How to earn passive income with Airbnb

The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.

Investing in real estate is good for people who want to grow their money. And that's because, with real estate, you can buy one and use it to earn more. Now, there are many ways to use an acquired property for profit. But perhaps the most popular are short-term rentals on Airbnb.

If you're an avid vacationer, you've probably heard of the app that can connect you with people who will let you stay at their property for a period of . This application, called "Air Bed and Breakfast" or Airbnb, was started by two industrial designers who moved in 2008.

They couldn't afford to pay rent during this time, so they decided to earn a bit more by letting people who couldn't find hotels temporarily rent their accommodation. And long story short, their strategy became a huge success as it expanded to a huge network of 4 million hosts worldwide. And until today, their platform continues to create more opportunities for hosts and real estate investors in general.

Related: Airbnb CEO: It Took Us 12 Years To Build It And We Lost Almost Everything In 6 Weeks

Real estate investments include rentals of properties, and there are two main ways to earn income from them: Long-term rentals and Short-term rentals. When I started as a real estate investor in 2012, all my properties were in long term rental. But in 2017, I converted them all to short-term contracts, most of them through Airbnb.

Why? Many factors made me choose Airbnb:

1. You make less money on long-term rentals.

Did you know that if done correctly, you can make an average monthly profit of $2,000 on Airbnb? Of course, many things must be considered to arrive at this number. Plus, you can earn less or more than that amount each month.

But the thing is, with Airbnb short-term rentals, you can determine your price, and no one else has a say. You can't do that with traditional long-term rentals. With long-term rental, you can only set a fixed amount and increase your rent by 3% to 5% per year.

2. You have greater obligations as an owner.

There are several things to consider when hosting a long-term rental, and one of them is that your tenants can never deep clean or deal with repairs on your property . The reason is simple: they won't stay there forever. Ultimately, the onus is always on your shoulders.

Another fact worth mentioning is that you won't be able to easily evict your tenants. Now the stipulations change from city to city and state to state, but usually after 30 days of stay, your guests acquire certain rights.

Example: In 2020, the government passed a moratorium on evictions where landlords are not allowed to evict their tenants for non-payment. This has of course been useful for many tenants across the country. But now some landlords still owe thousands of dollars in back rent, and they may never have the chance to sue them again.

3. With Airbnb short-term rentals, you don't have to work like an employee.

Short-term rentals are passive in nature, which means that if you have a property, you can still earn money even if you are not there. Add this to Airbnb's online platform and your market potential expands.

But here's the thing: you can still get caught up in working around the clock to manage your ad. Fortunately, there is a way to build a system and create a team that works...