Letting out a room on Airbnb?

[Workingmum34]

Our two children have left home and we now have a large 4 bedroom house we are rattling around in. Has anyone let out a room on Airbnb? We have one downstairs bedroom with access to a toilet and sink on the lower floor and a spare lounge that I was thinking about putting on Airbnb? Anyone any experience of either staying in a shared room in a house or renting a room out?

Is there a door you can lock between the spaces? A relative of mine has a 3 storey house, the ground floor is the main entrance, bottom of the stairs and used to have a large bedroom and a bathroom, it now has a standard double room, kitchenette and bathroom, she put a door on which can be locked from her side, and the downstairs bit can be directly accessed from the back/side door so she lets that weekdays usually to academics/researchers as she lives near a big university, but it's entirely separate from her own living space, her living room kitchen/diner and home office are on the middle floor and she has 2 bedrooms on the top floor. So whilst technically it's all one house she's not sharing facilities with strangers.

No. They would need to share spaces. Kitchen and probably the bathroom. We have done theatre lets a couple of times and it was fine. During the week we leave for work at 6:30 and don’t get back till 7.

Thought that was the whole point of air bnb. Staying with a local family.

It can work if you link into a business type need. 30 Years ago my parents rented out my siblings bedrooms when they left home to young professionals in their first job linked to where my dad worked. It was meant to just be one room but two different ladies turned up so they let both spare rooms as they were big spaces. Cleared their mortgage early so dad could retire. It it did help they lived in London where property was really hard to rent for 20 somethings looking for a safe clean place to rent. My mum just let them have shelf in the fridge & cupboard in kitchen & agreed a time slot they could have the kitchen somehow it worked for two years.

I know someone who did it. They had a spare room and bathroom on their top floor which they let out. They didn't let the guests use their kitchen or any other rooms and made that clear in the listing. They were in a city centre location so there was no shortage of places to eat out.

You need to be aware that the fire regs apply to home shares. You need hard wired interlinked fire alarms in every room of your house, not just the rooms guests go in

As you have a toilet already could you reconfigure and add a shower? Put a little kitchenette ( just kettle and toaster/air fryer or microwave )in the lounge and then you don't have to share your spaces at all. You can also charge a higher price for that.

I've never done this myself no.

Other than Air BNB there are also lodger sites IF you wanted someone staying longer term. https://www.spareroom.co.uk/lodgers

Our friends parents used to rent out rooms to uni/exchange students. The did it for years and loved it. I'm unsure which company they used but there is one I found https://www.ef.co.uk/host-family/

With AirBNB, there is lots of info for hosts online. You can also set a minimum stay length and only open the booking to certain weekends/days of your choosing.

Well that's how it started out, but Airbnb is now just an advertising platform for anyone who lets out holiday accommodation. There are still filters there to find rooms available in someone's home, but I think the majority of renters now want places where you are not sharing. Anything advertised on Airbnb is also likely to be on other sites such as bookingdotcom, and many owners will have their own website so that you can book direct.

We went to see an ancient graveyard for a paper our daughter did at school.
Only one Airbnb.
No hotels.

We had a room and shared bath/kitchen with our kind host.
It wasn't an issue.
It has been one of our top experiences in Airbnb.