მასწავლებელი მასპინძლობით ცოდნას იღებს

As a New York City public school teacher, Superhost Tiffany has always loved to travel in the summer. Through both teaching and travel, she gets to meet new people and learn about other cultures. For years, she had to do so on a shoestring budget.

Since she started hosting a private room in 2012, though, Tiffany has had enough extra cash flow to afford a two-bedroom apartment and summer travel—all while meeting people from all over the world.

“Hosting has made it possible for me to afford to live in a two-bedroom apartment in New York City,” Tiffany says. “Not very many people can say that on a teacher's salary. And it has allowed me to afford to live in the neighborhood where I work, which is what I consider my community.”

Tiffany first listed a private room after having a roommate and realizing she prefers a regular rotation of guests. As an educator, she liked the idea of hosting. She was, after all, the seasoned host of her middle school classroom.

“You learn a lot from teaching,” Tiffany says. “You learn a lot about dealing with people's emotions and temperaments. It definitely carries over into hosting. It's just understanding what brings joy to people.”

When her rent increased, she found a two-bedroom apartment closer to the school where she teaches ESL in Washington Heights. Her extra earnings from hosting her private room cover half her rent.

Tiffany keeps her nightly rate low for her market—$48 when this story was published—to help guests afford to visit New York. And she still earns enough through hosting to afford to travel herself.

“I believe wholeheartedly in making travel affordable,” she says. “Because travel is life changing. And hosting just took off. My calendar would be filled for months on end. It just became this extra income.”

Because hosting is flexible, Tiffany can block off her calendar to fit her schedule. She also makes it clear in her listing description that guests will have furry roommates too: her cat named Kali and two dogs named Chugzy and Cipzy.

Whether Tiffany is traveling when school’s out or vicariously through her guests, she says meeting people from around the world is the real richness of hosting on Airbnb.

“I really appreciate this ability to keep life interesting because of the sheer number of people that I meet from different places,” Tiffany says. “It adds so much more to your life when you're mixing and mingling with people from all different cultures and backgrounds. It's also why I travel.”

And the extra earnings let her “explore and live the way I want to live,” she adds. “Being an Airbnb Host has allowed me to spread my wings a little bit. It's allowed me to have some leeway and advantages that not everyone gets in New York City.”