Rent Out Your Stuff: What Rooms, Cars, Parking and Gear Really Earn

A spare room or home earns the most of anything you can rent out: Airbnb says the typical US host earned $15,600 in 2025. Parking spaces, yards, pools and gear earn far less but need little setup, while cars, RVs and boats sit in between and carry the biggest damage risk. Before listing anything, check your insurance, your lease or HOA rules and your city's rental laws, because those decide what you are allowed to keep.

How to choose

• What you own and where it is. Demand is local. A driveway near a stadium, a pool in a hot suburb or a room near a hospital earns far more than the same asset in a quiet area. Look up what similar listings charge nearby before you buy anything.
• Startup cost. Parking and yards cost almost nothing to list. A room needs linens, cleaning and photos. BabyQuip charges a $200 fee to start as a baby gear provider. Cars, boats and RVs need cleaning and key handover, and possibly extra insurance.
• Your time. Short-term rentals are a hosting job: messages, cleaning, check-ins and reviews. Parking and storage are closest to passive.
• Time to first payment. Most platforms pay after the booking starts or ends, so your first money arrives only after your first guest. That can take weeks for a new listing with no reviews.
• Where you live. Airbnb works almost everywhere. Parking and space-sharing apps are concentrated in the US, UK and Australia. Peer-to-peer car rental is limited: Getaround left the US in February 2025 and has since dissolved its business.
• Risk. The more valuable and mobile the item, the more a single bad renter can cost you. Read each platform's damage protection terms, not just the headline number.

Homes and rooms: Airbnb and Vrbo

The work: listing a room or home, pricing it, messaging guests, cleaning and restocking between stays.

Realistic earnings: Airbnb reports more than 5.5 million hosts and says the typical US host earned $15,600 in 2025. Fees depend on the structure your listing uses. Under the split fee, most hosts pay 3% and guests pay a separate service fee. Under the single fee, most hosts pay 15.5%, and others typically pay 14% to 16%. Airbnb is moving some hosts from the split fee to the single fee, so check which one applies before you set prices.

Protection: AirCover for Hosts advertises $3 million in damage protection and $1 million in liability insurance, with exclusions detailed in Airbnb's terms.

Payout speed: Airbnb says release timing depends on the reservation type, length of stay, your payout schedule and whether you are a new host. Once released, Fast Pay arrives in 30 minutes or less, PayPal within one business day and ACH direct deposit in 3 business days.

Platforms: Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com. If you want to host local experiences rather than stays, look at Airbnb Experiences and the tour platforms section.

Cars, RVs and boats: Turo, RV and boat rental sites

The work: listing the vehicle, handing it over, inspecting it on return and handling any damage claim.

Realistic earnings: Turo had 360,000 active vehicle listings in March 2024 across the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and France. Your host fee depends on the protection plan you choose, so compare plans before you list. Our GetMyBoat profile lists an 11.5% owner fee for domestic bookings. RV sites such as Outdoorsy and RVshare take a larger share, and our profiles track current rates.

Risk: a car, RV or boat can be damaged, ticketed or off the road for weeks during a claim. Commercial use can also conflict with a car loan or lease, so check your finance agreement.

Parking and storage: JustPark, Spacer and Neighbor

The work: listing a driveway, garage, parking bay or spare storage space. After setup, there is little to do beyond answering a few messages.

Realistic earnings: modest and location-driven. Our JustPark profile lists a 3% space owner fee plus a 3% withdrawal fee. Spacer covers Australia and the US, and Neighbor matches people with storage and parking space in the US. A space near a station, airport or city centre can book steadily, while a suburban driveway may rarely book.

Risk: check your lease, HOA or council rules, since many residential agreements limit commercial use of parking.

Pools, yards and event spaces: Swimply, Sniffspot, Hipcamp and Peerspace

The work: renting your pool, fenced yard, land or a space by the hour or night.

Realistic earnings:

• Swimply: hosts keep 70% to 80% of earnings, depending on location, local regulations and booking details.
• Sniffspot (private dog parks): charges a 22% fee plus card processing of about 2.37% plus $0.22. On a $10 booking, the host receives about $7.34.
• Hipcamp (camping on your land): our profile lists a 15% host commission.
• Peerspace (spaces for shoots, meetings and events): our profile lists a 20% host service fee.

Risk: guests on your property raise liability questions. Sniffspot advertises $1 million host protection insurance, and Swimply includes a host protection guarantee in its fee. Neither replaces checking your own homeowner's policy.

Baby gear and equipment: BabyQuip

The work: renting cribs, strollers and car seats to travelling families, including delivery and cleaning.

Realistic earnings: BabyQuip providers keep 78% of rental and delivery fees and 100% of tips, after a $200 startup fee. BabyQuip says its Quality Providers average over $1,000 a month, which is the company's own figure for its best-rated providers, not a typical first month.

Your computer and internet connection: Vast.ai and bandwidth apps

The work: renting spare computing power or bandwidth. Vast.ai lets owners of powerful GPUs rent them to AI developers. Hosts set their own price, invoices are generated weekly once they pass $20, and the first payout can take up to two weeks. Vast.ai says earnings depend on hardware, uptime, location and demand and cannot be guaranteed. Bandwidth apps such as Honeygain pay far less. Compare them in earn passively with your internet and PC.

Compare the options

First steps this week

1. List everything you own that has rental demand: a room, driveway, garage, pool, yard, car, trailer, camping gear, baby gear or a gaming PC.
2. Search each platform for your area and write down what similar listings charge and how often their calendars look booked.
3. Read your lease, HOA rules, loan agreement and insurance policy for any ban or exclusion on renting to others.
4. Look up whether your city requires a permit or registration for short-term rentals.
5. Create one listing with bright photos and a clear rule list, price it slightly below comparable listings to win your first reviews, and adjust after five bookings.

What to avoid

• Insurance gaps. Platform protection has exclusions and claim processes. Many home and auto policies do not automatically cover renting to strangers, so ask your insurer in writing before your first booking.
• Taking payment off the platform. Renters who ask to pay by bank transfer or check to "save fees" lose you the platform's protection. The FTC warns that fake checks can take weeks to be discovered, and you owe the bank anything you sent on.
• Overpayment tricks. The FTC's advice is simple: never accept a check for more than the price and send back the difference.
• Buying assets to rent. A second car or RV bought only to rent out has to earn back its cost, insurance and downtime before it makes a profit.
• Ignoring local law. Many cities cap or license short-term rentals, and fines can wipe out a year's income.

Sources

• Airbnb: host service fees
• Airbnb: AirCover for Hosts
• Airbnb: About us
• Airbnb: when you get your payout
• Wikipedia: Turo)
• Wikipedia: Getaround
• Swimply: host service fee
• Sniffspot: host fees
• BabyQuip: FAQs
• Vast.ai: host payments
• FTC: fake check scams