Is Airbnb lucrative?

[Anonymous]

If anyone has tried and tested, please let me know if your experiences good or bad.

[Anonymous]

Parents has about a dozen airbnbs in a major tourist destination all high end spots. When factoring in all the costs it was 100% NOT worth it.

They had a team come and do a deep dive on their operations and the conclusion was that it'd make more financial sense to take the money and put it in the market.

Mind you, this was WITH early entry into the tourist town, appreciation on the properties, continuous booking, and paid off properties.

The issue was the guests, management costs eating into the margin, effort to maintain a high rating to justify the higher cost amongst a number of other things.

As you could probably tell, they're pretty well off and have investments in the market which outperformed every Airbnb and then they sold their properties I think 2 years ago now and put the money in the market and they made more in the past 2 years (which we know is unprecedented levels of returns) than they've ever made with Airbnb.

Do your math and see if it makes sense for you!

[Anonymous]

I came to the same conclusion. I inherited 2 properties in Delaware beach area. Not worth renting. Very expensive to manage and maintain.

[Anonymous]

If you do all the management and bullshtt yourself and don't count all that labor then it looks okay. It works for people who don't count the cost of their time in the evenings and weekends. Cleaning, booking, laundry, restocking, repairs, on and on...

[Anonymous]

We rent our place in Rehoboth. We bought in 2020, when prices had dipped during the pandemic, right before they started to rise.

If we agressively marketed and focused entirely on renting, I don't think we'd break even on an annual basis. (mortgage, HOA, repairs, etc compared to rental income).

We bought knowing we did not have to rent, but that renting would free up some cash so we could do other vacations.

So it depends on your defintion of lucrative. For us, renting 5 weeks a summer and making about 10K does feel lucrative, but it's less than half of a break even point.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone for your honesty on this thread!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents has about a dozen airbnbs in a major tourist destination all high end spots. When factoring in all the costs it was 100% NOT worth it.

They had a team come and do a deep dive on their operations and the conclusion was that it'd make more financial sense to take the money and put it in the market.

Mind you, this was WITH early entry into the tourist town, appreciation on the properties, continuous booking, and paid off properties.

The issue was the guests, management costs eating into the margin, effort to maintain a high rating to justify the higher cost amongst a number of other things.

As you could probably tell, they're pretty well off and have investments in the market which outperformed every Airbnb and then they sold their properties I think 2 years ago now and put the money in the market and they made more in the past 2 years (which we know is unprecedented levels of returns) than they've ever made with Airbnb.

Do your math and see if it makes sense for you!

Similar. We’ve got one in Naples FL and even with the real estate boom down there it hasn’t kept up with VOO for the same time period (by hundreds of thousands, too).

[Anonymous]

Honestly no op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We rent our place in Rehoboth. We bought in 2020, when prices had dipped during the pandemic, right before they started to rise.

If we agressively marketed and focused entirely on renting, I don't think we'd break even on an annual basis. (mortgage, HOA, repairs, etc compared to rental income).

We bought knowing we did not have to rent, but that renting would free up some cash so we could do other vacations.

So it depends on your defintion of lucrative. For us, renting 5 weeks a summer and making about 10K does feel lucrative, but it's less than half of a break even point.

These are the people who seem to have the best experience- who rent it out part time or just some years and see it as “minimizing the cost of something we would want no matter what” rather than “turning an actual profit.”

[Anonymous]

It depends. Lucrative compared to what? It's definitely a job, and only makes sense if you are making a very good profit compared to running an LTR which doesn't require constant intervention. Also depends on a type of airbnb, whether it's something more similar to a hotel booked back to back with many guests or more of a longer term vacation rental with 1 month min. The latter is obviously more chill.

[Anonymous]

I have a very small beach cottage (Under 1K sqft) and did a 1031x and have no mortage. The place is booked solid all summer and I have about 30% occupancy the rest of the year. This place is NOT at a beach like OBX, it has visitors year round. Since it is in a "real" town I am not held captive so some sort of management monoply. I have 2 people on call for small things that arise.

Gross Income in 2025 was 77K. Property taxes were 5K, insurance was 1800, utilities and internet was 6400, Shoulder season refresh and updates was 2800. Cleaning fees was 3640 (including some special cleanings). Service calls were $485. However the house got a full gut remodel when we purchased it so we built for durability and low maintenance. We went higher for durable materials.

It works for us, but probably not as well for people who have a mortgage. it also works for us beucase we love the house and would probably be fine if we didnt rent it at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a very small beach cottage (Under 1K sqft) and did a 1031x and have no mortage. The place is booked solid all summer and I have about 30% occupancy the rest of the year. This place is NOT at a beach like OBX, it has visitors year round. Since it is in a "real" town I am not held captive so some sort of management monoply. I have 2 people on call for small things that arise.

Gross Income in 2025 was 77K. Property taxes were 5K, insurance was 1800, utilities and internet was 6400, Shoulder season refresh and updates was 2800. Cleaning fees was 3640 (including some special cleanings). Service calls were $485. However the house got a full gut remodel when we purchased it so we built for durability and low maintenance. We went higher for durable materials.

It works for us, but probably not as well for people who have a mortgage. it also works for us beucase we love the house and would probably be fine if we didnt rent it at all.

Where is a "real" town with beach cottages that's busy around the year, if you don't mind me asking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a very small beach cottage (Under 1K sqft) and did a 1031x and have no mortage. The place is booked solid all summer and I have about 30% occupancy the rest of the year. This place is NOT at a beach like OBX, it has visitors year round. Since it is in a "real" town I am not held captive so some sort of management monoply. I have 2 people on call for small things that arise.

Gross Income in 2025 was 77K. Property taxes were 5K, insurance was 1800, utilities and internet was 6400, Shoulder season refresh and updates was 2800. Cleaning fees was 3640 (including some special cleanings). Service calls were $485. However the house got a full gut remodel when we purchased it so we built for durability and low maintenance. We went higher for durable materials.

It works for us, but probably not as well for people who have a mortgage. it also works for us beucase we love the house and would probably be fine if we didnt rent it at all.

Where is a "real" town with beach cottages that's busy around the year, if you don't mind me asking?

It's in the North End of Virginia Beach (not the Hotel Zone). I'm wall to wall in summer and get people in year round for all kinds of reasons. Believe it or not there are a ton of random events in VB. Also with it being near the worlds largest Naval Base, we have so many people in and out. We are oceanside and people often combine whatever they are in town for for some beach time. Oddly this February I was fully booked. That is a new one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We rent our place in Rehoboth. We bought in 2020, when prices had dipped during the pandemic, right before they started to rise.

If we agressively marketed and focused entirely on renting, I don't think we'd break even on an annual basis. (mortgage, HOA, repairs, etc compared to rental income).

We bought knowing we did not have to rent, but that renting would free up some cash so we could do other vacations.

So it depends on your defintion of lucrative. For us, renting 5 weeks a summer and making about 10K does feel lucrative, but it's less than half of a break even point.

These are the people who seem to have the best experience- who rent it out part time or just some years and see it as “minimizing the cost of something we would want no matter what” rather than “turning an actual profit.”

+1 This is us. We rent 9-12 weeks in the summer and then use the house A LOT in the shoulder seasons and some in the winter. It’s very difficult to turn an operating profit on a short term rental. Renters are really hard on properties and even harder on vacation properties. Your maintenance and turn costs are high as well as management and/or platform like Airbnb fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We rent our place in Rehoboth. We bought in 2020, when prices had dipped during the pandemic, right before they started to rise.

If we agressively marketed and focused entirely on renting, I don't think we'd break even on an annual basis. (mortgage, HOA, repairs, etc compared to rental income).

We bought knowing we did not have to rent, but that renting would free up some cash so we could do other vacations.

So it depends on your defintion of lucrative. For us, renting 5 weeks a summer and making about 10K does feel lucrative, but it's less than half of a break even point.

These are the people who seem to have the best experience- who rent it out part time or just some years and see it as “minimizing the cost of something we would want no matter what” rather than “turning an actual profit.”

+1 This is us. We rent 9-12 weeks in the summer and then use the house A LOT in the shoulder seasons and some in the winter. It’s very difficult to turn an operating profit on a short term rental. Renters are really hard on properties and even harder on vacation properties. Your maintenance and turn costs are high as well as management and/or platform like Airbnb fees.

the platform fees are definitely crazy! Have gotten way worse in the last year. i’m the beach poster above and luckily we’ve had the house a few years and have been able to slowly get to direct bookings for nearly all our repeat guests. This repeat guests also happen to be the ones who take care of the house the most.