How the Same Product Failed as Trendy Side Hustle but Works as Passive Income

Just because something is trendy doesn’t mean it’s profitable.

And when the same side hustle is promoted over and over again by people whose only interest is to get some extra views on their blog, it only leads to disappointment and lost time and money.

Sometimes the best solution is not the trendy idea that gets a lot of attention just because you hear it in every other guy’s podcast.

Do your research and do the math. You might find out that something more old-fashioned is much more profitable and needs a lot less effort from you.

Here’s how I turned a popular but very hands-on side hustle that didn’t work for me into a quiet and passive income source.

One of these very trendy side hustles that you constantly hear about is renting your apartment as an Airbnb.

I tried it. It failed. Miserably!

Here’s why:

I bought an apartment a few years back. It’s a one bedroom one bath, in a central area of my city. I was really happy with my purchase, I knew from the start it would be a good investment. I was preparing to offer it for rent, but a friend convinced me an Airbnb would be a much better idea. ‘You can make so much more and Airbnb is all the rage now!’

Uh-huh… It wasn’t.

To rent an apartment as an Airbnb you have to:

Get the neighbors’ accord. My neighbors are not very open-minded and sort of old, but they still said ok to my request.

If your neighbors are not into it, goodbye Airbnb. If a client is going to throw a party one night although you specified ‘no parties’, goodbye Airbnb. If a client misunderstood where the exact parking place was and will park on somebody else’s lot, your neighbors are going to call you every 20 minutes to have him move his car. True story.

Buy things for the place, more than you can ever imagine. Towels, linens, plates and kitchenware, coffee machine, toilet paper, pots and pans, oil, coffee, you name it, they want it.

Everything you use in your house daily will have to be in that apartment if you want good reviews. An Airbnb host offers his guest much more than a hotel does.

Find somebody reliable to do the cleaning and washing or do it yourself. Always be ready to get down and dirty at any hour of the day or night if anything needs intervention in the apartment.

Once I did all the above, I was happy to get it started.

Once I did, the real face of Airbnb-ing reared its ugly head:

In the beginning, your apartment has no reviews and nobody wants to stay in a place with 0 reviews. So you have no guests, therefore no money.

If you get someone to do the cleaning, washing, and ironing for you, it takes a huge chunk out of your earnings.

If you do it yourself, it takes a huge chunk of your time.

Newsflash: clients steal!

They leave with your towels, your linen, and even the entire content of a huge cookie jar filled with hard candy.

When they don’t steal they open up all the toiletries you have in the house, even the ones stashed away at the back of a closet. The fact that you left more than plenty of fresh ones out for their use is no deterrent.

If you don’t live in a highly touristic city with permanently awesome weather, people will most probably be in transit to your apartment.

The city that I live in is one of the 3 biggest in my country, but it’s not the long-vacation-get-away-from-everything kind of city, it’s more work-oriented. People came for work or airport connections, or to go to a good hospital, but didn’t stay long.

Unless you’re in the right city, guests will spend a night in your apartment and go about their business. That means you’ll have to clean, disinfect the place and change the sheets daily.

Lugging heavy bags up and down the stairs and people leaving and arriving at odd hours of the morning or night might also happen daily and will eventually put a strain on your neighbors’ nerves.

Owning an Airbnb is very hands-on.

If you want to do the cleaning yourself, you’ll have to be there possibly every day and do a housecleaner’s job. If that’s not your jam, you’ll have to pay someone to do it for you, but a huge part of your earnings will go to cleaning services which are usually not cheap.

With people coming and going every day, it’s going to be very expensive and not worth the trouble.

If you have a job, you can forget about it. Airbnb is a full-time job.

I wanted to give up every day but stuck with it for 6 months. During this time I either had nobody coming in or a constant cascade of one guest after the other. One would come and the other one would go, leaving me very little time to do the cleaning in the meantime.

There were also constant requests to arrive earlier than the predetermined arrival time or stay later, usually because of travel times.

It was a lot of work and not a lot of money.

I cursed my friend who presented it as an amazing opportunity and myself for believing in her.

Eventually, I called it quits, reorganized, and decided the hustle was just not worth it, so I’d better rent it out.

It proved to be a very good decision, initially because of an unexpected reason: covid hit and for a while, everything stopped. Isolation took over the world.

I managed to get tenants (a mother and her toddler) right before the whole insanity happened. They were nice, clean, quiet, and didn’t require much of anything. I didn’t bother them and they didn’t bother me.

A lot of people will tell you that rent is not passive income, because you have to be there any time something in the apartment breaks or needs attention. They might do it that way, but I found a way to make it almost 100% passive.

Here’s how:

Any passive income has to be active income at first. There are no exceptions to this.

But if you own property, that active part takes the least amount of time of all possible active incomes.

The active part consists of sprucing the place up and that can be done without huge investments. Even a dingy old apartment can be brought to life with a coat of paint, deep cleaning, and a massive amount of throw pillows and candles.

You can take my word for it, I used to be an interior designer.

Once you’ve done that you need some good photos and you’re in business.

This is the active part and it can be done in a matter of a week.

From now on, the only other active thing you need to do is check your bank account for your monthly visitor (in this case money from the tenant).

You’re going to wonder what happens if, for example, something breaks — won’t you need to be there to fix it?

No, you won’t.

When the tenant moves in you present them with a list of repairmen, technicians, and plumbers of all sorts. Make sure you have everything covered.

When something breaks, the tenant can take out the list, call the appropriate man for the job, and have it fixed. Just ask them to send you the bill.

Your involvement would only make things harder. So why would you be hands-on, when hands-off is so much easier for everybody?

That’s how I made it passive. Simple and sweet.

Does this work in every situation? Of course not. Nothing works in every situation.

If you live in Los Angeles, own an apartment next to The Grove, and have the time to be at your guest’s every beck and call, most probably you’ll make better money than renting it.

You might even make enough to have someone handle your Airbnb-ing for you.

But that’s another side hustle and the subject of another article.

In the meantime, if you’re planning to choose a trendy and much-promoted side hustle, do the math first. The real math, not what you’d like it to be. Take everything into consideration.

Would it work for you? Or is it just another fad that works for some but not for most?

Choose wisely. It’s your money and your time. And sometimes it’s best invested in the tried and true.

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