Meredith Watson
Jul 27, 2017 · 1 min read

Not as easy as it looks.

I’m a “superhost” through Airbnb, and there are expenses to consider.

Hear is a rough sketch of my expenses.

Maintenance is essential @10k year (much more wear and tear to the structure and the towels/linens/dishes/appliances), insurance (not regular homeowners- as they will NOT honor any claims if you are short term renting your rooms) costing @ 6K/yr., property taxes @ 4K/yr, service fees and local bed taxes totaling 16% of my gross (4.8K).

I gross around 30K, yet have expenses at approximately 24.8K.

I’ve been doing this for 8 years, and the short term rental market has definitely been flooded since I started. I’ve never been able to raise my nightly price and last year I lowered my price to keep competitive. I must now book more people for less revenue, but maintenance and other costs remain the same or are increasing. I do have great street cred through reviews, so it is no problem for me to keep the hustle going. And I enjoy it!

It helps me maintain, and pay for my property with income I would otherwise not have. I’m happy it lets me keep my property in desirable shape, and I’m building equity at the same time.

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