I made $782 as an AirBNB host

I really enjoyed Kelly’s article about his experience as an AirBNB host. I agreed with much of what he wrote but in the interests of inclusivity, I wanted to share an alternative experience.

I got into AirBNB after my divorce and I ended up with the house. A three bedroom family home now occupied by me, the dog and a couple of cats. For various reasons, I wanted to stay put, and using the spare bedroom to generate a little spending money seemed like a good way to justify that decision.

As Kelly says, the AirBNB website is great. The question I get asked the most about hosting is whether I worry about my guests killing me in my sleep. But once you go through the process of accepting your first reservation, this is really the last thought in your mind. The verification process that users go through to put together a complete profile is very thorough, which has meant I’ve always been very confident that my guests are real people with genuine intentions.

For me though, the AirBNB experience is not about making a lot of money by offering an exceptional service. That’s not who I am as a person and the one thing I dislike about AirBNB is that it tries to mold all its hosts into Superhosts. I will probably never be a Superhost for one main reason: my house isn’t clean enough! Yes, I wash the sheets between every guest and give some attention to the bathroom. But if I wanted to run a real bed and breakfast, I wouldn’t be part of the informal, sharing economy. I try to attract guests who feel at home with a bit of clutter around the place, but I think that it can be difficult to project that in my listing. I’ve seen several hosts get very poor reviews, even though they’ve been very upfront about what the guest should expect. I myself have had to deal with guests complaining about my pets even though my listing clearly indicates that I have both cats and dogs. This indicates to me that some guests expect all listing to be 5-star accommodations.

While it is certainly true that you want to get a few good reviews under your belt to get yourself started, don’t be put off by thinking that you have to have a perfect space to rent. I would encourage anyone to give it a try, and certainly use some of Kelly’s tips on setting up your listing. I’ve had 14 guests in about 8 months and to be honest, more frequent hosting would be too much work for me. I think there is definitely a place in the AirBNB community for hosts like me who want to offer a fairly basic service at a basic price-point. While some guests would have liked a little more in some areas, most comment that they got exactly what they were looking for: a quiet place to sleep while they are in town.