ICR195: Gayle Roberts, Room for Profit

Hello and welcome to this episode of Informed Choice Radio, where I'm joined by Gayle Roberts, author of the new book Room for Profit.

Gayle is a former lawyer turned CEO of an award winning short term lettings agency. She's the co-author of Room for Profit, along with the award winning travel journalist Tristan Rutherford.

The book is all about how to make money in the digital sharing economy, specifically the short-term rentals industry.

Within the digital sharing economy, the most lucrative and fastest growing sector is short-term rentals. In the last five years, Airbnb has experienced growth of 353 times and, in 2015 alone, more than 17 million people stayed with Airbnb hosts. It's forecast that next year, 20% of all accommodation bookings will be for short-term rentals.

Room for Profit shows readers exactly how to get their share of this booming industry. The rhythm of school-work-retirement is not as simple as it once was; we either need to work longer, harder, or think outside the box.

In this episode of Informed Choice Radio, I speak to Gayle about why services like Airbnb have become so popular, how short-term rentals can help with retirement planning, how to get started in this market, some of the costs and risks involved, and much more.

Welcome to Room for Profit with Gayle Roberts, in episode 195 of Informed Choice Radio.

Some questions I ask:

-What's driving such fast growth in the short-term lettings market?

-How can short-term lettings help with retirement planning?

-What factors influence how much you can make from letting a room or property?

-How can people get started in this market?

-Does it cost much or take long to get a property ready to let?

-What risks are associated with allowing strangers to stay in your home?

-What were the most interesting examples of property letting you found when you were researching the book?

Thank you for listening!

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