Travel: Airbnb rooms, and what it's like owning one

Not too long ago I wrote a blog post about investing in the stock market. That's all well and good and it's definitely a way to put money to work, but I'm always looking for more streams of income. I've done some research and now I want to talk about another thing I got into: Real Estate. Or more specifically, an Airbnb.

Renting out rooms on Airbnb is something that a lot of people like me and you are looking forward to doing. Unlike Uber in the sharing economy, hosting an Airbnb is a lot more passive. So yes, as you may have guessed, it's sweet passive income. It especially doesn't sound like a bad idea here in the Philippines. We always have tourists coming into the country who need a place to sleep in. Since they're travelers, they're normally affluent enough to freely spend their money on things like accommodations.

With this in mind, I'm helping my dad out with our Airbnb venture. We're renting out our spare condominium in the East of Galleria Building at Ortigas, Pasig. It takes some considerable work to get the place into shape. Below are some things I learned during the process:

1. Invest in your Airbnb room; Make it Presentable

You can't just clean up your room and then sign up for Airbnb. A good first step is to declutter and exterminate any and all pests (which is what we did despite how difficult it is), but afterwards you have to go the extra mile once you're done with that.

You need to put some money into your Airbnb. Investing in an Airbnb is much more short-term compared to truly investing in Real Estate like the 1% like Warren Buffet or Robert Kiyosaki does. Investing in an Airbnb also implies that you aren't buying new property completely from scratch; most Airbnb hosts are renting out apartments and condominiums that their sons and daughters used to live in before moving out.

The room is still a work-in-progress, but we've come so far at this point.

When I say you need to invest in your Airbnb, what I mean is you need to spend money to have your room renovated, and refurnished with brand new appealing furniture.

2. Cover the basics and necessities.

We bought numerous items to make our Airbnb look good, but while it's fashionable, we needed to make sure that it's also functional. A lot of shopping for electrical appliances went into the creation of our Airbnb room. We wanted the tenants to be able to make coffee, so we bought a coffee maker. We wanted them to also have tap water they can drink, so we installed a water purifier underneath the kitchen sink.

We also bought electric stoves for cooking, and a comfortable bed for sleeping in. Below is a short list of the items we bought that I can name from the top of my head.

My sister helping me and my dad build the new bed

• A new carpet
• A new coffee maker
• Kitchenware (e.g. knives, forks, etc.)
• Ornamental vases
• Statuettes
• A new bed
• Water purifier

2. Ask yourself "Do I want to live here?"

Even though your tenants will only be staying at your place for at least a couple of nights and a week at most, you should endeavor to create an environment that you yourself would live in.

I like to pretend that we're setting up a new place that we'll be staying in. If ever we have no tenants sleeping in the place for a night, we can actually stay there just fine since it's our own property.

If worse comes to worst, like say, your original residence catches fire, at least you won't lose everything; you still have another place that you can use, and it'll be nice and cozy.

3. You're starting a business, no matter what anybody else says and you ought to be proud.

Some purists don't think you're truly starting a business when you sign up to rent your property via Airbnb, similar to criticisms that people buying franchises aren't true businessmen because they aren't starting from scratch. I humbly disagree with that. At the very basis of it, a businessman/entrepreneur is someone who is willing to put time and money into something, with the belief that it will generate money for them in the future. Airbnb renters -- and franchisees -- fit well into that description. We are merely leveraging on the services available to us.

Our walls have been renovated. You can see the new carpet on the couch.

That's all I can say about setting up an Airbnb room for now. Within the year we'll be having our first tenant, hopefully. We're targeting to have the room rented out during the first half of the year, at best.

What are your experiences about owning property? Comment below and share your knowledge to us millennials and Gen-Z kids that don't know what it's like :)