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"This is a guest post by\u00A0Marshall Haas\u00A0of Need/Want that originally appeared on the\u00A0company\u2019s blog.\u00A0Need/Want makes innovative products that solve problems like\u00A0SmartBedding\u00A0and\u00A0Draft Notebooks.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter the incredible response to Jon\u2019s article on\u00A0buying an apartment to rent out on Airbnb, he suggested I share my experience doing something similar.\r\n\r\nSimilar to Jon, I\u2019ve been making a profit using Airbnb. The difference? I don\u2019t own the place I\u2019m renting out. Most people think the numbers only work when you own property. Here\u2019s my experience renting out apartments for myself, and then making a profit on top of the rent I paid, all using Airbnb. As with most things, it started slow and ramped up. Revenue numbers and pictures are included below.\r\nTo date I\u2019ve rented out apartments on Airbnb in four locations, in three different countries. In chronological order they were:\r\n\r\n\r\n\tSantiago, Chile (x2)\r\n\tSt. Louis, Missouri\r\n\tVictoria, British Columbia\r\n\r\nHow it started\r\nBack in 2011, I was a poor entrepreneur living in South America for\u00A0Startup Chile\u2019s\u00A0round one program. I was funding my company with $40,000. This had to cover my cost of living and a few developers. If you do the math it\u00A0wouldn\u2019t last long. I needed extra cash.\r\n\r\nLucky for me, I found a two bedroom apartment in a touristy area close to downtown Santiago. I used Airbnb as a guest back in the states, but never tried hosting. I thought it\u2019d be fun to see how much money I could make.\r\nApartment #1 in Santiago, Chile\r\nMy first place in Santiago was located in the Lastarria neighborhood. It attracts a lot of tourists, so this was a good start.\u00A0The unit was a 2-bedroom, 1-bath located on the second floor of a residential building. Coffee shops, restaurants, and wine bars were all steps away.\r\n\r\nAirbnb room type:\u00A0Private room\r\nHow did guests get the key?\u00A0I gave them my second set after meeting at the apartment\r\nCleaning:\u00A0I did it myself\r\n\r\nRent including all utilities:\u00A0$700\r\nAirbnb rent:\u00A0$40 /night\r\nFill rate:\u00A0~35 percent\r\nMonthly revenue:\u00A0$425\r\n\r\nMonthly profit:\u00A0-$275 \u00A0(after rent and utilities)\r\n\r\nI lived here too, so this means my rent was now only $275. The initially low nightly rate + fill rate meant there was lots of room to optimize.\r\nGuest bedroom\r\n\r\n\r\nView from the living room window\r\n\r\nBathroom\r\n\r\n\r\nApartment #2 in Santiago, Chile\r\nAfter being in Santiago for three months, I found a 2-story loft on the 17th floor of a high-rise building. The view was awesome.\u00A0The unit was a duplex with one bedroom and one bath upstairs. The kitchen, living room, and balcony were downstairs.\r\nAirbnb room type:\u00A0Entire apartment\r\nHow did guests get the key?\u00A0The apartment had a keypad door lock, so there was\u00A0never a physical key to hand over. All I had to do was email my guests directions to the building, and the apartment\u2019s access code.\r\nCleaning:\u00A0The rent included daily full service cleaning. They even did the dishes!\r\nRent including all utilities:\u00A0$900\r\nAirbnb rent:\u00A0$75 /night\r\nFill rate:\u00A0~40 percent\r\nMonthly Revenue:\u00A0$900\r\nMonthly profit:\u00A0$0 (after rent, utilities, etc)\r\n\r\n\r\nStairs going down to the living room\r\n\r\n\r\nLiving room\r\n\r\n\r\nThe view during sunset from the living room\r\n\r\nApartment #3 in St. Louis, Missouri\r\nAfter Chile, the startup I founded won an\u00A0Arch Grant. As part of the $50k grant, we were required to relocate to downtown St. Louis. My co-founder was from Portugal, so he was away for several months during the beginning while we secured an H1-B visa.\r\nThe unit was a 2-bedroom, 2-bath loft with super high ceilings. It was in downtown in the middle of the entertainment district. The three major sports stadiums were all within walking distance as well.\r\nHow did guests get the key?\u00A0When I rented my extra bedroom I\u00A0gave them my second set of keys. When I was out of town and rented the entire place out, a neighbor friend generously helped with the key exchange.\r\nCleaning:\u00A0I hired a local woman for $50 per cleaning between guests\r\nRent including all utilities:\u00A0$1,300 per month\r\nAirbnb rent:\u00A0$120 /night\r\nFill rate:\u00A0~55 percent\r\nMonthly revenue:\u00A0$1,920\r\nMonthly profit:\u00A0$420 (after cleaning, rent, utilities, etc)\r\n\r\n\r\nLiving room\r\n\r\n\r\nKitchen in the background\r\n\r\n\r\nMaster bedroom\r\n\r\nApartment #4 in Victoria, B.C.\r\nAfter\u00A0selling all of my belongings\u00A0to move to Canada and join MetaLab, I stumbled on a profitable setup. While in Canada, I ran into visa issues and had to return to the states while I waited for a work visa. The problem was I still had a newly furnished apartment. I turned to Airbnb once more. This time with much success.\r\nThe apartment is a \u201Cbachelor\u201D unit, which basically means it doesn\u2019t have any internal doors or dividers, except for the bathroom. It\u2019s quite small, but does the job. It\u2019s centrally located in downtown Victoria near all the local coffee shops, bars, and restaurants. It\u2019s also a five minute walk to the ocean.\r\nHow did guests get the key?\u00A0Two friends/colleagues were kind enough to handle the key exchange.\r\nCleaning:\u00A0I hired a cleaning lady for $70 per cleaning.\r\nRent including all utilities:\u00A0$1,050\r\nAirbnb rent:\u00A0$99 /night + $40 cleaning fee.\r\nFill rate:\u00A0~75 percent\r\nMonthly revenue:\u00A0$2,387\r\nMonthly profit:\u00A0$1,037\u00A0(after cleaning, rent, utilities, etc)\r\n\r\nRecap\r\nApartment #1\r\nMonthly profit: -$275\r\nTime on Airbnb: ~60 days\r\nApartment #2\r\nMonthly profit: $0 (free rent!)\r\nTime on Airbnb: ~30 days\r\nApartment #3\r\nMonthly profit: $420\r\nTime on Airbnb: ~100 days\r\nApartment #4\r\nMonthly profit: $1,037\r\nTime on Airbnb: 120 days and still going\r\nAs you can see, time on Airbnb really affects your ability to make a profit. Many good reviews will start to bump your listing up in Airbnb\u2019s search results. This begins to exponentially raise your fill rate. Once you\u2019re higher in the results you can also start charging more too. Because of this, I\u2019m convinced apartments 1-3 could have been optimized to be much more profitable if they were listed longer.\r\nIn many cases it\u2019s possible to\u00A0live rent free, or even\u00A0make a profit\u00A0on property you rent.\r\n\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/11/26/rented-apartments-rent-airbnb-profit-heres-turned/>