We have a 2 bed flat that we rent out to students at a local university, £1,000 a month, I’ve just found out a few are up for £100 a night Airbnb, we have a lot of foreign students here so I guess it’s there family when they come over.
I know we’ve a few BTLers on here, so here’s a question.
Bit of background first. A month or two ago I had been out to view a cottage in my local area that popped up for sale.
Nothing special — two bedroom, very small, needed modernising and had a few signs of damp (old stone construction) but a perfectly good project and very convenient to town, literally a 2 minute walk. I bid 77k or thereabouts but was knocked out of the bidding at that point.
Thought no more of it, but fast forward to the weekend and I was out with the same agent and asked her about the previous house. She looked it up on her phone and said it went for 94k, with two Airbnb people slogging it out to purchase it. I was able to glean that these guys have a portfolio of these, all on Airbnb.
Now, we live in an unremarkable town in middle of Northern Ireland, no tourism really to speak of, though I suppose if you were doing a tour of Ireland you may pass through at some point.
This has naturally perked my interest and I’m wondering if I’m missing something, so my question — anyone here Airbnb-ing a property rather than just renting it out?
We have a 2 bed flat that we rent out to students at a local university, £1,000 a month, I’ve just found out a few are up for £100 a night Airbnb, we have a lot of foreign students here so I guess it’s there family when they come over.
I can see some merit in that, you’d have to weigh up the difference in revenue and see which was best of course but you’d have some confidence of getting it rented out.
As much as I love where I live I can’t imagine why anyone would want to come and stay here for a few days, as a tourist or a traveller.
Funnily enough I read this article today https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-scam-london
Its strange whenever I advertise a property for rent, I'm always approached by people wanting to rent it at higher than I've asked for,when I question this they always reply that they want to air bnb it and am I ok with that?
Obviously it sounds to good to be true and that's why I've never gone for it but maybe there is money to be made?
Although the way the rental market is going we may need all the help we can get
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Airbnb is gathering momentum with landlords as is rent to rent:
https://www.progressiveproperty.co.u...ent-explained/
By coincidence I have just had a house in a nice village in NI come to the end of a residential lease and was considering trying it as an air b and b. Would be interested to hear any advice from TZ'ers.
Btw @ demon, yours is a very central spot for Donegal and Sligo as well as NI ( I used to date a local gal ) so could be a good location for a FHL.
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I’m attracted by the option but need to look at building insurance issues and find an agency to deal with keys and turn round. Linen and cleaning.
Edinburgh is on the verge of passing a lot of legislation over AirBnBs.
Have to say I'm not surprised. We changed our flat in Edinburgh from rental to AirBnB a few years ago. It made almost £1000 p.a. more than as a rental, with almost none of the legislative downside of a sitting tenant plus we could let friends/relatives stay there at any time by refusing a booking.
We sold it a while ago now, but if these kind of figures can still be replicated in areas with high tourist trade then it's a no brainer.
P.A. One bedroom flat which closes the market down quite a bit - we could have put a sofa bed in but never got around to that. Zero extra advertising outside AirBnB. Occupancy was reasonable, but as expected most money is during the Hogmanay and Festival periods. Good flats in city centre locations can make as much as double what a normal rental would achieve.
I don't think it'll be too long before most local councils in affected areas pass a raft of laws - some areas in Edinburgh are very dense with AirBnB affecting the neighbours badly.