Travel can be a very important part of life. Whether you’re traveling for business or personal reasons, travel can be exciting or it can be frustrating. A large part of the ease of travel comes down to where a person is staying. IF you’re only staying for a couple of days, bad accommodations have less of an impact. But what if you’re staying for several weeks or a few months? 

Once you’re staying for a longer period of time, then accommodations are even more important. You’re no longer just staying somewhere, you are now based out of that location. This is especially true for people staying away for weeks or months for business purposes. Once a trip goes beyond a smaller time period, a bad place to stay is a big problem! What’s the best way to book for travel? Airbnb or similar apps are incredibly popular, but short term rentals can be just as beneficial! 

Airbnb vs. Short Term Rentals for Business

There’s one deciding factor that should come into play for a business sending an employee somewhere. It’s potential extensions. Airbnb’s can be very structured. You’re not going to have the option of being able to extend your stay if you need to stay an extra week, since it’s likely other people have managed to book the time after. Moving near the end of a business stay is very inconvenient. If you are planning on using short term rental services which provide for businesses, many can have extension clauses which allow them to be claimed for further time as long as the clause is accepted quickly enough. 

Airbnb vs. Short Term Rentals for Personal Travel

When it comes to a personal trip, an Airbnb often has many benefits. Airbnb’s are usually apartments or homes intended for personal travel as opposed to business. This means that many of the amenities are specifically designed for their comfort. Personal trips are usually fairly structured as well. Those return flight tickets don’t get extended too often, as people only have so much vacation time they can use away from work. This means that there’s no worries about extending your visit beyond the few weeks you’re already intending to stay. 

Property Owner Choices

As a property owner, there’s several ways you can make money off the property. Setting up a property as an airbnb can provide excellent income. However, there’s a large amount of inherent risk and work that goes along with it. You need to provide many things for the airbnb and are responsible for all the maintenance and much of the cleaning costs. It needs to be reset after each guest. An airbnb is also risky due to the fact that travel conditions can change, as can the amount of options in an area of a city. Essentially, an Airbnb is a risk. Choosing to set it up as a short to mid term rental option instead can take out some of the risk. In these cases, longer trips are booked and rented, ensuring consistent occupancy. Prices for these are charged for the full term rather than a day by day accounting and usually won’t add up to as much as if it was multiple Airbnb tenants. However, there’s far less management. 

The final option is to go for a longer term rental. Some people think these need to be yearly or 2 year rental agreements. The truth is that longer term rentals can be simple month to month agreements, perfect for a business traveller who may be staying in a region until a solution is found to the reason they were sent out. Long term rental is the most stable, but has the lowest earnings potential.