I'm a single mother. I was working for the government as a lawyer and I didn't make as much income as I wanted. I had a neighbor who was doing Airbnb and he rented a private room inside his home. He told me about his experience and I thought, “Well, I think I can do that with my apartment.”

Well, I clean a lot. I clean the apartment myself because sometimes I pay people to clean and they don’t have the special touch. I prepare the refrigerator in case they want to store their food. I may put local beer in the fridge for them to try and put a note on it to let them know it’s for them.

We build friendships. And it's also a way for me to have that extra income from doing things I really enjoy.

I think they should look at the Airbnb platform and see how it works. Look at the protections and the types of security you can do for your listing, like the types of check-ins you can do to prepare your listing. The Airbnb platform has many options for many types of hosts.

My favorite thing is meeting new people. I have great conversations with guests. Sometimes they invite me to drink some wine with them and we have a long conversation just at home. I treat guests like friends. And they leave me reviews that … I almost cry when I read them. They say nice things about me and about my home, and that feels really great.

Many of them, because they leave the place in really good shape, like sometimes they make the bed. It’s like you’re family or friends. If they broke something, they tell me, “I'm sorry I broke a glass” or something. I never have missed something in my home. My tools. My books. I leave everything here.