How I Created My Airbnb Business To Travel The World Fulltime

If you have ever wondered how passive income works, I’ll show you in this post and video.

The Backstory

Back in 2015, I was living in a 1 bedroom apartment with a girlfriend in Brooklyn, NY. Our rent was $1,600 a month and I was working for a medical device company selling pap tests and STD testing to OB/GYNs and laboratories.

I never expected to be doing this after getting a college degree, but it paid really well. It also involved a lot of traveling for meetings in different states. Well, my relationship with my girlfriend wasn’t working out and we broke up.

I didn’t know what I was going to do since now all of the bills were going to double since we were no longer going to split them anymore. It sucked. I remember the feeling of defeat, sadness, and anxiety from all of the things that could go wrong.

But knowing myself, I always figure out a plan and see things for what they are. I sat down and started figuring out a budget, looking at my credit card statements, seeing where my money was actually going.

Organizing My Expenses

It was very interesting to see what my money was actually paying for. I was spending all sorts of money going out with friends, bars, shows, comedy clubs, dinners, instead of the supermarket. Long story short, I just needed to make a lifestyle change with my spending.

So I started shopping at the Foodtown near me in Kensington, Brooklyn, and still going out with friends but making $20 at the supermarket last 3 meals compared to a $20 chicken sandwich and fries at a restaurant in Manhattan.

Now, that didn’t stop me from going out and still drinking, it just saved me extra money by eating at home on a regular basis than going out to dinner. When I started budgeting and seeing where the money was going, the majority was eating out — and it was a lot of extra money that could be going towards rent since my bills just doubled.

Fast forward to the next month when I needed to travel to San Diego for work for the whole week. That meant I had an open apartment that I was paying for while I had a free trip to San Diego on my work’s dime.

Introduced To Airbnb

I remember back in 2015 my girlfriend mentioned something about how crazy it was to have people stay at your home on this website called Airbnb. She had a HUGE problem with allowing someone in our house while we were gone somewhere.

So, my trip to San Diego was coming up next week and I figured, “what the heck, I’ll try and list my place on Airbnb” — and that is exactly what I did right before I went to sleep one night.

I woke up the next morning and my entire apartment had been rented for the entire month! I had the setting “instant book” turned on! I couldn’t believe it — I literally just kicked myself out of my own apartment with all of my rent paid!

I called my cousin and asked if I could sleep on his couch for the next month and explained to him what I had done. It got spread around to my other cousins, friends, family, and even my co-workers. Everyone was making fun of me and laughing at me and worried about letting random strangers into my home.

“They’re definitely going to steal your TV and kill your fish in the tank.”

A Change In Lifestyle

I started doing this regularly. Learning the Airbnb platform. Literally going snowboarding in Vermont for weekends while offsetting my expenses with Airbnb. It was as if I traveled somewhere for free to live like I was in Brooklyn, — just in a different place.

If I went out in the city, I would just crash on my cousin's couch or at a buddy’s place. I started renting my apartment regularly. I told my neighbors my cousin was coming for a few days, or a college friend, etc. It started getting to the point that there was no way I had this many friends, old roommates, cousins, etc.

My super started asking questions about me subletting my apartment. I would buy him bottles of whiskey and beers to keep him quiet. I was running a successful side business — and living for free in Brooklyn by staying with friends on the weekends.

So, it got me thinking…

What if I got a bigger apartment and just had rotating roommates? I figured if I got a 2 bedroom spot, then it would force me to clean the apartment all of the time, I could meet cool people, and I could live for free just renting the other room.

But instead of that, what if I bought a house? What if I bought a multifamily house? Yea that sounded like a good idea. I could use Airbnb money to pay the mortgage AND build equity.

Bought Some Brooklyn Property

So, in February 2018, I bought a 3 family house in Brooklyn. I rented the basement to a friend, I lived in the middle section, and I rented the upstairs on Airbnb.

I was still working my full-time job in sales at the medical company. At this point, I had Airbnb down. I knew how to adjust prices to maximize opportunities, how to continue getting 5-star reviews, and beat the Airbnb algorithm to stay on top in search results.

This whole thing started becoming a full-time job within itself because I had to clean, mop, do laundry, check people in, and it was pulling me away from my regular work. I needed help, I needed to free my time, I needed to automate it.

Automating My Airbnb Business

I got on Craigslist and looked for a “cleaning crew” and met someone named Tiffany. I would have her come over to the house and help me clean so she could watch and know what needed to be done. I was training her and started paying her to do the turnovers.

Then Airbnb released a feature called “co-host” and now at this point, I no longer needed to send her a text every day when someone was checking in or checking out. She could just see it in the Airbnb app on my calendar. This was so helpful!

At this point, the cleaning was settled. Tiffany and her friend had it all under control. There were a few instances where things needed to be changed, or she missed a few things, but overall everything was running smoothly.

That was when I found a book by this guy named Daniel Rusteen — an ex Airbnb employee. He teaches you how to fully optimize your Airbnb and really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

Although I had Tiffany helping out with cleaning and taking care of the physical part, I was still dealing with administrative things. I would send guests the info for checking in, the wifi passwords and answer the same questions over and over again. It took a lot of time to constantly type out the same responses.

But after reading Daniel’s book I learned of all sorts of tricks, apps, and software to really fully automate my Airbnb. Everything is fully automated to the point I don’t even live in the country anymore!

Leaving My Job Without Telling Them

Fast forward a year and a half after running a successful Airbnb business. It was fully running itself. All I needed to do was check a few text messages a day in the Airbnb app.

So I left. I left without even telling my job. I went to an island named Bonaire — off the coast of Venezuela to scuba dive with a buddy of mine. We went for a week and I had no real plan after that. I just needed to getaway.

We were scuba diving and that was when I realized there was more to life than working in Brooklyn. There was more to life than jumping on pointless conference calls, going to meetings to make a $12 billion company even more money.

I had set something up for myself. I shifted from needing to use my time to generate money, to using my money to generate money. I reached a point that if I were to lose my job, I wouldn’t struggle with losing the house. The Airbnb was beginning to pay for everything.

I had two problems:

• I was living in my own house and that was taking away from generating even more revenue.
• I was living in New York City — the most expensive place in the world.

While I was in Bonaire, I decided I had no interest in going back to Brooklyn. I could go somewhere cheaper, like Kentucky where my parents live, or a completely different country.

I spoke with Tiffany and asked if she wanted to live in the home at a discounted price in exchange for cleaning and maintaining the home. She agreed, so I needed to figure out what I was going to do after Bonaire.

I wanted to start making an impact on other people’s lives.

I felt like what I had done was worth something to other people as well. I felt like working for a corporate medical company with ONLY revenue in mind wasn’t forcing growth upon myself.

After all, I didn’t need the job to pay for my house. My time was freed up, I had plenty of money saved up, I had an income coming in, and I had another apartment that could generate more money if I didn’t live there.

I Wrote A Book

My work never even knew I left. They knew I was on vacation in Bonaire to scuba dive, but neither they nor I knew I wasn’t coming back after 7 days. My mind was made up. Tiffany was going to run the house, and I was going to travel.

I flew to Colombia after my diving trip in Bonaire to take Spanish classes and spend some time by myself. I lived in a hostel in Cartagena for the entire month of July 2019. That was when I figure out what I wanted to do.

People would ask in regular conversation “where are you from? what do you do? etc” I would tell them. We would discuss a little more in-depth and I realized a lot of people I talked to didn’t know much about money.

So, I started writing basically step by step how I got to the point I was at. I broke down the entire process from when I was a little kid cutting grass, to how I structured my 401(k)’s at work and Merrill Lynch.

I released the book on my website and people started liking it. Then all of this Airbnb, money stuff, my book, started to get people’s attention. So I started writing on Medium, started a Facebook group, and built an online coaching program. I’ll get to that in a minute.

My Epic Journey

Learning to speak fluent Spanish was something I always wanted to do. I also discovered I wanted to help people do the same thing I did by getting my money right so I was no longer a slave to working for money. I ultimately wanted to enjoy my life on my terms.

What was better than driving from the United States to Argentina in a car, learning Spanish, and getting paid from Airbnb money? I bought a car in Arizona while I was on an island at a birthday party with friends whom I met in Colombia.

I called a friend in Phoenix, told him I found 3 cars on Craigslist and asked if he would check em’ out to see which one he would trust to drive to Argentina. He laughed, then I wired him the money, and I bought a 1998 Chevy Blazer.

I flew back to Arizona two days later on August 1, 2019, to start my journey. I drove to the Baja to scuba dive in a place called Bahia de Los Angeles, then zig-zagged my entire way through Mexico for 6 months. All while renting my home on Airbnb back in Brooklyn.

I made it to Belize in January 2020. Right before COVID-19 happened. I hired a kid from South Africa to travel with me as my videographer to build out some sort of YouTube channel, etc. He came to travel with me and then the borders in Belize shut down.

We both left Belize and went our separate ways. I left the car in Belize for over 6 months at someone’s house I met while scuba diving. It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago, I was able to request from the Director of Immigration of Belize to get my car back.

I met my scuba friend in Belize on a bridge between the border of Belize and Mexico to get the car back. It was like one of those drug deal handoffs you see in a movie.

I got the car back and now am living in Cancun with my girlfriend in an apartment until this Coronavirus stuff gets under control. Once the borders open back up, I will continue.

Helping Others

Just to give you an idea, my home mortgage is around $4,600 a month. With Airbnb and two rented apartments, I pull in a total of about $10,000 per month with everything. This isn’t a post written to brag or boast either. When I say I want to help people do this, I want to help people do this.

It’s serious money and has changed my life.

As I traveled, I met so many people in hostels, Airbnb's, cities, etc. And I started a coaching program to help. Obviously, living a traveling lifestyle isn’t for everyone. Living on your own terms is probably something all of us want to achieve.

I have a friend back in Brooklyn who I helped walk through the process of buying a home similar to mine and renting on Airbnb to do the exact same thing. I built up this backstory to share with you how all of this pieces together.

If you have an Airbnb or are thinking about purchasing a property like I did to kickstart a new lifestyle, hopefully, this video can help you understand what to expect and how to go about setting your Airbnb up properly.

Drop a comment below and please share if you enjoyed reading!

Ride with me on my journey by following me here, or connect with me on my website here.