Do you own luxurious apartments in exclusive neighbourhoods in Nigeria? Would you like to maximize the return on investment in your properties? The short-let apartment business in Nigeria is a conducive earning environment for landlords who can’t wait for annual rents on their properties. This article explains everything you need to know about the booming short let apartment business in Nigeria.
Looking for a professional web designer in Nigeria? Look no further, you are at the right place! Click the menu above to get started.
What Is a Short-Let Apartment?
A short-let apartment is a fully-furnished apartment rented out for days or weeks, just like a hotel. Business travellers are likely to choose short-lets because they are cheaper than hotels and offer better freedom of movement. In addition, hotels carry branding or signage outside the premises; short lets don’t.
Short-let apartments are like AirBnB apartments with several designs to suit most business travellers. Most contain kitchens, living and dining rooms, and bedrooms for sleeping. Some luxury options include swimming pools, laundry services, high-speed internet, and gyms. In addition, most business owners provide cleaning and facility management services to help maintain the apartment while it is in use.
Another reason short-lets are great for guests than hotels is that hotels charge per person while short let business owners charge for the apartment. Therefore, short-let flats are great for family vacations since the family can have a fully-equipped apartment for the price of one family member.
4 Benefits of Investing in Shortlet Apartments
If you have doubts about putting your money in short let apartments as a business, here are four reasons you should consider the short let business as a means to generate passive income.
Increasingly High-Profit Margins
You can make over three times the amount you make in a year from your long-term rental properties in the short let apartment business. Things change over a long period (like a year);
- property prices might inflate,
- some factors may increase the value of the said property,
- facility management costs may increase;
A property owner who rents the property for long periods uses factors present at the time of payment to determine the rental price. On the other hand, short-let properties charge per day; hence, you can increase your price just because Wizkid is performing in a club nearby. This ability to markup anytime you like affords you a chance of making way more profit than landlords who rent out long-term.
Short let Apartments Are in a High Demand Globally
You are restricted to a few people for one room or a suite when you book hotels. Short let apartments change this story by allowing you to ‘own’ a whole apartment with its amenities at a fraction of the cost of booking hotels.
In addition, short lets don’t bill you for additional provisions like a swimming pool, spa, satellite TV, etc. This makes short let apartments have a steadily increasing demand, especially among business travellers who wish to cut costs.
You Have Clients Rather Than Tenants
When you rent out your property for a long time, there is a possibility that your tenant defaults on payment or becomes so comfortable they damage your facilities. While short-let apartments are more homely than hotels, clients don’t have the luxury of being comfortable long enough to default on payments or destroy things because they pay daily. Also, since you have a long list of clients to choose from in a successful short let business, you can take data on the habits of your guests. This data helps you decide if people who apply to book your apartment are right for you. In the long run, you build a long list of clients who abide by your rules and pay premium.
More Control and Flexibility
Imagine you have plans to renovate your two-bedroom apartment to include a toilet and bath in each room. If you start with one toilet and bath for both rooms and rent out the apartment for a year, you can’t do anything until the year is over – if you wish to keep your rental fee. However, with short let apartments, you can renovate the apartment anytime you like.
Also, damages in apartments are usually due to a lack of maintenance by the tenant. It is not their property, and landlords typically charge tenants extra when they report issues. Therefore, tenants won’t report ‘minor’ issues to the landlord, and minor problems become significant issues the landlord faces after the tenant leaves. The damages paid to the landlords most times can’t cover these issues.
However, with short-let apartments, you can visit your property immediately after guests leave to take inventory of damages and fix these minor issues.
How to Manage Short Let Apartments
Most short-let apartment owners are people looking for financial freedom. The goal is for the property to make money without much involvement on their end. Here are four tips for running a short let apartment business without becoming its slave.
Hire a property manager
You might think, ‘how much is the money itself, that I will be hiring people to do stuff.’ That is the peasant way of thinking; successful business owners find ways to create time for themselves by delegating laborious tasks to others. Property managers can relieve you of headaches like;
- Apartment cleaning
- Laundry services
- Repair and maintenance
- Guest vetting
- Security and facility management
Imagine doing all these for one apartment. If you are ambitious, you want to expand fast, right? Now imagine doing all that for several apartments. Get that headache off you; hire someone to do it for a cut. This strategy is to factor the amount property managers charge into your listing prices. Also, have a preference for property managers that take a cut from the payments rather than those who take payment upfront.
Create house rules and monitor
Your apartment is only as durable as the indulgences of those who stay in it. If you have guests who smoke, your house might catch fire. Therefore, it is essential to state things guests can and can not do in your apartments clearly and in print.
Create an exhaustive list of rules your guests need to follow and make a physical copy you can place in a visible place in the house. Also, ensure you send potential guests this list for their ‘approval’ before they make payment.
Digitalize your home
It takes something special to rebook a stay after your first stay. Something special in the present world is the digitalization or automation of your house in hardware and software. Here are some things you can do to digitalize your short let apartment;
- Install high-speed internet guests can use for free while on premises
- Integrate an intelligent assistant from Google or Apple into the apartment; this helps your guest do lazy tasks like turning off the light or switching on the TV on asking
- Have a running TV subscription on which guests can watch shows
- Install intelligent digital locks for safety
Visit to inspect regularly
As frequently as once a month, you must inspect to ensure your apartment is in excellent condition. If you find damaged features or appliances not working correctly, take note and work with your property manager to fix the issues. It is tempting to forget your business in the hands of hired help. However, it is your apartment, and the hired help can’t always be to your advantage. So check in once in a while—benefits of Investing in Short Let Apartments.
Top 5 Short Let Apartment Businesses in Nigeria
1. ShortletHomes
Shortlethomes is a sister company of Digital Landlords Nigeria Limited, owned by Keji Giwa. The company provides verified, approved homes guests can feel safe and secure in while delivering quality and luxury at affordable rates. They claim to offer 5-star luxury homes at up to 75% off the price of 5-star hotel rooms.
2. Lekki Footprint Short let Apartments
The business offers furnished one-bedroom, and two-bedroom serviced short-let apartments in Lekki. The apartments are in a quiet and serene gated and access-controlled location on Admiralty way in Lekki Lagos.
3. Lifestyle 18
LifeStyle18 is a block of short-let apartments equipped with 18 tastefully furnished living quarters – 1 & 2-bed room apartments. The apartments are designed to serve the lifestyle needs of holidaymakers, family getaways, movie shoots, and honeymooners.
4. Jonathan’s Place
Jonathan’s place is a tastefully furnished three-bedroom modern-style apartment. Rooms come with split ACs and TVs with a cable subscription. The apartment is in a secured environment with parking space and proximity to all key landmarks in Lekki Phase 1. There is an in-house laundry service to handle laundry needs at a fee.
How to Promote Your Short Let Apartments
So you have short-let apartments available for booking. Those apartments won’t promote themselves. To promote your short let business, you need marketing strategies that include offline and online methods.
Your strategy depends on the location, size, and type of accommodation for which you are trying to get bookings. Here are six things you can do to promote your short let apartments.
- Build a booking website for your short let listings which serve as a home for your business online. On your website, people can check out available apartments, see their features and book a stay.
- Optimize the pages on your website for search engines. Do an on-page SEO for every listing page on your website for search terms related to the location of your apartments.
- Add your apartment listings to free online directories like Google My Business, and Make It Nigeria. If websites are allowed, these listings juice up your SEO
- Engage your friends and family to share your listings. Go to events and tell people about your business. Have a referral program to incentivize referrals.
- Create social media accounts and post engaging contents your target audience can relate to.
- Try paid online ads on Meta or Google. Target frequent international travelers or other people likely to book a stay.
If you have short let apartments for rent and are looking for tips to promote your business. This article explains how to promote your short-let apartment in Nigeria and get more bookings.
