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I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

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Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#21
post #5

Does Lockitron work for someone who happens to not have mobile phone service where the rental is? As convenient as it is, it seems like short-duration travelers to a country don't always bother with having a working mobile phone where they're going. If so, I'd hope it's obvious in the listing.

You need a working mobile phone with service, but it doesn't need to be a smartphone. https://lockitron.com/help/mobile#smsaccess EDIT: Included more detail about needing a working mobile phone with service, due to ahlatimer.

So, you just need to write down the PIN somewhere you have service, right? Or am I misunderstanding when the PIN gets sent?

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#22

very interesting post, it's always great to read about other sources of income. I wonder if renting on airbnb is more lucrative than renting in general.

Depends on how quickly you can re-rent. If you sign a long lease, the landlord typically offers something lower than "market rate" in exchange for lower risk and less time un-rented.

One thing he doesn't say is what percentage of the time the room was rented; he only says that it wasn't always making him money because he and his friends occasionally stayed there.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#23
I really like the mention of Lockitron, the whole 'keyless entry' idea really is going to be the future of AirBnB rentals.

I have several customers who are AirBnB hosts who use my service, Ringo [1], which lets their guests into the units via the apartment buzzer. That combined with Lockitron, and you never need to worry about key transfer again. You can effectively live on a different continent than your AirBnB property.

[1] https://www.tryringo.com

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#24
post #13

If enough people do this it will be the end of Airbnb. This is one of the patterns the state of NY is using against Airbnb while Airbnb is arguing that the service is intended for people occasionally renting out their primary residence. If the state is able to prove a significant number of people used this model Airbnb is done in NY and I fear other states will follow.

I'm not that familiar with the Airbnb situation in NY. Why is this a "bad" pattern that NY state has deemed to be a violation of the law?

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#28
Getting the cleaner to manage 'guest relations' for this cheap is probably a great deal not easy to replicate.

Handling them poorly could quickly result in bad reviews.

On the other hand, those kind of profits are really just short term until the market catches up. People are not stupid to not take easy profit and / or governments will crack down with regulation and taxes.

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