by Steven Perez
posted on October 20, 2021
Turo and Airbnb have partnered up to highlight the incredible opportunity of sharing both your car and your space this travel season. Over the coming months, we’ll be featuring hosts across the US who are building a small car sharing business on Turo, while sharing their space on Airbnb to bolster their earnings even more.
Jeff and his wife bought their house in Portland with the intention of becoming Airbnb Hosts. They chose the property because the finished basement seemed perfect for sharing on Airbnb — the guest suite has a separate entrance, sleeps up to four, and has a sitting area and a kitchenette. That was in 2016, when they first started sharing their home on Airbnb, “and it’s been doing great ever since — especially this last summer,” said Jeff.
Jeff moved to Portland with his wife around 2010 after leaving his entertainment industry job in LA. Since then, he’s been focused on his stock market investments rather than getting another full-time job. After seeing early success with Airbnb, Jeff listed his Prius, then his wife’s car, on Turo to add another stream of income. He quickly implemented a similar process he used for Airbnb hosting. “It was working well, so I started treating it as a business,” Jeff said. Today, he manages multiple listings on both Turo and Airbnb — for himself and for other people.
A couple years ago Jeff was thinking of getting a Tesla, but a new model was out of his price range. He had booked a Model 3 from a host with several Teslas in the past, so Jeff reached out to that host to see how sharing a Tesla on Turo might go for him. That host confirmed it was working well for him, then mentioned he happened to be selling a Model 3! Jeff ended up buying that car, and 140 trips later, it’s still earning enough to offset costs and then some, with the help of the state EV rebate.
Over the past year, Jeff has started managing other people’s cars for them. He’s been overseeing a couple listings for the host who sold him the Tesla, and he’s also sharing his friend’s Toyota Highlander while the friend is in China for a multi-month business trip. Today, Jeff is an All-Star Host with more than 600 trips on Turo. “This summer was the busiest time I’ve ever had with Turo,” he said. “It was like non-stop.”
Flexibility & freedom
The timing also feels right. “In this stage of my life, I’m finding ways to generate income for myself and be my own boss. I started that with stock trading, and have found it’s been fairly easy to do with Turo and Airbnb,” he said. As he does with Turo, Jeff manages listings on Airbnb for others. He co-hosts another home in Portland, as well as his sister’s place in the Colorado mountains. “I don’t think I want to take on much more, but this does scale pretty easily,” he said.
Through running businesses on both platforms, Jeff gets to maintain “control of my own life and schedule. Having that flexibility and freedom is definitely better than having a nine-to-five… I feel a lot more relaxed.”
Not only does running these businesses afford Jeff flexibility, but having flexibility helps him run the businesses better. He’s able to take the time to meet most of his guests face-to-face. He says that adds to his guests’ experience, and he thinks it contributes to the “very low number of issues” he’s had on both platforms over the years. “For both Turo and Airbnb, I’ve been very happy with the people I’ve met,” said Jeff. “Most guests meet me before and after the trip, so they’re probably more inclined to be responsible.”
Try hosting your space on Airbnb
“I was talking to a friend the other day and realized, I guess I kind of did retire!” Jeff laughed. “I can do stuff now that I’d be doing in retirement. It’s great that in this modern day, you don’t have to do everything you used to in order to start a business.”
Jeff has been running successful businesses on both platforms for years while maintaining his freedom and flexibility. If you’re a Turo host, consider adding hosting with Airbnb to your mix of income streams.
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Steven Perez
Steven is an avid car guy and content maker at Turo. Between Golden State Warriors games he can be found getting lost somewhere in California.
