Airbnb Rental Advice?

[Chris Frydenlund]

My wife and I are planning to rent out an older airstream in the Hill Country of Texas (between San Antonio and Austin) with views of mountains or on a river (prime location). Year round rental targeted couple's getaway.

According to data from Airbnb (purchased), we'll on average be able to rent it out for $110-$130 on weekdays and $130-$180 in the weekend. Occupation rate between 50%-80% (top 10% of properties). The numbers depend on the specific location in the area and vary a lot. Average nights booked will be 2 nights (assumption). Thought about 2 nights min. to lower turnovers, but could have the opposite effect too.

We've seen an airstream for $15K in great condition. We're still looking for a place to put the airstream, though. We want to rent land instead of buying. Land is getting expensive in this area and not a lot for sale, so that made me think it'll be too expensive to own vs. leasing. Rent will cover land expenses (property taxes, utilities, etc.).

We'll be managing the property from Houston, TX (3 hours away). We'll install wifi controlled A/C, install a keyless lock and hire someone to clean the place. We believe it'll be difficult or very expensive to find someone to come clean the property out in the country and be available on short notice. I was hoping to get away with $40/clean-up.

Revenue: $2,000 (50% occupied) - $3,000/month (80% occupied). $24,000-36,000/year.

Expenses (assumptions): $40/clean-up (have no clue), utilities $50/month (have no clue), internet and netflix $80/month, land rental $500/month, Airbnb fee 3%, food and beverage supply $5/booking (too much?).

Cash Flow: $1,000/month (50% occupied) - $1,800/month (80% occupied). It seems too good to be true and I don't like that. I like to be very conservative in my calculations.

Would you do anything different and why? 

Any advice on how to find land to lease or other ways to place an airstream on a prime location?

Should we get the airstream ($15K) financed to leverage our money?

Do we need insurance?

Experience with couple's getaway outside the city? What have you experienced is different from other types of short term rentals?

Should/should not get my cleaning fee covered? Maybe partial covered?

[James Carlson]

Hey @Chris Frydenlund Awesome idea. Tiny homes, container homes, Airstreams ... they're all pretty cool and desirable, in my opinion. You were asking about minimum stay requirements. A strategy that I've used and tell students in my Airbnb class to consider is to set a minimum stay that you're comfortable with. And then fill in gaps by creating a special minimum stay requirement for floating dates.

For example, when I was running a couple Airbnbs here in Denver, I used a 3-day minimum stay. So, I might get someone who booked a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then a separate guest who booked Saturday, Sunday, Monday. That leaves Thursday and Friday dangling there and without the possibility of getting booked because your 3-day minimum will block those two days from coming up in anyone's search. So as soon as I saw those dangling dates on my calendar, I'd go to my calendar, click on "Availability Settings," scroll to the bottom and under the min/max stay boxes, click on "Add another requirement." Then you can set a 2-day minimum for those two floaters. I was able to stay booked around 25 days a month using this. It allows you to book most of your stays at a turnover rate you're comfortable with, but also allows you to plug in holes. Just two holes like that in your calendar that get filled could be $600 difference at the prices you're talking about. 

Good luck.