Rent a room

Helenpet64

An extremely good way to boost income is to let out your spare room. If you are an owner /occupier you can let out a room for up to £7500 per annum TAX FREE. If a tenant, then do check your tenancy agreement as most prohibit sub-letting on all accounts. 

We have a 3 bed house so letting out one bedroom seemed a no brainier…..just be very thorough on checking out potential tenants (ask for 6 months bank statements, get a reference from their employer and also an independent reference from a previous landlord, as well as a credit check).  You do not have to create an AST as a lodger’s agreement will cover the legalities, and you can serve a shorter notice period to evict them if it all goes wrong. 

No need to protect their deposit either. We have successfully done this for a couple of years and the extra income has made a real difference and our tenant has become a great friend.

dutchcloggie

If you don't like AirBnB, you can also try Theatre Digs. That is a site aimed at theatre and music professionals who need a room for a few days whilst on tour. The ethos is that you don't charge commercial process because the artists do not get a lot of money for the accommodation whilst on tour. It is still a nice little extra income. I have met some really fun people. Stage managers, singers, actors, musicians. They were working on shows as broad as Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell, Christmas pantos, the musical Six and so on. You don't risk party people wrecking your house and in general the guests keep to themselves because they work in the evening and spend most of the day either resting or rehearsing at the venue.  THey tend to be less demanding than AirBnB guests because it is less a commercial transaction and more of a "offering a bed in exchange for some money". 
I have met some lovely people.