Durham Airbnb market?

[Ben Kirchner]

Does anyone have experience of renting a room or entire house on Airbnb?  I had always thought Durham was not a good place for an Airbnb, as I don't see it as a location for people to spend a weekend out of town, or a week long vacation.  However, someone recently said when we was arriving in town and needed a place to stay for a night, she was finding a lot of places in Durham were booked in the middle of the week.  Therefore, I'm curious - does anyone have experience with this?

What do you rent out?  How much do you charge a night?  How much goes to you and how much goes to Airbnb?  What is your overall average profit when considering utilities, cleaning, restocking, etc...?

[Dave Olverson]

I don't have any direct experience, but a major topic of discussion here is lack of hotel and Airbnb inventory in Durham. The Unscripted hotel just opened and there are more on the way, but the discussion around it generally agrees that even that won't be enough. 

You are right about the mid-week bookings. Durham has not yet tipped on the national vacation radar (though with the PR coverage in Vogue and other mags, I think that is coming). But it is becoming a bigger and bigger destination for work travel. The amount of med tech in the area is booming and only increasing over time (other industries as well)

Again, no first hand experience, but I think Durham is in desperate need of more Airbnb listings and the timing would be right to get some credibility on the platform before things take off even more.