Let's be honest. The majority of people who rent their homes
to short term guests are not doing it just because they like
to meet people from all over the world, although that is a
very neat aspect that comes with the territory. We do it to
make money. Mid 2017 Earnest.com looked through the figures
of thousands of loan applicants and determined that 53% of
the people reporting income from Airbnb received between
$100 and $499 per month. Twenty-two percent made between
$500 and $999. Ten percent of hosts reported income upwards
of $2,000 monthly and a couple averaged an income of over
$10,000 per month.
(https://www.earnest.com/blog/sharing-economy-income-data/)
Figuring out where you will fall into these statistics and whether your STR could make you money or not is important to determine prior to investing funds. Here is a good way to help make that determination.
First we are going to estimate how many nights you may be booked each month. There are some considerations we need to take into account such as
Browse to www.tripadvisor.com, www.airbnb.com, and www.homeaway.com. Pull up your city in each of these websites and add in filters to match your specific rental such as location within one mile (closer is better if there are enough comparable properties), number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and number of people allowed. Be sure to leave the dates blank to get the most complete sample of homes. Review the calendars of each home noting how many days are booked in the upcoming three months. Average these dates to get a round number of the potential bookings per month.
While determining the number of days your future competition is booked take note of the rates they are charging. Average the rates together to determine a good rate that you may be able to charge.
Now, take the number of potential rent days in a month and multiply it by the averaged rate you calculated. This gives you an estimated monthly gross income.
Next we need to determine your cost of operating your STR. First, calculate all of the expenses involved in operating your home. If you plan on renting a room then this step is fairly easy. Take the square footage of your rental room and divide it by the total square footage of the house. Take this percentage and apply it to an average of all of your monthly bills, mortgage, insurance, etc. then add up all of those costs to determine your final expense. Preferably use twelve months of bills to determine your average.
Calculating the expense of an entire home is similar, but if
this home is fully a rental then simply take 100% of all of
the monthly bills for the past six to twelve months and
determine an average of the total bill costs. Add the taxes
and insurance and any other bills that are paid once per
year to get a complete average cost. You may also need to
include the cost of a business license or other regulatory
fees.
The third step in the process is to determine the extra costs involved with the operation of an STR specifically. This is where we add in cleaning costs (or cost of supplies if you plan to clean yourself), laundry cost, food, gifts and miscellaneous costs such as replacing damaged items like sheets and towels.
Cleaning costs are only one time after each rental, but will cost you much more over time if the home is rented with a minimum one night stay versus two or more night stay minimums. If your town is a tourist town then average night stays will be longer than a town where people are mostly passing through. In our experience about 60% one-night stays are average for a mixed use city.
Now that we have estimated your monthly gross income as well as expenses, simply subtract the two numbers and that will give yous an estimated profit or loss. Although the number is an estimate it should give you a pretty good idea if this opportunity is going to be a good match for your home.
If you need help determining a potential profit feel free to contact us for additional information or help.
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