6 Lessons First 6 Months Owning an Airbnb
I’m going to be honest…there are days I love owning a rental property and other days, the thought of having two mortgages keeps me up at night. It’s been A LOT of hard work mixed with a little fun. And we’re sure that will continue but we're hoping for more fun and less work as time goes on ;)
Here are the first lessons learned…
Hire (Good) Help: We were going to do the cleaning ourselves. That got old quick. Then we hired a cleaning company that appeared to be great. But after a quality check, we were so disappointed. Cleanliness is a top priority with vacation rentals, and it just wasn’t up to par. I’m talking hair in the shower (ew!). Periodic quality checks go hand in hand here.
Hide a Spare Key: Someone will lock themselves out sooner or later. We had it on our list to put an extra key at the cabin but waited too long and got the call on a Friday night that our Guest was locked out. 3 hours of driving later after a long day of work for Tom and we learned our lesson.
Consider Your Neighbors: What our neighbors would think about the cabin becoming a short-term rental is something I didn’t consider prior. While our neighbors would have rather had just us at the cabin, they were understanding that we’d be renting it out. I’d recommend having an open conversation with the neighbors before your first guests arrive. We plan to make sure our neighbors know how much we appreciate them with little gifts here and there 😊
Provide Clear and Concise Check-Out Instructions: We got a little too wordy at first and then broke the instructions down. People don’t like to read. So, keep it simple to help ensure the rules are followed. And take note of things you need to add later. For example, we had people throwing loose trash (diapers, sandwiches) unbagged in our outdoor trash bins. Yuck. We added a note right on the bins to make sure everything is bagged. It’s the little things.
Create a “Someday” List: We want to do EVERYTHING. For example, our cabin came furnished but I wanted to buy all new stuff. I had to reign myself in and pick key pieces to keep while layering in décor to fit the cabin's aesthetic. Before going crazy with Amazon purchases and Pinterest projects, we reminded ourselves the cabin is a long-term investment, and we can improve it year over year. We created a ‘catch-all someday’ list to force us to take a step back and do the priority stuff now and the fun stuff later. The list makes me feel like the ideas won't be lost and someday we can choose what we want to do.
Don’t Get Too Attached: The first time we had renters was rougher than planned. We spent weeks at the cabin getting things ready. It felt like ours and having strangers there made us uneasy. We worked on changing our mindset…we love this place and have an amazing opportunity to share it with other people. Many other couples and families have already made great memories at the cabin and that is awesome. Plus, we need to rent it in order to afford to enjoy it ourselves. That’s life!
So many great lessons learned in such a short time and a good reminder that the only way to succeed is to fail. These first lessons were born from mistakes. And while it terrifies me to think about making more, potentially bigger, scarier, costly mistakes…I’m sure we will. And you know what? We’ll learn and grow from those too!
Cheers to (trying) to embrace failure.
Are you considering an investment property? I’m always available to chat about the market and our experiences.
