What I learned with my first Airbnb

Question

My wife and I decided to get started in REI by converting our primary home into our first short term rental. We packed up and moved to Asheville, NC, and started to manage the Airbnb back in Wilmington, NC.

We're on our third guests so far and the lessons learned have been invaluable. Here's a summary of what I've learned so far:

1. Things will break. Immediately.

2. Your systems are shit. If you think they aren't, you're wrong.

3. The quality of your systems gets shown AFTER your first guests, not before.

Account Closed · Answer

Ha! Amen to that.  Lots of hard lessons for me as ell on our first STR.  And even more on the second...   :)

Brandon Allenczy · Answer

@Jason Coleman Yes!! I thought our systems were fine until we started and found out they were about 50% of where they needed to be. Definitely more cash flow opportunity with Airbnb, you just have to work for it a little more. May I ask why the switch?

Thank you and good luck to you as well!!

Brandon Allenczy · Answer

@Chris Harjes haha that's great! Looking forward those!

Jason Coleman · Answer

It's funny you mentioned this because we are working on turning our long term rental in Wilmington to an Airbnb. I appreciate the post. Systems are important. It's a never ending process of fine tuning and management. But hey, soon I'll have enough rentals to sit back and relax...haha jk. Good luck with the journey. Wilmington and Asheville are both solid cities btw. I'm partial to Greensboro but Asheville and Wilmington are both beautiful.