What's up YouTube it's Richard founder of short-term rental university and
Airbnb super host today's video is going to be helpful to you in deciding where
to list your property by type by platform and where I think the most
opportunity is for you to make the most money so let me start off with this
little caveat I think short-term rentals work worldwide it's a global phenomenon
and there's worldwide listings on Airbnb and VRBO and home away and booking comm
and flip key and so on so this works everywhere in the world that said I have
primary experience as a host here domestically and so like the rules of
thumb that I'm going to talk about really are my personal experience here
in the USA I should say I've been a guest I've stayed in many Airbnb Zand I
use Airbnb almost exclusively when I travel internationally so there's a ton
of demand for Airbnb worldwide and don't let me deter you from listing your
global place or your international place on Airbnb or home away or anything else
so in order to try and make this as helpful as possible I'm going to talk
about three different ways to think about it and it's basically the
demographics of the people that you're attracting the location of your property
and then the property type let's start with the first one location the most
important thing in real estate it's probably why you bought your home or
your apartment or your condo you want to be somewhere very specific and you're
trying to attract guests to your place now in my own mind Airbnb has always
been a urban solution it tends to be more popular in denser more urban areas
and surrounding like suburbs around that and in my own mind vacation rental by
owner VRBO or home away has always been a vacation owner in a vacation
destination who's not using their vacation home and wants to monetize it
and they would like to attract other vacation people to that location in
urban areas Airbnb is much more successful for me in fact it's the only
platform I list I'm busy enough and I have never even put an urban apartment
on VRBO maybe I should maybe I will at some point in the future but right now
it's doing just fine on Airbnb and it makes my life really easy it's clean
it's convenient and I'm busy so that's fine
I have other properties that are vacation homes of mine I have one in
Colorado and I have one in Alabama and there I list on both properties and I
get some business on Airbnb but it's maybe 25% which means the vast majority
of my income in those vacation markets comes from vacation families looking to
rent my vacation home and about 75% of my income comes from home away let's
turn to property type look if you have a shared space that's really the bread and
butter of air B&B in the way they launched and originated and I think you
can actually rent some shared spaces on home away but I think that's the
exception and not the rule so by and large if you're sharing of space
I think air B&B is the go-to because I think people that are looking to share
homes and spaces are going to default to Airbnb now what if you have a
single-family home and you're renting that entire property out which is better
Airbnb or VRBO slash home away and in my personal experience again when it's a
vacation rental in a single standalone home turns out that those homes have
typically been rented for a far longer period of time using the traditional
incumbent which is VRBO or home away and so the edge goes to that
finally let's turn to demographic look it should come as no surprise at an
early stage disruptive innovative force like Airbnb is likely going to attract
younger people and so in my own mind I think of Millennials and more innovation
and Laptop road warriors and things like that and or young families like I'd like
to consider myself that are you know hip and cool and looking for new experiences
and so that's sort of whatever I think of Airbnb type guess not to suggest that
HomeAway people don't include some of those trends and ideas but I find the
HomeAway gues tend to be perhaps a little bit older a little bit more in a
certain thinking about when they vacation and how they vacation they've
been vacationing as a family for a long period of time and historically they've
gone to say VRBO and they're not looking for an alternate solution like that's
the default it's worked for them really well they probably vacation in the same
place every single year for extended period of time
and so again I know it's a generality but it seems like you've got two
different camps you've got the younger more innovative people that are looking
for new things and then the more sort of set in their way is happy not looking
for disruption just want the exact same thing at the same price with you know
relatively ease and success and so that's the way it's turned out for me
also I've tend to find I have younger more dynamic people they're visiting me
in more urban areas they're looking on Airbnb they like the user experience
they like the feedback loop with the reviews they like the app and that tends
to be Airbnb and then in my vacation rentals single-family home in vacation
areas it tends to be more established families that really like using the
telephone and there I have a caretaker that will actually speak to them and
walk them through the check-in stages and so it seems to be a little bit more
of the older hospitality versus the newer app mindset if that
makes sense that said the times are definitely changing and we see more and
more people gravitating from the traditional methodology towards the
newer and so I literally see more action going from home away towards Airbnb I
don't know if it's weekly quarterly annually but the trend is clearly that
Airbnb is taking a lot of that space there's a lot more listings there's a
lot more activity there's a lot more price competition and so the disruptive
force is being evermore disruptive so I would encourage everyone
no matter where you are in the world no matter what you've done in the past to
at least add Airbnb again it's a completely free option they don't charge
for the listing so you have absolutely nothing to lose but your time and you
have everything to gain whether it's a slot that you wanted to fill in your
calendar whether it's more income whether it's a better user experience I
personally find transacting on Airbnb much easier and simpler I like their tax
reporting it's just it's disruptive and innovative in a good way and I like that
and so do many of my guess I think if you haven't listed on Airbnb you owe
yourself the opportunity to try and make it your life a little better and easier
and maybe more profitable think about your location think about the
demographics of the people that you're trying to attract and think about like
the type of property that you have and then start there so for instance if
you've got a vacation rental and you only use it a couple weeks a year and
it's a vacation location and you think sixty-year-old families with their kids
are gonna come stay there maybe start with VRBO or home away and likewise if
you've got a one-bedroom in downtown hip urban area where it's close to
restaurants and clubs and so on and so forth and pick a city any city maybe
start with Airbnb and then as you build up your business and you get a little
bit more hosting experience and you want to start to maximize your revenue Crosse
try them on both keep them both live just make sure you sync your calendars
and you don't double booked which is a very common mistake when people first
get started on multiple platforms so just avoid it but get started try them
both and I hope you found this video helpful if you have please leave your
comments and your questions below where do you link what's the percentage of
revenue that you get from Airbnb versus VRBO and like what property type
demographics and location are you in let's just share it let's get it out
there in the meantime happy hosting I hope you liked the video and I would ask
that you please subscribe to the channel thanks so much have a great day
oh and one more thing if you haven't checked out our podcast check out the
links below a lot of great content expert advice information I think you're
really gonna like it thanks
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