Looking for advice from locals experienced in STR. I want provide a great Indianapolis experience for guests interested in outdoor activities, but I'd like to know demand for the neighborhood. My property is a remodeled, 2-1 bungalow, located in Irvington. I'm seeing drastically different rental rates for comparable properties.

How many nights are you booked per month?

Do you see any increase or decrease during different times of the year?

Besides good pictures and fancy decor what makes a rental stand out? 

@Jaron Walling , Did you get a chance to look at the Indianapolis city statistics in Airdna.co ?  , with a free account you can get basic info and if you're a paid member you can get most of the details. 

Wow! No not yet! That's pretty useful information @Kishore Babu   

Thank you for sharing. 

Well, after looking into the site it's pretty blame (as a free version). 

Any lndianapolis locals have experience with STR properties?

Originally posted by @Jaron Walling :

Any lndianapolis locals have experience with STR properties?

I've hosted airbnb in franklin township for a little over 2 years. The occupancy rates I've seen vary with the time of the year. For ex, Mar- Sept is the peak travel season and bookings died down during the winter months unless there's a major event taking place.  Typical booking was about 30%. I've had more bookings when I first got started as not many hosts were in my area. But over the last few months, I've seen hosts rent out rooms for as low as 15-30 bucks a night to get more bookings. 

I'd recommend checking your competition (on the airbnb map) and see if the price makes sense. You can also view their booking calendars ( if you sign in as a traveler and not a host) and that will give you an idea of how many days they're booked in a month.

@Mihir Bhimaraju Thanks a lot! That's useful information. There's 40 hosts in the neighborhood so I guess it's a trial and error business. I have the ability to relocate when guests stay so i may give it shot. I want to provide an experience that feels like Indianapolis is home. 

Originally posted by @Jaron Walling :

@Mihir Bhimaraju Thanks a lot! That's useful information. There's 40 hosts in the neighborhood so I guess it's a trial and error business. I have the ability to relocate when guests stay so i may give it shot. I want to provide an experience that feels like Indianapolis is home. 

That's the right mindset to approach an airbnb. Just a heads up, it takes a good 3-5 bookings to get your listing trending. Airbnb does their bit to get your listing going initially as you don't have any reviews when you get started but it typically takes a couple of months for your listing to show up as a popular pick. I wasn't able to quantify that time lag but you're essentially competing with Super hosts and hosts with 100+ reviews. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but the time delay is something to keep in mind before you can start cash flowing.

@Mihir Bhimaraju  Super hosts rule the world! 

This is my primary residence right now so if I could book a few weekends each month that's a good goal. I had an idea to provide bicycles as transportation. I would provide the renters with a trail map to cycling focused destinations (breweries, bars, restaurants). 

@Jaron Walling I used my primary residence as well. There are pros and cons to that. It definitely helps with mortgage payments and side income, but I've had guests whose feedback was " host's personal belongings were in the kitchen and living room" even though the guests knew I lived there and I shared my personal residence lol. So you do get those occasional WTF moments but I like your idea. I love the bar and brewery scene in Irvington so I think it'll work out great for you. Good luck!

Hi Jaron!

We actually operated an Aribnb at 19th and Emerson for a long time! Reach out anytime. I'd be happy to tell you about our experience.

Cheers!

Ryan Rominger

Property Manager, RE Broker