Filling Rental Vacancies - Short Term or Long Term?

Prior to the breakout of the 2020 pandemic, many homeowners were getting used to the idea of new technologies like Airbnb that allowed them to convert their traditional rental units into short term rentals that would have tenancies that lasted just days, weeks, or months. However, for many, this new found way to earn from their investment property was quickly turned into days, weeks, and months of empty rooms & apartments.

Short term rentals depended heavily on travel, tourism and weekend vacationers. With restricted movement in 2020, the losses for many short-term renters were severe and have gone back to being traditional rentals, attempting to find long term tenants to help stem the losses and recover some revenues from the losses. Unfortunately, not many were as successful as they hoped, as traditional rentals also suffered at the hands of the pandemic.

Though traditional rentals fared a little bit better in the early days of the Covid outbreak, it was not long before they too fell victim to lockdowns, changing work dynamics and new ways of living that involved less travel and more home time.

Despite more time at home, vacancies increased, rents plummeted and in metro areas, many average rent prices dipped by double digits. This was largely due to less need to travel for work and pleasure, and increased risk in high density areas. As more people found themselves unbound to the city, people started moving back to smaller cities and home towns causing high vacancy and lower rent.

As life returns to normal in 2021, the rental business has hopes too, but which is a better choice for the average landlord?

When deciding between short term and long term rentals for your investment property, there is one important consideration- your personal or family goals.Are you trying to generate an additional income, but want to keep flexibility in your investment property, then maybe a short term rental may be a strong consideration. But, you should also be ready to provide hotel-like services at all times the property is let. You may also need to be prepared for fluctuations in a market that is very dependent on tourism and travel, the negative effects that were seen in the recent year that was 2020.

Post pandemic, after suffering from high vacancies, reduced travel and an increased cautiousness in interacting with outsiders, many landlords and property owners are looking for a risk averse and stable option. This means converting those vacancies into long term rentals with secure and predictable income. However, it all comes back to your needs and goals. If finding a stable tenant is the solution you were looking for you may also consider using Tenantcube’s free-for-landlord rental technologies to help attract, screen, & convert tenants. Integrated with credit reporting, Tenantcube is the easiest way to digitally handle the tenant onboarding process, you can create an account here.

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