Can you or Should you make more money with airbnb rentals?

[Shane Mcc]

Hi,

Should a person make more revenue by renting a unit on airbnb/homeaway etc.. than an ordinary month-to-month or yearly lease? I'm trying to figure out the metrics and I'm having a difficult time doing so. 

Lets say you have a two unit apartment home and allocate one unit to "home share rentals" (aka airbnb, homeaway etc..) and each unit has two beds and one bath. How much more revenue should the  "home share" unit produce in order to help off set the cost of higher expenditures and put more money in your pocket? 

Unit 1 (non home share) 1200.00 x 12 = $14,400.00 yearly gross revenue. 

Unit 2 (home share rental) ...

365 Days a month x 50% vacancy rate 

(I came to this vacancy rate because I listened to podcast 114 and the speaker said he rented 200 days out of 365 with is a little over 50% for the year.) 200 / 365 = 55% but I rounded down because I want to be conservative. 

Average nightly stay through out the year is $125.00 

(I came to $125.00 ANS as an arbitrary figure based on what I viewed in my local area. This number is based on raw speculation, which is dangerous in the RE business because my revenue is based off of this number.)

200 days x $125.00 = $25,000.00 

$25,000.00 represents 74% more top line revenue for the unit 2 verses unit 1 

$25,00.00 x 3% = $750.00 commission paid to home share website 

$25,00.00 x 20% = $5000.00 expenditures (Internet, cable, electric, garbage, insurance, soap, shampoo, towels etc..)

Unit 2 yearly income $19,250.00

$19,250.00 represents 34% more revenue than unit 1 

Is anyone on BP familiar with airbnb/homeaway/home share figures? Are these numbers correct? Is my approach sound? 

I know I've asked a slew of questions but any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.