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Can Anyone Put Their House Or Spare Room On Airbnb? Yes!
- Saulius Bertauskas
- Aug 2, 2019
- 3 min read
Airbnb.
You’ve heard about it. More specifically, you’ve heard that people are making a killing from it, and now you want a piece of the sweet action! But how?
In short, as long as you’re authorised to rent out your house or spare room, it’s an easy process to list on Airbnb, and anyone can do it!
But let’s go through some of the details…
How much does it cost to advertise on Airbnb?
First and foremost, let’s answer the most commonly asked question.
How much does advertising on Airbnb cost?
Airbnb is FREE to create a listing, they only charge a service fee of at least 3% for each reservation, to cover the cost of processing the transaction.
For example, if you charge £100 per day, and you get a booking for 5 days, the total cost of that booking would be £500, so a 3% fee would equate to £15.
Airbnb’s requirements
According to Airbnb’s ‘basic requirements for a host‘ guide:
To help create comfortable, reliable stays for guests, we ask all hosts to meet these basic requirements for each listing:
Be responsive: Maintain a high response rate by replying to booking inquiries and reservation requests within 24 hours.
Accept reservation requests: Make guests feel welcome by accepting requests whenever you’re available.
Avoid cancellations: We take cancellations seriously and ask all hosts to avoid cancelling on guests–their travel plans depend on it.
Maintain a high overall rating: Guests like to know they can expect a consistent level of quality, no matter where they book.
Your legal obligations as an Airbnb host/landlord
It’s important to note that Airbnb are not regulators of the law! You will be responsible for meeting your legal obligations as a short-let landlord! The laws you will be subject to will depend on where your property is located and the local laws, which includes:
Tax laws
Health & Safety
Insurance
Here’s a comprehensive guide on Airbnb’s website, covering responsibilities for UK hosts and here’s my guide on short-term letting requirements & regulations (it’s worth reading both).
How much can I earn from letting my property on Airbnb?
As you’d expect, it depends on location, your property, time of year, demand etc! There’s no one answer. But you can use Airbnb’s calculator to give you a reasonable sense of what you can expect to earn.
Other than using their calculator, you should assess how much other hosts are charging for similar properties in your local area. Needless to say, being competitive is critical for maximising guest bookings occupancy as an Airbnb/Short-let landlord.
How to list your house or spare room on Airbnb
Again, just to clarify, Airbnb won’t check to see if you meet your legal requirements (that’s your responsibility), so listing your property on Airbnb is pretty easy.
Just click on this link and you can start the process of adding your details. It’s FREE!
Other things to consider as an Airbnb host
Airbnb isn’t your only option! Use them ALL! Airbnb is an online marketplace that connects people who want to rent out their homes with people who are looking for accommodation. But they’re certainly not the only marketplace offering the same service.
In fact, there are several others, many of which you have probably heard of, like TripAdvisor and Booking.com.
Yup, they offer a similar service to Airbnb! You may not have realised, though. Many don’t.
What many hosts do is list their property/spareroom across multiple marketplaces so they maximise their exposure in order to achieve the most amount of bookings. Here’s a list of alternatives to Airbnb where you can also list your house or spare room .
The beauty is, they all operate under the same payment model, which means listing on all of them is FREE – you only pay a fee when a booking is confirmed.
Airbnb management services Airbnb management services have become incredibly popular for those hosts/landlords that want to offload the stresses of managing an Airbnb property. It can be hard work.
Essentially, a management service will take over the entire process of renting out your property to short-term visitors. For example, they’ll manage the fulfilment (i.e. they’ll find guests for you), they’ll clean the property between guest, and they’ll even manage all maintenance issues.
However, there are a couple of restrictions:
They’ll only manage entire properties, not spare rooms!
Management services are currently only available for properties in major cities e.g. London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bath etc.
For more details on Airbnb & Short-let Management Companies and the best options available.
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