Cashing in on Couchsurfers

I’ve had a dream for as long as I can remember to own a bed and breakfast. I love hosting friends and family in my home, and I thought it would be super fun to play hostess professionally. I could be a professional housewife for all my guests: making their beds, cooking breakfast, packing picnic lunches, helping them find all the fun places to go in the area, and maybe even doing some of their /house-home/housekeeping/laundry-101. I love doing all these domestic tasks and I love meeting people, so putting them together just sounds like a dream job to me.

But, like most dreams, reality gets in the way. Purchasing a big home and converting it into a B&B would be really expensive. Plus, who would run my https://moxie-girl.com/ business while I’m /house-home/interior-design/how-to-use-spray-paint and /house-home/housekeeping/how-to-choose-a-contractor-for-your-remodeling-project? For years, I’ve put aside my dream and continued telling myself “Someday…”

See also: /money-finance/credit/how-to-buy-a-home-in-10-steps-part-2

Well, that “someday” has come a lot quicker than I thought it would, but it looks a little different thanks to websites like https://www.airbnb.com/ and https://www.couchsurfing.org/. These online communities allow users to rent a couch, a bed, or even their whole house for days, weeks, or months at a time. The decision to host strangers in your home isn’t for everyone, so before you decide to open your own mini-B&B, make sure you consider these 4 questions:

Question #1: Can You Trust a Stranger?

If you are going to post your space on one of these sites, you have to be willing to trust someone you have never met before based on what a few people say about them online. Some of these online communities allow you to learn about your future house guests by posting reviews, recommendations, and links to their social media accounts. But when it comes down to it, you are going to have to trust that everything they post online is true. It’s good to keep your guard up a little, but if you don’t think that you could possibly be comfortable sleeping with a stranger next door, then this isn’t a good option for you.

Question #2: Do You Live Where People Want to Be?

These couchsurfing websites allow people to advertise living spaces all over the world, no matter if they’re in Manhattan or Morocco. The more people want to visit the area you live in, the more likely you are to get a lot of traffic. It also means that you may be able to charge more for the same amount of space.

When I travelled to New York, I stayed with a young couple in Brooklyn. They had a small place and, while it was clean, it was nothing special. The downside was that I had to ride the subway for about 20 minutes to get to my meetings in Manhattan, but the upside was that I paid only $25 per night to stay in one of the world’s most expensive cities. The day I left, another girl was coming in. She and I talked while I packed up and it turned out that she lives in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District. She was staying at this couple’s place because she was able to rent her apartment for $300 per night on the same website. Every night she rented her apartment, she made $275, which she told me averaged about $3,000 a month of profit. Not too shabby, as long as you’re OK not sleeping in your own bed for half the month.

Question #3: Can You Live With Strangers?

If you’re thinking of only renting out a room or a bed, rather than your whole home, you will need to consider if you’re OK living with a short-term roommate. Most of us haven’t done this since college, and it will impact our day-to-day habits substantially. For example: you’ll likely need to be fully clothed at all times and not watch loud movies after 9pm. So it’s important to consider carefully about how much you’re willing to adjust your habits for the additional income.

If you want to test it out, you can always start small. Only offer your place for 2-3 nights at a time. This will give you a sense of what to expect from guests. I’ve received numerous requests from people moving to Arizona who need to a place for a month or more while they search for a job and an apartment. My husband and I are OK with this, but if you aren’t willing to sacrifice your privacy for this long, just specify the maximum amount of nights for which your place is available on your posting.

Question #4: Are You Willing to Deal With Damage?

Whenever you invite another person into your home, there is a chance that something will get damaged. Each person who comes in could run their suitcase into the wall, trip over a threshold, or drop a plate. Multiply those little accidents by the number of guests your home receives and you could be needing repair work after your guests leave.

On most sites, you can set the amount guests pay for a deposit, and some of the sites have insurance policies that will cover the cost of any damage done by guests. But you will still have to put in time and effort to get the repairs completed. If you aren’t willing to do this, hosting probably isn’t for you.

If you’ve gone through these questions and are still interested in hosting people in your home, it can open up a whole new world of opportunity for you. Not only can you make a little extra money with minimal work, but you can also meet people from all over the world without leaving your living room. Just make sure to check with your insurance agent and read all the rules and regulations on the websites before you post your space to make sure you’re doing everything right and protecting yourself.

After going through all these questions with Mr. https://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/, we were both excited to post our extra room and couches on one of the sites. My dream of owning a B&B is a little more real as we host our first guests. Who knows, if you travel to Phoenix, maybe you could end up staying with us too!

Do you have any good stories from hosting people in your home? I would love to hear about them. Post them on my https://www.facebook.com/DomesticCEO, or my https://twitter.com/thedomesticceo feed.

Until next time, I’m the https://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/, helping you love your home.

Man sleeping on couch, Tourist Couple and Broken Vase images from Shutterstock