Lifestyle
Comfy As Can Airbnb Airbnb gives travelers a variety of unique and comfy places to stay. By Haley Boyce
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he modern day traveling experience is ever-changing. Travelers have swapped their paper maps for the GPS app on their phone, long car rides for short flights, and now their hotels and resorts for Airbnbs. Airbnb has crafted an intimate way to feel at home even when you’re in a foreign place. The company allows people from all over the world to rent out their homes in order to give travelers a more personal place to stay during their trip. In 2007, Airbnb was born after three travelers in San Francisco stayed in the homes of two hosts. Fourteen years later, the company has over five million listings in more than 220 countries and regions. When it comes to the global economy, travel and tourism make up over ten percent. These activities were put to a halt when the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic hit. But Americans are ready to get back on the road and up in the air. According to a 2021 Airbnb survey, 24 percent of Americans have been feeling isolated and alone. The survey also reports that although Americans miss going to restaurants and events, they miss traveling the most. While Americans are ready to get back into the swing of traveling, Airbnb hosts are also ready to start welcoming guests back into their homes. Rebekah Hanna is an Airbnb host in Muncie. She currently has two units, both in a house on Jackson Street. The house isn’t just your average Airbnb — it’s one of Muncie’s historic landmarks. The property stuck out to Hanna as soon as she saw it. “We moved here in 2002, and I wanted to buy it at that point,” says Hanna. “It was for sale for a while, and it was in really bad shape.”
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Rebekah Hanna sits on a couch in her upstairs Airbnb unit. Haley Boyce, Ball Bearings
According to Hanna, who also works as a renter, the house was slowly deteriorating. Large holes were beginning to form in the backyard, ready to consume the house. Hanna was finally able to rescue the house in 2018. She got to work right away and began renovating the property that same year. “To do any renovations on old homes, whether they’re a landmark or not, is very, very expensive,” Hanna says. In January of 2020, she began to turn a profit by renting out her units. Since then, she’s become a “superhost.” To qualify as a superhost, Hanna had to host at least ten stays yearly, keep at least a 90 percent response rate to messages, receive five-star reviews from at least 80 percent of her guests and have a low cancelation rate. Not many hosts have achieved superhost status. According to AIRDNA, an application used to track data from Airbnb, only 19.4 percent of hosts in 2017 became superhosts. That’s only
392,000 hosts out of 2.2 million possible. But before she began renting out her property, Hanna did her research — she read books about Airbnb and looked up listings in bigger cities like Chicago. “There’s not a lot of people who do this as a business,” says Hanna.
The stained glass window in the lower unit glistens in the sun. Haley Boyce, Ball Bearings
