I Airbnb-ed My Apartment For 4 Years — & Learned These 5 Things

For two years, I worked in television assisting director Jesse Peretz (Girls). As much as I loved my job, however, I knew I had to leave if I ever wanted to direct something myself. So I decided to quit — and realized that I had to face the reality of surviving as an artist.

The resolution: Airbnb. Prior to this, I only Airbnb-ed out my place when traveling, or I would stay with a girlfriend, just to make a little more cash. Now, however, it became a real source of income. I took on another job that involved travel, and rented out my West Village apartment as a secondary source of cash.

This went on for years. Airbnb was unregulated at the time, and it was a whole new way of communicating with people and sharing your life. It was a unique experience of discovering and exploring, and it allowed me to pursue the life I wanted. Even when I had the opportunity to move back to New York, I still rented out my apartment and shared a loft in Williamsburg instead, charging a couple hundred a month over the rent.

Only recently did I give up Airbnb, when I moved in officially with my long term girlfriend this past winter. It was a real goodbye to a chapter of my life — this single, subletting artist trying to survive and become a future version of herself. This was a means to help me get there, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.