Tax of rental income in Greece makes us remove listing

[Gary1105]

Unfortunately I am going to have to remove my Greek house listing from Airbnb because of the requirement of providing a Property Registration Number (AMA).

We occasionally rent out our place if we are not there (less than 4 weeks per year) and previously this meant we did not need to worry about tax registration. However it seems no longer to be the case and tax must be paid on all rental earnings, no matter how little on rents out.

I think that is fair enough to be honest, however for only 45 EUR per night (with discount for longer stays) and with the huge increase in electricity this year it is actually not worth the effort. This year we rented out for 4 weeks in May and earned 900 EUR. However after paying the water and electricity bills (which came to an astounding 400 EUR for this period!) it is no longer worth the effort we have to make to rent the place out.

Really a shame...

[Pat271]

I think a lot of hosts and owners are having this issue this year, not only because of increased costs, but because of lack of bookings. In many areas, the increased supply has outstripped demand. There comes a tipping point at which it’s just not worth it to continue to operate.

[Anonymous]

@Gary1105  I'm sorry to hear the calculations didn't work out for you with Airbnb, but I hope you will continue to enjoy being blessed with a beautiful house in Greece and find other things to do with it.

I assure you, every kind of hospitality business imaginable in Europe is struggling with the rising energy rates. Our costs are skyrocketing while our customers' disposable incomes are evaporating. We're all in the same boat here, but not all of us have a spare house.

[Sudsrung0]

@Gary1105 

It's a sign of the times, Same here in Thailand with the electric in my own house we used less electric but the bill was higher.

All the things you need to run an airbnb have gone up, the electric is my pet hate, mainly because guest just waste it, leaving the A/C on with the doors and windows open, going out all day and leaving it on,

We had a guest check out the other week I couldn't get there for the time he wanted to leave it's easy in my condo just leave the keycards and close the door,

I got there about an hour later to find the A/C running with the windows and doors wide open, they just dont care.

We have some LTR properties and we dont include the electric, they pay, you watch them turn everything off, I can tell by the bills, Yet when they think it's included it get abused.

[Fred13]

Never forget consumer confidence is always a factor also, the western world may be feeling the recession coming that may be a deep one, all the events and foolish moves leading to it are another subject now, but that reality is. We could feel it with our guests making changes well in advance; moving till 2024, cutting days from 7 days to 4-days (the minimum), reducing amounts of people coming now to lessen the money parked with Airbnb, etc. etc.

A few months ago we sensed it and started getting out of booking scenarios in which guests could cancel without penalty (i.e. VRBO - now no refund vs. they could cancel up to 60 days prior to arrival without penalty). Though if one of ours guests runs into a jam we still work with them anyway, but at least now have a dependable idea what we can count on in the coming 12 months.

[Sudsrung0]

@Fred13 

We are doing ok up to now till Feb next year, with VRBO we never get any bookings from them maybe it doesn't fit in Asia, same with Tripadvisor maybe one booking a year, what might be stopping that is our calendar is showing almost full from airbnb,

Have you listed on Booking? (BDC) it's about one of the only things I like about them None Refundable.

They have completely dried up after covid, 

On BDC you have to increase your rates, if you let them collect payments they charge 17.2% extortion!

[Fred13]

Good to know, we have little clue how BDC works, knowledge always beats ignorance.

[Sudsrung0]

There is a learning curve with them as with anything I guess,

No harm in taking a look, you might like it,

One thing to never do with them is let guest pay on arrival your no show and cancellation rate goes through the roof,

How I found out we never used them and a friend of ours who had a small resort here had to go home and we took care of everything for him, omg,

Guest No Show and Guest cancelling, got to stop this, it was something like 40% anyway letting BDC collet payments stopped all that, but their commission was 17.2% I just put the rates up.

As I said "None Refundable" on the calendar suits me fine.

And as for getting a refund out of BDC well I think you have more chance of landing on the moon.

I did find out one of the reasons for a high cancellation rate is they allow a guest to book 3 or 4 places while they make up their minds, it might look like you have a booking, I think the guest has to pay 30 days before arrival after that they have to pay in full, Does that make sense? 

It did sync with airbnb ok never a problem there,