Airbnb Management in Richmond, BC

In total, there are just above 1,308 active listings available in Richmond. According to the official website of BC, there were around 85,000 private dwellings in the city in 2021. This means that around 1.12% of private dwellings are used for short-term rentals, which is quite high.
Around 56% of the available listings in the area are Full Home listings. The other 43% are Private Room rentals, while Shared Rooms make just below 1% of the total number of listings. The average rental size of the property in the area is 1.8 bedrooms, while the average number of guests reaches 4.

One of the main metrics related to any short-term rental business is the occupancy rate. In Richmond, it reaches 79% in spring but may drop to 39% in other seasons. The seasonality of vacation rental management in Richmond is strongly tied to the touristic activity in the area.

The average daily rate parameter may also fluctuate a lot. For example, in February, it is only $130, according to AirDNA, while in July, it reaches $222. This rise in prices is very clearly related to the increase in demand and the huge inflow of guests coming on holidays in July.

To operate in Richmond, you might need to obtain a license. This strongly depends on whether you’re going to provide Bed & Breakfast services. You can offer boarding or lodging for groups of less than three people without a license, but for B&Bs, you will need one, even if you’re just renting out a room in your home.

The license is annual, and you can apply for it by contacting the city’s administration. You can learn more about licensing from this Richmond official website. There, you will find the criteria of licensing, the list of documents you will need, and other details about obtaining a B&B license.

Like in all other regions, hosts in Richmond can choose between multiple platforms available for posting their listings. The two most popular options are Airbnb and VRBO, but the gap between them is so huge that it would be reasonable to label Airbnb as a monopoly of short-term rental business in the area.

Of all listings available in Richmond, 93% are exclusively posted on Airbnb. Another 5% of listings are posted both on Airbnb and VRBO, and only around 2% are VRBO-exclusive listings. Even though the competition on VRBO is obviously less severe, the popularity of the platform among guests is corresponding: the vast majority of visitors prefer using Airbnb.

While the information presented in this article might seem relatively easy to process, this is only the tip of the iceberg of your research required to run a successful business. To make the process easier and load some of the responsibilities off your shoulders, you can use the services of companies like HeartHomes.

HeartHomes is an Airbnb management company that specializes in the Canadian market. The list of services it offers is pretty wide and it starts from the very fundamentals of your future or existing listings: interior design and staging. The professionals from HeartHomes will be glad to visit your property and help you arrange everything in an effective and appealing way. They will also take high-quality photographs of the place for your listing.

On the next stage, the company is willing to help you with licensing and insurance, which might be a major headache for aspiring entrepreneurs. Once everything is ready, HeartHomes can also manage your listing and optimize the prices to grant you a major increase in yield. Last but not least, it will take over cleaning & maintenance responsibilities, which also may be time-consuming for sole entrepreneurs.