[Irish]

(03-19-2015 08:57 AM)tattiemasher Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:03 PM)Irish Wrote:  

Now my tenants have moved out, I took some time out to fly back from Asia to Glasgow, UK to do up my old apartment to rent out on airbnb. This thread is full of gold information, particularly from Isaac Jordan (which I have duely +1'd)

I have just about got the place finished off with new carpets and painted walls. Planning to go live with the advert tonight. I will keep this thread updated on how it does

Apartment is a 2 bedroom ideal bachelor pad, great open plan kitchen living room ideal for having a few people round to pre game before going out on the town. The real selling point is the location however, on the doorstep to Glasgow's Merchant City which is one of the best areas in Glasgow for bars, restaurants and general nightlife. It is also about 5 minute walk into the city centre, while 2 minutes in the other direction is the Barrowlands, one of the prime music concert venues. While Celtic Park is a half hour walk away. Thus I am now following Celtic's fortunes a lot closer, particularly in Europe. (Now I certainly have extra reason to cheer them on versus Inter on Thursday)

There's another dude renting out his place in the same building, bar the decor it is practically a carbon copy of my place. So I have a rough idea of what to charge. He just put his prices up from 150GBP per night to now 175GBP midweek and 200GBP at the weekend.

Living room photo below. Let me know what you guys think of the place.

(note: that couch has seen some serious action...)

Which part of the Merchant City is it in? I've only seen a couple of places in the area, but they've usually been well done.

Are you getting good business on the flat? I always thought the prices for Glasgow were far-fetched on AirBnb, but if tourists are biting then why not.

Shame about the result as well, at least the treble is on.

Just on High Street, Merchant Building. Was a great bachelor pad for me.

It's been up and running for about a month now and been doing really well. Tho mainly because I got a guy come in for a month only to extend for a further couple of weeks. I gave him a bit of a deal for the flat for the long stay consistency.

Only been a couple of minor issues which were easy enough to resolve. I have a couple of friends who live nearby being my on site management for a bit of a cut. Net all in I reckon I am making 2.5x at least what I would have been otherwise renting the place out at.

Having said that I am not sure what sort of interest I would have had otherwise if this guy didn't come along. Only had a couple advance bookings for a day here and there a couple months down the line but not had much else other than a couple of time wasters. But it's hard to say as this guy has had a big slab of my calendar booked out in the immediate future. I reckon most airbnb folk book no more than a month in advance.

For Glasgow the prices on airbnb are surprisingly high. But there was a guy with a near identical flat in the same building getting solid business at a slightly higher rate. Although I personally think my flat looks better I am charging less, tho I need to build up my review base before I up the price.

The odd thing is that the fraser suite professional serviced apartments literally a block away go for less, tho that said they are a fair bit smaller.

(03-19-2015 10:49 AM)sammybiker Wrote:  

The freshen up looks great @irish, would like to hear an update as to how it's going.

Don't forget to incorporate expenses into your calculations gents...taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance & repairs are very real things. As a good rule of thumb, take your gross rent, multiple it by .5 and you'll have your net rent after expenses and a conservative maintenance & repair fund. Then you can subtract your mortgage payments and you'll have your net cash flow.

If you're managing yourself and can handy man a bit, you may be able to increase your cash flow a bit - but gross rents * .5 is a good, long term, conservative rule of thumb.

Yeah, on top of repairs and expenses I also need to amortise the set up costs of getting the place repainted and the carpets done. But having said that, these were things I would have needed to do anyway as not been done since I got the place over 7 years ago.

I am looking at this more from the opportunity cost angle in as how much more net income I am earning versus me renting the place out conventionally. ie additional rent earned vs additional expenses (and hassle) of going through airbnb. The additional costs are essentially your utilities (gas, leccy, broadband) and the big one council tax. Which thanks to the phenomenal number of freeloaders and benefits whores in Glasgow is absolutely extortionate. No less than 235GBP a month. Other than that, other than getting a cleaner in between bookings there's not much more additional expenses than for your usual tenants other than your time and hassle in handling the continuous turnover of bookings.

Still however, I am netting way more than I was on a conventional rental. And I actually feel safer with the airbnb tenants given they have all sorts of verifications and you can look over their reviews also. Heard many many horror stories from friends of their nightmare tenants who moved in only to wreck the place or cease paying rent only because the agency was happy with some forged references provided to them.

There is also one additional massive benefit as well in that I have a place to stay if I need to return to Glasgow for a week or two. I just block it out in my calendar and that's that. Previously I had plenty of friends who offered me their couch or spare room to stay for no cost but nothing beats staying in your old gaff in your old bed.

Still early doors however. I've not been analysing the net profits and cashflow further than some back of the fag packet calculations as it's still too early to really analyse. The big thing will be the volatility of income due to the ad-hoc timing and length of the bookings. I will analyse the trend in depth further once I have a few more months under my belt. Interesting side note, airbnb provides some useful tips and analysis such as suggested daily, weekly and monthly rental price to charge based on what other properties in the nearby area are going at. Also you get occasional notification tips pop up. Such as today where I was pleasingly informed that occupancy rates normally increase by 50% during April to September (assuming based on their booking stats)

Certainly looking into this as a serious long term income option in the future. Potentially acquiring a few properties in Asia (purchase or subletting) and managing full time. Essentially like a buy to let except with a much much higher rental return for not much additional input of management time and hassle. Plus you could potentially use the places yourself to stay in as well when unoccupied.