Freaking excited for this trip and how it is super duper cheap.

[greenmimama]

My mom agreed to watch our boys so I could join my DH on a business trip.

So we needed to buy a ticket for me, used my points on my Chase Sapphire card, his hotel and rental car and all of his meals are covered by his work.

Only a couple of meals we will have to pay for.

While we are gone, I put our house up on AirBnB and just rented it and our portion will be $417

So we will come out ahead on this trip, even including everything like airport parking and the extra gas to get my kids to my moms.

Yay for  great sites like AirBnB, it was so much easier than I imagined, I would say even easier than selling something on ebay :)

Now to just get the house in order for guests, lots of little things that need to happen. But I have 11 days

[couponvan]

Congratulations - please post an update on the Air BnB after you've actually rented.  I'm curious how that might work - we have a lake house we've never rented, but I could see doing after we finish the basement.

[gluskap]

I'm interested in how renting your place on AirBnB goes.  It sounds like a great idea only I'd be worried that someone might trash your place or steal something?

[AllieVaulter]

I'm also super interested to find out how the AirBnB rental goes.  My husband and I are going out of the country in May and I'm considering renting our house.  But it makes me nervous.  Do you empty out your house?  Change your locks afterwards? 

[Singularity]

I'm also super interested to find out how the AirBnB rental goes.  My husband and I are going out of the country in May and I'm considering renting our house.  But it makes me nervous.  Do you empty out your house?  Change your locks afterwards?

Also concerned about that.  Do you lockup or remove all of your financial paperwork to prevent identity theft?  Electronics, Jewelery ect sounds like targets for the renter. 

[greenmimama]

We will have important items in a safe, and put a lock on our storage door downstairs, and then we can put anything we need to in that room, no we won't be changing the locks on the doors, we are  assuming the best in people. Maybe that is completely naive....

My cousin has been using AirBnB for a year now and they have hosted a room in their house while they are there and they have rented that room at least a 50 times and they haven't had 1 bad experience, not that it couldn't happen, but they have been really happy with it so far.

I am excited about the prospect, I hope to rent it at least one more time in March.

I have already had people wanting to book it for June, but I am not scheduling out that far. In our area we don't have any close hotels and we are only maybe 1 of 3 in our town to be listed on AirBnb.

I will let you know how it goes, there is a bit of prep on my end, I am cleaning and decluttering, but that needed to happen anyways, holidays got the best of us :)

[be]

Congrats and have a great time. 

As someone recently pointed out to me, nothing like house guests to motivate you to clean.  (I just had a guest and had to clean.  But I'm still enjoying the nicer and cleaner.)

You'll have to tell us about your trip when you come back.  Or you can just PM me if you prefer.  I'm excited for your trip, and I don't even know where you're going.  Hopefully you're staying someplace where you can take public transportation to where you want to go and don't have to rely on your husband and his car.  But as I said to friend who was like you and joining someone on a trip, you have your hotel key and all you need to remember is when to leave for the airport and make sure you're back and ready to go. 

Have fun!

[OutBy40]

Well done.  Low cost travel really does kick a lot of ass, and reducing that house payment while away is even better.  :)

[Bob W]

I don't think I could sleep at night knowing some stranger had the run of my house.

Although,  I have considered renting out the nicely finished basement during tourist season around here.  I would want to put a locking door up.

So I'm wondering how this might work.

Anyway interested in putting up a post on "Tell Us Your Experience Renting Your Place Through AirBnB?"

Might be very informative ---

[greenmimama]

I don't think I could sleep at night knowing some stranger had the run of my house.

Although,  I have considered renting out the nicely finished basement during tourist season around here.  I would want to put a locking door up.

So I'm wondering how this might work.

Anyway interested in putting up a post on "Tell Us Your Experience Renting Your Place Through AirBnB?"

Might be very informative ---

that would be a great thread, once we have an experience renting it, I will have something to add.

[greenmimama]

Well we had our guests rent our place this last weekend while we were gone to New Orleans.

We never met them they let themselves in and out with our keypad. The house was left cleaner than I thought it would be and they left some food on our fridge, so it was a good experience and we have $412 more in our bank account.

[AllieVaulter]

Sounds like a success!  That's great news.  Congratulations!