All Forum Posts by: Cole Simpson

You’ve done the due diligence needed to start a vacation rental property business, selected the best location you could find, invested your hard-earned money, and listed your short-term rental on Airbnb.

Now, you realize that that’s just the beginning of your business.

Once you start getting bookings, you realize that Airbnb occupancy rates in some seasons are higher than others.

Like typical human nature, you begin to desire more. You want full bookings all around the year.

Here are 6 ways you can boost your occupancy in 2022:

1. Price optimization

2. Highlight your best amenities

3. Target to get good reviews

4. Leverage social media

5. Lower the minimum stay between bookings

6. Offer special deals

What would you add to this?

Additionally, 45% of bookings in this last quarter were for seven nights or more.

This is obviously a great trend for the company, but also for its hosts, who need to do well to see value in being on the platform.

To that end, hosts earned $13 billion in income in Q3 2021, increasing 27% from Q3 of 2019.

Airbnb also sees the shift to remote and hybrid work as a driver for its business.

With the ability to work from home, more people are able to travel while still working.

With remote workers no longer confined to weekend travel, Airbnb has seen Mondays and Tuesdays become their highest days of the week for travel.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this! 

The safer-at-home lifestyle created a far from ideal environment for the travel industry.

But thankfully, several factors have come together to make vacation rental properties one of the brightest spots in real estate investing again.

Short-term rental data analyzer AirDNA has made some predictions for what we might expect to see from vacation rentals this year.

Here are 3 Reasons why Vacation Rentals will be Big this 2022

1. Flexible working hours

2. The supply/demand balance

3. Unique experiences

What are your thoughts?

As the economy continues to gain momentum, rental prices will continue to bounce back across the country.

According to Apartment List, rents are rising quickly in the 100 largest cities in the U.S. and the surrounding metropolitan areas.

The high demand for rental houses and apartments is driving down vacancies and driving up prices, with median rentals estimated at over $1,250 as of August 2021.

It’s a good time for rental property owners.

If you are thinking of purchasing your first rental property, here are some tips for entering the rental market.

1. Decide if you're cut out to be a landlord

2. Pay down personal debt

3. Secure a down payment

4. Find the right location

Let me know your thoughts on this topic!

Want to be the proud owner of an Airbnb investment but don’t want to invest in the real estate market you live in?

Out-of-state real estate investing with the Airbnb rental strategy can be profitable if you know just how to succeed with this winning combination.

Here are 4 keys to successfully investing out of state:

1. Top real estate investing tools

2. A real estate market with tourism

3. An investment property promising high returns

4. Professional Airbnb property management.

What are your thoughts?

I’d love to know your experience with this! 

There is a lot of controversy around Airbnb these days but despite how you feel about the service, there’s no denying the massive impact it has made on the travel industry.

It is, no doubt, very far from its humble beginnings as a simple room, couch, and apartment share, but that growth is as much due to the hunger for different accommodations as it is to a well-executed silicon valley start-up.

The Airbnb host can make all the difference in a stay. Most of the time the interactions are pretty transactional but sometimes you can make new friends who take hosting to a whole new level and sometimes you end up with the occasional creeper.

There are 3 notable types of Airbnb hosts among them.

1. The professional - This host is building an Airbnb empire to rival the local hotel industry.

2. The true host - This is the best type of host to get and, sadly, more rare. They truly care about their guests and host because they enjoy "traveling" through their diverse guests.

3. The newbie - You decide to take a chance on that amazing-looking place with no reviews. It could go either way but you're hoping for the best. Your host is just as hesitant as you are and overly helpful and descriptive.

So, which one are you?

Reviews build trust in the community and help drive your business.

Reviews are essential to the entire Airbnb community, helping guests choose their travel plans wisely and enabling hosts like you to open their homes with confidence and attract guests who will love their stay.

In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that your Airbnb business is based on positive reviews. Each review helps guests decide whether to book with you, and Airbnb data suggest that a higher number of positive reviews is correlated with higher earnings.

How do reviews work? 

After each stay, hosts and guests have the opportunity to review one another. Both parties have 14 days following checkout to write a review, which remains hidden until both host and guest have submitted their reviews. After that, the reviews are published on the guest's profile and host's listing and profile pages. You can always respond to a review publicly.

Sometimes, guest reviews can be less than perfect. This can be frustrating, but it can also be an opportunity to make improvements to your listing or the hospitality you provide. Guests can offer perspectives you might not have considered. You might use this information to upgrade your amenities, change your check-in process, or update your listing description to be more accurate. 

Thoughts...I’d love to know your experience with this! 

Though you can certainly look at nationwide stats like median home price, sales volume, or the number of homes on the market, the truth is real estate is local.

Every city, county, and state has its own unique marketplace, with its own unique buyers, sellers, and trends. There are even different rules and regulations to contend with within each area.

Because of this, real estate markets vary greatly depending on locale.

I have a client with crazy criteria and we finally found something that was everything they wanted but we didn't get it. Know that If you’re planning to invest in, buy, or sell real estate, it’s important to be tuned in to your local market — not just what’s going on nationwide.

Hope this helps!

People think it's weird when you live below your means and buy real estate. 

If you can live below your means, you have a great chance to reach financial freedom. In fact, it’s the biggest predictor of your financial success.

But you don’t have to commit to frugal living to make it happen.

So how do we strike that balance between living the life we want to live while also reaching financial independence?

Living below your means is when you spend less than what you make.

In other words, you have money left over at the end of the month. You’re not living paycheck to paycheck. You’re not having to go into more debt to pay for your living expenses.

Why is this important?

Money that is spent can’t go towards building your net worth. Once it’s out the door, it’s not there to go towards saving money, investing, or paying off debt.

Let me know your thoughts!

Beginners Guide: What Your Airbnb House Manual Should Include?

An Airbnb house manual is a set of instructions explaining how to use your rental’s appliances, where to find certain amenities, and how guests can make the most of their stay.

The Airbnb house manual is not the same as the Airbnb house rules.

First of all, the content and the purpose are different: while the former is a collection of helpful instructions to make sure everything goes smoothly during your guest’s stay, the latter is a set of rules that you expect guests to follow.

Your house manual should include:

Welcome message

Check-in and check-out times

Parking instructions

Wi-fi details

House rules

How to use appliances

Local transport info.

Sights to see and things to do

Emergency info.

Contact details

How to add a house manual to your listing:

> Go to ‘Your Listings’ on the Airbnb website.

> Choose the listing you want to add the house manual to and click ‘Manage listing’.

> Once there, click ‘Listing details’.

> Here you’ll find a line that says ‘Guest resources’. Click ‘Edit’.

> Enter instructions, features you want to highlight, and recommendations for guests under ‘House Manual’.

> Click ‘Save’.

That's it. I hope this helps!