Owners FAQs - MINNeSTAY

Owners Faqs

Below is a list of FAQ's directed towards owners. If you have a specific question, please don't hesitate to reach out to MINNeSTAY and we can answer it for you!

What Are the Occupancy and Rate Expectations for the Unit?

We like to set clear expectations with each owner prior to us taking over when it comes to occupancy and rates.

The prime rental market in MN is between June and September. During this time, you can expect to see the highest nightly rates and occupancy.
Shoulder months (October/November and April/May) have moderately high occupancy with slightly lower rates than in the summer.
During the holiday season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Years, you can expect to see rates almost as high as our prime summer rates.
The slowest occupancy months are January, February, & March. We make it clear during our meeting that you will most likely see low occupancy and overall lower nightly rate.
February and March are the BEST months for summer bookings. Close to 50% of our summer reservations happen in these months.

How Do You Price the Units?

We use a Dynamic Pricing tool to help optimize daily pricing for each unit. Together with our local knowledge of the market, we will price each unit accordingly and maximize pricing for each booking.

How Can I Help Optimize My Listing?

There are a handful of things you can do to optimize your listings on the various platforms.

Favorite your listings
Click in and around on them often.
Send the link to your circle

How Do You Market My Unit?

Your rental will appear on MINNeSTAY's website, along with Expedia, Vrbo, Airbnb, Booking.com, FlipKey, TripAdvisor, and about 30 other travel platforms. We professionally curate each listing to ensure the most visibility in all searches.
Other marketing efforts include Google AdWords, social media targeted and retargeted advertising, email campaigns, etc. There is a full marketing piece available at request.

Who pays the cleaning fee?

Cleaning fees are charged directly to the guests and goes to the management company to cover the cost of the staff and supplies. This does not factor into the commission rate.

How much does an owner fee if they stay in or use their unit?

Owners are charged at an hourly rate to clean their unit.

How does pricing work?

Pricing of the homes is based on size, location, and overall feel. We use a Dynamic Pricing tool to help fine tune the daily rates. Information is gathered and determined from multiples booking sources that look at local occupancy levels, rates, and events in the area. Pricing is updated daily.

Do you discount rates?

Yes, we do have parameters in place to maximize bookings for our owners. We typically do not discount Holiday’s or special events in the area.

Is this being marketed to businesses for corporate usage?

Yes, we have contacts with all the local and national companies that headquarter out of Minneapolis, plus many more.

Would you accept a long-term rental?

Yes, we would. There are many different factors that go into accepting a long-term renter including, but not limited to, what season it is and how long they are looking to stay. We define short-term as under 90 days. Long term is 91+ days.

What sites are you currently marketing the condos on?

We currently use 30+ sites including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, as well as our own site, etc. We also have private entities that we market your condo to including credit card reward programs, traveling nurses, relocation companies, etc.

Do we need to worry about double bookings?

No, you don’t! We utilize a software that is integrated to ensure that there are no double bookings.

Who pays for the Channel Partner’s booking fees?

We pay all other commissions payable to Channel Partners, such as, Airbnb, VRBO, etc. We do have the right to raise or lower the base rates of the homes and/or add a percentage increase to the daily base rate to offset the commissions that Channel Partners, such as, Booking.com, Expedia, etc, charges to the Management company on each booking.

Are professionally photos provided?

Each unit will be professionally shot once the home is 100% ready to go. This will be billed to the owners statement.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to MINNeSTAY for other questions.