This guide outlines the range of ways in which you can earn income with Airbnb hosting, with tips for how to do it successfully.
For those who don’t know yet, Airbnb is a collaborative platform that connects people looking for places to stay on their trips to others who offer places of stay. The advantage of the business is possibility to save on travel, while the host earns money.
However, there are several ways to make money with Airbnb hosting, and some of those are independent of having a property for it. That is, you can be a host, offer a space, create an experience or even earn travel credits by indicating the service to friends. Learn more about each of them here in this article, and also check out the pros and cons of running an Airbnb business.
Overview: Airbnb history
Founded in 2008, Airbnb hosting is dedicated to those who want to rent a rental for an agreed number of days, with the right to enjoy all the resources of the place.
It works as a hotel reservation, but there you will find rent of apartments, beach houses, huts and even mansions. And not only in the USA and UK, but in various places around the world.
The Airbnb startup was originally created with the name “Air Bed and Breakfast”, which means “Air bed and breakfast”. That was exactly the proposal of the CEO – Brian Chesky. That is, there were two friends there in 2008 who realized the opportunity to rent their home to visitors to an international design conference, which took place in San Francisco – California, USA, due to the full capacity of the hotels.
The idea worked so well, it is currently one of the main hosting platforms worldwide. The service is present in more than 30,000 cities and 192 countries, and had a reported revenue of more than $8 billion in 2022.
But in addition to being an amazing experience for travelers, Airbnb hosting is also a great opportunity to make money online if you have a residence you can make available for a few days, or another category of hosting you can offer.
Earnings vary depending on the number of days you can provide, the price per stay, the demand of the region, among other factors. And you don’t need to make the entire space available, you can do Airbnb hosting in one room leaving the other areas being shared.
For example: because it is a tourist area and well sought after, the rental value of an apartment in New York with two bedrooms and three bathrooms, with availability for up to four guests and giving the right to use the space entirely, can easily reach $1,348 per night or more.
How to make money with Airbnb hosting
To make money with Airbnb, you need to have only an empty space in your home or a complete space and offer to travelers. Another possibility is to rent a complete space, hiring a host of a house or apartment. And finally, you can earn travel credits by referring to friends. Get to know each of these possibilities right after.
The best known way of the Airbnb platform is being a residential host. That is, you welcome travelers to your residence. Regardless of whether it is to share a room with you, or using the whole house (or apartment).
In essence, it is simply necessary register for Airbnb hosting and create a specific page for the ad call. You need to specify the dates on which the property will be available, establish the rules for using your space, as well as set the amount you will charge for the stay.
If you don’t know how much you should charge for your stay, you can ask for Airbnb hosting help. That is, through a map, it is possible to check how much your neighbors charge in the region and offer your price, based on this.
Offer a space
Another possibility of making money with Airbnb hosting is offering a property without having to worry about being a host. That’s right, you can hire separately an experienced host, who will take care of all the logistics of hosting.
That is, you simply rent your property, without worrying about the arrival and departure time, supply of towels, bed linen, cleaning of the property and delivery of keys.
Experienced hosts usually charge fees between 10% and 20% of the amount for the income of each booking. To request an Experienced Host, it is necessary to place an order through the platform, explaining in detail everything you need, wait for proposals and accept the most convenient.
Create experiences
Another possible way to make money with Airbnb hosting is by offering experiences to your travelers, such as a tour guide. Among the numerous possibilities, we can list: exotic tours, gastronomic spin, or simply a tour of the city. To do this, you just have some skill that can really help people.
However, it should be noted that Airbnb has a very strict policy of its policies and quality standards of how experiences should be. Even, you can check here what the rules are.
Offer travel credits
Finally, another possibility of making money with Airbnb hosting is by offering Travel Credit to your friends. That is, for each person who completes a stay or participates in an experience, you will receive money in credits.
To earn by referring friends, simply go to the invitation page of the site and send your friends the generated link. But be note: bonuses fall for you only when they make the first valid booking via your link. Incidentally, credits are valid for only one year and can only be used once.
Can anyone do Airbnb hosting?
Yes, everyone can make their rental available and start making money with Airbnb. What the platform requires is that the host:
- Respond quickly, ask all questions and travel requests within 24 hours;
- Provide all location information such as total number of guests you can house, minimum and maximum rental time, and value (Airbnb may block your calendar if you don’t have all the information filled in);
- Accept requests whenever available;
- Avoid cancelling with guests;
- Keep your overall rating high by offering quality care, so they leave good reviews;
- Keep the site clean up (a good idea is to hire a staff to clean and include a cleaning fee in value);
- Offer basic items on site, such as toilet paper, soap, clean sheets for each bed, one towel per guest and one pillow per guest;
- The accommodation needs to be secure, so you must provide keys or access codes, check for any risk of electric shock, etc.
