Jeez, my ex and I split up in 2007 but he promised to continue to help pay the mortgage because he still had one minor son leaving here. That lasted one month because sure enough he needed to pay rent for a new place with the new squeeze and her kids. In the end, I got the house, which was and still is, underwater. He got mad at our kids for a no reason at all and hasn’t spoken to either of them since 2012. My boys watched me stand and fight for our house and never give up and did what it took to save our house. My son calls his dad the “non-father.” Perfect. Sometimes getting rid of these bad apples is a blessing. It will all be okay and you will come out ahead in the end.
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It’s not exactly for nothing 
But there are no huge profits. You see, you are renting rooms in your house - and you’d be paying for things like insurance, mortgage, utilities and so on even if you were living alone.
Like @Sarah_Warren we rent a separate place. When we have long term renters, the rent they pay doesn’t fully cover all the bills. STRs do. There is a profit but it’s not enough to get exciting about but the rental is more than paying for itself which is the goal.
It’s just not possible to leave the place empty and not have it earning its living
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That all makes so much sense. There are so many differences between renting in-house and renting a separate property. I forget sometimes, sorry! There are still significant costs renting in-house, though. Utilities are almost double with so much laundry, heating, showers etc. and electricity and gas is very expensive where I live. Plus there’s tax, wear and tear, breakfast items, not to even mention the 20 hours per week on average I work at this (cleaning, laundry, maintenance, managing the listings, answering questions, dealing with guests). Adding all this together and paying myself the minimum wage, I’m now wondering what kind of profit I’m actually making! No, it’s still a profit although not nearly as much as people imagine.
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I wish new hosts realised this @Magwitch. So many people are leaping onto the bandwagon thinking that it’s ‘easy money’ but as you say, it isn’t at all. We work hard for our money 
I tend to spend about thirty hours a week on average on our listing (a full, separate apartment) but sometimes even longer. That can be what some people consider a full time job!
Plus of course, these new listings are promoting themselves at bargain prices and those of us who know exactly what our costs are can’t afford to lower our prices to compete.
An afterthought. I’m probably wrong but I wonder if hosts who are making a profit really are? I wonder if they are taking their time into account?
I’m thinking of two current topics here - the one about people recording their star ratings on spreadsheets and those who are providing breakfasts, especially those who are baking for their guests. I wouldn’t have the time for either of those because every hour I spend working on the apartment itself, tweaking the listing, updating the calendar, answering inquiries, arranging plumbers etc.,ordering supplies, laundry, dealing with the current guests etc. is time I could be earning at my ‘real’ job 
Of course, this isn’t applicable for all hosts. And I have to say, it IS fun!
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Baking definitely takes time. Keeping a spreadsheet to track the star ratings takes a bit of time to set up. Once it’s set up it takes virtually no time to enter the information from new reviews.
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I think the ‘paying yourself’ idea is a very grey area but yes, I’m sure many new hosts don’t take it into consideration. If you can’t fully dedicate that time yourself it will end up showing in your reviews and end in tears and possibly the end of bookings. So if you end up having to hire some help, your profit margin will decrease hugely. Back to the ‘paying yourself’ issue, though. I probably underestimate the amount of time when I say 20 hours a week. But where do you stop? Some guests demand more time than others and it’s not always enjoyable. But I’m definitely not going to count the hour I spent this evening with latest guests as work. They knocked on my door gently, apologised for disturbing me but they had a question about onward travel. We ended up chatting for an hour and they made me laugh so much with all their stories of what they’d done on their visit, I feel like I should pay them for being entertained!!
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I started in March 2015 with one purpose only: to pay for couple of airticket for my travellings. I thought thats my biggest expence, why not take care of it this way. I saw how my hosts were happy with what they were doing and thought that mustn’t be that hard. I hoped for 3K a year, that should be enough for those 2 transatlantic airtickets.
First week i made 1400$. That made me very curious:). And then my situation changed and i really needed income. BY the time all went back to normal, i got the taste of AIr, and now i love this business with whatever drawbacks it has.
For now, i save money in hope for the growing real estate bubble to burst again in a few months, and buy another house.
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I know that a lot of people are successful with self check-in and using laundry services but I don’t see how they make a good profit. Plus, I really prefer the personal touch. Somehow, when guests are dealing with a real person, it makes the experience better - otherwise it might as well be a hotel.
I too love talking to guests and hearing about their lives and their travels. I’m not really a ‘people person’ but I do enjoy our guests!
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Me too. It’s so much better than the hosting or long term rentals I’ve done in the past. Airbnb isn’t perfect but whatever its drawbacks are, it’s just fine by me
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I never calculated amount of hours i spend on Air, or my other business, because i love both and for me it doesnt seem like work. I did some pretty awful jobs in my life where i had very unpleasant people around me, and it was physical heavy labor. May be thats why now i feel like i am not even working:)
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My grandma had one thing to say about something she was not very fond of: good enough.
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I have to say that it seems like I had cooler travelers when I first started (mid-2014) and no private entrance. I guess I get more folks now that want to keep to themselves? One of my most memorable couples was an older man and a woman and the fellow mentioned that he was a musician. I have a guitar and so I said “play a few tunes,” and I opened a bottle of wine. He was very good. He turned my living room into a jazz wine bar.
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I know what you mean - it’s great fun. But the business part of me still keeps an account of time. Force of habit, probably.
Perfect
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I think there’s room for everyone on Airbnb, to be honest, and that’s its best selling point. You can find anything (if you’re prepared to actually read the listings ha ha!). When I travel now I look for a hands-off host and definitely not a shared bathroom! I don’t want a busman’s holiday, if you know what I mean (is that a British expression?). LOL! I’m not much of a people person either but I seem to have mastered the art of making people feel welcome and comfortable. Most of the time it works perfectly: I greet them warmly, chat, make sure they have everything they need and then I disappear. I’m here if they need me and sometimes we cross paths but basically they’re on their own. I tell them up-front that they won’t see me in the morning (I’m not a morning person and can’t be doing with guests first thing). They know where everything is and they can just get on with it. It’s worked for me so far. And I’m still relatively sane!
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I want guests like this!
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Sweet! (as in cool ) Guests like that are rare but they make up for all the crappy ones straightaway! I’ve had a comedy club, a clothes swap session but never a jazz club - that’s the best, by far!
I had a guy who is trying to make it in show biz in LA, including doing comedy clubs. Very personable but to me, not that talented. Of course luck or knowing someone is more important than talent. But if does make it big I’ll be able to say he stayed here
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Just had a group of musicians (5), we build great fires and had great music sessions late into the night.
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That sounds like me. This is a perfect job for an introverted yet social stay at home mom.
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Magwitch and Sarah, this is what I do too. They booked a private, separate place… So I am guessing they want privacy… And I figure any extra friendliness is kind of forced. Often they don’t have time anyway. They are on a mission to see as many sights in Hawaii as possible.
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