Every Dubai STR management company quotes a commission percentage. Almost none of them tell you upfront what's excluded. Here's what 15-20% actually buys — using our own managed-vs-owned portfolio split as the real comparison.
A 28-night Airbnb booking looks like MTR to the guest — but it isn't one legally, and treating them the same is where owners get exposed on Ejari, deposits, and DEWA. Real extended-stay data from our own portfolio, and what a proper conversion actually requires.
Slow Wi-Fi is one of the fastest ways to lose a star on a review — and almost nobody budgets for it separately. A real logged cost from our own portfolio, and where connectivity actually fits in a Dubai STR setup budget.
A fixed nightly rate is the single most common mistake we see on new Dubai STR listings. Here's what a real pricing engine actually weighs night-to-night — and what our own portfolio's rate spread between a mature listing and a ramping one looks like in practice.
Standard Dubai home insurance explicitly excludes paying-guest activity — meaning most owners running STR on their existing policy are operating uninsured without realizing it. Here's what DET actually requires, what proper coverage costs, and how it fits into your compliance budget.
Airbnb hasn't let hosts set a traditional security deposit since 2022 — most Dubai owners are still operating on the old assumption. Here's how AirCover actually works, the 14-day filing window that trips up most claims, and the guest-screening layer that prevents disputes before they start.
A single bad review rarely sinks a Dubai STR listing — not having a system for it does. Here's what actually moves your rating: response tone, pattern recognition across reviews, and why reputation is really a distribution lever, not just a customer-service task.
A turnover clean costs AED 700 on one of our own Business Bay units — real ledger data, not an industry average. Here's how that number scales with booking length, when in-house cleaning actually beats outsourcing, and where the hidden costs sit.
"No tax on rental income" is true for a long-term lease — short-term rental income is a different, less-understood picture. Here's what the VAT threshold and corporate tax rules actually mean for a Dubai STR operator, and where the lines sit.
Furniture package quotes for Dubai STR units range from AED 7,500 to AED 55,000+ depending on size and tier — here's what actually drives that spread, what most owners forget to budget for separately, and why the payback math usually favours going a level up.
One missing document number is the single most common reason a Dubai listing gets pulled. Here's what the DET holiday home permit actually costs, who needs the separate operator license, and where new hosts most often get the paperwork wrong.
Airbnb takes 15.5% off every payout. Booking.com averages around 15%. Direct bookings take neither — but they don't fall from the sky either. Here's what our own portfolio's channel mix actually looks like, and the framework we use to decide where a new listing goes first.
Dubai STR demand shifts every June–September, not disappears. Here's the pricing, channel, and MTR-conversion playbook professional operators use to keep cash flow steady through the low season — including real occupancy and rate data from our own portfolio.