Buying apartment in tourist hotspot to do airbnb

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Hollytrees

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We hope to have 200k after the sale of our 2nd house which is an hour away from where we live and intend to invest it in a very busy tourist town nearby. We plan to do Airbnb. Has anyone invested in a property for airbnb and did it work out well?
 
I notice you say, "We". Does this mean you are going to do this full time or are you guys going to get someone to run it?
 
Turning a property, or investing for the purposes of getting in on the Airb&b market is the new craze these days.

My concern would be, if the rules specifically to Airb&b change, and there is every reason to believe this will be likely, will it still sustain as an investment property on its own merit.
 
Which "rules" specific to airbnb are likely to change soon and why?
 
I would imagine that single night lettings for fairly high money might lead to different rates on the property, councils/goverment may see it as a completely different business model to b/b, property standard may have to change, eg, fire escapes, parking, room size, etc. The person running it may have to re-train and if the powers that be decide that anything else needs to change they will introduce new laws pretty swiftly. A lot of airb/b owners have been spouting a fair bit about how much they're able to earn and it has brought attention to that market. We wait and see.
 
In Spain all rental properties now have to have air con and a local representative in case a problem arises. They also have to be registered and with a registration number.
Anything can happen down the road.
 
Some apartment developments are starting to clamp down on owners letting units via the likes of airbnb.

As others have pointed out, this really could cause all sorts of problems.
 
Here is an article from the IT

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/airbnb-ban-for-dublin-apartment-upheld-by-board-1.2835960

I've lived in a few apartments over the years including Temple Bar and it's one thing a person buying an apartment as an investment property for renting to long term renters
But I think I would have a big issue if the apartment next door to me was been used as an Airbnb short let property, mainly due to the increased traffic, noise and not knowing who's next door!!
 
Like the OP,
I have the opportunity at this moment to buy an apartment in a very popular tourist town in Ireland. My first thoughts were for it to be an Airb&b investment, to get on the merry-go round.
The fact that work colleagues, my mate the taxi driver, and relatives are all talking about the same "new" get rich quick scheme, and imo its day has come, and Im happy to let it slide.
As above posters have said, changes to the rules are more likely to happen than not.

Btw, this place would not be profitable as a long term contract letting.
 
I havent read or heard anything to suggest the "rules" around airbnb are going to "change" anytime soon. Fundamentally, and aside from the anecdotal stories mentioned above, its a good concept that allows joe soap earn a few euro extra from his spare room at a rate agreed with the renter.its also, imo, wrong to suggest that airbnb rentals are contributing to the homeless crisis, which is something that has been in the media recently. I say leave airbnb alone, in general its doing no harm. Theree might be exceptional examples where an apt is being let continuously to different people amd this is causing grief for neighbours etc (temple bar examaple) but thats something that should be sorted out at a micro level not a macro policy level.the government etc should concern themselves more with facilitating the supply of houses.this is why i dont see any airbnb rule changes coming down the tracks.
 
This kind of thing will always make money for professional operators with backgrounds in the hospitality & self-catering sectors. It is perilous ground for novices.

Talk of the State clamping down on Airbnb is just guff. They'd never get away with that.
 
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jim said:
imo, wrong to suggest that airbnb rentals are contributing to the homeless crisis, which is something that has been in the media recently.
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I think it has some merit, and is at least affecting the number of properties available for rent. The reports back in April pointed to only 4 properties being available to let in Swords down from a pre-airbnb typical figure of ~250. At the same time, an airbnb search stopped at the max 300 results for short term lets.
 
Leo said:
At the same time, an airbnb search stopped at the max 300 results for short term lets.
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In Swords?

Only 3 in the Swords area listed when I searched just now for Swords for 26-29 September. One of these is described as being in Malahide.

A search for 16-18 October (being "Days with a ·dot have the most available homes") shows 9 properties in Swords.
 
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Its the Novices who are driving the popularity or the Airbnb, and its only Guff untill new rules and regulations are brought in. Also, to say it hasn't or will not effect the availability of properties to rent long term, is sticking ones head in the sand.
 
LS400 said:
Its the Novices who are driving the popularity or the Airbnb, and its only Guff untill new rules and regulations are brought in. Also, to say it hasn't or will not effect the availability of properties to rent long term, is sticking ones head in the sand.
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It's actually the demand from tourists that's driving Airbnb's popularity. This isn't happening in isolation, hotels and B&Bs are doing well too.

Our strong tourism sector is a great success story for our economy. Thankfully, the government cannot afford to wreck it.

Airbnb wouldn't be mentioned as an issue had not a deliberate and co-ordinated government policy strategy made such a disastrous mess of housing supply.
 
Airbnb has nothing to do with the homeless crisis. The crisis is a result of a lack of affordable and suitable housing for those the are homeless and this is due to a combination of government policy and builders not building. the root causes of the crisis is here, not with not airbnb.

Airbnb is somehow being made a scapegoat in all of this and its wrong to even suggest that airbnb is contributing to the crisis. Its not. in the same way that joe soap deciding to rent his spare bedroom to a student is not contributing to homelessness. Its simply the choice of individuals as to how they rent their spare room. The reality is the vast majority of airbnb hosts that are renting a room in their house to a tourist for 1 week at an agreed price (and is paying tax on this) are simply supplementing their income in a way that benefits them the tourist and the government through tax. They would not ever have rented their room to a homeless person or family so its not comparing like with like.

The homeless crisis is a far bigger and wider problem that needs to be solved by building appropriate housing and the government making appropriate policy. Airbnb is not the cause nor the solution and to suggets that it is is wrong.
 
T McGibney said:
In Swords?

Only 3 in the Swords area listed when I searched just now for Swords for 26-29 September. One of these is described as being in Malahide.

A search for 16-18 October (being "Days with a ·dot have the most available homes") shows 9 properties in Swords.
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Yes, but as I mentioned, the numbers are from April.

I've just run a Swords search for 16-18 Oct. on airbnb and it lists 51 results for entire home, 300+ total results, though not all are actually in Swords.
 
As referred to above, Airbnb seems to be a very hot issue in some parts of Spain at least, with street protests and occupations. There was a head-honcho from Airbnb interviewed on the box about this recently and he said he recognised that there were some problems. He attributed this to it being a new business model and that regulations had yet to catch up with it properly. In relation to the Spanish situation he seemed to be advocating that people involved in letting multiple units should be restricted.

It seemed to me that Airbnb recognise that some form of regulation is inevitable and they are trying to get involved so as to influence (ie, restrict) it. But if Airbnb themselves are calling for regulation of some kind , it does seem inevitable somewhere down the line.
 
Leo said:
Yes, but as I mentioned, the numbers are from April.

I've just run a Swords search for 16-18 Oct. on airbnb and it lists 51 results for entire home, 300+ total results, though not all are actually in Swords.
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Quite. Almost all the results I get when I run that search are not in Swords. Some are as far south as the IFSC.

You said earlier that Swords had 300 short term lets.
 
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