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Hosting my 3rd long term guest, and so far its been absolutely wonderful.
Comparing to last year I am making twice more money. I have nothing to do, because i dont have to change beds, or clean after each 1 day stay. I left my phone alone, and not on guard anymore in case someone will book the last minute.
I have 1 guest in each room, and i hardly see them. They both work a lot. One is out of the house by 7:30 am, another leaves at 6;30 am.They are out all day, and only come home between 6-7 pm. One only drinks coffee in a morning, and sometimes makes himself a toast. Each of them have their separate shelf in a fridge, and freezer. But most of the time they are empty.
AT night they just stay in their room. I had to put TV in another bedroom also, as they guy was sitting in my living room if he wanted to watch a game. One plays games all night long on TV.
By 10 pm, the house become soundless, not that there is much sound as it is.
They do laundry, but i dont really know when. I just see the signs of it but they manage to do it while i am not home.
If it was a couple i think there would be much more noise, cooking and moving around, but with these guys its so quiet and effortless to have them around.
Before i started doing long term, it was 50$ a night. But i was not getting any bookings at that price, because there so many new listing around, and its a very slow time now here in South Florida. SO, for me to get any bookings i would probably had to go down to 40$, or even 30$. That was one of the reasons i started doing long term. If it has to be that low to get bookings, i would at least not have to change beds and clean everyday.
For 1 person i rent for 900$ a month, for 2 it was 1100$. Honestly i would rather have 1 person per room.
SO, as you can see its not that much of a discount. Even if i charged 40$, and had guests every single day, it would come to 1200$ a month. But the amount of work does not justify it.
We have quite much higher price (private appartment of 90 square meter) but I like also one-two months rent. I am thinking to do 10% discount for one week and 15% for a month.
I think its very reasonable. Wth a separate house i also have long term guests untill October. The rent is 4500$ a month. If i rented by day it would be 6K, but its unrealistic to have every day filled.
If i did lease i would never rent this house for more than 2300$. 4500$ include utilities, but still i make 1600$ a month more if i did with regular listing, which is pretty awesome!
Glad it works for you. But for me short term I get about 50% and up more £££ and I’m running at 85% occupancy. Plus short term use less utilities so it’s a bunch cheaper.
I average about 10 minutes of actual work per guest. (This includes room clean and messaging). I’m not including house clean because I live here and do it weekly regardless of having guests.
So about 2 hrs of work per month. It works out about £300 per hour. Lol if only I could do a 40 hr week.
My other room currently has a lodger on a 6 month term. Requires no work. But once she eventually leaves I’m switching to short term.
It takes me that long to take off used sheets, put new ones on and make the bed. Do you only clean the bathroom the guests use weekly? Please, share your secrets.
Changing duvet and sheets is easy, I’m probably the world record holder… haha, then takes no time to dump it in the washing machine and switch on, then move to a clothes horse to dry, then its ready for the next guest. (i don’t iron anything by the way).
As for the bathroom, never had to clean it more than my weekly house clean. I do give the house a quick air freshener between guests.
Sometimes I think maybe I clean more than actually necessary. It takes me at least 20 minutes to wipe and polish the bathroom, replace the towels, mop the floor, vacuum the carpet, and strip and remake the bed, and dust the furniture. Things like clean the windows, clean the ceiling fan, clean the room A/C filter, scrub the shower floor and the toilet with a cleanser are not done every time.
I find that 2-3 guests over a week don’t really make much mess. Why vacuum more than nessesary. Why clean the bathroom 3 times a week. It doesn’t make any sense to me. That’s why I don’t bother. Don’t get me wrong, if theres a big skidmark in the toilet or some hair in the drain. I’ll clean it instantly. But it hasn’t happened often.
You mean 10 minutes with preparing room and bathroom for next guests?
The situation you describe I have 4 months a year when it’s high season. I am going to switch to short term starting December until end of March, but first I still want to try at least do 1 week minimum.
Right now during slow season it’s either long term or no income or almost the same daily rate as long term but much more work.
As far as usage of utilities I am not sure if that’s the case. Mostly I got couple who stayed for a day or 2. Now I have 1 person in each room who don’t really use much of anything as they are never home.
