It never really occurred to me how much space in a typical house goes unused until my wife and I moved into the four-bedroom house that she’d bought back when she was starting graduate school (back then, she lived in one room and rented out the other three bedrooms to roommates, so she was house hacking before I even met her).
As a renter, we’d never lived in an apartment bigger than 800 square feet or so. Our smallest apartment – where we found all of that sweet trash – was about 600 square feet.
At the beginning of 2016, the two of us moved back into this four-bedroom house that was probably double or triple the size of any apartment that we’d ever lived in. It seemed like a waste to have so much space for just two people. But we didn’t want to get roommates either. That’s when we decided to try out our hand at making money with Airbnb.
Are You Really Using All Of Your Space?
Moving from our small apartment into a pretty big house showed us how much of our home was basically going unused. When you think about it, most people probably need just a few parts of their home – a spot to watch TV, a spot to sleep, and a spot to eat and cook. Maybe you work from home and need a spot to work also.
A while back, the Money Wizard wrote about a UCLA study in which researchers plotted the location of family members in a typical house. The researchers performed a sweep of the house every 10 minutes, then plotted each family member’s location. Below were the results. As you can see, the majority of the time, people hung out in the kitchen or family room. Many other rooms basically went unused.
What this means is that, for most people, a house isn’t being used to its full potential. Most of the time, you’re not really paying to heat or cool yourself. Instead, you’re paying to heat and cool stuff that’s sitting in unused rooms.
And the absolute biggest waste of space has to be the guest room! It seems like everyone with a house has a guest room these days. People decorate them, keep them clean, and put nice stuff in them. And then these rooms only get used a handful of times per year. We were no exception.
The thing you can take away from this post is that, if you have a guest room, you’re sitting on a potential income-generating portion of your house! Your home is likely your biggest asset. And figuring out a way to monetize it, even just a little bit, is an easy way to put that asset to use and offset some of your living costs. It’s also a good way to fix the problem of having a house that’s too big for you by making sure unused space actually gets used.
I knew about Airbnb, but before signing up, I’d only used it once as a guest and never as a host. Still, I’d always been interested in the concept. And I hated that I had all this extra space sitting unused.
So, in April of 2016, I took some pictures of the guest room, put up a listing on Airbnb, and my wife and I began to welcome our first guests. We hosted guests for almost four years until the birth of our son put an end to our shared hosting experience (we’ll still try to rent out our home when we travel though).
The Advantages of Airbnb
I’m a big fan of the sharing economy. And Airbnb comes with a lot of advantages that you can’t get from a normal roommate situation. These include the following:
1. It’s Better Than A Full-Time Roommate
The traditional way of monetizing your home would be to find a roommate. The problem with having a roommate is that you lose a lot of flexibility. If you want your house for yourself, you’re stuck. In contrast, with Airbnb, all you need to do is block out those dates on your calendar.
I think there’s also a big mindset shift with an Airbnb guest as compared to a roommate. One of the things that my wife hated about living with roommates was the fact that her roommates had their stuff in her living room and kitchen. It’s not necessarily that her roommates were messy – most of them weren’t. But when you have multiple people living in one house, it’s really hard to keep the place free of clutter. A roommate sees your house as their house – and that’s fair. They’re living there for an extended period of time.
It’s a totally different experience with an Airbnb guest. That’s because there’s a general understanding that it’s your house and the Airbnb guest is just that – a guest. When I’m a guest in someone’s home, I tend to treat the home with a ton of respect. I won’t walk around someone’s house tracking mud or leave my stuff around or make a ton of noise at night. I’ve found that most Airbnb guests think the same way. When they stay in your home, they’re super respectful – decidedly so, in fact.
Another unexpected bonus with an Airbnb guest versus a roommate is the fact that Airbnb guests typically spend very little time in your house. Someone booking a guest room on Airbnb is typically coming into town for a specific reason. Since my wife and I live close to a college campus, almost every guest that stays with us is coming into town for a conference or for school interviews. We don’t see them very often because they’re busy doing things and most of the time, they only come home to sleep.
2. You Earn Way More Money For Less Time
This is pretty expected, but renting out a room on Airbnb brings in much more income compared to renting that same room to a traditional renter.
If you’ve followed my side hustle reports, you know that in months when I’m fully booked, I can bring in well over $1,000 in a month. A room in my house would probably rent for around $600 or so per month if I rented it out to a traditional roommate. I can bring in that same amount in about 12-14 days on Airbnb.
3. You Have Way Less Wear And Tear On Your Home
A lot of people find this surprising, but an Airbnb guest actually results in less wear and tear on your home compared to a traditional roommate. That’s because most Airbnb guests are only in your home for short periods of time and the vast majority of guests are just looking for a place to sleep.
Unlike a traditional roommate who will actually live in your home and use your kitchen and other things in your house, an Airbnb guest might only spend a few hours at your house during the course of their stay.
4. Your Overhead Is Low If You’re Renting Out A Room In Your Home
One issue a lot of people have with Airbnb is that it takes a lot more time and overhead to run an Airbnb as compared to a traditional rental. This is definitely true if you’re renting out an entire house or apartment that you do not live in. It can be a time-intensive process to clean a large space between guests and get a place ready for the next group, not to mention if you’re renting out an entire home on Airbnb, you’ll probably need to invest some money in purchasing furniture.
But when you’re renting out a room in your house on Airbnb, the overhead is minimal. There’s very little extra utility use, at least not enough for me to notice any real difference in our electricity or water bill. We’re also just using furniture we already had – furniture that I bet you already have too.
The only overhead we really have is what it costs to wash sheets and towels. To minimize these costs, we have multiple sheets that we’ve earmarked for our guest room. Doing this allows us to stagger our laundry so that we can wash most of our sheets with our regular laundry.
5. Your House Will Never Be Cleaner
I think this is the most underestimated impact of renting out a room on Airbnb. Ever look around and realize that your house has gotten pretty dirty? I know that’s what happens to us when we go through long periods where no one is visiting our house. Clothes get left on chairs. Dirty plates start piling up in the sink. Dust bunnies start collecting in the corner.
This all changed once we started renting out our guest room on Airbnb. Suddenly, we needed to keep our house clean! Sure, there’s some work involved in cleaning up our house when guests are coming. But the thing is, cleaning gets so much easier when your house is already clean. I really only have to sweep up our guest room, change the sheets, and make a quick sweep of the bathroom between guests.
I will admit that cleaning is work. But it’s work that doesn’t just benefit our guests. It benefits us too! Our guests get a clean place to stay, and as an advantage, we get a clean house to live in. In a way, it’s like I’m paying myself to clean my own house.
6. You Can Get Freebies!
I love free stuff and the great thing about becoming a good Airbnb host is the ability to potentially get free things from companies looking to advertise their products. This might have been more common in the early days of Airbnb, but I’ve been able to get a lot of free stuff simply because I have an active Airbnb listing. If you keep an eye out on some of the major Airbnb forums, you can often find companies offering to give free stuff to Airbnb Superhosts. As an example, I’ve received boxes of travel-sized toiletries, USB plugs, and smoke alarms.
My absolute best freebies are two free mattresses I received from startup mattress companies. These companies are super popular in the startup world – instead of buying a mattress in a store, you can purchase a mattress online and the company mails it to you in a box.
Since I’m an Airbnb Superhost, I’ve been lucky enough to receive $2,000 worth of free mattresses and pillows from these companies! I guess the idea is that a guest will sleep on the mattress, then consider purchasing it later. I have no idea if that will actually work out, but who cares, free mattresses for me! If I stopped doing Airbnb right now, I’d still get to keep the mattresses. That’s pretty good for me.
I didn’t expect to get any freebies when I first started hosting. But it’s been a nice bonus and I’m always keeping an eye out for other freebies! Unfortunately, it’s gotten harder to find these types of freebies, but it’s still an unexpected benefit that’s worth considering.
In lieu of free stuff, Airbnb also gives you a $100 credit for every year that you’re an Airbnb Superhost. That’s a nice little freebie that you can use too.
But What If Some Crazy Guy Comes Into My House?
The biggest fear that anyone has when it comes to renting out a room on Airbnb is the fact that you’re inviting a stranger into your house. This is a definite concern for sure, but I think it’s an overblown fear. I feel like most people in the world are normal people. And with the way the internet works, it’s pretty easy to figure out who’s coming to your door.
You also greatly diminish the chances that a crazy person comes into your home when you’re renting out a single room on Airbnb. Anyone looking to throw a big party or steal from you or do any other number of bad things is probably not going to do it in a house where the owner is also living in it.
There are other precautions you can take to avoid problem guests. I require all of my guests to verify their identity with Airbnb and anyone that instant books can only do so if they have received a good review and have no bad reviews.
I also always do a bit of background research on each guest that messages me. If they have good reviews already, then that’s great. I’ll also usually do a quick Google search and see if I can see what type of internet presence they have. A professional LinkedIn profile or some sort of work profile is definitely something I like to see.
Finally, you can limit the potential crazies just by chatting with your potential guests. I can almost always get a feel for the type of person coming to my home based on the type of messages they write. If the message is written professionally and explains why they’re coming into town, I’m much more likely to accept the request.
Recently, I allowed instant booking for my Airbnb profile, but I limit the feature only to guests that have received positive reviews from other Airbnb hosts. So far, I’ve had no issues with instant book requests, and actually, I think it’s helped improve the type of guests I get.
In the end, you’ve got to trust your gut. Most people who are crazy won’t be able to hide it. And you’ll probably be able to tell.
More To Come!
My Airbnb experience is far too much to write in a single post, and over the years, I’ve written additional posts about this topic. You can check out some of them here:
- House Hacking With Airbnb – Recapping My Third Year of Airbnb House Hacking
- Using Airbnb To Create Your Home Maintenance Fund
- Earn Tax-Free Airbnb Income With The Master’s Rule
If you have a guest room collecting dust, consider giving Airbnb a try. It only takes a little bit of time to set up and really, if you don’t like it or find it to be uncomfortable, you can just delete your listing. You can’t get that same flexibility with a roommate.
Your house is likely the most expensive thing you own, but it can also generate significant income for you if you are willing to do some research and planning, think outside the box, and use the resources you have. And if you can subsidize the cost of your living expenses, you can make huge strides in your ability to save money and reach financial independence.
If Airbnb hosting sounds like something you’re interested in, feel free to sign up to be a host. It’s a great, low-risk way to try out your hand at house hacking.
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I work with Steve Carpou with State Farm in Matthews, NC. I have commercial policies under my LLC. I don’t live in the spaces I rent, that may be why you are getting push back. I recommend full disclosure so you get the product and coverage you need. There are 23% more AirBNBs than there were this time last year. That means there is 920,000+/- more hosts just getting started. Honestly, there will be a LOT of failures this year. I have never seen it this slow. But welcome to the party! Good luck.
I work with Steve Carpou with State Farm. I have commercial policies under my LLC. I don’t live in the spaces I rent, that may be why you are getting push back. Here is his website- https://www.statefarm.com/agent/us/nc/matthews/steve-carpou-gdtnr7gz5ge I recommend full disclosure so you get the product and coverage you need. There are 23% more AirBNBs than there were this time last year. That means there is 920,000+/- more hosts just getting started. Honestly, there will be a LOT of failures this year. I have never seen it this slow. But welcome to the party! Good luck.
Hey,
Currently under contract for a home with an in law suite I would like to Air BnB while I live in the main part of the house. I’ve talked to a myriad of insurance companies and none of them are willing to offer HO3 insurance and have said they will deny claims submitted if i am caught Air BnBing. Does your insurance company know your air bnbing or have you found a HO3 policy that allows air bnb? Thank you in advance.
Hi,
How do you price your air bnb? I mean do you have a strategy on how you price your air bnb?
Yes, Sell ALL the days for around $100 a night with a 30 day minimum. I’d rather sell all the days cheaply than retail some, and send a cleaning person over there four – five times a month. We did away with cleaning fees to boost our presence. I can eat a $150 cleaning fee on a $3000 month. It isn’t as easy to do on a two or three night stay.
I’ve been an AirBNB host for over 5 years. We are in Charlotte, NC and ONLY do stays with a 30 day minimum. We would rather sell all the nights for a low price than have high turnover and increased cleaning and maintenance bother. We are constantly booked with travel nurses, folks relocating to our beautiful city, interns, people buying/selling/closing on a house, folks who live locally who are renovating their home and need a clean and economical solution to their circumstance. Our website is http://www.charlotteforless.com if you’d like to see another way to capitalize on this that most haven’t considered. YMMV. Andy
I am considereing using air bnb to rent out a room maybe two. I do not live in a great area and my home really needs some TLC however I do have a spare room to use though. It would be nice to generate some side income for fix up my home. How do I get started into this business?
Just list up a room on Airbnb and see how it works for you. You’ll figure it out as you go along.
Hi, thank you for the info, you’re very impressive in how you manage everything so well. A few questions for you I’m hoping you can help me with?
1) Can you provide a link to your Airbnb room so I can see what you’re offering?
2) Have you found since publishing this that you’ve had to make large expenses, and have an idea of the operating costs/wear and tear over a greater period of time?
3) Can you tell me about how much you end up netting after these costs, plus taxes also?
Thank you again.
Hey Mike,
I took down my Airbnb room in 2020 due to the pandemic and because I had a baby. It’s nothing fancy – just the guestroom in my house. No separate space. Bathroom is shared with us.
My operating costs were all very low because it’s just a room in my house, so I’m not doing anything special beyond the things I’d normally do with my house. I suppose my costs would be more electricity use and water use from doing laundry. Think about what it would cost you to have family staying in your house over Thanksgiving and Christmas. That’s about what it costs.
I pay this as Schedule E income, so it taxes just at my ordinary income tax rates. I have a high household income, so my marginal tax rate is high. If taxes are a concern, consider taking advantage of the Masters Rule and only rent out for 14 days or less. Then it’s federal income tax free.
Hi FP, security is important to my family and I also want to know how I should secure the other rooms in my 3 bedroom 2.5 bath one story house with a 2-car garage (with lots of tools). We’re thinking of renting the 3rd bedroom. My wife works, but I stay home all day homeschooling our 8 year old daughter. What are your thoughts on our situation and how we can capitalize on the 3rd bedroom with myself and my daughter at home all day. Thank you!
So whether you are comfortable doing it with kids in your house is going to be your personal preference. I think it’s fine, but I admittedly don’t have kids, so I can’t say what my comfort level would be like. I think most people are good people, so I don’t think you’d have any issues, but it’s all going to depend on how you feel with your family.
As for securing the other rooms, that’s really up to you. A lock on the door is a simple solution. I often lock the door to my room when someone is going to check into my house when I’m not there.
The other thing I do is a few years ago, I bought some Blink cameras. These are wifi, motion cameras that you can put in any rooms you don’t want people to go into. Since they’re in rooms that aren’t supposed to be open to guests, there are no privacy concerns (I wouldn’t leave a camera in your living room or kitchen or anywhere else that is a common space, however).
So to recap. Locks on doors and Blink wifi cameras are too simple solutions to secure areas that you don’t want guests messing with.
If this helps, in four years of doing Airbnb, I’ve had zero things stolen and no one has ever entered any rooms they weren’t allowed to go into.
Thank you so much for this site as I have been researching for quite sometime and this has been the most informative. I am wondering since I live in the national Forrest (wild animals are abundant) and have a year round creek should i have a waiver signed or extra insurance?
I really don’t know. I’d recommend maybe talking with some others in your area and see what they recommend. I’ve never had to worry about my guests getting mauled by a bear or drowning in a river on my property.
I am considering renting out my guest room and have read all your emails published here. What about the common area’s of my home, patio and hot tub. Will they expect to use those as well? For security I am a single women, do I provide them with a key to my house? I am not sure how that works.
Thanks, Cindy
Hey Cindy,
I let people use my common areas, but 99% of guests never use anything. Most people just stay in their room or are out of the house. Very few people use the kitchen and basically no one watches TV or does anything like that.
I wouldn’t let people use the hot tub. Just put that as a house rule that people can’t use it. Hope that helps.
Great info. Thanks!
Surely an AirB&B is a business and must require a license and be subject to local regulations and inspections if you allow guests to use your kitchen or serve alcohol. What is your experience with these issues? I cannot find much on the internet.
Like most regulations, your particular regulations will be local, based either on your city or county, most likely. You’ll need to search for your specific area to see what the regulations are.
Here in Minneapolis (where I live), the official regulations promulgated by the city council are:
(1) if you rent a room in your house and you live in the house, you do not need any license;
(2) if you rent your primary residence out and do not stay on site during that time, then you need an “Airbnb license” which costs $50 per year; and
(3) if you rent out a house on Airbnb that you do not live in, then you need to get a regular rental license and have an inspection, same as any traditional rental.
Sales tax in Minnesota are collected from guests by Airbnb and paid to the state and local governments by Airbnb, per an agreement made between Airbnb and the state.
Again, you’ll need to check your local regulations, because they differ everywhere.
Hi FP: I recently paid cash for a very roomy 2 bed/2 bath, private yard, full garage condo in an over 55 community that allows tenants/room rentals to people of any age (I’m the 57 yo) and there are people of all ages here.
It’s in Phoenix, AZ, surrounded by golf courses, 20+ mins from Late Pleasant (boating, fishing, etc.) and near a casino, shopping, lots of shops within walking distance and more. I have many amenities (heated pools, tennis, etc. – available to a longer term tenant, have to check re short term guests).
I thought I would buy a microwave and small fridge for the room (which has its own full bathroom). A room divider in the huge living room would make it very private/separate.
Also thought of providing great meals if wanted. Not sure how many guests I’d get, though. Golfers, perhaps? Potential house hunters?
Thanks so much for the info…
I really don’t have many options for income.
mi
What would you do with that 2nd room otherwise? If it’s just going to sit empty or for a few times in the year when people are coming to visit you, there’s not a ton of harm in putting it up on Airbnb and seeing who comes. Place your valuables in your own room and keep that room locked when you’re not at home. I’d say try it out for a few months and just see what type of guests you get. Eventually, you’ll get a feel for it and will be able to figure out if Airbnb is worth it for you. If it’s not, you just stop doing it and you’re back where you already were.
My brother and sister-in-law bought a house last year and tried doing Airbnb for a few months. They were a little farther away from the city center and didn’t have a lot of things near them. They ended up getting a lot of people that were in town to look at apartments and things like that. Ultimately, they didn’t really enjoy Airbnb that much, so they stopped doing it, but at least they tried it and knew for certain that it wasn’t for them.
Great information, how do you get more information on the free trial mattresses?
Unfortunately, it looks like these companies stopped doing the free mattress thing. I got lucky and got two free mattresses back when this was happening.
We are looking to put our guest bedroom on AirBnb and it has its own separate and private entrance into the house. We have the option to lock it out completely so that the renter will have a bathroom and a large room. Would you see any issue if we excluded the use of the kitchen and rest of the house?
If you explain it in the listing and make it clear that there’s no kitchen, then shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure people know.
I would love to rent out a spare room in the house (we have 2 unused bedrooms). However, currently we only have one bathroom in the house therefore we would have to share this with guests. Any tips on this? Is it realistic?
The plan is to add another bathroom, but need some funds first 😀
Thanks!
I see no problem with sharing a bathroom – our bathroom is listed as a shared bathroom too even though we have a second bathroom in our basement that we usually use when we have guests. If it’s listed as a shared bathroom, it self-selects the people who are okay with that. And those tend to be less picky people anyway.
Thanks for your kind sharing. I am thinking of starting to rent out my room too while I am living there. Could you share your setup as in what time of locket you use , how is the check in process, how you secure your rooms etc….. since the guest maybe at your home when you are out over the weekends?
Thanks.
I am thinking about renting out my extra bedroom. What do you provide as conveniences? Soap, shampoo etc?
I just get a big bottle of body wash, shampoo, and conditioner to put in the bathroom. All of that will cost you a few bucks. My wife is a dentist, so we also have tons of toothbrushes and toothpaste that we offer to guests, but most never take them (we want them to take them!).
Otherwise, I don’t provide any other amenities, unless you consider clean towels or something an amenity. I don’t consider that an amenity.
Thanks for the detailing your experience with AirBnB.
I’ve always been curious how to handle claiming income/claiming the expenses if you own your home on the schedule E form?
Does AirBnB send you a 1099 each year? If you rent it out 20% of the time do you claim 20% of your mortgage under the schedule E along with property taxes?
When you sell your home do you have to recapture the rental portion that you claimed?
I’ve never gotten a good feel for it but I am really interested.
So this is my first year doing Airbnb so I actually have no idea how these tax things work! Most likely, next year I’ll have to use an accountant to try to figure out that stuff. One thing I wish I could do was put my Airbnb income into a tax deferred retirement account (which is what I do with all of my other side hustle income), but since this is more like rental income, I don’t think I can save it away in that manner.
This is fantastic! I currently own my 2 bedroom condo and rent out the other room to someone I found on Craigslist. It’s worked out fine but I always wish that my roommate was around less.
How hard was it to build up to the $1,000 a month threshold? I really like being able to get a predictable check every month and don’t love the idea of $400 one month v. $1500 another.
It really totally depends on the demand for your area. If you’re in a big city and there’s things around you drawing people in, then I bet you’ll have no problem making $1,000 per month easily. How much do you rent your other bedroom out for now? Can you share the type of neighborhood you live in?
I plan to do a future post where I detail what I’ve made with Airbnb so far. Or you can see my earnings in my side hustle reports. I will say that winter demand has definitely slowed down for my Airbnb, but I’ve also blocked off more than half my month just for my own purposes (family coming into town). During the summer, I could book every single day if I wanted.
An extra $1,000 a month without having to leave home is pretty awesome. Tell me, is it ever weird having guests in your home? Like do you bump into anyone in the kitchen in their jammies? I suppose I could get over that, or just stay out of the way myself until a guest leaves.
Miss Mazuma mentioned her building doesn’t allow Airbnb which is becoming standard in apartment buildings. My brother owns a condo on LI that Mr. G and I have stayed at when we visit. Now WE can’t even do that, unless my brother is present. They implemented this measure as a crackdown on owners renting out their units. Another plus for owning a home. You can do as you please.
Here’s the interesting thing. I felt it was weird when I first started, but then you realize the people staying in your house are just regular people like you and me. It’s only weird if you make it weird, that’s what I think.
But the really great thing is that only 1 person has ever used my kitchen! Seriously, people staying in a room in your house just don’t stay in your house. They’re all students, so they’re just looking for an affordable place to stay. The only people who ever did use my kitchen were two dental students who stayed with us for two weeks while they were waiting for their apartment lease to start. And these guys are still friends with us today (they really look up to Ms. FP since she’s already a dentist and is in residency at the same school).
Most of the time, guests stay out of your way. Like it’s still my house, so I think that the guest understands that and they’re the ones tiptoeing around.
It is nice to able to do airbnb when we feel like it, although a lot of cities are cracking down on it.
This is fascinating! My building doesn’t allow airbnb but I love to read all the ins and outs. I’ve also never rented an airbnb because I was worried about the freak factor from the owners side! This has certainly helped calm that worry.
Interesting bonus on the cleaning side but awesome also is the free perks. Mattresses are expensive! Good for you guys…maybe I should look into buying something bigger next time! 😉 Great use of your space.
There’s no doubt, the crazy factor is definitely something I was worried about too. So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Most people are just regular people like you and me, and really, you can tell if someone is crazy or not just by how they write. If they write in a professional manner and you can look them up online, they’re probably pretty normal.
Heck, most of the people that stay with me are people I’d totally be friends with. I’ve even had guests send me postcards to tell me about their travels, which is pretty nice.
The freebies are definitely awesome. It takes some work to find them, but whenever I see a company offering something for free, I always jump on it right away!
Mainly though, I’m just happy that our space is getting used and generating some income. We don’t need the money, so there’s no pressure for us to book the place like you would need to if you bought a place purely to Airbnb. It’s another reason I feel more comfortable because I don’t need to be pressured to accept a request if I’m not 100% comfortable.
Thanks for the informative post! Just curious, how often do you decline potential guests?
I don’t decline guests all that often, but mainly because I’ve done a really good job of creating a niche in my airbnb. When I do decline people, it’s for a few reasons:
1. My place isn’t close to where they want to go (some people don’t really look at how close places are to their destination, so that’s why I always ask to make sure my place is a good fit).
2. I’m busy and forgot to block off those days.
3. The person doesn’t really explain what they are doing in town. Since I’m letting some stranger into my house, I really want to know why you’re in town. School? Classes? Job? Tell me something so I can understand that you’re a normal person and not someone trying to murder me in my sleep.
I’ve done a really good job of niching down, so basically, at this point, I mainly only get grad students and young professionals.
That UCLA study is really interesting to read about. I think intuitively we all know that there are certain spaces in our houses that go unused on a regular basis but it’s nice to see a research study done that actually confirms this!
I love the point you bring up about having a guest room and keeping it clean but never getting any use out of it. Airbnb was literally made for families all over the country who have unused guest rooms, and I think it’s an income source that sadly most people are completely unaware of.
I look forward to hearing more Airbnb updates, keep em coming!
If you really think about it, even just renting it out a few times a month can bring in some money. Probably enough to save for house emergencies or things like that. As an example, we don’t spend any of our Airbnb earnings except for house related things. This past month, our furnace went out and we had to a call a guy to get it repaired. Since we already had our Airbnb funds sitting unused, it didn’t set us back at all.
Will definitely be following up with more about Airbnb. There’s really just a ton of info (probably why there are people who blog about nothing but Airbnb!).
I do like the idea of letting airbnb funds pay for repairs at the very least.
Loved hearing about some of the benefits of AirBnb that I hadn’t thought of before (namely that the house would be super clean). We live in a 1 BR in Brooklyn, so there’s no real opportunity to do it here. It’s also illegal in NYC to use AirBnB to rent out your place for less than 30 days. It’s questionable how much that law is being enforced against small time hosts but I’d prefer to skip that risk and hassle. I could see using AirBnB in the future though, particularly if I lived in a home that had a mother-in-law suite setup where guests would have even more privacy.
You’re living in a 1 bedroom, so sounds like you’ve got all your space being used! I know on the Airbnb forums and Facebook groups, there are a lot of folks out there talking about the fight between Airbnb hosts and NYC. I wouldn’t risk it myself either if I lived in NYC, although if you look up Airbnb in NYC, you’ll see thousands of listings.
Out of curiosity how is the Airbnb covered insurance. What makes me worries is something occurring and home owners insurance not covering me. My current coverage only covers 15days of short term rental a year.
So I’ve heard mixed reviews about the Airbnb insurance. Some people say Airbnb reimburses them right away when guests damage things. Other’s say they get no help from Airbnb. From what I understand, it’s supposed to cover you for bad things that might happen. As long as you call Airbnb right away, I think you’re covered.
If you’re renting out a room in your house, I think the need for insurance is much less. It’s just way less likely that something bad happens to your house when you’re also on premises.
Out of curiosity, what sort of damage are you worried about from a guest?
Nothing specific you just never know. If the visitor slips on a wet floor in my house will I lose all my money in a lawsuit type question.
That’s true. As I understand it, Airbnb is essentially supposed to be like an umbrella coverage. If your homeowners insurance doesn’t cover it, then Airbnb is supposed to step in with up to $1 million in umbrella coverage. The important thing is to make sure that any bookings are done through Airbnb. The disasters really happen when people try to get around Airbnb.
Falling breaking legs or anything elss
That’s really interesting seeing how the space of a home is utilized. I suspect our home usage is very similar. At least now that I do not go to work, I am making a lot more use out of our space 🙂
I didn’t know there were freebies to be had for Airbnb hosts. That’s an awesome deal on all the free stuff!
The free stuff is definitely not something a normal person will see. I always keep an eye out on various Airbnb forums, and just happened to notice these companies offering these things to Airbnb hosts. 99.9% of people won’t take the time to snag this free stuff. But I do! And these mattresses are awesome!