I think us older women actually have far less issues hosting than younger ones. (I’ve really had none). We have more life experience dealing with all sorts of people of all ages, we tend to be straightforward in communication with guests, have self-confidence, don’t worry too much about what others think of us, and unless we are as well-preserved as Helen Mirren or Nicole Kidman, we don’t get the situation that a lot of younger women who are home share hosts get, where male guests sometimes make unwanted sexual advances or innuendo.
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Before we started hosting, we talked by phone for an hour or more with a woman who hosts alone in the country outside a big city. She started with one bedroom. Since then, she’s expanded to Airbnb all five bedrooms in her house (individually). She happily sleeps in her finished basement if all the bedrooms are rented. She had nothing but great experiences to tell us about.
After we started hosting, we later stayed with her, twice.
She was an inspiration to us and gave us a sense of security and fun. And that’s what Airbnb has been for us.
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Well, they did compensate you for participating in their focus group.
I’m an accountant, so that certainly colors my thinking, which goes like this:
3 days of expert work, at $75 per hour or more, was worth $1,800 plus. As an employee, your business would pay for lodging and meals. As a contractor looking at a professional gig, gross up an employee hourly rate by 35 - 50% to cover self-employment taxes and forgone employee benefits.
I also think, historically and work-culture speaking, women are more expected (and habitutated or indoctrinated or whatever you want to call it) to volunteer their time, or provide labor at lower rates, particularly for “caring,” people-oriented or otherwise “feminine” professions.
But these ambassador gigs also appeal to our egos, so it’s an equal-opportunity snare!
Should we have a better-moderated and regulated capitalist system that does not penalize those who volunteer or discount their time and expertise to help others and build relationships? Of course, but I don’t see that happening in the U.S. anytime soon.
My thinking has always been colored by being a public school teacher. I think at the end of my career, with 20+ years and a Master’s degree, about $280 a day. I also had PTO and a pension. If I did some sort of extra hourly work like after school tutoring or Saturday school, it was $28 an hour. If I did something like coach an academic team, the stipend was laughable. Then there’s all the extra hours we were expected to put in. Those were heavy on extrinsic rewards.
But short story long, I’ve always thought $30 an hour was fantastic pay. That’s why I’m one of the people here happy to answer questions for a $25 gift card. I understand there are a lot of folks whose time is more valuable than mine though.
From your lips to God’s ears.
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Maybe in a perfect world, we sure should be paying teachers, nurses, childcare workers, and home health aides as much if not more than hedge fund managers.
I’m not anti-capitalist. I think capitalism (real, competitive capitalism, not some oligarchical system I could name) is a robust innovation, efficiency and wealth-generator. Well, maybe not the advertising budget for 100 different kinds of coffee, but that’s not my main point.
The preferable system to me is capitalistic socialism, a government organized to fund and ensure decent housing, nutrition, healthcare, education and living wage for its citizens as a baseline social safety net, and let capitalism roar on top of that and to sustain it.
Apparently I’m living in the wrong country. Oh well.
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Essentially how things work in Canada. The trade-off for that is higher taxes, something Americans chafe against.
OK, with my capitalist hat on, there’s an opportunity here.
Become a host ambassador, find a bunch of people willing to sign on as hosts temporarily, and kick back part of your reward to them. They could book at each other’s places to meet the first booking requirement for payout, at no net cost. There doesn’t seem to be any length of calendar time hosting required, so then they snooze or shut down. You just have to run the numbers to make sure you can cover the Airbnb fees for the initial bookings, give some extra to your hosts for their work, and keep enough remainder.
I read the terms of the program on Airbnb. There are a number of provisions to ensure that host ambassadors are considered contractors and not Airbnb employees with associated benefits. One of them is that the host ambassadors can hire other people to do their work. I am not making this up!
Airbnb will be thrilled at the number of hosts you’re bringing on board. They may not even care if they’re just on paper, because a few of them will likely actually become real hosts. And they’ll get fee income from the required initial bookings.
OK, so now we can expand to a multi-level-marketing pyramid scheme. Recruit a bunch of people to be your “downline” sub-ambassadors for a cut of the reward money for the hosts they recruit. They just sign up their friends and family to set up listings. Now you’re splitting the take between you, your sub-ambassadors, and the new hosts. But you can grow your volume and really make out by getting in at the beginning. Of course your sub-ambassadors will start their own downlines and eventually the market will be saturated.
My kids say I’d make a great con artist if only I didn’t have principles.
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AirBnB as mid level marketing explained!
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Too. Many. Words.
I’m playing in the Ambassador sandbox. After I’ve worked it a bit, I’ll update with what it is actually like instead of what some think it is.
If I don’t enjoy it, I’ll quit. It is volunteer work…but in the meantime I may learn something too.
I’ll bring my “won’t touch this” 10 ft pole. 
I’m just amused. My area condos & houses are being grabbed by everyone wanting to make a fortune renting out their vacation home. My tiny condos are certainly not fortune earners.
I’m not worried about market saturation, demand for rentals is increasing so more incentive for supply.
I don’t know-know them. I know them from looking at their listings and reading their reviews and, most importantly, reading their responses to their reviews 
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I received one too but ignored it.
Today I was offered the lifechanging (not!) sum of €61 to refer a new host, and the new host would receive the princely sum of €9.
How things change; only a short time ago they were dangling €700/800 in front of me to bring in fresh cannon fodder!
JF