Some unhappy airbnb owners

Why I'm falling out of love with Airbnb

 

I think one of the issues right now with Airbnb is it's been flooded with a lot of stock. It seems to work well in some areas, but sometimes listing prices just seem a bit overpriced. I used to love staying in Airbnb homes, but more recently I've shifted back to hotels because if I'm going to stay in someone's home over serviced accommodation, I expect a good price. I'm not going to pay $400 a night if I can get a nice hotel room for half the price. Depending on area it can also be a chore to sift through all the listings, many of which are just regular suburban homes that don't have much going for them.

 

It's running a business. You accept the rewards, challenges as well as risks. All businesses do. If someone can't handle the heat in this kitchen maybe find a new kitchen or leave cooking altogether. Its business. Don't make it personal. At the end of the day not everyone is suited to run a business.

My 2 cents.

 

Fair enough, except the vast majority of listings I've seen, the comparable airbnbs were half the price of a similar hotel room.

 

It's something that needs tighter regulations for sure. Personally, I am strongly against Airbnb. I would hate to live somewhere and have a constant stream of new people moving in and out each week next door. I know people do it for holiday lets but that is still minor compared to what is happening now with CBD apartment buildings being turned into hotels. Councils should crack down on it big time.

 

I didn't even think of this aspect, but actually I lived in California for a few years in a very nice area and the place next door was an Airbnb house. Huge place in a very, very touristy town. It was pretty frustrating at times, mostly because of the size of the home. There were a lot of large groups on and off, and on one occasion a wedding. It didn't really bother us enough as most holiday letters kept to themselves. Every now and then you'd get a loud party and that was annoying, and once there was a group who'd be up at 2am playing basketball and jumping in the pool (that was pretty irritating), but we did a lot of entertaining ourselves so pot kettle and all. The town was coastal too so it was a very seasonal problem. We were also renting and were a young family so were used to noise.

But man oh man did it ever bug the (mostly older) neighbours. This was a "neigbourhood association" type of place and they went against this guy with an absolute vengeance, lobbying the council and the like. They basically got the place shut down through complaining, I remember them doorknocking to try to get me to sign some petition, so awkward. The council had just introduced some very strict holiday letting rules, mostly out of response to the whole Airbnb trend which obviously took off in USA before it took off here (hard to say if we'll see this here in Australia at some stage, the regulations were mostly a limit on how long you could rent a place for, I think an 8 week minimum? New York had some similar strict rules). Anyway the guy ended up selling his house. It seemed like that would have been a lot of hassle for him.

Local hotels probably had a hand in the lobbying too. I feel like Airbnb works best if it's a unique property, like cottages the countryside or at the seaside. If your place is in suburbia you do have the risk of getting into conflict with the neighbours.

 

Yes, I'm an airbnb host and have sympathy for people who live in flats in the CBD and on the beaches who have different neighbours every weekend.
I've had my place on Airbnb for over 5 years and the guest profile has changed, but I have been lucky and managed to avoid the experience becoming transactional. I still get guests who are interesting and like a chat because the nature of my property attracts people who want something a bit different.
The properties on Airbnb have become a lot more generic and many are managed by companies, so there is no difference between them and a serviced hotel.

 

I agree. The place has to be unique and to have a certain feel...therapeutic. Ordinary cookie cutter won't do.

 

It depends!!
Part of the demand is for what you said. But there is other part which is after cheaper accommodation.

 

That would be obviously a great combination. I'm researching now...

 

When we first started our airbnb (St Kilda), there was another person in our building who also ran one. We received a notice last week as she has decided to stop airbnbing it and rent it out fully furnished as she doesn't think the money is worth it (in fact she thinks she gets less with airbnb). Apparently her agent has said there is an abundance of fully furnished apartments coming onto the market as people give up on Airbnb. I'm personally hoping I can hold on until supply decreases then I can put my prices up

But in all honestly, I think the trick with airbnb and making a profit is to not be greedy. I know this person used to charge ~$200 a night (and it is furnished with expensive antique furniture which doesn't necessarily appeal to many customers), but at $200 a night, she'd be lucky to get a couple of nights a week booked. We charge ~$140 - $170 and generally are booked out every night.

And again in response to the Airbnb nay-sayers. Airbnb guests are not guaranteed to be party-ers and owners/ renters are not guaranteed to be perfect. We currently have the WORST renter in our building who is loud, leaves crap everywhere, fights with our strata manager when he brings up the issues and is generally a nuisance. Our airbnb guests have been quiet, neat and tidy and our apartment gets cleaned very regularly.

 

You raise a couple of interesting points @jodes

Not all tenants are great, not all Sienna are either.

You get to have a thorough clean at each changeover.

But not always made aware of maintenance issues.

 

With Airbnb you get to see the maintenance issues, as long as you go into changeovers at least on a regular basis.
I think you'll see more maintenance issues, and you will be able to get them fixed in a more timely manner if you do this. Whereas with another place I owned, I didn't realise how much damage/maintenance was required until the tenants moved out. Amoungst other things there was quite a lot of damage to blinds, the vanity deteriorated (water getting in beteeen vanity and wall), the downstairs toilet basically stopped working, and a power outlet stopped working (naybe moisture in a place where it shouldn't be), and the runners for the wardrobe and shower screens/doors ceased to move smoothly. All this info didn't come to me for a very long time, basically much after the tenants with 2 very small boys moved out after a few years. So once they moved out I had a lot of issues to fix.

 

Exactly this- our traditional rental gets inspected every 6 months so we are relying on any maintenance issues to be proactively brought to our attention by the tenants.

In comparison, we have a very diligent cleaner who informs us of even the most minor maintenance issue- in fact we went down to Melbourne last weekend (and had a great little weekend holiday on the side) to fix a couple of things which our cleaner had brought to our attention. We want to keep our 5 star / super host rating so we deal with these issues as soon as we can. Along with the cleans 1-2 times a week, our airbnb is probably the best maintained of our portfolio!