How to Triple Your Rental Profits with Short-Term Rentals

Like many real estate investors, I rent properties to long-term tenants and collect monthly payments. It’s an old property-rental model, but it works.

However, now that services like Airbnb have popularized independent short-term rentals, old-fashioned renting may not be the model that offers the greatest profit potential.

For a recent podcast, I sat down with real estate agent and investor Tyler Sheff, who is adamant that investors can make more money with short-term rentals than they can renting to long-term tenants.

After talking to him, even I’m thinking about making a change.

Tyler’s first rental property, a fourplex, was purchased in 2014. Now, less than three years later, it’s already a reliable source of rental income. Since Tyler turned two of the four units into vacation rentals, the entire property has consistently pulled in roughly $6,000 per month after expenses.

Tyler’s short-term rentals run for $100–$125 per night on Airbnb. These same units only generated $900-$1,000 per month when rented to long-term tenants.

Essentially, for each unit converted into a short-term rental, Tyler tripled his earnings.

According to Tyler, he didn’t have to do much to get his units ready for short-term guests. He believes other investors can implement the same strategy successfully without too much trouble. If you’re interested in giving it a shot, read on for a few key pieces of advice.

Prep Your Property with Short-Term Guests in Mind

People tend to have higher expectations for short-term rentals than they do for long-term leases. To ensure guests will be satisfied with your space, you need to take a moment to consider what they want.

Location is obviously important to guests, but it’s not something you can change with a rental property you already own. What you can change, however, are the amenities your short-term rental offers.

Tyler furnished his short-term rentals with everything one would expect to find in a hotel room, including flat-screen televisions. He also equipped both units with high-speed Internet and cable.

While furnishing your rental property with modern items and services may seem expensive, it pays off in the form of positive reviews and increased interest from prospective guests. Besides, if you intend to use your property exclusively as a short-term rental, unbooked nights will cut deeper into your profits than monthly cable and Internet subscriptions ever will.

Build long-term wealth with short-term rentals

Vacation rentals can be an extremely lucrative way to boost your monthly income—but only if you acquire and manage your properties correctly. This ultimate guide to analyzing, buying, and managing vacation rental properties will set you up for immediate success and long-term wealth.

Get Your Copy

Create a Competitive Listing for Your Short-Term Rental

The work you put into prepping your short-term rental will be in vain if you don’t advertise it effectively. There are three things in particular your listing should include to make it stand out to prospective guests.

1. A Detailed Description

A vague description is a red flag in the eyes of most prospective guests. Write a description that’s detailed and honest, but don’t be afraid to focus on your rental’s best features. After all, the description is your chance to sell people on your property.

2. A Complete List of Amenities

While you should mention at least a few of your rental’s most impressive amenities in the description, including a comprehensive list of everything it offers elsewhere in the listing is also important. Not only will this list help set appropriate expectations for guests, it can also generate additional bookings.

Since some prospective guests will skim through the description, your amenities list is a second chance at catching readers’ attention. List your rental’s amenities to avoid missed booking opportunities.

3. A Set of High-Quality Photos

Don’t skimp on your rental property’s photographs. Listings with low-quality photos tend to perform poorly on sites like Airbnb, and it’s pretty easy to understand why. Think about it: would you seriously consider staying in a short-term rental without being able to see what it really looks like?

If you need help shooting great photos of your rental, Airbnb offers a professional photography service.

A Word of Caution on Short-Term Rentals

As with any investment strategy, hosting short-term rentals carries certain risks. Property damage is one of these risks, but it really shouldn’t be your primary concern. There is one thing in particular that has the potential to cut off your short-term rental’s cash flow completely: restrictive legislation.

Airbnb and other services that advertise homes and apartments as short-term rentals are relatively new; lawmakers still aren’t entirely sure how to handle them. In some cities, new laws are making it extremely difficult for property owners to profit with sites like Airbnb.

Last year, for instance, New York banned property owners from advertising short-term rentals on Airbnb.

Fortunately for the majority of short-term-rental hosts, most cities are still taking a supportive stance on services like Airbnb. Regardless, before seriously pursuing a strategy for short-term rentals, you need to be aware that this may change in the near future.

What do you think about short-term rentals? Are they a reliable source of long-term income? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.