Top 10 Accounting & Finance Mistakes
In his book Vacation Rental Secrets, D. Brooke Pfautz shares candid feedback from property managers across the country on what they consider their top 10 biggest mistakes. If you haven't read it yet (and you should), accounting and finance show up again and again as issues that every property manager encounters. Using excerpts from the interviews, we put together this list of the top 10 accounting and finance mistakes to avoid, according to industry experts:
1. "Not understanding the power of having the accounting in order"
- Roelens Vacations
2. "Not having a budget in place to make vital decisions for your business"
- Casago
3. "Not realizing that managing the back of house was just as important as what the customers saw"
- On the Water in Maine
4. "Not trust accounting right out of the gates"
- All Star Vacation Homes
5. "Not hiring an accounting firm that actually knew about how vacation rentals operate"
- Chattanooga Vacation Rentals
6. "Only talking to my bank when necessary: Financial and capital is the lifeblood of a business"
- Carolina Retreats
7. "Waited too long to adapt to revenue management"
- Anna Maria Island Beach Rentals
8. "Not dedicating a percentage of your income towards continuous owner acquisition"
- Stay Porter
9. "Not investing in truly scalable technology from the beginning"
- Top Villas
10. "Pay for a high-quality bookkeeper. You will eat more capital doing it yourself or going the cheap route."
- Joseph Ellen Properties
These insights, distilled from the experiences of industry veterans, serve not only as a warning but also as a strategic guide. By addressing these common pitfalls, property managers can fortify their businesses, ensuring robust financial health and sustainable growth in the competitive vacation rental market.
Credit: Ximplifi, LLC, using excerpts from Pfautz, D. B. (2023). Vacation Rental Secrets: The Short-Term Rental Industry’s Top Experts Disclose their Biggest Mistakes and Share Their Hard-Earned Wisdom.