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I recently wrote about my experience renting places through Airbnb in Nice and Lucca (and how you can save £68 off your first 2 rentals). I had a great time and found the people renting out the apartments to be extremely responsive, friendly and professional. I was renting whole properties rather than just a room though, so only met them briefly and didn’t really give much thought to what being an Airbnb host is like.

One of the (many!) travel/points/miles blogs I read is one over on BoardingArea called ‘Out and Out’, where the author, Harlan, just concluded a very clear and useful series for anyone who fancies becoming an Airbnb host.

As I say, it’s not really something I’d really given much consideration to before, but I found the series very interesting and am now even (half) thinking about maybe trying my hand.

One of the main points made is (obviously) about the importance of location – and there are still plenty of parts of the UK I know well where finding quality accommodation at a reasonable price can be surprisingly challenging. I love spending time on the Yorkshire coast for instance, which is almost completely unserved by the major hotel chains, despite plenty of tourists.

Harlan’s series is written very much from an American perspective, so the tax and regulatory issues are different in the UK, but most of the basics as regards getting started, kitting out a property, looking after guests, etc, are still very relevant.

Bottom line

If you think you might like to become an Airbnb host, or just enjoy reading about the ‘behind the scenes’ mechanics of how it works, I’d highly recommend heading over and giving the whole series a read.

The challenges involved in hosting someone in your own actual home instead of a separate property must be very different too  – do we have any Airbnb hosts amongst InsideFlyer UK readers? What’s it like?