Airbnb and Coronavirus

[Sarah Young]

I have an Airbnb in Charleston, SC, which has done very well the last 2.5 years I've been doing it. It pays our mortgage at minimum every month, and during peak season, it's double that. 

Since corona hit, I've not had one booking since mid-March. I'm considering converting it to a long term rental (it's our garage apartment, so at our home), just to bring in *something*. I could probably get about $1,000/month for it. On Airbnb I get $2000-$4000/month. I was about to cancel all my upcoming bookings with Airbnb, because if I do it before April 30th, due to CV, I can do it penalty-free, and not lose my Superhost status. Then I realized my 3 bookings in May will bring in almost $1,500, which is better than if I find a long term tenant for May. What to do? I don't know if tourism is going to come back anytime soon, and I'd rather make some money than having it sit empty like it's currently doing. But if these bookings in May stick (which none have so far...everyone has cancelled), I'd be better off that way. I don't want to just look at the short term though. I guess I'm asking for a crystal ball to see the future, and what is going to come of this economic impact on the STR industry?

Thoughts? 

[Nick Rutkowski]

@Sarah Pursell

First, take a deep breath. People will always need to travel, whether for work or pleasure. Charleston seems to be a place where you can do both. Calmly calculate if you can survive until your next couple bookings. If not, then you might want to look at other VBROs platforms other than AirBNB before switching to LTRs. Right now others are fearful, you need to be greedy.

I run STRs in Central New York, my tourist industry is dead, 6 feet under, incased in concrete. Yesterday I got a 28 day booking, so anything is possible.