hey Folks,
I’ve been hosting for over a decade now — 8 active properties, 1,400+ reviews, Superhost for years. I got my first AirBNB-dedicated house in 2019 while working full time at Google, got a few more, and after getting laid off in 2023 I started growing. As an early user I’ve clearly seen a lot of change since airbnb was for friends crashing on mattresses at SXSW… and it’s mostly been good. But now something wild is happening.
I started on low budget and even so my places performed well. Always hovered around 80%+ occupancy with nice but nothing special houses. I was doing well - FMV for my units would be about $1200/mo, but I was making avg $3k/mo on AirbNB. Totally worth it.
Now it feels like guest demands and expectations have shot through the roof, but rates are staying the same or dropping, and fees are getting hire so payouts are reduced. And even though my rates are roughly the same (or even a bit lower) than they were a few years ago, occupancy is down. Meanwhile, new listings are popping up everywhere. The supply is growing way faster than demand.
We’ve been living through an Airbnb gold rush. Businesses and courses have been built around selling the dream: “Rent someone else’s house, furnish it, and make $5K a month doing nothing.” There’s an entire cottage industry of “Airbnb coaches” and “corporate housing” operators teaching people how to do the same thing… and it’s collapsing in real time.
How do I know it’s bad? Get this:
I had a long-term tenant move out unexpectedly, so I listed the home on Zillow. Within a few days, I got about 10 nearly identical messages from people saying, “We do corporate housing for doctors and nurses, can we lease your house furnished and re-rent it mid-term or short-term?”
I let one group try it. They lasted a month, then bailed and forfeited their deposit. Now the same message keeps showing up from 10 other people. It’s the same broken model being recycled by everyone who bought into the hype.
The problem is that even tho demand has grown, supply is growing way faster. How many ppl do you know who have talked about how they wanna airbnb now? Everyone and their mother.
The gold rush phase is ending, and I’m not sure what’s gonna happen, so curious what are you all see and how are you preparing for it?