Vacation Rental Management That's Built For Owners & Loved By Guests

I'd like to take a few minutes in this video to talk about the Whitefish vacation rental market and some of the changes we've seen recently and then just discuss the overall market moving forward. I wanna cover three main points. First, I want to discuss the Whitefish Market and just Northwest Montana and what makes this such a special place. And number two, I want to talk about what makes this a great vacation rental market. And number three, I want to talk about what we are consistently seeing from the properties in the area that make a great vacation rental. So what actually makes Whitefish Montana so special? It's not just the scenery, which is beautiful, but it's also that there's so much to do here. We consider this area in Northwest Montana a true Four Seasons destination. Have Whitefish Mountain Resort, which has world class skiing and snowboarding. And in the summer, the resort is open for mountain biking and hiking. And then just thirty minutes away from Whitefish Mountain Resort is Glacier National Park. And Glacier National Park gets more than three million visitors a year. And there's over seven hundred miles of hiking where you're gonna see all sorts of wildlife and some of the most amazing mountain scenery in the entire country. And then a lot of people don't realize this about our area, but we have a vibrant lake community in the summer. With Whitefish Lake and Flathead Lake, guests and visitors to the area can go boating and paddleboarding, kayaking, or just spend the day on the beach. And if that's not enough, we also have smaller lakes and rivers that are perfect for fly fishing or whitewater rafting or just taking a float trip and having a picnic lunch. I think something that guests really appreciate about this area is that it has a truly authentic Montana mountain feel. When you go to Glacier National Park, you almost feel like you're stepping back in time a little bit. And when you go to Whitefish, walking around and seeing the quaint souvenir shops and the unique restaurants, it's something that you just don't see in that many places in the country anymore. If you've been to a tourist destination, you've probably seen what I'm talking about, and that's seeing rows of putt putt businesses line the highway and commercial and large chain restaurants everywhere. You don't get that here, and that's something I think visitors really appreciate. Whitefish and the surrounding area really do have something for everyone. In the winter, there's Whitefish Mountain Resort, but there's also miles and miles of snowmobile trails, and people can go snowshoeing or ice fishing. And in the summer, which is really our peak season, guests come to this area to really enjoy the outdoors, whether that's hiking or camping, wildlife viewing, boating, fishing. There just seems to be an endless amount of things to do in the summer. And that tourism is the backbone of the economy, and it's also what makes this such a great vacation rental market. Now let's talk about the vacation rental market itself because Whitefish over the past several years has seen its share of changes. And this has become a much more competitive market, but that doesn't mean that you can't be successful here. What it means is that you have to have an extensive knowledge about the area and you have to know what properties are successful here and you have to know what to look for. The days of just buying a property and putting it on the vacation rental market and expecting the cash to roll in, they're just gone. One of the things I think we really have going for us in this market is that the area is still growing. Whitefish and Columbia Falls and other areas are really still developing their markets. And with that growth, we're seeing a lot of properties being added to the market, whether it's in Whitefish or Columbia Falls, or even up on the mountain on Whitefish Mountain Resort. And these new properties are built with the intent to be used as short term rentals. So they'll have great amenities, and they'll have really high end finishes. But you can also buy an existing property maybe in the valley and at probably more of a reasonable price. And then those properties can be fixed up and turned around to make great vacation rentals. There's also opportunities outside of those areas where potential investors can buy existing properties and then upgrade those properties to make really awesome vacation rentals just by adding some high end finishes and some amenities. These areas can also have less zoning than some other areas, which does make it easier to operate a short term rental. But speaking of zoning, the entire area is very short term rental friendly, so the zoning is pretty simple. Our zoning in the area has changed a little bit in recent years, but for the most part, there's really only a couple of permits you would need. If you're operating in a city, you might need a business license for that city and most properties need a health department certificate. And then it's definitely worth looking into, especially if you're in a private neighborhood, what is written into the HOAs about operating a business out of the neighborhood. A few other key points about the vacation rental market here would be that we have a high average nightly rate. It's over five hundred dollars a night, which is high considering the national average. Our annual occupancy can be upwards sixty five percent, which is also well above the national average. And year over year, we've seen increases in occupancy and average nightly rate for the past five years at least. What's really driving that type of average nightly rate and occupancy is the type of traveler that's coming to our area. The big one is families, adults aged thirty to fifty with kids. This is their big summer trip that they're taking while the kids are out of school. Then it would be your high income earners. And these people are staying at luxury properties that could be in the winter or the summer. And then this is a big destination location for groups like weddings or corporate retreats or family reunions. Now let's talk about vacation rental properties specifically and the three key factors that we see in the highest income producing properties. Number one would be occupancy or sleep count. This is the number of people that can stay at a property comfortably. And I mean comfortably, I'm not talking about buying a three bedroom property and putting four or five bunk beds in there and saying you sleep fifteen. That is a recipe for disaster. It just stands to reason the more people you can sleep in the property, the higher the nightly rate. And as we just previously discussed, the demographics of the area are very conducive to that when you're considering that we're getting families and groups and high income earners. The second factor is location. Your property needs to be located on Whitefish Mountain Resort or within the town of Whitefish if you really wanna see year round annual income. We even have some smaller properties in Whitefish itself that do not see high occupancy in the winter because there's just not a demand for those properties. This is the same for most properties outside of Whitefish and that are off the mountain. Our highest income properties are either located on Whitefish Mountain Resort with great ski in ski out access, or they're located on Whitefish Lake where there's very little inventory or their proximity is very close to Glacier National Park. This doesn't mean that you can't have a property outside of those areas that generates a lot of revenue. It's just that the property has to have some unique quality. And then the third factor would be amenities. And this is where you can really set yourself apart with your property. If we look at our top performing properties as a company, we can see that they have very similar amenities. They will almost always have a hot tub and great views, some type of outdoor entertainment area, and they generally have games of some sort within the home. Guests are coming here for the experience and the vacation rental property is a big part of that experience. Sometimes it's just as important as all the activities in the area. It's easy to think well why does the property need that many amenities if the family is going go out and hike all day at Glacier National Park. They might go to Glacier National Park for the day. They want a fun and enjoyable place to come home to to create a great family memory. The more memories that a family can make, the better their experience. And the better the experience, the better the vacation rental property will do. When you combine a year round destination with strong and consistent demand, and you put it with the right vacation rental property, you now have one of the most compelling vacation rental markets in the country. If you're considering buying a vacation rental in the area, whether you're just starting that process or you have several properties you're very interested in, feel free to reach out. I work with potential investors all the time to help them decide whether or not the properties that they're looking at are going to make great investments. You can contact me through our website or you can just email me directly at mattvacaywhitefish dot com. Thank you.