Airnb

[Viking]

Holiday home owners may be liable for accidents involving paying guests

Holiday home owners and Airbnb operators can be held responsible if paying guests are injured as a result of poor maintenance.
Worksafe has confirmed that, like regular landlords, holiday home owners and Airbnb operators renting out their properties are covered by the Health and Safety Act because they are involved in a business transaction.
It's estimated there are at least 15,000 holiday homes on the rental market and more than 17,000 Airbnb operators throughout the country.
Worksafe chief executive Gordon MacDonald said owners had to manage risks and take "€˜reasonably practicable

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/8599...-paying-guests

So you have been warned. someone is going to get screwed.

[sidinz]

This article has failed to differentiate between the two types of AirBnB hosts - those who rent out a separate property for the guests' exclusive use, and those who rent out a portion of their own home.

[Bobsyouruncle]

It's also failed to apply any semblance of common sense. What a pitiful state we are in.

[klauster]

Well, different issues, the article not explains.
AirBnB guests are bound to a guest agreement.
Renters are bound to the RTA.

If you share your home with paying guests, it won’t be the same letting your house exclusively to somebody who is travelling or renting while e.g. working on a contract.

Using AirBnB for business exposure is for us a great way to fill our accommodations with good paying renters from overseas especially US, CA and Europe. It is a win-win to share higher income with AirBnB instead of using expensive Trademe.

[Dens]

Has anyone had much luck with Air BnB in place of regular tenants?

Hopefully this isn't a redundant thread - I tried searching for 'air bnb' but the keywords are too short for the forum to find. (I'll hyphenate it as "air-bnb" for future searching.)

I recently saw a property for sale in Sandringham that was a 3 bed with a legal 2 bed unit downstairs.
It was too much for me to buy at the moment, but the annual rent it was getting for the 2 bed on air-bnb got the old cogs turning.
The vendor said it was over 90% occupancy throughout the entire year, no real seasonality, and was a bit more than 900pw (48k per annum, from memory) for a 2 bed that's attached to an owner-occupied home.

If you were to buy it and also put the 3 bed on air-bnb as well, it seems like you would have a solidly cashflow positive rental in central Auckland. Has anyone seen or done this themselves? It feels a little like it's too good to be true.

eg. assume 3 bed rents for 1300pw (arbitrarily) + 900pw for the 2 bed = 2200pw. House sold for about 1.7m at auction
meaning nearly 6.5% gross yield.

Thoughts?

[Connor]

Sounds too good to be true.

[Anthonyacat]

Setting any skepticism of numbers aside, you need to be incredibly clear on this point: You would not have a good rental investment. You would have a good accommodation business.

An interesting post on 'the AirBNB experiment' from a blog I read through once says it very clearly. “This isn’t the Real Estate industry. This is the Hospitality industry.”

If you want to own a $1.7m two-unit motel, and get all the plusses and minuses that come with that, go right ahead. It's not for me though, I want to invest for close-to-passive income, not another job.

[donna]

Yes I get doing it maybe on an ad hoc basis for a property you can keep your eye on e.g. probably on your own section. Standards are high so that means lot's of servicing etc and there's all the compliance too. It is a diff business to residential rentals. A friend of mind does very well on AirBnB with a two bed studio (on the lower level) of their home.

cheers,

Donna

[Eugene]

A tenant is doing Air Bnb instead of having a flatmate in the second bedroom. The spare room is large and he has up to three people. He seems to be doing very well.
I would be interested to know if anyone else is allowing their tenants to do this, and any pitfalls.
I am doing well as this two bedroom unit is now let at a more than moderate price.

[Kbkiwi]

At that amount wouldn't you need to be paying GST if using airbnb?

[Anthonyacat]

Yes - short term accommodation such as AirBNB is not exempt from GST as residental rentals are. If your income (not profit, income) is expected to be over $60k you need to register for and charge GST.

[Nick G]

My understanding is it is very hands on as Anthony said so if you want to do it yourself it should be somewhere you can easily, or factor in higher management costs. Also I'd look at what happens if 3x the current number of air bnb listings appear.... efficient market hypothesis right? Where would rents settle to?

[Nice]

Check with your insurer as to what it will do for your premiums also ?

[propertybuyingNZ]

I (me and my wifey) running 4 airBnB's in Wellington and it makes roughly double in rent than a single let.

We got it fairly automated, been away from the country for 6 weeks and these were running fine. We had over 100+ guests and it's not as difficult as people think.

GST comes into play if you reach $60k on the entity running the place and also on your intentions.

Insurance is higher, by about $2k than a normal insurance would be.

Cheers,
Pete

[absoluteproperty]

I (me and my wifey) running 4 airBnB's in Wellington and it makes roughly double in rent than a single let.

We got it fairly automated, been away from the country for 6 weeks and these were running fine. We had over 100+ guests and it's not as difficult as people think.

GST comes into play if you reach $60k on the entity running the place and also on your intentions.

Insurance is higher, by about $2k than a normal insurance would be.

Cheers,
Pete

PBNZ, I am about to drop you a private message - I am interested in comparing notes.

OP, I do AirBnB (among other methods) and find it is a strong balance between risk, real cost of upkeep and reward. It is also a rapidly more competitive business in NZ, and harder to make consistent good money than it was 2+ years ago. It has taken me this long to get things up and running smoothly, with a heck of a lot of elbow grease (yes, you have to scrub the floors after EVERY guest, take out their rubbish and wash their towels and sheets) and additional cost you absolutely would not have to stomach when renting to long term renters. There is also little recourse for damages committed against landlords in this industry, so you shoulder a huge risk with that also. Please consider this path carefully, if you are basing your entire purchase based on an elevated income through AirBnB or similar. There are also regulatory hurdles ahead, with a neverending stream of negative press (I would speculate, because of the Hoteliers association, much like the Taxi federation is fighting against Uber). AirBnB may or may not win in NZ, and the market may be too small for them to care.