Hit 50 rental applications this month and it changed my mind about airbnbs

I was dead set against renting out my spare room on short term platforms because I thought it'd be too much hassle for the money. But after I started tracking my expenses and realized I have a quiet 3 week stretch every month where the room sits empty anyway, the math actually made sense. Has anyone else switched from long term leases to short term stays and regretted it or been surprised?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan2711d ago

I know three different people who switched to short term rentals and two of them went back to long term within a year. The main problem was the constant turnover cleaning and dealing with guests who thought the place was a hotel with full service. One friend had a guest try to throw a party for 15 people in her one bedroom apartment. The extra money sounds nice until you're scrubbing toilets at 11pm on a Tuesday because the next booking checks in at 6am.

wells.evan1d ago

@logan271 Yep, I learned that lesson the hard way doing turnovers myself at 2am after night shifts.

white.keith11h agoMost Upvoted

I really don't think it's that bad if you set things up right from the start. I mean, you're comparing scrubbing toilets late at night to the nightmare of dealing with a long-term tenant who stops paying rent and you can't get them out for months. Isn't that worse? Short-term rentals are a different beast but the turnover cleaning is just part of the job, not some unexpected catastrophe. And the party problem? That's what security deposits, cameras, and clear house rules are for. If you treat it like a real business and plan ahead, the extra money is well worth the effort.