AirBnB'ing my place

[badgerread]

I'm going away for three weeks over Christmas and New Year and thought about advertising my house on AirBnB for this time. It's a 4 bed, near a train station (55 minutes into London), 30 minutes drive to Brighton and 15 minutes drive to Gatwick.

Has anyone done this?

Check the terms of your mortgage; it may place you in breach of them.

(Assuming you have a mortgage, of course!)

I Airbnb my house regularly, both with me in situ and when I'm away.
Check the guest's reviews and only let to people with several positive ones. Touch wood I've never had a bad experience

I'm trying to figure out where on earth you might be if it only takes you 15 mins to get to Gatwick but almost an hour to get to London! Your place might be great for overspill family gatherings on the run up to Christmas.

I've done a couple of AirBnB hires (and they have been fine) but I have only chosen places where the owners were around/could fix things. If you have friends lined up to "meet and greet", it might work.

Someone will have to be "on call" for any incidents. Last air bnb I rented the hot water broke, couldn't get in touch with landlord, ended up getting 100% refund as our trip was made significantly less fun by lack of washing facilities.

My guess would be Crawley Madcats

My guess wide be Crawley @Madcats

My guess would be Balcombe.

We've done it a couple of times and it worked out well for us. It's a bit of work to start with - make sure your bedding and towels are up to standard, that there's enough space for guests to put their clothes etc somewhere, cleaning, and locking away any valuables. We also get a few breakfast bits in.

Be absolutely ruthless about who you let in. Don't be afraid to turn people down, esp if they have poor/no reviews. Be wary of groups. We've only ever let to families.

It's paid for a good chunk of two of our holidays.

There is a long thread about this on 'Freelancers/Self Employed'

This article from the Guardian gives a useful overview of different lenders' rules on short-term lets, although it's a year old and might be out of date on some points (I know that Metro Bank has started allowing airbnb lets with certain conditions).

Many thanks all! Not Crawley no...
15 mins drive to Gatwick and 55 minutes by train into London. I'm definitely going to look into it!

Family members are all local should anything go wrong. Many thanks again!

The guardian hates Airbnb though so anything by them should have a pinch of salt with it

Do they, Gallavich?

I strongly, strongly suspect that the majority of people letting all or part of their property on airbnb are doing so in breach of their mortgage ts & cs, probably with no repercussions in the majority of cases.

Insurance is another factor to consider, OP - your normal household insurance probably won't cover paying guests.

You'll need a gas safety certificate too, OP.