Here is a typical conversation we have with friends when they find out that we host our basement bedroom and bathroom to guests on Air B&B:
Curious Person: Wow, so you let strangers come into your home? What’s that like? Aren’t you worried for your safety?
SarahLynn: Actually, we aren’t worried that much. We get to choose who is allowed to stay in our home. We read the guest’s profiles and reviews before accepting their bookings. We’ve had over 120 guests, and every experience has been very positive. We also don’t accept any guests unless both of us will be home the evenings they want to stay with us.
Curious Person: So like, what kind of people use an Air B&B in a small town like yours? Do you get much business?
Jeremy: We didn’t think many guests would use our home since we are in such a remote community. But w live in a place that’s the perfect pit stop for road-trippers. People are on vacation or moving cross-country, on their way to weddings or college or to pick up rare breads of goats for their farm. They arrive in the evening, often after the boys are asleep, and they leave in the morning, usually before the boys are awake.
We have also had guests that come specifically to our town for things like family reunions, HS sports tournaments, and work. We have had a railroad diagnostic worker, traveling nurses and doctors, technical support staff, and union advocates. These kind of guests spend 3-7 days with us to do work here. We’ve also had new move-ins that need a place to stay for a few nights before their housing contracts begin.
Curious Person: How does sharing your space with them work? Do they just come in through the front door?
SarahLynn: The guests do come through our front door and they have access to our kitchen and fridge. We’ve had renters in our basement before, so it really doesn’t bother us to have other people coming and going through our home. Since most of the guests are road trippers and don’t need to use our kitchen, it’s really not a big deal. For the guests that stay several days or longer, we visit with them as they come and go, sometimes share the kitchen, and it’s been wonderful.
Curious Person: So you don’t feed them breakfast, then?
SarahLynn: Nope. There are lots of Air B&B hosts that don’t offer any kind of breakfast. It’s not a requirement. There’s no way I could put together a nice breakfast for people all the time.
Curious Person: I don’t think I could even let people stay in my house like that. It must be so much work, even without doing breakfast. All that cleaning and laundry!
Jeremy: I do almost all the work to keep the room clean and the laundry ready, and it’s not too bad. People are actually really clean, and sometimes they clean the room and bathroom before leaving, it’s actually really wierd. I’ve started telling guests to just leave the room messy.
It’s nice because I have a lot of control over the whole situation. I can keep the business from becoming too much. I block out days that we know are too busy for us to have guests. We don’t allow same-day reservations unless the room is ready. And I even raise the price on weekends or days that I know it will be less convenient to host someone.
Curious Person: Oh I see. So then how often are you hosting people?
Jeremy: It depends. During the spring and summer season this year, we were busy, like 3 or 4 different guests a week. We actually had a stretch of 10 days of guests with 7 of those nights being a new guest. One cool thing is that several guests have returned.
Curious Person: How do the boys respond to all if this? Do you try to keep them quiet? How do the guests feel about kids being at a place where they want to get rest?
SarahLynn: We have always had visitors, renters and guests at our house, so starting Air B&B was not much different from the norm for our children. We always tell the boys about the guests that are coming. Sometimes the boys will help Jeremy prepare the room. Sometimes they are super interested in getting to know our guests (esp if they have something cool like a motorcycle), and other days they are too busy playing or watching a movie to care about the guests.
As far as keeping them quiet, we do make an extra effort to whisper and walk instead of run and talk loudly. The boys are really good about this. They play in the library and outside instead of the basement and family room. They watch TV in my room. Some of our guests have mentioned in their reviews how quiet our home is while they stayed here. We’ve even had guests bring gifts for the boys to show how much they enjoyed them. It’s really amazing how kind people are!
Jeremy: And in the rental description, we make it very clear that we have two small kids and it is a house rule that they must be nice to our children. In fact, before they book with us, they have to click something that states they understand that we have kids. So if they have a problem with children, then they can go to the other Air B&B’s in town.
Curious Person: Are you serious, you guys have competition?
Jeremy: Actually, yeah! There weren’t any Air B&B’s in town a year ago, and a few months after we opened up, someone else did, too. There are actually two other places in our town that are doing Air B&B off and on. One place offers free coffee and cuddles with her cats. The other is a historic home with no kids and two separate rooms to book with a shared bath. We are the only place with a private level and private bathroom, so that makes us unique.
Curious Person: So what gave you the idea to start this in the first place?
Jeremy: Well, like SarahLynn menitoned, we had a friend renting from us for about 6 months, and after she left, our house felt really empty. We missed the extra company, and it was nice to have the extra income. So we were trying to figure out if we should rent out to other people. Then one day I was reading an article in a business magazine about Hormel’s 125th anniversary. They were commenting on how remote it is, that we are decades in the past, not even an Air B&B within 30 miles. I couldn’t believe that, so I looked it up. Sure enough, no Air B&B anywhere near us. I figured it was worth trying. So we opened for business in July 2016. Once we got a few positive reviews, things picked up a little. We then rented to a cute couple for about 10 weeks last fall. The winter was slow. But as soon as the snow melted this past spring, business really picked up. So yeah, it defintely was worth it.
Curious Person: Sorry to ask so many questions, but I’m curious, like how much do you charge a night?
Jeremy: Our rates change depending on different factors, but it’s anywhere from $40-$55 a night. Plus a $5 cleaning fee. This is way cheaper than the motels in town that are more like meth dealerships. It’s a win for the guests that want a clean and inexpensive place to stay and a win for us. Our Air B&B earnings this year paid for our anniversary trip.
Curious Person: Oh man, that is so cool that you guys do that. I’ve never even tried Air B&B before.
SarahLynn: Well, we know of a good place in town where you could stay!
