Here are a few things I thought regarding my 1st air bnb experience. I know it’s old news to some of you, but here goes.

As a customer, pretty cool experience. It was like a hotel in a private house. I know that’s obvious to most, but I found it neat.

A 2 bedroom house easily held 7 of us with pull out couches for the kids. Kitchen stocked with plenty of cookware to prepare meals with and the bathroom had plenty of linens, etc.

My only real concern was if the host wasn’t super proactive, it might be tough to get an issue resolved. Luckily there is a ratings system. Luckily our host was awesome. We didn’t have any issues but was quick to respond when my wife updated her of timelines, etc.

As an investor, I have mixed feelings. First of all, I was constantly worried my kids were going to break their stuff. We put a lot of things up high on shelves. I don’t know if air bnb has a kids/no kids setting that you can select on you listing, but I would definitely design my unit around that setting.

I would reserve small units 1br or efficiency for high end products only. Larger units that would host many people would definitely have to have very sturdy furniture and decorations.

Extensive damage at turnover would be a concern if you had the unit booked quickly again after a guest departs.

The address is 5172 adams st covington ga if you’d like to look it up.

We did not have a house key. My wife checked in on the app and we were sent a code that worked a digital lockbox through the router in the house. To me, there’s many weak point there. Battery fails, internet goes out. I would think you would need to be on call at check in with a key in an emergency.

Checkout was smooth. We had very basic instructions. “Leave it as you found it” was the basic idea. That was easy enough. Linens were all tossed in one spot.

Besides doing the laundry, I think they could easily dust, mop, turn beds over in 1.5 hours.

Looking at the house itself, very easily could be rented out on the normal market, which I thought would always be a fall back if air bnb failed. Small ranch 2br. What’s not to love?

You’re working more for sure on this, but your income could easily be 3-4 x the normal rent per month. Seasonal cycles not taken into account here.

This house had a certificate on the wall that was a short term rental certificate. I’m not sure, but I would assume that certificate would place that property under different rules versus a rental. Unless it wasn’t very well thought out as the city and is a rubber stamp certificate just to collect a fee.

Although, It may aid in the removal of a guest who overstays their welcome. If I was a scammer, it would have been very easy to check in there, change the locks, and not check out.

As an investor, I don’t think it would be easy to have a large portfolio of these or smart to have any that are much more than 15-20 minute drive from your house.

They would also be good if you have family coming into town or if you had an emergency at your own home and needed a place to stay quickly.

I would also be interested in knowing if short term rentals allows for a different type of insurance.

That’s all I can think of for now. I’ll add stuff as I think of it.

Thank you, ME. I was just thinking about this and was going to ask you.

I like the details in your description. Pretty nice-looking place. I agree, it would make a nice long-term rental.

Did you take move-in and move-out pictures?

How much interaction did you have with the host?

Was it priced reasonably, compared to a hotel stay?

What did you think about living in the city?

What all attractions did you see while there in Georga?

What do the neighboring houses think about that being an AirBNB next to them?

I haven’t posted here for years, after I lost my sweet little apartment complex in a divorce. But it is time to come back.

I kept my North Idaho farmette after the divorce. I AirBnB’d the guest apartment on my little farm for several years. But during the pandemic, the travel industry dried up, so I switched to short term (13 week) furnished housing for travel nurses.

Short term housing is the way to go. Just as lucrative as AirBnb with 1/4 the work. The nurses are the best tenants ever. They either work or sleep. Most travel with dogs. Since I was living on the property, I was happy to occasionally let the nurse’s dog out for potty breaks.

I used Furnished Finders to find my tenants, and Apartments.com for background checks and rent collection. It was sweet and easy.

6x6, for your questions, I did not take move out pictures, but that’s not a bad idea. I did take photos when I returned my rental van because no one came out to even look at it.

Very little interaction with the host, because we didn’t need any. I broke a glass that was holding a plant next to the sink right when we first got there. Didn’t even realize it until the next morning when our stuff was all wet. Luckily Walmart sold an exact copy of the glass so we bought a replacement. My 2year old destroyed a box to one of their board games so we bought a new one of those at Walmart too.

It was priced well. Cheaper than a hotel. I will never live in a city. Way too much stuff going on. No wide open spaces. Didn’t visit any attractions there. I would consider doing an Air BNB if I could bulletproof the turnover and property.

Thank you, NE.

Very good point about the dog.

"... I find it absolutely fascinating that a couple guys were able to come up with an idea to use your property anywhere in the world to put money in their pocket...."

I wonder if AirBNB guest ever harass the neighbors? I'm sure it happens.

My 1st AirBNB experience was a couple months ago and it went great!

My 2nd AirBNB experience was a couple weeks after that and I found a loaded handgun in the cupboard above the fridge.

In all my years of staying in hotels, I've never found a loaded handgun before. So, at least AirBNB was a "unique" experience, I guess!

NE, I agree, there may be short term rentals in areas where they are not allowed, but they aren’t advertising them on Air BnB. Too easy for someone to see them advertised where they shouldn’t be and report them.

NE: Yeah, it was real junk though. An old revolver that had literally been spray-painted black recently. heh. :)

A few years ago, I'd considered renting an AirBnB in New Orleans, because it can be hard finding a non-chain place that accepts minors. (It's easier to just say no one under the age of 21, even if the kid is just, like, 10 or 12.) It was a real struggle, though, because you'd filter based on price and number of beds-- great, this place sleeps six and I only need three! ---but, oops, you get charged more if it's more than 2 people. Or this is the price, except add in an extra $x for cleaning and $y for other fees. I know that hotels pay their housekeeping staff as well, but I like having that number rolled into one price, rather than feeling like I'm being nickel-and-dimed, thinking I've budgeted a reasonable amount for my stay, and then discovering the price in the cart is really hundreds more. That kind of wiped AirBnB off my consideration list for several years.

I stayed in three AirBnB's this last year, though.

One was booked by friends in my hobby. One of their people backed out, so I was offered their crash space. It was somewhere in northern Oklahoma. It was really a cute little historic cottage in the historic district. They had really good signs and labels and communicated everything very thoroughly-- not just obvious stuff, like kitchen or wifi, but other stuff, like how to handle the towels and bathroom linens. Each room had its own towel hook in the shared bath, for example, and it had the embroidered black washcloths, and the hairdryer had an embroidered bag saying what was in it, etc.

The second one was run by friends. VRBO rents out all-the-house, but AirBnB can be either areas in an occupied house, or a whole house to yourself. They're the kind of people who adopt people under their wing for a bit-- they like being sociable and providing hospitality. So mostly, they keep the rooms available for friends who are in the area, but they also rent out rooms in one wing of their house via AirBnB. I was super-impressed by their bathroom; the shower was fancier/tech-ier than anything I'd ever tried previously. The local university provides them a steady number of visitors-- students coming in to check out the program, or people in town for football games, or people who are coming in to apply for a teaching position. Usually their prices are pretty cheap... unless it's football or graduation weekend.

We own a couple of short term rentals. We live within 5 minutes of each.

Our homes are very seasonal. The biggest key is to have a great housekeeper. You also want to be very attentive if guests have questions or run into any issues. They can rate/review you on AirBnb and you can review them as well.

Usually people are pretty respectful of the homes, but we find things broken that go unreported and usually when we find out about them, we aren't aware of which guest broke it. It's usually smaller things (wine glasses). The places are small (no big parties), so the neighbors have no issues.

Prepare to do a lot of laundry. We do all of the laundry, so our housekeeper can turn the places quickly and get them ready for the next guest (same day guests are the norm during the high season). We have at least two of every piece of linen, so we can wash on our schedule before the next set of guests show up.

It's definitely more interactive than long term rentals, but I think less wear and tear, since you're always in the homes every few days between guests.

My son owns some higher-end AirBnB's in Mexico. He has a full staff to take care of them and they are always running just to stay in one place...it's a lot of work. The more expensive the more entitlement, of course. His stories are wild...

We used an Airbnb in Florida a couple of years ago and it was a good experience overall. The management company made sure to make direct contact so we could direct book with them the next time. I'm in a few Airbnb host groups on Facebook and the horror stories are numerous between how Airbnb and the guests treat the hosts. I would never consider running one. I'd have no issues doing a mid term rental however.

I have stayed in only 2 STR. Both were for large family events (wedding, reunion), arranged by my 30 something offspring.

Me? I prefer the predictability of a chain hotel.

STR #1: Super hot summer in an old 2 story house, top floor not getting the AC. Soo I turned the smart thermostat down and closed all the vents on the lower floor to try for more cool upstairs. Each time we came back to the house the owner had remotely turned it back up to 72.

Old creaky floors and sleeping babies.

15 crooked, steep, creaky, narrow steps with no handrail up to 80 yo Grandma's room.

Cracked concrete steps to the street. One smoke detector for the whole house.

2 cramped parking spots off the narrow alley, the street parking was already full so park a block away.

STR#2: Strange stink which got worse each day. Discovered the washer and dryer STUFFED and wet with last occupant's sheets. Highly humid inside. AC filter moldy.

Battery operated toilet (never before seen). Batteries died after someone "used it". Old mattress.

Coffee maker with no pot. 4 chairs for 8 people - but one was broken and just a 2 seat sofa in front of the tv.

I prefer a great bed, super clean sheets, not have to strip the bed and put in a load of laundry, free waffles, patrolled parking lot, pool/hottub, gym...

And no surprise cancellations by the owner

Oh, and equipped and inspected for safety

-smoke and CO detectors

-handrails

-no trip hazards

Another...

Our stay at #2 was so bad the owner said NO CHARGE for the 4 days if we did not post a negative review.

My guess is he bribed previous occupants so his reviews look good. Fooled us!

The #2 guy obviously knew the place was bad but he would forego payment instead of fixing it?

Oh! Resurrecting this thread. I stayed at a fourth Air BnB recently with some friends, outside of San Antonio.

One of the cool things I liked was in the kitchen, there was a conversion chart. Like, if I'm baking, and I want to know how many cups are in a pint--- that kind of thing. Likewise, in the laundry area, there was a sign that interpreted all the graphic laundry codes.