Over the last couple of years I've made money on Airbnb, both as a host and a co-host. I’ve also co-hosted for some friends as well as running units of my own in New Jersey. In my experience, vacation rentals are the most lucrative way to generate rental income with any type of rental or standalone unit in today's market. I've taken studio apartments from the ghettos of New Jersey that should make $600 a month and had them generating over $2000 a month. I’ve also had duplexes from Dania Beach Florida that normally make $1700 a month, and instead, they've made almost $7000 per month during high season.
Paying close attention to the value that tourists place on vacation rentals can be very lucrative. And the hottest thing that I’ve discovered most recently is acting as a VRBA.
I was living in Colombia for a few months and began browsing the apartments for sale. As a digital nomad, running my business from a laptop, I’ve lived and worked in some beautiful places. But I've really fallen in love with Colombia. So much so that I’ve decided to live there for a few months every year. I started researching Facebook Marketplace to find an apartment to buy and I found was a tremendous amount of beautiful apartments at great prices. What I wasn't prepared for was what I found with vacation rentals.
I couldn’t believe how many local owners there are that don’t know what tourists are willing to pay for vacation rentals in their area. I found vacation rentals that were priced on Airbnb between $1600 and $2400 dollars a month, while on Facebook Marketplace I saw prices for comparable rentals between $600 and $900.
I remember thinking “This is unbelievable! How can these guys be priced so far below what the market is willing to pay?” I thought “Imagine if someone decided to middle man(or co-host) between these guys and the tourist market? They would make a killing and the property owners would be ecstatic because they would be able to get more business at full price without paying commissions!” But then I thought, “Why just imagine? It’s a no-brainer for everyone involved and each agreement is worth about $1000/month in passive revenue. Get moving, Nick!”
So I began connecting with vacation rental property owners and acting as their booking partner so I could make more money while removing all of the headaches that come with co-hosting. There is simply not an Easier, Faster, Cheaper OR MORE SCALE-ABLE
way to make money in this business today! Or anywhere I think!
