Home-owner gives up work for Airbnb
Julie Midwinter invited people to stay in her home in an attempt to make a bit of extra money to visit her children overseas.
Now she makes enough from renting out her house to guests she’s quit her job to become a fulltime Airbnb host.
The accommodation hosting platform gives people the ability to rent their homes for a night, a week or as long as they want.
Midwinter is one of the more than 300 hosts signed up with the service in New Plymouth.
She and her husband Brendan began renting out their home through Airbnb in 2015.
When guests arrived they would move into a caravan.
But the sacrifice has paid off. They have now rented out their house for 370 nights and it’s becoming more popular as time goes on, Midwinter said.
The profits from sharing their house are so good they have since bought a two-bedroom home in central New Plymouth and the Airbnb income is paying their mortgage.
It has also given Midwinter the freedom to quit her rest home job and run the property fulltime.
Midwinter said for years she would finish her day working at a rest home and then go up to her home and clean the entire place, manage the laundry, and prepare it for the next guest.
‘‘It’s exhausting. So instead of me making beds until 9 or 10 at night, it will be my fulltime employment.
‘‘It is a good way to make money.’’
Midwinter said their home, which sits on the edge of Egmont National Park, was so beautiful they wanted to share it.
It has views of as far away as Pirongia in the Waikato and there’s a peacock, chicken, large fish pond, and a cat named Ted – which guests are asked to feed.
‘‘I think the other point of difference for us is we sleep 11.’’
The couple currently charge $250 a night and $30 for each person with a flat $70 for cleaning. Airbnb takes about 3 per cent of their income, Midwinter said.
But when the idea was first suggested, she wasn’t sure it would work. ‘‘We’re 16km out of New Plymouth. Who wants to stay in rural Taranaki? Within a week, we had our first booking. It’s never stopped.’’