I'm a BIG fan of Airbnb. I've been doing it for 2.5 years now in an apartment that I lease with the approval of the landlord. As Michaela's experience highlighted, starting off is a bit of a challenge. Good quality guests only book with good quality hosts with plenty of positive reviews, makes sense. But to get those good quality guests who are more than happy to pay top dollar for their desired stay, you're going to have to build up those reviews with less quality stays. That means a whole lot of kissing *** and catering to travelers who knows you're very dependent on their review.
I had my share of questionable guests when I started. When I finally got enough reviews and could raise my price pass the questionable level it's been relatively easy. Then I used the profit to make more improvement to my place, which enabled me to charge more, and now make a very comfortable profit.
How much profit depends on how much work you want to do yourself. There are plenty of services that will run the whole thing for you but they take a good chunk and honestly running it yourself isn't that difficult. The main thing is having the place spotless whether you clean it yourself or hire a professional. Since I only have one unit the majority of the time I do it myself while listening to a podcast ( Bigger Pockets / Star Talk / Undisputed w Skip and Sharpe).
There's certainly a lot of variables to take into account if getting into this niche. One being will you have the patience to go through the lesser guests till you build enough of a reputation to get the top guests. Second, is how much travel does your city get. Being in Chicago I am booked throughout the spring winter and fall, with very little bookings in dead of winter. But the surcharge pricing of the summer more than makes up for the winter. And of course it's important to know what neighborhood you're in. I'm in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago, which is the far north part of the city. On paper it may seem like a bad location because there's not a lot of attractions nearby but it's important to keep in mind that most people travel not as tourists, but to visit family, or are on business etc. So because I don't have any hotels near me, I'm an ideal stay for people visiting their family in the north part of the city. It helps that I'm close to two Universities, and often get family who are visiting their child in school.
As others point out there are more and more people getting into this space, but if you market and niche yourself well you'll get guests. For me I market myself as part of the stay. Being in the restaurant and nightlife industry I highlight that staying with me enables them access to the food and drink scene. I can get them in that hard to reserve restaurant with a phone call, they can visit me at the rooftop venue I work at for fancy cocktails and a great view of the city. As soon as they book I ask them some questions and put together a nice little guide of what I would recommend to do. For instance if they're younger I'd recommend some places in the Logan Square neighborhood which is where the hip and artistic crowd lives. By going those extra little steps I've been able to maintain as much occupancy as I desire. So while it may not be difficult per say, it does require some work. PS I've found leaving a bouquet of flowers on the bed ($6 at trader Joe's ) is one of the most mentioned highlights of my reviews.
The obvious downside has everyone points out, is that you're only one vote away, whether that be HOA or city council, from being obsolete. To combat the HOA problem I'm saving my profit to buy my own duplex next year. As far as the city, I'm riding the gravy train till it stops, and if it does then move to LTR. But till then my personal preference is Airbnb
