How to make your first $10 000 with Airbnb and stop feeling poor

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If you do the maths, you will figure out that you spend most of your time working hard just for paying the bills.

You could spend your time more efficiently and work on projects that excite you if only you had less financial pressure to handle on your shoulders. That’s why earning some extra bundles of money can give you more freedom and maybe leave the rat race one day.

Airbnb seems to be an interesting concept: you welcome tourists from all over the World and you learn new things as you meet people with different backgrounds and life stories. Besides that, you earn big money by providing them a unique experience in your lovely town.

But wait! I see the fear in your eyes…maybe these tourists could rob you and vandalize your place? A priori, this is what your friends or your family tell you. Even your best friend Google shows you awful stories of people disappointed by this experience. So no way, you will be like everyone else, you will stay in your comfort zone and do nothing!

On the contrary, if you go beyond your fears, new opportunities will come to you. That’s the path I decided to follow, and now I’m happy I’ve done it.

So, you decided to start this adventure. Good. But how will you manage to make your first $10 000 with Airbnb?

As I reached that goal during my first six months, I can share this experience with you. I give you some useful recommendations below:

Make sure there is a potential demand for your home.
- Do you live in the city center, or not too far away?
- Do you have a similar or better housing compared to the other hosts you see on the Airbnb website?

If you live in the city center, you will have of course more tourists and business people wanting to rent your apartment. If you live in an unwelcoming place, you can still welcome tourists but at a very low price.

I recommend you to make sure your place is in proper condition and there are no flaws.

Consider the legal aspects depending on your country of residence
See if you could have problems with neighbors especially if you live in an apartment building. It is better to do it if you are the owner of your housing.
Create your account on Airbnb.com and add your listing. I suggest you to read similar adverts posted by other hosts before writing your own text.

You can create your advert in several languages if you want to ease the task for your guests. Take nice photo or ask Airbnb to send a photographer for free at your place.

Set a price for your accommodation, depending on the day of the week. You can charge more on Friday and Saturday night as there are more tourists coming for the weekend. However, in the beginning I recommend you to set a price below the market so you will have more chance to host someone. Later on you will allow Airbnb to set the price automatically according to your type of housing, the demand in your region and plenty of other parameters. Make sure your advert is appealing and well written. Show it to your family so they can give you advice.

Indeed, Airbnb business relies on trust between the hosts (you) and the guests (tourists). Therefore, your guests leave a comment on your profile each time you host them. You do the same on their profile. As you don’t have any recommendations yet, you should focus all your energy on deserving them. Without this you will never earn your first $10 000 on Airbnb.

I recommend you to allow registered users to book instantly your apartment as they would do when booking a hotel. You just have to select the “Instant booking” option on Airbnb website. Therefore you will have a lot more clients as they prefer to book instantly. Activate only this option for people already recommended by other guests.

When you get a message from a potential guest, reply as fast as possible because Airbnb measures your response time and display it on your profile. People like to get answers fastly. Answer to all the questions in a nice way and give the best service quality. Make sure to agree on the check-in and check-out time in advance. You will notice that some guests consider they can come at around midnight or later, when they want. Give them your rules in a polite way so you will not get bad comments on your profile afterwards.

Clean your place as much as possible. People don’t like to pay for a dirty place. You should focus on the kitchen, the toilet, the bathroom and the bedroom with clean sheets.

Tell your guest they can contact you easily at any time if they face issues. The next day of their arrival, send them a message asking if everything is going well.

When you have your first guests, welcome them personally and give them more than what they expected. For example, you can offer them breakfast or a bottle of wine, or any extra they will appreciate. Your goal is to get the best user experience so they will recommend you afterwards by leaving a great comment on your profile. Don’t focus on the money you get from them, at least for the moment.

If you get complaints, solve them as fast as possible. After your guests leave Airbnb invites you to give your opinion about them so their next host can see if they are respectful people. The system is easy: you write your comment, and they do the same. It is impossible for them to see your comment until they have written their own, unless the 15 days period is over. If you know they are unhappy, I don’t recommend you to write a comment on their profile as Airbnb will notify them saying you wrote something about them they can see only if they write something about you. Therefore, if you are happy with them, write a recommendation. Otherwise, leave them alone. You maximize the likelihood of having only great guests recommendations on your profile.

Your guests will also give note about their experience at your place, about the general experience, the value for money, the cleanliness, your response time to their messages,… Your profile displays all these information.

As you will welcome more guests, you will gain experience and improve your service quality. The money will follow and depending on your place, the energy you put in this project and your availability for renting, you will reach your first $10 000 within a few months or more.

You will also notice that most of the people you will host are like you or me, good and friendly people who will respect you even more than you respect yourself. Of course you may experience some problems, but you should balance the risk with the rewards you get.

These are the first advice I can give you, more recommendations will come later on Dreamed Fortune.

Have fun!