First and foremost, let's clarify your biggest asset – the terms of the lease.
Most apartment block leases forbid Airbnb or short-term rental of any kind. While this does not stop people setting up on Airbnb, it’s generally only a matter of time until the building’s management company finds the listing and shuts it down with the threat of legal action and the ultimate threat of forfeiture of your lease. However, the case for allowing short term rentals is strong. Let’s dive into the benefits.
Why Worry About Property Lease Terms?
We’ve seen over the years that building management companies have become much more proficient at finding, threatening and stopping Airbnbs within their buildings. With court case examples to refer to, the law is now much clearer who will win in case of court action.
Now that developers are aware of the short-term rental industry, they are creating new leases with even stricter terms to prohibit such rentals. These leases make it unequivocally clear that short-term rentals are not allowed.
Additionally, the growing presence of on-site concierges is making it increasingly difficult to host properties in these buildings. In fact, over 80% of our lost properties are due to lease-related issues.
If a landlord is already the owner of the property, it’s still appealing to host on Airbnb for as long as possible because the returns are so good. But as an investor looking to buy specifically for short term rental – it doesn’t make commercial sense to take this risk, only to be shut down after three months.
The Case for Airbnb Short Term Rentals
Allowing short term rental within the terms of the lease gives confidence to landlords that their investment can continually reach its predicted profits – allowing the developer to charge a premium for their properties.
Partnering with verified SuperHost and short-term rental experts – City SuperHost – will complete your offering to investors, allowing them the complete hands-off approach that so many require.
Joining forces with City SuperHost will enhance the development’s appeal. As a professional, experienced, and trusted short term rental specialist, we can guarantee to maximise the landlords’ profits, protect their investment with responsible hosting and keep their property well maintained.
We will collaborate with developers to provide accurate forecasts that can be used to inform investors of potential earnings and speak directly with individuals to let them know how we work and how we can make a continued success of their properties.
Leveraging the Benefits of Airbnb Property Management
It’s important that the whole building works in harmony together so that every unit and every guest can have a five-star experience. For example, you wouldn’t want one operator trying to maximise their returns by squeezing 8-10 people in a 2-bedroom flat. They’d be able to charge a higher rate, but it would be at the detriment of other units due to party risk.
Our recommendation is to specify within the terms of the lease a maximum occupancy based on the number of bedrooms. Use this formula: (number of bedrooms x 2) plus 2. This accounts for two guests in each room plus a sofa bed.
Sticking with responsible hosting, City SuperHost recommends to all our landlords that we install a noise monitor into each property. This helps to deter parties and disturbances for other residents. It may be a consideration to make a noise monitor a requirement of the terms of the lease. They cost £180 a year and detect cigarette smoke too. You can find more details about noise monitors here.
Guest vetting is a crucial part of short-term rental, and when done at scale, becomes even more important. At City SuperHost, we have a strict guest vetting process in place to ensure only the correct people are allowed to stay.
Airbnb Hosting at Scale
For blocks with 20+ units, we’re effectively running a mini-hotel, so it makes sense to have an on-site concierge & security. We would include this as part of our service and would request that, if possible, the building is designed with a front desk in mind.
Efficient Cleaning
Multiple properties within the same building means we can beat the competition with competitive cleaning rates. Most Airbnbs are dotted across the city - one in each building - which means a portion of the cost covers getting to the property, paying for parking etc. With on-site cleaners and an area to store linen, towels, and consumables, we’d be able to significantly bring costs down, meaning higher profits for landlords.
Security & Management
With control over the building entry systems, we can enhance the guest experience by allowing seamless check in and check out via coded entry into the building and the apartment doors.
When managing listings, we would also be able to take advantage of hosting them as multi-units. This means we create one listing for each unit type, so we can maximise occupancy, just like hotels do.
Take a look at some examples of our multi-units, which look indistinguishable to guests:
Furnishing
Furnishing units in a similar way will save on costs and help make the properties interchangeable. We work with a fantastic interior design team who can transform these empty spaces into fantastic short term rental properties – tailoring to the exact needs of travellers and ensuring that the design & style gives the ‘wow’ factor both inside the home and online.
Remember, we’re not creating rental properties, we’re creating homes.
Get in touch now to enhance your offering by partnering with City SuperHost.
