Starting a short-term rental in Las Vegas isn’t complicated, but it’s not simple either. There’s a lot that happens in those first three months, and how you handle it goes a long way toward determining what kind of business you’ll have going forward.

The first 90 days are when you build your listing’s reputation, iron out your operations, and start learning what your specific property attracts. It’s also when most new hosts make mistakes that take a while to undo. Not because they’re doing anything wrong on purpose—but because nobody told them what to expect.

This is what that window actually looks like, and what to do during it.

Before You List: Get the Foundation Right

The 90-day clock starts the moment your listing goes live. What you do before that matters just as much as what happens after.

Licensing comes first

In Las Vegas, you need a short-term rental license before you start hosting. The requirements vary depending on where your property is located. The City of Las Vegas allows STRs in owner-occupied properties. Henderson has its own licensing process. North Las Vegas has a separate set of requirements. Unincorporated Clark County currently has no licensing pathway at all.

Each jurisdiction also has distance requirements—your property needs to be a certain distance from another licensed vacation rental to qualify. If you skip this step and start hosting without a license, you’re exposing yourself to fines and potential forced shutdown. That’s not a recoverable situation for a new business.

Set up your property before your first guest arrives

This sounds obvious, but it’s worth being direct about what “ready” actually means. Professional photos are non-negotiable. Your listing photos are the primary reason a guest clicks or keeps scrolling, and phone snapshots in bad lighting will hurt your bookings before you’ve had a chance to earn a single review.

Stock your property with everything a guest might need: toiletries, paper products, a fully equipped kitchen, quality linens, extra towels, and anything specific to your property that guests will use. Create a house manual that covers check-in, Wi-Fi, parking, checkout, and answers to the questions guests will ask repeatedly.

Set up self-check-in if at all possible. Guests booking vacation rentals in 2025 expect it. A lockbox or smart lock takes one afternoon to install and removes a significant friction point from every single stay.

Price strategically for your launch

New listings on Airbnb and VRBO don’t have reviews, and reviews drive bookings. To compensate for that, most experienced hosts recommend pricing your first few weeks 10-15% below where you want to land long-term. The goal is to attract your first several guests quickly, deliver a great experience, and collect the reviews that will make your listing competitive at your target rate.

This isn’t about permanently discounting your property. It’s about buying the review equity you need to compete in a crowded market.

Weeks 1-4: Your First Guests

Your first bookings are going to tell you a lot about your property that you didn’t know before.

Expect operational surprises

No matter how thoroughly you prepared, something will come up in the first few weeks that you didn’t anticipate. The remote for the TV is confusing. Guests can’t find the extra toilet paper. The router needs to be in a different spot for reliable Wi-Fi throughout the property. Your checkout instructions aren’t clear about where to leave the keys.

These aren’t failures. They’re information. Pay attention to every question your first guests ask. The things multiple guests ask about in the first month should become part of your house manual and listing description immediately.

Respond to every message fast

On Airbnb and VRBO, response time is a ranking factor. More practically, it’s one of the first signals a potential guest uses to gauge whether you’re a reliable host. Aim to respond to every inquiry within an hour, and ideally much faster.

If you’re still working a full-time job and can’t monitor your phone constantly during business hours, set up automated responses for common questions. Something as simple as an auto-reply confirming you’ve received their message and will respond within a few hours is better than silence.

Ask for reviews, but don’t be pushy about it

After a guest checks out and you’ve confirmed everything is in good shape, send a brief, genuine thank-you message and let them know you’d appreciate a review if they have a moment. That’s all it takes. Don’t send multiple follow-ups. Don’t write a paragraph about how much their review means to you. One simple message is enough, and it works.

Weeks 5-8: Finding Your Rhythm

By this point you’ve had a handful of guests and you’re starting to see patterns.

Review your pricing

With a few reviews on your listing, you can start moving your rates toward your target. Watch your booking pace carefully. If your calendar is filling up weeks in advance with very little gap, you’re probably priced too low. If you’re sitting with open nights that you’d have expected to book, you may need to adjust.

Also look at which nights are booking and which aren’t. If your weekends are solid but your weekdays are empty, that’s typical for many Las Vegas properties—but it’s worth evaluating whether some mid-week pricing adjustments might help.

Build your cleaning operation

Cleaning coordination is one of the biggest operational challenges in short-term rental management. You need a cleaning team that can turn your property quickly and reliably between guests, every time, on short notice.

Whether you’re doing this yourself, working with a family member, or hiring a professional cleaning service, establish a clear checklist. Every cleaner should know exactly what the property should look like when they leave. If something breaks or is missing during a clean, you need to know about it before the next guest arrives, not after.

Inspection photos after every clean are a good habit to build early. They protect you if damage is disputed later, and they give you confidence that your property is being prepared consistently.

Start tracking your numbers

By weeks five through eight, you have enough data to start making sense of your performance. Track your occupancy rate, your average nightly rate, and your total monthly revenue. Compare it to your income projection. Are you where you expected to be? Higher? Lower?

Understanding your numbers early—before you’ve formed assumptions about what’s “normal” for your property—makes you a better decision maker going forward. You’ll also need this data for taxes, so building the habit early saves headaches later.

Weeks 9-12: Making the Real Adjustments

By the end of your third month, you should have a clear picture of what your property is and what it attracts.

Refine your listing based on what you’ve learned

Your listing description at launch was your best guess. By now you have actual guest feedback to work with. What do guests comment on most positively in their reviews? Make sure those things are prominent in your description. What questions keep coming up that aren’t answered anywhere in your listing? Add them.

If your photos don’t show something guests mention repeatedly—the view from the back patio, the game room, the proximity to a popular landmark—it’s worth scheduling additional photography to capture it.

Evaluate your guest experience honestly

Read your reviews carefully, not just to see if they’re positive, but to understand what your guests are actually experiencing. A 5-star review that says “the place was clean and the check-in was easy” tells you something different than one that says “we couldn’t stop talking about the outdoor space—our kids lived out there all weekend.”

The second review tells you something specific about what makes your property special. That’s something to build on, both in your listing and in how you prepare the property for future guests.

Understand where your bookings are coming from

Different booking platforms attract different types of guests. Airbnb tends to bring leisure travelers and families. VRBO has a strong base of family reunion and group travel bookings. Direct bookings through your own website or a direct booking engine like HomeRunner give you complete control over the guest relationship and eliminate platform fees.

By the end of 90 days, you’ll start to see which platforms are sending you the most bookings and which guest types are the best fit for your property. That’s information you can use to target your marketing more effectively going forward.

What a Managed Property Looks Like During This Window

Most of what’s described here—professional photos, pricing strategy, cleaning coordination, guest communication, review management, operational setup—is handled on your behalf when you work with a property manager. The 90-day launch period is exactly where hands-on expertise makes the biggest difference. Getting the fundamentals right early compounds over time into a stronger listing, better reviews, and higher revenue.

At 5 Star STR, we handle every part of this process for the properties we manage. That includes the setup, the guest communication, the cleaning coordination, the pricing adjustments, and the monthly review that gives you a clear picture of how your property is performing.

If you’re thinking about launching a Las Vegas vacation rental or want to take over management of an existing one, we’re happy to talk through what that looks like. Click here to book your appointment with 5 Star STR today.