I shared on this reel that we rent our home on Airbnb (and VRBO). Here are some FAQs on why and how we do this.

Where do you stay if you rent your home?

Sometimes we stay with family, sometimes we take an affordable vacation (state parks are a great option!). We stayed with friends’ when we did this in Massachusetts and it was a little unconventional, but a fun way to get to spend time with friends.

If you are already traveling, that could be a consideration for a time to rent out your space as well. This was part of our reasoning in buy The Peach House and Summer Camp (our rental in Cape Charles) because they give us a place we can go when we rent our home.

Here I am on a trip to Natural Bridge, VA while we rent our home.

What do you do with your personal belongings or valuables?

We have a few rooms and closets that are off limits to guests. We do not give them access to our office, the kids’ playroom or our closet. This gives us a few places we can put things that we don’t want people to use. We have always found people to be very respectful. You can choose to only rent to people once you have reviewed their profile on Airbnb/VRBO to make sure you are hosting someone with good reviews.

What do you do with your food?

The week before we go - we try to strategically eat fresh or refrigerated food so we can limit how much food we are leaving. I typically get everything into the drawers in the fridge and leave condiments - but clean the bottles and the fridge out throughly. I try to give the guests as much clean space as possible, while still communicating to the guest - we do live here full time.

How do you make money if you might have to pay to stay somewhere else?

We only rent our house at times when we could charge enough that we could go somewhere else. For us - there is a hotel shortage in our community and a few times a year can get a good rate that is worth leaving our home and can still afford to stay somewhere else.

How do you figure out how much to charge?

I would search on Airbnb and VRBO in your area to figure out if your area is a place people would rent (and is it allowed.) You can always charge less - so start higher to gauge if there is interest. There is a website with a free trial called AirDNA to give you an idea. We personally find that they estimate high though.

Is this allowed where I live?

You’ll need to check your local laws. Our town is pretty restrictive - we can only rent a space we live in six months out of the year and for a limited number of nights.

How often do we rent out our home?

We only rent our home about 2 weeks total/year over the course of a few weekends. For us, there a few really good days a year worth doing this. That might be different where you live.

Airbnb or VRBO?

We are on both platforms and get bookings on both. I think being on both gives more exposure to possible clients. We do find VRBO tends to be higher end clients - this is just what we think - not sure if its true.

Have you ever had an issues with guests?

Any issues we have had have been so minor - I can hardly remember them. We have lost a pillow or a phone charger or a wine glass. All reasonable. We did have one guest that was loud and disturbed our neighbors and broke a plate. They covered the cost of the minimal damage they caused. I highly recommend checking the guest’s reviews before hosting them.

Do you offer design help with Airbnbs?

Yes! I just started doing this. More details here. I can do an Airbnb Audit (virtually or in person) & I can design individual rooms.

link to become an Airbnb host