My Airbnb and what I’ve learned over the last few months. 

This could be helpful. It could also just be a platform for me to vent some frustration. Either way read on if you want get some insight into what it’s been like taking a property from being a “traditional” rental property to a self managed Airbnb. 

Some back background. I’ve done this before, around the 2017 - 2018 era I operated a handful of Airbnb properties in central Christchurch. There was elements of this I enjoyed and elements I did not. The experience ended on Christmas Day 2018 I think it was when I had 3 sets of guests checking out. I was doing the cleaning myself because I hadn’t yet learned the art of delegation / outsourcing and was basically being greedy. 

The 3 different places were all left in a messy, untidy state and it broke me, I’d had enough so perhaps in what you’d call an emotional decision, I shut them all done. Existed and within 2 months I was out of that business. 

You might wonder why I’d venture back in. Here’s why:

The original plan this year was to begin building the Weka Retreats project on the property where the house is located, in the existing house was going to house the builders and sub trades during construction. In my mind I’d be able to back fill any dead nights they were’t there with Airbnb guests, happy days. 

Well, the builders fell through, I’d already given notice to the tenants so I was committed (to an extent). I could have bailed on the Airbnb idea and got some more long term tenants but the idea of having some flexibility over the property and not being locked into anything appealed. That combined with the possibility of getting a higher nightly (weekly rate) off the property, I decided to follow through, furnish the property, set it up with beds, linen, everything needed for an Airbnb. 

A few things I overlooked:

• Being a 3 hour drive away added difficulty with coordinating deliveries, furnishing it. There’s a warehouse there but not a lot else so most furnishings came from Christchurch / Auckland

• The difficulty in getting services like Wifi set up, it’s still an ongoing saga, which still blows my mind 

• The cost of electricity, being a full house, it’s a significant cost to factor in

• The emotion and anxiety attached with effectively being on call 24-7 to guests making contact, that Airbnb message notification alert can be either good aka a new booking or some drama that needs attending to 

On the positive side:

• I’ve had 4 x sets of guests through so some revenue 

• Some guests have been nice to deal with 

• Was lucky with some of the vendors, shout out to Farmers Morehouse Ave and Vendella Group (for the linens) two excellent companies to deal with 

• I’m really happy with the quality of furnishings and how it’s looking

• I’ve got a great cleaner who is easy to work with and communicate with 

• We’ve found a commercial laundry service 

What’s next:

I’ve chatted with an Airbnb Manager recently and I’m going to continue down the path of using their services to manage the property. They work similarly to a traditional property manager, only they charge a higher fee. Which In my opinion Is more than reasonable for what they’re doing. To put some numbers on this. It’s around 20% where as I think a long term manager on average is around 10% so an extra 10% to deal with guest communication, manager cleaners, laundry, calendars, revenue optimisation. I think that’s money well spent + for me I’d much rather pay that fee, be hands off and then make that money in other areas with the time and energy saved. 

I haven’t committed to anything yet but that’s currently my plan. If for whatever reason that’s not an option I think my next move would book it out for weeks and months at a time vs nights at a time. The revenue per night likely wouldn’t be as high but less change overs is less admin, less communication, less cleaning and in theory should be less hassle while still returning a higher return than what it would get as a “normal rental” 

Keep an eye out for more updates on the situation + always keen to hear from anyone operating an Airbnb. It’s definitely a love / hate relationship for me and I’m still not sure where I stand. 

Like the saying goes “win or learn” I don’t feel like I’m winning at the moment so I guess I’m learning.