Pros and Cons of Airbnb Hosting: Content Challenge #5

Our First Listing: A Small Studio Apartment

My husband and I listed our first short-term rental (STR) unit--a tiny studio apartment--on Airbnb almost six years ago. Two years later, we added a second unit--a 2018 Gulf Stream Vintage Cruiser. Two years after that, we added another studio apartment.  All three have been well received on the Airbnb platform.

As you'd expect from the fact that we've increased our number of listings, we have enjoyed our experience as hosts. The benefits have outweighed the difficulties, and we've learned a lot.  If you're considering hosting on the Airbnb platform, this fifth content challenge post gives you an idea of the pros and cons you can expect.  

Note: From what I have learned, these pros and cons are similar regardless of which STR or vacation-rental platform you choose. They vary in degree but exist for hosts on VRBO, HomeAway, Booking.com, or another platform.​

Our Vintage Cruiser camper

Good News First -- The Pros of Airbnb Hosting

Here are the most significant benefits we've reaped while hosting on Airbnb:

• Earning extra income. Our units aren't always booked, but we've averaged at least a 70% occupancy rate since we listed our first unit.  Bookings dipped only slightly even during the early days of the pandemic.  We beefed up our cleaning regimen and carried on.   
• Meeting some lovely people. The vast majority of our guests have been relatively easy to host. Some have been wonderful. A few have been absolutely splendid guests with whom we have forged strong friendships.  We didn't expect Airbnb hosting to provide that benefit, but it has.
• Expanding our horizons. We've hosted people from all over the United States as well as several foreign countries, including China, Germany, Canada, England, and Australia. We've learned much about other cultures. We've also heard riveting stories and benefitted from experiences different from ours.

Bad News Next--The Cons of Airbnb Hosting

Did you just hear a gentle "THUD?" That was the other shoe dropping. Here are the cons of hosting:
Dealing with a few stinkers. Some people are DIFFICULT to host. They look for something to complain about. They don't treat your things well. They do try to take a mile if you give them an inch.  Cleaning up after these folks and repairing what they damaged is time-consuming, expensive, and discouraging. Thankfully, we've had to block only a few people like this from being able to book with us again.
Constantly needing to be available (or make arrangements for someone to cover.) Hosting on Airbnb, or any other vacation-rental site, means we are in the hospitality business. ​As such, we need to be available. Our places must always be clean and ready when the next guest arrives.
Things get tricky when:

• We want to take a vacation. Do we block all the calendars, change the booking settings, find someone to clean for us, or do some combination of the three? 
• We get ill or face another difficulty. We both had COVID a few months ago. Fortunately, we had guests staying for a few weeks and didn't need to be near them or clean for new guests.  However, if things had been different, we would have been between the proverbial rock and hard place.  
• We want to have these units available for our family when they visit. We have four married children and thirteen grandchildren. All of them live at least 450 miles away. When they visit, they like to have the option of staying in one of the apartments. However, unless we can all plan several weeks ahead, it's likely that both will be booked.

Responding to the changing focus of the Airbnb platform.  When we started hosting, Airbnb had the reputation of supporting its hosts. When issues arose, company representatives listened and followed through on the promises of support and financial backing it made to hosts when they listed their properties.  That's changed significantly, thanks largely to COVID, which sent Airbnb stock plummeting and cost the company millions just in the first few weeks of the pandemic. Variants and uncertainty continue to plague Airbnb

To attract and reassure skittish travelers, Airbnb switched its focus. Now, company reps are hard to reach, and claims that appear to fit neatly into the coverage program are sometimes denied. Additionally, Airbnb has added an onerous cleaning protocol, even for hosts with excellent reviews for cleanliness. Hosts don't have to comply; if they don't, however, they risk having their listings removed from the site.

Airbnb uses the slogan, " You have full control of when and how you host," to attract potential hosts. Lately, that hasn't rung true. ​

Takeaways

We've benefitted from being Airbnb hosts, and plan to continue. For us, the pros outweigh the cons. As long as that is true, we will stay with the platform.

YACHT CTA for a Saturday

For today's content challenge, I struggled to come up with a YACHT that applies to everyone. Here are my thoughts:

 You Accept the CHallenge, Too! 

How would you answer these questions?
If you already have listings on Airbnb or another vacation rental platform:

• What are your pros and cons?
• Have you established a plan to deal with difficulties as they come?

If you don't have vacation rental properties:

• Do you have a passive income flow?
• If not, how could you develop one?

So long until tomorrow.


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