This is it! You finally decided to be an Airbnb host for the first time. If you quit your 9-5 job to do this full time, welcome to the club. If not, well good luck with that. Despite what YouTubers say they are part time host and keep a day job, they are most likely already have experience or partnered with an experience co-host (which we’ll get into later), making it seems like easy and simple. Trust me I thought it was too. Take note YouTubers are incentivized to 1.) get your attention by clicking, and 2.) retain your attention by finishing the video. So, you should take their advises with a grain of salt. Either their listing is just a spare room within their property which they have full control on cleaning, laundry, check in and out of guests, utilities consumption, etc. OR they hired a co-host to perform the entire operation. For co-hosting, usually the split is 70-30 of net income, which is the case in some of my listings.
Hosting 101
If you’re starting with your own property like I did, good! You are in a very good place to start. My advice is you do all the dirty woks personally, at least in the beginning before you hire some staffs. This achieves few things: 1.) You’ll have more empathy with the future staffs you’ll hire. Since you’ll change the beddings yourself, vacuum and mop the floor, scrub the toilet, you will feel how it is to be in the frontline. This is why I let my housekeepers to turn the aircon on during their cleaning session. Yes, they get paid for the labor, and yes, electric consumption will increase. But there was a study I've read, workers perform their duty better in a relax and comfortable environment. So, I don’t mind the extra electric cost if they clean the room thoroughly, which will eventually reflect on guests’ reviews. 2.) You’d know the ins and outs of resources. You would know how fast or slow the consumption of soap & shampoo, garbage plastic, toilet paper, etc. 3.) Experience guests’ behavior first-hand. Some guests are friendly, some are rude. This is a hospitality business so might as well learn how to deal with different kinds of people. Some leave tips and snacks for housekeepers, some steal towels; some are respectful with your furniture and appliance, but there are those break things (mostly by accident). Experience these for like 3 months minimum before posting “for hire”. Though 90 days is relatively short time, this is enough to prompt you to draft house rules. Here are some of mine across all listings:
1. No Smoking. No pets allowed.
2. Do not flush tissue. Clogged toilet penalty = 5,000
3. Dry yourself in the shower area to avoid slippery wet floor.
4. Dispose garbage daily to prevent unwanted pests.
5. Lost key penalty = 5,000. Locksmith service = 2,500
I have few more house rules, however they are not applicable to all, they are property-specific rules, like NO COOKING ALLOWED.
Co-Hosting 101
While I do acknowledge that not everyone is fortunate to start with an extra asset to Airbnb or that their property isn’t allowed by homeowner’s association to operate short term rent (STR) business model. You may now enter the world of co-hosting where you will look for property owners who can align with your STR proposal. Two ways to do this which I’ve done both: Rental arbitrage or profit-sharing. The former is just a fancy phrase for sub-leasing, where I issued post-dated checks as lease payment and absorb 100% of net income. It works well only if you have full confidence that you’re paying less than fair market rent and demand is high in that area. The second way is to enter a co-host agreement where you split net income 70-30. Note that you will face more resistance on the latter since they do not have a fix guaranteed income. Additionally, the people would normally agree to this are those a.) living in the province or abroad and nobody they can trust to manage their property, b.) property is difficult to find a long-term tenant due to location and/or building age, c.) traumatized by bad tenants and wanted to maintain the upkeep of the property but don’t have the time nor energy to do so. There could be more rationale behind why some owner’s will agree to your property management offer, but those 3 are currently the reasons I have co-hosting agreements. It’s worth noting that you will not be on a payroll, hence co-hosting will only be economically sound if you’re reaching a certain quota monthly to cover your monthly cost of living. Otherwise, you must increase the number of listings or upsell something to your guests, like breakfast for Php299 or airport transport for Php500.
10 Common FAQ
If you are already fully set up and want to know some of the best practices, watch this link below. It's a only a short clip so don't expect a lot from it.