In a few years, Airbnb has become a leader in the seasonal rental market. As we had shown in our study about Airbnb France, the Airbnb market is growing very fast in the Hexagon.
Airbnb property management
Renting your apartment or house on Airbnb enables you to generate more rental income and it is for this reason that an increasing number of owners rent out their housing on Airbnb.
Renting your apartment or house on Airbnb allows you to generate more rental income, either for the owners who leave their main residence to go on vacation or for those who rent a second home on an annual basis: it is for this simple and good reason that an increasing number of owners rent out their housing on Airbnb!
How to rent your property on Airbnb ?
In fact, Airbnb enables you to easily rent your furnished accommodation to tourists. You only need to create an account on Airbnb and publish your ad. You will then have access to your owner space which includes different tabs. Let us reconsider the main ones:
- My ad enables you to edit your ad, open and close your calendar and set your price for each night.
- The inbox is used to respond to tenants' requests. They can automatically reserve your housing if you have activated the instant booking - this is recommended since it enables you to double your rentals - or ask for a pre-approval if they have questions: In this case, you have to approve their request manually in order to enable them to book.
- The dashboard allows you to follow the upcoming reservations on your Airbnb and to find your travellers' contact details, mail and phone.
- The "Profile" allows you to edit your personal information your phone number, the languages that you can speak… but also to respond to your reviews and verify your identity.
- The statistics allow you to find all the reviews left by travelers on your ad, your income, how many views your ad has and also your Airbnb "agreement" which is used to determine your ad's referencing. You will also see the criteria of the superhost status and how close you are to have it.
Using a Airbnb property manager
Tourist rentals management may be time consuming and constitute considerable work.
This explains the existence of airbnb property management services. It may be appropriate to delegate your apartment to a short-term rental manager who will ensure to take care of your tenants and all of the logistics relating to reservations.
This is particularly what we offer in BnbLord: we are involved in the rental management of rented apartments on Airbnb, either in France in , , Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Paris, Strasbourg, Toulouse or even in Portugal in Lisbon.
Is it legal to rent a whole housing on Airbnb?
The French legislation is not so restrictive, far from that! Let us review the subject. When you rent your entire housing on Airbnb, you enter the tourism furnished housing category which includes houses, villas, apartments and furnished studios which are rented to occasional customers. There are several scenarios that should be distinguished:
Renting your main residence on Airbnb
The main residence is defined as a housing which is occupied for at least eight months a year, beyond professional duties, cases of force majeure and health problems.
There is no need to declare it to the town hall in such a case and it is absolutely legal to rent it in Airbnb, in Paris and elsewhere.
Renting your second home on Airbnb
Renting a second home for a year on Airbnb, pied-à-terre or rental investment is absolutely legal in the great majority of French cities. There are, in fact, two real exceptions, that are Paris and Strasbourg.
Renting a second home in Airbnb in Paris
In Paris, renting a seasonal second home legally involves in theory changing the use of your housing so that it becomes administratively a commercial area.
You need to change the use of your property to rent it short-term. In France this meant you have to acquire what is called "commerciality". Commerciality is an asset you can buy from investors who have changed their property from a commercial use to a residential use: you are doing the reverse operation.
We explain on our blog what commercialité is and why obtaining it is strategic.
In practical terms, few owners follow this process whose cost seems significant at first sight. This can be true depending on districts but it means forgetting that seasonal rental also enables you to generate more rental income, more than double on average in Paris, and that the cost of merchantability needs to be put in perspective. It is all a question of ratios.
In addition, if your profitability is higher during seasonal periods, it will be more possible to put your property on sale with a premium for possible investors because it will provide a much higher profitability in relation to the real estate market. Our last legal Airbnb was thus sold in less than fifteen days! We recommend that you respect municipal regulations and invest in the change of use if your property has a good potential during seasonal periods. BnbLord can assist you during such process, please feel free to contact us!
Renting a second home in Airbnb in Strasbourg
In Strasbourg, renting a second home legally to tourists requires the condominium's permission. After the third housing rented out for tourists, the compensation principle applies.
We encourage you to read the very clear guide book that the Strasbourg City Hall established on this matter.
Renting commercial premises or offices in Airbnb
Increasingly usual, renting transformed offices for seasonal rental or a commercial premise is absolutely legal and simply requires a change of address.
It is a strategy that may be useful in particular in an investment approach. We find that an increasing number of real estate participants in Paris buy commercial premises, open spaces, hotels or office buildings to transform them and divide them into apartments. These procedures are more profitable than investing for standard leasing and allow avoiding compensation and buying the merchantability.
Renting a room on Airbnb
The French legislation is extremely flexible on Airnb and renting a guest room implies little specific constraints. It should be noted that renting a room on Airbnb is almost as profitable as a studio so do not hesitate!
Renting on Airbnb is possible, cost-effective and often legal, try your luck with BnbLord, find out about our rental management offer on Airbnb!