The ‘Sharing Economy’ has made a big impact on the travel industry in the past decade with major leaders like AirBnB and Uber to the hundreds of other home and ride-sharing businesses available. Today’s travelers are often choosing home rentals over hotels and it’s no wonder why. They can get a more comfortable, cost-effective stay and personal attention from their host instead of the sometimes impersonal offerings of an outdated or overpriced hotel room. Nowadays travelers even have a large selection of home-sharing sites to choose from. If you’re a gay traveler, the top choice for renting a room or home while traveling is misterb&b. While other sites may claim to be LGBTQ+-friendly, misterb&b is specifically tailored to the travel needs of the gay community. With the popularity of these sites continuing to rise, now’s the time to consider listing your spare room or space on misterb&b and here’s why.

Earn Extra Cash

We could all use a little extra pocket money no matter our current financial situation. Have you been wanting a weekend away? The latest gadget? Botox? A little extra cash in your account couldn’t hurt. Renting your apartment, spare room or even your sofa bed on misterb&b is a guaranteed fast and easy way to reach your financial goals while offering someone a great gay travel experience. They have a safe and secure payment method and everything is handled within the trusted website. We've even hosted on both Airbnb and misterb&b before and earned as much as $600 a month! In fact,  renting your living room sofa bed is a cost-effective way for travelers to stay with a local, even if you don't have a spare room to rent individually. You can also sign up to become an Airbnb host, which will give you even more visibility and booking requests.

Meet Fun and Adventurous People

Meeting new people is a great reason to list your space on misterb&b. As an adult, it can be a challenge meeting new people that aren’t your work colleagues and even more challenging to meet other gay and bi men outside of the gay bar scene. When you open your home to other gay travelers, you open yourself up to the possibility of new friendships. Sure, some travelers are just looking for a place to crash with another gay host so they feel more comfortable as they come and go. But others will be happy to chat with their host, grab drinks or even share a meal. If you’re skeptical about strangers in your home, guests are also reviewed and vouched for by other misterb&b hosts, so you can freely vet them and decide to accept their stay request or not. As misterb&b hosts ourselves, we’ve kept in touch with some of our guests long after checkout.

Learn About Other Cultures

Ideally, we’d all be traveling the world, visiting new cities, meeting new people and becoming more cultured along the way. The reality, however, is we may not have the vacation time or money to do this as much as we’d like. Hosting guests from other parts of the world is a chance to get to know that place and hear about someone else’s experiences. It can be eye-opening to learn about other people’s experiences being gay in other cultures. We were particularly fascinated by the stories of one guest who told us all about what it was like to be gay in Moscow, Russia. You can also discover their culture when guests offer to cook you a meal or bring a little gift as a thank you for your hospitality. Each guest is unique and will show their appreciation in different ways.

Provide a Safe Space for Your Guest

Quite frankly, when you’re a host, there is a business mentality to providing accommodation, which is perfectly ok. You should treat it as such by offering quality service that is still more personal than a hotel. However, you’re also doing a positive thing for the gay community by providing accommodation that gay travelers can rely on. Being in a foreign country can be concerning at times for gay travelers and you can be the best source for guidance beyond just explaining the gay neighborhood as you know how to navigate being gay in your culture and in your city. This is an extra reassurance a hotel often can’t provide for such a niche community, but gay hosts can do so easily.

misterb&b Makes It Simple & Safe to Host

misterb&b makes hosting simple by providing an easy-to-use online platform for managing your listing and communicating with potential guests. They manage all payment transactions securely through their website so you don’t have to worry about handling money directly with your guest. Additionally, they provide their hosts with insurance at no extra cost in case anything were to happen. This ensures that you don’t have to worry about any unexpected damage to your home as you open it up to guests. However, as misterb&b hosts ourselves, we’ve never had any problems with guests, just friendly conversations, great meals or fun nights out!

Read Reviews from Past Travelers

Join Now!

Interested in joining misterb&b as a host? We've done it before and earned as much as $600 a month! Here's how to start:

STEP 1: First, sign up with misterb&b. As a bonus, you’ll even get a $10 travel credit when you sign up.

STEP 2: After signing up, click here to learn more about how you can list your space and earn money from LGBTQ+ guests.

Also, if you're serious about earning some extra cash, it's definitely worth listing your space on both misterb&b and on Airbnb. While misterb&b is solely focused on the LGBTQ+ community, you will actually get more bookings from Airbnb as the company has a larger client base. So if you're comfortable with non-LGBTQ+ guests staying in your spaceas well, then listing on both places will give you the best opportunity to maximize your space and earn more money from visitors. Airbnb is a major supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and has a strict non-discrimination policy so you shouldn't worry too much about receiving intolerant guests. But one way we were able to ensure there were no surprises was to specifically mention in our Airbnb profile that we were a gay couple so that any guests viewing our space understood the situation before booking. Click here to list your room or space on Airbnb as well!

Note: This article was written in partnership with misterb&b, however rest assured all opinions are 100% our own and we would never sacrifice our integrity for a sponsorship.