I'm half asleep, exhausted from cleaning and painting and rearranging furniture when it seems like in the last three days I've put more effort into getting our room ready to go than I Haven't done it in 10 years of living here. For the amount of work it takes, you'd think we were about to welcome royalty. But no, it's quite an effort to make the room appealing to complete strangers. I'm preparing this spare room so I can join the millions of people who have made extra money by renting a room or an entire house. I also join the millions of people who make up the YouEconomy and earn extra income through gigs, freelance work, or their own business.
Related: Are you under 30 and killing it in YouEconomy? Join 30 of the brightest young entrepreneurs for the I/O YouEconomy 30 under 30 Means. Nominations are open until November 16th. easy, I learned that the approval of someone I've never met and will never see again after their stay was a stronger motivation to improve the room's appearance and functionality than the comfort of my family for a decade. Until now, the room in question was, in theory, a combination of guest bedroom, home office, home gym and music practice room. But it looked more like a 10 by 20 foot storage closet. Workout equipment and musical instruments lay strewn about, waiting for someone to spontaneously revisit a health regimen or abandoned hobby.
Yet now that the dust has been wiped away, the gymnasium at home could again invite someone to do some rehearsals. And the drum kit, which my son gave up after becoming bored with music lessons a few years ago, seems full of potential now that his flipped cymbal stands and throne are back.
The next day I sign up for Airbnb and work on the listing. There are a few basic questions for classifying space:whether it is a shared or private bedroom or an entire house; whether it is wheelchair accessible; and if I plan to socialize with guests or give them space. The more detailed questions make me appreciate that part of an innkeeper's work that I never noticed or appreciated. Do I have a security card indicating the emergency exits in case of fire? Do I have a fire extinguisher? A first aid kit?
Airbnb then calculates suggested rates based on location, type of space available, number of beds (or airbeds), events or conventions in town and other factors. My rates were pitifully low. After Airbnb took their 3%, I could make less than $30 on weekdays. I decide to go wrong with my rates, select the days I will open the house to guests and wait.
The YouEconomy has made the barrier to entry so low that any of us can become a business owner in seconds.
After a few hours without a bite, I panic and bring the rate down to the suggested rates of around $27 a night. Within minutes, I received a reservation for a two-night stay starting the following night. A new panic sets in.
Airbnb hosts and hosts have ratings and recommendations from other users. Our first confirmed guest, someone named Timo with a profile picture of a smiling young man on a passenger plane, has the highest rating possible, five stars, with a dozen comments from past guests about his calmness, its cleanliness and friendliness. I go through his past stays. His profile says he lives in Commerce, Texas, about an hour from Dallas, where I live, and all of his stays are in Dallas. There is no apparent pattern in which part of town he stays or when. I wonder if he's going to cram my house for valuables, if he exists, or if his profile is a bot working some kind of scam. I'm going down a rabbit hole looking for hosts who've given it rave reviews, looking through their other posts for evidence that they might be robots too, even looking up names on social media to confirm they're real people. They all check. If this is some kind of scam, it is a sophisticated scam. I've always had a grudging admiration for a good con artist, so I decide to wait and see how it goes. We send my teenagers to their mothers for the first night, just in case.
Timo and I use the service's messaging system, which allows us to communicate via text without sharing phone numbers, and he says to wait for her between 6 and 7 p.m. The following night, my wife and I stay and do a final cleaning, then sit down to watch TV and wait. At 8.30pm rolls around and he still hasn't come, my wife theorizes that the first scheduled visit is some sort of test and no one is going to come. Then the sound of a car pulling up in front of the house sends our three dogs into a barking frenzy.
I open the door and reach out to Timo, who is wearing a hair net and shirt. work embroidered with his name. He smiles as I apologize and try to fight off the dogs as they take turns jumping on him and poking their noses into his pants. "It's okay, it's okay," he laughs in a British accent that strikes me as Kenyan because it reminds me of how marathon runners sound in interviews.
He tells me he lives in the business but has a new job in Dallas at the Mary Kay plant. He stayed in various neighborhoods to get to know the city before moving and committing to a neighborhood. I show him his bedroom and his bathroom. The drum kit is still configured. He shakes his head and smiles, saying, "No, it's okay, it's okay," when I offer to move him. Timo (pronounced Tim-o) tells me he will be out of the house at 6am and says I hope it will be a good stay. He likes to use Airbnb to "help ordinary people" rather than paying extra money for a generic hotel room. We invite him to join us for a drink downstairs, but it's clear he wants nothing more than the Wi-Fi password and a clean bed.
The second night of Timo's stay , I'm comfortable enough to have the kids in the house again. We cook spicy Cajun style chicken with green beans and twice baked potatoes. Timo arrives just as the meal is ready, so I invite him to eat with us. He seems to consider the offer for a minute, given the takeout box in his hand.
"You know? I will save this food and join your family for dinner. Thanks, that's a great offer. It's good, it's good. Can I put this in the fridge?
He declines our offer of beer but says he'll "drink Dr Pepper, like a Texan". Over lunch, we ask him what he thinks of Dallas, what neighborhoods he's liked so far, how he ended up in Commerce and where he came from. He is indeed from Kenya, from a rural part of the country. Our curiosity about his homeland—what his family ate for meals (vegetables and corn-based bread), the biggest cultural differences, and his biggest surprise when he moved to America (the ubiquity of cars)—dominates the conversation. Timo tells us that people in his village walk everywhere and most never venture more than 10 miles from where they were born.
Timo asks the children about their studies, interests and hobbies. He is impressed by the photos of my daughter's artwork and jewelry, and he rejoices when my son talks about the science and engineering charter high school he attends. Turns out Timo works in automation, servicing assembly robots, and he encourages my son to consider the burgeoning field.
Eventually we realize we kept Timo an hour later. her bedtime the night before and we wish her good night. The next day, an e-mail invites me to write a review of his stay. I go upstairs to see that the only evidence anyone stayed there is a neatly folded wet towel on the practice bench. I write a glowing recommendation, and its five-star rating remains unblemished. In turn, he gives me five stars and writes a kind public review and private comments.
At our dinner the night before, Timo had gushed evangelically about his experience with Airbnb. He believed so much that he gave us insight into how the company's founders – who needed the extra money – created a website to rent air mattresses from their apartment with the promise of a meal. homemade in the morning, which is where the original name of AirBed &Breakfast comes from. Co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk started the company in 2008 and have been shaking up the hospitality industry ever since. This morning, I see where his devotion comes from. Preparing the room was hard work, but we were rewarded with an interesting conversation that expanded our world a bit and about $50 in the bank to boot. I was able to earn money without even leaving my house and with the resources I already had – a spare bedroom. On top of that, it doesn't affect my day job, which means that's all the extra income. It's money that can be used to save for a vacation, pay the down payment on a new car, or spend something I wouldn't normally buy.
Related: "The YouEconomy has provided everything I need to create the life I want"
Like any job or business, not every day is such a pleasure. Our next stay, a few days later, deflates our enthusiasm. After a little investigation on social media after booking, I find that the renter is a young man from Chennai, India, who went to school in Houston. He tells me that he and a young woman will be in town meeting some acquaintances. They message and ask when is the earliest to check in on Saturday. When I throw an hour, 1 p.m., they ask if they can arrive two hours early. Sure, I say.
When the two arrive that weekend, they rebuff my attempts to show them around. They ask for the Wi-Fi password and come back up the stairs with overnight bags, a paper bag of groceries, and a gallon of drinking water. The door slammed and it took us hours to see them again. That afternoon, I started running some errands, leaving my wife alone at home. I haven't even reached the corner when my phone rings.
"Oh my God, Jesse," my wife whispers. "They're… well, you know. Within seconds of closing the front door behind me, creaks and thumps filled the house. Luckily the kids weren't there.
Thinking back to my Airbnb message history, I see that the guest never said when they were meeting their friends, and my guess that they would be hanging out on Saturday evening was unfounded.
The next morning, I did not bother to see this guest again, nor him with me.
After three nights of guests, we almost even after having factored in the cost of new linens and other upgrades. Decluttering, repainting and tidying up the space was far more rewarding than a grand total of $82. It might be a coincidence, but my son asked to resume drum lessons shortly after the guest bedroom/office/music room was uncluttered enough to walk through without risking tetanus. Having strangers was an interesting experience but too disruptive to be worth it financially. Looking at the prices on other local listings, it's clear that our home isn't close enough to downtown or the cultural districts to be desirable for tourists, and it's across town from compared to the northern burbs where itinerant workers would most likely be needed.
The sharing aspect of YouEconomy works like any other economy – on supply and demand.
The sharing aspect of YouEconomy works like any other economy – on supply and demand. If we are already away for a few days or more, I would consider renting the whole house in the future. A whole house goes far beyond renting a single room.
The really rewarding part of the experience, besides seeing the good and the bad in people, was the realization that the potential for entrepreneurship is all around us now, thanks to technology. The YouEconomy has made the barrier to entry so low that any of us can become a business owner in seconds.
I appreciated the opportunity to earn some extra money, but the next times, I would probably choose another side of the YouEconomy. Maybe drive for Lyft. To do this, however, I would have to give my car a thorough cleaning, as the interior is barely suitable for human use. It would also need new brake pads and whatever repair indicated by a check engine light. And a few tires get pretty bald. Also, he needs – you know, maybe I should drive for Lyft after all. If I'm not going to fix my car for myself, I could at least fix it for someone else.
Related: Tired of your day job? In search of freedom? The answer is YouEconomy
This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
