Apartment Rental Finding a great 3 month rental apartment

[Miriam145]

Hey there! I'm a Miriam, gearing up to spend three months in BA, kicking off on March 4 next year.

I need the lowdown on snagging an apartment – prices online are all over the map, ranging from 200k pesos to million-dollar listings.

My game plan is to Airbnb it for a bit, scope out the scene, and somehow land a spot, maybe paying in USD.

Any pro tips for this adventure?

 

[Sally4]

Even though I'm not a fan of AirBnB as a company, it might be your best bet if you're only staying for three months. If you're up for the hassle of arranging apartment viewings and possibly having to fork over your rent upfront in physical US dollars, we went with ZonaProp (https://www.zonaprop.com.ar/), where you can set filters for "temporal" options.

Hey there! I'm a Miriam, gearing up to spend three months in BA, kicking off on March 4 next year.

I need the lowdown on snagging an apartment – prices online are all over the map, ranging from 200k pesos to million-dollar listings.

My game plan is to Airbnb it for a bit, scope out the scene, and somehow land a spot, maybe paying in USD.

Any pro tips for this adventure?

 

[Miriam145]

Even though I'm not a fan of AirBnB as a company, it might be your best bet if you're only staying for three months. If you're up for the hassle of arranging apartment viewings and possibly having to fork over your rent upfront in physical US dollars, we went with ZonaProp (https://www.zonaprop.com.ar/), where you can set filters for "temporal" options.

Just wondering, what's the deal with your Airbnb problem? Is it because of that steep 10% guest fee they throw in? Just curious!

 

[Sally4]

Just wondering, what's the deal with your Airbnb problem? Is it because of that steep 10% guest fee they throw in? Just curious!

I don't think short-term rentals are bad in every context, I've known people who rented out their guest room as a supplement to their farming income in areas that were rural enough that they probably couldn't support a full hotel. I rent an AirBnB in Medellin once we arrived at a building that was still very much under construction but Currently in CABA investors from most of the Argentina Provinces are buying mono/two ambientes in CABA to offer in the Airbnb market. Creating an extreme pressure in the rental market for locals in pesos and trust AirBnB in Argentina!

 

[StatusNomadicus]

@Miriam145 i'm doing the same thing, consulting @BuySellBA and scouting stuff out, so shoot me messages or tag me in questions if you need any on-the-ground info happy to help

 

[earlyretirement]

I don't think short-term rentals are bad in every context, I've known people who rented out their guest room as a supplement to their farming income in areas that were rural enough that they probably couldn't support a full hotel. I rent an AirBnB in Medellin once we arrived at a building that was still very much under construction but Currently in CABA investors from most of the Argentina Provinces are buying mono/two ambientes in CABA to offer in the Airbnb market. Creating an extreme pressure in the rental market for locals in pesos and trust AirBnB in Argentina!

I'm just curious why you are against Airbnb as a company? I believe they are the BEST option and best platform for searching. Just use them as a platform to find rentals. They have a GREAT search engine. And then if you want to book directly with the owner just contact them directly. You can search by Super Hosts and as long as you have a 5 star rating yourself, the vast majority of Airbnb hosts will book directly with you.

I own many rentals around the world and some are listed with Airbnb and some are not. But in Mexico for example, Airbnb charges 10% to the rental guest plus up to 25% IVA and city taxes. Many times guests will just ask to book direct and save 33% of the price. Put in your dates and then instead of booking, just look for the "Contact Owner" and then put something like this, "I see you are a Super Host and as you can see I'm also a great guest with 5 star reviews (obviously this doesn't work if you're not a great rated guest). Airbnb is charging me 10% plus any applicable taxes and I see they are charging you 3% as an owner. Would you have any interest in booking direct?"

I don't think it always makes sense to do this. For example, I NEVER do this with hosts that aren't 5 star rated and been around for a while. Also, there is the matter to work out of damage deposit. Airbnb works great. I formally owned the largest property management company in South America. And we just did a damage deposit via credit card or people paid cash and we sealed the envelope and gave them back the same exact bills. We NEVER had issues in over 100,000 rentals.

Airbnb is a great platform. But they are getting totally disrupted as we speak. Most rental guests ONLY use them the first time with that owner and then they just book direct with the owner on subsequent stays.

You can see an example here: https://x.com/BuySellBA/status/1710806432260743460?s=20

or here: https://x.com/BuySellBA/status/1706054470164246844?s=20

 

[StatusNomadicus]

Airbnb offers great searches, nice review systems, and overall ease (I like the new "Show Total Price" button), but yes...they really are pricing themselves out of the market. for 5 years i've done similar; have a guest stay for a short time, then ask via text/WhatsApp if they want to split the difference in fees (once i know they're not a weirdo). the fees are 13% or more alone, not to mention tax-reporting issues the next year, tax withholding, and just overall control of your rental. and i really don't know what Airbnb charges for! almost every time i've had an issue on Airbnb there is no one to talk to and they don't take action unless they absolutely have to.

there was an idea for a FurnishedFinder.com type of site (owner-controlled) called CryptoCribs that was going to be decentralized, offer FF owner control of everything (you make your own lease), and allow for payments in Bitcoin/cryptocurrency, but it didn't last long, unfortunately.

 

[Calgary Foodie]

Airbnb offers great searches, nice review systems, and overall ease (I like the new "Show Total Price" button), but yes...they really are pricing themselves out of the market. for 5 years i've done similar; have a guest stay for a short time, then ask via text/WhatsApp if they want to split the difference in fees (once i know they're not a weirdo). the fees are 13% or more alone, not to mention tax-reporting issues the next year, tax withholding, and just overall control of your rental. and i really don't know what Airbnb charges for! almost every time i've had an issue on Airbnb there is no one to talk to and they don't take action unless they absolutely have to.

there was an idea for a FurnishedFinder.com type of site (owner-controlled) called CryptoCribs that was going to be decentralized, offer FF owner control of everything (you make your own lease), and allow for payments in Bitcoin/cryptocurrency, but it didn't last long, unfortunately.

I totally agree! I own a few rental properties and Airbnb is wonderful as far as a platform. I think both for the rental guest and the owner. We can see one another's history. But they are too greedy now. It makes no sense for them to charge the SAME commission after they already stayed at the property. All my friends and family now are also just booking direct.

I also just did a consultation with @BuySellBA and they said they are coming up with a new business where they will make a website for an Airbnb owner and they said they are soon going to have their own website for each building or property they will have on Airbnb so the rental guest can book direct and avoid the fees. I thought this was genius! They told me how everything is going full circle and people are going back to taxis which is true. In many cities I travel to now, the Uber is much more expensive than taxis.

I may even pay them to buy the website for my Canadian properties! They said this is coming out in a week or so. I am booking 60% of my first-time bookings now on Airbnb direct and just using their platform and 100% of repeat business directly with the client via Whataspp. We both are benefitting.

They told me if I retain them to buy an apartment in Buenos Aires, they will include the website free. I know I can easily just buy a generic website but I guess they paid a designer a lot of money to design one so I am anxious to see it. They told me they would help me purchase a property so no mistakes are made. But they said they will also just refer all the honest and good lawyers so no mistakes are made without hiring them. But they won't manage my property unless I fully hired them. So I think I will do that. I learned from my Montreal Airbnb you can have the best property in town but if you have a bad manager you are screwed!

 

[StatusNomadicus]

@Calgary Foodie i'm sure you can find someone on the old forum, and maybe even some people like me that moved to this better forum, who have invested with BuySellBA, to get a unbiased opinion, or at least a less-biased one

i would use Airbnb without hesitation if it was fair, like 5% total, split 2.5/2.5 between Host and Guest. but my most recent booking was this math:

$628 U$S total paid by me (credit card), the Guest
$550 was lodging
Service Fee of $78
of that, the Host paid Airbnb $17 so they got $533
then, they'll pay taxes, and Airbnb will pay the Visa/Mastercard % of the fee

so from 628, my Host gets at most 533, less than 85% of the Guest's payment.

and what do i truly get from Airbnb for over 15%? the convenience of using a credit card (but no options for cryptocurrency payments). the reviews i can read (FurnishedFinder has reviews as well, and Guests have free accounts whereas Hosts pay a once-per-listing creation fee), and the possibility that if there is a big problem, Airbnb will pay a non-expert in the Philippines to find me a new place (i could do this, since i already have backups saved when i book).

i suspect Airbnb out of San Fran CA will be supplanted by another company that operates more decentralized, which would be better for the guests and hosts alike. Airbnb certainly has been a historic accomplishment, but it has almost become too big and corporate to continue innovating :/

 

[earlyretirement]

@Calgary Foodie i'm sure you can find someone on the old forum, and maybe even some people like me that moved to this better forum, who have invested with BuySellBA, to get a unbiased opinion, or at least a less-biased one

i would use Airbnb without hesitation if it was fair, like 5% total, split 2.5/2.5 between Host and Guest. but my most recent booking was this math:

$628 U$S total paid by me (credit card), the Guest
$550 was lodging
Service Fee of $78
of that, the Host paid Airbnb $17 so they got $533
then, they'll pay taxes, and Airbnb will pay the Visa/Mastercard % of the fee

so from 628, my Host gets at most 533, less than 85% of the Guest's payment.

and what do i truly get from Airbnb for over 15%? the convenience of using a credit card (but no options for cryptocurrency payments). the reviews i can read (FurnishedFinder has reviews as well, and Guests have free accounts whereas Hosts pay a once-per-listing creation fee), and the possibility that if there is a big problem, Airbnb will pay a non-expert in the Philippines to find me a new place (i could do this, since i already have backups saved when i book).

i suspect Airbnb out of San Fran CA will be supplanted by another company that operates more decentralized, which would be better for the guests and hosts alike. Airbnb certainly has been a historic accomplishment, but it has almost become too big and corporate to continue innovating :/

Airbnb is going to totally get disrupted! Brian Chesky and the other Co-Founders of Airbnb (I think it was Nate) used to call me each month when I owned ApartmentsBA. They started in 2008 and those guys were just starting out and I used to provide a LOT of free advice to them. They used to use really horrible photos and no quality standards and I told them to shift away from that. They kept begging me to list my properties on Airbnb but I never did until I sold my company. Why? Because why would they come direct to me if I listed with them.

I am writing my autobiography now and I'm going back and getting all the call history from my Vonage phone line from 2008. I have the same Vonage work # that I had back then so all of this should be easily documented so I just need to isolate all the San Francisco phone #s so they won't be able to deny it.

But now it's going the other way. Cities HATE Airbnb and you are seeing blanket bans all over many cities. Owners are just making private micro-sites. And renting on the down low. That's happening again now.

But their platform is the best. By a long-shot. But why not just USE their platform and then cut them totally out of the income? Here is a good example on a real booking for 3 weeks in one of my Mexican properties.



The rental client paid Airbnb $6,689.31 US dollars to rent my place. I ONLY got $5,214.63 US dollars of that. There were $1,474.68 US dollars being paid to Airbnb and various taxes and fees. This is a client that comes to Mexico every year for 3 weeks to spend with their family.

5 star guest and I'm a 5 star 13 year Superhost. Guess where they already booked to come next year? Ha, ha. You guessed it. they are staying with me again and I'm charging them $5,600 US dollars so I'm making more, the client is paying less and Airbnb make $0!

THAT is the future of Airbnb. They are being so dumb they are partnering with companies like www.hostaway.com and do you know what HostAway does for their clients on their SaaS product? They make them their own booking site! It's a crappy website but Airbnb actually allows a partner to use their API and then they turn around and create the property owner their own website to compete with Airbnb!

Airbnb is being dumb. They already admit and acknowledge that after that first booking, they totally lose the client. Rather than just charging 0% to that client to keep them in their beautiful platform, they let a partner create a website as they acknowledge that they will NEVER get the guest to pay again. Plus, even if they charged 0% the client has to pay some municipalities up to 25% in various IVA taxes and fees. They know ain't no way people are going to voluntarily do that once they have a 5 star experience.

THAT is why their business model is flawed. I'm creating a new real estate portal for sale properties and I told Airbnb they should partner with me. They have to find a new line of business. The one they are in is a dying breed. The 3.0 of real estate rentals is going to bury them.

But imagine if they got into for sale properties and took their technology and know how and mixed it with my know how of the Latin American for sale space. Instead of cities hating them, cities would love them. Why? We could bring down the price of realtor commissions the world over. We can create a beautiful platform matching up buyers and sellers direct. All for little or no commissions. THAT is the future and 3.0 of for sale search too. I'm creating that in 2024 with or without @Airbnb Inc

 

[Nasdaq]

Airbnb is going to totally get disrupted! Brian Chesky and the other Co-Founders of Airbnb (I think it was Nate) used to call me each month when I owned ApartmentsBA. They started in 2008 and those guys were just starting out and I used to provide a LOT of free advice to them. They used to use really horrible photos and no quality standards and I told them to shift away from that. They kept begging me to list my properties on Airbnb but I never did until I sold my company. Why? Because why would they come direct to me if I listed with them.

I am writing my autobiography now and I'm going back and getting all the call history from my Vonage phone line from 2008. I have the same Vonage work # that I had back then so all of this should be easily documented so I just need to isolate all the San Francisco phone #s so they won't be able to deny it.

But now it's going the other way. Cities HATE Airbnb and you are seeing blanket bans all over many cities. Owners are just making private micro-sites. And renting on the down low. That's happening again now.

But their platform is the best. By a long-shot. But why not just USE their platform and then cut them totally out of the income? Here is a good example on a real booking for 3 weeks in one of my Mexican properties.

View attachment 566

The rental client paid Airbnb $6,689.31 US dollars to rent my place. I ONLY got $5,214.63 US dollars of that. There were $1,474.68 US dollars being paid to Airbnb and various taxes and fees. This is a client that comes to Mexico every year for 3 weeks to spend with their family.

5 star guest and I'm a 5 star 13 year Superhost. Guess where they already booked to come next year? Ha, ha. You guessed it. they are staying with me again and I'm charging them $5,600 US dollars so I'm making more, the client is paying less and Airbnb make $0!

THAT is the future of Airbnb. They are being so dumb they are partnering with companies like www.hostaway.com and do you know what HostAway does for their clients on their SaaS product? They make them their own booking site! It's a crappy website but Airbnb actually allows a partner to use their API and then they turn around and create the property owner their own website to compete with Airbnb!

Airbnb is being dumb. They already admit and acknowledge that after that first booking, they totally lose the client. Rather than just charging 0% to that client to keep them in their beautiful platform, they let a partner create a website as they acknowledge that they will NEVER get the guest to pay again. Plus, even if they charged 0% the client has to pay some municipalities up to 25% in various IVA taxes and fees. They know ain't no way people are going to voluntarily do that once they have a 5 star experience.

THAT is why their business model is flawed. I'm creating a new real estate portal for sale properties and I told Airbnb they should partner with me. They have to find a new line of business. The one they are in is a dying breed. The 3.0 of real estate rentals is going to bury them.

But imagine if they got into for sale properties and took their technology and know how and mixed it with my know how of the Latin American for sale space. Instead of cities hating them, cities would love them. Why? We could bring down the price of realtor commissions the world over. We can create a beautiful platform matching up buyers and sellers direct. All for little or no commissions. THAT is the future and 3.0 of for sale search too. I'm creating that in 2024 with or without @Airbnb Inc

Wow!! You netted $5,200+ on a "3 week rental"?! That is incredible to me. I agree that most renters just book direct after a successful stay. I rented a house in Napa for my family and after that we just booked directly with the owner the following year. I think it's fascinating your idea to use Airbnb against themselves and just book directly. That is genius!

I love your idea about a new real estate platform. ZonaProp is horrible!

 

[Colin]

I agree ZonaProp is a bad platform. I was interested in buying and sent an email and I didn't hear back for 4 days. Then I took pause when I saw the same exact apartment and both claimed to be the realtor on it. Worse yet, they had 2 different prices! I wish Buenos Aires had something like Zillow or Redfin here. The customer service in the real estate industry in Buenos Aires mostly sucks.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

something like Zillow or Redfin

yeah the inability to research property taxes, and basic details is pretty sad in Argentina. most stuff is expired or incomplete on ZonaProp, MercadoLibre, and ArgenProp, so it seems most people use Facebook (which you need to have an account to view).

 

[Calgary Foodie]

yeah the inability to research property taxes, and basic details is pretty sad in Argentina. most stuff is expired or incomplete on ZonaProp, MercadoLibre, and ArgenProp, so it seems most people use Facebook (which you need to have an account to view).

I agree. I think the idea for a new real estate platform is awesome! It's very painful to use all the old, archaic real estate websites. I think Zona Prop is much better than the rest but I don't know what is real or fake. Their business model to charge realtors and owners to post seems strange as it just creates fake listings.

 

[Canada Goose]

Wow!! You netted $5,200+ on a "3 week rental"?! That is incredible to me. I agree that most renters just book direct after a successful stay. I rented a house in Napa for my family and after that we just booked directly with the owner the following year. I think it's fascinating your idea to use Airbnb against themselves and just book directly. That is genius!

I love your idea about a new real estate platform. ZonaProp is horrible!

I'm using these forums and they are horrible!!!