While Airbnb has long been the leader of short term furnished rentals, MiniStays is a platform focused solely on stays 30 days or longer. Discover the many reasons Hosts and Guests are switching from Airbnb to MiniStays to advertise and book their monthly furnished rental.
MiniStays
MiniStays was founded by Mid Term Rental Hosts and Guests for Mid Term Rental Hosts and Guests. The founders long desired a platform dedicated to monthly furnished rentals. So, instead of waiting around for someone else to create it, they took it upon themselves to create MiniStays. MiniStays only allows properties to be listed for 30 days or longer so there’s no confusion coordinating around weekend stays. The founders made sure to include all the features that frustrated them with platforms currently available. This includes collecting security deposits, performing background checks, user friendly interface, and a custom dashboard to track reservations. It’s free to list your property and only has a 2% service fee when a reservation is made.
Airbnb
Airbnb operates as a global online marketplace for lodging and tourism experiences. Its primary activities involve facilitating unique stays and experiences for guests, provided by hosts. The company’s major services include accommodation, rentals, and tourism activities. Airbnb serves a diverse customer base, including hosts who list their properties and experiences, and guests seeking authentic local experiences. The company has operations in nearly every country and region across the globe, with a significant presence in large geographies such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, and South Korea. Airbnb is headquartered in San Francisco, California, the US.
Why MiniStays is the Better Alternative for Mid Term Rentals
First and foremost, MiniStays specializes in the mid term space. Therefore, every aspect and feature was designed with Mid Term Rental Hosts and Guests in mind. Here are just a few key takeways why MiniStays is the superior option when it comes to listing or booking a mid term rental vs Airbnb:
- MiniStays only allows listings to be booked for 30 days or longer. Although Hosts may opt to require a longer minimum stay. If you’ve ever been a Mid Term Rental Guest you understand this frustration first hand when it comes to searching for properties on Airbnb. It can be extremely difficult to find monthly stays on Airbnb when you’re competing against weekly travelers and trying to sort through all the calendars to find a continuous monthly booking that fits your needs. With MiniStays, that issue no longer exists.
- Low Fees! Both platforms are free to list your property which is great. But Airbnb can really eat into profits when you consider their exorbitantly high fees. Airbnb only charges 3% to the Host but turn around and charge a whopping 12-16% to the Guests! This plays a major role in the affordability of your listing to prospective travelers which usually results in Hosts needing to reduce their desired rental amount to offset those fees. Alternatively, MiniStays only charges 2% to the Host and 3-5% to the Guest depending on their payment method. On average this saves travelers $100’s if not $1,000’s during the course of their stay.
- Security Deposits – Airbnb offers Aircover to file claims. But if you’ve ever been a Host and try to submit a claim it can be an exhaustive process. And often times they either tend to side with the guest or don’t reimburse enough to cover your damages. MiniStays allows Hosts to set their own Security Deposit amount. For guests, the security deposit is all that is needed to reserve your stay and then the first rental payment is paid on the check in date. So Guests don’t need come up with a large amount of money to reserve a property.
- Background Checks – Airbnb doesn’t have the option for Hosts to perform background checks on their Guests. This is something that is very important to Hosts to know exactly who is staying at their property.
- Government Crackdowns on Airbnb – As more and more cities are cracking down on short term rentals, MiniStays has been a go-to option for Hosts to keep their properties where alternatively they would likely be forced to sell. This is a big reason many Hosts have been making the switch to Mid Term Rentals and having a platform dedicated to this space is long overdue.
Mid term rentals have been growing in popularity in recent years. Not just among healthcare professionals and travel nurses but there are many demographics gravitating towards monthly furnished accommodations. Some of those include snowbirds, military members, relocating families, displaced homeowners, insurance claims, athletes, college students and many more! Covid was also a major catalyst for the surge in Mid Term Rental popularity. Now that so many people can work from anywhere, they’re taking full advantage of that by not getting locked down in one location for an entire year. Now you can travel the world year-round and all you need is your suitcase and your laptop. More and more people are doing this and experts predict this trend is going to continue to explode for the foreseeable future.
