AirBnB offers those with spare homes or rooms the chance to make money by renting them out. But what if you don’t own any real estate and you still want to get in on the action? Here are 3 ways to make money on AirBnB without owning any real estate.
Rental Arbitrage
Rental arbitrage is the process of renting out an apartment that you then list on AirBnB. While not all landlords allow this kind of agreement, you can find that some do. It is best to talk to a potential landlord about your plans of renting extra rooms on AirBnB and see how she or he thinks about it. If not, look for a landlord who is willing to do this. It is also important to make sure that your HOA allows short-term rentals or your agreement with your landlord could be void.
Property management
A lot of people who post listings on AirBnB often don’t have time to manage the property directly so they outsource the cleaning, dealing with customers and even the listings themselves to professionals. You can make decent money doing the dirty work for AirBnB rental owners by managing their properties, dealing with bookings, communicating with clients and making sure the units are clean after each guest leaves. If you have decent management skills but don’t have enough money in the bank just yet to buy your own investment property, managing rentals for these AirBnB ‘investors’ is a good way to get started in the business. The good thing about this strategy is that you can start this as a side-gig, managing one or two listings at a time. You can eventually expand to managing more listings and properties for more income.
AirBnB Experience
You can earn money hosting experiences for AirBnB guests, especially if you live in an area where there are many AirBnB rentals. You can serve as a tour guide, host cooking or baking lessons, host a pub crawl or a night at the local food market, or offer craft lessons like 2-hour watercolor sessions. AirBnB without owning allows Experience hosts to set the price, terms, and schedules on the platform. It’s also where people can sign up and pay.
AirBnB has evolved from a platform that purely catered to travelers and property owners. Even if you don’t own a house or an apartment, you can still make money from this platform with a little bit of ingenuity and creativity.