New to Airbnb in Scottsdale Az

[Gerardo Hernandez]

Hello everyone new to BP. I am currently in the process of buying a condo in Old Town Scottsdale which is in AZ. I am thinking of doing Airbnb during the peak times here (Jan-April) does anyone Airbnb in AZ? Any advice and any tips for a newbie to Airbnb?

[Melanie Johnston]

Welcome @Gerardo Hernandez! And welcome to the Wild West of Airbnb adventures!

I did month-minimum VRBOs back in the day and this January launched a short-term rental using a friend's house that I rent from her. Airbnb arbitrage, they call it.

To your question, I am a real estate agent and attend many symposiums on short-term rentals, the issues, government regulations, etc. My #1 tip is, first and foremost, talk with the HOA management company to determine their rental rules. If they tell you the community has a 30-day minimum rental, that doesn't necessarily put you out of business. Many snowbirds come to AZ for the months you mentioned, so you have a ready market for people who will pay a nice price per month (sometimes they stay for 3 months!) for a clean, well-located, well-appointed rental.

After renting my STR on a 3-night minimum basis this past January-May, I calculated how much time, energy and expense went in to turning the house over every 3-7 days and decided that next season I am switching to monthly for December through March, possibly through April, although snow birds often leave by then. (I also switched to monthly for the summer and attracted a 4-month tenant that helps me cover costs for the summer, with not much profit, but also not much headache.)

Your goal should be to have as light an impact on your neighbors as possible, especially in a condo setting. This will keep complaints down and ensure you don't appear on the HOA radar. Having a small condo might naturally cut down on bachelor parties and other guests who could make noise and potentially do damage. We were lucky this season and, despite hosting some large groups, only experienced a dented dishwasher door.

When you get started, I found an awesome cleaning company called Moxie Girl. I highly recommend them. Getting a solid cleaning company is a building block to running a successful vacation rental.

There is a lot of competition in Scottsdale. But there will always be people who flock here in the winter.

Go to Airdna.co and put in your property's zip code. You'll see all the current rentals, their average nightly rates, average ratings and lots of other spy data to help you make decisions.

Best of luck!

Melanie