Posted by
Lewith & Freeman Real Estate Inc.

7 years ago

Airbnb is all the rage right now, offering an alternative to staying in hotels around the world. It also offers an extra means of income for anyone who rents out parts of or their entire home to travelers.

Interested? Here are some tips on how to get started with becoming an Airbnb host.

What is Airbnb?

Airbnb is a community of hosts and travelers. The company started in 2008 and has grown to include millions of hosts around the world. It’s become a preferable lodging option for many travelers, including myself.

There’s something about the one-on-one attention you get staying in someone’s home. And the security measures the company takes with both guest and hosts helps everyone involved rest easy. If something does go wrong, there’s a $1,000,000 Host Guarantee, which protects hosts and their homes from accidental damage that may occur, as well as Host Protection Insurance.

But you don’t just have to host lodgings to earn money with Airbnb. You can become a co-host in your neighborhood, or you can host local “experiences.”

A co-host works with someone in their neighborhood in a number of ways: from writing the listing description to interacting with the guests and even cleaning up afterward. The details are discussed between the host and co-host, including how much you’ll make from the host’s booking earnings.

To become an experience host means that you can host a cooking class or a local hike. Typically, these experiences last at least two hours to a few days for an “immersion” experience.

To me, the best part is that you (host or guest) get to meet people from around the world.

Becoming a Host

So, you’re ready to make some extra money and meet some new people, but where do you start?

Before you do anything else, you want to clean and organize your home, especially areas where the guests will be. Check out our post on Home Organization Tips and Tricks for more information!

Then you’ll want to decorate, but you’ll want to stay away from the sterile-looking vibe hotel rooms give. Think along the lines of staging a room for an open house. Pick colors and patterns that evoke a cozy, welcome feeling for your guests, such as the hygge décor theme.

Regularly clean between guests as well to keep it fresh. Take extra care with the bathroom, as nothing can provoke a bad review more than a dirty bathroom.

Take care with linens and towels as well, always making sure they’re fresh for new guests. The most important thing to remember here is to keep the charm and atmosphere your home naturally has—just cleaner and more organized since you’re hosting guests.

After all this is finished, it’s time to take photos for your listing within the Airbnb app. You just put a lot of work into making your space look great and you want that to show in the photos! And take plenty, but not multiple photos of the same room. You want guests to have a good idea of what to expect when they arrive.

Here’s what you don’t want in the pieces:

Poor lighting or over lighting
Areas guests won’t be allowed access to
Family photos, bills, mail, etc.
Garbage cans, soaps, other toiletries

The goal here is to create an illusion that no one lives there. Yes, they know you do (unless you’re renting an entire home), but eliminating these from photos will help the potential guest feel less like they’re intruding.

PRO TIP: Invest in a good camera or borrow one from a friend.

Also, be sure to offer amenities such as WiFi and free parking. Communicate clearly with guests before they arrive so that they know where to park and to ensure that you are there to welcome them upon their arrival.

Remember, everything you do before and during a guest’s visit will feed into your reviews, and that will affect the future of your hosting career. Be sure to review your guests, too. This will help them to be able to stay in more places in the future and might just prompt them to come back to you during a future trip.

Here are some extra hosting tips, courtesy of Storage.com: