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