Over the course of the summer we have been going on quite a few weekend trips. We decided to rent our house out on Airbnb while we were out of town. I know this type of side hustle is not for everyone but it has been AMAZING for us–so far! I feel like it works best for people who live fairly minimally, enjoy hosting/decorating and love going on vacation. (And of course making money!)
As soon as we decided we were going to do this– our motivation to do yard work, clean our house etc. increased 10 fold! It has been so great to see all the other benefits that have come by trying it.
Here are a few things I have learned so far.
- People will either love or hate the idea: Whatever business endeavor you embark on, you will get a variety of feedback. I specifically limited who I told until we had a few stays under our belt and I felt a bit more confident. Airbnb has a really good insurance policy and lots of ways to screen tenants– so for us it has been great but I totally understand it is not for everyone!
- There are so many ways to think outside of the box: We have keyed locks on all our closets and garage and bring anything “truly valuable” with us. We have a keypad entry that we change the code on. Really, anything that we don’t want the guests touching, we lock up. Our house is pretty much empty when we leave.
- People are much cleaner than I thought: I know we are bound to get a bad guest at some point and that is a risk we are willing to take but right now I have been shocked at how pristine everyone leaves it and how genuinely kind everyone is.
- “Good Location” is subjective: I originally didn’t think anyone would want to stay where we live. We are a bit far from the traditional vacation spots in our area but we have gotten booked for every weekend we have opened so far! People have come for weddings, graduations– even a Broom Hockey tournament!
- Prepping the house makes me giddy: I actually really love getting the house ready for guests. It is a good way for me to batch all my cleaning and have the house spotless from head to toe. We hire a cleaner sometimes and that makes it even easier!
Really I feel like we hit the jackpot with this side hustle and have loved doing it, going on vacation more, AND getting our house professionally cleaned and still having money to go to our goals!
If you are interested in trying it you can use our affiliate link here. We both make money if you do!
Let me know if you have additional questions and we can create more content on the subject.