experience with short-term rentals eg air b&b?
Hi, We are considering renting out space for short-term stays through word of mouth or a web site such as Air B&B. Does anyone have experience doing this? How many nights/month occupancy have you averaged? What sorts of rates for how much space, and any other amenities? We could do an entire floor, or divide the floor half for personal use, and half for rental. Would a bigger space get a higher rate or is their a ceiling on what people would pay and larger wouldn’t necessarily be better? Thanks for your thoughts.
elm_bk
in Real Estate - Rentals 13 years and 3 months ago
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4 replies
kidbklyn | 13 years and 3 months ago
Don’t B&B’s have to be licensed in the city of NY? I believe there was an article in the NYT about this. I would should hate having a steady steam of transients coming onto my residential block, with these short term SRO ventures.
Kateruba | 13 years and 3 months ago
hello Elm, I have not used the service myself, but I am currently doing some comparative analysis because I’d like to rent out a part of my space as well. I found properties in my neighborhood, both whole apartments and individual rooms being rented out, and created a document to track their occupancy rates. I log onto people’s calendars every week and write down how many of their days are booked out of the month, for the next 12 months. Tracking this through time helps you see how booked they really get – often, people book last minute, and looking 1 or 2 months out in the future might make you think that aren’t getting any renters. “Would a bigger space get a higher rate or is their a ceiling on what people would pay and larger wouldn’t necessarily be better?” Yes, I think there’s a price ceiling. I’d say do a smaller space because if you do a larger space, you’d feel that a higher price would be justified, but from what I’ve observed, you will probably get lower occupancy and less money ultimately. The $50-$60 rooms seem to be more successful than studio/1-bedroom $100 apartments. Remember, that a big reason why Air B&B is attractive to travelers, especially in our city, is because they’d like to avoid exorbitant hotel prices – so the price is often the main deciding factor for them. From my research, it seems like the most popular Air B&B hosts are ones that charge the lowest prices AND get positive reviews about their hospitality and personal touches. I’d say the perfect set-up would be a bedroom that has its own bathroom, and its own access from outside, so they get the privacy equivalent to a whole apartment, but you don’t feel like you HAVE to charge a certain price to justify the sacrifice of your space.
elm_bk | 13 years and 3 months ago
thanks – won’t have anything for march as the renovation has yet to begin! but i appreciate your info 🙂
Augustiner | 13 years and 3 months ago
I have used AirBnB to rent, as a customer so to speak. You can ask more for a seperate appartment than a room. If you offer a reasonable price and post nice photos I am sure you will be fully booked. Watch comparables on AirBnB fill up, the calendar is often public. You can set minimum period (e.g. 7 days) which is probably less effort. You can set “contact renter first” to chech who you will be renting the space to. There is quite a high fee which is paid by the renter, it is not only service fee but also insurance for both sides. Btw. If you have availability for the first half of march let me know 🙂