Our AirBNB journey began for a variety of reasons, all related to our intentional living journey. Both of our children have left home on a reasonably permanent basis, leaving us with half a house sitting empty.
We thought about selling up, buying somewhere smaller and putting an end to our mortgage. Sadly the property market is so good here that a nice unit or small piece of land in the country would have seen us in pretty much the same financial position as we are in now. We’ll continue to dream about tiny houses!
Now that our business, DECLUTR, employs us both we have a new degree of flexibility and more spare time than we’ve been used to. This has allowed us the space to put our dreams into action and look at ways of reconfiguring our home to match our new lifestyle.
Making a start
So we decided to look around at how other local AirBNB properties were doing. It didn’t take long to realise that there is a demand here in Canberra so we began to brainstorm. Who would come? What would they expect? What could we offer? How much could we charge? A friend in Jerrabomberra was in the process of setting up her place as well so we had a chat with her. We also took a long weekend in the Blue Mountains and stayed at an AirBNB there to get an idea of what was good and bad.
After all this, we decided to give it a go. We’ve got three spare bedrooms down one end of the house as well as a full bathroom that we don’t use. The plan is that our Air BNB is available for one or two people only. We’ll have a big bedroom, a small sitting room and a bit of a multipurpose room with a fridge, jug and microwave. Also on offer will be cuddles from Sooky!
One decision we made early on is that we don’t want to share our lounge room with guests. As a result, we’ll be getting a wall put up to separate the AirBNB studio from our part of the house. It’ll have a lockable door in it so that we can open it up when family or friends are here.
The first thing we did after making our decision was to rip up the carpet in our lounge, hallway and (later on) one of the bedrooms. It was past its use-by date! New flooring is going in very soon. After that it’s the wall and then we can put in the furnishings, get a new key for a sliding door and we’re in business!
Choosing a name
Of course, every AirBNB needs a name. “Studio Mamak” is what we’ve decided on. “Mamak” means goodnight in the local language at Level School in Vanuatu. Our family, friends and business support this school.
If you think you are ready to take advantage of our experience in decluttering, renovating or styling please email us at info@declutr.com.au or give us a call.
Keep an eye on our blog here for more updates and photos!
