Any Air BnB owners able to give me some advice please?

[FuriousFemale]

DH and I are thinking about buying a small cabin on a holiday park for personal use but also to rent out on airbnb to cover some of the mortgage and bills.

The problem is we live 2 hours away so will need to find a company to do cleaning, linen changes and washing etc.

How do people normally deal with this? I'm guessing (hoping) there are specific companies that offer these services but I don't know where to start looking.

What else would we need to think about?

I don't want it to end up being more hassle/cost than it is worth

PPs have misunderstood @aprilwasverywet - she said she cleans Airbnb lets, she doesn't own one. One of the places she cleans costs £85pnn, minimum stay two nights, but she only gets paid £25 for cleaning it. Hope I have got this right, april!

@Bloodybridget

PPs have misunderstood *@aprilwasverywet - she said she cleans Airbnb lets, she doesn't own one. One of the places she cleans costs £85pnn, minimum stay two nights, but she only gets paid £25 for cleaning it. Hope I have got this right, april*!

Why would she get paid per night though? A stay could last a couple of weeks - that would end up being a lot of money for max two cleans if she got a nightly fee!

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep no but the tax man does. Dh and I decided it wasn't viable after we'd done the work for a year and paid taxes

I don't think this is a good idea.

In order for your cabin to be suitable for rental it can't be 'yours' with your things out or personalised. You can't keep all your stuff out, you have to do a professional level clean down at the end to leave it guest ready. This negates the entire point of having a cabin you can just nip down to with no stress. You will spend your holiday time doing little maintenance jobs.

You would be FAR better just renting a cabin when you want one!

I clean a small boat for £25 a clean and larger one for £45...I was showing the op she could off load the cleaning to a SE person and not have to do it herself but still make a profit.. Most bookings are 2 nights.
So I can make a few change over fees per week in season.

Is it really worth the hassle ?

Remember the best letting profit will almost certainly be the times you want to being holiday there yourself ! You’ll end up with the very much less lovely times

Hi again
Do join Airbnb Hosts Uk and Airbnb Host Community on Facebook. They are excellent and will be able to answer all sorts of questions. Especially the one about it already being rented on Airbnb. That can be a bit tricky.

All in all, it’s fun. I enjoy it, it pays the mortgage on it and I like the interaction with guests. Even more so, I like that I can block the calendar if we fancy a few nights away.
The initial outlay is very costly. Apart from the mortgage we had to fully furnish the place. (3 beds and mattresses, sofa, dining table/chairs, rugs - the list goes on) All linens x3, inc mattress protectors and topper, fitted sheets, duvet covers, pillow cases and pillow protectors. Towels x3 too. Don’t buy white towels! We use a fawn colour.
Airbnb will charge you 3%, rises to 14% if you use a channel manager (totally not worth it with only 1 or 2 properties).
The guest is charged a separate service fee, but you don’t see this money or have anything to do with it. It goes straight to Airbnb, as the platform.

I think there was a question about the cleaning fee. I’m transparent and charge it separately. Some hosts like to incorporate the cleaning fee into their nightly charge. Either way, the guest pays for cleaning, as they would in a hotel!

Good luck and do keep us updated!

@Helenluvsrob

Is it really worth the hassle ?

Remember the best letting profit will almost certainly be the times you want to being holiday there yourself ! You’ll end up with the very much less lovely times

This is true to a point. But 5 nights for the op and the remaining 5 weeks, peak season?

Morning April, you sound like you enjoy your job but how do you make a profit if you are self employed and only getting £25/£45 per clean.

Also op I would agree with pp. If you plan to make money from it then sorry to say you wont. I get new clients all the time hoping to make money/cover costs and they don't.

On your list you haven't put stock. Toiletries, kitchen cloth etc for guests. Plus you will need 3 x sets of linen and towels. Linen and towels generally only last a season due to wear and tear. You will also need to leave on site along with the above extra pillows/quilts incase someone has a nose bleed etc. You will also need pillow and mattress protectors. You will also need to leave extra cutlery, glasses etc.

At the moment obviously you need to keep up on all the covid guidelines in the area and comply with health and safety in all aspects not just covid.

I really don't want to be negative but the small lodges on parks are notorious for burst pipes/boilers in the winter.

You are doing the right thing adding up all the figures but add on at least 1k to your monthly figure for extras.

Small job takes an hour. Bigger one less than 2. £20 an hour ain't bad!!

@Aprilwasverywet aw I see. With you now. Yeah that's not bad at all.

You had me worried for a bit. I've spoken with some se cleaners who clean Airbnb for £20 and it takes them hours 😱

Always lovely to meet someone who does the same as me. Hope you have a good season.

I used to run Airbnb’s for an ex boss. She had 3 in central London. I can’t begin to tell you the ballache that it caused. Same day turnarounds cleaning companies not turning up, key hassles. It was a never ending nightmare.

I would say if you are going to do it - stay out of London, which you are. A caravan/lodge is more likely to be families. So make sure you build in a breakage fee/no smoking policy. Have a list of house rules. Deffo have a rota of cleaners so you have a back up option.

Find out cleaning cost locally. Varies massively around the country.

Linen costs can be massive. Usually best to find a local company who services other properties. We have a 10 bed property and a linen change is hundreds of pounds every rental.

And check terms of holiday park. Many have restrictions ie you have to rent it out through them or pay them a %. Some have specific airbnb exclusions.
Even though I pay massive fees to good agents and cleaning companies I still have to visit very regularly to keep on top of stuff.

Thanks all. It's a big decision.

Seems to be a mix of experiences.

We would plan to use a holiday let agency to do the cleaning and changeovers. So need to work out costs for that. Would plan to pass some of that on as a cleaning fee.

You're right,I forgot furnishing it on my list. I've got a lump sum of cash set aside for that.

If we did go for it we think it will take a while to get it up and running and fully furnished so not expecting to start renting it out for quite a while

The thing is the cleaning and linen is expensive. I do mines mostly but I’ve seen lots of adverts for holiday let cleaners to do changeovers paying 95-100 quid including linen. Maintenance and bills is also high, grass cutting, window cleaning it’s endless actually. It’s cost best part of 3k to open this year. New linens throughout, towels, throws new integrated fridge, old one worked but tired with plastic bits missing, painting, fresh gravel. Not to mention the time put in.

As a family we used to own a wooden holiday home on a site - don't underestimate the maintenance/upkeep costs especially if it's wood. also, does it have land around it which needs to be looked after.
The site we were on was originally only open for 10 months of the year - some of the owners applied for special dispensation allowing them to rent them out/visit in December and January but the site amenities (small indoor pool, games room, lounge with wifi) were closed. It would be worth checking this at your site (although rules may be different in Wales).
It would be usual to honour existing bookings and remember that you'll make more money from the popular holiday times, school holidays, bank holidays etc so you'll not be able to use it then.
We bought and then sold the chalet with furniture etc.
Also, you'll discover lots of relatives/friends who make contact with you for the chance of a cheap/free break!
Do you want to feel that you need to spend every holiday/free weekend at the cabin doing maintenance/odd jobs without the freedom (as has been pointed out) of being able to leave all of your stuff there.

I think there’s a lot of negativity on here! We own, use and rent out a 2 bedroom chalet on the Gower and it’s great at covering its cost and making a good profit. We don’t charge enormous prices and have good occupancy. We are half the price of similar properties in Cornwall with much nicer beaches (in my opinion) and much easier access.
We have a mix of bookings from VRBO, TripAdvisor (Holiday Lettings) and direct/repeat bookings. I don’t use Airbnb but am considering it although need to learn more about it, even though I’ve stayed in plenty!
I wouldn’t use a company for cleaning - our experience is that they aren’t as good at quality control. We have a great cleaner, a local person, who does a few of the chalets and has two other cleaners in her team. She does a great job and manages any issues while guests are there too. We communicate often and she will let me know if anything needs updating/replacing etc and send regular pictures. We don’t offer linen but if people want to rent it they can do so through our cleaner. This works really well.
We live four hours away. We have tradespeople we can call on for maintenance etc. We’ve been doing it for 15 years.
I don’t mind not having personal things in it. What I do want and have are comfortable beds, a good shower, good kitchen equipment, a nice outside space and the beach a 3 min walk away. None of these things were too expensive but buying quality is worth it.
Good communication with guests is essential. Also, check the local chamber of commerce - I’m currently doing some free webinars on social media and marketing for tourism through them which are really useful. I built our own website and am about to update it. My aim is to do much more social media and to plan this so that it makes it easier to manage.
We were down there this weekend and it was fabulous. Guests arrived the same afternoon we left and I have no doubt they will be enjoying the beach in the good weather over the rest of half term.
Go for it if the numbers stack up! Feel free to PM me if you would like any info.

Thank you @Houseplantmad