The rewards of airbnb hosting

Mark Bitara and sons Matthew and Andrew manage airbnb units in Huntsville, Texas

Experienced airbnb hosts swear by the financial and psychic perks derived from running an airbnb business.

Alina Calleja of Pasig City, who rents out a condominium unit on Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City, thinks it is a great way of earning extra income while engaged in her main job as freelance video and TV producer/director/script-writer/voice artist..

Calleja volunteers that airbnb.com has a sponsored series of stories where experienced hosts give testimonials to the rewards of airbnb hosting.. One guy shared that hosting helped him and his wife fulfill their home-ownership aspiration. One third of the mortgage on the home they recently purchased comes from airbnb earnings.

As for Calleja herself, she sees in the airbnb business a spiral — a “virtuous cycle!” I share my space with visitors, for extra income, which enables me to indulge my travel itch.” Indeed in the year or so she has been hosting, she has traveled more times that she had ever before. “I get to visit more new places, where I get to stay in units hosted by people who, I presume, in turn are able to enjoy what they love doing from hosting revenues.

She has a hipster and travel-themed unit that provides unli coffee, and therefore attracts fellow-millennials. She loves it that she gets to meet new and interesting people, including foreigners, who stay for a couple of days or so. “It is perfect for an outgoing person like me. ”

What is exciting, she adds is that one never knows who’s coming next — a potential life-time friend, an impersonal stranger, or a “guest from hell.”

Mark Bitara, a Fil-Am who hosts several airbnb units in  Huntsville, Texas agree to the good potential income that can be derived from hosting. “Not just side income, he says. “Rather, income can be big enough to provide a living for some.”

Renzie Baluyut’s Nana’s Farm , Amadeo, Cavite

Fellowship with guests is, for Mark, the No. 1 reward from hosting. ‘You get to meet all kinds and most are good people, who appreciate the efforts you take to make their stay as pleasant as possible.

Mark gets help in managing the business from grown-up sons Matthew and Andrew.

The Bitaras love to delight their guests with unexpected treats of flowers, wine, beer, or even cinema tickets.

Once in a while, they’d serve them traditional Pinoy breakfasts of longsilog and tapsilog.

Renzie Baluyut waxes enthusiastic as he talks about his five-year hosting experience.

There is nothing as fulfilling as being able to earn from something one loves doing.

He and his wife began hosting at their residential units in Bonifacio Global City. The couple left Manila a few years ago to retire to their newly-built guesthouse in a private one-acre farm located in Amadeo, just outside Tagaytay City, which has come to be known as Nana’s Farm.

The couple has put up several small business ventures in Amadeo, and the one they love most is entertaining weekend visitors in Nana’s Farm.

They love sharing with guests the simple joys of “buhay probinsya .”

The couple has hosted several hundred visitors in the farmhouse.

“It has been a mostly positive experience for us. It is a fairly steady income. We get good reviews from guests. And we have a good number of return visitors,” says Renzie..

There is always a downside to everything. And in airbnb hosting, it is letting into your space strangers who may not have the same respect for your place as they do their own.

– to be continued