24 hard truths about investing in Airbnb short term rentals: 3 bedroom homes are the worst short term rental investment. All cities eventually ban Airbnb. Probably suburbs will too. Any STR strategy in the United States predicated on digital nomads and “work from home” is Dead On Arrival. Every time you get a bad review or a pipe bursts, you'll feel like quitting. 99% of homes listed for sale in the last 5 years as “STR opportunities” would make terrible investments. Even in the best of times, it is a slog. There was no golden age of operating. Buying and renovating an STR is a fun 70 hour a week job. Running one is a miserable 7 hour a week one. Almost all short term rental guests are awesome. But the percentage of “bad guests” will be related to the location and size of your property. Something will go wrong. So the more properties you have, the more often things are going wrong. The best STR markets require you to get a very hard to acquire permit. But then you spend the rest of your life doing arcane paperwork to keep that permit. When vacation areas ban short term rentals, it craters their property values. They do it any way because they hate Airbnb. No home purchased for more that $2MM can turn a profit as an STR. Financing and insurance is much tougher to get for a short term rental. Large groups don’t typically travel midweek except during the summer and holidays. All those bookings you got were because of the pandemic. The price of homes in many STR markets is set by second home buyers, who pay much more than any financial buyer would. Seasonality is a killer. If people didn’t visit your location in droves in 2019, they probably aren’t in 2023 (the pandemic was an exception). The Airbnb review process is torture for hosts, living in constant fear of a bad review. It's the single biggest reason most STR hosts don't last and churn out. The people that were very very very early to Airbnb were regulated out of existence. The people that came slightly later did better. Property managers in STR talk a big game, but if you use them you’ll lose money. The large STR property management firms you see advertising everywhere are the absolute WORST. If you use a PM, find a boutique where all their properties have good reviews. All advice about “getting rich with Airbnbs” written before 2023 has zero relevance today. But people will still sell the same course with the same message. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow after years of hard work is simply having a low cost basis relative to the nightly rates set by the market. If you want to stay in the game, you have to love the game: delighting guests, making your product awesome, and always striving to improve.