A small business owner tries hosting on the side

For as long as she can remember, Elise has had an entrepreneurial mindset. As a free-spirited artist and world traveler, she always wanted to be her own boss while pursuing what she loves.

Fresh out of college in 2017, Elise turned her passions for baked goods and hand-painted longboards into Bake and Skate, an e-commerce business in Atlanta. A few years later, she paired up with her now husband Christian to capture weddings through both films and photos—work she fits in mostly on the weekends.

Then in 2020, the couple built a tiny house on a friend’s forested property a few hours away. The plan? Create an affordable space to unwind and reconnect, and host it on Airbnb when they weren’t there. They could share it and pay it off at the same time.

Throughout her travels over the past decade, Elise has stayed in hundreds of Airbnbs around the world. As she carefully plotted out how to turn her many passions into a career, hosting on Airbnb felt like a natural next step. “To have a house that people can enjoy while we’re not there was a dream,” Elise says.

When Elise got the idea to build a getaway in the woods, she moved fast—they built it and even got engaged in it in a matter of months. She listed her tiny house in October of 2020, and earned back her entire $25,000 investment in six months.

Elise tells other entrepreneurs who are just getting started that while it’s great to dream about the vision, it’s crucial to take the next step.

“You’ll never be 100% ready,” she says. “If you wait to feel that way then you’re going to be waiting a long time. If you know the next best step, even if you only feel 85% ready, go ahead and take it.”

Now that she’s paid off her tiny house, Elise plans to put her hosting earnings toward setting up a little shop on wheels for her baked goods and longboards.

Because their friend helps with cleanings and check-ins, Elise’s hosting earnings are mostly passive. So she’s decided to grow her hosting business; she recently bought a vintage Airstream she’s getting ready to list on the same property.

Hosting on Airbnb fits seamlessly into Elise and Christian’s busy schedule running multiple businesses. And it serves as a reminder that doing what they love can be financially and emotionally rewarding.

“Hosting is so freeing in such an interesting way,” she says. “It’s financially freeing. For each guest coming to celebrate a big milestone, we get chocolate and wine, or something to celebrate them. So I have the freedom to love people in ways that they don’t expect. I always wanted that.”