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Airbnb host Martin Cliff believes holidaying families are choosing short-stay accommodation over motels because of affordability.
Mr Cliff wrote a letter to the editor in response to a Bendigo Advertiser article that said the rise of short-stay holiday houses are reducing affordable rental options for local families.
In the article Bendigo Motels Association president Simon Wurf said a rise in short-stay holiday homes would reduce rental options for families and students.
Mr Cliff said he and his wife had six investment properties in the region and that four of them were rented to local families.
The two Airbnb properties were started when Mr Cliff could not find permanent tenants.
“A property I owned was vacant for seven weeks with no enquiries on it despite dropping the rent on it twice,” he said.
“The real estate agent said it was a soft market so with no interest in the property, my wife was interested in trying Airbnb.
“At the moment I have a family in one of my Airbnbs for $220. If a motel can match that price with the facilities I provide then great,” he said.
Facilities in Mr Cliff’s Airbnb include continental breakfasts, fruit, and chocolates, internet and DVDs.
He said while motel owners were concerned with Airbnb being unregulated and operators having a different level of cleanliness, that bad reviews ruined properties.
“We personally do our own cleaning and laundering. If you get bad reviews, you won’t get bookings. So we have to keep it up to scratch and clean,” he said.
Short-stay accommodation options were the recent focus of a state government inquiry into the bill to amend the Owners Corporation Act.
Recommendations from the act would effectively level the playing field and protocols could be established in conjunction with owners corporations to manage unruly guests.
“Airbnb does give you more payout than weekly rentals but with that comes the inherit risk of damage,” Mr Cliff said.
“We do as much investigation into a person as we can but nothing is 100 per cent.”