Potential customers search an Airbnb screen for lodging places. (BizDen file photo)
The deep freeze weighing down the hospitality industry is wreaking havoc on a local Airbnb market that’s grown to more than $10 million a month.
Seattle-based Loftium, which said one-third of its 600 properties are in Denver, is negotiating to reduce lease payments to landlords. The company, which raised $15 million last year, leases homes with two units and then has one long-term tenant help manage the Airbnb unit like an innkeeper. Loftium typically pays property owners more than market rent for a long-term rental.
But now that business model is broken.
CEO Yifan Zhang
Loftium CEO Yifan Zhang, 31, said her startup is not making any money right now.
“Travel is gone. … Whatever a (long-term) rental is able to pay is the income that’s available,” Zhang said. “We’re trying to just make something work.”
Zhang said the company is calling all property owners to renegotiate leases.
“Everyone’s taking a hit,” she said. “And our hope is to get through to the other side with everything intact. … It’s just a matter of how long this will last.”
Colin Sullivan, 28, rents a home in Washington Park from Loftium for $1,249 per month. He has access to one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and a backyard. The Airbnb portion of the home, which he said used to be rented about 80 percent of the time, has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a small kitchenette. The Airbnb rented for $50 to $100 per night, Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who has rented from Loftium since July, said he’s had no short-term tenants for two weeks and has no future stays booked.
The owner of the home is in lease negotiations with Loftium, which is offering $1,000 less per month than what the owner is receiving now, according to Sullivan.
According to recent data provided by Denver-based AirDNA, revenue generated by short-term rentals in Denver is plummeting; they raked in $2.44 million in revenue in the final week of February. That figure dropped to 2.29 million for the week of March 2-8, and fell further to $1.68 million last week, according to the company’s figures.
Some Denver landlords are pivoting away from the short-term rental business altogether.
A Denver landlord who asked that his name not be used because he is still working on permitting with the city, is bailing on running a five-unit Airbnb hotel after one year in business.
He’s turning the units back into long-term rentals. Two-bedroom units were bringing in around $3,800 a month in revenue before expenses, such as cleaning. Now those same units might fetch $2,000 a month, he said, or even less if demand is weak.
“We were booked out for many months and a majority of those canceled, understandably so,” he said. “So the business plan is just not viable in the immediate future. While I think it will bounce back at some point in time I don’t when that will be, so we have to pivot.”
The pain is particularly hammering hospitality startups.
San Francisco-based Sonder laid off or furloughed approximately 400 employees, according to tech news site The Information. Locally, the company operates four Denver hotels in Uptown, LoHi and University Park. And it has signed leases for at least four more, some of which are ground-up developments being built to suit.
Developer Mike Mathieson of Forbes Partnership, who developed a 20-unit project for the company at 3022 Zuni St. and is planning another nearby, said the company told him it’s not signing any new leases at the moment.
Austin, Texas-based The Guild also laid off 20 percent of its workforce this week, according to The Information. The hospitality startup, which operates hotels within large apartment complexes, is leasing space at 1750 Little Raven St. in the Riverfront Park neighborhood.
Potential customers search an Airbnb screen for lodging places. (BizDen file photo)
The deep freeze weighing down the hospitality industry is wreaking havoc on a local Airbnb market that’s grown to more than $10 million a month.
Seattle-based Loftium, which said one-third of its 600 properties are in Denver, is negotiating to reduce lease payments to landlords. The company, which raised $15 million last year, leases homes with two units and then has one long-term tenant help manage the Airbnb unit like an innkeeper. Loftium typically pays property owners more than market rent for a long-term rental.
But now that business model is broken.
CEO Yifan Zhang
Loftium CEO Yifan Zhang, 31, said her startup is not making any money right now.
“Travel is gone. … Whatever a (long-term) rental is able to pay is the income that’s available,” Zhang said. “We’re trying to just make something work.”
Zhang said the company is calling all property owners to renegotiate leases.
“Everyone’s taking a hit,” she said. “And our hope is to get through to the other side with everything intact. … It’s just a matter of how long this will last.”
Colin Sullivan, 28, rents a home in Washington Park from Loftium for $1,249 per month. He has access to one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and a backyard. The Airbnb portion of the home, which he said used to be rented about 80 percent of the time, has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a small kitchenette. The Airbnb rented for $50 to $100 per night, Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who has rented from Loftium since July, said he’s had no short-term tenants for two weeks and has no future stays booked.
The owner of the home is in lease negotiations with Loftium, which is offering $1,000 less per month than what the owner is receiving now, according to Sullivan.
According to recent data provided by Denver-based AirDNA, revenue generated by short-term rentals in Denver is plummeting; they raked in $2.44 million in revenue in the final week of February. That figure dropped to 2.29 million for the week of March 2-8, and fell further to $1.68 million last week, according to the company’s figures.
Some Denver landlords are pivoting away from the short-term rental business altogether.
A Denver landlord who asked that his name not be used because he is still working on permitting with the city, is bailing on running a five-unit Airbnb hotel after one year in business.
He’s turning the units back into long-term rentals. Two-bedroom units were bringing in around $3,800 a month in revenue before expenses, such as cleaning. Now those same units might fetch $2,000 a month, he said, or even less if demand is weak.
“We were booked out for many months and a majority of those canceled, understandably so,” he said. “So the business plan is just not viable in the immediate future. While I think it will bounce back at some point in time I don’t when that will be, so we have to pivot.”
The pain is particularly hammering hospitality startups.
San Francisco-based Sonder laid off or furloughed approximately 400 employees, according to tech news site The Information. Locally, the company operates four Denver hotels in Uptown, LoHi and University Park. And it has signed leases for at least four more, some of which are ground-up developments being built to suit.
Developer Mike Mathieson of Forbes Partnership, who developed a 20-unit project for the company at 3022 Zuni St. and is planning another nearby, said the company told him it’s not signing any new leases at the moment.
Austin, Texas-based The Guild also laid off 20 percent of its workforce this week, according to The Information. The hospitality startup, which operates hotels within large apartment complexes, is leasing space at 1750 Little Raven St. in the Riverfront Park neighborhood.
Loftium has now defrauded property owners and is rent skimming by collecting rents from their sub tenants and not paying the property owners. Complaints are being filed with DORA and litigation ensuing.
Another interesting angle to look at here is not just the impact on these businesses, but how some of these businesses referenced in your article made decisions that had a material negative impact on their surrounding neighbors. For example, Mathieson’s LoHi ‘hotel’ @ 3022 Zuni made a decision through Sonder to lower their nightly rates down to $50/night during the start of the pandemic/stay at home order. With his ‘hotel’ not having any on site staff or permanent on-site security, the hotel was quickly over run with drug dealing, prostitution, and people using their back alley as an open air drug market. With the extremely low rates (undercutting most ‘motels’ in the area) and no on site personnel, the selfish decisions to fill these rooms at any cost have been extremely disruptive and dangerous to the block it sits on. Happy to provide video proof, accounts from Denver PD, etc.
This is hardly an article worth publishing. And by the lack of comments I can see it’s not widely read. Loftium is not contacting homeowners to work out a fix for this horrible situation. They are trying to strong arm homeowners to sign away all their rights to collect rent from their houses when this is all over. They have collected rent from the renters they placed in my house. Whom I will be stuck with when this is ll over paying 1/2 rent of what I could rent it out on the open market to another long term renter. But they are not passing it along to us unless we sign their covid relief act. Which it’s only a relief to them since they are not required to pay rent even when this is all over. . They think they can come out of this intact however they cannot. They will be sued by t least 400 homeowners over the next few months. If they are even a business in two months which would be. Miracle.
Loftium isn’t working with anyone, they’re strong-arming tenants and landlords. They’re collecting rent from tenants and not giving it to the landlords which is putting the tenants at risk of being evicted. They said they aren’t going to pay the landlords unless they sign a new contract saying the landlord will accept half the rent. If they don’t sign, they won’t receive anything and will have to evict the tenant who paid their end to loftium.
It’s criminal and they’re going to have a lot of lawsuits on their hands.
We are renters. Loftium took advantage of the fact our landlords are older and didn’t quite understand what was happening. They threatened to not pay rent to get them to void the three year lease previously signed between them. Therefore only after one year of the lease and us living on the property, we are forced to move out. Our landlords haven’t received rent from Loftium In 2 months, even though we have paid our end of rent. This has completely uprooted our lives and plans and our landlords are unable to pay their bills. We planned to stay on the property for 3 years and are now forced to leave. We’ve furnished a 4 bedroom home and now have to move to a smaller place. I feel terrible for our landlords as well. This is a large part of their income. Looking back I wish I never signed with loftium. Very unstable.
I’ve spoken with many other loftium renters/ hosts and know many that have been served evictions from their landlords. They’re evicting loftium which in turn evicts the renters/hosts – people who are immunocompromised and had disabilities are forced to move with little notice. Thankfully ours has not done this. I will be glad to be out of this situation…far away from loftium.
Loftium’s customer service and business model is horrendous. They have no phone number to call. They change Airbnb terms and booking settings without notice. Started posting listings to other sites without agreeance of renter and landlord. They should be ashamed of themselves and embarrassed. I will happily talk to a news outlet about this.