PART TIME AIRBNB?

[Jonny88]

Im away from my home for 3 weeks in every 8 weeks and would like to rent it out when Im away.  Any thoughts and considerations would be most appreciated!  Is a part time AirBNB strategy any different from fulltime?  Thank you!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Jonny88  There are a lot of differences, the biggest one being that the home will be presumably full of your personal belongings. Not all guests have a problem with that, but it does give you the added task of locking up storage of anything you don't want nosy people going through and possibly stealing or damaging. Guests like to be clear on the boundaries and know what is intended for their use and what isn't, and they appreciate having dedicated storage space in the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen for their own stuff.  

Presuming you'll be out of town during the guests' stays, it helps to have a locally-based co-host who can be on call to attend to any issues that come up. It's unlikely that your times away can be neatly filled up by single bookings, so the co-host would be responsible for making sure the home is fully cleaned and changed over between guests.

For the most part, you can draw from your many experiences as a guest when you set up the home and listing - think of all the things that make you feel comfortable and welcome in a stranger's home, and try to imagine the space from an outsider's perspective.

[Jonny88]

Thanks for your reply, its super useful.  What are  your thoughts be on renting only 1 bedroom within the house, essentially, or even literally locking the other 2 bedrooms off?

[Anonymous]

@Jonny88 It's OK to list an Entire Home property as a 1-bedroom house and keep any number of other rooms locked. A party of 1 or 2 guests would expect to have access to all the essential facilities (bathroom, kitchen, living room), but you're not obligated to make every bedroom available.  I've stayed in several rental homes that happened to have locked-off rooms - I think it's pretty normal. 

[Sarah977]

@Jonny88  You can lock off bedrooms, but you should be aware that hosts have had guests break into locked rooms. Sometimes they aren't doing it to steal anything, but are just nosy. So you would still want to remove expensive stuff, personal paperwork, etc. 

I'm a home-share host, so it's not that I don't feel comfortable having strangers in my house, but personally, I would never feel okay about renting out my own home with my personal belongings in it when away, although I know lots of hosts do that.

[Brian2036]

@Jonny88 @Sarah977 @Anonymous 

I’m quite confident that I can defeat any lock ever invented, given enough time, and although I wouldn’t do it in your home, other people would.

 I would suggest installing a fairly goodish safe for valuable items, or renting a bank safe-deposit box.