My Airbnb Journey
It was 4:30p, I was driving home from work to pick up my 2 young boys from Montessori school to take them home, feed them, and take them to a sitter while I had an evening work meeting, the thought hit me, “How can I enjoy time with my kids when I’m just seeing them for brief periods of time to be sure they are bathed, fed, and in bed?” There had to be another way to earn money and enjoy my kid’s brief childhood.
The year was 2016, and I was working full-time, taking grad school classes, and trying to raise 2 boys ages 2 and 4 at the time. In one of my grad classes I was studying child education and how kids best learn in this state of “flow.” I wrote a paper on the differences of homeschooling vs Montessori vs public school and how it impacts a child’s flow state. In my research I discovered homeschooling to have superior benefits. My boys could only stay in their current Montessori school until the end of kindergarten. So I had one year to figure out how I was going to quit my job and start homeschooling.
In March of 2016, my husband and I attended the Greater Homeschooling Convention in Ohio, and we booked a shared-space Airbnb. I had stayed at other Airbnbs, but never a shared-space with the host. Our host had an infant, so we started chatting about kids, life and her Airbnb. I asked a million questions, and on our drive home after the 3-day convention, my goal was to start a shared-space Airbnb in our house. We had a room in our basement that would work, so I spent $500 to get everything set up. We had a vacation planned for the first 2 weeks of August, so my goal was to have it listed and try to get it booked while we were on vacation. In July, it was listed, and in only 3 days I had it booked!
At that time Airbnb had been in business for 9 years, and yet it was still fairly new to a lot of people. Airbnb started as “Airbed & Breakfast.” Hosts only needed to provide an air mattress and cereal at the least for guests. So my futon was considered an upgrade to how Airbnb started! We stayed continuously booked our whole first year. I had two listings, one for the whole house that we would rent out while we were on vacation or away for holidays; and the single room for guests to stay with us. There were a number of days when I had guests checking out in the morning and new guests arriving in the evening. And my boys were loving all these new friends that would come over and hang out and play! In that first year we had guests from over 20 different states and 5 countries. So, the decision was made, I would quit my job, become a full-time Airbnb host, and homeschool my boys when kindergarten completed in May 2017.
We continued that model for two more years, and then my life had a big shift. In 2019, my marriage ended and I became a single mom. Now the question became, “Could I continue this lifestyle of Airbnb host and homeschooling mom on one income?” I ended up moving in with my parents for all of 2019, and renting out my entire home for almost half of the year. This gave me some time to process, make a plan, and figure out my next steps. I decided to start co-hosting. This allowed me to help others get started with Airbnb, and I would manage their listings for a percentage of each booking. I became a co-host for two properties, one in Indiana, and one in Florida. This was a new challenge, but I was ready to take it on! I successfully got both houses decorated, listings up, and bookings coming in…Superhost status achieved in first quarter! Now I was really thinking this idea had potential, until March 2020…a pandemic hit the world, Covid-19, and changed everyone’s travel plans.
Follow my next blog post to see how I managed the Covid-19 hit.
