Ever thought about renting your house out for a few nights, or for a week? How about renting out a bedroom in your home?
There are easy and reliable ways to do this that are becoming very popular. You can make extra money, especially during big events where hotels are booked or are charging exorbitant fees. Depending on your location and what's going on nearby, especially if you are near a big special event, you could earn a couple of months of mortgage payments by just renting your house out for a week!
In fact, Airbnb.com., the largest home-sharing website, started because of the lack of hotel rooms. The company's founders came up with the idea after a 2007 design conference in San Francisco led to full occupancy of all hotels there. Airbnb introduced its platform in 2008 for the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Some smaller companies competing with Airbnb.com are HomeAway.com and FlipKey.com. The home-sharing segment has been growing rapidly. It is estimated that approximately 10% of business travelers will use one of these services in 2016, up from 8% in 2015. Last summer alone, Airbnb housed 17 million guests worldwide, up from 47,000 five years earlier. Wow! Who would have thought this would be so popular and useful.
It may seem strange to some Americans, but people have been doing this kind of thing pretty much forever in other countries, so foreign travelers are very comfortable with the concept of staying in a stranger's home, even while the homeowner is there. In larger American cities it is also common to rent a bedroom and bath from someone on a long-term basis, which works well for many students and young aspiring actors.
How can you make money with Airbnb?
The concept is simple: You post pictures of a spare bedroom for example and offer it for $XX per night, just like a hotel. You can add other “services” as you deem necessary such as use of the kitchen or laundry areas, etc. Everyone on the site creates a profile that is verified by email and payment method (credit card) so there’s a definite level of accountability.
When someone wants to travel to your area, they get on the site and do a search similar to any travel site and if your space is available, it will come up as a choice in their results. They then “apply” to stay with you and you have to confirm to commit to it. You can accept or deny any stay request as you see fit. There is a setting called “instant book” that you can choose that confirms without your manual acceptance, as long as the dates are available in the system. It’s up to you to communicate with them from that point and decide how you want to manage their stay, from giving them keys to potentially showing them around town.
Some people live in areas where there are short times (such as during popular conventions, sporting or music events) where their property is exceptionally valuable. They will rent out their entire home for a week or two for the amount of a couple of monthly house payments. At any of these levels it’s an opportunity to earn some extra money, and perhaps make a few new friends in the process.
Definitely not for everybody, but If you travel a lot yourself, and you have an alternate place to stay, this kind of home-sharing arrangement could work well for you. These services give you the opportunity to open up your home, heart and mind to the world. It’s another way the Internet has helped make the world a much smaller place.
