Short Term Rental questions

[Maxwell Lee]

Hi all, 

I have a handful of STR-specific questions I was hoping I could get some focused replies for. I've read/skimmed through dozens of airbnb threads but there are just SOOO many on this site covering a wealth of topics it's hard to find all the advice I am seeking.

1) For those of you living in a property that you also rent out (either renting out extra rooms or renting out while you are temporarily away) do you attempt to deduct your utilities? How would you do this...just estimate a percentage?

2) Those of you who hire it out, what is your average cleaning cost for turnover? How did you go about finding the best cleaner/service since it isnt a standard clean?

3) If you have experience running an "entire property" rental vs renting out individual rooms, do you have any thoughts or advice to share? So far my 2-bedroom listings have generated a ton of bookings but I'm starting to consider STR for my larger properties and I dont think I'll have the same demand on 3 bedroom or larger properties so it would seem to be far more effective to rent out by the room. But that certainly brings on much more to consider.

4) Insurance. What do you do? lol i know this has been discussed often but always open to more thoughts. 

Thanks in advance!!

[Myka Artis]

These are all great questions. 

1. I currently live in my house and I rent out the upstairs bedrooms by room or by the entire floor. It's completely up to each guests which they would rather have. I just use a simple formula for utilities/mortgage. I average them all up on a monthly basis and divide that number by 20. I set 20 as the number of days that I want rented out each month. Whatever that number comes out to that will be my minimum price that I set on my auto pricing tool. Then I can raise that number after I get good reviews. 

2. Cleaners is really by word of mouth. You gotta search around. As far as my Airbnb I run out of my home we got lucky and we were able to hire our babysitter to do the cleaning. It's cheap and she does excellent work. As far as the properties I manage remotely I did trial and error/word of mouth. I created an Airbnb meetup group in my area and I was able to exchange a lot of information with other hosts and find cleaners through them. My wife also went out and talked to local businesses about what we do and we were offered great discounts on cleaning. My private rooms cost $20/room for cleaning and my entire spaces are $60 - $100 depending on the property. You can also try Care.com. You can find a lot of different cleaners charging different prices for their services. Use the share economy for good cheap labor as much as you can.

3. I do private rooms and entire properties. Entire properties are always higher in demand because most guests are looking for a place for themselves without a host present or other guests walking around. You would be surprised on the demand for larger properties. I rented out a 3 bedroom place before and the guests didn't even use the third bedroom they just wanted a large space for their family. This is also dependent upon your area as well. I know for my private rooms there are a lot of traveling nurses that are just looking for a place to lay their head and my private rooms are really appealing to them.

4. Insurance. I just called my regular home owners insurance and had them put STR insurance on my property. It was like a $20 - $35 increase on my insurance.