Peer-to-Peer Renting: Reshaping Modern Day Living
Going on vacation takes some amount of preparation—both at home and in planning your stay and travel options. Regardless of your destination and how long you’ll be away, the one thing to remember is that the rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) rentals is completely reshaping the rental market. What exactly is peer-to-peer renting? It’s a notion, based on an increasing popular economic model called a ‘sharing economy’ or ‘collaborative consumption’. This is the same economic principle behind Uber.
Essentially, people are looking for better options than ones provided by standard hotels and rental agencies. Instead, many homeowners are temporarily making their homes available—both at lower costs and better physical locations. (The average hotel room cost per night is $137; whereas the average Airbnb cost per night is $80.)
In a nutshell, renters can save money while homeowners make money. The most popular P2P travel marketplaces include: Airbnb, HomeAway, FlipKey, One Fine Stay, Rent Like a Champion and other similar websites.
What P2P Renting Means for Homeowners
For the everyday homeowner, peer-to-peer renting provides the opportunity to make extra income. Numerous people choose to supplement their travel expenses by temporarily renting out their homes while they are away on vacation. The idea is, why leave your home vacant when you can rent it out for a few days, weeks or months?
Airbnb is the world’s third most valuable privately held startup—and the most popular P2P travel marketplaces. Airbnb hosts make an average of $7,350 each year from temporarily renting out their homes. Using HomeAway, 54 percent of homeowners are able to pay off at least three-fourths of their mortgages. One thing to keep in mind: location plays a large factor. The more popular the city, the more homeowners can make with P2P renting.
If safety is a concern, which naturally it is, remote home monitoring is a great solution for those interested in using Airbnb or any of the other similar travel marketplaces. ADT Pulse, for example, allows homeowners to remotely monitor their homes from anywhere. Now you can see where life takes you…without all the worry.