Fall is here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and that means Cruisin’ the Coast, cooler weather and the beginning of our slower season.
For property owners, this is also an excellent time to look ahead. There are only a few months remaining in 2026 to review your property’s financial records, complete needed maintenance and repairs, and prepare for the upcoming tax season.
We also have some encouraging tourism news, changes affecting Airbnb listings, improvements we’ve made at Christies, and a preview of what we’re working on for 2027.
Don’t wait until tax season to start reviewing your vacation-rental finances. The final months of 2026 give you time to review expenses and complete appropriate maintenance or other planned work before year-end.
After Cruisin’ the Coast, bookings generally slow down. That gives us more opportunities to schedule maintenance, repairs and other work that can be difficult to complete during peak periods.
If you have repairs, maintenance or improvements you have been considering, let us know. Some expenditures may qualify as current-year business expenses, while improvements may need to be capitalized and depreciated. Your CPA or tax professional can determine the proper treatment for your particular situation.
Your Christies Client Portal spreadsheet is cumulative for the entire year. After we enter the final December activity, the gross income shown at the top will be the gross rental income contained in our records and used for year-end reporting.
Christies will provide your applicable Form 1099 by email by the end of January, but you do not need to wait for it to start preparing.
Review your Client Portal now. In particular, look at the expenses listed on lines 12 through 20. Depending upon your individual tax situation, these may include expenses eligible to be deducted against your rental income.
Combine those records with expenses you paid directly that would not appear on our spreadsheet, such as mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, qualifying mileage and travel expenses, repairs, supplies and other rental-business expenses.
A black triangle in the upper-right corner of a spreadsheet cell indicates a note. Check these notes for additional information about expenses we may have paid on your behalf.
Remember, the Client Portal contains Christies’ financial records for your property. It does not necessarily contain every expense you personally incurred.
If you are not already using a CPA or other qualified tax professional for your rental-property tax return, we recommend consulting one—particularly if you also use the property personally as a vacation home.
The slower season is one of the best times to give your property some attention. Preventive maintenance can help avoid emergency calls, guest inconvenience and larger repair bills during the busy season.
When was the last time the anode rod in your water heater was inspected or replaced? Anode rods help protect the tank from corrosion. Depending on the equipment, water conditions and manufacturer recommendations, periodic inspection and replacement can help extend the life of the water heater.
Your HVAC system works hard during a Mississippi Gulf Coast summer. Annual service can identify dirty coils, airflow problems and deteriorating electrical components, including capacitors, before they become an emergency service call.
A deep cleaning is not the same as a turnover cleaning. Turnover cleaning prepares the home for the next guest. A deep cleaning addresses areas that aren’t practical to tackle between every reservation.
This is also the time for touch-up paint and those small repairs that accumulate during the year—a loose table leg, deteriorating caulk, a door that needs adjustment, or furniture beginning to show excessive wear.
Let us know if there is work you would like scheduled during the slower season.
There is encouraging news about tourism in Mississippi and on the Gulf Coast.
Mississippi reported another record tourism year in 2025, with approximately 45.5 million visitors, a record $12.4 billion in visitor spending, and an estimated $18.9 billion in total economic impact.
Harrison County has also reported that tourism is on pace to surpass $1.1 billion, which would establish another county record. We expect the continued strength of Gulf Coast tourism to benefit Jackson and Hancock counties as well.
New accommodations have also been opening along the Coast, including smaller and boutique hotel properties in communities such as Long Beach, Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs. New investment is another indication that businesses continue to see long-term potential in Gulf Coast tourism.
One trend we continue to watch is the supply of vacation-rental properties. Long Beach, for example, has not experienced significant growth in the number of vacation-rental permits.
Higher home prices combined with higher financing costs make it more difficult for investors to purchase homes exclusively for short-term rental use and make the numbers work.
Our experience this past year has been that many people purchasing vacation homes are buying primarily for their own use and then making their open dates available to visitors.
If this continues, we may see slower growth in competing vacation-rental inventory even as Gulf Coast tourism continues to grow. That could create a healthier balance between visitor demand and available vacation-rental nights over the next few years.
We mentioned Airbnb’s pricing changes earlier this year, and the change is now affecting how professionally managed properties are priced on the platform.
Airbnb is moving many professionally managed properties to a structure where its service fee is deducted from the host side rather than appearing separately as part of the guest’s bill.
This means Brian has had to adjust Airbnb listing prices to account for everything that must be paid from the advertised rate.
A price displayed on ChristiesGulfBeachRentals.com may not look identical to Airbnb because the two systems present and calculate charges differently. Christies continues to build the reservation from the base rate and itemize applicable charges.
The important number is the total reservation cost and the resulting amount available to the property owner, not simply the first number displayed on a screen.
Most reservations proceed exactly as expected, but occasionally the credit-card system creates a problem neither the property owner nor Christies controls.
A guest can dispute a credit-card transaction after payment. Depending upon the card issuer, reason for the dispute and applicable rules, a dispute can occur well after the original transaction.
Payment processors can also temporarily hold funds while they verify a transaction. We recently had a payment held for approximately two weeks while the processor reviewed it. Fortunately, it happened early enough in the month that it did not affect the owner’s payment.
Several years ago we had a much more frustrating example. A guest stayed in one of our properties for approximately a week and later disputed the transaction, claiming the stay never occurred. We knew the guest had stayed there, and even a neighbor had met the guest. Nevertheless, the funds were pulled back and we were never compensated.
These situations are uncommon, but unfortunately not everyone is honest. We believe our owners should understand how the process works before a problem ever occurs.
Here’s something considerably more fun.
Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service now operates twice daily between Mobile and New Orleans, with Mississippi Gulf Coast stops in:
Take the train to New Orleans, spend the day enjoying the city, and return without driving Interstate 10, dealing with New Orleans traffic or finding a place to park.
This is also worth mentioning to your friends and guests. It gives visitors another reason to choose the Mississippi Gulf Coast and adds an easy New Orleans day trip to their vacation.
As we approach the end of the year, we want to share some of what we’ve been working on and where Christies Gulf Beach Rentals is headed in 2027.
You may be surprised to learn how many people visit ChristiesGulfBeachRentals.com.
While the website currently generates relatively few reservations from brand-new guests compared with Airbnb and VRBO, thousands of visitors come to the site each year, and that traffic continues to grow.
Many are your friends and relatives. When we feature one of our vacation rentals on Facebook, people follow the link to Christies and look at the property’s complete listing.
Other visitors discover us through the information we publish about things to see and do on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Those articles and pages receive considerable attention and introduce more people to Christies and the properties we manage.
That exposure still has value even when someone ultimately decides to make the reservation through Airbnb or VRBO.
During 2027, we intend to expand ChristiesGulfBeachRentals.com and use new artificial intelligence tools to improve the information visitors can find about our properties and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
We want the website to help prospective visitors learn about your property, its location, nearby attractions and everything they can do while visiting the Coast— regardless of where they eventually make their reservation.
One of the biggest behind-the-scenes improvements we made during 2026 was changing the way we send payments to property owners.
Our previous arrangement with our local bank had become unnecessarily complicated. We now use American Express Bank for owner payments.
The difference has been significant. When we initiate an owner payment by approximately 2:00 p.m., it will usually reach the owner’s bank by the end of that day or by the following business day, except when weekends or bank holidays intervene.
We also made significant improvements to the Client Portal spreadsheet during 2026, and we’ll continue improving it in 2027.
These tools are designed to help you go beyond simply asking, “How much rent did my property generate?”
They can help you analyze your vacation-rental business and better understand the financial performance of your investment. If you haven’t tried them, take a look. We intend to continue adding and improving the information and tools available to Christies owners.
Some of you already know that Bill is also the editor of RetireCoast.com, a digital platform focusing on retirement, personal financial management, small business and life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
What you may not know is that RetireCoast also helps introduce people to Christies.
When appropriate, Bill includes links from RetireCoast articles to ChristiesGulfBeachRentals.com. Sometimes an article provides a natural opportunity to link directly to a specific Christies property.
We know these references work because our analytics show readers moving from RetireCoast articles to Christies—and sometimes directly to an individual property.
If you haven’t visited RetireCoast.com, we encourage you to take a look. There are hundreds of articles, calculators and other resources covering retirement, financial management, small business and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Since we’re talking about RetireCoast, there are two resources I should have shared with Christies owners before now.
I know each of you, and I know enough about your properties and businesses to realize that many of you can actually use these tools.
For many of you, your vacation rental isn’t simply a second home that occasionally produces income. You are operating a real business.
You collect income, incur expenses, own business assets, deal with contracts, pay taxes and assume liability. You also make decisions about how the property and business should be structured.
The RetireCoast Business Builder Membership includes information and tools to help small-business owners explore issues such as forming and operating an LLC, business organization, contracts, warranties, financial planning and other practical business decisions.
There is another side to owning a valuable piece of real estate: eventually, someone else is going to own it.
Who receives the property? What happens if several children inherit it? What if one wants to keep it and another wants to sell? Should the property be owned by a trust or LLC? Who takes over the rental business? Where will your family find the information they need?
The RetireCoast Estate Planning Membership provides educational resources and planning tools designed to help you work through these questions and become better prepared before meeting with your attorney, CPA or financial professional.
That’s why I should have introduced these resources to Christies owners sooner. Take a look at both memberships. I think many of you will find tools and information you can put to use.
— Bill Anderson
There is a common thread running through many of the improvements we made in 2026 and those we have planned for 2027.
We want to help market your property, provide useful financial information, maintain your investment, give you tools to better understand its performance, and continually find new ways to put your property in front of prospective guests.
Thank you for trusting us with your vacation rental. We appreciate your business, and we’re looking forward to working with you in 2027.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Vacation Rental Management
This newsletter contains general business, property-management and educational information and is not tax, legal or financial advice. Consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstances.