Air Bnb Questions - Austin, TX

[Chirag Shah]

Hey all,

Had a few questions about Air Bnbing in Austin, TX. 

1. I am house hacking, and have an extra bedroom in my unit that I hope to Air Bnb. According to the city's website, I need to apply for a Type 1, Partial Unit license, which costs $443 for the license, and then $236 on a recurring basis. Am I correct on this assessment? 
2. In this same vein, what's the general trend of short term rentals in Austin, TX? I've only been here for 14 months, so insight into how the city's trends  regarding STRs would be interesting to know. 
3. How/when does the city collect taxes? Is it automatically deducted via Air Bnb, another auto debit, or am I required to retain the rental payments and send a physical check?
4. Does Air Bnb allow you to post in Austin without the license? Not considering doing this, just curious.
5. Are Air Bnb guests typically targeting a specific neighborhood, or have Air Bnb hosts seen success outside of populate locations? I ask this because my duplex is 10-15 north of the city at 183/290. 
6. My overarching question is - Is Air Bnbing even worth the cost/time considering the licensing fee? My assumption is yes considering that I could $50/night for 20 nights throughout the year and easily recoup that cost. But, is ~$400 in profit worth 20-30 hours of my time? I would definitely need to see more volume of my guests, higher rental rate, or the development a system to reduce my efforts. If I'm able to get roughly $500/revenue per month, I'm almost living for completely free, which would be a huge boon to my capital accumulation process. 

In addition to any of these questions, please do share your experiences as well! Also, if I'm missing anything key, please let me know. I'm still a newbie, and first time landlord, but have helped with a successful Air Bnb in the past. 

Thanks in advance to all that respond. 

Chirag

[Stephen Stokes]

In that case, suggest you buy a duplex. That way you retain your privacy and still accomplish your goal of supplementing the mortgage with rental income. You seem fixated on the idea of “house hacking” but in my humble opinion, that idea is probably not suited for someone that has privacy concerns. By the way, I started with my first house filled with 2 and sometimes 3 full time roommates that paid the mortgage. To this day, I have never paid the mortgage on that house from my own pocket.