How I Made $22,154 My First Year Hosting an Airbnb

I started my Airbnb mostly out of curiosity. We recently moved and I thought I might like hosting an Airbnb. I did a minimal amount of research and discovered that a short term vacation rental can generate 2-3x the income that a long term rental can. I decided to go for it, and I am so glad that I did.

When I started, I knew very little about the whole process. I had stayed in an Airbnb once. I figured how complicated could it be? I am laughing at myself as I write this. Every business is complicated, even the “simple” ones! The good news is that the learning curve is quick for the rental business, so it doesn’t take too long to become an expert if you are willing to learn.

I hunted for advice about how to set it up and I was disappointed to discover that people were mostly just offering opinions (usually their personal preferences) and no real research or data. I decided to “test” out all the hot topics in the rental world: What color towels? What color sheets? Food? Breakfast? Coffee? I quickly found answers to all my questions and now I have a proven system. I never worry about my rental.

Pricing was the most difficult challenge. It took me months and almost $2,000 in lost business to sort it out. I now have a fantastic system for pricing as well. I could have made $24,000 my first year if I had known what I know now.

Running my rental has become a joy. The setup is obviously plenty of work, but once that is done, most of the work is in small increments of time that are pretty easy to squeeze in. The extra $2000 a month doesn’t hurt either. If you are interested in running a vacation rental, take my Vacation Rental Secrets Class. It is the class I wish I had when I started! It would have saved me at least $2000 in lost income if something like that was available when I started.