{"id":184731,"date":"2025-09-15T13:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=184731"},"modified":"2025-09-15T13:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:18:35","slug":"how-i-took-a-dead-airbnb-and-turned-it-into-25k-in-90-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/how-i-took-a-dead-airbnb-and-turned-it-into-25k-in-90-days","title":{"rendered":"How I Took a Dead Airbnb and Turned it into $25K in 90 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Now and then, you come across a property on Airbnb that makes you scratch your head. The house looks great, the location is solid, <\/span>the kind of place you\u2019d imagine would be booked out<\/span> for months<\/span>\u2026 <\/span>and yet, it\u2019s sitting there like a ghost town.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what happened to me earlier this year. This owner had a beautiful property in a great spot, but in five months, he\u2019d only gotten one single booking. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One. That was it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, his mortgage, utilities, and all the other bills didn\u2019t care whether the house was making money or not. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t stop thinking: How can a place this good perform this poorly?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I Found the Property<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t even looking for him specifically. <\/span>I was <\/span>just<\/span> doing my usual thing: zooming around on the Airbnb map, looking at what houses were pulling in bookings and which weren\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed something unusual: right next to listings that <\/span>were booked<\/span> solid, there was an incredibly unique house, yet it never had any bookings on the calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I dug a little deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I used the estimated location Airbnb shows on their map. From there, I started scanning the listing photos like a detective. Street numbers on mailboxes, the angle of the driveway, a roofline in the background, even drone shots that gave away nearby landmarks. Little clues most people would scroll past.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I had a good idea of where it sat, I pulled up cross streets and started comparing old MLS photos. One by one, I matched up siding, windows, and porches until finally, everything lined up. That was the house.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, the last piece I needed: the owner. I tracked down his info, reached out, followed up (probably more times than he liked), and after a couple of months of radio silence, he finally picked up the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he told me he\u2019d only had one booking all year, I knew it was my time to shine.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Flags<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The moment I pulled up his Airbnb listing, it was like a checklist of everything <\/span>not <\/span><\/em>to do as a host:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n