Is Airbnb Hosting for me?

After trying it out for 6 months, was… not quite worth it. First of all, like many modern community platforms, the devil is in the details, and things aren’t exactly what they are claimed to be. When I broke down the income of Airbnb vs. renting my condo traditionally, there was very little difference, a little bit more with Airbnb, but when I include all the time I spend responding to guest’s questions and needs, it is less profitable to do Airbnb. For those who want access to their place intermittently, and who like to coddle guests and interact with them, I can see why they like the platform, but I have to share a couple of experiences, I think sum up the source of our frustration. One guest pulled the cushions off the couch and complained about there being popcorn and crumbs under them. Another guest texted me at midnight because they were (probably intoxicated) and couldn’t log onto the WiFi. One guest left the place a mess and was unresponsive to communications. With regards to the rating system, just like other platforms like Uber and Lyft, there is not consistent honesty reflected in the ratings. When I gave guests honest feedback about things they could improve on, I got nasty responses a couple of times. How dare I be constructively critical? To be fair, most guest-host experiences are smooth and conflict free. We just found that the headache of guest issues (about 1 in 10), coupled with the income not being much different to having a regular renter, made the decision easy for us. We just signed up a tenant to a year lease and she is wonderful. No regrets though, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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Good to know there are no regrets.

I don’t quite see the purpose of your post but I see that it has been sitting here for a few hours without a reply - so it only seems courteous of me to do so. :slight_smile:

You’re so right in that Airbnb hosting isn’t for everyone. It suits some, it doesn’t suit others, I suppose you could say the same about every job or profession. Just as there are certain personality traits required in every profession, the same is true of being an Airbnb host.

It is a shame though that you didn’t join this forum when you started hosting (or even before preferably) because this is a great place to learn and the members here could have helped to make your life much easier. For example, I would have recommended that you switch the phone off in the evening so that there won’t be any midnight texts!

You would have had some great advice about the best way to leave constructive reviews for guests and how to deal with your messy people.

However, too late now…

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I think this is a really great post and it’s an important notation for new hosts who are checking out this forum for some guidance. Thanks so much for posting! I think all new hosts ought to enter this venture with a “trial” mindset like you did and not commit significant sums of money with overly optimistic assumptions about profits, etc.

I do AIR because the primary function of our guest apt is for our personal friends and family who visit us. I’d definitely make just as much money doing a long term lease (this year, I would have made more money doing a long term lease as the winter was totally dead). This is more true now than it was 2 years ago since rents have really sky-rocketed in Chicago and there are more AirBNB units than there’s ever been in the city, driving nightly rates down.

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The purpose of my post is information only. I don’t really see the purpose of your reply. I’m not concerned that nobody has responded. If someone finds it informative, great, if not, oh well. I don’t feel better because you responded. With regards to your suggestions, it is not practical for me to turn off my phone at night because I may have an urgent or emergency call, including an Airbnb guest. I did plenty of research before I started and was well prepared and informed and in the end, it was not worth the effort for me, that’s all. Please don’t feel the need to respond and tell me what you think I did wrong.

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I think most people do Air because income is very much different . For example if I did a lease I could only get Maximum 750$ a month. With Air I get 1100$. That’s a huge difference. Considering that I have 3 rooms
For rent. It’s over 1K a month. With a tenant I could not ask limited cooking and other things that a long term guest requires. With Air I can insist on following my rules .

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The community here welcomes discussion. If you comment or rant, be prepared for reaction, and for interaction. A forum which is simply a list of pronouncements and with participants that become indignant when responded to may exist somewhere else, but here the support system and wide variety of experiences and methods is the valuable part.

Sadly, about once a month someone comes here (usually for the first time) to vent or rant or in your case simply offering a resignation letter, and is outraged when their post is responded to. Complaints are met with concern and insight and when the newbie is guided to a different viewpoint rage ensues. Righteous indignation when a post is discussed and the post is taken apart by well meaning and very experienced long time forum members is not helping you or the forum members to educate and bond.

Please understand that differing points of view are much more valuable to a reader than simple agreement. Many people never post but use this forum as a valuable guide to how hosts think and work with the airbnb platform.

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Well, one reason is that the title of this topic you started is a question. People respond to questions, it’s as simple as that.

But there is another more important reason. As @Rolf points out, this is a discussion forum and not a place to post random pronouncements. The site has many, many readers. For example, yesterday the forum had 25,100 pageviews. I don’t know the current statistics but at one time, it was a fact that for every registered, active member of a forum there were 20 times that number who read on a regular basis.

This means that members here feel that they should reply to all messages, not necessarily for the sake of the original poster, but also (or indeed more) for the many people who read here.

Furthermore, I don’t think that anyone here chose to

This forum exists to help all hosts. You might want to keep your phone on all night for emergencies and other hosts may feel the same way. But another person reading here might be interested to know that my partner and I each have two phones (one business and one personal each) and that the phone that has the number Airbnb guests are given is turned off from 7 pm. Guests know this. This is obviously of no use to you but who knows? Another reader one day might think it’s a good idea.

So please don’t dismiss people who have replied to your post - this is a public forum so it’s not all about you.

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I think it really depends on the area you are in, if you were in a very popular area where you’re getting more than $150 a night it may well be worth it to rent on Airbnb. It just depends. I like the fact that nobody in my Airbnb is allowed to stay more than 10 days. The place we get too dirty to clean! I don’t want long-term guests and besides they always expect a big discount and think they’re doing you a favor if they rent for a long period of time, no I make way more money doing short-term rentals and charging that big cleaning fee even though now it only takes me an hour and a half to clean

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I don’t know about most. I know a lot of people do short term rentals because they want to rent out the space and not have long term rentals. I like the whole package of doing Airbnb short term. Like you, I don’t want people doing cooking every day in my place. But I don’t mind if a short term guest wants to cook every day they’re here. I like meeting new people fairly often. We have long term renters in the condo we left and haven’t sold yet in Chicago. They’re great, and they’re stable, and their rent covers the mortgage. For me, Airbnb is a dynamic business that’s more than a business because of all the people we meet from all over the world.

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Airbnb is not for everyone. Be glad you worked this out early on!

Different strokes for different folks. We are similar in that we too have been doing this on a trial basis. We are in our 8th month. We also have other long term rentals in a hot market and our one aitrbnb unit was a long term rental previously. We are making a fair amount of money (not a huge amount more than a LTR after time and expenses but we knew that going in). Unlike you, however, I LOVE all the interactions and what you call coddling, etc. I really enjoy helping people with their trips and seeing to it that their stay is an enjoyable one. I am excited to keep things going. We’ve had a few mildly annoying guests, but most have been fantastic. Just sharing to show a differing viewpoint. Also, don’t take this the wrong way, but we vacuum under the sofa cushions every time; a guest would never find any popcorn/crumbs to complain about. Thanks for sharing though. I think if it were just my husband he would hang it up too, but because I love the hospitality/customer service piece so much we will continue.

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