what's up YouTube it's Charles so Richards been on me a while about making
a video around shared room listings I've listed my space here in Manhattan as a
shared room listing for the last eight months we've had about 25 guests and
I've learned a few things along the way so today we're gonna talk about the pros
and the cons of a shared room listing on Airbnb, but first let's talk about what a
shared room listing is Airbnb labels shared room listings as guests share the
entire space with you or others and don't have a private room for themselves
now this doesn't mean they have to share the bedroom with you although that's
possible too but what it does mean is they share the bathroom the kitchen any
community areas and they don't have their own private room to themselves
with four walls on a door so what that means that my listing is guest sleep
here in the living room we have a sleeper sofa that pulls out and they
sleep in here and then our bedroom is located in the back behind the camera
alright so let's talk about the pros in my opinion with shared room listings you
attract really good guess so they're not gonna be big partiers or throw any big
events at your place because they know that you're gonna be here in fact most
the time they're couples that between 22 and 35 years old they're experienced
travelers a lot of times coming from overseas they use Airbnb a ton they know
what to expect and in fact they they seeked out a shared room listing it's
not just because it's the only thing they can afford but in fact they look
for that they want that local experience they want to stay with the host which
means a lot of times they're very welcoming and happy people and overall
just great guests I love hosting them so the second Pro is they're gonna spend
very little time in your place overall they might literally just sleek shower
and get out in fact I've had guests stay or five
nights and I've never met them face to face because they come in so late while
I'm already asleep and then they leave before I wake up so that's good because
less time spend your place typically correlates with less damage that can be
done or things I could break or what-have-you and then a main thing that
holds people back is just the idea of sharing their space often with other
people and when people just come in sleep and leave in the morning it almost
feels like you're not sharing it because most the time that you're here they're
not so the third pro for me is you get to meet people from all over the world
and about them on a weekly basis you get to
share your space with travelers coming from all walks of life all over the
world and that's just a really cool thing from a hosting perspective I think
it's a positive to be there in person because if anything goes wrong you get
the chance to explain the situation to your guests one-on-one which i think is
always gonna be better than text and overall I just think you have a better
chance of spending that negative into a positive by knowing your guests
one-on-one so the last Pro is this is just the cheapest way to get started on
the Airbnb out of all three options you're gonna spend the least amount of
money investing in your place for a shared room you might buy a sleeper sofa
like I did or maybe you'll get another bed but I spent less than a thousand
dollars fixing this apartment up and I told myself look if no one wants to come
and stay with me my friends will have a nicer place to sleep when they come and
visit and I'll have a nicer apartment but obviously people are gonna come stay
I paid off my investment in like three to four weeks and it's just a great way
to get your feet wet in Airbnb so for every pro there's a con and let's just
get right into it the first one is you're gonna lose some kind of
functionality in your home you know whether you have a big space or a small
space like me you're just gonna lose part of that space that you might take
for granted otherwise so I give away you know the living room the kitchen behind
me that table a lot of that goes to guests while they're here we like to go
Matano privacy and it's something you should think about when doing a shared
room is are you willing to give up part of your home to get started on Airbnb
the second con is just scalability with doing this you can't host every day of
the month I mean you might be able to but it's just not gonna be fun for you
you're not gonna enjoy you don't want to give up you don't want to take on
roommates you know after a while there's a line in the sand where you just you
have to have your own home for yourself at least a week a week and a half out of
the month if you try to do it every day and we've done it you'll become fatigued
this will become less enjoyable and you're just not gonna have as good a
time so it's definitely a con and something to think about it's just the
scalability and how much you can do this the third con is you're just not going
to make as much money as someone with a private room and definitely not as much
as someone with an entire home if you do it correctly you might be able to charge
a little more than someone with a private room in your neighborhood but on
average you're gonna make less than the other options and that's just something
you have to think about and you'll make less of an investment upfront you'll
make less money on a nightly basis it's just kind of the way it is so that's the
third con the last time I'll give you guys is you
gonna have to build your schedule around your guests from time to time if they
need to use the bathroom at 7 a.m. and that's typically when you use the
bathroom you're gonna have to go earlier or later and it doesn't happen too often
but from time to time you're gonna have to switch your daily routine up just to
accommodate your guests so the question is should you do a shared room listing
on Airbnb I think there's a few things one are you just getting started on
Airbnb if so yes I recommend this this is a great way to get started learn how
to host meet people from all over the world if you've been doing Airbnb for a
while do I think you should do a showroom listing probably not but if
you're just getting started yeah - are you looking to make as little bit
investment as possible if so then yes do this it's not gonna cost you too much
money to get started and then you can start saving capital to grow your
business if that's your goal or whatever your goal is financially but this is a
great way to get started with as little of investment as possible 3 and I gotta
say this you have to be open-minded you have to be accepting realize you're
gonna have people from all over the world coming and staying with you in
your own home while you sleep there at night you have to be an open-minded
individual so if you meet all those things and yes I definitely think you
should get started with the share room listing on Airbnb if you have any
questions feel free to leave them in the comments section below I'll answer them
if you want to DM me on Instagram I put my handle right here but I'll leave you
guys with something Brian Chesky the CEO of Airbnb said back in 2014 when he was
asked about Airbnb submission for long people thought about Airbnb as renting
houses but really we're about a home you see a house is just a space but a home
is where you belong I think shared room listings embody that more than any other
type of listing so thanks guys for sticking around for my video I'll be
coming back to you on Monday I'm reviewing a service that I use in
Manhattan that I'm pretty excited about I think Richard comes back Tuesday from
his 55 day vacation and then we're gonna be filming a ton of stuff so be on the
lookout for that subscribe to this channel if you're not already so you
guys