With an increasing number of uncertainties in the housing market, homeowners are looking for alternatives to traditional term rentals.
Airbnb and other peer-to-peer home sharing platforms are helping homeowners rent out their rooms, granny flats and homes and it’s quickly gaining in popularity as evidenced by the 18,817 active homes in Sydney currently listed on Airbnb.
Traditional managers and real estate agencies are often more concerned with retention with the hope that one day they will obtain a sales listing for that property.
Oliver Lee, who has previously worked on a gadgets blog site and a corporate events company, founded Hostmybnb in 2015 to take advantage of both.
How does Hostmybnb fit in this space?
Lee noticed a gap in the market for home-owners who would leave their homes for vacation or work. Keen to offer a solution, he established hostmybnb.com.au, a property management company that offers a hybrid of short and long term rental options for homeowners.
“Long term leases of over three months occurs during winter, while short term rentals are more popular during the school and Christmas holidays. This flexibility ensures that rental returns are maximised for our clients,” says Lee.
In 2015 Airbnb properties in the city and in tourist or seaside locations had a median occupancy rate of up to 95 per cent while less tourist-friendly locations held an impressive median occupancy of 79 per cent.
“Occupancy rates are based on a lot of factors and not only on location. Seasonality, events and even the amenities offered by a property can affect vacancy rates
“Homeowners can now supplement their incomes when they go on holiday, but currently there aren’t a lot of options aside from getting their family or a neighbour to look after guests, which isn’t a long term solution,” Lee commented.
What exactly does Hostmybnb do?
Hostmybnb helps owners while they are away to rent out their properties for the short term using multiple platforms like Airbnb and Stayz etc.
In a sense it is an accounts and property management for home-owner’s to handle the entire guest experience all guest inquiries, cleaning, property management.
The site is about to offer a new service that combines traditional long term property rentals in the slow months and then short term rentals management during the holiday seasons. It uses advanced statistics to maximise rental prices in a particular area.
“Prices can increase by 300 per cent during the Christmas holidays,” Lee highlighted.
Statistics obtained from Hostmybnb reports on the median AirBNB rental returns in Sydney during 2016 found that a studio can bring in $42,000 annually while a two bedroom can easily earn $61,000.
“A lot of owners come to us without a clue on how to do short term rentals which requires a combination of marketing, hospitality and customer service. Most people do one or none of these things,” he explained.
Lee also pointed out that improper management can invite risk to the property, body corporate and is the reason why there are so many Airbnb horror stories.
The company is self funded and is looking to take on new investors in the next few months. “We have broke even in the first few months of operation and have expanded interstate into Brisbane,” he revealed.
