Quick update on what we're doing with our townhouse: We've decided to put it up for rent on Airbnb. This is primarily because we don't know when we'll be back. We'd hate to rent it out for a year, only to come back and evict the renters. It'll require a bit more management on my end, but fortunately we have a couple of friends and family in the area who offered to check up on the place.
This move naturally provides us a great chance to purge unnecessary items laying about the house and in closets. We've already made a few trips to the local Goodwill donation drop-off site. Don't be surprised if I'm offering random goods to you when you visit.
Turns out Airbnb is really easy to set up. Their user interface is really straight forward and easy to use, they connect to your PayPal account for quick receipt of payments, they offer to send a free photographer to your place to take professional photos for use on your listing page, and they have a mobile app that helps you manage your listing and communication with potential renters.
There are definitely risks in using Airbnb, but in our case, we're planning on leaving our place in such a way so that there isn't anything worth stealing or that couldn't be replaced quickly and cheaply.
Along those same lines, we have to explore the insurance angle to make sure that we're not voiding any policies or otherwise breaking any contract obligations. We don't want our insurance company to balk at helping us if anything catastrophic were to happen to the house.
If you have any experience and advice for using Airbnb, please do let us know!
This move naturally provides us a great chance to purge unnecessary items laying about the house and in closets. We've already made a few trips to the local Goodwill donation drop-off site. Don't be surprised if I'm offering random goods to you when you visit.
Turns out Airbnb is really easy to set up. Their user interface is really straight forward and easy to use, they connect to your PayPal account for quick receipt of payments, they offer to send a free photographer to your place to take professional photos for use on your listing page, and they have a mobile app that helps you manage your listing and communication with potential renters.
There are definitely risks in using Airbnb, but in our case, we're planning on leaving our place in such a way so that there isn't anything worth stealing or that couldn't be replaced quickly and cheaply.
Along those same lines, we have to explore the insurance angle to make sure that we're not voiding any policies or otherwise breaking any contract obligations. We don't want our insurance company to balk at helping us if anything catastrophic were to happen to the house.
If you have any experience and advice for using Airbnb, please do let us know!
Jessie, I look forward to hearing about your experiences with short-term renting!
ReplyDeleteWe did a trial run a month ago. We rented out our place for the weekend via Airbnb, and we stayed at a friend's place nearby. The trial went really well; our guests left the place very clean, and they even left their own thank you note!
DeleteWe have another prospective customer who inquired about a week-long rental in late Nov. Will let you know how that goes.