Hello my YouTube friends this is Richard founder short-term rental university and
Airbnb super host making this video because I want to encourage you to
transact on platforms like Airbnb and home away and gladly pay their fees so
if you're new around here in the interest of full disclosure I'm not
sponsored by Airbnb or home away or VRB or any of these people I get no money no
compensation no preferential SEO I get nothing from them all I am is a super
host hopefully like you but I'm also a business person and when I take a look
at a lot of the feedback that we get on the Facebook group and so on about how
high the Commission's are and the fees and so on I stop and I scratch my head
and I say it's actually very reasonable in fact I predict fees are going higher
over time not lower so if you have a problem paying Airbnb 3% imagine when
it's 4% or 5% or even higher it's a deal and I want to share with you why so the
first thing I want to do is talk about Airbnb in 3% and what do they actually
provide for 3% why is that a great deal well first off they provide all of the
marketing all the lead generation they have millions of people all over the
world searching for properties in your location and for you to try and find
those same people that are looking for your location would cost you far more
than 3% alone but also they provide a platform a proven technology to cross
buyer and seller or host and guests if you will to transact and that platform
is really important because there are rules and there's a community and there
are reviews and there's processes and it helps set the standard so what are your
check-in rules what are your checkout rules what are your house rules what are
the dates that are being reserved what are your cancellation terms and
fees all of that is put on the platform for the person who's a guest to take a
look at review and accept and then if there ever is an issue and there are
issues all the time it's in writing there's a transaction
you can lean on Airbnb I found them to be helpful sometimes and not so helpful
other times so it's not the best customer service in the world but that
said both parties have acknowledged what the terms of the transaction are it's
like memorialized on the internet and there's no dispute about what your
cancellation fees are or what the term and conditions are it's there if you try
and do it on your own there's likely a lot more time energy emotion uncertainty
and problems if you don't do this on a platform so in my experience the main
reason people object to the fees and try and you know do it on the side is
twofold one they want to save the money on the booking itself and two some
people aren't reporting this in taxes which one is illegal and I don't
encourage it but I'm gonna try and incent you to pay taxes for the right
reason the right reason is you are running a business if you report income
tax associated with that business as you go to grow your business and you require
a loan let's say you want to buy a second property or a third property if
you're paying taxes and you get the 1099 that Airbnb or HomeAway issue at the end
of the year you put that on your taxes when you go to the bank you can show
them the income that you've generated successfully and they can use that for
your financial strength to give you a mortgage however if you're not doing
that you're saving a couple of bucks here and there and perhaps you're not
paying taxes properly when you go to the same bank for the same loan they're
gonna say well where's your experience how much have you made and you're gonna
say well I've been sort of doing it you're probably not gonna say anything
so it's not a good place to be so what I'm going to encourage you to do is to
think like a big business owner as opposed to a small business owner and
say I want to show as much income as possible I want to pay taxes on this
income I want to do so in all the right ways and take the expenses as I'm
legally allowed but I want to show the income so that I can grow my business
and get loans against that income another underappreciated aspect of using
a platform like this is that calendar I've seen many hosts who try and get
repeat guests to book directly on their own website or via PayPal or whatever it
is and they have it on a paper calendar but the Airbnb is on an electronic
calendar and they forget to block the dates and all of a sudden you're dealing
with a nightmare scenario where you might be double-booked if you forget to
block the dates so recognizing that there's a fee it's really minor but it
gives you peace of mind and convenience and it shows you're operating a
legitimate business that's growing and allows you to you know not worry about
lead generation and dual calendars and all this nonsense it's actually a really
great investment especially at 3% I think it's going much higher in
the future Charles says as high as 12% I don't know if he's right or I'm right
but it's definitely going higher so while it's that 3% take full advantage
of it so in closing the point of this is to encourage you to think like a big
business do the right thing for the right reasons it's repeatable it's
sustainable doing it on a platform the right way is gonna allow you to grow
more quickly it may seem counterintuitive a lot of small business
people think that doing the shortcuts and saving a nickel here and a dime
there and so on is the smart thing to do I'm gonna go against that advice and say
it's actually the small thing to do start to think about building something
bigger scale use a platform pay the fee report the taxes and grow I'd love to
hear your comments as to what you think Airbnb fees are going to be in the
future or what you think is fair and what your thoughts are looking off of if
you leave comments below in the meantime please like the video and subscribe
happy hope
you