Recently I got involved with an exciting concept called “Airbnb Property Management Boston.” I like the thought of an online marketplace where people can rent out their homes and collect their rentals. There are many ways that this works, but the concept is quite simple. I’ll explain a bit about it and why I think it could be very lucrative for real estate owners.
First, I’d like to point out what makes AirBoat different than other online marketplaces for short-term rentals. The airBoat is a real estate brand that allows hosts to manage their listings on a centralized platform. The hosts don’t have to worry about maintenance, security, scheduling, or anything else. The homeowner cares about collecting money and letting the market do all the work.
This brings up a good point. What if you are a property owner and you want to outsource some of the responsibility of your property management? I’ve seen many cases in which a homeowner wanted to outsource but didn’t want to deal with all the hassles of managing a real estate portfolio. Some homeowners would rather leave everything in the hands of the property management company and collect rent from eager guests. It’s a good thing that they can do that, but some people shouldn’t be so willing to give up all the control. Here’s why I think it’s a bad idea to outsource your property management:
If you outsource your responsibilities to an AirBoat property management company, you won’t get full access to the market. You won’t have access to vital information like vacancy rates, average ages of short term rental guests, and average dates of vacancies. With a comprehensive AirBoat package, you’ll get real-time market data, comprehensive metrics and occupancy estimations. However, with a limited management solution, you’ll only be able to access these services during the regular business hours.
It’s understandable thatAirBoat property managers want to keep their customers satisfied and happy. When the weather turns cold, they want to make sure their customers feel warm and comfortable. This is how they get new customers. The most common problem with short term rentals is unfriendly landlords. Some landlords take over the house knowing they’re going to charge high rents and refuse to do repairs. If you choose to outsource Airbnb property management, you may find yourself facing legal issues because the company may not know how to deal with landlords.
Short term rentals aren’t just about unfriendly landlords. There are many other issues you need to consider when managing your own property. Some of the challenges for an AirBoat property management company include: tracking and collecting nightly statistics, documenting income and expenses, and developing customer relationships. AirBoat property managers usually have large teams to deal with these issues.
In addition to all the work involved in renting your property, you may not even be aware of everything going on under the covers. A large percentage of AirBoat rentals are to tourists from overseas. These guests don’t have any ownership rights, but they do have the right to sue if things don’t go according to plan. The AirBoat property managers working on your account should be well versed in these types of lawsuits and should be prepared to defend them vigorously.
AirBoat property managers also need to watch for the ever-present threat posed by squatters. Many hosts in short term rentals go through the process of inviting guests only to have a few show up. After a few weeks, squatters are usually gone altogether. If you want to avoid legal issues with squatters, you need to monitor the activity around your property and respond quickly when someone shows up.
