How to get rich using airbnb

30 Pages·2015·0.72 MB·English

by  Liddell

How to Get Rich from Airbnb.
By Stephen Liddell
How To Get Rich From Airbnb
By Stephen Liddell
First Published 2013 by Lulu.com
ISBN 978-1-291-48240-9
Second Edition Published 2014
Copyright © 2013 Stephen Liddell
Smashwords Edition

The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher.
Dedication

This book is dedicated to the wonderful group of people who founded
Airbnb, one of the best uses of the Internet and that truly lives up to the
wishes of the Internet inventor Sir Tim Bernard Lee who wanted to
empower normal people.

This book is also dedicated to the hundreds of our guests who have ever
stayed with us now and in the future. We’ve been blessed by meeting
some lovely people from many different backgrounds. You make every
day of our lives like a little holiday without us leaving home.

Introduction

If you're reading this you probably already have a vague idea of what
Airbnb is. Airbnb and other similar room-rental schemes such as Wimdu
and Roomorama are some of the best and most innovative uses of the
Internet and help you make money from your biggest asset, your home.

Born out of older sites such as couch-surfer and the old student and
hippy tradition of crashing on the sofa wherever you can find one; Airbnb
takes it to another level. It allows you to rent out your spare rooms or
indeed properties to travellers allowing them to stay somewhere friendly,
homely and usually cheaper than if they were to stay in a hotel.

Whilst it started off as a way for friends to find somewhere to stay in San
Francisco, it has now spread around the world with millions of people
opening their homes to strangers, making new friends and making a bit of
extra money as a bonus.

The author and his wife have made over tens of thousands in the last two
years with over seventy 5-star rated reviews on our average suburban
home and I want to give you the best chance to do the same.

This e-book will show you how to maximise your earnings from Airbnb
but the ideas behind it can be used for the many other similar websites.
Early Decisions

The biggest decision you have to make first of all you is whether Airbnb is
for you. Essentially you are opening your home to strangers and this isn't
for everyone. There are safety issues that people have to overcome and
simple privacy and personal space issues as well. Airbnb goes a long
way to make the whole experience as safe as possible. In our
experience we have had over 100 people stay with us in the last year and
we haven't had a single problem. Yes on the first night we hardly slept as
we knew that with our luck we had just let an axe murderer into our home
but as it happened we had nothing to worry about and neither did our
equally nervous guest. We very quickly became used to sharing our
home with strangers but not every does.

Everyone who uses Airbnb is vetted before they can open their homes to
any guests. There are different levels of vetting that one can go through
but the minimal level ensures that both guest and host have their ID,
address and contact details verified. Additionally, Airbnb offer a
comprehensive insurance policy to cover against damages and losses by
your guest. In all the time that Airbnb has been running only one,
admittedly high-profile claim, has come to light of a guy in the USA who
came back to his apartment to find it totally trashed. That's one person
out of millions.

Decide on your check-in and check-out times. Some people may decide
to haggle over the times and the price, it’s up to you if you want to agree
to your requests depending on your circumstances. Originally my listings
had a check-in time of 5pm or later to allow time to get back from work.
These days I largely work from home so they can arrive early if they
really want to but I won’t have anyone arriving after 9pm. Once you have
been up until 11pm or midnight a few times just for guests to arrive from
the airport, it quickly loses its charm and late arrivers often underestimate
the travel time or possible delays.

An important new feature on Airbnb is that of Instant Booking. This
feature allows guests to book your listing without you having to respond
to emails. However it also takes away much of the control you have over
who stays with you and when. If your room or property is listed on more
than one site then it makes using Instant Booking impractical. Most
Airbnb hosts seem to have decided not to use Instant Booking due to the
lack of control it offers but of course it might be just the thing for you
particularly if your listing is not at your home.

The other issue about having someone stay with you is not one of
personal safety but rather one of personal freedom. Letting guests stay
at your home means that guess what, you will have complete strangers in
your home. This means that when you come home tired from work and
just want to watch TV in peace, you might have to talk to someone. If
you like to potter round the kitchen at 8am on a Sunday morning with no
clothes on well you might want to put a dressing gown on unless you
want to scare your guests and ruin your online reputation! There will be
times when you want to go out and you can’t because guests are due to
arrive and there will be nights with interrupted sleep as guests from
different time-zones are up half the night chatting on Skype to their
family. In my experience though and I'm writing as someone who is more
than happy on my own for days on end and who likes my own space, you
quickly get used to it. You meet nice new people, many of whom come
back to you and then there is the bonus, you make money.

Before you get properly started, you may have to check out before you
go live on Airbnb is that you are actually not breaking any bylaws by
renting out your spare room or property. There have been a number of
high-profile cases in New York where tenants have had their listings shut
down and worse as doing so violates local laws or tenancy agreements.
If in doubt check first before you open up your home to guests. On a
related matter you may want to check with your mortgage and or home-
insurance provider as having strangers stay in your home may technically
breach certain policies. If you’re worried a guest might fall down your
stairs or slip in the bath, do make sure you’re covered.

You’re probably wondering how on a get rich style book it took so long to
mention money. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Before we get to the
key parts about making money on Airbnb, it is important to mention how
transactions are handled by the website. All of the room rental sites offer
slightly different methods but what they have in common is that they
guarantee payment to the host and the ability not to be ripped off to the
guest. To make this run smoothly, and it always does, both parties
register their banking details through Airbnb or the other providers.

When a booking request is confirmed, the guests money goes into a
holding account with Airbnb and once they have checked in to your
house and confirmed that you are a nice decent person then the money
will automatically transferred into your account. It takes a few days but it
works time and time again. It also means there are no awkward
moments of asking guests for money or have them try and wangle a
discount from you.

All Airbnb hosts can choose what cancellation policy they want to have
for their listings. The Flexible setting allows guests to cancel their booking
without losing their money whilst the Strict setting means that if the guest
cancels their booking, they don’t get a refund with the Moderate setting
being somewhere in between. You are always likely to have a certain low
level of bookings being cancelled. Having a Flexible policy means you
might attract more guests but more cancellations too whilst a Strict
setting may see you getting few visitors but at least those you do get, you
know you’ll receive their money. Which one is right for you depends on
how quickly you can re-rent out your listing or whether it matters to you at
all. Personally speaking, we have a Flexible policy and most of our local
competitors don’t and they generally have less than 10% of our bookings
so if you want to make money then you have to give guests every
opportunity to book with you.

Hopefully all of this will have just wetted your appetite about registering
with Airbnb or similar services rather than scaring you off. I have had
plenty of people stay with me and not one of them has cheated me of
money, I have never felt unsafe in my own home and nothing has ever
been damaged or stolen even when I’ve been away from home. Let’s
face it, if your home is anything like mine what is there actually worth
stealing? A DVD which they can probably get cheaply from home?
Foreign guests are likely to be backpacking or flying home which means
they are unlikely to be able to carry off your flat screen TV and people
from your own country, wherever that may be most likely have everything
that you have anyway.

Travellers have always generally been an honest bunch wherever you
go; they have come to see the sights, meet new people and not to
deprive you of your life savings. Using Airbnb is a good way to restore
your faith in humanity when you realise that 99.999% of guests look after
your house and don't actually want to do anything bad to it or to you,
even when you aren't around to keep an eye on you. If for one moment
they did, Airbnb will most likely reimburse you for your losses and most
likely would quickly get the police to track them down and they would
never stay anywhere else ever which is probably the worst that could
happen to a keen traveller.

That being said, accidents happen and there will be increased wear and
tear on carpets, showers and hoovers. You’ll find yourself spending more
time washing towels and bedding and some hosts like to make a small
cleaning charge that is automatically be added to any bookings. Airbnb
also includes the ability ask all guests for a Security Deposit to cover
breakages. Both of these options can be easily selected from your Airbnb
Dashboard. Personally, I have never used either of these but instead
have towels and bedding that are exclusively for guests. You may want to
buy some plates, glasses and mugs that you won’t cry over should a
guest accidentally drop one on the floor but so far the only thing we have
had broken was an umbrella of all things.

Airbnb lets you make money from the one asset that you have, your
home. It is a tangible way to make money from something real. It isn't a
money-making scam or a pyramid scheme that promises the world and
delivers nothing. It's a great invention to help you make money for
virtually zero outlay.
Know your competition and Pricing

So you've made the wise choice to list your home on Airbnb. Well done
you! It's the best thing you'll do all day, maybe even all year. Heck you
might meet me for a drink on a beach in Barbados one day just to say
thanks Stephen for changing my life or at least making it more
interesting.

Though many people who use Airbnb do so just to make a little extra
cash or as a bit of fun, we are here to make money aren't we? Yes we
are. So if we are going to make money, we have to treat it a bit like a
business. There is no genuine way to make money without putting in a
little effort. Even drug running requires a little investment and making a
successful Airbnb listing is a lot safer that going through the jungles of
Columbia.

To be successful you have to make your listing stand out, be
competitively priced and make your home look inviting to prospective
guests. Far too many hosts on Airbnb don't understand these simple
concepts but a little time spent here will pay huge dividends later on.