A new breed of website is encouraging people to rent rooms, flats or houses by the night instead of staying in hotels.
Most people are already aware of holiday letting sites like Stayz* which have been around for some time. Stayz is designed to rent out whole units or houses for holiday rentals.
However, a new sites such as airbnb are designed to allow you to let out either your whole house/unit or just spare rooms on a nightly basis – so you could rent out a spare room for a night, the weekend or a week. We have heard good reports from people who have used the service both as guests and hosts. airbnb now covers you for damage from theft or vandalism up to $50,000 under their “Host guarantee”.
Australians living near tourist locations could have a great thing going here – hotels in Australia are expensive and often require a 2 or more night minimum stay – but you might be happy with half of what they charge.
Next Steps
Do you have a spare room that you could rent out – or one that could be tidied and rented? Do you often go away for the weekend? Investigate these sites.
Credit for the above photo – see this flat in North Bondi as an example
