Airbnb vs. Furnished Finder

[Brandon Spurlock]

I'm a realtor/investor from Richmond, VA. Looking for some mid-term rental thoughts. Quick background: I currently rent 3 doors long-term. This would be my first crack at a mid-term rental.

I've got a property that I'd like to rent mid-term (30-90 days) to increase cash flow compared to a 12-month rental. Furnished Finder charges $99/year to advertise the property, and the landlord handles the rest (screening tenants, lease, rent collection, etc.). I'd likely use apartments.com to handle those details, as I do with my 12-month rentals. I'd assume the tenant base is mainly nurses and professionals.

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

Lastly, I could also market this by word-of-mouth to other realtors in the area and in my firm, as clients are always needing mid-term stays in between buying and selling their home. 

What else am I missing that may be a pro/con to FF vs. Airbnb? Are there other options that I'm not thinking of? Thanks!

[Kenny Smith]

@Brandon Spurlock

Furnished Finder, in my opinion, is the best advertising platform for medium term rentals.  We get 80% of our medium term rentals through that vs airbnb.  

So, something to think about, the guests will be paying airbnb's taxes/fees etc.  So it will actually cost you both more money to use airbnb.  So a booking on airbnb where a tenant is paying $2500 a month after airbnb fees is most likely closer $2000 in your pocket after airbnb's cut on the booking.

Vs, paying the $99 for furnished finder, paying for someone to manage the application process, is going to be a lot more money to you over the course of the year while also potentially being able to offer the tenant a better deal (no taxes or fees).  Sure, you don't get the air cover, but any good landlord should have the proper landlord insurance anyways on your property to cover you.

Best of luck!

[Brandon Spurlock]

That's a great thought, thanks @Kenny Smith! 

[Myka Artis]

@Brandon Spurlock FF & Airbnb both have their pros and cons. Furnished Finder for example depending on your market may not be the best option if you're renting out an entire place because nurses might not want to pay what you need just to make the mortgage and utilities however if you are renting by the room it may make more sense but of course, all of this is market dependent. You can google the average stipends for housing for travel nurses in your area and make that decision. 

Airbnb on the other hand is dependent upon how you set up your calendar. I get a lot of mid-term rentals through Airbnb because I have my calendar set up to attract them and I set my listing up to cater to business travelers.

You using your realtor network is a great way to get good clientele. You can also find people that are going through claims on their homes and need temporary housing. This is a great market because insurance is covering the cost of the stay. 

All and all its about knowing your target clientele and catering to them.

[Colleen F.]

@Brandon Ingegneri depending on your property FF has been good for us. If you have a larger property or think you need to fill gaps with STR then AirBNB is good. I don't know if FF has stats but my guess is 3 beds or more don't fill as well on FF.

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

 Why can't you use the same screening process for your AirBnB tenants that you would for your apartments.com and Furnished Finder tenants?

[Brandon Spurlock]

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

 Why can't you use the same screening process for your AirBnB tenants that you would for your apartments.com and Furnished Finder tenants?

Good question. I always assumed that Airbnb didn't really have a screening process, but was more of a "booking site" for anyone who wanted to book. I've never heard anyone mention the ability to screen Airbnb guests. Is there a way to do that?

[Doug Fluckiger]

MTR was our initial strategy, but Furnished Finder has been a bust for us (renting individual rooms in Memphis, TN). We've gotten exactly one rental through them, and that was a mess because their BillPay system (or whatever they call it) is so complex to use. The website is significantly outdated and it's hard to get a response back from them. We paid them money and we do all the work.

In contrast, we just turned on extended stay settings in Airbnb and off it goes. Occupancy for all three rooms is above 70% and I would say 90%+ of our bookings through Airbnb are for more than 3 nights. That's not 30 days, but it's still a win because of lower turnover.

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

 Why can't you use the same screening process for your AirBnB tenants that you would for your apartments.com and Furnished Finder tenants?

Good question. I always assumed that Airbnb didn't really have a screening process, but was more of a "booking site" for anyone who wanted to book. I've never heard anyone mention the ability to screen Airbnb guests. Is there a way to do that?

My guess is that you'd do it independently of AirBnB. So once the tenant books on there, you'd run them through your screening process before confirming the booking. 

[Allen Duan]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

 Why can't you use the same screening process for your AirBnB tenants that you would for your apartments.com and Furnished Finder tenants?

Good question. I always assumed that Airbnb didn't really have a screening process, but was more of a "booking site" for anyone who wanted to book. I've never heard anyone mention the ability to screen Airbnb guests. Is there a way to do that?

You can't screen Airbnb guests when it comes to the traditional methods of background and credit checks. I don't think it's as necessary since Airbnb provides the protection plan for hosts. You can still screen with other methods such as asking the right questions about their reason for staying and who's in their group and checking their reviews. There's a setting in Airbnb that only lets guests with positive reviews instant book your place. Other guests can still send inquiries and you can choose to accept if you'd like. That being said, I have heard of third party services that can integrate with Airbnb or a property management system to do a thorough screening of instant book guests. It's up to you to decide if that extra effort is worthwhile.

I believe the Airbnb vs Furnished Finder question really differs based on your market. In Los Angeles where we operate, we get about half of our bookings from each platform. Our larger properties, 3 bedrooms, get more bookings from Airbnb. Most of our travel nurses in our smaller units come from FF. Guests booking through Airbnb tend to have larger budgets due to do the Airbnb service fee they'll have to cover, while FF has a lot of travelers looking for a good deal. So think about where your property lies and who it appeals to, then market it accordingly. 

[January Johnson]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

I'm a realtor/investor from Richmond, VA. Looking for some mid-term rental thoughts. Quick background: I currently rent 3 doors long-term. This would be my first crack at a mid-term rental.

I've got a property that I'd like to rent mid-term (30-90 days) to increase cash flow compared to a 12-month rental. Furnished Finder charges $99/year to advertise the property, and the landlord handles the rest (screening tenants, lease, rent collection, etc.). I'd likely use apartments.com to handle those details, as I do with my 12-month rentals. I'd assume the tenant base is mainly nurses and professionals.

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

Lastly, I could also market this by word-of-mouth to other realtors in the area and in my firm, as clients are always needing mid-term stays in between buying and selling their home. 

What else am I missing that may be a pro/con to FF vs. Airbnb? Are there other options that I'm not thinking of? Thanks!

Homes.mil for sure!  Someone will come out to inspect your property, but that's no big deal.  Anyone needing to travel for training or for a PCS (permanant change of station) will need MTRs - often while waiting for their military housing to be ready or to find a house to buy.

[Conner Olsen]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

I'm a realtor/investor from Richmond, VA. Looking for some mid-term rental thoughts. Quick background: I currently rent 3 doors long-term. This would be my first crack at a mid-term rental.

I've got a property that I'd like to rent mid-term (30-90 days) to increase cash flow compared to a 12-month rental. Furnished Finder charges $99/year to advertise the property, and the landlord handles the rest (screening tenants, lease, rent collection, etc.). I'd likely use apartments.com to handle those details, as I do with my 12-month rentals. I'd assume the tenant base is mainly nurses and professionals.

The other option is to do a 30-day minimum on Airbnb, who collects a 3% fee, but handles the rest. A downfall of this process is the lack of tenant screening (background, credit, eviction checks) as far as I'm aware of. Feels like slightly more risk not being able to screen tenants outside of their personal Airbnb ratings/reviews.

Lastly, I could also market this by word-of-mouth to other realtors in the area and in my firm, as clients are always needing mid-term stays in between buying and selling their home. 

What else am I missing that may be a pro/con to FF vs. Airbnb? Are there other options that I'm not thinking of? Thanks!

 Personally 95% of my bookings are on Airbnb and my payout is higher from Airbnb than furnished finder.

[Brandon Spurlock]

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

 Personally 95% of my bookings are on Airbnb and my payout is higher from Airbnb than furnished finder.

Are you finding that guests booking through Airbnb are willing to pay a higher rate? And then even with fees, you're net is better than the lower rates you're offering at FF?

[Conner Olsen]

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

 Personally 95% of my bookings are on Airbnb and my payout is higher from Airbnb than furnished finder.

Are you finding that guests booking through Airbnb are willing to pay a higher rate? And then even with fees, you're net is better than the lower rates you're offering at FF?

 Yes, here's an example of the rents for my property:

FF rent: $2,400

Airbnb guest pays: $3,100
Airbnb payout to me: $2,650

[Brandon Spurlock]

Thanks!

[Drew Sygit]

Airbnb has insurance in place to help offset any guest issues.

[JJ Mawn]

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

 Personally 95% of my bookings are on Airbnb and my payout is higher from Airbnb than furnished finder.

Are you finding that guests booking through Airbnb are willing to pay a higher rate? And then even with fees, you're net is better than the lower rates you're offering at FF?

 Yes, here's an example of the rents for my property:

FF rent: $2,400

Airbnb guest pays: $3,100
Airbnb payout to me: $2,650

 Thanks for starting this thread, @Brandon Spurlock! I've been following it closely as I have had these same questions.  I'm also in Richmond and am planning to convert a unit of the Museum District duplex I'm currently househacking into an MTR when I move to a new primary residence next month.

@Conner Olsen For your MTR Airbnb listing, do you have the instant book feature turned off?  I ask because I've been told that disabling the instant book feature buries your listing in the search results, but have also been told if you leave the instant book feature on you could end up with long stretches (i.e. 2-3 weeks) of vacancy in between Medium term tenants so I'm just curious about best practices to balance these variables.  Thanks!

[Bonnie Low]

I think you've captured it. Furnished finder is the primary source of leads from traveling medical professionals, though there are others like social media pages dedicated to travel nurses, for example. Furnished finder is pretty cheap and there are no fees because you don't actually book through their portal. It's just a lead gen source. Their communication platform is wonky, so be prepared for that. If you use Airbnb or another OTA you're going to pay their fees. Most people don't utilize a lease agreement for short term rentals but you absolutely will want to do this for an MTR due to tenant rights laws in your area. There's just a lot higher risk if you don't use one. Many people advertise on both because they tend to draw from a broader clientele if you use multiple platforms (i.e. more digital nomads on Airbnb). Whatever you do, don't skip the lease agreement and collecting a deposit. Those are far more necessary in the MTR space. 

[Brandon Spurlock]

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

I think you've captured it. Furnished finder is the primary source of leads from traveling medical professionals, though there are others like social media pages dedicated to travel nurses, for example. Furnished finder is pretty cheap and there are no fees because you don't actually book through their portal. It's just a lead gen source. Their communication platform is wonky, so be prepared for that. If you use Airbnb or another OTA you're going to pay their fees. Most people don't utilize a lease agreement for short term rentals but you absolutely will want to do this for an MTR due to tenant rights laws in your area. There's just a lot higher risk if you don't use one. Many people advertise on both because they tend to draw from a broader clientele if you use multiple platforms (i.e. more digital nomads on Airbnb). Whatever you do, don't skip the lease agreement and collecting a deposit. Those are far more necessary in the MTR space. 

That's a great point about including a lease, even with Airbnb. Would you advertise the need for a lease in your Airbnb listing in advance? Then once someone books, connect with them regarding the signing of a lease?

[Colleen F.]

@January Johnson . curious how you use site homes.mil doesnt' seem to lend itself to temporary rentals. Seems to be designed for longer term furnished rentals with no calendar or place to put availability besides description and lease term. Do you really get shorter term tenants from that site or is it 9 months or more? I am guessing it may be base dependent because I have gotten some long term inquires in RI from the naval war college off apartments.com but never anything shorter. Or is the site itself dedicated to temporary housing?

[January Johnson]

Quote from @Colleen F.:

@January Johnson . curious how you use site homes.mil doesnt' seem to lend itself to temporary rentals. Seems to be designed for longer term furnished rentals with no calendar or place to put availability besides description and lease term. Do you really get shorter term tenants from that site or is it 9 months or more? I am guessing it may be base dependent because I have gotten some long term inquires in RI from the naval war college off apartments.com but never anything shorter. Or is the site itself dedicated to temporary housing?

Homes.mil is great for any type of rental. Bases have a HUGE need for STR/MTR. You can also advertise as LTR if that's what you want. For example, every diver in any branch of the military has to come to Panama City Beach for training, and they all need a place to live. Some officers come and have to wait for their base housing to be ready or they are looking for a house to buy and just need a few months' lodging.

You can explain in your listing what terms you will accept. If it's furnished and at a higher than "normal LTR" price, I think most people would assume it's STR/MTR, but you can specifiy in your description.

[Conner Olsen]

Quote from @JJ Mawn:

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

Quote from @Brandon Spurlock:

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

 Personally 95% of my bookings are on Airbnb and my payout is higher from Airbnb than furnished finder.

Are you finding that guests booking through Airbnb are willing to pay a higher rate? And then even with fees, you're net is better than the lower rates you're offering at FF?

 Yes, here's an example of the rents for my property:

FF rent: $2,400

Airbnb guest pays: $3,100
Airbnb payout to me: $2,650

 Thanks for starting this thread, @Brandon Spurlock! I've been following it closely as I have had these same questions.  I'm also in Richmond and am planning to convert a unit of the Museum District duplex I'm currently househacking into an MTR when I move to a new primary residence next month.

@Conner Olsen For your MTR Airbnb listing, do you have the instant book feature turned off?  I ask because I've been told that disabling the instant book feature buries your listing in the search results, but have also been told if you leave the instant book feature on you could end up with long stretches (i.e. 2-3 weeks) of vacancy in between Medium term tenants so I'm just curious about best practices to balance these variables.  Thanks!

Instant book is turned on for all my properties. 90% of the time the MTR guests message you an inquiry before booking.

[Bonnie Low]

@Brandon Spurlock I'm currently only listing my property on Furnished Finder so I can't really answer your question about mentioning the lease agreement on Airbnb or other OTAs. When I launched my MTR I decided to put it up on FF first and was overwhelmed with inquiries. And so far have been able to keep it booked back-to-back (sometimes even negotiating with guests to accommodate early move in-move out). So I haven't needed to branch out to Airbnb. And fundamentally, I don't like a lot of Airbnb's policies that unduly favor the guest and can result in them holding onto your payables or suspending your account with little to no explanation. So I'm holding out as long as I can against listing it on Airbnb or VRBO. I do see a lot of interest coming from the many social media accounts dedicated to mid term rentals. So, bottom line, there are a lot of other avenues.

[Scott Goulet]

Quote from @Myka Artis:

@Brandon Spurlock FF & Airbnb both have their pros and cons. Furnished Finder for example depending on your market may not be the best option if you're renting out an entire place because nurses might not want to pay what you need just to make the mortgage and utilities however if you are renting by the room it may make more sense but of course, all of this is market dependent. You can google the average stipends for housing for travel nurses in your area and make that decision. 

Airbnb on the other hand is dependent upon how you set up your calendar. I get a lot of mid-term rentals through Airbnb because I have my calendar set up to attract them and I set my listing up to cater to business travelers.

You using your realtor network is a great way to get good clientele. You can also find people that are going through claims on their homes and need temporary housing. This is a great market because insurance is covering the cost of the stay. 

All and all its about knowing your target clientele and catering to them.

With your comment about the insurance agents, we had a 3 month stay becuase someone had issues with their plumbing in their own home. You would just want to get in touch with Insurance agents i guess? 

Please let me know, becuase our tenants that were there for 3 months were amazing. They took care of our house like it was their own. 

[Bruce Corey]

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

I think you've captured it. Furnished finder is the primary source of leads from traveling medical professionals, though there are others like social media pages dedicated to travel nurses, for example. Furnished finder is pretty cheap and there are no fees because you don't actually book through their portal. It's just a lead gen source. Their communication platform is wonky, so be prepared for that. If you use Airbnb or another OTA you're going to pay their fees. Most people don't utilize a lease agreement for short term rentals but you absolutely will want to do this for an MTR due to tenant rights laws in your area. There's just a lot higher risk if you don't use one. Many people advertise on both because they tend to draw from a broader clientele if you use multiple platforms (i.e. more digital nomads on Airbnb). Whatever you do, don't skip the lease agreement and collecting a deposit. Those are far more necessary in the MTR space. 

[Zachary Deal]

@Scott Goulet For insurance placements sites like ALE solutions can be a great way to find insurance placements. They specialize in finding insurance claimants temporary housing. Based on others experiences in this forum it can sometimes take a while to develop the relationship and get bookings but definitely seems like its worth pursuing so they know you/the property (or properties) you have available