Las Vegas VRBO, AirBnB, Short Term Rental

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Las Vegas VRBO, AirBnB, Short Term Rental

Angelo Wong
Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 71 posts · 72 votes

Hi,

This is going to be a long post.

Before I ask the vague question "should I buy a property in Las Vegas for the purpose of short term rental?" on BiggerPockets I thought I might ask the owners themselves first.  I did a little experiment by sending this message to hosts on AirBnB:

Hi ___,

My first question is: is there anything I could do to make my copy better?

I've gotten many responses back even though I only sent 30 (30 is apparently the maximum number of messages you can send per day) and here are a few highlights:

"The house is doing very well and rented most of the time. The condo is every weekend for sure. You should know that las vegas limits the Airbnb rentals to no closer than 700 ft and that there is licencing. In my neighborhood for example there are 5 vacation rentals and that's all we can have. Its been a very good investment but it has been an incredible account of work due to volume back to back bookings and the pool is a daily chore in our dirty windy desert. I would do it again for sure."

"Right now there is a threat that Vegas will outlaw short term rentals. There has been a lot of meetings regarding it. The market is ok, as your competing with an abundance of cheap hotels. In most cases it's better to do long term rentals."

So anyway, my initial thought was that Vegas is a global tourism spot and so would be good to have some short-term rentals there.  However, my main worries are legislation and the possibility of high vacancy/low rent needed.  Seems like general opinion is somewhat mixed.

But anyway, has anyone here done short-term rentals in LV?  How has it been for you?

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Ryan MurakamiPro Member
Professional · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2008 · 45 posts · 8 votes
10y

@Angelo Wong

Once again, great idea reaching out to Airb&b owners, but I think there are just way too many rooms in Las Vegas. There are also plans for more hotels (Wynns new tower, Lucky Dragon, Echelon) to open adding to the supply. Also, like George P. said, people would rather stay on the strip to avoid spending on transportation (and now parking, thanks to MGM taking the lead in charging for parking)

I would still reach out to these owners, but maybe hold them as long term rentals.

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  • George P.
    Real Estate Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 268 votes
    10y

    I will chime in as a visitor. From my perspective, hotels are so inexpensive and are right in the middle of everything, I would not look to rent off strip. First, you aren't going to save much (if anything), second, you gonna depend a lot on transportation (either UBER or use your own car and pay for parking).

    0Reply
  • Alisha Wagner
    Realtor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2016 · 33 posts · 8 votes
    10y

    @Angelo Wong What a great idea to reach out to other Airb&b hosts and ask their opinions. I was thinking about doing the same thing awhile ago with Condotels at Palms Place. Obtaining financing for Condotels such as Palms Place & MGM Signature is very tricky to obtain and also the legislation uncertainty was what made me shy away from the idea. Also, HOA's are very prevalent here and can cut your Airb&B business short with their regulations. Las Vegas is mostly made up of HOA run communities. I live here, but work full time and was planning on turning over the rooms mostly myself, but I would have most likely needed to hire someone to help. I had also heard that one bad review could really have a negative effect on your profits and vacancy rates. Therefore, good service and making the guests happy is CRUCIAL. You definitely would have to either be here or have someone local you really trust to be minutes away from the property at any given time. Imagine if there was an issue, toilets clog and flood with guests there? How quickly could you get there or have someone there to fix the problem? If not addressed quickly and guests made happy and bad review. There are alot of things to consider and the advice you got from the current hosts is really helpful.

    Thanks for posting your experiment results!

    0Reply
  • Ryan MurakamiPro Member
    Professional · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2008 · 45 posts · 8 votes
    10y

    @Angelo Wong

    Once again, great idea reaching out to Airb&b owners, but I think there are just way too many rooms in Las Vegas. There are also plans for more hotels (Wynns new tower, Lucky Dragon, Echelon) to open adding to the supply. Also, like George P. said, people would rather stay on the strip to avoid spending on transportation (and now parking, thanks to MGM taking the lead in charging for parking)

    I would still reach out to these owners, but maybe hold them as long term rentals.

    1Reply
  • Jim Adrian
    Architect · Papillion, NE · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 840 votes
    10y

    Great topic.  I recently purchased a timeshare property in Las Vegas south of the strip and am looking to rent out the 2 extra weeks we received.  Would peoples airbnb comments still apply?

    1Reply
  • Troy Jones
    Lender · Tempe, AZ · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 8 votes
    10y
    I have 2 friends who Airbnb 2 condos they own near the strip. One is a 3 bed 2 bath that sleeps up to 8 people that is sold for about $250 a night and he makes on average around $4000 a month from. The other is a one bed 1 bath that that allows up to 4 guests that makes $2k per month . As upkeep is fairly cheap since the Airbnb guests tend to be more clean than a tenet . As of now they are Doing well and plan to keep doing it , a big help for them however is we are all in the night club industry so if it's not full we have a lot of people who would be willing to stay in the Rental. I myself am planning on buying a condo in the area and doing the same.
    0Reply
  • Blair Russell
    Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2015 · 273 posts · 217 votes
    10y

    Vegas is hard. You're dealing with tons of competition, legislation, a weird housing market, HOAs, a very specific tourism market, crime... On the other hand, it's a fairly cheap area, tourism is year round, weather is good, property is still available. It's just not a simple yes or no, it takes a lot of research and effort. 

    0Reply
  • Robert AdamsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Broker · Henderson, NV · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 373 votes
    10y

    I saw this article about airbnb http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/what-you-need-know-about-airbnb-laws-las-vegas

    [email protected]702-349-9175
    The Adams Team at Rothwell Gornt Companies4.970 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    0Reply
  • Akash Y.
    Vancouver , Bc · Member since 2017 · 73 posts · 13 votes
    9y
    Hey Angelo did you ever purchase a house in Las Vegas? I was considering the same and ran into your post. Let us know please thanks

    Originally posted by @Angelo Wong:

    Hi,

    This is going to be a long post.

    Before I ask the vague question "should I buy a property in Las Vegas for the purpose of short term rental?" on BiggerPockets I thought I might ask the owners themselves first.  I did a little experiment by sending this message to hosts on AirBnB:

    Hi ___,

    My first question is: is there anything I could do to make my copy better?

    I've gotten many responses back even though I only sent 30 (30 is apparently the maximum number of messages you can send per day) and here are a few highlights:

    "The house is doing very well and rented most of the time. The condo is every weekend for sure. You should know that las vegas limits the Airbnb rentals to no closer than 700 ft and that there is licencing. In my neighborhood for example there are 5 vacation rentals and that's all we can have. Its been a very good investment but it has been an incredible account of work due to volume back to back bookings and the pool is a daily chore in our dirty windy desert. I would do it again for sure."

    "Right now there is a threat that Vegas will outlaw short term rentals. There has been a lot of meetings regarding it. The market is ok, as your competing with an abundance of cheap hotels. In most cases it's better to do long term rentals."

    So anyway, my initial thought was that Vegas is a global tourism spot and so would be good to have some short-term rentals there.  However, my main worries are legislation and the possibility of high vacancy/low rent needed.  Seems like general opinion is somewhat mixed.

    But anyway, has anyone here done short-term rentals in LV?  How has it been for you?

    1Reply
  • Angelo Wong
    OP
    Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 71 posts · 72 votes
    9y

    Hey @Akash Y.

    Actually I didn't - I talked to a bunch of people and it seemed like remote management of short-term rentals could be a pain. Also asking around for the numbers, they just didn't seem to make sense. So now I sublease places locally and re-rent it out at a higher price to make the spread. Only 6 units so far but it's working well enough (but I could also see how managing remotely could be very bad as there are enough headaches managing locally).

    Interesting note, I think Airbnb's algorithms look for bots/scammers, and I think my behavior of polling a bunch of landlords was identified as spam, so they perma-banned me. So perhaps not a great idea to ping landlords. Maybe make a fake account on an IP address you never use if you want to do such a survey in an area you're interested in.

    I don't think that legislation is a huge issue so far - there's always ways to sidestep it, etc. and they generally are not enforced (unless under HOA which most newer homes are). Also low rent is also generally needed because 1) tourists are willing to pay more to be on the strip (it's a gambling market so they are OK to spend money), and 2) hotels on the strip are already really cheap and in high supply. Seems like you'll only be able to bag road-trippers passing through or the overflow market during conferences, of which there are a lot. Or maybe if you're close to UNLV some students or professors. Completely speculating now, though.

    0Reply
  • Akash Y.
    Vancouver , Bc · Member since 2017 · 73 posts · 13 votes
    9y
    Originally posted by @Angelo Wong:

    Hey @Akash Y.

    Actually I didn't - I talked to a bunch of people and it seemed like remote management of short-term rentals could be a pain. Also asking around for the numbers, they just didn't seem to make sense. So now I sublease places locally and re-rent it out at a higher price to make the spread. Only 6 units so far but it's working well enough (but I could also see how managing remotely could be very bad as there are enough headaches managing locally).

    Interesting note, I think Airbnb's algorithms look for bots/scammers, and I think my behavior of polling a bunch of landlords was identified as spam, so they perma-banned me. So perhaps not a great idea to ping landlords. Maybe make a fake account on an IP address you never use if you want to do such a survey in an area you're interested in.

    I don't think that legislation is a huge issue so far - there's always ways to sidestep it, etc. and they generally are not enforced (unless under HOA which most newer homes are). Also low rent is also generally needed because 1) tourists are willing to pay more to be on the strip (it's a gambling market so they are OK to spend money), and 2) hotels on the strip are already really cheap and in high supply. Seems like you'll only be able to bag road-trippers passing through or the overflow market during conferences, of which there are a lot. Or maybe if you're close to UNLV some students or professors. Completely speculating now, though.

     I actually manage remotely right now and it's not too difficult if you have the right personal lined up. 

    Looking at other Airbnb listings of 4 bedroom houses that can sleep 16 people (that's my target visitor) rooms go for 300+/night and hosts are fully booked for the next few months. 

    I host currently in AZ and I live in Canada and I'm a super host so it's not difficult at all. 

    0Reply
  • Gerard Sattiewhite
    Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2015 · 1 post · 0 votes
    9y

    Hey Angelo,

    I am looking into this myself and can tell you that anything in Unincorporated Clark County is not allowed. So basically anyone renting anything on or near the Strip, according to Clark County, is in violation of county code. Enforcement has yet to take effect which is why you'll see listings on AirBNB and the like all over the Valley. The City of Las Vegas and the City of Henderson currently have legislation that allow STR's. But with Henderson, Lake Las Vegas is the only place that has been given the green light and that has was given to 2 properties that made the cut. Im optimistic that Clark County will get on board but only time will tell. Heres an article from Clark County with regard to STR's that is a place to start with resources regarding the legality in each of the cities.

    http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/administrative-servic...

    0Reply
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