The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
‘When my son was six months old, hosting paid for our trip to Spain’
When Jane Eustace, 40, and her husband, filmmaker Simon, 41, moved into their house in Leyton, east London, in 2018, with work to do on their new property, they turned to Airbnb to bolster their savings. Now, with most of the refurbishment complete, they continue to let the space, using the income to fund their trips away.
Jane, head of brand partnership for an internet company, was the driving force in deciding to let someone else holiday in their space. “I’m a little bit more trusting of the process,” she says. “I’m the one who manages it, and I speak to the people who book with us, so I feel like I get an idea of who the person is. Simon has less information on who is booking, which makes it a little bit more daunting.”
The couple, who have children Tommy, three, and Marni, seven months, let their house on Airbnb to visit their Ireland homeland and go on holiday abroad. “We don’t have a lot of valuables, the furniture is a mix of high street and reclaimed, and even though we have spent a lot on the decorating, there are only one or two things we take out when we rent it,” Jane says.
The hosting requirements are relatively low-maintenance, but she sets stays at a minimum of five nights to reduce turnarounds, and has a cleaner to help when she is not able to do it herself. She also makes sure she is available on the app when guests check in.
“You end up having a bit of back and forth,” she says, “and I’ve done videos on how to switch things on and off around the house. I make sure our nice wine glasses are out for them to use and leave a bottle of wine, extra linen, fresh towels, and tea and coffee. When my son was six months old, hosting paid for us to go to Tenerife, which was a different holiday for us. We were able to spend quite a bit more on it than we would normally have done on holiday.”
The couple married in Lisbon and their fifth anniversary is coming up. They are hoping to rent out their place again this year and return to Portugal, for the first time since their wedding.