I need advise on renting my home on Airbnb

[Michael Evans]

After listening to the Podcast 229, I was very impressed with Zeona McIntyre and her strategy to early retirement. How can I get more knowledge about the ins and outs of renting on Airbnb? Great job as cohost Mindy!

[James Carlson]

@Michael Evans Here are some thoughts, probably more than you asked for.

City laws

As @Victor Boctor wrote, maybe the most important step is understanding what the rules and regulations regarding Airbnb-style short-term rentals are in your city. Here in Denver, you're only allowed to do it in your primary residence. Most cities don't make it easy to know what you can and cannot do. Call your zoning or planning department and have a conversation. 

Demand

Are you in a good location? What's bringing people to where you want to buy? You can use sites like Airdna or Mashvisor, but you have to pay. I just go to Airbnb.com, act like a guest and search for similar properties in the same area as yours. Do NOT rely on the calendar of a particular listing to gauge occupancy. There's no way to distinguish between a dated blocked because of a guest stay and a date blocked because the hosts are living there then. I go to a listing's reviews and see how many they've had recently. It's not an exact science, but it will give you an idea of how often they're booked.

Insurance

One of the most overlooked issues. Do NOT rely on your normal homeowners' insurance. I can almost guarantee it won't cover incidents occurring during a short-term rental stay. And, even if you get other insurance, most carriers won't let you keep two policies on the same place. Check out Proper Insurance or Slice. Proper operates like a traditional policy. Pay the monthly premium and you have coverage. Slice is a little different. They offer on-demand coverage only for the periods that you're hosting. Both have good coverage areas that most policies won't have.

Backup plan

As Victor said, be sure you run numbers for a long-term rental. If they work enough to cover your nut, then you know you have something to fall back on in the event regulations change.

Staging and photography

Maybe the most important step. You've got to remember that potential guests are looking at 18 listings per page and making snap judgments based on a quick glance. Remove everything that's not necessary and use Airbnb's free photography to get some nicely lit photos. (You wouldn't believe the dimly-lit-sheets-askew photos some people throw up there and hope to get booked.

Pricing

Positive reviews are one only a few factors Airbnb has publicly said affect where your listing lands in the Airbnb search results. So getting a couple good reviews quickly is key. Like @Harrison D. smartly said, start your prices 20-30 percent lower. That's the only way you'll differentiate yourself in a tight market with other listings that already have reviews. Treat those first few guests like royalty. Get some great reviews, then start bumping up your price.

Calendaring

If you're looking to fully book your place (and watch out what you wish for; it's a lot of work), then learn to manipulate the minimum-and-maximum-stay feature. When you start out, for instance, you might pick a 3-day minimum stay. So then you get a booking for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and another booking for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You're left with 2 days floating in between these stays that, because of your 3-day minimum, will not even be seen by anyone searching. As soon as you see that two-day block, then you'd go into the calendar, click on "Availability Settings" then "Add another requirement" and change your minimum-stay requirement to only 2 days for those floaters.

Be nice!

I can't emphasize this enough. Be enthusiastic and nice in your first message, in all subsequent responses, in your first face-to-faceinteraction and in any phone calls/texts you have during your guests' stay. This is both an offensive and a defensive tactic. It's offensive because your kindness may spill into the good review they'll leave. That's a good thing! It's defensive because I've found that even if a guest has a bad time at your place, if they like you, they don't want to leave a bad review. I've hosted tens of people who I know had something go wrong during their stay, and they either don't leave a review or leave a review that simply says the host was super attentive and nice.

Those are just some of the highlights.