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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

#191

Post by hammerzeit »

riggins wrote: post #184
rll wrote: 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.

this is definitely happening in NYC. A friend of mine just told me how he was considering getting in on it. In NYC there's an enormous arbitrage. The cheapest hotel room in the city is $300/night. Meanwhile, you can rent a 1BR apt for $2,500 / month. So you rent an apt for $2,500 / month and book it out on AirBnB for $200 / night ... and you're looking at a monthly arbitrage of $3,500. The guy I know heard about it f…

Easily. I know at least two people clearing $100k/year by being 'airbnb slumlords.' Real estate agents are keeping apartments off the market and renting them out as hotels.

Airbnb is clearly forcing a convergence between hotel prices and rents. This doesn't just mean forcing hotel prices down, it also means forcing rents up.

I wish the tech community could stop reflexively defending airbnb and engage with the question of what the costs it is imposing are or might be.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#192

Post by abruzzi »

philsnow wrote: post #183
candybar wrote: post #35

This has to be illegal, right? I can understand renting out your vacation home or apartment when you're not using it, but buying a home/apartment to run essentially a mini hotel has to run afoul of zoning/licensing/regulations in most places

wait, what's the functional difference between those two? intent?

that and volume. new people coming in every 3-5 days are potentially more disruptive to neighbors and building owners.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#193

Post by mceoin »

Haha - Nice dude!

I scraped AirBnB last year to compare it to local prices with the same intent last year to automate. Totally do-able and profitable. Local tenant & housing laws are the most important thing to keep track of IMO. You can outsource the Q/A with guests.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#194

Post by justin »

gaius wrote: post #156
icelancer wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted for the unnecessary nationalistic swipe.

I could be American myself, for all you know.

But, you probably aren't, as you went to college in the UK. So please refrain from your crass generalizations about countries.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#195

Post by DanielBMarkham »

tptacek wrote: post #179
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or having a guest house on your property and running a Craigslist ad to rent it out for the summer. At what point does somebody giving me money in return for staying on my property turn my property into a hotel? I'm not talking the legal definition, I'm talking common sense. The only working definition I can come up with is "when you reach a scale where the government can start taking a cut" Back in the old days, tha…

Easy: at the point where your sole use of the property is for short-term rentals.

So the guest house example. A hotel? Or because it's part of the property you also live in, not-a-hotel?

If I bought an apartment building and lived in the penthouse, could I rent all the apartments out short-term and not be a hotel?

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#196

Post by candybar »

philsnow wrote: post #183
candybar wrote: post #35

This has to be illegal, right? I can understand renting out your vacation home or apartment when you're not using it, but buying a home/apartment to run essentially a mini hotel has to run afoul of zoning/licensing/regulations in most places

wait, what's the functional difference between those two? intent?

It's like the difference between occasional bets between friends on sports games and being a professional bookie.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#197

Post by mattzito »

umsm wrote: post #178
JackFr wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, travel agents were an obsolete industry. Hotels are not obsolete, AirBnB is 'disrupting' the industry by ignoring local laws and regulations. It may be that these regulations exist to protect an obsolete business model but it also might not. When your path is blocked by a fence before you tear it down, its a good idea to understand why it was put up in the first place.

In my personal experience, I love travel agents. They were able to: (1) Make valuable recommendations (2) Offer me a better price than any website (3) Save me hours upon hours of wasted time

I actually still use a travel agent for nicer vacation bookings. I almost always pay the same price as on the website, but get upgrades, free breakfast, spa credits, etc. etc.

When it's more than the website, I do a cost-benefit analysis and decide whether the value I'll derive from paying a slightly higher price for amenities is worth it or not.

And, I get the benefit of the travel agent's expertise, as you say, who knows a little bit about me and what I care about. Sure I can do the research myself (and I will often do so), but it's nice to get all this stuff for basically nothing.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#198

Post by woofyman »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #161
woofyman wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to buy insurance would be to lie and commit fraud. Home owners associations also require insurance.

Why would he need to lie? Landlord insurance is trivial to get and IIRC (it's been a few years) cheaper than regular homeowner's insurance.

You can't buy insurance for an illegal activity.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#199

Post by glibgil »

geebee wrote: post #172
bradly wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a condo in Maui to rent and those places are sent up for this sort of thing. They even call them Condotels. Being designed for short term rentals brings a lot of benefits like resort manages check-ins/outs for you. Also, there is an echo chamber in the tech community regarding AirBnB as the standard for short term rentals. From my experience, VRBO has been much better and provided significantly more…

Rather than saying "don't do this", it would probably be better to say "Step 1: make sure it is legal to do this". As you've pointed out, there are plenty of places where it is perfectly legal to do this. My guess is that it's harder to find a profit opportunity, though, because the more profitable use (legal use as a short term hotel) is already priced into the unit. I suspect that one reason airbnb is so profitable…

Done: It is legal. This is a contract issue and is therefore covered by civil procedure and not criminal code. So, it is "legal". But, you may be sued for breach of contract and be found to have damaged the other party. But, that all has to be argued in civil court and you may win or the other party may be found to have no damages. Finally, be sure to pay your taxes. That actually is a law.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#200

Post by idigit »

mmagin wrote: 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.

Lockitron works over WiFi, Bluetooth 4, NFC, and text messaging.
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