The Key to Effective Apartment Home Sharing in Multifamily Housing

The code to apartment home sharing on Airbnb has been cracked. A complete, long overdue technology solution is enabling multifamily owners and residents to confidently earn extra revenue by leasing apartment units to short-term renters.

Migo recently introduced a multifamily solution that helps overcome the challenges and steep learning curve of monetizing the growing short-term apartment rental sector. Until now, the industry has lacked a comprehensive technology for apartment owners and operators to effectively home share on channels like Airbnb. Essentials like access control, cleaning, noise monitoring and vetting guests – not to mention advertising and managing bookings – are especially difficult in multifamily communities.

A number of start-up solutions in recent years have attempted to enable the short-term rental opportunity in multifamily, but most have not had much staying power.

Migo, introduced this summer at RealWorld 2021 “The Yield Awakens,” has developed a one-stop shop for owners, property managers and residents and is backed by RealPage’s deep knowledge of the multifamily industry along with an exclusive partnership with Airbnb.

Purpose-built for apartment sharing

Home sharing’s revenue potential is already being realized in multifamily. According to the latest data from the National Multifamily Housing Council, 65% of short-term rentals were in multifamily buildings in 2017.

The surge in vacation and short-term rentals has been a stimulus for home sharing, as well as working from home. The pandemic has proven that many people can effectively work from anywhere with an internet connection. Apartments are fast becoming a desirable option.

Yet, there is a lot to consider for multifamily owners. Resident buy-in, additional costs, liability, and how to effectively monitor, manage and monetize home sharing are at the top of the list. Also, owners and property managers must know if their properties are even eligible under local regulations.

The same is true for residents who are interested in exploring this dynamic rental market. Leasing their apartment a few days out of the month or year is a viable way to offset the rising cost of apartment rent, but comes with a lot of details.

In Migo, multifamily has a purpose-built solution that works with any property management system, allowing operators and residents an ideal way to get in on the action.

RealPage is partnering exclusively with Airbnb, which will make it easier for residents and apartment owners to share their spaces on the popular vacation and short-term rental channel. Guests who want to enjoy apartment living’s amenities now also have a greater selection of places to stay.

Everybody stands to gain, says Migo Vice President Todd Butler.

“There are benefits for both owners and residents. The owner earns revenue from every night a resident books their unit on Airbnb as well as income from listing their furnished guest suites. It’s a giant NOI booster.

“The property manager gets better performance metrics, and the resident lives more affordably by earning money when their unit is not being used.”

Apartment home sharing with peace of mind

Migo’s proprietary software allows owners and residents to reliably book and manage listings on Airbnb with peace of mind.  Apartments can be listed on Airbnb up to 180 nights per year, depending on local jurisdictions, and earn revenue they would not receive otherwise.

For tenants, the amenity can offset rent by upwards of 20%, and keep tabs on every step of the rental process through a user-friendly portal where calendars, reservations and revenue can be reviewed.

For owners, Migo can mean NOI increases of $400-$600 per unit per year. Vacant units that may sit on the market for 30 or 60 days – or longer – can be furnished and turned into money makers with daily, weekly or monthly bookings.

Migo offers self- and full-service options so operators and residents can choose how involved they want to be in home sharing.

Residents can choose the self-service route and list and manage their apartments to retain the most income. In this case they are responsible for managing the listings, setting the price, interacting with guests and handling upkeep, such as cleanings. Or, they can choose the full-service option and hand the details off to Migo, which takes care of everything for an additional fee.

Owners can either do all the work for their furnished suites and keep most of the revenue, or entrust Migo to manage for an additional fee.

With the full-service product, Migo can perform or manage all functions 100% remotely with minimal impact to onsite staff and other residents.

Migo takes the guesswork out of determining an appropriate listing price. Listings are always priced in line with demand, events and availability via an automatic real time pricing tool based off local market data.

The app, with an easy-to-use dashboard, offers several essential operational controls necessary for enhancing the guest experience and ensuring the resident and owner are protected.

Guests are screened prior to booking approval where permitted by law to enhance the safety of the community, residents and guests. Guest activity is insured at the same level as that of residents to reduce exposure to expenses or liability.

Residents and staff can create and grant access remotely with guest-specific pin codes so that the building and units are secure. Noise levels are monitored at all times using an IoT-based noise monitoring service.

Finally, units are cleaned and sanitized prior to a resident’s return.

Generating income for owners, residents

Butler likens home sharing’s evolution in multifamily to that of other amenities that overcame obstacles but eventually gained market share. Pet-friendly policies in particular.

“When pets in apartments were introduced, a lot of questions came up,” he says. “What about the liability, noise and the cost? The industry came out with technology to address these concerns along with several ways to substantially increase revenue from allowing pets. As a result,  owners' hesitations vanished and nearly all multifamily communities in the country are pet-friendly today.

“Home sharing has evolved similarly through technology.”

The simplicity of Migo’s platform offers a viable way for apartment owners and residents to manage all the home share processes and confidently generate income without consuming additional time and resources.

“Migo does the heavy lifting by integrating and managing the essential pieces necessary to scale home sharing in multifamily,” Butler concludes.

 Migo is the first multifamily home sharing solution designed to help owners and residents easily get in on the short-term rental boom. Discover Migo Home Sharing.