I learned about Airbnb back in 2010. Perhaps, living in Silicon Valley helps me keep in the loop in the new companies (or business ideas). I remember thinking that it was something I would never consider doing. Especially at the time, I was living my kids and still married.

But forward October 2013, I figured I should give it a try. Let down my limiting beliefs and see what can come out of it. What I decided to do was to put the prices as high as I could and see if anyone would rent it. Although for beginner it is very bad business, I was lucky enough to get a booking for 10 days consecutive. Actually, the only reason I was able to get a booking was because Dreamforce was going on. And having 100000 visiting attendees with a city with only 32000 hotel rooms was a boom for my airbnb business.

First guest:

My guest was awesome. We went out for beers one night, really fun person. I also learned a lot about the conference, since he would come back all hype about it and tell me all about it.

But I was still skeptical. Then I think the 3rd guest I had was a couple from Italy. The girl who booked it had something like 65 reviews... which I knew was impressive since just getting 1 review is hard. I learned that she was a host in Barcelona (she was from Italy but lived in Barcelona). And that she has been hosting for 2 years and she told me made some amazing friendship from hosting travelers. Such good friendship that now, she was visiting back the US to see some of them. She had a friend in Portland, then Los Angeles then New Mexico. I was amazed!! It was a revelation for me. Just like when you're traveling and can make super deep friendship connections in a few days or weeks, hosting could do the same.

Conclusion:

So this is the reason why I host. Of course, it brings good money, but most of all, it allows you meet people from all of the world and meet amazing people. Now that I have been hosting for 2 years, I made friends in almost every city and I can't wait to go back to see them.