How to Start an Airbnb

There are a multitude of steps to go through in order to start an Airbnb business, but here are the top five things to cover. Our CEO, Brian Decker, failed on his first AirBnB in 2016 and has since built a $10M short term rental real estate portfolio, so please make sure you read this!

1. Find a place.

The first thing to consider when thinking about starting an Airbnb is where you'll host your guests. Are you going to purchase a property to convert into an Airbnb? Do you already have an extra space that you'll be renting out? 

If you're considering purchasing a spot to renovate into an Airbnb, you'll want to work with a mortgage or lending company that has experience with short-term rentals. There are a lot of different moving parts that go into taking out a mortgage on a property that you intend on turning into a rental unit, so consider working with seasoned professionals in the business, like the loan officers at Modern Lending. Every loan officer at Modern Lending owns and operates at least one Airbnb rental, so they know all the ins and outs of property management and how mortgages for short-term rental properties work.

When evaluating locations you need to follow these rules:

• You want a location that has year round tourism
• You want to check local and city ordinances to confirm short term rental laws in that city
• You want to use a site like airdna.co to evaluate the best spots within the city to purchase an airbnb
• You want to maximize the beds in your short term rental, more beds equal more revenue

2. Furnish & decorate.

After you are able to secure a location, you'll get to deck it out with amazing decor and comfortable furniture to make it the most desirable short-term rental on the market. Consider opting for a specific theme to differentiate from the competition. People really enjoy staying in special Airbnbs that have themes or that are nicely decorated with a modern layout. This makes the guests' experience special and helps raise your reviews. Guests love experience so make sure you come up with a theme that is instagram worthy. 

3. Build your team.

In order to keep your Airbnb in tiptop shape, you should consider hiring one or more of the following: a cleaner, a handyman, a property manager, a bookkeeper, an email manager, or even a co-host. These different roles can help you stay on top of all the tasks that come along with owning a rental property, especially if this is just a side gig for you. Juggling a full-time job while also maintaining an amazing Airbnb experience can be a difficult task, so these are all great options for people to hire and help out with everything. Our loan officers at Modern Lending can provide you with a list of the best vendors to use when you are pre-approved. 

4. List the Airbnb.

Decide on a reasonable price for your rental, then create an honest listing of the benefits of your property. Consider hiring a copywriter from a freelancing website to write an articulate description of your Airbnb and the experience it's offering. It's also best to hire a photographer to take professional photos of your place in order to have the most visually appealing listing as possible. Also, come up with a fun name to drive as many guests as possible. There are many great services you can use to optimize your listing to appear at the top of AirBnB.com or VRBO.com. You will also want to hire a professional photographer to make sure your photos really pop.  To determine the price you can use a service like Guesty or Usewheelhouse.com to ensure you are getting the maximum nightly rate using their proprietary A.I. technology. 

5. Optimize the listing.

Finally, you'll need to continually put work in to keep the Airbnb bookings coming in consistently. This includes appealing to Airbnb's organic search results. In order to rank as high as possible on the website, you'll need to get high ratings, have stellar reviews, feature beautiful pictures, and enable instant booking capabilities. Eventually, if you have enough 5-star reviews, you'll be able to become a "SuperHost," and have even higher status within the Airbnb community. I strongly suggest using a professional management company for the first 6 months to 12 months to help optimize your listing and get as many reviews as possible. Being a SuperHost will definitely increase your bookings and usually the management company more than pays for itself. 

Modern Lending Loans

Handling all of the logistics that go into an Airbnb short-term rental property can be tough, but if you utilize a company like Modern Lending to help you decipher the financial side of things, it all becomes a little easier and more manageable. Reach out to a knowledgeable loan officer at Modern Lending today to figure out how to take out a loan and start your own Airbnb business today!