Renting private rooms in a house without onsite host?

[Maureen-And-Cathy0]

Hi,

I have been renting private rooms in my house for the past three months and it has been a wonderful experience. Fantastic guests who have become my friends.

My dilemma is this.

My teenage sons have a 3 bedroom house their father left them. It has been empty or 6 years. They have asked me to furnish it so they can rent it on Airbnb. We should be ready to list it in a week or two since we have had to furnish from scratch.

I have found that it is most profitable to rent individual rooms, just as I do with the spare rooms in my house. However in my house I am the onsite host. Guests respect me and the other visitors. When we list the children's property there will be no onsite host.

I don't want to restrict it to families who want a three bedroom house because we will not get enough bookings. I have never even had an inquiry for two bedroms, but I have been booked solidly from September 6 to March 13 with individual room bookings. 

I am thinking of restricting the bookings to female guests or couples only. So far I have only had two single male guests and though both were fun in their own way, each was more demanding than the female guests and couples who I have hosted. I also worry about inappropriate behaviour from single male guests to any female guests. I know this is very prejudiced of me but I won't be onsite so I worry about this.

Does anyone rent out individual rooms in a house where they do not live? How has it worked out? 

Thankful for any insight.

Cathy

[Dave-and-Deb0]

I can't wait to see the response to this question.

I can completely understand renting out rooms IF you live in the house.  I think you will have to rent this out as a whole house.  I would not rent a room in a house if I don't know the other occupants.  Yes, I would not know you but you are the owner of the house.  

I could just see a lot of people annoying other guests and I am not sure how much rules would be followed not to mention the issue of security .  Also, I am thinking this is going to hurt your reviews drastically. 

What are other people's thoughts on this?

Cheers

David

[Joyce0]

I would also be hesitant to do it this way. There are common areas such as the kitchen, bathrooms, etc. that should be attended to by an on-site host and with nobody there to take responsibility for such things, I would be really uncomfortable as a host renting this way and as a guest sharing those spaces with other guests without the benefit of the host's presence. 

Perhaps a solution can be found. Could one of the sons live on-site and perform host duties? If not, maybe someone who naturally has good people skills would like to trade their services as host for a deep discount in rent to live on-site?

[Brandon58]

Hi David!

 In response to: "I would not rent a room in a house if I don't know the other occupants."

Would you be willing to rent the room if you were able to see who you would be staying with in advance? If not, is there anything that would make this a more comfortable scenario for you? Perhaps a guest to guest rating system?

[Maxine0]

Hi Cathy

Like others have said - it's not a safe way to approach this. Even if you rented just to couples or just to same gender with no-one on site you can't control the behaviour of any guests. Some might be loud. Some might invite non-paying guests to the property. And if things get damaged or stolen you won't know which guest was responsible and would therefore be unlikely to be compensated. And if people are sharing spaces like kitchens and bathrooms - some guests are cleaner than others.

It would be safer to rent the entire property and target either families (although beware of the damage children cause) or groups of friends on holiday together. Set a high security deposit and make sure that the one who books it, is fully aware that his deposit is at risk if any of his/her guests cause damage.

And definately find someone very reliable to manage the check-in and check-out of guests, return of keys and check for any damages. You only have 48 hours to report damages after a guest check out, so you need to be 100% sure of who caused the damage etc

I'd strongly recommend you revise your thoughts on this one as your heading for problems for sure.

It might be better to choose a different option that airbnb like placing the property with a rental agent - they might take more commission than airbnb but it's part of their job to look after the rentals, changeovers, marketing, cleaning, damage deposits etc etc

[Ed-and-Hugh0]

I would consider renting out one of the rooms long term (perhaps to a student) with a greatly reduce rate in exchange for being an on-site "property manager" who would check in/out the guests, turn the rooms, keep an eye on things, etc. Then rent out the other rooms on Airbnb (perhaps even giving a percent back to the long term tentant. Just a thought.

[Bridget0]

This question has wound up in the "Travelling" forum which is, I think, supposed to be about questions and issues form guests.

If you repost it in General hosting you might get a better response from the group.

best wishes on hosting!

Bridget

[Shy1]

What if you have a guest unit and there is an onsite person in there? 

[Paul154]

What a wonderful dilemma you have - an extra house/apartment available for travelers.

You have the correct business sense to realize that you will get more income by renting bedrooms separately, but the worry about your inexperience. It is obvious you have done some good thinking.

Are you close to the unit? Could you stop by everyday? Could you hire a neighboring co-host? housekeeper?

If so do try to rent out these rooms.

There are many travelers who seek out budget hostels, but don't want to stay in large hostels.

This is what you are offering and it is legitimate.

Although it is understandable to worry about guest interaction, just realize the guests making the reservation are adults. They can worriy about their interaction with others. If they don't want to risk it, they can choose elsewhere.

Most guests are very respectful - not sit around partiers. You can vet your guest by previous reviews, the appropriateness of their greeting (are they coming for a job?, going to museums? Leaving the house everyday?) and insist on valid government ID.

Another way to reduce bad guest interaction is to make your kitchen undesirable for cooking. Remove the oven and stove. Replace large reefer with small indivual refridgerators or just remove it totally. At your hostel price, do you want to worry about a clean stove top or rotting food in fridge?

This is Airbnb many choices available. Use it to your advantage.

[Paul154]

One more detail

Separate these rooms from your personal house account.

Have 2 accounts - one for the bedrooms in you house and another account under your son's name for the hostel.

The reasoning is this: Even though the hostel will be budget priced and guests should be grateful, it is highly unlikely you will get 5 stars all the time. Because you are not present ,there will be more things not under your control.

Good luck

[John-and-Heather0]

@Maureen-And-Cathy0

I don't agree that renting separate rooms separately is necessarily more profitable.  Whole home vacation rentals have been around for decades (AirBNB didn't invent that, sorry AirBNB).  We have both a small whole-home (up to 4) and a large (up to 12). Who stays in the large home?  Bride or Grooms family visiting for a wedding, groups celebrating a milestone birthday, multi-generational groups who want to bond (and be able to eat grandma's cooking, instead of dining out), girlfriends from college who take a weekend together every year, pairs of married sibs with children, vacationing together. You are not seeing this market, as these travelers rarely search for "room" as opposed to "entire home."

With people receiving and taking less and less vacation time, it is critical that they cover both "go someplace fun" and "see my extended family."

As others have said, set the damage deposit high, make the space a true home-away-from home, and make sure the kitchen equipment is top notch for whatever family recipes are in the works.