Long-term rentals versus Airbnb

[Jen Narragon]

We own a quadplex in the heart of San Luis Obispo, CA. and for about a year and a half, we've been running our rental business.  One unit we rent on Airbnb, we live in one unit, and we rent the other two as longer-term rentals.  I've discovered a few things along the way and one of the biggest takeaways is that the next property we purchase will likely be something that we can Airbnb to avoid longer-term tenants. Our Airbnb is hands down the best part of our rental business.  We get solid guests who generally leave the place spotless.  The rate of return is at least double, triple, or quadruple times the rental income depending on the season.  It also allows us time to block off the apartment for friends or family to visit any time we want.  

We recently had a nightmare tenant and learned the importance of conducting a thorough background check before signing a lease.  Sounds like a no-brainer but I was just too trusting and never imagined a person of her nature could be such an inconsiderate person.  Pictured below is the condition of one of our longer-term rentals.   The tenant snuck a cat in and the cat destroyed the place.

Longer-term rentals are less favorable to me personally because they bring in way less money than Airbnb, the documentation is tedious, and getting a tenant who is a complete psychopath (raging tantrums, bulimic episodes, never bothered to clean, police calls, etc.) is never any fun.

If you're on the fence deciding whether to rent longer-term or Airbnb, I would highly recommend Airbnb all day long.  You can pretty much mostly automate it.  You also avoid a lot of the headaches with tenant/landlord laws, especially if you're in a place like California where tenant rights are favored over landlord rights.  Airbnb is so sophisticated and streamlined and you get paid well to give people an amazing experience.  I don't think I have any complaints about Airbnb, so far it's been a very rewarding part of our real estate business.  Each jurisdiction has its own rules for who can and cannot rent their space on the app so obviously check before you buy.