Who else is running an AirBnb property?

[ewade07]

My fiancé and I bought our second house recently, closed on it in early June. Its about 1700 sq ft, 4 bed 2 bath with a nice big shed and garage in a nicer neighborhood. Not our forever home but we saw an opportunity to buy at a decent price and interest rate (for these days, anyways). We kept our first home to turn into a complete rental. I say complete because when we were living in it we were already renting out the basement long term (house is an up/down split with full laundry and kitchen on each level, downstairs has its own separate entrance). We were milling around the idea of long term renting out the top unit but settled on doing an Airbnb. We had the unit (3 bed, 1 bath) up and running at the beginning of July. So far the experience has been mostly positive with a couple hiccups (bad guests who trashed the place but did not destroy anything, cleaner issues). It definitely has not been as easy as people/videos make it seem, but it has been worth it so far.

I'm curious if anyone else out there is running an AirBnb and what their experience has been? Any horror stories? Tips?

 

[Rimrocks]

We have a short term rental property also. A 2000 sq. foot house, in a country "Back in" setting. We are fairly close to a large tourist destination, and get all kinds of renters. Groups on a get-away, families on vacation,, workers staying for a week, Bachler/Bachelorette groups, fair attendees. So far we haven't had any true horror stories, but we live close enough we can hear if it gets too loud over there. Some people just are better at making a mess than others, but most are very respectful of the property.
My wife does look at the ratings of the renters and you can decline, if there are past issues. Be aware the different rental sites calendars often do not sync as they are supposed to, which can lead to double booking. Overall the income has been good but has gone down the last several years due to the uptick in availability of short term rentals. One word of advice is keep the place clean!!!!!!! This is the most important thing to our renters, and many return even with the almost nonexistent internet.

 

[grfox92]

I live in a summer tourism town and know a lot of people who run them.

It seems the biggest hurdle is getting reliable cleaners. One friend of ours would frequently have to unexpectedly drop everything she was doing and drive 60 MILES to one of her rentals. This was because she either couldn't confirm the cleaner had been there or the cleaner canceled last minute, and new guests were inbound that day.

With incredible occupancy history snd great cash flow they had to sell that house due the the stress of it.

It also depends on where the rental is. I live just out of Yellowstone. Almost all rentals are family vacationers. In other areas that aren't tourist destinations I believe is where you have to worry more about younger folks having a party and damaging your place. I've never heard of that here but I know it happens.

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[Weldor]

I have 2 near my cabin, great tourist spot. They were booming during the Covid. The only problem I have seen is without anyone close by to monitor the occupants there are plenty of calls to the Sheriffs. Loud partys, over occupancy, barking dogs, people throwing dog doo in my yard and neighbors. Really don't care for them. Same as above no reliable cleaners or caretakers. I figure they will be for sale soon enough, rentals way down now that no more free money. I pretty sure I'll be purchasing the one next door so I can be my own best neighbor.

 

[ewade07]

We have a short term rental property also. A 2000 sq. foot house, in a country "Back in" setting. We are fairly close to a large tourist destination, and get all kinds of renters. Groups on a get-away, families on vacation,, workers staying for a week, Bachler/Bachelorette groups, fair attendees. So far we haven't had any true horror stories, but we live close enough we can hear if it gets too loud over there. Some people just are better at making a mess than others, but most are very respectful of the property.
My wife does look at the ratings of the renters and you can decline, if there are past issues. Be aware the different rental sites calendars often do not sync as they are supposed to, which can lead to double booking. Overall the income has been good but has gone down the last several years due to the uptick in availability of short term rentals. One word of advice is keep the place clean!!!!!!! This is the most important thing to our renters, and many return even with the almost nonexistent internet.

We have long term renters downstairs so we know if the guests are being too loud. We also have a camera out front. We are on VRBO as well and are very in tune with having our calendars in line so as to not get double booked. As far as keeping it clean, we have pretty good cleaners, although we are thinking every two months we will do a deep clean of the unit.

 

[ewade07]

I live in a summer tourism town and know a lot of people who run them.

It seems the biggest hurdle is getting reliable cleaners. One friend of ours would frequently have to unexpectedly drop everything she was doing and drive 60 MILES to one of her rentals. This was because she either couldn't confirm the cleaner had been there or the cleaner canceled last minute, and new guests were inbound that day.

With incredible occupancy history snd great cash flow they had to sell that house due the the stress of it.

It also depends on where the rental is. I live just out of Yellowstone. Almost all rentals are family vacationers. In other areas that aren't tourist destinations I believe is where you have to worry more about younger folks having a party and damaging your place. I've never heard of that here but I know it happens.

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We only live about 2 miles away from it so if anything were ever to happen with our cleaners we can always run down and take care of it. Fingers crossed nothing like this ever happens but we are prepared if it does.

 

[ewade07]

I have 2 near my cabin, great tourist spot. They were booming during the Covid. The only problem I have seen is without anyone close by to monitor the occupants there are plenty of calls to the Sheriffs. Loud partys, over occupancy, barking dogs, people throwing dog doo in my yard and neighbors. Really don't care for them. Same as above no reliable cleaners or caretakers. I figure they will be for sale soon enough, rentals way down now that no more free money. I pretty sure I'll be purchasing the one next door so I can be my own best neighbor.

We live 2 miles from the rental and have long term renters downstairs as well as a camera on the front. We are very in tune with what happens there.

 

[grossklw]

I own a ton of long term rentals and a couple STRs; I have a 4000 square foot cabin on Lake Superior I rent out full time and 2 in Homer, Alaska. It can all be done on your phone, it’s honestly probably easier to hop on a call with you and I can give you a couple tips to run it more efficiently. I spend less than 20 minutes/week on mine now that all my systems and automation are up and running.

I use pricelabs for pricing automation (still need to fine tuning but it paid for itself for 3 years on the first booking). I use Hospitable for calendar and automation of guest messaging, the internet is a beautiful thing.

You get the occasional pain in the ass but 95% of people I have very little communication with, and the cash flow compared to a long term rental is tough to beat. My Lake Superior cabin rents for more a night than a lot of my long term rentals do a month. Any specific questions feel free to ask away, but I do just fine managing 2 from 3000 miles away and another from 200 miles away, get a solid team and it’s not a lot of work.

https://abnb.me/iRSckcnY2Bb

https://abnb.me/wAlGrdoY2Bb

https://abnb.me/uv1htipY2Bb

 

[mtnbiker208]

It will be interesting how towns deal with the change that has occured with the vacation rental surge. In my area, most of the local long term rental market has been snatched up by short term vacation rentals. time will tell how the market adapts.

 

[passinggas33]

I live in a college town that has a lot of need for weekend rentals with few hotels. We Airbnb our personal house on certain weekends a year. We only do weekends in which there is an exceptionally high need and we charge a premium. By charging a premium we get a “different clientele” if that makes sense. We have separate bedding, towels, etc for when we do Airbnb. We deep clean the house Friday morning, change out all towels, bedding, etc and then use the money from the Airbnb rental for some fun times as a family. Come home Sunday evening, change bedding and clean the house. And back to life Monday morning. We give the people full access to our house except our garage and master closet which we lock.

So far we’ve had good results. We do our due diligence in vetting the people and as mentioned, put a price tag on it to make it worth our while. As our kids get older though we are less and less inclined to do it due to weekend events and sports. Either way, good luck. It’s been a great source of side income for us and has allowed us to do some fun things as a family and pay off some random debt.

 

[Weldor]

It will be interesting how towns deal with the change that has occured with the vacation rental surge. In my area, most of the local long term rental market has been snatched up by short term vacation rentals. time will tell how the market adapts.

Some cities are taxing them as commercial property, 2 small towns around here are licensing and taxing them.

 

[TSAMP]

Maybe I'm the odd ball, but I won't rent from anyone using 3rd party communication channels. It's been a major pain over the last couple years. Simple questions like, how far is the dock from the house? Is there electricity at the dock? All cannot seem to be answered. Vacasa is the main culprit for poor communication.

I prefer and go out of my way to find homeowners who I can speak with directly. Since doing so my rentals have been much more enjoyable.

 

[grossklw]

Maybe I'm the odd ball, but I won't rent from anyone using 3rd party communication channels. It's been a major pain over the last couple years. Simple questions like, how far is the dock from the house? Is there electricity at the dock? All cannot seem to be answered. Vacasa is the main culprit for poor communication.

I prefer and go out of my way to find homeowners who I can speak with directly. Since doing so my rentals have been much more enjoyable.

You're not the only one. There are a lot of STR's that are ran through larger management companies and for the most part they are all complete crap, the service is terrible. Can't imagine actually needing something when on vacation from one of those groups.

A little pro-tip is if you like a place and want to return and you stayed there with Airbnb/VRBO, just shoot an actual text message or email directly to the host and book off-platform to save fees on your 2nd visit. I have a few different people I give great deals to when I have odd gap days or ones that return every year in exchange for them not being a PITA. Prime example- opening of rifle season in WI had a group from IL that had a water heater issue at my Lake Superior property, one was a plumber and just went ahead and re-routed it and fixed it with a simple text. They now get my cabin for the WI gun deer season at a discounted rate forever and I sleep like a baby hunting around home because I know I don't have a headache waiting for me at my cabin, it's a win-win.

 

[ewade07]

Maybe I'm the odd ball, but I won't rent from anyone using 3rd party communication channels. It's been a major pain over the last couple years. Simple questions like, how far is the dock from the house? Is there electricity at the dock? All cannot seem to be answered. Vacasa is the main culprit for poor communication.

I prefer and go out of my way to find homeowners who I can speak with directly. Since doing so my rentals have been much more enjoyable.

Thats totally understandable. While it may be more of a PITA, we are dealing with the retal on our own. Third party rental agencies are practically worthless. IMO you might as well just ight your money on fire. Im also OCD and like to have control over everything that goes on at our place.

 

[BzoneBryan]

My wife and I have a one bedroom apartment above our detached garage that we rent to traveling nurses. The term is usually 14 weeks. We like it because we can still have it open to family to visit around the holidays if we time the rentals right, we don't have the headache and fees associated with an STR (our county requires permits and taxes for those), and if we find the renter is a PITA, they're gone in a few months. We had a bad experience with a long term renter once that soured us on long term leases. Nurses are generally good clientele, too. We can charge more than on the longer term rental market. It does have to be furnished, though, but that works great for us. We advertise on furnished finders dot com, which caters to traveling nurses but there are other similar services. Something to consider.

 

[ewade07]

My wife and I have a one bedroom apartment above our detached garage that we rent to traveling nurses. The term is usually 14 weeks. We like it because we can still have it open to family to visit around the holidays if we time the rentals right, we don't have the headache and fees associated with an STR (our county requires permits and taxes for those), and if we find the renter is a PITA, they're gone in a few months. We had a bad experience with a long term renter once that soured us on long term leases. Nurses are generally good clientele, too. We can charge more than on the longer term rental market. It does have to be furnished, though, but that works great for us. We advertise on furnished finders dot com, which caters to traveling nurses but there are other similar services. Something to consider.

We are one FurnishedFinders as well, it may be something we explore for the winter months.

 

[Aaron-in-CO]

We have our first guest checking in today! Fingers crossed. We purchased our first home (a tri-level) a couple months ago with the intention of renting part of it out while we live there. We modified it for an up/down split, though until we get around to a full basement remodel with kitchen(ette?), we still have to share the common areas. We have the upper three bedrooms available individually and we have the garden level to ourselves.

 

[KHNC]

Maybe I'm the odd ball, but I won't rent from anyone using 3rd party communication channels. It's been a major pain over the last couple years. Simple questions like, how far is the dock from the house? Is there electricity at the dock? All cannot seem to be answered. Vacasa is the main culprit for poor communication.

I prefer and go out of my way to find homeowners who I can speak with directly. Since doing so my rentals have been much more enjoyable.

Evolve sucks too! We used them for two years for our STR at the lake. Ditched them last year and manage it ourselves now.

 

[ewade07]

We have our first guest checking in today! Fingers crossed. We purchased our first home (a tri-level) a couple months ago with the intention of renting part of it out while we live there. We modified it for an up/down split, though until we get around to a full basement remodel with kitchen(ette?), we still have to share the common areas. We have the upper three bedrooms available individually and we have the garden level to ourselves.

I wish you the best of luck! Try not to get too bent out of shape when shit doesnt go your way. Its a learning process!

 

[Hnthrdr]

This is great info, I have rental property, but looking at dipping the toes in the STR market near home. Under contract on a place (condo) that has multiple STR’s in it. It is nice and clean and in a killer location which is why we are even looking. But definitely seems like a learning curve