
Secrets of running a six-figure Airbnb business - weu
http://www.fastcompany.com/3021179/secrets-of-running-a-six-figure-airbnb-business
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cylinder
I don't know why this is getting so much media attention as if it's some new
innovative concept. Airbnb is just a new marketing platform for these types of
listings. I've subleased two apartments multiple times using Craigslist alone
(free, and I can use my judgment to screen for ideal tenants). Sites like
HomeAway have done vacation rentals for a long time. Serviced apartments and
extended stay hotels have existed for ages, allowing short-term stays and
short leases, usually targeted towards corporate employees who are temporarily
on assignment or relocating.

It's not a new industry at all, but inside the tech echo chamber people want
to act like it is so they can pat themselves on the back for their
"disruption."

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pbreit
Yeah, I was going to say that vacation rentals have been around since people
lived in caves.

The surprise isn't so much that money can be made but that people are rather
brazen about breaking lease terms and laws (which I believe are reasonable;
who wants an everchanging parade of random, unvetted people traipsing through
the hallways?).

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tomg
Someone's renting their place out on airbnb or similar in my building (in NYC)
and it kinda sucks. Most people are just rude but otherwise uneventful, but
some are noisy, some smoke outside my window, some can't figure out how trash
works. Some lock themselves out at 4:30am and buzz and bang on my window until
I let them in since my buzzer is the only one that works. Not sure what to do.

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cylinder
Make a fuss with the landlord. The standard lease agreement in NYC requires
landlords to be informed of subleases in writing. They can object with a
reasonable basis.

~~~
greenyoda
If someone who I didn't know was banging on my window at 4:30am asking to get
into my building, I'd call the cops.

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tomg
Heh, yeah I mean people do get locked out though sometimes... gotta do the
neighborly thing.

Calling the LL / Calling the cops are a bit more of a nuclear option that I'm
looking for; I just want to find out who's doing it so I can discretely ask
them to inform their renters of a few things. I don't want to see airbnb go
away :)

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nostromo
A night at a hotel is so much more expensive than a night at an apartment.
That arbitrageurs would find and exploit this loophole seems obvious in
retrospect. This invisible hand is pushing up the cost of an apartment, and
down the cost of a hotel room.

People talk a lot about the downsides of Airbnb on HN, but there's also a big
upside -- increased mobility. When I was 20 I would have loved a worldwide
leaseless exchange for furnished apartments, both short-term and long.

~~~
DougWebb
_That arbitrageurs would find and exploit this loophole seems obvious in
retrospect. This invisible hand is pushing up the cost of an apartment, and
down the cost of a hotel room._

What we need now is software that can find apartments for rent and people
looking for a place to stay, offer to rent the apartment for a bit less than
the owner wants and offer to rent it to the people for a bit more than they're
looking to pay, pocketing the difference and doing this hundreds of times per
second. This will provide "liquidity" and make the AirBnB market "more
efficient".

~~~
tedunangst
You joke, but nothing makes the landlord or the renter accept those offers.
They can simply leave the original offer on airbnb and wait to get matched
with a willing counterparty for the price they want.

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beambot
> _Making a Living in the Sharing Economy_

Ephemeral landlords are a farcical interpretation of the "sharing" economy.

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Mikeb85
This is illegal in many parts of North America and the world, and certainly
against nearly all rental contracts...

With news like this getting out with increasing regularity, I don't think it's
going to last long...

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
True and it's interesting for reasons I haven't seen mentioned yet.

When I was a landlord I remember having two tenants who were subletting the
house. I didn't care, in fact I specifically told them that I didn't want to
know about anyone not on the lease. My reasoning was that if they wanted to
have a few friends live there and split the rent, it meant they would have no
problem paying _me_ every month. However, I wanted to limit the damage
liability to just the two official ones.

Now, if I knew they were subletting through AirBnB and making multiples of
what they were paying in rent, I'd have to ask myself why I needed them and
why I shouldn't just do the same when their lease was up.

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atwebb
It seems that people are just prodding local governments to intervene here.
I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of "That was good while it lasted"
posts in a year or two.

~~~
baddox
It seems like it's only getting easier for people to voluntarily organize
these apartment-sharing or -renting deals. If it's not through AirBnB, it's
Craigslist, or any number of online competitors. Governments can and probably
will try to crack down, but I think they're on the losing side of this battle.
And I hope I'm right.

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peter303
No big secret. Just another small business man evading all kinds of taxes,
like tourism tax and income tax. These together can reach close to 50% of
revenue. Wait until the IRS sticks its fingers in the "sharing economy". It
already requires amazon and ebay to issue 1099-Ks for "large users", defined
as $20K or more of gross revenue a year.

~~~
eigenvector
You didn't read the article, did you?

"Airbnb installed a pop-up window on its site to remind hosts that they should
follow their local laws when they register, and Bradley plans on paying San
Francisco’s 14% hotel tax (that's on top of the 3% that Airbnb charges for
payment processing). Airbnb sends its hosts 1099s so they can pay taxes on
what they earn, and he also plans to pay income tax on his Airbnb revenue."

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baddox
> and they [city officials] argue Airbnb hosts owe occupancy taxes, which
> assure tourists pay their fair share for police, street cleaning, and other
> public services they use while in town.

I don't think that argument makes sense. Each apartment is being paid for in
the same way it would be if the actual owner lived there.

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davidedicillo
Interesting. The first 6 months I lived in SF I was able to pay my rent by
renting on Airbnb the I apartment I was still renting in Miami.

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throwmeaway2525
My guess: now, profitability. Later, competition (and intervention).

~~~
JonFish85
Hotel taxes will probably make it not worth the hassle. That, or the landlords
/ HOA will be much more strict about this sort of a thing.

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toomuchtodo
So what you're saying is I should make a startup to provide aggregated hotel
tax and HOA/local jurisdiction information over JSON based on physical
address.

Y Combinator here I come! /s

~~~
rebel
I'd wager that's a better idea than many of the other pitches I hear

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chourobin
Managing 6 apartments and taking that kind of risk (90% occupancy) seems like
an awful lot of work for this kind of return.

~~~
avenger123
His sunk costs seem to be low. As long as he actually doesn't buy the
apartments and do this, the risks are small.

Worst case scenario is he terminates his leases and he's back to square one.

This is a dream real estate scenario. No mortgage, and really high cash flow
every month.

The risk is that as more people do what he is doing, supply will increase and
prices will go down which will likely make his cashflow equal his lease
payments.

