Airbnb Co-Hosting as a Side Hustle: How to Do It With a Full-Time Job

You don't have to quit your job to start co-hosting. Many of the co-hosts we've worked with started on evenings and weekends, around nursing shifts, consulting hours, and corporate jobs. It works if you set it up for a busy schedule from day one.

Who's doing co-hosting on the side

"I am currently a nurse and I have to physically go to my job and I have three little kids, and I was looking for new business for myself to start so that I could do something where I had time freedom and I could create some cash flow for myself." — Amy Bennett

"I live in Washington State. I am a wife and a mother of two teenage boys and a full-time career professional... I was looking for [an] opportunity to work a side hustle with my mom that was remote." — Jessy Culp

"I worked as a digital consultant... Right now I have two properties that I currently manage and I'm looking to expand, but again, working a full-time job, it just takes a little more time." — Giancarlo Mazza

"I was working a regular job... I have actually lined up a couple of clients that we're bringing on under management already, and I just finished the course." — Cees Hofman

Step 1: Pick a service model that fits your schedule

Not every co-hosting service needs you on site.

• Remote-only services: guest messaging, pre-check-in communication, pricing, and listing management. Lowest time and location demands, lower fee.
• Full-service management: everything above plus cleaner coordination, restocking, maintenance, and in-person issues. Higher fee, more time.
• Hybrid: remote management with a paid local helper for on-site tasks.

One student chose co-hosting partly because remote services were an option:

"There is the possibility of pre-check-in services that you could do remotely... Those two things actually made us decide to go with James's program." — Michael Tatzber

Step 2: Build systems before your second client

With a day job, you can't be the bottleneck. Set these up early:

1. Automated guest messaging for booking confirmations, check-in instructions, and checkout.
2. A cleaner you trust, plus a backup.
3. A cleaning checklist so quality doesn't depend on you checking.
4. Dynamic pricing, plus a weekly booking-pace check (the free pricing calculator takes two minutes).
5. A local helper for on-site emergencies.

Brian Ellis described the goal clearly:

"Once the client's in place and everything, you have the gopher in place, you got the cleaners in place, and everything's clicking. It's like everything zooms down to almost nothing... while working 10 and 15 hours a week."

Step 3: Find clients without quitting your job

Most first clients come from your network, which fits around a job.

• Tell everyone. "I just announced to friends and family that I was creating an LLC that did what this program teaches you to do. And without even really reaching out to people, I was able to get a couple really strong leads." — Emily Richardson
• Use forums and communities. Jessy's first client "was a referral from a forum and it just came to me."
• Talk to local hosts and managers. They often refer properties that don't fit them.

For more, read how to get your first Airbnb co-hosting clients.

Step 4: Know when to scale (or go full-time)

Juwan was already running more than ten Airbnbs for people he knew while working in corporate life, and realized he needed structure:

"Because my Airbnbs is more than 10 right now, I start to feel like I really need to set up some strategy to not just adding more Airbnbs in my bucket because it's so much time-consuming while having full-time job at corporate life."

Others made the jump once the income was there:

"Since joining, I've quit my nine to five job and have grown my business and myself substantially." — Kaylie Courtney

Use the co-hosting calculator to work out how many properties replace your salary, and what your effective hourly rate is at different fees.

The honest part

A side hustle grows slower than a full-time business. Jessy took from September to February to finish the six-week course: "I let life get in the way." Giancarlo's advice: be patient. The co-hosts who succeed on the side keep showing up a few hours every week.

Get the structure

BNB Co-Hosting Mastery is self-paced and online, so students fit it around their jobs, with twice-weekly live Q&A calls you can join when you're free. See what students did with it in Airbnb co-hosting success stories.