AirBnB sub lease agreement

Hi

I think about renting a whole house in desired location i.e close to city, public transportation. Then, rent it out to others on the room basis using AirBnB. What do you think about Pros and Cons of this?

 

Good way to get evicted

 

Not really gonna work with the Airbnb model which is:

Share with the owner (YOU) for a wonderful, personalised, local experience or have the whole place to yourself.

I don't recommend trying to go "hostel style" with an Airbnb place. You would quickly acquire average reviews and deter others from booking.

 

You can except you may only be able to get $20 a night per room because many people dont really want to stay hostel style unless its cheap. Living with other randoms while visiting a city... well, keep in mind you can do the same at a YHA for around $30 per night.

What is a better idea is living in a nice well located place, something townhouse style with 3 bedrooms. You living there and rent out the other 1/2 bedrooms - note that you need to be a very good host (stay on top of your game in cleanliness etc) though to get good room rates (say, $40 per night for a single or $60 for a double) and to have high occupancy rates. Guests also love it if they get a full (and I will stress, clean) bathroom to themselves as well.

Other than that, the whole house arrangement works really well. I get family groups staying for extended periods which is wonderful.

Normal groups but also older folk staying in your city for events like their grandchild's births, weddings, graduations or just to visit their kid/s living overseas are always nice to get!
There is the demand out there. Just be well located.

The other thing I've learnt is that tiles or floorboards are ideal flooring in an Airbnb.

Easy to keep clean. Carpet gets dirty quickly with the amount of people coming and going. And things get spilt.

Otherwise.... rent a beach studio apartment. You temporarily move out when you have a booking. I have a friend who did this and she was getting $160-180 a night in Sydney for a studio near the beach. She made more via Airbnb than she paid in rent so she made an overall profit from her rented accommodation.

She mentioned though the drawbacks are the amount of cleaning required... plus well, you have to crash at someone else's home a lot...

I know of someone else who was doing this too in the suburbs...

 

I know investors who do this (so far successfully) for two of their properties which are not hosted within their own home.

 

This is the same feedback I was given by the investors I know, their properties get filled with families here on vacation or visiting other family members who live nearby.

I wonder how you tackle the sublet part of this scenario.

 

My ones I don't sublet. I own them and simply Airbnb myself. My friend in the beachpad though.... i'll just say it is possible and people do it (very much on the quiet).

 

Yep, I got that the last comment was for the original poster. Your rooms are very affordable, how far out are you from the CBD?

 

Im now confused... is that for me or the OP? The example prices I gave are not for my properties but for places I've stayed in located in other Australian cities.

 

Hehe! Sorry, that one was directed your way ;-). Wow great prices you scored. Glad yours aren't that cheap, I thought it was way to cheap for anywhere metro.

 

They are definitely metro! Not always in city centre though. I got a great deal on a shared house in Moorooka in Brisbane... $16 a night. Private room. Not a place you want to hang out in the living area, and the bedroom was noisy due to traffic, but for $16 it was great value. I've stayed in a few places were I think to myself, I'd charge more. For example there was a place in Canberra which was $49 ($55 incl airbnb fees) per night for 2 guests. And they supplied a good breakfast. And their home was very comfortable and modern.

Those hosts were even saying they get people wanting to stay 3 weeks or more (ie. People getting a new job in the city so they need a place to stay while getting settled) but some people staying for a long time (basically other religion/other beliefs) get on their nerves... fair enough! They were really top hosts though. I could see I would not have wanted to live with the guest they had... so anyway, their policy is something like 2 weeks stay max and anything beyond that is at their discretion.

Anyway... I did suggest that they should lift their rates.... their product is way better than a hostel, for less money.
That's how I see it in terms of value... and sometimes the cheapest places are really good. I find price is not always an indicator of quality. Sometimes people just simply undercharge. Just read the reviews to decide if it's good or not.

 

Just clarifying.

These investors take multiple, separate bookings for guests on airbnb at the same time (e.g. two unrelated guests are sharing different rooms in the same home at the same time)?

 

One booking at a time. Two are 2 bedroom apartments. 1 is a portion of a house that has been separated from the rest of the house. They make good money from it.

 

I might not have been clear in my post

I was referring to renting room-by-room, which was my understanding of OP's question.

The Airbnb model works great if you are not cramming unrelated parties into the same dwelling (so, either offering the whole place to one party of offering a room to one party while the host lives on site too).

 

Just went to an airbnb hosts night... Apparently we all receive a cordless Dyson Stick vacuum cleaner as a gift for attending. How fricken awesome. I always wanted one of those.... Just gotta wait for it to arrive!

 

Oh right. Yes, sorry. I misread your response. Thanks for clarifying.

 

All good @Lisa Parker- Buyers Agent.

I am a big fan of Airbnb as a host, guest, and general observer of their business concept and execution.