There are dozens of sites that will help you rent houses or rooms and make good money doing it.
However, the right site to help you find a renter will depend on what you want to do. There are roughly five different ways to rent a house or room. You can rent a single room overnight to tourists — or rent a room long-term to a tenant or roommate. You can rent a whole house overnight to tourists. Or you can rent your whole house out for events, such as parties and photo shoots. You can even rent out just your kitchen and dining area for chefs who want to host cooking classes.
Benefits and detriments
Before you decide on a course, it might be helpful to rattle through basic benefits and detriments of each option. If that option sounds good to you, click through to find the best sites to list that type of rental.
Rent a whole a house to tourists
If you have a whole house for rent, you can earn regular income renting it out to tourists. The only downside is potential damage to your property, which you can mitigate with insurance coverage and a security deposit. You’ll typically be able to list your house for a little less than the cost of a nice hotel room in your city. You can also require that renters pay a cleaning fee.
Click here to find the best options to rent a whole house overnight.
Rent a room to tourists
If you don’t have a whole house to rent, but have a spare room, the downside to renting it to tourists is you’re likely to run into a few guests that you don’t like and won’t enjoy sharing your house with. The money might make up for the inconvenience. But having clear house rules and screening potential renters is wise.
Click here to find the best sites to rent a room to tourists.
Rent to a long-term tenant
If you rent a room to a regular roommate, you could earn income and enjoy the company. Or you could hate your roommate and have to evict him or her. Evictions are costly and time consuming.
Our advice? Screen any potential long-term roommate like you think they could be a terrorist. Run a credit check. Call their references. Interview them in person and over the phone. Pay attention to your gut. If anything doesn’t feel right, pass on the opportunity.
Click here to find the best sites to help you rent a room to a long-term tenant.
Rent your house by the hour
Renting your house by the hour for events and films presents more risk to your property. Why? Hourly house rentals often involve big parties — or film crews. Film crews will bring lots of equipment. Party-goers may bring booze and rented tables and chairs. Lots of people and stuff tramping through your house boosts the chance of breakage.
But, these type of rentals also pay five to 10 times better than renting a house overnight to tourists. So you’re well compensated for taking that chance. You can also mitigate the risk with event insurance. And, for heavens sake, if you’ve got valuable knick-knacks, put them away before the event.
Click here to find the best sites to list your house for rent by the hour.
Rent your kitchen and dining room
If you rent out your kitchen, the same applies. You’ve got a lot of people in your home, but they’re there for just a short time. And they’ll pay you handsomely for the inconvenience. Talk to your insurance agent about how to mitigate your risk.
Click here to find the best way to rent your kitchen by the hour.
