Gattilnburg Cabin Rental Market (Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg: vacation, business, community)

[lonestar8636]

Can someone provide me with the "state of the cabin rental market" in gatlinburg? I've considered it.

Secondly, I'm looking for specific community names to look.

I've heard good things and bad. Looking for some honesty. Are there any sleezy realtors to avoid. Send me private response if you don't want to go public.

I live in NC.

[hiknapster]

There are a LOT of rental cabins and competition is fierce.

Do it if you want a cabin to enjoy and have a bit of help paying the bills. Remember though, there are a lot of headaches to it. Do you handle the rentals yourself or hire a company?

If you are thinking of renting as a business investment, forget it, you'll be in the red.

[hilly7]

If your considering getting into or buying cabin rentals I have 3 friends that tried it and all but 1 have sold out. They all stated different reasons and all crossed over some same reasons. Bottom line was the aggraviation and money return. If your looking to rent them I can ask some friends of mine where they rent for their anniversary each year.

[deborah2525]

I have a cabin, rented very well in 06, not so good in 07, and very slow in 08. If you have a specific location in mind, check out the other cabins in the same area. Go to sites, look at the booking/reservation calendar and you can see the reservations for any cabin....for instance ours has 4 days in May, 3 in June, and one week in July....very very bad for the season.

I am online trying to find ways to market my sites, paying out more money to get on VRBO, ebay, etc. Not a strong time to have a rental in an area that familys DRIVE to their vacations, from Atlanta, Birmingham, etc.

We love our cabin, and are glad to have it, but it is costing us much per month, as rentals are very slow.

[LilCabinGirl]

There is a yahoo group of Smoky Mtn cabin owners that you might be able to join. Just find the group and email the moderator to see if they are allowing prospective owners to join. I did extensive research into rental cabin ownership and found that it's really tough to break even and cash flow is mostly non-existent. There is such a surplus of cabins and people are slashing rental prices to get bookings. If you can afford to pay for some of the cabin expense yourself, it might be good for you or if you go in on a cabin with family or friends.

LCG

[jimlee]

I believe the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge cabin rental market is hugely oversold right now.

Lots of people bought them and counted on renting them to make their payments and many are not doing that.

Management companies charge a commission between 30-50% of the gross rental to handle renting them for absentee owners. Tough to make your payment with fees like that even if you can rent it very often.