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You are missing an important thing: Financial planning.
Renting out your personal space is easy, and costs are covered by your regular job.
But once your start doing it full time, maintenance and upkeep will become an issue.
The first 2 years are easy, but once things start to wear and need replacing things can go bad very fast.
So from the start you will have to set your price accordingly, and put 20-25% of your income aside for maintenance.
@Chris - good point, but Iāve not faced any financial issues yet. The money I earn from renting covers replacements and maintenance. I always keep a buffer in case I need to replace something expensive like a bed or sofa or fridge or similar.
Hy Sylvain, Are you able to share some of the different listing websites you use? Maybe there are pros/cons with each? Guessing Airbnb has the most volume, but it also seems expensive (fees). New to this whole thing but interested in maximizing early on. Thank you for any feedback!
No, but I could quite easily.
Hi @Jan_J,
May I ask how you manage your schedule when posting the same property on many listing websites? I found a good article on connecting VRBO and Airbnb, guessing itās the same with Flipkey and others? Where id the central calendar you use? iCal or Google calendars?
I have one other question too - what are the clear benefits of each platform? I assume Airbnb is your favorite? Are others doing better for you somehow?
New to this space so thank you for any feedback!
Just joined your group on FB 
Iāll watch for answers to your Qs. Iām new at this AirBmB thing also.
@LiamA -
The best site for one host might not be the best site for another owner. We rent out our 3-bedroom vacation home in the Caribbean when we are not there. Nightly price starts at $400 US for two people. Our ābestā listing site - as defined by the number of bookings we get from it - is VRBO/HomeAway. We get as many views on AirBnB as we do on VRBO/HomeAway, but the guests on AirBnB are usually looking for less expensive properties. VRBOHomeAway tends to attract more multi-generational families or parents with adult children.
Others on this forum advertise on both and are the other way around - they get most of their bookings from AirBnB.
We also list on TripAdvisor, but get nothing from them. Their guest fees are so high that no one ever books our home through their site. Weāre on Booking dot com, but they charge a high fee, too, and they have a policy where you have to pay the difference to re-book a guest to a different property if you double-book, so I donāt leave many nights open there to minimize the chances of double-booking.
ME! i have 2 entire houses and a duplex that gives me a job and a reasonable income but have had to say good bye to my weekends. It is hard work to maintain standards and being always available can drive you nutsā¦but better than no job!
Yes I live off my Airbnb income (covers the day to day stuff, not holidays or renovations etc). Studio apartment underneath my house in central Auckland, New Zealand. I think the location (you can easily reach the main attractions on foot or via short Uber ride) is the main drawcard closely followed by the presence of my dog and cat, the garden setting and obviously the awesome onsite host (jokesā¦). From time to time I co-host too, or just set other listings up which is a nice bonus.
Thanks @PitonView! This all makes great sense. It begs the question then of how do you manage a single calendar for multiple listings of a single property? I guess there a notification with each booking and you can jump to block dates on other platforms when this happens. Is that a normal approach? Which calendar is your central one? iCal or Google Calendar?
@LiamA -
First - when you first start out, donāt have āinstant bookā turned on for any listing site. You should take a while to understand the type of guest your listing attracts and see how quickly your place books. Do guests book last minute? Weeks ahead? Months ahead? All that will help you understand how to manage your listing - change price, minimum stay, etc.
To manage your calendar, you have essentially two choices - automatically sync them or manually block the dates. On all the main platforms, you can import and export the calendar to have them automatically sync. There are two downsides to this - the āsyncā process does not run continually (for instance, booking dot com told me they only sync every eight hours), and you canāt open dates on one platform that are closed on another. The upside is, of course, that you donāt have to drop everything and log into the other platform to block the dates off when you get a booking.
If you do it manually, itās more work but more control. I use this method. We get only about 40 bookings a year (most of our bookings are for a week) and 75% of them book at least four months ahead of time, so itās not too much work to keep the calendars synced manually and the chances of a double-booking are very low.
Good luck!
Interesting observation āI had the same conversation with a friend. -I have small, budget-rental properties. In the same area, My friend has a gorgeous huge home on a salt water canal, sleeps 16. We both listed on AIrbnb & VRBO. All of my rentals are from Airbnb. All of herās are from VRBO.
Because of the seasonality of my rentals, I canāt live off of it. In the off-season the rental goal is to pay the bills. HOWEVER, I was laid off last July and the rental revenue for July-October helped me stretch my resources so I was able to enjoy not having a job for a while.
My properties have mortgages. The rentals are to help pay the mortgages, utilities, & neighborhood fees for the times I am not using the units. Hopefully when they are paid off, I can live off the rentals.
Thatās why most people canāt live off the proceeds of renting out over AirBnB - many hosts set prices to just offset some expenses. Itās a fundamental issue - AirBnB wants us to behave like hotels, take the risks hotels take (or more), but not get paid for it.
I think I didnāt communicate well. In the peak season I adjust my rates to be profitable and price competitive. I have basically 90 days to make the money to cover my expenses for the year in the event I donāt get any off season rentals.
During the off season I may get snowbird renters who want to play golf and leave their snow shovels behind. Iām shocked that in the off season you can rent an ocean front condo for less than $50 a nightāeven from the hotels.
Iāve been lucky to get enough off season rentals to pay the bills so my summers are profitable.
The market here is odd. There arent enough rentals for July demand and you are lucky to have any rentals in January.
I have 3 rooms in my home. It provided me with the equivalent of a part time job. I was compelled to keep the house spotless and in good repair. For the most part I enjoyed the company.
My write offs this year will be a lot less. I have also had a run of high stress guests so I have dialed down the business significantly and will be looking for part time work.
What type of amenities are best to avoid?
This is an old topic and Jan doesnāt participate here any longer.