An Airbnb side hustle is a lucrative choice to earn big, even if you don’t own any property. You can rack up $40 an hour on up to thousands a month with these innovative ideas to kickstart your financial goals. The best part is you can do a combination of these ideas just a few hours a week or turn them into your full-time career. Use the extra money to invest in your own property or just enjoy the freedom of your own Airbnb side hustle.
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How Much Can You Make with an Airbnb Side Hustle?
Airbnb side hustles can be lucrative, but you’ll find rates that are all over the place. Depending on your location, you can earn $40 a night for a room in your apartment on up to thousands every month simply to help rent out someone’s home complete with a swimming pool. You’ll need to get creative and think through how much you want to earn a month and what’s possible. For example, if you want to earn $2000 a month, you need some kind of asset to rent out (even if it’s not a home) or highly valuable skill to offer an Airbnb entrepreneur.
Is Airbnb Still a Good Side Hustle?
Yes! There are issues with just about any weekend side hustle, including Airbnbs. Guests often complain about having to do chores and laundry while hosts often complain about their properties getting damaged or costing too much overhead to keep up. Despite the pros and cons, you can still make a lucrative income stream from Airbnb without actually owning any property. You end up with less headaches when you don’t actually own the property and can scale your side hustle faster.
Run an Airbnb Experience
Instead of hosting a room or home on Airbnb, host an experience instead. Airbnb experiences include tours, dance classes, cooking experiences, meditative retreats, treasure hunts and more. It does take some time to apply and get approved to offer experiences, but you can earn big by hosting groups and share your passion for your town or hobbies. Get an idea for popular Airbnb experiences in your area and figure out how to improve upon it. If everyone is hosting a cooking class, consider a farmer’s market trip, cooking course, and live entertainment while you dine.
Another option is teaming up with someone to run an experience. If you and a friend love hiking, consider designing a program together. You’ll probably come up with ideas you hadn’t considered before, like heading out to a brewery after the hike to give visitors a true local experience.
Co-Host an Airbnb
You can still play host on Airbnb without ever owning property. Co-hosts are usually a friend, neighbor, or family member and help owners take care of the details of their home and guests. You can also attend Airbnb MeetUp Groups to try to drum-up business as a co-host. Once you and the host agree on who is responsible for what, like cleaning or gust check-in, they can add you as a co-host to their Airbnb account.
How much do Airbnb co-hosts make? Except to earn between 15% to 40% of the booking fee. However, rates are negotiable and could also be a flat fee. Learn more about Airbnb co-hosting here.
Build an Airbnb Empire
It’s entirely possible to build up your own Airbnb business without ever owning property. Partnering with a landlord who allows you to rent out their space for a cut of your profits is one place to start. Some rental agreements have no stipulations about subletting or renting out on vacation platforms. Beyond your actual rental agreement, look into the local rules and jurisdictions. Some areas have banned short-term rentals for under 30-days.
Once you’ve figured out your strategy, you’ll need to invest some start-up funding for a bed, couch, table, and essentials. Or you can look into renting furnished apartments for the long-term and renting them out on Airbnb for the short-term.
Become a Virtual Assistant for an Airbnb Owner
Similar to co-hosts, an Airbnb virtual assistant can help with marketing, copywriting, listings, checking-in guests, and more. However, a virtual assistant is usually more involved with the details of someone’s Airbnb business. A virtual assistant, or VA, may also be tasked with:
- Social media posts and management
- Light bookkeeping
- Creating listings on other platforms like VRBO and Flipkey
- Dealing with guest issues
- Researching activities for guests
Working as a virtual assistant can also translate to a variety of businesses, from dental practices to helping someone run their e-commerce store. Depending on the services you offer, virtual assistants command $20 to $50 an hour.
One of the best parts about being an Airbnb Virtual Assistant is the recurring income. A successful Airbnb is constantly booked up and takes a lot of hours to keep everything running and guests happy. Once you’ve established yourself as a reliable, high-performing VA, you can also raise your rates and ask your current clients for referrals and recommendations to other Airbnb hosts.
List a Renovated School Bus on Airbnb
You don’t need to rent out an entire apartment or house on Airbnb. You don’t even need to rent out a room in your house. Travelers value experiences and staying places that are unique and off the beaten path. Instead of a room in your apartment or home, you can rent out unique accommodations like an old school bus, treehouse, or even a teepee. Market the accommodations as an experience and work on taking gorgeous, professional-looking photos to optimize your listing to stand-out from the competition.
Make sure to offer a high-end experience with personal touches and sparkling customer service to stand-out. Browse some of Airbnb’s unique listings to see how to structure your listings. But remember, your guests will need access to a bathroom for a comfortable stay and positive reviews.
Rent Out Baby Gear to Airbnb Guests
Get creative with your Airbnb side hustle and think about what guests with small children desperately need. Partner with local Airbnb hosts and offer baby gear rental to guests. Companies like BabyQuip connect baby gear providers with travelers with very little start-up required.
Once you’re approved, you get a page on their site, list your gear, and can even wait until your first booking before purchasing what you need from Amazon. Typical gear includes car seats, portable cribs, toys, and more. If you’re not sure how to make $2000 a month, set additional fees for drop-off and pick-up. Parents are willing to pay a premium to have all of the gear delivered and picked-up directly from their hotel or Airbnb.
Clean Airbnb Homes
If you’re not into the baby gear rental and clean-up side gig, you can clean Airbnbs instead. Reliable, thorough, cleaning help is difficult to come by when you’re running an Airbnb business. Offer cleaning services that focus on creating reliable systems and processes that give hosts peace of mind. For example, ask the host what they need to be done and in what order, what to focus on, and what their guests comment on. Create your own binder with all of the steps involved and make suggestions on how you can make improvements.
The more you can focus on the Airbnb owner’s mindset and what they need, the more your services will stand out. Want to expand past cleaning services? Add on additional services like guest grocery drop-off or check-in services to earn more. Or you can sell yourself as an Airbnb property manager that takes care of the cleaning, repairs, and any issues along the way. You can also charge a premium for the service when working with hosts who live out of town.
Turn Raw Land Into a Campground
One of the most popular Airbnbs in my area is a campground that rents out old Airstream trailers. They also set-up a seasonal drive-in movie screen that people can pay to see, whether they’re staying on the property or not. A food truck doubles as a cafe and there are temporary port-a-potties and showers set up to accommodate travelers. Although this specific campground is pretty ambitious, you can work with a land owner to do the heavy lifting to rent out their property while splitting the profits.
Learn how this Airbnb host turned his property into a campground.
Launch an Airbnb Photography Business
If you have a flair for photography, you can offer your services as an Airbnb photographer. You can build up your skills by evaluating local Airbnbs in your area and offering to retake and enhance their photos. Or turn to sites like Fiverr and join local Airbnb Meet-Up groups or networking events to find hosts who need photographers. But you’ll need to find a way to stand-out from the competition by offering drone shots, aerial photography, and shots around the neighborhood.
Many Airbnb hosts know other hosts or have multiple properties. Consider offering a referral fee to hosts who pass on your information to help your business grow.
Become an Airbnb Copywriter
Airbnb hosts are in the business of booking out their properties and will pay a premium for copywriting that helps drive more conversions. Great Airbnb copywriting is engaging, personable, clear, and descriptive. Effective copy can also directly lead to more bookings and spark engagement between potential guests and hosts who want to learn more. You can also enhance your services by offering to optimize current Airbnb listings with relevant keywords and enhancing the copy.
However, Airbnb copywriting doesn’t stop at creating great listings. You can also earn more revenue with a writing side hustle that covers:
- Guest books
- Neighborhood guides
- House rules
- Guess Access Information
- Getting Around
- Image Captions
- Listing Titles
Reaching out to local Airbnb hosts and offering to optimize or write fresh copy is one place to start. Or you can drum up more work through Upwork. There are thousands of copywriting jobs posted, including for writers specializing in Airbnb, VRBO, and the hospitality business.
Learn more about how to start an Upwork side hustle here.
Next Steps
An Airbnb side hustle without owning property takes some ingenuity, but it can be done. Whether you want to earn more money to travel or fund your next passion project, start with a few ideas from this list and start generating income. You can even set a goal to save up for your own property or old school bus to start renovating and scale your income.