Rent a Room Using Online Help

By Steve Gillman

For some extra cash or more, you can rent a room in your house or apartment to travelers or others, and there are sites that will help you do it. The biggest among them is airnb.com, where you can list a room, garage, or couch for rent for free. They then find customers for you and charge you a 3% booking fee. Guests pay a fee as well, in addtion to the rent.

According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, there have been more than 50,000 postings on the website. Rates start as low as $10 for a futon in Brooklyn to $5,000 per night for a huge vacation home in California. Airnb has apparently more than 700,000 nights so far. The average paid by guests is around $100.

Airnb offers some host protection features. They (or rather their hosts) rent to vacationers, business professionals who are in town for a few days or weeks, and people exploring a town before moving there. You can use their site to rent out a room, a sleeper sofa, an entire house, or, as they put it, "A novelty property like a treehouse, boat, island, castle."

How Much Can You Make?

They have a calculator on their site which is supposed to give you an idea of what you can make with your home, but do your own research. Whn I typed in our town, I got this: "You can easily make $1,778 renting your private room in Cañon City, CO, US, per month based on 75% occupancy at a rate of $79 per night!" Given that we are not near the center of town and the hotels which are there charge less than that, I doubt we would have any takers for a $79 bedroom. On the other hand, when events fill the local hotels I am sure we could rent our extra bedroom out for something.

Ways to Make More | Related Opportunities | Tips

There are other outfits online that can help you rent out your home or a room. Some of them are non-profits that encourage exchanges of homes or rooms. Others, like HomeAway, charge for listing your property.

Qualifications / Requirements

A place for someone to stay is all you need. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it helps if you are in an area without too much competition for what you're offering.

First Steps

Sign up for an account on one of the websites that facilitate renting your room, RV, or house, and list what you have to offer.

Resources

Airnb.com - The biggest site where you can rent a room; no charge for listing your offering.

HomeAway - This one deals with vacation rentals and charges you to list.

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