All Forum Posts by: Daniel Bourdeau

Quote from @Brandy White:

I have some questions regarding a short-term rental near Orlando. It is a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom townhome (1492 sqft). It boasts fantastic amenities, notably a lazy river, yet tenants are required to pay $22 daily to access these perks. Should I advertise the rental as $125 per night plus the $22 fee, or simply list it as $147 per night, amenities included? I'm seeking opinions on the optimal choice. Additionally, we've established it as a corporate rental, which is proving more successful. Any suggestions for maximizing exposure? Moreover, the owner is contemplating selling it for $350k, but it seems like a tremendous investment opportunity.

 As a long term corporate rental, I would let guests pay the added fee when they wanted to use it. As a Short term rental it would be a harder call

There are a few type of markets / regulation situations

1. Established and regulated: Many markets have been vacation destination pre airbnb, and have robust regulations as a result. These markets rely on tourism and are very unlikely regulate vacation rentals out of existance.

2. Up and coming markets- AirBnB turned some markets that historically only had hotels into new opportunities for airbnb investors. These often don't have regulations on the books to govern STRs and can be risky

3. Large Cities - pretty much every large major city in the US has restricted airbnbs to primary residences. I don't recommend investing in these markets unless you know the rules and can live within them.

I prefer to invest in #1, although i do have units across all 3 types.

Many hosts that scale up their portfolio eventually move from residential zoned properties into commercial zoned properties due to the easy of scaling up money deployed and the safety of regulations

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Right now we do a flat rate for every day. I price things competitively and adjust yearly as needed.

I personally hate variable rates when I am looking for a place. Always bugs me.

I am thinking about doing variable rates sometimes, but not sure yet.

 You're definitely leaving money on the table using this strategy. Weekdays have significantly less demand than weekends - I charge about double for weekends that i do for weekdays, and have a bell curve for what my average rate is per month across the whole year

From a guest perspective, they often have no idea that I use variable rates. AirBnB in particular only shows guests the average per night, not the individual day prices, and I can round my rates such that they end in a 0 or 5.

Sure, as a guest I'd rather book a place that naively forgets to upcharge for christmas, but as a host I realize that people will pay more, and they do! 

I develop, own and operate in Colorado and have been following this law closely. 

It definitely would cause me to consider moving my development business to another state if it passes. That being said, I'm not sure it would harm my existing units THAT much, but time will tell.

My 2 Cents:

If it passes, I think a lot of Colorado STR owners would decide to close down and sell. This would reduce competition for owners that stick it out. On a per-unit basis, revenue would increase as a result, but maybe not enough to fully offset the tax increase.

It also would make new entrants (like my follow up units) more wary of investing in Colorado. So both a reduction in existing competition and a damper on future competition wouldn't be the worst thing for hosts who have enough profit margin to continue operating

I invest mainly in one of the smallest markets in Colorado - one that doesnt jump off the page from an 'averages' standpoint, but my unique luxury units crush it. 

My general philosophy is that there is not a wide discrepancy in expected returns between different markets. Sure, there's some variation, but the average strategy produces about the same result across almost the whole US since there are so many investors hunting outperforming markets - they tend to revert to the mean.

That being said, there ARE strategies that outperform in almost any market. My formula is to build ground up unique structures with rare and interesting amenities (Geodomes, huge hot tubs, fire pits, outdoor chill areas ect) in small under the radar markets. I think this strategy works in almost any market.  

Quote from @Zachary Cain Humphrey:

Quote from @Daniel Bourdeau:

I recently finished documenting my build and design process for the Geodome I launched last year on AirBnb and wanted to share with the host community - I tried to build one of the most luxury Geodomes on the market, and it wasn't easy!

I couldn't find any quality guides on how to put it all together before I started, so I decided to make this so the next person trying wouldn't also underestimate by 100% :)

Building a geodome as an Airbnb rental can be a fantastic investment, boosting property value and attracting adventurous guests. Its also harder and more expensive than you probably would guess, unless you can do a lot of the work yourself. The total cost for my 27' luxury geodome was around $88,800 (excluding land) and consists of the following step and costs:

1. Zoning considerations
2. Geodome structure and accessories - $8,500
3. Site preparation - $3,000
4. Backfilling - $600
5. Foundation - $3,000
6. Decking material - $12,000
7. Decking labor - $8,000
8. Geodome construction labor - $4,200
9. Flooring - $5,000
10. Electrical wiring and labor - $5,000
11. Interior wood divider - $2,500
12. Hot tub - $13,000
13. Furnishings - $10,000
14. Miscellaneous costs and outdoor shower - $4,000

The total costs for a geodome will range from a bare min of $25k to a max of $100k, depending on size, amenities and other factors like labor and material costs.

Financing options include all cash, incorporating into a new house construction loan, SBA loans, or private money. A well-constructed geodome can rent for $150-$200+/night. I build mine alongside a cabin, so I was able to wrap the cost into the construction loan which converted into a 30 year mortgage. 

I'd love to answer any questions or help in any way if anyone else is interested in building something similar!

 When you said, "so I was able to wrap the cost into the construction loan which converted into a 30 year mortgage", what do you mean that you "wrapped" it in? Do you mean you paid for it with a cash refi once you converted from a construction loan to a 30 year?

My built cost on the whole project was $450k, and $50k of that construction budget for the house was earmarked for the Geodome. So i financed the geodome by building a house and calling the geodome a 'art studio'

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Thanks for sharing!

Just curious, do you ever get single couples (or smaller groups) that just want to stay at the dome?  Was wondering about your thought process of adding the geodome alongside an already very nice cabin.

Definitely. I get tons of inquiries from couples that just want the dome. During the low season and especially mid week, I lower the price that I get lots of 2 person groups. 

The main reason why it's not just a geodome, is permitting. I built this in a residential sub-development, and a permanent structure is required in order to put up a temporary structure. Most non-commercial, residential plots will have a similar zoning restriction. So funny enough, I set out to build a geodome and ended up having to build a house AND a geodome

Quote from @Joel Oh:

I think this is a new tab?

Does anyone know how Airbnb decides to put your listing on the First-page search?

From my experience I am assuming super host status, price? 

Not sure rating matters too much since I see a lot of low-none rating Airbnb on the first pages when I search. 

 This is guide a bit outdated, but much of it still applies

Basically its your pricing and guest rating as #1 factors

+1 to detailed comp analysis. Its about finding the competitors that have the closest match to 1.location 2. size 3. quality 4. amenities. The tough part is not all operators are made equal, and one operator could make significantly more with the same property as another operator. But by averaging the closest comps, youll get a good idea. From there, building a monthly forecast relative to the seasonality of the area can help to understand when you expect to cashflow and when you might just break even or lose money

Quote from @John Underwood:

Quote from @Daniel Bourdeau:

I recently finished documenting my build and design process for the Geodome I launched last year on AirBnb and wanted to share with the host community - I tried to build one of the most luxury Geodomes on the market, and it wasn't easy!

I couldn't find any quality guides on how to put it all together before I started, so I decided to make this so the next person trying wouldn't also underestimate by 100% :)

Building a geodome as an Airbnb rental can be a fantastic investment, boosting property value and attracting adventurous guests. Its also harder and more expensive than you probably would guess, unless you can do a lot of the work yourself. The total cost for my 27' luxury geodome was around $88,800 (excluding land) and consists of the following step and costs:

1. Zoning considerations
2. Geodome structure and accessories - $8,500
3. Site preparation - $3,000
4. Backfilling - $600
5. Foundation - $3,000
6. Decking material - $12,000
7. Decking labor - $8,000
8. Geodome construction labor - $4,200
9. Flooring - $5,000
10. Electrical wiring and labor - $5,000
11. Interior wood divider - $2,500
12. Hot tub - $13,000
13. Furnishings - $10,000
14. Miscellaneous costs and outdoor shower - $4,000

The total costs for a geodome will range from a bare min of $25k to a max of $100k, depending on size, amenities and other factors like labor and material costs.

Financing options include all cash, incorporating into a new house construction loan, SBA loans, or private money. A well-constructed geodome can rent for $150-$200+/night. I build mine alongside a cabin, so I was able to wrap the cost into the construction loan which converted into a 30 year mortgage. 

I'd love to answer any questions or help in any way if anyone else is interested in building something similar!

 Like to see a picture of what this looks like.

There are a bunch of pics in the Airbnb listing that I linked!