1.Whoa! That many apartments! You guys must be loaded!
Nice one…
Any idea how many of them actually work?
Well, booking-dot-com might give you a hint.
This seeming over-saturation of short term rentals market is caused by the nature of internet. Or, if you prefer, both foreign and domestic competitors.
When we say ’foreign competitors’ we mean global booking platforms.
They let (and even encourage) the hosts to put the property on their websites themselves.
They lack the financial interest to meddle with the particularities of the local legislature, and usually leave it up to the hosts. Cleanups of non-existent apartments are done once a year at best, or when local authorities exert pressure (and large multinationals are protected species in this part of the world).
Local websites, on the other hand, do it for different reasons. If an apartment page ranks well on Google search, even if the apartment itself is inactive, they leave it on their websites hoping that it might attract a gullible visitor.
Now, as unethical as that might be, it also gobbles up their crawl budget, so we don’t mind it either 😛 .
2.You could take oodles in thirty days!
COULD take…
The occupancy rate of thirty days is a statistical outlier.
To the best of flats, it happens once in two years. And, In all honesty, it is a result of most devious manipulations of the most unethical hosts.
Once the season is over, however, some of the apartments don’t even cover the cost of utilities. Proverbially crappy months are February and March.
On top of that, prices are not carved up in stone. A serious accommodation unit actually has a range of 200 different prices, depending on the time of the year.
3. My grandma’s flat is empty, I could put it up for short term rent…
Hold your horses! That may have been the case in 2005.
In just a bit more than a decade, the standards have skyrocketed.
Nowadays, an apartment that was fully refurbished three or four years ago, needs another makeover. Including furniture.
4. So, all these are yours?
Thaaat’s right…we’re tycoons…Bill Gates is a small time upstart, compared to us.
P-LEEEA-SE!
Each apartment has its rightful owner and host. And we are neither.
5. Those are just places to get laid…
Ok.
Let’s get this one straight…
Apartments with Jacuzzis, apartments with swimming pools or other interesting add-ons indeed are. It’s fairly obvious.
But ALL OTHERS – which happen to constitute 95% of the offer – aren’t.
A couple of love-birds might go astray in there every now and then. But it’s far from defining their purpose.
6. I’m going to rent my flat to the affluent Europeans or Americans only…
You might…
But apart from it being blatantly racist, it’s also very hard to achieve.
In other words, you might, if you top the list on booking-dot-com…
…and affluence and short term rentals don’t really go hand in hand.
You might try AirBnB.
But AirBnB is a slightly different concept. They are a community and the clients expect the hosts to be hosts. Greet them at the airport, show them around a bit…. And the competition is fierce. Because it is indeed a home-sharing site you might find an overnight there for as low as 5$.
People from the developed world prefer to trust “their own” brands to some “dodgy” Eastern European agencies.
Therefore, local agencies which lure the hosts with a story that 80% of their visitors come from the west are downright liars.
7. What I see is what I get?
Well, as much as we try, it is not always the case.
Apartments which have been arranged for a photo session have fresh flowers, champagne glasses, satin sheets and the likes….
Unless specified differently, that is not what you get in them. That is the presentation of a short term rental at its best, not the “everyday” edition.
Besides, time takes its toll.
Wear and tear becomes visible after just a year of use.
8. Surcharge for parking? Never-mind, I’ll work my way through it…
Or will you…?
For anyone coming from the Western world, driving in Belgrade in general might seem like an extreme sport. Parking should be perceived as equally reckless.
On top of that, Parking Service’s (traffic control department in charge of parking), might just be the most punctual and efficient state owned agency in Serbia. And they are quite ruthless.
Even Belgraders, who know their way around, sometimes spend hours looking for free parking and leave their vehicle so far away from where they live, that they end up coming home by public transport. An apartment with a dedicated parking spot in Belgrade is very valuable.
9. So, if I come into the apartment at 3 AM, I get out at 3 AM the next day? Right?
This is probably the most common misconception. It usually comes from people who have never done their own bookings.
The answer is – NO!
Unless you are willing to pay for two nights. There is a time for check-in and check-out , usually around noon.
Not to mention that there aren’t that many hosts who would be willing to greet you at 3 AM.
10. The agency guarantees some kind of occupancy?
Yep.
Anything between 0 and 30.
And it is almost always closer to the former.
As much as it may seem absurd to anyone with even a faintest idea how business works, we get this question a lot.
There are certain prerequisites to even start thinking about short term renting. But even when you fulfill them nobody says that people will flock in there
Therefore – no
11. An apartment for a day? Book me a single night in three months from now…
We wrote about this topic a million times in the past, but it seems we might have to do it a million times more.
Apartments might be a cheaper alternative to hotel. But they are an alternative. Here’s why:
A hotel will accept your single night reservation a year in advance.
The reason is simple. They have an abundance of identical units and it’s pretty much the same whichever they put you in.
Apart from the short term rentals in Belvile (although there are differences there as well), the number of truly similar units when it comes to apartments in Belgrade is negligible.
Hence, a profit driven owner will see a single night as an obstacle to a possibly longer stay. And as much as it sounds outrageous, the experienced hosts usually decline single nights in advance.
It’s far better off than accepting your one night booking, and then, once a more profitable reservation comes their way, they pull a story of a burst pipe on you.