Adding a Geodesic Dome ADU to Airbnb (Process, Cost, and More)

What’s up guys? This is my geodesic dome. And this is my Airbnb listing that includes that geodesic dome. That’s right. Recently, I purchased an Airbnb. And I also purchased a geodesic dome and set it up half that Airbnb. And so originally, the property that I purchased wasn’t actually an Airbnb, I turned it into one. And so I bought it. And now I’m using it as a short term rental. And I also purchased a geodesic dome from a company over in Europe. And so I want to update you guys on a couple of things. One, I want to talk in this video about the process of actually buying and setting up and getting that whole geodesic dome. Alright, because I know a lot of you are really curious about it. So I want to talk about the whole process from start to finish. I also going to cover exactly how much it costs to get that dome set up. And I want to talk about how it’s performing so far as an Airbnb. So like I said, I bought this from a company over in Europe, I’m based in Canada, the property is and so we had to ship it across seas. And you’re probably wondering, Well, how did I decide on this on this company? Well, it’s a company called hyped domes. And I really liked them for a few reasons. One, their website was super user friendly, easy to use, I was able to check it out and get a lot of information that I needed. So my initial search is really easy to get all the details to was it these domes looked super cool. There’s a lot of domes out there that are just kind of gross, like they just don’t look that nice because they’ve got like a white outer shell and that gets dirty and it gets grimy. And they just honestly don’t look that nice on the outside. I found that this one looked really really cool on the outside, it looks cool on the inside as well. But the outside being mirrored was just this really really cool effect that I found draws a lot of attention. And so I really liked that I also have come to really like I didn’t really think about this too much when I was initially buying but I’m really glad I ended up with a with a dome that doesn’t have a metal frame to it, it meant that the shipping was a lot more affordable and meant it was a lot easier to assemble. And it’s so much cooler to have this dome that’s purely made at a plexiglass, the assembly process, which I’m going to go into more detail on was essentially just screwing together all these plexiglass panels, and it made it into this hard rigid shell. And so that was really cool. I really liked that I really liked the design of it. The other reason I like hype domes was because their unit was 10 square metres exactly, which for a lot of areas is the maximum size you can get without requiring permits. So not needing a permanent was really a big bonus. And then another reason I really liked hype domes is because the company is really cool. The guys at the company were actually great enough to be able to jump onto a zoom call with me show me around their facility show me around the around the dome give me a whole bunch of ins and outs. And they’re even gonna be sending me their their in floor radiant heating and their door vestibule as well. So that can be adding those on and I’ll update on those as well. So there’s all the reasons I like to go with hype domes. So I’d recommend that you check out hype domes as well, really, really great company if you’re looking to buy a dome. And then the process for me was actually really simple. Like I mentioned, I was able to actually call and get on a zoom call with the team there and they were able to give me a tour around helped me select exactly what I want it go through the exact configuration that I want. And then they just shipped it over to me it was honestly I think about two or maybe three weeks to get the unit it was really quick to get it over from Europe and arrived in just a few boxes. It was shockingly small once it’s all packed up really, really easy to carry around and just move from one place to the other. And so from there, I had a deck built by my contractors, they built a deck like you can see here, there’s a deck underneath it that’s built on top of and then we went to work so I actually ended up building my own sub floor for it. Hype domes does sell a sub floor for it. But the shipping costs on that was actually more than the shipping costs on the whole rest of the dome. So they told me Hey, just go to Home Depot get some sub floor, they kind of walked me through how I can create my own sub floor. So I then created a sub floor I’ve got an insulated membrane so it’s completely cut off to the environment. So there’s no like water getting up inside of it that went underneath the sub floor. Then there’s a wooden insulated sub floor. That’s really great. Now on top of that, we’ve got the carpet. So assembly, it was pretty straightforward. It took my dad and I about 10 hours from start to finish the two of us to screw all these little pieces together, the instructions are super, super detailed and clear. So that made it really really easy to put it together. Honestly, I couldn’t have gone any much smoother. I don’t think like it was way easier than assembling something from IKEA. And so in the future, if I were to buy another one of these and set up another one, I would just hire my Ikea furniture builder to assemble the whole thing and it takes about 20 man hours to put it all together. So again, if you’re looking for someone to assemble this, I highly recommend using an Ikea furniture builder. Usually if you go on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist or Kijiji you can find someone that markets themselves as offering that service. This is the exact same skill set so they’d surely be quite good at it. And it really is quite simple to put it all together. It’s probably more of a two man job than a one man job, I will say. So getting two people out so they can hold they can hold the panels and screw them at the same time would probably be the best bet. But that was pretty straightforward and easy. From there. It was just a matter of furnishing it, photographing it and getting it up and listed on Airbnb. And so that was really cool. Really straightforward. Really simple. Honestly guys just want to take a quick break here to say that for those of you watching who want to build cashflow, and long Return wealth by purchasing Airbnb and short term rental properties. There’s a link in the description right down below for a free training that will walk you through my exact strategy for investing successfully in Airbnb ease. Now if you’re not ready to actually buy properties, and you want to get started managing other people’s properties on Airbnb the same way I got started and build a full time income managing other people’s properties, there’s actually another free training linked in the description down below as well, that’ll be a really great fit for you. So whether you want to invest in short term rental properties, and actually build amazing cash flow and long term wealth by acquiring the assets, buying the properties themselves, or you’re looking to earn a full time income, managing other people’s properties on Airbnb, we’ve got some awesome trainings that are linked in the description down below, that’ll definitely help you out. When you sign up for the trainings, we’re also going to send you a few other tools and resources completely for free just to help you get started. Again, the links to sign up are in the description down below. And both trainings and all the tools are completely free. So make sure to register for the trainings, links in the description down below. It’s a really, really cool space. So so far, it’s attracted a lot of the bookings that we’ve gotten, it’s tough to say exactly how much of my bookings have been due to this dome, and how well the property is performed because of the dome, because I only listed it with the dome. So I don’t really have a sort of static test to compare to. But what I do have is some evidence from my guests that have booked so far, I can say for certain that every single person that’s booked has mentioned how cool the dome was, as a reason why they booked, I can also say that a lot of the traction I’ve gotten on sites outside of like the organic marketing I’ve done for this property has been because of the dome, I can also say that I’ve been able to do some influencer marketing and get some influences stay there, largely because of the uniqueness of the dome even had some influencers reach out to me. And so that’s pretty cool. It’s something I’m experimenting with the results of that are still a little bit unknown, but I’ll be sure to update you guys as the as we progress with that. And I can also say that a lot of the reviews end up quoting the dome as well as being a really cool space. So it’s definitely helpful. Now in terms of the cost from start to finish, if I had hired out the an Ikea furniture builder at our normally hourly rate, do we pay for that, if we had hired them to assemble the whole thing, and then not had to put my own man hours and actually assembling it, then the start to finish including the platform, the dome is on the dome itself, the shipping, and the furniture inside was about 11,000 US Dollars or 14 or so 1000 Canadian dollars. So really economical when you think about it. For context, this property, it was able to add an extra two people to sleep there because it only had four bedrooms inside the actual property. But there were two bathrooms. So with the additional accommodation, we can sleep more people. And it adds this real uniqueness to the property. Now this property we’re projecting about 80 to $100,000 in annual bookings. So pretty easy to see how we can boost that by 510 $15,000 a year and easily how this dome be paying for itself in just a couple of years, if not in the first year. And so that’s really cool. I also really just personally love it. I think it’s super cool. Every single time I’ve gone to the property. So far I’ve gotten slipped out in the dome, I just think it’s such a cool experience. And it’s something different each time because staying in there in the summer versus the fall versus the winter is this really cool, unique experience that you get to have being out in nature. So it was a really great that you get all the fun of camping with the creature comforts of having a kitchen and a bathroom and stove and running water right inside. Just a couple of steps away. So I think that’s a big attraction for people that want to have the cool experience of camping but don’t actually want to go out and rough it in the wilderness. And the other cool thing I get a lot of people asking me though, is this a four season dome? You actually have it running all through the winter? answer is absolutely. In the summertime, I put an AC unit in and the cool thing about hype domes is they’ve got a panel you can add in so you can vent air conditioning out. So I’ve got that installed. And that worked really really well to keep the dome nice and cool in the in the summertime. And then the wintertime we’ve got a space heater in there. And we’ve recently added a kind of heated mattress cover that doesn’t draw a lot of power, it’s actually you can control either side of it independently. So if you’re sleeping two people in the bed, you can eat at your own temperature. And that heats it up really, really well. The space here keeps the air nice and warm, so it’s nice and warm in there. But if you really want to get the extra mountain stay through the harsh Canadian winters in real comfort, then that mattress heater is a must. It’s really cool. I just slept on it for the first time and I love it. It keeps it really nice and warm. In fact, at one point I actually had dialled up a little bit too much and I woke up sweating. So it’s really, really nice and warm. You’re really not sacrificing any level of warmth having it in the winter. And you’re certainly able to keep it nice and cool in the summertime. A lot of that has to do with how well insulated it is, despite it only being Plexiglas. There’s insulated panels throughout most of the inside except for the part that’s transparent. And then underneath it’s really well insulated because of the sub floor and the carpeting and the deck that raised it up off the ground. So yeah, that’s my experience so far with the geodesic dome. So far it has led to more bookings

I believe I think people are willing to pay a higher nightly rate. We’re also staying really well booked throughout the low season and I think a large part of that that has a standout from other properties Nearby is the fact that it has that dome there. So I’ll be sure to update you guys as we progress and get more experienced with this dome. as I learn more as I experienced more I’ll be sure to keep you posted any questions you have drop them in the comment section down below. Give this video like if you enjoyed it if you got value from it if you just want to help me out a little bit just give it a thumbs up hit that like button make sure you subscribe to the channel as well I post two new videos every single week on the channel about how to perform successfully on Airbnb how to invest in Airbnb manage properties on Airbnb. So if you want to learn more about that, check out the links in description below and make sure you hit the subscribe button. All that said hope you enjoyed this video and I’ll see you in the next one.