You’re not alone in thinking you could make big bucks by renting your place on Airbnb during the festivities. But you must know there will be winners and losers. How can you ensure your property is on the podium?
Read about it in our new book:
My Property Payday- Turn your Spaces into Rental Income, France edition
Get your feet in the starting blocks and prepare to fly past the competition. Pick up your copy today.
Goofus reads the papers a year before the Paris games and learns he can make up to 20x the normal rate if he rents his home on Airbnb during the olympics. He’s never done this before, and doesn’t know anybody else who has. The information is good enough for him, and he feels he doesn’t need any advice or help. He takes a couple snaps of his 1-bedroom flat in the 10th with his phone, writes a couple lines of description and voilà, his listing is up. He settles on a price of €2000/night, every night, with no difference on the weekend. He sits back and waits to get booked.
Gallant sees the same info, which starts him thinking. He continues his research and comes upon the site My Property Payday. He educates himself with the articles, then buys the book, which he reads cover-to-cover. Gallant develops a plan and goes looking for a conciergerie to help him. The property manager agrees to take on his studio in the 11th during the games in exchange for 20%.
Goofus gets nary a nibble on his listing. He says to himself, even if I get 10x, that’s still a jackpot. Each month, he lowers his price, but nothing changes. No inquiries. In December, a study from Lycaon Immo shows yet another monthly decline in prices for the olympic period of -7% for all Paris apartments advertised on Airbnb, Booking.com and Abritel during the games. At the same time, there was a 22% increase in the number of listings. A lot of people got the same idea as Goofus at the same time, without any know-how. That army of bewildered newbies is now on a slow death march back to reality.
Gallant thinks an exhorbitant price for a new listing will scare away potential guests. He learns in the book that London only got a two-figure % boost for the 2012 games. Gallant thinks that’s both reasonable and attractive. So, he instructs his conciergerie to apply that two digit percentage without hesitation RIGHT AT THE START. He doesn’t go for 10x or 5x or even 2x. He wants his reasonably-priced accommodation to stand out immediately. To protect his price, he requires a minimum stay of 5 days, and a strict cancellation policy with no refunds.
Goofus starts to panic when January and February pass without any requests. In Spring, he continues to slash his prices. He changes his settings to accept instant booking. He lowers his minimum to 2 nights. He offers a flexible cancellation policy. Finally, in May, a 2-night reservation comes in for Friday-Saturday in the middle of the games, for €70/night, which is less than the average hosts got in his neighborhood during Summer 2023. In June, he gets another inquiry for a weeklong stay, that he must turn down because he’s already booked for the weekend. In late June, his only guest cancels, because they can, and because they found something better from another newbie who slashed their prices even more for a 2-bedroom. Goofus ends up empty-handed without a single reservation nor euro made.
Gallant doesn’t need to wait long, and has his first requests in September. The conciergerie runs interference and checks the guest profiles before agreeing to two reservations: one to a couple for the entire first week, and the 2nd to tennis fan brothers for the entire second week. The property manager also gets an inquiry from parents of a paralympic athlete who’d like to stay 10 days a month later. Gallant accepts all reservations and knows he’s in good hands. In all, he makes €3520 gross, or €2816 after paying the conciergerie.
Be like Gallant. Get the book today. Inside it’s pages, you’ll see the exact percentage garnered during the last Olympics in London to help advise you on a winning strategy.