Rent out your property in the short term
Renting out your flat while you're away on holiday can be lucrative - if you're careful, Shirley Lau writes
Sandy Mok loves taking mini breaks outside Hong Kong during public holidays. She's dubbed "the big spender" by her travel companions, always wining and dining at swanky restaurants and visiting luxury spas. But somehow, the 34-year-old career coach manages to spend less than her friends on the same trip.
No, she doesn't have a rich dad or a generous husband. She just happens to have an alternative source of income when on holiday: renting out her flat on short-term rental websites.
"I charge a daily rent of HK$850 and always find someone to rent my apartment when I'm away," says Mok, who owns a stylish 550 sq ft two-bedroom flat on Caine Road, in Mid-Levels. "That's enough to offset 20 to 50 per cent of my holiday spending."
This deal is straightforward: Mok puts up pictures and essential details of her residence on rental websites; the interested traveller makes an online booking and, on the day of check-in, picks up the door key from Mok's neighbour. The rent, minus a small fee (usually 3 per cent of the rent) charged by the related website, will arrive in Mok's Paypal account hours after the guest has checked in. The guest has to pay the website a fee, ranging from 6 per cent to 12 per cent of the rent.
These internet booking engines are creating a burgeoning peer-to-peer marketplace. The websites feature spare rooms, entire apartments, villas, yachts or even tree houses that can be rented for one day to months.
At the forefront of this boom is Airbnb. Since its inception in 2008, the San Francisco-based company has spawned several copycats in Europe and North America, including 9flats, Wimdu, OneFineStay and iStopOver, which was acquired by 9flats in August. In June, Singapore-based Travelmob joined the game, setting its sights on the Asia-Pacific region.
