All Forum Posts by: Kelly Sennholz

Quote from @Jason Smith:

This is what OP is referring to a comedian Caleb Hearon wrote on Twitter "i'm done with airbnb lmao these mother****ers have curfews, quiet hours, and chore lists now. i will be at a HOTEL." It has 442K likes. Some tik tok people jumped on the bandwagon and made videos, etc. Crap websites like Yahoo, Bored Panda,and Daily Dot ran with story. I have stayed at a VRBO beach house where they charged $130 cleaning fee but still wanted you to take out the trash and possible start a load of laundry for towels - so it does happen. But people have had viral complaints about Uber and Lyft and they are still around. If you buy a STR that only works making 2021 and 2022 daily rates you are going in trouble or if they are outlawed in your area. I predict the people that recently bought in Pigeon Ford, Destin and Joshu Tree are goning to get slaughtered.

Yes, and I think his comment tapped into a ton of real life experiences, which is why it went viral. Every place I've stayed in past 2 year had entirely unreasonable ideas about how the place should be left. Basically, they wanted me to deep clean it, wash the sheets, do all dishes and do NOT leave them in drainer to dry (so I'm supposed to get up an hour early to do dishes, dry, put them away, strip all beds, wash sheets, mop floors... get outta here.... and pocket the cleaning fee. People are on to that. The threads on these massive travel sites are illustrative for STR owners. The bar has been raised.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Kelly Sennholz:

Like everyone, I have minor disagreements (such as we need to more strongly support wages of lower income folks, more work to offset the dangerous income inequality, independence of Powell, etc) 

Not like everyone. You should speak for yourself only.

No one I know is concerned about wages of low income folks...... They need to get higher paying jobs, period, problem solved. 

And there is no such thing as 'dangerous income equality', what the heck is that? Some people are billionaires, others struggle to be middle class. It's about choices and some luck. Nothing dangerous there, just reality.

 I would recommend you read more about the economic and social problems with income inequality. It seems you don't know. 

Excellent assessment. Like everyone, I have minor disagreements (such as we need to more strongly support wages of lower income folks, more work to offset the dangerous income inequality, independence of Powell, etc) but your assessment is spot on.

I see a lot of folks having problems understanding it and I'm not sure why. It's imperative now more than ever that Americans are keenly in tune with real news of the day.

Thanks for putting this out there! 

Carolyn Fuller I'm pleased you have had great experiences. The 3 cancellations were Hawaii apartment, Palm Springs apartment and another Palm Springs. I believe all 3 to have been cancelled due to increasing prices in their area, causing them to cancel and raise the price instead of honoring the reservation. Three out of 6 reservations is not good. 

I'm sharing with you a massive number of posts of late re: cancellation issues with Airbnb. They just changed their cancellation policy in response but I'm not sure that will be sufficient.

News this week:
"Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Expedia fall more than 15% month-to-date as flight cancellations show ripple effects"

I agree with above post re: the great returns but high instability of Airbnb. One of the problems with just "switching over to mid or long term rentals if things go south" theory is that there will be a significant number of Airbnb owners doing the same thing at the same time if that occurs. Having 200 rentals fall on a neighborhood in a short period of time will be challenging.

I love Airbnb rental biz and kudos to all of you doing it, fantastic. I'm simply pointing out what any good business person would do, which is the pros and cons of a business. It's important, especially for new investors, to understand all of it before one proceeds.

Well, I can share one interesting thing I know. Airbnb communicates entirely different messages to host and guest. I ran into an issue w/ a place this year. Host was telling me, "They said x, y, z" and I said, "No they said the opposite to me." She copied their message to me. It was true. They were just randomly telling each of us what we wanted to hear, which made the problem worse. One of the top complaints on traveler threads now is last minute cancellations with no notice, no home, no place to stay. As I shared, I've had 3 this year alone myself, out of 6 stays.

And lastly, as a frequent traveler, I would say the massive and unprecedented insecurity in the airline and hospitality world right now will make people spend quite a bit more money for security of their reservation. 

They will pay more to know for sure they have a place when they and their family arrive.

Airbnb has a problem in this regard and are just now beginning to weakly address it.

Thanks for your insightful comments, Carolyn. :)

Here is the thing about doing a short term rental property. I’m very bullish for those willing to do the legwork on a short term rental. I feel that most will likely do well.

HOWEVER:

This higher income type of property investment comes with higher risk.

Not only with the normal roils of the hospitality business, of which you have become a 'member business', but because due to the large sector share of Airbnb, you have also tied yourself to their company - - to some degree. Yes, other options might pop up quickly if Airbnb failed, but know that you now have FOUR different business sectors upon which your own personal financial success lies.

1. Real Estate in general
2. Short term rentals vis a vie your local laws/rules, etc
3. Hospitality business and economic factors associated with travel
4. Airbnb itself, as your main “supplier” of customers

You have greatly increased your margins but with the increased margins comes increased risk requiring a larger emergency fund and a keen eye on the market. Some find this increased complexity enjoyable as it may provide short and longer term opportunities not otherwise available.

See these articles from this week alone. My comments were simply to inform folks who may not otherwise know the massive amount of angst re: Airbnb swimming around the travel industry right now.

These articles may give you a start on better understanding the known risks with this type of investment. We all know the great benefits and clearly some units will do better than others for a variety of reasons.

I hope this information helps.

* * * * * *

"Shares of short-term rental property platform Airbnb (ABNB -3.69%) are down 49% from their all-time high as of this writing. But I'm afraid there's far more to this story than that. Airbnb stock has made a move of 15% or more 12 different times since it became a public company, exhibiting extreme volatility for a company of this size.

Here's what Airbnb's volatile stock price means for investors right now, and here's also why you should care.” https://www.fool.com/investing...

Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) Sets New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade https://www.marketbeat.com/ins...
Airbnb survived Covid, but the crisis mode in “sharing” economy stays

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/0...

Airbnb issues permanent global party ban in wake of string of shootings https://www.kmaland.com/news/business/airbnb-issues-permanent-global-party-ban-in-wake-of-string-of-shootings/article_0c6e9e91-97a6-53de-9eda-72da5b94466f.html


Sorry for the messy fonts! 

He is right about the backlash. I'm on a ton of travel pages and between airline woes and AIRBNB woes, this pretty much fills the pages now.

LOTS of cancellations without notice by owners trying to maximize profits instead of keeping their word (I had 2 myself, this year alone). Horror stories on a daily basis of owners trying to skim cleaning fees and demanding guests clean - fully CLEAN before leaving and leave bad reviews if anything not finished. BAD stories. Folks, this is a hotel room, consider towels left on floor, food in fridge, unmade beds, dirty counters, dishes in drying rack or dirty, etc is part of the cleaning. People don't want to clean your house on vacation. Also, lots of scam stories, to boot.

I see that Airbnb is trying to crack down on host cancellations. I moved over to VRBO for my next rental and I'll be damned, they cancelled my reservation with no reason given again.

The stress of it is making hotels seem quite appealing to lots of travelers and after one horrible experience (for example, weird cameras in unit, or weird owner, etc) many are saying "no more Airbnb". Also, Airbnb has essentially no customer service if problems arise.

Just be aware this is what a TON, I mean a TON of people are saying. The travelers, the customers.

Quote from @Eric Bilderback:

You sound paranoid,

Good you should be.  Most elected officials seem to be comfortable picking away rights that landlords enjoy.  Once english common law has been completely dismantled by new woke judges the legal view will be landlords are an oppressing class and the tenants as the victims.  They will bring "social justice" to folks like yours truly swiftly.  

Until that day all we can do fill out their pointless stacks of paperwork and try and make the case to people this is not the solution.  If you think housing is expensive now wait until its free.  LOL

I don’t know if these are calls from gov, citizens trying to harass or a more coordinated effort. My rentals are sometimes most expensive so I suspect that is why but it is curious. Data is power. Used to be “who you know” but now it’s data, pure and simple. Once data is out, no retrieving it. The city program is a huge privacy violation that folks don’t seem to appreciate. Corporations are the most egregious in this respect, not usually government. And government we can control, corporations, no in general.

Charles Carillo: What is your determination on the cars vs personal items? I have rented garages for personal items, prohibit flammables, etc. What are your thoughts on this?