Dear Property Owner,

Thank you for considering Sea to Sky Rentals to provide management services for your vacation rental home. We have been operating exclusively in Seattle since 2001, and pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service to ensure a positive experience for guests and owners alike – we welcome the opportunity to bring this same satisfaction to you.

For those still considering the idea of utilizing their property as a vacation rental, we are frequently asked what the benefits are. While everyone has their own reasons, the most common ones are:

• Potential to earn more money renting as a vacation rental versus long-term tenants
• More control over the home’s condition, as you are allowed on site between guests
• Possibility to live in the home part time, setting your own rental schedule
• Property is available to use for your own guests or personal use as needed

Once people have decided to rent their home as a vacation rental, typically the biggest undertaking is preparing the property to be guest-ready. Often this requires painting, landscaping and other aesthetic improvements to bring it to pristine condition. In addition, properties need to be fully furnished with all the accoutrements guests would expect to find at a typical vacation home. We realize this upfront investment can be significant, so we do everything we can to ensure it stays in tip-top shape, including scheduling routine cleans, inspections and inventories of each home.

When adding new properties to the Sea to Sky collection, the three primary factors we evaluate are condition, location and special features. Combined, these items determine how well a home will rent. In order to ensure an exceptional guest experience, we primarily look for homes that are in excellent condition, and are located in a safe area within walking distance to activities and shops. Homes with perks such as views, swimming pools, hot tubs, pool tables and other added amenities are even more attractive to guests and make ideal rental candidates.

Enclosed you will find detailed background information to answer many of the questions you might have, including how to prepare a home for rental, the scope of services Sea to Sky provides, contract specifics and more. After reviewing the information, if you feel your home would be a good fit with our services, we welcome the opportunity to meet with you to tour your property and discuss additional details. If you have any questions in the interim, please don’t hesitate to call or email me. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Michelle Acquavella
Founder, Owner, Sea to Sky Rentals
206-632-4210 | michelle@seattlesvacationrentals.com

Overview:	Sea to Sky Rentals is a boutique hospitality company specializing in Seattle vacation home rentals. Representing several area properties on behalf of private owners, the company rents out short term stays in dozens of unique homes throughout Seattle’s most sought after neighborhoods – from hideaway bungalows to downtown high rises. A perfect option for groups, families, and long-term leisure and business travelers, every Sea to Sky property is fully equipped with all the amenities of home, enabling guests to partake in a complete Seattle living experience. Guests also enjoy incomparable customer service from the Sea to Sky team, including unexpected perks and insider tips straight from those who call Seattle home.
Founded:	In 2001 by Michelle C. Acquavella, a leader among Seattle’s short term rental industry who both owns and manages short term rental properties
Headquarters:	Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, WA 7 employees
Vacation Collection:	Guests can choose from more than 25 fully furnished Seattle properties, typically ranging from $85-$375/night, with a minimum three-night stay. All properties are hand selected and immaculately kept by the Sea to Sky team between rentals to ensure a relaxing experience. Whether a downtown condo just steps from the water, a multi-bedroom home in a buzzing urban neighborhood, or an inviting garden hideaway on a calm Seattle street, Sea to Sky vacation properties highlight the best the city has to offer.
Owner Benefits	Vacation home owners enjoy partnering with Sea to Sky, as the company is able to eliminate the hassles of self-managed rentals while providing owners the same financial benefits. Sea to Sky manages the complete rental process including premium online marketing, advertising/public relations, real-time booking, guest logistics and troubleshooting. Plus, Sea to Sky focuses exclusively on Seattle properties, enabling local interaction and insights for owners and guests alike.

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For individuals who own second properties, utilizing them as short term rentals can prove a valuable income stream that surpasses traditional long term rental income. However, self-managing a short term rental is not without a long list of responsibilities and hassles that eat up time and cut into the bottom line. A rental property management company is designed to take the burden off of homeowners, while ensuring maximum rental revenue. Sea to Sky Rentals provides many benefits to its clients, including:

• Saving Time:Sea to Sky handles the complete management spectrum, from property marketing, to booking, guest services, property cleaning/maintenance and financial processing. Clients simply receive their monthly rental revenues check, and Sea to Sky does the rest.
• Online Advantage:Powered by Escapia, bookings and financials are managed online in real-time. This enables homeowners to easily make personal block-outs, check on their property rental calendar, view financial statements and more. In addition, listings on multiple property marketing sites are all streamlined through one easy-to-use calendar and reservation system.
• Maitenance Management:Sea to Sky provides detailed getting-started guides to ensure all homes are fully equipped and furnished for a positive guest experience – the company will even outfit the home on behalf of clients as needed. In between stays, Sea to Sky’s housekeeping staff thoroughly cleans all properties and notes any additional maintenance needs.
• Big Buzz:a full public relations team, advertising services, and aggressive online marketing all promote Sea to Sky as a trusted go-to hospitality company for short term Seattle rentals. In addition, the company hand-selects the properties it represents to maintain a high level of guest expectations – all adding up to above-average occupancy rates.
• Guest Support:located right in Seattle, Sea to Sky brings a personal touch to customer service. In addition to managing all phone and online reservations, the staff provide insider vacation tips, help select the perfect property, coordinate key logistics, provide added perks and amenities on the fly, and troubleshoot guest needs 24x7, completely eliminating the owners’ need to be involved.
• Financial Rewards:keeping its finger on the pulse, Sea to Sky helps set competitive seasonal rates, markets enticing promotional packages during shoulder seasons, and takes advantage of dynamic pricing to help keep properties full. For its complete management services, Sea to Sky retains a small percentage of the rental fee.

All things considered, the hands-on management Sea to Sky provides, coupled with maximizing rates and increased bookings, leads to the same financial rewards as a self-managed property, but without the headaches and hassles!

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To help maximize bookings and effectively communicate financial transactions with owners, Sea to Sky Rentals takes advantage of the power of Escapia, a web-based vacation rental software and marketing solution. Through this, owners benefit from:

Online bookings are one of the biggest growth opportunities available to vacation rental owners. Through our partnership, a full listing of your property – including images, rates, description and booking calendar – will seamlessly appear on many of the most well known vacation rental sites. When we make updates in the central system, it automatically updates all listings to ensure accuracy. Better yet, you only pay for performance – a nominal referral fee is deducted from your rental proceeds only when properties are booked.

Visitors to any site where your property is listed have direct access to a real-time booking calendar where they are able to book reservations on the spot, and it all feeds back to our central system for flawless transactions. From there, Sea to Sky works with guests to finalize the details and collect payment. This ensures there are never double bookings, and promotes more bookings because would-be guests can take action on the spot.

OwnerWeb is another tool with tremendous advantage. This enables owners full access at anytime to see the status of their property rentals and financial transactions. In addition, owners can view an up-to-the-second booking calendar and easily block out dates for their own personal use. Simply log-on and you can view PDF Owner Statements, 12-month availability calendars, make basic account updates and more:

• Capture maintenance notes needed by the IRS, as well as housekeeping and maintenance details
• View the fully integrated accounting system that tracks and reports all transactions
• Utilize a flexible rate engine to help maximize profitability
• Automatically generate a year-end 1099 statement

Even if you own multiple properties, we combine all rentals onto one easy-to-read comprehensive statement. Your monthly Owner Statement gives you all the crucial information you need, including details for each guest booking, payments and expenses tracked by month and year-to-date, plus a current 12-month calendar to view bookings and availability ahead.

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Before renting out a property, Sea to Sky Rentals works with each owner to set rental rates and review financial procedures, as well as ensure properties are in pristine condition and fully furnished. Following is a brief overview of things homeowners will need to consider to prepare for their first guest.

• Rental Rates: we set your rental market rates based on your property’s attributes and seasonal demand. Typical nightly rates range from $85-375/night. Rates peak during summer, and are usually lower October through May. We require a three-night minimum stay for all properties, and often have guests who stay one month or longer.
• Guest Payments and Proceeds Checks: we handle all aspects of guest payment collection, and send the net rental proceeds to you via monthly checks with detailed statements. Checks are sent at the beginning of each month, covering rentals that were completed the previous month. Sea to Sky keeps a portion of the rental proceeds as our management fee.
• Initiation and Renewal Fee: each new rental incurs a one-time $350 initiation fee to cover the cost of photographs and set-up costs. Annually, there is also a $250 contract renewal fee. Both fees are deducted from rental proceeds.
• Credit Card Fees: our current credit card fee is 3% of net rents collected, which is deducted from your monthly rental proceeds.
• Cleaning Fees: properties undergo an initial deep clean, routine cleans between each guest, and two additional deep cleans and maintenance checks annually. Cleaning fees are deducted from rental proceeds as incurred. This process is detailed below.
• Furnishing Fees: the cost to fully furnish and equip a rental home from scratch typically ranges from $4,000 and up, and is the owner’s responsibility. As Sea to Sky is focused on a relaxing guest experience, we do expect owners to furnish items in new or like-new condition, and the décor to be arranged in an attractive manner. Most home owners prefer to take on the preparation tasks themselves, though we can manage this process for an additional fee.

• Furnishings: we provide a detailed checklist of required items for all properties, but anticipate outfitting the home with basic furnishings, as well as functional items and modern appliances found in a typical residence. This includes adequate furniture in all rooms, a television/DVD player, stereo, phone, hair dryers, fans or air conditioning, complete kitchen supplies, dishes and more.
• Linens: at the time of set-up an initial “linen fee” is charged to the owner. As sheets and towels have high attrition, we routinely replace them at no additional cost to the owner. Owners are welcome to keep their own linens on hand in a locked area for their personal use.
• Internet/Phone: we require all rentals to have high-speed wireless Internet access and local phone service. This is approximately $50/month and should be billed direct to the owner.
• Supplies: owners furnish the home with initial bulk household supplies, such as garbage bags, dishwasher soap, light bulbs, batteries, etc. We replenish these between each guest as needed, and deduct the cost from your proceeds. Sea to Sky itself provides routine turnover supplies such as hand soap, toilet paper, coffee, etc. as part of the service contract.

• Keyless Entry: : for residential homes (not condos) we recommend owners install keyless deadbolts in place of a standard key entry lock. We use a preferred installer, and total cost including the lock and installation is approximately $250 to be deducted from initial proceeds.
• Keys: for homes that use standard keys, owners provide one key for every two persons who can occupy the unit. Sea to Sky also needs two sets of keys for management and housekeeping. We manage the distribution of all keys to guests and account for their return.
• Damage Waiver Program: to help ensure homes are kept in top condition, we charge each guest a damage waiver fee, for which we cover guests liability for up to $500 worth of unintentional damage.

• Plants/Landscaping: we recommend silk plants for indoors, and drought-resistant plants with a timed watering system outside. Sea to Sky staff does not maintain care of live plants, but can arrange for regular lawn and gardening services as needed.
• Initial Clean & Inventory: one week prior to your first guest, Sea to Sky conducts an initial deep clean that may include carpets, windows, blinds, pressure washing and more. Costs are billed to your account; the initial cost is significantly higher than all proceeding routine cleanings. While there, we take a full inventory, and will notify you of any missing items from our provided checklist and work with you to ensure those are in place prior to guests arriving.
• Turnover Cleans: we will review your home and set a regular cleaning price, including laundry service. The home will be cleaned between each guest visit. For guests staying less than five nights, the cleaning fee is their responsibility and added to their rental bill. For guests staying five nights or more, the fee is the responsibility of the owner and we deduct it from proceeds.
• Deep Cleans and Maitenance Checks: we conduct a mandatory deep clean and maintenance check twice yearly (April/May and October/November) in order to keep properties in top condition. These cleanings cost more than the turnover cleans and are billed to your account. If there are any maintenance issues or improvements needed, we will address these with you and determine the cost to fix.
• Owner-Stay Cleans: if owners would like to skip the turnover cleaning fee prior to their own personal stay, Sea to Sky will not clean up after the guests immediately before you. Once you finish your stay, we’ll conduct a routine clean for the next arriving guest.

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Sea to Sky Rentals signs a property management agreement with all owners in order to represent their properties. We review the contract with each prospective client in detail when we meet in person. In the meantime, answers to the most commonly asked questions include:

As the management agent, what are Sea to Sky’s primary responsibilities?

• Set rental rates and market the vacation home
• Handle all guest emergency phone calls and troubleshoot each situation; we have a 24/7 mobile phone guests can call for assistance
• Respond to rental inquiries in a timely manner
• Make rental reservations via email and phone
• Upon receipt of deposit, email reservation confirmation letters, rental contracts and other information to guests as needed
• Collect signed rental agreements and rental payments from guests prior to arrival
• Schedule annual and turnover cleanings, and launder linens between guests
• Replenish sheets and towels as needed
• Replenish household supplies as needed, at cost to the owner
• Maintain/distribute locks and keys
• Supply home with Seattle tourism information including bus/ferry timetables, downtown maps, etc.

What fees does Sea to Sky Rentals charge me for their services?

• For guest stays less than 30 days, 30% percent of all rent collected before any applicable referral or travel agent fees, and 30% of any rental deposits forfeited by guests
• For guest stays 30 days or longer, 25% percent of all rents collected before any applicable referral or travel agent fees, and 25% of any rental deposits forfeited by guests
• A $350 initial initiation fee to cover photography and set-up costs
• A $250 annual renewal fee to defray the cost of web hosting, online marketing, and OwnerWeb
• All credit card fees (currently 3% of rental fees)
• Deep cleaning service (initial clean plus twice annually), household supplies replenishment, and turnover housekeeping between each guest

When do I get paid for my rentals?

• Proceed checks and statements are distributed to owners by the 10th of each month, to cover all net rental proceeds for guest stays completed by the last day of the prior month.

What is the housekeeping set up and who pays for it?

• Sea to Sky arranges an initial deep clean, plus two annual deep cleans that are billed to the owner on the monthly statement. Sea to Sky’s housekeeping staff conducts a routine turnover cleaning between each guest. For guests who stay less than five nights, the cleaning fee is their responsibility and is added to their rental fee. For guests who stay five nights or more, the turnover cleaning fee is the responsibility of the owner and deducted from rental proceeds.

When do I have access to the property for my personal use, or to allow a non-paying guest to stay there? What fees are associated with this?

• Owners may reserve the home for personal use and use by non-paying guests as long as the rental home is not subject to a prior reservation. Such use incurs the standard turnover cleaning fee plus a $50 administrative fee per stay to cover reservation paperwork, prior inspection and coordinating access to the property. To avoid the cleaning fee, owners can opt to clean-up after the prior guests themselves upon arrival. A standard turnover cleaning will take place following personal stays.

What does Sea to Sky do if guests cause damage to my home?

• Sea to Sky charges each guest a small damage waiver fee. This fee covers accidental guest damage up to $500. Claims beyond $500 are the responsibility of the owner, and can be addressed directly with the guest as needed. Because we know owners put a lot of care into their home, we go the extra mile to protect properties by carefully screening all potential renters to ensure responsible guests.

What do I need to do to get my home ready for rental?

• Ensure the home is in immaculate condition and fully furnished to serve as a comfortable vacation home for guests. Refer to the “Preparing Your Property” handout for complete details. Contractually, owners must provide at minimum:
  • Color television with basic cable service
  • Local telephone service
  • High-speed Internet connection
  • Fully equipped kitchen with dish service equal to maximum occupancy numbers
  • A/C units during the summer months
  • Direct payment of all utilities, dues or assessments, taxes and mortgage related charges

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Sea to Sky Rentals currently represents 25+ properties exclusively in Seattle. We maintain a complete range of rental options to suit any guest’s needs, and are always eager to add to the collection. Here is a sneak peek at some of the homes we represent.

Bryant Fig Tree Cottage 1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom 560 Sq.Ft. $140-$160/night	Metropolitan Tower Condo 2 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms 1213 Sq. Ft. $275-$325/night	Montlake Bungalow 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms 2540 Sq. Ft. $245-$350/night
University Lilac Cottage 2 Bedrooms, 1 Bathroom 1010 Sq. Ft. $155-$240/night	Phinney Ridge Home 3 Bedrooms, 1.5 Bathrooms 1560 Sq. Ft. $255-$350/night	Belltown Court Condo 1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom 627 Sq. Ft. $2450/month
Phinney Garden Cottage 2 Bedrooms, 1 Bathroom 940 Sq. Ft. $155-$240/night	Centennial Tower Apartment 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms 1300 Sq. Ft. $295-$375/night	Downtown Elektra Studio 1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom 301 Sq. Ft. $650-$900/week

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As the owner and founder of Sea to Sky Rentals in Seattle, Michelle C. Acquavella is an industry leader when it comes to vacation rental properties. Michelle herself owns properties, and started the company in 2001 after noting a demand for a reputable agency that could provide a consistent range of quality vacation home rental options to visitors.

Michelle is very involved in day-to-day operations, from managing properties, to overseeing team members, liaising with property owner clients, controlling financials and growing the property collection. Under Michelle’s guidance, in just a few short years the company has grown from representing a handful of properties, to fully managing more than 25 pristine vacation home rental options.

Michelle is also very active in the local hospitality industry, and in recent years has been a well-known advocate fighting to maintain short term rental rights within the city of Seattle. Business organizations Michelle is actively involved in include:

• Washington Vacation Rental Managers Association; founder
  
  
• Vacation Rental Managers Association; member and attends the national and Western convention annually
  
  
• Washington State Hotel and Lodging Association; member
  
  
• Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau; member
  
  
• Better Business Bureau; member

Michelle has lived in many of Seattle’s most popular neighborhoods, giving her a very local perspective with which to guide visiting guests and ensure they have an authentic Seattle stay. When not in the Pacific Northwest, Michelle enjoys traveling the globe to experience other vacation home rentals, and especially loves the beachfront villas in Puerto Vallarta.

Michelle has lived in Seattle since 1993. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington, and has been a licensed real estate agent since 1997.

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