I Rent a Room in my House on Airbnb, and These are the Questions Everyone Asks About It

Sam Cook
9 min readJan 2, 2019
A wide shot of the Airbnb room, ready for renting

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For the past couple of years, my wife and I have rented a room in our house on Airbnb year-round, and generally it’s been a great experience. With relatively little maintenance and hassle, we’ve turned a spare bedroom into an asset, and created a significant revenue stream for ourselves.

When our Airbnb room comes up in conversation, we get lots of questions about it. Even if people are familiar with Airbnb, they don’t know much about hosting, and even less about how hosting works when the rental space is part of the host’s own home.

Here are the questions I get most often, and the answers based on my experience. If you’re considering renting part of your home on Airbnb, these are probably the things you’re wondering about.

Do guests share any space with you?

No, our Airbnb guests don’t share any of our living space, and in fact they don’t even walk through it. Our rental room is essentially an in-law suite, and it has its own entrance so guests can go in and out without entering the main part of the house. We installed deadbolts on the two internal…

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Sam Cook

Former writer for Tested.com and Geek.com, currently a technology professional, teacher, and father. I write about whatever is on my mind.