Husband wants to airbnb our family home

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townhouse
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Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby townhouse » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:39 pm

My husband thinks that airbnbing our home will be a good way to make some money. I am not keen at all, I just don't like the idea of someone else being in my bed etc.

I did promise him I would look into it with an open mind so I wonder if anyone on this forum has done it or does it regularly and how they found it?

My main questions are: does it take a huge amount of time to sort each time someone wants to rent it? What do you do about security? We live BTC in a two bedroom flat.

Any experiences or insight gratefully received.
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windmill26
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Joined: Oct 2010
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby windmill26 » Thu Sep 10, 2020 6:15 pm

I don't have first hand experience as both myself and my husband are like you.
Just the thought of someone that I don't know touching my things stress me out!
Some of my neighbours rent their places out on AirBnB and from what I see is a set up that they had in mind from day one when they bought the properties. Minimum personal things,easy to clean and to replace furniture and furnishing,family or friends available to put them up when they have bookings.
Obviously this year hasn't been lucrative but the years before the bookings have been constant for the number of weeks that they can rent the place out .Also,during Wimbledon they are always booked up.
I am unaware of any of them ever having security issues or parties/loud guests.
They all have cleaners that come before and after the guests arrive/leave.


 
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stairrunner
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby stairrunner » Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:01 pm

I know that you didn't ask for this sort of feedback but we live in a house split into 2 flats and my experience is that it is quite an antisocial thing to do.

Our neighbours have been renting out on airbnb since summer 2018 and as the other flat owner it hasn't been great at all.. Guests are never quiet, stay up late often with loud music and also arrive and depart at all hours of the night. I could go on but I don't want to come across as whingeing. It is however one of the reasons that we have decided to move.
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anotherlevel2020
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby anotherlevel2020 » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:06 pm

I am experienced from a few sides...and can give you lots of insight and advice. I have been the receiving end, neighbour, guests and also landlord of renting out my place when going away with the family. First things first it can be very profitable renting out your place if being in London especially in certain areas are high demand. Since March travel has slowed down therefore Airbnb is not as profitable as normal. Saying that certain parts of London are good espcailly if you have great photos etc. Your husband is thinking about profits and your probably thinking about your home as this is your santurary.

Most people (Airbnb guests) will look after your place and once a cleaner and linen is sorted your fine. You do not need to worry about anything. Airbnb are insured and once set up with them its pretty straighforward once photos and preparation is done. These are washed either through dry cleaners, app or cleaners which cost a bit more on top of normal Airbnb clean. The guest generally pay for the cleaning fee so you really only have to pay for linen. Some landlords I know have certain linen for there guests and locks on certain cupboards clothes etc or laundry room. The whole point of Airbnb is to treat it like your own. Your living in someone elses home. If your an experienced person you have two options on Airbnb book instantly or pre-approve I would reccomend pre-approve this helps filter the people that probably are not a good fit for your family home. You probably are looking for a family like yourselves mature have there own place of there own and visiting London because of family, friends short holiday. These are the guest that you want and in these cases I have never seen any probelms with them. On the other hand if you use instand book and even if you put no parties for example anyone can book, I wouldn't advise with this option as its too risky.

I have lived with Airbnbs next door before and it's 50/50 depending the type of people booking the property. Some people want to party some people actually are visiting London for site seeing, food etc, family or friends the other is mostly young, single people wanting to have fun and party and bring back people.

I currently manage several Airbnbs in London and 1 in Barbabdos. I offer check-in, cleaning etc and am a super host on Airbnb with great reviews. I am happy to help out where I can and give you advice if needed just let me know.
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anotherlevel2020
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby anotherlevel2020 » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:15 pm

Sorry to answer your questions, yes the changeovers are an effort you can do them yourselves to save money however this can get a bit overwhelming so I would reccomend hiring a local cleaner who knows how Airbnb works and ask for references or proof that they know what they are doing. You probably need to find someone that is experienced so any questions or concerns you have along the way you can ask.

I understand about your bed however see it like when you go to a hotel how many people sleep in your bed as long as there is a mattress protector and clean sheets, duvet covers and pillows I do not see a problem if your a bit OCD like me, I have seperate ones like some landlords just for the guests. That way you can keep it seperate. I can give you a few insights for photo suggestions, pricing, turnovers, dates, areas etc. Just let me know happy to help.

For security you make sure that you check them in or get someone like me to do and then on check-out as well that way you I can check that there is no damage etc. A secruity deposit is taken by Airbnb you put in the price/they also have a suggested price based on your amount of bedrooms etc. Also Airbnb is fully insured. Hope that helps.
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BTC_Mumof2
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby BTC_Mumof2 » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:01 am

We live in a 4 bedroom house and rented it out on Airbnb on holidays. It was mostly a positive experience apart from once when we had 3 student couples and they left the house very dirty (our cleaner cleaned it before we arrived, but we ended up requesting extra money for cleaning).
A few tips on logistics:
1. Check if your mortgage provider allows it. Our current one doesn’t, which is why it stopped. It would not be hard for a bank to develop a system tracking Airbnb rentals based on location, the name referenced for host etc. Given the potential fine for us (1% increase in mortgage rent) wasn’t worth it.
2. To screen guests, you can set it up to not automatically accept bookings, or only accept bookings from guests with good reviews.
3. Not only sheets and towels, we would also have bedding (duvets, pillows) just for guests.
4. I think Portico offer Airbnb hosting services, this is very helpful if you are going to have guest changeovers when you are away.
5. Do not forget it’s taxable income. There is a limit as to how much you can earn before you start paying tax, currently it’s £7.5k.

I found it was good money (might not be the case now because of lack of demand and also because so many people are doing it now) but also a lot of work to arrange, put our personal possessions / bedding etc away, prep everything for the cleaner and so on.

As an alternative, depending on how long your place is available for, you could offer it as temp accommodation to people doing renovations in their house? I have often seen posts on nextdoor, sw11 network, sw18 mums.

Best of luck,
M
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EBW-APOM
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby EBW-APOM » Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:55 am

Hello there,

I am the founder and MD of a company that professionally manages short-lets across London. We help homeowners like yourself to generate extra income while you are away, and take the stress out of managing bookings. We manage everything relating to the booking, including listing your property, marketing, vetting guests, cleaning and guest relations.

You simply provide us with the dates and we would handle the rest. The homeowner's involvement in the rental of their home varies according to their preference, some owners just like to have their home rented and not think about it, while others prefer to be kept in the loop. I have a dedicated team to ensure that a high quality of service is provided to both the guests and the homeowners.

As someone else has mentioned, there is some commitment from the owner's side in ensuring that their personal possession are put away, however the reward for this is some great rental income.

Short lets can be a great way to fund your holidays or even just a way to make some additional savings. If you had any questions or concerns and would like to discuss this further then please reach out to me or my company, Air Peace of Mind.

Best wishes,
EBW
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fionajk42
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Re: Husband wants to airbnb our family home

Postby fionajk42 » Mon Sep 21, 2020 6:28 pm

I hosted on Airbnb for a couple of years. My experience was that around 60% of guests are great, don't leave a huge mess, obey house rules and leave a good review. 25% are a pain, they ask for extra stuff not offered in the listing (for example, to use our washer and dryer which are explicitly NOT offered) or are very needy, constantly pestering you about how to operate the TV, asking for extra towels, etc. These guests often leave 4 star reviews, which results in drop in your host status, which is important to keep you near the top of the search rankings. The remaining 15% are in the range awful to absolutely terrible. This can range to leaving a terrible mess and smell, blood and worse on sheets and towels, blocked drains from things being put down loo or bathroom sink and my personal nadir: excrement-streaked men's underwear stuffed between the cushions on the sofa.

Forget the Airbnb deposit, getting damages from Airbnb is very difficult, and mostly they only pay you if they have been able to collect from the guest. For the damage and extra cleaning caused by the owner of the underwear, his body odour and general lack of hygiene meant I had to wash everything twice (linens, towels, duvet, mattress and pillow protectors, sofa seat covers, cushion covers) and had to take down the curtains and wash and iron those too. Airbnb compensated me £17. It cost me more than that just to clean the duvet as I had to wash it in one of those large size commercial machines. Airbnb are not interested, as they know there are lots more potential hosts, lured by the idea of easy money from renting out their spare room. If one host decides to stop hosting because of a poor experience, they will find another host (another mug!) to take their place.

But don't take my word for it. For anyone thinking of hosting, my suggestion is to log onto Airbnb, and at the foot of the listings page you will see "Community Centre". This forum contains posts and responses from lots of hosts complaining about dreadful guests, trying to get Airbnb CS to listen to them re damages, and other cautionary tales. Try searching for "guest from hell", "awful guest", filthy guest" etc. and you will see that my experience is pretty commonplace.
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