Read on to see how Coronavirus has affected our AirBnB short-term rental in Beech Mountain, NC. This home is located within Watauga County which has banned short-term rentals for stays less than 30 days.

In March this year, the Coronavirus Pandemic started creeping through the United States. On the first onslaught we started getting an initial wave of cancellations for our Tree House AirBnB in Beech Mountain. We were seeing multiple cancellations a day and our normal 70%+ occupancy numbers drastically diminished. We managed to shift our marketing strategies and get all of our months booked out rather quickly.

The initial shock wore off. We were finally able to bounce back in time to avoid taking a huge loss. After a few days rolled by we started getting comfortable until we were notified that Watauga County had officially shut down short-term rentals in Beech Mountain.

Their decision was understandable. The county wanted to reduce travelers to the area in order to slow the spread of Coronavirus. The hospitals in the county only have a limited number of beds. They were ill equipped to handle the number of potential sick travelers that were flocking into the area.

We had to unfortunately cancel guest stays that were shorter then 30 days in order to comply. Once again we were back to the drawing board to rally our marketing strategies once more. We shifted gears once more and started targeting month-to-month renters. Luckily, we managed to find a tenant who agreed to stay on for 3 months with an option to extend. So far we are staying afloat. We will update in a couple of months to see what comes of this new environment.