Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Dec/January 2020 | Page 53

PROS CONS
Why get one room when you can get a house? One Airbnb imposes a number of additional fees (as, of course,
benefit that hotels will never have. This draws customers do hotels and other lodging providers). Guests pay a
to your offering if your are AirBNB-ing your home. guest service fee of 0% to 20% on top of the reservation
Bigger space for customers
Added fees
fee, to cover Airbnb’s customer support and other
Free listings
services. Prices display in the currency the user selects,
As a host you don’t have to pay to list your property. provided Airbnb supports it. Banks or credit card issuers
Listings can include written descriptions, photographs may add fees if applicable.
with captions, and a user profile where potential guests
can get to know a bit about the hosts.
And, while listings are free, Airbnb charges hosts a service
fee of at least 3% for each reservation, to cover the cost of
Hosts set their own price
processing the transaction.
It’s up to each host to decide how much to charge per
Less certainty
night, per week or per month.
While there is the possibility of making more money
Host and guest protection
As a protection for guests, Airbnb holds the guest’s
payment for 24 hours after check-in before releasing the
funds to the host.
off your house as an Airbnb rental than as a long-term
rental, there are no guarantees. With Airbnb, your income
is more sporadic and less dependable. Your December
income could be twice as high as your July income.
For hosts, Airbnb’s Host Guarantee program “provides
protection for up to $1,000,000 (about 15 million rand) in Less ‘you’ time
damages to covered property in the rare event of guest To remain as one of Airbnb’s preferred hosts, you need
damage, in eligible countries.” to respond to enquires within the time frame of 24
hours. You could be dealing with up to three lines of
More flexibility
A clear advantage of not having a long-term tenant
in your home is the ability to block off dates that your
home is simply not available. When you block off dates
on your Airbnb calendar, those dates become off-limits
to any potential guests. In each of these situations, you
would have no recourse if you were a typical landlord, but
as an Airbnb host all you would have to do is block off
whichever dates you choose.
Control how you get paid
AirBNB guests have to already have paid before they
stay in your home. It cuts out the stress of chasing down
tenants to collect their monthly rental.
No evictions
You’ll rest-easy knowing you’ll never have to deal with the
process of eviction.
With Airbnb, you can still make income from your home
without having to deal with those particular issues.
communication on a daily basis.
This is where a property management company would
come into play.
Inquiries from interested guests.
Necessary information for guests who will arrive
soon.

Issues and requests of guests currently staying in
your home.
Bear in mind business will most likely come in waves.
Sometime the response will be overwhelming and other
days it may feel as if information is flying in from every
direction.
In summary, being an Airbnb host can be rewarding and
a source of passive income. To decide if this venture is for
you, you’ll need to consist which of the pros and cons
matter more to you.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020
51