Airbnb and camping trailers

[Christiaan Loveless]

Hi there! My wife and I bought our house about a year ago with the intention of using the mother-in-law basement as a long-term rental. After having two horrible rental experiences we outfitted it as an Airbnb and we've had great success. We live within 10 miles of most of the ski resorts in Utah and we figured that would drive a lot of business our way. Surprisingly enough, most of people rent out our basement to visit family, not the slopes. Our basement is already booked for the next 5 months. This has given me a lot of confidence in Airbnb as a reliable source of income, and I'd like to see how I can expand this in a cost efficient way? I travel a lot and am very familiar with travel trailers and I'd like to purchase a used 5th wheel trailer (These are the big ones that offer sleeping arrangements for 4-6 and all the amenities of a home) and use it as another stationary unit. Would you think that people would be as excited or eager to rent this out as a fully furnished basement? In my research, I've found its hard to crunch these numbers. There is only one trailer on airbnb that I've found that I can compare this to. It seems to be doing well when I look at its availability calendar. Its tiny in comparison to the one I'd be purchasing, so I'm wondering if I should actually be comparing this to actual apartments like mine? How would you conduct your research on a unique unit like this? What would you compare a unit like this to?