Are you letting out a room or providing a home?

There’s a well worn saying, ‘You can’t have it both ways.’ Never is this more true than when it applies to letting out a room in your home, especially if you are the type of person who would rather they didn’t have to.

Like many older people, I let out a room in my house initially to cover my bills as I couldn’t afford to live in my flat without the additional income. I’d been an Airbnb host for a while, but I got tired of changing sheets and, somewhat reluctantly at first, decided to go for a longer-term solution.

As I quickly learned, when you provide someone with a room for more than a few nights, you’re giving someone a home that comes with accommodating them in ways altogether different than a short term let. If you’re a person who isn’t comfortable with compromise, then it’s unlikely you’re going to enjoy home-sharing in this way. As I’ve lived with others for most of my life, the transition to sharing with one person for a long term was not a massive challenge and turned out to be a lot of fun most of the time.

Depending on the layout out of your home, you may be sharing a bathroom, which is not easy, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Often, it’s unavoidable, especially in cities where very few homes of two bedrooms or less have more than one bathroom. Sharing an intimate space means having to deal with stuff…