Is AirBnB taking over the rental property business?

Is AirBnB taking over the rental property business?

Kansas City, MO · Member since 2025 · 2 posts · 3 votes

Earlier this summer, I attended a workshop at my parents' real estate office where they usually teach the basics of owning rental properties. 

However, a gentleman came in and spoke about how AirBnB is changing the real estate investing world because you can charge more money for less amount of time that the resident "lives" in the space. He mentioned that he's been doing AirBnBs for the last 12 years and he said he's never going back to traditional rental properties. He gave the advice to pick a busy city that always has something going on, look at the properties there, buy one, open it up as an AirBnB and some other practical logistics he mentioned. He said that the reason they are better than rental properties is that it is less wear-and-tear on the property, more money in short periods of time, and after awhile of having well-managed properties, you can rank up as the best in AirBnB so more clients will choose your space. 

He went over the city rules and why you shouldn't put an AirBnB in neighborhoods with HOAs and covered a ton more other issues that typically come up in the business. 

For those experienced in the rental property investing and are somewhat familiar with AirBnB, do you think that rental properties are a better investment than AirBnBs or vice versa? Is it subjective to what an individual's goals are? Have you ever considered going down that route? What do you think? 

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  • Realtor · McAllen, TX · Member since 2025 · 141 posts · 58 votes
    1y

    In my opinion, for short term it is a good investment especially if it is located in a busy area that has something going on. But, it also depends what strategy works for the investor. 

    As far as "less wear-and-tear", it depends who is renting out the place. I've seen vidoes and heard stories of people who own AirBnB properites who had poeple trashed the place and destroy the property. However, the same can be said with traditional rental properties. With AirBnB the owner can get in contact with person and have the person pay for the damages. If the person refuses to pay, the owner can contact AirBnB and show evidence of the damages and AirBnB will charge them for the damages. With traditional rentals depending on what the contract says regarding damages to the property, the person would not get the security deposit back and the owner may have to pay for the repairs. 

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