AirBnB and a vacation property
I have been debating buying an investment property for 2 different utilizations: 1 personal use during limited vacation time during the year, and 2 to AirBnB the building for other vacation use. Has anyone bought/utilized a small multifamily property for this purpose? What are your thoughts?
There is a great article on the topic: here.
I have three opinions on the AirBnB market. Granted, I have never personally owned a property in that market, but I stay in many. I also live in an area where it's hotly debated.
1) Choose a location where the regulatory environment is not going to shut you down. Some friends in NYC bought/held two leases on condos to do this, now they don't have that option.
2) Conventional wisdom has suggested that you can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you want a vacation home for yourself, you usually have to buy it for that purpose. If it's for guests, you usually have to buy it for that purpose. The main reason is mindset switch. If it happens to be open a few off weekends of the year, you can obviously stay. But I would run and manage for maximum guest occupancy.
3) AirBnB has become fairly ubiquitous in many areas. As a result, supply has grown, and prices have fallen. We recently got a great place to ourselves in Center City, Philadelphia for $60/night. You want to find a place where demand is high but supply is still small.
I started using AirBNB a few years ago. I'm pretty confident to say my my offering as had most number of guests in the metropolitain area.
Here is my take on it- I feel like it is something transitory. the rules around it were very relaxed in the beginning, but now yo ucan see as it gains popularity, the govt wants to be involved in what you can/can't do. Its hard to say where it is going in the future.
I would look at it as utilizing AirBnB as another tool for your vacation rental, in addition to what other methods of vacation home renting you may have.
However, anything is possible if you make the numbers work!
@John Ma You use Airbnb as part of your sales funnel for your vacation rental? Do you have people repeat renting through Airbnb or convert to directly booking?
@willams Collins
it was not a vacation home. It was my "primary residence" for the couple of years I lived in it.
I did have repeated guests every once in a while and would perform transactions outside of airbnb.