An extra space at home could bring in guests from all over the world — and some extra cash.

Many people in Hampshire County are renting living space through the online platform Airbnb, a service that allows people to share space. There are currently 420 active listings in the northern region of the Pioneer Valley, according to the company.

One of those listings often belongs to Jeanne Fenton and Todd Weir, a reverend at First Churches of Northampton, who since the spring of 2015 have rented two rooms in their Northampton home using Airbnb. 

“I had a booking within five hours,” Fenton said about when she first listed her rooms. “Then we had back-to-back bookings.”

In each room, Fenton leaves a welcome basket of snacks, a pitcher of water and a fresh towel. She also went by the Northampton Area Chamber of Commerce and got brochures for guests. Fenton said she imagines what she would want in a room while traveling.

Typically, her guests stay for the weekend. 

While some people look for a place to stay in the Valley for a wedding, graduation or to visit family, others, like international students, need housing for a longer periods. 

That’s where Cathy Axelson-Berry and her husband come in. They rent out their two spare bedrooms in Amherst to guests staying more long-term. “We encourage (guests) to make this their home,” Axelson-Berry said.

She lets guests help themselves to pick flowers and herbs from the garden. Others like to feed the family cat. She also lets guests borrow the spare bicycle. Some become friends.

Axelson-Berry gives guests an information packet including an internet password, bus schedule and a tick identification card because her home is surrounded by woods. Often times, she will give guests a tour of the area and introduce them to neighbors.

“We both believe in sharing and the sharing economy,” Axelson-Berry said. “It helps us do our small part to make the world a little bit better.”

Valley welcoming

Airbnb officials say the northern region of the Valley has been welcoming guests into their homes since 2009.

In the last year alone, the company said 16,400 guests stayed with area hosts, with an average length of stay about two to three days, Airbnb spokeswoman Crystal Davis said in an email. The annual earnings for a host in this area are $2,700.

Hosts are required to have a profile photo of themselves and confirm a phone number and email address. Hosts can become verified by providing a photo of their driver’s license or identification card.

“Where permitted by applicable law, we may also provide infromation from your government ID, such as your full name and date of birth, to our service providers to run checks against public records for criminal convictions,”   Davis said.

Davis said hosts receive 97 percent of the rental price. Hosts can set their own price, but are also free to use the feature Smart Pricing which lets guests set their prices to automatically go up or down based on changes in demand for listings, Davis said.

Lindsey Rothschild uses the Smart Pricing feature to determine the rental cost of her two-bedroom Easthampton home. A night for the entire home costs $125, but decreases with longer stays. 

She bought the house in June 2015 to rent periodically to her parents who are newly retired and travel throughout the United States.  Six months later, after a renovation, she started renting the home through Airbnb, and it is now rented out for the majority of the year.  

While Rothschild doesn’t make a large income off Airbnb — about $1,300 to $1,400 a month — she said the house pays for itself. But there’s also upkeep.

“You want it to look like a hotel at all times,” Rothschild said.

While Airbnb provides a way to pay off the housing expenses for Rothschild, Davis said homesharing benefits host families by providing them with supplemental income to help pay the mortgage, cover monthly bills and other expenses.

Homesharing can also benefit the local economy, according to Davis.

“For the neighborhoods in which these hosts reside, the local businesses experience additional foot traffic from these travelers,” Davis said. “By spreading economic activity beyond typical tourism centers, larger parts of a city or region can participate in the tourism industry.”

Anders Fremstad, an assistant professor at Colorado State University and a recent graduate of UMass Amherst, researches online platforms associated with the sharing economy — an idea that sparked after years involved in “couchsurfing,” offering free space, such as a couch, to travelers.

Fremstad said Airbnb has a competitive advantage when compared to hotels, such as paying a state lodging tax, or occupancy tax.

“Occupancy tax is generally paid by the guest, but the obligation to remit the taxes to the government usually falls on the host,” the website states. “We expect all hosts to familiarize themselves with and follow their local laws and regulations.”

In some locations, such as Amsterdam, Portland and San Francisco, Airbnb automatically collects occupancy tax from guests and sends it to the tax authority on the hosts’ behalf, the website states.

While Davis said the company doesn’t provide legal advice, it does recommend users follow laws where they live, such as filing a business certificate and complying to zoning ordinances.

Fremstad said Airbnb benefits the economy by utilizing space and putting it to a better use. Instead of building more hotels and lodging space to suit the demand of visitors, she said Airbnb matches people with lodging that would otherwise be unused.

Kasey Corsello’s family has been renting out a studio space in her home for the past three years through Airbnb. The space was previously used as an office, but now has a queen size bed and a futon as well as a bathroom. The space is above her garage and has a private entrance.

Some guests come to watch their child graduate from college, some visit family in the area, and some are international students. Families with children often bond with her two young children.

One family came to the Easthampton from the Netherlands. Although the children did not speak English, Corsello said they played well with her children.

“It’s a very cool experience,” Corsello said.

Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.

]]>