Here is what you need to know coming from someone that has managed Airbnb listings for over 2 years.
TLDR; it is not worth it as a ‘side hustle’, unless if you live on-site or if you want to do it full time, Airbnb is NOT your friend.
1. If a guest smokes in your unit, good luck getting compensated, as you need to present evidence. Unless if your guest himself decides to agree they did it (which they won’t if they blatantly broke your rules) you will not be compensated. People will smoke in your unit, be okay with it or hope they are good guests and just smoke outside. In fact, take a case we had to deal with where the first guest smoked inside, and when asked for damages via the resolution centre, it was denied. However, the guest that checked in next complained about the smoke and was rewarded funds for the place smelling like smoke!
2. Everyone has a party, brings more guests than reported. If you charge more then $10 for additional guests, people will stop reporting additional guests. Secondly, if you state no parties, it will not stop anyone that has intentions of doing so from actually throwing a party. Especially if you are not there to confirm the number of people going in and out of your place. This is not an exception to the rule, most people rent condos to have get-togethers especially if they are from the same city.
3. Refunds, Airbnb’s host policy will not help you. It is a way to entice new guests into thinking they are in safe hands, they are not. There is a reason why they offer up to $400 CAD for you to refer new hosts to the platform. If you have friends/hosts telling you how great everything is, consider the referral bonus they will be getting for their help.
Added to this: No refunds are provided if there are no receipts. So that TV you have from a few years back, make sure you find the receipt before leaving it in your unit. If you have material damage to your property (which will happen… often!) they will depreciate the cost, ask you to obtain multiple contractor quotes (no contractor visits sites for $100 jobs) and ask for multiple photos and explanations.
This refunding process is meant to wear you down and their pockets full for their upcoming IPO. “Case managers” don’t reply for weeks, the minimum time for even a guest to reply is about three days, and unless if you call and file multiple resolutions, and really fight tooth and nail — you still won’t get compensated. So keep in mind ALL damages are going to be covered by you or YOUR insurance.
Back to material damage, everything will be broken (yes even things you can’t even imagine) door handles to holes in the wall, to glass tables, chairs, burn marks, toilets, shower heads… and especially more significant items like laundry machines and dryers.
4. Stolen items — it will happen, you can file invoices, they will not compensate you. TV Remotes, Apple TV’s, cutlery, you should just chalk it off as the cost of doing business. The guest will deny it, and unless if you get a ‘good’ case manager they have no reason to compensate you, unless if you are making them big $$$. Did we mention IPO 2019?
5. ‘Don’t worry you will not be Dinged!’ Anytime there is a problem that the guest reports that is not fair for you, e.g. they didn’t feel ‘safe’ in the building (they will refund the guest entirely even though the guest decided to spend the entire night there and it was a one-night booking! yes, it has happened to us and no it was not a property in an unsafe part of town, quite opposite.)
If you call AirBNB to inquire about how the above makes sense, they will give you the infamous “Don’t worry we just refunded them but you won’t get dinged on the platform” as if the monetary loss is nothing to fret… Again we are not the ones running a multi-billion dollar company, we are losing money. Keep in mind anything that can’t be quantified will be ruled against you.
6. If your condo has massive damage, you will not get compensated for the lost bookings as a result of the guest (and additionally, you will be gifted with the line from above!).
7. The motives of the company have changed, the company wants to be seen as a place where mom and pop rent a spare bedroom and make a few extra dollars a month. Sorry, but that is not the case. Browse any city and you will see that most units are designated short-term rental units and run by landlords driving the cost of residential housing up for everyone else. If you are a landlord, you are paying for others to run a for-profit business with your maintenance fees period.
Airbnb has a business case which cites “once they started sending photographers to make their listings look prettier, their bookings increased!” these photographers were free because it meant a direct increase in profits for AirBNB. Now, because of a massive influx in listings, they don’t need to send you anyone, they have professionals running hotels inside residential units, and you, mom and dad, are not a priority. So when you think you are fighting for a liberal technology company that is doing good for the world and your community, you are not, you are supporting the same old thing that Facebook has done. Although it may be great for consumers, it has truly “disrupted” the old, for better or worse.
Bonus: Guest reviews are permanent. Regardless of if the guest is lying, the review sticks for “integrity purposes”. Be ready to answer questions that your guests will ask such as: “will the condo be clean?” No, we are going to leave dirty towels and linens because we assumed you wouldn’t mind. These negative reviews real or not will push your listing down to make room for the industrialist power-listers.
Finally…
You may think that you only want ‘vetted’ guests and or families, but Airbnb promotes “Instant Bookings” and if your requirements are air-tight on the type of guests you want, you will not have a full calendar. So if you are okay with getting bookings now and then and only from top-tier guests, why wouldn’t you just rent your property as you would normally (and not deal with the headaches as your total revenue will be about the same.) Added to this are laws about short-term rentals in your city, in your building that you need to be careful about. I am sure these will be changed after the IPO when the coffers are loaded. To end, just know what you are getting into and don’t believe the hype.