Airbnb: Riding The Wave

A home away from home

Have you heard of Airbnb? The ‘in’ thing in the Online Travel Agency business! I was looking for destinations to go to for the recent long holidays and came across a website called Airbnb.com. The first thing I saw on the home page attracted my attention, it said ‘Welcome Home’.

It is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodgings with over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Airbnb was founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately owned and operated by Airbnb, Inc.

Luxury Boutique Accommodation is one of the agencies using Airbnb in marketing their properties. According to the Founder, Andrew Tan, “Luxury Boutique Accommodation is doing short vacation rentals, which means we rent out our properties on a daily basis. While Airbnb is the platform we use, we become a Super Host on Airbnb. Everyone is so interested to know what Airbnb is about so we are also riding this wave.”

Most of Airbnb’s hosts started off with their own extra space, like an extra room or extra home. However, you can also start by utilising other people’s extra space. For example, you could also list and manage your aunt’s extra properties on Airbnb for rent! As for Andrew and his team, they started by talking to the people around them and renting their own properties.

Funnily enough, it was the same for Marisha Naz, a Gen-Y entrepreneur who had a lucky encounter with Airbnb in 2010, when she was still studying in London. “When I was a student in London, I was renting an apartment with my friends. One day, one of my housemates decided to quit her course at university and moved out of the house. The rest of us were having a tough time looking for another tenant and paying the rent! So the story was, when I was scrolling my Facebook’s news feed, I saw this one advertisement at the corner, ‘Need to rent your room?’ so I clicked it and it linked me to Airbnb’s website.”

AIRBNB PROPERTIES VS HOTELS

Hotels are more established while Airbnb’s business has only just started to bloom in Malaysia. “Nowadays, guests prefer to have the personal touch of the properties they are staying in. I think that is why some people prefer to use Airbnb. It is the feeling of staying in your home though you might be miles away from home. It is the experience that matters.” said Andrew.

Andrew and his team put a lot of efforts in maintaining their reputation on Airbnb. Gwenyse Ong of Luxury Boutique Accommodation said that, “It is very important for us to take good care of our clients. For example, I will personally contact guests prior to their arrivals to check in with them to see if they have all the information needed or if they need any assistance from us. Once the booking is confirmed, we will keep in touch with them. From my experience, guests will definitely ask all sorts of questions like, ‘How to get to a specific location by bus?’”

“I like renting my properties to the regular users of Airbnb. These people already know that the property is actually someone’s house, not a hotel. They treat the property with care and respect,” Marisha added.

BEING AIRBNB’S HOSTS

There are always learning curves and unique experiences in whatever you are doing – Andrew and Gwen are not excused from these. “Airbnb basically discloses our personal information. The worst experience I had was dealing with immigration. There were foreigners who were trying to book with Airbnb and the moment they secured all of our information, they used the details to apply for their visas. They used our names and said we were their friends who guaranteed their arrivals. The immigration called me and I said no, we’re a hotel business. These are just guests, if you deny their entries, it will have nothing to do with us. All we have to do is to say that the guest did not appear on the date mentioned.” Said Andrew.

He added, “We also have experienced an incident where a kid ran around in the property and then he fell. The parents sued us for that! The issue was resolved and it was understood that there was a pail of water which the kid spilled and then fell. The incident taught us something. Therefore, we bought Public liability insurance from an insurance company in the case any injury should happen at our property, the guests are allowed to sue us and the insurance company will deal with them on behalf of us. It’s all a learning experience. What we understand from guests, what happened to us, these things teach us, then we learn and move on. That’s the main reason for our success.”

Marisha has also some experiences in dealing with clients with children. She claimed that the kids made a lot of noise that the neighbours even complained about it. “That’s why I have the ‘No kids under 12 years old allowed’ in some of my properties,” she said. 

GOOD INVESTMENT?

“Short vacation rentals are a good investment. But if you were to manage one property, then it’s not worthwhile because you have to devote quite a lot of time to it. If I were to manage just one property today – it would not be cost efficient. Because every time I hire a cleaner to clean the property, they will charge me about RM80. Sometimes you will waste your time waiting for one customer the whole day. If you have scalability like 10 to 20 properties, you can actually hire 2 in-house cleaners and save quite a bit,” Andrew advised.

He furthered his point by saying, “I would suggest young entrepreneurs with a good mind-set who want to start a business, to start off with Airbnb. But I’d personally suggest them to start with a team of two to three persons. This short vacation rental is very seasonal. In a very good month, you’ll get  good rent and high occupancy, but in a slow month, you’ll get low occupancy rates.”

“Travel industry is a huge business. Most travellers travel on their own and the trend is there. These travellers are looking for an experience and that is what we should give them. We are not selling accommodation. We want our guests to remember Malaysia. Not only Malaysia, but us. Because they’ll recommend us to their friends or for the next time they want to come to Malaysia.” Andrew concluded. 

Gwenyse also expressed that, “This current time is a very good opportunity because the Ringgit is lower, so foreigners will actually come to Malaysia to spend their money. As for locals who are in need of vacations and cannot travel abroad because of the tight budget, they just want a staycation – like the ones we are providing now. We are also offering them good amenities, good facilities and they are paying at a lower price.”

I myself visited an Airbnb property recently and it actually felt more like a home. The hosts treated me like family! It is indeed a platform that not only provides you with a unique place to stay, but it provides you the sense of security and belonging as well. Airbnb is my home away from home, and right now my favourite way to travel.