What: A widely used site allowing you to list your space for rent
Commissions & Fees: 3%
Expected pay: NA
Where: National
Requirements: A furnished rental home or a room in your home; a bank or PayPal account where they can deposit your rental receipts.
Review:
PROS:
- AirBnB is a leader in providing peer-to-peer vacation listings.
- Great website containing thousands of rentals all over the world
- Modest 3% fee charged to hosts.
- Guests are also charged a fee, which ranges from 0 to 20%, depending on both the host’s cancellation policy (the stricter you are, the more they charge) and the cost of the rental (the higher the cost, the lower the percentage fee).
- The site also offers a $1 million liability and property damage policy
CONS:
- Sharing your house with strangers
- People can damage your belongings
- The site’s customer service isn’t very good
- “Instant Book” eliminates the ability to screen tenants (AirBnB recently changed its policy to favor people who agree to “Instant Book.”)
- If you decline “instant book,” (according to the editors at the senior-centric site NextAvenue) your listing will fall to the back
