All Forum Posts by: Erin Spradlin

@Wayne Brooks - yeah, I think it's common for HOAs to be suspect of Airbnb and leery about the traffic they could bring in, but we are trying to change those perceptions. Bringing Airbnb to a building could make it more attractive to the right person, and in our experience, short-term renters have left our places in great condition. For an HOA with limited reserves, this could be an excellent way to increase funds.

BTW, Andy if you are looking for an easy way to give the landlord a cut of the profits, there is a way to just assign money straight from Airbnb to multiple accounts ( @James Carlson and I used to do this in the beginning when we had multiple accounts.) 

We have recently encouraged our HOA to adopt Airbnb as a benefit to the condo building. Our thought is that it can actually be more desirable for some buyers, and also that the HOA could take a cut (say 5-10%) of the profits. Does anyone have experience with an HOA doing this? Any suggestions for how to sell it?

Totally agree with @Myka Artis, and would add that doing preliminary research on insurance and providing him with examples of where it has worked out/benefitted landlords would help. Basically, I think if you can prove to them they won't get sued and they'll make more money, you have a much better chance of them coming around. 

You could also try renting to medium-term renters like corporate housing and traveling nurses. That's how we've handled some of the down seasons in past years. 

We have done a lot of short-term renting in Colorado and do it with both VRBO and Airbnb. VRBO takes a higher cut upfront than Airbnb and you don't have the advantage of seeing guest reviews- which is a really nice feature on Airbnb that allows you to see if someone's a creep or not. I think both services are good, but in our area (at least) Airbnb tends to be a little more popular.

For both services, you'll need to handle key hands offs and cleaning. I think the key hand off could be managed with a good automated lock (there are a few strong options on line). If you ask a neighbor, I'd think about starting to comp them on some level. 

Finding a dependable cleaner is really the biggest headache, and the most important. A lot of cottage industries have sprung up around this and specific to Airbnb. I think if you google a national Airbnb cleaning service, you should find someone that can help and runs it like a business. They will take a cut, but it'll be more than worth it in the long run. 

That makes perfect sense. Sounds like you're killing it without the short-term rentals. 

Congratulations! That's awesome. I'm assuming you have a long-term renter in the back but have you ever looked at what you could get with a short-term renter (ie. Airbnb, etc.)?