Does Remote Airbnb Ownership Work? Here's What I Learned After 1 Year
We have had an Airbnb in Muskegon near Lake Michigan for one year now, and I wanted to pay forward the things I've learned in case you're starting the same journey. I'll try to keep this simple so it's easier to remember.
The USS Silversides WWII submarine museum is in port by Lake Michigan. We are located closer to the LST 393 WWII D Day warship at the Mart Docks on Muskegon Lake, but LST393 House doesn't really have a ring to it...
1. Property Managers Are Everything
We had to hire local property managers even though that took 25% off the margins (i.e. the entire profit for the first couple years at least) because our local ordinance says STRs (short term rentals) have to have a local contact available within 30 minutes for any guest on site. We live a few hours away, but it turned out to be a great choice anyway to hire a professional management company even if we hadn't needed the service. They handle the financials, bookings, most of the advertising, background checks, cleaning and maintenance, and help us pay accommodation taxes and STR fee plus make sure our paperwork is in order with the city. Priceless, honestly. I think if you live on site being your own manager makes sense, but for remote Airbnb ownership, this choice got us 85% occupancy immediately, which is impressive up front, plus the reputation of a great company good with customer service for our guests. We quickly racked up a great rating on Airbnb and VRBO, plus the managers knew Booking.com is a newer up and coming vacation rental site and we have gotten a quarter of our bookings there this year.
2. Property Insurance or Damage Deposit
The first year, which was a partial year starting last June 2024, we had the typical damage deposit on the house for each booking, and it paid for a few small broken or missing items. This year in 2025, our management company was acquired by a bigger company with more tools like AI booking rate calculator, and they also signed up for a service that provides insurance on damage instead of damage deposit. The cost is worked into the rental rate the same way as a deposit. We had the same results, same small number of claims, but according to the managers it was a much better choice for their clients overall for when bigger problems or damages arose. The company had $45k paid out to several dozen claims this year. Highly recommend for the peace of mind. We did have damage to a bedside table, a couple ceiling fan problems from wear and tear, a broken toilet paper holder and dent in the wall from a misplaced towel holder, but nothing big, especially considering how many people warned us our place could be trashed by parties.
3. The Neighborhood Was A Longterm Investment
We knew it was a bit risky to cash flow to invest in a house in a neighborhood mid-renovation in a city like Muskegon that is still rebuilding its reputation with visitors after a long economic slump. The furniture factory across the street has quickly been cleaned up from abandoned half redeveloped building of condos to a very large and strangely on-time construction project aimed at turning the other two-thirds of the building into mixed use retail and condos. It's neat, quiet, and even better looking than when we arrived just a year and a half ago. This means our house has gained a bit of value just being in a decent market this year, but it should gain even more value as the rest of the neighborhood is rebuilt into a second marina, more condos, a skatepark, and possibly a city beach coming soon.
Downsides to this type of investment? As expected, a few guests thought the neighborhood was a bit sketchy on one side (true), and we are keeping our rates low to reflect the lower amenities until the neighborhood reinvestment is complete. That means we're a bit underwater or at best treading water for a couple years, until we can justify higher rates. Why did we do this? First because it was affordable to buy in the city, and the neighborhood investment was FAR beyond what we could accomplish ourselves (several hundred million going in within a block of us should help property values: we're going from being in a working class neighborhood of old bungalows a bit worse for wear from time to a renovated neighborhood with just a few run-down homes plus $500k-$2 million condos across the road and a block away).
the boat launch is public and free to use across Shoreline Drive from Silversides House, but it's located behind the pizza place Fricano's Event Center, next to the Adelaide Point condos boat storage sheds, and isn't very well labeled at all. We are working on a neighborhood guide and packaged vaca.
4. We Need A Neighborhood Guide For Guests
Guests love the walkability of the neighborhood, too, if they're not put off by its current scruffiness, but we have realized we need a neighborhood map, tourist guide, or packaged vacations so people know there is a boat rental a block away, a gym with a pool also a block away, pizza parlor, sweet shop, boat launch, war ship museum, ferry boat tour dock, dog park, pubs, downtown art museum, and historical sites like the Hackley and Hume lumber baron homes in easy walking distance of Silversides House. It took me this entire time to find all those places, because the signage isn't great unless you already know what "Fricano's" is (the pizza place and sweet shop). I am working on solving this challenge by not only having a guest welcome book that goes beyond the digital welcome pack sent by the management company, but prepackaging vacation tickets with the rental rate for seasonal attractions. We also are across the street from a music festival site, did I mention that one? It's a great neighborhood, just needs better advertising and planning for our guests. This is my main challenge this year to make the house profitable by packaging together vacation tickets for boat tours, pizza, or a gym day pass for the off season.
Grand Haven, South Haven, Muskegon, and other surrounding beach towns like Ludington and Manistee all have one of these beautiful piers with a lighthouse, catwalk, and public beaches. Honestly this is enough reason to visit Lake Michigan without the other attractions like Muskegon's luge and ice skating park, coaster park, or many natural areas for hiking the dunes.
5. Analytics Are VERY Clear On Content Marketing
I started posting pics of our journey as Airbnb owners to share the experience and the awesome location by the beaches of Muskegon that are super pet friendly compared to surrounding areas. Over the course of a year or so, I could see the analytics on social media indicating people LOVE my short videos of relaxing waves on Lake Michigan, plus some content about creative projects like book launches and nature poetry. I think the fiction I was setting in Muskegon will probably bring interest in the mid- to long term as well, but it's taking longer for that content to get traction because it's a bigger step from "Airbnb channel" to "author's writing cabin, please rent the cabin and also buy my books" as a call to action. I just didn't realize how stark the numbers were. Without going into too much detail, the other takeaway here was that I spent too much time worrying about quality or relevance of my content for marketing the Airbnb and media I was working on, and not enough up front researching format and algorithm for being visible. Once I learned how to do Youtube shorts and IG reels in the right orientation and length and topic, our socials started to take off. So now I'm rebalancing my efforts to be more efficient, but that's actually workable considering some content gets zero views and other content is being viewed thousands of times and getting lots of love.
So, that's my first year update on being an Airbnb owner remotely. I HIGHLY recommend working with a management company if you can make it work, because of the help getting launched, supporting guest requests, and advising on rental rates and amenities. I'll be back soon with more updates on the tools I'm using to manage the property and business, a lot of it thanks to them.