5 Reasons why we opened up our home in Dublin to strangers from Airbnb and why you should too!

June 2021, an inspiring stay with Olive and Billy, our first airbnb hosts in Killarney, Ireland, changed our mind forever about staying in private rooms of other people's homes! Our 3 days in Billy and Olive's mansion, which they regularly shared with strangers like us, were laced with beautiful stories from Olive's youth over morning coffee,

how she used to work in a bank in Dublin. Olive's mom ran a B&B while Billy was a hotshot in her town, to hear how they ended up getting married was enticing. Now Olive was AIRBNBing her empt

y rooms to contribute to her grand daughter's college fund. On our final day, since we had mentioned it was our anniversary weekend, Billy saw us off with a gift of chocolates for our anniversary.

This was my fifth month as an Indian-born expat in Ireland, and all my worries of white people from Europe being racist vanished, thanks to these strangers who let me into their home through an app! The app was Airbnb and it helped me fall in love with this country I now call home.

March 2022, Almost nine months after buying our apartment in Dublin, nobody from our family and friends had traveled to Dublin to take up the offer for a free stay in our guest room. We thought our home was wonderfully located to visit Dublin with comfortable amenities but nobody we knew wanted to visit just yet! At the same time, we kept reading news of growing hotel and rental prices during the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland. So finally, one day, as we reminisced about Olive and Billy, we decided to get over our awkwardness and opened the doors of our home to strangers from the Airbnb app! We hoped to find guests who wanted to spend a brief moment of rest in our haven, while exploring Dublin! Our other option was to rent permanently to students but that kind of irreversible commitment was definitely not an option for us, given we love to host parties at home and wanted to have the flexibility to get out of it if we didn't think sharing our home was for us. That day, two blowins took a plunge as first time airbnb hosts, and came out as Irish locals on the other side!

Are a homeowner with an extra room that you're not using? If so, you could be missing out on a life-changing experience while making some extra money by renting it out on Airbnb.

If you still need convincing, we have been an Airbnb superhosts for over one year now and here are four more reasons beyond earning extra cash, you should consider renting out your extra room on Airbnb:

• Risk-free entrepreneurship experience: Airbnb is a great way to make some extra money on the side while getting the experience of running a business. If like me, you have dreamt of starting a business or a side hustle but never got the courage to quit your job, here's your chance! You get to dabble in pricing, marketing, P&L management- you name it, with an asset that you are not doing anything with, anyway! You can set your own rates and choose when you want to rent out your room so you get to run it on your own terms.

• Meet new people, gain new perspectives - One of the best things about renting out your room on Airbnb is that you get to meet new people from all over the world. You can learn about their cultures and experiences, and they can learn about yours. We have had the most interesting chats about food, wine, yoga and spirituality in the comfort of our living room with guests who were PAYING to be there! Can you imagine? Isn't that why we travel? To gain new perspectives of the world.

• Help the environment and the local economy - Airbnb is a more sustainable form of travel than staying in a hotel. When you rent out a room in your primary residence on Airbnb, you are helping to reduce the number of unsustainable empty hotel rooms and properties being built for short-term-let-only that are being built. By offering an extra bed for a tourist, you help local businesses around you, who would spend their money in your city! In many cases, they won't have take the trip at all, even if the tickets were cheap because of lack of affordable stays!

• Get tax breaks - This can be a great way to save money on your taxes. In some countries, you can get tax breaks for renting out your room on Airbnb. In Ireland, where I live, this is excluded from 'rent a room' relief but we can claim expenses that we incurred on running this business (from buying shampoo for guests to buying bed linen, partial mortgage interest, management fee, waste disposal, the list goes on) against our income. So it is still pretty great!

So if you have an extra room that you're not using, consider renting it out on Airbnb. It's a great way to make some extra money, meet new people, explore your city, and help the environment.

Did you know that on Airbnb, you can get help of a superhost like me as you set up your listing? In collaboration with Airbnb, Superhost ambassadors like us, can help you with any questions, concerns, best practices, tips around hosting.

Love, Nalini and Sherry

Please don't hesitate to get in touch by using the Local Homey chat window if you want to learn more about our experience hosting a private room on airbnb in Ireland

Below is our airbnb host profile and this is our listing. We hope to have you stay with us someday :)