Wow, is anyone else shocked by the prices? A couch for $900 a month? A one bedroom rental (in Sunnyvale that would normally go for $600 to $800 a month on CL) for $1200 and up?
As a current AirBNB host; I'd like to chime in on why the sublet prices seem high.
Everyone on AirBNB currently has their places setup for a nightly rate which is competitive against hotels, then potentially offering a slight discount if they stay for a week; and then AirBNB has always has this 'monthly' price field. I've never had anyone stay a month.
That monthly field is what they're basing these prices off, and they've added a new checkbox just below the monthly price field asking if you'd like to be on the sublet search.
I have no incentive to sublet, or lower my monthly price, because at $99/night, I pay my ENTIRE mortgage every month having 85% occupancy of our second bedroom on a per-night basis. So I have no incentive to sublet for the more reasonable half my mortgage every month.
So what do I believe this means? They're launching the feature with an impressive number of properties, but as everyone is noting, they're expensive.
Once people whose primary aim is to sublet join for that purpose, and NOT to host by the night (in competition with hotels) then they will have sublet listings competitively priced with those on craigslist, and in-line with monthly rental prices in an area.
I'm interested in how you find it having a steady rotation of strangers through the house. Good experiences? Any wierdos? Do you have a separate bathroom and/or kitchen for guests?
Over 95% have been great. I effectively pre-screen out the weirdos so they don't make it to the house. We've just had a few cultural differences with guests which made it 'annoying' to have them.
Guests have their own bathroom, we share the kitchen and living room.
Here's a private room for rent in LA for $1749. That is a private room in a 2-bed apt. I guarantee you that 2-bed is about $1749 total/month. In essence, you're paying double what you should. http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/169459
I've lived in that area recently, so I can speak from experience. And it looks like most other LA sublets on there are expensive as well.
Is it worth saving the hassle of craigslist to pay double on airbnb?
Personally, I'd expect that a for-pay service would mostly capture the higher-end market, and while you /can/ get a room in Sunnyvale for $600-$800 a month, that's going to be a decidedly low-end room. I imagine most people renting in that range will be a bit more frugal, and less likely to want to split the take with someone else.
Add to that the fact that rents are aggressively moving upwards, and I think it's pretty reasonable that a high-end rental service would have $1200 rooms in Sunnyvale. I mean, many of us would prefer a low-end studio to a high end room, and you can get a low-end studio for $1200; but if I were to rent out a room in my 2/2 apartment for half the cost? it would be well over a grand.
I had a place in Sunnyvale from summer 2009 to late 2010 and was doing ~$400 for a small room. The highest rent a roommate was paying was just under $600 for the master bedroom w/ bathroom included. And this was a pretty average place overall.
they've surged a lot; as far as I can tell, market rents have surged more than 20% but I think your 'average place' in 2010 was actually a very good deal.
It's funny, I've been calling around trying to find places for my employee to live, 'cause he's kinda shy and I'm, you know, the guy who sells stuff. One of the places that was being rented by an owner said they actually lowered the price because the economy was so bad. Which is funny, 'cause all the professionally managed places are jacking up rent a lot. (this place, actually, was a lot like you describe. Big, private room, private bathroom, about $600/month. I mean, these places exist, but that is decidedly below market.)
So yeah, you can find below-market deals. Your place last year was one, unless it was exceptionally tiny.
in 2006-2007 I was writing the book of xen; I rented a 2/1 in santa clara (Right on the border of sunnyvale) for the two of us right next to the Lawrence caltrain. By Sunnyvale standards, that's a bad negborhood. And the apartment was pretty shitty. $1250 for the whole thing, and we actually had the cops come by our place looking for the previous tenants. We saw the cops going after several neighbors, too. I mean, I didn't feel unsafe or anything; it's not an area where the cops automatically assume everyone is poor or criminal, but it was definitely not a good area.
It's possible that I've gotten exceptionally shitty deals, but from what I've seen, $400/month was way below market (though, not unobtainable; just way below the average price) for a room in Sunnyvale anytime in the last five years.
A great room in a shared apt Williamsburg/Greenpoint on Craigslist could be had for anywhere between 1000-1500 and the ones I see listed on Airbnb are like 1600 and above for either the same amenities or even less.
That does seem expensive. I guess you'd have to rationalize it by the shorter commitment (no lease). It is probably priced to offset the risk incurred by the Subletor and AirBnB.
I think these prices should be compared to what are known (in the UK) as "short lets" -- fully furnished flats let out for 1-6 months.
In the UK these are usually let to business people, the flats are much smarter than long lets, and the prices are 2-4x higher (and I assume the occupancy rates are correspondingly lower).
My experience has been the opposite. Since I'm not on the lease and in some of these cases, can't move all my stuff in (because it's already furnished or the term is short), I shouldn't have to pay full price. When I've sublet my place to friends, I usually give a discount for that reason.
I would guess, based on how wildly inaccurate usaar333's data would be otherwise, that he or she is referring to getting a single room in a multi-bedroom house/apartment, not a full one bedroom apartment. Even the Richmond has 1 bedroom apartments that run over $1900/mo.
depends on where. lived in russian hill for 10 years and though fortunately i was locked in with rent control, the people across the hall from me were paying $3300 a month for a large (1200 sq feet) 1 bdrm identical to mine (parking not included)
This is another area they should take from craigslist. I have tried many times to sublet my place and its a frustrating experience. Normally it turns into a facebook message/event and I just reach out to friends and hope they pass the word. Navigating through craigslist is frustrating and its hard to sift through all the noise. I think it would be really smart for them to get college campuses on board.
It will be interesting to see if this effort is successful or not. I have always considered subletting to be a buyers market, which is probably why you had trouble subletting your place. I know a few people who were easily able to get sublets at below market rates on craigslist, which means airbnb's craigslist premium might not be worth much.
Although the recent dramatic increases in rent prices might put some pressure on sublet demand (at least in the bay area).
This is a fantastic idea to leverage Airbnb's market penetration further. I know a lot of people that could use this.
However, the prices are obviously too high. It might have been a good idea to launch this as a pilot (maybe this is the pilot?) for specific sellers and make sure their monthly rents are somewhere in the market range. It will probably stabilize, but right now it's a turn-off to see a shared rooms going for what should be private studio pricing.
I don't really like the dog video where the guy says "all those birds to chase... oh nothing." Yeah it's playful, but after the issue with the apartment in SF that was ransacked, it's just distasteful.
