Business

Myth Buster #1: Your Airbnb is just a hobby.

Nope. It's actually a business.

Sound Familiar?

Pesky Problem

You think your Airbnb is just a hobby.

When you first opened the doors to your Airbnb, curiosity was the main driver. “Will folks actually pay to stay in the mother-in-law suite over our garage? Will vacationers really book our family lake house over the local hotels?”

It turns out, yes, they will. And now here you are, many months (or wait…has it already been years?!) with a short term rental operation that’s bringing in a significant chunk of change. The problem is that you also still think of the whole affair as you did in the very beginning: a little hobby that, happily, brings in a bit of cash on the side.

Let's Try This

Bite-Size Solution

Treat your short term rental operation as the business it is.

Now, to be clear, running an Airbnb is usually a side hustle for hosts. The vast majority of the hosts we talk to on a day-to-day basis have careers on which they’re either primarily focused or from which they’ve retired. In either situation, hosting can look comparatively small. And in turn, it’s easy for hosts to mistakenly treat their short term rental like a hobby instead of a proper business.

To be clear, even when your Airbnb operation is a side hustle, even when it is small, it’s still a business. And if you don’t treat it as such, you can make things much harder on yourself than they actually need to be. Here are a few examples of where things can go awry when you buy into the myth that “My Airbnb is just a hobby!”

Taxes: If your Airbnb is just a hobby, all of the related income and expenses are going in and out of your personal accounts, which can make proper financial tracking infuriating or downright impossible. The most likely result is that you overpay when tax time rolls around. On the other hand, if your Airbnb is a business, everything flows through separate business accounts, tracking is simple, and your taxes are lowered by properly accounting for all of your business expenses.

Local Regulations: If your Airbnb is just a hobby, then the outside world doesn’t really feel like it matters all that much. Looking into the local short term rental regulations sounds like something big investors should do, but not you. This can lead to fines and, in the most extreme cases, your listing being removed from platforms like Airbnb due to failed compliance. But if your Airbnb is a business, you treat it like the asset it is and protect your cash flow by understanding and proactively complying with local regulations.

Systems: If your Airbnb is just a hobby, you never take the time to develop intentional systems to streamline or automate predictable pieces of your hosting routine. The result is consistent emergencies that crop up when you don’t have the time, patience, or resources to easily take care of them. Guests don’t have the right entry code. The cleaners weren’t scheduled on time. The plumbing is backed up but you’ve never contacted a local plumber. But if your Airbnb is a business, you analyze how to optimize your systems and make contingency plans for predictable problems that will inevitably pop up.

Marketing: If your Airbnb is just a hobby, you don’t invest in enhancing your Airbnb listing. You think, “Marketing? That’s just for professional investors!” You take your own photos with your phone, make your Airbnb listing when you launch, and then never look at it again. You keep improving your space because that’s what you see on a regular basis, but forget that for every single guest considering booking your place, their decision is based on your listing, not your space. But if your Airbnb is a business, then you recognize that your listing is the most powerful piece of marketing material you have to connect with new guests. And you treat it as the essential money-making element that it is, investing in professional photos and staying up-to-date on the latest Airbnb listing strategies.

5 Minutes

Here's Your First Step

Identify your biggest business blindspot and write it down.

So now it’s time to think. What is your biggest business blindspot? Here’s a quick way to help you identify it. Imagine you were explaining how you run your business to a friend (or an accountant, lawyer, or even to us, Erin & Jay 🙂 What part of your business would you be embarrassed to share? Behind the scenes, every single business has some little chaotic corner that folks would prefer to just as well keep hidden. It’s usually the stuff that you’ve been meaning to get to for years, but has never been enough of an emergency to actually address.

Here’s our task for you. Simply write down that blindspot on a sticky note and place it somewhere you know you’ll see it every day: your bathroom mirror, your computer monitor, your refrigerator door. Acknowledge it, think about how to solve it, and then at some point this month, block off just two hours on your calendar just to start the problem solving process. Action is the fastest way to demystify a nebulous task. Before you know it, you’ll have knocked out the blindspot and have taken a big step in professionalizing your short term rental business.

Local Airbnb Regulations: What if your Airbnb listing disappeared?

Your listing was removed from the Airbnb platform. Which means that your steady stream of new bookings evaporated overnight. Sound spooky? Unfortunately, this is the

Business

Are you tracking your Airbnb expenses?

Quick story time. Many years back, we checked into a simple Airbnb situated on the second floor of a house just a few minutes walk

save or share this post

keep reading

ready for the next one?

bye-bye blindspots

The Ultimate Airbnb Checklist Collection

The number one question we hear from hosts is “What am I forgetting to put in my Airbnb?” This collection is the definitive answer to that question. In our signature product, we go room-by-room, step-by-step until your Airbnb is perfectly appointed and ready to impress. Bye-bye blindspots and hello happy guests!

free checklist!

Even the best hosts can forget a thing or two

Luckily all 15 of these common mistakes are super easy to fix. Grab your copy of the checklist below and dive on in!

WELCOME TO

big heart hosting

we help hosts thrive

You’re an ambitious Airbnb host with a big heart. But on some days, hosting isn’t exactly what you had imagined. Maybe it’s overwhelming. Or isolating. Or just not making the kind of money you had envisioned. At Big Heart Hosting, we’re on a mission to help hosts like you thrive, not just get by. We create step-by-step resources that bring together the best hosting strategies from around the world. We’ll give you the knowledge and community you need to create the joyful, prosperous Airbnb you deserve.

Erin & Jay

EXPLORE BY

Triangulate Your Data: The Analytic Approach to Enhancing Your Airbnb

When social scientists want to test the validity of their information, they’ll triangulate their data. They’ll gather the same data utilizing different methods to see