Airbnb has everyone and their brother trying to piggyback off their success. There are three basic ways to make money on Airbnb.
You can list properties that you own. This gives you the most control, the greatest ROI potential, but also comes with the most risk.
Which is why a lot of people do rental arbitrage, where you sublet properties with the landlord’s permission. Less risk but a little less earning potential, right?
So a step down from that is bed flipping. That’s what I’ll review now.
Bed flipping is probably the fastest, easiest, least expensive (and therefore, least risky) way for Airbnb beginners to launch their business.
What you’re doing here is just hosting and managing other people’s properties for a cut of the booking fees.
Unlike rental arbitrage, landlords are already sold on the idea. They want to put their homes and condos and apartment units on Airbnb, but they don’t wanna deal with everything that goes into it: learning the Airbnb platform, creating listings, doing customer service, and so on.
But they obviously want some of that succulent passive income that short-term rentals are now known for, right? So they’re gonna want theirs.
Which is why, of the three main Airbnb monetization methods, you’ll likely make the least with bed flipping.
But for all the aforementioned reasons, it’s still a great way to dip your tootsies in the Airbnb water.
Whereas, if you go straight to arbitrage, what if you can’t make it work? You’re still on the hook for that rent payment every month, aren’t you?
And yet, Airbnb management, also called cohosting or, more causally, flipping beds, is no walk the park.
You’re gonna be in constant contact with the property owner, any staff you hire, and then the guests, obviously.
You have to wear many hats. There’s always fires to put out. It can be draining, stressful. Especially in the beginning when you’re trying to do everything yourself to keep your costs low.
Have fun taking that call at 2 a.m. from Andy, who’s been drinking since noon and can’t figure out how to heat the hot tub.
And what about getting these cribs cleaned after someone checks out? You gonna scrub toilets and wash sheets yourself? Doubt it.
But a good cleaning crew will whittle those margins down real quick.
Then you’ll need a handyman.
Software, tools, a bookkeeper, eventually an assistant or two.
As you can see, you’re either gonna hate life or make little-to-nothing until you reach an economy of scale.
You may need to flip dozens of beds dozens of times a month (and put people and processes in place) before you can enjoy both cash flow and lifestyle.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?
Because you first have to earn those headaches. You have to figure out which cities to go into and then somehow convince complete strangers in those cities that you’re the dude or dudette they should trust to manage their properties on Airbnb.
How do you pull this off? Where do you find these folks and then how do you convince ’em to put their trust in you, especially if you’ve never done this before? Wouldn’t they just go with a more professional company?
Every guru with an Airbnb course or coaching program will tell you, “Relax. Don’t worry. Our system will have landlords coming to you, practically begging you to host their properties, regardless of your experience.”
But you’d have to be higher than Snoop D.O. Double G to believe that.
Once you’re inside the training, here’s what they’re probably gonna tell ya: “The workaround is this: hit up everyone you know who has a home or a condo or an apartment and start pitching.”
Right? The reality is always a lot less glamorous than whatever video sales letter you just watched.