Perhaps a more esoteric method of earning online, Airbnb is a nothing short of a goldmine for web-entrepreneurs. It requires practically no skills, little experience in the real estate world and a little extra cash to get started – it really is as simple as that.
What is Airbnb?
Airbnb is an internet-based platform that allows people to rent out spare rooms, apartments and even whole homes to guests looking for a place to stay. The site takes around 2 or 3% commission from each booking made, so you hardly really lose out on much profit at all compared with the money you’ll be earning through the system.
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The site also allows you to host a range of different places to stay and guests can search using specific criteria to find exactly what they’re looking for, giving you complete freedom to offer a property that suits your budget/current real estate situation. Even if you have just a spare room that isn’t in use that could be done up & rented out, Airbnb can still be an excellent way to start earning some extra passive income.
Why is Airbnb so Popular?
Through Airbnb, guests are able to find accommodation that is of an excellent standard and for generally for a far lower price than anywhere else. The price range available on Airbnb makes it easy for travellers of any financial background to find a place to stay that suits them, ranging from just a few pounds a night to thousands, in a vast array of locations from rainforests treehouses to Paris. Thus, practically any holidaymakers can use Airbnb to make their dream-holidays a reality for a much lower price than a hotel would demand.
Another popularity factor of Airbnb’s is how easy it is to become a host. If a spare room happens to free up in the house after an elder child moves out, property owners can turn this room into an ever-flowing cash source that generates almost completely passive income. Renting properties/rooms for just one week each month can earn property owners upwards of £5,000 a year – a very tasty sum for earning off simply having free space.
Airbnb also has a very useful calculator that gives an estimate of how much you could earn if you started renting out your property. Properties can hundreds per week, potentially doubling most standard household incomes for doing little more than cleaning the dust off of a spare room and actually putting it to good usage.
Could you make money from your space?
It’s all well and good knowing that there is a lot of money to be made through Airbnb, but how could you possibly know if your particular living space is of any worth? Nobody wants to dedicate months, years even, to decorating a property and getting it ready to rent out to find that nobody wants to live there.
Examples of properties that can be rented:
- Holiday homes are, if already owned, an excellent way to earn money through Airbnb. These don’t require you to take out hefty bank loans that plunge you into debt that you may never be able to afford, should your real estate endeavors fail.
- Spare rooms in houses in nice areas can be rented out to locals looking for a place to stay. So long as your surroundings are workable for guests – good options for public transport, things to do and perhaps even some opportunities (depending on your guests’ reasons for staying), your home could be turned into a place for guests to stay and potentially double your annual household income.
- Airbnb hosts a tonne of homes in unique locations – rainforests, popular cities and beaches, for example. If you have a place to stay somewhere cool and different, you could begin renting out to people and earn passive income on a property that you already own.
Be sure to include in your Airbnb listings details of things to do in the surrounding area. If public transport is an issue, consider making a deal with a local driver to help guests get around. If there aren’t many local shops/restaurants, maybe hiring an in-house chef would be a good idea. It’s important to try to solve the problems your guests may have before they start asking you to do this for them – this is where complaints and bad reviews arise.
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How to Make Your Airbnb Listing
Creating a listing on Airbnb is entirely free to do and you’re able to decide exactly what space you make available and at what price. You can also approve/disprove guests that enquire, so safety isn’t entirely in your hands if you’re concerned about letting others stay in your home. But how do you go about actually putting your property on the market and making your first listing?
Well, firstly, you’re going to need to consider how much it’s actually going to cost you to be a host, taking into account your cleaning bills, living costs and taxes – as well as the 3% deducted from your profits by Airbnb. Time is also a big investment you’ll need to make to begin with, as building what may now be just a spare room into a versatile home for a range of people is a difficult task.
Before you take photographs of the space you’re offering, you’ll need to properly clean and declutter it to ensure that it’s presented in the best way possible, and thus increase your chances that people will actually want to visit your space. If you request it (and live in a city), Airbnb often send professional photographers for free to take pictures of your property.
In your description, try to give a an accurate and positive insight into the things that make your space unique, things that might sound appealing to a person that doesn’t live locally. Is it near to public transport? Are there nice places to eat and exciting nightlife nearby? Does it have a pool, a wine cupboard filled with drinks, a TV, or wifi? Whatever it is you have to offer that isn’t expected at any home, extras that might draw visitors in, include these to make your place stand out.
Positives of using Airbnb as a source of income
- As an Airbnb host, you’ll be paid before your guest actually arrives. Unless your property isn’t worth paying for (ie it’s not suitable to live in and isn’t of the standard that it was advertised at), you’ll likely to be paid in advance by your guests and thus make a definite profit before actually having them stay.
- Airbnb has a resolution center through which you can charge guests for any extras they offers, or make them pay for anything that gets damaged/broken. That way, you can add to your profits and make extra money by renting out the same property – building on your earnings without you having to actually rent out any extra properties.
- Airbnb offers insurance which accounts for cases in which guests may damage your property or steal things from it. Should this happen, your expenses for repairs & replacements are covered and thus you can rent knowing that your property is safe no matter what happens.
- Airbnb offers a customer service available at all times that you can reach online or by phone. If you are unsure of anything & need to ask questions to the support team, you can do so very easily and don’t need to worry about lacking support. The support team usually responds pretty quickly and you’ll never be left with an unanswered question for long.
- You can also charge a deposit to guests that’ll cover the costs of any damage. If they do happen to cause damage to your property, this deposit will be taken as profit and you can use some of it to repair the damage, as well as being covered by Airbnb’s insurance policy.
And that, in a nutshell, is how anybody with a little extra living space can turn their property into cash. Whether it’s simply a spare bedroom or an entire home in some exotic country, Airbnb allows property owners of all kinds to start earning with their spaces and making passive income on property without having to make any hefty real estate investments.
Through a safe system and insurance & service policies, Airbnb is a completely reliable and secure platform for homeowners to begin renting their properties out, without the hassle and worry of renting a property to total strangers.
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