Hacker News Reader

I booked a room on AirBnB when I visited Los Angleles. I spoke with the owner of the room and he said he made $4000 in 3 months off of his 2 rooms. AirBnB is on to something.

View on HN

I wouldn't say the calling to the site is based on monetary gain. By comparison, he'd make that same amount if he rented each of those rooms for $670/month (a pretty cheap price for California) - and it'd require a lot less work. I think the bigger call to it is that you can meet new people in an interesting context. It's a fun thing to do, in my opinion.

Having a boarder is VERY different than having people drop in for a night here and there.

He could rent a room for $700 a month or $90/night. The latter works out better assuming he can rent it for 8 nights per month AND allows him to keep in available for friends/family who are coming into town, etc. I think the "fun" aspect of it is definitely part of it for some folks, but I'd wager it's less than you think.

But he couldn't find anyone to rent the rooms. AirBnB fixes that inefficiency and fixed that problem for him.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com