I don't know about you but I LOVE using Airbnb when we go on trips! Chris and I have been using it over the last several years to find awesome places to stay whenever we go on vacation.

Here are a few reasons why we love it:

1. It's a great way to save money when traveling. You can get excellent deals on lodging vs. hotel rates. When we save money on our rental, we can then use the extra money to do other fun adventures during our vacations. Win win!
2. We love having that home(y) feel at the places we visit. It's so much nicer to come back to a house that is spacious and feels like your own space rather than a stuffy hotel. We usually try to find places that have a nice porch, awesome pool, or cool backyard/outdoor space!
3. We love having a kitchen to be able to cook a delicious breakfast and coffee at home before we head out for a long day of exploring. Plus if it is a longer stay, we might even enjoy a dinner at home too!
4. We enjoy meeting new people and love the special personal touches that we find at the places we stay such as super cute decor, personal recommendations from the locals, wine, fruit and OJ in the fridge. You just don't always get that personal feel at most hotels. 

But what I didn't really know was that there is this whole other world of Airbnb out there where travelers just rent out a single room in someones home to cut down the cost of their stay. While this isn't my preferred way of traveling, it is pretty great to be able to cut your lodging costs down by about 50%.

Haven't tried Airbnb yet?? Sign up here to get a free $40 credit on your first trip if you sign up with my referral link!

Our introduction to the rental side of Airbnb...

This is where my lifelong friend, Josh, comes into the picture. Last year, Josh encouraged Chris and I to start renting the second bedroom of our apartment on Airbnb to make some extra cash. In the past, I had tossed around the idea of this in my head but never thought about it seriously so I was intrigued.

Josh and his then fiance now hubby, Chris, were crushing it that year Airbnbing their second bedroom in popular Williamsburg, Brooklyn (check out their listing HERE). They ended up making $24,200 that year. That was super motivating to hear!!

How cute is Josh and Chris' Williamsburg apartment??

Josh told me the ins and outs of what being a host was all about and what we needed to do to get started. I got all the details from him so I could be well informed to then present the idea to Chris.

I was totally down to give it a try because for one, I love to make money (who doesn't!) - we were aiming to move to Denver in Spring 2017 AND also getting married at the end of October of 2017. Lots of reasons to need some extra cash. Also, when I originally moved to NYC in 2008, I worked in the hotel industry (side note: Chris and I actually met working at my first hotel!) and even though I was no longer in that line of work, I missed it a bit. I really enjoyed helping guests find great spots to explore around NYC and doing everything I could to help make their stay amazing! So this gave me a chance to get back into hospitality without working in the very stressful hotel industry.

But, I had to overcome a few obstacles before we could start Airbnbing...

When I finally talked to Chris about it, he was not as thrilled with the idea of Airbnb for a few reasons. He didn't really want to have to entertain guests in our home before or after work. He was busy enough as a personal trainer and he didn't want a second job. He also was really nervous about someone ruining his fancy gaming computer which was mounted on the wall of our guest bedroom. Those were some legitimate reasons to be hesitant. But I persisted on! 

So, it took some... actually a LOT of convincing. Finally, I came up with the brilliant yet tricky plan of swapping rooms and have us sleep in the guest bedroom when we had guests staying with us. This way no one could accidentally spill a cup of water on his computer and break it. I also told Chris that he didn't need to sit there and entertain guests. Most people were in NYC to sightsee, not sit around our apartment. Chris agreed to give my plan a try as long as I agreed to stop Airbnb if it absolutely sucked. So I swapped most of my clothes and shoes out of our closet and made our bedroom ready for guests.

Here are the steps I took to prepare for our first Airbnb guests:

• Set up the Airbnb listing telling all the benefits and features of our apartment - you can do this on the website as well as the phone app. I included as much information as possible so guests could make an informed decision on if they wanted to book our place.

• Took lots of well lit photos with my iPhone - If I couldn't get good lighting, then I used a photoshop app on my cell phone called PicTapGo. I have serious love for the "Lights on" and the "Crispity" filters! Just make sure you don't brighten your photos too much especially if the apartment is naturally dark because you want the photos accurately represent your apartment. Many guests of ours have made comments about how accurate our photos were and how much they appreciated that.

• Typed up and printed a quick welcome packet for guests. It explained why we love Airbnb for our own travel adventures and how we got into it, the wifi code as well as emergency contact info, and where guests could find just about everything they would need inside of our apartment. It didn't take long to write this out one time and it really helped alleviate a lot of the questions that guests would ask us during their stay! This is also a great place to give recommendations of things you recommend guests do in your area!

• Purchased any household essentials that we needed extra of. Such as extra sheets, a white duvet cover, duvet insert, a metal trashcan, a locking door knob with key for the guests room or any closets you want to lock to store belongings, a combination lockbox to house our key so guests could access the apartment if we weren't home, toiletries like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and coffee pods for our Keurig. Amazon was awesome for this because we didn't have to run around trying to find all of these items and I LOVE reading reviews before I make a purchase. Otherwise I would buy items like toiletries and the coffee pods for a good deal from TJmaxx and Marshalls!

• I put out any extra amenities that guests would need during their stay. I set out a basket with extra bath towels and washcloths as well as a hairdryer and hand lotion. We also installed a wall hook and placed hangers so guests could hang their clothes up. In the beginning, I put out red wine with glasses and a corkscrew in the room but later decided that red wine was too risky in our bedroom. But you could do other things that are just as nice such as bottles of water, sparkling water, fruit bowls, and granola bars! We currently provide bottled water, maps, local guides, magazines, tea and coffee!

What we discovered from our first couple times of hosting...

What we found was that hosting was very easy and didn't require a ton of effort in entertaining department because just as I suspected, most guests were out sightseeing around NYC and when they were home, guests usually hung out in the bedroom. The guests that we did get to meet during their stay were super interesting and fun to talk to! We've hosted people from China, Australia, London, Boston, India, Philly, LA, Dallas, Austin, and many more places. Each with their own unique personalities and stories!

We once had a couple once who got engaged to be married during their trip and we hung out with them on a separate night watching a Harry Potter movie and played Mario Cart! Such a fun night!!

A relatively small effort resulted in earning $8,000 with Airbnb in less than 8 months

The most effort we really had to put in was swapping rooms back and forth, doing laundry at the laundromat across the street then cleaning the bedroom and bathroom. But the payout of $2,753 from only 12 reservations in less than 3 months was great and really boosted our ability to save for our move to Denver.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of trips and events planned during those months which caused us to have to block off about half of our Airbnb calendar. So our earning potential was about half of what it could have been if we had more availability. But we were really happy with the earnings we made in that short time!

Hosting in Denver is better than we could have imagined...

When we moved to Denver in March of 2017, we decided to continue with Airbnb. We set our apartment up as fast as we could and got our first Airbnb booking at the beginning of May. We luckily rented a really great 2 bedroom/2 bath split floor plan apartment so our guest's room and bathroom had a lot of privacy. No more swapping rooms back in forth like we were in Brooklyn. We also now had our own washer/dryer which allows us to turn our guest room over at a much faster rate and get more bookings. We are now able to accept last minute bookings which we couldn't really do in Brooklyn.

Soon we discovered that our apartment location, just between the mountains and downtown Denver with about a 10-15 minute drive to either, was a really hot location! We started getting bookings nonstop! Our occupancy rate has been anywhere between 75-100%. In only 4 months of hosting in Denver, we've had 28 reservations and made $5,245 between May and August.

Side note about Airbnb in Denver: We actually live just outside of Denver County because the new 2016 Airbnb laws there have gotten very strict making almost impossible to be a host if you don't own your place. But if you can make it happen, Denver is really ideal for Airbnb because there is stuff to do all year round such as hiking spring, summer, fall and also skiing/snowboarding late fall, winter, spring.  We expect our earnings to go up as we are able to charge higher rates throughout different times of the year.

Needless to say we are now even BIGGER fans of Airbnb! It has helped us so much with saving money for life events and with our Denver transition. 

With Airbnb, you can interact with guests as little or as much as you would like. You have complete control over your calendar and decide when you want to host. You get to meet interesting people from all over the world and sometimes they even give you gifts (we've gotten cheesecake, champagne, Hawaiian chocolates, roses, and other various unexpected treats!) which is not the point but it's a fun perk! You can also stop at anytime if you find it is not for you. There are so many great reasons to become a host!

Imagine what you could do with an extra $8,000 in your pocket! Have you been thinking about giving Airbnb a try? See what you can list your space for and get started HERE.

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