I am an Airbnb Host; this means that I rent my home on Airbnb while we are out of town. We fly standby, so we pick weekends we want to go somewhere and list our home. If a party rents it, we leave somewhere while they are in our home. I am a stay-at-home mom looking for other ways to make income to travel more. So, hosting our home while we are away just made sense.
In the past 9 months, we’ve made $8500 for 25 nights away from our home. It’s awesome to be paid to be on vacation. When I started hosting on Airbnb it was all for the money. However, as we’ve hosted over 10 times now, I am finding several benefits of being a host that I love.
My Home is 100% Clean
Part of my role as a stay-at-home mom is to keep our home in order. Typically, I do this one room or one job at a time. I never have my entire house clean at the same time! When I rent my home, I get every single room completely clutter-free, vacuumed, and deep cleaned. Walking through my home as I am leaving it, I feel so much pride in the effort that went into cleaning it. I feel so content and relaxed at the peacefulness of the clutter-free look. It feels good to look around and appreciate your own space.
I Clean Sheets More Often!
I’ll admit it, I do not wash sheets near enough! Hosting guests means that I wash the sheets before the guests and after the guests. So hosting monthly means that at least my sheets are washed once a month.
A New Perspective of my Home
I look at my home through new eyes. Imagining what my guests see or think gives me inspiration and motivation to decorate and create beautiful spaces. While I will not change my home just to make someone else like it, I do like seeing different perspectives. I notice areas of my home that need more love. Or perhaps a little updating, or some deep cleaning. We are slowly using our income to update furniture and decorate minimally.
Read about how to create your own travel wall here.
I love Clutter-Free motivation
My husband and I are usually minimalistic. However, when we host guests, we become even more picky about what is out on the counters or desk areas. We clear everything that isn’t decor. It feels so good to be completely free of piles of papers, mail, pens or pencils, to do lists, and undone errands. Coming home is a fresh new start. Out of sight, out of mind. As I clear my counters I also clear the clutter in my own head.
We are Motivated to Finish What We Start
When I rent my home to others, home improvement projects don’t drag on and on. I have a deadline for completing painting projects or refinishing an item. We don’t start projects we cant finish in a timely manner.
For example, we recently used funds from hosting to update our Master bedroom.
Getting Positive Affirmations is the Best!
I love when I get feedback after hosting about our home being ‘lovely’ or ‘perfect’. Hearing that I was an accommodating host with great communication is such a nice compliment. If guests mention that my home was clean, I finally get some love for all my daily efforts! As a stay-at-home mom, getting validation for my ‘work’ is hard to come by. It’s nice to hear the space I created is pleasant for others.
Procrastinating Cleaning makes Momma happy!
With 4 kids at home, I am constantly cleaning. The week we have a guest coming, when I think about cleaning, I am able to put it off. Knowing I will do a huge and thorough cleaning the day of arrival, I get to worry less about cleaning daily. I use that time to deep clean a closet of dust the blinds, but I save the vacuuming and deep bathroom cleaning for later.
Satisfaction in a Job Well-Done
I spend several hours throughout the days before hosting, cleaning out closets, doing laundry, etc. Then the day of the arrival I have to wash all the sheets and clean the entire house to perfection. It takes 3-4 hours. It is hard work and I’m sweating mopping floors and making beds. But I am getting “paid”. I make at least $550 for my efforts. Which is about $125/hour. And my home looks amazing. A sense of accomplishment is one of human’s basic needs. Meeting this in such a rewarding way is an unexpected benefit of hosting guests in our home.
I have honestly enjoyed renting my home to strangers. It’s a win-win for us and the guests. Our guests get the comforts of home like laundry, a garage, living space, a fully stocked kitchen and multiple private rooms at less than a hotel would cost. And we get paid to be on vacation. We pay year round for our home and all the items in it. Its about time our home started giving back to us!
Read more about becoming an Airbnb host.
If you’d like to experience all these amazing perks of being a host (plus, earn money while you are at it!) click here. This is an affiliate link, I will make money, at no cost to you, when you host your first stay.
Have you hosted guests in your home? Besides the income, what do you like about hosting?
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8 Comments
For years, my son & his family have been using AirBnB for their world travels and I’ve been toying with the idea of building a “tiny house” to rent out when I’m not using it. So, I greatly appreciated reading about your experiences & insights. Many thanks!
Jamie,
You have a lovely home! Thanks for sharing this post. In my research on the different ways to make money on the side, Airbnb has come up several times. It’s great to know that using the service part-time as you do (when you travel) is still very much worth it. What do you do with your family food, bath products, and other supplies while guest occupy your home?
See my follow up post! https://flybytheseatofourpants.com/faq-renting-home/ All the questions revealed!
Great article. I’ve never thought about making money from renting my home while I’m gone. What a great idea! I also love the idea of less clutter and more clean. Very nice website
Awesome post. It brought to light a lot of things that I had not considered before. Thank you.
I had to laugh though when I saw the “before” picture of your Master Bedroom. We lived with different color splotches on our bedroom walls for over a year trying to decide on a color. I don’t think we picked any of the colors that we had on the wall!
lol! yes! I normally take forever, but having a project timeline forced me to pick one!
My brother was a AirB&B Host for a few years and really enjoyed meeting people from around the world (he rented out just a room). I never really thought about how being a host would help creating a beautiful living space. I really like what you did with the master bedroom!
Thank you! Our kids are too crazy to just rent out one room! But that would be a fun aspect as well!