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HI! I’m still figuring out the system here, please forgive any mistakes.
I have a farm, and hosted for MANY years through platforms like WWOOF and Workaway…. I was VERY picky with my guests/interns through those other platforms and made them return a questionnaire and other “hoops” to jump through. Never had a problem until I experimented with my process and ended up with a bunch of losers I had to basically pay to leave haha. Anyhow, I’m no longer doing those platforms because it requires a LOT of host involvement with the guest and I’m a single father of a young child now. I’m in the process of getting my property set up for several airbnb (or whatever platform) cabins. I have the 3 L’s… “location location location”, so I’m not worried a bit about attracting guests but I AM hesitant about which platform to use and how to handle the details.
I read some posts on here and saw mention of the insurance being no good with these platforms and that I should use my own…. Another concern and NONE of my host friends seem to have any idea about is “room tax” to the county. They’re just not paying it and “assume” the platform handles all that… Is this true?
I have not decided on a platform yet and was curious what others thoughts are…. I read a post on here about someone complaining about not having “breakfast” and I would just assume that this is not something I would even begin to expect unless it was mentioned that it WOULD be provided…. These are going to be fairly private cabins, not shared spaces although I will have the option to rent the entire property for larger groups. So, in regards to that, I’m wondering if airbnb is the best place for me or if I might be better served on VRBO? Anyone with experience with both platforms would be especially welcomed to share opinions.
Lastly, ANY advice is appreciated, I plan to be operational in the next couple of months and really want to figure out the best system BEFORE I start. I want to be as “hands off” as possible as I value my freedom to put my kid first.
There are many pertinent threads on various topics that you might search here as your plan progresses. I have only used Airbnb and direct book so I can’t offer much comparison. A few comments:
–Talk to a knowledgeable insurance agent or more than one and figure out your real insurance needs based on you risk tolerance and budget. Any coverage from Airbnb is nice and could avoid a claim on your policy, but don’t count on it. Factor this cost into your pricing. It may be substantial.
–Do not expect guests to read much so put all critical information early on and word it concisely. Some people are reading on tiny phone screens and sort of give up after a little scrolling. You can always say cabin only. I don’t think many guests renting free standing buildings are expecting breakfast.
–Airbnb cannot possibly collect every type of tax in every country covered by their platform. I live in Massachusetts and they do collect my state occupancy tax. However some cities or regions have special taxes and I don’t know if those are being collected by Airbnb or require collection and reporting by the host. Search short term rental laws and regulations for you state/province/municipality online. Other platforms may have other approaches. One problem is that when new tax laws get passed there is often some lag time and friction between corporate Airbnb and the state/province/municipality that can create a collection gap in the beginning.
That said, I have been on Airbnb for 10 years with a 95% positive experience with a homeshare. Having more than one free standing accommodation probably creates other opportunities and challenges best addressed by similar hosts on this forum. Good luck!
thank you, I’m still learning the search options, a lot of the threads I was finding were quite a few years old, so, trying to keep things current. On other forums it seems people get equally chastised for making new threads about old subjects vs reviving dead threads with new questions haha. You very likely answered my tax question though, since my personal friends who host (several of them) have no idea and don’t pay the tax themselves, I’m just going to go with that they are doing the proper thing for our area.
I can’t help with the platform decision because I use only Airbnb and my own website/marketing.
But yes, STR insurance is essential. And yes, it’s expensive but worth it for the peace of mind. Never rely on any platform’s ‘insurance’.
To find out about occupancy tax, get in touch with your local authorities. Airbnb does deal with it in my area but I think there are still places where they don’t - especially non-USA. So you’ll need to find out. Don’t just assume though - it sounds as though your friends are hosting and trying to keep under the radar - a terrible idea for plenty of reasons.
Our apartments are separate places and I provide a first-morning breakfast basket for our guests. (Fruit, yogurt, croissants etc.) and point it our during the house tour saying something like ‘so you don’t have to go grocery shopping on your first morning’.
No guest has ever complained about no breakfast and I’m talking here about thousands of guests.
Be firm with them at the first sign of any nonsense, charge a realistic price and read the riot act when you need to.
thanks I do not plan to do a “house tour” frankly I don’t want to meet them if I can help it. “self check in” is a term I heard haha. I do plan to leave each guest a “gift” but not going to try to get food for them. I’ve been interviewing cleaning services because our autonomy is important to me. I don’t want to be tied to this rental and not be able to take my kid on a last minute impromptu trip. I feel bad because I have turned down multiple cleaners due to them working alone and I don’t want someone to call me and say “I can’t do it this week” and be out of town myself. I do have some local contacts who can come down in an “emergency”, but, frankly I’m of the opinion that if anything is wrong with the house they can just go get a hotel and be reimbursed accordingly. I AM very good at leaving instructions even though my online posts may get a little wordy lol.
You’ll find some controversy here about whether little signs and instructions are great or tacky. At a minimum when we are away we have an emergency instruction sheet, instructions for the TV and internet and a few directional signs in our house getting to the appropriate lights, bathrooms and stairs. The “just go to a hotel” idea might get you in hot water with Airbnb if it happens more than once.
Not going to have a television, if they want internet they should bring their own devices with cellular connection. I can’t think of a thing in the world someone would “need” me for short of a power outage or the HVAC system breaking, either scenario would be out of my control anyhow. My main client base will be attendants of a local art school that does week long classes anyhow, they’ll not be around the property for long. I’m going more for an “unplugged” type of experience here. I don’t want someone calling me at 2 a.m. because the router went down during their video game. I am not trying to come off as crass, I do realize that’s how it reads, but, after hosting lots of guests through the non-paying platforms (trade help for a place to stay) I have learned to be VERY up front about all of my expectations and what they can expect from me. I am really looking for feedback on everything I talk about though, and greatly appreciate your responses!
That’s fine, of course, but I would suggest that you have a co-host who can do the house tour and keep an eye on things during the guests’ stay.
They would also deal with any emergencies or problems during the stay. Imagine if there was a flood, or the fridge stopped working or a million other things.
I can appreciate that you don’t want to personally be in contact with the guests. Like you, I was a ‘host’ for many years before I started using Airbnb and I was amazed at just how different things are. A co-host can really make a lot of difference. It might well be worth thinking about.
That’s kinda where I’m at with it though… if a flood happened or the fridge quit, I wouldn’t be able to fix that in a reasonable time frame anyhow and they would have to leave and go to a hotel or another booking. I do plan to be available for emergencies, but I can’t really think of anyone I could get to ‘co-host’ and be reliable. Is it really that necessary? The first cabin that I’ll get up and running soon is only 3 rooms haha. I plan to do marked trails around the farm for them to explore.
One thing you’ll discover about this forum is that we all have wildly different ideas.
Personally, I find that being on or near the premises (or having a co-host who is) keeps trouble at bay, keeps guests happy, and leads to great reviews (which are essential on Airbnb).
it’s really sounding like airbnb might not be the best place for my “hands off” approach… which is exactly why I wanted to come ask you folks some questions. I run a couple businesses and really just want to get a start on this as it’s my “retirement” plan, to have several rentals. I can be more hands on when that happens, but, with being single dad and running these other businesses, I just want to have a property that rents, I pay a cleaner to clean in between guests and I go look it over before check-in/ after check out to make sure it’s clean and everything is in order.
You can’t go on a trip and assume that having a good cleaner and a friend or two around who could fix things is all that’s required. You need to have a co-host who can deal with the guests. You don’t want to be a hundred miles away and find out your guests are a bunch of yahoos who are trashing your place, partying with 50 people they invited over, making a bonfire in dry season, throwing beer cans and cigarette butts all over.
You can’t str host and be “spontaneous” to just pick up and leave without a reliable co-host.
And hosting Woofers and Workaways is not at all the same thing as short term rentals. As you say, you have been understandably picky about who you have accepted. That is harder to do on an str platform. One thing you should definitely do is require guests to send booking requests, so you have an opportunity to dialogue with them and check out any reviews they have before deciding to accept them. Do not use Instant Book, where guests can just book your place with no prior communication.
My listing is just a private room/bath in my home, and guests share my kitchen. But I am out in the countryside in a quiet area, a 20 minute walk (and almost none of my guests drive here) to town and the beach, in a super touristy Mexican town. So I am also quite choosy about the type of guests I want and who who will be a good fit here and I market towards them in my listing wording. I.e. “This is a suitable rental for those who want a quiet place to stay to write, do art, yoga practice, read, and relax, away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, but close enough to go to the beach every day…”, etc.
What I don’t want are guests who stumble home from the bar at 2 am, waking up all the neighborhood dogs and me.
thanks, I’m really curious how the beach rentals and such work that I see then? Do they have a manager that continually checks up on the property while people stay in the property? I’m not opposed to hiring a manager, but what I am opposed to is dedicating myself to taking care of something that has no real need in my view. I might just stay 100% off of the booking sites and only do it myself via a website, without disclosing my location I’ll just say that I don’t suspect I would have any issue keeping booked 100% even if I did a private platform with a little search engine optimization, my main draw for VRBO/Airbnb is the calendar and that they “possibly” will handle all the county tax stuff.
Honestly, with what you are describing as your life style and responsibility of your son, and wanting to be able to just take off when you want, you might be better off to rent long term to tenants you can carefully vet, and take a security deposit from, who won’t need any hand-holding or ongoing communication, leaving you free to not make your life more stressful. Running strs is not easy money by any means.
When we first started Airbnb several years ago it was kind of “under the radar” as far as taxes go. We are located in a jurisdiction (suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) where both the provincial government and many municipalities collect a nightly “tourism tax.” With Airbnb, they didn’t even know where the properties were.
Eventually the provincial government (after much prodding from hotels, who – quite correctly – said this was an unfair competitive advantage for Airbnb operators) sat down with Airbnb and said if you play nice and collect both provincial and municipal taxes, we’ll play nice and not regulate you out of business. Since then Airbnb collects both taxes, remits them to the provincial government in batches, and the province disburses the municipal portion directly to local government. As an operator, I like this because it saves me the paperwork and – as an individual operator – I’m still invisible to government.
Well, as far as beach rentals here in Mexico, yes, they all have property managers, absolutely.
That doesn’t mean they are constantly checking up on the property while guests are in residence, but they would be instantly availalable to deal with things if anything went sideways. And there are usually gardeners and cleaners who are around some of the time who would report to the manager if something bad was going on.
And some have caretakers who actually live onsite.
Can’t do that at all here in Mexico. The Mexican tax department co-ordinated with Airbnb (and VRBO), and the platforms now collect the VAT and occupancy tax (charged to the guests) to submit to the govt. and if you aren’t registered with the tax dept. and provide a tax number to the str platforms, they withhold 20% in income tax of the booking fee to submit. If you do have a tax number and report your earnings to the govt, they only withhold and submit 4%.
So this basically cracked down on foreigners who only came down on tourist visas, who were making tons of money renting out their vacation homes, who had no permission to earn money here, had no tax number and weren’t reporting any of their income. They can’t get the 20% income tax withheld from their payouts back, so renting becomes much less profitable or viable for them.
Personally I’m quite pleased about it. I’ve had a Mexican tax number and been paying taxes on my upholstery business for almost 20 years. And now my Airbnb. But these people who only had tourist status were cheating and earning money here illegally.
that’s kinda where I’m at, it’s really the only draw to me, that and a handy calendar…. I like that I wont have to worry about paying my county (in north carolina, united states).
If we make over a certain threshold in Canada we have to give our value added tax number (GST) to Airbnb, but the tax is deliberately designed to exempt “side hustle” entrepreneurs with a revenue cutoff – if you earn below that amount you are not required to register or pay. We nudge closer every year, but not quite there yet.
The equivalent of the GST in Mexico is called IVA (and oddly enough is the same percentage as Canada, 16%), and is charged on all goods and services regardless of income. However, it is the guest who pays that, and Airbnb submits it to the tax dept. on my behalf. However, I can deduct any IVA I pay out for expenses from the amount owing.
What has gotten the hosts who weren’t registered with the tax dept. and don’t have residency status, so can’t get a tax number, riled up is that Airbnb is deducting income tax to the tune of 20% from their payouts. How they thought it was okay to run a business here and not declare their earnings and pay taxes here I don’t quite understand- you certainly can’t do that anywhere else I’m aware of.
