Airbnb in Regional areas

Hi PC's
Does anyone have any experience with running an airbnb in regional areas?

We have an IP in Ballarat Central and our tenants lease expires in about a month and we will not be renewing it due to massive issues- arrears, having dogs despite there being no pets allowed, extra people, annoying our neighbours etc. I know this is only one lot of tenants but we struggled to find these tenants!

We have a beautiful mostly renovated federation home about 10 minutes walk to the centre of ballarat and it could sleep up to 10 easily with 5 bedrooms. We have experience managing airbnbs remotely so not concerned from that perspective- our only concern really is whether there would be sufficient demand to make it worth it !

Any insight would be appreciated

 

You've done a search for Ballarat on Airbnb? It would be interesting to check the calendars of listings there to see how booked up they are - especially in winter. I would think about Stayz, too, for regional.

 

Best bet is to do what Depreciatior has mentioned - looked at your level of competition to work out whether it's feasible.

First place to look at is Airbnb.

Not sure how successful Ballarat would be - but other regional areas geared towards tourism would do just fine.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Thanks @Jamie Moore and @Depreciator , I have done this for Ballarat. It's always hard to tell though and I don't find this a particularly reliable source- for our airbnb in St Kilda, a lot of calendars are empty but there is always room for the really nice ones to raise to the top.

 

Check for -

• tourism demand (seasonal or all year around?),
• any Hospital/Uni nearby,
• motel/hotel options in the area and their price point,
• AirBnB/Stayz as mentioned above,
• There are couple of AirBnB DNA website where you can get some detailed insights (Google it).
• Are you flexible with what you offer ? Otherwise you just research demand for a 5beds/10sleep kind of place
• If you are flexible, what can you offer differently? (place for buck/hens night perhaps?)

Cheers

 

The less of a blue chip holiday destination it is the more active marketing you are gonna need to do to get bednights up. Was just running a feaso for a farmstay out the back of goulburn for a client and it doesn't work unless you are willing to drive traffic imo. Just passively listing on stayz and airbnb wont get momentum unless demand already exists.

 

THIS was SUPER useful- wasn't aware of this before so thank you @teetotal !!

 

Managing a nice place by remote control is asking for trouble. Having seen Airbnb places in operation you need to be aware that at some time you WILL have a group running an out of control party and they will wreck your place or at the very least leave you a large bill. Being regional rather than seaside or capital city will make no difference as not all renters are decent and there are groups looking for venues where they can behave like animals and have no accountability or controls irrespective of what the terms of rental are. If you intend to rent through Airbnb then I suggest you have a hefty bond. That may help but it will also result in some groups renting a place without a bond.
We had an Airbnb place next door to us and saw how it worked. Not pretty and in the end the landlord sold at a loss just to get out.
You may want to reconsider your view of Airbnb as the costs will be high and you will only have periodic rentals. The lure of big money is a pipe dream because these places sit empty for most of the year.
Good luck with that venture. I'd be vetting tenants better as I have never had a problem over many years of long term rental.

 

Thanks for your thoughts on this @rambotrader. The question was more on airbnb in regional areas rather than managing remotely or the merits of airbnb- we already remotely manage an airbnb quite successfully- yes those stories you mention do happen but they are definitely the exception rather than the rule.

 

Just learnt about AirDNA today: analytics on AirBnb.
Ballarat City, Australia - Airdna

 

I couldn't find my airbnb pad on it. How accurate/useful is this?

 

An

Airbnb manager told me about it and said their company gets data from it for quoting.

 

On their website they claim 100% coverage - I'm not sure how to verify this - any suggestions? I have some time to dig deeper in the next couple of weeks. Datafeed / API Services - Airdna