Anyone Have Experience With Vacation Rentals Via AirBNB.com or VRBO.com?

[John Mireles]

I have a triplex property where one of the units is a small one bedroom attached to the main house. I was originally going to lease this unit as a regular rental but instead I'm now thinking of going the www.airbnb.com or www.vrbo.com route and rent it out for a few days or a week to travelers coming to town. Living in a destination city as I do and near downtown makes me think that this might allow me to bring in more rent than I would just as a regular rental. I know it's more work but how much more I've yet to find out. Anyone have experience to share?

[Karin Crompton]

We bought a house in NH with the intent to do just this, and have had a lot of success w/the strategy. I love it. We advertise on HomeAway and have no trouble getting rentals year-round. We have a 2-night minimum (I learned early NOT to rent for 1 night) and our rates vary by season, plus length of stay varies by season (minimum of 1 week in the summer, for example). HomeAway is the only site we use; we had VRBO as well for our first year and our experience was that we had a different type of renter that came from there, plus I had more tire-kickers and people looking for something cheap who came from VRBO. The ones who come to me from HA are a more sophisticated renter who are also looking to book with the first owner who gets back to them. They've already comparison-shopped and have it narrowed down.

I can't recommend HomeAway highly enough. They have some helpful blogs on there and paperwork; I got our contracts and invoices from there. Also, get a book by Christine Karpinski, "How to rent vacation properties by owner." I read that before we ever bought our place and have very strictly followed her advice. She is right on. Karpinski also has a blog on the HomeAway site.

And here's our property! http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p255140 We currently have it rented to a family for the winter season. I need to update our spring and summer rates, as the inquiries into those have started already.

Good luck!