If you read my blog, you know that this year my husband and I decided to list our beach apartment with Airbnb. It’s a holiday apartment that we don’t personally use more than a few weeks per year but the expenses continue regardless. You know, government taxes, utility bills plus big property management fees, because the place is in a complex with beautiful gardens, two swimming pools and even an outdoor jacuzzi. Some rental income to cover these expenses helps!
In the The Airbnb Host bullet journal PART I you can find the main ideas on how to start your Airbnb Host bullet journal. I am calling it a “bullet journal”, because it not only has a financial part, but also a lot of planning and task completion parts.
In the previous article I was talking about the Where am I page, Goals page and Calendar pages, which we need to be able to view at a glance exactly what the situation is with our property and what we can do in the future.
Income
These pages will be only for your income – how much your guests paid and the exact amount you receive after any Airbnb deductions.
My Expenses
Put here all the money you spend for property management, electricity, water, heating, big or little renovations, AC and heating maintenance, new furniture, etc. (Don’t forget to include the transportation of the furniture cost if any.) You will be buying light bulbs, batteries, plates and cutlery. All these things are expenses. What about cleaning products, washing powder? What about if you provide soaps and shampoo? Do you do the cleaning yourself or use a cleaner? Do you pay for advertising? What about dry cleaning if you need this service? At the end of the year all these little things can become a big pile of money and if you didn’t reord them properly, your final numbers will and illusion. You may even be losing money, not earning.
The number of these pages you need for this depends on the number of the days you are renting the place. But even if it is a holiday place and only rented for one period of the year, allow at least 2 double pages. Unexpected expenses happen all the time.
Guest Specific Expenses
Of course, if when guests leave something was broken and you have to fix it, or if there was a problem during their stay and you have to refund your guest for a period of time… These things happen, you know. And if you have these unexpected costs, you need them to be nicely written down to help you to make the accounting accurate and easier. I suggest these are best organized by guest description, for example, family with 2 small children or two 30-something couples, etc. It would be easier to just use the guest’s names but in these days of Privacy Protection Paranoia that’s not advisable.
Total finance pages
Now we are getting to the reason I started this exercise in the first place. It is coming time bring together the income numbers and the expense numbers. After several months or guest stays these pages will give me the best overview of how to proceed in the future. Maybe after three couples with little kids and a lot of cleaning and repainting the walls, I will decide that our place is not kid friendly after all. Maybe I will decide that I need some more extras like not only blackout curtains, but also window shutters. Maybe I will remove some decorations because they are dangerous (glass candleholders in easy to reach places or unstable flower pots).
These pages will help me to, not only realize what our net income is, but also how to improve our service to make more money next year.
Social Media Tracker pages
We all know that these days social media is very powerful and it would be an excellent idea for you advertise your rental property there. I suggest you have one page per month to cover all the social media you are using – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Also, do not underestimate the value of Pinterest as an advertising tool. Keep notes about the pictures you post including likes, comments, shares and saves. Don’t worry if sometimes the number of your followers decreases on Instagram and Twitter. There are a lot of people who are following only to be followed, to look cool, and after that unfollow their followers. I only follow profiles I really like, because they improve my mood and give me wonderful ideas.
Don’t forget to add your Airbnb statistics to these pages: the views of your profile and most importantly – your booking rate. This, compared to the number of likes and saves on social media, will give you good indication of how and where to continue advertising your rental property.
Mood pages
Oh, probably these are my favourites! I can keep here any thank-you cards from wonderful guests, draw some ideas about decoration, write some lists on how to make our place unique. Check out old (and new) interior and craft magazines, maybe you will find something interesting that suits your property mood. Cut these pictures out and stick them in the mood pages. Maybe next year some of them will be part of your goals, who knows?
I hope this article was helpful to you. If you have any questions or notes, please write a comment. This will help me and all the other readers to improve our service. Thank you! ♥
