AirBnb

What: Airbnb allows people who want to rent out a spare room, guest house or vacation home to advertise on a widely-used site.

Commissions & Fees: 3%

Husl $core: $$$$

Expected pay: NA

Where: National

Requirements: A furnished rental home or a room in your home; and a bank or PayPal account where they can deposit your rental receipts.

Review:

AirBnB is a leader in providing peer-to-peer vacation listings. That’s partly thanks to its great website, which has thousands of rentals all over the world, and to the modest amount it charges hosts. Hosts pay a 3% fee. Guests are also charged a fee, which ranges from 0 to 20%, depending on both your cancellation policy (the stricter you are, the more they charge) and the cost of the rental (the higher the cost, the lower the percentage fee).

The site also offers a $1 million liability and property damage policy that covers your house in case a guest gets hurt or damages your property.

Good money-maker

A recent survey by student lender, Earnest, estimated that the average AirBnB host earned $924 per month and roughly one-quarter of AirBnb hosts earned more than $1,000 a month. Significantly, that was more than any of the eight other side hustle opportunities they studied. Better yet, outside of keeping your house clean and finding a way to get your guests a key, it doesn’t require much hourly labor.

That said, sharing your house with strangers can have a downside — from sketchy visitors to people damaging your stuff. Some hosts complain that AirBnb’s customer service can be downright surly. We also recently reduced our Husl$core for this site because it changed its policy to favor people who agree to “Instant Book.” In the past, Airbnb allowed homeowner’s the ability to screen their tenants. Instant Book eliminates that, which is a big loss, particularly for people who are having guests stay in spare bedrooms. You can decline instant book, according to the editors at the senior-centric site NextAvenue who broke this story. However, your listing will fall to the back pages, where it is less likely to be spotted.

The flip side

For the dark side of becoming an AirBnB host, check out the AirBnb Hell link below. The horror stories shouldn’t dissuade you, particularly if you have unused space and need the money. But consider them parables that can help you set up your listing in a way that may help sidestep some of the pitfalls.

Although there are numerous other sites that offer to rent your home or a portion of it, this is our highest-rated opportunity for short-term rentals. However, if you think you’d want to take in a long-term renter, make sure to check out SilverNest.

What their hosts say:

AirBnb Hell