homestay or guest home: punca pendapatan hebat menggunakan airbnb.

earlier this year once our tenancy for suriamas apartment ended in march, we decided to give homestay a go. mostly because we thought that we needed a place to stay from time to time if we want to go or lepak in kl. even though the demand for long term rental by students was attractive, some are even willing to pay rm2,100 a month for our apartment. banyak tu (note: rental market at sunway area memang terbaek)...

we used airbnb.com as our main (actually only) marketing platform. the website offers a listing of apartments and studios and houses to be rented on short term basis (daily, weekly or monthly). all over the world, all types of accommodation. unique accommodations like tree houses pun ada. it even has an iphone app that will trigger a message if anyone is interested with our apartment. we can reply messages, manage bookings, edit our listings on the go. convenient maaa!!!

how airbnb works.

1. potential tenants can check the description and photos of a property they like and also the reviews posted by previous tenants as a reference.

2. they can message for any additional info required from the owner, including arrangements on how to collect the keys, etc. owner must reply in order to keep their good rating.

3. once agreed, a booking shall be made by tenants and accepted by owner, upon which a full payment is deducted from tenant's credit card.

4. the website will charge both the tenants (up to 10%) and the owner (3%) for each successful booking made.

5. money will be deposited to owner's account on the day that the tenants checked in.

6. tenants leave a review the apartment and the service given by the owner after their stay. owner leave a review on the tenants too.

7. airbnb gives rating to both the owner and tenants so that people can use the rating as reference.

so far we have rented out the apartment via airbnb website for four times. alhamdulillah they all went well and we managed to pocket some decent money from it. dapat tenants from singapore, phillipines and australia. layan jugakk. it was pretty interesting to listen to their live stories.

apart from that, we have also managed to rent out the unit to two other customers. in fact our first ever customer rented the apartment for a full month! memang masyuk laa masuk duit. terus dapat cover three months of instalment. waktu ni baru tahu kehebatan tokey-tokey homestay ni..

we also have been on the other side, as a tenant using this service. we rented a room for our holiday in new york last year and also an apartment for our family vacation in hong kong this year. memang saved a lot of money. furthermore stay kat apartments ni boleh masak2 kat dapur tu..

all in all, i am fully satisfied with airbnb as an effective marketing tool for homestay accommodation, both for owner and tenants, malaysia or anywhere. any enquiries are supported by 24 hour helpline. memang website ni bagi service terbaik bagi promosi rumah sewa atau home stay. boleh masuk part of tips untuk menjadikan homestay business berjaya laa kiranya.

but of course it is not always pretty and happy stories all the time being a homestay operator ni. there are a lot of commitments required and challenges that need to be tackled. but then mana ada sumber duit senang sekarang ni apart from joining some shoddy pyramid schemes, right?

but those are stories for another day...