Anyone use Airbnb to rent out rooms? How did it go? (Austin: apartment, renter)

[Silogram]

We are thinking about using Airbnb to rent out our guest room, rather than find a full time roommate. We live in the Windsor Park/ East Austin area.
Has anyone here used Airbnb to rent out a room in his/her house or apartment?

If so, how did the experience go? Did you feel safe using Airbnb? Would you or have you used it more than once? Have you made enough $ to make it worth it?

Let's discuss...

[austin-steve]

Have you read through the airbnb FAQs? That's going to be a lot more informative and helpful than anything you get here on CD.

Hosting - Airbnb Help

[tfresca]

I think you should get their insurance. Clark Howard did a whole segment on this. Someone had their house trashed and their insurance wouldn't cover it. I think most, if not all of these kinda places provide insurance now.

[zakas80]

When I visited Austin I used Airbnb for our stay in the area and was very happy with our accomadations and beat the heck out of staying in any type of hotel chain! Well I guess this doesn't help to answer your question but I would suggest maybe contacting someone with experience renting out their place on Airbnb, there is a good amount in the Austin area and sure they wouldn't mind sharing their experience.

[buffettjr]

I tried to use it and didn't enjoy it. I couldn't get my house to show up on their map properly, and given my location, the map is far more important than the text listing -- it's the entire reason I'm renting out. I spent a lot of time with tech support (and I'm an IT worker myself) and they eventually said "yeah we don't know why it's doing that" and I gave up. I switched to Home Away and everything was setup easily and I immediately rented out my house. This was for SXSW and I wasn't able to list until the last second so I was getting desperate to get it listed properly since there wasn't much time to waste.

Home Away was great and will save me money too because I plan to rent out twice per year -- ACL and SXSW. With Air BNB you have to pay a fee for each rental. With Home Away, you pay a flat $250 or $300 or whatever it is for the year, and no matter how much you rent out there are no more additional fees (except for maybe a credit card processing fee if the renter pays via cc). The downside with Home Away is you pay that listing fee up front, whereas with Air BNB you only pay after your place is rented out. I took a gamble paying up front with Home Away and it paid off since I was able to rent out at the last minute for SXSW and now I can rent out for ACL and it won't cost me anything extra. I'll get to pocket all of it, and I'm excited about that.

As far as the whole experience -- it was great. No problems at all. The renters were very nice to deal with, though I never ended up meeting them in person. It did feel a little weird returning home to clean up knowing strangers had been staying there, but for the amount of money I was being paid per night I've long since forgotten about that. I just moved all my valuables into my detached garage while I was gone, and no worries.

You experience may be different however depending on your location and your rate. In general I feel like the more you're able to charge, the less likely you are to wind up with young rowdy people trashing your place. By the way, I don't think that really happens much -- it happened in that one famous example that has been all over the news and radio out of how many tens (hundreds) of thousands of rentals have occurred.

I've been getting several inquiries into my place for ACL even though I'm asking top dollar and the event is not until mid October. I can't wait for ACL to get here. Those two events pay for two months of my mortgage, and I'm really happy about that. So far it's been a great experience.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by buffettjr

I tried to use it and didn't enjoy it. I couldn't get my house to show up on their map properly, and given my location, the map is far more important than the text listing -- it's the entire reason I'm renting out. I spent a lot of time with tech support (and I'm an IT worker myself) and they eventually said "yeah we don't know why it's doing that" and I gave up. I switched to Home Away and everything was setup easily and I immediately rented out my house. This was for SXSW and I wasn't able to list until the last second so I was getting desperate to get it listed properly since there wasn't much time to waste.

Home Away was great and will save me money too because I plan to rent out twice per year -- ACL and SXSW. With Air BNB you have to pay a fee for each rental. With Home Away, you pay a flat $250 or $300 or whatever it is for the year, and no matter how much you rent out there are no more additional fees (except for maybe a credit card processing fee if the renter pays via cc). The downside with Home Away is you pay that listing fee up front, whereas with Air BNB you only pay after your place is rented out. I took a gamble paying up front with Home Away and it paid off since I was able to rent out at the last minute for SXSW and now I can rent out for ACL and it won't cost me anything extra. I'll get to pocket all of it, and I'm excited about that.

As far as the whole experience -- it was great. No problems at all. The renters were very nice to deal with, though I never ended up meeting them in person. It did feel a little weird returning home to clean up knowing strangers had been staying there, but for the amount of money I was being paid per night I've long since forgotten about that. I just moved all my valuables into my detached garage while I was gone, and no worries.

You experience may be different however depending on your location and your rate. In general I feel like the more you're able to charge, the less likely you are to wind up with young rowdy people trashing your place. By the way, I don't think that really happens much -- it happened in that one famous example that has been all over the news and radio out of how many tens (hundreds) of thousands of rentals have occurred.

I've been getting several inquiries into my place for ACL even though I'm asking top dollar and the event is not until mid October. I can't wait for ACL to get here. Those two events pay for two months of my mortgage, and I'm really happy about that. So far it's been a great experience.

This sounds like a typical experience of a home owner renting through HomeAway, but not being in the STR (Short Term Rental) "business". Thanks for the well written summary.

The anti-STR folks have made you (people who do what you described above) to be a horrible boogeyman causing Austin neighborhoods to rot from the core, and ruining the city.

Because of anti-STR efforts to get this activity (renting a home for less than 30 days) banned (later they decided not to ask for a complete ban, because their own neighbors, like you, said "wait a minute"), this has been a 2 year running skirmish with the ANC (Austin Neighborhoods Council). Those of us standing up for property rights were successful in getting the City Council to order an audit by the City Auditor, which disproved all of the false allegations made by the ANC.

The Planning Commission passed a proposed ordinance recently, at midnight (I was there), that will regulate, restrict and force city inspection of STRs. Plus you'll have to register with the city and pay an annual "license" fee to rent out your home, if the people against STRs get their way.

If you like having the freedom to rent out your house, or a room in it, you better start paying attention and show up at the June 7 City Council Meeting to voice your opinion about the city of Austin and the grotesquely abominable ordinance proposal it will be considering. Even City Staff is against it.

Steve

[OpenD]

Clearly there are some personality types that do better with Airbnb, Home Away, VRBO, and other such short term rental services...

If you are basically relaxed about your property, not fussy about your stuff, and have no qualms about having strangers in your place while you're not there, it could work for you.

If you are easily stressed by other people making messes in your space, have a fussy home with a lot of "don't touch items, or you're never going to get over it if someone spills red wine on your white couch, it's probably not a good idea.

Seems obvious to me, but I'm surprised that not everyone takes the time to think this through. Some folks seem to get hypnotized by the thought of making big bucks for a week long festival rental and don't really confront the realities until it's all over and they're freaked out by something unexpected that happened.

One of the things to consider, too, is how much impact this could have on your neighbors, and how much of an issue that could become for you after the event is over. Parking seems to be a common flashpoint, so be sure to think that through very carefully.

[buffettjr]

I'm very fussy about my things, but my attitude is for several hundred dollars per night I could just replace whatever I need to if it ever comes to that.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

This sounds like a typical experience of a home owner renting through HomeAway, but not being in the STR (Short Term Rental) "business". Thanks for the well written summary.

The anti-STR folks have made you (people who do what you described above) to be a horrible boogeyman causing Austin neighborhoods to rot from the core, and ruining the city.

Because of anti-STR efforts to get this activity (renting a home for less than 30 days) banned (later they decided not to ask for a complete ban, because their own neighbors, like you, said "wait a minute"), this has been a 2 year running skirmish with the ANC (Austin Neighborhoods Council). Those of us standing up for property rights were successful in getting the City Council to order an audit by the City Auditor, which disproved all of the false allegations made by the ANC.

The Planning Commission passed a proposed ordinance recently, at midnight (I was there), that will regulate, restrict and force city inspection of STRs. Plus you'll have to register with the city and pay an annual "license" fee to rent out your home, if the people against STRs get their way.

If you like having the freedom to rent out your house, or a room in it, you better start paying attention and show up at the June 7 City Council Meeting to voice your opinion about the city of Austin and the grotesquely abominable ordinance proposal it will be considering. Even City Staff is against it.

Steve

I would say that it's the folks who want to regulate the heck out of everything who are responsible for causing true Austin neighborhoods to rot from the core and who are ruining the city, myself.

[tfresca]

Or it's folks in the pocket of the hotel industry