Starting a new business

[Ky hills]

We started an Airbnb business back in the winter. Hasn't been any activity until now, other than a cancellation due to weather conditions over Christmas.
If all goes according to plan we are booked through April. Not something I thought I would ever do, but as it came to be it seemed like it made sense to give it a try.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Awesome! We were just talking about that idea the other day.

 

[kenny thomas]

What is an Airbnb

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

What is an Airbnb

Rental house for short stays

 

[callmefence]

What is an Airbnb

Looks like you pay someone to stay the night in the spare room and eat breakfast with them.... I wouldn't like that. From either side of the fence

 

[Buck Randall]

Looks like you pay someone to stay the night in the spare room and eat breakfast with them.... I wouldn't like that. From either side of the fence

Some of them are like that. Others are full houses or apartments maintained just for guests.

 

[Ky hills]

Looks like you pay someone to stay the night in the spare room and eat breakfast with them.... I wouldn't like that. From either side of the fence

Some of the Airbnbs and Bed and Breakfasts are just that. I agree with your assessment, if I am traveling I want privacy, and if I'm home I don't really want anyone else that I've never seen before inside my home overnight, so that type of arrangement isn't for me either. Ours is set up in a completely separate house so that the guests are the only party in the house per booking. With Airbnb the breakfast part is not really a set practice, and up to the individual hosts what they provide, an actual cooked meal isn't required. For an actual Bed and Breakfast, there are more requirements that have to be met in order to provide a meal as part of the package. An extra sink, and a commercial dishwasher is required. We opted to not go that route.

 

[Lucky]

We have friends that built a duplex in their pasture to rent through Airbnb. Gotta admit when they built it I thought they was crazy but, it's pretty much been booked for 3 years now. We are kicking around the idea now.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

A guy up the road in the country type setting has 2 12ft x 12ft cabins and gets $125 a night.

 

[Ky hills]

I admit that when I first heard of the concept I didn't like the thought of it either. The first I had heard of anything like it was back when the World Equestrian Games were held in Lexington KY, not far from here. People were renting their houses out and I thought it was ridiculous concept, but now a days there are quite a few people doing it, and quite a few folks that prefer staying at them over motels.

 

[Brute 23]

We have been discussing doing the same thing. Renters just have too much opportunity to destroy things. If you are not along a party river or in certain areas where you will get party kids the ABB people tend to be pretty decent.

Plus, some of the properties we want to generate income on we want to still be able to use for ourselves or our family and friends.

 

[Lucky]

The folks we know run theirs as a bed and breakfast. They did say it was more work keeping up with than they had planned but are glad they did it. They told me the 2-3 night stays are fine but that several 1 night stays in a row keeps them busy. I'm thinking they had planned on weekenders and the odd ball one night stay during the week but are staying really busy.

 

[Bigfoot]

We had a family member that was completely upside down on their mortgage, and not making it on social security. My wife and I had to buy their home, and kinda let them live there til the end came. We had so much more in it, than it was worth, we tried the airbnb thing, to try and get to the breakeven point. Never had a taker. Finally just took our loss and sold it. It would have been great if it had worked.

 

[Ky hills]

We had a family member that was completely upside down on their mortgage, and not making it on social security. My wife and I had to buy their home, and kinda let them live there til the end came. We had so much more in it, than it was worth, we tried the airbnb thing, to try and get to the breakeven point. Never had a taker. Finally just took our loss and sold it. It would have been great if it had worked.

Sorry it didn't work out. We opened ours in December, and only had one booking that got cancelled thanks to the snow around Christmas. We now are booked through April. Hoping that at that point we will get some more bookings through the summer. I think we are going to need to setup a website and talk with our local tourism committee to reach more potential customers.

 

[Ky hills]

The folks we know run theirs as a bed and breakfast. They did say it was more work keeping up with than they had planned but are glad they did it. They told me the 2-3 night stays are fine but that several 1 night stays in a row keeps them busy. I'm thinking they had planned on weekenders and the odd ball one night stay during the week but are staying really busy.

We have a friend that had a bed and breakfast, he stayed pretty well booked up except during the winter months. It kept him pretty busy.

 

[4hfarms]

I have looked into the RV vacation stays. I didn't want to clean up after unknowns, I already have kids that won't grow up. LoL. So the RV thing is that you pick a nice scenery on your land somewhere and have a water and electric pole set up so they can stay in their own RV. Good Sam had an advertisement looking for hosting farms a few months back. Electric pole with an RV set up was the initial cost then like $20/mo for continous electricity, if I remember correctly. Hook a hose to our frost free and the have water. They were charging about the same as the high end RV campgrounds cost wise, without all the noise. People look for the rural life we have when they are getting away from the city. If it's aproved than good Sam would promote it for free and we wouldn't have to spend on advertising. May be an option for some.... love the scenery on the pics I have seen here on CT.

 

[Little Joe]

I have rent houses and have considered going the Airbnb route myself. I've also got a piece of land away from my home place that has a nice spring fed pond back in the woods that I've thought about putting RV sites on. People could bring their kids and pond fish and if you kept it stocked and the fish fed I think kids would enjoy that, most places around us that have RV sites are on the lake and it's not really a good place to get kids into fishing. We're in a tourists area with a large lake ( greers Ferry lake) nearby and also have the little red river nearby for trout fishing. I've even seen advertisements on airbnb for old school buses fixed up to camp in on a farm for around $100/night.

 

[Brute 23]

I have rent houses and have considered going the Airbnb route myself. I've also got a piece of land away from my home place that has a nice spring fed pond back in the woods that I've thought about putting RV sites on. People could bring their kids and pond fish and if you kept it stocked and the fish fed I think kids would enjoy that, most places around us that have RV sites are on the lake and it's not really a good place to get kids into fishing. We're in a tourists area with a large lake ( greers Ferry lake) nearby and also have the little red river nearby for trout fishing. I've even seen advertisements on airbnb for old school buses fixed up to camp in on a farm for around $100/night.

They do that out in WTX. The hipsters out of Austin will pay big money to sleep in a bus in the middle of hell, basically.

People put up those tiny houses also and do the same thing.

I personally love using the ABB rentals myself. I know people that rent the houses for a month or two at a time. It's still way cheaper than owning houses. That's how I plan to retire... just bounce from ABB to ABB all over the place. Its great for weddings or staying near relatives also.

Once you learn to use the websites that show you all the places it's amazing how many are out there.

 

[RDFF]

Doesn't take long to lose the "peace and quiet", and privacy that we all really appreciate about living out here by ourselves, if the back country is getting overrun by campers and Abnb's. That said, we've got a second farm with an old farmhouse on it that we've considered doing the same with... I've got mixed feelings about it... but like most, in the end, you gotta make that property pay for itself somehow too, and so the dollar wins out in a lot of cases.

 

[dcarp]

Daughter & SIL bought a house very close to the Riverwalk in San Antonio for a Airbnb. It's been booked solid since October. Have to screen the guests to keep out the younger huge party throwers. Due to the location it is an attractive rental. So far it's a good positive cash flow