Hey guys, Sharon from digital nomad quest and this is Charlotte. We love real estate. Today we’re gonna talk about why we’re having problems with our Airbnb and how we lost an Airbnb guest. Now if you guys are new to this channel welcome I’m all about teaching y’all how to build passive income, become financially free and design your best lives. If you guys are interested in that, make sure to subscribe and hit the bell button to notify my latest videos. And make sure to subscribe to Sean’s channel where he talks all about real estate investing.

So if you guys didn’t know already, as a quick recap, we actually moved to Dallas, Texas from the Bay Area, California. And we decided to Airbnb our place in the Bay Area. And it makes up for both mortgages of our Dallas property and our barrier property. So if you guys want to see more about this Airbnb house hack, go ahead and check out my previous videos where we talk all about it. We’ve had three guests come into our property so far, and they’ve been 30 Plus day bookings. But that last guest actually decided to leave early. So we wanted to go over the story from the start of this Airbnb to kind of where we’re at now. Well, let’s go over the first booking we had some friendly guests. We had some interns, right, who are interning for Tesla, you actually met them. What do you think of them? Yeah, super nice kids, they were still in college. They’re excited to be in the bay area to work on a big company like Tesla does.

We come back all the time, because the water coming from the shower and the new bathroom installed wasn’t hot enough. And so I went there to meet them and fix them the plumbing. Yeah, very nice. People enjoyed having them. They were really chill in bathrooms at all. Basically, their booking was from November 1 to December 22. And it was good thing that we had our first trial while we were still in the Bay Area, because if there was any issues, we were there to oversee now that we’re over in Texas a little bit harder to manage these properties. The total paid by the guest was $8,796.32. And we received $7,713.44. So for 51 Nights, it was about $151 a day times 30 would be around $4,537. Now after this booking we were really excited, we decided to boost the price a little because the price of our home is actually lower than the market average.

But once we boosted it, I started worrying that we weren’t going to get other reservations since our first reservation ended on December 22. We had about two weeks we had no activity and we believe was primarily due to the holiday season. You know, there’s a lot of people who are traveling to the Bay Area who want to stay 31 plus days, especially during the holiday season. And during that time, we actually got approached by several guests who wanted to rent our place. But they’re offering us the low what we’re asking price was so they’re effectively low balling us. And they’re also asking us to book two or three months after our current date. So we will be locked in on a lower price two months out, we’ve actually decided it wasn’t really worth it. So we decide to pass on these people. Yeah, also, because if they book into the future, that means time windows could be weird, right, we have to make sure that they book actually 31 nights because of the city regulations, we kind of told these guests that if they wanted to book maybe wait a little bit later, and we can talk about a discount. But we decided not to go with these guests, because they never followed up after basically with a 31 day minimum, it’s really hard to just fit the gaps. So we want to minimize the amount of dead space as possible.

So I was worried I’m like the more anxious type I feel like you are the more like, Don’t worry, it’s going to be all good, right? So I was basically like we should lower the price. You were saying once January rolls around and we still get bookings, then maybe we can lower the price to try to get more guests. So January 2 comes around, I’m like, let’s just lower the price is not happening. And then literally that day, we get a booking for the next day, which is amazing. So for this booking, it was from January 3 to February 3, they actually decided to extend it to February 6, and they paid $6,282.53. And we received $5,509.12 for 34 Nights, which was about $162 per night, about $4,861 per 30 days. So we’re kind of increasing it slowly and it’s still working out. So we’re really excited. And then following that we even got another booking so we’re super excited.

It was for February 10 to March 13 31 Nights $5,052.98, which is around $163 per night. So is that $4,890 per 30 days. So now we’re like sitting pretty feeling really good or like we got these two to three months booked out so we can just relax, right? But things start to go a little bit wrong. So our guests from January to February, were great tenants they wanted to book even longer than are a lot of timeline. Unfortunately, we already had the second booking so we can’t just kick someone out because and also stay longer. So we told him sorry, we can’t leave but then he had a family emergency that required them to stay even longer than your initial checkout date. So we’re really pushing on that timeline before we had almost a full week to do the full cleaning to make the place rent ready for the next guest but because of the delay, we actually only had 24 hours to completely clean the place and make it ready for the next guest. This guest basically said they drove down to SoCal to handle the family emergency but they left everything at our place.

And they’re like oh, we just need to extend it because you know, our all our stuff is there. We can’t clean it. We’re like we can’t do that because we have guests coming in. But you know we’re on the phone talking about it and seemed at first, like they didn’t want to change things. And it was going to be difficult for us were like, maybe we can move some of this stuff to the downstairs area to accommodate, but they’re like, No, don’t touch our stuff. So it was like a whole thing over there. But they actually did come back so that they could move out. But we did have some difficulties in communication where we’re letting them know, okay, well, checkout date is this date, and they’re like, We need an extension. So we’re like, okay, we can extend to 5pm, like you guys requested. And then the next day, they’re like, We need until 8pm, just the tone of the voice was not very friendly. And we felt like, well, like, we don’t know where communications broke down thing about Airbnb, like, you’re very much in the service industry.

So you always make sure that the guests feel happy and good about your place. So they can give you a good review. And you can continue having more business, if you have bad reviews on Airbnb, basically things your entire listing. So so that’s one of the downsides of hosting an Airbnb, you have to really cater to these people who are renting your place. And even if they’re a little bit unreasonable with their demands, they’re always going to be right. So you have to always concede to them and make them feel like the best. So yeah, the communication there was kind of strange, because we didn’t say no, we can’t do 8pm. But they just came at us, like you need to understand we have this family emergency, you need to be more considerate, but we can accommodate and we can talk to the cleaners and see if we can do a later cleaning time. So hopefully that went okay. Hopefully the guests understood where we’re coming from. But anyway, they moved out. And then our cleaners went in, they found that there was you know, kind of a little bit of a mess. And then the middle of the night she was cleaning the place, the drains were clogged and things were overflowing, she had to call a plumber at the very last minute. So that obviously costs some money cost $200 For him to come in and do like a 24 hour kind of drain cleaning.

They found a lot of toilet paper wipes, they found a lot of like hair in the plumbing. Luckily, it was all cleaned up by time the new guest came in, but we already worried like, well, there’s something wrong there pipes, possibly because of what the past guests was flushing down toilets. So initially, we’re like, Okay, this is like the cost of doing business. Okay, we’re gonna pay an extra $300. For this issue. I feel like normally this issue would have cost like 100. But because it was like an emergency 24 hour service, we did get up charged, so we paid a little bit more. So we thought everything would be okay, because we actually created a checklist for our Airbnb cleaners. And we also gave it to my dad who actually went and checked every single item on it, everything seemed to be good. And he even FaceTime this to show us the property and everything looked okay, so this was the middle of last week. And we thought that that quote, unquote nightmare was over where we had a guest wouldn’t leave, they actually did leave. And then the place was a mess. It was all fixed plumbing issue. And then good thing, the plumbing issue happened during the turn so that with a new guest came in, there should be no more issues, I think spotless, everything’s perfect.

And they’d have a great month ahead of them. But unfortunately, maybe two or three days and the guest already experienced problems with the plumbing again, the bathtub wouldn’t drain, the larger machines start overflowing, and then twice would flush, either we call the plumber again, they went and fix certain things. They’re like, you know, we need to put a camera down the pipes to check what the issue really is. So they went and my dad decided to go and check it out while they’re doing it so that they could oversee everything. But the guests basically had to move to their parents place, I think five minutes away or something like that, so that we can check this issue. So it was just a huge inconvenience for the guests. But she was super nice about it. But they fix the issue. It seemed like so the guests could go back in and we thought everything would be okay again. But then the very next day, she told us the same thing happened. Things weren’t draining, right. It was actually a weird sewer smell.

And suddenly there was mosquitoes in the home when I was thinking, oh my god, maybe there’s something wrong with the drain pipe itself. And then the plumber actually went back, take a look at it and told us hey, these dream pipes are actually broken. We need to go inside and dig everything costs another $3,000 or so to do this work. I’ll probably take two days putting the gas back and forth. She said, You know what? I had a newborn baby. There’s too much issues going on here. How about we just ended this weekend, and then you know, we’ll just call it quits. Luckily, she’s very nice. She said, we’ll leave you a good review. But you know, with a new baby, it’s just too much things to handle. And we have to part ways. So when we read those messages, we were really bummed. You know, we thought these guests are super nice. And we really wanted to have a nice day for them. But unfortunately, they had to call it quits a lot earlier. So that essentially meant that we needed to modify the reservation. So we had to speak with the Airbnb support team. We made the reservation shorter to basically the end of this weekend. And then we basically have to pay them back $3,100 or so instead of us sending them money. They’re basically going to take that money from our next reservation, which we do actually have another reservation coming up on June 11 to August 28. This one’s going to be $13,277.36 as the total payout.

It’s a little bit higher for the price per night because we did increase it a little bit especially for the summer months. We thought we could increase it a bit. I think it’s actually still a bit below market average. But I think we’re happy with what we’re getting so far. But one of the worries now is we have to do this $3,000 repair we also will need Some time to take care of it. So they’re going to go in and work on that Sunday, like this weekend after the guest leaves. So hopefully the situation gets fixed, we’re gonna still have to do all this remotely right? We are still in Dallas, this property’s in the Bay Area, we have to essentially coordinate a lot with our cleaners as well as my dad to help out. So we’ll see how long this takes before we make it rent ready again for a new guest. So we’re probably going to block off some dates so that people can’t book it until we have it already. And then we have to go about finding another guest to place the last time so before we had a booking all the way till mid March, and now our bookings are over until February 20.

Yeah, we were freaking out a little bit Sean’s definitely freaking out. He was like, Maybe I should just fly back right now. Like, let me just go book a flight, but we decided not to do it. Now. I think everything’s gonna be okay. Especially because we do have kind of like a boots on the ground team. Some tips when you are managing remotely, especially that you should have cleaners that can be like your eyes on the property, they are going to be talking to you about like, if there’s any issues. For example, this plumber was actually there connection, which was really helpful. So they have certain connections that they can call in order to help fix little problems in the property. And as a backup, my dad luckily is nice enough to go in and help check it out sometimes when we do need it. But ultimately, if you can have those cleaners that can really help you report everything wrong with it, take photos, every turn, go down your checklist and see like if there’s any issues and just like report back to you really promptly, that’d be really important. One of the things is with Airbnb, I believe they have 24 hours for you to write any claims or anything like that, that if there are any damages, they can help reimburse.

So they need to contact you ASAP. Another good thing is having a sop or standard operating procedure, because that way, it keeps everyone on the same page, before we had our cleaners go in and clean the property, she would just do her job. And when we go inside, we know that all these little things are missing, like the dishes wouldn’t be stocked, right? Or there’d be some dirty stains on the couch, we would have to point those all out. Whereas now we have them all on a checklist on SOP so that she can finish her job, then go through the checklist and know that these are things that we’re actually looking out for and there’ll be all done good. Also get that list to someone who’s a boots on the ground team, like her dad to go inside and double check the claims work and make sure that everything was done. So without list. This turn was perfect, right? We had no go backs with our cleaner, and then nothing was good to go. Yeah, another thing is when you are managing remotely.

In this case, basically, the guests needed to leave for a bit to their parents place and the plumber came and they’re like, is there anyone home we realized no one was home. And we had to communicate with the guest and see if it was okay for the plumber to get another code. So they can go in for a little bit. And they said yes, but just make sure that that code, you delete it, they were worried about their belongings. So that’s why my dad actually decided to go and like oversee things a little bit. But having those locks that you can change all the time is really important when you are managing remotely. And same thing with having cameras. So we do have a nest doorbell camera and very front so I could see everyone walking in and out of the property. And I also notice Oh, are they carrying someone’s like stuff like how they stealing things from the house, obviously, like they’re professional, they didn’t do that. But we at least have that footage in case something to happen. If you are going to have security cameras on your Airbnb, you just need to make sure you note it on the places that Airbnb requires it.

So you can’t just like put cameras wherever you want to. It’s definitely not okay, you have to outline where you have them. So for us, it’s like the front door and then like the backyard I believe, and also one inside on the downstairs area. So essentially, and these cameras has helped for us to keep everything safe, essentially, you know, going forward, we are spending a bit more money on Airbnb, like we are going to be putting in AC unit because in the summer months, it does get a little bit hot, it’d be good to have some cooling there. But we’re going to be doing that in mid March when we actually fly back to the Bay Area for our wedding ceremony. One of the things actually thought about and my dad kind of brought up to is like, Would you prefer to just do a long term rentals since you know these issues might come up? And would it be easier to manage?

We were kind of talking about it. But I think ultimately we think this is the way to go Airbnb like we already have the place furnish. And normally when you rent it out to long term tenants, they usually bring their own stuff, they bring their own furniture, we don’t want to go and work on clearing out all that stuff. And also for our area, I think the average monthly rent would be 3000 to $3,500. With this Airbnb right now we’re doing 5000 And up and we do believe we can boost this number as we get more rating.

Now the good thing is with this kind of structure, we’re only committed on a month to month basis. So if we ever decide if we want to move back, our home isn’t locked into a 12 month lease to someone who’s renting out long term the issues that we had would have happened anyways with a long term tenant or short term tenant and the cost would have been the same so there really is no difference in that scenario. So ultimately, this is kind of the story of how we had problems with our Airbnb so far, but I think everything should be smooth afterwards. Let’s just you know, hope that everything will be okay as mentioned a lot of these repairs that we’re going to do like adding the AC unit and kind of fixing the plumbing issue like this was stuff we’re going to have to do no matter what.

To me honestly, this is like a good learning process. So we plan to do more Airbnb ease and short term rentals while we’re here in Dallas. That was like a big reason why we’re here. We just think the short term rental game is fun. And also, you know, a good lucrative side hustle, it does require a lot more maintenance, as you guys can see, like, we’re constantly talking with the tenants and the guests to make sure that their experience is really good. That’s also really important. Another tip, right, you have to make sure you’re timely with your responses. So make sure you turn on your notifications on your phone to respond to those messages. But even though it’s more involved, it’s actually really fulfilling to see when they enjoy their experience, for example, the first guest they really had a good time and rated us really well and complimented you a lot and manage the property a lot. So that was a really nice kind of feeling to make a nice day for our guests.

So we hope that this will continue. We’re learning a lot so far and I think we can apply it to our future ventures. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Let me know in the comments below what you guys think make sure to subscribe hit the bell button to be notified of my latest videos and make sure to subscribe to Sean’s channel where he talks all about real estate investing and we’ll see you guys in the next one.