Secrets about Hungarian AirBnb revealed

Those who let flats for a short period of time in Budapest and are pretty good at it, can make a good living. However, AirBnb has slowly started to decline, Forbes.hu reports. The magazine made an interview with Balázs Schumitzky who runs 23 flats in the capital. Here come some interesting details about AirBnb.

How should a flat let to AirBnb be utilized, so that it makes profit?

The proportion of utilization should be at least 70%. We obviously cannot make it in low season, but in high season, we sold 27 or 28 days out of 30.

Do you have “typical AirBnb guests”?

No longer. We had mainly young guests a couple of years ago who were the fastest to accommodate to new and irregular renting, but today, everybody is capable of booking, anywhere in the world.

How strong is the market of letting guesthouses, where different business models also compete?

There are roughly 8000 flats to let in Budapest via AirBnb. A few large competitors operates them, if I count well, we are in the top ten with our 23 flats.

Is there a bonus system?

Yes, there is. The accommodation fee is for the owner, and in our model, the owner possesses the AirBnb profile, too, and we, who operate the accommodation, have unlimited access to the profile. Our obligation is to fully manage the accommodation, to set the price, to contact, to welcome the guests, to show them the flat, and to arrange cleaning. However, the payment of taxes is the owner’s duty. By the way, 20% of the owners might avoid taxes.

How much bonus do you usually have?

For full-service, we can get even 20-30% , but some extra costs – for example, the cost of cleaning – may appear, and they are not included to the accommodation fee, so the owner and the operator have to agree upon this. Buying detergent and doing the washing may often cost a fortune. Some operators often wash in laundries or do it on their own, other incorporate it in the accommodation fee.

So what the guest sees on the website of AirBnb as cleaning costs is a totally different thing?

This is a marketing tool. The price appearing at first does not include the cleaning costs; it is added to the final sum at the end of the booking process. The guests pay the total amount, but they do not know, of course, how much they pay to the operator as cleaning cost.