I started listing my apartment on Airbnb a few months ago. I couldn't bear the idea of having an asset worth hundreds of thousands of $$ just being unused whenever I'm away from Paris.

After having rented my place a dozen times I learned a few things.

1 Don't be cheap.

Cheap places attract cheap people. In my experience, I got more questions asked about nitty-gritty details of the studio and things already mentioned in my listing description when I listed my studio for cheap. Also, I usually had to put some extra effort into cleaning when I rented it for cheap. In a nutshell, a cheap nightly fare meant more trouble for me.

ℹ️ Protips to set your pricing: see for how much a night in a listing with similar features to your sells for in your neighborhood. You'll have a starting point.

2 Expect that everything in your studio can be damaged or stolen.

Have a minimal yet comfortable interior. Consider standard cutlery, IKEA furniture, and Amazon basic amenities. Also, expect to renew consumables often (bedding sheets, towels, pillow cover, kitchenware, toilet paper, etc) and price those expenses into your listings' nightly fare.
Stock your valuables in a cellar or a place not accessible to guests.

ℹ️ Protips: make a budget with estimated consumables you need to renew over a season and break down the total cost per the number of nights you plan to host. Add this to your nightly fee.

3 Cleaning & ironing takes time.

Two options: to clean up after a long stay (a few weeks), you can enroll a cleaner, and it won't affect your margin much. It's especially convenient if deep cleaning is required.
For short-term rental (a few days), having a professional cleaner coming to your place will considerably diminish your profit margin. In those cases, you need to do it yourself. Otherwise, you might be hosting at loss (tax + cleaner fee + consumable renewal > nightly fare)

4 Think about the taxman before they think about you.

Estimate how much will be due to the tax authority at the end of each period and anticipate by putting this percentage of your earnings into a low-risk account (deposit or a low fee monetary fund) until tax collection time.

5 Your house, your rules.

Be hyper-strict on house rules, nothing is obvious. Make it clear. No smoking, no animals, etc. Write it down in your listing rule before the first booking.

6 Trust your gut feeling.

Don't accept guests you feel uncomfortable with, they're going to live at your place after all. If you feel something wrong with a potential guest, politely decline their request not to waste anyone's time.

7 Seek honest feedback.

Airbnb can be too smooth with no one taking the risk to rate below 5 in fear of retaliation. That's detrimental to your listing growth. Ask for genuine feedback from your guests. Otherwise, you'll never know how to improve people's stay and upgrade your league.

8 Practice disaster recovery scenarios.

Have plans for the most likely and impactful scenarios: lost keys, a guest who locked themselves outside the apartment, water damage, etc. Take 5 mins to list your worst-case scenarios and identify actions you'll be able to take to mitigate those disasters.

9 Be professional

Guest management takes time and if a guest has an issue, you need to provide a solution quickly. As so, hosting on Airbnb is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a job and you need to consider it as such when hosting someone to make their experience as authentic and comfortable as possible. It requires being close to your phone whenever you host someone and being prompt when they have an inquiry (How does the stove work? How can I switch on the heater?)

It's a learn as you host journey, and fundamentally, it's something you need to enjoy. On Airbnb, I already hosted people from 10+ countries. It's super cool to talk to the guests coming to my place and help them prepare for their trip to Paris the best I can!