Setting up a crash pad for airline employees. Any experience?

[Jessica Freesia]

Hi, I just purchased a duplex in Hapeville.  I'm rehabbing one empty side now, and wonder if anyone has had experience in using an investment property as a crash pad for airline employees.  How do they work?  How do you find potential tenants?  Do you feel it was/is worth the extra effort?  Thanks

[James Lester]

As a pilot who's rented at 3 different crash pads, here's how I've seen them work. There are 2 types of pads. From a crewmember's perspective, crash pads with "hot" beds means we do not get a dedicated bed in exchange for a lower monthly rate or a per-night rate. when we show up we take any open bed. Our bedding is stored in a closet or carried in and out in our bags. the bed is not our own when we are not there. There are usually more people paying/month than there are beds, but should not be so many that the beds fill up. These work in a hot market.

The more common type of pad has each customer renting their bed for the whole month, on a month to month basis. The bed is treated as their own. No bedding is provided.

While my airline does have a list of local crash pads, it isn't updated and so it's been unhelpful in my searches in the past. Word of mouth is the most common way to find a pad, followed by company bulletin boards, and then craigslist. Company bulletin boards are not accessible to the general public. 

The following is a crash course on crash pads and why we need crash pads. Usually a crash pad is an apartment or single family house with at least 3 bedrooms. Most bedrooms are outfitted with beefy bunk beds. Typically all or all but one bedroom will have 2 sets, 4 beds total. The owner may have one room outfitted with 2 regular beds which rent at a higher rate. Your market could be pilots, who make more, spend more, and will want a nicer cleaner pad, or flight attendants who are looking for more value. Some are coed, some are not. Some are pilot only, some are not. There is always a regular cleaning service that comes in (at least montly, most twice a month). They are generally next to transit. In ATL that would mean next to College park or East Point red/gold line station. 

Here is why we need crash pads. home base is the airport where trips originate and terminate. Up to half of crew members do not live "in base". These crew members "commute" to their base on empty unsold seats using standby travel or riding a small fold up seat called a jump seat. Because of the unpredictability of ticket sales, they have to leave at least 2, sometimes as many as 4 or 5 flights as options to get to work on time. 

When first starting, most sit "reserve", or on call, and must be at the airport within 2 hours of a call during a typical 14 hour call out period. This means they must be away from home in a position to be at work within 2 hours of a call. Commuters sitting in base on call usually hang out in a crash pad. After more time at an airline, a crew member may get enough seniority to hold a "line", or a predetermined schedule every month of flights to operate. These schedules are constructed of trips which vary in length from 1-5 days. The best trips for commuters start late the first day and end early the last day, precluding the need for a crash pad: as a result more senior crew will "bid" and be awarded these trips, leaving newer crew line holders and reservists to the early starts and late finish times. These crew will need to leave a day early to get to work and will need a crash pad several times a month.

If the economy is healthy and seniority movement is steady, you will always have turnover as crew will get seniority to bid trips which no longer require the pad. Most pads do not follow local code for short term housing. There is and will be drama when people are away from their families and friends confined to a bunk bed. On the other hand, if well run you can persevere and potentially collect more than market rent for a property.