Outsourcing Airbnb Management

[John Williams]

Would you consider outsourcing the management of your Airbnb? 

The biggest mental hurdle I faced when entering the STR space was that I did not want to deal with the headaches associated with managing an Airbnb and maintaining a 5-star rating. It is a lot of work! I ended up building a team internally to handle the management and make it more of a passive investment for me. I considered offering this service to others in/around Clarksville, TN but I am not sure if there is enough demand for it.

And if you choose the DIY method, rather than outsourcing management, do you find it difficult to scale?

[Collin Hays]

Originally posted by @John Underwood:

Originally posted by @Collin Hays:

This is essentially what my company does, although we do not manage remotely.  All of our cabins are within an hour's drive of our team, by policy.  Further than that, we cannot do a good job servicing the property, answering repair calls, etc. 

All of our homeowner clients are listed on VRBO at our expense. We do not list on airBnB, for several reasons.  We charge 25%.  Most of our clients are former self-managers.  In most cases, the homeowner has achieved greater (and in many cases, significantly greater) returns than they had self-managing.  Nothing magical about this - many professionals simply do not have the time nor interest in paying attention to the daily goings-on of a vacation rental.  

We give every former self manager a free 6 month test drive, so that they can see if the results are better and make up their own minds. 

As a former self-manager myself, I always advocate self-managing, but only if you have "TIE":  Time, Interest, and Energy.  Software doesn't substitute for these things.  

 I prefer Vrbo over Airbnb too, but use both.

What reasons do you not use Airbnb if you don't mind sharing? Just curious. 

Airbnb acted unethically during the COVID crisis, costing homeowners big-time. 

Additionally, due to our integrated status with VRBO, our homeowner clients are not charged an 8-11% service fee for bookings.  In fact, they pay nothing at all for a booking, just as if it came through our own site.  

When you factor in the savings on these fees alone, the net extra a homeowner is paying, at least us, is probably more like 14 to 17 percent.