Does anyone Air B & B their home?

[TitaniasAss]

I know NOTHING about it. Never stayed in one. We're in a situation where work is going to mean we are away sporadically over the next 12 months. Money is going to be tight for various reasons so we thought that this may be an option for us. Can anyone explain, in idiot-proof language what it's like as an owner and what the expectations/financial implications are please?

Pre kids we did. Now it’s too much hassle to prep and clean. When we started there were lots of people renting out their actual homes but over time it became almost all professional lets and we found renters’ expectations changed. We had always been good at leaving a basket of breakfast things, wine, etc but renters were no longer ok with there being stuff in the cupboards etc and wanted it to be like a buy-to-let.

Do you mean like your own stuff @WashableVelvet ? Tins/clothes etc?

A friend does this in the summer. She has to do a major clear out, but does leave things like spices and other condiments and says to help themselves. She had one room off limits and locked - she rams it full of their personal stuff she doesn't need with her, valuable things that might break, clothes etc. it is a lot of work to get it prepped. One closet in her room is locked full of her clothes, but two are emptied. Her kid's rooms is emptied of all personal items. She bought several sets of bed linen and towels just for use during renting, and of course had to get a fire extinguisher etc. I guess also tell her mortgage company and get separate insurance.
Then she employs a cleaner to do the changeover.
It's worth it as they can get over £2000/week over the summer, and they go rent a place for a lot less.
She hates it though. She says she can't enjoy the summer there herself, her family and friends can't come visit, and she hates having people using her house this way. She has to farm out her dog as hard to find a rental that will take it. But her husband wants the money (and of course doesn't do any of the work in getting it ready).

How sparodically will you be away?? Once a month, or a quarter?
A lot will depend on the area where you live – why would somebody else want to stay there! Is it a holiday destination, close to big attractions or events?

Definitely a lot of work to be done if it’s your own home with all of your own possessions that you would need to re-house or put away. Airbnb guests have become more demanding and have much higher standards than a few years ago, so the cleaning would need to be immaculate, especially given post Covid. Finding a great cleaner that you trust, and that would be available for your booking dates will be the biggest challenge once you’ve sorted the above.

With so many more people doing Airbnb, The market is getting more saturated and prices have fallen in some areas as there is so much choice and so many people competing for guests.

So if you have a great property in a great location and can offer a lovely clean house, on dates that people actually want to stay then could be worth doing!

@MooFroo it'll be pretty as hoc to be honest. We have a sea view and 30 second from the beach close to a couple of lovely golf courses. Apart from that there's not much there I suppose.

Can I ask (something else I don't know!), do you have to make the property available for weeks at a time or can you choose certain weekends/weeks that you want to make it available? There are several big sporting events here every year which would be a good time to make it available (I think?).

You can block it off whenever you don't want to sell the dates. So in theory, you could block it for everything other than the key sporting things.
We did it but always looked to maximise profit and minimise time so summer months only - we are in a v popular holiday area and it has sold out totally so far.

@whirlygaily that makes sense. Would rather try to manage our time away to maximise the 'busy' periods. There's an attic room which we use as a relaxing space with sofas/TV etc but it locks so I was thinking that I could store a lot of our things up there if needed. Obviously I'd have 'guest only' bedding, towels etc.

Budget for paying tax on your income.