Vacation Rentals with One Month Minimums

[Steven Segal]

I have a couple vacation rentals that I am taking over for a company I do work for. For the ones outside of HOAs, we often just use AirBnB and get good results. However, we are starting to take over some that are in HOAs. They require the renter to rent for at least one month.

Do you have any advice into marketing those? Do most people looking for full month rentals use VRBO? Any insight/advice is appreciated.

[Patrick Diamond]

Hi Steven -

The dilemma regarding 30 day+ stay requirements is unfortunately becoming one that more municipalities are forcing upon us.  That said, it doesn't mean that there's no viable business model in those properties for short-term rental... it just means a little bit more creativity is needed.

What is the "low-hanging fruit" in the short-term rental marketplace?  It's the tourist.  Airbnb and sites like it take advantage of a low barrier to entry that already exists in renting out rooms and makes that barrier even lower, by making it safer and easier.  

By providing a user-friendly and clean interface along with a more focused directive, these sites pick up where Craigslist and the local Pennysaver left off.  Even with this consideration, there is still a lot of fruit left in the tree, it just takes a bit of extra legwork to reach it.

Who needs to stay less than six months in one city, yet probably more than 30 days, and is willing to pay a premium for the flexibility and the well thought out comforts of a furnished home?  Here's a few of the good ones:

- Traveling physicians, nurses, and healthcare researchers
- Visiting educators and professors
- Families of individuals undergoing medical procedures or extended recovery
- Government contractors
- Military personnel and their families

And that's just to name a few.

If you're willing to put in a small amount of additional effort in reaching out to the HR department at a regional medical center nearby, the admissions office of a local university or a local teaching hospital, and other research facilities, etc., you may find that you'll be in like flint.  

Some other hints:

Consider creating a domain name and pointing it to your Airbnb profile... If you have multiple listings, you can create subdomains for the listings and point each one to it, and once you're in contact with the housing coordinators, etc., just send them an email with a new link to new listings.  

This will make it easier for you to talk to people about your listing over the phone and get them over to your awesome listing easier... "www.hospitalityrescue.com" rolls off the tongue a lot easier than https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/5855439... see what I mean?

There are also some other options you can employ, like using a software such as Kigo (www.kigo.com), which allows you to broadcast your listing out to (and manage it on) many platforms, including VRBO, Homeaway, etc.

The bottom line is that there's a lot of ways to make money via Airbnb and short term rentals... they're definitely not all from tourists.  A little bit of additional due dilligence can help you sidestep regulatory hurdles and make more money with less housekeeping turns, management overhead, etc., than shorter stays.

All the best, and happy hosting!