Renting spare room on Airbnb when I have a housemate?

GoogleMeNow

If I was looking to rent a room in an AirB&B, yours doesn't sound very inviting.

I'd rather spend £40-50 on a larger Premier Inn room with private facilities tbh.

newdriver101

Agree with the sentiment above - a casual conversation about renting out the spare room is very different from having random airb&b people rent out the spare room every week - particularly if you don’t plan to be there while the airb&b people are there… (they could be different people from half way around the earth every week) - 
Having a cleaner etc. is all good + well but the airb&b person may have basic questions about travel, sightseeing etc. and if your housemate/ledger/friend is having to bear the brunt + deal with and assist with these random queries with a different person every week or so… daresay this is not what your friend/lodger/housemate signed-up for…

newdriver101

Agree with the sentiment above - a casual conversation about renting out the spare room is very different from having random airb&b people rent out the spare room every week - particularly if you don’t plan to be there while the airb&b people are there… (they could be different people from half way around the earth every week) - 
Having a cleaner etc. is all good + well but the airb&b person may have basic questions about travel, sightseeing etc. and if your housemate/ledger/friend is having to bear the brunt + deal with and assist with these random queries with a different person every week or so… daresay this is not what your friend/lodger/housemate signed-up for…

Pixie5740

I had a landlord once suggest I go and stay with her so that she could rent out my home during Offshore Europe for ££££. I said no. 

Would you be insured to run an Airbnb out your home like this. What if things went missing, especially your friend and lodger’s? 

HampshireH

If I were your friend I'd be unhappy.

They have a. Stable home (no matter how cheap - you agreed the rate). Why should they then have to worry about who they may come home to, or put locks on their doors or who they may bump into in the night or when cooking dinner or coming out the bathroom etc 

The upheaval of locking away all your stuff into one room when both away.

Even more so if you go away at short notice and effectively leave your friend responsible for them.

I personally thinks it's unreasonable.

But I dont think a 2nd lodger whom you have checked out and both agree would be a good fit is unreasonable if your small room is desirable.

bbat

As HampshireH says, why not try another lodger in the spare room rather than constant randoms.

I know you don't think you would fall out or he would move out, but you are underestimating the impact of having strangers in and out of your, and his, home or the risks that come with it. A lodger has the right to peaceful enjoyment of the place. You are also likely overestimating the money you will get. Airbnb take a cut, and your rate will be low when you start. It is only allowed to go up after people stay and leave reviews. You also need to cover this on home and contents insurance. 

So yes, you can play the 'its my house card' but if you do that you might not just lose a lodger, but a friend. Nothijg makes somewhwre feel less like your home than someone telling you it isnt! And if you also tell him your losing out on money because of him, that's unfair too and could lead to uncomfortable feelings. You agreed the rate for him living there, you can't wave it in his face or reset him for it. That isn't fair. 

I do understand the appeal of seeing airbnb rates, but they aren't always the reality of what you can get. 

You have a stable income from someone who you trust and are completely comfortable with at home. If they leave and you think about another lodger, they can't ever replace that totally comfortable feeling. It just feels like you risk losing more than you might gain here.

delmonta

Thanks everyone, this has been a bit of a reality check which is good. I definitely need to give it some careful consideration s I dont want to upset the balance we have

But as I said he is definitely up for if we both go away for a week or more renting the whole house (minus his room where we would lock up anything expensive), and him not paying rent and getting some extra. 

He also knew from the start I wanted to either get a third person or rent the spare room on airbnb and seemed ok with it. So the only thing here that we havent talked about is renting that room on airbnb if I'm away and he is not. Which by the sounds of it from your responses isn't a very good idea! And yeah it makes sense, if I was him I wouldn't want that either. 

So as you say, maybe it's either I just rent the spare room airbnb when I'm here so I can deal with everything and the people and my housemate feels more comfortable with me around, not just him and a stranger. Or we get a third person, but we have not found anyone suitable yet! We've been friends for over 20 years and we are extremely comfortable and everything just works. So I'm hesitant to upset the dynamic!

Or maybe I just let go for the idea of making money from this mostly empty room, but it seems like a bit of a waste every time I walk past it

thanks again, given me lots to think about

saajan_12

Few things to consider: 
1) long term v short term - while the per night rate sounds great for AirBnb, there's a lot more work and less consistency, so taking costs and voids into account, the total for the month / year may be less.

Why not just consider a 2nd full time lodger - that way you + housemate can get comfortable with one person and then eventually less worries about questions / locking etc. 

2) Its not an all or nothing. If you're really keen on AirBnB, then you could discuss and then get one trial booking, while you're both there, to see how it goes. If both happy, then only invite more bookings while you're there, and eventually when one / both of you aren't there. 

Niv

Airbnb in this scenario is not simply giving someone a place to sleep for the night, you are letting a room in an occupied house - you will be obliged to host and if you are away you are obliging your friend to host. You are a slave to your ratings so if your friend doesn't want to be involved but is the only one there your ratings could seriously suffer which may put strain on your friendship if you feel its was in any way due to his attitude etc

Some visitors do want to chat / be told about places to visit in the area so will seek you / your friend out.

Some visitors can be vey picky with certain things and not even tell you, you only find out when you get a review and a poor rating.

People are very picky on cleanliness and often will reflect it in their ratings and not say anything to you at the time. A shared house is much harder to keep clean and tidy, especially shared areas such as the bathroom etc, is your friend prepared to clean and dry it after every time he uses it so its 'guest ready'?

If you are putting your friend through this I think you must share the income from him tbh, not just think about it. You want him to buy into this otherwise it will fail, too many bad ratings and 1, people are less likely to come and 2, you get suspended from the platform anyway.

On breakfast - no, you do not have to offer breakfast, in the settings you select if breakfast is included or not. If you do decide to offer breakfast you can define what sort of breakfast (i.e. you can offer 'continental' so not a cooked breakfast etc). In the middle of Bristol this is not such a big deal so maybe start by not offering and see how it goes.

delmonta

saajan_12 said:

Few things to consider: 
1) long term v short term - while the per night rate sounds great for AirBnb, there's a lot more work and less consistency, so taking costs and voids into account, the total for the month / year may be less.

Why not just consider a 2nd full time lodger - that way you + housemate can get comfortable with one person and then eventually less worries about questions / locking etc. 

2) Its not an all or nothing. If you're really keen on AirBnB, then you could discuss and then get one trial booking, while you're both there, to see how it goes. If both happy, then only invite more bookings while you're there, and eventually when one / both of you aren't there. 

Thanks yeah all good advice. A full time lodger would be good but is more of a commitment. With airbnb if its not working out we can always change it, so as you say a trial might be a good idea

I was thinking of it now as I have to be say for 6 weeks over various trips, and thought the extra cash would be incredibly helpful. But as everyone says, its not really ok to suddenly do that to my housemate, so we should do what you say first

thanks everyone, my housemate will be please I checked in here