you!

Click the link to our blog and in the lower right hand corner “+Follow” and enter your email address.  When new messages are posted, they will be delivered to your inbox automatically!!  Or, fill out your contact information on this site and we'll email you when our new blogs are published.

Lisa Stevens is the Owner/Manager of Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals, which she runs with Jed Stevens, her husband and General Manager.
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:| >> :) or :| X :(
(or the importance of communication)
Febrary 11, 2016
(#1 in a 5 part series on the 5 Best Headache Cures for Kauai Vacation Rental Owners)

Last week, my best friend challenged her stepsister, both busy professionals, to spend the day corresponding exclusively by emojis.  Not surprisingly, they were able to have a decent dialogue about each other’s day without exchanging a word.  In the present day hustle in which we constantly find ourselves, I applaud their efforts to find new ways to keep in contact with each other.  Communication is key to any relationship, business or personal.  There is little that is more frustrating than being left in the dark.  Take, for example, all the times your delivery person has quoted you a 6 hour delivery window, and then unceremoniously blown that cavernous block of time without so much as a phone call.  Or your doctor’s office has you sitting in the waiting room for over an hour with no indication of when, if ever, you will be ushered into the back to sit in your own private space and wait some more.  It’s infuriating and so easily avoidable.

This is not any breakthrough discovery I’ve made.  Being a licensed attorney, it’s been drilled into my every fiber for years.  Communication is essential.  I have an ethical duty to communicate with my clients as a lawyer, and it’s equally critical in my role as a property manager, a wife and a mom.

I take that responsibility really seriously.  Granted, there’s a balance which needs to happen when it comes to property management.  You, for example, may not care to know what time the cleaners showed up at your unit yesterday morning.  However, you may care very much about how many bookings you have this month and how often I’ve had to replace the paper towels in your kitchen.  Certainly, you care about your revenues, your occupancy rate, what repairs need to happen, and how quickly your laundry machine can be serviced.  Maybe you feel passionate about all or none of these things.  By letting us know what your needs and interests are, we will be best able to attend to you so that you can let go of the anxieties of property management.

Whether you are a current owner with us, or you are looking to increase your ownership satisfaction, reach out to us today – we can help.  We’re here to answer these questions and to be your hotline for any others you have.  Our policy is that we’re available 365 days a year and we’ll get back to you quickly. Whether your preferred medium is a phone call, email or text, we want you to always feel free to drop us a line and ask us questions.  On the flip side, we’re committed to staying connected to you through regular updates and through our user-friendly website and blog, where you’ll be able to keep abreast of current happenings in and around Poipu, recommendations and favorite haunts.

The strongest and most fulfilling relationships come from good communication, so let’s start today!
Be sure to follow the blog in order to get automatic delivery of the next in the series, where we’ll discuss Emergency / Maintenance Issues.

Click the link to our blog and in the lower right hand corner “+Follow” and enter your email address.  When new messages are posted, they will be delivered to your inbox automatically!!  Or, fill out your contact information on this site and we'll email you when our new blogs are published.

Lisa Stevens is the Owner/Manager of Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals, which she runs with Jed Stevens, her husband and General Manager.
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The Maiden Voyage: a Kauai vacation rental owner’s guide to stress-free property management  
January 27, 2016

The old saying goes that the two best days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell the boat.  With that kind of bleak forecast, I marvel at the few boat owners I know who look me in the eye and defiantly profess how much they love their boat.  I wonder if they’re just selling themselves a bill of goods, or whether there’s something to this boat ownership thing that I’m missing.
 
I was sitting across the table having lunch with a longtime friend and colleague the other day who likes to take his son out every weekend on fishing trips.  And he likes to talk.  So I quietly enjoyed my lunch as he prided himself on his recent catches, how his son had picked up some odd jobs at the local harbor for the summer at the tender age of 11, and I just pleasantly nodded between bites while I waited for the boom to fall.  Sure as the saying goes, I didn’t need to wait long.  Before I had cleared my plate, the conversation turned to a call my friend had recently received from the harbormaster’s office that his boat had spontaneously begun to dump oil, and that he had to come bail it out and institute clean-up efforts stat. “That sounds really bad,” I lamented.  “What do you do?”  My friend, who lives modestly but is a far cry from Kardashian status, proceeded to explain how it’s basically all on him and several thousand dollars to manually haul his boat out of the water, commence operation harbor clean-up, and subsequently offload it on Craigslist with all appropriate disclaimers (he is an attorney after all) as fast as he can—all while managing his “real job.”  He said he then bought a new boat.  I left lunch far from convinced.

Granted, aside from my childhood sailing outings with my father, I know little about boat maintenance.  But growing up with a small summer vacation cottage, I equipped myself a long time ago with the understanding that a vacation rental can either be your “boat” or your happy place to which you flee for relaxation, and which at all other times effortlessly repays itself.   It all depends on how proactive you are, or the person managing your rental is for you, in easing the burdens associated with maintaining the day-to-day business of your vacation property.

If you are experiencing that internal “boat” struggle about your vacation rental, please don’t jump ship just yet.  Give us a call first.  This is our real job.  Our goal is to minimize the disruptions in your daily life and ensure that you maximize your potential cash flow, and we do it at a cost that we think you’ll find more palatable than many of our competitors.   We pride ourselves on being communicative, organized and responsive, and we’ve got an on-island team to back that support so you can keep your vacation rental in top form without endless hassle to you.

To learn even more about how we can help eliminate the stresses that can be attendant to vacation rental ownership, I’d like to introduce you to our new blog series called “The 5 Best Headache Cures for Kauai Vacation Rental Owners.”
Every 1-2 weeks, we’ll debut another of the “headache cures” in a dedicated message.  You’ll learn tricks and tips to maximize your vacation rental ownership experience and get moving on your desired heading.

 Click the link to our blog and in the lower right hand corner “+Follow” and enter your email address.  When new messages are posted, they will be delivered to your inbox automatically!!  Or, fill out your contact information on this site and we'll email you when our new blogs are published.

Lisa Stevens is the Owner/Manager of Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals, which she runs with Jed Stevens, her husband and General Manager.
R(S) 77541
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Welcome to Koloa Kai Vacation Rentals!
January 20, 2016
 
Aloha!  On behalf of our family, we want to introduce you to our business of managing vacation rental properties in Kauai.  We chose to get involved in managing rentals of vacation units on the island due to our passion for the islands and insistence on never slowing down.  We have four kids, as well as an extensive background in law, engineering, managing rental properties, parenting and finding reasons for spending as much time in Kauai as possible.
         
Too many times in the past, we (and pretty much all of our friends, colleagues, and family) lamented that we couldn’t spend more time in Hawaii and envied those who did.  Finally, one day, under a crimson-streaked Poipu sunset, we realized that nothing was holding us back from attaining our dream but ourselves.  Hence (and admittedly with a lot of hard work along the way), a rental property business was born.  With this spirit, we developed our motto: “live your aloha.”  Live your passion.
       
We’re here to serve you.  Call us with your property needs.  We’d be honored to assist!

Jed and Lisa Stevens
R(S) 77540, R(S) 77541
[email protected]
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