Renting out your own home or your vacation home is easier than ever thanks to Airbnb. All you have to do is get some great pictures of your place and put up some information.
You can connect directly with your renters on the Airbnb app. This makes it possible to rent your property without even having to be local.
Airbnb first launched in 2008 and is soaring in popularity today. Check out the news from 2019 on their website:
- Over 500 million guest arrivals have stayed in an Airbnb since launching in 2008
- Almost half of all-time guests visited Europe, more than North America and Asia combined
- Three guests now check-in to a listing on Airbnb every half-second
- Hosts have earned over $65 billion globally
Why be an Airbnb host?
If you have extra space you aren’t using, it can be a no-brainer to rent it out with Airbnb. Why miss out on a lot of great potential income? A piece of that $65 billion in revenue sounds pretty lucrative!
With Airbnb, you don’t have to have any special training or licensing. It’s easy to get into renting your property with minimal hassles.
But like anything else, there are advantages and disadvantages to renting out an Airbnb.
Advantages of renting your property through Airbnb
- Set your price.
- May make more money renting by the night than by the month.
- Flexible schedule.
- Read reviews on your guests.
- No fee to list your property.
- Some protection in case of property damage from guests.
- Make money on your property easily.
Disadvantages of renting your property through Airbnb
- All damage to your property by Airbnb guests may not be covered by Airbnb.
- Personal liability for some things as the property owner.
- Income can be undependable or seasonal.
- Preparing for guests costs money and/or time.
- A few guests may leave bad reviews even if you had a great property and good service.
Check out your competition in Columbia, SC on www.airbnb.com!
How to deal with Airbnb property maintenance issues
If you are not handy yourself, you don’t have time, or you aren’t living near your rental property, what do you do about needed rental repairs and maintenance? After all, things do go wrong in life.
Toilets leak. Holes get accidentally punched in the drywall. And you have to make updates and do maintenance sometimes.
You need your property to always look it’s best so you can get great reviews and keep the money flowing in!
Some Airbnb owners decide to use property management companies. You pay fees to the management company to handle renting out your property so you can be as hands-off as you want to be.
With a property management company:
- They get a flat fee or commission.
- Or you get a set monthly income.
- There are also cleaning fees.
- And there are general maintenance and repair fees.
All of this means less money for you for the convenience and help, of course.
However, with Airbnb, you don’t have to have a property management company, which puts more profit in your own pocket. But you will need to either do everything yourself or hire your own cleaning service and someone to take care of maintenance and urgent repairs.
How can a handyman help you be an Airbnb host?
If you can find a local handyman service you can trust, you can save a lot of money avoiding property management fees and just pay your handyman for the repair work they do when you need them.
A handyman costs much less than a property management company or a general contractor.
Every vacation rental has certain maintenance jobs that need to be done at specific intervals. And every property eventually has something break that needs to be fixed.
You don’t want to hire an expensive general contractor for small jobs. That’s a waste of your hard-earned money. With a handyman, you can get the small things taken care of for a reasonable price without the time commitment and frustration of having to do it yourself.
What can a handyman do for an Airbnb?
Most handyman companies can do a wide variety of things around a property to help keep it looking great all the time so your reviews can be stellar year-round.
For a comprehensive list of what a handyman service can do for you, please check out this post.
It makes sense to find the best handyman in your area to be on your Airbnb team so you can keep your property looking great and your reviews as high as possible.
Hire a handyman to do general maintenance and repairs for you to free up your time and keep your stress level low.
