RENT Magazine Q1 '23

Rewind to the Great Recession of 2008, the year Airbnb was founded. I think many real estate investors scoffed at the idea of short-term rentals (STRs) becoming a truly viable investment strategy. I was one of them too. After all, as an investor, I was going to have to furnish the home, pay for all the utilities, have it cleaned every few days and trust strangers who I’ve only shared a few emails with to stay in my home. HOW TO MAKE A LONG-TERM STRATEGY OUT OF SHORT-TERM RENTALS

Fast forward 15 years later to today and you’d be hard pressed to find an established investor who hasn’t at least seriously considered diving into the short-term rental game. I decided to write this article at the same time I was converting this property of mine into an STR. I thought I’d take you along for a real-life journey of the pros and cons, the value-add strategies critical to success,

management options, and what a possible looming recession means for me and millions of others who operate in this space. According to Airbnb, there are 5.6 million STR’s in 220 countries! Before diving too deep, while I reference Airbnb as the prime example, there are dozens of other STR booking apps out there.

Pros

Cons

You can charge more per day You can make quick market changes according to demand

STRs are not passive Start-up costs of furnishing and upkeeping the property are high

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