Why Operations Matter More Than Pricing for Memphis STRs

If you spend any time in STR Facebook groups or listening to hosting podcasts, you'd think the entire game comes down to dynamic pricing. Adjust your rates by the hour, undercut the competition on slow nights, jack prices up during events. That's the playbook most people are taught.

It doesn't really apply here.

Memphis is a drive-through market. We sit at the intersection of I-40 and I-55, and the majority of our bookings are one and two night stays. People passing through on road trips, visiting family, traveling for work. But here's what a lot of hosts miss about this guest. They're booking last minute, often the same day they need the room. And a huge percentage of them have pets.

Think about that from the guest's perspective. They're six hours into a drive, the dog is in the back seat, and they need somewhere to stop for the night. Most hotels either don't allow pets or charge a steep fee on top of an already expensive room. A well-run Airbnb that accepts pets, allows one-night stays, and can be booked a few hours before check-in is exactly what that traveler is looking for. That's your customer in Memphis.

Now here's where most hosts shoot themselves in the foot:

1. They set a two-night minimum because they think it reduces wear and tear or cuts down on cleaning costs. In this market, that decision eliminates roughly half your potential bookings. The demand is there every single night, but it's coming from guests who only need one night. If your listing won't let them book it, they'll find one that will.
2. They don't allow pets because they're worried about damage. That's understandable, but it's a trade-off most people get wrong. Yes, a dog might leave some hair behind. But the revenue you lose by turning away pet owners in a corridor market like Memphis far exceeds the occasional extra cleaning cost. Charge a reasonable pet fee and build your cleaning process to handle it. That's a solvable problem.
3. They can't turn units fast enough. This is the big one. When your average guest is booking same-day and staying one night, your property has to be ready fast. Not ready by tomorrow. Ready in under an hour. If a guest checks out at 11 AM and someone wants to book for that same evening, you either have the operation to make that happen or you lose the booking. There's no middle ground.

This is why we built our entire operation around speed and consistency rather than software. We run our own cleaning teams, our own maintenance crews, our own laundry facility. When a guest checks out, we're not waiting on a third-party cleaner to confirm availability. Our team is already scheduled. Linens go straight to our facility, and a fresh set goes in. The unit is turned and back online in about 45 minutes. Pet hair, extra towels, whatever the last guest left behind, it's handled and the next guest never knows the difference.

And when something worse than pet hair happens, we're ready for that too. We keep ozone machines on hand so if a guest smokes in a unit, we can have the smell completely eliminated within four hours. Most hosts find out someone smoked and have to cancel the next booking or hope some air freshener does the job. We treat it, clear it, and the next guest walks into a clean unit with no idea anything happened. That's what being operationally prepared actually looks like.

The other piece people underestimate is maintenance response time. In a long-term rental, a slow drip under the kitchen sink can wait a few days. In a short-term rental, it can't. A guest reports an issue at 10 PM and they expect it handled. If you're relying on outside contractors, you're playing phone tag at the worst possible time. We keep four maintenance techs on staff so we can respond the same day, often the same hour. That protects your reviews, and reviews are the real pricing tool in this market.

Here's something worth thinking about if you're managing your own property or considering a switch. The biggest expense most owners don't account for isn't the management fee. It's the cost of vacancy caused by operational gaps. A unit that goes dark for two days because of a cleaning delay or a maintenance issue doesn't just lose those two nights of revenue. It loses ranking on Airbnb's search algorithm, which means fewer eyes on your listing for the next week or two. That compounds fast.

We track all of this across the properties we manage, and the pattern is clear. The owners who perform best aren't the ones obsessing over nightly rate adjustments. They're the ones whose properties are consistently available, consistently clean, and consistently reviewed well. The revenue follows.

Memphis isn't going to become a destination market overnight. But that's actually the opportunity. The demand is steady and predictable with 12M visitors per year, and the operators who build systems around reliability rather than gimmicks are the ones generating real returns for their owners year after year.

If you own a short-term rental in Memphis or you're thinking about converting a property, the question worth asking isn't which pricing tool to use. It's whether your operation can handle one-night stays with pets, turn a unit in 45 minutes, and deliver a five-star experience up to thirty times a month.

That's the bar, and it's where the money is.

Got questions about your Memphis STR or thinking about making a switch? Text us anytime at 901.883.5084 and we'll help you figure out your next move.