Thanks for the post!
Can confirm tax breaks require a good bit of bookkeeping.
And it is critical to be within some sort of driving distance, so you can take care of repairs or insure they are done to standard.

No problem leaving 5-star reviews it that's what it takes to "play the game". Wondering what acceptable "reasons" are though if I wanted to book a local listing? "Hook-up with GF"? "Friend from out of town"? "Business meeting"?

Seems way complicated compared to just no-questions-asked paying cash or using a burner card at a hotel.

Who?

Halfwatt_clarinath (stepson) works on the road a lot and he stays at Airbnb.  Makes bank with the per diem…

The OP said "Ask me anything." He did NOT say, "I will answer your questions."

FWIW, we rented an AirBnB house (with a pool) in St. Louis recently. It was great. Super comfortable and convenient. Good experience.

Attached File

4x bedroom house in the woods on a lake... shows $399 a night for 7 nights that $2800 plus tax right?





WRONG!  Here's an extra $800 in fees when you click to pay.





I don't see the separate fees as AirBNB or the hosts being "honest" about costs. I see it as an excuse to charge more. "Well airbnb charges that fee not us" It's like checking into a hotel and them saying it will be $50 extra a day to have your room cleaned, and then slap another $50 extra a day in "Holiday Inn" fees for allowing the hotel to book you a room. I'd also love to see how they generated the taxes. The area that screenshot is from generally charges 6% tax.

OP must be busy cleaning his BNBs and can’t answer any questions

My paintball team rents ABnBs for nearly every event we go to.

The one in Orlando in November we got a giant 15 bedroom place, slightly bigger than last year's.

We stay a week in that one, the others are usually long weekends.

/edit

If we're paying a cleaning fee, we neaten the place up and don't leave trash anywhere or food in the fridge, but we don't clean (wash sheets, clean bathrooms, etc).

I'm married to my phone. It is worth it, but it's not exactly passive.

Because ABB hates you. That's as good of an answer as you'd get from them.

None. No one wants to see most of our guests naked.

maybe, I have used them over 100 times with only 1 bad apartment.

That beats the average I have had with hotels.

I would feel terrible if my guests disturbed the neighbors. It hasn't happened yet. There should be very few restrictions.

I hire it all out. I live 9 hours away from all of our rentals.

I charge a 20% mgt fee. Abb charges around 15% and Vrbo charges 5%.

If it works for both the parties, I think it's a good deal. I wouldn't do it because I don't want to share control with anyone else.

I only ask that they take out the trash, start a load of towels and run the dishwasher. On same day turns, our cleaners really appreciate it.

We bought existing houses. In OK that house is around $900k. In SD the houses are around $650k.

I get sent to BB/Hocha about once a year on biddness. We have a high profile client in BB who would fuck us in the ass 6-ways from Sunday if we didn't make a regular smiling friendly personal appearance to let them know we're watching them like a hawk

Last time I stayed at some mom-and-pop shithole with a Mexican restaurant next door in the center of town. Time before that I stayed at an overpriced sorry excuse for a Budget Inn across the street from the Indian casino on the south side of BB

Who should I call next time (and give my company's money to) I'm headed your way?

I almost never look at my cameras. I only do if the cleaners ask if the guest has left yet.

It depends on pricing, the property and amenities. I have properties that were 80% booked in Sept and one that was 40% booked.

I make them buy damage protection. If it exceeds that, I'd sue them. The worst I've had is trash left around and a broken couch that someone sat on the back of.

Buy the nicest house you can afford and fill it with great amenities.

We rarely have bad guests. No problems with neighbors. Yes, we have a commercial policy.

Lol... no.

Paying a cleaning fee means your illegals clean not me.

Yes. You can limit occupancy. Parties are really only a problem with 16+ guests.

3-4 bedrooms is my preference. I would only do this in vacation markets because you need the support staff unless you're doing everything yourself.

ok, i'm in. what kinda stickers are they?

So airBnB charges the listed fee and takes a % from you?

* fify

I don't make any money on the cleaning fees. That all goes to the cleaner.  $400 is a  huge cleaning fee. That would be for a very large house.

I got called out last night to go help a neighbor  move a couch. After that, we drank beer until midnight.

My typical response time is under 5 minutes.

Bought in 21/22. CoC is about 15%.

Yes. It's the evil fuckers like me that screw up neighborhoods.

No. It's the slow season right now and we are booked every weekend til the third week of October in OK.

You're not alone.  I have never used the service, have no desire to.  I enjoy nice hotels and being catered to when I am traveling.  If I want to wait on myself I can stay home where its free.

Once I start doing longer trips overseas which will consist of anywhere from 1-3 months, then I will look at long term rentals, holiday apartments, etc.

1-If your guests are looking for luxury, you really have to provide top of the line everything. Yes a pool and gourmet kitchen are huge.
2-I like 3-4 bedrooms.
3-Not in my opinion
4-I have people coming from all over the country.

I set the nightly fee and cleaning fee. ABB does all the rest of that. The price you see on the main page is the lowest price that property is listed at.

Look for a PM that has 1 bedroom cabins. They are reasonably priced. If it's a one night stay the cleaning fee will seem high.

Airbnb charges the guest when they book. They hold onto that money until the guest checks in. The pay me my share.

This.  We neaten up the place (and put trash in the bin outside) but we don't clean shit.  If you charge a cleaning fee, I'm not doing your ridiculous "please clean these things" list.

Every year, kind of a tradition I guess, our Mixed Family which consists of about 18 or so folks, we go to Branson/Lake of the Ozarks and rent a huge AirBnB right on the lake for 4-5 days . We take the kids, ride the Polar Express and do all sorts of Christmas/touristy stuff.  I go to the Polo store and buy a few things for me.

Goodonya, but thats a pretty unique situation.

I've dealt with non-hotel short term rentals in a lot of contexts from a lot of angles. As a manager/policy maker (my own assets including hotels in the past), association management, (home owners and condominium), zoning/gov, as a guest, as an owner of assets sub-let ("arbitraged" lol) and as a neighbor/member of associations impacted. Personally I don't trade in short term, but I'm not universally opposed.

There's few gross generality that can be made. In some cases we discover due to exactly the type of use peeps complain about. Noise, damage, nudity, disrespect. The type of "party house" AirBNB and VRBO joined together to fight. In other cases it was only neighbors in one of my Condo assocs who noticed a varied number of peeps in and out of one unit. When asked the peeps indicated they'd rented - in contravention of the restrictions. That resulted in a shit show, as an intransigent owner and well funded, excellently run association collided. It sucked for him by the end. Still the people never appeared any different than the peeps I rent to seasonally. They just exchanged out weekly.

In other cases I've had significant complaints from my residents where units were rented then sub-let on an app. Normally some kind of amenity abuse or altercations. Sometimes they've asked my managers for keys or filed complaints in my offices. In the past two years my operations have evicted well more than the number of units OP deals with. In some cases the sublets went unnoticed for a good period, then a bad situation occurred. Once we determined units at number of assets, were tied to the same individual, I attempted a reasonable cessation out,  but only experienced delays. The evictions and enforcement actions probably wrecked his 'made money' for years. Love the hustle til the hustlers a problem.

But I've stayed at enough that I can see the utility in some situations. Sucks that some operators manage poorly, or some guests fuck it for everyone. But at some point neighborhoods, associations, governing bodies tire of the issues and restrict in various ways. Then the constraints make the investment untenable.  But this happens with traditional rentals in some of these settings as well. But yea I'm entirely sympathetic to peeps with party houses nearby, tho I'm almost entirely insulated from it. Mostly owner/managers are just trying to provide a solution. But also like traditional rental assets, managing the ecosystem experience is as important as managing the physical plant and guest experience. Otherwise, when the hammer comes down, the money goes away.




Gives a feel for what I'm talking about "arbitrage" and how they get sucked in.

I'm going to Sturgis next year. How close are your rentals and do you have any availability?

Don't get the thread locked

What do you gross a year on the 4 you own?

Thanks for the vid link.  I’ll check it out.  You have much more experience across this than I do.

And yes, our situation is rather unique across the short term rental sphere but not so much in the town where it is located.  Ours is one of two whole home rentals that are in restored historic houses.  Many of the rest are more classic B&B’s renting out rooms and have an onsite host.  There are several smaller homes that rent out on Airbnb.  The town is only 8K in population.  Tourism drives many there.  Cattle ranching, one small industrial operation, and support businesses are what employs the folks.  Many of those I interact with own a couple of small businesses.  My yard guy is also the pool guy, but runs a large hay operation.  Cleaning crew company (surprisingly they are all older white ladies) is owned by a lady who also runs an antique shop, organizing company, and wedding decoration company.  The downtown which is a block and a half away from our house is improving with new eateries and fancy coffee shops.  We even have a place run by a chef out of NY who’s been on a few televised food competitions.  His restaurant pulls people from 100 miles away and reservations are a must.
So it is quite different from many places.  We have been very lucky with our renters.  Most give me a call which I don’t expect, to let me know they arrived and we end up chatting for a good 30min about why they came to visit, what to do in town etc. Some I have remained friends with.
My wife and I have a vested interest to keep the neighborhood and town happy.  Even have the mayor’s cell contact should we need anything.  We didn’t get into this to make money, just to pay the bills until we can move there ourselves.  Likely into another historic home that needs some care.