Airbnb

Beach, pool, renovated house, a plethora of investment reading material - what's not to love?

 

Does anyone know if this can be done?

 

A quick update.

During the March to May quarter the occupancy was 50%, the June to August quarter is currently 50% and the Sept. to Nov quarter at 33%.

Annually we require a 50% occ. rate to cover what we would have received in rent(nett of agents fees), furnishings and consumerables.

We receive around 4:1 bookings from Stayz to Airbnb.

All the guests have been great, no damage or other issues.

 

For the summer quarter you would be expecting 90-100% occupancy? At a higher rate, too?

 

Yes, would hope for that occupancy rate, with around a 25-30% increase in the tariff.

 

Hey @turk !

I've actually been looking into this aswell. It is a nice idea if you want a holiday house or a apartment if your always doing business interstate.

AirBnB have some good resources. I've actually found some forums just dedicated to hosting.

Might I recommend get a smart lock, like Lockitron or a Samsung lock. I know it seems abit hotel like, but you can easily let the tennents in without having to meet them and exchange the keys. You can set a time for the door to automatically open. Or some of them will generate a random code for the period of which the guests are staying. This is also good if you have a cleaner aswell. One of the other thing I heard aswell is thing called Verge.

Pretty much a smart house system type of thing. The system has sensors in place so if the guest leave the property without turning anything off, the system can switch of heating, lights, electricity etc.
Apparently saves a lot on costs of the place.

I have a question though. Do PM cover AirBnB's?
If so what do they charge? I hope it's not your standard fee, seeing how either the host or AirBnB covers things like listings, payments and key change overs. Even cleaning services aswell.
The only thing I can imagine you would need a PM for is if you lived interstate and their was an emergency like a busted pipe or something?

Just my thinking. Cheers.

 

you need a specialized PM in airbnb and short stays. there are few in melbourne

- HostKeep Property Management

 

I listened to an Air B&B related webinar (by someone who has 8 of them) and she mentioned the optimisation room rate option which allows air bnb to recommend a price to ensure that you get full occupancy. She has found that she has only 2-4 days a month where her properties are empty.
I thought I would mention it in case you are not aware of the feature and might want to give it a try.

 

I listed a property I renovated this year on AirBnb and got immediate interest, but I quickly deleted my listing when I discovered it was illegal now and the fine was 15,000 Euro (Barcelona). AirBnb still exists in the city, but its mostly tenants subletting the properties and the poor bugger owner gets hit with the fine. Some are legal from some tourist licenses they used to give out but dont anymore.

I think a lot of cities around the world are doing the same as authorities realize they are missing out on taxes, the hotel industry is affected, and local neighborhoods are often disrupted badly (the main issue in Barcelona). So a problem for AirBnb going forward as authorities catch up with them under pressure from locals and the tourism industry. Even AirBnb´s home city of San Francisco has also made most AirBnb lets illegal.

 

We had some Airbnb guests a year or so ago from Amsterdam. They had a flat in Amsterdam on Airbnb and got hit with a 15,000 euro fine - or perhaps just the threat. My wife is going to Barcelona in September and staying in Airbnb accommodation. There was a lot to choose from, so plenty of people would have their fingers crossed.

 

That is the concern moving forward for Australians too. There is no way to tell what decisions may be made at a state or federal level in the future that may impact our ability to air bnb homes or rental properties. Especially as the supreme court has just overruled a decision regarding Airbnb (slightly different context - its regarding someone subletting their place which they rent from someone else) but still, it is a bit of a question mark about what they might do in the future since it is already on the radar.

I heard murmurs of their being issues in Sydney around the council (I think it was council) stating that home owners must have a commercial grade kitchen and additional insurances and things that would make Airbnb unviable. I am not sure what the outcome of that was in the end.

 

There is leniency and some allowance on people renting out rooms of their own PPOR where they live. It is the stand alone rentals that are mostly illegal now. Having one of the old tourist licences they used to give out adds a lot of value to a property, tens of thousands (they dont issue them anymore).

 

Local councils in Sydney don't want to get involved. They only do so when other people (ratepayers) drag them into it. The majority of the issues are in strata buildings and I have some sympathy with people in strata buildings who have a different bunch of people across the hallway every weekend. My Airbnb listing is pretty discreet - only one of my neighbours would know about it. Nobody is going to complain about it because it has zero impact on anybody.

 

She'll be in a self contained apartment - I think the owner lives in another flat downstairs. We stayed in a great flat in grazia two years ago. That owner had a couple of Airbnb flats - it's still on AirBNB. I guess people just take the risk and hope they don't get caught.

 

I would take one of the neighbors into confidence and hand him over the keys

 

Hi Turk, i was wondering how the summer quarter went?

Cheers, Elives

 

I only started Airbnb/Stayz in March, the 1st 3 months were a 50 % occupancy and the last 3 months have been a 80% occupancy.
Dec. to Feb. bookings are filling up and the rates are around 30% higher.

 

bad luck for this airbnb host. 'A crack pipe was left in our vase'

 

Yuck.

I really can't stand crack heads either.

I like the way they say they do not know why AirBNB let them in.......errrrrr ummmmmm, no, you did !

 

I just checked my airbnb takings... it's over 100k since I started. Cool