October marked the four-year anniversary of our first purchase in Tamarindo, Costa Rica!
While we had owned long-term rental real estate for over 12 years at that point, Condo Boom was our first vacation rental. Even with a strong property manager with vacation rental experience and SuperHost status on Airbnb, we still need to manage the manager, and it’s been a steep learning curve.
Guest interaction has been one good way to get up to speed on the nuances of vacation rentals v. long-term rentals. While our property manager is the on-the-ground contact with guests, Scott still sees the communication when a guest inquires or reserves on Airbnb. Recently, he saw a question about whether our mattresses were hard or soft!
We think our Airbnb description is comprehensive, but the questions still come. Here are examples from the last four years:
Pricing and policies
- Can I arrive in the middle of the night?
- Can I bring pets?
- Can I get a discount?
- Can I check in early?
- Can I check out late?
Even though you can see the rates, check-in and check-out times and other policies right on the listing, some guests will still ask for exceptions. We’ve had guests who reserve for same-day and then want to check in an hour later, even if it’s hours before the posted check-in time. We’ve had customers who want to arrive in the middle of the night.
Amenities
- Do you have a rice cooker?
- Do you have a washing machine?
- Do you have cable?
- Does every room have air conditioning?
- Is there parking? Is it safe?
We try to list every major feature and appliance, but people skim and miss things (I know this from my work as a recruiter, where resumes are skimmed in 6-7 seconds on average). Sometimes, we don’t realize that an amenity is worth highlighting (e.g., yes, the unit has a rice cooker).
But you can’t have every amenity and need to think about tradeoffs. A washing machine is critical since coin laundromats aren’t common in Tamarindo, and in such an active, beach-oriented place, you will be washing your clothes. However, we only provide the basics when it comes to TV, because Costa Rica is an outdoor place so we figured minimal time inside. Besides, you can stream via your own accounts with the fast Internet.
Quality of stay
- How fast is your Internet?
- How far away is the beach and center of town?
- How accessible is the area for the elderly?
Even before the pandemic, Costa Rica was a popular destination for digital nomads, and it still is (number 7 in a recent Forbes post). We actually put the phrase “digital nomad” in Condo Boom’s headline to attract that specific population. We also post the Internet speed in the first line of the description! Of course, we also post the minutes it takes to walk to the beach and town center – proximity is a major advantage.
Accessibility is not something we hear about often. Costa Rica as a whole is an active, outdoor-focused country, and Tamarindo is no exception, so the vast majority of questions are more about activities like surfing and jungle tours. That said, the question of accessibility will come up so it’s important to think of the condition of the roads, number of stairs and other obstacles in your unit and surrounding areas. Our unit is already noted as a duplex, so we have received just one or two questions in this area.
We also get to know our unit by staying there and trying to keep a guest perspective
We have our own preferences, and we bought the unit because we loved it, so we’ll never be 100% objective. That said, we always end up with a wish list of updates and/or additions after a visit. We’ll notice that dishware is running low (things break) or certain linens need to be retired or a bare spot on the wall could use a piece of art.
Sometimes our suggestions fall flat: we added a small table and chair set to the master bedroom, thinking digital nomads might use it as an extra desk, but according to our property manager, it doesn’t get much use. Oh well, we can use it or post it on the Tamarindo Garage Sale (Facebook) page (yes, that’s a thing!).
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
