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I’m not sure if people remember me, I was pretty active a year ago. I had a neighbor complain and get me shut down. Instead of paying $2,000 or so in applications, upgrades, etc to get opened up through the city, we decided to rent out month to month with friends and acquaintances. While the break was nice, making $600/month (basically covering the expenses…) vs. $2,000+/month with AirBnB made us realize it’s worth the cost and time to get re-opened.
Are there any major changes over the past 12 months that I should be aware of? Are there any good online services that I can use in the meantime to have my listing show only on the weekends (I’m planning to only have bookings over the weekends too so I don’t have to worry about last minute inspections, etc). I don’t think they’ll be checking up on me, but you never know… I can do this manually, but if I can do it low-cost for the next 2 months it may be worth it. Thanks!!
Yes there are new categories: Plus, and for work and for families. Also standards are increased to keep Superhost and even to host overall. Supposedly they want 4.7 star averages for everyone and may remove you if you don’t keep that up. Superhosts need 4.8 and I expect to hear a lot of complaing here about it next month when people lose it.
Also, if you’ve been inactive awhile it will probably take some time for you to get back up to speed and only hosting on weekends will probably hurt you as well.
We were helping out a young couple who went to our church and were living in the guestroom of someone’s basement. They could afford a cheap apartment, so we offered them $600 (which was the cheapest to break even with a little wiggle room) and help them out. It was actually a good experience, I’m just ready to make money again!
Yeah, I’m ready to get fully going ASAP. I have to schedule inspections during July with a planning and zoning meeting on 7/31 where I’ll get approval of a conditional permit (hoping it’s not too restrictive, like Max of 2 people and 4 days or something!), and then I go before the council for approval on 8/13. Hopefully we can go fully open that night. We’ve already had to fully upgrade the plumbing and add a wall between the stairs and the garage. I don’t want to pay for anything else without making a little on it too
Too bad you couldn’t get going before summer. I took a little more than a year off hosting to have a baby, and started back up in March. It took me a week or two before I started getting a few weekend bookings, and maybe a month before I started getting bookings in the middle of the week. My search rankings are still hurting, but I’ve still been almost fully booked this summer.
Did you ever get your extended family sorted out? I recall you had bought the family home and the relatives were salty you were letting “strangers” sleep in the family home.
Yeah, they’re starting to get over it. We still get comments of “why did you do that?” whenever we cut down overgrown bushes or make a substantial change. But honestly, I think they’re ready for me to get the AirBnB going again so they can actually use it when they come in town. When someone lives there full time, they have to sleep on couches and air mattresses. Plus, without the added income, we tend to say no to a lot of things they all want to do that cost money.
