Are you new to short term rental properties and are considering purchasing a property for the purpose of an Airbnb? Maybe you have a cottage or a nice condo that you think others would pay to stay in during the summer.
These days a lot of Canadians are looking for a personal escape, so your single family home, condo or cottage could be a great place for folks to get away for a weekend while paying your a premium as the primary owner.
Can you imagine making as much as $400 a night?
Becoming a short-term rental property owner can be a fun and lucrative business. So I’ve got the tips you need to give this unique type of investment a try.
What are the Perks to Owning a Short-term Rental Property?
First let’s get into the perks of owning a short-term rental property. They include:
APPRECIATION IN VALUE
- You may see an increase in the value of the property over time.
- Predictable appreciation is one of the biggest perks of real estate investing.
CASH FLOW
- You may see some extra money in your pocket each month after expenses are paid.
TAX BENEFITS
- You can write off general expenses and perceived losses on the property.
- This may result in tax-free income or even a return at tax time.
EQUITY IS BUILT THROUGH MORTGAGE PAYOFF
- Every month your mortgage payments are being reduced through the income of your tenants.
HEDGE AGAINST INFLATION
- Look into a fixed-rate loan while property values increase over the years.
The more you maximize your potential in each of these five areas, the higher chance you’ll end up with a successful and profitable rental property.
Getting Started with Your Short-term Rental Journey
Successful short term rentals like VRBO, Airbnb and others, rely heavily on clean, sharp and attractive advertising. It’s your job to convince people that your specific property is where they want to stay.
When advertising your property keep the following 8 tips in mind:
- Keywords are crucial. Optimize the title of your listing and its description by adding in phrases that people are actually searching for. Example: “Beachfront property rental on Lake Erie”.
- Partner with a blogger to direct traffic to your listing. You can outwork and outsmart your competitors by partnering with a blogger or travel website. Having them feature your property on their websites can be a great advantage over other listings.
- Create social media pages for your property. Make these social media pages fun and creative. Encourage your guests post their reviews and pictures. This is a great opportunity to get creative with unique videos of your rental and all its amenities.
- Hire a photographer. Good lighting and interesting compositions look clean and professional, and they’ll boost your rankings on websites like Airbnb which in turn helps you get discovered more easily.
5. Find local listings that are sold out, and copy them. What titles and descriptions are they using? How are they marketing their Airbnb, and what can you do to make your listing even more appealing? Consider how you stack up against their price, cancellation policy, house rules, etc., and make revisions where necessary.
6. Influencer activation. Micro-influencers (5000-20,000 followers) will generally be happy doing a collaboration with you on a trade-only basis. This means you can give them a free stay in return for social media coverage.
7. Invite a friend over and have them leave a positive review. Start off on the right foot by getting your first positive review from a good friend or family member. Every good review counts so make sure their review covers all aspects of their experience, and not only a couple of nice words saying “nice place!“.
Top 10 Airbnb Tools That All Hosts Need
So what tools do you need to get started promoting your Airbnb rental property?
The more you can automate the process, the easier your short term rental will be to manage.
USE THE AIRBNB MOBILE APP
The Airbnb mobile app allows you to connect your online account to your smartphone. This app makes it a breeze to contact your guests, update your listing information, edit prices and perform other tasks in your Airbnb host checklist.
DROPBOX & GOOGLE DRIVE
These two platforms allow you and your guests to instantly connect with virtual cloud storage which makes it simple to share things with your guests such as invoices, receipts and house rules.
BEYOND PRICING
If you are willing to invest a small percentage of your total monthly revenue, try a utility called Beyond Pricing. Beyond Pricing will help you scan the market of Airbnbs and find a competitive price.
SMARTBNB
An app like Smartbnb is so popular since it allows hosts to instantly send automatic messages using advanced AI algorithms.
AIRDNA
AirDNA is one of the best Airbnb tools because it provides you with some pretty detailed information that can really help your short term rental revenue take off.
This is one of the most popular messenger apps in the world. Since you can instantly message, call and video chat with anyone in the world instantly and for free, it is immensely useful for an Airbnb host.
EXCELLENT KEY EXCHANGE
If you come up with a great system, this will help you avoid meeting your guests at check-in and check-out for each of your visits. A solution to this problem is to consider using a programmable keypad entry system that can be set with individual codes for guests that expire on check-out day.
A GREAT CLEANING SERVICE
Since many rental owners value their time over money, they usually use a paid cleaning service of some kind. A cleaning service allows you to always keep the property clean while preparing for your next guest.
SETUP OUTDOOR SURVEILLANCE
An outdoor surveillance system will let you remotely view your property wherever you are in the world through your smart phone, computer or tablet.
AIRBNB MANAGEMENT SERVICE
Booking an Airbnb management service can eliminate the stress that comes with renting, and still be just as affordable as paying for all the best Airbnb tools described here.
When You’re Ready to Start
One of the best things you can do to start investing in real estate, is to contact a real estate agent to talk about your plans and your goals.
Do your best to try and find a REALTOR® that has their own skin in the game, and one that has real-world personal experience with investing in short term rentals (like me!).
Whether you’re considering using an existing property as an Airbnb, or purchasing something new to use exclusively for short-term rentals, I would be glad to help.
