This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up and welcome. Today's listener has a really interesting idea that she has thought through quite a bit and she's looking for some feedback. Short version is, does my idea to sell art in Airbnb's make sense? I'll let her describe the idea in more detail and then I'll go point by point in terms of what I think. I just love this, by the way.
So many of our listeners have their thinking hats on lately. I've been getting lots of emails, social media, sending me links to your websites and sales pages and different stuff that you're making. So I love it, keep the ideas coming. And in this episode, we'll talk about selling art in your Airbnb rental. All right, stay tuned.
[Music]
Hi Chris, this is Melissa from Portland, Oregon. I love the show, I've been in search of a side hustle since listening for the first time about a year ago. I own an Airbnb in Portland, which has a thriving artist in the community as well as a growing number of Airbnb's. I feel that artists, makers and property owners would benefit from placing local art and handmade items in Airbnb's, which would then be available for guests to purchase and take home with them. The benefits would be threefold.
The property owner could have a rotating gallery of amazing art, the artists would show their work to a wider audience and the property owner and I looks for the commission for each item sold. I've never done anything like this before, so I'm not really sure how payments and commissions would work. But the response has been very positive so far. Any help of feedback to help get this off the ground is appreciated. Thank you so much.
[Music]
Melissa, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for the wonderful question. Like I said, I just love hearing what people are up to. And my headline response to this idea, thank you for asking me for my feedback, my headline response is I think it's worth a shot. I think it's actually pretty interesting.
And so with something like this, the first step is to see who else is doing it. Like see who else is doing it, not necessarily in your city, but somewhere else, 'cause Airbnb is everywhere and there are some best practices. And go see who else is doing it, how they're doing it and what they've learned through the process. So in just a few Google searches, looking at some forums and such, I found a number of different websites and discussions about this topic. Some of those sites were expired or outdated, but it's definitely something that a lot of people have been thinking about, which is good, by the way, just to be clear, the fact that other people are thinking about it is not a negative, it's actually a positive.
Now, what might be the challenges? I think one of them is, most Airbnb owners say things like, never keep anything in your Airbnb that is personal to you or that you would be heartbroken about if it was damaged or lost or stolen or whatever. So I'm sure you're familiar with that. There's probably some way to mitigate it, just something to be aware of. And then the next steps would be, like after you do your research, I think a next step is a trial run of some kind with a few artists, like the sooner the better to get this actually in the Airbnb or other Airbnbs rather than spending a long, long time trying to connect with a dozen different artists, I would pick three maybe and just like get it going.
Create some kind of booklet that goes with any other info the guest receives, the more personal, the better, tell that artist story, tell the connection of that art to the community, because of course, the guest is most likely going to be from out of town. So they're visiting Portland in this case or whatever the city is. So you have a story that goes with the art and the artist. A good name for the program would be helpful. It doesn't necessarily need a name, but having a name would be helpful, I think.
And one of the ones I saw that was kind of expired or the person isn't following up on it anymore was called Air Originals, right? Like Airbnb, but original, Air Originals. So that was kind of cute. There could be something else as well, of course. Then you wanna make it as easy as possible for someone to purchase.
Like how could someone who comes to stay in the Airbnb and they see this piece of art on the wall and they really like it, how can they just quickly go and do that without changing their mind, basically? Now, as for the commission, I don't know what the best split would be, but that's easy enough to research. I imagine it's negotiable. I'm also pretty sure that there is no shortage of good artists who would love to see their work go to a good home and make some extra income. So maybe as a benchmark, like look at what galleries do and then adjust from there.
But overall, I think it has potential. I think it's pretty cool, especially for someone who has some experience with Airbnb rentals already and is familiar with the opportunities and challenges of that world. Thank you again, Melissa. I look forward to hearing what develops. Now listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Super easy. You can kind of put your question there and I might answer it, right? I might even give you a good answer. Like the odds are not a hundred percent, but it's possible. It's within the realm of possibility.
It is feasible. We'll be featuring them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. I'm so grateful to make this show for you every day. Much more is coming up. This is Chris Guillebeau.
The program is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
