I have rented up to four apartments at a time on AirBnB in both DC and LA. Also I advised a good friend of mine, GSB grad and former investment banker, on how to use AirBnB so he could pursue a comedy career in NYC.
From my experience, if you are renting apts to put them on AirBnB, you seek out low cost apts where you a guaranteed a return. I don't think that apt pricing overall increases by this behavior, because as a sub-letter (unlike if you are paying a mortgage), you are looking for monthly positive cash flow because you don't get the real estate appreciation.
For the last three years, I just look for studios and small one-bedrooms that if rented for 12 or less nights covers the rent. So in DC, I'd never rent a $2000 month place for AirBnB because that would require me to rent out the place 15 nights a month just to break=even. Too much risk. But a studio at $1200 a month starts to make a lot of sense. Yet, I would not want to personally live in a studio.
So I don't think AirBnB leads to increases in overall rents. It does lead to winnowing of small cheap well located apartments though, that you would otherwise move from but now you have a great opportunity to hold onto and put on AirBnB indefinitely. Oh, and if you really get into AirBnB, it can really affect your relationship with your gf/bf . . . let me crash at their place for three nights so I can make this $450 :) But that's another story.
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I have rented up to four apartments at a time on AirBnB in both DC and LA. Also I advised a good friend of mine, GSB grad and former investment banker, on how to use AirBnB so he could pursue a comedy career in NYC.
From my experience, if you are renting apts to put them on AirBnB, you seek out low cost apts where you a guaranteed a return. I don't think that apt pricing overall increases by this behavior, because as a sub-letter (unlike if you are paying a mortgage), you are looking for monthly positive cash flow because you don't get the real estate appreciation.
For the last three years, I just look for studios and small one-bedrooms that if rented for 12 or less nights covers the rent. So in DC, I'd never rent a $2000 month place for AirBnB because that would require me to rent out the place 15 nights a month just to break=even. Too much risk. But a studio at $1200 a month starts to make a lot of sense. Yet, I would not want to personally live in a studio.
So I don't think AirBnB leads to increases in overall rents. It does lead to winnowing of small cheap well located apartments though, that you would otherwise move from but now you have a great opportunity to hold onto and put on AirBnB indefinitely. Oh, and if you really get into AirBnB, it can really affect your relationship with your gf/bf . . . let me crash at their place for three nights so I can make this $450 :) But that's another story.