What fees does Airbnb charge?

If you are a real estate investor, or just a person with a house that you don't use at 100% capacity, you may have about Airbnb and it's many uses

 We sometimes installed real estate posts for the rental market, and not just realtors. Rental companies and property management companies use us to put up there "for rent/lease" signs in Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Toronto, and Calgary 

A few of these companies have transitioned into renting via Airbnb. While working with them, this is what we learned about Airbnb fees

 To help cover the costs of processing guest payments, Airbnb charges us hosts a 3% service fee every time we have a reservation that is completed. The amount of this service fee is calculated from the reservation subtotal (before fees and taxes).

To help cover the costs of running Airbnb, will also charge my guests a service fee every time a reservation is confirmed. The amount of this service fee varies and is based on a percentage of the reservation subtotal (before fees and taxes).

The exact amount of the service fee is displayed before guests confirm a booking. Guest service fees are typically 6-12% but can be higher or lower depending on the specifics of the reservation. The higher the subtotal, the lower the percentage so you can save money when booking large reservations.

Now you will ask yourself, why does Airbnb charge the host less then the guest? ( when visa does the opposite and charges the merchant a fee but not the customer)

Airbnb does this to keep the incentive high for hosts to list their places, to ensure a high supply of units is available. A high supply of units will drive down the price for guest anyways, and ultimately make the TCO ( total cost of ownership) lowest for the guest in the long run

Tips for entrepreneurs

When we were just installing a handful of real estate sign posts a few weeks back in Pickering, we got stopped by a young man (about 12) who began chatting with us.   He was very curious and it wasn't long before he was asking us on tips about being being an entrepreneur. Here's what we told him. 

1. Do what you love

Your passion for your product or service will keep you motivated and get you through the tough times. Our focus has been Durham real eatate post installation 

2. Stay focused

We live in a world full of distraction, and a world of people/ business fighting for our attention. Keep focused on your main goals, and set yourself benchmarks that you can hit in order to track your progress. Set both short, mid, and long term goals

3. Find a mentor

Mentors can be crucial for you to both start, grow, and exit your business.Having a mentor who has insights and information gained from their past experience as well as existing contacts in their back pocket, will help you shorten your learning curve significantly.Mentors have learned form experience and can help you compound your efforts faster, as well as save you countless dollars by preventing large mistakes

4. Know when to quit and focus elsewhere

To succeed most of us will need to fail. ( and fail). You shouldn't give up at each failure, but you should know when to cut ties with an idea, project, marketing plan, product, etc in order to prevent yourself from spending all your valuable ( and limited) resources on things that wont come to fruition. DO NOT let your ego get in the way

5. Get used to hearing no

1. Let “no” serve as a motivator. If you don’t get that new job, new customer, new product made, new idea pushed forward , if you lose work to another 15 year old, then vow to win / achieve your plan the next time. Make a plan for how to do it different, better than you did last time. Use the “No” you will constantly hear to fuel your drive to achieve a “yes”

2. Let “no” keep out the other people who don’t want it as bad as you do. Remember, when you’re hearing “no”, so is almost everyone else. When other people hear “no” too much, they quit, defeated, never to return again. Don’t let that be you.

Do not be afraid of rejection, failure, and hearing “no” ( no matter WHAT you pursue or go after, from dating to work to family and business dreams) 

What's a trick when vetting your potential real estate tenants

We vet our tenants via

1. credit checks
2. Reference checks
3. Interview and gut feeling

There are many more ways, but instead of getting Into those, I'll show you what to do when you want to make sure the tenant provided an actual “previous landlord” reference and not just the name and number of a family member or friend

Ask your tenant for the name of the home/condo owner, and then call them asking “How much is the rent for the condo/house you’re leasing?” There’s a good chance you’ll catch the friend/relative off their guard and they may say “I don’t have a place for rent.”

Tenants and vetting process  

Tips on getting out of a rental agreement (lease)

Here are some options:

1. Be open with the landlord. If you have to leave your apartment because you’ve accepted a job offer in another city, talk to the landlord about your situation. He or she may also be interested in this idea and it may be mutually beneficial to the both of you. Just make sure you get it in writing.
2. Sublet. Find someone to take over your lease. The person stays there and pays rent place while you’re away, but you keep the leas
3. Is the apartment in bad shape? A tenant may be able to get out of a lease if the apartment is in a sub-standard state and repeated attempts to have repairs made have been ignored.

Sub-standard examples are:

• poor maintenance of the building and/or unit,
• public health concerns
• Harassment of a tenant by a landlord

IF ALL ELSE FAILS: Just walk away – you can just break the contract and walk away. Understand though, that it is a contract and you are still liable for the terms and conditions of the contract. ( like the rent money)

Please note though, that a landlord has an obligation to try and minimize his damages in the event you break the lease.

The landlord must to attempt to re-rent the unit; to advertise it and try and rent it for the rest of the term

If the landlord has refused to rent your apartment to someone you believe is a worthy replacement, then you should have a solid defence for breaking your lease.

How do I get a discount when shopping online

If you aren't in a rush to get something in the mail, put it in your shopping cart and leave it for a day or two. You might get a coupon sent to your email trying to entice you back and check out. A lot of stores—including Best Buy, Home Depot, Zappos, ThinkGeek, Levis, and others—have reportedly used this system in the past, so it's worth a shot!