My Airbnb host experience (Belmont, WA)

I thought I would share my few months Airbnb experience as a host, two new apartments in Belmont, WA. Managed to get Superhost in that time. Belmont is relatively close to city, very close to the airport, but doesn’t offer anything else for tourists

Started Airbnb as I was struggling to find tenants and needed to bring in some income. I also signed up a 12 month lease fully furnished at a good price, but tenant wanted to commence the lease 10 weeks away. Very basic furniture fit out, Ikea for furniture, kmart for all small items, only big expenditures were fridge and washer. TV and couch from gumtree.

Priced competitively while trying to get reviews, nights priced about double compared to standard long term leases, with significant discounts for monthly bookings. Additional cleaning fees.

Very easy to get cash flowing straight away, an empty calendar encourages long term bookings which I found was more beneficial, even with significant discounts. But once you start having lots of small reservations, very hard to fill the gaps which is where money is lost. Even reducing the price on the gaps don’t fill them. Possibly due to Australian winter, so lack of demand. I found that Perth does have a demand for long-term short-stay, those who need a few months accommodation, but don’t want to sign up a 6 month lease.

Lots of additional expenses with Airbnb, electricity (+service), water and internet usage. Guests don’t care either, leaving AC on 24/7. Cleaning was hard work, I charged a cleaning fee for every booking and used cleaners a few times, but I always finalised the apartment prior to guest checkin, like linen, which I washed, made more difficult in winter. For back to back bookings the cleaning window is 10am to 3pm which can be inconvenient.

I had Terri Scheer specific short-stay insurance which I never had to use, mainly as everything was less than the $250 excess. Even though you specify a deposit you still have to negotiate with guest to use it. I don’t believe Airbnb holds the deposit either. One situation guest applied sticky tape to walls which removed some paint, had to go through the Airbnb dispute process, requested $50, the guest negotiated to $30. Your at the mercy of the guest as well, one bad review can be detrimental.

In the end, for the return and work involved, I have shifted to long term leases, there is much more of a demand for fully furnished. And I will use Airbnb just to fill the gaps between leases while looking for an ideal tenant.

By the way, I found that booking.com can also supplement Airbnb reservations, they take a flat 20% commission and you need to handle payments yourself, i.e. with a mobile card reader. So need to factor that into the price.

Happy to answer any questions.

Travis

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Winter has been noticeably tougher even for my airbnb apartment in Freo - which had been pretty much booked up fairly well before May. From May until now, not so much.

 

Thanks for sharing. There was an article last week about 2 companies I. Perth that have set up services specifically to manage Airbnb properties for others, one is an existing PM company and the other does only Airbnb I believe. For some people, particularly those time poor, it could be a viable option to consider, provided numbers still work

Im considering doing it on an apartment of mine which I think would work location andfitout wise.
Agree that normally power bills etc could be a concern, shouldn't be here due to it being all LEDs and 9 star rated, I live in it ATM and power consumption rarely goes above $1.30 per day

 

Happen to know what they charge?

 

The article mentioned around 22% but I don't know if that's an all Inclusive figure or what extras there are

 

Thanks. From an owners point of view, I'd have thought that would kill the benefit of airbnb over normal letting.

 

All inclusive PMs for normal rentals in Perth can be mid teens so 22% might not be unrealistic as it's a lot of work. Of course it would need to be viable with short term rental vs long term rental

 

I believe this is the company in the article previously posted.
Airbnb Management | Perth | Guest Concierge
Unsure the commissions. I would imagine significantly more then standard property managers.

Like everything, location needs to be there to draw people in. Which Belmont doesn't have.

 

I have found the same with both airbnb's we have managed that guests have no care about leaving heaters on 24/7. In our first airbnb, our usual $250 quarter bill become $900 as one set of month long guests left the two space heaters on 24/7 (from America so probably used to central heating).

 

Thanks very much Travis and everybody else.

 

Yes, heating. It can be a killer. In my main Airbnb pad, I have a Rinnai gas heater. It's a big warehouse space and gets pretty cold, so I don't begrudge people using it. They all turn it off when they go out, so that's good. But if didn't live next door I'm not sure all would. I say to them when they arrive that it's gas and I wouldn't leave it on all night in case I didn't wake up. Some of them fall for that, but not all of them.

 

Just a thought , but if walls are damaged, a quick fix may be to cover the damage with paintings etc:



However, at some point the structural integrity of the building may be compromised lol. Or at least the guest may give you strange looks lol.

 

I reckon don't offer themheating or AC. Might limit your target audience, but save you wads of cash and grit teeth.