Airbnb, though being a relatively new business concept, has provided thousands of people an opportunity to earn a substantial income from giving their apartments for rent. They are called Airbnb host.
The online service Airbnb.com, operating in 191 countries with over 2,000,000 listings, is popular especially in the U.S. and Western Europe. Despite these “serious” numbers, not all hosts make sufficient money on Airbnb.
Generally, there are two broad categories of Airbnb hosts:
(1) People who provide their own apartment or a bedroom in their apartment.
(2) People who offer several full free apartments, considering Airbnb a small business for them.
Here are the steps for the ones who are interested in this business model and want to just earn income in addition to their full-time job or grow their apartments’ network and build their own business.
Who can be a host
Any person who has an extra room in his/her apartment or a full free apartment or condominium unit or a vacation house to offer for rent can be an Airbnb host.
How to get started
Create a profile on Airbnb website, put your listings and wait until someone interested contacts you.
What price to set
You can put different rates for weekends, weekdays, holidays, etc. To estimate the fair price for your apartment, check the nearby homes with same space and amenities.
However, to be able to attract client, given your new profile with no feedback, it is recommended to set a lower price until you get more ratings and be able to compete with top hosts.
Be friendly with your guests
Good communication, fast responses, and kindness can massively boost your chances to get high ratings from the clients. In short superb customer service from you, the Airbnb host.
But to get noticed in a pool of millions of listings is not that easy. Below I mentioned several tips for making a good listing and attracting potential clients.
Write an appealing headline
Sum up everything that you offer in a short line. People normally don’t waste time on reading long contents. Write them professionally.
Provide a clear and detailed description of your place
Pay particular attention to information about internet, TV, air conditioning, parking place, etc. Give details whether your guests will have access to kitchen, or a private bath. Don’t exaggerate anything. It can have an adverse consequence on your rating if the guests won’t get what they have expected.
Make quality photos
A lot of them, showing every area of the apartment. You can even hire a professional photographer to increase your chances of being interested in.
Provide a good bio, profile picture, ID and any other information
This will make you look transparent in the eyes of the client. The website only shows your full profile to the client after he/she makes a booking.
Set clear rules
First of all, define the cancellation policies and price structures. In addition, provide the “rules of behavior” in your apartment, such as no smoking, no additional guests, etc.
According to a number of surveys, nearly 90 percent of all Airbnb hosts are the primary residents in the homes they rent out to guests.
The other 10 percent, thousands of people, who started on Airbnb, were able to increase the number of their apartments, refine their profiles and make six-figure incomes.
It’s not that difficult! For example, one can rent an apartment for a $2,000 monthly rent, put it on Airbnb for $150 daily and make $2,500 income. Pretty easy!
The only difficulty for an Airbnb host is to find guests to fill all the apartments for each day or at least minimize the losses occurred from vacant days.
